#gwen's jstor

[whoredyceps]

"oh lover boy!" masterlist

the valentine's day series

𑁤 a secret admirer ༝ joel miller

𑁤 "it's okay, i couldn't sleep anyways." ༝ javier peña

𑁤 the morning after ༝ oberyn martell

𑁤 a blind date ༝ agent whiskey

𑁤 a bouquet of flowers ༝ marcus acacius

𑁤 "i can't stand you." ༝ joel miller

𑁤 "just stay near me. please." ༝ javier peña

𑁤 fuzzy pink handcuffs ༝ din djarin

𑁤 leather and lace ༝ oberyn martell

𑁤 love at first sight ༝ frankie morales

𑁤 dancing in the moonlight ༝ marcus acacius

𑁤 "for you, i would." ༝ din djarin

𑁤 "you're so full of shit." ༝ joel miller

𑁤 "i love you." ༝ javier peña

𑁤 old wounds ༝ agent whiskey

𑁤 puppy love ༝ frankie morales

𑁤 and they were roommates! ༝ javier peña

𑁤 a forgotten date ༝ din djarin

𑁤 anniversary ༝ oberyn martell

𑁤 "stop distracting me." ༝ joel miller

𑁤 love letters ༝ marcus acacius

𑁤 "are you sure you want to do this?" ༝ din djarin

𑁤 honeymooners ༝ frankie morales

𑁤 "i missed you." ༝ din djarin

𑁤 in the middle of the night ༝ javier peña

𑁤 possesive ༝ joel miller

𑁤 "i'm too sober for this." ༝ agent whiskey

𑁤 "we could get caught-!" ༝ oberyn martell

[sexy-sapphic-sorcerer]

Oh god do I have thoughts about this. I think the plot itself does usually upholds heteronormativity, but it is not always framed positively within the narrative.

Enforced heterosexuality is often condemned and positioned as an obstacle to characters' happiness, such as the many instances where Arthur is enchanted or pressured into marriage. Then, Arthur marrying Gwen queers expectations, in the sense that he refuses to conform to the status quo and fights to be able to love openly and freely.

However, by making Arthur/Gwen the end-game ship that audiences must root for, the show then makes a very deliberate effort to uphold heteronormative expectations within their relationship. Not only do they tone down Gwen and Lancelot's affair to avoid endorsing adultery, but they remove both Gwen and Lancelot's agency in it, to ensure that they are redeemable to the audience.

By shifting the blame to Morgana, it also quite explicitly positions queerness as a threat. To drastically oversimplify centuries of Arthurian academia that I haven't read, there is a long history of Lancelot being queer, and his affair with Guinevere being on some level motivated by his love for Arthur. So, to avoid the gay connotations of this, it is "substituted with a much more conservative Arthur/Guinevere/Morgana triangle" (x). Of course, this just makes Gwen and Lancelot's affair in 4x09 lowkey lesbian instead, but also frames Arthur, Gwen and Lancelot as innocent victims of Morgana's transgressive queerness.

This same issue of Morgana's queerness being synonymous with her villainy is apparent in all of her plots to break up Arthur and Gwen. Especially the Dark Tower plot in series 5, which very much resembles this narrative of Morgana as a predatory lesbian who plans to seduce Gwen into hating her husband and loving her instead, so they can kill Arthur and rule as two queens. Of course, heteronormativity must be upheld, by Gwen realising she was manipulated and she does love her heterosexual husband after all! (Although this also involves Merlin in drag, so idk what gives there).

I also think it's worth mentioning that a very similar thing can be said of Morgause seducing Morgana and planning to defeat the protagonists and rule as two queens. It goes without saying that this is both very lesbian and framed very negatively in the show - for other reasons, of course, but the link between queerness and evil here cannot be denied.

Especially when you get into the idea of magic as a metaphor for queerness, because oooh boy does that have some mixed messages. Of course, the overarching message of the show is that 'magic' is not evil or wrong, and 'sorcerers' should be accepted and treated equally, but the way this is conveyed is complicated to say the least. I won't even bother listing the countless other characters that use magic to threaten the protagonists (often to avenge the literal genocide committed against them) who are written as heightened villains that Merlin must defeat. You know what I mean.

