#i have Thoughts on the witcher vs got

[hanzajesthanza]

instances of dismal futuristic foresight... or perhaps commentary by the author, hem, hem...

[endiness]

Debunking misinformation about Netflix's The Witcher (Part 6)

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7]

"Henry Cavill is the only one out of the cast and crew that knows anything about the source material and cares about it."

Joey Batey has read the books more times than Henry Cavill has. (3 times as of 2023 vs once in 2018.)

Henry Cavill himself has basically admitted that he wouldn't want to go up against Joey when it comes to knowledge of the books and both Freya Allan and Kim Bodnia have praised Joey for how knowledgeable he is and that he could "give Henry a run for his money."

Henry Cavill also hadn't even read the books and had likely only ever really played TW3 (and not even the DLC for it) when he first met with Lauren and, given that he thought that the books were based off the games, it's likely that he never bothered to google or wiki or research the franchise in any way (despite proclaiming himself to be a lore buff) as surely he would've found out that the games were actually based off the books if he had (or, y'know, if he had just been paying attention to the game credits as the books are the first thing in the credits.) Yet despite all of that, he's said this:

"I didn't even have the need to prepare myself for the role. Because I breathe, I live this universe every day. I already got numerous opportunities to think about this character while I was playing the games. My preparation was already made before the casting started!"

Meanwhile Therica Wilson-Read had played the games, she set out to read the books as soon as she had the opportunity to audition, she goes back and reads bits of the books if not the full series before each season, and she even goes on the wiki and watches youtube videos to refresh herself on the universe.

Therica's book collection (with color coded notes!), btw:

Mecia Simson also jumped straight into the books and read them all as soon as she was cast and will go on the wiki to research things.

Cassie Clare on her preparation as Philippa.

Btw, Joey had less than 24 hours to prepare for his audition and in that time he memorized 2-3 scenes, wrote an entire song, and showed up in costume to audition.

Therica is also so knowledgeable about the books and the franchise that MyAnna Buring will go to her for advice on her character and understanding what's happening when she needs things explained to her.

Mahesh Jadu also went to Joey for advice on his character when he was first cast because Joey's known to be so knowledgeable about the books.

Joey's also the one who's gotten book scenes and characters written into the show, btw.

Freya talking about getting things from the books into the show, too:

Anya talking about book moments she's a fan of:

Also Anya making a book reference to BoF:

Joey making a book reference to what a diary by Jaskier would look like:

Lauren's talked about her hiring process for the writers which obviously includes having read the books.

Tomek Baginski, who worked on all three games btw, has talked about growing up with the books as a teenager in Poland.

There's loads more examples than this, but this argument is quite obviously complete and utter bullshit anyway and I don't really want to look up every little example proving that, so. I'll just let the post end on this note:

[grandwitchbird]

Like most book readers, I have thoughts on the Witcher games’ adaptive choices.

I probably hate Triss and consequently her role in those games more than average. I’ve got nothing good to say about that choice. It’s the closest I come to agreeing with book purists that the devs fundamentally misunderstood something about these stories.

Amnesia plots are also ridiculous. But I think what we see in 2-3 is active acknowledgment and a sincere attempt to clean up the mess. So not a lot to say there. It creates problems the writers find ways to largely solve so we can get back to Ciri.

I don’t hate the Nilfgaardian choices. We see plenty of what makes Nilfgaard terrible beyond just Emhyr, and that’s important. Emhyr himself is also transparently a bastard and up to no good. He might be the least worst compared to Radovid, but that’s a low bar and still a debatable one. In 2 alone he and his entire network of ghouls were actively destabilizing the North (that was the entire plot), for all intents and purposes holding Yen captive, and exploiting the Witchers. We know about his betrayal of the Scoia’tael in the same way. It’s actively discussed in the game.

A lot of the criticisms of Nilfgaard’s portrayal come down to wanting the games to smack you over the head with a sign that says ‘empire bad’. Well. The empire is bad. We see that it’s bad. They’re not the worst when it comes to their satellite states but that’s only because this is a world full of kingdoms and those are inherently unstable. We open Witcher 3 to a countryside lined with bodies on pikes and hanged from trees. Because of the empire. The bloody fucking baron is their idea of local leadership.

The fact that Nilfgaard has knock on stabilizing effects and doesn’t allow active pogroms is smart. It’s also not ungrounded at all. Rome did build roads that people use to this day. Persia did foster education and stabilize entire regions. Empires can have some knock on ‘positive’ effects. That’s not the same as ‘empire good’. And Nilfgaard is a well-written empire. In the books and in the games. They’re not a mysterious threat come to steal your women and justify the patriotic nonsense of people like Roche. They’re a culturally advanced political entity with concrete values and goals. They’re bad news with the occasional silver lining. And it’s up to you to decide for yourself if the buckets of blood they shed are more tolerable than the buckets of blood Radovid sheds. It’s one of the smartest uses of player indulgence I’ve seen in a game. They let you choose, truly. And it sucks. Because you’re not the hero and you can’t save this world. It’s also balanced and reinforced as a commentary on player agency vs the cynicism of the setting by the fact that you can help Cerys stabilize Skellige. That’s her story. But you can play a supporting role to a net positive outcome.

Ok Emhyr himself. And the empress ending. This Emhyr is one who’s already come face to face with himself. I think that’s clear. He’s still a terror, but Geralt and Yennefer have watched him stand down from his pursuit of Ciri. I think Yennefer’s dubious alliance with him is tenuous and largely works because of the shifting political landscape of the continent. It’s an attempt to bridge between the end of Lady of the Lake and this game in a concrete way (one that nonreaders won’t even notice). I do not like the empress ending. I do like its inclusion in a perverse way. Do I think there’s any universe where Geralt would tell Ciri to hear out the man who made her life a literal hell and only wants to pawn his problems off on her? Of course not. And it’s great because Geralt can say that! If you’ve been paying attention to motivations, Geralt will tell Ciri that Emhyr obviously has plans for her. The only way you get the empress ending is by ignoring every single theme of the game and also all the red flags waving in your face about Emhyr. Over and over this game tells you to listen closely to motivations and to be wary of the powerful. It does smack you over the head with that, particularly if you’re a reader. The bittersweet fairytale framing of that ending should be a red flag in itself. Ciri isn’t going to change these systems from the inside. Emhyr himself is the way he is from existing within these systems. And no I don’t care about the dev’s opinions on it (authors are all dead). In the context of the game, that is a bad ending. And it should be.

