#polysorscha

[battlestar-royco]

Considering my place in the anti community

So, I know that might be an alarming title, but rest assured I don’t see myself deactivating or ceasing discussion of SJ/M’s books any time soon. But a lot of things have led me to the decision to explicitly veer my blog in another direction. I’ve said more than once before that I made this blog around May of 2018 as a joke between me, myself, and I, as a way to vent my disappointments with the T0G and AC0TAR series into this dumb blue void. I kid you not, I literally did not expect anyone to interact with me at all, and aside from mutuals on my main, I’d never been sent an ask in all the (then) six years I had a Tumblr. I didn’t expect to meet and befriend such a passionate, salty, visionary, thoughtful community. A little over a year later, I’m interacting with too many people to keep up with, I find myself being tagged and reblogged by reputable bloggers with way bigger followings from all over Tumblr’s diversity-forward fandom communities, and I even have run-ins with anon hate and stan ridiculousness every so often. The anti community as I know it has been a welcoming home that has taught me so much. That being said, there are a few reasons I want to slightly switch gears. So here goes. This is a long one, so thanks for sticking it out, if you make it to the end.

What will remain and what will change?

More will stay the same than will change. I will still absolutely be answering asks about YA books and SJ/M, and I will be posting about the issues within them and how I think they could have gone better. I will also still be tagging such things as anti. I really enjoy discussing the nitty gritty of characters, worldbuilding, and how all that coincides with the handling of diversity and feminism in the books. This type of discussion is, I think, how I gained most of my following, so I don’t want to turn my back on you. Also, in the near future, I mainly just want my blog to be a place where diverse representation across all identity vectors and forms of media, especially fantasy books, is a focus. I want people to feel they can talk earnestly about their issues with xyz representation and/or discuss diversity struggles they come across with their own writing.

I feel like the anti community stagnates periodically and we devolve into cold wars with stans, picking apart miniscule details of the books, scouring SJ/M’s social media, repeating ourselves, or other similar activities. Going forward I want to reduce the conversations that are founded in pettiness or insulting other Tumblr users or SJ/M for things that honestly have nothing to do with the books, the YA/publishing community, or problematic behavior. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things worth discussing re: problematic author/stan behavior, but it’s easy to lose sight of the reason for antis to exist in the first place. On to reasoning:

1. The connotation.

This is something many of you know about me as well, but it bears repeating: I never hated SJ/M’s books. My blog is a result of my passion and enjoyment of the earlier books twisted into disappointment. I wouldn’t have bothered making a blog about these books if I hated them from start to finish. I wouldn’t have made an “anti” account if I’d felt that my opinions would be accepted among stans. I felt there was a lack in both the anti and stan community for my experience, so I’m here to give voice to that. Although I started out talking about the negatives, I don’t think my blog has ever fit most people’s idea of “anti” on this site. There are a lot of truly toxic anti communities all over Tumblr who exist just to shit on creators and fans or to be negative out of spite, and I really have never identified with that desire, nor have I tried to exhibit that behavior. But thanks to worst of the worst on this site, anyone who calls themselves anti is automatically associated with that. I also think as a whole, every SJ/M anti is doing completely different stuff with their own blogs. We’ve got book cover criticism, opinions and advice about publishing, T0G rewrite projects, shitposts, etc. I myself started expanding months ago into providing writing advice on diversity and generally writing meta. It’s not a group of angry people yelling slurs at each other like I’ve seen other anti communities do, so I don’t think it’s the right label for me.

2. Stans.

This goes a bit with the connotation point. I feel like, especially because of how I’ve branded myself and because of antis who preceded the current batch, stans really have no idea what I’m about. I have always been clear that I do not wish to attack them or their enjoyment of/engagement with the books. And yet I’m constantly being vagued about, having my words twisted, or having my arguments and blogging style very purposely, transparently ignored/misinterpreted/ridiculed in said vague-blog posts. All this despite stans’ frequent claim that they ~never~ go into anti tags or check out our blogs, and despite their other frequent claim they don’t believe in the anti/stan divide and that we’re more alike than not. I agree that this divide is dumb, but it’s kind of hard to distance myself from it while constantly being thrown under the bus by SJ/M BNFs. I don’t mind anyone viewing or interacting with my posts, because transparency and all, but it’s tiresome to constantly defend myself because I’m being misrepresented by accounts that are 4, 5, 6 times bigger than mine who either don’t know how I run my blog or purposely mischaracterize me. I can’t control other people’s behavior and I don’t want to, but this is a change I’m making for my own mental health and to promote better behavior among both communities, and I hope others follow suit.

