#the black jewels trilogy

[nymph-of-water]

Do you ever read a series, and you spoiler yourself for the finale, and you're just so thankful that you know of all the awful and soul wrecking things that happen and so you don't read it, and you try to erase from your memory said events and book series.

[chocochipjewel]

I was trying to look up how long Venom 3 is and-

Help- what is Bully Maguire doing there 😭😭😭😭

[veliseraptor]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, please reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers! Spread the self-love.💛💛💛

ooh interesting interesting. I actually did this one not too long ago but I can do it again, with a different set of fics this time. these are pretty much all pulled from my Author's Favorites series on AO3

our love would live a half-life on the surface (MDZS/CQL)

Possibly I'd rate this one as the most fucked up xuexiao I've written; definitely it's the most fucked up ostensible fix-it fic. and like! I did fix it! sort of! some things anyway!

It was really fun to write because of how deeply it's set in Xue Yang's POV, and the fun of trying to convey what's going on outside of his blinkered and undeniably skewed understanding of the world. I also had a lot of fun balancing between the genuinely fucked up nature of what Xue Yang is doing throughout this fic and his genuine desire to make things better and just completely failing to understand how to go about doing that.

“Why’s it matter?” Xue Yang snapped. “It doesn’t. Or it doesn’t need to. So you killed some people. So what? I get you’re upset about it right now - obviously - but it’s not like you need to be. They weren’t anyone important.” “Everyone is important,” Xiao Xingchen said. “Bullshit,” Xue Yang said firmly. “Most people aren’t. Why do they matter so much to you anyway? It’s not like you knew them. Most of them,” he amended, before Xiao Xingchen could bring up fucking Zichen. “So just - forget about it.” Xiao Xingchen made a faint sound at the back of his throat. “Is there anything human in you at all,” he said, and Xue Yang sank his teeth into his cheek, the taste of blood spreading across his tongue. He yanked the bandage the rest of the way off. “Probably not,” he said hoarsely, and started cleaning the blood off Xiao Xingchen’s face where it’d gotten smeared all over his cheeks and around his eyes. Gently. He didn’t want to actually hurt him.

what little girls are made of (MCU)

I went back and forth on a few different MCU fics but decided on this one because it gets a little less love than a lot of them and I'm deeply fond of it. I love Natasha dearly and one of the things I love about her is the potential for how weird she can be. And also I'm always on a campaign to give her more female friends.

“Is that how you usually make friends?” she asked. Natasha cocked her head to the side like she was thinking. “I made one of them by pretending to be someone else so she’d hire me,” she said. “That’s different.” It sounded like a joke. Sharon suspected it was also serious. “Then there’s Maria – I was a hundred-ten pounds of pissed off at the world when I met her. The other ones…one I met through an alien invasion and one was trying to kill me. Then there’s Wilson – I did knock on his door first.” Sharon stared at her. Romanoff smiled, a little – still sharp but maybe a little brittle. “I don’t really do usual, Agent Carter.”

Ground Zero (MDZS/CQL)

I wrote this one in an afternoon and I'm happy enough with it that I've never written another version, which is kind of saying something. I'll often circle around pivotal events in a characters' life and write a few different versions of them, and the finger-crushening is so central to Xue Yang's story that I might've done the same, but I ended up satisfied enough with this version to pretty much leave it alone as my Definitive Account (more or less).

I think what I was trying to convey here on a visceral level was the horror and the pain of that experience, which I think sometimes gets minimized into "just lost a finger." And the surrounding circumstances that shape and define Xue Yang's understanding of the world going forward because of it.

“What’s one more dead beggar?” A sigh. “If I cut off the hand there’s good odds he’ll bleed to death. If I don’t there’s good odds it’ll go foul and he’ll die in a week. What do you want?” Don’t take my hand, he thought dazedly. Don’t. Please don’t. “Start with the finger,” said the other voice. “Then we’ll see.” “Fine, fine.” Xue Yang could feel his breathing coming faster. He opened his eyes just long enough to see the man weighing a butcher’s knife, then slammed them closed again, heart pounding in his stomach. He screamed when the man touched what was left of his little finger, pulling it away from the others. Thrashed, reflexively, trying to get away. “Hold still, you little cur,” the man said harshly, and the knife went through easy like it’d gone easy into Xiao Hu when the bodyguard had stabbed him for cutting a gentry purse. Honestly, he barely even felt the cut itself.

The Sad Heart of Ruth (A Song of Ice and Fire)

An old fic but I'm still happy with it! Which isn't always the case. Throwback to a fandom I haven't written for in years but a relationship I still have a lot of feelings about. A serious outlier, in terms of my ships, but one I'm inexplicably fond of nonetheless.

And yeah, me writing about grief again. I'm always writing about grief.

