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navree · 7 months ago

Note

I saw your post from a while ago were you rewrote hotd using the vague outline of the show can i ask what your ideal hotd season 1 would be like keeping the same episode count but ignoring everything else???

So, I'm gonna assume that by HOTD you do still mean the vaguest "it's about the Dance of Dragons" plot because honestly my ideal HOTD show would have been a Conquest show because those are my babies and I have a LOT of thoughts and it's a crying shame that HBO did not hire me for it (which I can get into in how I'd make that show if you want, lol). But, assuming we're doing the Dance, then I'll explain how season 1 would go from my perspective.

(also apologies, I just got back from a sushi restaurant with my mother and I'm two cocktails deep so there may be some grammatical errors)

Episode One - I'll just link back to what I wrote in this response, because that's still the same. I actually really like the bones of the show, especially changing the Rhaenicent relationship to make it what it is, I think that is more interesting for a longform narrative like a TV show. But basically, the pilot is entirely the same except for the fact that 1) Daemon and Mysaria get an introduction that's just them observing one of Mysaria's customers behind a curtain, being voyeuristic and conniving but not engaging themselves and 2) there is no prophecy. Verbatim from my first response: "I'm not against the idea that Aegon might have had ulterior motives beyond simple Conquest, and we know that Targaryens are capable of having prophetic abilities, but no this should not have been a secret passed down through generations for some fucking reason because that's stupid. And most importantly, considering that HOTD needed to succeed in spite of Game of Thrones, not because of it, because of how awful the last season was and how immediately it faded from the public consciousness and stopped being relevant as a result, the show should honestly not be so frequently be calling back to a disappointing aspect of the show. "A Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne" ok but she wasn't and the Long Night ended because some rando had a good ten yard jump according to D&D cuz they wanted to "subvert expectations" stop reminding me of that if I want to be enjoying this new show." Not to mention that it doesn't make sense because the succession was shot to Hell almost immediately for the Targaryens, Aenys likely would have passed that secret down to Aegon the Uncrowned, who died before he could tell anyone anything, Jaehaerys was an unlikely heir, he didn't know about any prophecy, God this was dumb. Also, again, Rhaenys would get her own introduction, I imagine maybe visiting her cousin Aemma as she nears labor when Viserys comes in, ranting about something that happened at the Small Council, where Rhaenys gets an opportunity to show better political acumen and make it clear that Viserys was the wrong choice for the crown.

Episode Two - This is the first episode where we hear Otto talk to Alicent about going to the king for comfort, that would be nixed from the first episode. As with the show, we see that Alicent is deeply uncomfortable with this, and there's gonna be a lot more emphasis on Viserys's own manipulation and how it parallels modern ways men groom young girls, talking about not telling anyone cuz they wouldn't understand, pointing out Alicent's maturity especially when compared to Rhaenyra (who is her age), etc. Meanwhile, the plot on Dragonstone is one that Daemon and Mysaria hatch together, albeit for different reasons (Daemon to get Viserys's attention, Mysaria because she can see that tensions might be starting to boil over and wants to protect herself as best she can). The pregnancy is a fake, but the only one who really starts to think that is the Velaryons, particularly Rhaenys. She would get a scene at Driftmark with Corlys, to showcase again that she's really in touch with politics, where she believes that this is both a ploy to shore up power and get Viserys's attention, while both Corlys and her children listen in (this will be important later). Rhaenyra, meanwhile, is clearly struggling with her role as heir, and we'd get scenes showcasing that no one really takes her seriously and even Viserys still just sees her as a cupbearer rather than an heir. The only person, ironically, who really seems to want to help her and who she leans on for support in learning how to do things, like appointing Kingsguard knights (which happens same as the show), is Otto. She really leans on Otto, as not just the Hand of the King but her friend's father, who she believes has her best interests at heart. The episode still ends the same though, with Viserys announcing in Council, in front of Rhaenyra (though he's never consulted her this time) that he will marry Alicent, to her shock and horror.

Episode Three - Not to be self-indulgent, but the bulk of this episode is going to be like my fic Spring's End, because I was correct in everything I wrote here so go read that also because I wrote it in like two days and it somehow turned out semi-coherent. That's the main crux of the episode, focusing on Alicent's reaction and really hammering home things like Viserys's inappropriate behavior, Otto's love in conflict with his ambition, and the tension between her increasingly important but isolated status at court, as well as starting the sort of Lancelot and Guinevere relationship she will have with Criston. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is spiraling, hard, about the fact that her father is marrying her friend and still not taking her seriously, along with feeling like she was duped by Otto in that he allowed her to depend on him while seemingly scheming to get someone else on the throne in her place. And it's in this mindset that Rhaenyra decides to go to Dragonstone to confront Daemon herself, without any backup. The two have a heated verbal confrontation about Daemon's antics, and Viserys naming Rhaenyra heir, and even the fact that it doesn't matter, because he's marrying Alicent Hightower, and Rhaenyra has a moment where she tells him that Alicent will likely have sons, and Daemon will never be heir. This clearly cuts to Daemon, and he just decides to give up the dragon eggs and turns away. Rhaenyra has scored a victory, and she feels triumphant, but also hollow (foreshadowing). Daemon meanwhile decides to send Mysaria away, and it's left debatable how much is just because his plan failed and also because he does feel he's put her in danger for nothing, and decides to go to Driftmark. Back at King's Landing, Viserys learns of what Rhaenyra has done during dinner, and summons her to lambast her about it, before Alicent cuts in and points out that Rhaenyra diffusing the situation, while careless, did avoid a conflict that could hurt innocent civilians (this would precipitate the semi-reconciliation that shows up later). Viserys here is clearly torn between a sort of pride in his daughter, but also feeling that she behaved badly, and Rhaenyra is still angry at him but wants his approval. On Driftmark, Daemon and Corlys disparage Viserys and make plans to at least go deal with the Triarchy, which, while not hyped up nearly as much in the show, has at least been mentioned. Daemon also has a moment with Laena Velaryon, who here is the same age as Alicent and Rhaenyra. They notice Vhagar in the distance, talk about dragons and freedom, and Laena makes plain that she intends to claim a dragon for herself, as her mother's daughter, even dropping names like the Cannibal, which certainly piques Daemon's interest. The wedding between Viserys and Alicent goes off, though we are getting that deleted scene where Rhaenyra helps Alicent get ready, because I really wish we could have seen that or at least been told it happened before I wrote Spring's End.

Episode Four - Queen Alicent is pregnant, near term, and the court is alight with speculation as to whether it will be a princess or a prince. Rhaenyra is unsure of how to feel about it, and is trying to navigate the friendship, uncertain though it is, with the fact that Alicent is now the queen. She's gotten closer to Criston Cole, who seems to be primarily on bodyguard duty for the queen or the princess depending on the day, as well as Laena Velaryon, who is at court with her mother, who has informally taken Corlys's place on the Small Council now that he's in the Stepstones with Daemon; this is another way to show that Rhaenys is better at this than Viserys, and there are even moments where the Council is more in agreement with her than him. Meanwhile, the Stepstones aren't gonna be touched on much beyond maybe the final battle and some occasional references, except to show Daemon's military prowess and also Corlys's brilliance in strategy, as well as Corlys's frequent correspondences with Rhaenys, to highlight their cohesion. Meanwhile, in King's Landing, the Strongs have also arrived at the capital. Rhaenyra sees Harwin doing, idk, horse stuff or something medieval and masculine, and is quite taken with him, and they strike up some conversations. Larys, with his disability, finds himself interacting with the ladies of court most, especially Alicent, and the two form a sort of friendship surrounding engaging each other's minds, and they both enjoy that they're the only ones who seem to treat the other as an actual person, rather than the pregnant wife or the disabled second son. Rhaenyra's frank and open conversations with Harwin, on the other hand, embolden her, and we get that scene where she seduces Criston, and there's a lot more play with the fact that Criston is interested and does want it, but is held back by vows before giving in to desire (also, we're just going to put a lot more emphasis on Criston's religious convictions in this version of the show, especially during his convocation in episode two when he joins the Kingsguard). Towards the end of the episode, Alicent goes into labor. Viserys and Rhaenyra share a bonding moment about their worries for Alicent's safety and the reminders of Aemma and what happened to her, and for a moment it looks as though Viserys is goign to tell Rhaenyra what he did to her mother. Rhaenyra also gets a moment where she holds Alicent's hand during labor, and we see her simultaneous love for Alicent in that as well as her clear discomfort with the concept of this being her own fate. And then Alicent delivers a son, a direct challenge to Rhaenyra's claim.

Episode Five - A big thing that's going to happen in this episode is that this is where Laena claims Vhagar. She's at Driftmark for it (foreshadowing) and, given that we've seen her in episodes three and four, it becomes clear that Vhagar is following Laena specifically. So we get to see the claiming, and Laena's own power in that. That's something that, as Daemon returns to Driftmark with Corlys, he's going to learn about, and he's going to be very intrigued by that, and taken with Laena. Another thing we're going to see is Corlys's negotiations with allies he made in Essos during his time away, arranging a betrothal between Laena and the son of the Sealord of Braavos. Rhaenyra's plotline, on the other hand, is going to be about her asserting her own power, especially now that her father has a trueborn son named Aegon Targaryen, which is a direct threat. She has a moment with her father where she directly tells him that, as his heir, she's not just going to be his cupbearer, but deserves a seat at his Small Council. He acquiesces, and Rhaenyra butts heads with Otto a lot, and pushes hard for Harwin Strong to be made captain of the Gold Cloaks, and succeeds. This is coincides with Otto hearing rumors that Rhaenyra has been behaving inappropriately with men, especially Harwin and Criston Cole. He discusses these with Alicent, who refuses to believe that of both Criston and Rhaenyra, given that Criston is spending more time with her as her bodyguard as he struggles with his "sin". She does have that scene in the godswood with Rhaenyra, but instead of issues with Daemon, it's just saying that there are rumors spreading about her behavior and that Rhaenyra must have care with her reputation. Rhaenyra figures out it's Otto who's informing Alicent, and the mood here is complex; Alicent does want to look out for Rhaenyra but also wants to ascertain the truth, and Rhaenyra both sees and feels emotional about Alicent's care but also isn't sure if she can trust Alicent. Rhaenyra keeps that moment where she swears on the memory of her mother that nothing untoward happened, but this time it's an out and out lie, to showcase the way she handles issues that might harm her and her position, lie and deny (foreshadowing). There's also gonna be a scene, before the godswood, where Rhaenyra and Alicent talk about motherhood, and we see more of Rhaenyra's complex feelings on the topic, and she does admit she was worried Alicent would die in childbirth like Aemma.

