#unreliable narrators are so much fun and also so funny

[delimeful]

love the way you do gt miscommunication/undercommunication fear plots. gonna go reread (don't) take this the wrong way again

thank you so much :D i always love to sprinkle in a little "characters get scared out of their wits by complete misunderstandings" in my plots

[oceanxveiined]

On one hand, there is stuff i might possibly have to retcon in her genshin verse. considering a voiceline.

On the other, I can still make it Work possibly-

[zuzuzuko]

Thoughts on The Boy Wonder #3:

Under the cut because it got LONG

I really really am enjoying this comic still. This is part of my favorite page from this issue:

Someone posted the Talia panel earlier but I think that panel with the context of the rest of the page makes it even better. It’s kind of a subtle nod to the fact that Talia and Ra’s do NOT fuck with these kinds of people and in fact think they’re a blight on the world. So I really really liked that.

LOVED Tim being all smarmy at the Gala. And I thought it was fun that Damian just thinks that’s how he is. It shows how much Tim and Damian misunderstand each other and how neither of them think very highly of each other at this point.

Glad they showed Tim’s distrust of Damian too because that is a big part of why their dynamic is how it is. Early Damian and Tim interactions are basically built on misunderstandings and lack of trust. I also thought this dialogue was interesting because it is a great reflection of how Damian originally DID stop killing just because his dad told him to and he wanted his dad’s respect. It took some time for him to actually BELIEVE that not killing was the right thing to do. So Tim saying “I can tell you feel bad about killing that guy. But do you feel bad because you hurt someone or because you got punished for it?” Was a very good insight to include in my opinion.

I don’t really have any commentary for this next page I just think it was a really fun silly page:

This next part was so cute 😭 Damian thinks Tim decided to be a better person that makes him believe HE can be a better person too. And in the last panel I post he says “I thought… I thought I was the one who got you to…” meaning he thought he inspired Tim to be a better person. 😭😭😭😭

so it makes sense that he’s upset then when he finds out that Tim was just ACTING like a smarmy socialite and was actually helping Damian with the mission all along. Because he kind of felt like “oh I thought you made mistakes and now were redeeming yourself which meant that I would be able to redeem myself. But you were actually just good all along…”

Completely off topic but Tim breaking in the night before and stealing the Batman statue head is so funny and definitely something he would do.

“He wanted to feel better, worthier than him so badly…” yeah Damian definitely saw Tim as competition when they first met.

Also the last panel I didn’t read as if Talia and Ra’s tell Damian he’s weak but I see it more as an unreliable narrator thing. Like Damian’s own insecurities are presenting themselves as his mother and grandfather.

ANYWAYS

there were so many more panels I wanted to talk about alas the 10 picture limit.

Overall I really liked this issue I think it was a simple story for sure but it also highlighted Tim’s distrust of Damian and them misunderstanding each other. I will say Juni Ba definitely made them nicer to each other which is my only real criticism tbh.

TLDR: it was good 👍

[fourtyforever]

Get in losers were making a fic rec masterlist

Hi y’all it’s me, your local multishipper, and I’m about to be the change I wish to see in the world by putting all the best f1 fics in one place.

Maxiel

cool things to say to your soulmate by @powerful-owl (E, 14k)

A collection of shorter soulmate stories by the great em powerfulowl. Essentially the maxiel thesis as far as I’m concerned. If you ever catch me talking about the goose fic, this is what I’m talking about. Fun story: this was actually the first F1 rpf I ever read and I blame it for why my standards are so fantastically high.

Thursday girl by @boxboxlewis (M, 3k)

Max is outed by the press. Shocking emotional impact to word ratio and off the charts tenderness. Short and sweet and low key a comfort read to me.

the being unknown by anonymous (E, 12k)

Body swap with really unique and emotional vibes. Ngl this one hurt me (in the best way). A fantastic and heart-wrenching take on the horrors of 2022.

Charlos

win or lose (it’s how you play the game) by @f1-stuff (E, 18k)

Hickey bet between charles and carlos. Cannot get over this fic for as long as I live: the silliness is off the charts, the vibes are literally the most perfectly balanced tenderhorny I’ve ever read and the writing is just really that good. I think about this fic minimum once a day.

last night by venerat (E, 24k)

College au. Ngl this one is just especially spicy, but also very very funny and fully captivating top to bottom (see what I did there? haha). Also a great ensemble cast here, which I always love.

Once more (before we die) by @f1-stuff (M, 6k)

Fantasy AU where charlos are princes of warring kingdoms. I love this AU and I love the tenderness between Charles and Carlos that we get out of it. I’m usually not really an AU type of gal but this one really did change my mind.

Playing games by @vegasgrandprix (T, 4K)

Gay chicken. WIP, but I can already tell so clearly exactly where this is going and that is delightful to me. Honestly this really is how they act like 90% of the time already.

Yukierre

match made in heaven by venerat (T, 4K)

Pierre is yuki’s matchmaker. this one is just so sweet and sooooo silly. Comfort read 100%

Loscar

Are they gay or European? (the answer is both) by periwinkle_bumper_cars (T, 30k)

Logan keeps walking in on other drivers in compromising positions. 100% balls to the wall silliness from beginning to end and just completely delightful the whole time. Background carlando, kmag/hulkenberg, brocedes, maxiel, and honestly the ensemble cast is what takes this one from great to top tier.

