#i thought i'd post a more general / vague one for those i'm not plotting with but was still interested

[devilstaste]

THIS STARTER IS NOW CLOSED.

open to: f. muse: fythos. god of w*r. centuries old. l.eo s.uter fc. plot: based on this. feel free to jump into my ims if you want to plot this out or move it over to d*scord. connection: lover, sister, daughter, niece, and anything else that works. t*boo or platonic connections welcome. your muse can be a fellow god or a demigod, a human, or another type of creature/being. do not like this starter.

with the crackling of the fire radiating the home, the god knew she could not have wandered too great a distance, but after many weeks parted from her, she was still too far away for his liking. with a deep sigh, fythos strolled out into the starred night, his eyes scanning the serene and safe corner of the realm he had claimed for the pair to reside in. his personal haven. somewhere and someone he could return to after countless blood had been spilled and yet another war had been won in the name of his kind. ❝ i told you not to stray far from the house, ❞ the male warned as a greeting, finally finding his target in the outer reaches of their expansive garden. the low scratch of his voice lacked warmth but instinctively his rough fingers reached towards her face, stopping short of making contact with her flesh and instead curling into palm as he dragged his closed fist back to his side. such impure hands didn't belong on so precious an entity. ❝ what are you doing out here at this hour? ❞

[sarahlizziewrites]

Writeblr for newbies

So you joined Tumblr to talk about your writing. Maybe you're published and you want to promote your works, or maybe you're wanting a supportive community of fellow writers, or maybe you're just writing for the hell of it and want to show the world your blorbos.

Welcome!!

Being a part of the writing side of Tumblr is a little bit like being in kindergarten and all the kids are talking about their imaginary friends to each other. Except some of the kids have published stories about their imaginary friends in real books you can buy. It's so cool.

I have made some wonderful friends on Writeblr, I've ARC'd and beta'd books for people, and I've gotten a lot of warm fuzzies from sharing my snippets and my characters. It's somewhere between self-promo and group therapy, but it doesn't feel like either. It feels like a wonderful community of writers supporting each other.

The Writeblr lingo can seem a little intense at first so I thought I'd set up a guide. If I've missed anything lmk!

WIP - stands for 'work in progress' (plural: WIPs). Any piece of writing (or poetry, or any kind of art) that isn't completed yet. This might be the first draft of a story, or the nth draft of your novel, or the not-yet-posted chapter of the fanfiction you're writing. WIP is a state of mind: it might be nearly complete, or it might just be an idea with a few hundred words attached to it. Talk about it as much or as little as you want.

WIP intro - a totally optional (and honestly a lot of hard work sometimes lol) post explaining the main themes/background/plot/characters of your WIP. Something you can link people to so they good a good idea of your WIP and what it's about. Similarly, character intro, for individual characters within a WIP, often with art/picrews.

Tag game - the lifeblood of Writeblr! In its most basic form, someone tags you in a game, you play the game, then tag other people you want to play the game. Lots of people do 'open tags', which you can also pick up. These games can range from making picrews of your characters to posting a snippet or multiple snippets. A few common ones at the moment (these change often!) are: Find the Word (the tagger gives you words to find in your WIP, you post a short snippet for each word, then give the people you tag new words to find); Last Line (you post the last line(ish) you wrote, or wrote recently); 9 Lines 9 People (post 9(ish) recent lines, tag 9(ish) people). There are so many more, and new ones being created all the time.

Blorbo - your OC (original character) that lives in your mind rent-free. The one(s) you would commit war crimes for. You know the one I'm talking about. In addition, blorbo trading and sharing is encouraged in the Writeblr community.

Ask game - a post that you reblog, usually containing a list of prompts or questions, that encourages your followers to ask those questions in your ask box. It is friendly to drop an ask from the game to the person you reblogged the post from.

Weekly asks - if you've asked to take part, questions about your writing in your inbox, related to a certain day of the week. There's Worldbuilding Wednesday (WBW), which are questions about worldbuilding, Blorbo Blursday (OC questions), and Storyteller Saturday (STS), questions about writing in general. These questions can be very generic and vague, or can be about specific characters/stories.

Pinned Post - basically, an 'about' page. Talk about yourself, your WIPs, the kinds of things you like, whether you want to be involved in Writeblr games, whether your asks are open. You don't need one, but it can be a handy reference point for your followers.