Episode Six - It's Aegon's name day, and we can clearly see that Alicent is pregnant again, not as far along as she is in the show during episode three but at least starting to have a bump. And it's here that Daemon decides to make his return to court, and dramatically offer Viserys his crown and say that any title about the Narrow Sea means nothing to him, because Viserys is his true king. I'd add a lot more scenes of Viserys and Daemon in this episode, because remember, we haven't seen them interact since the first episode, and also to really highlight how there is a genuine affection here, especially on Daemon's part. Daemon and Rhaenyra also reconnect, and have a lot of conversations in the vein we see in the original episode 4, talking about how they can do whatever they want because they're Targaryens. It's heavily flirtatious, and we do get that scene of Daemon taking Rhaenyra into the city. Here, there is more an emphasis on Daemon really just wanting Rhaenyra to enjoy herself, since we'd have another scene between him and Laena at court, though more stilted because her intended, the son of the Sealord, is here too. But after that scene where the commons show more enthusiasm for baby Aegon than her, Rhaenyra and Daemon return, and Rhaenyra has a blunt moment about her struggles to be taken seriously. It gets pretty hot and heavy, and it's not in a private room, but one of the corridors. And lo and behold, who hears about it, but Otto. And this time, he takes his issues to the king, who does summon Rhaenyra to discuss it. Rhaenyra turns it around on Viserys, accusing him of abandoning her now that he has a son, and mentions that Otto has been spreading rumors not just about her and Daemon, but her and Harwin and her and Criston, and that she feels that Otto is no friend to the crown if he's going to impugn her own honor this way. Viserys discusses these allegations with Alicent as she's taking care of him, in earshot of Criston, who is horrified about being found out. But we get that moment from the show, where Alicent goes to bat for Rhaenyra, and points out that maybe Daemon was spreading some rumors himself. An emotionally exhausted Rhaenyra also gets a scene with Rhaenys, and they discuss the concept of being allowed to inherit, of inhabiting a man's position even though they are not men and cannot act like it, and the nature of Targaryens vs other Westerosi. Also there's a scene this ep in reference to a deleted scene from the original show where Rhaenyra is playing with toddler Aegon and getting him to say her name, a sweet moment between a brother and sister.

Episode Seven - Helaena has been born and is a few months old, and Rhaenyra and Otto are butting heads on the Small Council more and more, and as Daemon and Rhaenyra continue to spend time together, Otto continues to bring his concerns to the king. Eventually, Viserys fires Otto as the Hand, at Rhaenyra's insistence, and we do get that scene from the show between Otto and Alicent where he stresses that he doesn't think Rhaenyra could ever ascend, and that whole bit Rhys Ifans was talking about with how Otto wants to say "I love you and I'm scared for you" but doesn't know how. Alicent, feeling vexed that there are rumors about Daemon's behavior but nothing is happening, strongly urges Viserys to also send Daemon back to the Vale with Rhea Royce, saying that his habits endanger the Targaryens by engendering enmity in the smallfolk who feel that he's just allowed to act with impunity. Viserys also agrees to this, which Rhaenyra is not happy about, since it feels like Alicent removed an ally to her for no reason. Criston, meanwhile, we see continue to spiral about his tryst to Rhaenyra and the fallout of the lies involved, and goes to Alicent to ask if he can be in her service, and not have to spend time with Rhaenyra anymore. Alicent, who can see that he's upset about something, readily agrees, which drives a further wedge between her and Alicent. Rhaenyra turns to Laena Velaryon, who isn't particularly enthused about her betrothal to the son of the Sealord, and also to Harwin Strong just as a companion. After dinner with Laena and Rhaenys, Rhaenyra decides that she needs to take a husband to solidify her claim, especially with gossip at court that the king still summons the queen to his bedchamber in spite of having two children, which Rhaenyra does remain disgusted by. She goes to Viserys with the proposal that she tour the realm to find a suitable husband for the heir to the Iron Throne, and Viserys says nothing about her using that title, but agrees.

Episode Eight - Rhaenyra has been touring the Kingdoms, trying to find a husband, and it's not going well. She does go to the Vale, under the auspices of looking for a husband from that area, but mostly still to talk with Daemon. Laena also frequents the Vale, and the three of them tend to race their dragons, and Rhaenyra does notice that there's a simmering attraction between Laena and Daemon, which she calls Daemon out on, saying that, as Princess, she has no interest in playing second fiddle before she eventually departs the Vale. This leaves Daemon to confront what he does actually want out of a potential alliance with the Velaryons and the longstanding attraction with Laena (and maybe this leads him to killing Rhea? i'm conflicted on that one honestly but she does die in this episode, either accidentally like in the book or in a murkier version of what Daemon did in the show, maybe him just spooking her horse without bashing her head in with a rock). In King's Landing, Viserys grows increasingly infirm due to his various Iron Throne issues (yes I'm keeping that), and as such, Alicent has started accompanying him to Small Council meetings, which a lot of people are conflicted about. At first, we see her not doing much, but she eventually starts speaking out more and more. And at one point in the episode, Viserys is going to have an amputation, one that lays him up in bed for a bit, and Alicent still attends the Small Council in his place to speak for him. When someone points out that it is the Hand who speaks for the king, Alicent retorts that who knows the king better, and can thus speak for him best, than his own wife and, crucially (and the first time she ever flexes like this) the mother of his only son. At Driftmark, Rhaenys is back to ruling there, given that Corlys is back on the Small Council, and is definitely bitter about it. That's when Rhaenyra arrives, and offers a proposal: that she marry Laenor, and their first son be a Targaryen heir, while the others would stand to inherit Driftmark and other Velaryon properties as Velaryons. Rhaenys agrees to this, only writing a letter of the proposal to Corlys after she's done so to inform him that it's happening. Rhaenyra also gets more moments with Harwin in this episode, to build up to their relationship, and an important moment comes when she confides her issues with childbirth and childrearing after watching what it did to her mother.

Episode Nine - Rhaenyra arrives and is a bit weirded out to learn that Alicent is now on the Small Council too. The first meeting they have, where Rhaenyra discusses her marriage to Laenor, is a bit tense between them, and definitely awkward, but there's still an attempt at politeness. Rhaenyra has her talk with Laenor about different tastes, but she does also stress the importance that she does need an heir, so there will need to be duties performed on occasion to create one. Laena, meanwhile, is very not happy about Laenor's marriage and the bargain it includes, talking to her mother about how, if Rhaenyra can be the heir to the Iron Throne regardless of gender, then she, as Laenor's older sister, should be the one to inherit Driftmark and be the Lady of the Tides, and so should her own children. Rhaenys says that it's not going to happen, that Rhaenyra is only a solitary exception due to Targaryen nature, and Laena bluntly puts that it's a ridiculous thing to have it only be Rhaenyra, and that what would be the point of it at all if it didn't lead to larger change, otherwise the entire enterprise is doomed to failure (foreshadowing). Back in King's Landing, Criston Cole, whose arc this season has been about his religious convictions and how it feels to have betrayed those and seen the fallout, eventually cracks and confesses to Alicent, doing that whole "it's my sin but as a clement queen give me a quick death" moment. And Alicent is again betrayed at the fact that Rhaenyra lied, and the fallout from that lie for her and what that means about Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra, meanwhile, has a late night talk with Harwin about having to choose a husband when there wouldn't be an expectation of her to choose a wife if she were a man, and Harwin is genuinely sympathetic, leading to a spontaneous kiss. When the rehearsal dinner happens later, Rhaenyra is dressed in her house colors, dramatic Targaryen red and black, but Alicent arrives in a dazzling green dress, the colors of Oldtown at war. She gives a smile to Hightower relatives, yes, but the conversation about how she's grown into queenship is actually had with Tyland Lannister, who we'd have seen her interact with on occasion at the Small Council. Rhaenyra clocks Alicent's coolness towards her, and the two have a private moment when left alone on the dais while Viserys does, idk, something, and Alicent makes a cold callback to Rhaenyra swearing on Aemma's memory, letting her know that she knows of the lies and she's angry.

Episode Ten - It is the wedding day of Rhaenyra and Laenor, and everyone is here, the Velaryons and the son of the Sealord and all the Strongs and all the retinues of the Houses and even Otto is here as a guest, given that he is the father of the queen. Before a tourney to celebrate the impending nuptials, Rhaenyra and Harwin have a talk about their feelings, and Rhaenyra does stress that she wants him but it has to be discreet because of her position, but she does have an understanding with Laenor, and the two share another kiss. Meanwhile, Alicent, just to be petty, tells Viserys she feels that she's pregnant again, and that it's another boy, and Viserys, because he's a moron, actually announces this before the tourney. This is the tourney where, in the mélee, Criston Cole kills Laenor's lover Joffrey, to Laenor's shock and horror. Laenor and Rhaenyra are both immediately calling for consequences, but Alicent comes in for Criston, saying that it's an armed mélee and thus there's a natural acceptance of risk, which Joffrey knew, and Viserys lets the whole thing slide. This casts a pall over the wedding ceremony, and during the feast that night, Laenor is still dejected, which is why Rhaenyra goes to dance with others, like Harwin, and Daemon, who has been invited, and the two have another sexually charged moment. Daemon also dances with Laena, and bluntly asks her whether she wants to be married to the son of the Sealord, and she says no, and makes a comment about wanting Vhagar to eat him. The Sealord gets a bit uppity about someone else dancing with his bride to be, words are exchanged between him and Daemon, and it eventually breaks out into an actual fight. Alicent impulsively calls out for Rhaenyra, and Harwin does go to remove her, and Rhaenyra does have a moment where the first thing she does is check if Alicent herself is unharmed, showing that even with the worsening relationship that we've seen crack apart, there's still love there. Daemon eventually kills the son of the Sealord as Viserys, who again has been having those health problems all season like in the original show, passes out. This allows both Daemon and Criston Cole to sneak out unnoticed, and Criston, like in the show, is going to kill himself. Again, we've seen him kinda spiral all season, and after now killing someone too, not in combat but in a game, he feels at his lowest. And like in the show, Alicent stops him, though we do seem her kneel in the grass and take the knife from his hands. Alicent and Rhaenyra both then go to stay by Viserys, and we see them arrive at the same time before they sit on opposite sides of his bed. And here I will ape myself and my original answer again: "Episode ends with Daemon saddling Caraxes, ready to ride away before someone thinks "hey maybe we should imprison the guy who killed a foreign ally's leader", and then suddenly a great shadow blocks out the sun. Suddenly Vhagar lands in front of him, Laena atop her, and Daemon thinks, oh shit is she gonna try and fight me for killing her betrothed? He's still on the ground, and suddenly Laena climbs down from Vhagar to join him there. She doesn't say anything, but she smiles at him, and Daemon bends to kiss her hand." Meanwhile, at Viserys's sickbed, you have Rhaenyra, the Velaryons (minus Laena), and Harwin on one side, and Alicent, Larys, Otto, the Lannisters, Criston, and two attendants holding Aegon and Helaena on another. It's interspersed with a shot of Caraxes and Vhagar taking flight, almost dancing in the air, and their calls intermingle with baby Aegon beginning to cry. The dragons are dancing, the Targaryens are choosing side, and children are already weeping; th war may not have started yet, but it is already here. As Vhagar's wing eclipses the camera as she flies away, episode ends.