I am sympathetic to people who haven’t read the books having to deal with the issues of the political plot. The problem for those players isn’t something as silly as ‘not like book’. Again, you open this game with bodies on pikes. Empire BAD. But Radovid is the literal worst. And we want him dead. And the other alternative is a crime lord who lost his grip on reality for a sec and decided to try to kill us and our bro if we don’t let him just kill said bro in front of us. And that’s all a game-only person knows. This isn’t bad writing* either so much as it’s the casualty of pretty normal dev issues. Like we can see that in game. And this is where I’m sympathetic. The cut threads in the political plot are highly visible. Even people who have no idea who Djikstra is or why the Scoia’tael matter or why Roche is our pal even if he is kind of a cop have spotted those cut threads. It’s very much like the truncated arc for the aldecaldos in cyberpunk 2077. You can see the edges where things had to be trimmed early on just to get the game finished. That’s an issue separate to bad writing. More of a planning and management problem and near inevitable** with games this ambitious. It’s why you don’t see any of those problems in the DLCs with their more contained stories.

And a final note. I’ve been talking about rp for a Geralt who is in character from the novels as a rule. You can make the other choices and a story emerges where he’s either hardened or changed from the books into someone who doesn’t listen. Someone who doesn’t respect all these very competent women or show awareness of motivation. And the outcomes for that are. Not great. Famously they lead to the ending most of the gamer bros got and then cried about for years. They still provide a satisfying narrative that fits that rp. And that’s a feat. It’s good RP value.

*Djikstra, I’d argue isn’t so much written out of character here as he is a bit of a casualty. This plot is banking on you just being more attached to one character or another. Geralt IS out of character because he wouldn’t have gotten involved in the plot at all. There’s a metatextual thing happening where the game gives players what they want (real world-changing choices and a chance to play the regicidal rebellious hero) and then makes a point about it. YMMV. I think it’s funny.

Also, I think the shape of this plot, had cdpr continued to workshop the Scoia’tael side, would have had Djikstra in more of a corner with both Roche/Iorveth as loose ends he had to deal with. But that didn’t happen alas. Project management casualties suck.

**The exceptions are notably Sony projects like god of war and whatever kojima gets up to now. Most devs do not have that kind of stability working for them.

[meyerlansky]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @redbelles AND @inkpot-demigod 🖤💙🖤💙 took me eighteen years but i figured i ought to get it done before the emoji asks >_>

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

39!

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

133,253

3. what fandoms do you write for?

right now it's just masters of the air, because i really only focus on one fandom at a time but i also don't really LEAVE fandoms so much as they go dormant for a bit. in the last year i've at least TOUCHED wips for boardwalk empire and the witcher, and once bachelor route drops i will probably go back to some of my pathologic 2 fics and maybe come up with new stuff. same with HotD s2, although i don't know how much new stuff will come out of that vs finishing up things in metamorphoses.

4. top five fics by kudos

keep safe broad shoulders, warm hands keds and tube socks vestis virum facit denuo

so mostly burakhovsky smut, except for keep safe which is outsider pov nearly-gen lambden (from the witcher and specifically witcher 3) fic, and i have NO idea how it's my most-kudosed fic; and keds and tube socks, which is a long-ass (for me) steddie fic that i WILL finish at some point i am so sorry to everyone who's subbed to that fic /o\

5. do you respond to comments?

I TRY MY BEST ;___; i really like talking to people about fic, mine and others', so every comment i've left unresponded-to haunts me, but sometimes i can't get over my own anxiety enough. the only time it's deliberate is if the only content in the comment is "you have to write more of this" or anything similar and phrased EXCLUSIVELY like a demand, because It's Rude and also i have no idea how to respond to that.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

explicitly angsty is probably with my ash-stained palms or broad shoulders, warm hands because neither ryuzo or daniil get what they want in those ones, though i think bswh!daniil would get what he wants eventually. ryuzo, maybe not >_> dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek) is also probably up there, but that's more interesting because it's not angsty on the page! and i WAS planning on leaving it as is, originally! that's why it has the canon compliant tag! but now i'm 8k deep in a canon-divergent sequel so idk if it counts anymore. genuinely i was planning on answering this with "i don't write a lot of unresolved angst" but. hm.

...wait, also hot blood, deep roots. which is the dark mirror nightmare counterpart of bswh and is... definitely worse. and i have something even worse in my wips okay i guess i write more angst than i thought

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably vestis virum facit, since the final section is implied to be far-enough post-plague that they're Gonna Be Okay. but like the angst question, i don't really think of too many of my fics as the And They Lived Happily Ever After, The End type so much as like... they're happy In That Moment and that's what matters

8. do you get hate on fics?

i got put on the patho fandom blacklist for associating with Freaks And Criminals, and then i wrote hot blood, deep roots to cement my spot on it, so if that counts that's the extent of it afaik. i do worry about catching flak for stuff down the line, but honestly haters tend to be cowards, sooo

9. do you write smut?

LOVE WRITING SMUT. LOVE IT WHEN MY GUYS NAIL EACH OTHER. IT'S MY FAVORITE. i had like a year-long stint before stranger things s4 where i only posted genfic and i was SO disappointed with myself, even though the stuff i posted was GOOD genfic

10. craziest crossover:

don't really do crossovers! but entertaining daemon au thoughts is how i know i'm in a fandom deep enough that it's gonna stick for a bit, even though i've only posted daemon au fic for bwe thus far

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

also not to my knowledge!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i'm not opposed to spitballing with people, and some of my best bwe work has come out of very long headcanon exchanges with @goatsandgangsters and @therestisdetail in particular, but i am not a consistent enough writer to saddle anyone else with my habits, so that's the closest i've gotten to cowriting anything.

14. all time favorite ship?

L A N S K I A N O. they are my forever boys. nothing will topple them. ever.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

NONE OF MY WIPS ARE ABANDONED THEY ARE ALL GOING TO GET DONE EVENTUALLY DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT

16. what are your writing strengths?

snappy dialogue and the internal character work involved in a tight third person pov, which is good since a tight third is the only way i like to write

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

speed. if i don't finish something inside of a week of starting it, it will drag out for an infinity and a half and i'll have to chip away at it and hate myself for being slow the whoooooooooole time. i also... i have no idea how to explain this, but i don't consider myself an especially creative person, so i have trouble if i don't have a jumping off point to start with? most of my fics have pretty solid touchpoints in the canon and tend to be one-shots, if not single-scene. coming up with new shit for my dudes to do can be a struggle. which, tbh, adds to the speed thing, especially for stuff that tilts off into canon-divergent territory

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

alright, listen, i might have an entire buryat dictionary database downloaded onto my hard drive to spice up patho fic, but i'm in agreement with previous answers on this one: it can get dicey to write in a language you don't know, and if your readers don't know it it will interrupt the flow in a way that's not usually what i'm looking to do in a fic. that said, most of my fandoms have at LEAST one non-english language involved, if not multiple, so i do end up doing a lot of research into those languages, and i'm absolutely not opposed to pulling out single-words or phrases after either a. checking with someone who speaks those languages, if it's a real one, or b. pulling them from their usage in the canon itself and/or sometimes extrapolating out a bit, like the high valyrian i peppered into chrysalis

19. first fandom you wrote in?

boardwalk empire my beloved 🖤🖤🖤 i played around with some stuff prior to that—i think i'd noodled with what would technically be alice in wonderland fic in high school, although i don't remember what happened in it—but nothing substantial enough to count as Actual Fic, and definitely not anything i have access to anymore

20. favorite fic you've written?

