#tog worldbuilding

[anosrepasi]

Chapter 4: Lingurian / Read from the beginning

Chapters: 4/6

Fandom: The Old Guard

It is a long time, 400 years beneath the water.

--

A coda fic for Lingua Franca.

[lowenandbehold]

🌟 Exciting Roleplay Partner Search! 🌟 (Maybe a lil desperate too)

Hey there! I’m Low, a passionate 25+ roleplayer (she/her) with over 13 years of experience crafting intricate stories in a semi-lit to novella style. I’m on the lookout for fellow 21+ adventurers who are eager to dive into the worlds of our favorite fandoms!

I’m particularly excited to explore Throne of Glass, where I’d love for you to embody the fierce and enigmatic Rowan Whitethorn, or Fourth Wing, with you as the captivating Xaden Riorson. I always double up, so rest assured, I can bring any character to life that you desire!

World-building is my jam, and I thrive on OOC chatter to flesh out our characters and storylines. I’m all about taking the core plots of these two series and spinning them into something fresh and exhilarating that we can call our own.

Here are some of my other fandoms and the characters I’m eager to explore (character I’m looking to play against):

Prison Break (Michael Scofield): Let’s escape into the thrilling chaos!

Fruits Basket (Shigure or Kyo): Dive into the emotional depths and complexities of the Sohma family.

Inuyasha (Sesshomaru or Inuyasha): Unravel the tapestry of adventure and romance in feudal Japan.

FMA/FMAB (Edward or Roy): Explore the intricacies of alchemy and sacrifice in a world filled with wonder.

Maid-sama! (Usui): Let’s bring the playful dynamics of Misaki and Usui to life.

ACOTAR (Azriel or Rhysand): Immerse ourselves in the intrigue and allure of Prythian.

I’m also open to OC x OC scenarios, though I have a bit more experience with canon characters. If you’re as excited as I am about crafting narratives and building rich worlds, let’s connect and create something unforgettable together!

contact me on discord: Chanellenai or like this or shoot me a message here!

[meliohy]

Need a new small but active and chill (and a bit crazy) fandom

[sirendeepity]

Tell me you use one specific tab more than the others without telling me you use one specific tab more than the others, I'll go first

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

I always say that if someone told me a different person wrote Throne of Glass and CC 1-2 I would believe them no questions asked

Throne of Glass was the first series that I fell absolutely head over heels for and it has stayed at number one all these years. I adore the first two Crescent City books and they are an incredibly close second to Throne of Glass. But the rest? I could throw them in the bin and never look back. The only reason I even read ACOTAR anymore is Nesta and even that doesn't feel like enough anymore

I think SJM has just become such a lazy writer. It's like there was this spark in TOG and CC that's missing in ACOTAR. Sure they're not perfectly written don't get me wrong but they feel so much more cohesive, the characters have more depth, the stakes are higher, the worlds have more order. ACOTAR has flimsy worldbuilding to begin with and she can't even stick to it. She has also self inserted so much in ACOTAR it's unbelievable and it is ruining a series that had so much potential. And she could still salvage it but I don't believe she will. The original draft of HOFAS was thrown out and the version we got was written in a few weeks and it absolutely shows. What a mess of a book. It's like anything even associated with ACOTAR automatically loses quality. Maybe because it's arguably her most popular series she thinks it doesn't need as much effort. People have clearly shown they will follow along with whatever she says whether it makes sense or not so maybe it's true but I think it could have been so much more. And it's crazy that people will demand better from indie authors and smaller authors but SJM can throw her fans support right in their faces and no one bats an eye

[bonniesfamiliar]

I HAVE TO RANT.

The only series of SJM I can ever read is TOG (Throne of Glass) and that's it.

That is the only one of her series that has the best worldbuilding, plot twists, romance and characters.

ACOTAR RUINED fantasy novels for me and not even in a good way.

I mean, in a bad way, that I can't pick up a fantasy novel anymore, in fear that it'll be like ACOTAR.

