#pleasereduceyourexpectations

[bookwyrminspiration]

What do you think will happen to Sophie after the neverseen is defeated? When she’s an adult. Her entire life to this point has consistently been struggle and isolation, now, on top of that, her purpose, what she was built for, is done. What is there to be after that? What could one do?

I for one, think she’s going to have a midlife crisis, or whatever the equivalent is since infinity has no middle.

Well I'd argue that her purpose isn't focused on the Neverseen; sure, they've made a problem of themselves and she's part of a solution, but the reason the Black Swan and Sophie exist goes beyond contesting the Neverseen. She isn't done. Once they're dealt with, I think she'll still have purpose in addressing inequalities and injustices in the elven world--the treatment of the talentless, pyrokinetics, twins, etc.

There's also the whole matter of humanity, the human problem. Which is more personal for Sophie than anyone else, and her unique knowledge of them would be invaluable in any conversation and decision making going forward to solve the issues there. I highly doubt she's going to sit that one out. And whatever they come with is most likely going to be a very drawn out, long term thing that will always need involvement, so I think she'll always have something to do there.

However! A continued purpose does not negate the possibility of a crisis! Even helping improve their world and advocating for humans, she's still doing what others set up for her; she didn't have any control over any of who she is, so is she even her own person? Who is Sophie Foster? Who does she want to be? Can she be that person? Does she do what she does because she wants to or because it's what she was made for?

And can she ever fit in? Can she ever truly belong? There is no one else like her and there never will be. There will always be a gap between her and everyone else, and can she overcome that? is her one deepest wish--to be normal, to belong--achievable? or is it a fantasy she can only imagine and yearn for and grieve. will she ever be satisfied with the people around her or will that out of place feeling last forever?

There's a lot to break down over, she can take her pick. But I do think tying her purpose to specifically defeating the Neverseen misses a big chunk of Project Moonlark and the Black Swan's intentions, so any crises would also factor that in because there would be more for her to do :)

[feartoxinjelloshot]

So…. What exactly is going on with Harley Quinn? Is she literally dead? If so, how’d she get that way? What’s her story?

Also, side note. Love love LOVE your art style. Would bake it into a cookie and eat it if I could.

thank you!

clipsverse harley quinn is like… not dead dead, but her body is rotting and falling apart from the acid vat the joker got her to take a fun little bath in, hence the patchwork flesh, discoloration, and zombie comparisons. obviously this would not be sustainable irl, but, you know, its batman. also she is definitely at least partially being kept alive via Passive Absorbed Eldritch Energy. think, like, how sith in star wars can survive insane bullshit through the power of hatred and willpower or whatever. its basically just that. her backstory is pretty close to most modern canons, i.e. fell in “love” (long story) with the joker, got Acid Bathed, had some fun, divorced him, is now doing whatever with her equally insane girlfriends. i have a fic about her origin story outlined but have yet to write it properly.

[keeptober]

Keeptober prompts are here!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Feel free to participate in as many/few days as you want and create whatever kind of content you would like, whether it be art, writing, memes, etc! I cannot wait to see what everyone creates this year!!

Tag @keeptober or #keeptober2023 so I can reblog your creations!

Keeptober was created by Zoe (@fanartofthelostcities) and ghost (@ghostnxva) in 2019 and is run by Zoe.

Thank you so much to everyone who submitted prompt suggestions, including @ultralazycreatorfan @you-have-been-frizzled @everliving-everblaze @slozhnos @valentinerose529 @bookwyrminspiration @worldsunlikemyown @pleasereduceyourexpectations (sorry if I missed you!)

The prompts are typed out below:

Keeper of the Lost Cities

Exile

Everblaze

Neverseen

Lodestar

Nightfall

Flashback

Legacy

Unlocked

Stellarlune

Animals

Intelligent Species

Council

Black Swan

Foxfire

Family

Home

Landscape

Monster

Wings

Fire

Water

Light

Darkness

Escape

Healing

Talentless

Ability Swap

Plot Twist

You as an Elf

Halloween

[an-ungraceful-swan]

@pleasereduceyourexpectations I love you but seeing the posts you are liking is terrifying what tag are you going through

[toxxtt-kotlc]

@pleasereduceyourexpectations interesting observation!!

Hello! If I may, would you be amenable to expanding on your "most of you are kinda racist" tag? I do have an idea of what you're referring to with characterization for character of color, and there have been several posts about that in the fandom in the past, but I wanted to ask for clarity to know what you, specifically, have noticed. To be aware of what's happening, talk about it, correct mindsets and actions if needed

Of course, you don't have to answer and can just delete this if you'd like. No pressure. Hope you have a good day :)

hi! mostly i was referring to characterizations of the song twins and wylie and maruca. obviously posts about the issues with linh and tam have been made many times before. for the most part i think that problems with the song twins come from canon itself, but i think people in general need to be more conscientious when looking at their characters and the stereotypes that are already in them :)

and for wylie and maruca, i can't really speak on stereotypes and biases that the fandom has for them as a non-black person, but i just feel like they get put aside by the fandom a lot despite being major characters (wylie in particular)

i really feel like wylie should be an incredibly popular character in this fandom. i mean, he's just got so much... angst about him. you guys love angst. i feel like people take what makes his character so interesting and the hurt and loss that comes with him and just slap it onto another non-black character.