MAN. HOW TO CHOOSE. it's maybe a little bit of recency bias to say dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek), but i think it's a tie between that and junkyard dogs, and both for the same reason, which is that i am really proud of the character work they do with curt and eddie, respectively. i'm not SURPRISED jd is as low on the hits/kudos/etc scale as it is since it's genfic and billy is...... divisive........... but i really think i nailed eddie in it. with dctc(tc) it was fun to get to play with curt, who's... look, i'm just gonna say it, i think he gets mischaracterized in a lot of the other fandom stuff i've seen involving him, so it was fun to get how i read him down on the page. it's also interesting to not only develop curt internally but to look at the buckies from an outsider POV, because they are UNDENIABLY the love story at the center of MotA's narrative, but they're both IN IT so they can't SEE IT. i also don't usually do scene breaks? like most of my fics are single-scene but i dragged dctc(tc) out and shockingly it WORKED? so yeah idk i'm just really proud of it.

OKAY. WHOOF. TIME FOR TAGS. let's seeeeeeeeee i will tag @goatsandgangsters @hosseinis @chirpybirdy @sweaterkittensahoy @reiverreturns

@samuelroukin @stoportotouch @notgrungybitchin @adriennefrombrooklyn and anyone else who wants to, but no pressure as always!

[just-some-random-blogger]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you for the tag @ladyinwriting18 ! I've only had the time to finish this today T_T

Imma tag @roguelov @aralezinspace @barbiedragon @valeskafics but ya know ya dont hafta do it hihi

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 98 slay. pushing 100 slay.

2. What's your total A03 word count? 533,331

3. What fandoms do you write for? whatever i feel like. kpop, hotd/got on here. ive got a lot of marvel on ao3, the witcher, batman, etc.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

50 Scents (geralt x reader)

Honeysuckle (batfam x vampire!reader)

If You Like It, Put A Ring On It (bruce wayne x reader)

Dark Nights And The Gotham P.D. (batman x police!reader)

I'm Pretty Sure Bruce Wayne Would Do That (batfam fic)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? i do! because of them mean a lot to me <33333 but sometimes 🧍‍♀️ i realize i only did it in my head so T_T surry

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? i love angst but i never know if what im writing is angsty enough. Only One was pretty rough. i dont have much angst fics on ao3

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? ???? IDK I DONT DO HAPPY ENDINGS??? JUST NORMAL ONES??? IDK IDK

8. Do you get hate on fics? i had this one person literally comment on my fic if anyone else could rewrite it where reader doesnt cry 🙃🙃 because they perceived it to be weak.... GIRL-

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? yuh. whatever i feel like at that moment

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I loveeee crossovers. especially if they make sense. uhhh idk about craziest but i really like my blonde boys club one and i like my billionaire vs billionaire one

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? No. im manifesting it stays that way.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? uh i had someone want to one time but then i feel like they never did so

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? yes <3 only once cos HAHHAHA time issues

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? me and my beloved lunatics 🫶

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? HAHAAHAHHA SO MANY i have a din djarin one that will probably never see the light of day

16. What are your writing strengths? hmmmmmmmmm dialogue and ... world building??? i can go ham with world building... i wish i didnt tbh HUHUHUH

17. What are your writing weaknesses? TYPOS. fuck that shit. i cant escape and i hate it

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I think if it fits, do it!

19. First fandom you wrote for? one direction 😋

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? idk cos ive written so much and i forget them HAHAHHAHA but i think about thor bought loki a cup of hot, spicy noodles a lot

[jazzmckay]

tagged by @broodsys for this writer questionnaire uvu ty, i got really into this one. the deep jazz lore incoming <3

tagging @lyriumlullaby-ao3, @inscrutable-shadow, and @skadizzleross

copy and paste-able question list at the bottom of the post!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

says 88, but one is anonymous lol 89 babey

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

824,682

3. What fandoms do you write for?

dragon age currently, prior to that, detroit: become human. some witcher and RWBY mixed in. teen wolf, dishonored, red vs blue, homestuck back in the day, a couple other things.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Truth in Melody (witcher, geraskier)

The World Upside Down (dbh gen)

left an impression on my heart (teen wolf, scott/stiles. its over a decade old i am not linking this lol)

Variable Outcome (dbh, connor & gavin gen)

Winter Chill and Summer Bloom (dbh, connor/gavin)

5. Do you respond to comments?

absolutely! if i don't, it's only because the person is being a jerk or just uncomfortable. give me a heart emoji, you're getting a heart emoji right back. boop

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i generally write happy endings, no matter how hellish the road to that happy endings is. i do, however, have a Bad End dbh oneshot. Fair Compensation. it's straight up non-con, and from aggressor pov, so viewer discretion is advised

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

gosh idk how i could pick. as i said in the previous answer, i try to leave off on a high note. Truth in Melody or perhaps Promises to Keep. wouldn't say they're happier than others, but they're among my longest fics, which means the characters had to go through some bullshit to get those happy endings lmfao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

a couple times. more often, i get weird / uncomfortable comments that i just ignore

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do! well, i'd say "kinky" tends to be a general theme ahahaha and feelsy! smut in my chaptered fics are more basic, the oneshots can be wild though. and then there's from the depths, an ancient song, where i wrote a foursome involving a LOT of tentacles. like a lot. so take that how you will.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

ive dabbled in ideas, but rarely get around to actually writing them. i do like the concept of smashing my favourite universes together, though. my dbh vampire series is basically just the lore of vampire: the masquerade, but i wouldn't consider it a full crossover

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i have! and a couple additional requests, one that i denied, and another that i agreed to but no result yet! still hoping <3

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, for events. shout out to any of my buddies from the homestuck shipping olympics who see this :p can you BELIEVE how long it has been

roleplaying is also kinda like co-writing fics sometimes honestly. i've got some threads that have been ongoing for years and took a lot of plotting and planning together uvu

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

how dare u ask me this. this is nearly impossible aughh but i'm going to say corvo/daud from dishonored

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

basically anything from my favourite games and such that are nonetheless overshadowed by current hyperfixation. i'm forever sad that most of my many, many dishonored fic ideas were from a time when i chronically could not finish anything

16. What are your writing strengths?

i don't know, i'm bad at acknowledging good things about myself lol characterization, i suppose, that tends to be what i get the most lovely comments about <3

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

fluff, unless it's the resolution to angst lmfao i need to build up to it. drop me straight into a nothing scenario of fluff and i don't know what to DO. technical-wise, idk, descriptions i think

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

it certainly has its place and can be done well! but it's easy to mess it up, too. you need to make sure it's accurate and fitting for the scene, you need to avoid racist stereotyping, you need the story to still make sense and flow well. if the message isn't clear because most readers don't know the language, or have to keep looking it up / reading author notes, that's immersion-breaking imo. with fictional languages where much of the fanbase is familiar with the common words, though, no big deal i'd say

19. First fandom you wrote for?

honestly i think it was the cartoon, angry beavers lol i didn't know what's what i was doing, at the time. as far as serious, intentional stories, maybe firefly? or xmen?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

i cannot pick just one lol 4 is as low as ill go

previously linked Winter Chill and Summer Bloom: this is very hurt/comfort, my favourite thing, with a bunch of my other favourite things tossed in. touch-starvation, non-verbal character, characters getting away from the location of their suffering to heal in a better place, both physically and mentally, sweet slice of life stuff etc.

take these broken wings and learn to fly: more h/c! this one starts off heavy as hell and involves a lot of Process of Healing (to no ones surprise, at this point). healing has gotta be one of my favourite genders. also it's femslash.

