#they wrote a deeply compelling character and refused to do anything with so many of his unique traits

[lesbianralzarek]

im actually amending that last paragraph. i do want to see his cock and balls. if larian gives him a sex scene, theres a 50/50 chance theyll actually have to model devil wyll's dick and he really cant just casually mention that mizora cast Weird Your Dick and not elaborate

i dont wanna undercut my criticism too hard with humor, but wyll would probably get hit with the "hes boring" accusation a lot less often if larian actually followed through with half of the things they imply about wyll before dropping completely

re: wyll's lack of a sex scene

"its nice that theres an ace option" there isnt. you still have sex, larian just fades to black after 3 seconds of fully-clothed kissing. if you dont want your character to fuck, you can say no. if you dont want to say no but for some reason still dont want to see anything, the game has a nudity censor option

"he was just lowest priority because, out of all the romanceable companions, he puts the lowest priority on sex" lower priority than haarlep? than the drow twins? emperor? the woman who owns his soul gets full-frontal but his own scene cuts to black before he even takes his shirt off. larian puts in the content they think players would enjoy, and seemingly just saw the option to fuck wyll as unimportant to players

"it just wouldnt mesh with his character, hes too romantic" okay but he literally does fuck offscreen in his romance route, so it would in fact be in character for him. also sex isnt inherently impure. this is a less sex-positive take than the generally accepted one in the mormon church (i would know, im exmo). have you never heard the euphemisms "making love" and "intimacy" before? this is a weird take and youre weird for having it

do i, as a lesbian, personally want to see his cock and balls? no. do i think it Says Something when larian just assumes that no one wants horny wyll content in a famously horny game? yes

[wonda-cat]

You mentioned rewriting that one analysis post on Tommy’s revival stream and I’d really look forward to it! I never got to read the full og post and that’s the only place I saw these takes. Especially the one about the afterlife being too depressing. It’s not even just about Tommy, the implication that even if every character is safe and happy by the end, this is their inevitable fate is messed up. It’s not “a neat subversion” it’s just depressing and doesn’t add anything.

Hey, anon!

I sorta decided to not rewrite it? I feel a bit differently about the essay in the end, although I still believe in most of my points. I’m also just not nearly as passionate about it as I was when I wrote it (I finished it in a single sitting, which was... interesting.) However, yes, the afterlife stuff still bothers me just the same, as well as the odd changes to Wilbur’s characterization... post mortem.

But—just for you, anon—here’s the entire meta-analysis essay anyway, with some minor edits to the stuff I don’t agree with anymore!

My Many Narrative Issues with Tommyinnit’s Revival Stream

I want to preface this by saying that I dearly love the Dream SMP and understand it isn’t exactly comparable to other mediums like TV and film. With this being the case, most criticism against it is generally in bad faith or strange in foundation. Complaining about streamers for bad acting is the best example that comes to mind. 

These aren’t professional actors. Most have never acted in this sort of setting, or even at all. Quite a few have admitted to never roleplaying before. Which is why it’s warranted to praise Tommy, Dream, Wilbur, Ranboo, and others when they deliver stellar performances. The same applies to criticism of music choice, dialogue delivery, focus, tone, etc. 

However, one such category I cannot overlook is in regards to its writing. The writing of a story is its entire foundation. It encompasses many things—conflict choice, character development, themes, and morals. The author creates the blueprints for the architect, who then expresses the story with light, sound, color, pacing, and music. It is in its execution that we see if this connection is made or broken. 

The reason I find poor writing mostly inexcusable is because it is one of the most available skills to practice and perfect. I don’t mean to say that it’s easy, I mean to say it is something anyone can attempt to cultivate. Whether they do it well or not depends on their methods and experience. If anyone can self-publish a novel and be criticized online for its quality—and even compared to the works of Mark Twain—then I find critiquing the writing of the Dream SMP to be perfectly reasonable. 

However, since the Dream SMP script is a set of loose bullet points, tearing apart dialogue and scene continuity—which is nearly all improv—is rather useless. It doesn’t exactly have a clear focus as the plot plays out. The characters talk in circles until they hit the story beat required, and then they move onto the next. Thus, when criticizing it, one should generally critique grand events and narrative-specific shifts, more so than small-scale character interactions. 

Which brings me to my main point: The broad narrative choices taken in Tommyinnit’s most recent livestream, ‘Am I dead?’ may lead to disastrous writing pitfalls in the future. 

I’ll be outlining each of my issues below, in hopes of creating a better understanding as to why I feel this way. 

This might become quite lengthy, so please bear with me for a bit.

Tommy’s relationship to Wilbur has flipped. This change is jarring and seems out of character.

Tommy and Wilbur’s friendship is rather complicated. While Wilbur does care for Tommy immensely, especially during the L’Manburg Revolution and the Election Arc, his mental spiral during exile put a massive strain on their relationship as a whole. Wilbur brushed off Tommy’s feelings and wants, while clinging to him and pushing everyone else away. He was simultaneously distant and suffocating. 

Tommy, on the other hand, has an unclear view of his mentor. Since the beginning, and even long after Wilbur’s death, Tommy held him in especially high regard. He saw him as a brother-figure and a wise leader. He followed what he said and did everything he could to impress him. Yet, Wilbur still hurt him while the two were together in exile. 

When speaking of him, Tommy tends to flip infrequently between remembering Wilbur the way he was before his mental decline and thinking of him as a monster. Both of these images conflict with each other, but they weren’t nearly as extreme as what Tommy described Wilbur as when he was revived from death. The fear Tommy displays to Wilbur is beyond intense—it feels as if the audience may have missed a month’s worth of character development. 

This can make sense, especially since it was stated that he’d spent what felt like two months in the void. However, this shift is still deeply at odds with Tommy’s previous impressions of Wilbur, which is both disheartening and confusing. The fact that Tommy would agree to stay with Dream—his abuser and murderer—over his past mentor is simply head-reeling. It paints a very different picture of Wilbur’s character, somewhat conforming to the fandom’s ableist impression of him—the idea that Wilbur is insane and irredeemable, and always will be. 

It also ignores Dream being the driving factor in Wilbur’s downfall, as well as the double-bind deal with Dream which required him to push the button, no matter the outcome. Others have pointed out that Tommy may be lying to get Dream to bring Wilbur back, and there’s compelling evidence for that. For one, Tommy and Wilbur’s conversation seemed uncomfortable, but it was certainly nothing like Tommy implied. (Unless this fear comes from something Wilbur said off-screen.) 

Tommy also begged Dream to not bring him back multiple times over, which he should know would make Dream even more tempted to, simply because he likes seeing Tommy in pain. Tommy is also a known unreliable narrator. He may be making Wilbur out to be worse than he is by accident (even still, I’d argue this is a bit of a stretch.) 

However, there are some issues with this theory. Tommy offered himself as payment to Dream if he chose to let Wilbur rest. This is a deal Tommy knows Dream is extremely unlikely to refuse. Tommy is what Dream has coveted all this time. If Tommy genuinely wanted Wilbur back, he would not offer this. This sort of compromise is Tommy’s greatest nightmare—something he would only do in response to his friends being threatened or his home being destroyed. 

To add, Tommy is not great at lying. Unless he was taught by Wilbur for those two months* in the afterlife, there’s no chance Tommy would be this good at it. Thirdly, Tommy is terrible under pressure. He uses humor to cope. When he can’t, he cries and shouts and spills his heart out. While cornered, Tommy will tell the truth about anything, especially if Dream casually debates killing him again, just for fun. 

For now, it’s too early to tell how the relationship shift will play out. In the grand scheme of things, this issue is rather minor.

Season three’s writing is needlessly bleak. The portrayal of the afterlife is a nightmare. There is no rest, not even in death.

I adore the Dream SMP storyline in its entirety. I believe the first season is fantastic, and while the second season has some narrative clarity issues, I enjoyed it just as much. Although, I would argue season one had a more concrete understanding of its Hope-Conflict balance. 

To briefly explain, the Hope in stories are its ‘highs’ and good moments. These appear when a character the audience is rooting for is narratively rewarded. They happen during character building in the text—it’s the downtime and peace that allows for connection and relatability. It’s a moment for the viewer to breathe easy. 

The other half is Conflict, an obstacle in the story that gets in the way of the main characters’ goals, beliefs, and motives. These are the ‘lows.’ They give the narrative focus and weight. They make the highs feel even higher. They establish consequences and force the characters in the story to change in order to adapt and overcome them. 

I bring up the Hope-Conflict balance because a traditional hero’s journey would have an appropriate amount of both. Their highs and lows are generally equalized, as the name suggests. However, this balance has been awkwardly skewed in the latter half of season two and in the current plot of season three. To clarify, it is perfectly reasonable, and even common, for some stories to tip the scale more to one side. 

But a common mistake for amateur writers is to create their stories as either hopelessly dark to cause the audience continuous distress for the sake of distress, or to keep everything entirely conflict-free for most of the plot. What do these both have in common? They each make the story boring and predictable. 

Season three has taken this concept and thrown a monstrously heavy weight onto the Conflict side and flipped the scale so hard it has crashed through the ceiling. The viewers are hardly given time to find any joy in Tommy’s character, as he’s thrown into yet another abusive situation, just barely after his first narrative reward. The world is painted as relentlessly violent and traumatic. 

Every person Tommy meets is morally grey, unhinged, or out to hurt him. Everything most of the characters love is taken from them by those in positions of power. Ranboo cannot even grieve properly because it scars his face. Puffy, Sam, Ranboo, and Tubbo all blame themselves for what happened to Tommy. 

The audience watches lore stream after lore stream with the same depressing tone (with the exception of Tubbo’s, but I assume that’s unintentional.) Tommy is revived after being brutally beaten to death by his abuser, surrounded by all of his greatest fears. The afterlife is revealed to be akin to inescapable torture. It’s a colorless void that wraps the individual like fabric. 

Time moves thirty times slower within. There’s nothing—nothing but the voices of others who’ve passed on before him. Dying in a world already devoid of happiness takes the characters to a place worse than hell. When a narrative delivers unfair suffering to the entire cast without a moment of joy to speak of, the story will feel simultaneously overwhelming and pointless. 

Why watch characters suffer when there’s no light at the end of the tunnel? What happiness could they strive for when we know they’ll never get to keep it? How can I be satisfied with a good ending, if I know that an afterlife too terrible to name is what awaits them, truly, at the end of their story? Death isn’t even a white void that offers rest—it is eternal torment. 

Obviously, it isn’t a good message to send by making the afterlife seem like a quiet, perfect place or an escape from pain. But making it an unspeakable anguish which awaits, assumedly, every character who will die in the future? I deeply hope Tommy was only being an extremely unreliable narrator. 

More likely, I hope the place Tommy was taken to was a Limbo of sorts, not an end-all-be-all destination for everyone.

The degree of Tommy’s narrative punishment continues to escalate, to an almost absurd degree.

Tommy is one of the most tragic characters to exist in the storyline. He was sent into war at a young age and experienced two traumatic events during it. He was exiled by the newly elected leader and witnessed his mentor Wilbur spiral and break down with paranoia. Tubbo is executed publicly in front of him. When expressing rightful anger at the person who murdered him, he’s beaten nearly to death and never receives an apology. 

Schlatt dies right in front of Tommy, after his initial refusal to hurt the ex-president. His brother-figure and mentor is killed in assisted suicide on the same day his nation is blown up. His best friend exiles him from his home for the second time. He routinely self-sacrifices to protect his country and those who live there. His most treasured possessions were taken from him and he was called selfish for trying to retrieve them (although his methods were self-destructive and volatile.) 

He was pushed to the brink of suicide after being relentlessly abused and isolated in his exile. He was horrified when he thought he was responsible for drowning Fundy. After making an objectively good decision to stand by his old friends and change for the better, his country was obliterated by the man he once idolized, his father-figure, and his abuser. 

He was left scattered and without purpose for many days. Then he fights against Dream and loses, while also reliving his trauma. He watches Tubbo almost die at the hands of someone he once thought was his friend. He doesn’t tell a single person about what happened to him in exile. The day he tries to sever his connection to Dream and heal, he’s trapped with him for a week, surrounded by everything that terrifies him. 

He threatens to kill himself, speaking about his own life as if it were an object—something to hold over Dream’s head. He blames himself for everything bad that’s ever happened to L’Manburg and his friends—internalizing a mentality as a scapegoat for everyone around him. He is forced into the role of ‘hero’ despite the title being unfair and distressing to him.

As if that weren’t enough, he’s then beaten to death by his abuser and spends what feels like two months in an afterlife that is worse than hell. When he returns, his senses are excessively heightened. Dream can cause him excruciating pain, just by pinching him. He can send Tommy into an instant panic attack, just by raising his voice. 

The punishment Tommy’s character receives is a thousand times worse than everyone he has ever met, or ever will meet. And it shows no signs of stopping, as Dream now has control over Tommy’s very mortality. Tommy now fears the slightest damage and feels as if he’s losing his best friend all over again. He is also forced into a position where he has to kill Dream out of necessity, to protect everyone he cares about.

Characters need fitting punishments in relation to their actions. Not always, but in order to be satisfying? Yes, they do. It is preferred that a main character deal with unfair situations and difficult conflicts, but this is borderline torture p*rn. Putting Tommy in these distressing and abusive situations on repeat and punishing him for doing objectively moral or healthy things is exhausting to watch. 

To quickly add, I find the general insinuation of Tommy going to hell distasteful, especially considering the contents of his storyline. I know this may be hard to believe, but Tommy is one of the most moral characters in the plot, besides Puffy and Ghostbur. He’s also the only character, followed by Ranboo, to recognize that they can be wrong and make mistakes. He changed himself in order to heal and be a better person. He was in the process of paying people back for the things he’d stolen. 

He’s learned to be hard-working and less violent through the guidance of Sam. He has apologized to everyone he’s ever hurt (with the exception of Jack Manifold, because that man is allergic to communication.) He puts himself in harm's way to protect others. He doesn’t set out to purposely hurt anyone. He goes out of his way to make connections with people and maintain them, even if others don’t reciprocate. 

He’s hopelessly optimistic, despite his outwardly bitter façade. He loved so much and put meaning into the smallest things. The thought that a person like him—a suicide and abuse survivor—would go to hell after being beaten to death by the man who took everything from him; it makes me sick to my stomach. 

The only thing more morbid than Tommy’s afterlife being different than everyone else’s, is the concept that everyone will end up in this same eternal torture, no matter what they do. Take your pick: Tommy is sentenced to anguish until the end of time for no reason, or everyone will receive the same disturbing ending, regardless of their actions.

The narrative weight of Ranboo’s character is potentially out the window.