obviously not everyone has to be in love with wylie. but i think the reason such a hurt-and-comfort fic generating machine is ignored so much is because as a black male, he's automatically viewed as more masculine than other characters. therefore he can't be the fandom's "boohoo sad wet sopping cat" character like fitz or keefe, even though HE IS LITERALLY THE DEFINITION OF SOPPING WET SAD GOT KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED DEAD MOM FUCKED DAD WHAT ELSE DO YOU GUYS WANT FROM HIM!!!!!!!!

anyways i wish this was more eloquent but i just wrote this really quick!! these are really specific examples but i don't know how to put the general overall racism that i see into words... i'll work on that!! i also don't know how to explain the issues with fanon maruca that i see so

tldr: the song twin's characters have pretty obvious bias and stereotypes that the fandom needs to be more aware of, wylie isn't popular despite his sad cat-ness because black men are seen as more masculine, maruca's characterization makes me uncomfortable in general but idk how to explain it

please tell me if anything i said was wrong or hurtful! i am not black so you should always listen to black people before me. also i am probably biased as a die-hard wylie fan so take anything i say with a grain of salt :) would love to hear other people's opinions on this!

*also, put this in the tags but i feel like its important to say here too: sad sopping wet meow meow wylie is NOT a good interpretation/characterization its pretty shallow but he still should be getting the same treatment as other characters

[bookwyrminspiration]

What do you think of the theory that Sophie’s dad is actually a human? I think it fits the bill in regards to “shaking up the foundation of the elf world,” as said by Forkle. It would also make sense because of her brown eyes (although that could also just be from the alicorn) and I can’t remember if Forkle said Sophie’s parents weren’t human, but Forkle has been proven to be a sneaky little guy so he could just be lying. I think it would be quite interesting from a narrative perspective.

I've spoken to this theory before! I don't know where the post is, but my general consensus: I do think it makes a fair amount of sense, though there are some holes that make me lean more towards a no.

It would 100% shake the foundation of their world, make them question the "purity" of their species, their separation from humans, whether they truly are as different (read: superior) as they like to claim. Sophie would be the very first human-elf mix (as the story intends, anyway, though I'd argue that realistically she wouldn't be), a living bridge between worlds that shouldn't exist in their society. A black swan of sorts

However, Forkle did say that she was "100% elf" in Exile when he revealed he'd modeled her DNA off alicorn DNA. So if we believe him, then her father's an elf. But! Like you said, he's a sneaky little guy, so it's possible he lied to her about that since he was specifically trying to tell her she was not part alicorn. I feel like he's usually more of a lie of omission kinda person and not an outright lie person though.

Plus, that would make Sophie the subject of even more scrutiny, judgment, and conversation than she already is; I'm not sure the Black Swan would willingly subject her to that. They've generally tried to make her life as easy as possible, and this would Not Do That. However, there are things they do even though they'll make her life difficult because they find them necessary (multiple abilities, enhanced abilities, living with humans) so it could still be possible. But I don't know what she'd gain by being born of elf and humans that she wouldn't get from being an elf raised by humans. The different perspective and ties to humanity exist in her as an elf now, how would the human/elf mix add anything, especially when she's unaware of it?

I do think it would be incredibly interesting story wise to have a human/elf Sophie, but I think it might be too complex given the time we have left, especially since it doesn't add much more to Sophie's purpose and journey for the effort that would take. She's already got her tie to humans--maybe she'd feel better about it knowing her genetic ties, but we don't have the chance to really explore what this could mean because the story is focused on so many other more pressing things.

Essentially: fits some things, not others, and while rich in potential, I don't think the story has time to live up to that potential, so I don't think it'll happen. Would be fine being proven wrong though!

[feartoxinjelloshot]

What’s the story with Clipverse ivy? Is she also influenced by eldritch interference or is she just like that.

oh she is just like that. she was a scientist doing stem cell research who got a little too silly with it. and by silly i mean she did the classic “ran out of funding and had to inject herself with her own substances and accidentally tuned into the radio frequency of the living earth itself” thing

[bookwyrminspiration]

Any ideas about who Sophie’s Sperm Donor is?

combining these for simplicity's sake! this is also a topic I've spoken extensively on over the past few years, so I'll link a few more in depth posts:

Could Gethen be her father? (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)

Could Tiergan be her father? (part 2)

Could Fintan be her father? (part 2) (amendment)

Could her father be human? (part 2)

What if Grady was her dad?

What if Gisela was her second bio mom?

This isn't all of the posts I've made on the subject, but it's a fair number of them. And to summarize it all: my money is currently on Gethen for a few reasons. He's a powerful blond telepath, he's been present from the beginning of the series but his motivation and purpose in the story have not been revealed so he's still hiding something, and her father being a Neverseen member would be very narratively interesting and I think could qualify as world-shattering.

There are a few remaining questions, like how and why did Forkle get Gethen involved in the project, but I do think there can be answers that still allow for it to be true.

However, I may very well be wrong about it, but that's one of my main theories at the moment. The other if Fintan, but given how the story seems to have moved on from him and he's served his main purpose, I hesitate to put too much stock in him. Same with Tiergan; Tiergan's related to other things in the story, so involving him in this too would be a whole other level of complicated I'm not sure Shannon wants to go to. She might! But I'm leaning towards no.

I hope that helps answer your questions! If this comes off brusk my apologies, I've simply talked about it enough that I kinda have it down quite efficiently, so until there's something new there isn't much else to add :)

[bookwyrminspiration]

@pleasereduceyourexpectations “you laughed at me. at slurps and burps, remember? you didn’t even know me. and you didn’t know Dex. but you sided with him even though he’d turned me into a horse.”