Landoscar

By a thread by @mctwinkdom (E, 32k)

The classic Australian thongs misunderstanding (gone sexual). Incredibly silly, amazingly hot and honestly a top-tier character study of both Oscar and Lando. A great study in unreliable narration as well (probably part of what accounts for my previous point).

carried away by orphan account (E, 22k)

Fake dating. Honestly this one got me in my feels so much more than I expected from the premise. Sweet and a little bit angsty and just a delightful read all the way down.

Strollonso

green light, red wine (and I don’t feel fine) by @vicsy (E, 19k)

Mafia AU where lance is the son of Fernando’s arch nemesis. THEE strollonso fic of all time I tell you. Unparalleled characterization on the part of both nando and lance, fantastic ensemble cast, FANTASTIC writing, and off the charts unreal spiciness. If you haven’t read this yet then what are you doing

El dick plan by @waddlingpenguin (E, 800)

Lance says ‘daddy,’ both Fernando and Lawrence answer. Short, sweet and SILLY.

camera roll by @penaltyboxboxbox (E, 5k)

Sexting/sex tapes. Overall nice and spicy and just fantastic characterization. Also absolutely crucial is the companion art also by dave penaltyboxboxbox which is literally like the ice cream on top of the cake for such a wonderful fic

silver platter by @wewentcarracing (E, 10k)

getting together fic featuring long suffering estie bestie. Honestly the fic is amazing and spicy and just so well written but Esteban’s ever growing dismay is lowkey my favorite part. Works as a pretty great lance character study as well.

Brocedes

Roseberg’s vs haminkton by @jean----ralphio (E, 16k)

Tattoo artist versus flower shop, except they’re rivals. This is like…just how they are honestly. Absolutely stunning ensemble cast and absolutely hilarious buildup to lewis and Nico finally getting together. Side order of seb just being a massive shit stirrer which honestly I think is the role he belongs in

The real reason nico rosberg retired by periwinkle_bumper_cars (G, 3k)

Secret Santa (gone horribly wrong). This is…..also just how they are unfortunately. The rancidest of vibes but also screeching-out-loud funny.

will be updating this on the reg so stay tuned for more good fics. also maybe if I am very lucky someday I will have my own fics to add to the list. definitely I need to become slightly more insane before I can start writing for this fandom but believe you me I’m well on my way.

[knightotoc]

Trying to wrap my head around Fight Club 1996 vs American Psycho 1991. Both written by gay men making fun of "straight" men during the AIDS epidemic, but I'm having some trouble finding discussions of the stories through this lens.

They're making me think of how people idealize the 90s, considering them the peaceful "end of history" before 9/11 restarted it. These books are about men who have more than they need and are absolutely miserable, even thinking that a "Great War" would give them more purpose. But the authors themselves were living through a historic plague that the average person was ignoring and continues to downplay.

I think one huge difference between the books is Fight Club is genuinely funny and hot, and American Psycho will absolutely kill your libido. FC has edge, and AP is a smooth slide into hell. This might be because "Tyler" is middle class and Patrick is rich. Or because "Tyler" does at least appear to be making human connections, even if they are fucked up or just in his head, while Patrick is unable to connect with anyone, even himself.

Both of the movies deserve their great reputations, but there were a few passages in these books that made me think the stories would be better suited to a more abstract adaptation, even an animation or hybrid rotoscope project.

There's a huge motif in AP about all the men looking the same, and this turns out to be key to the ambiguity of Paul Owen's death, that is iirc lost in the film. It's such an big detail that the film gives me the impression that Patrick didn't do it, and the book gives me the impression that he did. In a similar way, in FC, I pictured the narrator and Tyler looking much more similar than they do in the movie. I'm pretty good at faces (though I did totally mix up Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe yesterday LOL) so the live-action casting loses a lot of the effect from the writing.

I was also reminded of these books while I was reading, parodies with unreliable narrators in ridiculously horrible situations: It Happened In Boston?, Candide, Don Quixote, The Quest for the Holy Grail, The Knight of the Cart, The Song of Roland sorta (lots of medieval literature is like this imo)

[david-talks-sw]

I think it's interesting that - in order to make his "free-thinking Jedi" characters hold any semblance of rationality in their arguments - Dave Filoni needs to resort to artificially dehumanizing the other Jedi and painting them all with the same "we dogmatically worship protocol" brush.

He does this with Huyang in the recent Ahsoka episode.

"Lolz he's so narrow-minded, preachy and by-the-book, unable to think outside the box, just like the Jedi in the Prequels."

My first reaction was being amused at the fact that Filoni had to resort to making the Jedi Order's ideals and rules be embodied by a literal machine for his anti-Jedi headcanon to start making sense.

But then I remembered: Huyang isn't just any droid.

In The Clone Wars, he had a sassy personality, he had a pep in his step, he had a sense of humor...

This character was human in his behavior, he was fun and whimsical.

But now he's been reduced to, I dunno, "Jedi C-3PO"? Basically?