For the past few months, I’ve watched all of Ranboo’s lore streams faithfully, curious to see what role he would play in the future. His ‘hallucinations’ of Dream seemed to be sowing the seeds for a plot that has Ranboo taking the fall for every single insidious thing Dream has done. It would also be a tragic parallel to Tommy’s trial. 

Ranboo being convinced he was the one who blew up the community house, when Dream himself admitted to doing it, was one of the bigger indicators for me. This is just one of many other unexplained occurrences. Dream seemed to be making an effort to trigger and control Ranboo, especially after Sapnap’s prison visit. It appeared, from the way he went about this, that Dream had some grand use for Ranboo as part of his plan to be freed from Pandora’s Vault. 

However, after Tommy’s stream, the way Dream explains himself makes it seem like there was no plan besides seeing if the book worked on people. And if he didn’t after all, then what was Ranboo for? Was Ranboo unimportant? Was Ranboo just some weirdo who happened to phase out when seeing smiley faces and imagined conversations that may or may not have happened? 

I bring this up more as a worry, and much less so as an active problem in the narrative. They haven’t actually thrown Ranboo to the way-side or written themselves into a corner yet. In future streams, this could very easily be explained away or developed as more information is revealed. 

Only time will tell.

The potential for Wilbur’s future development and importance to the plot is unfeasible.

I feel as if I am the only person on earth who doesn’t want Wilbur Soot or Schlatt revived. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is not a dislike for these characters. I especially adore Wilbur, as he’s one of my all-time favorites. I don’t want either of them resurrected because their stories have already been told. They each had a fitting conclusion that ended their involvement perfectly. 

Bringing Wilbur back would especially cheapen the impact of the War of the 16th. It’s the end of a man who was brought to the absolute edge and out of desperation, shame, and self-hatred, he destroyed himself alongside his creation. Bringing him back would leave the climax of the previous story hollow. My biggest issue, however, is that a lack of story importance would likely follow his return. 

The only real impact I’d like to see is through a healing arc with Tommy, an apology to Fundy, or a confrontation with Phil/Niki. But that’s really all the potential I can realistically see. While I don’t doubt Wilbur as an agent of chaos, able to create plot out of thin air; what is he going to do now? His country is gone, his friends and family are scattered about, and his mission from the 16th is already accomplished. 

What is a well-educated, charismatic politician supposed to do in a world already broken and without nations? Read poetry to himself and cry evilly? However, this is working off the assumption that Wilbur would be returning as his old self. 

If Wilbur is resurrected as a ‘villain’ of sorts, then what? He’s not good at fighting in the slightest. He would have no materials. There are no real allies he can make, other than the arctic group. On top of that, there are already more than enough villains to last a lifetime. 

We don’t need any more, I promise. Quackity seems to already be shaping up as another antagonist, alongside Sam’s slip into darker and darker shades of moral ambiguity. We also have Philza and Techno, which are already overkill. But then we have Dream who, despite being in a prison, has the ability of selective revival. This is mercilessly overpowered, especially if he makes many allies. The dude could just bring his dead friends back so they can keep fighting forever. 

Then there’s Jack Manifold and the Crimson followers; Antfrost, Bad, and Punz. That’s not even including characters who are refusing to get involved. How are Tommy, Tubbo, and Puffy expected to do literally anything to fight back?

Dream’s experiment on Tommy implies he had no backup plan to begin with. This makes his character seem both short-sighted and foolish.

When Tommy woke up after being brought back to life, Dream sounded surprised that the revival worked at all. This instantly shatters the perception that Dream was highly intelligent and thought ahead. With just a few lines of dialogue, it’s implied that Dream killed Tommy, unsure of if the resurrection would even be possible on humans. 

Which, to risk something that important, seems unbelievably stupid. Dream needs Tommy, from his perspective. Tommy is his ‘toy,’ the one who makes everything fun. If he lost him and couldn’t get him back, what then? Oh well, everything Dream was doing was all for nothing, I guess. 

Why not attempt this experiment on literally anyone else first? Like Sapnap or Bad or, hell, even Ranboo. I suppose it could be that, as soon as Dream got the book, he experimented with it after the 16th. This appears to be insinuated with Friend and Hendry’s revival, although this is uncertain. But even then, he was still unsure of the book’s effect on a human being.

Also, this means, hypothetically, Dream’s entire plan of escape hinged on the experiment working, to begin with, and also on bringing back Wilbur if it somehow did. I find this even more ridiculous. Why Wilbur? That man couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag, let alone get through the traps in Pandora’s Vault. Even if he is intelligent after years* in the afterlife, that’s also a strange assumption. 

How do people learn things in the void? Where do they even get this knowledge? I’d honestly argue Techno is a far more competent choice than Wilbur. And even if Dream did bring him back and tell him he owed him his life, what’s to stop Wilbur from just killing him permanently? Or killing himself, continuously? 

No way would Wilbur want to be controlled by anyone, ever. The dude would sooner fuck off into the mountains and become a nomad than help a neon green bodysuit cosplay as Light Yagami.

Dream’s discussion about Sam implies that he wasn't playing any part in Dream’s plan, making Sam appear entirely incompetent and neglectful of Tommy.

Dream talked about Sam in a way that seems detached and unaffiliated. He also mentioned him being broken up about Tommy’s fate and not being aware he’s still alive. Dream not being partnered with, or not using Sam in his plan leaves many plot holes. I’ll go through each one. The initial incident was an explosion, coming from the roof of Pandora’s Vault. This did not affect the Redstone mechanism for the doors or dispensers. 

Meaning, Sam could’ve had Tommy leave the way that was expected for visitors after he investigated and found no issues. This likely couldn’t have been done in less than a day, but it would be better than an entire week. If Tommy was required to stay for longer, due to protocol, he could’ve gotten Tommy out and then placed him in one of the minor cells for the remainder of the time. 

Also, no one else lost a canon life for leaving via the splash potion of harming and returning outside the maximum-security cell; why would Tommy? To add, Sam being uninvolved means that the explosion could have only been caused by Ranboo or Foolish. That, or it was placed long before and timed for the moment Tommy entered the main cell. (I’m going to ignore how ludicrous it is that someone would know the exact time Tommy would’ve entered the room with Dream.) 

If Ranboo was the person behind the detonation, this implies he was necessary for Dream to kill Tommy to test the book. But that makes it even stranger. If this was Dream’s goal all along, why not kill Tommy the instant he was trapped with him? It makes no sense for him to wait so long. 

Sam is also directly at fault for not letting Tommy out, even after the week was up. There was no reason not to. He already knew there were no issues with the prison at that point. Although, to be fair to Sam, his character may have been paranoid and checking everything more than necessary, just in case. But this still isn’t a good excuse for him ignoring protocol in this one instance, and yet, not in any of the others. 

All of these plot holes or inconsistencies would be removed if it was revealed that Dream was blackmailing Sam in some way, or Sam had been working with him since the get-go. That Sam was the person who set off the explosion in the first place to trap Tommy inside. It would also explain Sam’s refusal to let Tommy out and by keeping him in there for longer than necessary. 

This can also coexist with Sam’s attachment and care for Tommy. He probably wasn’t told about Dream’s plan to test the book and genuinely believed Dream wouldn’t hurt him. On top of that, Dream is known to be a pathological liar, so his statements about Ranboo and Sam could be entire fabrications. 

Who knows?

The Book of Revival invalidates death entirely. The narrative now lacks both tension and consequence.

Another way the Dream SMP differs from other storytelling media is in the way it goes about its character deaths. In a TV show, for example, there will be characters who die just because, or when it’s important to the plot. However, it seems as if the Dream SMP is hesitant to commit to killing its characters. And there are many reasons for that. 

The most important one being, killing someone’s character excludes them from the story and some of their livelihoods depend on them regularly streaming on the server. There is also the issue of the cast becoming extremely sparse if characters keep dying. Typically, in stories, when you kill a character, you should introduce another. 

This keeps the cast from dwindling as the storyline goes on. This means the writers would have to find new streamers to join, who will develop their own characters and relationships with the plot’s continued momentum. This can be stressful and daunting to those who may be newly added in the future. 

Keeping this in mind, the Book of Revival is annoying from a writer’s perspective. When death is no longer an issue for a story hinged on its characters’ mortality, then what do you have as a consequence anymore? We’ve explored every kind under the sun; from abuse, to betrayal, to loss, to destruction. 

In stories, traditionally, death is a finality. It’s a conclusion. Whether it’s good or not depends on the character’s actions, its build-up, and the event’s execution. Without this lingering sense of danger, tension evaporates from the story. 

Why should I care if Tommy loses in a fight to someone, if he’ll just come back a day later? Why should I care about what happened to Wilbur, if he just returns as if nothing happened? The answer is simple: I won’t. I will no longer care if Tubbo or Ranboo or Sam die in the story, because the idea of revival even being a possible outcome leaves me unenthused and uncaring. 

The Dream SMP likes to flirt with death. It teases the demise of its main characters many, many times. More so Tommy’s than anyone else’s. Wilbur’s failed resurrection, which had unforeseen and unfortunate outcomes, is now strange in comparison to Tommy’s, which happened without a hitch. 

To be fair, we actually don’t see how many attempts it took. But here’s the problem; Dream could do it without the book being physically present. He’s trapped in a prison with nothing on him, meaning he doesn’t need any materials either. It’s also implied he could do this as many times as he feels, for anyone he wants. This would be exceedingly overpowered, if not for one thing—Dream himself is mortal (at least, I fucking hope he’s mortal.) 

If someone kills him one last time, that knowledge is gone forever. And I’m glad they’ve established at least some way for Tommy to win. Because at this point, I was losing faith. 

There is also the bare minimum establishment that Dream can refuse to bring back those he doesn’t care for. He can also use it as a shield, holding this power over other people. If Dream is gone, death is permanent. But isn’t that how death is supposed to be, anyway? 

What a bleak premise—the afterlife is pure eternal torture while life is cheapened by a lack of consequences.

Conclusion

All this to say, I am cautiously optimistic for the future. I hope dearly that every single one of these can be disproven or developed in the coming livestreams. Obviously, there’s not enough information to really determine what the end result will be, or how everything will fall into place. 

Every time I have theorized about the story, it has done something completely different and pleasantly surprised me. I want this trend to continue. 

Surprise me again—I’ll be here to see where it goes.

[popculturebuffet]

The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck: The Last of the Clan McDuck!  Review “It Was Worth THE Dime”

This is one of my faviorite comic book stories of all time. Given i’m a massive comics nerd, for both books and strips, that is the highest praise I can give this wonderful, epic, beautifully drawn and deeply emotoinal story. I first discovered it in the local library that had the second volume, and found the rest online at a now long dead fan site. And while it took me longer than I care to admit to really dig into Duck Comics, and even now i’ve only scratched the surface, I can say without a doubt this story is the reason I’m so deeply attached to Scrooge as a character, and that I was excited as  I was for Ducktales 2017. This comic showed me just what Scrooge McDuck should be at his core as a character, and showed me what a wonderful character that is. So with all that glowing praise as you can guess i’ve been wanting to cover this for years, and even considered though back when I was more primarily a comic book reviewer last year. Any time i’ve reviewed stuff before now, i’ve considered it, and with Scrooge’s Sisters Hortense and Matilda presumably and definitely debuting on Ducktales soon, and it’s about damn time, the timing could not be better or clearer to dig into this utter triumph.  But before we can take a look at the story itself we naturally have to take a look at the man behind it: Writer and Artist Don Rosa. Don Rosa is easily one of the best Duck Comics writer out there, seen by many as only second to his own faviorite duck comics writer and God of Ducks, Carl Barks. For those 1 of you who do not know, Barks was the man who created pretty much everything in the duck universe comics wise and a bit in animation too: He created Daisy, Scrooge, Gladstone, Magica, The Beagle Boys, The Junior Woodchucks, Gyro, Little Bulb, Glomgold, Rockerduck, and the list goes on. While he didn’t make EVERY duck, he made so many that it’d be impossible to imagine either version of Ducktales being possible without him.  So of course Rosa was a fan and while he took up the family buisness, he was also an artist and duck comics fanboy on the side. So when, even if it meant a paycut, the opportunity to actually write and draw them came up, he lept at it and thus became one of their publishers go to guys, even if said publisher published the stories overseas where the Duck Comics are far more popular and still going to this day, and ironically where most duck comics printed nowadays get their stories from. Rosa was known for his meticous historical research and gorgeous art that he took his time drawing to get just perfect and showed on the page. The man has easily some of hte best and most detailed duck art around and I still haven’t found a duck artist that can match him.. and if you have or found one close i’d genuinely love to see that. He is a genuinely talented, spirited guy who was sadly mistreated by disney and that, coupled with tragically failing eyesight, eventually ended his career. He’s still around and I genuinely hope to meet him some day as he still does conventions.  The man is not without fault: I don’t get his hatred of superhero comics, as while I get them overshadowing funnybooks and that around the time of his career they were in decline, but it’s just as unfair to write off Superhero comics as mindless.  garbage as it is for people to write off the Duck Comics as “only for kids” and I genuinely wish he’d see that and see how the medium has evolved so much since then. I also grumble a bit as his refusal to allow anything besides barks into his bubble, and having to be forced to include fethry on the family tree, but that’s more personal preference. I like using as much material as you got. IT’s why i’ve wanted to, and hopefully will eventually get around to, write a sonic fanfic using bits of all the various universes that for legal, ken penders being an absolute waste of a human being, and sega being stupid reasons can’t be used anymore. I like taking everything in a franchise and putting it in a blender and it’s why I love the reboot. But there’s nothing wrong with taking things as is, not stepping on toes canon wise, but still being awesome. We’re just diffrent people and that’s okay.  And a lot of his fanboy showing actually lead to REALLY good things: Goldie O’Gilt was a one off character, and while used ocasoinally overseas, didn’t really pick up as a character again until a combination of Ducktales 87 and Rosa’s work with her, as he always loved the character, and fleshing her out lead to her being used more, and gaining a sizeable fandom. He also gained the Cablleros an even bigger fandom by giving them two stories of their own, and fleshing them out a bit more.  And this very comic is the peak of that, taking EVERY mention of scrooge’s past from various backstories to set up adventures, every tiny scrap, and to his credit going to both Barks Himself and various other Barks Experts Rosa was friends with to check his work, especially difficult given he likey had to find these stories in issue or pullt hem from disney archives, and complied it into one long epic that not only uses all this info effortlessly, but spins a compelling story that gives us a clear vision of what Scrooge should be, how he became the man he is, and how he lost himself only to find himself again with the help of three precocious boys and a cynical 30 something duck. So taint all bad is what i’m saying.  As for how this got started, thankfully rosa himself provided the origin story for this project in the back of the volume of his works that contained the first 7 chapters of life and times, as well as detailed notes for every chapter. At the time Rosa was working for Egmont, the big european publisher who handles Disney’s much larger european comics market, hence why most of his stories appeared years earlier in Europe before debuting here. The american publisher at the time , and an old friend of his, called Rosa with an idea: A 12 issue Maxi-Series focusing on Scrooge’s history, since at the time they were all the rage.. and really even today mini series are still a viable market and many indie titles just have several minis instead of an ongoing. So it wasn’t a bad idea, Rosa just simply offered a tweak: He’d tell his publisher at Egmont about the idea, and let her get a crack team of writers and artists to do this proper, and thus Disney could publish it for free once it was done and for no extra cost. Rosa gave his publisher a fax detaling both the idea and the fact that it needed to be done right, given to the best person possible, and done with the greatest care. She agreed.. and naturally handed it to him, as he admits he hoped. She made the right call, a legend was born and here we are.  One last bit before the read more and before I get to the first story itself at last: Since barks wrote a lot of side stories that fit into the canon, I COULD slot them in between chapters, but have instead chosen to review the original 12 part story as was, and do the various side stories and two epilogues, the utterly fantastic “Dream of a Life Time”, easiliy one of my faviorite comics ever, and the also really great “Letter From Home”, which will likely on some level be the basis for the upcoming at the time of this review “Battle for Castle McDuck!”, after completing the story. In other words i’m probably going to be at this for years. so join me under the read more won’t you as I begin the journey of a thousand miles with a single step as we look at the humble start of a legend. 