It was small things she remembered. The warmth he radiated when they lay in bed together. The way his forehead crinkled when he was thinking hard about something. The strange, shy, hesitant (naïve) joy she’d felt on their wedding day. The way he’d cried into her shoulder when he’d heard of his brother’s deaths. “The King in the North is dead,” the Blackfish said, his face like carved stone. “Oh,” she said.

The Season of Grace Coming Out of the Void (Black Jewels Trilogy)

Another throwback to an old fandom that's kind of an eternal fandom in some ways; I'm very proud of this brief snippet of an AU. I think it came out well and (surprisingly) concise for what it is; it could've gotten very elaborate but I think it's stronger as the short piece that I left it.

He’d had them back a week when Daemon turned up in his study halfway through the night and announced casually, “If you do anything to Lucivar, I’ll kill you.” Saetan set down his pen and looked at his namesake. He expected to see anger, or suspicion. He found nothing. Just blank gold eyes looking placidly back at him. A shiver crawled down his spine. Saetan nodded once. “Understood,” he said. Daemon ghosted back out the door. Saetan stared after him, and wondered if he was supposed to be happy that his boys were talking to each other.

passing this one on to @ameliarating, @brawlite, @mostfacinorous, @maester-of-spreadsheets, and @feralkwe!

[karate-lips]

the thing about the Black Jewels series is that people are always being brought coffee and a plate of sandwiches, especially if they live at one of the SaDiablo properties

and honestly? I get it. I have a bunch of tea sandwiches left over and I just put some on a plate to go with my tea and holy god do I feel fancy. I wish a plate of sandwiches appeared every time I sat down in my living room to do whatever.

[whimsicalmeerkat]

First & Last Lines

I did this a million years ago. I just got reminded of it and thought it would be fun to do again. Basically, post the first and last lines of the last 10 fics you posted. WIPs are welcome. Not going with any sort of strict rules, because that’s just not how I roll. Anyway, here goes!

1. hope for the future, teen wolf, derek hale/peter hale

First: As Derek flew back from his uncle's punch, he wondered just how he hadn't realized sooner that Peter was the alpha—that he was his alpha.

Last: He couldn't say he'd ever be be content with the past or that he was happy in the present, but for the first time in years he had hope for the future, and maybe that would be enough.

2. 3 Sentence Ficathon 2024: Teen Wolf, multiple pairings

First: Derek leans his head back so he can stare at the star-studded tree canopy overhead and thinks, not for the first time, that he will never get tired of seeing Stiles’ magic.

Last: “Easy for you and Derek to say—you were both born like this and you took away my chance to get out of this life,” Scott rages back, the arrows hitting Stiles in his soft parts just like they have every time he’s hurled them over the years since Stiles got him turned into a werewolf.

3. 3 Sentence Ficathon 2024: Chosen One, macy blake’s chosen one universe, multiple pairings

First: “I just feels it lacks a certain gravitas,” Eduard says, tugging at the hem of the denim jacket he considers so ugly he wonders if some of his mates are pulling a prank on him until he turns around and sees all eight of them staring at him in a distinctly horny fashion.

Last: “Fucking lions—you’re lucky I love you.”

4. with lightning in his hands, teen wolf, derek hale/peter hale/stiles stilinski

First: Stiles stares at the ruins of the Hale house and reflects that he perhaps should have taken Deaton more seriously when he told him starting to practice magic would change how he saw the world.

Last: All they have to do is wait for him to come.

5. time travel, teen wolf, derek hale/laura hale

First: Derek bursts through the door of his little apartment in New York City, yelling for his sister.

Last: "It all started in seven days from now for you and five years ago for me."

6. telepathy, black jewels, daemon sadi/lucivar yaslana

First: She’s not trustworthy.

Last: They exited the room without opposition, knowing their point was made and would not be forgotten.

7. dusk, the witcher, emhry var emreis/geralt of rivia

First: Geralt stands on the balcony outside of Emhyr’s rooms and watches the day fade into dusk

Last: Geralt could get used to having a family.

8. Trading Up, teen wolf, derek hale/stiles stilinski

First: Stiles and his (maybe?) girlfriend are walking down Main Street after dinner, holding hands and looking in the shop windows

Last: “Damnit, I need to see if I have to do actual work. While I’m checking my email, you should try to guess why Lydia didn’t turn into a werewolf. You’ll never get it, but it will entertain you while you wait,” Stiles tells Derek, then turns his attention to his laptop.

9. candy, macy blake’s chosen one universe, victor eastaughffe/orsen riggs & gus

First: “Bear!” Gus shrieks from his seat at the table.

Last: “You may have gummy bears after dinner, Gus.”

10. drift, perilous courts by tavia lark, julien sandry/whisper

First: Julien watches Whisper in the sunlight.

Last: “We’ll make sure we win.”

