#the story ended up being ten pages long bc i was building the world. i still think about that. like. girl?

[iiboronii]

Me upon realizing that I can just have an AU instead of writing an entire fanfiction about an idea I had in my head once:

[starlightkun]

sorry if you've gotten this ask before aljrksjd

you don't have to answer this, but I just wanted to know how you write longform fics or just long pieces in general. it's one of the things I've struggled with as a writer, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how I could go about it or do it.

I'd be so grateful if you could provide some advice or suggestions 🥹🥹

i want u to know that i saw this ask when u sent it, but i had a 5hr drive today and wanted to make sure i had time to answer this!! it's under the cut bc i yapped a bit <33

so one thing that i feel the need to say up top is that i never go into pieces with a "goal" length/word count (often times my fics end up being longer than i expected/intended). because i never really write with the goal of a specific length in mind, these are things that i think have helped me write more cohesive and narratively fulfilling pieces in general, which tends to make my fics longer

my first thing is planning/outlining!! i used to just write my fics start to finish in one go with little to no planning, and since i've started slowing down and taking my time outlining/planning beforehand (and even during the drafting process i continue adding to my outline), i've seen the average lengths of my fics go up a lot. you don't have to have every single scene, moment, and piece of dialogue planned out before start writing (lord knows i never do), but you should have a pretty good idea of the major story beats, character dynamics, and any important conflicts, and make sure it's written down in a way that's easy for you to refer back to while you write. never think you're gonna keep it all in your head

build out your characters' lives!! i love introducing a good b-plot involving the main character's friends (see: strawberry sunday) that doesn't take too much attention away from the main plot that it seems out of place, but instead complements the main plot and allows there to be space in between those major plot beats for the readers and the characters to breathe. it also helps make your characters feel more well-rounded and real to the readers if you throw in a scene of their daily life at school or work or with their friends/family both to add texture to them but also to your world. it can also be good to use an establishing scene towards the beginning of their daily life, then a similar one towards to the end that shows any character development, or some other impactful change that happened during your story. instead of just telling us that everything in your character's life changed, show us how it did (or didn't! or maybe it only changed a little, but the little change was important, too)

in a similar vein, build out your world!! im not saying to spend ten pages describing an intricate magic system to us that has little bearing on the plot itself, but feel free to weave in extra details about where/when we are and how the characters interact (or dont!) with the world around them (even if its our normal old world in the modern day)

and i mean i guess my last thing that's really helped me is just sort of getting out my head when it comes to writing? like, not forcing myself to write everyday, not having any sort of word count goals, no posting schedule, etc. just letting myself sit with my ideas for a while and really play around and have fun with them. it's made writing fic something that i look forward to doing when i come from work, or when the weekend is approaching, and i genuinely am making probably my favorite things that i've ever made right now. and they happen to be pretty long!!

i've talked some more about my writing process in some other asks (x, x, x, x, x, x) and i have a writing tag where i post about more general writing stuff if you want to hear me yap some more

[calamity-bean]

Notes: Barkskins Q&A

Barkskins fans! Today (6/28/20), American Cinematheque hosted a Barkskins Q&A webinar with creator Elwood Reid and cast members Marcia Gay Harden (Mathilde Geffard), Christian Cooke (Rene Sel), and David Thewlis (Claude Trepagny). Elwood, Marcia, and Christian were on the call live, while David was interviewed beforehand and his responses recorded. Topics discussed included: 

The show’s general scope and the adaptation process

Historical research

Accent coaching

Colonialism and the portrayal of First Nations characters/cultures

Sets and wardrobe

An audience question for Marcia about Mathilde’s daughter

An audience question for Christian about Rene’s physical/action scenes

Here I’m sharing a summary of the notes I took during the talk. This isn’t a transcript and I didn’t write down everything, but I tried to note interesting things as accurately as I was able. Please pardon any misinterpretations or errors; I did the best I could, but if you remember something differently (or have something to add), feel free to let me know.

This got quite long... Lots of notes below!

The Show in General

First, the big one: the show has not yet been renewed for a second season, but Elwood is hopeful! He feels like season 1 just barely “set the table” for the story, only to yank the tablecloth off right at the end, and he wants more seasons so that viewers can really dig into the meal. It was always planned as multi-season, and right now he’s just hoping that there’s been a good enough viewing and that people talk enough about the show.

The season was originally slated for ten episodes, but had to be cut to nine and then to eight due to the weather changing and due to the time necessary to construct sets. 

The book was considered to be a huge challenge to adapt -- almost unadaptable. Initially, Elwood had ideas for doing a generational / time-skip structure like in the novel, where each season would start over and focus on a new time period; however, one of the main reasons he scrapped that idea was because of the cast. He really adores the whole cast and is excited to write more stories for these actors rather than switching focus to new characters. 

In general, the show was repeatedly described as being essentially about “haves” versus “have-nots” -- who are the “haves,” who are the “have-nots,” what do they want and what are they willing to do in order to become a “have.” It is also a show in which every character (except Rene, initially) has a secret and everyone has something they want that they can’t have.

Also, things such as which characters live/die will not be beholden to what happens in the book.

Historical and Character Research

Marcia and Christian have both read the entire book. Since Mathilde wasn’t in the novel, Marcia called up Elwood with a lot of ideas for how to develop the character, although in the end Mathilde became someone much gravelly, crass, and more conniving than she had initially expected. Christian was very impressed by the scope and uniqueness of the story and found Rene’s simple worldview appealing, describing Rene as a man of the forest, a man of the land, with desires that are simple but meaningful and noble: a better life, prosperity, a piece of his own land.

David read about the first hundred pages, and his initial idea of Trepagny was as someone much tougher and more physically imposing, as portrayed in the book. He then had to work to shed that preconception of the character into the very different Trepagny of the script. He described Trepagny as a man of contradictions: Is he good or bad? Charming or obnoxious? Vulnerable or a bully? Does he live in a cabin or a mansion? Does he worship a god / dual god or a rotten old log? Is he delusional or is he a visionary?

Primary source materials from the period that Elwood used in his historical research include the accounts of Jesuit missionaries, business ledgers describing trade and commerce, and a few memoirs from filles du roi. However, he found it difficult to find primary sources, especially in English, and was careful to remember that these accounts always had a French/colonial bias.

Marcia did a LOT of research on her own in order to better understand what conditions in France might have driven the Geffards to leave. She asked herself, “Why the hell would anyone leave France to come to these mosquito-filled woods with ostensibly hostile First Nations people and English? What was going on in that moment BEFORE they came over?”

Christian didn’t do much historical research but rooted his character in terms of the physical research he did, such as learning woodcutting. He said Rene came from a rural area of northern France and was a woodsman there as well. 

Accent Coaching

Marcia said they did receive accent coaching, but they didn’t want to lean too hard into strong accents because they wanted to give the impression that the French characters were speaking French, which, as their native language, would be very fluid. So it was okay to not have a heavy accent in order to better communicate that effect.

It was also okay for everyone to have different takes on the French accent, because they wanted to give the effect that these characters were coming from all different parts of France and each had their own individual background. They felt that communicating the characters was more important than getting the accents entirely correct.

They likewise had Native actors speak English on screen when their characters were talking among themselves (even when the characters should be understood as not speaking English) so that the audience would get that same impression of fluidity, cleverness, and colloquial conversation.

Colonialism: "Whose perspective are we bringing to bear? Whose story are we telling?”

Elwood acknowledged that Americans tend to be bad about looking outside their own history and that societies with a history of colonizing tend to come up with justifications for why it was okay for them to invade and colonize others. They wanted the show to avoid reinforcing that idea and to not sugarcoat the reality of it.

He mentioned the importance of having Migizi Pensoneau’s voice in the writer’s room. They also made an effort to speak with tribal communities and leaders in the area in order to gain their insight.

Elwood also hit on the effect of the Western film genre (as in cowboy Westerns) in shaping stereotypes about Native Americans and exporting these stereotypes to the rest of the world. Wanted to avoid those stereotypes (bc they’re inaccurate anyway and bc Barkskins takes place in the eastern part of the continent, not the western, and in an earlier time period) and in general to avoid portraying indigenous people as a uniform/interchangeable monoculture.

Marcia highlighted efforts to foreground First Nations characters in front of the camera as well, specifically mentioning Yvon and Mari. She mentioned that Yvon was educated at Harvard and that Mari’s father was French.