Yes, I used to be a sweet summer child who thought ACOTAR was amazing, Rhysand was so romantic and Tamlin was a tool.

I was the tool.

I'm now in college and I read ACOTAR & ACOMAF & ACOWAR last year.

I stopped after ACOWAR because NEVER FUCKING AGAIN WILL YOU CATCH ME READ THAT SERIES.

I can't even begin with the non-existent lines between misogyny and romance and hypocrisy and the lack of actual world-building and how I NEED to drag the Archeron Sisters FAR FAR AWAY, YES ALL THREE OF THEM.

[separatist-apologist]

At this point I just like your posts with just skimming through it because I know your big, mature brain won't let me down with your opinions

And I need people know sjm is NOT a good writer lol. Just because she's famous doesn't mean she's the best one out there. Acotar is a missed opportunity at best. And most people who are hard-core fan of these book thinks these books are perfect and not because sjm keep retconing and changing and forgetting her own goddamn plot so they take everything for what it is. I've seen people criticised Mor and Feyre for leaving some dreamers at CoN and they don't care about them. No babes sjm just forgot about it all fkn together!!!

Okay I have thoughts about this. I'm once again slapping it under a cut just because its long. These are just my thoughts, feel free to disagree

There is nothing wrong, just to be clear, with SJM being a person's favorite writer. I think she is an entertaining writer and I think begrudgingly everyone in this fandom needs to admit that. I think she creates very interesting characters and places that people want to know more about and her writing is very accessible which feels like a burn but I swear isn't.

I don't think she's a bad writer, personally, but I do think she's just not interested in her own details or worlds the way her fans are, and I think this is true across every book series she's written. I think her problem is she writes the way I do- she knows how her stories end, she has a few key scenes in mind, and she figures the rest out as she goes.

This felt pretty evident in TOG, too- you could watch in real-time as her plots changed and she undid things it felt like she'd been building toward. ACOTAR isn't any better in that regard because I GENUINELY do not think she knew what she was doing plotwise when she started the series and it came to her as she went which is why the whole Amarantha things feels so ?????????

Even in TOG, SJM is not interested in the political maneuverings of her characters, the governing process, her political landscape or ANY of the things that a lot of people get frustrated by, to circle to your CoN plot. I think she relies very heavily on "x says they care and I'm telling you they're a good person, so the assumption is they're also a good ruler and we don't need to explore that any further". SJM drops these little pieces of lore like about Mor's cousins or the women of Illyria or whatever and then doesn't do anything with it or even recognize, in my opinion, the conclusions her readers are drawing.

And I think its because to her, she's told you what you need to know. Rhys is a GOOD ruler because the people of Velaris love him AND because she tells us so. Tamlin is a bad ruler because he exacts taxes on his decimated population AND she tells us so. And when people examine those statements, it starts to crumble, in my opinion, which is why I think people get defensive. They don't CARE about the political workings of this world, they just want to read about hot people doing hot people shenanigans.

I do think that going to a SJM book for thoughtful worldbuilding and an interesting magic/political system is a mistake. Having read every series she's ever written, I do not think this is her strong suit and I'm tired of being told I only think so because of internalized misogyny. I think SJM is a good character writer- her characters are compelling, and even anti's typically have a favorite character they wish had been better fleshed out or had been done more with or would be better explored in future books.

This is all over the place- I'm just writing my thoughts as they come to me. Ultimately, I think SJM's books typically don't stand up to heavy scrutiny and that depending on what you're looking for in a book, you're going to come away with different levels of enjoyment. For me, I hadn't read anything fiction in like, six years because I'd been knee deep in academia and it was the first thing I read just for fun and it WAS fun. It IS fun, even now. It's a brain off read. For better or worse, ACOTAR isn't complicated or hard to understand- SJM tells her readers what to think AND feel all the time, so you don't really need to think about any of it.

