#fave in tlk by far

[justasightseer]

Okay, I'm starting off my Seven Kings Must Die Countdown with my bestest boy. The arsehole of Wessex and the best brain the British Isles has ever seen. Vivat Rex Alfredos!! 👑

[synintheraven]

Cookham Squad (plus Ragnar The Younger) but make it a Cowboys AU *insert western movie instrumental music*

Under the cut is a cut-in-half version so you can zoom it in easily hehe

[one-with-the-tree]

By the by I don't think I've expressed enough how much I love Zira's design. Because I do. I love her color palette and just how angular she is. Fave TLK/G design by far that isn't Shenzi from TLK19.

(Not her TLG design btw, they made her way too rounded there and even forgot her head stripe)

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

I know I usually do Ewanverse or HotD, but I fell in love with this story. Thank you @bhxrdy for indulging me and answering my questions. 💜 As always, Interview With a Writer is my ongoing series of the talented souls on Tumblr and ao3, and their brilliant writing!

Dividers by @saradika

Name: bhxrdy

Story: timeless

Paring: modern Finan x original female character

Warnings: Explicit/18+, be mindful of chapter warnings!

So, when did you start writing?

I started really writing, like 10 years ago now - right into 2013. I had discovered and gotten very into (I'm shy to say) k-pop, and at the time, social media was new to me. I had joined a couple of forums here and there, but really got into the thick of it once I joined Twitter and Tumblr. It was also then - for the 1st time - that I found out about fanfiction, which was an unfamiliar concept to me.

Its a bit blurry, but I remember I started reading a few stories here and there about my fave group at the time and - I don't remember the specifics but - I had eventually started coming up with wild scenarios, small ideas here and there, that I wanted to put down on paper.

Writing in general was relatively new to me (a few years before, when I was in high school, I was writing "poems" and other notes in a massive emo-like notebook - all because of a boy of course), so the idea of creating something substantial, like the fics I had read so far, was a bit terrifying but also kind of exciting because I stumbled on something brand new to me and was dying to be part of it along with some new online friends I had made (which I unfortunately lost touch with over the years).

Within the span of 2013-2015, I wrote 28 stories (on a 3rd party site) - a mix of one shots and multi-chaptered fics, which includes 2 unfinished stories - which were left to die by 2017-2018. I had finished school and started working, which totally changed my routine. The lack of interactions in the fandom didn't help either as by then, it was pretty much dying from the band's moving on and eventually disbanding. The stories are still there, my account is still there, as I don't have the heart to take it down. I've spent so much time on them, and loved every genre I wrote. I either went fluffly fluff or super angst and dark, all of them fun to write.

After that I moved away from the fandom as well and just the k-pop scene in general. I took a hiatus from writing altogether too - the will of it had died so I mostly focused on editing. And then, I started back again in 2020, wrote a couple of stuff on Tumblr (for the 1st time) until I stopped again a few months later. The inspiration stopped and I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore. So I moved away.

And then this year, TLK happened and I just had the inspiration back on the tip of my fingers, just swirling in my brain and was dying to write it down, so I gave it another shot and wrote my first Finan fanfic. It was very rusty getting back into it after so long but I'm glad I did because I got to meet amazing people which I'm grateful for.

I have a tendency of daydreaming a lot, I can easily get lost it my own head. Finding out I could actually just write them down, liberating everything I held up and see them face to face vs. just thinking about them, became a whole new ball game.

Where did the plot for timeless come from?

It hit me out of nowhere and happened when I was re-watching The Originals (TVD spin off). I'm not sure how, but it physically/literally stopped me in my tracks (mind you I wasn't doing anything special, just going to the kitchen to get a snack) as if I was hit on the head with it, like, "Yes! omg! shit! this is it!!"

I immediately picked up my phone and started typing random thoughts and notes down for the story. It was very rough, just generalized ideas of what could happen. Some of those ideas did change trajectory from where they started, but I'm hoping they were good changes and worth the story telling 😊

Watching The Originals helped with the inspiration. I knew Finan was always meant to be cursed, I just had to figure out the best way to present it. I also drew inspiration from other witch shows like Charmed, A Discovery of Witches, and BTVS. I love anything related to the supernatural and witchcraft, so it was fun coming up with the initial layout of the story.