Sets and Wardrobe

This was my favorite section because I love this stuff and it was very impressive! Elwood basically gushed about how the production designer (Isabelle Guay), costume designer (Anna Terrazas), and wig maker were invaluable to the show. I tried to record the wig maker’s name, but I was going by ear, and I couldn’t find any search results that seemed right based on the spellings I tried. He was a Montreal area wig maker whose name sounded like (but I am sure is not spelled like) “Ray-jean For-jay.”

Isabelle Guay is local to the area and was in charge of building all the sets. She scouted all the areas personally and paid close attention to period details in construction. Authenticity was very important to Nat Geo; it had to look good and feel real.

Most of the costumes were not existing pieces that the show rented or reused; Anna Terrazas wanted to build as much as possible from scratch herself. She and the other costumers dyed deerskins, found period 17th- and 18th-century fabrics to make garments out of, and even hand built shoes.

Likewise, although it would have been cheaper to get okay-looking wigs premade, the wig maker wanted to make high-quality authentic ones himself. He flew to the actors, measured their heads, bought hair in France, and then constructed all the wigs himself.

Marcia on how the costume informed her character: Anna gave her a leather pouch to hang on a belt around her waist. It was filled with lavender, the idea being that Mathilde kept this lavender close to counter the foul smells of Wobik. Marcia viewed it as a “little secret” to draw on in her acting.

Christian found the costumes surprisingly comfortable/immersive and the landscape very awe-inspiring.

The moodboard for Trepagny’s wardrobe/aesthetic included pictures of Nick Cave and Jimi Hendrix.

Mathilde’s Daughter

Marcia was asked how much of the details about Mathilde’s daughter were of her own invention. She said that everything said on screen about Veronique was straight from the script, but she came up with more herself in order to inform her acting.

Marcia imagines that Veronique probably died from a sickness, perhaps something like whooping cough that to many of us today wouldn’t seem so serious but which would be more fatal in that era.

This is the point at which Elwood blindsided Marcia, me, and everybody else by talking about a scene he had been “obsessed” with a planned scene in which Renardette would go down to a room below the inn and find Veronique’s preserved body hidden down there, covered in her own dresses. Ultimately, Elwood felt that this was “too gothic” and that it wouldn’t work for Mathilde in a season of only 8 episodes, because it would too quickly take the audience’s understanding of her to a very bizarre/dark place.

He defended the idea by saying that it wasn’t uncommon at the time for people to do things like that, i.e. keep a loved one’s remains for a period of time. (I will take your word for it, Elwood. Also, I’m totally ready for you to go full gothic on this show, please follow your weird impulses in the future.) Marcia, though, felt that it wouldn’t make sense for a character as pragmatic as Mathilde. She pointed out that Francis is the one who wants things like refinements, whereas Mathilde is much more practical.

Also, I was today years old when I learned that Lola Reid (Renardette) is showrunner Elwood Reid’s daughter. In my defense, it’s not an uncommon last name.

Christian on Rene

Christian was asked about the physical aspects of playing Rene, such as chopping wood, fighting, swimming, etc., and which were most difficult and which most enjoyable. He said that he loved those aspects; he would get immersed in the physical act so much that he would forget he was acting. He could get very emotional in those intense moments and found it very difficult to come out of those scenes because of how emotionally charged they were (such as when watching character deaths) but also found it very enjoyable in a cathartic way.

Elwood said that he thought Christian had the hardest role because Rene is a stoic person who has to hold the screen with very few words. It was at this point that he talked about all the characters having secrets and something they want but can’t have; he pointed out that Rene is the only character who doesn’t have a secret and whose wants and needs are very simple. This makes his character “like a rock” that other characters try to pick up and bash around but can’t figure out what to do with.

In light of that, Elwood felt that this first season was a slow burn for Rene, but that the future focus of the character’s arc is essentially: What’s the breaking point of a man like that? What will make him crack? What will make him act out of his character?

He said it was also similar for James Bloor (Charles Duquet) because he had to take so much abuse in this first season, with Elwood assuring James that it was building toward a big future payoff.

In conclusion...

Aaand that’s all I’ve got! We are all encouraged to keep talking about the show and to make known our desire for a second season. Thanks for reading, and like I said, let me know if you have anything to add or to correct.

[inknose]

mdzs read diary part IV, the end

It’s inspiring how much self care wwx is gonna finally get now that his husband will go along with whatever he does, so he’s gotta look out for lwj’s well being if not his own. that is emphatically the STUFF

dragging my hands down I face as I read this, after all these chapters of getting up close and personal with ghouls bleeding from every orifice, slaying ancient beasts, rebelling against the entire cultivation world, the two of them are absolutely paralyzed by middle school crush sleepover math

chicken

he actually drew kissy doodles .... he....

IDK I THINK I JUST DOCUMENTED THIS PART CUZ I WAS STILL SCREAMING you cant expect me to have very useful things to say at this point

this is torture you are both so mushy you are so GONE

This part really stood out to me, it’s an attitude I feel like wwx implies with his inner narration a few times but most clearly says here: he’s not one for allowing himself to exaggerate how bad his circumstances are/could be even a little bit - he’s already lived through some extreme low points and found a way to keep going, so he never makes sweeping statements about what he couldn’t live without (Inner JingYi: you’re supposed to say you’d be lost without him here!!!) Instead he seems to accept as a given that being alive doesn’t guarantee him any pleasantness or joy at all, and as a result his feelings toward being in TRUE LOVE are surprisingly pragmatic, but also colored with such gratitude. There are a lot of things in the novel that struck me, like this, as being just a little to the left of familiar tropes/sentiments, and were more touching for it. Whether it be the influence of culture difference as opposed to what I’m used to reading in most western romance stories, or MXTX’s unique outlook, or a combination of both, it was really refreshing and made me pause over it. Not “I can’t imagine living without you” but “I could be living without you, but instead I get to be with you and I think that’s the best thing that could happen.”

ADJFDKFJ THE UST BEING SO STRONG THAT EVEN THE VILLAIN COMMENTS ON IT IN THE MIDDLE OF EXECUTING HIS EVIL PLANS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT WILL NEVER FAIL TO MAKE ME LAUGH MY ASS OFF. hes like god damn! here I thought I had problems

it was at this moment that I realized we were doing this Now... I’m still recovering. What a scene. I am so glad I saw the most incredible fanart soon afterwards, bc the fact that someone has already drawn a perfect comic of this part means I don’t have to

I love you so much, you are so annoying, you are perfect... I like how he’s been experiencing openly requited love for all of ten minutes but he’s already figured out how to weaponize it to piss people off

doing!!! his!!! job!!!!!

ahh... it’s a really good story. JGY is a great character. One of the most interesting differences for me between drama watching vs. novel reading experience is that without an actor to bat his vulnerable doe eyes at you and smile faintly with his cute dimples, the book does not go much out of its way to try to lull the reader into a false sense of security around him or *endear* him to you the way the show does. But just by seeing events through wei wuxian’s POV, its still enough to evoke pity or understanding towards him. The overall impression is a bit more detached though, there’s less emphasis on the spectacle of how he could manipulate everyone closest to him and more of a general feeling of resigned tragedy that everyones the worst on this bitch of an earth.

I CANNOT DEAL WITH YOU FOR EVEN ONE MORE SECOND!!!!

I clearly paused to take note of less and less parts at the end & the extras due to: a) too excited to reach the end b) too spicy to photograph and c) too sleepy cuz I kept reading in the middle of the night. but I absolutely took the time for Bro We Are Teens appreciation corner:

I’d absolutely read 40 more extra chapters of their monster-of-the-week field trip antics.

god... poor Jin Ling now basically has to deal with divorced parents that talk shit about each other to him whenever he is saying with one of them. except they are both his uncles. just a disasterhood of all uncles from start to finish. AUUUGH wei wuxian and jiang cheng have fucked me up completely, I dream of them reconciling but I also REFUSE to believe it would ever be easy. let me know if theres a fanfic that absolutely tortures you for decades before they hug

HAHAHA oh no this man ain’t making it to immortality thats for damn sure. HE’S JUST GONNA TRY AS HARD AS HE CAN HIS WHOLE LIFE NOT TO LOOK AT HIM BUT THEYRE *MARRIED* SDLKFJSF ohhhh it’s too funny, like... the mundane domestic family drama IN the fantastical swords and sorcery setting is what really ratchets up these things from amusing to fucking hilarious I think

aaaa the end... final random thoughts? No not final, I would like to please keep discussing at length and exhaustively, all the time please - CQL has gotta be one of the best TV adaptations I’ve seen. ANY adaptation of anything would be lucky to be so good!! reading the novel has just made me appreciate it even more.

