#from emotional to action he is up there with my very fave LOTR characters

[rings-of-power-realm]

Critics Choice Awards Nominee Ismael Cruz Cordova ‘Arondir’ The Rings of Power season one 🏹

Get yoursELF an elf who can do it all

[maironsbigboobs]

End of Year Fic Recs!

Recommend up to 5 series or multi-chapter fics from 2023 that everyone should read (multi-year WIPs count, if the last update was in 2023).

Recommend up to 5 single chapter fics/one-shots (long or short) from 2023 that everyone should read.

Recommend up to 5 fics NOT from 2023 that everyone should read (oldies but goodies).

Recommend up to 5 of your own fics (completed or WIP) from 2023 that everyone should read.

I wasn't tagged by anyone, but I can't resist the chance to share some faves:

Multi-Chapter Fics/Series

Reconcillation – by @transmairon –  T, Sauron/Celebrimbor, ongoing – Fourth Age Sauron facing the consequences of his actions and trying to reintergrate himself with the world. I cannot wait to see Celebrimbor’s reaction to meeting him again.

From Mother to Daughter – by Galenfea – Gen, 5k – The fiber arts passed down through the generations. This is the kind of topic I love; a peek into the everyday lives of elves.  I loved the world-building!

companions in shipwreck – by spellworth – T, multiple, ongoing – An exploration of canon of female characters. I love this one, wonderful writing and creatvity – especially when writing about characters where canon gives them a name at most.

Haunted, Hunted  - by @imakemywings – T, Elwing & Maedhros, 9.3k - Elwing goes for a walk in the woods… This one is so cool, I loved the fairytale elements and Elwing’s horror was palpable!

dye me, nocturne – by @solmarillion – T, Daeron/Maglor, 12k – Darron finds a stranger on the shore and they get talking. I love how messy Maglor is here, trying to get what he wants out of Daeron, and how raw this fic was in the grief and bitterness in these two exiles at the end of the First Age.

Single Chapter Fics/Oneshots

elvenkings – by @meadowlarkx– Gen, 1.5k – A look through history at Menegroth’s fall. This one had me sobbing, it’s so beautiful and full of tragedy.

Bow and Helm and Hand –  by @jouissants – E, Beleg/Mablung/Túrin, 3.5k – Mablung joins Beleg and Túrin on the marches. Very sexy and filled with wonderful characterisation and delicious hints of angst and foreboding.

Echo of the Music – by @starspray– Gen, Thingol/Melian, 471 – A sweet look at Melian and Thingol’s relationship to each other, to art and to music (and the Music)

"…on a place of insecurity." – by @carlandrea – Gen, Thingol/Melian – This is one of my favourite Thingol/Melian fics, it’s so tender and Melian’s foreboding makes me so emotional.

At the Moment of Parting – by @daegred-winsterhand – T, Beleg/Túrin, 1.5k – Sweet and sad, Turin’s grief is so thick and real.

Pre 2023 Fics

The Gleaming Road – by melblue – E, Éomer/Faramir, 28k – Misunderstanding is a favourite trope of mine and it adds to the Drama here, with poor Eomer not knowing what Faramir is expecting from him. I don’t read a lot of LOTR era fics at the moment but this one is an old fave!

The Marchwardens – by roseofthebrightsea – Gen, Beleg, Mablung, Haldir etc, 6k – I love fics that are snippets of characters lives and this has some wonderful writing and sharp characterisation in short words.

A Challenge  – by @polutrope – M, Daeron/Maglor, 1.4k – The fic that got me into Daemags! Such a fun and entertaining fic!

Unkinged – by @arofili – E, Finwë/Miriel/Indis, 1k – Looove this, a beautiful moment between the three of them in a happier time.

The Gold Are Venomous – by @aipilosse – E, Sauron/Celebrimbor, 3.1k – I love Fourth Age silvergifting and I love mischievious Annatar is here, still up to no good after all this time… though Celebrimbor isn’t complaining (much) 😉Sexy and amusing.

My Fics

I risk my life to make my name – E, Galadriel/Melian, 10k – Gawain and the Green Knight AU. This was my first attempt at something multi-chaptered and I really like it still; it was fun to write and I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Starlight – M, Mablung, 944 – Mablung falls in Menegroth. This is was fun because I love angst and I liked playing with the structure with flashbacks.