"Ha! He's blunt and unsympathetic because he's a droid, but it's funny because the Jedi were the same, they were training themselves to be tactless, emotionless droids."

And Filoni does this with Mace Windu too, in Tales of the Jedi.

Mace, who brought a lightsaber to the throat of a planetary leader to defend the endangered Zillo Beast...

... and who went waaay past his mandate by mischievously sneaking around Bardottan authorities and breaking into the Queen's quarters because he felt something bad was afoot...

... was reduced to being an almost droid-like, rule-parotting, protocol purist who sticks to his instructions (and is implied to be willing to let a murder go unsolved so he can get a promotion).

I mentioned this at the end of my first post on Luke in The Last Jedi... while changes in personality do happen overtime and can be explained in-universe... if you don't show us that progression and evolution and just leave us without that context, that'll break the suspension of disbelief, for your audience.

Here, we have two characters with a different (almost caricatural) personality than the one they were originally shown to have.

Now... we could resort to headcanons, to make it all fit together.

We could justify Huyang's tone shift 'cause "Order 66 changed him". And we could make explanations about TotJ's Mace:

Being younger and thus more ambitious and a stickler for the rules, and only really becoming more flexible after getting his seat on the Council and gaining more maturity.

Being such a teacher's pet in the episode because we're seeing him through the eyes of a notorious unreliable narrator, Dooku.

There'd be nothing wrong with opting to go with either of those headcanons to cope with this. After all, Star Wars is meant to help you get creative.

But the problem I encounter is that:

Filoni has an anti-Jedi bias, so the above headcanons clearly wouldn't really track with his intended narrative.

We'd be jumping through hoops to extrapolate and fill in what is, essentially, inconsistent characterization, manufactured to make Ahsoka and Dooku shine under a better light.

And that sours whatever headcanon I come up with.

Edit: Also, yeah, as folks have been saying in the tags... wtf is "Jedi protocol"? The term isn't ever mentioned in the movies, I skimmed through dialog transcripts of TCW, never saw it there.

So it's almost as if - if Filoni wasn't draining characters like Mace and Huyang of all humanity and nuance - his point about "the Jedi were too detached and lost their way, but not free-thinkers like Qui-Gon, Dooku and Ahsoka" wouldn't really hold much water.

[notedchampagne]

Trick or Treat! I haven't read tlt yet, and I'm sure I would like it, but my pet peeve is that most of the "synopses" I see are basically just "lesbian necromancers in space!" and even the back of the book that I've seen just doesn't give me much of an idea of the plot? I'm sure I would like it, but it's hard to know what it's actually About 😔

treat. thats a similar gripe i have as well! i think its good for attracting an audience but it doesnt do much to get them hooked aside from "it has lesbians in it". if you want to get a genuine tlt fic rec from me i wrote this in goodreads. yes sorry i started a goodreads i just needed to keep track of what books i read:

the locked tomb series is about the horrors of love, the tragedy of relationships beyond romance, why codependency is not as fun as you think, the joy of sacrifices, how imperialism affects culture affects people affects imperialism, and most importantly: the humor of not knowing what the fuck is going on. i PROMISE you that tamsyn ties all of these together perfectly.

gideon the ninth is about the intimacy of hating someone youve known your whole life, the all-consuming desire to make something out of yourself and how it can destroy you if youre not careful, how no man is an island, and how you are not immune to propaganda. it is also a murder mystery. i ALSO promise tamsyn writes this all in efficiently.

throughout the series, muir's gimmick is choosing the person least equipped to narrate objectively: the points of view are opinionated, ignorant, humorous, and challenging to get through if you're someone that asks "can this PLEASE be explained now??" she sets up dominoes in seemingly random places at random times, and then knocks it all over in a beautiful cascade of information that makes you feel thrilled and sick. the series is incredibly rereadable from the layers of foreshadowing and theming between all three (soon to be four) books, but for your first run you HAVE to be patient. you HAVE to be willing to be entertained. the payoff of being invested in this series is glorious; it's red-string 'am i crazy' hype. i have a google doc listing off theme connections and details that i started for fun. the characters are MEAN, which i value with my life. gideon and harrowhark are 17 and 18 years old and they act like it: they're funny, theyre self-flagellating, theyre bitchy, theyre unreasonable, etc etc. every character flaw is consistent with their being.

my biggest gripes with the series is that the worldbuilding is too weak for what i can see it being and the memes can be a little niche. the setting and necromancy is moreso a tool for the characters, so theres a lot of beautiful tidbits and descriptions, but you're not going to get any rules or meta beyond surface-level aesthetics. personally, "lesbian necromancers in space" does not cut it for me. if you were raised catholic though, this book might strike a chord with you. if you were raised catholic AND you are a lesbian, youre the target audience. i hope you have fun YOU WILL LIKE THIS SERIES/BOOK IF YOU LIKE: tragedy, character juxtaposition, the teen butch struggle, the exploration of love and toxic dynamics, mystery, sci-fi written like a fantasy novel, catholic theming, death theming, enemies to lovers but worse, freaky white girls, dyke drama, lesbians that have problems bigger than dyke drama, swordfighting, character duos, morally gray characters YOU MIGHT NOT LIKE THIS BOOK/SERIES IF YOU DISLIKE: being confused, being left in the dark for too long, unreliable narrators, morally gray characters, loose/light worldbuilding

[adolin]

Books of the month!!!