- I don’t think I can do justice to what I find most fascinating about comparing the two versions briefly, to do that I need to get drunk and ramble at my friends for hours but... the condensed version is something like this. Really all the significant differences between the two versions (besides the ones which can be attributed to censorship and therefore aren’t worth discussing) are a side effect of the structure of how the story is told - there’s barely anything changed arbitrarily. Aside from having a cold opening, the drama sticks to a very linear version of the story, and I think for a TV show or film, that’s probably the best way to do it. We see everything, we get shocked and tricked and betrayed and surprised along with the characters, we feel the biggest impact at the climactic scenes having experienced all the build-up. The novel on the other hand is not only much more non-linear in WHEN we learn bits and pieces of information, but that information is also obfuscated under wei wuxian’s multiple layers of Unreliable Narratoritis, which are as follows: 1) difficulty remembering things because of personality/avoiding painful memories/actual memory loss, 2) No Homo Goggles still on, and 3) a wry sense of humor that makes the reader unsure of how much they can trust his attitude toward things, especially near the beginning. The experience of reading is a puzzle the reader has to mentally piece together through all of the above listed camouflage, and the puzzle itself is a three-sided mystery: One - How Bad of a guy was Wei WuXian really, and how exactly did all the bad stuff in his life go down; Two - wangxian epic pride & prejudice gambits; Three - political murder mystery. (I love stories like this btw... though I fully admit I’m glad I watched first this time bc it might have taken me a long time to tackle otherwise.) Because of this, where the drama wants to pull you in and submerge you in all the most potent emotional parts, the novel in direct contrast deliberately side-steps around these things and asks that you hurt yourself by filling in the blanks. In fact the more intense emotions and painful memories involved, whether it be his relationship with jiang yanli, his DEATH, the darkest days of war times etc, the more the novel evasively withholds details. I actually really like both styles of storytelling but each one is obviously way better suited to its medium. ANYWAY.... THATS BASICALLY WHERE MY BRAINS AT WHILE IM READING GAY SWORD WIZARD BOOKS

- The extras are so saturated with domestic married bliss that it’s a good thing I stopped taking pictures because I’d just take a picture of every page. this is too much for me to take... I did jump the gun a few times and read a few fanfics while I was still mid-read of the book (I tried to hold out but alas I am mortal) and at one point after finishing I was like “wow what fic was it in where lwj says something cute and wwx kisses him in public but they’re in the corner of the restaurant so no one really sees... OH NO WAIT that was actually in there.” and ... and that’s the LEAST OF IT... *stares into the distance* theyre married wow

- I ofc couldn’t help but see a few vague blogs beforehand so honestly I was braced for something like, wildly ooc for the sake of porn to happen in the extras... I definitely appreciate how the incense burner porn interludes could be uhhh a lot for many people and not my personal cup of tea in terms of smut however [here follows the words of a poisonous frog who has dwelt her whole life in the rainforests of BL] the concept is also surprisingly SWEET SDFLKJF like wwx sees lan wangji’s darkest mixed-up violent teenage fantasies and he’s just like aww babe you had a crush on me!! just... good for them

- I swear I’m not gonna rehash every cute married thing they do but wei wuxian grading papers in the tub........................rEALLY GOT ME

- I want to Draw - ok thats enough if I keep going I’ll just write “wei wuxian grading papers in the tub” seven more times probably

[kachinnate]

these are a few of my faaavorite fics ✨

not that anyone asked for my opinion BUT these are a couple of my… fav deh fics of all time!* they’re all linked to ao3 and i think i have all the authors tagged that i know of that has a tumblr so

*i made this list especially for fics that aren’t, like.. as well known as some of the Popular Fandom Fics, partially bc everyone’s already read them and knows how awesome they are and partially bc otherwise this list would be ten pages long hehe,,, also sorry if you’re seeing this twice, i had to repost bc the links were all broken ?? 

throwing under a readmore bc this is a chunky boy!!!!! keep in mind that these aren’t in any particular order:

in the in-between - chchchchcherrybomb, vinegar-and-glitter (x) [tree bros] – Connor’s turning 27. Evan’s sitting the bar exam. Over and over again. – itsa timeloop au!! i’m not sure if this is a common au or not, but i’ve never read anything else like this before, and ohhhh my god. each chapter is a switch-off from connor’s pov to evan’s pov, and i assume the authors each wrote for one character (?), but oh my god their writing works so well together?? they both have distinct styles and ways of writing but it flows together perfectly,, without spoiling anything, ev and connor’s dynamic in this universe is a lot different to anything else i’ve personally read before, partially because they’re quite a bit older here than in canon (which, while is obviously portrayed, they still are easily recognizable as the characters they are in the musical), and partially because it strays away from the common ‘they’re both misfits/not doing great, but connor is worse for wear and evan has to save him’, which i think is rlly nice.. (also, like, never have i ever considered that evan would want to be a lawyer, but after reading this fic not only am i sold on it but i’m convinced 100% that him being a lawyer could genuinely be fuckin canon) (also also, the evan characterization in this? hands down my favorite out of any fic i’ve ever read tbh) the world building is really incredible too - like, i don’t even want to consider this one a fuckin fic bro because it’s like highkey just this incredible novel?? it also has a completed sequel called it’s always been you (x) that i haven’t finished that takes place after the events of this fic, and so far?? also fucking incredible 15/10 i definitely recommend

lapse - cecropia / @wildflowermonet (x) [tree bros] – “For what it’s worth,” Connor says casually, “I don’t think you should die tonight.” – welcome to another installment of ‘kayla read this and immediately couldn’t think about anything else for a solid consecutive 12 hours’!! evan and connor have really wonderful characterizations in this one too - i’m pretty sure i’ve elaborated on it before but literally my favorite thing is when people actually write evan as more than an anxious kid, and omg this author did that perfectly asfjkdsg - you can see the subtle Growth as he gets more comfortable with connor and jared (and all the other deh characters too bc this fic has a lovely fOUND FAMILY FINISH AT THE END EEE) and it’s just. aaaah. *heart eyes emoji*. it’s set in their senior year, and they form an unsteady friendship and learn to lean on each other and figure out the whole ‘having friends’ thing, midway through evan realizes he’s a-pinin’, it’s just. Great. this fic is relatively new too i think so u def def def should go give it a read and give the author some love!!!!!!!!!!!

to have a friend - demistories / @transanabeth (x) [tree bros] – Pretend to be friends with Connor Murphy, who yells at people and skips class to smoke and pushes people and threw a printer in the second grade, for twenty dollars a week.

Evan closes his hand around the bill and then stuffs it into his pocket.

“I-I’ll do it.” – ok this is one of, if not, the first fic i’ve ever read coming into the fandom, so it of course has a rlly special place in my heart!! it’s a classic ‘fake dating au’, also with switching povs between chapters. connor offers evan 20$ a week to be his fake friend, almost follows through with the events of the musical but doesn’t, finds out about evan’s own attempt, and they just sorta… cope together. it’s a lot of second guessing bc neither of them knows if the other considers the other a friend or not, and ofc when the fake dating part comes in that gets amplified by 10 asdfghj. honestly i think it’s a cooler approach to the fake dating au troupe (the chapter titles are increments of 20$, which honestly is equally cruel as is creative) and is so!! heartwrenching!!! it’s been a while since i’ve read it but i’m pretty sure that i bawled at the twist so >’D

the only thing is that this fic isn’t finished and there isn’t an intention for it to be finished from what i know of(?) - the author included a brief synopsis of the ending to tie loose ends and give a sort of closure to the fic, but that absolutely doesn’t take away from how freaking incredibly written it is and doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a read anyway !! i kept up with it while it was a WIP and honestly every time i got the email notification that it updated i dropped everything to fuckin read that shit 😤😤 when i think of deh fics, this is honestly just one of the first that comes to mind for me just bc it was one of the first ones i’ve read, and it just… was so good that i still think about it months after i read the last chapter safkjasf

no comfort in the truth - @nothingunrealistic (x) [kleinsen] – Like everyone in the world, Evan has the last words his soulmate will ever say to him on his skin.