At the beginning, I debated if it should be a one-shot or multi-chapter based on how much I had come up with. I was 99% sure I would stick with the one-shot, but eventually the 1% took over and I just went from there...the lines took a life of their own.

Explain your interpretation of Finan. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in timeless?

I was mostly trying to stay true to how his character was built on the show and transport that in writing within the concept of the story (I'm sure I've strayed, but hopefully that's alright).

When we first meet Finan, he's infiltrated modern day life as if he was part of that world, always. Then he meets a woman on a random night and everything changes for him.

Thinking of it this way, the man has been by himself for a thousand years - the life he knew, his family, his friends - everything from his past has disappeared and he is all alone, and so he was just at this point in his existence where he was done with everything, partly discouraged from being immortal, partly begrudgingly accepting of his fate as a man who will never die.

But then he meets Rebecca, a woman who has no inkling whatsoever of who Finan is, i.e. their meet up was random passing of time in the(ir) universe. Once they meet, his life alters. She was the light at the end of a tunnel, she was a beacon of hope. Meeting her, befriending her - he found purpose again. He was ready to fight again, to live like a normal man again.

Throughout the story, I tried to focus on this aspect specifically - on the basis that he is hopeful to become a free man again. And though, there is conflict within himself, to the point he was ready to give up again, I'd like to think that Rebecca was simply someone he needed in his life. Not because of what she could do for him, but because of who she was, as a character, as a person to him. She put her life on hold for him and in return, the universe gave them something that everyone wants - to love and be loved and not be so alone in the world.

Finan, having been alone for a century, found his drive through Rebecca - through her presence, always standing by his side and fighting for him. Them falling in love was an added bonus.

Do you feel Rebecca/Bex complement Finan in this?

I would like to think that she does, because she gave him a new spark into his life, allowing him to feel truly alive again - which was something he had been deprived off since his original lifetime (i.e. since the TLK era).

With Bex's stubbornness driving him insane at times, I think it also helped him on the hope aspect - she was willing to go to the ends of the earth for him, for someone she had just met all because she wanted to make things right, to help him (a stranger, when they met) find peace. She wasn't reluctant about it nor did he even ask for help (he was the apprehensive/suspicious one). And I believe, at the end of the day, it all came down to how they felt about each other from the night they met. They unintentionally nurtured a connection they created until it became so immense, they ended up wearing it naturally, like a second skin.

Not only was she his anchor to the world of the living, Bex had become the part of him that died a long time ago. This makes me believe - in a some kind of weird way - that she was his soulmate. That, despite the heaviness of the curse, Finan was meant to cross path with her, that the(ir) universe gave him a break in the form of a kind-hearted and stubborn as a mule witch. A woman who would end up gifting him a second chance, and the opportunity to experience the good aspect of life again (as well as love).

Where did the dreams and the curse lore come from?

The dreams part of the story was inspired by The Originals, as there is the concept of the “other side” where non-resting souls are (the cemetery/graveyard scene description was inspired by the one they have on the show) - so I leveraged it and made it so Bex was forced into contact with another witch while sleeping instead of through a spell (as she had no reason to contact the dead while awake).

For the curse, I knew what I wanted out of it as it was already part of the original draft when I first came up with this story idea. I knew where it was taking me and how I would want it built - the reasoning behind it though was a bit if the tough part which I had also integrated into the storyline with Bex losing her shit over it.

Any chance of a sequel? Or do have anything else you are working on next?

So, unfortunately no sequel. But it does not mean I haven't thought of an epilogue - or kind of. Just random scenes with Bex of what life is after the ending that randomly play out in my head. I don't think I'll want to write them mostly because I want to keep the ending as is.

I'm working through a few other stories at the moment. The priority ones are for Osferth (a one-chaptered drabble for your 1k celebration, and a multi-chaptered fic which will also tap into the supernatural concept), which I am hoping to get started - officially - very soon!

I have some others dangling as well, which should eventually come soon as well - this includes Finan, Sihtric and Aemond.

Do you have a personal favorite story you'd like to share?

There are so many to choose from! We Were Something, Don't You Think? by Maggie (@inthedayswhenlandswerefew), as well as Comet Donati and Have You No Idea That You’re In Deep?

Some other favorites include Wolf-Heart by @gemini-mama, Crimes of Passion by @itbmojojoejo, Sanctuary by @st-eve-barnes, and Winterwood by @lonnson

There is also a myriad of Finan x Aisling (OFC) fics by @persephones-journey which are heart-wrenching and good.