3. Things I’ve handled poorly and how I want to do better.

Anyone with an ask blog for a minute inevitably acquires their share of public fuck-ups. I can think of a few instances in which I would have handled a situation differently. For example, a few months ago the community as a whole was asked to expand our conversation to more than just presenting SJ/M and Bardugo as foils, and I wish I’d been less defensive there. That day made me think a lot about the way I carry myself on this blog and how limited the conversation can sometimes be. I really do appreciate any and all criticism for the community, and looking back, I feel like my reaction to that didn’t go along with the way I usually try to handle criticism. I think it would be good to try and, like OP said, infuse more book promotion into my blog in general, to try to support and read more books by marginalized authors in the future so we can discuss them more thoroughly here.

In closing/TL;DR:

This isn’t inspired by any particular event or person, but rather a lot of things that have happened in the past several months on Tumblr, in the world and the media, and in my personal life. It’s not a change that was inspired out of negativity, but more out of trying to generate a more positive framework for my Tumblr activity and seeing how I can effect change through this blog. I’m still here for rants, masterposts calling out problematic books and characters, pretty much all the book talk I was doing before. This is just a really long-winded announcement that I want to expand my blog to a general spot for discussing diversity in media. Thank you so much for sticking it out if you made it all the way down here. Here’s to improving ourselves.

[myloversthesunrise]

THINGS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE IN AC0TAR

disclaimer: i'm writing reblog have some really good points but i haven't had the permission to quote them in my reblog so i'll link them but i decided to share it here so if anybody else notice anything they can just reply or reblog on my post

WILL BE ADDING AS I FIND MORE

update 2/12/2021 i tried to sort it into several categories, added the starfall question, also got the permission from @polysorscha to directly quote her post in here so i will be doing that and i will also source each post that made me raise a question to each plothole or inconsistencies next to the questions!! and this reblog and that reblog have some really good points but i haven't had the permission to quote them in my reblog so i'll link them instead!!

REGIONS AND CULTURE [and lore in general]

how does region work? like there are faeries from Xian which is like China in AC0TAR, then does that mean the only Chinese people in AC0TAR are faeries? all the humans are white or not Chinese? or are they also separated into two and build a wall in the Xian country (?) where faeries live in the northern side and humans live in the southern side? and I've only been talking about Xian, what about faeries from other places like Montesere or Vallahan or Rask? what make faeries from prythian courts different than faeries born from there? or did all faeries originally come from prythia and then migrate to those countries? (this makes no sense but whatever)

it is said in the wikia for illyrians that illyrians are rich in culture and heritage, BUT WHAT ARE THE ILLYRIAN CULTURE AND HERITAGE????

naming in general: [point #1] a) unnamed regions and characters (also the fact that velaris is called velaris while court of nightmare is given an ugly ass name ("hewn city") as a name will always make me laugh) b) the random baby name generator for the character names??? morrigan is an Irish name, rhysand is a welsh name, azriel is a hebrew name and cassian is from a latin word... please pick a culture from each region and stick with it

if velaris is a hidden city... a) and rheesand doesn't make his people pay taxes, how can he be so rich? b) and it is a city of trade, then how is it hidden? how is it a secret? how the fuck are you supposed to trade with a hidden city c) and rheesand governs from there, then where do ambassadors and people from other courts go when they're visiting? d) let's say in point (c) that they go to the Court of Nightmares, then how come people from CoN hasn't snitched about velaris to people from other courts, or worse, their enemies? [point #16]

if velaris is located by the foot of the mountain then why does feyruh wear harem pants or orientalist middle eastern clothing?? isn't she cold?

regarding to question #5; let's say faeries don't get cold like humans do, then why do winter court faeries wear fur all the time? is it for the aesthetic?

