#sappho themed because I can

[kuwdora]

Saturday Morning Vid Recs - Women!

Back in January I told @poetikat that I wanted to share just a fraction of vids I’ve seen since I started vidding in 2007 that I love. Taken me forever to format the links into a post to share. I have several more posts half-finished and may show up on your dashboard in following weeks or months.

I'm reccing vids that are at least 1 year old, but most of these vids are 4 and 8 and 12 years old and sometimes older. These vids feature a variety of sources, characters, genres of music, genres of shows. Each of these vidders have their own style and the way they approach a song or a source. I love these vids, they're fun to watch, they're hot, mesmerizing, engaging, thoughtful, full of love and horniness and BAMFs and joy and struggle. I love. I love.

I give to you 23 vids for this weekend's theme:

Women!!

Learning to Fly by rhoboat. Beautiful Boxer (2004). A movie vid based on trans Thai boxer Nong Toom’s life. This song is so good showing her journey to learning to find herself and fly! Ako Te Reo by bironic. Rūrangi (2020). Ana learning Te Reo Māori. This vid is so wonderful! It's never too late to learn. Come on Feet by JinkyO. Pumzi (2009). The song choice and pacing is incredible for this Kenyan sci-fi film. Something has to keep us moving forward. Black Nails by fightingarrival. A League of their Own (2022). A Max vid that is a great look at her journey on the show. This vid makes me want to rewatch all her scenes all over again. Here, take this L. Damned if She Do by chaila. Borgen. This source is the Danish political drama Borgen. Birgette is so kick-ass and this song is perfect for her. She come alive when she dying. "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Strict Machine by such_heights. Doctor Who. River Song. I’m in love with River Song so of course I have to rec this. I get high on a buzz then a rush when I'm plugged in you. Counting Stars by beccatoria. DC Animated Wonder Woman. Beccatoria has always done such a great job of vidding animated source and WOMEN!!!! Superstar by @heresluck. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A Faith vid. This (one of many) epic Faith vids to come out of vidding fandom over the years. This vid lives rent free in my head. But I would pay this vid to live in my head because I love it so much. Never gonna be the same again.

Down & Dirty by @sweeter-than. Killjoys. A Dutch fanvid! A++ song choice for a character study showing her relationship with the Jacobi brothers and her general awesomeness. Make way. Cut Like a Buffalo by kiki_miserychic. Empire. Cookie Lyon fanvid! Cookie has all the skin in the game and she is so good at music, but damn there’s so much bullshit she has to deal with along the way. Yeah, you know I look like a woman but I / Cut like a buffalo / Stand up like a tower, tall / Then I fall just like a domino. Control: A Monstress Fanvid by garrideb. Based on the comic Monstress. You know this Halsey song + any woman who has been Going Through It is going to be a fucking ride. Great editing, amazing art. Fortunate One by @moocowmoocow The Expanse. CAMINA!!! DRUMMER!!!! A Sleater-Kinney cover of Fortunate Son is 10 million kinds of brilliance here for Camina and this source. I ain't no fortunate one. Celebrity Skin by @some-stars. Black Sails. This is an Eleanor and Max character vid. I repeat: Elenor and Max vid to Courtney Love’s music. Heed the warnings. This vid is so goddamn good. It better be worth it. Double Woman by starlady. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. So much awesomeness packed into this vid. Through the camera lens re-editing history gives imagination to the people. Wu Zetian and Shangguang Jing'er are awesome. Hooray for awesome ladies of the Tang Dynasty! Titanium by giandujakiss. Wonder Woman (the original tv show). She is titanium! Suffering Sappho.

Mirrors by @kuwdora. Snow White and the Huntsman. Queen/Snow. Lots of fantasy imagery and bdsm like themes since the Queen wants to suck the youth from Snow. Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. Lightning Field by bradcpu, a Legend of the Seeker fanvid of Cara/Kahlan. The imagery in this vid is outstanding, the tone the atmosphere. I have rewatched this more times than I can count. Strike me down, Give it everything you've got. Hands Away by chaila and beccatoria. Sarah Connor Chronicles/Fringe. Sarah/Olivia constructed reality fanvid that is constructed really really fucking well that you might forget that these are two different shows. I can't reach you. (Or, two messiahs walk into an alternate reality) Hurricane by @laurashapiro. Farscape and Battlestar Galactica, Starbuck/Aeryn.This vid is so epic and hot and incredible...Hot and sexy and can’t take your eyes off them. Two pilots walk into a bar. I Wanna Go by millylicious, a multi-source action vid Angelia Jolie tribute. This is fun and delightful. Space Girl by charmax. Multi-source space women and girls! My momma told me I should never watch Sci-fi but I did, I did, I did. Celebration by sweetestrain. Pop divas. Madonna, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, etc. Another one of my favorites of favorites. The connected imagery between all of these music videos still blows my mind, but goes to show you how pop music continues to build and evolve from each other. Plus sexy dancing. If it makes you feel good. Your Song by anoel. Multi-fandom. One of the most epic sapphic/wlw vids out there. I don’t wanna hear sad songs anymore, I only wanna hear love songs.

Hope you like these recs! Follow the tags to keep up #saturday morning vid recs and/or #kuwdora recs

EDITING TO ADD: How to Leave Feedback on Fanvids

[arrenlebanen777]

ASTRO OBSERVATIONS 444

☾People who have the same Sun sign of your Sun degree, inflate your ego/or destroy it, they help you a lot in your path, they help you to be more confident and self-assured, you may even fall in love with them due to this. ☾People who have the Sun sign/Personal Planets sign of your Lilith Degree, could help you heal your inner child wounds, or make you really uncomfortable because they trigger the Raw/Violent/Suppressed/vulnerable energy in you. ☾You could idealize the sign of your Neptune degree. ☾People who have the Sun sign or Personal Planets in the sign of Your Saturn degree could teach you valuable/harsh lessons. ☾You have Love/hate relationship with people who has personal planets of the same sign of your Pluto degree, since they trigger your shadow. ☾Moon in 4th house: Have to find balance between comfort zone and Doing things, i know your house/home could be the best place in the world when life gets hard, but you could get stuck here. They have very good intuition to see/decipher the energy of the psychosocial environment, they never forget due to their good memory, the best practice here is to let go and remember that life is sustaining you all the time and realize that your home is in you and is all existence/universe/infinite, that way you become like a spring of life that nourishes everything & everyone that is around you. ☾Vertex in 8th house: Has intense karmic s*xual partners. ☾I have Sun in Scorpio in 5th house conjunct Sappho(80), Casanova(7328), and asteroids Shiva(1170), Bacchus(2063), Cupido(763) & Vesta(4) all in Scorpio 5th house too... And i’m going to tell you how it is: I love the energy of women(i really love it), i do a lot of yoga, Tantra for me is the best way to manage all this s*xual energy, casual s*x is not for me(because I want to merge completely and become one with the person), but is hard for me to stay long periods of time without s*x, i love flirting because I feel it's necessary/fundamental and fun (sometimes I don't realize when I'm doing it, and sometimes i flirt with everyone?), My libido is high and is not so easily transmutable, intense parties with s*xual and chaotic themes are places where I have a lot of fun and they relax me a lot, when i'm simple being people think that I give off the vibes of a fuckboy(I am not lol), intense music gives me chi(lol), When I fall in love I become quite possessive because I want that person just for me, and I can have s*x with that person every damn day of my life(With my first ex-girlfriend we had s*x every day for four months, several times a day), I am super passionate about art/music/spirituality and games in general, in the past I had a terrible jealousy problem (until I became more spiritual/conscious/therapy), my s*xual partners usually have very Plutonian or Scorpian vibes, If I spend a lot of time with a partner it drains me a lot and I have to disappear for a while, otherwise i become crazy, i love gloomy art, when i develop a crush on someone it feels like this: https://tenor.com/es-419/view/sukuna-smile-grin-jjk-yuji-itadori-gif-18924114

☾To all plutonian people: Pluto doesn’t care about you, It doesn’t care if you suffer or you are happy. The only thing that Pluto wants is that you transcends the extremes of what you call good and bad, because that way you can transform(nothing of the old remains)yourself, in other words Pluto wants you to become awakened/enlightened(reach your full potential) but it doesn’t care if you destroy yourself along the way. So watch out that this raw energy(power) of Pluto goes to your ego, because it could make you really egocentric(like sukuna, madara uchiha, toji fushiguro, villain archetype). ☾Libra IC: Daydreamers(they daydream like f*ck), harmonious home, beautiful family that is surrounded by arts or beauty in general, Diplomatics fathers, could have problems to express their anger, super charming, they decorate their rooms a lot, And a lot of people finds their room like a precious and dreamy place. ☾Sun opposite Saturn: Very serious person, disciplined, could suffer from depression because Saturn limits his expression, Saturn here asks you to focus on what is really important, in the house where the sun is, is where the burden of Saturn is lightened, and in the house where Saturn is, is where the most important lessons are, Saturn here practically asks you to become a master of your ego / of yourself / how you use your energies,  asks you to really observe what your needs/deep soul desires are, thats why it limits your expression because it actually wants you to express in a most authentic, mature and honest way, may have problems with the inner child, and they can punish themselves a lot, but once they discipline themselves in something, believe me that nobody and nothing is going to stop them (hard working af).