But when you read other fantasy in her genre, it becomes clear that like...oh. This is just mediocre. In some places it feels like a poor retelling of other stories (TOG has HEAVY LOTR moments, for example) and thoughtless culture stealing that feels offensive in places (CC feels especially bad in this regard given how she's stitched together like, 3-5 different cultures without a good understanding of any of them).

I'm not saying anti's shouldn't still discuss their issues with it. But I will say that if you're looking for a well fleshed out world and a political system that is interesting to read and characters who are consistent and don't bow to the whims of the author and plot, you're probably going to have a hard time with ALL of SJM.

[linnaearosie]

So this post is a little rant because I tried to read Crescent City 2 and it is so messy and shallow. In fact all sjm books are shallow even Tog that I like

Let me say first:

-if you are fan of sjm please do not sand hate to me ( if you want to type actual response you are welcome) if you don't want to see this block me or tags anti sjm, sjm critical anti cc, anti tog, tog critical,

-when I recognize that sjm is not responsible for quality of other people work she definitely started trend,

- sjm is probably normal but a little bit ignorant and privileged person and so if you don't like her please don't call her slurs in my comments as I think her mistakes are often result of publisher negligence or cuddles ( her growth as author regressed bc they wanted more money),

- there's political massage in every creation. We humans are social animals and politic is element of our lives. Creating something apolitical is political statement on its own. And sjm's books aren't apolitical to begin.

So here my rant (multiple mini rants):

I hate how sjm's books are just aesthetic tm and how they revert fantasy to early 00s. Her worldbuilding is atrocious. She picks and chooses elements of different cultures and she doesn't mash them well but smack them together. Just like fantasy authors did in the past. Early 00s cartoons from Disney had more respect and understanding of cultures. Her biggest crime in my opinion is creating this female predator trope (Maeve, Amaranth) just to explain bad behaviour of her male characters, bc her morally grey male fea was "forced to" act this way towards his true mate but if female character act half as bad she is crucified. Never mind, her true crime is normalizing usage of male/ female/ mating. It wasn't popular before and if you think it is normal I'm sorry but this literally men's trying to explain why they behave predatory towards women narrative "baby i need to act this way it's my instinct" (its giving Jacob from twilight toward baby).

Recently, I tried rereading some scenes from tog and Bi Aedion comparing his bisexuality to lysandra experience as slave is just sad. I legit expected him to say that he was raped by aderlan's soldiers after battle and not him coming out to her. The only logical explanation is that sjm can't understand what she is writing. Bc Aedion seems like decent guy at this point of story and this was framed as important moment in their relationship. This and whole making babies that look like aelin, so lysandra's cover as aelin is not blown are the reasons why I can't ship aedion/lysandra. This is also a prime example of sjm inability to write good lgbt characters or presenting them as equal to others in narrative. Hasar ( tod charcter) is described as ugly with long nose. She is also only semi positive, cunning, but good lesbian character that is in our main characters age bracket. Only gay couple in tog are your typical gay dads, but also one of them was too weak to become immortal so they are now living in fantasy border camp and aren't motioned after hof. There is also Manon's grandmother who is basically salling other witches to be breading stocks for demons and oh she is lesbian. So great selection. again i will stick to good luck Charlie lesbian moms from that one episode. Before anyone say that she couldn't possibly have same sex couple in main cast cassandra clare had in early 10s, rick riordan's nico had on page coming out in 2014. the answer is simply she didn't want one.

Nehemia was my favourite character in first books and I refused to believe in this bs that she chose to die. No it was retcon to make aelin poor little mow mow, that suffer so much. Nehemia literally promised to dorian that she will teach him magic (top 10 ships that never sailed), why would she made sacrifice before aelin or dorian tapped into their potential?

Elide is so confusing character bc she should be witch but isn't. But there's still some witch in her. Sjm's established that witch only needs witch mother to be full witch. But I guess it's something skip generation. Also, why sjm needs to make pregnancy to every species difficult and then make them have several babies. Witches and fea are the main offenders of this. And several times it is only to advance men (rowan fake mate being pregnant ). Sjm stop creating worlds where women have it worse than men and then have them risking their lives simply bc men want son.

