#the tale of melanie

[elvenwhovian]

Story time:

It was early December, 2014. I had taken the day off and was eagerly trying to kill time until the midnight premiere of the final Hobbit movie.

The previous Saturday I had received a jar of ingredients for making brownies (a party favor from my roommate's brother's Christmas party). My roommate was out of town and I had the whole house to myself. I could do whatever I wanted.

Thus I proceeded to make the brownies, foolishly following a recommendation on the recipe to add coffee grounds to them to make “coffee” brownies. All I had was a large muffin tin. The recipe probably assumed you would make them in a pan and cut them into 10-15 pieces. But my muffin tin produced 6 large muffins and I proceeded to eat 4 of them.

“I need to stay up past midnight,” I thought to myself. “Too much caffeine won't hurt anything.”

Practically shaking from the caffeine and sugar, I sat down and played through Portal and Portal 2 in a single sitting. It took less than 6 hours, a new personal record. 

Now shaking with excitement, I donned my costume (a female Fourth Doctor cosplay because I was out of costume ideas and I had the scarf, hat, and sonic screwdriver … I also loved confusing my fellow nerds). The Battle of the Five Armies was not as good as I had hoped, but it was a worthwhile experience. 

I returned home around 4 am, sat down on my couch (still dressed as the 4th Doctor), and realized the horrible truth: I was not sleepy and those brownies had done their job too well. My mind was still reliving the past 24 hours, practically buzzing with ideas, concepts, and genres that didn't go together. 

Elves and robots. 

Fantasy and sci-fi. 

Swords and portal guns. 

Dark lords and evil AI. 

Magic and science.

And it was on that night, fueled by caffeine, sugar, Portal speed runs, and middling Peter Jackson fantasy film making, that the idea for The Trial of the Bow was conceived. 

Happy upcoming 10th fanfiction-iversary to @starry-nightengale (yes, we are old) and thank you to everyone who has read The Trial of the Bow Trilogy and subsequent fics. That time in my life was so fun and I'll cherish it forever.

Also, never mix coffee grounds in your brownies, unless you want to see sounds and never sleep again :)

[weedle-testaburger]

you'd better all acknowledge the most important things from that finale, by which i of course mean this:

[gekooi]

a lazy anim I started and finished in one day

[moon-angel999]

This is where I post from☆

[darksidethegirl]

𝐌𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢'𝐦 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞..𓂻✿︎☽︎

𝑩𝒚 𝒎𝒆𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒛. ♥︎

[tinkerbitch69]

I can’t get over how funny it is that Mel was literally just off screen during that whole tales of the TARDIS episode clutching the sixth doctor’s coat like a safety blanket. Very real of her tbh.

[burntlikethesun]

Mel off camera completely zoned out while the Doctor tells Ruby about a poacher being crushed to death by enormous Robot Mummy chests

[girl4music]

Fully listened to the new Audible series for ‘Wynonna Earp: Tales From Purgatory’. I loved it. I feel like they have the right format here. My favourite episodes were ‘I’m Not Gonna Miss You’, ‘Another You’ and ‘Biscuits’.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

First off, I want to say that I am kinda sad about Jeremy and Damon splitting off but then we never knew much of them anyway. I too felt it was way too soon to be u-hauling. I guess moving in together after having just met each other isn’t exclusive to lesbians. But you could tell that Jeremy was just on the rebound and that’s not healthy. Especially considering he just wanted “normal” because really… that’s such a fantasy in this weird and wacky world of Wynonna fucking Earp and Nicole learned that lesson big time in ‘Vengeance’.

But in true Emily Andras fashion - we lose one couple to gain another. A new WLW couple. More episodes with them and WayHaught showing them the ropes on how to have a decent love life in crazy, chaotic Purgatory would not be too much to ask if they continue this on.

Welcome to the Earper family London and Tess. I’m sure the fandom is working on your ship name already.

We finally got some answers on Rachel’s whereabouts during ‘Vengeance’. I still think she could have at least been mentioned though. I mean how hard was it to put in a “I hope Rachel’s having a good time in…” or just… something to that effect from her adopted parents to show us that they still gave a shit about the orphan girl.

I loved how romantic and caring Nedley was in his episode and how his wife having amnesia was the inspiration provided for Nicole to stop letting her busy work life as the Sheriff get in the way of domestic life. The honeymoon phase for WayHaught may be over but marriage requires sacrifice and compromise if it’s to last forever. You can’t take any moments for granted - bad or good - because you may find the happiest of memories get lost along the way. It was a very poignant and thought-provoking narrative and it’s probably why it’s my most favourite episode out of all 6 episodes.

I also liked that we got confirmation that Wynonna and Doc spent some time with their daughter before moving on to Dollywood and Tombstone and I like the explanation for why Wynonna felt Alice should stay with Aunt Gus and not come along with them. It made sense because Wynonna’s never been one for conventional. But I do hope if they continue this Audible series they’ll have her grow out of that chronic aversion to nesting because Alice does need her mother. Her real mother. Especially more so now her father’s not in the picture.