Evan hears a lot of last words during his senior year. – okay if this were an accurate list i’d literally have every drabble soph has ever written down on here but that is entirely beside the point

literally knowing beforehand that this is a kleinsen fic and then reading the summary, u kno this shit is going to be painful ,, honestly this style is one of my fave fic formats (especially when it comes to writing in the canon deh universe) because like ,, it’s simplistic but works really well as a story-telling method?? not everything has to be perfectly strung together and every day doesn’t have to be written out for it to still convey the same like.. impact as a super long fic would, and honestly writing it in like flashes or snippets makes the build up that much more anticipating? bc again when u write within the events of the musical it’s not like u don’t know what’s going to happen,, u can focus less on worldbuilding bc hey, it’s already done for u, and instead write more indepthly about the topic of the soulmate au!! but uhhh REGARDLESS soph is literally the kleinsen matriarch in my eyes, they always write evan and jared w/ Perfect characterization and dynamics and just Ah! this one is angsty, but it has a v nice and hopeful ending, and i *clutches heart* love,,,

nowhere else i’d rather be:  nosecoffee / @nose-coffee​​ (x) [tree bros] – A fake dating au where they’re next door neighbours, Evan bakes, and Connor’s already a little in love with Evan anyway – this one is a series - the first fic kinda Establishes stuff and the second one gets into the whole fake dating thing!! they live in apartments next to each other, evan bakes for connor, they go campin with connor’s family, it’s just….. rlly sweet and i love it

also, it contains this hilarious bit that i haven’t been able to forget about despite finding this fic months ago:

do me a favour - can your heart rate rise a little? - nosecoffee / @nose-coffee​ (x) [treebros]

an au where the hansen family owns an arcade….. honestly what more can i say?? it’s slowburn and treebros and i p much love everything that nosecoffee has written ever so this is no exception obviously

jared and connor vs. the mortifying ordeal of being known - caswell @techconsigliere , puglebug @puglebug (x) [kleinphy] – Jared is admitted to group therapy following the divorce of his mother from his asshole father. What he doesn’t anticipate is that Connor would be there, too. – THE KLEINPHY CONTENT WE ALL DESERVE BEING PROVIDED TO US BY CJ AND EZRA!!! it’s a one-shot with just enough slowburn to keep you 👀 , jared is working through some stuff and after some fumbling connor is w/ him to help him thru it, the end of this fic has my heart aching the entire way through every time i read it and it’s just… *chefs kiss* (i even drew some fanart for it if you’re ever so inclined)

forever going with the flow, but you’re friction - lizzy_stardust_18 @delightfullyanachronistic​ (x) [band trees] – Zoe knew that of all of the things that her mother had expected from the evening, Evan Hansen showing up at her door with his arms full of her drunken daughter was not one of them. – big bet i wasn’t getting through this list without including fiona’s fics, are u crazy??? BUT this one is set a year (?) after the events of canon, zoe’s at a party and evan finds her, and they talk about stuff n’ things - there’s also a sweet moment in there between zoe and cynthia (in which cynthia is Rightfully Skeptical of evan) which is v wholesome and Refreshing because honestly the murphy parents never get written in a good light and fiona does it ~ perfectly ~. lotsa metaphors. evan and zoe are big dorks. evan is a taylor swift stan. what isn’t there to love

i can’t call you a stranger, but i can’t call you up - lizzy_stardust_18 - @delightfullyanachronistic (x) [kleinsen] – Jared fiddled his thumbs. He wished more than anything that he could move to a different seat, but causing a scene at Heidi Hansen’s wedding reception wasn’t exactly high on his to-do list. Besides, he was an adult. He had a job. He ate ramen only three times a week. He could handle a simple social interaction like a real human being. He was lucky that no one else had found their seats at his table yet. It gave him time to gather his wits about him. He drummed his fingers on the table nervously. – jared and evan are forced to talk after the events of canon via sitting next to each other at heidi’s wedding. they argue a bunch bc jared is still rightfully hurt, they discuss TCP and jared’s treatment of evan over the past couple years, they fight it out and then we learn some jared backstory and then there are tears and it ends on a fluffy + hopeful note!! good shit !!!!

[if-we-are-free-tell-me-why]

2, 3, 4, 7, 14, 23, 24 Elisabeth

2. favorite six costume?

I had to think about this for a while and I don't feel this strongly bc I all the costumes are cool in their own way, but I do like Catherine Parrs costume a lot mostly bc of the trousers.

3. pro or anti cats the musical?

I have to confess I never saw Cats. I wanted to watch the professionally recorded one for a while now but I am pretty sure I won't like it. Cats is one of those musicals that I was aware of for a while and it was one of those that actually played quite successfully in Germany for a while which meant I first heard of it bc my aunt saw it in Hamburg. Anyway so what I did was read the synopsis on wikipedia and then I rented the German cast recording from my library and I just remember being confused as to what the plot was and why people liked it. It was probably the weirdest musical I had listened to at that point and I was not ready for it :D And nowadays I just had so much input from the rest of the world and my opinion on ALW has changed a lot...idk I definetly plan on seeing it before the movie. Right now I am definetly team making fun of Cats. I find so funny that nobody quite gets it and jet it is like in the top five of longest running musicals it's great. The last season of unbreakable kimmy schmidt had a great plotline to do with Cats. So to summarize, I am glad it exists if only for all the great jokes that came from it

4. obc spring awakening or dwsa?

Definetly Deaf West. Spring awakening is good but what they did with it is just incredible. It is copletely accessible to deaf people and the way they used ASL in the chpreography and how you as a hearing person who can't speak ASL don't get all the nuances but you get enough to enjoy it is just brilliant. I don't know of annother production that is like it and that's just brilliant. I wish it had stayed on Broadway longer it deserved so much more

7. give yourself a great comet “prologue” style introduction. “[your name] is [adjective], [descriptive statement].”

Eva is timid loves knowing but doesn't know what to do with her live.

(personally I am a Pierre gal. Just give me a ballad about the dread of existing)

14. be real. has a show ever gotten you to read an ungodly long book? (les miserables, war and peace, the chernow hamilton biography, etc.)

Well...now I feel called out :D most of the classics I read I read bc a musical is based on them but really long books... I think I just read Les Mis which I am quite proud of. I also read Hunchback after I knew that I liked Hugo enough but I have jet to read War and Peace. It is on my shelf but I only read like two parts, the chapters about the war I found quite tedious. I know for a fact that I will have to read Moby Dick when Dave Mlalloy comes out with his new show though.

23. Name an obscure musical you like that you secretly have a hipster complex about

Hm...so I have to admit that I have a hipster complex for every musical I listened to 'before it was cool' so like Hamilton and Hadestown and I guess Great Comet but they aren't obscure are they? So I'm thinking of German musicals bc they appear obscure to English speaking musical fans and now I'm thinking that I will probably be unbearable if Rebecca ever gains mainstream popularity in the UK or the US. Like it is no secret that they tried to put it onto Broadway but failed bc of money and now it is this mysterious musical that nobody knows what it's about or whatever and I'm sitting here in Germany and look into the camera like I'm in the office, smirking bc I know something they don't (which is that Rebecca is amazing and you should listen to at least the title song even if you don't speak German)

24. You're now the script doctor for [Elisabeth]. What do you change?

Oh boy this is hard. I do consider Elisabeth to be pretty good already but first of I would have to scratch all the changes after 2005 that was the first version I saw so I'm biased but I think what they changed from the 90s to 2005 works well but after that they leaned too far into the romance (Rondo I'm looking at you). Not a script change but I would try to make the scenery a bit lighter in the beginning of Act one so that the darkness is more effective when it appears. I think the most important script change that seriously needs to happen espechially considering our political climate is that there needs to be more build up to the Hass moment. I can see where it comes from. You have die schöne Apokalypse and Milch in Act one to show the mood on the street but when the Nazis show up in act two, everybody I've ever shown the show to was confused and disturbed by it but it is super isolated and it really doesn't get brought up again. I would love to know what the directors think of this scene and how they try to handle it but honestly it just comes out of nowhere everytime.

So what would I do to make this scene work better? Maybe for a start give it more context. What lead to this shift in society? How does the emperor fit into that? Maybe all of that is clearer for an Austrian but I am really confused by it. So you would have to rewrite die schöne Apokalypse, Milch and maybe Die Schatten werden länger to show a shift from ignorantly reading the gossip page about the royal family, and maybe we need a New system of government this seems ridiculus to Milch where it is literally freedom for the people (and maybe a Führer can give that freeedom?) to Schatten where maybe Rudolf could be more concrete about what he would change or maybe he sees more clearly the comming wave of fascism and then at the end show what the old world dying means. What will it gave way to?

I find it super hard to make Hass work without it taking over a whole B plot. But honestly that would be ten times more interesting than this uwu love story helene Fischer is Sisi direction I see Elisabeth going to at the moment.

Sorry this turned out so long! Thaks for asking I hope it was interesting

[canadiangeekgirl]

Photo, Canadian Press.

I’m scared about what’s happening in Canada.

