#guardian really dragged my ass back into the writing game last year and i am thankful

[sarah-yyy]

it’s that time of the year again, so. annual writing round-up, let’s go:

according to AO3, i have posted 14 fics this year, totalling 51k words. average word count has risen from 2.5k last year to 3.6k, which...is probably thanks to the mdzs college au (which btw @pumpkinpaix​ has done a fantastic podfic of and it’s so?? good?? so even if you don’t read the fic, have a listen to her podfic!!) and the guardian lawyer au lbr. 

longest fic i wrote this year was the mdzs college au, the moon lives in the lining of your skin (9143 words); the shortest was a jack/zz drabble, fortune (936).

as with last year, this year was also a very cdrama-focused writing year! i continued writing for Guardian (i.......still have so many wips i want to finish for this fandom, rip me), and added H3, The Untamed and Original Sin into the mix. 

1 of 14 fics was for Original Sin, being a short fix-it that was mostly fluffy.

2 of 14 fics was for Guardian, which is a little disappointing because i have so many wips that i wanted to finish this year. oh well. i’ll have a couple of days once i get back to auckland to possibly rewatch a couple of choice episodes and cry over weilan for a bit, and then be spurred into writing more guardian fics??? both fics were weilan. the more popular fic (by 2 kudos!) was third time's the charm, the abo au ft. mildly jealous!shen wei ahahaha. (side note: i think this was the fic that set my “sweetheart” thing off.)

5 of 14 fics was for H3: Trapped, 2 tangfei and 3 jack/zz. the most popular of which was amuse bouche, aka the jack cooks his way into zhao zi’s heart fic. that’s also my personal favourite! :D

6 of 14 fics was for The Untamed/MDZS, all of which were wangxian. the most popular being since then i am because you are, aka the 什么是plot什么是backstory au where the yiling patriarch needs to marry for an alliance. i am honestly most surprised at the reception this fic has received tbh, considering its length and lack of....basically everything except dumb pining wangxian ahahahaha.

this is also the year i’ve started writing tumblr askbox ficlets again, which i haven’t really done much of since the height of my les mis days. i’ve had a look through the tag, and there’s about 8 pages worth of ficlets, so approx. 120 ficlets! 

i won’t do a word count for all of the ficlets because hahahahaha that’s too much effort for a roundup post, but! most of them are for the wilful blindness verse (74 ficlets so far what in the fuck) which, according to rough calculations, has already spanned 35k words over the last 4 months, making it p much the longest thing i have ever written, and i haven’t even “officially” started writing it yet tbh???

les mis buddies!!! i know i, again, have not filled my one exr fic on ao3 quota, but i did write around 2? 3? ficlets??? you might have to search back in the ficlets tag, but i think i did them all around the same time, so around when i did the writing about kisses meme in may?? the most popular one was this oblivious!grantaire ficlet, which is not surprising because it’s a tried and true favourite of mine to write!

i feel like everything i’ve written this year have mostly a decent balance between fluff and sads? i’m even leaning more towards writing fluff now, so we’ll consider this rebranding a success.

my favourite to write this year has been wilful blindness, mostly because it’s easy and relatively low-commitment and fun? strong contender for second is tonight i can write the saddest lines, the amnesiac!lwj au, just because it flowed out of me really easily and took the least time to complete.

i have, tragically, not really finished any of the wips i set out to finish this year. my wip folder has only grown, although a couple of them i’ve finally moved to the “abandoned” folder (this includes the historical jack/zz au that i really wanted to write, but i feel like i’ve moved on from this ship? idk idk. the bare bones of the fic are still there, just in case i ever feel like picking it up again). 

there are a couple of guardian fics that i really want to pick up and finish, and at least 4 mdzs fics that are 75% done and should be completed in the first quarter of 2020! it’s been a good writing year, considering all things. i think the last time i wrote this much was back in......2015 (ao3 says i wrote about 78k words then) when i was still in uni, and it feels good to have such an outlet again!

[universal-kitty]

ALRIGHT, Hit me up with your LoZ theories!!

   OKAY, this is going to be a MAJOR DOOZY, so hear me out-! Buckle in, get snacks, a drink or two, cause whenever LoZ and I lock eyes, I write like a novelist who’s final draft is due Monday of next week…and it’s Friday.

   First off, I’d like to introduce my building block to all of my subsequent theories involving this series: There’s a fourth goddess that would complete the Triforce.

   This theory has…typically died out, but I won’t let it. I keep mine alive and kicking, because while most people try to nudge someone else into that empty slot (Goddess of Time, Goddess of Deserts (of the Gerudo), Hylia, etc), there’s a FAR more convincing, prior unknown option… One of darkness.

   Four themes are actually more prevalent in LoZ despite threes being the sign of the goddesses and- you would think- be more common compared to fours, but… Hey, there’s a lot to work with when you have four, especially when you look at it from the perspective of the Japanese.

   Anyways… Under the cut go the shorthand of my extensive notes.

We’ll start with four, the first basis for this theory I think of a lot: “Four” in Japanese can be read as “shi” [死 ]. This specific reading translates to “death” and is considered an unlucky number. If four goddesses could be unlucky….why not cast out for 3?

Though what’s interesting… I couldn’t find a source for it- so who knows, maybe the guy pulled it outta his ass- but there was a theory video involving Majora’s Mask that mentioned purple often being a color of death in Japan. Again, couldn’t find anything to back that claim up, but…. On the other hand…..