Taglist - sometimes, Tumblr posts get lost on the dash. If you are interested in a particular WIP, ask the author if you can be put on their taglist, so you can get notified every time they post about it. They will love you for it, seriously!

Overall, on Writeblr, it is always encouraged:

to talk about your stories and characters as much as you like. People might not follow along at first, but they'll get on board!

to reblog others' writing/snippets/promo. We're all relying on each other for our sanity here, and a nice comment in the tags never goes amiss either!

I'm sure I've missed something - feel free to add!

[leoruby-draws]

Next up is Owen Mercer aka Boomerang Jr, son of Captain Boomerang and the speedster of the TrWh Outlaw team! Get ready for another long post you guys, god my hands are hurting this week arrughhh.

Owen's a fun character to draw and has a fun personality in general. He's more angsty and dark in the comics but since Digger finds out about him early on, Owen's much more happy in this au. Digger and Owen have a fantastic father-son relationship and Owen really looks up to him. Digger is so happy he found Owen but is kinda frantic on how to raise him, being a villain isn't the best job for a dad. Not sure what age Digger discovers him, maybe 10 or so?

That mini version of Digger's outfit is what Owen would've worn if he was discovered even younger (he's 4-6 in that doodle), preteen Owen would've found that outfit a bit too silly for his tastes tho.

Honestly I'm not sure if Owen even lives with him, since Digger is a rogue and probably in jail more often than not, Owen might still be in foster care. I don't remember if Owen was shown to be adopted in the comics, he was already shown to be an adult. Btw, concerning Owen's age*, I'm slightly lowering his age to better fit with Jason's age group (he's 12 to Jason's 10). He, along with Jack Moore, are the oldest of the team, too bad Owen doesn't care about acting his age!

While Owen loves hanging out with his father, he also likes to hang out with the Flash aka Barry Allen. Barry has been mentoring Owen on and off (much to Wally's dismay) and has been slowly pushing him towards heroism. He's knows Owen's got a good heart and see's that he has the potential to access the speedforce. Owen's a character that's caught between two worlds, rogue and hero. Does he want to follow in his father's footsteps or go follow Barry?

What a conundrum, but this is a problem he had in the comics. His struggle to figure what to do with his life. Actually, I think I heard somewhere he was actually created with the intent to replace Wally as the Flash but they dropped that plot point, leaving him adrift in the comics. Let me know if that's wrong tho!

Captain Cold aka Leonard Snart isn't helping matters as you can see in that vague threat up there, I'd like to better define that relationship between those two but I'd need to read more comics with Leonard to do that.

Here I have Owen with some of his friends and his dad. I said in my last post with Rankorr, that he and Owen's friendship is a nod towards the famous Green Lantern/Flash partnership. Owen's always trying to get Jack to loosen up and have fun, Jack sometimes finds this annoying but is slowly letting Owen in his life. You can see up there Owen giving Jason a ride someplace, bet Jason wishes he took the bus lol.

You can see Owen gushing over Para Dice, his canonical girlfriend from Rebirth. Owen at some point meets her in Australia and has an instant crush on her. Para is a rather mysterious girl, but has taken a liken to Owen as well. Still too young for a proper romance tho, plus Owen would need to sharpen up his speed skills if he wants to make this LDR work.

There's Digger training Owen in the art of the boomerang, rogue or hero, any son of Cap. Boomerang will be a learn to toss a good boomerang!

Another drawing of these two, aren't they adorable?

Here's Owen bother poor Lisa Snart aka Golden Glider. Owen can be a little insensitive, tho he's never actually malicious in intent (usually). Always thought it was weird that Lisa was considered a candidate for Owen's mother, she didn't seem old enough for that (Owen was like early twenties). Anyways Lisa thinks he's an annoying little twerp...

...and not the only one. Here's Owen bothering poor Jesse. Also you can see I messed up on her shirt design, wasn't really thinking about what I was drawing I guess. I do that sometimes lol.

On the nature of Owen's and Jason's relationship, they seem to quite like each other. Neither of them had many friends before the team, and find easy camaraderie in having simple boyish fun together, which is something they kinda needed in life. You'll sometimes see them making complex plans for the next prank (Lori is invited as well).

In team dynamics, Jason can find Owen tendency to not take fights seriously kinda annoying. While Owen can sometimes disregard Jason's leadership (should Jason be leader that day I mean) due to him being younger. Friction isn't common between them though, perhaps because they got a lot in common.