All in all I was satisfied with what I heard but I want more. And I want more in this format instead of on Tubi because I still do not trust them to handle WEARP well and you can’t blame me after the horrible experiences I’ve had working with manipulative streaming services.

Audible I’m a lot more lenient towards because they work with independent creators as well as mainstream creators. They’re more about the creative process and have less need to bump up business via manipulation. I’d rather Emily and Co keep working with them than Tubi but I know that the money needs to come from somewhere and Audible is not enough for this team who so graciously keep giving us more and more of their time and effort when they’re not adequately financed and funded enough to keep going with the bigger endeavours… Which is why they need Tubi.

I might be a pessimist but I just want them to be careful because the TV show/film industry is really rough these days and great storytelling always seems to suffer for it.

And make no mistake - Emily is a great storyteller. It’s just she also has to think about the business side of things too and that often means shuffling the cards where she doesn’t want them to be to pay her team. You have to be reminded that it’s not Emily that made the decision to kill off Doc. But it was her responsibility to make sure that she’s doing what’s best for her team - her work family. Nobody wants to accept these choices when they’re this hard. But they have to be accepted.

Audible provides the creative freedom Emily and Co wants but Tubi provides the financial aid to keep telling any stories. She made a smart decision going with both. It’s an executive producer and head writer’s decision as creativity and business are never really happily married. So cut them some slack and realize that this venture is something that will be an on-going process for a while.

[godzilla-reads]

💜 Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Come visit a happily ever after where princes are spurned but monsters are wed, where castles crumble while villages thrive, and where knights lay down their swords only to have peasants pick them up.

Ok, each story I read- from the first “The King’s Forest” to the last “The People’s Forest”- made me unreasonably emotional. There is so much to unpack with each fable. You have older women falling in love, a princess who realizes happiness isn’t about what you have, a knight without a purpose, a young person choosing a new name, and so much more.

My favorite story would have to be “Hsthete”, a tale of a girl who doesn’t want to marry her betrothed and a goddess of mishaps who helps her.

Each story is unique and diverts classic fairy tale tropes into something more powerful and inspiring to the readers. I love a good happy ending and this book is full of them.

[gachadarklightoficial]

In order:

The Owl House;

Miraculous: Tiger (Tiger Fierce);

Miraculous: Bull Swap;

Inside Out: Ennui;

Gender Swap: Mike;

Pony Town.

First | Previous | Next

[angelicfleur]

*.ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓮𝓪 𝔀𝓪𝓿𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓶𝔂 𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓰𝓸𝔀𝓷

𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓾𝓷 𝓸𝓷 𝓶𝔂 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓭 𝓲𝓼 𝓶𝔂 𝓬𝓻𝓸𝔀𝓷

𝓘 𝓶𝓪𝓭𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓸𝓶 𝓸𝓷 𝓶𝔂 𝓸𝔀𝓷

𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓽𝓪𝓲𝓷𝓼 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝓶𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓮

*.ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚

[unaside]

DEATH by melanie martinez but it’s brystal in book 2

[nataliesplatalie]

"We all know (for we are told it so often) that girls who linger in the woods meet terrible fates. They are devoured by beasts. They lose the path. They succumb to temptation.

They do not marry; they do not rule.

What truly goes hungry - when it is denied girls to devour - is the castle.

May we live to see it starve."

Melanie Gillman, Other Ever Afters

[queermediamonday]

Happy Queer Media Monday!

Today: Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman

*sigh* I’m back, trying to stay back. This book is awesome.

Other Ever Afters is a graphic novel that groups together comics originally published online. They are all female-centric queer fairy tales that twist the stories usually told to young girls. They center community over royalty, and the “monsters” are often on the protagonists’ side. 

Melanie Gillman is an award-winning artist who has worked on a number of queer comic books, both original fiction and as parts of a franchise. More importantly, you know her stories from social media. What first caught my attention in this book was that it contained two stories I’d seen shared around on Tumblr.

Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!

[palabasa]

Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman

a book from one of my favorite comic authors here on tumblr, @/melgillman! if you've been around this site for a while, you've likely already seen four of the comics she's published in this book: The Fish Wife, Sweet Rock, Hsthete and The King's Forest. def give this book a read if you liked any of those!!

like all comic anthologies, its comics weren't all made equal. i think the four i listed above stood stronger on their own than the newer works made for this book. working under the limits of an image post count and narrow work time frame (even if gillman didn't follow the 24 hour rule to the letter) means you must maximize telling your story in the most efficient way possible to get it across the nebulous audience of the internet. comics made for a published book don't have those limits, which is why i think the newer works didn't have the same impact on me.

this book was still an enjoyable read regardless, and i'm excited to read more of melanie gillman's future works! she's got a lot more work on her tumblr, so check that out with her book as well.