Several people were praising sjm bc her characters had past relationships and didn't end up with first boyfriend they were in series. But her characters don't break up in normal way in later books. Chaol was blamed for nehemia death and his rational fears were presented as this stupid takes. Rowan previous lover was turned into this fake decoy. after mating bond is established between rowan and aelin, they are completely disregarding past experience. Everything is better, more right and simply as it should be. Aelin, who didn't start relationship with dorian bc of rationality can't wait to make out with 500 yo dude. I wonder what if rowan's child had survived? They would be older then fenrys. Why isn't aelin thinking about it? Why isn't she thinking that her husband is her uncle's age? He calls fenrys boyo. Fenrys calls aedion boyo. Yet aelin's only thinking how she and rowan will have multiple world conquerin babies and how if something happens to her rowan would be great king. She knows him not even year

It is long post, and frankly, I'm exhausted after long day. If you read it all I'm sorry for my emotional rumbling. Don't be afraid to interact and please be mindful of rules that I made at the beginning.

[sixth-light]

Fic meme

List five of your least-popular fics, as well as when/why you wrote them (tagged by @themardia)

a beginning (TOG/WoT, Andy & Nile, gen) - If I recall correctly this was in response to a 'cross your newest and oldest fandom' challenge, and well before WoT crashed back into my life with the TV show in late 2021! I've got a whole lot more worldbuilding for this tucked away in the back of my head somewhere...

The Waiting Game (RoL, Peter/Beverley, Peter & Thomas) - it's tagged 'ask box fic' and I think I would have written it as part of a whole lot of post-Hanging Tree prompts, but the years have eroded my memory of who prompted me and what exactly they prompted me.

they choose to take you in (Court of Fives, Bettany & OC) - a Yuletide fic for a very small book fandom which features the clash of a matriarchal and a patriarchal culture; I was obsessed with the idea of a longed-for male heir (still in utero at the end of the series) being...whoops, not that.

The Sight of Other Skies (Eternal Skies trilogy, Samarkar & Tsareg Edene) - another Yuletide fic for a book fandom, ft. female friendship, but mostly an excuse to roll around in the series worldbuilding.

The Retirement of Gabriel Argent (Daniel Blackland series, Gabriel/Max) - I am extremely proud that I wrote the first fic on AO3 for this very tiny fandom. It was the unusual-for-me case of finishing a book trilogy and being absolutely unable to move on without getting this post-canon idea out of my head.

Tagging: @emjee, @raedear, @darlingofdots, @highladyluck, @butterflydm, and anybody else who feels like doing this!

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

This may or may not be a controversial opinion but I do not understand why ACOTAR is Sarah's most popular series. It is, in my personal opinion, by far her worst one. I know people say the first TOG book is her worst book and that's fair, but I'd rather read TOG1 than ACOTAR1 if I'm being honest. TOG as a series is leaps and bounds ahead of ACOTAR in worldbuilding, characterization, plot, continuity and, honestly, quality in general — again, in my opinion. I'm glad more people have found Sarah's work, but it irks me that ACOTAR gets almost all the praise and attention and the vast majority of the good merch options.

[jue-viole]

Chapter 5: Time for Holidates

Rak: Slow down, turtle! 

Khun chuckles.

Khun: But I thought you preferred us to be fast and turtles are fast in the water!

New chapter of my ToG Fanfiction is out! If anyone wants to read! Chapter 5: Time for Holidates

Chapter 4 is also now out on Ao3. As always, I'll be updating earlier on ToyHouse. But if anyone wants to follow the FanFic there, here's the link. ^^

[longsightmyth]

Part of the problem with ToG is frankly the shallow worldbuilding, which I wouldn't judge as much except that everyone and their second cousin tries to sell the series as a grand sweeping fantasy. Where are the different cultural norms? Where are the different ENVIRONMENTS and how they influence how people live/interact? Different clothes? Accents? Perceptions?