But what about Merlin? His character queers expectations in so many ways, from his lack of female love interests, to his rejection of hypermasculinity, which is (almost) never treated negatively within the show, so kudos for that. I obviously think that Merlin and Arthur's relationship is incredibly queer, even just by virtue of the significance it holds in the plot. Not only is their bond very homoromantic (and often homoerotic), but the barriers between them read more like meta-contextual internalised/external homophobia, rather than a deliberate attempt by the writers to make them straight bros.

Although, Merlin becomes a more problematic queer figure when magic is concerned. He "uses magic only for (Arthur)", both in the sense that he is obsessed with him in a gay way, but also in that he is willing to support the power structures he represents. He believes that he will only be accepted if he hides his identity and serves his oppressors, and is therefore actively hostile towards any sorcerers who threaten the status quo.

Of course, Merlin fails at achieving societal acceptance by upholding heteronormative expectations, just as Morgana fails by undermining them. The show (sans the last episode) ends with Arthur and Gwen happily married and both Merlin and Morgana isolated and filled with internalised shame. This is where I'm willing to give the writers more credit, because Merlin is clearly a morally grey character and his actions aren't entirely endorsed by the narrative. But I don't think the show goes far enough in framing it as a tragedy. Nor does it do enough to portray Morgana sympathetically.

I realise I have accidentally written an essay, so TLDR: the actual show is pretty hetero by foregrounding Arthur/Gwen, but Morgana fighting to destroy their heteronormative ideal and Merlin fighting to uphold it is very queer, albeit often in problematic ways

v curious - pls can merlin fans lmk whether they think the show upheld heteronormative expectations (of romance, of life) and/or whether it queers expectations? all thoughts and examples v welcome & my ask box is SUPER open

[stellerssong]

Last Line Challenge

tagged by @two-hands-toward-the-sun to post the last line (or, like, chunk, if we're being indulgent) i added to a wip! for my own part, tagging @eri-223, @sunsorbit, @honeyteacakes, @subjectsix, hi kip, uh...i don't know who else hasn't done this who wants to...so like. if you're seeing this, now is your chance! tell them i twisted your arm! tell them you had no choice!

and god damn, wouldn't you know it, the last wip i was digging around in is for a fandom i know for a certainty no one here is interested in. so we'll make it a twofer, just to keep the people hyped up.

first off, a loose sequel to my extremely normal P6 + P7 au for Control (2019, Remedy Games):

“So here the boy is, crying, sad, because that’s his only knife, and when you’re just a nobody-shepherd good knives don’t come easy, so he’s thinking, ai, what am I gonna do, I can’t just go and buy a new knife, my moneypurse is dead as the stone. And the tears fall down in the river, plash, plash, plash. Salt in the good sweet water and all. And the god of the river tastes them, and—” “The what of the river?” “Jahaa.” Ahti gives Jesse a sly smile, like a fox in a picture book. “Your funny man didn’t teach you that word?” “No. What’s it mean?” “Hmm. It’s like a—big man. Or lady. Or both. Or neither. Who got a big job to do. And all the little people, running around under his feet, they tell the god, hey, now, I need your help with this and with that. And the god, well—sometimes he helps, and sometimes he doesn’t, but the important thing for him, and the thing what makes him what he is, is the big job. Making the winds to blow, and the tides to rise, and the sun to rise in the east and set in the west, and the dark to come in at night.” “Casper says the sun rises and sets because of plan-et-ary ro-tay-shun.” “Plan-et-ary ro-tay-shun, saatana,” Ahti grunts. “Your Casper says a lot of things, eh? Some of them might be true, even. Smart man, smart, smart man. But he wasn’t there when the boy dropped his knife in the river. So you gonna believe him, or Ahti?” “Were you there when the boy dropped his knife in the river?” Ahti fox-smiles, and doesn’t answer.

AND, for your trouble, the next bit of the mansand werewolves au, where Dream is, as always, having some kind of a motherfucking day:

“Is…everything all right?” “Yes.” “Do you need a minute, or—?” “That might be for the best, thank you. Just sorting out a few things.” She squeezes Dream’s right paw, and Dream knows to his bones that she’s just trying to hide the fur and claws there, but the weak little creature deep down inside of him lets out a happy whine at the comfort of her touch. “We won’t be long. And you’re welcome to ask Tiffany to help sort the request items if she can mind the front desk while she does it. We’re a little short-staffed at the moment. Gearing up for finals, you know.” “Right. Yeah, no, of course.” Gwen takes a nervous step back. “I’ll, um—I think I’ll get started on the requests on my own, actually. It’s not that much material. And if I pull Tiffany right now, we’re gonna have masters’ students climbing over the front desk to steal each other’s holds when they think we’re not looking.” “It’s surprising how aggressive they get, sometimes,” Lucienne agrees mildly. “Though I’ve had some dark nights of the soul myself when I couldn’t turn up what I needed on JSTOR, so perhaps it’s not my place to judge.” “Been there, babe.”