Tags: @dear-massacre @jammerific @shadow-wasser @thotpuppy @lavender-lotion @mrs-steve-harrington @bad-at-names-and-faces @definitively-different-drivel

[mousieta]

Me, last year : I'll have more time once I'm done with my testing. Then I will be free to blog and stuff

Me, now, as a full blown Project Architect: why do I never have time??

Anyways, I miss this place. I really do. I havent been able to watch or read anything new in months. About all I've had time for is sleep and rereading old books I've already read a dozen times.

But idk... I wanna find a way to *do* things again so... what are y'all reading/ watching/ into? Any recs?

[bellascarousel]

What book do you love but usually not recommend because it’s weird or intense, etc?

The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop. I love the series, so much. But, it can be a tough read. It's very much a world of black and dark gray morality. I've read negative reviews that say the you only root for the protagonists because the villains are SO horrible, but in any other world, the protagonists would be antagonists at best, and villains at worst. And I... can't exactly argue with that. I adore them all. They are funny, and charismatic, and the relationship dynamics are incredible. But, the world they inhabit is not nice, and neither are they.

And there are some incredibly dark themes. Rape and murder and downright torture are prevalent. It's a really rough read at times.

But, man! When the SaDiablos and their extended "family" are together, it is so funny. And I love them all to bits.

[dspd]

If I had decided to become an artist instead of a musician, I 100% would have jumped on the webcomic train during COVID and made a comic for Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy

[emblazonet]

So, the Black Jewels Trilogy

Saw these books recommended in a thread about adult sexy fantasy books, and my brain went ??? Wait. They weren’t that adult???? They had dark themes, but they were fluff.

I’d almost forgotten about them. I read them about 15 years age (wat!) in high school. My friends at the time peer pressured me into it. They would tell me about all their favourite scenes and squee about them as we whiled away lunches in the stairwell, which both spoiled a lot of the fun of reading them the first time and I still remember which scenes were spoiled as I did my reread.

I enjoyed them well enough at the time, because they were dark and a bit gory and a bit sexy and I was ravenous as a teen for anything with sex, violence, and especially BDSM. I grew out of them by uni.

So the thread was specifically recommending them as an adult alternative to the trendy ACoTaR books by Sarah J Maas that I have never read and don’t intend to. I have since learned that some hold the opinion that SJM plagiarized or otherwise cribbed heavily from Black Jewels. (The other alternative offered in that thread were the Kushiel books, which I would agree are more adult, both in subject matter and style.)

On a reread, I think my initial impression that these books are more for teens—or people who specifically want and need an id-based power fantasy—holds up. Content warnings for literally all the standard bogeyman: rape, pedophilia, implied cannibalism, torture, etc etc. It dives shallowly into all the dark stuff in order to get to the revenge fantasy at the heart of the series.

Extensive spoilers under the cut. There’s a few things I liked, but there’s a lot more I didn’t enjoy about it too. (And it’s not because of any of the content warning stuff above.)

I wrote my review of the first three books before reading any of the sequels. Sequel reviews will be forthcoming.

The Setting

The worldbuilding is a mess. I have no idea how the economy works or why there are even nonBlood ‘landens’ (basically magicless folk) at all when they Literally. Never. Show. Up.

Yet! For all that! It is so rare to see a matriarchy in a fantasy setting that I will forgive the cardboard worldbuilding and pretend like economics doesn’t matter it’s just fantasy. I love that the greatest power is downwards, the Darkness rather than the heavens. Dark stuff more powerful. It’s neat! Like even today the books feel different, even when they’re extremely 2000s aesthetically. Goth vibes ftw. Less good is the gender essentialism and the caste system, which feels like a forerunner to A/B/O in some ways.

Basically, like in A/B/O, everyone has like a secondary biological gender that determines their rank in the hierarchy. So women who are born Queens are biologically meant to rule, and men are drawn to serve them. (It’s stupid, but I respect the inherent service kink aspect.) Some males are Warlords, who are more aggressive, and some men are even higher caste as Warlord Princes, who are ‘predators’ who want to murder ppl all the time, but they’re supposed to be controlled by the women I guess. They're emotionally immature alpha males. Yuck.

I still have no real idea how the fuck Terreille and Kaeleer are different tbh, one just has sentient animals? Are they different dimensions?? The physicality of the environment in this book is like wisps of smoke. Stuff just appears, usually when it needs to, and then goes away again, much like how the magical protagonists are always calling and vanishing objects.

Daughter of the Blood

For a trilogy with a deeply repetitive, emphatic style that over-relies on (dorky) catchphrases (‘and the Blood will sing to Blood,’ ‘everything has a price,’ ‘Mother Night’) each book does have a unique flavour and its own problems.

Weirdly, the thing I hated the most about the first book was the random fatphobia. I never even noticed it as a kid, but almost every time a fat character is introduced they’re a gross dude and likely a pedophile. Don’t like it, tired of seeing it, stop. I’m not even going to forgive the series for being from the early 2000s. I don’t care. Cut it out. At least it only happens in the first book.