And Fire in Her Eyes by @emilyhufflepufftlk is another amazing one for Finan fans.

[madame-fear]

Do you take requests at all for Osferth? Also I need some Aemond on my dash. Would you make me happy by reblogging your fave Aemond posts. Having a real day here. You're amazing. Keep writing 💯

Hello lovely! Funny enough, I did consider taking requests for Osferth— I haven’t even watched TLK, but oh well, that’s not a problem impossible to solve! 😂

I might watch the series, and see if I feel encouraged enough to write for our sweet baby monk... 🤭💗 And, nonnie— consider it done. I will be scrolling through the Aemond tags to reblog content about him, and share fics as well! Maybe if I have time, I will also make a list of my favourite Aemond fics just for you. 😘

You are far more amazing, sweet nonnie! Take good care, babe! 🫶💗

( ps.– if anyone has any Aem fics to recommend us, please do! ♡ )

[ulfrsmal]

Tag Game: fandom edition

Thank you for tagging me @its-tea-time-darling! I do not know how to do the fancy gradient in the title so purple it is lmao

your name: Wynne

your first fandom(s): Digimon, though I was too young to realise it was fandom

your current fandom(s): TOO MANY. But mainly The Last Kingdom, Vikings, Vikings: Valhalla. Right now I'm very into Assassin's Creed and Resident Evil.

how did you first get into fandom? those "7 minutes in heaven" thingies, not even quizzes proper, that appeared on the now defunct Quizilla. I miss that site...

how long have you been engaging with fandom spaces? a good 15 years since I started reading fandom things, 13 since I started writing, 8 since I started reading on ao3, some fewer years since I started sharing what I wrote.

how often do you read fanfics? Almost daily lmao that's what happens when I read the 100k+ behemoths

top 3 characters from your current fandom(s): AltaÏr (Assassin's Creed), Uhtred (TLK), Chris Redfield (Resident Evil).

have you ever written a fic for a fandom? if so, shout it out! May i kindly refer you to my ao3? Logged-in users only, though!

have you ever drawn fanart for a fandom? Yes but I've never shared it online, only with a few past friends.

share a personal headcanon that you feel very strongly about: Gladio FFXV and Cloud FFVII are trans men. I have a lot of trans headcanons in general but especially for Final Fantasy games...

you’re trying to convince a friend to get into your current fandom(s) with you. what episode, clip, or scene are you showing them? I'm showing them the scenery from Assassin's Creed, and more details depending on what historical period is their fave. Also pretty pretty protags will help lots xD

and finally, what does fandom mean to you? A safe space where I can create and share what otehrs have created, comment to encourage people, and know that every kudo means someone liked what I wrote. Also a place where making friendships is far easier than IRL, and through which I have indeed met very awesome people.

No Pressure Tags: @bouncehousedemons, @naps4bats, @crookes-library, @bitchofdarkness, @captainkilly, and @heronamedhawks. Have fun lovelies! :D

[spinef0ryou]

Laughing that you’re reblogging all my TLK reblogs as I’m sitting here watching TLK again, and on top of that, I just got to Sigtrygger’s first season so what timing you have! 🤣

i’ve started watching it (am partway through season five and i know sigtryggr dies in like the next episode ;_;) and it’s good! sigtryggr and ragnvaldr are my faves so far 😂😂

[lannisterdaddyissues]

I started watching TLK and I'm really loving it! I remember you having Alfred as your icon back in the day when I started following you and I just wanted to let you know that he's my fave so far as well! You're the og TLK blog for me and I kind of still associate you with your Alfred icon 😄

OMG YOU STARTED WATCHING TLK!!!! THE SHOW THAT ACTUALLY GOT ME TO FIGURE OUT HOW TUMBLR WORKS!!!

bestie i am so happy for you <3 and SO flattered that alfred still reminds you of me!! he is indeed the best character and you have excellent taste for being an Enjoyer of him (as i well knew already) 🥰

[the-firebird69]

Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd music video

and they had you take it over.  were macs and they wrote hthem and you sing them and so on. thely starte the bands you took over and are on the ddrug. fame power mooney. and have far less the cavens loaded up.  and bases about 500 class a lasers and armement to matc and a huge hufge spacefleet thirty biilion plus a massive shield and take yours and the ohter ships add ten billion sips and another australia sized area on top of antarcicat sized.  more too.  we use this now.  need it

Thor Freya

and i show you my power tommorrow you shall see and mostly tommorrow night.and you will quiver macs. then say stuff to tlk it out as these do essor stuff like about you.  and then you shall say i dont hae the power.  so.  i do.  and Hera does and Olympus. but mostly.  i send him there to collect on these. on purpose. they dont go too they lose it.  i know where some is youdont.  