do all faes from each court have its magic in them? like faes from the autumn court being able to control fire or faes from the winter court being able to control ice. do all faes from each court are born with its traits? like faes from the autumn court are redheads and people from the winter court are always pale with white hair. what are the relations between faeries and the courts they're born in?

starfall: a) it was told that starfall are just spirits migrating across the sky but where do they come from and where are they migrating to? b) IF THEY ARE FALLING FROM THE SKY AND DROPPING DOWN ON THE EARTH LIKE BIRD POOP THEN THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE MIGRATING NOW ARE THEY (which makes sense why it's called starfall and not starmigrating but still.) c) why are the night court folks so happy when those spirits fell upon them.. that's dark, that's really fucking dark. it's like having someone fell on you but it's not even a person, it's their spirit. did sarah janet not realize the implications of this when she was creating starfall? those spirits were supposed to be going somewhere (hopefully) nicer but instead they rained down to the ground and there goes all hope of the afterlife. imagine you were supposed to go to heaven but you fell and now you're a stain on someone's clothes. fucking hell.

the mating bond in general the wikia says that the mating bond happens to two individuals of equal powers, or which pairing would create the best offspring a) then the mating bond doesn't always mean love now does it? considering it's only pairing off the equals and who'd create the strongest babies. [sorry for slipping in my opinion but the entire premise of the mating bond seems so shallow and empty and built on heteronormativity] b) then how can there be an interspecies romance between a faerie and a human? since a faerie is so powerful and so strong and etc. [point #10] c) it is said that if the bond is rejected, the male could go crazy, but what happens to the women?

"how does the fae aging process work? when do they stop aging?" – @polysorscha [point #11]

related to question number #10; if faeries wake up, live, go to work like all humans do for hundreds or thousands of years, isn't that a little insane? like, won't living as an immortal kinda fuck up your sense of time?

SOCIAL SYSTEM AND GOVERNMENT (?) [related with REGIONS AND CULTURE but i think it's easier to be read separately]

why are there human queens but no high ladies? does this mean that humans are more *woke* than these faeries (derogatory)

WHY ARE THE FAERIES MISOGYNIST?? WHY ARE THE ILLYRIANS MISOGYNISTS??????

why are the high faes racist. just.. why......

"if fae hate humans, why are the most privileged fae (high fae) the ones that look most like humans? that’s not how morphological racism works." – @polysorscha [point #13]

"what even started the war between the humans and the fae?? how were human and fae cultures and relations permanently altered?" – @polysorscha [point #8]

if rheesand is the most powerful high lord then why does he let misogyny run rampant in his own court?

how does the government in the human realm work? do all of them have kingdoms?

"what kind of education do fae and humans have?" – @polysorscha [point #9]

did humans ever came in contact with faeries again after the treaty? if not, then why? if yes, then how and what do they talk about?

if rheesand's inner circle is also his friends and family... isn't that nepotism? how does he separate work and personal life? we know it all backfired when he had to make a choice to give CoN access to velaris (and he's still a dickhead for inviting mor's abusers without letting her know but i still stand by my point)

MAGIC SYSTEM

why is rheesand the most powerful high lord? [point 4]

why are cassian, rheesand, and azriel the most powerful illyrians in history?

what is pure death?? is it just.. organic death?

what makes a lesser fae less and what makes a high fae higher?

how advanced is the fae and the human technology? do they have lightbulbs or electricity? do science and magic work side by side in the faerie realm?

they have priestesses but as far as i remember, faeries don't really worship gods???? then what's the point of the priestesses ? what do they do? who do they worship? [point #12]

if the bone carver and stryga the weaver were gods then why the fuck did they die so easily [point #7]