Sight & Shadows: it's both plot- and character-driven, i'm happy with how i balanced both simultaneously. it's my vampire au, and other than the v:tm lore borrowing, it feels almost original to me. it's a rarepair, in an au--as niche as it gets, shaped a lot by the universe and story i put together for the whole series. it was a joy to create, because i truly did write this for ME. i wouldn't say any of my fics were written for others, per se, but i guess this one just felt different from the start. i wasn't anticipating an audience, i was just telling the story these characters needed, the way i like to do it. i had great friends supporting me through it, so i wasn't alone in the process or anything, it just felt the most like writing an original story than any of my other fics have

into the light of the dark black night: first of all, yes, 2/4 fics listed here are titled with lyrics from blackbird by the beatles. blackbird lyrics means intense feelings, that's just how it is. i've done it twice, and ill DO IT AGAIN. anyway, this one takes place in one of dbh's grimmest possible endings--the nuclear blast ending. i did a lot of research for this one, and also put a lot of thought into handling it with as much care as i think a concept like this requires. it's weighty, but hopeful. it has apocalypse elements, which i love. i got to do cyberpunky stuff as well. i added some of the elements i think dbh would have included if d@vid cage weren't a coward. i projected multiplicity onto some of the characters. i got to write north as the steadfast and successful leader of the revolution, as she deserves. blackbird fly <3

if you made it through all of that... thank you :>

and the template:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

3. What fandoms do you write for?

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. Do you respond to comments?

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

16. What are your writing strengths?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

19. First fandom you wrote for?

20. Favorite fic you've written?

[ellenchain]

I love Vampyr. My first run was a 'not even once' one with zero casualties. Then another where I turned the pillars only....and Geoffrey. Then one when I turned people I disliked....the murderer, serial killer, priest....and I'm currently in one where I try to have .....the most effect. Like you bite one character and then another obe does sth because of your actions, I love gameplay like that.

I agree that the gameplay could use some polish. Most of the fighting is sort of superfluous, you kill so many Priwen for basically nothing. Better to focus on the discovery and dialogue gameplay.

Geoffrey hits the perfect storm of classical antagonist, hunter vs monster, well meaning, modern knight, maybe even king arthur expy.....and relentless bastard. The interesting thing is that he's friendlier towards you if you turned him than if you spared him.

Elisabeth just wasn't explored enough, I almost feel like there's a part missing. In one mission she sends you dispatch her blackmailer, gives you no helpful information, scolds you if you get things wrong because of your lack of information and finally it turns out that her blackmailer was actually right and justified because she does kill helpless patients. And in the next mission Jonathan is in love with her.

Sorry for rambling, I have way too many thoughts about Vampyr.

Oh you've played it a lot more than me! Very nice! And since I'm fresh into the game, I love hearing your thoughts on it ��

I also think it's nice to see the effect that actions can have on the gameplay. For sure I'll give myself another run snacking on a few more people too. Just to see what happens! Some NPC were real dicks, it will give me great pleasure to make Jonathan bite them

I think it's a shame though that he immediately gets those bloodshot eyes - like, no other vampire has them, why does Jonathan immediately become a "bloodthirsty beast" haha (they suit him, don't get me wrong, it's just a bit strange)

I also noticed that Geoffrey isn't too sad as a vampire! Had almost thought he'd throw himself into the sun as his quasi-first official act as a vampire, but no - I think he actually likes it in the end. It would be cool if we got a second part (or a DLC) where Geoffrey as vampire helps us. Or he remains a human and helps us anyway, but we get to snack on him from time to time hihi

You're right, Elisabeth just wasn't portrayed well. Her character should have been given more depth. She came across as rather unsympathetic at the beginning, and suddenly Jonathan is head over heels for her. That didn't make sense in my head either. That's why the love story seemed a bit far-fetched to me.

In general, I also thought it was a shame that we didn't get to the East End and meet Jonathan's home until the very end. That part also came a bit too short for me. I'd have loved to learn more about his past. At the beginning I even thought he was "lying" about being a doctor because he introduced himself so hesitantly. The game opened so many barrels, but in the end didn't really close any of them and didn't really continue any of them... That was a bit sad. It could have been a great "Witcher" game (in terms of scale, you know what I mean)

But maybe I just need to play it a few more times, read some more fanfiction, search fan wikis and so on 🤭

[harukirai]

I love the game, i really do, but for me its around 8-9/10.

Warning- This is full of spoilers for FF16! So beware

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Im gonna asterisk all my points cause i want it to be more organized. This is things i wish square would patch into the game, (15's way)

*first thing first, my roomate had a pretty solid point about the terrence dion goodbye scene. We care for dion, they showed us plenty of him, but terrence, not so much. (or their relationship beside that one kiss scene), but not about their pure bond- which i agree, for dion involvment in the ending, he should have more screentime, also with the involvement of the empire in the plot- it shouldve got the witcher 3 approach with the siri segments, show don't tell- i think there should have been a playable section in the bahamut vs odin, to get to know dion and his dynamics better. - that scene wouldve hit so much harder.and like my kiss argument my straight roomate agreed, that if terrence at least went back for a last kiss teary that'll pull the tear gear.

*joshua-oh god they let us play as him when he was a baby, why not just letting us playing as him when the player discover that he is alive, with jote and the undying, even for small section not wanting to reveal the cards too early. I think that should be a part of the game, the base game.

*jill- if it must be a dlc so be it, but at least add some cutscenes to when she talks about the iron kingdom, we as players would be so much more hyped to join her vengeance quest, she have the potential, you showed us the horrors bennedikta went throgh which is why at least i became to love her in the end, why not a main character like Jill, she have so much potential, if not making a palyable iron kingdom section (like before she reunited with clive maybe when she grew a bit)at least add the cutscenes square.

*for god sake make it possible to switch party members like you did in 15, L1+L2 is no combo anyway so patch that thing, it'll be so much more refreshing especially in the first half of the game when the quests are dry and the gameplay loop is repetitive.