So this is uhhhhh not my best work as I'm making it up on the fly as I write this, but here ya go, HOTD season 1 if I were allowed to be showrunner. I'm not sure how coherent this all is, or if I got across all I wanted to. TL;DR here is that I would put a lot more focus on Alicent and Rhaenyra's relationship and its slow, gradual disintegration, as well as establishing the burgeoning sides that are going to be taken, along with adding more complexity to characters that were left by the wayside in the original show. But hope you liked it!

#personal #answered #anonymous #house of the dragon #dance of dragons #this was an interesting thought exercise #that took me for fucking ever to sort out sorry anon #if you were angling for more of my conquest sorry about that too #but this is how i'd do season 1 of a dance focused show #like i said i think it would have been better to have the entire first season be milly and emily #and then get d'cooke starting in season 2 #because of how short the actual dance is vs the build up #this took me two hours man i'm so sorry

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lyehub · 5 months ago

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Lye | 25+ | he/she/they

This is the out of character hub for my roleplay blogs. Rules and blog roster are listed below the cut.

RULES

If I follow you, know that I've read your rules. Please afford me that same courtesy.

I don't intend on posting any explicit content, but I do deal with heavier themes. All my blogs should be considered 18+. I will not RP with you if you do not have some indication that you are an adult posted on your blog.

The hub blog is exclusively for OOC/metaposting. If you'd like to RP, please follow at least one of my in character sideblogs.

This isn't a deal breaker, but if you have replies/IMs turned off for non-mutuals and are interested in RPing, I'd appreciate it if you'd follow the hub as well. If you don't, it's extremely touch and go as to whether I'll be able to message you from any blog.

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Out of consideration for my RP partners, I ask that personals do not reblog my actual RP threads. However, you are welcome to 'like' things freely, and OOC meta, asks, plot updates, and artwork are all OK to reblog.

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I'm uninterested in shipping, and will delete most shipping related asks, bar one or two exceptions. While I don't mind if my RP partners are fans, Billford is NOT one of those exceptions.

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I can take a while to respond to a thread, and will be quite a bit slower during the work week. If you are expecting immediate replies, we probably won't be super compatible as writers. That said, the occasional reminder doesn't bother me.

Similarly, I tend to nudge people after a couple weeks of no response, just to ensure that it wasn't a case of tumblr eating the notification. Afterwards, I assume you've seen my reply and will get back to me at your convenience.

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Apart from the occasional crack thread, I tend to write mostly multi-paragraph or novella. While I don't expect people to match length, I do expect them to match thought and effort. If I'm getting single sentence responses to multiple paragraphs, I'm probably going to unfollow.

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Unless it involves bullet 15, I don't care if someone was rude or standoffish to you. I don't engage with callouts or vague posts. Someone else's interpersonal drama is not my business or problem. I curate my own experience on this site; I strongly encourage everyone else do the same.

I will update my rules as needed.

BLOG LIST

The "genres" are not hard stops, but rather, guidelines for figuring out what characters your muses might be compatible with! That said, you're welcome to RP with anyone on this list, no matter the genre.

@amphioctopus (Original Character | Genre: Modern Fantasy, Paranormal, Magical Realism | RP | #payton)

@ethelstreep (Original Character | Genre: Historical, Fantasy, Mythical | RP | #adem)

@obeythefist (Original Character | Genre: Sci-fi, Superheroes/Villains, Cyberpunk | RP | #zoe)

@maymayandthehog (Canon Character | Gravity Falls | RP | #mabel)

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My personal blog is @lyesander. Follow if you wish.

#lye speaks

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nammikisulora · 12 days ago

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17, 19, & 29 for the writing meme :)!

Oohh hi!! Let's see...

17. talk about your writing and editing process

well, most of my fics start out with an idea for one or two specific scenes that I want to write, and then I have to figure out how to connect them. sometimes it's less than that, though - just a general vibe, or some specific emotional beats I want to dig into, and I need to find a plot to hinge it on.

how much I plan from there varies wildly, too. sometimes I have a fairly detailed outline of (more or less) all the Big Scenes before I start actually writing - those are usually the fics that start out as "look a cool idea that I'm certainly not gonna write ooooops I have an 800+ word bullet point list of Plot". other times I just start with a vague idea and jot down thoughts as I go.

usually I write chronologically, because it's way way easier for me, but right now all my (too many-ish) WIPs are written in bits and pieces, so we'll see how it goes piecing them together, lol.

however, the most important part of my fic writing is the social one. I love having someone to talk to through the whole process from idea to finished fic, sharing snippets and/or WIP docs. without someone to brainstorm with (or babble at sorrryyyyyy everyone subjected to it) my writing motivation plummets. if it's a fic I've already sunk lots of time and energy into, I might finish it, if not, I'll probably drop it if I don't have someone to bounce ideas off and share the excitement with.

as for editing.... well. after I finish it, I will read through the fic/chapter once before posting, to catch most typos and fix up the occasional sentence or so, but other than that, I mostly don't. I'm eternally impressed by people who write several drafts and edit extensively, but there's no way I'd ever have the spoons to spare for it with fic.

19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

that is an excellent question actually. probably corpse decomposition. help I'm usually too lazy to do much proper research wah

29. how easy is it for you to come up with titles?

I hate coming up with titles. as often as possible I outsource it to the aforementioned person I'm sharing the fic with. tbh most of my titles are probably decided that way.

Thank you for the questions!!

(fic writing ask game)

#ask game #avesmonster #this was a fun one!!

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hyperpotamianarch · 2 months ago

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All right, I posted a couple of Jewish stuff, so maybe it's time for a nice Fantasy post. Also, Howl's Moving Castle and Anne of Green Gables. You'll get it by the end.

You see, I'm not a writer yet. Which seems like a bad beginning, but it's going to tie in soon. I do want to be a writer, and have attempted to write books multiple times. Usually I have an idea that I try to latch on and make into a good story, though that doesn't always work. And yes, I've seen that post about writing encyclopedias or annotated maps and am seriously considering it. But anyway, one of my latest ideas was: what if Anne of Green Gables, but Fantasy?

The cause for this idea is the fact I'm usually very locked on Fantasy. By which I mean, I usually refuse to read things outside of this genre, with maybe Sci-Fi added in. I have somewhat mellowed out since and will not immediately refuse any non-Fantasy book recommendation, but I'd still prefer Fantasy over all else. Anne of Green Gables has, to some degree, come to be an exception. By which I mean, it's almost unique among my favourite books in not being Fantasy.

It is thus that I thought, hey. What if I take that thing I really like and make a similar thing in the genre I really like? That'll be great, won't it?

Well, the jury is still out on that. I still didn't figure out the essence of what I liked about Anne of Green Gables, so I don't really know how I might take on this project. I currently have two story ideas that are supposedly under this umbrella - one is a crossover fic that I didn't manage to actually make to work, and another which is an attempt at Urban Fantasy that is vaguely in the works. I would focus on the fic for now, though, because it arose from a realization I had: the closest thing to Fantasy Anne of Green Gables I've ever read is probably Howl's Moving Castle.

It's important to note that this is not so in plot. In general plot, those books are vastly different. It's not in characters either - I believe the only things Sophie and Anne share are temper strong enough to hit their live interest on the head, hair that could roughly considered to be ginger and a general belief they're ugly. The latter isn't really accurate and manifests in vastly different ways in the two.

No, what I do believe those books share is some of their atmosphere. They are still far from identical, as Anne's character is central to her book and Sophie is very different, but there are similarities. Here is the antagonistic relationship with the love interest throughout the book, and there are the relatively lower, more personal stakes of this book. I mean, there are many large differences, but... basically, Anne of Green Gables in Fantasy would have to be (I think) Cozy Fantasy. And Howl's Moving Castle is, in a way, a Cozy Fantasy book: it mostly deals with the day to day life of the four inhabitants of the Moving Castle, from Sophie's PoV. Sure, there's a curse that drives the plot forward and a witch and her fire demon, both perfectly willing to kill anyone who stands in their way. But it's still about How Sophie Cleans the House; How Sophie Pushes Her Nose Into Howl's Relationship With Her Sister; and How Sophie Is Generally A Nosy Old Woman Living In The House Of The Flippant And Cowardly Wizard Howell Jenkins.

I may have lost it a bit there. But it really is about the daily life in the Castle, which I think puts it a step closer. So, I thought of a crossover fic named Katie of the House of Reflections. It didn't really work, though I think the idea has potential if only I developed it a little more.

That is it: a comparison of the stories of two ginger girls who had anime adaptations. Don't thank me yet. You still didn't see me add Princess Eilonwy and Shallan Davar into the mix.

#fantasy #anne of green gables #howl's moving castle #hmc book #diana wynne jones #arch writes #(sort of)#sophie hatter #anne shirley #cozy fantasy #fantasy romance #What? Who said that?!#Katie of the house of reflections #My favourite literary ginger girls meeting!#Out of the four mentioned in the post:#Shallan is the only one that was never violent to her love interest be it physically or verbally #(that is unless you're a Shalladin shipper)#Though anne mellowed with age #I can see eilonwy telling Taran that she shan't speak with him often enough after they get married #And sophie canonically is constantly angry at howl? Sort of?#Her relationship is weird #But Anne is always on the romantic side with her husband outside of occasional fight #Eilonwy has never attampted to physically harm taran #(that I am aware of)#Literally anyone but anne has magical powers #Though only eilonwy and sophie are considered proper witches #All are known for having sharp tongues

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bromcommie · 9 months ago

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For the ask game ;)

🏜️,❄️,🥐,🌻 aaand 🥤

Hope you are having a good day!

Hiya, thanks for the retaliatory hit! (affectionate) hope you're having a lovely day too :) 🏜️ ⇢ what's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work? Ooh, can I just say any? Kidding, albeit I am very grateful for everyone who takes the time out to comment, even if it's just a string of emojis or something! But I am eternally grateful for long, detailed comments and especially love when people point the things that they related to in my work or things that clicked for them (particularly the ones I thought might be overlooked or alternatively, too heavy-handed to land) or even line up certain things or parallels that didn't fully register to me while I was writing except as a vague ~vibe~. I just appreciate it a whole lot, and it makes the whole exchange feel like a conversation. ❄️ ⇢ what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

Hm, I don't know - I don't think I have one specific dream theme/plot. That said I have been thinking a lot about Red Room/Department X plotlines recently. I really love the throughline of the struggle for identity + shifting ideologies/definitions of what it means to be a good person + autonomy & free will vs. wanting to belong dichotomy in those stories. Especially when it's grounded in interesting dynamics that aren't very black and white (i.e. Nat and the other widows, the handlers, the WS.) That era is also just very interesting to me in terms of real world circumstances and events, and the scifi potential to explore trauma and psychological fuckery in general is endless. So I guess I'd really love something that deals with Natasha's memories as a child + teen in the war and how that shaped her both before the Red Room even got their hands on her, as well as during and after; how she became this kind of mercurial person who is still (maybe surprisingly so) solid at her core. Something a la Name of the Rose, if you've read that run.

As for who I'd like to write it, I am in fact attempting to write something to that effect into my current post-CATWS wip, so I guess me? Not to say I wouldn't love to read something similar by someone else - there have been several fics out there that dealt with Natasha in a way that had me staring into empty space for an hour (in a good way) - just that I enjoy the process of developing ideas like that in my head differently than I do reading about them from another angle, if that makes sense!