We begin, after a fun short teaser with present Day scrooge saying his past is no one’s buisness only to get hit with an oh yeah?,  with a scrap book title for the issue, something I want to bring up since while I got that’s what it was what I never got, and  must’ve glanced over when I first read rosa’s notes when I got this copy, was that it isn’t SCROOGE’S scrap book, but his sister Matilda’s who dutifully and happily catologued her brother’s adventures. It’s a really sweet moment.. and something that will hit VERY hard when we reach Chapter 11. If you haven’t read this story or heard of it.. .that’s this story’s equilvent of “Last Crash of the Sunchaser” and clearly Frank and Matt drew from that story a bit for it, but we can get more into the parallels when we get there. A smaller but fun note is that Rosa had specific coin drawing templates, for different indentions and what not he used, and used them for the coins in these intro bits. Yes he admitted he has a problem and yes that’s damn impressive anyway. 

It’s Scrooge’s 10th birthday, and his father Fergus has taken him up to see the family land, Dismal Downs to tell him of the mighty Clan McDuck and show him the ancestral lands, graveyards and Castle. He admits to having taken this long because the Clan McDuck currently lives in Glasgow so it’s kind of a long trip just to show your son “Hey look at the decay and rot that’s our ancestral homeland”. The Clan is on hard times, as a bad shipping deal, the backbone of a rather good barks story and I wont’ be interjecting for every barks reference as it’d get rather tiring though for what it’s worth Rosa provided tons of detailed footnotes in the back of each Fantagraphics collection, so good on him. Speaking of which though they do include 10 pages of Mc Duck family history that was supposed to open this story.. until Rosa’s editor wisely pointed out the story isn’t about them but scrooge and having read his roug draft, yeah.. there’s a good gag here and there, as well as “Dirty” Dingus McDuck, scrooge’s Grandpa and the reason Dewey is cursed with that middle name. Why anyone thought Dingus was a good name is beyond me, nor why Donald thought that was a good middle name back in 2009 is again, beyond me. Good on Don though for getting that past the censors.  But yeah with no money they can’t buy the land back and they were scared off it years ago by a mystical ghost dog, the hound of the whiskervilles. There is treasure in the castle, Sir Quackly’s gold, but he accidently sealed himself into a wall while sealing his treasure in there. Their interrupted by the town assholes, the Whiskervilles who have been grazing sheep on the land and are naturally behind the hound, using the sound of it to scare off Fergus once they realize he’s a McDuck. Because apparently you can keep a Scooby Doo style hoax up for Centuries if you don’t have meddling kids around. Who knew.  Back in Glasgow, we meet the rest of Scrooge’s family: His Uncle Jake, his sisters Matilda and Hortense, and his mother Downy. Jake hasn’t really been mentioned at all in Ducktales and I know next to nothing about him, which given I share a name with the guy you’d THINK I would. I mean I know a decent amount about this Jake. 

But nothing about who the hell Jake McDuck is or why he lives with his brother and his family. Here, you guys watch the dancing Jake, i’m going to probably do that for hours after this review is done, i’m going to go sort this out.  Okay one google and finding the Scrooge Mcduck wiki page on him, Jake shows up here likely because he was referenced in the story “A Christmas For Shacktown” and apparently borrowed from Scrooge and never paid it back. Otherwise.. there’s not a lot about him and unlike the rest of Scrooge’s family he really dosen’t do much that I can remember. Except like 2017 Scrooge, he apparently has become extremely long lived, as Scrooge and Donald STILL think he’s alive in the 1950′s.. and likely is STILL alive in some form in the Don Rosa stories, given his take place after Barks and thus in the 40′s and 50′s where Barks stories were set. Hence why unlike the Reboot, Scrooge isn’t inexpecilbly over 210. But Jake McDuck sure as heck is. Maybe this highlander is a highlander.. you know the movie and tv show type. Maybe someone cut off his head. That’s what i’m going with.

This does bring me to another point about this story: While Barks gave all of scrooge’s family their names, it’s where Rosa got them after all, it’s Rosa who really made them into characters. Fergus as a loving father ashamed his family legacy has fallen and wanting his son to do better than him, Downy as an equally loving wife and mother, Matilda as his sweet and caring sister and later her brother’s moral center, and Hortense.. well here she’s just a babbling baby but her character will become clear and glorious as we go. She is adorable here though and we do get some great bits with her.  Getting back to the plot now i’ve made my points, Jake is riled up wanting to understandably kick the Whiskerville’s asses with Scrooge, who even as a sweet innocent ten year old still has the family temper already, agreeing.. but Downy gently shoots them out pointing that two middle aged-ish men and a 10-year old just aren’t enough to fight an army of them and while she doesn’t mention it the fight would just tire them out for work and accomplish nothing as while it is the McDuck’s land the combination of the hound and the lack of money to move back means it’s pointless. She also mentions their younger brother Pothole, who went to America. This will be important later. 

Scrooge storms off and Fergus laments, in a scene that’s more painful the more I think about it, how his clan has fallen, with he and his brother lamenting their chances at glory are long gone.. but Fergus has hope his son can do better, and for his son’s birthday makes him a shoeshine kit in the hopes of inspiring him to greatness. This scene still resonates since many of us are poor, struggling and not doing so good money wise. I’m sure many parents have doubts and regrets about not being able to do more for their kid.

 Not only that but the story carefully avoids the trap of Fergus accidently being abusive by you know, pinning his family’s future on one 10 year old. While yes he is asking a lot of Scrooge, to restore their family name.. it’s very clear he mostly just wants his son to do better than him. Even if Scrooge was just slightly more successful, Fergus would likely be happy with that. He’s not using the legacy as a “This what you must be” like say the Gems in steven universe did for Steven with Rose’s Legacy, the kind where it sort of suffocates you till youc an make it your own. He’s just saying “this is what you can be” He believes his child can be great and simply once him to reach his full potetial and is simply giving him a means to hopefully do so, a simple home made shoe shine kit. While Jake scoffs, the narration notes the idea isn’t worth a dime.. it’s worth THE dime. The dime that would set Scrooge’s destiny in motion. 

The next morning, Fergus goes to check up on his son and his new buisness but Scroogey’s having no luck and about ready to just quit, the poor child. Also Matilda is dragging her baby sister around like a doll and it’s entirely precious as it is funny. 

But as for those Dorty Boots, Matilda wonders why her dad dosen’t just tell Scrooge that Burt the Ditch Digger is coming. Fergus tells her to quite and then explains his plan: he’s sending Burt to scrooge, with an American dime Fergus and Matilda found, to teach his son a lesson: By giving him a hard days work, he’ll teach him what hard work truly means.. and by having Burt “cheat” him with the American dime, it’ll give him the motivation to keep going and to nto be as wide eyed and trusting. It’s a well meaning if harsh lesson, and the kind you’d expect from 1900′s parenting and fits the origin well: Scrooge still earned his first money square, as he still did work.. but his getting cheated being a lesson dosen’t diminish what it taught scrooge, and helps flesh out what I talked about above, Fergus knowing his son has great potential he just needs inspiration to reach it. And instead of just telling him that he does a con job but it’s the 1900′s. This orign, and Fergus’ part in it would be entirely untouched in Ducktales 2017, the first scrooge based adaptation since this comic came out, and I bless them for it. Frank even said this comic was used as a bible by the writers and while theirs clear deviations, and we’ll get to that, they were mainly done for good reason, and it’s very clear that while scrooge’s history is very VERY diffrent in the reboot, the core of his past is still there. 

So the plan is on and young scrooge spends half an hour killing himself to get Burt’s shoes clean before getting his dime.. and realizing he’s been had, makes this proud decleration that will be the bedrock of his entire life and character. 

Scrooge being naturally stubborn as you can see takes his cheats a leson: There will always be hard honest work, and he will be there to do it and he’ll be tougher and sharper than anyone trying to cheat him out of his pay. Fergus’ plan has the intended effect, and Scrooge having learned a hard lesson now has the drive and determination we know him for. As for why it gives it to him.. I had to think on it a bit but it makes sense: For some a setback like this would make them quit.. for Scrooge it’s just proof he CAN find customers, he CAN do this job, or any at his hardest and instead takes this as a lesson to be prepared ot out think and outfight anyone who dares cheat him again, and to not earn his money by being the kind of guy who cheats a kid out of an honest days pay, but as a good honest duck like his father and his father before him. =He will make his money square so he can be the kind of person this seeming stranger SHOULD have been. Granted we’ll see Scrooge doesn’t end up as the best person at times but .. we’ll get there.  So with the fire inside turned from a spark into the flame Scrooge soon got to work, and by the next panel we see he’s eventually worked his stand up from a small box given to him by his dad, to a three seater shoeshining bench, who he wipes all at once by stretching one of his mother’s girldes over a light pole, a detail I didn’t get the first time around but now love. Naturally being a good kind boy much like his Nephews, Scrooge always gave his proud father a portion of his earnings, if with a full receipt for tax purposes. Because he’s still scrooge after all. His dad wonders he did too good a job while Hortense glxbit’s in agreement. 

As the years go on, a now tween Scrooge is eventually able to save up for a horse cart, and starts selling Fire Wood up in the city. He eventually realizes Peat, an earthy subtance found in bogs I only know about because I had to look it up for this review, is more profitable and with some snappy marketing moves into selling Peat for the rich instead, also showing the young lad already has a grasp of how to sell to obnoxious rich people. 

But while his business is booming, our young hero can’t resist visiting his family’s ancestral home and longing for it, hoping one day to have it for himself and in a nice show of how despite his temper and tenacity forged over the last few years he’s still at hear the kind, sweet optimistic lad he was just a few pages ago, he decides to tidy up the Clan’s Cemetary while he’s here. 

Unfortunately as proof that Donald and Della’s terrible luck comes from both sides of the family the Whiskervilles are sub-glomgold levels of human beings.. or Dogfaces in this case, and are digging up the McDuck Clan’s graves to hunt for treasure. Scrooge tries to simply do the smart thing and flee, but the asshole brigade catch sight of him and mistkaing him for a peat burgalar chase after him.. and spend WAY too much time and energy chasing a teenage boy over some fucking bog grass you clearly aren’t selling yourselves. I mean spare a thought for how dumb this is: They could easily sell of of that peat to put up a fence or chop down some trees to get the material if their really that concerned about someone getting in the bog. Then again this isn the 1800 and 1900′s where the child death toll was simply “Yes”, so they likely thought whose gonna notice one more dead child on our property?

Scrooge heads toward the castle and is gestured in by a friendly mystery duck who gladly shows him around and can tell he’s a McDuck just by look, showing the castle is still in glorious condition as the whiskervilles are too spooked to go in, hence why they didn’t chase Scrooge inside. I’d say being afraid of ghosts but not murdering a child is weird but these are the same guys who thought murdering a child was plan A. We’re not dealing with a brain trust is what i’m saying.  So the mystery duck shows Scroogey around, showing off some colorful stories about his ancestors recycled from that scrapped prologue I mentioned. THe mystery man, who brushes off Scrooge thinking he’s a McDuck asks Scrooge what he’s doing to restore the family glory and while Scrooge points out he’s already working on it, Mystery Duck points out he’s still missing something: He has the drive and the dream, but peat and shoeshining, while getting him good money for his family, aren’t the thing you can build a fortune or a future off of. He then points out where Scrooge’s dime comes from: America.. and that gives the boy the idea to head to the states. As for what he could possibly DO there to start, the mystery guy mentions his uncle pothole. So Scrooge has the dream, the drive.. and now a plan: Go to america, work for his uncle on the riverboats, and work his way up from there till he finds his fortune and restores his family name.  But while his future is settled, the present is still an issue and Scrooge wants to teach the child murder club a lesson and thus borrows, though MM wisely points out it’s all his property a horse and some armor, and stuffs the armor with peat. As for what his plan is.. welllll

That.. is fucking awesome. And far from the last fucking awesome moment in this thing. It also shows off even as not quite a teen yet, Scrooge is still a badass already, and while he doesn’t have his trademark strength or fighting skills quite yet, his ingenuity is already there.. and that will always trump both. The Whiskervilles run away and into some quicksand and Scrooge vows to return one day as laird and reclaim his family land. But that’s a story for a few chapters down the line. As for who the mystery duck is, he’s naturally Sir Quackely himself, or rather his ghost, who was simply guiding Scrooge and didn’t give him the treasure as simply handing him the money wouldnn’t restore their family’s good name or continue their bloodline now would it? 

For now Scrooge returns to work for a bit before finding his way to America: A cattleboat to New Orleans looking for a Cabin Boy. And so Scrooge bids farewell to his family. His Dad, feeling bad he can’t even give his boy shilling, gives him the family pocketwatch with jake pitching in with the family gold dentures. While Scrooge naturally refuses to sell the watch, he does plan to sell the teeth as soon as possible for good reason. We then get some sweet goodbyes with him, his sisters (With hortense uttering her first words to everyone’s astonishment) and loving mother as he wonders just what awaits him in America. 