The Mary-Sue (she really is! I mean that with affection!) Jaenelle is a child in this book, and her main problems in life are getting sent to a mental institution called Briarwood that is run by pedophiles. We also—at no point ever in the books—get her POV, so a lot of the horror is mitigated by how much the details are glossed over. I think that was meant to be more horrifying but the author isn’t good enough at building atmosphere to make that work. The book chooses a couple specifically horrible situations and then hammers into them in a way that feels both schlocky but also makes the world and the situation feel smaller. I don’t like the way repetition is used in these books. It’s certainly a choice but it’s one that drives the nuance out of book. Almost every villain in this book is a rapist, which makes the rape feel cheap by the end—and I don’t think cheapening it was the intention.

Yet, to be honest, I think this is the strongest book of the three. I actually really like the beginning, with Tersa being crazy and giving prophecies. I don’t know, the writing just draws me in somehow. It’s not great writing, I want to be clear. It’s got nothing on, idk, Tanith Lee. But it is extremely readable and compelling. I was having a good time.

Also, Lucivar and Daemon, like, kiss? And that is just about the only gay thing that you will see in the books until Daemon fakes raping his father in the third book. It is unrelentingly heterosexual otherwise. But I think I was hooked early on as a teen hoping for some gay action. I was disappointed at the time and I’m disappointed now.

This is also the book with probably the most sex and violence. Men are castrated on screen a couple times, there’s explicit cannibalism of one of the other children at Briarwood, one of our viewpoint characters is an assassin, etc etc. Much bad sex happening. Daemon and Lucivar, the hot dudes who are brothers, have been sex slaves for like 1700 years which is objectively hilarious that is SUCH an absurd amount of time to just... be more powerful (aka have darker Jewels) than any of your slavers and just not gotten free? Even with magical cock rings that control them, it's still so stupid.

Also, our main character is actually their dad, Saetan (I WILL NEVER BE OVER THESE NAMES) who is like 50k years old? That makes me giggle so much. That’s so old. Why. Honestly props to Anne Bishop, she really just went for it. I have so much respect for how batshit absurd everything is.

Honestly I just kinda like the first book? It’s paced a lot better than the other ones, it’s dark and ridiculous and full of bad things happening. Jaenelle reminds me of a friend of mine, oddly enough. She’s probably tolerable because we never get her POV.

I also liked Daemon and Jaenelle’s relationship in this one. Under the worldbuilding power fantasy terms of this setting, Jaenelle is literally made up of the dreams of people in the world, and Daemon’s dream was to be the lover of the Most Powerful Matriarch Ever, who in the book is called ‘Witch.’ So meeting her as a kid he’s constantly bombarded by his attraction to her spirit/power/Witch-self, whatever. But she’s a kid and he’s Very Not Into That. He and Saetan are constantly respecting her consent at every opportunity, so it doesn’t squick me out in the slightest.

Because you know, at that age (12-14), I would have killed for an ancient powerful lover who is The Hottest Guy In All The Realms to be all but overcome with lust for me and yet completely absolutely in service to my every need and desire.

It’s a power fantasy, yo.

Anyway the next two books will completely kill any interest I have in their relationship so really, Daughter of the Blood could have ended here and I would have been satisfied.

Heir to the Shadows

Wow, does this one have middle book syndrome. It’s a slog. Someone out there probably likes it. One of the scenes my high school friends liked is the introduction of the Arcerian cat Kaelas where he squashes the Sceltie puppy Ladvarian. I remember them telling me about it with glee. It’s cute, but not enough to save this book.

Everytime a conflict happens it’s almost instantly resolved. Jaenelle grows up, Saetan spoils her, she has friends. All the characters feel really one note. There is almost no sex in this book, but there is some gore. The extremely boring villains, Dorothea and Hekatah, who are basically the same person except one of them is undead (‘demon-dead’), do some violence. Our protagonists do more violence. There’s a unicorn genocide. I can’t keep any of the characters that are in Jaenelle’s court straight (except for Karla and the aforementioned cat and puppy).

Oh, Daemon’s just insane for the whole book, and I ended up skimming all his sections because nothing happened in them.

That sure was a book. Took me longer to read than the other two combined.

Queen of the Darkness

Back to a compelling read, somehow. I blasted through it.

A major issue I have with this series is about how power is framed. Might makes right. The good guys happen to be more powerful, so they can unleash their often bloody revenge, which is always framed as a good thing, a triumph. And also, no one just talks to each other, because bad guys are bad and good guys are good. There is no real compromise, and no nuance.

Like, Bishop is writing a matriarchy, but instead of, idk, expanding on that idea, she just kinda writes the same power imbalances that exist in our world except more villains are women, which instead of feeling empowering or whatever reeks of internalized misogyny. Yeah, I get it, women are bitches and oppressing the mens, so then the sad menz all rape vulnerable women. So it’s a patriarchy, actually, with the Queen-caste women as figureheads. WHY YOU DO THIS.