Feast – Gen, Idril & Turgon, 1k – Idril reflects on her time on the Ice and how her father looked out for her. I love thinking about Idril & Turgon.

Reunion – Gen, Andróg & Andvir, 858 – Andvir finds his father in the wilds. I am never not thinking about the Gaurwaith.

Jealous Kiss –  Gen, Celebrimbor/Sauron, 370 – Annatar teases Tyelpe. I love it when Annatar causes problems on purpose.

[ghostmartyr]

Are you still watching RWBY? What did you think of Volume 8 overall

VOLUME 9 NEVERLAND SAGA WHERE NO ONE CAN HIDE FROM THEIR TRAUMA OR THEIR FRIENDS BY TRYING TO STOP IRONWOOD FROM BLOWING UP HALF THE KINGDOM HE’S SUPPOSEDLY PROTECTING WHILE ALL THEIR OTHER FRIENDS AND ALLIES THINK THEY’RE DEAD.

POGCHAMP.

I enjoyed Volume 8, but I think it stumbles at the end enough to look back at its time management and feel not totally great about it.

Cinder’s development is solid. I’m still not very attached to her, but she has attained my interest at long last. Good for you, Cinder. Solve your emotional problems with murder. Kill Watts. Give Neo a reason to go back to trying to kill you. Make yet another mortal enemy. I support these actions.

Emerald’s flip means she won’t have sad eyes over all the atrocities she’s playing witness to while the timer goes down on her defection anymore, and that’s cool.

Ironwood’s everything is... well. Yeah. Great. Nothing like watch someone destroy themself. Oh, and everything else around them in the process. Once he got started, it was pretty clear where he was going, and that’s just sad. He goes from hugging Qrow and finding relief in his allies to shooting all of them. Shooting Jacques along the way does not even that out.

The Ace-Ops felt too cluttered for the final parts. They’re the cautionary tales, obviously, but I don’t think we get enough time detailing them for them to be on the same stage as Winter coming into her own and RWBY falling into oblivion. Qrow and Robyn get the slow burn and then the panicked call to immediate action, but for the Ace-Ops, Marrow and Harriet are the only ones who the narrative actively does something with. Marrow’s problems are obvious from the start, and Harriet’s emotional heat hints, and then reveals, a depth of trauma that this system has been crap at handling. But Vine and Elm, the critical pieces in talking her down, and centerpieces of keeping Mantle from blowing up, aren’t prominent enough in the narrative for their place in its resolution to feel quite earned. I think if we’d gotten an extra episode it would have worked a little better. As it was, I was left wanting more focus on the central cast.

Which is kind of why I’m so thrilled that RWBY+J are maybe stuck spending some quality time together. The macro plot matters, obviously, but they’ve been moving so fast. Atlas feels like a speedrun of a kingdom falling, and a little more interplay between my faves would be very welcome.

Then there’s the obvious.

Oh, Penny.

I can’t feel good about Penny’s handling in the end.

The Winter Maiden, as soon as we’re introduced, is waiting to die and offer her power to the next one in line. Winter was intended for that, but Penny interrupts.

Two days later, Winter has the power, and Penny’s dead.

This is necessary so that Winter has time to center what she actually believes before she’s upgraded to demigodhood. Winter as the Winter Maiden leading into Volume 8 would have kept her on Ironwood’s script. The disruption of expectations that leaves her vulnerable forces her to respond to what is going on, not what her side believes should be going on.

It makes sense to delay Winter’s ascension, because it gives Winter perspective that she can’t access as long as she’s in her chain of established command.

Making Penny’s value tie entirely back to supporting someone else’s story. She’s allowed to be a real girl, she’s allowed to fight for what she believes in, she’s allowed to have friends, but becoming the Winter Maiden serves Winter’s storyline more than it serves Penny’s.

Which isn’t to say they do nothing with her. Obviously, the virus making the vault look good creates a variety of opportunities. Sure, they could have filled in another domino without Penny specifically, but she’s an instrumental part of getting them inside that vault in how the story goes.

Creating a new body for her is a complicated thing. Penny’s a real girl no matter what her form is, but if you say that while cutting out the nuts and bolts -- it’s a little mixed. In the most benign way I can put my preferences, I like Penny being a robot. I’m thrilled she knows how warm a hug can feel (Pietro, patch notes, get on it), but...

