#generally not a fan of comedies though (which is probably why i've never even considered watching it until now)

[smowkie]

anyone around who has seen Schitt's Creek and can tell me if i should watch it or not?

[aelaer]

I'm probably clogging your inbox with this but, ✨💘🎈 for the ask game? :))

Never clogging! I wouldn't do the ask game stuff if I didn't enjoy replying to it :)

✨ What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

I've bemoaned in the past about how IronStrange fics get significantly more views/kudos compared to gen fics with the same characters, and that's the same story for my fics. The two fics marked "IronStrange" are at the top of my kudos/hits list (with the two crossovers rounding up the top 4), and I used to be a little bitter about that. I accept it better these days, though I do think folks who enjoy IronStrange should also toss more bones to writers who use the Stephen Strange & Tony Stark tag alone, and should rec gen fics in those collections, even if it's a separate category.

But because of this trend, it means that the work I'm most proud of, my Earth-197320 series, gets a lot less traffic than my IronStrange pieces. At this point, though, I am happy that there are still some out there who read gen fic. It'd be super awesome if it was more of a 50/50 split with Stephen fans, but that I have anything resembling an audience does make me luckier than some newer writers because the MCU is not as popular as it was in 2019, when I published a significant amount of my work and got my name out there. (I myself haven't read fanfic since February, so I need to get back into it. Part of why I haven't is that trying to find new gen fic starring Stephen is so difficult and discouraging).

💘 Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

Yes, but not in the MCU! I have a large collection of ollllld one-shots that I did as a teenager surrounding book!Aragorn from LOTR. They're still up on older archives, but rewriting them would be fun. I did a couple that are up on AO3, but my LOTR muse simply hasn't returned. And there are fics I'd like to get done for the MCU first.

🎈 Describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? Does it change?

This is a pretty difficult question if you really think about it. I ended up going down a rabbit hole and read this fascinating article about creative writing and style and tried to see where I fit into it.

I know I don't follow all the rules of concise writing, especially with use of adverbs, because I think "said wryly" is a justified use of an adverb if it can be read as straight-forward *or* wry. I'm not sure what an editor would do with my work if I presented it to them, but considering that Ready Player One and 50 Shades of Grey's terrible prose was published without issue, I'm not too fussed about my use of adverbs.

I really enjoy deep dives into the character's psyche, but I always write from a limited POV of usually one or two characters, so we get a limited view of the psyche in general, at least in one chapter. I'm not terribly fond of the omnipotent POV and only wrote it in a comedy, which used it quite well.

I will say it can change depending on the needs of the story, at least a bit. For instance, I usually have a limited third person POV, but I have written in first person and I've written third person omnipotent. I have some description to help set a scene, but scenery is not my forte and it's something I actively have to put my brain power towards to get it done. My most descriptive piece by far was the one from Sherlock's POV due to his very observant mind, and that was a pretty challenging piece.

The narrative of telling the story is a huge part of my writing, but I like to see character growth throughout it, if possible. It depends on the length of the piece.

I think that's enough rambling on this subject, hah.

[mdhwrites]

I heard Dana gave toh fans the freedom to consider their headcanons canon, or smth like that. There's probably more info on twitter but I don't use the app. What do you think?

So what I've heard is that it's not entirely this. It is just saying that whatever Dana says outside of the show, like in livestreams, panels, etc. don't count as canon. The only things that are explicitly canon is that which is in the show. Otherwise, everything else is her personal headcanons which are just as valid as any fans'. I was introduced to this a few days ago by someone sharing it with me (this was apparently said in a livestream btw so will almost certainly get lost to time) a tweet with me about someone being happy about their fan children being 'canon' It was cute and I didn't check what the ships were. I mostly responded to that person being happy that they could headcanon Lumischa as having eventually happened because that was more fun for me especially with my hands being bad. Besides, I think the statement is dumb on multiple levels that I'll get to eventually. Reading this question, I spent more than a single second thinking about it and went "Wait, but Amity is only a lesbian because Dana says so. This is absolutely going to make 70% of the fandom choose to make her bi because then they can ship her with whoever they want." AND GUESS WHAT SHIP THE TWEET WAS ABOUT!? FUCKING AMITER! It has always been a problem for the show that Amity's sexuality is not stated in it. It creates a similar excuse to what people who have to defend stuff like SasuNaru (my introduction to shipping through my older sister btw) of "They don't have a canon sexuality." Well... No longer does Amity. We do know she's interested in girls but that doesn't mean she isn't pan or bi.

