#im not crying over a book you are

[raustenacious]

was anyone else low-key traumatized from Island of the Blue Dolphin?

[aroaceleovaldez]

It's honestly wild to me that ToA went through so much trouble to emphasize the fact that Will did not magically fix all of Nico's problems and was explicitly not Nico's only doctor.

Only for TSATS to have Will fix all of Nico's problems and have Nico be entirely reliant on him the entire book and literally helpless without him and LITERALLY have Nico's problems be magically removed.

[cabesswtaer]

just finished the winners by frederik backman how the fuck am i supposed to cope

[divine-draws]

WIP animatic :3c character: Stanford Pines (Gravity Falls) song: icarus - Bastille

[ride-thedragon]

Daemon Betrays Rhaenyra.

This discourse has been here since I started posting so I should explain.

Daemon does, in fact, betray Rhaenyra when he saves Nettles and his subsequent actions in more than one way.

1. He doesn't punish the Mootons for their treason.

The Mootons are given a direct order from their queen to kill Nettles. They conspire and plot about ways to avoid the order, to carry it out, and possible consequences for that. By the end, they decide to disobey her and give the letter to Daemon under the false pretence that they hadn't seen it. They are made aware that the queen has a suspicion that Nettles is a witch charming the prince and still do this. None of this is known or punished, and they declare for the Greens.

2. He allows Nettles to escape.

When Daemon reads the letter, he stays with Nettles for the night and watches her escape on dragon back in the morning without interference. Choosing to leave Maidenpool and go to Harrenhall instead of what Rhaenyra called for, his urgent return.

3. He does not return to Rhaenyra.

By not returning to Rhaenyra, he disobeys and betrays her. By letting Nettles escape, he disobeys and betrays her. Nettles is specifically tied to his survival in the narrative. Without her at his side, it is impossible for him to survive.

4. He fights Aemond, Alone.

So he dies. The bards and I have a misunderstanding because of this (fuck the bards) but Daemon himself says that neither one of them can take Aemond on and survive. He chooses death.

We can argue over why he did it, but in the written narrative, the only catalyst we have is Nettles' departure. Before that, we can see his expression go from happy and them small talking to him, genuinely distraught by the letter and staying with her for the night.

Saying that this is only because of Rhaenyra fundamentally misunderstands one point:

The catalyst for the Battle Above the God's Eye is Nettles' departure. Before it, Aemond evaded Daemon, and Daemon stayed at her side. Both in the book and more so the show, known reactionary Daemon Targaryen would not have hesitated to prove himself, at least bringing her to the court to prove their loyalty.

[possamble]

Going back to work after this but

[dartalias]

Im re reading Rise of Kyoshi again and i just read the talk Lek and Kyoshi have after Xu

Now is the time to stop reading and live in denial for a while

[mokeonn]

The most annoying phenomena on this website is grown adults refusing to educate themselves, despite the abundant recourses at their disposal, because their heads are still stuck in highschool.

[sizzlingyourfakeids]

why can't I use the name Bill/Billy

[thebirdandhersong]

something hilariously ironic and somehow kind of sweet: this is the first time I've ever received flowers from a boy in my LIFE. this is the first time, and they aren't from my ex-boyfriend (the thought never crossed his mind) or my father or my brother..... the FIRST TIME I've ever received intentional flowers from a boy, it's from boy problem no 2. 😂😂😂😂😂 like what on earth!!!!!

[seilon]

love when this is referred to as the gifted kid website. shockingly my mental disorders made me mentally disordered and school never really vibed with that so. couldn’t be me

[ev-enhotterthanyou]

thinking about post-island boys.