*make the ambrosia quest mandatory, so many pple dont even know they can unlock the chocobo, or at least let the player know that the + green quest are important if they want to upgrade their gameplay. This isn't an mmo most single player players will look at that and thing that the + is an extra non important (had an irl talk with a friend who thought that)

*dlc- make it season pass only,one time pay and thats it. the game is 69.99 it shouldn't even need a dlc, but at least do a full on season pass in like 19.99 with like at least a cid dlc(dont yall wanna see his time with the empire, taking small mid otto gav and making the hideaway happen, also, i wanna know who from the boys have a spicy history with cid cause quinten suggested it and some other npcs as well), dion dlc(not only to get a look at the first official not hinted gay character's love life, no not for that-but i think we need a real look into the empire pre and post Annable. what we saw of his dad was tereible, i wanna know why dion is so atrached and looking highly of him, also like ive said in previous post i have to know dion pov on branded), jill dlc(cause bae need a redemption i fucking hate how square treat a strong female character once she's a love interest of the protag)

And a gav dlc, like something happens in the end that if you dont choose gav in the quest you wont know, but gav tells a bit about his past and i think especially since he is our main scout, dlc of him and byron maybe could be cool, after the kanvar event.

*enemies variety- im pissed theres no Cactaur hunt or tonberry. Like really really pissed. You kept the freaking flann but not the cactaur?!please for the love of fucking god patch them as a hunt or something.

*animation fixes- so many quests that had a higebuildup ended looking cheap. Fix that-asap, especially the quinten quest, it could have hit so much harder if the lipsync wasn't so cursed looking while the model was kinda static they had quest with proper cutscense like theo's, why not Quinten since its a freaking end of a huge chain quest. Also, in general fix the freaking lipsync that shit is cursed af.

In conclusion i know pple like shitting on 15 but i thino 16 will only bemefit from the 15 treatment, especially for the proce we as consumers payed.

This game doesnt feel finished, it feels rushed, i think 2 more years in the baking wouldve benefit it, but well its out, so why not patching it. I think it'll boost the sales cause now the game feel bare, and many things feel like placeholders. So i hope the team didnt pop the champagne yet.

I dont blame Yoshi p or the team, i think they did an amazing job, but i do blame square's higher ups tendency to announce and release a teiple A game too early, they need to understand that atech advances, it need and will take more time to develope a game. And if you want to take the money that you are asking for at least make sure that the dough isn't raw.

That's it Haruki's out.

[the-firebird69]

Goldberg vs. Undertaker

Said these matches are wild back then and they are and they're kind of not really pushing to get into the WWF and it's kind of weird looking and they're flying around and doing stuff and Skype choreographed almost the whole thing and turns out there on the same side I'm kind of fighting over stuff a little Goldberg doesn't get along with the great The undertaker at all and did the same race they work together though but they don't work too closely but they won't engage because they have law and shows that they're kind of tough and their street fighting a lot what they get and at least they were and they kind of bailed but they've been doing that so he wanted to point out a few things fairly intense what is Goldberg's head butts now if you do it right and you get the right Mark and you hit it with the right speed the solar plexus he's going to be out for the entire match and it's kind of hard to do with a punch so he goes find that on twice and it doubles over and it is odd to see it it's a real hit hey get something he looks fine anymore this is didn't work he gets mad what are you trying to do and I'm just trying to knock him out and knock him out of the the competition and out of the ring and that's how it goes to the rain so he goes that's good and he starts hammering on him and my son and daughter are laughing because he's got this hidden hidden muscular strength or something this is like a zombie it's kind of big but he's kind of more juice and he picks the guy up and he can actually send to the Buckley and it's just like here you go take a break it looks really weird they're kind of sense of light on something that it's it's really fake wrestling but it's really wrestling and it's very dangerous and you can't pick a man up like that unless you have some serious strength so you think they're pretty in front of him to see the reaction and what he says is it I've been up around the higher ups my whole life and I get in trouble and the max Jews people up they juice people up but it's one thing to go and neither of the professional motif and it's kind of serious but he's not serious about being the crap out of someone and those are dangerous punches versus these Witcher to the side it's not the MMA but yeah it looks pretty pretty dangerous and we admit that and the guy is kind of flying through the air on Walmart one arm a little bit they just kind of lets him go and bang right into the coupling. And he's bleeding out and it was his answer to the soul plaxes move by Goldberg. And that's another kind of respected each other and The undertaker was more careful because if he hit some hard enough he's going to be out and incapacitated in the soul plexus and it messes you up for the whole bout it's really disabled and he has had it on Sunday I hit there and said he wasn't out for the boat but for about 5 seconds he was completely vulnerable cuz you have to try and breathe and they kind of makes your diaphragm collapses a little and you get like a stomach cramp and you have to you have t. , o !try and stay in one position and make it come , out and people know that that's kind of what it's like so he felt it it was our son and he's not not to let him happen he didn't tell people it happen. e. d didn't tell them and he stepped back and he waited a minute and people thought he was a tough guy hughley he went to his dorm room that night and he said ouch but I didn't really hurt that much and he told someone like 20 years later and look at the film and he's not doubled over he's not saying he's in pain he's just slowly breathing in and they ended the match.

And he brings us up because it was right up there and people are looking at it and they're talking about the sha

[hobbitsetal]

(Not OP anon), but can you expand your issue with grmm/GoT’s writing & worldview ?

I would love to! Let me add the caveat that 98% of what I know about GRRM's stuff comes from cultural osmosis. I read an excerpt of the first book and that's been my sole direct exposure to GoT.

But from what I understand about his work through cultural osmosis, he's the poster child for grimdark fantasy: fantasy that puts an emphasis on "gritty realism" and writes without ultimate hope or a sense of ultimate morality. His work is about a dog-eat-dog world, where death happens at any moment, where good doesn't necessarily triumph, and where the strong survive.

On one level, realism is a good thing for art to reflect. On another, and this is the level upon which I take issue with GRRM, art doesn't need to revel in the filthier sides of life.

From what I understand of GoT, both books and series parades the seediness of life in great detail. It wallows in the mud. It holds up filth and sordidness and says, "This is what life is like!" The noble characters die. The scheming, devious, evil characters win out until someone more devious manages to kill them. It's brutal and ruthless and violent in every way.

By way of contrast, let's talk about The Witcher. I've watched and tremendously enjoyed Netflix's show (though it is certainly not for everyone!). On the surface, it contains everything I list when I say I don't want to watch or read GoT: it contains explicit sexual material, lots of swearing, and lots of bloody violence.

But here's the difference: The Witcher also rests on a foundation of good versus evil and on hope. The titular Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, over and over chooses to do the hard thing, to protect life at personal expense. And he isn't always rewarded for it--in one episode, he saves a monster and turns it back into the human it should have been, and promptly gets bitten for his troubles--but he is always presented as right and heroic for his choices.

This is not to say he is above fault. He hurts others sometimes. He makes bad choices. He's surly and antisocial and can be a jerk. But he's also selfless. He chooses to help others. He chooses to seek the truth of a situation instead of accepting it at face value, even when the truth means he gives up a lucrative bounty and gets himself into trouble.