I personally do not agree with this interpretation. For me, changing characters who appear to commonly be straight to gay is fine... Because there's close to zero gay characters in most genres, let alone mainstream popular shows. How many are in Shounen anime in general? Okay now remove the villains who are queer coded and tell me again. If the LGBTQIA+ (which I want to remind you I'm not a part of so I don't benefit from this interpretation) want to tell their stories within the media they like, they HAVE to change sexualities. They have no other choice. Meanwhile, Amity is not a particularly special archtype so if you're a straight dude wanting to ship her with yourself, you can find that elsewhere. Even within the same show, just use Lilith who in S1 was similar to Amity. Though yes, Lilith is technically aro/ace but only by decree from Dana and the show never actually sways one way or another on her feelings on relationships because... Why the fuck would it? It's a comedy adventure. Which brings us to the complicated question of what is right to include in a story or not (which I could go into a LOT more in a different blog). It's not like everyone is constantly stating their sexualities in real life after all. It's a rough place for a lot of creators, just like saying if a character is nuerodivergent. A lot of stories just don't have a place for that sort of exposition and honestly the author letting us know outside of the work IS useful for that. Would it be better if it were stated in the show? In TOH's case, because of how much it stakes its reputation on representation, YES. For most? Not really but most don't court the romance genre, where saying those sexualities is more reasonable, like TOH does.

So that's one reason why I don't like the statement. Dana sticking to her guns on her ideas is one of the few saving graces I could give her and just saying "Fuck it, you all decide what you want to be canon so long as it isn't in the show" is just... not that. Not unless she was going to go whole hog and say that the IP was in the public domain so LITERALLY MAKE THE CANON YOU WANT! Which would have been novel but is also NEVER going to happen. Instead, her statement amounts to "I officially give you permission to make fanworks." Which... Lady, you don't get to decide that. No creative does. If people want to make work off of your story, they're gonna do that regardless of what you say. The creator of Calvin and Hobbes is FAMOUS for how anti-commercial he was of his work and spent much of his career making sure that his strips, panels, characters etc. didn't appear on t-shirts. And he still failed mostly because stopping EVERY avenue was simply impossible.

Also Dana has not really put much authoritatively on the scales besides the sexualities, making the statement even more pointless. If she's dropped giant lore dumps, I haven't heard about them and I've been in this fandom long enough that I feel like I should have heard about them. Instead we got small things like Amity dying her hair because her mom forced her to. That isn't going to break anyone's story and I even personally used it as a bonding moment between the two because I made Odalia neurotic about stuff like that.

So I guess my big question is... Who cares? Unless you actively don't like the few answers we've been given by the crew. And if that's the case... That's what fanworks are for. For when you don't like canon and want to change it. You don't need permission for that. You never have. =========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[lady-griffin]

As a fanfiction writer, I've noticed that one of the hardest things personally for me to pin down is an accurate guess regarding Hamefura's time period in relation to our world which makes it harder to decide certain aspects of a fic if it wants to get into world building (and have Katarina start and agricultural revolution). I've always appreciated the analysis work you do for Hamefura and was wondering if you had any guesses?

I would say there is no exact parallel to one of our time periods. Largely because there is a clear mix of concepts and aesthetics from older periods to later periods and even some modern ideas thrown in there.

That being said I think I found a decent enough match.

While Katarina (and many fans) describe it as a medieval setting, it is definitely not that. I would put the time period of Hamefura overall in the 18th and 19th centuries. 1700s & 1800s.