Honestly I find the ‘might makes right’ part much more problematic than any inclusion of sex slavery, unicorn genocide, or pedophilia. All the latter are perpetrated by villains; what's the excuse for the good guys?

Like this book is more about being righteous and also horny than it is trying to say stuff about politics or whatever, but it’s saying stuff about politics anyway, and what it’s saying is that the most powerful people make the rules. And being an emotionally unregulated nuclear bomb person is perfectly fine so long as you’re the good guy. And frankly, I hate that, and I disagree with it.

And ok, sure, so the Queens are supposed to emotionally regulate their Warlord Princes except that’s mostly just by hoping they hold onto their tempers until they can unleash them in a better direction which doesn’t strike me as real emotional regulation. And who’s supposed to regulate Jaenelle? Just... Jaenelle? Like theoretically the males who serve her, but the way they treat her seems more likely to cause nuclear explosions. She is herself a walking bomb.

Honestly the way males treat females in this book is gross. Men just like overprotect and patronize to the point of infantilizing a woman. And Big Yikes if she so much as gets a period—which is apparently The Worst and makes them unable to use power which THANKS I HATE IT—and it’s just awful, the men treat them like INVALIDS. Not romantic. Didn’t like it as a teen, don’t like it now.

Additionally, I don’t like how emotions and trauma are handled in this. I love a good broken traumatic character, and it's even better if they're powerful and need to navigate not causing harm whilst healing. I lap that shit up. Black Jewels fails me here. All the characters are so fucking one note and so the trauma/healing stuff feels shallow and uninspired.

Additionally, Jaenelle and Daemon are so boring and they’re ‘courting’ each other like high schoolers with zero personality and I hate it. They had better sexual chemistry when she was 12, which is probably just because Daughter of the Blood was the better written book.

Also, they got like a romancey fade to black sex scene? Yeesh.

I DO appreciate that Daemon has no magic healing dick: Jaenelle is still pretty traumatized about stuff after they bone. She’s better about sex, sure, but she’s still upset about being a Queen, etc etc. You know, this series has ooooodles of problems, but I really don’t think Jaenelle is one of them. She works for me. (Although Daemon being a virgin after 1700 years as a pleasure slave? I HATE THAT, that’s stupid. Miss me with that bullshit. At least Jaenelle is never punished by the text for not being a virgin.)

I don’t have much to say about the end. Because we go in knowing Daemon's got back up plans it takes all the tension out of the climax. The story ends with an expected triumph. The book doesn’t set up the idea that Jaenelle will die well enough either, like it’s telegraphed from the first that the Kindred will save her, and then they do. Ok then. Wow, so tense. Much thrill.

So like, I raced through reading this, sure, but it still wasn’t a satisfying read. But it wasn’t a slog. And there were some fun interactions—I enjoyed Surreal and her wolf Graysfang. There were moments.

Honestly this series is so unhinged that despite all the ridiculosity of it, I think I’m coming away feeling weirdly affectionate towards it? It’s bad, the alpha male tropes are nauseating, the matriarchy failed hard, and it’s repetitive as fuck. I’ve been thinking about this series for weeks now, and I have no idea why I find it compelling! It’s infuriating! Maybe it’s compelling because it’s infuriating.

In conclusion: I guess I’m going to read all of this garbage and yell about it. Stay tuned for the sequels.

[emperorsfoot]

I was scrolling the Black Jewels tag and, in your post about top 5 books, you said a lot of themes piss you off now even thought it has a big impact on your writing. Which parts were you talking about? I adore the books but some of what I remember reading doesn't sit well now that I'm older.

It has been a very long time since I read the books myself, but looking back the very rigid rules that define the genders. I don't mean the very formal Protocol they use in their society, I mean how the BJT characters' culture defines and views the genders.

That women are nurturing caretakers, while men are aggressive beast. That's true of both sides of the conflict. Daemon and Janaelle have a conversation in the third book when they're looking at a statue of a monster protecting a woman where they flat out say that those are the purposes of the sexes. That women care for and nurture while men protect and fight.

I vehemently disagree with that rigid 2-lane view of sex and gender.

Also, not a big fan of how the men of the inner circle infantilize the women any time one of them gets a minor injury, or even just starts her period, and suddenly they all swarm around her and act like she needs to be hospitalized.

When I was a teenager in high school, that sounded so romantic.

Now that I'm a cynical old grown-up, that kind of treatment sound awful and personally demeaning.

[misstisalir]

? [bc I know how many muses you actually have XD]

CANONS: Lisa Tepes - Castlevania

Wife of the famous Dracula, and a scientific mind, Lisa is stubborn, sharp tongued, and fiery.