AC0TAR PLOTHOLES IN GENERAL

if jurian fought against the faeries in the war then why did he join hybern when he was revived? okay let's say he joined hybern to destroy them from the inside and wanted to apologize to miryam and drakon (which is a pretty fucking stupid way to do it), why did hybern revive him knowing that he fought against the faeries? AND WHY DID NOBODY QUESTION HIM 'SWITCHING SIDES' KNOWING THAT HE LITERALLY DID SO MUCH TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST FAERIES????? [point #2]

feyruh not wanting to be a trophy wife but ended up being that anyway???? i'm not judging her choice but maybe people in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks or something [inspired by x]

remember how feyruh died and got resurrected by the high lords and gained all their powers? but when rheesand died, all the high lords surprisingly risked giving their power to his despite him being 'the most powerful high lord' (which risked a HUGE power imbalance between him and the rest of the high lords if somehow their power was transferred to rheesand) and some of their courts didn't even get along? i'm sorry but it just bamboozled me that beron, fucking beron of all characters, would willingly help resurrect rheesand after what he said in the high lord meeting just because some characters glared or threatened him [point #3]

if rheesand's father was 900 and his mother was 18 when they got 'married' then why is rheesand acting like he was any better for marrying feyruh when she was 21 and he was 500ish?

why does rheesand have to wear a 'mask'? does he think he's mulan or something? why does he have to act like a wattpad bad boy who's an asshole on the outside and a soft uwu boy on the inside? [point #17]

a lot of stans have pointed this out so i won't be adding all of them as credits but feyruh destroying the spring court is the stupidest fucking thing she's ever done and it really proves how she is unfit to be a ruler

[lilquill]

Hey there! This post wasn’t directed at you because a) I’ve seen you talk about books by authors of color and b) you are yourself a person of color.

This wasn’t a vagueblog or anything, it was just a phenomenon I’ve seen around for a while where people will rightfully critique authors like Sarah J. Maas for racism and then make no effort to actually read books by people of color. It’s weird and tokenizing and dehumanizing. Like they’ll only engage with people of color to talk about racism when it comes to an author they don’t like (note: I don’t mean to minimize that SJM is an objectively bad author of course, but I do think it’s important to note that a community literally organized around critiquing this one person’s work is gonna need to keep those critiques coming in order to fuel itself, which does often extend into a more personal dislike too). They won’t actually put an effort into meaningfully engaging with us and our stories, which leads to a lack of awareness of the myriad cultures and groups under the umbrella of the “poc” label.

I made a whole post that included this phenomenon at least tangentially a while back, but it means that white people know more about racism than just how poc actually live their lives, leading to a distorted perception of poc that forever relegates us to be seen through the lens of white people as the “other.” Don’t get me wrong, it’s so important to understand the detailed mechanics of racism, but it’s also important to actually understand poc and our cultures, because how are you supposed to defend us if you know nothing about us beyond that we experience racism?

Exclusively engaging with white authors, whether egregiously racist like SJM or better with poc like Bardugo, means that lots of white antis aren’t engaging in good faith with and/or supporting actual people of color (beyond just reblogging fellow antis discussing racism). They’re still only getting an outsider perspective on poc, not work by poc in our own words.

Nowhere in my post did I say it’s bad to like Leigh Bardugo and talk about how much you love Leigh Bargudo! I, in fact, am planning to read Six of Crows soon because a lot of my friends whose taste I trust really like it, and it seems like an interesting YA fantasy. I just think it’s super weird that people so heavily praise Bardugo as The Most Woke YA Author when she’s still a white woman and, I’ve heard, still has issues in her work, though they’re much less blatant than the ones in SJM’s stuff, when there’s so many authors of color with amazing work out there. (Sidenote: I talk a lot about some super rad books, including plenty by authors of color, both on this blog and on my Goodreads account!)

And I’m glad that you’re putting effort into critiquing Bardugo’s work, because that’s what kicked off the whole “anti sjm” thing: closer reading, critical thinking, and consistently analyzing your beliefs and perceptions of things. It’s not about just poking fun at terrible books, it’s about seeing how some of these things creep into books that are well-written and well-intentioned.

To you, and to everyone reading this, if you’re the kind of person who tries to diversify their reading list and push their boundaries to be more empathetic and inclusive, then regardless of if you’re a Six of Crows fan or not, keep it up! This post isn’t about you.

This is a critique of how conversations that praise books in the “anti sjm” community end up being imbalanced, heaping dollops of praise onto other white women for being comparatively better than SJM or Cassandra Clare or whoever while failing to support authors of color.