(for the past 3 months) (forgot to do this for February and March so they're all here)

April

Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel — MORE blorbo Thomas Cromwell! Unreliable narrator tortured evil meow meow goes VROOM!! Genuinely hilarious on top of it. More thots. Fave read of 2024 so far. READ IT.

Dimenticare Berlinguer: La sinistra italiana e la tradizione comunista, Miriam Mafai — Essays on Italian political history. Probably not relevant to tumblr's interests. Very relevant to mine.

Mademoiselle de Maupin, Théophile Gautier — Gender! 1835s epistolary novel with Gender and crossdressing and musings on the value of Beauty! I loved this but it's rambly in a period-typical way. The Italian translation has very witty pretty prose; no idea about the original French, but I've heard the English translation isn't great.

The Angel of Indian Lake, Stephen Graham Jones — Third book of a trilogy. Do rec only if you love Jade Daniels as much as I do. Otherwise, it might get a bit confusing. I DO enthusiastically rec the first book in the trilogy, My Heart Is a Chainsaw, so you will all come to love Jade Daniels as much as I do. You're welcome.

The Manicurist's Daughter, Susan Lieu — A memoir about grief and families and the immigrant experience (Vietnam to west coast US). It's not usually my wheelhouse but I appreciated so many things about it, especially because of the audiobook version. Nonspoilery goodreads review here.

March

Bride, Ali Hazelwood — I don't like werewolf tropes enough to have enjoyed this. Fun romp if you like mates and knots.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families, Philip Gourevitch — Nonfiction; a partial account of the Rwandan genocide. (I say partial bc I think it lacks context if you, like me, don't know much about the topic going in.) Very poignant, unfortunately remains relevant; do NOT go for the audiobook version because it's dull as dirt.

Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel — The book that blorbifies Thomas Cromwell and it's also laugh-out-loud funny. Do yourself a favour and read it.

February

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronthe — somehow I'd never actually read this in English before? Absolute banger. The first half remains superior.

American Elsewhere, Robert Jackson Bennett — I have screamed about this on tumblr before. COSMIC HORRORS TAKE OVER NEW MEXICO TOWN! Do rec.

Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier — Amazing incredibly showstopping etc.

Clarkesworld, Issue 209 — Love me some cool sff short stories. Standouts: Lonely Ghosts (Meghan Feldman); The Enceladus South Pole Base Named after V.I. Lenin (Zohar Jacobs); Why Don't We Just Kill the Kid In the Omelas Hole (Isabel J Kim)

january books || let's be goodreads friends! here

[darkfictionjude]

I just wanted to say that I really love your writing!! The way you capture the feeling of living in a broken home for example, or the struggle with mental health, really resonates. It's not easy to nail such complex and difficult topics, so i really admire your skill. Also, the friendgroup interactions are so fun! The way their personalities bounce off each other and their individual dynamics and how Crowny is experiencing the wonders of friendship for the first time😪🥹I've only found your story yesterday but if anything happens to this little group of Scooby Doo's, it's on😤(even though i am 90% sure it will all fall apart terribly and I will cry in a corner, but one can hope!!)

Anyways I also love how you write Crowny!! Their struggles with mental health and family problems are written in such a relatable way, and just them as a person is fascinating, I love an unreliable narrator and mysteries.

And, of course, Crowny's funny and my favourite menace. And this might be niche, but i think it's also super impressive that your teenager characters actually read like teenagers. Like Imre (my impression of him, at least); even though he is this manipulative schemer with 1000 layers of secrets, he's also still a 19 year old boy and in high-school, and that shows in the way he interacts with the team and the world, if that makes sense!

I could go on about all the other aspects of the game that have me in a chokehold, but i don't want to clog your askbox with like 5 more paragraphs of my ravings🧘‍♀️know that i am rotating your story inside my mind and crearing so many little silly drawings to deal with my excitement🙏🖍🖍🖍

On a more serious note, thank you for witing this story and sharing it!! I hope you continue having as much fun creating it as I have reading it, even though writing can be really quite rough sometimes🫶 and i also hope you're doing well and experience many of moments of joy! <3

(ps: and I'm really sorry if some of what i wrote was hard to understand, English isn't my first language and my sentences are always too long when I'm excited😪🙆‍♀️)

Yeah I’m happy my teenagers feel like teenagers cause it’s a pet peeve of mine to have them talk and act as if they’re 25

Also another nickel for apologizing for what I consider to be great English 😘

I’m happy I get messages where people love every one in my discount scooby gang, I find that it’s either they only like one or they hate everyone

Thank you 💜

[lazaruspiss]

1, 3, and 17 for the AO3 wrapped thing :3

ohoho (i meant to answer this hours ago but uhhh. got distracted and forgor)

1. How many words have you written this year?

I'm gonna go off of my ao3 stats but know that i have started and forgot about Several wips T-T but on ao3 it's 62,569 (hehe, nice). im a lil pleasantly surprised that i managed to get over 50k!