[totallynotasecretwonderland]

me, trying to write my two main whips that i’ve been working on for over a year now:

me, 12k into an au that struck me with literal lightning:

[squirrelno2]

I saw this in one of your posts “Like. let's traumatise the made-up kids, it's good for the real kids to read as long as you talk about it the right ways. (I'm being blithe and simplistic here but if you want a ramble on what I mean just ask)” and I was intrigued. Maybe you’ve already done a post about this so I apologise if so but this is me asking for that ramble

Oh damn I had to dig for that post, but yeah! So a couple background info things:

One, I was the kind of autistic kid who has the empathy where you cry when others cry or get angry when others are angry, but who also can't understand why people are reacting in ways I wouldnt react/what the emotions im mirroring are. I learned most of what I know about the vast complexities of humanity through stories, because that was my window into mindsets that are not my own, and it's especially good for the people around me that I was such a voracious reader because it gave me a huge variety of "people" to view the internal worlds of, whereas if I read a more limited selection I'd probably have a lot less compassion just because I had fewer models to learn from. So I feel very strongly about the ability of story to teach us how people work, because I experienced it firsthand in a very conscious way. (More on this later)

The other thing is I write a lot of original work, most of which is aimed at the kind of middle grade/young adult age range. Nothing published yet, but I've been thinking about what it means to tell a story to children vs teens vs adults for over half my life now, especially since starting to work as a dance teacher and spending my adult life mostly around kids of various ages. So again, strong feelings about how adults have to teach kids not just what to do but why it matters - kids aren't learning facts alone in school or life, they are learning how to be people. Everything is a lesson, especially when you're particularly young

So the post was talking in that paragraph about how so many books for kids portray the necessity of the child hero, when adults reading will usually go "what the FUCK that kid is TWELVE they're a baby". And that's a good impulse! It's important for adults to want to keep kids from having to take on too much responsibility too early!

But I think when adults have that handwringing moment they forget that kids in real life have absurd and awful responsibilities and experiences every day whether we like it or not. So often I see people talk about that kind of child chosen one story as being some kind of awful bc it teaches kids not to rely on adults and frankly, many of us learned that from real life! I did, even with the wonderful parents that I had, because my school experiences were that fucking awful. We have to tell stories about kids facing down awful, traumatic experiences, both fantastical and realistic, and we have to tell stories about the nasty bits that come after, the grief and trauma and feeling scraped raw and the bad coping mechanisms as well as the good ones and the days you slide back into the person you were when you thought you were past it - because real kids need to know they're not alone and they're not weak or bad or any of a number of things that feeling isolated in your trauma can lead you to believe, especially as a child when everything is so much bigger because its happening for the first time

The story I have lived with the longest, trying to write it for twelve/thirteen year olds since I was twelve myself, is one about a kid with the same trauma I had of being undiagnosed but visibly autistic in ways that her peers hated and a kid with an abusive parent being forced to do really awful things to try and earn that parent's approval. It's also a fantasy story wish fulfillment type thing for baby me with ghosts and junior high theatre classes and magic! And even just letting that story and characters grow and change with me has helped me to heal from a lot of things that really fucked me over in my childhood and adolescence. Not perfectly! I'm in therapy for a goddamn reason! But it gave me hope to tell a story about these people who faced down violence they never should have had to and not only lived, but came out the other end slowly learning to thrive and leave that violence in the past. Kids who've faced trauma, whether like mine or like that character of mine with the abusive parent or like any number of other horrible things that can happen to kids, they deserve to see that they can have power and agency, that they can face awful things and win, and that they can heal and be happy. Not every book for kids does this the ways I personally like but that's why I feel so strongly about children's media having that "kids have to save the day" trope no matter how pearl-clutchy adults get about it, and that's why i dont shy away from putting kids in my stories in dangerous positions. It's not about the characters, bc they're symbols. It's about what I can give as a storyteller to the kids reading, or even the kids inside the adults reading. We all have a little kid in our heads who needs to know it's going to be ok, I think.

[pedrospatch]

Guys

GUYSSSSS

Mya @cavillscurls decided to make me cry (tears of absolute joy) this morning

she surprised me with a little goodie she made for A Safe Haven and it is BEAUTIFUL however I put it under a cut because she did use my face claim for Peach, please keep in mind I do not write her physical description in the story she is my own FC.

but holy shit I am over the moon right now

[emilyjunk]

iconic milestone, made possible by diet dr pepper and tears