That's the heart of it, for me: The Witcher is about a man trying to do the good and right thing. GoT is about selfish people scrabbling for power at any cost and good people dying because they won't play that game, and that's presented as How Life Is.

Art should be about Truth, yes. And the truth is that life can be sordid and messy and ugly, yes. But from what I understand, GRRM presents that sordidness as all that life is. Life is all about politics and backstabbing and bloody revenge. And to that I say, no.

Early signs of civilization are the bones of the ancient dead that reveal societies that cared for the sick and injured. They're the grave of a child buried with its head on a pillow, laid to rest as if it were sleeping. They're the ancient myths and fairytales of the couple that's kind to a stranger and receives a reward from the gods.

And those signs and myths and fairytales have no place in GRRM's world. His is an inherently suspicious world, in which kindness is either naive stupidity or a ploy for some deeper nefarious purpose. I have no use for that worldview.

Bad things happen in The Witcher. One brutal event in the season 2 finale left me sick, physically and heartsick. All of the characters, even the heroic ones, have made choices and done things that I find wrong. But the heart of the story, the overall tenor of the story, is that of hope. Good is worth striving for, simply because it is Right.

Life has a lot of brutal and ugly things in it. But it also contains beauty and hope and people who will help strangers out of kindness or give up something they want for something they think is right. Ideals coexist with pragmatism and kindness lives alongside cruelty.

As GK Chesterton so perfectly put it, "Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

GRRM doesn't tell us dragons can be killed. (Ignore plot events and focus on the metaphor.) And I believe dragons can be killed. That's my issue with him.

[gayregis]

the battle of sodden in the netflix series was so disappointing. i kinda wanted to see vilgefortz developed as more of a well-rounded character because in the books he’s just kind of evil from his first introductions, despite sapkowski attempting to claim that he’s handsome and well-liked, he immediately goes on an evil tangent to geralt’s face about his evil backstory and how he’s gonna be evil towards ciri.

i wanted to see him be the hero of sodden, liked by his colleagues... i wanted to see him use fire magic that wasn’t aimed directly at regis’s face.

i think the theme of those high in social rank / those with the most “soft power” in the ways of beauty or charisma actually being the most corrupt and “ugly on the inside” is an interesting theme in sapkowski’s work that crops up ocassionally (with characters like foltest, vilgefortz, all the other sorcerers except yennefer tbh) but had a lot of potential that went undeveloped at times...

[fangirleaconmigo]

Same anon from the Striga ask. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me!

I've just read the next short story in The Last Wish, the one with Nivellen. I watched the show back when it aired with no prior knowledge of what the witcher was so I'm technically working my way backwards (I played the games a month or so ago) and I'm wondering why they chose to change the timeline regarding this story. In the show, Ciri is there when he encounters Nivellen and fights the Bruxa. After reading the story, I'm not sure how I feel about that? I like the book version of that event better. Though I did enjoy the knife game they played in the show. I feel like Geralt was less...I'm not sure what to say, but since he wasn't protecting Ciri things played out differently on that front. I'm not sure if I'm misremembering the show, but didn't Geralt leave Nivellen behind afterwards? In the book Geralt helps him leave and doesn't just leave after killing the being that essentially freed the man.

What did you think of the changes and the adaption of this scene?

Have a good day / night!

- 👻

Hello Striga Anon! Sorry it's taken me so long. I wanted to reread before I gave my thoughts and this is how long it took me to get around to that. That's how seriously I take this :D (Just to anyone reading, never worry you're bothering me, even if I take forever to answer. Just keep sending the asks and I'll get to them)

But YAY I LOVE talking about the books. SO, for this short story A Grain of Truth vs the TWN episode A Grain of Truth in S2, first of all, let me say that I recapped and reviewed the entirety of the episode The Witcher Season2 Ep1 here.

So, a compare/contrast of that ep with the books short story: (obviously TW: for all themes in this episode including Nivellen's action that led to his curse.) The main four changes I'll discuss are

Geralt having Ciri with him

Geralt knowing Nivellen previously

Nivellen being a less ethical person

Geralt leaving Nivellen in distress

Having Ciri along. At this point, Geralt and Ciri need to be traveling together. They needed an episode where they get to know each other, I assume, before they show up at Kaer Morhen. You see, in Season One they literally LEFT OUT Geralt and Ciri's storyline and just have them run into each other's arms at the end.

They got a lot of (well deserved, imo) critique for that. This relationship is literally both the inciting event, and the point and heart of the entire series. The showrunner said she took that to heart so I expected for them to have to try to build their relationship from scratch and try to make up for lost time.

So they reached back into the first book and used A Grain of Truth as the setting for Geralt and Ciri spending time together traveling and getting to know each other. I think that was a good choice.

Geralt knows Nivellen. I can only assume they did this for one of two reasons. 1, he has Ciri with him, so I cannot imagine him just waltzing in and staying at the house of a sketchy stranger with her. Also, 2, Nivellen tells stories about Geralt, so that acts as a device for Ciri to get to know him and trust him better through the eyes of another person.

Nivellen is a less ethical person. In the book, Nivellen doesn't know that Vereena is killing townsfolk. In the show, he knows she’s killing and he looks the other way. So, that is a huge huge huge difference as far as Geralt's moral compass. I think they did that to resolve something I find a bit sticky. (Some people don't. Your mileage may vary)

The issue of Nivellen raping a priestess. In the book, he characterizes it as something he did under peer pressure. He was running with a bunch of thugs and they coerced him. Geralt seems to completely accept that as a mistake. As a coerced error and bad luck. I did not like that. It didn't seem to jibe with Geralt's character. He tells us in the same book that the first 'monster' he killed was a rapist. But there are those who disagree with me.

Geralt leaves him. In the books, Geralt befriends Nivellen and offers to help him. In the show, he walks away basically like...so kill yourself then.

I have seen some viewers say that they didn't like that. They said Geralt is supposed to be kind and helpful, and he did help in the book. Meanwhile, he was so cold and heartless in the show. I have also seen people say that they accept the rape as a youthful mistake and that the whole point of the story is that people can redeem themselves. That they can choose not to be monsters. That this is a positive message and a classic witcher theme.

I of course, respect those viewpoints. I can see that. But for me, it’s a no. I discussed this in my recap. But fair or not, I cannot stomach the thought of a rape as a mistake of peer pressure. I know that there are shades of gray in every area of human behavior but that bit bugged me SO BADLY. Geralt literally kills rapists on more than one occasion to defend people. So, to see him be like, oh, yeah, you made a mistake, let me help you, with zero internal struggle ESPECIALLY knowing that his mother figure is a priestess (different temple but still) that I just could not. It irritated the fuck out of me.

I was hoping the show would either take out the rape or make Geralt react more strongly to it. (see, I said I'm not always a book purist). And what they did was they made Nivellen a worse person (ignoring murders) so they could have Geralt walk away and have it make even more sense. Geralt is like...oh...rapist AND murderer (by refusing to stop his bruxa lady from killing), and Ciri agrees. So, he and Ciri are both like fuck you bye.