There is no one or two or ten or fifty people responsible for this. It’s not a callout post. It’s not a vagueblog. It’s a comment on a societal phenomenon where white people gain more attention and acclaim for their work than people of color do.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this cleared stuff up.

to all the ppl in the anti sjm/anti cassandra clare/etc. communities: please hype up books by authors of color and not just stuff by leigh bardugo or whoever the latest woke white woman writing young adult lit is

[longsightmyth]

Hi Myth! I want to write in fantasy settings that don't have racism but since that is not how the real world is, I am afraid the stories might seem insensitive. What are your thoughts?P.S. I really love Fireheart. It's beautifully written!

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying Fireheart.

As to your question, I'm going to direct you to any of the many bloggers and writers of color on this site, though I am only going to tag @polysorscha and @discountalien-pancake since I know they won't mind being tagged and I don't want to bother anyone.

As always on my blog, any comments or advice or discussion by those with more relevant perspectives than I are welcomed, and feel free to let me know if you don't mind being tagged in the future.

[discountalien-pancake]

just to add onto what you said about not trusting alina's account - when people say they didn't change mal, "the books are just from alina's perspective" it really shows how they prioritise mal's feelings over alina's. as if her own perspective of her best friend/love interest doesn't matter. like it doesn't matter that alina believed their friendship was ending right at the beginning of the trilogy. it doesn't matter that actively choosing to let him go made her happier and healthier. it doesn't matter that he couldn't be happy to see her safe and alive even for one second when they first reunite because of the shit HE'S been through. he's helping her so it doesn't matter that he constantly treats her like a burden, ignores her and blames her for his actions. and i can't really be surprised that people buy into it because alina herself internalises it all and accepts the blame and the narrative only serves to validate his feelings and actions. but yeah of course not getting alina's first person narrative in the show makes him look better, but i don't see how that's a good defence for the ship in the books

It’s not even that we get mal’s perspective in the show, it’s that mal in the show LITERALLY DOES NOT DO THE SAME THINGS as in the books. Like regardless of how anyone feels about his actions, he simply did not say or do the same things at very key moments.

Mal in the books hooked up with Zoya, while Mal in the show did not. Mal in the books said Alina’s power made him feel small, while Mal in the show said he wasn’t afraid of it. Mal in the books is jealous of Alina for liking the Darkling, while Mal in the show says she doesn’t need to explain herself to him. Mal in the books wanted to run away from the problem of the Fold, while Mal in the show literally says they’re not running away and they will come back when she’s ready. They simply are not the same!

But I defs agree about how blaming Mal’s characterization on Alina’s POV is just... gross. @polysorscha put it really well when I was talking to her today. Saying that we can’t trust Alina because we never got to see Mal’s POV is saying you automatically find Mal to be more trustworthy than Alina. There’s literally no basis for that. Mal as a narrator would have just as much motivation to paint himself in a good light and would be just as unreliable as people claim Alina is.

Being in Alina’s perspective doesn’t change what Mal says and does, only our understanding of her emotional response to them. And saying that we shouldn’t trust how Alina feels about how Mal treats her because she’s insecure.... is just. Wow.

What Mal says and does makes Alina feel bad about herself. That is what I know, and that isn’t a good basis for a relationship regardless of what Mal’s hypothetical intentions are.

[teamjacobthot]

I read an ask by @polysorscha that we missed out on the black vampire in twilight sparkling gold but to me I think the diverse covens all should’ve sparkled gold and the cullens can be kept sparkling white

I just think it would’ve been cool for the individual to sparkle in a similar shade to what their undertones were as a human or sumn

[alectology-archive]

Thanks for the tag @polysorscha 🌻🌻🌻

Three ships: alina/inej, adora/catra, james flint/thomas hamilton

Last song: it's technically the she-ra soundtrack but for a song specifically it's radioactive by marina

Last movie: the girl with the dragon tattoo

Currently reading: harrow the ninth, ancillary justice

Currently watching: rewatching inception, rewatching she-ra, rewatching portrait of a lady on fire, hannibal, kevin can f*** himself

Currently consuming: coffee

Currently craving: uhh water I think

Tagging: @shakshuka-stan @sanktaalinaa @femtopulsed @sayruq @cariadism @jelli-ace @comingoutofthecauldron

[inkwingart]

Tagged by @issun-boshi

Nicknames: Laini or ink

Zodiac: ox

Height: 5’2” hah

Last Thing Googled: google translate lmao

Song Stuck In My Head: chiếc lá mùa đông (a winter leaf)

Number of followers: somewhere in the vicinity of 1.5k

Amount of sleep: enough

Lucky number: 23

Fave song: idk my dude i listen to a lot of songs.