Morgan LeFay - Arthurian (Multiple Verses)

Daughter of the Isle of Avalon, magical and touched by the Goddess.

Anna Marie D'Ancanto "Rogue" - Marvel

I mean, need I say more? I mix 616, Movies, and Evolutions to make my girl <3

Eva - Devil May Cry

Wife of the infamous Legendary Knight Sparda, mother to the half-demon twins Dante and Vergil. This Umbran Witch is stubborn, motherly, and gentle.

Jaenelle Angelline - Black Jewels Trilogy

Not many people know this one, but when I read BJT, and got to know Jaenelle as a character, Witch, it kinda struck me like a shot. I LOVE this character more than I have words for and I would love to play Dreams made Flesh off her Consort or any of her other family or Court....

[veliseraptor]

can't believe it never occurred to me before that lucivar and daemon had years pre-canon where they weren't aware that they were related but did know that they "are drawn to one another without understanding why, so wound into each other's lives they cannot separate" and there's so many possibilities for trauma-bonding bad idea sex in that interval

incredible. not sure i'm going to do anything with this information but

[juniperandmoonlight]

The first time I read this trilogy I finished Daughter of the Blood at like 5 am and instead of going to bed like a normal person I just immediately opened Heir to the Shadows. I think I finally went to sleep around 7 or 8 in the morning.

Books read in 2020

Heir to the Shadows (The Black Jewels #2) by Anne Bishop

“Forgiveness doesn't work that way. You may want to forgive, but you can't do it yet. Forgiving someone can take weeks, months, years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.”

[whimsicalmeerkat]

Fic Master List

All the cool kids have these, so I figured I'd make one as well. Splitting them up by fandom since I have a bajillion fandoms and fics. List updated as of 2/24/2024. Some of the links go straight to my works on AO3 and some go to a post I've made here on tumblr. It's a work in progress.

Drabbles | 3 Sentence Ficathon

Teen Wolf: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale/Peter Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Chris Argent/Derek Hale, Derek Hale/Peter Hale, Derek Hale/Laura Hale

Men’s Hockey RPF: all archive locked, click the link to see pairings etc.

Black Jewels - Anne Bishop: Daemon Sadi/Lucivar Yaslana

Original Work: various m/m and m/m/m pairings

The Hollows - Kim Harrison: Trent Kalamack/Rachel Morgan, Jenks/Matalina

Spider-Man/Deadpool

The Witcher: Emhyr var Emreis/Geralt of Rivia, Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion

Psy-Changeling - Nalini Singh: Aden Kai/Vasic Zen, Kaleb Krychek/Judd Lauren, Lucas Hunter/Hawke Snow, Judd Lauren/Walker Lauren

Stargate Atlantis: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard

The Authority: Apollo/Midnighter, Apollo/Midnighter & Jenny Quantum

Perilous Courts - Tavia Lark: Julien Sandry/Whisper, Bellamy Sandry/Rakos Tem, Daromir Azri/Vana Dire, Vana Dire & Bellamy Sandry, Corin Marcel/Audric Sandry

Radiance Series - Tavia Lark: Evain Marha/Leth ka Tariel, Karis Cooper/Ronan Vizia, Arthur Davorn/Shaesarenna Nightven

Demonic Disasters and Afterlife Adventures - Shannon Mae: Adam/Minos

Chosen One Universe - Macy Blake: Victor Eastaughffe/Orsen Riggs, Victor Eastaughffe/Orsen Riggs & Gus, Bentley "Bebe" Baxter & Eduard Eastaughffe, Jedrek/Nick Smith

The Epic of Gilgamesh: Enkidu/Gilgamesh

Last Binding Series - Freya Marske: Robin Blyth/Edwin Courcey

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Loki/Thor

[belle-keys]

A strong suggestion of plagiarism: Detailing the similarities between Anne Bishop’s The Black Jewels trilogy and Sarah J. Maas’s ACOTAR series

Anne Bishop released her The Black Jewels trilogy between 1998 and 2003. It is a dark fantasy book trilogy, part of a larger fantasy saga within the world of The Black Jewels. Sarah J. Maas released the first book in her A Court of Thorns and Roses fantasy romance series, which goes by the same name, in 2015. This popular series of Maas is still ongoing.

For the last decade, many individuals have noticed glaring similarities between Maas’ fantasy series and Bishop’s earlier books. From character names to world-building elements and plotlines, several readers have concluded it is highly possible that Sarah J. Maas has plagiarized major aspects of Bishop’s work in the ACOTAR series. For purely legal reasons, I am hesitant to say outright that Mass indeed plagiarized The Black Jewels in ACOTAR. However, I do believe that there is very strong evidence indicating that Maas may have done so. Please note all my screenshots here are all from The Black Jewels and I can provide more if necessary.