This is based off a few things.

Fashion

While not a clear comparison, the aesthetics of the different fashion trends of these two centuries are the closest to Hamefura’s own fashion styles - for the guys and gals.  

It’s not perfect

Some of the characters’ fashions are clearly just a general idea of “old-timey” fashion. And other characters’ fashion are more modern (or seem to be inspire by some later periods) – Alan, Maria, Sirius, Duchess Claes, and Katarina’s Merchant’s daughter outfit for example.

Alan’s style of clothing is extremely modern in concept.  So, it’s clearly a mix-and-match situation when it comes to fashion.

--

Books/Bookstores

Books are commonly and widely available. Not just for the rich, like Sophia and Katarina. We know this because there doesn’t seem to be much of an issue (or any) for Katarina’s maids and or Maria to gain access to books. As a maid in the Claes estate was the one who introduced romance novels to Katarina in the first place.

While again, not exact, the kind of reading and books we see in Hamefura works with 18th/19th century.  

Serialized fiction (and books in general) surged in popularity during Britain's Victorian era (1837-1901), due to a combination of the rise of literacy, technological advances in printing, and improved economics of distribution.

Also, while romance stories are far from anything new (have been around since stories) – the concept of marrying for love (despite social class) was an idea that was popular in fiction around the the time period – for example, being Pride and Prejudice (1813).

The book-stores we see in Hamefura (very briefly) are very similar to, well, modern book stores.

James Lackington (1746-1815) and his once-famous London bookshop, The Temple of the Muses, basically “invented” modern-day bookselling as we know it. During his time James completely revolutionized the concept of bookselling in the late 18th century. And considering the rise in books and literacy, other book-shops began to follow.

--

Sweets/Bake Shops

We know that high quality pastries/sweets can be bought at stores (students buy them for Student Council). 

I think this one is the least exact, as Patisseries have been around for some time, there is some parallel. 

 Marie-Antoine Carême (1784-1833) is considered to be one of the early practitioners of “modern Patisseries” (what we really see in Hamefura) and fine-dining, though he’s more known for Grande Cuisine.

His elaborate creations graced the windows of his Paris patisserie shop.

This is what we see in Hamefura.

So while the history is far from an exact match, the kind of stores that already existed and started to exist during this time are very similar from what the stores that we see in Hamefura, in regards to sweets 

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Love – Marriages of Love

In the 5th Light Novel, we learn that nobles falling in love and choosing to get married to one another (not arranged) is a concept that is becoming more and more popular. Particularly among the younger nobles around Katarina’s age.

As Katarina witnesses several couples being romantic to one another, who are not currently engaged to one another or not in arranged marriages.

The ideal of love as a primary reason for marriage began to spread in the late 18th century and early 19th century, partly due to the French and American revolutions - Enlightenment thinkers in this era promoted the right to personal happiness. And going back to books, this might be another reason p why love stories became so popular among the public as literacy and book technology grew in this time.

So, while Arrange marriages certainly exist in Hamefura (obviously) – the importance of love also matters.

Take Geordo and Katarina’s arranged marriage, for instance. Despite them being 8, the two of them made the match together. It wasn’t arranged by the King or Katarina’s parents in the traditional sense of an arranged marriage.

Sure, Luigi Claes set up a meeting with Geordo for Katarina (a match-making meeting) and we know there was pressure coming down on Geordo to get a fiancé (due to his older brothers being engaged), but still the decision was largely between Katarina and Geordo.

Geordo proposed and Katarina accepted.

Now on the other hand, while never stated. it seems likely Geordo had to get the King’s Approval before he proposed and Katarina’s parents also had to agree to the match. But again, their engagement is still rather unique, in that it wasn’t decided by their parents and they had no say in the matter at all.

Now on the other hand, the arranged marriage for Alan and Mary seems like it was largely set up by their parents, so the two of them have a much more traditional arrangement. Now that might just come down to Geordo being far more independent than Alan is, when it comes to his person affairs.