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh

that vine with the two guys with heavy NY/NJ area accents screaming at a duck. wait no - any patrick william charlton vine where he suddenly acquires a german accent. wait no - the can I PLEASE get a waffle one.

oh man. any one vine really. I'm very nostalgic about vine. 🌻 ⇢ tag someone you appreciate but don't talk to on a regular basis

I feel like if I started doing that I'd end up spamming way too many people haha. I do wanna say I very much appreciate everyone I've gotten to interact with and follow during this CATWS10 event and over the past two months I’ve been on here more!

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love Oh, god. GOD. This is so tough, I'm really blanking right now. I've been around for a loong while lol and there are so, so many insane, brilliant ones. It doesn't help that I really haven't read that many in the last few years as much as I've been writing them.

Off the top of my head though, I recently went back to Speranza's All the Angels and the Saints. One of the all-time old school Cap greats. All of their stuff is just wonderful, foundational Steve, Bucky & SteveAndBucky content. Also everything by magdaliny. I don't even know what to say there, except maybe goddamn.

I’ve also been reading a couple Red Room fics that I can’t find right now but that were great, so I’ll have to dig through my old laptop bookmarks and get back to you with a personalized list, hehe 🫡

#sorry this took a second and thanks for indulging me with these again<3 #vostok3-ka #asks #ask game

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callipraxia · 5 months ago

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The closest I've ever come to just throwing something out there without editing it is probably with "The Great Cosmic Cartoon Chess Game," which I think was my first Gravity Falls essay and which I wrote in one or two sittings and then posted at like one in the morning one night...pretty sure it's the second-most engaged with post I've ever written, unless it actually surpassed both the Ford Essay and the first Hirsch interview analysis essay I wrote a couple of months ago - it would take a lot of tedious clicking to figure out exactly which one is the One Essay To Rule Them All and I only have four minutes left on my work break, so I probably will determine that for sure later, but it did very, very well and I was very, very surprised. However, even as someone who is normally kind of nitpicky about anything that's posted and isn't a personal complaint, I can attest that you really do have no idea how the audience is gonna take things. Exhibit A: those two times I wrote about Bill Cipher torturing someone.

I spent weeks working on the chapter of Interproximal Gradations where that happened, but it wasn't because I thought it was too far out of pocket in terms of what was portrayed. It was just because I was trying some structural stuff with the chapter overall that I had never tried before and I wanted/needed the writing to be extra-good to support it. As far as Bill being a nightmare went, I thought I was pretty well within the lines canon had established for the portrayal of such things, and indeed that I was a bit more restrained than canon. The audience...was of a different opinion. Apparently, it's the most horrifying thing I ever wrote, despite my multiple attempts to write about physics coming unraveled and a character literally melting and...wow, I write a lot of messed-up stuff, don't I? I now kinda want to protest that I'm not one of "those" writers, but I'm not entirely sure what writers I mean by that, so let's move on to the other time I wrote something on that general theme.

The other time took place in "The Player of Games," and it is the one and only time that I have ever made myself deeply, deeply uncomfortable with something I've written. Like...this one scene is no small part of the reason why I assumed at one point that I would never finish "Player" and why I hesitated to post it even once I realized that I was, for whatever reason, going to finish the thing. That scene was...bad. I put a trigger warning on it, despite being Old and therefore often not doing that as much as I probably should (for the longest time I just forgot, having been writing with and for the same five people and nobody else for twenty years at that point and it having not been as much of a thing when I was younger, but even now, I often wrestle with myself over whether what I wrote is really upsetting enough to spoil the contents of the chapter over, especially when the upsetting material is or is a direct result of a plot twist). And I meant for the scene to be horrifying, so horrified reactions were expected, but y'all know the Internet - I was afraid it would instead be interpreted as me being into something I actually find deeply disturbing, since I couldn't exactly underline "and that was bad and sick and wrong" explicitly in the text without lowering the overall quality of the text (like I said, I'm one of those pretentious people who takes my fanfics semi-seriously and tries to produce the best writing I can, within some vague semblance of reason). And then...pretty sure that only one person ever commented on the scene I'd been so squicked out by writing, and that person seemed to understand perfectly what I'd meant by it, so good thing I didn't abandon the project over it, I guess?

TL;DR, audiences are indeed often at least a little bit unpredictable no matter what approach you take, basically.

If posting fic online has taught me anything, it’s that I have no idea how the reader will react to anything. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not the faintest clue.

Fics that I think I scribbled off just to get them out there get the kindest, most rapturous feedback. Fics I slaved over, agonized over, bled my soul into get a couple tepid replies. Fics I thought were me revealing the darkness and weird kink that lives in my brain, scared to even post it for fear of judgement, get, “Aaaw that’s so sweet!” replies. Baffling.

My conclusion? You just never know. You really just can’t know. When I did a workshop with 20 other writers I would try to guess what their critique of my story would be and I was right maybe 1 in 20 times. Only one other writer would have the same critique for my story that I had. And it wasn’t even always the same person.

The encouraging part about this is, if self recrimination, the fear that you know what people won’t like about your story, is holding you back, just say fuck it! You’re almost certainly wrong! All you can do is make it the best story you can for the energy you have. And yeah, sometimes that means scribbling it out in an evening and kicking it out to the void of the internet before you can change your mind or worry about editing it more than once because then you’ll never post it.

It’s all chaos, man. You don’t get to decide what the audience thinks. All you can do is create it and put it out there for them to decide.

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nocturnalazure · 4 months ago

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Evolution of the storyline

This is following @danjaley's post about all the turns her story has taken throughout the years and her enquiry about my own process in the comments. More under the cut because long.

I haven't got any blurbs of potential dialogues to share simply because I don't write anything beforehand. My writing is mostly improvised.

I have never planned anything until the Sam/Ash-to-the-future storyline (that takes us back to somewhere around 2017, phew). I have a vague idea of where I want to go and sometimes adjust during shooting or writing. Since I don't plan, the canon story becomes the only story and all the other options I may think of are quickly forgotten. That's still the way I roll most of the time BUT...

When I sent Ash and Sam 250 years into the future, it became clear that I didn't want it to be any future. I wanted to see the future generations of all my Sims. But that of course requires a huge amount of planning. I've always enjoyed pairing up characters so my favorite part of planning was deciding which couples would be best together, who would have kids, etc. At the second generation, it became a bit random simply because I was working with names in a timeline and not characters I had the time to get attached to. But I scrupulously recorded all the generations. See below: I used that Excel timeline it to keep track of how many generations I needed to get to Sam & Ash's timeline (the dark red line at the end) and how old everyone would be (so that I don't end up pairing up a YA with a toddler, ya see?). The various life stages are the pastel cells. I won't tell you what the other color codes are.

Then I went in game and impregnated the hell out of my Sims. I just made quick genetic templates so to speak. You want a sneak peek at some of these hastily created Sims? Go here.

You may be horrified to know that at some point (a long time ago), I had considered pairing up Hugo with Annabelle. Or Jessie with Cordelia. I know. I'm sorry. Youthful mistake. We're definitely not going there.

Julian and Risa were also supposed to have a second child called Dorian. I think I just wanted my Sims to pop babies all the time.

What about Nate, Ivy and Seth? I can't remember exactly when I decided to kill them off (the most difficult decision I've ever made), but it definitely wasn't a key element from the start. Like so many plot events, it just... suddenly made sense and I knew I had to go down that path.

So like I said, I need a specific future. But having many Sims popping babies all over the place didn't seem manageable (or realistic). So I kind of implemented a sort of one-child policy (two at most) and removed some potential kids from the generation lines. That's when the Golzine line was set. I know exactly who will be heir 250 years in the future, and who their parents are.

What am I going to do with all those other Sims over multiple generations that I have basically fated to each other? I have no clue yet. I thought I'd figure it out as I went along... you know, as I usually do!

Big haha. Joke's on me.

Because obviously, here we are, 7 years and a big mess later. That future storyline has me backed into a corner. Characters have evolved and some couples just don't make sense anymore. Now I remember why I hate planning when it relates to my creativity. It's so limiting! Obviously, I can't explain in details without spoiling but I'm on really shaky ground. That's why it's taking me so long to get back to Sam & Ash. All I can safely say, because you all know that by now, is that Laurie and Erik were not supposed to fall for each other! I had initially planned Erik to marry Cordelia, then rather quickly changed my mind because it had suddenly dawned on me that he would be so good with Gloria. That was already a problem, but at least it was easily fixable. My two doofuses pining after each other was not part of the plan AT ALL.

How did that happen? Well, mostly because I completely misunderstood Laurie's personality. I've realized it quite early on while writing him, but I may have underestimated the extent of his influence over the plot. The Golzine storyline is the one I had to work on in the most detailed way because they have quite a big impact on pretty much everything. I know who Laurie's heir will be, and the heir after that, and the heir after that. In order to get there, things have to happen a certain way. Some characters have to be born, ya know? And things would happen because of previous events. Laurie is a wrench into all of my future plans.

He was supposed to be some sort of casanova and to have an enemies-to-lovers relationship with Anh Wong. He was self-assured, flirty and a bit entitled. In other words, he was Noah's successor and his relationship with Anh was always meant to be a chaotic one (she's the one who would send him to jail), even when Laurie was with other women. Note I said "women". I hadn't considered that he could be bisexual. His relationship with Erik was strictly that of a close friendship. I was quite hyped about Laurie and Anh getting together and the (friendly) dynamics between him and Erik as his right-hand man. Although I never do that, I had even written down some lines of dialogues. I won't share those though, because it is all cringy banter and not much substance. But I kept the gist of my initial plan: Shu trying to protect her sister from getting her heart broken, Laurie and Anh's little dance and her mistrust of him, Erik the guard dog... Then I threw in the mob council last minute (initially, its only role was to legitimate Laurie as the Golzine heir), but characters like Jie, Romeo and Omar turned out to be a lot less minor than I'd thought and the entire Laurie arc has spun out in a ludicrous way. When I started it in 2020, I never thought I'd still be working on it in 2024.

...I don't regret anything. *sniff*

After all, I always meant for Anh to let her hair down at some point.

I was so sure that I knew Laurie, that I had his character and motives well under control. I don't even know how he did it but he took over his own story. Even now, he's pulling his own strings, I guarantee you. I believe that this is why the latest update (that I had been looking forward to writing for literal years) took so long: slowly but surely, Laurie is redirecting me. Nothing in that update happened exactly the way I had planned.

I'm convinced that the guy is the key to everything but how exactly? I guess he'll let me know last minute.

This story is a moving target, for real. I'll tell you what. Ask me again in 2034. By then, the plot will maybe have moved forward a little and I will be able to tell you how what I was planning a decade earlier actually didn't work out and we'll have a good laugh about it.

(Actually, once we're a bit further along on the current storyline, maybe I will be able to share more on what was supposed to happen - patience!)