I don't mind seeing Geralt be cold hearted there. He can be cold hearted sometimes when he thinks someone is a murderer and a rapist. I was fine with it.

So, anyway, Your mileage may vary, but I was good with all of these changes in episode one. And I think it was a strong ep that worked well.

I can’t say that about the next episode.

[takenene]

okay. thoughts!

why the fuck is jaskier wearing a wedding band? no, it's not the wrong hand, fuck you

i would die for eile

balor doesn't have eyebrows???

sword mother? like godmother but actually useful and more stabby? amazing. brilliant. definitely stealing that.

the empress maybe has a little more flavour than dry fucking oats which is. better than the last one i guess but like. gotta love the fucking colonialism huh. ""civilizing" other worlds" i hope you die you stupid bitch

there are Actual gays and a lesbian? unbelievable

"if you fell into a bucket of tits, you'd come up holding a cock" ASDFGHJKL;LKJHGFDSA

the romance is actually good??? aro certified cringe-free, certainly

i mean. obviously it was always going to be him getting witcherized. but i am a little mad about it.

all of the seven are batshit insane and i love them

"i'd die for you eile" "you already did" ??????!!!!!!!!!!! EXCUSE ME MA'AM THAT IS NOT ALLOWED

ear jewelry game 10/10

the blood splattering on camera lens mid-fight is a tasteful touch, ngl

loving the dwarf elf bromance here. not exactly the new how about hand in hand with a friend but. good enough

if the mages don't have chaos yet, how is dimeritium any good if it's a different kind of magic??? like?? also thanosing your daughter for PowerTM is a dick move sir

"sound the alarm!" "which on-- *dies*" asdfghjklkjhgfdsa

okay so we knew this was a tragedy going in but did they REALLY have to pull the "i love you" *stabs you to death* move in this economy??? seriously??? well that is just rude

do you think witchers are supposed to be 'unfeeling' because the first witcher was called stoneheart and it got lost in translation? (i mean yes he's an oc, obviously, but it's a nice thought okay)

the eile vs empress-whatever-her-name showdown is hands down THE most badass ass-handing i've seen in recent memory. chef's kiss

all the songs slap

so for whatever reason i decided to torture myself by watching blood origin, and like. it looks so... cheap??? unpolished. like they shot most of the scenes in one take only and just didn't bother.

[thebibliosphere]

So I'm currently unemployed because I got fired for taking too much sick leave (it was legally sketchy blah blah blah but in the end I just can't work and take care of myself and investigate my mystery health problems at the same time). So I've been spending more time writing!

I really admire your writing and loved Hunger Pangs. I'm looking forward to the poly elements developing and I'm wondering if you have any advice for writing about poly. I've made one of my projects a snarky take on "write what you know" ... Apparently what I know is southern gothic meets Pacific northwest gothic, chronic illness pandemic surrealism, and falling back-asswards into threesomes.

I know this is a very open-ended question and I don't expect an answer, I'm just curious about it if you have the energy. As a writer, trying to write honestly / realistically about polyamory/enm, I'm curious if you have any thoughts on what's different about portraying monogamy or nonmonogamy in books, romance or erotica or otherwise.

I'm trying to read examples but it's hard to find examples that fit the niche I'm looking at. Excuse me if this question is nonsense, it's the cluster headaches.

I'm sorry to hear you've been dealing with all that and solidarity on the cluster headaches. But I'm glad you're finding an outlet through writing! And I hope you're happy with an open-ended ramble in response because oh boy, there's a lot I could talk about and I could probably do a better job of answering this sort of thing with more specific questions, but let's see where we end up.

There's definitely a big difference between writing polyamory/ENM (ethical non-monogamy) and what people often expect from monogamous love stories.

Just even from a purely sales and marketing standpoint, the moment you write anything polyamorous (or even just straight up LGBTQIA+ without the ENM) you're going to get considered closer to being erotica/obscene than hetero romances. It's an unfair bias, but it's one that exists in our society. But also the Amazon algorithm and their shitty, shitty human censors. Especially the ones that work the weekends. (Talking to you, Carlos 🖕.)

So not only do you start out hyper-aware that you're writing something that is highly stigmatized or fetishized (at least I'm hyper-aware) but that you are also writing for a niche market that is starving for positive content because the content that exists is either limited, not what they want, or is problematic in some fashion i.e. highly stigmatized or fetishy. And even then, the wants, desires, and expectations of the community you're writing for are complex and wildly varied and hard to fit into an easy formula.

When writing monogamous love stories, there is a set expectation that’s really hard to fuck up once you know it. X person meets Y. Attraction happens, followed by some sort of minor conflict/resolution. Other plot may happen. A greater catalyst involving personal growth for both parties (hopefully) happens. Follow the equation to its ultimate resolution and achieve Happily Ever After. 

But writing ENM is... a lot more difficult, if only because of the pure scope of possibilities. You could try to follow the same equation and shove three (or more) people into it, but it rarely works well. Usually because if you’re doing it right, you won’t have enough room in a single character arc to allow for enough growth, and if ENM requires anything in abundance, it’s room to grow.

And this post is huge so I’m going to put the rest under a cut :)

There's also a common refrain in certain online polyam/ENM circles that triads and throuples are overrepresented in media and they may be right to some extent. Personally, I believe the issue isn't that triads and throuples are overrepresented, but that there is such minuscule positive rep of ethical non-monogamy in general, that the few tiny instances we have of triads in media make it seem like it's "everywhere" when in actuality, it's still quite rare and the media we do have often veers into Unicorn Hunter fetish porn. Which is its own problematic thing. And just to be clear, I’m not including this part to dissuade you from writing "falling back-asswards into threesomes." If anything, I need more of it and would hook it directly into my brain if I could. I'm just throwing it out there into the void in the hope that someone will take the thought and run with it, lol.

I’d love to see more polyfidelitous rep in fiction, just as much as I’d like to see more relationship anarchy too. More diversity in fiction is always good.

Another thing that differs in writing ENM romance vs conventional monogamy is the feeling like you need to justify yourself. There's a lot of pressure to be as healthy and non-problematic as possible because you are being held to a higher standard of criticism. Both from people from without the ENM communities, and from the people within. Granted, some people don't give a shit and just want to read some fantastic porn (valid) but there are those who will cheerfully read Fifty Shades of Bullshit and call it "spicy" and "romantic," then turn around and call the most tooth-rottingly-sweet-fluff about a queer platonic polycule heresy. That's just the way the world works.

(Pro-tip for author life in general: never read your own reviews; that way madness lies. I glimpsed one the other day that tagged Hunger Pangs as “ethical cheating” and just about had an aneurism.)

And while that feeling of needing to justify yourself comes from a valid place of being excluded from the table of socially accepted norms, it can also be to the detriment of both the story and the subject matter at hand. I've seen some authors bend so far over backward to avoid being problematic in their portrayal of ENM, they end up being problematic for entirely different reasons. Usually because they give such a skewed, rose-tinted perspective of how things work, it ends up coming off as well... a bit culty and obnoxious tbh.