[notcatherinemorland]

quarantine day page 394: i have delved into boarding school stories and will presently be stalking jstor for articles about it as a genre/fad. i have also ordered the trebizon books i’m missing (apart from the 100 quid the last two apparently cost, those will alas have to be ebooks). am currently on book 4 of malory towers, and in looking for op eds, discovered the cbbc series that was aired last month and i am SOBBING THEY’RE SO SWEET.

like. the decision to outsource darrell’s emotional strength to apologise for her anger to a male character who has never existed .. angers me a lot for so many reasons and i’m articulating none of them today. but the rest of the series is absolutely wonderful and heartwarming and really captures the charm of the books. they have a wonderful cast with diversity in race, disability, size and they’re all absolutely perfect. the first half of the series has an arc about educational abuse!!! comparing it directly with strict teachers, literally showing what good teachers, strict teachers, and abusive teachers look it. i cried. this darrell is dyslexic (or rather word blind) and i !! cried !! with joy !!! 9 year old me would have gone wild about this. but it’s the way they do it that’s just wonderful - how attentive teachers and mentors a) recognise it, b) explain for the audience/ darrell that how darrell works is not the norm and is something to recognise c) “i don’t want to have problems, i want to be normal”/ “having problems IS normal. no one gets through life without them”. i nearly lost my entire chill. i don’t remember anything like that when i was 9. (i have the worst memory so i wouldn’t tho) but darrell rivers has been one of my favourite characters i’ve ever read.. and now she’s even more special to me, with my terrible temper and my drive for honesty and my dyslexia. 

anyway. the series is so sweet and they update is so nicely for kids with the diversity in cast and the messages about being whoever you want to be in the future, and keeping the tenets of honesty and hard work and generosity. it’s actually adorable in every way. PLUS GWEN. they do gwen justice.. the books are so cruel to her, but this shows gwen compassion.. she’s silly and affected and it’s overtly her mother’s influence and her own resistance to change her ways that make her so. she’s very much misguided and not the villain and it’s so heartening to see. also if you’re looking for plot accuracy, you won’t find it thoroughly, they borrow from Mavis in book 3 to have darrell run to the village to get her father and get found in a ditch by the road, not just find him from behind the curtain. Gwen becomes darrell’s friend at first, which was wild, and Darrell gets Daphne’s arc in book 2 of being asked to leave another school and having to confess it to the girls (except not stealing, of being a victim of a teacher’s abuse - teacher cut her hair off and lied about being pushed down the stairs when darrell no longer feared her control.), and they take the story of the midnight feast from either the felicity additions or from st clares. it’s super cute tho

there’s a whole discussion about class and advertising aesthetics and all of that shit but like. this has taken me 30 mins already and i want to read more of the book, so. maybe after i’ve finished watching it 

[whoredyceps]

intro post

hi! i'm gwen ✰ 25 ⋆ she/her ✰ writer ⋆ reblogger ⋆ general mess ✰ 18+ only! ✰ this is a ˗ˏˋ side blog ˎˊ˗ (if you see ripecherrywine, that's me!) ✰ this blog focuses on pedro pascal and his characters! ✰ this is a safe space. no hate or degrading comments will be tolerated ✰ messaging and asks are always welcome! ♡

𖤓 the masterlist 𖤓 my tag system 𖤓 my inbox welcome! thank you for taking the time to stop by this is really just a spot for me to not overload my main blog. aka this is just my poster-covered corner of the internet ♡