#text post #random #not-a-tutorial

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fantastic-nonsense · 3 years ago

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Hi!! I love your blog and specifically your Jason posts, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on something I've been kind of internally debating myself. It's a really heavy topic but have you heard of/do you have an opinion on the theory i've seen a couple times that Jason may have been a victim of csa?

Okay, so like.....do I want to have an opinion on this topic? No. Do I have opinions on this topic anyway? Sort of.

Quick context overview for those who are unaware (tw: rape/CSA):

It's been implied on 2-3 occasions that Jason potentially engaged in some level of underage prostitution during the year he lived on the streets (inherently rape given his age and the circumstances). These (potential) references have always been exceptionally and intentionally vague, and could technically apply to things other than sexual assault. However, in the context they're mentioned in it generally makes sense for the incident(s) in question to be CSA.

The particular references in question happen in Green Arrow: Seeing Red, when Jason tries to relate to Mia Dearden (a human trafficking survivor and former sex worker) by saying that, like her, he "had to do bad things just to get by" as a kid, and Battle for the Cowl, when Bruce's "final message" to Jason references a "dark secret" that apparently fundamentally traumatized and broke Jason in a way that Bruce wasn't prepared to help fix.

Additionally, there's been some interesting fandom discussion on Canon!Jason's reactions to victims of sexual assault as well as his particular personal hatred for rapists and child traffickers and how that might point to currently unvoiced and unexplored trauma in Jason's childhood. Those have been covered by people far more knowledgable on the subject than me, so I'm not going to rehash those instances here.

I'm of two minds about the theory. On one hand, Jason being a survivor makes a tragically sad amount of sense given his backstory. It's far from a "reach" scenario and I think in the hands of someone who genuinely wanted to work with that kind of trauma and could do it justice, it would be a really interesting way to explore a few of Jason's motivations for being Robin and how that impacted his responses to crime victims, both as Robin and later on as Red Hood. I don't necessarily think there's anything inherently wrong with the theory given what we know and can reasonably speculate. It would add some interesting retrospective depth to his various interactions with sexual assault victims as Robin, especially the infamous Felipe Garzonas Incident, and could be interestingly used to provide nuance to Jason's personal crimefighting philosophy.

On the other hand, the way that it's actually been (theoretically) referenced in-canon and the way that it's often (not always, but often) talked about within the fandom feels more like trauma porn and adding in angst for the sake of angst than actually giving the topic the weight that it deserves, and I've never liked that. I also trust exactly zero writers at DC to deal with a plot of that nature sensitively, especially given how DC has treated Dick Grayson's and Tim Drake's sexual trauma over the past 20-30 years, and I trust fandom reaction even less.

I don't like how it would fall into the "let's sprinkle sexual assault and/or rape into this character's backstory, as if it isn't already bad enough!" trope that often pops up in comic books, and I ultimately think it wouldn't add enough to Jason's story to be worth the cost of doing it wrong. We already have more than enough tragic backstory and explicitly discussed motivations for Jason to last a lifetime, and he's already got enough childhood trauma to cope with; I genuinely don't think he needs any more heaped on top of it.

For those reasons, while I think it could be an interesting and potentially incredibly powerful addition to Jason's story in the hands of the correct writer, I'd rather just leave it as a speculative theory that angst-oriented fanfic writers deal with and keep it far away from canon.

#jason todd #asks #dc meta #batman meta #jason todd meta #also the concept of taking literally ANYTHING related to Jason in Battle for the Cowl seriously..........yikes

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desidarling123 · 4 years ago

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FACT CHECK: Did JKR sue people for writing Wolfstar fanfiction? [FALSE] [with sources]

So, if you're at all active in the HP fandom, and ESPECIALLY if you're on TikTok, you've likely come across a post or video claiming the following:

JKR LITERALLY SUED PEOPLE OVER WOLFSTAR FANFICTION! AND THAT'S ALSO WHY SHE MADE REMADORA CANON -- TO SPITE THE SHIPPERS!

I'm not sure who first started this claim or how its various permutations grew, but it spread at the speed of light across social media. This widely-circulated meme summarizes it:

For the LONGEST time, I didn't know what to make of it. The claims were vague enough that they seemed like they could be true -- after all, JKR is a megacunt and a renowned TERF. You don't need to fact-check either of those things.

But then -- for the first time ever -- I came across a video on TikTok claiming that what was being said was NOT true, and that it was being used SPECIFICALLY to stir up drama. Which was... crazy, to say least.

And that led me, well, to do my own research & fact-check. I've taken the original video's structure and added some exposition as well.

So here's the truth:

That 2003 case the above meme refers to? Not even REMOTELY what the situation was about. Hell, not even CLOSE.

In 2003, JKR sent a cease-and-desist letter to an explicit adult HP fan fiction website, called "Restricted Section". Here's the letter:

As the above letter states, the site was sent a notice because of overarching concerns that minors would accidentally stumble onto the sexually explicit content the site hosted after searching up 'Harry Potter'.

The hand-wringing over minor safety probably seems dated now, but it was, in fact, standard practice in the early 2000s - sexually explicit fan content was being removed across the internet for those exact concerns. In fact, just the year before, in 2002, fanfiction.net was purged of NC-17 content (which would happen one more time, in 2012).

I feel ridiculous stating it, but just to be clear -- in the above letter and all my subsequent research, there's NO evidence she went after Wolfstar -- or any ship, for that matter -- directly.

In fact, the letter goes an extra mile to declare that "our clients (JKR) make no complaint about innocent fan fiction written by genuine Harry Potter fans", but that, "there is plainly a very real risk that impressionable children... will be directed... to your sexually explicit website".

But that leads in nicely to the next point -- the website DIDN'T shut down, as per the letter's request. Instead, they added password protection to ensure only members older than 17 were accessing it.

OK, but why did JKR and Warner Bros go after this site in the first place? Most believe it was because of a widely-publicized article in THE SCOTSMAN that talked about the website. But, once again, this article doesn't go after Wolfstar in particular -- it only goes after Harry x Draco and Harry x Snape. The inclusion of latter was arguably what generated the biggest controversy -- the pairing of Harry, a fictional minor, with an adult character, in slash stories largely written by adult heterosexual women, was not one that could be cast in a good light to the general public. It's hardly a surprise JKR's lawyers sought to do something before the controversy got out of hand and worried parents started to make calls.

What I said before still goes, though. The legal core of the issue was ALWAYS to do NOT with the ships, but the EXPLICIT NATURE of the work -- and the (very real) concerns that the series' then-mostly-under-18 readership could find said works with very little as far as guardrails were concerned. (I know, because I was one of those kids)

TLDR; JKR did NOT sue people over Wolfstar fanfiction, she sent a cease-and-desist notice to a website that was not taking adequate precautions to prevent minors from accessing the explicit adult content on the site.

To be clear -- this is not meant to be a statement on what to ENJOY in your fandom ships. You can ship Wolfstar, Remadora, both, neither -- it really doesn't matter. I think the fandom is critical enough of the author to have reclaimed her work on our own terms, and people should be allowed to just, idk enjoy things.

But propagating straight-up falsehoods is dangerous, especially when it comes at the expense of 1) a safe fandom environment (see: the current fandom ship wars between Remadora and Wolfstar, which are difficult to watch) and 2) serves as a distraction from the ACTUAL garbage JKR engages in (of which there is plenty -- no need to make it up lol).

Also, truth be told -- inter-fandom ship wars don't generally add anything productive to the necessary conversations that need to be had about her works. The thought that dashing fan ships was a key motivator in her writing rather than, I don't know, plot concerns, is ludicrous on face, and gives fans a level of control over the original writer that just... doesn't exist IRL? And certainly didn't back then?

And again -- the books would have been VERY different series, plot-wise, if Sirius Black HAD lived. Him being in a relationship with Remus, confirmed or implied, has no relation to that decision.

If we have talk Harry Potter, I'd rather talk about just about anything else -- the racism, the misogyny, the lack of any sort of organic queer rep and JKR's inability to just own up to the problems in her works. But the minutiae of ship wars -- and the inevitable stream of disinformation that comes with it, sans any kind of concrete evidence -- is one I'd prefer to pass on.

SOURCES:

Cease-and-Desist Letter Copy: http://archive.is/HTLsq

THE SCOTSMAN Article: http://archive.is/VdEaY

Restricted Section Updates Page:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030815233612/http://www.restrictedsection.org/news.php

BONUS: The original TikTok video I came across whose structure and sources I shamelessly stole to read and build out my argument. I copied a lot of their wording because it explained it better than I could, you just get some bonus snarky commentary from yours truly

#wolfstar #remadora #atyd #all the young dudes #jk rowling #harry potter #fandom meta #fandom fact check

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rivalsforlife · 3 years ago

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Heyo since I finally read The Catch-Up Game (and really really loved it by the way) how about 1 and 5 for that?

Yesssss thanks so much JJ!! Glad you liked it, that's still one of my favorite things I've written!

1. What inspired you to write the fic this way?

"This way" is a little vague so I'll interpret it as I like. Mostly I wanted to write the fic the way I did because I was feeling pretty dissatisfied with my Phoenix characterization in other fics. He's a surprisingly difficult character to get a handle on, he's like just weird enough I had quite a bit of trouble writing him for a long time. I've always had this Problem of mine back when I did original writing where my protagonists would always end up sooooo bland in comparison to all the other characters, which is obviously a major problem because your protagonist should be the most interesting. And I found that carried over to a lot of my Phoenix characterizations in my earlier fics. Especially, like, writing a character from their POV and from someone else's POV ends up completely different, I find. I'd written mostly Edgeworth-POV narumitsu up to that point, and the way Edgeworth sees Phoenix is quite different from how Phoenix sees Phoenix. And while I'd had a couple of fics digging into Edgeworth a bit more as a sort of character study I didn't have anything going into depth with Phoenix at all.

Also I wrote the fic for narumitsu week 2020, which had the list of prompts I ended up basing the chapter titles off of. I have to confess here I wasn't... *super* satisfied with my narumitsu week 2019 fics, though I don't like to admit that because I know lots of people do like them (Childswap is still my 3rd highest kudos'd fic despite me constantly thinking I could've done it better.) I thought I might do better if I could write one giant fic instead of eight smaller fics, since that way I could spend more time getting invested in an overall story without feeling quite as rushed, if that makes sense?

I'm actually digging out my planning doc now, it's been a while since I looked at this, but I generally do a stream-of-consciousness brainstorming session so there's some interesting stuff in here. The existence of "pining" in the prompts meant this would probably be a "getting together" fic, but I had already written a few of those, and so has like... half the fandom. So I wanted to tackle my dissatisfaction with my previous Phoenix characterizations and try to dig deep into his character to try and make it unique. I wrote down the basic things that I thought were neat about Phoenix and unaddressed by canon that I wanted to explore (relationship trauma in general with regards to the Dahlia-Iris debacle but also general relationship abandonment issues stemming from as far back as the class trial that also are very associated with Edgeworth), picked a few plot beats that matched the prompts, and just kinda went from there.