3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

oh for sure [Unknowing, Unwilling, Unmade], like there was Thought and Intention put into it!! don't get me wrong, i love making some plotless smut, but it was super cool to try a bunch of new/weird shit in how i wrote it.

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

aeughh, toughie. i think it might've actually been bruce. which is funny bc he was also For Sure my least favorite as well. his perspective is a weird and tricky one to get into, but when i can really get into it it can be so much damn fun. he has this delusional unreliable narrator swag to him tbh <3

[loneamaryllis]

Some recs for @hprecfest

Day 1: A favorite fic under 5k

Harriet Potter Is by setepenre_set (Gen, T, 2k)

A short fic that's packed full of feels and awesomeness. Harriet gets sorted into Slytherin and that changes everything. I love the writing style of that fic!

Day 2: A comfort fic

Succor by pluperfectsunrise (Fem!Harry/Snape, E, 40k)

One of the first Fem!Harry/Snape fics I read, and I keep coming back to it. It's a soulmates fic that spans the entirety of canon. I love the way their relationship evolves over the years, and I especially like the say the author writes the intimacy between Harriet and Snape.

Day 4: A fic with art

The Curse of Anteros by @danpuff-ao3, illustrated by @mrviran (Harry/Snape, E, 53k)

This fic is such a whirlwind of tight, exquisitely crafted writing and all the Snarry feels one could want. Plus extra hot smut! And the art is incredible. Harry and Snape have to defeat a curse while also dealing with their attraction to each other... I don't want to say more, you should definitely go read the fic!

Day 6: An unreliable narrator fic

Forget-me-not by Elffaw (Harry/Snape, M, 1,5k)

The atmosphere in this fic is so ominous. When reading, you *know* something is wrong, and you keep wondering what until you reach the end... The author did such a good job at crafting the mystery!

Day 7: A canon-compliant fic

Year of the Thestral by @perverse-idyll (McGonagall/Snape and McGonagall/Hooch, E, 115k at the moment with two more chapters planned)

Let's say canon-compliant-ish? There's nothing in canon that says it couldn't have happened... This fic is a brilliant exploration of Snape's last year, with incredible writing and the best Snape descriptions I've ever had the pleasure to read. It's dark, it's harrowing, it's funny at times, and it will twist your soul into bits and leave you wanting more.

Day 8: A canon-divergence fic

Epitaph by sheswayout (Fem!Harry/Snape, M, 22k for now with more chapters planned)

Fem!Harry so obviously canon-divergent, and then Snape lives and Harriet starts visiting him in the hospital. It's a fic that looks at what happens in the wake of war, and how Snape and Harriet can go forward and perhaps do so together. It's soft and calm and self-reflective, and I love it.

Day 9: A rare pair fic (less than 2000 fics on AO3)

A Most Unexpected Turn of Events by @hirukochan (Fem!Harry/Snape/Voldemort, E, 62k with more chapters planned)

The perfect threesome. No, you can't change my mind. Hiruko is great at writing complex characters and hot smut, and this fic is a stellar example of both!

Day 10: A fest fic

Predetermined by brightened (Snape/Harry, E, 9k)

This fic features Snape as a smut writer, and just for that you should read it. It also has excerpts of the books Snape is writing, creating a narrative within the narrative, and it's so much fun to read!

[controversial-blorbo-bracket]

Too many Binghe haters jumping into the askbox so I'm here to represent Binghe lovers.

Luo Binghe is a fun, interesting character who suffers a lot from shallow readings. Which is ironic considering the main source of tension in his relationship with Shen Qingqiu, the MC - who is originally a reader of the novel in which Luo Binghe is the protagonist - is that Shen Qingqiu keeps reading him shallowly / expecting him to act according to some or other character archetype, and thus misses that Binghe is a complex person with his own rich inner world. Basically it's meta-commentary on how readers do a disservice to characters by oversimplifying them to just a few traits and/or their role in the story (SVSSS in general is super meta) but unfortunately not a few ppl read the novel and fell into those same trappings ^^"

It also doesn't help that Shen Qingqiu is an unreliable af narrator, which leads to some people insisting that Luo Binghe forced him into a relationship or is manipulating him or w/e... This is about a guy who waxes poetics about Luo Binghe's unparalleled beauty every time he lays eyes on him. Like cmon, he just has a lot of internalized homophobia and shame to work through, give him a break!! And the so-called 'manipulation' is half the time Luo Binghe looking vaguely disappointed and Shen Qingqiu going "wow! I cannot believe the most beautiful man in the world whom i love so much that i died for him twice and whom im dating is making me have sex with him! Luo Binghe sure is a master of emotional manipulation!" and other half the time Luo Binghe super obviously whining for attention which - canonically, its in the text - makes it easier for Shen Qingqiu to be honest with him.

But enough salt; reasons why Binghe is a top blorbo go:

The narrative (which btw is a real force in this world) is trying to make him into an iron-fist Ruler Of Everything but his greatest aspiration in life is to be a househusband.

Was supposed to be a protagonist of an uber-straight harem novel but threw heterosexuality out the window within 3 interactions with MC. 