This post presents my observations of the similarities between Maas’ book series compared to Bishop’s trilogy. Indeed, there are several elements that are near-indentical in Maas’ series compared to Bishop’s. Whatever is in brackets is my shabby-MLA-esque way of referencing in which specific book you can find the content I'm talking about. I am aware others have made similar posts on Tumblr and Reddit, and I salute them! Here, I am merely outlining what I have noticed myself, and I imagine there will be significant overlap between his post and others online.

The Eyrians and the Illyrians

The Eyrians are a winged warrior race in TBJ, described as having tanned skin, black hair, gold eyes and "batlike wings". They are one of the long lived races and live thousands of years, based upon a lofty mountain range in their realm. They are a warrior race with a long history of physical fighting, often reputed to be "backward" by aristocrats in their realm (DOTB, HTTS). Their "dark, membranous" wings are the prized physical feature among their race and they have a tradition of turning to militarism and barbarism during skirmishes (DOTB). Cutting off or clipping an Eyrian's wings is the greatest torture and the worst dishonour for a warrior (HTTS). The Illyrians in ACOTAR are a virtually identical winged mountain warrior race with a similar culture and physical features including "black, membranous" wings and tanned skin (ACOTAR). The Eyrians, like the Illyrians, yearn for freedom of their expansive mountains and the war camps within them.

Eyrian males are raised to be warriors in hunting camps in the mountains, while females are forbidden from touching weapons and are confined to domestic pursuits. Eyrian women are often mistreated and are usually expected to be docile and subservient to their militaristic males (QOTD). This is the same gender construct present among the Illyrians in ACOTAR.

The Eyrians in TBJ carry prejudices against half-Eyrians, similar to the Illyrians' prejudices against "half-breeds" like Rhysand in the ACOTAR series (ACOMAF). The word “half-breed” is actually used to describe an important half-Eyrian in TBJ, Lucivar Yaslana.

The Eyrians have a practice known as the "Blood Run" which is a rite of passage taken by skilled Eyrian warriors in their mountains, rather similar to both "Nephelle's Run" and the "Blood Rite" which we learn about in ACOWAR and ACOSF respectively.

Powerful Illyrians, like Cassian and Azriel, use siphons—colourful, jeweled gauntlets that channel and hone their magical power. This is eerily similar to the way aristocrats in TBJ use jewels to channel and concentrate their power. The Illyrians also wear fighting leathers while the Eyrians wear black skintight leathers to go to battle.

Lucivar Yaslana and Cassian

Lucivar Yaslana is an Eyrian male who commands a large portion of the Eyrian troops. He is described as a "bastard", both as an insult and a jest in TBJ, because his father and his mother were unmarried and he did not grow up knowing his father who’s the High Lord. The same situation is pertinent to Cassian in ACOMAF whose "bastard reputation" precedes him.

In QOTD, Lucivar begins training Eyrian females to defend themselves and fight military-style, which is a radical move in the realm and receives a lot of push-back from fellow Eyrian males. Lucivar wants to make sure the Eyrian women tap into their strength, at least a little, to prevent them from being helpless when under attack or in battle. There's a few heartwarming training montages in QOTD where he whips them into shape. Cassian leads a similar initiative in ACOSF where he trains Illyrian women so they learn to defend themselves and some even become respected warriors.

Lucivar has gold eyes, big wings, big muscles, shoulder-length dark hair, and light brown skin. Cassian also has gold eyes, big wings, big muscles, shoulder-length dark hair, and light brown skin. Lucivar ultimately reports to the authority of his queen and serves her faithfully just as Cassian reports to authority of his High Lord and Lady and serves them faithfully.

Daemon SaDiablo and Rhysand

Daemon SaDiablo of TBJ was forced to serve as a sex slave in the court of an evil priestess, Dorothea of Hayll, and he has experienced a lot of trauma and pain for hundreds of years due to being forced to serve in the bedchamber of this abusive enslaver. Rhysand similarly serves as a sex slave to Amaratha for 50 years when she builds her court Under the Mountain. In TBJ, the evil queen who conquers the realm through cruelty and corruption, Dorothea, enslaves multiple males to serve her in bed and she even banishes Lucivar to land's brutal "salt mines" when he becomes disobedient. Daemon is known as "Hayll's whore" by the public in DOTB just as Rhysand is known as "Amarantha's whore" by the public in ACOTAR.

Daemon has jet-black hair, golden skin, and a frighteningly beautiful face. Daemon is also known as a natural Black Widow, one of the one only male Black Widows ever in their world. As such, Daemon is one of the most powerful males in all the realm. Rhysand, similarly, has dark hair, a stunningly beautiful face, and has unique powers making him the most powerful High Lord. Daemon, like Rhysand, becomes the highest ranking male in his "Dark Court" and he is also the main love interest (QOTD).