5. What part was hardest to write?

Few things:

The rejected confession in chapter 5 was something I was so stressed about because I really, really didn't want it to come across as "drama for the sake of drama", you know. So it had to rely mostly on the previous chapter to support the weight, but the confession and Phoenix's rejection still had to stand on its own and be in character and not too melodramatic but also not too casual... etc. That was the part I was the most stressed about at first.

Then I got a huge number of comments reacting to that, dissecting Phoenix's motives, predicting what was going to happen next -- the big narumitsu discord was having live reactions and discussion sessions about it -- and don't get me wrong this was very fun I really enjoy when I write something people can engage with, especially to that level, but it was also very stressful for the rest of that week, because I had to hope the rest of the fic met people's expectations. I was posting this live during narumitsu week so there was no time to do a complete overhaul or really much editing if I wanted to change anything, since chapter 8 (the conclusion to most of this) was going to be posted in... two days, so I just had to ride it out and hope people didn't drop it because they were dissatisfied with how the rest of the story played out. And if anyone did, they didn't tell me, so I can pretend everyone liked it!

So yeah, the last part of chapter 8 where Phoenix explains himself to Edgeworth got a little tricky because I was looking at feedback from comments and trying to figure out what things I wanted to change and how. But that mostly amounted to a difference of a few lines. I also had trouble with chapter 7 -- again I worry it went too close to "drama for the sake of drama", the whole mafia subplot is kinda just forced in there and you can tell, but that's what I get for trying to write a well-edited fic in uhh three months. I go back and forth on the burning building thing still. I might do it differently if I were rewriting today, but a ton of people really liked that part, so I guess it can't be too bad?

Anyways I am rambling on for way too long. I did have a lot of fun with this fic. I think it's probably the one that got the most engagement and positive reception out of all the fics I wrote so that must mean other people had fun with it too, which is always an extremely satisfying feeling to have.

#asks #this got very rambly sorry I just really like talking about this stuff

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pathsofoak · 3 years ago

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Hey friend! You've been so cool sending me askss when I reblog ask games, that I thought I'd send you some OC/general writing questions, since I saw you're also working on a fanfic!

1. What usually inspires you to write fanfiction? is it a character, a concept, etc.?

2. Do you have multiple fandoms you write for? I see you're working on a Maze Runner fic, and while I haven't read the books the movies were pretty cool, and I was curious if you wrote about anything else. :3

For OCs:

1. What would make one of your OC's the happiest person in the world?

2. What are the "essentials" that your OC can't live without?

3. Do your OC's have rituals that other's may consider "weird" (i.e. the volume on everything has to be an even number or in increments of 5).

This got long, but I look forward to reading your answers! Thank you so much again for being so interactive on my blog!

Hoi!!! Thanks for the ask, I love getting them XD

Nine of out ten times what inspires me is some kind of 'what if?' question about the original plot (In the Cold Half's case, what if Thomas didn't escape at the end of the Death Cure?). Other times it's also a fix-it element (both, in my current WIP).

I have written for the MCU in the past (when I was 13/14 years old), but that is the only thing. I have also written some ATLA things, but I never finished or posted them. The Maze Runner is the first project I've spent more than a week on (eight months and counting!), and by my current pace it might take a year or more to fully be complete...

The Cold Half is entirely based off the movies though (just a few vague hints to the books), so it should work if you haven't read them.

As for the OC questions:

I think what would make Justin the happiest person in the world is seeing Chuck have a bit of the childhood he never had. He would the happiest he could be when he sees his brother smile and have fun without a constant threat or pile of guilt weighing him down.

For Dijken (I know you said one-of but I'm ignoring XD), it would be the knowledge that he helped get someone he cares about to safety, and he is part of doing that for more. Though, he also knows that a laid-back life without some grand goal isn't really on his path, since he is just so dedicated to fixing his wrongs and the harm he's been a part of.

Justin can't live without something that reminds him of home. Whether that is home in a literal sense, or his family. He has spent most of his childhood as a captive far away from home, and his parents and one of his brothers died when they had to leave an earlier home because of the Flare. Throughout those things he always had trinkets to keep him grounded. Even at Richard's (who held him captive), he had a pair of knitted socks he wore until they broke (which was actually what prompted him to run).

Dijken clings to a picture of his hometown, which despite the Netherlands' advanced infrastructure surrounding flood-risk, still flooded after the Sun Flares.

Dijken doesn't have strange rituals, but Justin has a few. This one isn't really strange per se, but Justin knits when he's stressed or needs a distraction. He also won't eat before he washed his plate (even if it was clean before), a leftover habit from living in a crowded area where the Flare spread like wildfire.

#D answers the asks #artsietango

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navree · 2 years ago

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If u coukd rewrite hotd what would u change qnd how would u rewrite it?

So, I'm gonna set some limits on myself and decide to follow the vague outline of the show, including the amount of time jumps. Ideally, if we lived in a fantasy land and I'd been made top showrunner (HBO it's not too late I don't need that much money), season 1 would have either been all Emily and Milly to really set everything up, or at the very least with the only time jump being the one between episode 5 and episode 6, and keep the rest of the season in the same timeline so we'd have had more time to develop the Velaryons and ESPECIALLY Jace and Luke and maybe get to see some post-Driftmark things like Aemond's recovery and the aftermath of Daemyra's marriage. But that's a larger undertaking that would require more extensive rewriting, so I'll just stick to the time frame and general plot of their episodes, and just add in my edits and tweaks and cuts and additions. Anything that isn't discussed, assume it's being kept the same as in the show. (And this isn't even taking into account that when I heard "House of the Dragon" I thought it was gonna start with Aegon's Conquest and I was really excited about that and had to temper my disappointment when I realized that wasn't what I was getting).

Episode One - I wouldn't actually change all that much about the pilot, since I think it was actually pretty solid all throughout. The things I would change are a) a different introduction scene for Daemon and Mysaria, or at maximum just cut it, because it doesn't really serve much purpose in the narrative and b) there's no stupid fucking prophecy. I'm not against the idea that Aegon might have had ulterior motives beyond simple Conquest, and we know that Targaryens are capable of having prophetic abilities, but no this should not have been a secret passed down through generations for some fucking reason because that's stupid. And most importantly, considering that HOTD needed to succeed in spite of Game of Thrones, not because of it, because of how awful the last season was and how immediately it faded from the public consciousness and stopped being relevant as a result, the show should honestly not be so frequently be calling back to a disappointing aspect of the show. "A Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne" ok but she wasn't and the Long Night ended because some rando had a good ten yard jump according to D&D cuz they wanted to "subvert expectations" stop reminding me of that if I want to be enjoying this new show. Also, we need to set up Rhaenys more, and her issues with being passed over. She needed a scene for herself beyond the tourney, maybe after Aemma's funeral.

Episode Two - Again, don't have the most complaints for this episode either, and most of what I'd change would be adding back in all those scenes they deleted. Keep Criston's induction into the Kingsguard so we can see how sacred it is and how seriously we take it, keep the apparent argument that happens between Alicent and Rhaenyra after Viserys announces the wedding (and have someone remember that seasons can last YEARS in this world so he needs to be more concrete than just saying "at spring's end" when it comes to the wedding), and especially that scene of Rhaenyra helping Alicent get ready for the wedding and that conversation about whether this is what Alicent wants, and I assume her noncommittal answer that's answer enough. I'd also tweak the Dragonstone stuff, keep Daemon and Mysaria's conversation and even the fact that Daemon lied about having a child, but make a lot more comments about how this is mostly an attempt to get Viserys's attention (I know some people find Ryan's interpretation that Daemon's primary motivator in grooming Rhaenyra was just to get the closest thing to Viserys that he could, but I really like it, I think it shows again that Targaryens aren't socialized to view their siblings as siblings, it adds depth to Daemon and his occasional poor little meow meow tendencies, and it'd be an interesting look into Targaryen/Valyrian culture that incest wouldn't be the main issue, same sex attraction would). Daemon should also get in a fight with one of Otto's men on the bridge, someone who's acting too quickly, and we can see Daemon's martial prowess and how deadly he is with Dark Sister outside of the lists. Rhaenyra needs to also work a lot harder to get him to give the dragon egg back, and chiefly, we need to see her relying on Otto more for advice on what to say, like at the Kingsguard scene, so that we can see that Rhaenyra doesn't yet know who might have her best interests at heart, contrasted with Otto's master scheming, and explain why she's so much more hellbent to get him out of KL in later episodes, when she realizes that he doesn't. I'd also maybe add in a scene between Alicent and Criston, maybe after she and Viserys are engaged, maybe having her attend to Kingsguard ceremony and give him a little welcome present she stitched because she's a lil cutie.

Episode Three - This is where things start changing. For one, Rhaenyra and Alicent aren't at odds yet. They're distant, they're uncomfortable and don't know how to talk to each other, but it's more in line with how they feel not just in the OG ep 4 but also in this new timeline where they have that moment before the wedding. For two, my God no White Hart. It's the hokiest of the hoky, it's giving The Last Unicorn, it's giving that one stupid scene from the Kristen Stewart Snow White movie, it's giving baby's first fantasy attempt. We can keep the hunt, and that other deer that Viserys kills and his struggle with it, to show the extending rot in him and that the Targaryens are starting to lose the mandate of Heaven, and we should especially keep the scene with the boar and Rhaenyra. I actually liked that scene, how it's after Rhaenyra is told she needs to marry and breed despite not wanting to, and then an aggressive male pig tries to kill her by forcing himself down on her, and she responds by viciously stabbing it over and over (and also when she said that the boars sound like kids when they die, and we see her having issues with Aegon, and then she kills the boar and hears it die without struggling with it? that's good, that's really good). We should keep Rhaenyra feeling displaced and out of sorts at the attention Aegon is getting and how it seems everyone's disregarding her, or, as one anon put it in a way that still makes me giggle, Rhaenyra being upset at a toddler that he's the protagonist of his own birthday. The stuff between Rhaenyra and Criston can stay the same, and once again, we need another scene between Alicent and Criston, maybe discussing Rhaenyra and whether she's all right. A scene between a knight and a queen with all that formality, but clearly Alicent trying to bridge that gap because she's lonely and she likes him. Once back at KL, we're gonna get that scene where Rhaenyra feels she's gonna be replaced by Aegon, but it's not going to be with Viserys, it's going to be with Alicent. Alicent, possibly after talking with Criston, can go to Rhaenyra, or maybe summon her, cuz she's pregnant and doesn't wanna exercise too much but Rhaenyra can mistake that as Alicent pulling rank, and talk. And that's when Rhaenyra explodes and says that she knows that Otto and Viserys are planning to replace her with Aegon, and it's Alicent who says no because she's still gonna have that scene with Otto where she defends Rhaenyra's claim cuz she wants to keep that friendship. It's not Viserys who says Rhaenyra won't ever be replaced, because Viserys shouldn't say that. Having Viserys constantly reaffirm Rhaenyra's status in private is baffling when you see how he doesn't do anything about it publicly, so we should keep the book thing where he's trying to keep everyone happy, and is either too lazy or too inept to realize the problems it's causing by not falling one way or another. He's not going to reaffirm shit, he's gonna keep the situation as is and, you know, set the seeds for confused succession and civil war.