Before Watts causes problems on purpose, Penny shows a little hesitance about not being your standard model of girl, but unless I’ve been worse about my watching comprehension than I thought, she doesn’t have any burning need for flesh. Changing her body is the best solution they can up with in response to her agency being violated.

It’s not my favorite thing in the world. I don’t think it’s entirely good faith to pin all of the possible unfortunate implications on it, but they exist, and they are there. And on the flip side, being granted a body that is created through nothing but who you are is a sentiment that I’m sure resonates with a lot of people. I think there’s a lot to observe in what Penny’s going through, and it’s worth discussion more than angry words.

Except before there’s a chance to collect opinion polls on that, we once again have her asking for death before she hurts her friends.

I believe there’s a post on LotR somewhere that explains why people are okay with it being a mood shift from The Hobbit. People aren’t huge fans of media they consume invalidating media they previously invested in.

Penny dies, then she comes back. Then she dies.

Penny interrupts the inevitability of Winter becoming the Winter Maiden. Then Winter becomes the Winter Maiden.

It feels like a zero sum game, but a zero sum game where our emotions were torqued around for the sake of it, and the object of said torquing is being utilized as a plot object prior to being a character.

Penny obviously has a lot of personality, and a lot of established emotional ties. She’s not just a lamp standing in a corner.

But to use the apt metaphor, you can see the strings. Penny’s trajectory seems to be moving under its own velocity -- but then that ending hits. Despite going through all of the steps to make sure that Penny doesn’t have to sacrifice herself to keep the people she loves safe, despite actually being really creative and clever about doing everything possible to keep her alive --

The plot demands her death.

It isn’t good enough to fix the pressing issue that made sacrifice look good. Sacrifice is still the ultimate answer.

Thematically, that doesn’t jive with the story we’ve been getting.

Emotionally, what the fuck, could we not.

(What’s better than the cute robot girl begging for death? Doing it twice!)

People who are in a more optimistic state about fiction at the moment have noted that Pinocchio does do a lot of dying, and I do like the read of Penny as Jiminy Cricket. Considering the full context of the world, there’s more to justify a return than a lot of characters get. It wouldn’t be the most shocking thing ever.

It’s still kind of fucked up. Penny doesn’t kill herself, but she asks others to kill her, and that’s her being a good girl.

The National Suicide Hotline gets its number placed in the summary of the episode.

Obviously there’s more to it than that, but the implications are there, and a very painful thorn when looking over the rest of her. Creating an environment where it makes sense for this character to kill themself, it’s noble, even --

I don’t think that’s a route of story that the available material handles gracefully.

It’s the “twice” that really hammers the point down into the coffin. It creates a pattern of behavior in Penny. Once, and okay. Heroic sacrifice plays are always a major source of drama, exemplifying how Good the person making the sacrifice is, and how Tragic it is that we’re losing such a good person, all because they have principles and just love these other people so much.

Only if you have a character asking someone to kill them twice in relatively quick succession, the callback isn’t to feats of heroics. It’s suicidal tendencies.

If you’re not prepared to deal with implications of that magnitude, you’ve got to make the link a lot less suggestive. Otherwise you’re telling a new story whether you like it or not, and it’s not one you’re ready for, drastically upping the odds that it’s not going to be the most polished thing ever.

What the issue becomes then, in my personal opinion, is pacing (’hey self why is the answer always pacing’ ‘because shut up’). Penny’s joy of life is a blip in between her asking for death. The heroic nature of her desire for death mixed with the awful despair of her actual death makes this endpoint of her story saturated with a darkness that sours the entire experience.

Complicating it further is the issue of trust.

The writers killed her and brought her back just to kill her again. If they do bring her back again, the faith is kind of broken. Once you show that you’re willing to move a character around like a piece on a chessboard, your audience isn’t going to trust the story enough to invest. They’re going to be looking for the strings. For a complicated special effect that takes a lot of strings, that’s a pain, because the agreement with stories is supposed to be that yes, there are strings, that’s our medium.

If you don’t trust the writers, you are not going to believe in the story.

For my personal taste, if the writers are doing something more with Penny, their presentation has made it difficult for me to see value in the journey, even if the destination happens to be something I ultimately approve of.

Anyway Robyn needs to officially adopt Qrow. He has been a bad guy bandit, now he can be a good guy bandit.

He can be the Happy Huntresses’ cute animal mascot.

That is all that matters.

That is my one, solitary thought on the entire volume.

Thanks for the ask!