When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, many of us Canadians wagged our fingers smugly at our southern neighbour. “What were they thinking?” we said to one another in line at Tim Hortons. We spent the next year or so glued to CNN, more captivated by American politics than what’s happening here.

We might have wanted to pay more attention.

The tide in the Great White North appears to be shifting right — but not in the way we’re used to. This isn’t a typical liberal-conservative tug-o-war, the ebb and flow we’ve seen throughout election cycles. This new movement is one that has already swept through Hungary, Poland, the U.S., it’s fuelled Brexit in the U.K. and has seen the rise of the far-right party Alternative for Germany, who have been compared to the Nazi regime. And it’s tilted so far to the right that it threatens to upend our democracy and the very liberties we’ve fought for.

While conservatives have historically called for less government regulation, lower taxes and a stronger military, today’s Canadian right-wing politics has rebranded itself to include more visible intolerance. Bigotry isn’t just bubbling under the surface these days, it’s out in the open and proudly displayed for when the guests come over.

This ugly, newfound boldness threatens to dominate the next federal election, impacting not only the world’s view of us a fair, diverse and welcoming country, but also the lives of all marginalized Canadians. That keeps me up at night.

As a gay mother with a trans child in the Ontario school system, and as a human rights advocate who spends a lot of time on social media, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of messages from people who think it’s “about time” politicians start standing up to “special interest groups.” We’ve been coddled for too long, they say, and we don’t deserve special treatment. They mock, namecall and outright threaten those of us who fight for the rights of marginalized people to be preserved. They’ve always done this, of course, but their voices, now embolded by the very politicians and public figures they support, are growing in number and getting angrier. I’ve had to file two police reports after my life was threatened — and those are only the incidents I reported.

This swing to the populist right is both in our face and insidious. Donald Trump might be loud and brash, but his win was unexpected by most. We surveyed the damage from up north, thinking it couldn’t possibly happen here. Surely, Canadians know better. We didn’t.

Modern populism has grown quietly, from the pages of right-wing websites to the birth of new neo-fascist groups such as the Proud Boys, now designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Support for the populism movement gained traction through one protest, one meeting, and one tweet at a time. Now it’s loud and it’s everywhere. It unseated Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Ontario government, with Premier Doug Ford and the Conservatives promising little more than a buck-a-beer and the end of teaching gender identity in schools.

And then, in October 2018, Premier Ford met privately with university professor Jordan Peterson. While the premier openly discussed other meetings that had taken place around that time, the public only learned of this one after the CBC obtained his itinerary through a freedom of information request.

Wildly popular in some right-wing circles, Peterson’s views have been slammed as retrograde, problematic and dangerous. He became well-known after taking a stand against using trans people’s chosen pronouns, claiming being forced to do so is an attack on free speech. He argued vehemently against the federal Liberal government’s now-passed trans rights bill, speaking in front of the senate committee overseeing the bill, and warned his followers about the dangers of “compelled speech.” Peterson has also proposed “enforced monogamy” as a way to reduce male violence and believes “crazy women” can’t be controlled by men because men can’t resort to physical violence against them.

Despite, or, perhaps, because of these views, Peterson, who teaches at the University of Toronto, earns tens of thousands of dollars monthly from his Patreon account, a site where fans can pledge financial support to creators of all stripes. These donations are given to him by admirers, many of them Canadians.

Ford, meanwhile, campaigned heavily on the removal of Ontario’s most current incarnation of the sex-ed curriculum, and followed through — a move that has earned much criticism and more than one lawsuit. However, it was also, in part, what earned his party a majority government. A slew of Ontarians has proudly come out in support of Ford’s policies, including the removal of mandatory student funding for certain college and university services, such as pride centres.

A week before meeting with Premier Ford, Peterson had spoken out in a tweet against the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claiming it to be the most “dangerous” organization in Canada, and calling for the Ford government to abolish it. Peterson has previously said he doesn’t agree with the OHRC’s support of gender identity and gender expression. The OHRC had just joined the legal fight against the Ontario provincial government’s removal of the sex-ed curriculum, which covered LGBTQ+ issues, consent and cyber-bullying.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission does exactly what the name implies: using the Ontario Human Rights Code as its guide, it strives to protect all Ontarians from discrimination and harassment. Those who are fiscally-minded might also appreciate how the OHRC first tries to resolve issues between parties out of court, taking the less-expensive mediation approach. It is not the country’s most dangerous organization, but its dismantling could certainly be very dangerous.

The timing of this secret meeting should ring alarm bells for liberals and conservatives alike. Protecting human rights is, after all, supposed to be a closely-held Canadian value.

Trump’s 2016 victory was a dog whistle for bigotry that reached the ears of Canadians. Doug Ford has proven Ontario will welcome similar politics, while Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada, a federal right-wing party formed in 2018, has over 30,000 members and a social media presence that speaks out against “political correctness” and “diversity nonsense.”

Taking a page from the Yellow Vest movement in France, the Facebook group “Yellow Vests Canada” has more than 100,000 members. What began as a place to organize protests around the country quickly became a spot where anti-Liberal sentiments and memes are circulated around the clock, several going so far as to call for the Prime Minister’s death. Immigration is regularly condemned, and Islamophobia is dismissed as a made-up word.

While some of the most offensive posts have been removed over recent weeks, the views are still crystal clear. This group isn’t just anti-tax and pro-oil, it’s filled to the brim with intolerance. This message is consistent throughout provincial groups as well, such as BC Proud, Alberta Proud and Ontario Proud. With a combined total of hundreds of thousands of members in these groups, cries of fake news and the danger of refugees abound.

These sentiments don’t just live online.

Statistics Canada reported hate crimes had reached historically high levels in 2017, rising 47 per cent over the previous year, with Ontario and Quebec leading the pack on reported incidents. Black, Jewish and Muslim people were targeted most. Quebec saw a 50 per cent increase in hate crimes overall, and crimes against Muslims tripled between 2016 and 2017. In January of 2017, a shooter killed six men and injured several others in a Quebec City Mosque. Meanwhile, Ontario saw a 207 per cent increase in hate crimes against Muslims, and an 84 per cent increase against Black people. Crimes against LGBTQ+ people have also climbed. Swastikas have been spray painted on synagogues and other buildings across the country. Intolerance is growing.

Populism has many sources. Perhaps there are people who are tired of looking inward and are now lashing outward. Maybe, for some, it’s simpler to blame immigrants when they can’t find work than the companies who cut minimum wage jobs and still pay their executives millions in bonuses. Maybe it’s easier to find a scapegoat, to call someone like me a child abuser for supporting my transgender teen, than it is to grow and broaden our ideas of what’s normal.

Societal change can be hard and it can make people uncomfortable, but that’s a flimy excuse for discrimination.

Intolerance has never gone away, it was simply out of fashion for a while. Now it’s back with a fresh new look and a boost from fake news and social media.

We should all care deeply about this frightening political shift and where it could take us.

I know I care, which is why I’m so scared about what’s happening in this country, and what’s yet to come.

Amanda Jetté Knox is an award-winning writer, public speaker and LGBTQ advocate. She is the author of Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family, which will be published in August 2019 from Penguin Random House Canada. She lives in Ottawa with her wife and four kids.

[sp1resong]

I'M GLAD YOU ASKED!

(post under cut bc it ended up being rather long)

she's the demigod daughter of life (as mentioned in the original post) and has lightning magic. she mostly grew up on the streets of London (her last name is Milk bc she needed a last name for something, panicked, and wrote down the first word that came to mind). she has three adopted siblings (brain-link sister Cinnamon/Cindy, older sibling Jade, and younger sister Star) and. way too many biological ones (life having a shitton of kids is canon). she wound up at the magic demigod house called Godborn at age 8 with all her siblings, blah blah blah backstory shit over. she's nicknamed the Professor bc she likes going on long tangents about obscure subjects that don't really matter. she probably kins the metaphor cat, which is to say she's really rather stupid and does idiotic things to find out what will happen. the clown murder thing was basically Shade (daughter of Death) inviting Snowflake and a couple other friends to the Underworld, an idea that ended Disastrously. uhh there's a lot of plot here but she's not part of it so. she was the one to discover the Second, Spookier Basement, which contained tapes from another timeline (the apocalypse in which she joked about clown tax evasion). there's not much with this plot yet but it is lore significant so ! anyways she later found a book in the regular basement, which was obviously very suspicious and probably cursed so of course she read it (she had to see what would happen). it contained the instructions for a summoning ritual, which she, of course, preformed (see above), freeing an immortal named Loki from where he'd been stuck in the gods' prison for the past 3,000-or-so years after insulting Order a little bit too much. she joined him in building a new (country? can you call it a country if it's a bunch of traumatized teenagers and a god who looks like a ten-year-old's original character do not steal?) called Loki House and got into a big fight with Cindy over that (Cindy thought she was being manipulated). Cindy disappeared immediately afterwards (turned out Loki trapped her in his book, oops) and Snowflake was. extremely upset (for obvious reasons). long story short she arson'd Loki House (partly as a diversion while she grabbed the book, and partly bc she hates him) and clawed out his eyes just as it was about to be detonated. turns out Cindy had torn out her own page anyways, and Snowflake spent the next two months desperately trying to find a way to bring her back. eventually she found a strategy that might work and turned to a couple friends to enact it. basically she went into the void, found Cindy, and brought her back. It... worked, technically, although now they're both heavily marked by the void now (visibly, too, now snowflake's a colorpoint, cindy basically looks like a calico, and they both have dark sclerae and pupils always slightly too dilated) which is. not ideal.