His love language is cooking! It's adorable but it'll also hurt u. (Binghe kept making three meals a day for Shen Qingqiu during the five years the latter was dead :) )

A big part of his arc is about learning to be vulnerable and show his sensitive side. (In general, one of the novel's major themes is toxic masculinity and how it harms ppl; I just particularly like how its explored with Binghe.)

A Good Boy (has been going through a corruption arc for 2/3rds of the novel yet it still took a cursed sword controlling his mind for him to start acting like the OG) 

Lotsa delicious fridge horror around him being the narrative's favorite chew toy. Things only ever get worse for him and reality will warp itself to deny him a chance to heal while the story is in progress, because he has a Role and that role is ‘a villainous protagonist’.

But also u get to cry about how he was saved in the end by the power of just one reader loving him and wanting better for him. (SVSSS is also a love letter to fandom/fanworks okay :] ) 

Very powerful but also a nervous wreck. Tripped and fell flat on his face when proposing to his boyfriend.

Just in general him being clingy and whiny and a mess is mega cute (me 🤝 Shen Qingqiu) 

This makes for a great contrast with him being a super OP nigh-unkillable demon lord btw. He could drown the world in blood but he's too busy crying Ghibli tears in his man’s lap. 

Also I need to mention he's extremely funny about being nigh-unkillable too. Like, *gets injured* Shen Qingqiu: "We can have sex once u r better 😔" Luo Binghe: *popping broken limbs back into place*: "I'm better! :D" 

Has a praise kink AND a masochistic streak. Apparently when Shen Qingqiu praises him and pats his head it's exciting, but when Shen Qingqiu scolds him and hits him that's also exciting. 

Has the peak character design detail in the form of a demon mark on his forehead. Built-in kissies target 🥰 Also when fanartists draw it in different shapes to represent his mood? Absolutely delightful 100/10 no notes <3

Why do I feel like this man has Kenergy

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

Do you have good recommendations of books/movies/ect that either do a particularly good job explaining certain facets of it (you mentioned Early Modern Catholicism recently, which was what got me thinking of this), or simply captures a vibe of the period in a way you think was particularly well-done?

Thanks!

Oooh like late medieval/early modern Catholicism/religious movements of the time (i.e., reformation)?

I think some of my favourites are:

Little Hours (film) - ok, so hear me out. Boccaccio would have LOVED the recent film interpretation of those stories of his (it's stories one and two from the third day, if I remember right. Been a while since I read the Decameron). It's modern in language, music, humour and incredibly pop-modern particularly. Yet the clothes and scenery etc. are all more or less of the late 14th century. Boccaccio, who wrote in the vernacular and enjoyed the bawdy and "common" entertainments of the day, would have been like "yes, you get it. you get what I'm doing" about it.

Just a fun, raunchy story of the late medieval era and it does capture some of the vibes~~.

(Story time: I got into an argument with one of the more curmudgeonly and pedantic historians I know irl and he was so against this movie and I was like "I'm sorry that you're wrong and Boccaccio's ghost is going to laugh at you but it is what it is I guess".)

Wolf Hall (book and show) - while I love the show, I recommend the books over it (for many reasons, not the least of which is: let Thomas Cromwell be fat). That said, if you're pressed for time or can't get into Hilary Mantel's writing style, the show is perfectly good.

She does a great job of capturing England in a state of change and the push pull of the early reformation. Cromwell is obviously of the Protestant persuasion but the dynamic, complicated quality of the average person's engagement with their faith and the Church is more or less captured. It's also just gorgeously written--very lush, you sink into her writing style, quite gorgeous. She also gets her historical details right, so that's a win.

(Unlike the movie Luther which is just like: Luther is always right, the Catholics are always wrong. The end.)

If you're a fan of Thomas More, he doesn't come the best in this, but you know - we are deep in an interior third person of Cromwell's brain so that informs the view of the world we are presented.

(There is a hilarious scene where Cromwell is trying to rally the troops to save More from himself and you get Cromwell, the Duke of Norfolk and a few others kneeling before Henry basically begging for mercy to be shown and it's so fucking funny. Bleak, heart breaking, but also funny.)

A Man for All Seasons (play and film) - and the famous play that Hilary Mantel is in direct conversation with! There's a good movie version of it that I was enamoured with for a time. It's very much a pro-Thomas More piece of writing, so take that for what it's worth. It does suffer a little from the Luther effect of Thomas More always being right and Cromwell and Cranmer and the others always being wrong (or, rather, Luther suffers from the A Man for All Seasons effect). But you know, it's still worth watching I think.

An Instance of the Finger Post (book) - a little later than the other pieces, this is set in the 17th century and is a great who-dunnit from three different perspectives, exploring the classic issue of an unreliable narrator. I remember feeling that it captured life in Oxford just post the Restoration quite well. Also we get some fun cameos from Locke, Boyle and others who were bopping around at that time. Two of the narrators are also known figures from Oxford in the 1660s.

Lent (book) - So, my main man Marsilio Ficino wrote that famous letter to the college of cardinals after Savonarola was executed describing Savonarola as a demon who didn't know he was a demon. Jo Walsh took that concept and ran.