We we know Luigi Claes (from the novels) sent a letter to Geordo asking for him to meet with Katarina, while he probably also sent it to the king as well – we are never told that explicitly, so we can’t say for sure.

But to the main point, overall, the concept of marrying someone for love is clearly an idea that is growing in popularity in the world of Hamefura.

In Fortune Lover, Geordo wants to break off his engagement to Katarina when he falls in love with Maria. If Maria is successful in Alan’s route, Mary breaks of their engagement so the two can be together.

In the current timeline, Alan tries to break off the engagement with Mary, because he’s not in love with her.

Geordo, clearly wants Katarina to love him back and not just marry him because she has too.

Nicol’s parents want him (and Sophia) to fall in love and marry for love.  

Geordo, Alan, and Nicol in Fortune Lover were all able to end up with Maria with no problem, for the most part.  

Now, because there is a dual system of power and status (based on nobility and magic) – Maria being a Light Weilder and a powerful one at, automatically raises her profile to being more than an acceptable marriage partner for a noble (my belief).

So, the idea of being with someone for love is more common for Katarina and her peers than their parents’ generation.

Luigi and Miridiana’s father arranged the marriage between the two – Though Luigi did fall in love with her before the marriage, but because the marriage wasn’t decided by the two of them along nor did they have much of a relationship – their marriage suffered from a lot of miscommunication.

Dan and Radea(?) Ascart, the parents of Nicol and Sophia, married for love. Though we learn we learn in the 5th novel that Radea was already engaged to another man and Dan made a deal with her father – basically if he could become the prime minister, he would be allowed to marry her.

While not like modern times, marrying for love is a concept that is growing and becoming more of the norm in the world of Hamefura.

--

Technology

Due to the character of Larna Smith, technology (based on magic) in Hamefura is getting quite the revolution.

One of her inventions, using Wind Magic, is a phone.

Italian innovator Antonio Meucci is credited with inventing the first basic phone in 1849, while Alexander Graham was the first US Patent for the device in 1876.

-

Based on the comic in the 6th Light Novel, we know Nicol’s most treasure possession is a Fountain Pen his father gave him.

And given the fact that we see Katarina writing with a quill, the two types of writing utensils existing with one another was happening in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Now Fountain Pens, have a longer history than that. But basically, due to them not being the most stable or consistent way of writing, it seems like in Western Societies (Hamefura), that them being coming commonplace took over a period of time, as the technology improved bit by bit.

Nicol’s Fountain Pen seems to be an excellent one that works great. But we can assume that since Dan Ascart is an Earl and Prime Minister, he has more access to such technology than other people.

--

Conclusion

I was surprised that a lot of what we see in Hamefura, actually does match or more accurately fit within the general existence of these two centuries nicely. Not always an exact match, but the overall ideas and changes in the 18th and 19th century are a nice parallel to what we see in Hamefura.

It’s a broad span of time (around 200 years), but that’s my thinking.

In full disclosure, I did some light research on the matter – so I apologize for any historical mistakes (and grammar/spelling). 

To be clear, I don’t think Hamefura fitting in the 18th-19th centuries (particularly in Western Culture) was really intentional on the Author’s Part.

We see that the general style of dress in Hamefura, is popular amongst many manga/anime/Mahwha that have an aristocratic setting. And just a lot of general world-building in such stories, basically take a loose idea form these two time periods, rather than be historically based on them. 

And since Fortune Lover is a love game and Hamefura is a romantic-comedy, love would of course be of upmost importance despite the restricted aristocratic status. And falling in love despite said restrictions is definitely a more prevalent modern idea.

So, it’s all probably unintentional. I mean, they probably were inspired by the these two centuries, but more in a general idea of their story-world, rather than a specific time-period setting.  But still it’s a nice overall fit.

Also, the 18th-19th Century setting works rather nicely with your idea of Katarina starting an Agriculture Revolution.

 Thanks for the question Anon! I hope this helped you out!