And there he stands on the bow of a ship, heading for a new land, in New Orleans he can be a new man. And we’ll see just what kind of man he becomes as this series continues. For now this is the end of a chapter but the beginning of a lifetime. 

Final Thoughts on Last of the Clan McDuck:

This story is excellent. While there are even better chapters to come, this one is still one of the most memorable and most joyous, showing just how Scrooge became what he is, where some of his values come from, others will be instilled along the way , and beginning to flesh out his family. We see Scrooge’s love of wealth comes from starting from the bottom, growing up with a family that barely had anything and badly needed everything, but was loving and instilled fine morals in him. We also see a Scrooge far removed from the bitter old man he is in present day, an optimistic naïve young lad who only wants best for his family. It’s a nice stark contrast to who he’ll become, good and bad, and a nice way to both compare him to Huey Dewey and Louie and break your heart as his own hardens before briefly turning black later on.  The art, as is standard for this series and Rosa, is breathtaking, and the story isn’t lacking in good jokes, their just downplayed so the story itself can take center stage. There’s nothing really more to say: it’s an excellent start to an even more excellent tale and stands proud among an already stellar story as one of it’s finest outings. 

NEXT RAINBOW: Scrooge goes down to the mighty Missipi to work on the riverboats and meets one of his signature Rogue’s for the first time in their first form, as well as Gyro’s dad.. or grandpa.. or possibly both I don’t know his family tree. Point is, tune in next time for some riverboat hyjinks.  Until then if you’d like to comission an episode of any animated show, especially ducktales and the various other duck related disney shows, or another Duck Comics story you really like from Rosa, Barks or whoever you want really, I take commissions for 5 dollars a review, with 5 dollars off your full order when you put in for more than one episode or issue. You can also follow me on patreon.com/popculturebuffet and for just two bucks a month get access to polls (which i’ll start once we have at least three patreons), and my exclusive discord server. And if you liked this review be sure to reblog it to show off. My self promotion done until next time: There’s always another rainbow. 

[bigskydreaming]

You’re a disgusting, abuse-survivor-shaming cunt. I hope you choke, I truly do.

So I get way more of these kinds of messages than I could possibly ever count. Have been for years. I don’t generally reply to them the way I mock some other hate messages I can at least have fun with, because like, what’s there to say about this kinda thing, y’know?

I don’t know how to get people to understand that there is NOTHING hypothetical about my anger about the things in fandom I get angry about. My rants about dark fic are PERSONAL, they have NOTHING to do with some arbitrary moral superiority stance. I don’t make assumptions as to others’ survivor status or motivations for writing various things because I don’t HAVE to, my anger and frustration are with the OUTPUT, not the inciting reasons. 

My hostility towards fandom comes directly from the hostility fandom shows me every time people try to convince me that I have no reason to have the reactions I do to the way they interact with the extremely combustible topics that define my own trauma and that of others. And the fact that fandom at large has decided that the ONLY acceptable reactions from survivors upon seeing others engaging with these sensitive topics in any way they choose, is either to be silent, or to take part in it. 

I don’t have to know which writers of which fics are or aren’t actually survivors attempting coping mechanisms of their own to be fucking furious at the way fandom has literally commodified these traumas, made them exploitable by making the catchphrase “some people write dark fic to cope” all-inclusive, utilized by anyone. With no shame or self-scrutiny as to the fact that YOU at least know if you are or aren’t a survivor, and if you aren’t one, you have ZERO business offering this particular line up as a defense to any survivor taking issue with the ways you embrace particular topics in particular ways.

The only things I have any interest in shaming people for is their choices, the fucking CHOICE to turn on any survivor who dares say “I have issues with this take” and this goes for abuse as much as it does rape. I’ve lost count of the number of authors over the years who HAVE spoken of being rape survivors specifically but then turn around and treat childhood physical abuse as their personal playground, with none of the care they put into crafting rape storylines on display when they casually have male abuse survivors punching each other in every other argument and just citing ‘boys will be boys.’ I can have sympathy for their status and experiences as rape survivors while still being upset at how they simultaneously perpetuate so many of the untruths that make it so hard for abuse survivors to affirm that they have actually been abused rather than call it something that its not, something that they’ve seen writers call it because the writers simply don’t want to inspect the fact that they’ve casually and without awareness written their characters abusing another.

It’s not a zero sum game.

I get angry not because I feel powerless in my own life (I don’t, actually, thanks, I’ve taken actionable steps every single day to fix what’s wrong in my own life and lol that’s power baby), and not because I’m fixated on my own trauma and unwilling to move past it (lol yeah I have no money to spend on anything BUT therapy because I’m committing to the highly specialized and expensive therapy I only arrived at after years of trial and error with other forms because I just don’t want to move past any of this, okay sure).

Nah, I get angry because of the galaxy brain intellects who smarmingly just decide on this view of me for themselves, condescension dripping from every ‘well-meaning’ expression of contempt sympathy, with zero examination of the fact that like.....idk guys, its a little hard to move past my trauma when everyone ELSE seems more fixated on it than I do! LOL, so we’re just gonna skip merrily on by the fact that the only reason its an ISSUE for me in fandom is because its EVERYWHERE in fandom, huh? ‘Mind the tags’ people parrot mindlessly, as though its not like tags HAVE to be created with self-awareness for what people are supposed to mind, or like I haven’t had people literally try to trigger me with tags aimed specifically at getting under my skin as ‘payback’ for something I wrote (out of moral superiority, naturally, not a visceral display of emotion, never that). As though the tags have anything to do with the fact that even outside of Ao3, there are incest-themed shipping weeks every single month of the year, that every major discord server and fic exchange and other fandom wide event demands participants be ‘ship-friendly’ which might as well be code for ‘not friendly to anyone who doesn’t prioritize ships over survivors,’ like fandom hasn’t created a culture in which people are more inclined to be defensive over how people make writers FEEL about stuff they’ve written than they are to be defensive over how certain writing makes various survivors feel.

I’ll never get over how a fandom that universally expressed disdain for Devin Grayson’s disrespectful handling of the sensitive topic of rape has obliviously embraced every form of euphemism under the sun for their own content, and just flat out REFUSES to concede that there is ANY room for criticism in ANY handling of even the most sensitive of topics. Because there’s no sensitivity allowed when it comes to any topic in fandom....unless its the writer’s sensitivity, that must be respected at all costs.

Does that not really strike you as....odd? Aren’t there lines out there about how no society or culture or environment that truly embraces free speech can simultaneously embrace freedom from criticism? And yet time and time again, its anyone who dares criticize - in ANY fashion - the HOW of what someone wrote, not even the WHY, they’re the ones termed authoritarian, censor, the one attempting to SHUT DOWN conversation rather than expand upon it. Tell me, what conversation was THIS anon and similar ilk attempting to invite? Every criticism I write of fandom invites people to engage with it. I fucking BEG people to engage with it. You’re the ones who choose not to. At least not in good faith. Because its only when I refuse to let you move the goalposts from anything other than this being about me reacting to what you wrote, no aim at doing anything other than being a reaction to an action, not an attempt to tell you what to do, just an attempt to get you to tell me WHY, if it really is as defensible as you loftily claim it is - then why is it you just can’t tell me, straight to my face, that it doesn’t matter what negative reaction your writing evokes, you don’t actually have to care? Cuz you don’t, of course. But if you’re that content with your own motivations, your own impact, why so uncomfortable just saying that?

The funny thing is, I truly don’t make any assumptions as to the why of anyone writing dark fic. I have a lot to say about the fact that we all know damn well that at least some of the people offering up the ‘some survivors use dark fic to cope’ aren’t speaking of themselves when they do so, but I have ZERO interest in imagining who that is and why. I’ve spoken of the fact that its willful naivete to assume that even if your own motivations for writing certain content are innocent in your own mind, you can’t assume the same of EVERYONE. That its nothing but willfulness to pretend that actual predators don’t peruse the same content. That the very same factors that make Dick Grayson so appealing to survivors, for example, as a strong heroic character who neverthless has been victimized and violated more than once - the flip side of this coin is this of course makes him EQUALLY appealing to people on the other end of things....a strong heroic character who nevertheless can be victimized and violated more than once.

And yet I honestly, truly have no interest in figuring out who might be whom, when it comes to writers, and I don’t assume everyone who writes or reads certain content in certain ways is in the latter camp. IT DOES ME NO GOOD, to go through life assuming that many people are all potential rapists or inclined to side with my own rapists’ or abusers’ side of things. I CHOOSE to give people the benefit of the doubt there, I assume perhaps they ARE survivors trying in good faith to cope with their own trauma and defensive about hearing that butts up against with other survivors trying to move on in other ways, or that they’re simply people who grew up in fandom being told there is nothing they can write that can be termed wrong, and have trouble with such a deeply held conviction being contested. Or perhaps only got into shipping incest because the ‘fandom elders’ of various fandoms like SPN deliberately and with full intent once upon a time pitched incest as being the same kind of taboo relationship that the same kind of people who forced gay men into secretive relationships were against....that incest ships and closeted gay ships were basically the same, and so as the latter became less of a thing as media showed more open gay relationships, incest ships became more of a thing among fans who were really compelled by the secretive/’society’s against them’ aspect of forbidden love.

I don’t assume any of that on a ONE TO ONE basis with any single writer or reader because I don’t KNOW their personal story and I’m not TRYING to. It makes no difference when I’m not talking about or arguing against the WHY of someone doing a thing, but the HOW. The end result, and the interactions it creates in the environment in which their output is published, shared, celebrated.

All at the expense of any survivor who doesn’t enjoy seeing things they’ve struggled with getting taken seriously about, maybe all their lives....not taken seriously, and offered up as just a themed week on the latest fantasy porn prompt generator. The problem with incest shippers isn’t even just ‘you ship incest, why do you do that,’ its that you can’t seem to manage to do it without assuming anyone who objects is only doing so out of a place of moral superiority. You try and make it a hypothetical argument “well what about when you do this” as opposed to something rooted in the here and now of the personal. We’re not talking about what ifs, we’re talking about what is. Deal with that before you try raising something else, instead of always raising something else so you never have to deal with that. 

The problem is people condescendingly assuming we have ZERO basis for any objection, or any negative reaction at all. Its our own fault, you see, for being too stupid to get that fiction doesn’t affect reality (even though we’ve debunked that time and time again). Its our own fault, you see, for not getting that its not really incest BECAUSE (a claim that is never actually as universal as it tries to pretend to be, and thus is never more than a distraction for the specific argument that prompted it). Its our own fault, you see, for not getting that this isn’t really a big deal, there are bigger problems, and its awfully sad if we’re so fragile and delicate we can’t handle someone enjoying something that has nothing to do with us (even though its never your call whether or not it has anything to do with us, just as its never our call what your specific motivations for writing specific content might be).

The problem is the same thing I’ve been dealing with all my life, and all the more exhausting for it being front and center in fandoms that claim to be escapism and catharsis for survivors....as long as those survivors perform in the manner fandom is comfortable with....aka the manner fandom has exploited and commodified in order to make certain manners of enjoying certain topics possible and defensible for ALL fans, regardless of their own connection to such topics, or motivations surrounding them.

Denial, avoidance, and abdication of responsibility. There’s no problem if YOU don’t see a problem, after all. There can’t be a problem if you just refuse to acknowledge a problem. A problem has nothing to do with you if you simply have nothing to do with it.

And all the while, you continue engaging in the same behaviors that provoke the same reactions that you refuse to ever actually engage with or address, relying on gaslighting to try and sell people and everyone around them that THEY’RE the real problem....its us that have no respect for freedom of speech, creativity or the creative process, other peoples’ traumas, the difference between fantasy and reality, etc etc ad nauseam.

We see people waving away instances of physical abuse with textbook abuse apologism, and we’re told we don’t know what we’re talking about. We see people offering up wording and phrasing in the comment sections of fics that are literally textbook grooming techniques we recognize from our own experiences and we’re told we’re imagining things. We see characters raping others without it being described as rape and we’re told we didn’t mind the tags, even though oddly enough, none of the tags actually said ‘rape’ but rather other euphemisms and if they aren’t in place to tell readers not to expect actual rape in the actual fic, then, what purpose is it they actually serve, again?

But sure.

Talk to me some more about survivor-shaming. 

[mukagen]

ok actually fuck it i will do that but put it under a read more. if u do not like my opinions don't bother me about it i'm here for a good time this is JUST MY THOUGHTSTREAM.

for starters, i played this game trying to highest support EVERYONE and didn't recruit anyone so it wouldn't affect my perspective.

so all in all i liked the BL route a lot more than i thought i would. as my friends who like fe3h know, the fandom gets testy when you say u like a lord but honestly i never understood the notion of making the lord you like the most Ethically Sourced War Figurehead(tm) of the three.

the idea of dimitri/edelgard/claude needing to NOT have the label of imperialist / 'conqueror' is so strange to me bc then the alternative is like. oh nooo ... i am a ruler .... oh this extra land kind of just fell into my lap ... now i must be like Shakespeare's caesar and refuse the land three times and also frown VERY HARD while i accept it otherwise i will be fandom interpreted as a bad person and a war tyrant ...

but then i kind of had this moment where i was like ok and if they all are what then. i think every lord has good and bad qualities and if you play their route their route makes them very sympathetic to YOU but at the same time YES they're still the leader of a nation and they are at war and they are killing people and so Frowning so the homies know I think Invading is BAD seems ... idk. kind of stupid to me? babying the lords so that they can somehow seem ethically better for ultimately achieving 1 of 3 versions of the same ending ("now I am the final Lord of all of Fodlan") just makes them less interesting to me. like shit let them be imperial because they ARE and trying to write that part out is just silly. like oooo no they didn't SEIZE this land we just won a battle here and the other guys ran away and the villagers pledged to us but i don't want to INVADE or anything could you IMAGINE !!!! < -- how some of these scenes played out

ok now onto dimitri. i didn't expect to like him as much as i did. i don't think he was lying about being a kind person i think he was just a lil (a lot) mentally unstable as well.

intsys always has a talent for approaching very heavy topics and then only going a certain depth with it. dimitri's 'white saviorism' was part of it. like they sure wrote that in. but then wrote in dimitri and dedue talking about it and dimitri acknowledging the power dynamic but also deeply wishing it wasn't there and expressing the urge to be rid of it. like they wrote in a very ... ehhh trope but then wrote the character criticizing that very trope. i wouldn't call that good writing, but i also wouldn't fault the character for it.

the blue lions route doesn't get as heavy into politics as you almost wish it does; instead it focuses on the personal relationships of the house itself which i did find very compelling.