Basically, we follow Savonarola (who is a demon that, at first, didn't realize he was a demon) as he gets stuck in this time loop where he has to keep reliving the last five(ish) years of his life until he manages to free himself from hell. It's like Ground Hog Day but in 15th century Florence.

I have questions around the mechanisms and theological implications of like...his birth, his childhood etc. but you know, don't let that ruin a fun read.

I will say, Lent is a sloooooow start. Like. very slow. I almost set it down and didn't pick it back up at first. It really hits its stride about halfway through. But, it's a fun look at 1480s and 90s Florence with Ficino, Mirandola, Poliziano, Lorenzo de' Medici for a hot minute before he dies etc.

My beef is 1: Piero Soderini, my boy, she did you dirty (tbf to Walsh, the book is from Savonarola's perspective and he and Soderini were not close, shall we say. I may, or may not be, biased); 2: Marsilio is present and we love that but there is no word on Cavalcanti. Not even mentioned in passing!; 3: some of the exposition is heavy handed and could have used some tightening up etc.; 4: Jo Walsh's use of the English for words like Prior etc. which she explains her motive for at the back of the book. I've still got quibbles with that choice, though I know that's a me-thing.

But if you want a novel that is a decent look at every day Catholicism in the early modern period, this is a good one.

Le Moine et la Sorcière (The Sorceress) (film) - a medieval French film from the 1980s that takes place in the 13th century and follows the arrival of a Dominican friar in a small southern French town investigating rumours of a sorceress. It's a delightfully weird piece that plays with the story of St. Guinefort (the dog saint!) as well as medieval faith healing and other local synchronistic practices that carried over from pre-Christianized France.

The whole exploration of local sainthood, where a figure is not formally determined to be a saint by the Church but local people venerate them and eventually they sort of are absorbed into the canon, is fantastic.

The friar, Etienne, is wonderfully drawn as a character. I do wish they had given the same treatment to Elda, the titular "sorceress". But it's still worth a watch if you can get your hands on it.

Name of the Rose (book and film) - an Umberto Eco classic! Another who-dunnit, but in a Medieval monastery in the 14th century. Absolutely worth reading - beautifully and intelligently written. Lots of back and forth on the different religious thoughts and movements of the time (some deemed heretical, others more just fringe things people were into).

William of Baskerville is the main detective figure but the story is told from the point of view of his acolyte Adso. It's got lots of gothic feeling to it with an isolated monastery, a labyrnthian library, murder, madness, sexual tensions and so on.

This is one of my favourite books (up there with Wolf Hall and Kate Zambreno's Heriones).

There is a movie version with Sean Connery and it's fun to watch but really, the book is worth it. 110% worth it.

Other good films/plays that I can think of off the top of my head (they're all more medieval but w/e):

Seventh Seal (film)

Becket (film and play)

Lion in Winter (film and play)

I hope this answers your question? (I mostly hope I got the time period roughly right! I know I veered heavily in medieval in some of the rec's but they're all gold and worth the time.)

Thank you so much for the ask! <3 <3

[lotties-ashwagandha]

8, 16 and 22 for yellowjackets 👀

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

i dont know if this counts but i think its funny to see everyone argue about which mental illnesses lottie has ?? everyone’s out here diagnosing her with every disorder they can think of and i think its so funny like damn i don’t need an itemized list

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

girl penis fanfics sorry not sorry ik it’s not a specifically yellowjackets genre but so many fics in this fandom are gp and it’s just not my thing

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

the shit with the wilderness symbol ‼️‼️ and everything about the wilderness and how believing in it as a god or otherwise supernatural force impacted the characters in different ways. and also the hunt at lotties cult at the end of the season 2 finale we need to talk about that more bc the connection to believing in a wilderness god or spirit and how it’s connected to the yellowjackets’ shared trauma is so interesting to me, how years later they’re all ready to kill and sacrifice each other to appease the personification of their own trauma. shauna saying “it was just us” killed me in that episode tbh. so much of the time in fics in this fandom the spirituality of the wilderness is used for kink and ive written fics like that as well and they’re good to enjoy but to me it’s fun to analyze it as it connects to the plot as a whole as well how it’s related to the trauma of being in the wilderness. i also love how during so much of the show it kind of keeps you on your toes throughout it , it keeps you wondering how much of the supernatural experience is in the characters’ heads and how much of it is real — the entire show is told from the perspective of unreliable narrators even though we’re getting knowledge that the characters don’t, like for example how we as the audience knew taissa was sleepwalking before she did but we still experienced her plot from her perspective until van came in for clarification of her reality as a secondhand experience.

thank you for the ask i loved answering these :))) ive released the nerd within me with the last question i think its so long

[dangerouscommiesubversive]

Fic Stats Meme

Rules: Give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and your fic with the least amount of words.

One more thing I was tagged in by @materassassino, even longer ago, because these past two days I've just. Really been in the mood to clear out some of my drafts and do fun stuff?

Most Hits: Make A Wish (Young Avengers) - 17,527 hits

Wealthy scientist Nate Richards has been shot, and the legendary sapphire he owned stolen. Noh Varr, a private investigator, is hired—not to track down his killer, but to exonerate one of the suspects. It all gets much messier than he'd expected.