The image above is of the Shadow Medallion from Ocarina of Time. Not only is it in the color purple, but it’s found in the Shadow Temple (a place that seems to reek of death and horrors) and features…an upside down triangle, with three dots around it…… Hmm.

Equally baffling, the Four Poe Sisters from the Forest Temple in the same game. Four over three, again. Also, this is a trend we see repeat in ANY Four Sword adventure… Take a look.

Note how we can see the colors of the four goddesses represented here. Red for Din, of Power. Green for Farore, of Courage. Blue for Nayru, of Wisdom…and purple. The fourth, odd color out.

This is actually ANOTHER issue in Tri-Force Heroes. While on the surface, all Links would be accounted for…. There IS a fourth, forgotten Dopple…. Check it out.

Ditto for Minish Cap; four objects, purple the odd color out. Image link.

It’s suspicious, I tell you.

Four AGAIN shows up in Twilight Princess, wherein there are FOUR guardian Light spirits… Three helped the goddesses, while one was unaccounted for…. I believe this was Ordona, far removed in nearby Ordon Village.

Nintendo tries to state “Ordona” finishes Faron’s name (for Farore), but I personally find THAT a load of bologna.

Though not of four, Purple continues to be an important color in the LoZ franchise… Even when they remove it from the final product. See here, the removed Fairy Doors from Phantom Hourglass (Philos) and the almost-there sixth Lokomo of Shadow… See their art Here (Syda).

A theory persists Bryne might’ve still been the reincarnated “Shadow lokomo”, but it’s only a theory that’s never been confirmed. (Much like the stuff I do.)

As well… What purpose would there be for the goddesses to create flaws? Who would create Demise? Where did he come from? The darkness, the evil….and all the creatures that bloom from it…?

Having also learned of beings like the Horned Statue and looking more into Malanya (BotW)… There are beings who don’t fit the norm of most “godly” creations, but STILL fit into the role of such “gods.”

(Which, I should note now, I use loosely; as someone else pointed out during my binge-watching, “gods” are probably used in translation of “kami”… Which is more like “god or spirit” in Japanese. Kami are a complicated thing for our mindset of what gods are, but… Essentially, all things have a spirit and are alive. A worship of them can go from “spirit” to “god” as far as translation goes, but….. Y’know.)

I just personally don’t see a bunch of well-intentioned goddesses go a’slippin’ and spill out some evil, especially one as chaotically evil as Demise goes…

So I brought forth the idea of Orona. An exiled fourth goddess of Shadow. Chosen color purple. Creator of Demise and the evil within the hearts of Hyrule.

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   Oh, and the bit! About the Horned Statue and Malanya! That’s new!!! Which is what’s really gotten me jazzed about my theories involving LoZ… I just keep feeling like Nintendo is unintentionally validating me, even though it’d be a game-changer and probably would work TOO WELL for ending the series… Which is the last thing Nintendo would want to do.

   ….I mean, not that it’s going to stop me any. I can write out how my version of the series could end as Nintendo keeps making money and I keep giving it to them, too, LMAOOO. To be fair to them, don’t fix what ain’t broken….and I’ll sure keep buying Pokemon and Legend of Zelda long as the series keeps living up to the core of what they’ve always been, y’know?

   Anyways, wanna drop one more theory on ya before I set you free. :3c

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So… Remember Groose? Skyward Sword? Red hair, kinda tanned skin, golden eyes? Wanted the girl, lost out to MC, grew enough by that time that he wasn’t bitter about it, and flew off with friends to go be cool somewhere else?

Yeah, that guy. So…. Here me out.

Groose got cursed by Demise, too. It wasn’t ONLY Zelda/Hylia and Link who were dragged down into the reincarnation cycle.

Hear me out… Most people have made a fair guess that- by endgame- Groose and Co. flew off in the way of Lanayru Desert. (Once a populous ocean and with green fields… I’d joke about it being a downgrade, but I live in a desert, too, so… FML.) This location- deserts, specifically- have been KNOWN for housing the Gerudo race.

Now…. Please look at Groose compared to an OoT Gerudo.

They might not be the most similar people in existence….but you try to tell ME that a few who-knows-how-many-generations later, his kids could VERY WELL end up becoming the Gerudo race.

(Also not a flattering picture, but I don’t have a lot to work with premade…and I currently don’t have the ability to make one of these on my own.)

So what am I getting at? Groose was cursed to have his descendants bear his new host.

Theory goes like this: Groose is cursed. Never knows of it. He has kids normally… They have kids normally….for a few generations. As time goes on, more women are born, less men. Until no boys are born, only little girls who resemble their mothers. It never ceases.

Until the day the first boy in thousands of years is born. He is hailed a king of their people, in honor of such a rare, undocumented occasion.

Ganondorf, they name him. Unknowing that within the boy, is a demon, waiting for his time. Ganondorf shall grow up with a hatred unmatched, nobody will know why, but the goddesses will. They will do nothing unless called down with might.

Unwittingly, Groose continues a line of a people scorned nearly always by Hyrule, who’s king is ALWAYS destined to lose himself to the madness of the darkness that consumes his very being.

EDIT: BEFORE I FORGET, I also think it’s very telling of BotW to say there’s “not been another male Gerudo since the King who became the Calamity” that’s very HMM, isn’t it?? (Reference: Creating a Champion / Master Works)

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   My name is Aki, and I stan the LoZ franchise because I rebuilt it with my bare hands, how’ya doin’?