ingrid ... ima be so for real; i expected worse. that does not at all excuse her bias against dedue but once again intsys had her have a prejudice against duscurian people and then had her desperately seek the truth in order to change what she always knew and then later apologize which none of the other racist characters do.

i will NOT call good writing but just like w/ putting a power dynamic of white saviorism w/ dimitri and dedue only to have dimitri acknowledge and condemn it ... why did they do that? is there a better way they could have done those things? yeah probably. dedue def doesn't have to forgive her for any of that tho and neither does the player in my opinion i just think they were bold / odd for writing that

i wish they had made some random NPC racist instead. luckily ingrid is so boring of a character that i don't care about her either way and don't understand why she had so many shooters back in the day. she is neither interesting nor sexy so i don't get it. at least with hilda i know people ignore her racism because of her boobs. ingrid aint even got none of that goin on. i digress

moving on. based on the f4's lack of knowledge that the duscurian people were innocent, it seems like dimitri didn't tell them. i wonder why that is, when he took a duscurian vassl? my guess is that given rufus and cornelia's manipulation, when he first started saying the duscurian people were innocent they were quick to make it clear they would make it seem like he was crazy / didn't see what he saw. which would THEN make sense as to why dimitri kept that information so close to his chest and couldn't do anything with it until he either got proof (which he was seeking, albeit in a cuckoo way) or became king (which he couldn't do if they positioned him as crazy when he still lacked support). i found that kind of an interesting perspective

the character who surprised me the most was sylvain. i know that i have hated that guy for years but i actually quite like him now. it was his support with dedue that did it for me -- where he basically said he didn't gaf what anyone said about him talking to dedue, and that he thought the duscurian people were innocent. like ok sylvain you ate that one little thing. he's a raging misogynist but it's also a form of self destruction and i think when you send him to a war to die in both post ts and hopes he stops doing that so he can be fixed. by ME of course ..... (yes i picked him up) ....

i find the gautier family in general soooo cool. i liked them a lot. i could write a whole separate essay about them but i will spare you all that for now.

felix ... um ... ah ... eto .... i no longer think he was (intentionally) racist because i think he would have called anyone a dog for serving dimitri. HOWEVER, like with ingrid i don't understand why he has shooters in houses because that being said he is still INCREDIBLY annoying to me. i will admit hopes felix was a lot less of a cuntiferous bitch so he was more tolerable in hopes but in houses he's so fuckin rude for no reason and no i don't think his traumatic backstory is an excuse because everyone has one Susan

MERCEDES ........ her story is so deeply tragic but it's like HIDDEN behind an empire plotline but honestly i would say of the blue lions her and dimitri have the darkest pasts.

annette was cute. i liked that she was the only person felix couldn't be mean to i guess.

ashe we already knew i liked ashe so i don't have to expend a paragraph saying something that hasn't changed. i feel ashe's character stays the same personality wise from houses to hopes, but he's less tragic and deepened by hopes' plotline

i keep mentioning hopes because for the blue lions at least, hopes supplements the lack of a political plotline in houses. rather than just focus on the characters hopes actually deep dives into the issues in faerghus and deepens the knowledge you build in houses

the lore of faerghus, duscur, and sreng is very cool and compelling. very very fun to worldbuild in. all in all i found pretty much all of the characters more interesting or better than i originally thought. some surprised me in how much i liked them. others surprised me because i genuinely thought they were worse.

claude in the AM route. bro was straight up dumb and i can say that bc he is still my favorite lord. i like how in one route he's very calculating and is navigating a war between the empire and the kingdom and then in the AM route he's like hi. have my country. and my bow. goodbye!

the abovementioned did make me realize that in each route it will make the lord of that route look better and the other two look bad or incompetent in comparison -- so, to me at least, it solidified the idea that there is no "right" route, it's just 3 different perspectives. what's right in one country won't work in another due to lack of resources or social constraints but it doesn't mean the other country doesn't desire the same things.

one day i'll do the crimson flower route but for now i had a great time in Fire Emblem: Russian Ireland

got so off the internet i almost thought writing an essay about dimitri / my blue lions playthrough would be acceptable and then i got to the first bullet point and i was like "wait a second" and remembered where i was

[cheryls-blossomed]

I’ve personally always liked Caitlin. But I have gotten sick of Frost and her pointless storylines. Nobody asked for her to have the forefront this season, and I just wish they’d permanently gotten rid of her in s4. This is probably an unpopular opinion, because not a lot of people like Caitlin/Frost, but I just wish they’d developed Caitlin better after s3. Given her a storyline outside of Frost, or maybe just give her the powers so she could learn how to use them and move on. (Cont)

(Cont) S4 would have been better if they’d allowed her to take responsibility for her actions in s3. So she could personally address why she did what she did and help fix her relationships with Cisco and Iris.

Contrary to what people might think, lol, I actually did like Caitlin in season 1. I obviously really side-eyed how they wrote her in Jax’s introductory episode in season 2, because that was one of the earliest points when the problematic white femininity that she embodied came to the forefront. But season 3 was where my issues with her were really highlighted, and by season 4, I found her constant disregard the livelihoods of so many women of color (Iris, Cecile, Cynthia) for her own reasons extremely damaging. My biggest problem with Caitlin’s character is by far the blatant lack of accountability. One of my least favorite tropes is the Moral Dissonance trope, which she embodies to a T, where the narrative condones all of the problematic things she’s done, but still allows her to constantly take a moral high ground with other characters.  

I think if they’d, first of all, not made Caitlin and Frost two separate people (which always was absolutely ludicrous to me) and written Caitlin a proper redemption arc, it could have been a compelling story arc. They did not. They refused to hold her accountable, and so unfortunately the ship has sailed, especially with regards to her relationship with Iris. With Cisco, they didn’t address anything that happened in season 3, either, which never made sense to me, given how deeply that affected both of them and their relationship. But I agree with you, and I wish more people who liked Caitlin saw her the way that you do. 

Frost is basically a character who has powers, so the writers thrust her into the spotlight this season, but they don’t characterize her consistently, so they resort to constantly having other characters act as a shill for her. The focus on her has also not done any favors for Caitlin.

[onedirectionfanfics]

The Shamrock Social Club by @harryonstage​

Somehow you land a consultation with Harry Styles, one of the most renowned tattoo artists on the west coast. He agrees to design your first tattoo and ink it on you himself, but over the course of your sessions together, mischief ensues… 

This month’s featured story, The Shamrock Social Club, brought together avid Tumblr fic readers and Twitter stans alike in excitement and anticipation for each update. It tells the story of a girl determined to get a tattoo and her wildly attractive tattoo artist, Harry—fondly known as “tattoorry” among readers. Check out our amazing interview with the brilliant author behind this masterpiece below!

***

How long have you been writing for?

God, as long as I can remember. I have memories of being in middle school, feverishly writing stories in my composition notebook when I was supposed to be paying attention to the lesson. I was conjuring up elaborate worlds and characters long before I ever planned on sharing them with anybody—before I even realized what I was doing.

Do you have certain habits or rituals you have to do while writing?

A lot of my followers joke about this, but I do a lot of writing in the bath. I turn off all my notifications and commit not to check my texts for awhile, and I cannot write without a giant warm beverage, usually coffee or rooibos tea with honey. I put rainstorm sounds on my bluetooth speaker. The thesaurus app and google dictionary are open at all times. Also, part of the creative process definitely happens long before I ever actually sit down to write—I’m constantly jotting stuff down in the notes app on my phone if I’m out and about when I think of a line to work into a scene later. I have all these sticky notes with like cryptic, half-baked ideas all over my desk at work… I’ll pick one up and all it says is like “The clicks a skateboard makes rolling down the sidewalk” or “The feeling of having an orange peel beneath your fingernails.” And I refuse to throw them away, even if I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. I think most people who write do that to some degree, though.

The ever famous question: how did you come up with this idea?

Honestly I was on tumblr and saw a collage of women with dragon and snake tattoos. I began thinking about the type of person who would want that symbol on them forever, and why. Minutes later, I wrote that “Tattoo You, 1981” blurb on my masterlist—of course named after the Rolling Stones album released that year—and then that became the preliminary blueprint for what is now The Shamrock Social Club. I literally thought it was going to be a one shot at most, but here we are nearly fifty-two thousand words later.

Throughout your writing in this fic, you show a great deal of knowledge about the process of getting a tattoo. Is this from experience or something you learned from researching?

Both! I have a few tattoos. One of them is a stick-and-poke. It’s been awhile since I got my last one though, so I had to refresh myself on the aftercare process. I called the actual Shamrock Social Club a few times to gauge what a master tattoo artist there would charge for something as large as the snake. I also wanted to be sure it was possible for an artist to fill in a tattoo as they work through the outline the way Harry does in the story. The researching process of a fic writer is so funny to me… I wish my readers could see me alone in my room at 2:00 AM eating dry cereal, deeply invested in a fifteen minute Youtube video comparing different types of tattoo inks.

When does a story go from an idea in your mind to paper? Is there a process you go through before writing it out, or do you just get straight in it?

I have so much respect for the writers who can just like, wing it. I personally need to have a story mapped out in bullet points beginning to end before I even open up a new document on my computer. That way, I get more time to sit with it and meditate on how close to reality it seems, and it helps me finagle the order of events and decide if there’s any room for improvement. Also, if I think of a detail or subplot that’s not in my original outline, it’s easier to pop it in and visualize how it synthetically fits with the story.

In all four parts (51k words), not once do you give a name for the main character or call her ‘Y/N’. Was this a difficult task? What was the reason for it?

This is a hot topic right now in the fan fiction community! Sometimes it’s difficult, but I think it helped make the prose in this story more seamless to read. As someone who has written original characters as well as self-insert fics, I think a strong enough writer can make a character feel personable and unique and real without an elaborate backstory, and I don’t feel that it takes anything integral away from the creative process for me. If you can get an audience to root for a protagonist in a couple of chapters through their choices, dialogue, hopes, and motivations alone, to me that’s a much more successful story… I deeply respect writers who are like “write for yourself, not for others!” but that notion doesn’t really keep me up at night. To me, it’s obvious that I’m writing for myself if I’m writing at all, and I’m very comfortable with that fact. Imagine that you’re in school for creative writing and your professor gives you an exercise with a few simple parameters… it’s a bit like that. I still only write about exactly what I want, but undergoing the challenge of writing for an audience has 100% made me a better, more versatile writer. To me that does not feel like a loss, or a compromise. Plus, I think it’s such an interesting way to engage with a story—you are explicitly the protagonist, actively steering your own trajectory with every choice you make.

Was the character ‘AJ’ inspired by anyone you know in real life, AJ?

Guilty as charged. I do tend to Stan Lee myself and my friends into my fics. Aijia, Iz, Steph, Ellen… all of those characters are based on my actual friends. It started out as a joke—I literally just needed a name for the roommate character, but someone suggested I name her AJ and I was like… why not? I love having fun that costs nothing and hurts nobody! Annie and I wrote ourselves into Under the Same Roof, too.

This fic very delicately tells the story of a girl who’s been sexually abused in the past in some way and is on a determined mission to self-healing. A topic not many will brave, but you did. Why?

This is such a good question. Honestly I was on the fence at first. As I was drafting the first installment, Nobody Fucks with a Snake, I knew I wanted Harry’s character to turn her away from the shop at first before he decided to take a chance on her, but I needed a reason why. Like, I needed him to see a glimmer of something in her, and simply him being attracted to her didn’t feel compelling enough to me. I thought it would be really meaningful and it would raise the stakes a little if Harry saw this like… tenacity and determination in her. One of my favorite scenes in the whole story is that pivotal moment in his office when we see Harry really start to understand the gravity of her predicament and how much this snake means to her. He’s so affected by her vulnerability, and it speaks volumes about both of them.

In the drafting process, I was talking with my friend Tanvi who also writes fic, and she wanted to know if there was some reason why Harry’s character feels such a strong urge to help this young woman, and why he goes to such great lengths to respect consent throughout the story. Like, does he have a loved one who was sexually assaulted? Is this a more personal issue for him? I considered this, but truthfully, I thought this story would be so much more poignant and effective if there like, wasn’t some special reason. Consent is necessary. Sexual assault is inexcusable and wrong. It is as simple and as complicated as that.

What was it like writing on an issue that makes a lot of people uncomfortable (but is still so important)? Did you feel like you had a responsibility to fulfil?

As a writer, it’s an enormous responsibility to parse trauma and heaviness and sorrow in a way that doesn’t glorify the pain, especially if you have a younger audience. Most of my readers are in their twenties, like me. I read something recently about how it’s true that writers shouldn’t cover topics such as sexual trauma, eating disorders, or major depression as to avoid romanticizing any of these terrible, life-altering experiences, but that doesn’t necessarily apply to people who have been through these hardships and turn to art or writing as an outlet.

I have an eating disorder. It’s something I talk about openly on my blog—as an aside, you should definitely browse my recovery tag! Through fic, I’ve written about what it’s like to have an ED. I’ve also used fic to write about having a stalker, and in The Shamrock Social Club, of course I write about the complex relationship one has with sex and romance and dating in the aftermath of being sexually assaulted. I write to focus on the triumphs instead of the pain, and I always try to make these experiences awkward, ugly, and honestly gross when they need to be. Without divulging too much of myself online, I’m well equipped to know what all of those hardships feel like. In fact, I’ve read many stories, fan fiction and novels alike, that portray eating disorders, stalkers, and surviving sexual assault in a really misleading light, and I wanted to create something I felt like accurately represented how insidious and terrifying all of that actually is. Most of all, for me, writing this story was so much more about the main character overcoming her strife, and finally feeling like she has agency and control over her own body again. At its core, the Shamrock Social Club is really just the story of a fiercely determined young woman on her own path to healing, who happens to meet a boy along the way. The writing process was very, very cathartic.

Your story got popular not only on Tumblr but across Twitter as well in a short period of time—an amazing accomplishment. How did you react to your (well-deserving) popularity?

Jesus, the memes that have been born out of this story on twitter and tumblr are… beyond hilarious. And trust me, nobody lurks on twitter more than me. I don’t know if I would use the word “popular” about this story or even about myself though. To put things in perspective, suddenly being under a magnifying glass is still super strange and new to me. I literally had about 500 followers for most of the eight years I’ve been on tumblr until the end of 2018, which is when I started posting fic. I think about this all the time, I could write a dissertation on how baffling it is that people suddenly seem to give me heaps of attention and put me on this pedestal when deep down I know who I am and I know how tumblr works and I know it’s just as likely that people could be sending messages and giving praise to literally anyone else. Everybody has something to offer, I just got lucky. In the grand scheme of things, this story has only reached a very small pocket of the internet and there really isn’t anything about me that makes me more special than anyone else, I’m just a person who had a few people’s attention for a little while because I wrote a story. I’m very proud and grateful to have people reading my writing and it isn’t lost on me how fortunate I am that anyone does in the first place.