Zues Hera he is fake they say

we do say it fake. he says we shall fave it in mortal combat there and on new zealand thsoe who dont beleie and or wish to stop me.  and we say this we dont wish to stop you damnit we say you dno beleive it.  ok you say it lol that is an easy conversatinio.  so we see obstinate and we are not powered up. and you knokw.  so.  so digger he says. soew buttons on a shirt lol.  and qhite a shirt Darkness and Liluth wear eh...sick fuck we hate you 

macs

hahahah good good feel the pwoer of the dark side

Hera Zues

fn a we hate him dned this damnit

macs

you need full labotomies ok

mac daddy

dont 

macs

we aprove this to prin

Olympus

[jinnielovebot]

what do you think abt blackpink's comeback? -pillow anon

say lifes a bitch but mines a movie

AKJSDHKJA OKAY IM GONNA PUT THIS UNDER THE CUT BC I THINK ITLL GET LONG

idk if i ever tlk about them that much but bp is one of my top ggs!!! so u kno i was waiting an actual century,,,,for them to finally come back and i almost CRIED when i heard they were ASKDHAK

personally for me, i didnt like ddu du ddu du when i first listened to it aksjd i thought it was just like,,,,not what i waited almost a year for FFF im in the group that prefers songs like aiiyl and pwf compared to like boombayah or smthn so this song didnt rlly sit right with me and also i preferred forever young wAAAAAAAAY MORE

but when i first listened to boombayah i didnt like it either but after a few listens i grew to love it and thats me with ddu du ddu du rn im starting to really like it now that im listening to it a few times (i still prefer forever young tho heh)

and i think probably one of my fave things abt this comeback are the changes with jennie and jisoo like jennie getting actual rap lines makes me happy bc now she can rlly showcase her talent as a rapper and jISOO AHSDKAHDKKDAKS,,,,,if u cant tell shes my bias,,,im soosososo happy shes getting some more lines (still needs more tho 😫) and that these lines are like so called “more difficult” nd i think it really showcases how much shes improved since like their debut or smthn

and as for the rest of the songs beside ddu du ddu du and forever young, i like them a lot!! i havent had a chance to listen to them as much as the other two but as far as ive listened and watched, i like this cb lots!!

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

Do You Ever Just Cry?

Does it ever just hit you again that Emma and Killian are married?

Does it ever make you emotional to think about how far they’ve come?

~under the cut because loooooong post of me gushing about my faves and their perfect love story...~

 A lost girl

—walls sky high after a life full of pain, a life where everyone abandoned her, everyone, at best put the greater good over her own good

at worst, tossed her aside out of sheer self-interest

—meets a lost boy who loves with every fiber of his being, but who’s lost everyone he’s ever loved—abandoned and sold into slavery by his own father

his brother murdered by an unscrupulous king

the woman he loved murdered by the Dark One who also took his hand

the pain of those events driving him to centuries of piracy and vengeance as the only way he can keep from falling apart and dying from the pain of all of it.

They felt the attraction immediately

but they fought it, until a kiss in Neverland

opened Killian’s eyes to the fact that he’d fallen in love with Emma.

 It took Emma longer to let him breach her walls, but eventually she came to realize Killian Jones was the real deal.  He’d follow her anywhere

do anything for her

even give up his home for her

He’d die for her

and she’d march into hell for him

Though they’ve never had a TLK, they’ve been proven True Love by the test in the Underworld

by the pixie flowers

and by Zeus himself declaring that Killian belongs by Emma’s side.

They’ve been through everything all the realms can throw at them, but nothing could ever tear them apart, not villains

not misunderstandings

not even death.

And now they’re married.

They have a house,

a son,

jobs

  and an ordinary life.  They’re dealing with the everyday issues of learning to live together when they’re used to being on their own.  They’re happy

in love

and enjoying every minute of their “Happy Beginning”So I repeat: Do you ever just cry?  Because I do. 