that's abt where their story concludes atm (sorry for rambling), but. uh. here's some more lore

snowflake's canonically in all the fandoms i'm in! this means she's a fan of warrior cats (which has some. implications for this universe, given that cats are their own society with their own culture. can't believe there's a world where warrior cats is more problematic), wings of fire, and tma, is half a fan of deltarune/undertale, and is aware of but not invested in the dream smp.

one time she convinced Misty (voice magician) to teach her how to change her voice purely so she could cover songs better. theater kid energy.

Vehicular Manslaughter is not her only Beloved Son! she also has a rather poorly made plush cat named Gerard.

right uhh sorry for rambling but i love brainrotting about fictional cats at the earliest opportunity

not to ramble abt my ocs but snowflake really is the character ever. she's gen z. she's a computer genius. she's a cat. she's a theater kid. she binges wikipedia as a hobby. she cares about her family more than anything. she owns a worm on a string named Vehicular Manslaughter. she read a fucked-up book once and now she has a brain bond with her sister. she read a second, different fucked-up book and summoned a god. she blew up said god's house and gouged out his eyeballs because he trapped her sister in his book. she jumped headfirst into the void to save her sister without even thinking. she almost got murdered by clowns once. she found out her friend can smite people and was just like 'ok cool'. she runs a minecraft roleplay smp. she's the daughter of Life herself. she joked about clown tax evasion during the literal apocalypse. she's even aroace

[queencanaries]

Like do u hate felicity bc she took laurels spot? Like cmon the chemistry between Stephen and KATIE just did not exist. It was bad. Like I love laurel, she was so much better apart. Also I'm sorry but Emily's acting is 100000x better than Katie's, katie is a brick. I'm not TRYNA hate but I just wanna understand why you're so hateful towards one female character? Why not just support both?

For starters, I don’t think Felicity “took Laurel’s spot.” The only character that exists to take Laurel’s spot is “Dinah Drake” and I have problems with that for reasons I’ve listed time and time again (and especially, most recently in a post that probably hasn’t escaped the first page of my blog). 

As for Felicity, there are a laundry list of reasons why I stopped enjoying the character. She’s a “reset to factory default settings” kind of character in that she’s one-dimensional and isn’t allowed to grow or evolve beyond what and who we’ve known her to be (which I think is a result of the writers thinking they’ve struck gold with her and don’t need to develop her). For a character to be that way, and get the level of attention/focus/screentime that she pulls week to week, it’s frustrating. There have been multiple instances where the writers have given her a great story, and chosen to do nothing with it, for example, when Felicity was attacked by Darhk and ended up in a wheelchair, the writers didn’t use it to propel her down an interesting, and character-building arc, instead they had a magical chip that restored her ability to walk and she was made to be completely fine — restored to factory default settings. I also find her to lack empathy, and empathy is a quality I admire in characters of fiction and people in real life, so it’s hard to relate to someone who refuses to put themselves in someone else’s shoes to understand their actions and their choices and somehow makes it all about themselves instead (eg. the entire situation with Samantha Clayton, and Oliver’s son). I think her storyline in Season 3 ruined her for me, specifically in her treatment of Ray. I will never understand how she could have played with his feelings like that and talked to Oliver as though she would drop Ray like a bag of shit the second he was willing to give in to his feelings for her (which she kind of ended up doing anyway). And to refuse telling Ray that she doesn’t love him, and has feelings for Oliver, but to still rock up at his place of business and be like, “hey can I borrow a jet?” And ya’ll can say “yeah but it was to save Thea” but she was like “lol let Thea die, it’s not worth it, Oliver.” Her entire romantic relationship with Oliver was forced and rushed and the feelings were fabricated for plot-purposes at the beginning of Season 3, and so it was impossible for me to enjoy them as a couple (and yes, it’s important to bring up because Felicity was basically just a love interest for Season 3 and Season 4). I also hate the fact that we’ve seen no fucking long-term consequences and/or guilt for her nuking Havenrock and for her losing Billy Malone. Ten thousand innocent lives are dead because of her, and she was guilt-ridden for a single scene in Season 5. And we had to see another shot of Emily Bett Rickards “trying to cry” over losing Billy, but we never got the time to invest in that relationship, and she never seems to acknowledge it in a real, human way but instead can use it as a way to justify being pushed into Helix? Again, it ties back to her being a “reset to default factory settings.” And most importantly, I hate that she never has to earn anything on the show — she never had to earn her job at Palmer Tech, or earn becoming CEO, she never had to earn being the main love interest of the show and that development is literally non-existent, she never had to earn being somewhat competent in the field to take on the League of Assassins or the Ghosts, or whoever else she’s fought, and in a show about earning your role as a hero and facing a crucible to become something else, she’s literally done shit all to get to where she’s been. And look, I was a huge fan of her in the first season. But I remember slowly getting sick of it in S2 because her dynamic, and her role was growing very stale. I know people like to think it’s because I’m a Laurel fan, and a Lauriver fan, but it’s not true. The reason I don’t like Felicity Smoak, in a nutshell, is because I fundamentally disagree with how she is written and until the writing changes to fix the issues that I have, there’s no way I can “support her.” But that’s the beauty of the world — we don’t all share the same opinion, and you coming into my inbox trying to say “support both” whilst not-so-subtly dragging Katie Cassidy... it’s not incentive for me to agree. 

I hope that answered the first part of your question. 

On the topic of terrible acting, my initial problem with Emily Bett Rickards was the way she spoke her lines — it often felt like she was reading off a script, and they were very monotonous and almost robotic. Moments where it felt a little better was when she was able to have some personality behind it, and/or some passion. And then it felt like she was improving (specifically the “keep fighting” scene in S2). But it’s still how she delivers the lines, and so I’m not a big fan of it. And beyond that, I don’t think she’s cut out to do serious and dramatic scenes that involve extreme emotions, like being distraught. As funny of a meme the “No, Ray, Olibur” thing is, it comes from a place of how awful the acting and the writing was in that scene to the point where it’s comical. But she’s great at comedy, and she’s great at being the comedic relief. I just don’t think she’s mastered the art of doing serious drama. I mean, did you see the episode of Legends where they tried to make her a superhero? Anyway, you opened the floor on discussing acting ability and so I thought I’d share as well :) 

Now, onto the chemistry part of the question. Chemistry is subjective. You don’t see it for Laurel and Oliver -- that’s fine! Frankly, when I look at Oliver and Felicity, it’s kind of awkward. She looks way too young for him, or he looks way too old for her, or maybe it’s both. And the truth is, I don’t see romantic chemistry between them. I see that it’s written in the script for them to kiss and say “I love you”, and that’s how it feels. Scripted. Forced. I like the kind of chemistry that isn’t one-dimensional. I like that Laurel and Oliver can fight, and scream and have conflict and drama because they’re mature about it and it feels real and it feels like there’s all this history between them that bubbles up to the surface during those heated moments. I like that when they are together, romantically, it feels and looks like they belong and all that history has culminated in something beautiful and logical. I like that when they’re friends, you see a gentle side to them and a platform that was established and that will hold through anything. I don’t get that with Felicity and Oliver (mostly because the writing for them never warranted the relationship in the first place, but also because of the romantic chemistry lacking). But as I said, it’s subjective. You think Katie is a brick when she acts? Fine. I think Emily has very limited range and a lack of experience that shows in close to every episode. Each to their own. 