Fave instrument: đàn bầu

Dream Job: i simply do not dream of labor

Fave author(s): Leigh Bardugo, Laini Taylor, and Marie Rutkoski. Pratchett.

Aesthetic: slightly unhinged changeling

Favroite animal noise: babby otter laser beams

Random: I work in biotech?

I taggeth @longsightmyth @polysorscha and @spaceshipkat @donovan-contingencies and anyone else who wants to do the thing.

[battlestar-royco]

Analysis of LGBTQ+ Representation and Fandom Spaces

Hi everyone! So, if you’re new here you may not know that this past semester I did my final women’s and gender studies undergrad project on diversity in genre fiction and fandom. A big part of my research was the survey I conducted through my blog. After all the help so kindly given by my followers, I wanted to give back. So as promised, here is a summary of the final results of the survey. I hope to possibly do similar surveys in the future if you all would be interested, so if you have any topics you want to discuss or ideas for how they could be improved, my inbox and messages are always open. Thank you so much to everyone who supported and/or participated, and thanks for your patience!

Participant Demographic Overview

32 respondents

Most or all participants from Tumblr YA novel transformative fandom(s)

46% self-identified cisgender women; 54% transgender, non-binary, and/or gender non-conforming people

81.2% self-identified white

Most popular and/or representative LGBTQ+ ships

Wesper (Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo)

Ninej (Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo)

Malec (The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare)

Finnpoe/Stormpilot (Star Wars Sequel Trilogy dir. J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson)

Stucky (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Sylena (One Day at a Time)

Main Findings

The main effect of queerbaiting is an erosion of trust and respect between the creator(s) and the fandom.

Fandoms for white cisgender male ships seem to be dominated by white, straight, cisgender women. Many participants consider these popular ships unrepresentative of LGBTQ+ experience.

MLM ships are often fetishized in fandom. WLW ships are also fetishized but to a lesser extent because the amount of fan content is substantially lower, tragic, and/or ignored.

There is a general desire for more trans, gender non-conforming, bi, and ace representation.

LGBTQ+ characters of color are often stereotypical or nonexistent in canon and/or ignored in fandom.

Older LGBTQ+ characters and characters with disabilities are similarly underrepresented.

Tumblr is a relatively safe space for fandom (especially compared to other social media such as Reddit and Facebook).

Subfandoms (especially for LGBTQ+ characters/ships) are typically more welcoming for LGBTQ+ fans than greater fandom.

Non-white fans primarily encounter backlash from white fans when calling out stereotypes and problematic representation.

Pie Charts

Conclusions

Fandom is improving but we still have a ways to go. Fans can/should work on advocating for more diverse representation of LGBTQ+ characters.

Creators should work better at creating non-stereotypical LGBTQ+ characters/relationships that are more representative of the readership/viewership.

LGBTQ+ representation is primarily focused on white cisgender men, and fandom is primarily focused on white cisgender women who are attracted to men.

As a person who’s been in fandom for about a decade now, these results are not surprising. I am so glad to see that we are making strides in fandom and media representation for all fans, but I also hope we can do better to represent the marginalized characters and fans and to do them justice in our fan discussions and content!

[coeurvrai]

@polysorscha

At least I fully understand the WITHIN CELLS INTERLINKED memes now XD

[lilquill]

I also quickly wanted to add on for both you and @spaceshipkat​ who it seems has deleted her post affirming your initial response and stating that she has also received the anons that complain about her hyping up Leigh Bardugo that I am not behind any of the anons you or any other sjm anti has received that has criticized you, no matter how harshly or constructively, for liking Leigh Bardugo’s stuff. I am also not an sjm stan in any way, shape, or form and never have been.