🌿i am going to do bookings for natal chart readings, very soon! Stay tuned!🌿

[ianthe-is-a-bitch-and-i-love-her]

Sapphic vampire fiction mini reviews, ranked from least favorite to most:

House of Hunger: Bland characters, a story that barely scratches the surface of the implications of its premise, and a central relationship with nothing underpinning it make for an aimless story with a climax that hits like a limp noodle. If the dynamic between a vampire and her indentured maid appeals to you, try The Wicked and the Willing instead.

An Education in Malice: For a Carmilla retelling, the titular character really lacks bite. Laura at least has some interesting contradictions in her, and De Lafontaine could be quite compelling if we saw things through her eyes, but the central relationship isn't built on a lot, and Carmilla herself is really disappointingly bland. The prose comes off as overwrought and melodramatic in the first act, and the constant leaning on poetry feels gratuitous, but it picks up steam and becomes appropriately gripping by the one-third mark, and it carries the book enough that I had an enjoyable but rather shallow experience. I struggle to think of a reason to recommend this over In the Roses of Pieria, which plays with similar thematic and aesthetic elements much more adeptly. Also, it's a pet peeve of mine when a story makes a point to establish a specific historical era for its setting but has characters that feel utterly modern.

The Deathless Girls: This book does a much better job with its sense of time and place, and the characters and their motivations are quite strong. I only rate this one low on this list because the main characters don't actually deal with vampirism as a condition until the very end of the book. On its surface, the premise might seem quite similar to A Dowry of Blood, but there's actually very little thematic or narrative overlap.

Ex-Wives of Dracula: An excellent exploration of the queer teenage experience in conservative small town ~2015 USA along with some pretty novel twists on vampire and horror movie tropes. Strong, vibrant characters with a rich, messy, and compelling relationship carry a solid mystery plot and some pretty pointed critiques of its setting, but the actual climax and resolution don't quite hold up to the quality of the rest. Also I simply must warn anyone who didn't grow up in the time and place this book explores about the profound and casual bigotry and nastiness of that setting, which this book replicates to a T.

The Wicked and the Willing: A thrilling and compelling dark romantic drama centered on a British vampire in 1920s Singapore, her newly hired and desperate to escape poverty personal maid, and her majordomo who is struggling to keep her conscience under control after years of aiding and abetting her mistress's dark appetites. Extremely strong character writing pairs with deft exploration of themes of colonialism, entitlement, class divisions, sexism, and the ways in which certain types of status can and cannot afford one leeway to be nonconforming in other ways. Intermixes diagetic and non-diagetic BDSM very organically also, if that's your thing.

In the Roses of Pieria: Rich prose dripping with atmosphere follows an obscure academic as she digs into a series of ancient correspondences and discovers a millenia spanning love story between two vampires. The character writing is solid, if not quite as impressive as some other entries on this list, but the quality of the prose more than elevates it. The text makes elegant and powerful references to Sappho throughout, and the whole experience is heady and compelling in ways that I struggle to describe in greater detail. Funnily enough, the vampires are the least interesting part of the world building. This one has a sequel coming, and I can't wait.

A Dowry of Blood: A darkly enchanting epistolary novel that takes the form of letters written by the first of Dracula's wives to him as she attempts to make peace with killing him. She unpicks a delicious and horrifying knot of feeling and history as she revisits their millenia together, recounting and reckoning with the manipulations and abuses that defined the good times and the bad. The characters are evocative and rich, the narrative voice by turns sparse, longing, furious, contemplative, and mournful, and the story simply springs to life. It accomplishes an incredible amount in approximately 200 pages, and I absolutely cannot recommend this one enough.

[howlsmovingmind]

The phrase “The Oscar Wilde sort” is one of my favorite things ever. It used to be as readily understood as “fruity” is now, but if I tell someone I’m “the Oscar Wilde sort”, ALMOST EVERYONE AROUND ME IS CONFUSED. And that’s hilarious.

“Friend of Dorothy” has, in a way, kept its previous meaning and use because it’s still coded to be something mostly only queer people understand. My brother is a well read person whom I typically expect to understand my references. I said something like, “Well, I am a friend of Dorothy after all.” And he looked at me with such confusion. My brother, the most well read person I have met in my small town (keeps himself informed on current events, history, and internet culture) didn’t know queer history hardly at all. Lavender Menace, Lavender Scare, the YMCA, Sappho, the word Sapphic, Plato and his Platonic ideals, cowboys, or Polari.

This made me realize just how little cishet people know about queer history. Maybe even how little queer people know about queer history. We aren’t really taught these things in the States and the people around us don’t typically have knowledge about any of it either. We have to go digging for it because we want to know about the people like us. We want to know more about our history. Because it is ours. It’s personal and special.

Him not knowing these bits of history confused me. I thought, for some reason, he knew everything I knew and then some. But he was just as uninformed as I was. But he didn’t care. Because it didn’t mean anything for him. (And that’s not a problem!) Polari seems like a dead language a lot of the time. But interactions like this make me realize that there is actually still a place for it. Because, really, it has evolved to look and sound different, but it’s still there.

I feel like I’ve lost the plot of this post, but I’m gonna keep going because I want to.

Queer history is so beautiful and human. It’s so unbelievably human. That’s why literature like “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, “The Price of Salt”, and “Maurice” are so important. Sappho’s poems and knowing they’re about women is important. Knowing Walt Whitman was queer is important. Knowing Emily Dickinson was queer is important. This is a whole group of people who have been hidden from the public eye and hated and scorned and killed because of who they love. And it is about who they love. You cannot tell me this is simply about the physical aspect of it all. Because it’s not. It’s really not. The AIDs crisis? There was no way that was just about having sex. AIDS was such a problem because they wouldn’t help the queer people affected by it. Only when straight couples were being affected did they do anything.

Queer shipping does not lose the plot of stories or discount everything that a piece of media has explored and built up. Like people shipping Anderperry. It’s not a crazy thing! It does not take away from Neil’s acting being a point of contention between him and his father. It could add a layer to maybe why it was such a big deal beyond his father simply being a controlling jerk and not allowing Neil to engage in something outside of what he’s “supposed” to do. Mr. Perry made Neil drop the school paper at the beginning because it would be “distracting”. We know that Mr. Perry is controlling and never would have allowed Neil to act no matter what. Because it wasn’t the plan. But Neil being queer adds a layer to this narrative that a lot of people have seen and found themselves in. It doesn’t have to distract from the story and the themes that the author or creator is presenting. It can add a layer. I mean, Walt Whitman being such a huge part of the film and message all throughout adds to the queer message.

I just think that… it’s interesting and important and it means more to so many people than we assume. History and every aspect of humanity is important.

And saying “I’m the Oscar Wilde sort” is objectively hilarious.

An Oscar Wilde Fan,

Howl

[girl4music]

So I’ve been spending these passed couple of days off work researching cast/crew interviews about ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ and a good few of them I’ve found have been Renee O’Connor interviews where she talks about the significance of Gabrielle as a character and how she relates to Xena. How she personally perceives the nature of the relationship between them. Renee has always perceived it as definitely romantic but not necessarily sexual. She’s always perceived Xena and Gabrielle as best friends in love rather than an actual official couple. Rather than sexually involved lovers. And it’s interesting to read her views of the characters and their relationship together through this lens because she - like me - seems to come at it from a much more profound and spiritual perspective. It really does make me wonder what she would think and tell me if she ever read my character study thesis because I think she would agree with it to be honest. She’d resonate with the theory that the characters were so intertwined with each other emotionally and intimately that they were one soul inhabiting two bodies that became each other at the conclusion.

It’s just the way she talks about the characters and their relationship together makes me think that way. Take for example this interview from way back in 2010. The way she expresses her views about both Xena and Gabrielle here and their love relationship.

WVM: “As I wrote on my blog today, to a true Xena fan, I’m probably the nightmare, because I’ve never seen the show. Now I’m intrigued, and I want to catch up on the series. So tell me: who is Gabrielle? What should I look out for as I watch?”