The one thing I will say though, is that it’s profoundly moving to me the amount of sexual assault survivors who have come forward in the wake of this story. Anonymously or not, people have been so open, and have shared so much of themselves with me. It’s amazing how alone you can be made to feel when you don’t have an example of someone who has been through the same struggle as you and come out the other side, even if it’s a fictional character, and I think this story ended up meaning a lot more to people than I ever expected it to. I can’t wrap my brain around how special it is that something I wrote could offer some small comfort to another person who has survived something so awful. The response this story has gotten blows me out of the water to this day.

Who came up with the name ’tattoorry’?

Honestly I don’t remember but “tattoorry” is shorthand for “tattoo artist Harry.”

Lastly, anything you’d like to say to anyone who read your fic?

Thank you for reading my writing. On principal, I think that if you find something that makes you happy and it’s not hurting anyone, then that’s worth celebrating. The people who have engaged with this story made into into something so much bigger and more special than I could’ve ever accomplished on my own. 

Thank you very much, this was a lot of fun!

***

Thank you, AJ, for your time and dedication to these questions! Check out more of her work here! 

***If you would like to send in recommendations for next months featured story, please do so here.

[aion-rsa]

A Hopepunk Guide: Interview with Alexandra Rowland

https://ift.tt/2NNmRO5

We talked to author Alexandra Rowland about hopepunk, a term she coined in 2017.

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This interview with Alexandra Rowland was part of my research for "Are You Afraid of the Darkness: A Guide to Hopepunk," a feature written for Den of Geek's New York Comic Con print magazine that delved into the hopepunk term, first coined by Rowland in 2017. I recommend beginning with that article before diving into this full interview transcript.

Den of Geek: What is your current definition of hopepunk?

Alexandra Rowland: Well, there's the glib answer: “Hopepunk is the opposite of grimdark”, and there's the more nuanced answer: Hopepunk is a subgenre and a philosophy that “says that kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness, and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion.” (from my essay,“One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives,” which is the closest thing that I've written to a hopepunk manifesto.) Whichever you choose, it's important to remember that punk is the operative half of the word – punk in the sense of anti-authoritarianism and punching back against oppression.

Has that definition of “hopepunk” changed since you first coined it in 2017?

Yes and no. The heart of it hasn't changed at all, but my efforts to remind people of the angry part of hopepunk definitely have grown. The instinct is to make it only about softness and kindness, because those are what we're most hungry for. We all want to be treated gently. But sometimes the kindest thing you can do for someone is to stand up to a bully on their behalf, and that takes guts and rage.

Do you consider hopepunk a genre or something else?

I mostly talk about it in the sense of a subgenre, yes – similar to how we use the words grimdark or cyberpunk. But it's important to remember that the sorts of stories that we tell (and how we tell them) reflect our values and perspectives on the world, or at least a value or perspective that we're striving to understand in some way.

By telling hopepunk stories, we necessarily have to be asking questions like, “How do we care about each other in a world which so aggressively doesn't care about so many of the people in our communities? Who do we consider community, and is that definition too narrow? How do we fight back against the people who want to make us sit down and shut up?”

By asking ourselves these questions, hopepunk expands from simple “genre” to an entire life philosophy. It sticks in the back of your head and changes you, a little bit.

What are your favorite examples of hopepunk?

Sense8, Meg Elison's The Book of the Unnamed Midwife, the Russian movie Stilyagi – these are all amazing (and sometimes difficult and emotional) works. But as far as I'm concerned, the face of hopepunk is Sam Vimes, a character from the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. He's a gritty, hardened cop who is introduced when he’s lying blind-drunk in a ditch. He's tired, he's flawed, he's jaded and cynical... And yet he still, right at the basement foundations of his heart, believes in something. He gets out of the ditch, sobers up, gets his life in order. He holds onto his principles with a white-knuckled grip because he knows how easily they could slip away from him. He knows how easy and comfortable it would be to let himself become corrupted by his cynicism. But he stands up, sometimes against whole armies, and refuses to budge from what he knows is right and just. He is the very embodiment of: “No, you move.” And they do. The whole world does.

How intentional was that initial post? Was “hopepunk” something you had spent a lot of time thinking about before you wrote that initial Tumblr post?

Hah, the first Tumblr post was just that glib line “Hopepunk is the opposite of grimdark” and it was entirely off-the-cuff. It wasn't until a few hours later, when people were reblogging it and saying, “Wait, I think there's something here and I think I understand it instinctively, but can you explain so I can be sure?” that I started actually examining what I meant and discovered that oh, actually, yeah, this is important and it's something that I care about deeply.

I have seen some criticism, generally, of the overuse of the word “punk” as a suffix. Do you ever wish you had used a different word? Were there other words/phrases you considered?

We think that “punk” as a suffix has been overused because many of the recent genres that have invoked it did so for aesthetics (ie: to reference “cyberpunk”, the first instance of the compound), rather than because it meant something, and that’s annoying. Cyberpunk is punk. Steampunk is not – in fact, steampunk often reinforces the imperialist, colonialist narrative and ideals, which is the opposite of punk.

I have never wished I used a different word. The purpose of language is to communicate meaning clearly, and “hopepunk” seems to have carried its own meaning with delightful efficiency.

Do you think there’s something specific to Tumblr as a social platform that allowed hopepunk as a vibe to flourish?

I think that the very format of Tumblr was part of it – while Tumblr is terrible for having an actual conversation with someone, there's one thing it's really good for: you can write an essay as long as you want and then people can share it effortlessly. With Livejournal and Dreamwidth, you could do the former, but not the latter. With Twitter, you can do the latter, but the former is tedious in the extreme. That said, hopepunk didn't stay on Tumblr very long. People were crossposting screenshots of the post to Facebook and Twitter within the first 48 hours.

I think that hopepunk as a vibe flourished simply because it was the summer of 2017. We had a new president and the world was terrible and frightening. We didn't know what was going to happen, and whether it was too late to change anything, and so many of us were looking around for... something. Guidance, or comfort, or a promise that Good would eventually triumph, or ways that we could make a difference and heal the world. We were starving for stories that would tell us how and why to resist. I didn't invent the vibe – the vibe was already there and already burning. All I did was name it.

Were you surprised by the amount of attention this Tumblr post and hopepunk as an idea has gotten?

Initially, I was just vaguely bemused that anyone was listening to me, but at the same time I understood intellectually why hopepunk was resonating with people. Simply put: they were hurting, and hopepunk was a thing that helped comfort the hurt. In hindsight, I'm just very happy – when so many people find a philosophy like hopepunk meaningful and compelling... it sorta restores a bit of your faith in humanity, doesn't it? Maybe all is not yet lost, if there are enough people around to say, “Oh. Yes, this.”

Why do you think there is a need for an idea like hopepunk right now? Do you think culture is becoming more or less hopepunk?

There is a need for hopepunk because our president is a fascist. Because there are children dying in concentration camps within our borders. Because Jeff Bezos makes nearly nine million dollars per hour while his warehouse employees risk homelessness. Because we think it's normal that people should go bankrupt if they get ill and need medical assistance, or that they should get an Uber to the hospital instead of an ambulance. Because climate change is real. Because children have safety drills to practice what to do in case of an armed shooter in their school. Because racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism exist. And there is a need for hopepunk because it reminds us that these dragons can be slain. Because it reminds us that there's power in a union, that communties banding together can make a difference. Because the moral arc of the universe bends towards justice. We've beaten them before, and we can beat them again, and the next time after that. The work is never finished, and the fight is never permanently won. But we keep fighting anyway, because it is the fight itself, not “winning”, that’s the point.

As to whether we're growing more or less hopepunk... It is easy to embrace despair and to think that the world is unrelentingly terrible, but at the end of the day, we're all just human. As individual humans, we haven't appreciably changed in tens of thousands of years. We still struggle with personal flaws and failings, we're still rude and inconsiderate and selfish, and we're still all making the same mistakes that our ancestors were making hundreds and thousands of years ago. And yet, as a society, we haven't managed to kill each other off yet, and we do keep striving relentlessly towards something better.

Do you think of hopepunk as a reactive idea? Does it have to be in relation to grimdark/noblebright or is it something bigger than that?

I think that all genres are reactive -- the purpose of storytelling is to show us possibility, and authors, since they are humans living in the world (sounds fake, I know), naturally react to the social context around them. Trends in horror movies, for example, reflect the shared cultural fears that we face. In the wake of WWII, the horror genre was fixated on the monstrous side effects of radiation. In the wake of 9/11, we got a spate of horror movies about airplanes.

Grimdark and hopepunk are reactive to two opposite social contexts -- they are the man standing at Julius Caesar’s shoulder as he rides his chariot through the cheering crowds, whispering to the emperor: “This too shall pass.” In some contexts, it is a warning (grimdark). In others, a comfort (hopepunk).

You are involved in lots of fandom spaces. (Love your Good Omens fanvids! Thank you for your service!) Do you think transformative fanworks tend to be more hopepunk than mainstream works or curatorial fandom?

Oh absolutely. I think of transformative fanworks as Marxist creativity. It is a group of people literally seizing the means of production and making the canon anew in their own image, often because so many of us haven’t seen ourselves reflected in mainstream media. Also I just have big feelings about Art being an ongoing conversation, and how Fan Art is a valid and legitimate part of the conversation and that it deserves to be acknowledged and honored. (And on that note, thank you for the lovely compliment!)

Tell me about Choir of Lies. Would you consider it hopepunk?

A Choir of Lies is the standalone sequel (meaning they’re a thematic pair but you can read them in either order) to my debut fantasy novel from last year, A Conspiracy of Truths. They are about fake news and the power of stories, and Choir specifically is about fantasy tulip mania, grief, recovery from trauma, and how we use stories to heal ourselves. It was deliberately and explicitly written with hopepunk in mind -- problems are solved by communities rather than by heroic individuals, and sometimes the most important and meaningful thing that you can do is to make a small and simple gesture of kindness, something on the scale of holding out a hand to help someone who’s tripped. Small, yes, but important -- and to the person who is receiving the gesture, it might change everything.

More generally, do you intentionally try to write hopepunk stories?

In general, yes, I do tend to. I write about characters being emotionally vulnerable with each other and relying on communties and networks of support, and characters who knowingly engage with systems of power and oppression. I write about ways to solve problems that don’t involve violence. I write about ethics and what we owe to each other. I write about basically good people being flawed and messy and broken, and about basically awful people having complicated moments of shining grace and humanity. I write about characters who are smart and who think about themselves and their impact on the world, and who wonder out loud how they can do better. I write about characters who care, ferociously, about other people.

What else are you working on right now?

Ongoing projects include my two podcasts: Worldbuilding for Masochists and Be The Serpent (the latter of which was nominated for a Hugo Award this year!). I’m always writing something or other, but nothing that I can talk about publicly yet in any detail, beyond that they’re book-shaped things.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Interview

Culture

Kayti Burt

Nov 6, 2019

NYCC

NYCC 2019

from Books https://ift.tt/2pQD39k

[hoodoo12]

The Music of Sherlock Holmes

Several years ago, I was involved in the Sherlock fandom. It continues to regularly appears on my dash, and I am happy people are still into it. I personally some of my best writing was for the fandom. Below the cut please find a story I wrote for it. I was never in the Johnlock camp, so you won’t see that here. What you will see is a character study of John Watson, and how what he must put up with living in a flat with Sherlock Holmes. 

It is horror. There is death. And more than  a nod to Lovecraft . . .

Enjoy!

Sherlock kept strange hours. That wasn’t anything new to his flatmate. The detective didn’t care a whit about proper etiquette regarding when it would be appropriate or not appropriate to play his violin, and that wasn’t new to John either.

But lately, lately, the middle of the night serenades were a bit too much to bear. The tunes weren’t melodious. They were barely music at all, all screeching strings and wild notes, played with frantic fingers and a ferociously sweeping bow.

Many times John crept down the stairs and listened outside his flatmate’s bedroom door. He always meant to knock, but as if Sherlock could sense he was there, the noise would cease.

John wasn’t sure what was going on, and during the day Sherlock kept to his room, barely exiting for any length of time.

However, when John happened to notice that the cup Sherlock set on near the sink—tea courtesy of John, of course—had bloody fingerprints on it, he jumped up from his chair and rushed forward to catch his flatmate’s sleeve before he disappeared behind his door again.

If it proved that he’d been watching the detective like a mother hen, he didn’t care.

“You’re bleeding,” the doctor said, as if Sherlock didn’t know, or hadn’t noticed.

John took Sherlock’s wrist and maneuvered his hand around to examine the raw fingertips.

“The blood feeds the strings,” Sherlock answered. He said this plainly, as though it should be obvious, and not at all cryptic or worrying.

John sighed and didn’t rise to the bait of asking him to clarify. “Sherlock,” he admonished, “you need to give that violin a break.”

That startled the other man. “No! I cannot!”

“Sherlock—“

“I cannot, John. I cannot.”

The repetition of denial was odd, with its solid emphasis on “cannot” instead of the more expected, stubborn “will not”. The conviction behind the words was undeniable. John tried a different tactic.

“Well, the music you’re playing is certainly something different. Are you composing?”

At the pseudo-praise and sincere query, Sherlock relaxed a minute amount.

“No . . . these compositions aren’t mine. An envelope arrived with handwritten sheet music inside. Not a full score—pages of the sonata are missing. But the note attached to them insinuated that perhaps I could fill in what had been misplaced, and that is a mystery I cannot ignore. I have done my best, and will continue to try.

“To my personal failings, I don’t read much German, so I have only been able to translate a portion of the note.”

“Let me take a look. I know a bit of German myself, I could help—“

“No!” The interruption was immediate and sharp, even more so than the refusal to stop playing.

“Sherlock—“

The detective twisted his wrist out of the doctor’s grip, and retreated to his room. The door slammed shut, and the lock engaged, signaling the finality of the conversation.

John sighed and wondered what he should do.

That night the music was worse than before. John wasn’t aware a stringed instrument could produce such grating, harsh sounds. He pulled a pillow over his head and hoped exhaustion would claim him.

He did not see hide or hair of his flatmate for several days following. The midnight music had continued, but even John with his untrained ear could tell they were less powerful and stuttery in their execution. Was Sherlock succumbing to his own fatigue? Was the detective finished with whatever compelled him to keep playing night after night?