Have a nice day! <3

to all the ppl in the anti sjm/anti cassandra clare/etc. communities: please hype up books by authors of color and not just stuff by leigh bardugo or whoever the latest woke white woman writing young adult lit is

[galushanationalrailways]

catch the reylos demanding we change the acronym to rlgbtq+ (this hasn’t actually happened but it could...)

@polysorscha

[maoist-mizer]

Your wish is my command @polysorscha

[korra-of-the-watertribe]

Who are your favorite Hispanic/Latino Characters?

Once again, I am asking for your help choosing who to put in my annual Hispanic & Latino Heritage Month gifset:

Please fill out this survey,  You can tick as many boxes as you want, and if there’s someone not listed you’d like to see included, please write in!  And fill it out as many times as you want :)

I always appreciate suggestions, especially suggestions for Afro-Latine characters and public figures!

Tagging some friends/mutuals under the cut:

@zoya-nazyalenskys @droo216 @goldcrescent @jason-tod @ivashkovadrian @atopcat @jamesfleamont @sayruq @polysorscha @montygreen @tweedstoat @wandaviz @catraboobwindow @thecatsaesthetics @nymini @winterskings @mainflopgirl @pakisstani @azulafrost @hendrixavery @littorallbones @samwpmarleau @goddessofnapsandcoils @handsolos @supernatasha @melaninerd @clytenmestra 

[longsightmyth]

The plot twist of a secret father and son has happened twice in SJM’s books and will probably happen in CC with Hunt not knowing who his father is. Lucien’s has to be a retcon because he’s pointed at as looking similar to his supposed father.

Yeah, if you look through the tag 'myth rags on crescent city' or 'myth rags on a court of thorns and roses' or 'myth rags on throne of glass' you'll find more discussion on these points and if the post hasn't COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED a specific discussion with the quote about Beron and Lucien looking alike

@spaceshipkat @croissantcitysucks @discountalien-pancake @polysorscha and @tailorgenyasafin amongst others also have a bunch of discussion on the matter but their tag organization is a bit different than mine I think

[discountalien-pancake]

Hi! This is another ask about pirating (sorry!) but I'm not trying to justify it and I hope it doesn't seem that way! To support authors, is it better to use amazon or go to like barnes&noble or something? Also, is Kindle Unlimited kinda similar to pirating and should I avoid it? And finally, obviously these are a little better than pirating, but are libraries and 2nd hand bookstores/loaning books on the same wavelength as pirating, as the author gets nothing from those transactions?

So! Out of all paid options, the one that helps authors the most is pre-ordering or purchasing on release a hardcopy. Ebook sales will still help, and a much more affordable. I’m pretty sure Amazon’s rates for author royalties are kinda shit but I have no idea how they compare to other platforms. @polysorscha or @spaceshipkat might know more.

Kindle Unlimited is... different. Consider it part of like a subscription service, similar to Netflix. They’re not getting sales necessarily but downloads will still count towards certain statistics. @longsightmyth mayhaps knows more about that specifically since she uses it.

Libraries still technically support authors, especially if you actually check out the book or put in requests. Libraries have to buy those copies and every time you check it out, it counts toward readership statistics. It’s trackable, so it helps.

And used bookstores are an interesting case. Yes, you get to read the story without paying the author anything, but it’s one finite copy, versus pirating which is infinite copies. Even receiving a used book for free still means that the copy has to change hands. The original owner doesn’t get to keep it. Even sharing a book amongst friends is better, because again, one finite copy being passed between 5 people or whatever simply does not have the same reach as infinite copies being circulated by potentially thousands of readers. Compare it to, say, someone gifting you a sculpture or something. The original artist isn’t getting paid, but you’re not ripping off their work and distributing copies to anyone who wants one. If someone else wants one of their own to keep they’ll still have to go to the artist and buy one.

Plus buying used keeps used bookstores in business, which maintains access to physical books for more people. Because having a physical copy of a book that is just yours and doesn’t have to be returned is nice, and more used bookstores means more people have that as an option.