ROC: “In the beginning, she is very naïve, with an intense desire to search for who she is. Then she starts to be the counterbalance to Xena’s pragmatic warrior, so she becomes more of the peaceful, compassionate, loving partner to Xena’s person-seeking-redemption. Xena the Warrior Princess is looking for redemption, and Gabrielle is guiding her there in some profound way. I think that if you thought of the whole arc of the series, that’s what you could say. Xena discovers true love in Gabrielle. What else should you look for? In the beginning, she’s one of those people who can get herself out of any situation through fast talking. By the end of the series, she actually gets herself out of situations by using her own physical strength, fighting alongside Xena.”

WVM: “She’s also a bard. What does that mean, in Xena terms?”

ROC: “Gabrielle is a great storyteller. She loves to meet the poets along the way. Even at the end of the series — she admires Sappho’s poetry, and so Xena gives her this gift, a poem to her from Sappho. Gabrielle is the person who writes down and archives the adventures of Xena all along the way. Then she puts them in these scrolls, which are her prized possessions, and she carries them on all their journeys. So one great piece of humor is when Xena discovers that she can’t find any paper in the forest, so she uses one of the scrolls, rips off a piece of one.”

WVM: “That kind of paper? Toilet paper?”

ROC: “Yes! There was a wonderful lightness in the series. There were feminist themes, anti-war themes. But also humor. I still remember that scene: “Scrolls? You used my scrolls?”

It’s still the ultimate buddy movie, too. [Gabrielle and Xena] could always rely on each other. We always loved each other, too, so whenever a tragic flaw came over one of us, we always came through to the other side still loving each other.”

WVM: “But it’s my understanding that they were never depicted as lovers outright.”

ROC: “That was asked today. Someone said, “Do you think they ever basically made love,” is what the question was. That’s been the question of subtext for all these years. There was an incredible intimacy between Xena and Gabrielle. I don’t know if I said, “Yes” or “Probably.” If so, Lucy [Lawless, who played Xena] and I never defined that in playing the characters.

It’s a relationship I don’t think I’ve ever had: it’s best friends, it’s maternal, it’s combative — such as in warfare when you have to rely on your partner to think quickly.”

WVM: “There’s also an element of big sister/little sister, isn’t there?”

ROC: “Yeah, and yet I felt Xena was quite maternal, too. Xena defended Gabrielle. I don’t know if she sacrificed herself. It’s more than just a sexual intimacy. But that’s what people saw, so that’s what they could resonate with the most.”

WVM: “We don’t often get to see women’s friendship treated in this kind of depth. Usually the depictions are pretty superficial, or they don’t take up much screen time. And men — myself included — are always certain that there’s more going on and much more said between women when we’re not in the room.”

ROC: “Interesting. That’s the mind of a man!”

Renée recalled a scene between Xena and Gabrielle that demonstrated the characters’ closeness.

ROC: “We were around the campfire talking about a recap of what happened in the episode, some sort of change in the character had happened, and it was an intimate, vulnerable moment, and it happened around the campfire. I think there’s a moment of intimacy when people are vulnerable and open and loving, and I guess that’s where the “dot dot dot” comes in.

It’s funny you say that [about women’s friendships], because I think women are probably more threatened [than men] by seeing someone they love in an intimate relationship with someone else. Women feel that way. As opposed to something that looks — something that might just be a lustful projection. Isn’t that true?”

WVM: “I think guys tend to congratulate each other, rather than feel threatened. Maybe they’re hurt when feeling left out, like “I can’t hang out with my buddy because he’s out with his girflriend.”

While Renée reflected on this, I observed that, at the convention, it was clear that a number of the women present at the convention considered Xena and Gabrielle as models for their own loving relationships with other women. Renée cautioned that her perspective shouldn’t be taken as authoritative, merely because she played one of the characters, but she does understand the interpretation.

ROC: “I have to embrace that, because truly the lesbian community is still our most loyal following, definitely, after all these years. So if that’s what they want to see, absolutely, go for it, sure.”

WVM: “Is it flattering to be viewed this way by a community, that you’re telling their stories?”

ROC: “You know, I come at it from the other angle. I’m almost worried — and I’m not a worrisome person — but I worry about misrepresenting the community, because I don’t expect to be iconic. I can’t represent them in a way that is truly truthful, and so I don’t know that I should be the spokesperson. [That is to say, because she’s a straight woman in real life.]

I think people resonate with me personally because of the person I am. I care about the fans, I really do. I want them to be happy. I want them to feel like they can stand up and say, “I’m gay,” and be fulfilled in so many ways and never be discriminated against. That’s what’s important in what they see in me. I don’t want them to feel isolated or feel like they have to hide or feel ashamed. And I think the young girls feel that way because they don’t have anyone to talk to and they don’t know what to do. I have felt that in my life, and so I feel like I want to say to them, “You don’t have to do that, you can stand up and be who you are.”

WVM: “A lot of people identify very closely with Gabrielle’s spiritual journey.”

ROC: “I don’t know that she meant it to be a spiritual journey. I think she was trying to search for her individual way. There was an element to the spiritual quest there, but I don’t think it was isolated around spirituality. You know, there are just some people who feel incongruent, they have different aspects and they don’t line up. They feel conflicted. [Gabrielle] was in love with someone who was a warrior and was killing people, and yet Gabrielle wanted the life of a compassionate pacifist. So how does she do that? That was how I came at it.”

WVM: “I should probably use the word “meaning” rather than “spirituality.”

ROC: “Yes, yes, looking for meaning, sure.”

Left the link to the original source if you’d like to read the whole interview. I’ve just transcribed a small part of it. But isn’t it interesting though that Renee views the characters and the way they relate to each other in their friendship romantically but not sexually. I obviously perceive Xena and Gabrielle as a couple so I do think they have sex - it’s just not for us to see on-screen - but I do think they focus more so on the emotional and spiritual connection between them - which I do believe is what makes them an epic romance/love story as opposed to any other WLW ship that there is that is represented to be explicitly sexual.

Xena and Gabrielle really are a very special WLW ship in that you can either view them just as friends and completely platonically if you like… or not. At the end of the day what matters is the love they have is so real and deep and strong that it goes beyond sex and romance. It’s not just Renee that will tell you this out of the cast/crew of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ regardless of how they personally perceive the characters and the nature of their relationship together. They all will. But I just think Renee is the best at explaining this because she really gets down to the core of who the characters are and how they relate to each other which is why I think she would agree with my thesis.

SOURCE: http://billmadison.blogspot.com/2010/09/interview-renee-oconnor.html?m=1

[thescrapwitch]

Give me backstory on your longest currently in progress (meaning you have actively worked on it in, say, the last two weeks) fic!

Thank you for the ask!

For this, I'm going to talk about Reforged, since its the one I literally just posted a new chapter for. Be warned, this is gonna be long:

I had no strong feelings towards Maeglin at the beginning of this fic. But Celebrimbor is one of my favorite Silmarillion characters, and there are so many interesting parallels between the two. Father issues, smiths, a connection with Sauron/Morgoth, the downfall of a shining kingdom (Gondolin for Maeglin, Eregion for Celebrimbor). I started to wonder what it would look like if Maeglin had lived and they had met. At the time when I started writing, there were a few fics that explored the idea (shout out to Don’t Carry It All by @aipilosse which I really love; it's a great fic everyone go read it) but I wanted more.

My goal, then, was to write the sort of Maeglin Lives-Redemption AU that I wanted to read. One that focused on him making amends for what he'd done, the impact of Celebrimbor's friendship in remaking his life, and what to do when the pieces of that newfound happiness shattered again. So I scribbled down an outline for a one-shot. I know, I say it every time I talk about a longfic, but that’s because I like writing one-shots. You get the story done and posted and then you don’t need to worry about it anymore. I thought this would just be the greatest hits of Maeglin and Celebrimbor’s friendship from the end of the First Age to the end of the Third. I knew the beginning (being taken in by Celebrimbor), how things would get worse (ie: a certain banner), the climax (a scene that I cannot talk about yet but am EXTREMELY eager to write), and the ending (which will be happy, I promise). Quick, easy, no longer than 5,000 words.

(Reforged is now over 73,000 words and still going.)

At the time when I started it, I had also recently finished After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz, which is now in my top five favorite books of all time (READ IT, ITS SO GOOD!). I adore it, and part of the reason I love it so much is its structure. The book is made up of fragments, small moments of the characters' lives that span through years and years of history. So much is said and explored through those small scenes, and I wanted to try and do something similar.