Why has there been NO social change?!

Why does every government and monarchy operate EXACTLY the same way?!

Why does EVERYONE have the same legends?!

We get a little bit of different environment with the southern continent but that honestly just drives home everything else with the giant question: how did a nation of horse cavalry conquer a nation of giant bird cavalry who live in unclimbable mountains

[somehowsomewhat]

Kinda rambley thoughts because my Christmas season entertainment has been rereading+getting up to date with Tower of God. Very general impressions on how rereading felt like, especially after years of not reading and legitimately thinking I wouldn't ever touch it again (spoilery tangential mentions to the last events so beware??).

Going from 'maybe I can reread this arc i liked' to 'actually let's reread the entire thing and if i keep liking it i'll get up to date i guess?', it's amazing how starting from the beginning made the issues in season 3 leagues that much more bearable and how much ToG gains when read as a whole instead of weekly.

Because, the foreshadowing is there and the thematic parallelisms are there. Knowing that the plot is going to end up with full focus on Traumerei (and Gustang's quest to get rid of the Great Warriors, because I spoiled myself that much when I was determining if I actually wanted to give the story a genuine chance) makes the narrative decisions in early Season 3 especially a lot more understandable. Actually remembering all the bits about Blue Thryssa (and the mention in the Floor of Death that it has administrator rights for some reason) makes its appearance as a power paralleling the Red Thryssa in an official manner that much better too

And that struck me in particular because I remember i was already spot reading at that point and getting increasingly confused and frustrated. A lot of the foreshadowing and buildup had happened so long ago i just... didn't remember it.

Do I still prefer season 2? Yes, for a multitude of reasons. I understand why season 3 had to focus on characters like Yama or even Dowon, but it felt much to the detriment of those characters I was already invested in. Wangnan come back pls the plot has evolved to a point your involvement would add So Much beyond me missing your silly ass. Tho at least his plotline has actually progressed (even if not through him directly), some of the other main Regulars have their plotlines 100% frozen as far as we know or only barely touched on.

Even if I think the Season 3 escalation of events goes very far on explaining why FUG felt the need to fake Bam's death in Floor 2, it meant the Regular characters aside of Bam fell hard to the side 70% of the time.

Yet all feels so purposeful otherwise??? I can only hope SIU compensates for all those things in Season 4 and, once we can read the story as a whole, it feels like a very understandable side trip.

Also V being, by the looks of it, just as much of a Mess as the rest of the Great Warriors is, honestly, to be expected but I sure didn't thinking it would be Like That. I'm lowkey worried about how SIU will be handling that.

I legitimately thought I was done with this series, but I guess the worldbuilding is just too tasty for me to ignore. If anything, the reread has confirmed to me that SIU has a Plan for the story long-term, which I value in a narrative like this quite a bit.

[brainrotcharacters]

tog and acotar are iconic because on one series there's nothing but pettiness and bickering and childish bullshit and then the other series is fantastic worldbuilding and elaborate characters

[shadowqueenjude]

The fandom is so lucky to have you! We appreciate having you here and all that you contribute to it ❤️❤️

1. What brought you into the fandom?

2. What character(s) do you feel the most connected to and why?

3. Out of all of SJM’s books, which one means the most to you and why?

4. Out of all of the SJM couples (fanon, canon, endgame, etc) which one means the most to you and why?

Keep doing you ❤️

This is so sweet! It made my day🥹

1. I finished the ACOTAR series late 2023 and I was devastated to find out that it wasn’t completed! It’s soooooo hard waiting for the next installment in a series. I went through this with The Land of Stories and The Trials of Apollo too 😭😭😭. So yeah I searched online for Elucien/pro Lucien/anti IC content and I couldn’t find shit ANYWHERE. The only place I even saw some decent content was on Tumblr, so I started posting my analyses and rants and writing about ACOTAR and it turned out many people agreed with me! It was such a relief to finally find Lucien stans who also saw holes in SJM’s writing!