“Look how enlightened we are, freed from the trappings of monogamy and jealousy! We’re all so honest and perfect and happy!”

Yeah, uhu, sure Jan. Except here’s the thing, not all jealousy is bad. How you act on it can be, but jealousy itself is an important tool in the junk drawer that is the range of human emotion. It can clue us in to when we’re feeling sad or neglected, which in turn means we should figure out why we’re feeling those things. Sometimes it’s because brains are just like that and anxiety is a thing. Other times it’s because our needs are actually being neglected and we are in an unhealthy situation we need to remedy. You gotta put the work in to figure it out. Which is the same as any style of relationship, whether it’s mono, polyam or whatever flavor of ENM you subscribe to* And sometimes you just gotta be messy, because that’s how humans are. Being afraid to show that mess makes it a dishonest portrayal, and it also robs you of some great cannon fodder for character development.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to my current pet peeve in how certain writers take monogamous ideals and apply them to ENM, sometimes without even realizing it. The “Find the Right Person and Settle Down” trope.

Often, in this case, ENM or polyamory is treated as a phase. Something you mature out of with age or until you meet “The One(tm).” This is, of course, an attempt to follow the mono style formula expected in most romances. And while it might appeal to many readers, it’s uh, actually quite insulting. 

To give an example, I am currently seeing this a lot in the Witcher fandom. 

Fanon Netflix!Jaskier is everyone's favorite ethical slut until he meets Geralt then woops, wouldn’t you know, he just needed to find The One(tm). Suddenly, all his other sexual and romantic exploits or attractions mean nothing to him. Let's watch as he throws away a core aspect of his personality in favor of a man. 

Yeah... that sure showed those societal norms... 

If I were being generous, I’d say it’s a poor attempt at showing New Relationship Euphoria and how wrapped up people can become in new relationships. But honestly, it’s monogamous bias eking its way in to validate how special and unique the relationship is. Because sometimes people really can’t think of any other way to show how important and valid a relationship is without defining it in terms of exclusivity. Which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how ENM works for a lot of people and invalidates a lot of loving, serious and long-term relationships.

This is not to say that some polyam/poly-leaning people can't be happy in monogamous relationships! I am! (I consider myself ambiamorous. I'm happy with either monogamy or polyamory, it really just depends on the relationship(s) I’m in.) But I also don't regard my relationship with a mono partner as "settling down" or "growing up." It's just a choice I made to be with a person I love, and it's a valid one. Just like choosing to never close yourself off to multiple relationships is valid. And I wish more people realized that, or rather, I wish the people writing these things knew that :P

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled enough. I hope this collection of incoherent thoughts actually makes some sense and might be useful. 

----

*A good resource book that doesn't pull any punches in this regard is Polysecure by Jessica Fern. It's a wonderfully insightful read that explores the messier side of consensual non-monogamy, especially with how it can be affected by trauma or inter-relationship conflicts. But it also shows how to take better steps toward healthy, ethical non-monogamy (a far better job than More Than Two**) and conflict resolution, making it a valuable resource both for someone who is a part of this relationship style***, but also for writers on the outside looking in who might have a very simple or misguided idea of what conflict within polyam/ENM relationships might look like, vs traditional monogamous ones.

** The author of More Than Two has been accused of multiple accounts of abuse within the polyamorous community, with many of his coauthors having spoken out about the gaslighting and emotional and psychological damage they experienced while in a relationship with him. A lot of their stories are documented here: https://www.itrippedonthepolystair.com/ (warning: it is not light material and deals with issues of abuse, gaslighting, and a whole other plethora of Yikes.) While some people still find More Than Two helpful reading, there are now, thankfully, much, much better resources out there.

*** Some people consider polyam/ENM to be part of their identity or orientation, while others view it as a relationship style.It largely depends on the individual. 

[inexplicifics]

so I've never been involved in the witcher fandom. I've never played the games and don't really plan on watching the show. however, I'm always down to read fics from fandoms I'm not in because there are some damn good stories out there.

that said, I just blazed through and read all of the accidental warlord in about 1.5 days because I loved it so much. this might not sound like a compliment, but your longer stories that have smut remind me of an erotica series I once read and liked though obviously yours is better for various reasons. I was just reading your series and thought "oh this reminded me of that erotica series". I'm a big fan of porn with plot and plot with porn, and your stories are the perfect balance of porn and a legit plot (the erotica series had a plot that was 65% a lead-up to sex vs yours which obviously has the warlord stuff FIRST and jaskier always being horny).

also: as an ace person, I really appreciate the way you wrote mouse and honestly all of the relationships. I'm not sex repulsed myself but it's so annoying when sex repulsed aces are treated as children :/ it's hard to explain to people "as long as it's consensual and as safe as it can be, I honestly don't care" and I loved that those were the vibes I got from *all* of the characters (though for me it's also "I'd rather not be involved" but w/e). plus the way you wrote the relationships between the friendships and witcher+adoptive child is just *chef's kiss* because it's what I love to see in non-sexual relationships and you wrote it so well.

overall, as someone not in the witcher fandom, your accidental warlord series is an 18/10 A+ I loved it all so much

Thank you so very much for this compliment! I am very glad that my Warlord AU - and Mouse in particular - has brought you such joy! And I am delighted that you like all the familial relationships, as well. Someone a while back observed that one of the major themes of the AU was love, in all its forms, and I think that is a very good summation of what I am trying to achieve.

[saintlaurentproblems]

All that came out about dc and dwayne johnson is so insane like who the hell in the industry is going to trust this man again? It's all so embarassing

wait what happened i missed a few chapters

I’m not going to explain it accurately bc I’ve just been watching TikTok but it’s something like….

Dwayne met with DC executives to discuss Black Adam. DC originally wanted to introduce BA in the Shazam 2 movie as a cameo in an after credit scene. Dwayne said no because he felt like he was too big to be in a movie like Shazam. So Dwayne pitched the idea to have Henry Cavil’s Superman back in the DCU. After many back and forths between Dwayne and the DCU people, they finally agreed and got Henry to make a cameo as Superman in the new BA movie. Dwayne spoke with Henry and convinced him to do it because they wanted to do a BA VS Superman film.

In October, James Gunn became one of the heads of the DCU. He’s been planning what he wants to do with the DCU. He announced that a bunch of sequels including Wonder Woman 3 have been scrapped. He wants to start over and recast everyone.

Since Black Adam tanked in the box office, Gunn has fired Henry Cavil as Superman. Dwayne went on social media to defend Black Adam and said that the movie will actually profit. But people were looking into the numbers and said that it doesn’t make sense and that Dwayne is lying to protect his ego. Basically, Dwayne thought he could be the new lead of the DCU and convinced Henry to join him only for his movie to flop and fuck up Henry’s career since he dropped out of The Witcher to come back as Superman.

Dwayne just looks like an arrogant asshole who couldn’t take the L.