It was near ten in the evening now. John wondered if his flatmate had eaten anything in these past days. With a sigh of resignation, he put the kettle on and went about preparations for tea. While he waited for the water to come to temperature, he grilled a cheese toastie. If Sherlock declined both, at least he would have done his part as a concerned friend.

With plate and cup in hand, John went to Sherlock’s door. He used his knee to rap on it, and to his surprise, it swung open several inches. He’d expected it to be closed and locked, and stood for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to enter.

When Sherlock made no acknowledgement of his door opening, John pushed it wider. No complaints about the door, and then no complaints about the room being invaded.

The room was dim but not pitch black. After several moments, the streetlights outside provided enough light for John to see by. Colors were muted, but not completely washed away. It was chilly; John figured it was due to an open window.

John found Sherlock sprawled face down on his mattress. John paused for a moment, to determine his flatmate was both alive (the slight rise and fall of his chest was evidence) and sleeping (the deep and regular pattern of breath showed that). From the unkempt state of the bed and the smears of blood in various places on the sheets, it was obvious he’d continually opened the wounds on his fingers without bothering to attend to them. The detective himself was also scruffy and unwashed.

Carefully and quietly John set the food and drink on the bedside table. When Sherlock still didn’t move, he even more carefully and quietly crossed the room to the desk and music stand near the far window.

Papers were scattered haphazardly across the wooden desk. The sheet music that Sherlock had mentioned was on the music stand; John could see that the staff and notes were faded, and where his friend had scribbled in new ones. Some he’d simply filled in to make the original more legible, others he had crossed out and added other notes altogether.

There was no name on the arrangement.

John turned his attention to the papers on the desk. They were yellowed, brittle, and a few had the same disturbing smears and smudges that adorned Sherlock’s sheets. The cramped foreign words had been written in a spidery hand, and John strained to read any of it.

What little he could translate made no sense, and a dull ache started in his brow.

“It’s not that there’s no light, you know.”

John jumped. “Jesus, Sherlock!”

Sherlock was sitting on the bed now, watching him with hooded eyes. He didn’t say anything more, until John prompted,

“What do you mean, it’s not because there’s no light?”

“That headache that’s brewing,” he replied dismissively. “You were rubbing your forehead like you do when you’re getting a headache.”

John hadn’t been aware he’d done that.

“It’s what the words say, John. Even if you can’t read them all, they wiggle into the deeper crevices in your brain. The primal side of you, the lizard brain, senses the danger, even as your higher faculties do not.”

That dull ache hadn’t dissipated, but it hadn’t grown worse. John wondered, briefly, if it was because he wasn’t looking at the paper any longer. Then he chided himself that that was ridiculous.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded, irritably.

Sherlock didn’t get up. “The music, John. The music is the key. It creates its own symphony—no, discord! Cacophony! It uses horrid noises that worm through to our time, our space! Every night it makes its attempt! Perhaps the night is easiest for it to traverse the stars, slipping through the dark matter to our atmosphere, but that is a puzzle I have no energy or resources to devote to right now. It hates its place, it hates our harmony with our world, it wants to come here and—it doesn’t want to take over, per se, that’s a human trait and it is beyond the scope and breadth of humanity. It wants to fill our space with the same dissonance it must live in—“

The detective’s voice had grown in timbre and urgency. John snapped,

“Sherlock! That’s enough!”

He’d been in the military; he knew how to override other voices and shut them down.

Sherlock complied, in part.

His voice lost its pitch. It did not lose its fervor.

“Herr Zann was so close, John,” he whispered. “He almost succeeded in closing the gate! But he stumbled—I don’t know if he lost his concentration, or a string broke, or—“

John glanced down at the paper in his hand again. A name at the bottom caught his eye, “Erich Zann”. Obviously the man who wrote these notes and probably the music. Obviously the man who had become Sherlock’s obsession, and somehow managed to tip his friend dangerously close to the edge of collapse and what sounded like insanity—

Who this man was meant nothing right now. John had to calm Sherlock down; get him to eat something, bathe, and actually sleep instead of this catnapping that he’d been doing. He’d use force or prescription drugs if he had too; Sherlock was plainly distressed.

He dropped the paper and turned back to Sherlock completely.

“Come on, Sherlock. Let’s get you up. A shower will help, and then we’ll talk about all this—“

A deep thrumming sensation made the hairs on the back of John’s neck rise. It wasn’t a sound, not really, just a feeling, just a suggestion of sound that took up residence in his ears. Then came a slight pain, like diving too deeply underwater without equalizing the pressure in his head. That pain quickly escalated and John clapped his hands to his ears and doubled over.

“It’s here!” Sherlock cried.

His flatmate’s voice sounded far away.

In a flurry of movement Sherlock was out of his bed, knocking John off balance in his rush to scoop up his violin and throw back the curtains of the window. He set bow to strings, and countered the thrumming with his own noise.

Walls and doors had shielded John from Sherlock’s previous nightly musical endeavors. Now he suffered the full force of the abuse Sherlock whetted out to the instrument: squeals and shrieks and notes that couldn’t possibly have a name or position on the scale. John alternately howled and grit his teeth and struggled to right himself.

The sounds continued, even as he made it to his feet. The noise that Sherlock produced clashed with the unearthly noise that flooded in from the window. Both sounds collided inside John’s head, until he could no longer separate one from the other.

What could make such horrific, unnatural sound in the center of London? With the mattress at the back of his knees for support, John turned to see.

The cityscape, with its the familiar tops of buildings and light pollution, was not there. In its place outside the open window was a yawning blackness, too solid to be the night, too full of flitting shapes and visions to belong in this universe. Impossibly, the silhouette of Sherlock furiously sawing at his violin was visible against the nightmare outside.

Something in John’s mind, something with the strongest survival instinct possible, turned him away. He fell backwards onto the soiled bed, the disharmony seeping in and filling in all the spaces between his cells, and he knew no more.

When he awoke, he couldn’t open his eyes immediately. He cried out, panicked, and rubbed at his face. His eyelids had been crusted shut. After he picked them open, John recognized the dark brown flakes under his fingernails.

Blood.

His cheeks were stiff from the dried blood. Both sides of his neck were coated in it too; he’d hemorrhaged from eyes and ears. The sheer amount of it stuck him to the sheets. He carefully peeled himself off so he could sit up.

Sherlock’s room was filled with sunlight. A breeze ruffled the curtains, and over the din of traffic, John could hear birdsong.

Sherlock was not in the room.

The detective was not in the flat. With growing dread, John searched every room, and then searched them again. Then he tripped down the stairs to pound on Mrs. Hudson’s door. He ignored her shock and questions as to why he was coated in old blood and demanded to know if she’d seen Sherlock go out.

She hadn’t, but he knew that. He’d found his flatmate’s jacket and wallet and mobile phone in their customary places upstairs. Sherlock never left the flat without them.

Wearily, and still ignoring his landlady’s worry, he climbed the stairs again. He made his way back to Sherlock’s bedroom and sank onto the bed.

He would never have the skills Sherlock had. He would never have the brilliance. He scanned the room and tried to put it all together: the papers from the desk and the sheet music were scattered. Sherlock’s violin was in one piece, but looked worse for wear with a crack in the bridge, scorch marks like it had been burned along the lower bout, and dark, blood-stained strings. The bow had been splintered; its horsehair frayed.

There was no evidence of the detective—no fibers from torn clothing, no drops of blood, nothing to point to where he had been spirited away to.

“You stupid fool,” John said aloud, to no one. “You should have let me help. The man wrote his music for a viol, not violin. It was right there in his notes! And you, you with your stubbornness, you with your refusing to let me plaster your fingers—the blood on the strings, the blood on the strings was enough to throw it all off, to tip the balance—and now you’re gone and I’m . . . I’m . . .“

He realized he was shouting with a cracked voice, and weeping.

Sherlock was gone. John would never even come close to what he had accomplished. He didn’t have the resilience Sherlock had, confronting this thing night after night. He had never picked up a stringed instrument in his life, but knew if he were to carry on what Sherlock had attempted to contain, he would have to try.

And if—when—he failed, he could only hope that he would meet up with the Consulting Detective again.

fin.

[marjaystuff]

Elise Cooper interviews Kelly Rimmer

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer is inspired by the real-life heroine who saved thousands of Polish Jewish children during WWII. It is a story that intertwines war, family, survival, and love with themes of injustice, revenge, compassion, and sacrifice.

There are four main characters that represent the mindset of those who lived in Warsaw Poland from 1942 to the end of the war.  Readers see a teenage boy in the Warsaw Ghetto, Roman, as someone driven to act; his Jewish stepfather Samuel hides from the truth with a sense of hope; Emilia strives to not be an observer, but someone who must get involved; and Sara who decides to serve and rescue those behind the Wall even with great peril to herself. All these characters stood up for what they believe.

Emilia befriends the nurse Sara who lives on her floor, but in doing so sees things she should not.  Realizing Sara is saving Jewish children she begs to get involved and becomes Sara’s apprentice. They can travel behind the Warsaw Ghetto Wall to make sure disease is not rampant. But their true motivation is to save Jewish children by placing them into non-Jewish Polish homes and Catholic orphanages. While training Jewish children to recite Christian prayers she meets Roman Gorka, also a teenager. They instantly click and both have the strength and will to fight for a better life for themselves, their family, and their community.

This is a compelling and emotional story.  Readers get a glimpse what life was like in the Jewish ghetto compared to life outside the walls under Nazi occupation. Kelly Rimmer has outdone herself with this novel.

Elise Cooper:  How did you get the idea for the story?

Kelly Rimmer: I went to Poland in 2017 to research my earlier book, The Things We Cannot Say. I came across the story of Irena Sendler, the real-life Polish nurse the character Sara is loosely based upon.  

EC:  Irena Sendler?

KR:  She was lost to history until a group of Kansas school children in the 1990s came across her name for a research project.  She had an incredible story since she saved so many Jewish children.  There were a huge number of women on her team, mainly nurses, that were allowed access to the Ghetto.  They represented some Polish Catholics who became unsung heroes.  Remember, this is a time when anyone caught with a Jewish person would be executed.

EC:  It is nice to hear about some non-Jewish Poles who helped?

KR:  It was a combination of those who acted, those who gave food and money, those who did nothing, and those who were out-right Anti-Semites and helped the Germans. There were acts of cruelty, but also acts of courage and love.

EC:  In the book there are descriptions of how the Jewish children were saved?

KR:  If a child or man looked Semitic, the Nazis would pull down their pants on a public street.  The Nazis loved to humiliate the Poles.  In the story and real-life some of the children had their hair dyed blond or some Jewish boys were put in a dress and given a female name, and sometimes the Jewish children had to be baptized.

EC: Were any of the Jewish children returned to their families?

KR:  An effort was made.  In fact, I wrote a scene that was taken from Irena’s account.  Her team kept meticulous handwritten records. She wrote where the children were taken, the name of their Jewish family, and their date of birth.  Once when the Gestapo came to search her house she dropped those records to a colleague, waiting below.  Irena always said how important it was for the Jewish children to have a link back to their heritage. But the recovery rate was not great since many of the families did not survive.

EC:  You describe the Warsaw Ghetto in detail?

KR:  I had some details from the historian Emanuel Ringelblum who collected evidence to show what it was like in the Ghetto. Unfortunately, he was executed. As I said in the book, there was starvation, hopelessness, overcrowding, and disease.  He drew from journal entries, propaganda, posters, photos, and real first-hand accounts.  This was great reference material for me.  I hope I was able to capture the sense of menace and truth.  

EC:  How would you describe Emilia?

KR: She was just a headstrong teenager trying to figure out her place in the world.  Emilia was at the stage of life where she is not thirteen, but almost fourteen.  Overall, she is impetuous, courageous, traumatized, a survivor, and an adapter.  Emilia is also rebellious, stubborn, and artistic.  She is driven by curiosity and wanting to help.

EC:  How would you describe Roman?

KR: He had circumstances different than Emilia since she lived outside the Ghetto, and he lived inside.  He is driven by regret, rage, and righteous anger.  He was a tricky character to write.  Overall a good person who is bitter, loved his family deeply, fearful, and a protector.  

EC:  Uncle Petro-was he good or bad?

KR:  Petro was morally complex. He loved Emilia deeply.  But he saw the war as a business opportunity.  He wanted to point out that anger can lead to places no one wants to go.

EC:  How about Sara?

KR:  Heartbroken, determined, grief-filled, and uses all of that to take positive action for others.  Sara is also nurturing, kind, a rescuer, caring, strong, calm, and focused.

EC:  What are the details about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising?

KR:  I found research information from the leader of the uprising.  It was an inspiring act of courage.  This scrappy group of people held off and humiliated the Nazi army for 28 days.  As in the book they made bombs out of anything. Roman spoke in the book of never intending to survive, but he wanted to restore some dignity to his family, himself, and his culture. The line about not being considered heroes, because no one will be left to write the story was taken from a real-life account.  The fighters felt abandoned and hopeless from the world.  Historians have said that the Nazis did not defeat the Jewish uprising, but fire did because the Nazis burned all the buildings. At the end of the day, the world turned their back on them.

EC:  At the end of the book, you speak of Russian atrocities.

KR: After the war Poland was occupied by a Communist regime.  The war did not end for the Poles but kind of morphed.  The violence against women was horrific.  Most of the Russian soldiers felt entitled to the Polish women.  This was a different kind of terror.  

EC:  What do you want readers to get out of the book?

KR:  I hope readers are a little curious to find out about the era and facts to educate themselves. I have been fascinated with WWII because of my grandparents.  Once they came to Australia after the war, they refused to speak about what happened.  As a historical novelist I consider myself a gateway to people accessing real history.  They step into character’s shoes which makes it more real for them.  Then they can do their own research.

EC:  Your next book?

KR:  The working title, out maybe next year, is The German Wife.  Part of it is set in Berlin and part in Texas.  The woman protagonist is married to a German scientist who worked on the rocket program.  In the second half of the book, I explore how American Jewish scientists mingled with some German scientists who were in the SS.  They were in Huntsville Alabama working on the space program where there was this collision of worlds as they lived side by side in 1951.

THANK YOU!!

[harryandmeghan0-blog]

The Other Side of the 'Markle Debacle'

New Post has been published on https://harryandmeghan.xyz/the-other-side-of-the-markle-debacle/

The Other Side of the 'Markle Debacle'

“What riles me is Meghan’s sense of superiority. She’d be nothing without me. I made her the Duchess she is today. Everything that Meghan is, I made her. I tell you, I’ve just about reached my limit with Meghan and the Royal family. I’m about to unload on them.”