2. I resonate with Nesta the most. She’s just so relatable and human to me. First with the parental trauma (real), second with feeling like they’ve disappointed everybody because they weren’t able to do things that no teen girl should have to do, pushing people away because she’s afraid they’ll leave, spitting facts and everybody getting mad at you for it. And Nesta’s modesty: damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I’ll never forgive SJM for robbing her of her modesty, but it’s honestly reflective of how women like her are treated irl. My own family wants me to be more modest (i’m already pretty damn modest) while the outside world wants me to be less modest, and it’s really frustrating being put in a box like that and not being able to be yourself. Nesta’s hard shell soft interior is me-core.

3. I think by far SJM’s best book is Tower of Dawn. The worldbuilding, the romance, the plot, the chemistry between Chaol and Yrene (and Nesryn and Sartaq) was perfection. And Chaol being a genuinely flawed and human character in a world full of Fae feeling useless and learning to grapple with himself and find his purpose and a man who had always prided himself on his body learning to see that he is so much more than that, that he is as much a man with his wheelchair as he is without it, and Yrene, a character who rules by peace and healing, not violence and destruction, showing everybody how strong she is…well, it’s unlike so many of SJM’s books and she didn’t write it to be popular and tropey (Chaol is wildly unpopular in the TOG fandom) which is why it’s so good.

4. My favorite SJM couple that is already confirmed endgame is Elide and Lorcan from Throne of Glass. God, I love them. Elide, the cunning little witch with a limp and innocent eyes, showing just how strong she can be, wielding Lorcan’s axe (😍) and saving him on the battlefield. Manipulating everybody with a few choice words and a flutter of her eyes. Lorcan being utterly mesmerized from the start. Being a menstruation king and taking such good care of her during her periods. Washing her clothes, bringing her dinner…i mean he is so malewife. Elide being a canon ace queen who only engaged in sexual activities after she trusted and loved Lorcan so deeply that she would allow herself to be vulnerable with him. Elide being sassy as hell and Lorcan being into it. Another human, very real character who is a survivor and quite unlike any other character in the SJM-verse.

Aside from that, Ruhnlidia is 🔥 and amongst those which aren’t technically canon endgame yet, Elucien. The political couple. The fashion-forward couple. The charming couple. The regency couple. The brown-eyed couple. The nonviolent couple. They’re the only two who know they’re mates from the start. Arranged marriage forced proximity trope. The tension, the yearning, Lucien as a fucking male lead…gahhhhhhhwodnwksnaklahiknj

Anyway thanks for the ask!

[azsazz]

Lol I love how you opened a can of worms with this discussion 😂😂 but it needs to be said. One thing I’m super grateful for is that as time passes by, people seem to be growing more critical of sjm’s writing than they initially were. It goes feel like she’s gotten lazy. Someone once said acotar feels like a fanfic of another series that exists, bc fanfic relies on the reader’s precious foundation of knowledge of source material, which makes sense bc the worldbuilding in acotar is barely there. “The king of hybern” doesn’t have a name??? Half the characters are nameless and everyone else doesn’t have a last name. Her plots are becoming less and less story driven, she recycled “redemption” arcs in each book, there are SO MANY inconsistencies in the plot. I could go on but I’m glad people are calling her out bc she’s getting lazy and greedy and doesn’t mind growing rich off fans she doesn’t care about and characters she doesn’t care about either. The fact that she’s the same woman who wrote tog is actually mind boggling

OH BOY DID I OPEN THE CAN OF WORMS IM THRIVING THO this has actually turned my day around im having so much fun

why does legit every character have daddy issues?

i mean like i said she's just reusing everything she's ever written because the nameless thing worked once, but now she's doing it again and again.

HER NET WORTH IS 10 MILLION like plz calm down sis take your time people will still eat it up if you plan it nicely! 😭

sometimes i think she thinks she's an actual celebrity or something

also i hate the way she acts in some of these online interviews i've seen. like she thinks she's the shit it's kinda funny to watch