As to the Stepstones: not getting it. I understand why they wanted it, they want a Game of Thrones style battle sequence, and to show off Daemons' martial prowess (hence why I added a scene of him dueling on the bridge in ep 2, since we're gonna cut all of this), but the Crabfeeder and that whole Stepstones arc is such a nothing problem and doesn't come back in any way and just seems like a forgotten plot. So we'll see Corlys and Laenor in the Stepstones at a war council, to show Corlys's ability and develop Laenor, but Daemon is going to get scenes at Driftmark. He's gonna, idk, bring tidings or some shit to Rhaenys, so we can show her actually in the show since she's a main character, and have her sum up some of the situations at court to Daemon, to show her shrewdness and her capability (since she's supposed to have been better suited to politics than Viserys). This is also where we're gonna get two things: Laena and Vhagar. We're getting that scene where Laena claims Vhagar as a young woman, and Daemon's gonna see it, and he might have a flirtatious conversation with her, something to set up their eventual romance. And for anyone asking why, well this is my rewrite and like Daemon and Laena and I wanted them to get more set up than they did. And it can contrast how Daemon, a man, can flirt with someone he actually desires even though he's married, while Alicent is stuck in a marriage against her will that's tearing her relationship with Rhaenyra apart, while Rhaenyra is still being forced to eventually marry, though she can choose her suitor.

Episode Four - This is another episode I like, so I wouldn't change a whole lot about it. Most of it I'd keep, but I'll add a couple things. We're adding Laena and her betrothed, the Sea Lord of Braavos ('oh but why' it's a surprise tool that can help us later), at court, so we can keep up the tension between her and Daemon, which Rhaenyra might remark on, and that's why she's both more willing to follow him into KL and also why she's angry at him after his abandonment, not just because that's some vile shit he pulled, but also assuming that it's because he wants Laena, not her, even though that flirtation hasn't extended past conversations and discussions of dragons now that Laena has Vhagar. Rhaenys is at court as well, now that Corlys is at Driftmark, so we should get more scenes of her to showcase her abilities as a politician. There should also be a scene with Larys where Rhaenyra might be rude or dismissive of him, maybe not unintentionally but doing it nonetheless, in contrast to Alicent's whole "yeah you can hang out with us Larys" thing during the hunt, to explain why he wants to cause problems for Rhaenyra other than, idk, the cripple is shifty because being crippled means he has to rely on his wits and he's devious because he wishes he wasn't crippled, that whole bullshit. And during the scene between Otto and Viserys (after Rhaenyra has more reason to want Otto fired because she felt he was a false friend in ep 2), when Viserys does his whole thing about Alicent being a manipulation, Otto, already knowing that his job is lost, might fire back (respectfully, but still) about how she was a manipulation Viserys was more than happy to receive. And Viserys, confronted with his own complicity but as always, not wanting to do anything about it, ends the conversation and firmly tells Otto he has to leave King's Landing. And also still no prophecy, Viserys just pulls rank and tells Rhaenyra that after this shit she's marrying Laenor cuz he's king and he says so.

Episode Five - As much as I hate it, let's keep Daemon killing Rhea. There can maybe be more ambiguity about what he actually meant to do, along with new ambiguity about why he's doing it (does he hate her? is he trying to get viserys's attention again? is it to marry rhaenyra like he said he wanted last episode? is it because of this budding Thing with laena? is he just a bastard? is it a combination of all of these?). We'll keep the Driftmark stuff largely the same, though when Corlys does his whole "the crown was stolen from you" thing, rather than Rhaenys saying she doesn't care after we know she does care, we keep the fact that she cares and is still upset with it, because we've had more episodes with her and more content of her being bitter, but her issue is in dragging Laenor into it and potentially putting their children at risk. The stuff in King's Landing is going to be largely the same as well, just with some added gravitas to the Alicole conversation because we've spent more time with them developing a relationship. The big change is going to come during the rehearsal dinner. Because it's a rehearsal dinner, Rhaenyra won't be wearing white, but the red and black colors of House Targaryen, so that we can understand why her side is called "the Blacks" while Alicent's is called "the Greens". We should have Alicent give a smile to her Hightower relatives, but the person who does that "we're glad you're growing strong" talk with her should be Tyland, so that we've now got the bones for all of the allies Alicent'll have for when Aegon takes the throne. Daemon'll show up doing his white boy swagger, and he'll have his dance with Laena and his sexual tension with Rhaenyra, and we'll have Joffrey needle Criston. Also there should be at least one really frosty conversation between Rhaenyra and Alicent, maybe in between the dancing, where Rhaenyra realizes Alicent knows that she lied and Alicent makes it clear, even after the stepdaughter comment, that she's cutting Rhaenyra off.

But remember what I said before about how the Sea Lord of Braavosv is at court with Laena because they're engaged. Well, in the book, Daemon insults him until they have a duel, upon which Daemon kills him and then marries Laena. We're keeping that, and that's the fight at the wedding, but here's the thing: obviously Kingsguard are going to get involved because a foreign ruler and the brother of the King are dueling with swords at a wedding among civilians (including the princess, so we can keep that scene with Harwin because it's fun), and at some point Joffrey can get involved too while Criston's already trying to at least keep people out of the way, and that's when he snaps. Criston still beats Joffrey to death in a rage, but no one notices given what's going on. Then this is where Viserys passes out, shocking everyone, and Daemon gets his kill shot in on the Sea Lord and leaves while everyone's too stunned, and Criston leaves too, horrified but what he's done and how he's completely soiled his cloak, and we get that amazing moment of Laenor wailing over Joffrey's body because that was very affecting. Then we get the wedding, but Viserys isn't there for it cuz he's already passed out and is in the hands of the maesters. We see Alicent save Criston, but this time with the actual conversation involved, have her kneel on the ground and take the knife from him to highlight that Criston thinks she's just the angel brought down to Earth. Have a moment after the wedding where Laenor and his parents decide to sit vigil for Joffrey, and Rhaenyra go to find Alicent but doesn't know where she is (with Criston) and then goes to thank Harwin, to hint at the eventual romance between them. Episode ends with Daemon saddling Caraxes, ready to ride away before someone thinks "hey maybe we should imprison the guy who killed a foreign ally's leader", and then suddenly a great shadow blocks out the sun. Suddenly Vhagar lands in front of him, Laena atop her, and Daemon thinks, oh shit is she gonna try and fight me for killing her betrothed? He's still on the ground, and suddenly Laena climbs down from Vhagar to join him there. She doesn't say anything, but she smiles at him, and Daemon bends to kiss her hand. This is an episode that's scene people throwing their lots one way or another, and now Laena and Daemon are doing it too, to themselves. Interspersed with a moment of Alicent and Rhaenyra at Viserys's sickbed, each on an opposite side and still in their signature colors, the court gathered there too (the Velaryons minus Laenor and Harwin and other Team Blacks behind Rhaenyra, the Hightowers and Lannisters and Criston behind Alicent), Vhagar and Caraxes fly off, almost dancing, into the night. Idk the episode ends with maybe baby Helaena and lil Aegon starting to cry. Part one ending with dragons in the air and children in our ears, to remind us what this show is really going to be: a war of succession that ends with the dragons gone.

Episode Six - Anyway, ten years pass. The first shot isn't Rhaenyra graphically giving birth, cuz I don't want it. Instead, we're gonna see a dragon egg warmed over the fire, and it's gonna be Jacacerys and Lucerys and Laenor waiting in the adjacent chamber, probably having some sort of exposition talk so that we know what's going on and who these kids are. We can hear Rhaenyra doing that screaming birth thing, but one of the first things we see as that her two kids obviously don't look like Laenor, they don't even look like her. We can keep the stuff about Alicent wanting to see the kid and Rhaenyra being petty and bringing her baby herself, and most of the stuff about this episode, not just in KL but also in Pentos with Laena and Daemon. However, we're not going to have anything about Daemon being a distant father (for a reason), or about Daemon regretting marrying Laena. He's a bit directionless, but happy enough, and Rhaena's issues are largely her own because she's a kid and she sees that her twin has something and wants to know why she can't. Since we still need to adhere to stuff we know happened, Laena's still gonna unfortunately die in childbirth, but I'm mixing the show and book versions. We can keep a scene where Daemon refuses a C-section to contrast what happened with Aemma and Viserys, but she still manages to give birth like in the book, though like in the book the baby doesn't survive and she gets childbed fever. And it's in that fever that she goes to Vhagar, weak and knowing she's dying, to ask Vhagar to kill her so she can go out on her own terms. Scene largely plays out the same, but there's more urgency to Daemon when he realizes she's gone, to go along with the fleshed out relationship they have. And when he sees it, he's clearly deeply upset, and we're going to get the scene of him comforting his daughters, since I'm still really annoyed they cut that.

Important changes however, are twofold. For one, it's Lucerys who's going to be showing the most issue with apparently not being Laenor's son, but Harwin's, to give him an emotional through line to work with since we spend the least time with him. For two, the Greens kids. Largely, I'll keep most things the same, that Aegon seems to see himself as an older brother to all of them and helps out with dragon stuff and has a friendship with Rhaenyra's sons (especially Jace, he and Jace should be pretty close), Helaena should still be a dragondreamer, and Aemond should still have been bullied by Aegon and the Velaryons. But. For one, Helaena's getting more personality. She's a dragondreamer, yeah, and I'd keep this coding they're giving her when it comes to autism, but that scene with her and Alicent should have her just kinda babbling and hyperfixating, wanting to talk about her special interest and maybe not necessarily registering Alicent's constant "uh huh" as she tries to follow along, so that we can see more of Helaena's personality, along with her small prophecies later in the scene with regards to Aemond. For two, I'm adding a scene where Aegon goes to Aemond after the Pink Dread thing. He's clearly doing it because Alicent told him to apologize, he's uncomfortable and kinda surly and Aemond's still upset at him, but Aegon tries and does a whole "hey, you'll get a dragon, you can tame a wild one on Dragonstone or something". Neither of them are comfortable in that moment but Aegon is trying to be big brotherly in that way that seems to come more naturally when he's helping the Velaryons, and Aemond's clearly trying to appreciate it. It's so that we can get that same sense that, yeah, these relationships are a bit screwy and these people are all weird but they are still ride or die for each other. The essence of that Alicent line; they can cuff each other as much as they want at home, but they also need to defend each other.

The last scene of the Velaryons should be them preparing to leave for Dragonstone, on top of the world, when they get the twofold news about both Laena and Harwin, interspersed with that scene between Alicent and Larys. And maybe, if I'm allowed to be self indulgent, while at Harrenhal we get a brief, just barely there first glimpse of Alys, for me because I want it since I love her.