A lot.

[synintheraven]

Unrelated but um if someone ever wants to suggest me someone to draw or send specific pics I'm 100% okay with it - obviously Sihtric is my fave so far (and the person I enjoy drawing the most since last week lol) but idk I'm open to other tlk characters or even some from hotd?

[gch1995]

Yeah, I quit watching OUAT after S5 because I couldn’t stand the character asssassinating bad writing for Rumple, Belle, Emma, Henry, or anyone else in the remaining main cast of the huge pile of shit the show had been steadily rolling into ever since Nealfire’s contrived death in 3B and the reframing of the entire narrative around Crapstain Swan. I heard all my faves got “happy endings” and “redemption” arcs at the end of S6 and S7, but like, I really had become mostly numb to canon OUAT by that point after roughly three to four years of irrevocably damaging, contrived, mutually toxic, and unfair character assassination for cheap shock value, repetitive storylines, and Hook/CS propping. As far as I’m concerned, the real canon OUAT ended with “Going Home” (3x11).

Even before the outright character assassination of the entire remaining main cast after Nealfire’s contrived death, Hook/CS propping, and total loss of creativity in the writing on OUAT, problems with misogyny, rape culture, abuse apology/the whitewashing of Regina and especially Hook, magically asspulled regressions, forced cheaply shocking “WTF” moments in a character’s arc before they got back on track to redemption for forced “dramatic” climaxes, and the writers mistreatment of Belle and Nealfire started showing in S2. However, it was after the Neverland arc that they decided to completely go “Fuck all continuity, consistency, and integrity of characterization or storytelling! Let’s make the show about Hook/CS, throw out our original core theme of family with Nealfire for him, and bring back Rumple as the contrived on-and-off-again ‘big bad’ foil because we don’t know what else to do anymore!”

But like I said before, even before they completely started deliberately character assassinating Rumple and Belle, both as individual characters and a couple, because they ran out of ideas and wanted to prop up their lame ass faves in their laziness after the Neverland arc, they treated Belle and the Beauty and the Beast storyline like trash in the narrative. For instance, they refused to let Rumple and Belle have a TLK to break his curse in Storybrooke when they first reunited, even when he was willing to give it up for her, because of the stupid ass PLOT “needing” him to be the Dark One, even though they could have made it so he still had magic after losing the curse because he’d learned it from memory or whatever, if they really wanted to. They had Belle consistently used as a tool by the other characters to use as leverage against Rumple from S1, but what’s even worse, is that the writers even started letting them get away with it in the narrative from the moment Regina turned Belle into Lacey. They sidelined Belle all the time from the moment she became a main character on the show, and often only brought her back around when they could use her as a tool to push Rumple towards redemption, a shady morally dubious area, or total regression in mid S2. When they decided to deliberately start fucking up both her and Rumple’s original characterizations and relationship to prop up Hook/CS, it led to her also becoming increasingly OOC, toxic and unsympathetic from S4-S6. She never had any real friends besides Rumple. The writers forced her to be “friends” with people who treated her like assholes either behind her back or right in front of her face with no repercussions or call outs from her to vilify Rumple in later seasons, and prop up their now undeserving “heroes” and pet “villains” in the later seasons, such as Emma, Snow, David, Henry, Regina, Hook, and Zelena.

In the original BATB, Belle does inspire the Beast to be a better man, but she was not a prop to push him back-and-forth between redemption, morally gray shadiness, and/or total regression with little to no agency or mind of her own to drive a stupid PLOT or twist. Before they fucked up Rumple by screwing up his original sympathetic characterization to prop up Hook/CS after they brought him back from the dead, and killed off Nealfire, he actually was generally in the morally gray area, and generally trying to do the right thing, in spite of his fears, insecurities, and violent temper against enemies, more like the Beast from BATB with a dark anti-villain redemptive twist.