[whoredyceps]

tag system

ᯓ★ not necessary for navigation, but good for clarification! 𖤓 gwen-isms 𖤓 ༝ it's all for queue.ᐟ ˚ self-explanatory, i suppose ༝ alexa play agora hills .ᐟ ˚ kissin' and hope they caught us ༝ i love that man like nobody can .ᐟ ˚ alexa play how to disappear by ldr ༝ a million points for pedro .ᐟ ˚ he's silly, he's goofy ༝ gnawing on wood + gnashing my teeth .ᐟ ˚ again, self-explanatory ༝ in a cage .ᐟ ˚ - why is [she] in a cage? - [she] growled at me ༝ gwen speaks .ᐟ ˚ sometimes i have things to say ༝ my rolodex of boytoys .ᐟ ˚ multiple characters ༝ gwen's jstor .ᐟ ˚ any blog reference information ༝ gwen's library .ᐟ ˚ fic recommendations ༝ gwentimental .ᐟ ˚ i'm feeling some kind of way, r/sentimental 𖤓 the rolodex 𖤓 ༝ my burning sun will someday rise .ᐟ ˚ oberyn materll, game of thrones ༝ save a horse, ride a cowboy .ᐟ ˚ agent whiskey + jack daniels, kingsman the golden circle ༝ cornfed cowboy .ᐟ ˚ joel miller, the last of us ༝ cigarette daydream .ᐟ ˚ javier peña, narcos ༝ more to be added ⋆˚࿔

[notcatherinemorland]

quarantine day something: am slowly going insane, 

have truly met my absolute max of bullshit with instagram, am constantly bounding between 4 different word documents (road trip au, ferdinand at hogwarts, edelgard boarding school au (currently calling: who would true valour see, because i am terrible), & laughter lines. read 21 chapters of the clexa BBschool!au today and it’s as wonderful as i remember it being.. i read it up to the rememberance service before bc it wasn’t finished and i was picky about it back then. i have an ungodly amount of severitus fic open. i have an ungodly amount of jstor tabs open. i read my way though the ff.net and ao3 pages of malory towers (or enid blyton for ff) and still didn’t find the fic i thought i read back in 2011 so i might have imagined it, but it’s a shame i couldn’t find it (a long single page on ff.net purely an epistolary back and forth between darrell and gwen after 6th form). have not spoken to anyone not in my household in like.. 3 days. did not know it was sunday (but i thought friday was tuesday so what do i know), saw mum yesterday & need to get her a birthday gift. there was a moth in my room today. i am slowly going insane. 

it’s absolutely wild that there’s so much reading i want to do and so much reading i HAVE been doing, and yet none of it makes a dent in the list of things i want to read, and the list of music lbums to listen to, and i have so many stories i want to write and it takes me so LONG to put words on a page. today i caved and downloaded the opendyslexic font (the free one, i take moral truck with paying for it because i am young and silly and think that things should be free). the ease at which i read my own writing made me reel and i had to go on a socially distanced walk. it took me 2 days to write nearly 500 words of the ridiculoud edelgard boarding school au and today i doubled the word count (sounds fancier than saying another 500 words). i look at a block of text (like the one above lmao) and i just get /overwhelmed/ if i know it’s something with Value that i Have To Pay Full Proper Scholastic Attention to. today has been one of the days where words feel liquid or like running water across my vision or like ice in mario kart and i slip right across to the end of the sentence. 

i can run down the plot of the fic i read today, but i sure as shit couldn’t tell you any of the words or any level of detail from what i read an hour ago. the only reason i can remember the last chapter is because it was so very visual (chap 20). part of the reason i find pratchett so engaging is because of the way he writes, it’s like he fully engages the reader with the text, it’s very... directed at a willing audience. the technique, not the style, reminds me a lot of A. Rowland’s Conspiracy of Truths (less so in a choir of lies, because it’s two characters going back and forth explicitly, so it feels a little more intrusive to be reading it.) but CoT puts you in the mystery spot of letter recipient who is revealed at the end. which was interesting and kinda fun to have been assumed to know things the entire time. it’s not remotely like TP but there’s an argument for stylistic comparison that both stories styles function on suspension of disbelief and readers active interest thereby participation in the story. in a way.. quite like theatre, on a more meta level. i know so many people who can’t deal with theatre in any capacity bc of 2nd hand embarassment. it kinda requires a level of willingness to even Listen to the story.. to accept the form it is told in.. to Accept the melodrama as a story form.. 

also, reading detective pony. the text is Bloody hard to read, but i gave up on text to speech after the 4th robotic sounding voice because none of them pronounced memes right. athough it did occur to me i was adding another level to the form of ao3 fic of a mentioned book in homestuck that had been doctored and messed with. which was fun.