Daemon has a habit of putting his hands in his pocket when he's nervous and/or trying to intimidate people. Rhysand has the same habit. Daemon is feared for his sadism and power in TBJ but is, deep down, a good person and a devoted lover, similar to Rhysand’s persona being much crueler and sadistic than his real personality (ACOMAF).

Daemon originally starts seeing the protagonist of the series, Jaenelle, in his dreams and he recognizes while enslaved that she is the realm's salvation (DOTB, QOTD). Rhysand also begins seeing glimpses of Feyre in his dreams while enslaved Under the Mountain and he knew she was Prythian’s hope (ACOMAF).

Wingspans

We know that in the ACOTAR world, the wingspan of an Illyrian male is supposedly proportional to their, yunno, male parts. This is also the case in The Black Jewels where, in the second book, we learn a male's wingspan also corresponds to the size of his… down there.

Scents and gender

In TBJ, magical figures have the abilities to identify or smell another person based on his or her "psychic scent", which is their unique scent. The psychic scent also allows them to sense the magical abilities, emotions and traumatic experiences of other persons. Romantic couples also have a keen awareness of their partner's scent. This is the likewise the case in the ACOTAR world where mates and fae can identify and read each other based on specific scents including their arousal.

In TBJ, you can put up a "psychic shield" to stop someone from peering into your thoughts and reading you through your psychic scent. It's the same in the ACOTAR world, a concept introduced in ACOMAF, where you can put up a mental shield or barrier to stop someone like the daemati from breaking into your mind.

The males in TBJ can become quite territorial and possessive over their women and mates, almost animalistic based on their emotions. They purr and snarl and growl quite often, and Sarah J. Maas uses identical descriptive language regarding the bat boys.

Dragons and Amren

There's an older female character called Draca in TBJ who is a dragon in human form, trapped in a human body. Draca, who serves in the main character's Dark Court, has to decipher old texts in the TBJ because she is the only one who understands the ancient languages they contain. Draca is referred to as the "ancient one." This is exactly like Amren being known as the little "ancient one", a powerful angel in human form who is the only one that can decipher the Book of Breathings in ACOMAF.

There is a "creature" deep beneath the Keep and library of the High Lord of Hell in TBJ who, in HTTS, turns out to be a mighty dragon whose name is Lorn. Likewise, beneath the library in Velaris lurks Bryaxis who is a dangerous dragon-esque creature (ACOWAR).

Other worldbuilding plotpoints

There are “High Lords” of various realms in The Black Jewels and High Lord is not a traditional feudal title throughout history or mythology. One major character in TBJ is the High Lord of Hell, Saetan SaDiablo. His court, and that of his adopted daughter, is known as the Dark Court or the "Court of Darkness". Rhysand is the most powerful High Lord who presides over the Night Court which is also, in many ways, Prythian's own Court of Darkness.

The Dark Court in TBJ has a "first circle" that is comprised of the queen's most trusted courtiers. Rhysand's Court of Dreams in ACOMAF also has an "inner circle".

Jaenelle is known as "Dreams Made Flesh" because of her immense power and ability to deliver her lands from evil. Jaenelle was a saviour-figure who was dreamt up by the "dreamers" in her realm who were suffering and oppressed for many years, ruled over by cruel queens (QOTD). Likewise, the Court of Dreams and Feyre's defeat of Amarantha were, more or less, the product of dreamers who wished upon the stars (ACOMAF). Just like how Feyre possesses the power of all seven High Lords, Jaenelle is the magical figure to possess the power of all the various colored jewels in TBJ.

There is a character named Prythian in The Black Jewels who is a powerful priestess, and the main land that the ACOTAR series is set in is called Prythian. There's also an assassin-prostitute character in TBJ named Surreal, and the Suriel is character in the ACOTAR series.

The sigil/seal of Janelle's Dark Court in TBJ, we learn in the second book, is an image of a mountain with a unicorn’s horn above it. The main sigil of the Night Court in ACOTAR is a mountain below three stars. The vastness and freedom of mountains are a motif in both TBJ and ACOMAF.

Conclusion: There are others online who have pointed out the similarities between The Black Jewels and the Throne of Glass series, but it’s been many years since I read Throne of Glass and I’m rusty so I won’t touch it. Did Sarah J. Maas rip off Anne Bishop’s work? I think it could be proven in a court of law, but I’m quite hesitant to say outright that she’s guilty of plagiarism. Is Sarah J. Maas guilty of serious unoriginality? Yes, definitely. A preliminary search online will tell you that Sarah J. Maas has openly praised Bishop’s writing and she has even said that Lucivar is her favourite fantasy man of all time. Bishop's books were released when Maas was a teenager. Make of this what you will.

I’ve used a variety of tags on this post because, honestly, I’m not sure whether it falls into the “anti” category of posts or not. I think this post neutral in tone and exists just to catalogue the similarities between both series. I hence believe both fans and antis might appreciate it... for different reasons.