(I am obsessed with story structure. Absolutely obsessed. One of my favorite things about books and writing is taking apart the bones of how a story is laid out. Its fascinating to me and I’m constantly looking for books that try something different with it)

The title “reforged” refers both to Maeglin remaking his life from the pieces it's been left in, as well as his craft as a smith. This structure, therefore, fit the theme of the story, its fragmented scenes coming together to create a whole tale. It also took a lot of pressure off of me for writing! I gave myself permission not to stress over transitions, or to show events in different ways: letters, one-sided conversations with statues, etc. It helps so much when I am stuck that I can use one of those ways to approach the scene from a different angle (especially since it covers SO. MUCH. HISTORY).

I also need to shout-out The Harrowing by @chthonion (again, very good fic go read!) which I had also been reading at the time I started and which has altered how I view conflict within stories. It inspired me to really look at how I was presenting the different people in Maeglin's life, to let them be very complicated and tangled as they all tried to make their way through history (such as Eöl or Gil-Galad's anger with the Fëanorians or Maeglin and the surviving Gondolindrim).

And that's how Reforged came to be! Currently, it is the longest fic on my AO3, though there's now only three (!) chapters left. I am very grateful for all the kudos and comments I've gotten on it (especially for Chapter 10 - those screams made my MONTH).

And thank you again for the ask and letting me ramble about my fic! ❤️❤️❤️

[violetqueenofwands]

Lyria is my favorite character in the series and I think she’s gotten a bad rep for being ‘whiny’. Lyria being powerless is kind of the entire point of her story and one of the obstacles she has to overcome.

TLDR; Lyria is both a narrative dark horse that deserves more love, the angriest lesbian in the entire solar system and quite possibly the figure the narrative has set up to be the titular Red God of book 7

I really empathized with her in Iron Gold because she is just as angry as Darrow was in Book 1 but unlike him she doesn’t have Dancer to find her or Mickey to carve her into something stronger, and everyone keeps telling her to shut up and be quiet and be grateful to the republic for “All they’ve done for her” when all they did was turn her into the embodiment of the failures and broken promises of the republic.

The interrogation scene between her and Daxo and Theodora shows this the best.

If Daxo and Theodora acknowledge that Lyria is earnestly telling the truth that means acknowledging the failures of the republic; the reds rotting in assimilation camps, the continued wealth inequality and colorism, The Red Hand executing and raping Gammas; every single point the Vox Populii make is embodied in Lyria and believing her story would be an admission of failure.

Which is why it’s such a big fucking deal that Virgina DOES apologize to her and admit that she failed her personally. It validates everything Lyria has been feeling throughout the book and shows her that she’s not as powerless as she thinks. It’s the catalyst to Lyria and Holliday then confronting Ephraim about how he manipulated her and why she ultimately chooses to forgive him as well.

This theme of unlearning learned helplessness is expanded even more in Dark Age. Lyria is put in a situation where she has to choose to …… you guessed it: LIVE FOR MORE!

Instead of events merely happening around her and Lyria reacting she becomes a not just active but proactive in her own narrative. She saves Volga. She saves Victra (more than once), she saves the red girls from being child brides and her radio signal ultimately is the spark that unites all the citizens of mars to come to her aid and stomp the Red Hand into the dirt where they belong once and for all.

And it isn’t the Parasite that made this change happen either, it’s merely a tool she’s been given. Much like the red woman that gave Atlas’s men poisoned dates she’s found that she can play on the stereotype people expect of her as “a dumb mine lass” in order to do what she has to do and save those girls.

Ultimately I think Lyria is going to be huge loaded wild card in Book 6, between her going to Oculus where multiple narratives seem to be convening, the future of her relationship with Volga, another encounter with Volsung Fa, and hopefully a reunion with her brothers and Liam.

I also firmly maintain there is textual evidence Lyria is a lesbian, including the poem The Parasite speaks (O my mountain hyacinth) being one written by freaking SAPPHO the OG lesbian.

[snek-of-eden]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40

For the ask thingy Hehehe

cherry - what is your sexuality? bisexual!! also aceflux

lollipop - favorite makeup products? i don’t wear any huge brands (or a lot of makeup) but i love black eyeliner so so so much

daydreams - if you could be anything or anyone, who would you be? i’m pretty happy being me, but i think being a penguin would be pretty good too

october - what month were you born in? december :3

caress - do you like to snuggle? YES YES YES YES i think this is what i was born to do. my purpose, per se. i have it on good authority that i am a nice snuggler and i will always say yes to snuggles

ivory - describe your pajamas? usually a plain t-shirt or sports bra with really old winnie the pooh shorts T-T or black sweatpants

golden - favorite stationary product? i have a special fondness for uni-pin fine line 0.2 black pens

freckles - most-worn article of clothing? probably adidas shorts or my black Queen tank top (wearing it rn)

twilight - best friend? my babe teri!! they’re offline for now but they’re @belt-soup

silk - do you like k-pop? not really. i like a few songs, but i never really got into it

poppy - favorite pastel color? pale blue or purple! same colour as my hair

dimples - most attractive features of a person’s face? smile <3 and i guess just… them in general. we’re all beautiful creatures

sunkissed - autumn or spring? autumn 4eva

buttery - favorite snack? salt and vinegar crackers…. or maybe the tumblr cheese toast is because nothing can beat that

whisper - how much sleep do you get? on average about 8 1/2 hours. 9 if i try!

pencil - do you own a journal? yep, i do. and a diary

cupcake - are you a good cook? i like to think so, yeah! i’m a good baker, i can cook alright

honey - favorite term of endearment? babe, baby, bud, sweetheart, honey, take your pick ^_^ i use endearments with everyone

clouds - describe one of your favorite dreams? i hug a lot of people in my dreams!! it’s definitely a theme. i have a teacher who gives the best hugs ever and i’ve had a few dreams about them… also i had a dream once about scotty and bones from star trek being my gay dads and taking me to a concert? so strange but i loved it

velvet - who was your first crush? a boy named alexander on my primary school soccer team T-T he was so cute man. i still think about what happened to him sometimes

paper - favorite children’s book? hmmm, i used to love ‘where is the green sheep’ when i was a toddler, and it’s become a core memory :3

peaches - do you have a skincare routine? not really lol. i wash my face and sometimes moisturise or do a face mask, but yeah

mochi - favorite studio ghibli film? i’ve never actually watched one! it’s on my list though

backyard - did you ever have an imaginary friend? nope

strawberry - favorite fruit? watermelon or strawberry!

kiss - have you ever kissed a friend? on the cheek and forehead yeah haha

nightlight - do you read before bed? i used to, i never do anymore… i don’t know why, just too exhausted nowadays

shampoo - favorite scent? aniseed, vanilla and fresh rain

skin - what distant relative are you closest to? perhaps my second cousins? they’re lovely

aphrodite - favorite actress/actor? DAVID TENNANT OR ANNE HATHAWAY

cuddles - do you have any pets? i have a dog and i sometimes keep stick insects :}

lace - if you own any dresses, which is your favorite? i don’t wear dresses <3

sheets - sanrio or san-x characters? idk what this means

cream - frozen yogurt flavor? a mix of strawberry and chocolate !! can’t go wrong there

watermelon - do films ever make you cry? i don’t think so. not very often at least. really rarely

sapphos - favorite poet? robert frost or edgar allen poe

plush - how many stuffed animals do you still own? at least ten, but the only one i keep out is my kermit plushie that’s been passed down through the family

roses - what flower do you find most beautiful? lavender or pink tulips <33

sweetheart - favorite mug/cup? i have a rainbow mug my mother got for my birthday that has the same picture as the mug in one direction’s drag me down music video… i’m not a huge 1D fan anymore but i adore that mug sm

sunset - what are your pronouns? he/him right now, they/them sometimes!!

thank you so so so so much for this ask!!!! i’m on a road trip and this made for a very fun time x

[ficretus]

Theory: Rhodopis as Knightfall, dissecting 2 paragraph story for every detail

Rhodopis has pretty much always been one of the basis of speculation for canonical Knightfall. It was the first proper Knightfall theory I saw. It was short, to the point and mostly made sense. In this post I'd like to dig into Rhodopis theory and look into every detail of the story to see does it make sense as a theory.

First of all, what is common belief regarding Knightfall and Rhodopis:

It's considered to be proto-Cinderella story so it connects her to Cinder. Rhodopis was courtesan that was enslaved twice. she is eventually freed by Kharaxus of Mytilene, brother of poet Sappho, who then marries her. People translate this into Knightfall because just like Rhodopis, Cinder was enslaved twice. Kharaxus becomes Jaune through Sappho and Saphron connection (both lesbians, Saphron lives in Greek themed city, oldest fragments of Sappho's poetry were found on ceramic vase shards which can be connected to Terra being named after terracotta). Kharaxos freeing Rhodopis and marrying her is then read as Knightfall conclusion of the story.