In the original BATB, fuckboys like Gaston (OUAT’s version is Hook) weren’t romanticized, or given redemption arcs because they were the two-faced remorseless bullies, who consistently believed they were god’s gift to women, and felt no remorse for their crimes or mistreatment of women within that narrative. Honestly, if A&E and their team of hacks were better writers and showrunners, who could actually handle writing consistent and credible characterization and development without a lot of help and guidance from a more experienced writer and show-runner (like they had from Damon Lindlelof with the orginal main cast from OUAT), I would believe they could credibly redeem assholes like Gaston and actually make them into sympathetic characters, in spite of their flaws. However, after watching OUAT, and seeing how they made completely unsympathetic characters into sympathetic and potentially redemptive ones from OUAT, such as Regina, Zelena, and especially Hook via whitewashing, killing off any perceived “competition,” and/or the deliberate assassination of more sympathetic characters to make them look better without actually putting in much, if any at all, time and effort, to gradually build them up as sympathetic and redemptive characters in their own right, I can’t help but think that A&E and the writers are either going to whitewash him and/or deliberately fuck up Belle and/or the Beast to make Gaston look more “sympathetic.” They just don’t seem to like the tale of the BATB, considering their past gleeful mistreatment of Rumbelle on OUAT, and considering the fact that it’s from Gaston’s POV. They just don’t know how to organically transform one-dimensional fictional asshole villains into gradually and organically sympathetic and redemptive characters in their own right in their laziness, even though they seem to really want to be able to build them up that way.

I just read online that Kitsowitz are going to be running a new show about Gaston and Lefou from Beauty and the Beast!

You know, I used to believe that the reason why Kitsowitz deliberately destroyed Rumbelle (both as individual characters and a couple) because the relationship got in the way of Rumple acting as their OOC cheap shock value magical ass pull plot twister cartoon villain on OUAT, and because they just liked Hook/CS more and were just too lazy to write organic character development to make him sympathetic in his own right. However, now I seriously believe that Kitsowitz actually despise the fairytale of Beauty and the Beast.

Why else are they making a spin-off about the main villain from BATB?

Watch Kitsowitz deliberately fuck up Belle and the Beast as individual characters and a relationship to try to make Gaston look more “heroic” and “sympathetic.”

My God...I hate these two hacks! Why are they still allowed in show-running business?

[not-talking-about-pancakes]

I was tagged by @mryddinwilt

1. Who is your fave character and why?

I know it’s the obvious answer, but it’s Emma. I lover her for all the reasons most people lover her; bravery, smarts, her ability to love deeply, and fight the for the people she loves, the fact she’s come so far in her story and over come so much of her past to get to her happy beginning. And while I’m certainly not as brave as Emma, nor do I have quite the same tragic past, I grew up with a family who loved me. I was bullied as a kid, and through out most of my teenagers years I never had a lot of friends. I kept people out because I didn’t trust them not to hurt me. I spent a lot of time alone, listening to musicals and dreaming of being an actress. Then I could be someone else. So, I kind of see a lot of myself in Emma, and her story gives me hope that I too can find my happy beginning. (This answer got kind of deep. Sorry for the feels, Emma just means a lot to me.)

2. Favorite recurring character? (Not a main character)

I’m going with Ruby (even though I guess for S1 and S2 she’d be considered more of a main character). I just love the twist they put on the Red Riding Hook story, with her being the wolf. I loved her friendship with Snow, and I wish we could have gotten more of her because she was such a great dynamic to the show. And I still think it she should have fallen in love with Mulan. 

3. What was your favorite S1 moment?

It’s probably a tie between the moment Snow hits Charming with the rock and Emma giving Henry TLK’s and having the moment of clarity where she realizes everything in the book is true. Snowing was my first otp on this show and I love the story of how they met. 

4. Favorite overall moment?

There are so many, but I think the CS Movie. Specifically I love the moment in Rumple’s vault when Killian helps Emma realize she can do magic, she just has to believe in herself, and she makes the wand work. Even more than the Beanstalk I think that’s the moment I really fell in with CS as a couple. It’s so clear he cares for her and believes in her, even when she doubts herself. 

5. What is something you wish you could change?

All of Season 5. I think Camelot could have been better, and I could have done without the whole Under World thing. It got super angsty and in a show that’s suppose to be about hope, I found myself crying through most of S5. It’s been a whole year and I still can’t bring myself to watch most of 5B. It just hurt too much. 

6. If you could see more of a background character, who would it be?

Does Granny count as background? Probably not, but I’d like to see more Granny. Other than that, the only background people I know for sure are real characters are Carl and Ellie from Up. But anyone would be cool to bring into the foreground. 

7. Who is a character you wish you could like but can’t?

I don’t think there’s anyone I don’t like (except Neal, but I don’t wish I could like him), there are just characters I like less than other people. August, maybe? But then some times they write him differently and I do like him. So, I don’t know. 