This is a Young Avengers noir AU that I wrote for the Young Avengers Reverse Big Bang and one of my very few attempts at first-person narration, and frankly its hit count mystifies me. I guess people re-read it a lot or something? I'm glad that it has staying power, I'm just puzzled.

Second Most Kudos: Lay That Heavy Trick On Me (Guardians of the Galaxy) - 1,248 kudos

The Guardians take a job robbing an expensive resort, and their floorplans indicate that the best access point to get to where they need to be is in the honeymoon suite. Which means that two of them need to play like they're married. Peter's not quite sure why he has to be one of the lucky newlyweds. Drax doesn't understand subterfuge. Gamora just keeps laughing at them and it's terrible.

This was actually my most kudos'ed story until fairly recently, when it was overtaken by hard work. It's a fun story--not my best, but it's in a much bigger fandom than I normally write for and it has a couple of super-popular tropes in it, so I suppose it's not so weird that it's up there stats-wise.

Third Most Comments: Gaiden: Neo-Heisei Kamen Rider (Kamen Riders W through Zi-O) - 133 comment threads

Not bothering with the summary because this one's a collection of short pieces, mostly from Tumblr prompts, and it's got 108 chapters. Some people comment on every piece they read! It's very gratifying!

Fourth Most Bookmarked: Lay That Heavy Trick On Me (Guardians of the Galaxy) - 297 bookmarks

"Heavy Trick" again! I mean, for real, this one used to be my leader in everything, for a while it was by far my most popular fic.

Fifth Most Words: Into The Black (Young Avengers/Firefly) - 44,537 words

Mercenary space captain Kate Bishop's got a loyal crew (mostly), an unreliable space ship (hey don't you say that Dawn's Archer is perfect), some unresolved anger issues (some faces that need grinding that is), and a lot of moral gray areas that she likes to play around in as she roams the galaxy, taking whatever jobs she can find. When her ship takes on some unusual passengers, however, everything goes completely off the rails.

This one--my tragic forever-unfinished Young Avengers/Firefly mashup--is genuinely surprising to me. I had no idea I'd written so much for it. I ought to be honest with myself and everyone else and update the tags/summary/chapter count to indicate that it's unlikely to ever be completed, but I haven't got the heart. And who knows, maybe at some point I'll rewatch Firefly and re-read YA Vol 2 and get inspired for it again. As I recall, the next chapter I'd had planned before I got distracted was the "Objects in Space" one, which was going to have Deadpool as the bounty hunter.

Fewest Words: various fandom poems

Discounting my few podfics, which naturally have low word counts because they have no words, I have 12 poems up on AO3, 9 of which are between 100 and 200 words. It doesn't seem pointful to link any specific one, they're all short.

---

Instead of tagging anyone I hereby encourage literally anybody who read this far and who has fic up on AO3 to do it, it's an interesting exercise. For me it's also very funny--I've been posting fic to AO3 since 2012, so with the way these questions are scaled they tend to duck around almost all of my most recent work and hit the older stuff that's been up longer and had more time to accumulate numbers. My AO3 account is a bed of oysters, and these are their little embarrassing pearls.

[lady-griffin]

Ben Shapiro being mad about Glass Onion is so very funny to me.

Because of course he is.

I don’t think Ben Shapiro actually knows how to have fun or enjoy things; he’s just far happier hating things or pretending they’re beneath him.

But his complaint about how the first half of the movie lies the audience and therefore that makes it bad or pointless, is a very stupid criticism.

It just is.

It’s so fucking stupid.

And while I wrote this whole long-ass retort, it just doesn’t feel worth it anymore. 

I will just say that this movie never lies to the audience.

Lying to your audience is not the same as misleading or misdirecting your audience. Those are VERY different things.

They just are.

And for a movie like Glass Onion or any movie that falls into this kind of genre – misleading or misdirecting your audience is more than fair game. Especially, if you do it well, and this movie does do it well.

But really, at the end of the day –

Ben’s criticisms of this movie are honestly very dumb.

I don’t think he fully understands how mysteries work; which means a movie that is both a subversion of the mystery genre, while also very much existing within the mystery genre itself - would just not work for him at all

Especially one that plays with the unreliable POV/Narrator more so than a lot of other stories do, including other mysteries.

His complaints are just so fucking ridiculous and stupid, that I don’t know what more I can say about them, they’re really that stupid. 

yeah Ben... the first half of the movie doesn’t reveal all the stuff we will later learn in the movie nor does it tell us everything at face value when we first receive the information (especially in that first half).  

That is all true...

Which...

That’s not surprising. Like at all.

Because of course, this mystery movie didn’t tell you everything that was happening right from the start. 

Obviously, it didn’t. That’s pretty normal for any mystery.

Seriously, have you ever watched a mystery before?!

This whole this is so fucking dumb, that I just feel like Benoit Blanc at the end of Glass Onion. 

🧅 🧅 🧅

And finally, the thing that is so very funny to me is -

You know who Miles Bron really reminded me of, people like Ben Shapiro.

People who try so hard to sound intellectual, but the more they try, the more obvious it becomes that they’re not nearly as smart as they want you to think they are.

And if you actually stop and hear what they’re saying, more often than not what they’re saying is in fact, very dumb.