As I said, it's simple interpretation, however, there seem to be some misconceptions about the story.

First to be clear, when people say Rhodopis in context of Knightfall, they mean Herodotus Rhodopis, which I'll use in this post as well. Reason distinction matters is because Herodotus' and Strabo's versions are completely different. In Strabo's version, Rhodopis is woman who's sandal gets stolen by the eagle and brought to pharaoh. He is charmed by her sandal and orders his servants to find the woman who lost her sandal. Eventually they find Rhodopis and they marry. In fact, when people call Rhodopis proto-Cinderella story, this is the version they refer to (locating woman through her shoe shape and marrying monarch are elements they found their way to the mainstream Cinderella stories).

Nowhere is it stated Kharaxus marries Rhodopis. Here is quote from Heredotus version of the story: "Rhodopis came to Egypt to work, brought by Xanthes of Samos, but upon her arrival was freed for a lot of money by Kharaxus of Mytilene, son of Scamandronymus and brother of Sappho the poetess. Thus Rhodopis lived as a free woman in Egypt, where, as she was very alluring, she acquired a lot of money—sufficient for such a Rhodopis, so to speak, but not for such a pyramid." It's not even mentioned he does it out of romantic feelings in Herodotus version, that part is only in later poems by Poseidippos: "Dorikha, your bones are long since dust, and dust the fillet that bound your hair, and the perfume-breathing robe you folded about lovely Kharaxos when, in his arms, you sipped the wine at dawn." She is here refered to as Dorikha, which is asumed to be her real name. This removes major smoking gun from the theory, although I'd argue that even act of freeing her works as pro Knightfall argument.

Rhodes' name could be pro Rhodopis argument due to it's etymology (both derived from greek word for rose) and being the only named character in Cinder's backstory, but it's pretty uncertain. Rhodes could also mean pomegranate in Greek (which could add more to my "Cinder is unicorn" theory since unicorn in image I used is tied to pomegranate tree. By taking down the tree, unicorn is free, just like Cinder thinks she is finally free after killing Madame and Rhodes)

Now that is out the way, I'd like to put tinfoil on and try to dissect the story for any Knightfall parallels.

Both Rhodopis and Cinder get enslaved outside of their homeland. Rhodopis is taken from Thrace, first to island of Samos, then to Naucratis in Egypt. Cinder is taken first to Atlas, then Evernight.

Both use pseudonyms. Fall is heavily implied to be name Cinder gave to herself. Similarly, Rhodopis is professional pseudonym. As stated above, her real name was asumed to be Dorikha by later poets. Even if that's not the case, it would make no sense for her real name to be Rhodopis. She was Thracian, it would make no sense for her to have Greek name in that time period (in 6th century BC Thrace is not Hellenized).

Island of Samos matches Atlas as a setting. First of all, contrast to the rest of the world. Just like Atlas is most developed city of Remnant, Greece stands as shining beacon of civilization above barbarian lands like Thrace. Both are also technically islands, although one of them is floating. However, if we take Samos' etymology (meaning high in Phoenician), it literally becomes "high island" just like Atlas.

Now here is something I refer to as "Aesop connection". One of Rhodopis' fellow slaves while she was on Samos was famous fable writer Aesop. "and a fellow-slave of Aesop the story-writer. For he was owned by Iadmon, too," Why does this matter? If you imagine Cinder as slave of Atlas, who would her fellow slave be? It would be faunus. Does it make sense to connect Aesop to faunus? I'd say yes, after all, Aesop is famous for writing stories mostly about anthropomorphic animals. Aesop is also one of the most famous storytellers in history, and considering RWBY is story about stories, him appearing in some shape or form wouldn't be weird. I mostly bring this up because if writing staff wanted to check Aesop's biography, they'd have to see this paragraph by Herodotus, which is part of Rhodopis story. So this is bit of a counterargument against claiming Rhodopis is too obscure to be inspiration (another being the fact that Rhodopis appears on Cinderella wiki article). Aesop gets different conclusion to his slavery. He is freed and employed as either advisor to wealthy Samian, or as envoy of king Croesus. This is entering speculative territory, but Aesop's conclusion of slavery matches what one would assume to be conclusion to faunus in the story. Working either with wealthy Samian (and as I said before, Samos=Atlas) or with Croesus (famous for being richest man alive and synonym for immense wealth, "as rich as Croesus") both allude to faunus working together with Weiss (although to be fair, any non Jacques Schnee family member works here) and redemeed SDC as equals, ending the long conflict.

Kharaxus spends immense wealth to free Rhodopis, earning him ire back at home, his sister Sappho even writing a poem criticizing him: "Kharaxus, after giving Rhodopis her freedom, returned to Mytilene. He is bitterly attacked by Sappho in one of her poems." I bring this up as bit of a Joan of Arc parallel to "strengthen" Jaune's role as Kharaxus. Joan's involvement with the King was one of the main points of her heresy trial. This is also relatively logical conclusion if we asume Knightfall or even just Jaune redeeming Cinder happens in canon: his friends would definitely be bitter about him bringing her to the group. If we wanna go through Knightfall rabbit hole, then we can speculate Kharaxus paying massive price could be equated to Jaune giving Cinder (or at least letting her take) Relic of Choice (action which would also certainly cause him to be bitterly attacked by his friends), since Kharaxus returns home without Rhodopis.

In conclusion, Rhodopis is short and sweet theory to the fault. Its length and straight forwardness makes it easy to digest, however, it's minimalism and relative obscurity also make it easy to shoot down if you don't already like or believe in Knightfall as potential canon ship.

[mothprincess]

do you have any tips for someone who wants to get into writing? i feel like i'm too stupid no thoughts head empty kind of person but i still want to attempt it because i want to create something i can be proud of (& i need a creative outlet bc my life is falling apart). i guess this is too broad of a question but maybe you can recommend some books on writing or just books you loved in general? <3

stupid people don't ask such good questions and seek out advice ♡ write without shame or embarrassment write without thinking about what a poem (or prose, but i will focus on what i have the most experience with) should look like write about what the wind sounds like (does it sing? does it warn you of something? is it cold and blistery?) or how you feel about someone in your life (is your heart warm? like it's about to burst? is it cold? cold like what? vanilla soft serve that runs down your knuckles?) write with honesty and introspection (conversely, make shit up whenever you want if it makes the story more interesting) allow your mind to be spontaneous. you don’t have to write about roses or depression. you can write about how it feels in bio lab, how your heart is like a test tube i like to tell people to make their brains as fluid as they can. if you’re at a lack for words, try reading something well-regarded that may expand your vocabulary and scope of knowledge my writing takes inspiration from the following authors and works: PROSE • sputnik sweetheart by haruki murakami • norwegian wood by haruki murakami • the wind-up bird chronicle by haruki murakami • deathless by catherynn m. valente • comfort me with apples by catherynn m. valente • the virgin suicides by jeffrey eugenides  • the bell jar by sylvia plath • cat’s eye by margaret atwood • bunny by mona awad POETRY & OTHER • ariel by sylvia plath • the unabridged journals of sylvia plath • les fleurs du mal by charles baudelaire • the anatomy of being by shinji moon • dream work by mary oliver • the wild iris by louise glück • love, death, and the changing of the seasons by marilyn hacker • the letters of vincent van gogh • the letters of vita sackville west to virginia woolf ^ these are heavily magical realism and/or with psychological and introspective themes. if you want to feel inspired but aren’t sure where to begin, you may start with shakespeare, emily dickinson, or sappho. classics tend to be safe choices that are full of rich vocabulary 

does anything excite you? use that as a compass. if nothing excites you, perhaps explore why. excitement need not be high energy. even an unexpected bouquet of flowers can bring about excitement and romanticism, at least for myself i did not learn to write poetry through formal education or classes. it is strangely intuitive and one may always write free verse poetry. anne sexton started writing poetry at the suggestion of her psychiatrist, for example. if you are interested in learning how to write, i really like skillshare for learning new things (this is my referral code, if you or anyone is interested: https://skl.sh/3Proh0p) otherwise, i own mary oliver’s a poetry handbook but am yet to have read it, myself. i haven’t read much on how to write but it would be wise to look at the syllabi of college poetry and writing courses, like this one and this, where you can find several suggestions anyway, best of luck to you, anon. please feel free to share what you have written with me when you do write something ♡

[aphrodisianbaby]

Hi! I really like your blog, and I'm curious if you just worship deities, or do you worship heroes, spirits, etc. as well? Would you be interested in worshiping Sappho, for example? 