I will tag @wholockgal @disastergirl @kat2609 @ultraluckycatnd and @spartanguard And if you’ve already done it...then never mind. :)

[alexsprincessparty]

Sleeping Beauty: Slept On!

Another week, another princess adventure. This one I spent with a particular friend...

That's right, I watched Sleeping Beauty this week. This image does not in any way reflect how I felt about the film, but it has been crazy at work so I did conk out for a while before starting it.

Sleeping Beauty is an anomaly of a Princess film, in the way that its villain is vastly more popular than its title princess. I guess it makes sense since Aurora has a personality befitting a discarded Amazon box. Literally, there aren't a lot of character traits about Aurora that aren't shared by the princesses who came before her. She's...kind. Pretty. Fairly submissive. Oh, yeah, and white. Still, Aurora is beloved as an original Disney Princess, just like Snow White and Cinderella before her. And still arguably one of the most beautiful. Okay, that was just me talking, I think.

So now we can finally actually talk about Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty is based on the classic fairytale of a princess (in this adaptation, called Aurora), cursed at birth to a deathlike slumber by a wicked fairy (in this adaptation, called Maleficent). She lives in the forest as Briar Rose with three fairy godmothers--Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather--who raise her until her sixteenth birthday. The curse is said to prick her finger on a spinning wheel's needle on the day of her sixteenth birthday, but while Maleficent ordered her to die from it, Merryweather comes in clutch and adjusts the curse (when will your fae?) so that she merely falls asleep, to be awakened by True Love's Kiss (sounds familiar). She's saved by a prince, there's a dragon, yadda yadda yadda, make it pink, make it blue, happily ever after.

This film also borrows its score from that of the Sleeping Beauty ballet by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, which means it automatically wins. Menken and Giacchino, I still love you.

The good:

-Aurora still manages to be just a bit rebellious despite being one of the early ones. She, like Ariel thirty years later, hopes to marry this man she just met in the woods, and gushes to her fairy godmothers about him, none of them knowing he is Prince Philip, the one set up in this fancy arranged marriage their parents set up for them. This is about to get awkward. Still, Aurora knows what she wants, and no arrange marriage is gonna stop that, until she realizes she's being arranged to marry the guy she wanted to anyway. Life comes at you fast.

-The humor in this film is actually the best of the classic era. The Skumps scene with Philip and Aurora's fathers is pure debauchery, but it's the bard who steals the show by slipping their alcohol into his lyre and just getting hilariously drunk...and staying that way throughout the film. He gives a new meaning to the phrase "drinking under the table." The fairies also are a comedy show in themselves, as they're all just plain dumb without magic.

-Speaking of fairies, can we just put a good thought in for Merryweather? She has to adjust the Awesome Gift she has for baby Aurora because Maleficent just ordered to have her killed. Hatchimals will just have to wait until next year. Not only that, but she always has to be the one to remind her sisters to not use magic, should Aurora find out what her godmothers are. And then she is the one whose bright idea it is to make Aurora's dress blue, but she is far more recognized in her pink dress. Long story short, Merryweather has been through it. (By the way, the fairies are the ONLY reason this film passes the Bechdel test, though it is not the first Princess film to do so--Cinderella holds that honor.)

-Prince Philip so far rules the Most Useful Prince title, for slaying a dragon and awakening Aurora with the good old TLK. Great job, Philip, for being a standard prince.

-M A L E F I C E N T. Let's be real, Maleficent stole the ENTIRE show. The very definition of petty with a face beat for the gods, and, oh, I don't know, All The Powers of Hell! No other Disney villain can claim a pact with Satan! When will Ursula ever? There is a good reason why she is synonymous with Disney villains, and so far, the only villain with a solo film to her name. Iconic doesn't even begin to describe. (Also, that monologue she gives to captive Prince Philip is purely sinister. I love a wicked woman.) Maleficent is also the only example of woman hating other women, and being hated by other women. To be fair...she is despicable. Yet, still, I love her...

And then there's the not-so-good.

-You know that trope you hate about princesses where they're all damsels in distress and have to be rescued by a prince? This is that movie. This is that trope. Aurora is the damsel, put to sleep by a wicked curse, and Philip--Mr. Right Place Right Time--breaks it, slays the dragon, marries the princess, happily ever after. All this time you have been blaming every princess for this trope when, in reality, it's only a few, with this one being one of the worst offenders.