(I do want to say, though, that despite not being a fan of one’s acting ability, I have nothing against Emily Bett Rickards personally and actively do my part to make sure people from the LL don’t direct hate towards her on Twitter, which is more that I can say for the Olicity fandom that targets Katie)

Now, the reason I don’t and can’t support both is because I’m not willing to overlook serious flaws and spend my time on my blog being fake. If you go all the way back through my blog, you’ll see that I used to be a fan of both and I used to adore Felicity Smoak. I don’t anymore (for some of the reasons I mentioned above). Hope that answered your questions! 

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Beast Master, Time Travel, Grey Hawk

Fiction (Easily Distracted): Year’s Best Horror Stories 1976

The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series IV Edited by Gerald W. Page (1976 DAW)

Lifeguard by Arthur Byron Cover:A sharp diamond of a story told in the first-person and saying what needs to be said about youth’s expiring ambitions, the narrow horizon of small town life, summertime, pot, and an uncanny will-o-the-wisp.

Anime (Walker’s Retreat): Where have I seen this before? Oh, only with the Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Marvel, DC, Biohazard/Resident Evil, The Last of Us, and so many other Western corporate properties. There are two key differences between what’s going on with anime and what’s going on with Western entertainment. The first is that the Death Cult doesn’t run Japan’s culture industry, not the way it is in the West. The second is that the entertainment corporations don’t outright hate their customers. So, instead of esoteric Molech worship we have the (by comparison) easier problem of a Brand Fan problem.

Comic Books (Dark Worlds Quarterly): 1975 was the new Golden Age of dinosaur comics with Joe Kubert leading the pack. By some strange coincidence all the dinosaur/jungle guys had names that started with a T (Tarzan, Turok, Tragg) or a K (Korg and Kong). So Tragg and the Sky-Gods, Korg 70,000 BC and Kong the Untamed made their dino comic cover debuts. Skull the Slayer had dinos but not for long. It got weirder with more UFO stuff. Valley of the Dinosaurs was based on a Hanna-Barbera cartoon and like The Land of the Lost (1974-1976) (which didn’t have a comic) was Saturday Morning pandering to the dino lovers.

D&D (Tao DND): The Higher Path of D&D, the one beyond merely killing things and taking away their treasure, is the human experience of pitting Self against that which we do not think should be.  Not my self.  The Player’s Self.  The players are entitled to fight for those causes they want to fight for.  I won’t tell them how to do that; I won’t shame them into fighting for causes I think are right and noble; I won’t clear the road for them.  I won’t judge them for their choices.  I won’t encourage them to believe what I believe and I won’t punish them when they don’t.

Fiction (DMR Books): When you think of literary thieves, who do you think of? Maurice Le Blanc’s sly gentleman thief Arsene Lupin? Richard Stark’s harden, professional Parker? Yet, aside from the crime genre, thievery as an occupation appears most often in sword and sorcery. Thieves as protagonists have a long history in sword and sorcery. This trope probably began in mythology and legend. Prometheus stole fire from the gods. Robin Hood stole from the rich and gave to the poor. In High Fantasy, Bilbo Baggins was recruited to burgle a dragon. So let’s look at their fictional heritage.

Writing (John C. Wright): For every C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Cordwainer Smith, Gene Wolfe, Walter M. Miller, or Orson Scott Card writing from a Christian perspective, one can list ten men of heathen or secular perspective lauded with the greatest fame our genre can bestow. Instead of Gene Roddenberry making stories to say men cannot be free in utopia or George Lucas saying men must fight their dark side, we now have Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson making stories to say free men are toxic, and that the fight is pointless, for the light offers no more answers than the darkness.

Interview (Superversive SF): Today, we have a treat! An interview with Brian Niemeier, author of Don’t Give Money to People Who Hate You in which he talks about how he came to write this surprise breakout book. 1. How did you come to write this book?

I almost didn’t. My dispositions have always run toward writing fiction, so I initially resisted tackling nonfiction. It was only when several friends, family members, and readers urged me to collect my thoughts on the culture war in a book that I relented.

Pulp Magazines (Don Herron): In Chapter 2 of the 1943 serial Batman — “The Bat’s Cave” — Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred wiles away the time reading the October 1940 issue of Spicy Detective. The “spicy” element should be obvious from the cover art—and from the prim Alfred’s startled expression. The content of the stories lived up to the lascivious suggestion of the cover. But only just.

Horror (Too Much Horror Fiction): When it comes to pulp horror fiction, I don’t think there’s any doubt that “Slime” is one of the perfect gems of the style. Originally published in a 1953 issue of the venerated magazine “Weird Tales,” Joseph Payne Brennan’s 30-odd page tale is rife with all the weaknesses and all the glories of pulp horror in full flower. Brennan overuses words and phrases (“hood of horror” and “black mantle”), utilizes some weak analogies (alien as… some wild planet in a distant galaxy), and his country dialogue makes “Hee-Haw” sound like Olivier reciting the Bard.

Westerns (Western Fiction Review): This time, the author behind the pseudonym of Tabor Evans is James Reasoner and he provides us with a cracking tale. The action comes thick and fast as Longarm searches for the long missing army payroll. From the word go someone is out to stop Longarm getting to Sweetwater Canyon but he battles through. Once there Longarm finds himself in a range war and the canyon is part of the land being fought for.

Cinema (New Iron Age Blogspot): Released in 1982, this movie was a complete flop and only became well-known, and something of a cult classic, when it became ubiquitous on cable throughout the 80s. To kids of my generation, this was one of their early experiences with Sword & Sorcery, and maybe the very first. It established in a lot of kid’s minds what the genre was supposed to be, and it still inspires a lot of affection to this day.

D&D (Dungeon Fantastic): What I like about the systems I’d consider: AD&D – Power level. I like the HP levels. I have a strong dislike for d4 HP thieves and I like d10 fighters better than d8 fighters. – Cleric spells. I like clerics getting spells at level 1, and bonuses for Wisdom are fine with me. I get why from a world-building standpoint the vast majority of clerics being level 1 and not getting spells makes PCs quickly become special . . . but I’d rather have them start with a spell. – I like AC starting at 10, not 9 (but see below.)

Hugos (Emperor Ponders): Some particular trends in genre literature have become obvious during the past few years. One of them is the use of Brobdingnagian titles, a compulsion to write paragraph-long titles, some of whom even give away the plot. I suspect this may have started as a quirky, ironic thing to do, but I don’t think it’s funny unless you are lampooning or referencing some stuffy style like academic papers or writing comedy. And, to be fair, that’s to some extent what this story is doing—referencing, not the comedy.

Anthology (Science fiction fantasy blogspot): Beyond Time: Classic Tales of Time Unwound, edited by Mike Ashley This is one of a number of anthologies in the Science Fiction Classics series published by the British Library, this one (as you may have guessed) dealing with time travel. As usual in this series, there is a long introduction by the editor, supplemented by biographical notes on the authors at the start of each story.

RPG (Grey Hawk Grognard): The thing to remember first in a Greyhawk-setting mass combat is that the AD&D rules are geared towards small, skirmish-level actions. In other words, melee with a small party of adventurers and a relatively small group of enemies and/or monsters. This scale is reflected in the spells, such as animate dead (there’s really no way to have a literal army of skeletons unless you have hundreds of 5th level clerics or 9th level magic-users) and even mass invisibility requires a 14th level magic-user, and such are exceedingly rare in the World of Greyhawk.

History (Didact’s Reach): Legends were forged on that day, such as that of “The Boys of Pointe du Hoc”. Heroes fought to the bitter end, on both sides. Germans opened the gates of Hell itself upon the Allied infantrymen wading ashore through the pounding surf of Omaha Beach, raining shot and shell down on them. Americans and Canadians and British and New Zealanders and many others bayoneted, grenaded, shot, clubbed, and mauled their German opponents to their gruesome deaths.

Pulp Fiction (Rough Edges): Of the many, many series written for the pulps by H. Bedford-Jones, his longest-running featured a fat little Cockney named John Solomon, which ran from 1914 to 1936 and encompassed more than twenty novels and novellas. John Solomon may not seem very impressive at first glance, but he actually runs a far-flung intelligence network and makes a specialty of thwarting all sorts of criminal and espionage schemes around the world. I’ve been aware of this series for years but hadn’t read any of them until recently, when I started at the most logical place, the novel THE GATE OF FAREWELL, which was published originally as a serial in ARGOSY in 1914 and is Solomon’s first appearance.

Sensor Sweep: Beast Master, Time Travel, Grey Hawk published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[overcomeyouraversiontohistory]

How to Overcome your Aversion to History in No Time

Let’s face it: Back in high school most of us had a history teacher (or two) who made us hate or even fear history. She or he would walk into the classroom with a (gulp) history book and a couple of spare pencils for those of us who had managed to “forget” to bring a pencil to class that day.