From being caught between opposing morality, difficulty in finding a niche in the DC comics, even in trying to discover who their mothers are. Its can be validating to know people who understand what your going through.

Little more focus on Owen's relations, I said that Barry has been trying to steer Owen towards good but I also think that Barry just thinks that Owen is just a fun little guy in general. I'd think they get along pretty well, Wally looks so pissed tho. There was this one comic where Hal had Wally as a sidekick for a day and Barry was pretty jealous. Guess the reverse is happening here. Wally's a favored target for Owen's pranks, so this whole situation is just very annoying to him.

Here's Digger introducing Owen to the rogues, Leonard looks befuddled at all this (Digger got a girl preggo? crazy).

Wanted to have Digger and Owen watch cartoons together, so I looked up Australian cartoons, found something called Bluey. Apparently it's super popular, even adults like it. So I found some free cartoons on youtube and yeah. It really is that good. Look it up if you want to see some fun, relaxing cartoons with smart writing!

To finish off this mass of words, here's Owen being a goofball with Eddie and Jason. I'm slowly finding that Owen's got a pretty fun dynamic with most anyone I draw him with. So that's been fun.

All this and I still haven't gone into Meloni and Bart, but it's best if I leave that for later. Anyways, hoped you like all that!

*About Owen's age, the comics never specified what his age actually was. All I know he's in his twenties but still younger than Dick's age group. Young enough to be unsure of his place in the world, but old enough that his 'relationship' with Kara to be weird. I guess it'd be less weird in my au with a smaller age gap, but that's still not happening.

[navree]

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!

[hyperpotamianarch]

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.

[bromcommie]

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 🫡

[shifuto]

some closing thoughts after a little over 1 month of revisiting Yugioh Vrains

Vrains is a trainwreck in the most endearing and wonderful way

I love this show so dearly and feel like this time I finally managed to appreciate it in the way it's supposed to - problems and all. I feel like I was finally able to understand a lot of the peculiarities and subtexts that, before, I didn't have enough emotional maturity for, and it helped knowing generally what was going on because watching this show for the first time was.. not great (for reasons I talked about already in other posts from this marathon)

going through that grueling filler-plagued beginning was hell, and one of the reasons I was dreading going through this show again - it even got me questioning why I put Vrains so high on my ranking of favorite YGOs (because my memory is bad and I didn't see any reason for Vrains to be that high), but once it starts going.. oh boy it doesn't stop, this is why I finished it so fast LOL

Vrains's story is very compelling and the minimal cast helps to keep everything close-knitted (I highly prefer fewer characters like this). Not all of these are interesting, but the ones who are do make up for it. I have found love in characters I didn't pay much mind before; loved the ones I already did even more; and went batshit insane over my favorites; Spectre

I don't think we'll ever have a plot like this in the franchise and it's such a shame. Vrains portrays trauma, pain and loss without romanticizing it. The main character has PTSD and he's not magically cured after everything - none of them are, except Jin (and this is another whole can of worms I'm not sure if I want to get into....) - Vrains is not a happy show or a happy story, and this is what makes it so wonderful in my eyes. Tragedy is what kickstarts this story, and tragedy is the one thing that is consistently happening throughout it

before, I guess I didn't really like the ending very much because the story was cut short and everything was rushed and too vague? But now (and understanding why it was cut short), I can find some silver linings, for example: that open ending feels good. It's nice to have stories such as this (and also in Zexal) with a lot of openings, and holes and things to be filled with theories and ideas: if the canon doesn't provide, the fanom might as well do it

I have so many favorites and so many ships for this show now 🤣 I think I had like 2 max the other time O: surprisingly, Yusaku and Ai went kind of in the background? I wonder why..

I knew I would get obsessed with Akira even though I paid no mind to him before 🤣 what can I say, he's just my type hahahahahaha. I was already obsessed with Kengo before and it got much, much worse so congratulations me for the renewed and augmented Blood Shpeherd brainrot 🥺💜 I have always loved Shoichi and he'll remain as one of my favorite characters ever as well so it was a delight to watch this and have so many episodes and scenes with him, my heart is so fulfilled 🥺🥺🥺 I love Jin and also Lightning for all the wrong reasons (don't ask about it 🤣), and so many other characters too but lets focus on who is really important (and was very surprising): Spectre

I honestly do not know what happened that I got this much into Spectre? He was also one of those I didn't really pay much attention before, and he became.. my favorite character in this I guess???? Well one of them, but you get what I mean 😆 the long story short is probably me omega projecting on him, and his relationships with Ryoken. Let me dream, alright?