-Are arranged marriages still a thing? I think they are. Kill them with the rage of a burning black hell dragon. It slides in this era because era but the fact that it still happens in other countries to this day is just unbelievable, honestly.

-How did Disney get away with such heavy alcohol consumption in a kids' movie? Not that I care that much, personally, I'm just wondering.

-On one hand, the dress could have stayed blue, because gendered coloring blah blah, but I think they started using Aurora's pink dress when the Princess franchise came into being in the 90s, to differentiate Aurora from Cinderella (EVEN THOUGH HER DRESS IS SILVER). And I guess Tiana later on, even though her green lilypad dress seems to be her signature look. I don't know, I guess it was either her or Ariel. I really just wanted Merryweather to have SOMETHING in the end.

-A lot of emphasis on beauty in this film as well as the ones before it, but you can tell that the company is v e r y s l o w l y moving away from this concept.

Final thoughts: Sleeping Beauty is just a few steps backward, but you know how it is with things like this. Baby steps and all. This film practically patented the damsel-in-distress trope, and perfected it to a science. Tchaikovsky, a horned witch, and some rabble-rousing fairies could not save this film from that, but oh, do they make it enjoyable. Out of the classic era, this one truly shines, and is severely underrated. There isn't a lot else to be gleaned from it, other than to be careful around needles. (Fun fact: I didn't watch this movie until I was 20, because I never watched it as a kid. My mother didn't want me to develop a fear of pricking my finger. Now, at age 27, I still have no piercings or tattoos for that very reason, so suck it, Mom.)

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 drunk bards

Thanks for joining me for this installment of the Princess Party. In my next installment, I will have to painfully criticize my favorite film of all time--1989's The Little Mermaid. Join me as I resist progressiveness in the name of defending my problematic fave! Until then, Dream Big, Princess!

[ulfrsmal]

Twenty Questions: Fic Author Edition

Thank you @alexagirlie for tagging me! :D 1. How many works do you have on AO3? 261

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,677,071 words

3. What fandoms do you write for? Primarily for The Last Kingdom, Vikings: Valhalla, and Vikings. I do have a good handful of The Witcher (game/book verse) and Assassin's Creed fic, plus a random assortment of whatever caught my fancy at the time.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Animal I Have Become (halstarion, rated E) Wed, Bed, Behead (athelnar, rated G) Love Bites (But So Do I) (hisoillu, rated E) Stolen Nights (geraskier, rated E) Whirlwind (jaskier/wolf witchers, rated E)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? As a rule, yes because I also love it when I comment and the author answers me.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Tough to answer... probably Nemesis, though. It may be somewhat of a canon retelling, but it's also the one canon that's broken my heart into the most little pieces...

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Yikes i've no clue, but most if not all the super short drabbles and ficlets I've got are happy.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not anymore.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind? Oh a good half or so of my catalogue is nothing but smut! Kinks vary but some are recurring. Do beware I have written dub-con and non-con too, but they're always tagged as such.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? Not usually, but I've written some between TLK, Vikings, and Vikings: Valhalla.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yes. 🙃 (I did deal with it and the thief was punished)

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yup! Into Chinese.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yes, but as far as I know they haven't been published anywhere. Although arguably The Game was cowritten with @moosemonstrous, she gave me all the info and beta'd it. (I'm still very thankful!)

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? I don't have one ship that rules them all, they're all at the same level to me. I just don't write them all at the same time.

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? At this point.... Coat Of Arms. (But never say never, either.) I'm not counting The Echoes of Eternity as a WIP anymore.

16. What are your writing strengths? Characterization, character studies, atmosphere, poetic prose. I'm very proud of them all too!

17. What are your writing weaknesses? It used to be dialogue; now it's structure and arguably pacing. But I'm actively learning and getting better as we speak!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? It doesn't bother me at all, but it must be done right or it can come across as an odd choice when reading it back.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I was too young to remember ngl. Obviously that was never published xD On ao3, that's Assassin's Creed.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Ah, there are too many. If I've tagged it Poetic Prose, it's on my list of faves.

I'm scatterbrained and annoyed, so I'm not actively tagging anyone -- but if you're reading this and wanna do it, please consider yourself tagged by me! 🖤