Some of us would look the other way while the (gulp) history book was dropped on the teacher’s desk with a thud. A few students wondered if that was the day in which they would finally be brave enough to make a dash for the fire alarm (they knew the exact number of steps and the exact amount of time needed to get there), after which the building would be cleared and, by the time someone figured out that there was no fire, first period or second period or whichever period would be over and there would be no history lesson.

Others secretly hoped to get a coughing fit, or a sneezing fit, or an epileptic fit, or any fit that might excuse them from class.

But nobody pulled the fire alarm, and nobody had a fit, and so the torture began.

First the teacher called on you, seemingly at random, and told you to start reciting some names and dates that you were supposed to have memorized the day before: Rome 476 … Hastings 1066 … Constantinople 1453 … Paris 1789 … Normandy 1944 … Berlin 1989. Your classmates crossed their fingers hoping that they would not be called on when you failed to regurgitate those useless bits of information. 

 When the teacher was satisfied with the fact that she had humiliated nearly everyone in the classroom, she’d start a new lesson. Students opened the textbook to the page she or he indicated, and either took turns reading aloud a paragraph or two, or, if the teacher was of the lazy kind, each student had to read the entire lesson in silence.

 Some students made the mistake during the first days of the school year to ask the new teacher a question.

 “Excuse me, teacher, I don’t understand something.”

 The teacher then gave you an epic death stare and said something like:

 “What! You don’t understand? Maybe you should read it again!”

 If after reading it twice you still had a question, the teacher not only did not answer it (she or he probably didn’t know the answer anyway) but broke into a maniacal fit of laughter, making you feel like a total idiot.

 At the end of the school year you simply hoped for a passing grade, and then you went home to plan and plot how to destroy all history books (and maybe history teachers too).

 Don’t get me wrong. I have great respect for books and I would never abuse one, although I did once. It was the time when I threw a history textbook into a bonfire, the one I used in Mrs. Doe’s class. (Don’t worry, Mrs. Doe, I won’t reveal your real name, but you know who you are!) I had hated every minute of the class and then I went and took out my fury on the poor innocent book. (Yes, poor innocent thing. It didn’t choose how it would be used by the teacher, or did it?) I stood there for a while, looking at the smoldering remains, until there was nothing left but ashes.

 At this point you may be thinking that I never picked up a history book again. That couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, years later, when I had overcome the trauma of being in Mrs. Doe’s class, I did pick up and read hundreds of history books. I even got an MA and then a PhD in history. And I love it! 

 So now I want to help you overcome your dislike or fear, like I did, and I will show you how by making a few suggestions.

 ONE.

Let’s say that you are bored out of your wits because it has been snowing for days and the piled-up snow on your porch won’t even let you open the front door. So you decide to flip through the TV channels and you see nothing but the usual lame drama that is identical to other lame drama, or boring and predictable scandals that sound just like other boring and predictable scandals. 

 I want you to go online (Wikipedia is usually a good place to start) and google something like: Top ten cases of political assassination in ancient history, or The five spies who changed the course of Italian history, or Intrigue and the English throne.

 You will quickly find out that reality, as we know it from history books and websites, can be far more fascinating than anything sitcoms or soaps (or so-called “reality shows”) can produce. Chances are you will not only read the particular article that you first found but you will follow links to other history sites in order to learn all the juicy details. 

 TWO.

Next time you see an event and a date, say, Sarajevo 1914, instead of rolling your eyes (it’s OK, it’s a normal human reaction when confronted with seemingly-random information) and trying to remember why you should care, google it. Wikipedia or another website will probably do more than your history teacher ever did for you, not only by naming the players involved but also by explaining the context of the events that took place in Sarajevo in 1914.

 Eventually you will get used to asking about the context of events. The assassination that took place that day was just the last spark needed to set off the First World War. But its many causes went back over half a century. Go ahead, look them up. You will see that the war was about more than little airplanes carrying machine guns and hero pilots.

 THREE.

Pick up any object in your house, say, a pencil, an article of clothing, or a gadget. Try to figure out how much you know about it: why do you use or wear it, why has it been created like that, how long have people been using or wearing it. Fill in the gaps using Wikipedia.

 Soon you will learn not only about the object and its history but you will also learn a lot about trade, both in the modern world (don’t people all over the planet buy items stamped “Made in Taiwan”?) and also in antiquity. Did you know that wealthy Romans 2000 years ago were wearing silk from faraway China? 

 If you have the time that day and are a little curious, google something like Consequences of trade in the ancient world, and you will find out that people took more than just objects with them: they took ideas (political, religious, etc.), they took diseases (if you don’t believe me look up Black Death), they took technologies, and so on.

 If by now you are not completely hooked on history, continue with:

 FOUR.

Let’s say that you are watching or reading the news and you learn that unrest in country X (Spain, Russia), where one small section of the population is trying to secede (Catalonia, Crimea), has led to large-scale attacks on innocent civilians, some of whom have died or been seriously wounded.

 You may want to google country X and find out exactly what is going on (don’t expect the media to tell the whole story): why does a group want to separate (ethnic motives, religious motives, political motives), how long have they been trying, why won’t the leaders allow a part of their country to secede.

 Chances are that after you find out everything you always wanted to know about the topic, you will want to know where else in the world similar attacks have occurred. You will probably google Terrorist attacks in ancient Rome and find out that in 88 BC, king Mithridates of Pontus ordered the murder of 80,000 Roman citizens (men, women, and children) in several cities of Asia Minor (modern Turkey) because they had been conquered and annexed to the Roman republic. To say that the people who carried out the attacks were not happy about the annexation would be an epic understatement.

 FIVE.

You see yet another Kardashian story in the news (whether it involves one of the sisters or the brother or the mother is irrelevant) and you want to gag. Their lives were never interesting in the first place, so why are they always in the news? And why do we have to read about them or see them?

 Well, we don’t. Throughout history there have been thousands of people whose lives have been more interesting (and relevant). So may I suggest googling Famous people in ancient Britain, or Celebrities in ancient Rome, or Women warriors throughout the ages? You’ll be glad you did. And I can assure you that you will be in awe when you see the accomplishments of some of those people.

 SIX.

Let’s say that you hear about a cringe-worthy issue, such as human trafficking or pedophilia, both of which are (sadly) constantly in the news. You wonder what kind of people could possibly be so cruel as to hurt children, women, and men in ways that cause long-term damage of all kinds.

 You also wonder who first came up with the idea that it is OK to abuse other human beings. Google something like Origins of slavery, and you will find out that this practice goes back more than 10,000 years. As soon as people settled down and began cultivating the land, they also starting acquiring more property, and that included human beings, who have been traded and abused ever since.

 You will also find out that the only difference between ancient and modern slavery or human trafficking is that, until about 200 years ago, in many parts of the world trafficking was legal and even encouraged by the authorities. In ancient Rome, for example, taxes had to be paid on the sale of a slave. Since the abolition of the slave trade and then of slavery itself, it has become illegal. But that hasn’t stopped the traffickers involved in a very lucrative business from enslaving and selling hundreds of thousands of human beings.

 SEVEN.

You have been invited to a party and volunteered to be in charge of the entertainment. You think this will be your opportunity to impress someone special. With the skills you have acquired by following suggestions 1-6 you will be able to come up with interesting issues from the past (distant or recent) and write each on a 3x5 card.

 Ask each guest to pull a card, read it, and say how that historical event may relate to current events. Chances are that everyone will be as amazed as you are by the relevance of the past in our lives.

 When you play this game, everyone will be a winner. You will be a winner because you will have been forced to do some research on the topics you wrote on the cards – and learned a lot. Your friends will be the winners because they will want to know where your passion for history came from, and will join the ranks of former history haters.

 So I hope these easy suggestions have helped you overcome your hatred and/or fear.

 You don’t need to go and get a degree in history. But you may have started to have fun (yes, FUN!) with history. And chances are that you are going to start questions about everything else you see, read, or hear in the news and elsewhere.  

 Please feel free to share your comments on the suggestions above and let me know if and how they have helped you. Any suggestions for future blogs are also welcome.

 Finally, here are some of the Kindle books that I have published, in case you want to explore the topics I have written about: Queens of the Ancient World, from A(da) to Z(enobia), The Fall of Rome: Lead Poisoning and other Myths, The Divine Augustus, in the Words of the Divine Augustus … More or Less, and I Spy … for Rome and her Enemies. You will find all of them on Amazon.com. I also write historical fiction, but that is a story for another day.