 I'm new to the Tumblr pagan/polytheist-sphere, and I was inspired by my research on Sappho and Aphrodite (I'm slowly working on defining modern Sapphic rhetoric and modern Sapphic online spaces) for my MA thesis to look into polytheism. I' also identify as a sapphic woman so this topic is in general very fun for me to learn about. Also, would it be okay if I included your answer in my project? If not, totally cool! ☺️ and if so, thats great too. (I can def give you more info about what I'm doing if you'd like as well.)

hello love !! apologies that this is so late, asks are anti-my executive functioning. i absolutely wouldnt mind you including my opinion or asking for more ! since you're focusing on sapphic themes, I'll make it clear that I'm a transmasc mlm not a sapphic or a woman ! I'm unsure if that matters to your thesis, but I wouldn't want to skew your data :)

for your question, i personally only really worship Deities. this isn't because I wouldn't worship a hero or a past human, but I have never really felt called to thus far. the closest I've come is contact with a spirit i consider an ancestor and spirit guide whom i refer to as "the fox" online for privacy reasons. even then, we don't have a consistent line of contact like i do with the Divine.

I do have an appreciation for Sappho absolutely. i honor her on this blog specifically because i have a UPG view* that Sappho was a lover of Aphrodite. i believe that Deities can share different levels of relationship with humans, and that Aphrodite had favor for Sappho. I can go more in depth on this if you're interested, or if anyone else is, but I won't clog up this ask with my upg

I think, in the future, I may be interested in hero worship**. i think there is something very healing and personal about forming relationships with energies that were once human, especially those who lived in completely different times than us now. I think it can really bridge the gap between the Divine and human experiences by adding a level of understanding that a Deity may never have, the experience of living as a human being. this was something I valued a lot when I worshiped Psykhe, the Goddess often considered the ruler of the human soul. when you're surrounded by big Divine energies all the time, having a familiar, mortal energy can be quite relieving.

on top of this, I think there's something unique about Sappho's position. it's one thing for a Goddess to tell you how much She loves and accepts you, it's another thing to speak with a queer spirit who lived, breathed, and was adored by others for their queerness. the ancient people loved Sappho's poetry and it was spread across the middle east, even if only fragments remain now. i think it can be an amazing experience for queer people to connect with someone who was adored for their sapphic identity so long ago. even if you don't personally identify as sapphic or even as femme/female. Sappho is the teacher who reminds us that being queer was and always will be something to honor and worship.

*UPG meaning unverified personal gnosis. it's a religious idea or practice that I carry without it being a verified belief or practice in antiquity.

**when I say "hero worship", im generally referring to the worship of influential humans or human figures.

[pretensesoup]

Queer books, day 21/30

Okay, let's take a detour from romance novels to the world of weird fuckin' poetry.

I stumbled on this book by accident, because the press that published it (Milkweed Editions) also published a book by my sister-in-law, and when I was ordering it I asked her if there was anything else I should get off the website. You know, for free shipping.

Although I am a poet, I am only tangentially attached to the world of poetry, so I can't say this with any surety, but it does seem to me that transness is something that poetry rarely touches upon. Homosexuality in general, yes--poetry has for sure been super gay since like Gilgamesh (see also Shakespeare, Sappho, Whitman, Wilde, Housman, Auden, I cannot list them all in one parenthetical note). And most poetry is not like Charles's poetry anyway, which uses a Middle English-esque dialect that is Charles's own invention. The play of words and puns she is able to create would certainly make James Joyce ecstatic, but the use of Middle English is an interesting choice that might bear some examination.

Off the top of my head, Middle English started to be a thing at the time of Chaucer--by which I mean that our boy Geoffrey was the first one to write down language the way people were speaking, not that he invented the language or something. So writing in this new/old mode evokes a particular type of creation--not of something de novo necessarily (although the language in feeld is of course new), but of potentially bringing to light themes and ideas that a lot of trans people struggle with, as well as a moment in history when the world is shifting, and being out as a trans person is suddenly a thing people do in a way it wasn't when I was younger.

(To be clear, there have always been trans people. We talk about this in the podcast all the time--see for example this episode's discussion of Brother Marinos and a lot of this episode which talks about Eleno/Elena de Cespedes and the Blind Prophet Tiresias who switched genders and, like, a lot of other episodes. However, trans people didn't organize/discuss their experiences so publicly/as a political class until fairly recently. So the parallel of "everyone was speaking this language but no one wrote it down until now" feels apt.)

Another way this language feels appropriate to this book is the way that it forces an interpretation by the reader--when Charles writes, "i ware / & inn a hiv / u r born", does "hiv" mean "hive"? "HIV"? Can we trust that it will have the same meaning the next time it appears (e.g., "befor the wharing / the hiv")? In a way, this recreates the interpretive act trans people constantly experience when they meet cis people--another thing chronicled by Charles when she writes, "how many/ holes would blede/ befor/ u believ/ imma grl." But here, because the language is Charles's, she always has the reader at an advantage.

Here's a poem that struck me:

Anyway. Poetry! Who knew. You can definitely buy this one from Milkweed Editions, which is a small press and so always in need of/deserving of love. 10/10, go read it.

[sunriseverse]

ALSO. GENERAL SUNRISEVERSE QUESTION. because of dichotomy of our invested universes' inspirations. are there specific poems, or even just specific themes and motifs from poems, that have influenced the verse <3

[gently kisses you for asking me this question] YES THERE IS!!!!!! the poem sunrise by louise glück is the main inspiration (especially this art of it), both atmospherically and aesthetically, but lots of other poetry also lives in my brain forever, especially anything by mary oliver, and sappho’s “they will remember us / i say / even in another time” haunts me specifically with relation to the tragedy of the zhang founding siblings, “the dogs i have kissed” by trista mateer for ALL romantic pairings in sunrise, “high specific heat” by topaz winters when it comes to xiaoge and love, this poem when it comes to wu xie in the sha hai parallel timeline, i will tell this story to the sun until you remember that you are the sun by erin slaughter about pangzi, baked goods by aimee nezhukumatathil about the iron triangle, and this line from “on earth we’re briefly gorgeous” by ocean vuong about heihua. i also need to get my hands on yuan dynasty and ming dynasty poetry so i can find poems that 1. i can reference in the sunrise verse canon and 2. i can anchor some basis for the canon in historical poetry.

[a-d-nox]

hi! I was wondering if you could please tell me your thoughts about my asteroid sappho being at 23 Taurus 16’7” in my 6th house. it is trine my Chiron in Capricorn, sextile my Saturn in Cancer, trine my Jupiter in Virgo, and square my Mars in Leo.

also, my original question was about a connection between the position of my asteroid hephaistos and asteroid sappho, and I completely understand your response about how hephaestus is not connected to sappho. out of genuine curiosity though (and with no intent to offend or disrespect), couldn’t one still derive meaning from the placements of asteroids and the aspects between them even if the gods/goddesses/etc. are not connected in myth because asteroids indicate larger themes (ex: marriage, beauty, fame, etc.)? yes, those meanings are derived from the role those gods/goddesses/etc. played in myth, but even if two ‘characters’ do not interact in mythology, couldn’t their underlying respective themes (ie. one representing talent and one representing singing) be linked to one another through the aspect they make? again, I don’t mean to offend or discredit you in the slightest, I am simply curious how such a close conjunction of two asteroids can have zero significance or meaning. thank you so much, I appreciate your time!!

alright i am going to explain this the best that i can because i feel like no one is seeing my logic... i don't culture splice - no one should request to me what two different in culture asteroids mean when aspecting one another (ex: zeus conjunct odin). it's not my thing; you'll only get something vague making it a waste of all of our time. as for those in the same culture and me not liking to interpret asteroids that don't interact in myths together - i just don't see the purpose (ex: sappho conjunct hephaistos). the closest relationship they have is aphrodite - each character (sappho and hephaistos) having very differing opinions of her (sappho worshipped aphrodite AND hephaistos married aphrodite but became very untrusting of her). if they lack shared general meanings and lack shared close relationship (with similar shared interest), there is very little to go off of. if you want there to be some mean just remember there are thousands of asteroids and only twelve houses, they have to go somewhere. lots of people don't even interpret asteroid aspects to other asteroids - it's a difficult task to do. but as for asteroids with similar meaning... while i wouldn't interpret a zeus conjunct odin aspect where both asteroids in the 11h together i may say that the chart owner is a great leader. or if loke, mercury, and tantalus were all in the 8h together then the person is like very deceptive or mischievous. just vague generalizations - like i said earlier a waste of everyone's time.