Episode Seven - Driftmark I'll play out largely the same, since as much as I hate the choices characters made, it was good storytelling and important anyway. Small changes include Daemon not cracking up at his wife's funeral for no reason, and we're going to hear Vhagar screaming when Aemond gets his eye stabbed out. Some bigger changes are going to include Rhaenyra being more visibly upset that Harwin is dead, along with Lucerys, to tie into his arc about feeling out of place, and that Rhaenyra and Daemon's sex is less about "giving into their ultimate desires" and more an entire mishmash of feelings, desires they've felt and grief for their respective dead loved ones and the two of them seeking power in that moment as well. We're also going to make Jace more of a mediator in that fight between Aemond and the other kids, trying hard to de-escalate it when Baela and Rhaena attack and Luke and Aemond escalating it, and it's Luke who has the knife, not Jace. Jace is still involved, since he also understands the Strong insult, but as the eldest of the four he's the one who most understands that this can turn bad quickly. Additionally, when shit goes down in the throne room, it's largely the same, but while Rhaenys and Corlys protect the Velaryon kids, it's Aegon and Helaena who move to stand in front of Aemond, since he's their baby brother after all and their mother's main protector is trying to get to her and being blocked by Daemon. There's not gonna be a scene between Alicent and Viserys cuz I don't know what that scene was meant to serve.

Lastly, sorry but Laenor needs to die. Like, actually die. It'll foreshadow how ruthless Daemon and Rhaenyra are in their pursuit of power, one of the things that draws them to each other, it gives more weight to Rhaenys and Corlys and their eventual rift, and honestly Laenor's death not being legit is just such a massive plothole. How is Seasmoke free if Laenor isn't actually dead? Did no one ever notice Laenor in the Free Cities ever? Laenor was just fine abandoning his family after they'd already lost Laena? He was fine abandoning the kids he'd raised for ten years? And when he heard about the Dance he never once tried to come back to help them and let them all die, his mother and former wife and the kids they raised? Yeah, no, it doesn't make sense, Rhaenyra and Daemon are just gonna cold blood kill Laenor, and the vibe of the wedding is gonna be less Romance and more about power and old magic, with more emphasis on the blood sacrifices and the flashes to what's happening to Laenor, along with the kids looking weirded out considering that this is way too soon.

Episode Eight - The big thing is that this episode is gonna start with Vaemond's death, and it's going to be much more book accurate. He's going to be talking to Rhaenys about the situation, and then Daemon shows up, in his Crime Hoodie, and kills him (we can keep that he does it from behind so that Vaemond can't fight back). Daemon's spotted leaving by his daughters and we realize that there's a bit of a rift. Both of his daughters live on Driftmark with Rhaenys, and there's clearly love there, though a bit strained because they clearly left due to the swiftness of his marriage to Rhaenyra. On Dragonstone, we see Vaemond's corpse fed to Syrax, and we also see Lucerys kinda being an angry teenager, since his right to Driftmark is being questioned, just a lot more ill at ease than we saw in the show. In contrast, Jacaerys is more comfortable, and instead of learning Valyrian he's teaching it to Aegon and Viserys, who are their normal ages and not little babies because that makes no sense (and Jahaerys and Jahaera and Maelor are all their book ages as well). Rhaenyra's also further along in her preganncy than we see, so that we can see the urgency of why they all go to KL when they get called there to discuss the succession by Otto and Alicent, as well as Vaemond's murder. Meanwhile, in the city, I am keeping Dyana, since as I've said it's a good scene for what it shows us about Alicent and also the world of the court at large, but I'm changing the perpetrator. Instead of Aegon, it's a Hightower guardsman that Alicent has thrown unilaterally in the black cells, to demonstrate to the audience her ultimate power. Aegon's issue is that he is indeed drunk in the middle of the day, and he won't really seem to care about Dyana and what happened even though she's nursemaid to his kids, and that's why Alicent's disappointed in him and where we see that he's a layabout. Aemond's intro is the same, cuz that was good, and I'd also add a scene between Aegon and Helaena with their kids so we can see Aegon's fondness for children (foreshadowing), as well as first hear Helaena's beast beneath the boards prophecy and see more into the dynamics of their marriage, that it's strained because of personalities but they work better when they treat each other as siblings rather than spouses.

There's gonna be more emphasis on Daemon and Viserys, on that relationship, with Rhaenyra and Viserys's more formal, since we nixed any rapprochements in episode 3 and we're not doing the prophecy to bind them together, while leaning more on that idea of Daemon likely loving Viserys the most (and yes keeping the crown thing in the throne room I don't even like Viserys but that scene got to me). The difference is that the issues settled in the throne room aren't just Luke's succession, with Rhaenys being more neutral and just saying she will do what the king wills, which allows the betrothals to move forward (and Luke is the one doing his own arguing, so that we can see more of him and see his anger at having to do this), but also about the Silent Five (for non-book readers, these were five Velaryons who were upset at Vaemond's murder and went to court for justice). One of them likely does that whole "her children are bastards and she is a whore" thing, and in general is way more disrespectful to Rhaenyra than he needs to be, and they're all pressing their own claims, and Viserys does what he does in the book and orders their tongues removed. The feast is also gonna be a mishmash of changes and keeps. For one, the first toaster after Viserys's speech (which doesn't go over as warmly as the Greens kids clearly are angry at him about being a shit dad, even Helaena they should all be sharing a look) is going to be Daemon. Daemon will raise a cup to Viserys, to his brother, call him a good kind as a callback to when he called him a weak king in the first episode. Then that inspires Rhaenyra and Alicent, whose toasts are largely the same. Helaena's toast can be kinda the same, just so we can keep Otto going "good" after she sits down. The key differences are that Jace is going to ask Baela to dance, since they're engaged, and there'll be a scene where Daemon sits himself next to Viserys and the two talk as brothers, on friendly terms once again. Rhaenyra and Alicent share a smile, and then Viserys leaves cuz sick. The Strong toast proceeds largely the same, except what motivates Aemond isn't the pig (Lucerys here is more surly and just generally kinda upset about how he had to defend his claim), but Jace asking Helaena to dance next to provoke Aegon, which sets him off and Aemond does that stand thing that he did earlier in the original ep. And then he makes the excuse for the Strong boys toast, and things go largely the same after that.

And as I've mentioned before, I really hate that Rhaenyra never found out what happened to her mother, so let's change that. After Alicent gives Viserys his medicine, Rhaenyra arrives to say goodbye to him, Alicent and Rhaenyra sharing another silent, almost warm moment before Alicent leaves. And Viserys, addled again, mistakes Rhaenyra for Aemma, and starts going on about how much he missed her, how he hopes she forgives him. Rhaenyra's confused but eventually Viserys's babbling goes on long enough for her to realize what happened, and exactly what he did. And she's horrified, shocked and angry and upset, and tells Viserys she doesn't forgive him, both to hurt him and also because maybe she doesn't, after what she's had to deal with in being the heir to the throne and stealing Alicent and not doing anything about the succession and causing all these problems and also for apparently killing her mother. She leaves then, and Viserys dies alone, the victim of all the awful choices that he made because he was too passive to try his hand at anything. And most importantly, no prophecy, since we nixed that, and no mix-up, he just dies.

Episode Nine - Since there's no prophecy mix-up, Alicent's been involved since the beginning of planning to put Aegon on the throne, and it's clear in the planning stage she wasn't that concerned with what would happen to Rhaenyra after the fall out at Driftmark. But now, she's more aligned with that "what of Rhaenyra" sentiment we see in the show. I'm not changing much for the bulk of the episode, but I am changing the stupid child fighting pits. They exist, yeah, but we don't go there because Aegon likes to watch the fights. We're going there because one of the places where they're held is also the home of a former prostitute who has a bastard of Aegon's (Gaemon perhaps?) and more importantly, while we're there we see Mysaria and we see big, hulking man in a bloody butcher's apron and a huge sword (FORESHADOWING I think we all know who that might be). I might add a scene of the three Green kids after Aegon's found, just a small moment of the three of them, not entirely sure what they'd talk about or if they'd even talk at all instead of just being together, but I want a moment for them. Ideally, I'd make the coronation book accurate, with Sunfyre's flight and Alicent crowning Helaena herself, but as I said I'm making myself stick to the framework of the show, so...

Coronation happens, Rhaenys busts in the through the floor. Everything stays the same up until the roar. After that happens, and Alicent looks up at Rhaenys, they share a glance and maybe...maybe she will...But then we hear a dragon call and descending from the rafters (since we know dragons can make burrows up there, like Viserions did in ADWD) is Sunfyre, flying down to get in front of this hostile dragon and his Aegon, majestic as anything in all his glory, and ready to throw the fuck down. And that's what inspires Rhaenys to leave, realizing this isn't the moment for a fight and she could get trounced, especially as we hear rumbles from within the Dragonpit (Dreamfyre) and a different dragoncall from outside (Vhagar). Rhaenys flies off, and as the doors finally close us to black we hear the sound of all three dragons together, and episode ends.

Episode Ten - Again, another episode where I wouldn't change much. We're making the circumstances of Visenya's birth more book accurate, with Rhaenyra screaming at her to get out and cursing her for a monster, and we'll keep in that scene between Rhaenys and Baela, Baela staying as a matter of principle and because she does love her father and knows that this is the endgame for him. Rhaenys and Corlys also ally with Rhaenyra not because they suddenly prefer her and think she's a good ruler, but because they know that this is the side Rhaena and Baela will choose, and they're the last family they have, the last reminders of their dear children, and so they stay for them, and hope that Rhaenyra knows what she's doing. And since there's no prophecy, that's not what gets Daemon angry enough to get violent, it's specifically that Rhaenyra is thinking of taking Otto's terms and Daemon just goes "no you can't do that to us, to me", all angry like. And he doesn't grab her by the throat, maybe just hard by the arms and shakes her, and Rhaenyra forcefully pushes him and pulls rank on him in that moment, reminding him that, even if she does capitulate, until she does she is Daemon's sworn queen and will not touch her that way. And Daemon's just left kinda gobsmacked, before whirling around and leaving to go to Vermithor, and Rhaenyra takes a vulnerable moment.

I'd also add a scene between Jace and Luke, Jace in this episode I'd keep largely the same, and Luke as well, but with the added surliness and issues he has, and it's Jace who finally snaps him out of it. Jace tells Luke what he himself has always known, that their power comes from their mother, their Queen, and that they're Targaryens before anything else. Jace also says that, if he doesn't have a son, Luke will be his heir, not because he's a Velaryon or a Strong but because he is a Targaryen, Rhaenyra's Targaryen son, Jace's Targaryen brother. And that gives Luke the push he needs to go all in, and then fly to Storm's End after a final conversation with his mother. And Storm's End I'd keep entirely the same, I like all of that and I like how that ends the season and what the means for everyone, especially Aemond going forward.

There's a lot more I would change if I wasn't keeping myself beholden to the episodes and overall structure of the show, as I said I'd probably do less time jumps and do a lot more development of the Strongs and more of the interpersonal relationships between people, and just really slow everything down, to say nothing again of what I actually wanted the show to be about. But all in all, yeah, if I'm beholden to what the show's done and just how would I change and rewrite within those constraints, this is by and large how I would do it.

#personal #answered #anonymous #house of the dragon #this got hideously long but honestly i cut it down #if i'd done a complete 'let's start over from scratch' thing we'd have been here for days #this deadass took me three hours to type out in its entirety #but here ya go have hotd amelie edition

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