Following months of tabloid interviews, collusion with the paparazzi, a woeful stint on Good Morning Britain (and let’s not forget those car crash late night chats with TMZ), these are the words which finally tipped the balance, prompting even those most sympathetic to Thomas Markle to pause for thought and say enough is enough. Are these the words of a loving, caring father with the best interests of his daughter at heart? In a series of dyspeptic outbursts one could argue Markle seems hellbent on causing as much aggravation, humiliation and public embarrassment to his daughter as he can possibly muster.

In the days before the Royal Wedding, a time which should have been among the most joyous in Harry and Meghan’s lives, the worst-kept secret in the media came to public attention – the bride’s father had been colluding with a photographer with the goal of improving his image and receiving financial compensation for his troubles. In case you’re in need of a memory refresher on how it all unfolded, here’s the brief version: on 14 May he made a global splash when he informed none other than TMZ – because of course they should be the first to know – he would not be attending the wedding. He admitted the staged pics looked “stupid and hammy”. He said he was just going along with the paparazzi agency, which he now deeply regretted. And, Thomas said, he suffered a heart attack six days before the TMZ interview, but checked himself out of the hospital so he could attend the wedding. He then decided not to go the wedding because he didn’t want to embarrass the Royal family or his daughter. A blindsided Kensington Palace reacted with the following: “This is a deeply personal moment for Ms Markle in the days before her wedding. She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr Markle in this difficult situation.” At the time, both Harry and Meghan still desperately wanted Thomas there and I presumed his reaction was one of panic and it would all blow over. It was very much thought he was led astray by Samantha Markle. It would have been understandable and forgivable too, however, that turned out not to be the case.  Little did we know then, this was merely the beginning of a media storm.

I’ve been blogging for over seven years and those who have followed my posts here on Mad About Meghan and Duchess Kate know my goal has always been to report on the engagements, work, life and style of the Duchesses of Sussex and Cambridge with an emphasis on facts. Focusing either site on my own personal opinions has never held appeal for me; rather presenting information in as fair and timely a manner as possible. On a handful of occasions I have felt compelled to share my views. The irresponsible and reckless platform given to Thomas and Samantha Markle has been absolutely shocking to me. Their contradictory statements, rants and insults have been published and regurgitated on a global scale for all to consume often times without question of the veracity and motivation behind their claims. It is my firm belief the real story is being overlooked here.

Robert Crampton wrote in The Times: “It was Markle’s shoddy self-pitying emotional blackmail ‘maybe it’d be better if I was dead, you could pretend to be sad’ that tipped the balance for me. Anger and confusion are one thing, thinly veiled suicide threats quite another. Shame on him. This is his daughter he’s talking about.” Any reader on this blog can only imagine how they would feel if their father uttered those words. And in a nutshell we come to one of the key points I am keen to make today. How does Meghan feel? It’s a question not readily asked by most outlets reporting the story. There appears to be a ferocious appetite to paint her as the cold-hearted daughter who has callously dropped her well-meaning father from her life without a thought. I believe the actual reality of the past three months couldn’t be more different. I believe it has been a searingly painful introduction to a new life which has catapulted Meghan firmly into the public eye. As if embracing a new country, a new career, and the complexities of becoming a member of the Firm weren’t enough, Meghan has been made to endure weekly blistering take-downs at the hands of people she’s supposed to be able to trust.

I return to the post’s opening quote: “What riles me is Meghan’s sense of superiority. She’d be nothing without me. I made her the Duchess she is today. Everything that Meghan is, I made her. I tell you, I’ve just about reached my limit with Meghan and the Royal Family. I’m about to unload on them.” That statement is utterly chilling to me on so many levels. Before going further, take a look at the Crown Prosecution Services guidelines for defining controlling and coercive behaviour: repeatedly putting them down such as telling them they are worthless (she would be “nothing without me”) and threats to reveal or publish private information (“I’m about to unload on them”).

Zoe Beaty wrote an excellent article for The Pool: “More to the point, we should be asking: when will the media stop facilitating this behaviour? If Markle’s actions were that of an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband, we’d regard them as coercive control (which, as a reminder, is a criminal act in Britain). Yet, instead, Thomas Markle is afforded platforms and sympathies; described as ‘heartbroken’ and defiant that he ‘WON’T let the palace silence him’. The topspin on his actions is almost as despicable as the act itself.”

Reporter Omid Scobie discussed the motivation for Meghan’s mercurial father to continue to speak to the media on his podcast On Heir: “There’s ego at play. I think he’s quite enojying having this stage. His name is everywhere right now. People around Doria have said in the past he can be quite a manipulative character and I think what he’s doing now which is basically saying “I will continue to talk to the press to get a reaction from you”. Thomas had the opportunity to come to the UK to walk his daughter down the aisle. For whatever reason he chose to sabotage that. There is very little evidence to support he was receiving as much medical treatment as he claimed.” The monetary aspect also has to be considered with venomous Samantha Markle openly admitting on cashing in: “Let’s face it, we all have to survive, money makes the world go round, so if you want to call that cashing in, that’s fine. But no one in media would refuse a paycheck for talking about the royals.” The Times reported: “There are suspicions in royal circles that Markle’s recent outbursts may have been triggered not by anything Harry and Meghan did or didn’t do, but by the warm British reception accorded his ex-wife, Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland.” Thomas Markle recently said “I’m enjoying the fact that I can make the entire Royal family not speak and maybe I can get a laugh out of the Duchess.”

I don’t think the Duchess is laughing about any of this.

Of course the Markles cannot be stopped from talking; it is their right to do so and papers never refuse ink. They can and, I’m confident to say, will continue to do so for as long as it’s profitable and headline making. Last week Sky’s Rhiannon Mills wrote: “Thomas Markle has been telling the newspapers how upset he is. He feels shut out and ignored by Meghan, says he isn’t able to contact her, that she’s not been to see him and he’s not been very complimentary about members of the Royal family either. He’s been criticised for it, with people asking is it right that he speaks publicly about his personal relationship with his daughter. I think he has every right to talk about how he feels. But, what Thomas Markle gives us is a unique insight into the girl he watched grow up, and as someone who reports on her, I want to know more about Meghan; and that’s not easy when the royal press pack is kept at a distance.” Rhiannon is an excellent correspondent and I’ve very much enjoyed her coverage over the years. Her personal piece on the ‘Markle Debacle’ was intriguing for a number of reasons…

The press wants to get to know Meghan more, but if we look at the most widely covered women in the British Royal family, the Queen and the Duchess of Cambridge, how much do we know about either of them personally? Very, very little indeed. Frankly, it’s none of our business. They are not obligated to provide us with juicy tell-alls and insights, and that has long been accepted. Why do the media expect to know more about the Duchess of Sussex? Repeating the bitter musings of the Markles is not journalism. It’s feeding into their narrative – a narrative they have been controlling from day one. The Royal family has long held true to the mantra “never complain, never explain”. Meghan cannot retaliate; it’s a one-sided mud-slinging match that’s gone on far too long.

It’s been clear to me form the day Harry and Meghan announced their engagement she was facing an uphill battle. Meghan was not afforded a transitional period, a honeymoon period or a time to settle in. There was quite simply no allowance made by most for error or for learning the ropes. I kid you not, even Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, was afforded such a period. Meghan has had every criticism imaginable levelled at her from day one. When it emerged she carried out an unprecedented number of engagements for any royal fiancée in recent history, articles on the fact were not exactly forthcoming. It speaks to a larger problem with the coverage of Meghan that goes far beyond her relatives. There’s no shortage of substantive topics to cover, but how often have you read about the hundred meetings she’s carried out with charitable organisations this year? If it were not for reporter Omid Scobie I wouldn’t have known. It’s been astounding to me to witness how committed she is to her new role and to receive none of the credit she’s due. With a busy autumn set to include a two and a half weeks long Commonwealth tour, a slew of solo engagements, patronage announcements and the launch of a project, why is the ‘Markle Debacle’ dominating Meghan coverage week after week?

This is a history-making time for the Royal family. Last year Georgina Lawton wrote a stirring piece filled with salient points: “A union between her and Prince Harry would be socially momentous for the country, and especially so for us brown-skinned Brits who never saw ourselves reflected in the all-white Palace lineage. I never understood the hype surrounding Diana or Kate. I remember being confused, aged four, when I got up to find my mum sobbing in front of the television as reports of Diana’s death flashed across the screen. But Meghan’s presence within the palace feels different: she is initiating real change when it comes to UK race relations. If Meghan does marry Harry, it will destroy the long-held notion that being regal means being white, or that the main link between Africa and Buckingham Palace is one of colonial importance.” During Harry and Meghan’s pre-wedding engagements, a Sky TV producer on the ground noted the diverse crowds showing up.

Historian Marlene Koenig elaborates on a point I very much agree with: “There is no doubt in my mind that racism is playing a role in this tabloid’s pathetic saga.  Would they have run similar stories about Cressida Bonas, whose parents have seven marriages between them?   Cressida has half and step-siblings. But — gasp — Cressida’s mother, Lady Mary-Gaye is the daughter of the 6th of Howe. No, they would not have run similar stories. Cressida is an English rose, a granddaughter of an earl, unlike the Duchess of Sussex, who happens to be a bi-racial American.”

Where does the story go from here and how does it come to a conclusion? This is the most difficult question of all. The Palace has reportedly held several meetings and weighed up options. One cannot help but wonder if the princes had fostered some sort of strictly professional relationship with a handful of trusted newspapers if the impact of this could be lessened. Call in a few editors before the wedding, explain the situation with the Markle family, the fact Meghan has had no contact with her half-siblings for years and they in no way know anything about her today. Lifelong royalists who witnessed the catastrophic ‘War of the Waleses’ have pondered the notion Meghan is paying the full price with interest for years of zero access and difficult relationships with Kensington Palace. If some sort of access or source cannot be gained “officially”, the media – with rapidly declining newspaper sales in tow – turn to tabloid fodder and call it royal coverage. In what could be a sign of ‘Markle fatigue’ setting in, leading publication Hello! has decided to take their coverage in another direction. In response to Thomas Markle’s most recent interview, the royal favourite announced: “HELLO! will not be reporting on the details of this new interview in recognition of the sensitive nature of the story. Editor-in-Chief Rosie Nixon said: “HELLO! has made a decision not to report the full story out of respect for the Duke and Duchess.”

Despite reports to the contrary, it seems Meghan has no intention of meeting with her father in the near future and one cannot blame her. Having experienced such immense betrayal, trust is likely broken beyond measure. We know now he lied to Harry on the phone about the paparazzi photos and by his own admission hung up abruptly ending the phone call. If she did meet him, could she rely on him not to go to a tabloid the following day? Meghan loves her father and her father loves her, this fact makes his actions all the more disturbing. It is evident though, he is not thinking of her in all this, and he’s more concerned with how he’s been portrayed “buying beer and eating McDonald’s”, and how terribly he feels he’s been treated. His behaviour has been nothing short of shameful. He has remarked Meghan looks unhappy and her smile forced. Surely he knows he is the primary cause of this painful time. Markle told The Daily Mail once again last weekend it would be his final interview. I hope he will put his daughter’s well-being first and stay true to that because at the end of the day, all he’s achieved so far is hurting her and widening the distance between them. It’s a desperately sad turn of events.

Meghan once said: “I can’t think of anything less becoming than a man who talks about people behind their backs.” If Thomas Markle wants to salvage his relationship with his daughter he needs to stop talking behind her back, and the media needs to stop listening without questioning the bigger picture here.

The ‘Markle Debacle’ is not the defining story of Meghan’s first year as a royal. She deserves better.

Source: http://madaboutmeghan.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-other-side-of-markle-debacle.html

[bg3-npc]

#bg3 #wyll has 2/3rds of the content astarion has while being 10x more plot important #which means that every minute of astarion content is spent on developing him. while half of wylls shit is about someone else #they wrote a deeply compelling character and refused to do anything with so many of his unique traits #and im not talking about devil dick or any other gimmick there. i mean his actual fucking personality was sidelined #heres an example: wylls mom. who ulder loved so much he never remarried. died giving birth to wyll #ulder had promised to be a better father than his own but didnt seem to know how. he had likely been relying on francesca's help #so here he was. a busy grand duke whose spouse just passed. raising his wifes innocent killer alone with no idea how #and not only is the way this MUST have affected the relationship wyll has with his father not explored AT ALL #but you wanna know how you learn this lore? ill tell you how you learn this lore #an item description for a sword you LOOT OFF ULDERS CORPSE IF YOU KILLED HIM AT GORTASHS CORONATION #the ONLY players who come across this organically in-game are the ones who dont care in the slightest about wylls questline #holy shit. tags by OP

It's so fucking frustrating writing any sort of analysis for Wyll, because so many of his issues are centered around his relationship with his father. Except when you try to do anything of the sort, the material you're given to work with is horrendously inconsistent.

Wyll talks very highly of his father, and what little you can find on Ulder in game shows that he seemed to love his son. It makes you wonder what Ulder's side of Wyll's exile is like. Except when you DO meet Ulder, he practically tells Wyll to kill himself. You're shown all this evidence that there was a complicated yet loving bond between them, only to meet the other end of said bond and have them be nothing but hostile.

Everything is so contradictory any argument to be made about either side of their relationship can be easily supported but just as easily invalidated. They made Ulder central to Wyll's issues and then, like everything else about Wyll's story, just didn't do anything with it.

Wyll's lack of sex scene is about so much more than just wanting to watch him fuck. Even if it wasn't, the fact that Larian didn't even bother to make an intimacy scene for Wyll but they made one for the DEVIL WHO OWNS HIS SOUL is beyond fucked up.

re: wyll's lack of a sex scene

"its nice that theres an ace option" there isnt. you still have sex, larian just fades to black after 3 seconds of fully-clothed kissing. if you dont want your character to fuck, you can say no. if you dont want to say no but for some reason still dont want to see anything, the game has a nudity censor option

"he was just lowest priority because, out of all the romanceable companions, he puts the lowest priority on sex" lower priority than haarlep? than the drow twins? emperor? the woman who owns his soul gets full-frontal but his own scene cuts to black before he even takes his shirt off. larian puts in the content they think players would enjoy, and seemingly just saw the option to fuck wyll as unimportant to players

"it just wouldnt mesh with his character, hes too romantic" okay but he literally does fuck offscreen in his romance route, so it would in fact be in character for him. also sex isnt inherently impure. this is a less sex-positive take than the generally accepted one in the mormon church (i would know, im exmo). have you never heard the euphemisms "making love" and "intimacy" before? this is a weird take and youre weird for having it

do i, as a lesbian, personally want to see his cock and balls? no. do i think it Says Something when larian just assumes that no one wants horny wyll content in a famously horny game? yes