as for your ask, i won't look at hephaistos' and sappho's connection NOR will i look at chiron and sappho aspects.

but on to the other parts of the ask...

taurus sappho (2°, 14°, 26°): these people tend to be like the poetess herself - an artist at heart. they often dabble in some form of art as means to better express their emotions. sappho herself started writing poetry as a means to expression her devotion to others: aphrodite, eros, and those she admired. these people see the beauty in things that others may find to be average - they have a very appreciative eye when it comes to the beauty of all things. they tend to be trendsetters where culture is concerned (especially those who have 26°, mercury (27°), or mc aspects and influence). they tend to be rather open about their sexuality (they are feminist, LGBTQIA+ advocates, etc.). what they may want to be careful about concerning love is that they may love on a higher frequency then those around them - protect your heart and never lower your frequency if you end up hurt; the world needs more of you not less.

aquarius sappho (11°, 23°): i don't see these people as overtly artist but they do tend to know exactly what to say in most moments - they can rally nearly any crowd with their empowering speech. their hopes and dreams tend to reflect those of the people around them, they simply know how to say it best. like a taurus and libra sappho person they are rather open about their sexuality (they are feminist, LGBTQIA+ advocates, etc.). if they are not be part of the community - they are 100% likely to show up to advocate for others - they believe in equality for all and that no one should have to repress their true self like sappho likely did during her time and how she was repressed and likely straight-washed in myth. these people do have the danger of having a lot of hope where romance is concerned. they may believe that if they are outright and boldly express their emotions they will be reciprocated or that their partner(s) will change to be the model person they most want. these people may have to come to the understanding not every time that they are vulnerable means that they are owed that vulnerability in return or that not everyone will change in the way they wish them to.

6h sappho: these people many have a few jobs in which they are exposed to sexuality or art forms in some way - they could work in a diverse atmosphere or they may be writing for their job (not career, this is short term often (kinda a kafka moment)). these people may not wish to be married at any point in life and express it quite often as a limitation of the self (very much a "it's just a piece of paper" vibe) - love is something bigger than institutions to them. their unwavering love may present itself in a workplace - forbidden love motif for sure. alternatively you may have some sort of sexual health issue arise for yourself or your partner. it may be something unknown between you two and it may do the relationship some harm (betrayal or fear is a strong possibility) - but if you both are willing to face it together all is likely to be alright.

mars (9h) - sappho (6h): negative aspects: you could be in publishing or deal with human resources in your work place - it may not be what you wish to do long term. in fact you may just about loath it. you may be surrounded by writing involving lust, sensuality, and/or diversity (you may feel that you can do better). naturally there is a lot of ambition surrounding your art and/or individuality - these people like to standout (they hunger for being known and being appreciated). these people may be more sexually frustrated than those around them and/or more willing to outwardly express their sexuality than sappho was. these people tend to be very expressive with their devotion to others as well though it may come off as oppressive or obsessive.

jupiter (10h) - sappho (6h): positive aspects: these people are likely to work as professional writers (or publishers) or be highly regarded for their work. writing is probably a big part of this person's life. they may have an expansive portfolio where their work is concerned. they may have a lot of loyalty towards those of differing backgrounds and beliefs than them (if you are not LGBTQIA+, a POC, etc. you may treat them with great care in your work and be inclusive). you likely have someone that you look up to in your work place - they could be an advisor.

saturn (8h) - sappho (6h): positive aspects: your legacy could have a long and laborious tale attached - it may be one of prejudice, rejection, and woe. in the long haul you are likely to be remembered for something regarding your work - perhaps you are a pioneer for sexuality and its expression in the making. you could speak out about repression and prejudice regarding the sexes as well.

hope this helps.

a.d.

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[oswinsdolma]

not to talk classics on my merlin blog yet again, but i've been having emotions about sappho's loeb 52: ' do not think i can touch the sky with my hands' again and all i can think about is how beautifully it relates to merthur. it's about the themes. of the persona's insatiable longing for something so vast and metaphysical that it can never exist. of clinging onto a fragile, deluded dream; she is perpetually caught in the gap between the logic that tells her that touching the sky is impossible and that futile hope that it might not be. so she does not try, in order to preserve it for just a little longer, because she knows that doing so will shatter the illusion and she will lose the privilege of pretence. but then there is the additional tragedy that even in alluding to this impossibility, she has lost the fight. there's a desperation to the poem, a sense of bargaining, as if she is telling herself that if she pretends hard enough, if she can let go of the world for just a second, she may even believe in it. but as strong as her want is, the world will always be stronger, and the compromise is a grim, aching purgatory sustained by the private universe that is her grief.

and doesn't that just sum up merlin?? merlin who battled between destiny and humanity, and frequently made the wrong choices in the illusion that he could sustain both? who refused to accept the logic of the world he lived in and instead drove both it and himself to ruin? merlin was constantly reaching for destiny, using the fantastical idea of a dreamed-up, beautiful future as something to cling to in the absence of a beautiful presence. he lived his life in anticipation of something i think deep down he knew would never come, but he clung to his delusions not from fear, but because of the deep, insatiable love he felt for arthur, and sustaining the illusion was paradoxically both the thing that killed him and the thing that kept him alive.

and then, there's the idea that it's a fragment!! we may never know how long the poem was meant to be, or even its entire purpose. it is defined as much by the absence of poetry as the words that are left behind. yet while we might not fully understand the poem in its entirety, what we have left is a piece of a past longing, a love which has faded at the edges but is not quite forgotten, and this is again reflected in merlin. over the centuries, the version of arthur that was, and that merlin knew was eroded. coincidentally, the first mentioning of arthur in a written source that we know of was just one sentence, and the legends we have have evolved from there. what the modern world see of the once and future king are shadows on a cave wall, mere echoes of the person behind the legend, and the person merlin loved. though he tried to keep him alive, the idea of arthur fragmented over the years, as sappho's poems did, metamorphosing into a thousand interpretations and ideas, yet what remains is that central idea of a king who was loved, and was taken too soon; arthur himself is a poem without beginning or end, merlin his helpless author.

[pikablob]

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#me when a song about a girl pushing a man down a ladder is the theme song of a character whos most famous appearance is as a corpse

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

tag mutuals you wanna get to know better!

I was tagged by @wallywestfest - honestly the fact you’d even consider me for this makes me really happy thank you so much!! <3

favourite time of year: hmmmm... prolly either early summer or around the winter holidays :))

comfort food: spaghetti bolognese, but specifically the M&S ready meal version I’m sorry I have 0 shame and it’s good XD

favourite dessert: toffee!! Is guud

things you collect: kids’ books! Picture books, graphic novels, and illustrated middle-grade stuff mostly. I also have a pretty sizeable collection of figures (Funko Pop & Nendoroids included) and I collect model trains (mostly OO9 for those who know what that is!!)

favourite drink: milk; just, a lot of milk XD

favourite musical artist: The Oh Hellos 90% of the time, but also Stan & Nathan Rogers, and Grace Petrie :))

last song listened to: Fogarty’s Cove, Stan Rogers

last movie watched: oh this is hard just because I don’t watch movies much XD I think the last one I actually went to see was Spirit: Untamed (what can I say, I liked Riding Free XD)

last series watched: either Hilda or Harriet the Spy depending on what counts (because I’m just using bits of Hilda for fic reference rn)

current obsession: Hilda, as always; also Infinity Train, Harriet, and The Owl House a bit.

dream place to visit: hhhhh there’s so many but probably Newfoundland :))

place you wanna go back to: Tromso, Norway; it’s genuinely magical in winter

something you want: well there’s a certain art commission I’m really excited to see finished motivation to write more and more money for commissions :))

currently working on: another Wildflowers Fic (Hilda S2 fix-it hurt/comfort) - Hilda writes a letter in this one!

I tag @pikawarrior @nach0 @starlit-lion @discoursed-dracula @dallasurr @strawcherrydeercake @furashuban @sarasplenda @stargazer-sappho (no pressure) and anyone else who wants to! :))

31 notes - Posted September 6, 2022

#4

I’m having so many feelings about Little My right now.

From the outside, she’s just another one of the Mymble’s many kids; the smallest member of a huge family, who’s never had her own space, shuffled from place to place and raised by an absent guardian who really doesn’t seem to care much about her at all. Of course she’s turned out loud and abrasive; she had to be, to make herself big and take up space and force people to pay attention, because otherwise she’d get lost in the shuffle.