I don't know if I have the energy to talk about my ships but just know that I have a copious amount of them. It's a lot

all in all, Vrains is amazing and it would probably be my favorite YGO if not for all the production issues, really. There's several things I'd change and try to fix, but overall, it's fine and enjoyable as it is, thankfully

I don't know, I'm sad it ended and I wanna watch again right away LOL

[callipraxia]

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.

[fantastic-nonsense]

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.

[desidarling123]

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

[rivalsforlife]

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.

[pathsofoak]

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.

[andypantsx3]

hi there !! i hope you're doing well :) ever since i started reading ur fics i've just been really impressed with how u keep the quality of ur content very consistent. do u take breaks in between writing each fic? i think u mentioned this in a previous post when u talked about editing fics, but i guess i'm wondering how u keep urself from being burnt out/if u get burnt out! i'm going thru a slump rn so i'd be curious to hear about ur experience!

Omg thank you so much!! That is literally so sweet of you to say, much as I doubt the quality is all actually consistent—I'm looking at you, in cinders chapter two.🖕🖕🖕

Also please excuse how long this got, I have a lot of thoughts on this subject in particular!!

Personally yes, I do get burnt out, and I do find it very necessary to take breaks—from writing overall and from a fic if I'm having difficulties with it. In general, I try to write a little bit every day, but that’s not always possible, and there are times when that’s not the right thing to be doing.

If you were following me late last year, you may vaguely be aware that I disappeared for two months straight between December and February. Like, just let the queue run through and did not answer a single ask, post a single original thought, or even look at my ao3 comments. While I was gone I barely wrote a thing. I think at like 1.5 months into it, I started drafting the outline for subtle, but before that, I didn't do shit except focus on my personal life and hang out with my dog.

At that point I was just tired and I thought I could use a little recharging to get excited about writing again. I read a bunch of books and other people's fics, and reread a bunch of my old fave comfort ship fics. That break from my own work really helped me get inspired again. Since then I've been consciously trying to strike a balance between writing all the time and chilling/consuming the things that keep me inspired to write.

When it comes to taking a break from fics, I do that too. My Hawks fic lay low has been ongoing since December of last year, when I normally finish fics in under a month. I actually really love this fic, but I got a little frustrated with some plot holes and then again with the pressure I was putting on myself to characterize him (like, relax, Andie it's a fuckin fanfic) so that's been on hiatus like multiple times even though we're only three chapters in.

I think it was important, though, for me personally to take a step back from it until I had the energy to address the things that I wanted to, and until I was excited to write it again. I'm actually finally working on chapter 4 (!!!), but it really took a long time to let that bad boy marinate, and I hope the fic will be better for it.

And I did that with statistically significant as well. This was more due to my workload at my job at the time, and I worked on this one over the course of five months when prior to that, I had been finishing fics in 1-2 weeks. But slowing down and writing this fic over like ten times the amount of time it took me to write other fics was a really good learning experience for me. It taught me that it's totally fine to step away from a fic for multiple months, and that you can always come back and finish it later.

I think that's also going to be the case with the new Deku fic, and I'm happy I already know it's completely okay to take my time. I'm sure there will be new wrenches that life throws into my path, and I'll have to get hit by those and figure out how to get back up and learn to duck next time lol.

Anyway, I definitely get where you are coming from, and if I've learned anything in the year and a half I have been writing it’s that it's totally normal to hit slumps, be they long or short, fic-specific or related to writing overall. Burn-out/slumps are actually not a big deal at all if you don't psych yourself out about them.

I feel like every time I'm asked advice on anything I say this (but I mean it!!): listen to yourself. You know best what you need. If you don't feel like you have the brain power for writing right now?? You're definitely right, and you should take some time away to chill, just consume things without producing, or do other stuff in life that makes you feel good.

If you're two months into not writing and you get excited about a project outside of the one you abandoned?? There's probably a reason. Work on that instead, and maybe let your enthusiasm for that project remind you of what you liked about the other one you put down.

And if that enthusiasm doesn't return? Then let the damn thing sit until it does. There are literally writers I follow who stepped away from fics for YEARS, only to come back and post a new chapter like half a decade later. They are always, always better for it.

So literally just listen to what you are telling yourself, and ride out the slump however you need to. Please try your best not to feel guilty for it, or think that it is any reflection on you or your work. They're just a natural part of the process, and honestly you will be the better for having had this experience.

[navree]

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.

[indigo-altean]

Thank you for your insight. Reading your reply and then my post again I realize I failed at explaining myself well (I’ll try to do better now while I reply back to you) and that I've also been too severe on some points.

First of all, I'd like to clarify I’m not really irritated nor frustrated, I’m not angry at anyone. Mine wasn’t even an attack to any newbie, nor I wanted to invalidate their reaction or experiences. I apologize if this is what my original wording seemed to say, especially to anyone who felt hurt by it.

What I tried to describe was my feeling confused/shocked/lost, at seeing the fandom change/new state or the lack of something who seemed abundant to me, which I deduce from those posts and that's why I mention them.

In particular, when I say I feel “old” it’s because it seems like some stuff happened ages ago and not few years, and when I say “tired” I meant that it’s as if it’s all starting again and I’m not sure if I, personally, want/can manage it — not that I’m tired of someone or that it is someone’s fault.

On the other hand, when I talk about debunked stuff, misinformation, missing the point, I admit I have been quite harsh. And while I had specific cases in mind starring new and old fans, and it was more about the "meh" or "already seen" feeling, I know I chose to stay vague so I recognize it felt a complete and general offence. I'm sorry.

please do try to remember that everyone has to start somewhere! Not everyone immediately goes to look up all of these things. It might not occur to them that this information is out there.

You’re absolutely right. I don’t think someone should know everything about it, that’s impossible, though what I wrote can be read like that. I, too, when I joined the fandom didn’t know everything and learned in the process, and it's not like I'm an expert today, so I should know it.

And for things debunked by word of god, keep in mind that ultimately, that is a failure of the writers. When significant plot points- even just one, but in this case, plural- have to be explained in interviews, that is 100% the fault of bad writing. They're reacting to the information the show gave them...  (+)

While I agree on this only to an certain extent, I do agree fans react to what they see and that they can simply ignore interviews exists, don’t know where to find them etc. That’s absolutely valid, my mistake implying those and other resources are easily available today.

No one wants to be "that fan" who says wrong, cliched, etc things. They are just reacting enthusiastically to something that is entirely new to them, but is old news for you. Both their reactions and your irritation are completely valid! Again, it can be annoying to see the same misconceptions pop up over and over again. Just try to be patient with them! And maybe, if you have the specific interview or whatever where what they were saying was debunked, point them in that direction. They'll probably be very happy to have those answers.

Again, I agree. I just want to add, to not pass as someone I am not, that I am “patient” usually! I think it’s the first, and probably last, time I say something that includes new fans, which I also didn’t conceive as hate post or attack. I have no intention to go after anyone, and if I don’t interact I always let others be.

Everyone has the right to come up with their theories, share their thoughts, being passionate about their faves/ships/metas, enjoy the show etc. whenever they want. I have no problem with that nor I’m saying they should stop that.

My initial post was an ensemble of thoughts and emotions of months written in few minutes, I hope this illustrates better my position.

I thank you again for yours, it has been helpful and I resonate with various points, I know I’ll keep it in mind in the future.

NGL everyone, sometimes when I wander vld tags and new fans' posts I feel like I live (or have lived) in a different dimension.

For example, one time I remember reading "why this show isn't more popular???" and my first reaction was... WHAT?!

Like, okay 1) it's been way too popular, or at least it used to be, so I think it's still known today, though more for its flaws than its merits unfortunately (and that's why some stay away from it), 2) if it's because of fandom activity, well, you have no idea how the fanbase being mostly calm now is almost a blessing!!

(There are also other complicate answers and reasons but I won't explore them here now).

Or "there should be more of [insert ship]!!!"... and maybe that is actually one of the most popular ships of the show (or one of the most hated, so the reason is most shippers left).

Or "why isn't anyone talking about [x]?", while there have been at least 1984927 posts with drama about that thing.

Or even just people salting on things explained/debunked long ago from staff, or ignoring basic facts most of us used to know (or spreading misinformation in worst cases–like everything about KL), or, of course, missing the point of characters' arcs/plots/etc (not uncommon though).

I mean, I guess some things are normal as the fanbase renews, but has VLD history been deleted/forgotten that fast? Are most resources or metas really gone?... I feel "old" and tired in those moments. And I'm not sure what to do about it.