And then she comes to Moominvalley, and meets Moomin and his parents, and she forms a real friendship and chooses to stay and ends up adopted. And sure, she’s still loud and abrasive and a troublemaker, but she’s a neglected child (her mum didn’t even realise she’d stayed behind) and for the first time she has a real family and friends in the bargain and it’s just really getting to me right now.

I haven’t seen the whole show yet (I don’t mind spoilers) or read the books (I know she’s not the same in those I don’t think she has this side of her), but do you think she ever worries about her place in the home? Do you think she’s afraid on some level, deep down, that they’ll want to get rid of her, just like how they wanted to get rid of the rest of her old family? Do you think she pushes the boundaries sometimes, just to make sure she’s really loved?

IDK, I just have a lot of feelings.

33 notes - Posted November 2, 2022

#3

I love the new starters!

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35 notes - Posted February 27, 2022

#2

Asking about fixing S2 of Hilda! :D

(I watched it, but my brain is very much like a sponge, so there may or may not be some holes in my memories of it. But I'd love to hear your opinions on that!)

Okie, so, I've talked about my problems with Season 2 before, but I'm going to go over them in the most detail I can here, before I explain how I'd fix them. Sorry in advance, but this is going to be long.

My Problems:

Fundamentally, Hilda is still my favourite show, and more of my favourite episodes are in S2 than in S1, but there's one big thing that ruined the season for me, and that's what it did to the relationship between Hilda and Johanna. Season 2 wanted to have an arc where Hilda makes mistakes and needs to learn not to lie to her mum, but instead, in the narrative presented, Johanna is the one in the wrong to me.

It's absolutely a cycle. Hilda lying about her adventures makes Johanna worry, which makes her more protective, so Hilda needs to lie even more. But The Troll Circle establishes pretty plainly that this cycle started with Johanna; when Hilda runs outside the wall by accident, her immediate reaction is "Mum would kill me if she knew."

And the way Johanna acts when Hilda comes home proves that she's right; Johanna has become more restrictive and isn't letting Hilda do the things she used to. She wants Hilda to be safe, I accept, but this is after a whole season where Johanna repeatedly says that she loves Hilda for who she is, and explicitly includes her adventures in that (see The Bird Parade and The Troll Rock especially).

Because it is a part of who Hilda is; "such is the life of an adventurer" is her mantra, and even Season 2 itself establishes that she's been allowed to roam freely on her own in the wilderness since she was about 6 years old, the same wilderness that Johanna wants to keep her from in The Troll Circle.

Hilda's choices aren't "lie to her mum" or "be good", they're "lie to her mum" or "give up being who she is". Johanna's the one who changed, and it's not even properly acknowledged; they try and retcon the troll from S1, and just claim that things have always been this way between Hilda and Johanna when that's just not true (I'd argue The Troll Rock implied Johanna knew about it anyway).

The show does try and show Johanna's side, especially in The Fifty-Year Night, but that's one of the reasons it's my least favourite episode. I know she finds it hard, being so harsh on Hilda, but she doesn't have to; she should have been more understanding at the end of The Beast of Cauldron Island, it's her fault things got to that point, and nobody's forcing her to be more protective. She needs to realise she's being unfair and that she hasn't handled this well, and as a result it feels like the narrative is guilt-tripping Hilda for her mum's mistakes.

The Stone Forest hits into the same issues; I'm not going to deny that what Hilda says to her mum in that argument is genuinely hurtful, and that she shouldn't have said it, but she's an upset child. The resolution of that episode is that Hilda needs to stop hiding things, but the conflict was caused by Johanna being restrictive and honestly, more than a little selfish; I'm not trying to bash her, I know why she wants Hilda to stay home and spend time with her, but she should have let her go.

I'm glad that things seem to be back on track in The Mountain King, but when Hilda has to promise not to hide things at the end of The Stone Forest, it doesn't quite work as a resolution for me, because while I do genuinely appreciate Johanna telling Hilda she loves her for who she is, she doesn't promise to let Hilda be herself or make any apologies of her own. It's "you have to talk to me" not "you can talk to me", and for me that's the distinction that really ruined the season.

And all of this comes from one, single place:

Everything I've just mentioned, including all three of Johanna's worst scenes (the dinner in The Troll Rock, Hilda's first grounding, and the argument over Dungeon Crops in The Stone Forest) and the resolution that I didn't think went far enough, are lifted directly (including a lot of dialogue - although some of it, especially in that final resolution, is said less kindly in the graphic novel) from the graphic novel Hilda and the Stone Forest. And this is the fundamental problem; Season 2 of the show has to adapt this story, which is a problem, because Season 1 of the show made substantial changes from the graphic novels, that honestly made me think that maybe there wasn't a way to do the Stone Forest arc well in the show.

In the graphic novels, Johanna is not a good parent. She's not as bad as the tie-in novels, where she genuinely reads as abusive in all but one, but she starts out as a generic "overprotective parent" stock archetype, and only really breaks out of that a couple of times (she's actually very good in Hilda and the Bird Parade, but in a completely different way from the show version of that plotline). Hilda in turn is a little more selfish and rebellious, so their whole dynamic is different.

And The Stone Forest, in both versions, has Johanna at her absolute worst. It's actually my least favourite graphic novel, specifically because of how awful Johanna gets in the beginning, which is basically just an extended falling-out combining all of her worst moments from Season 2 and making them even worse. And that's where the problem crept in, because in order for the Stone Forest arc to happen, Hilda has to try and sneak out via Nowhere Space, and Johanna has to try and stop her, and the whole thing needs to be precipitated by a mother-daughter falling out.

So the solution the show's crew took was to try making Johanna more like her comic counterpart, and to space the arguments that start The Stone Forest out across the whole season so it doesn't feel abrupt. But the two versions of Johanna are fundamentally different characters, and Comic Johanna is already a bad parent who's flaws aren't acknowledged in this arc, while in the show she's a realistically flawed but genuinely amazing parent and those flaws are addressed in Season 1.

And the result was just making Johanna almost as unsympathetic as her comic counterpart in Season 2. I don't even think that it really cured the abruptness, because it's still an awkward retcon in the first episode, and there are still episodes in S2 where Johanna is firing on all cylinders (The Deerfox and The Yule Lads - which actually handles a mother/daughter dispute caused by Hilda really well), so to me it feels less like a relationship that's having ups and downs, and more like a relationship that's fundamentally changed but only sometimes.

(There are other problems with adapting Hilda and the Stone Forest, namely David and Frida, but I think the show actually handled them well).

So, How Would I Have Done It?

I'm going to rule for this that we have to keep the fundamental plot of The Stone Forest; Hilda gets in trouble with her mum, gets caught when she tries to escape, and has to learn a lesson about being open after she and her mum get out of the Stone Forest. For a while, I genuinely wasn't sure how to make that work within the show in a way I'd be happy with, but in the end, thanks partially to the tie-in novels of all things, I do have a solution: we're actually going to build up the relationship shift, and it's going to have an acknowledged shared responsibility.

The Troll Rock happens almost as it does in canon, but there is no moment where Hilda thinks her mum will 'kill' her for going outside the wall. She still gets home late, and there's still a little awkwardness in the conversation, but Hilda gingerly admits the truth:

"Well, I was going to go to David's... but then I saw this elf getting kidnapped by a dirt clod with legs, and me and Twig kind-of had to go outside the wall to save him."

And Johanna just gives a patient sigh; there is a bit of tension in her voice, she's clearly not 100% happy with this, but she also accepts that this is her daughter:

"That was a good thing to do, sweetheart, but please be careful outside the wall. You know I worry about you."

From there the episode goes on as normal; barring one thing. I'm torn between cutting the "you never told me about that" exchange entirely, and changing the tone of it. In the latter version, instead of suspicion, Johanna is genuinely just surprised, and Hilda's response is something like "Wait, I didn't?", but either way, things go on normally from there; we've established that there's going to be friction between Hilda and her mum, without making things bad immediately.

The next big change is that The Eternal Warriors doesn't happen. It will, eventually, but I'm taking a leaf from the tie-in book Hilda and the White Woff, and saving it for later use. Every other episode gets shunted up by one space, but is otherwise unchanged until we hit The Beast of Cauldron Island, where I'm going to make a major change.

Instead of Hilda just lying, we're going to build on The Old Bells of Trolberg; when Hilda reaches the flat, she's reluctant to cancel their picnic, but she is prepared to explain things and possibly even ask for Johanna's help. But when she gets inside, Johanna is apologetic, and before Hilda can explain, she does:

"I'm really sorry, Hilda, but we can't have our picnic today after all."

"Why not?"

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39 notes - Posted February 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

16,713 notes - Posted February 26, 2022

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