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lennsart · 5 days ago

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Hello all, remember that one time I lost my mind over a very badly translated french Zelda Encyclopedia ?

Remember how I said there'd be a part 2 ?

Did you think I had forgotten about it ?

Well you're right. I very much did.

But I remembered now, and I am not done screaming. This book personally insulted me, alright ? It pretended to be a useful tool to feed my obsession and was actually only pain.

And fun, I had to admit. Turns out that correcting it with my sister has been perfect enrichement for insane Zelda fans. We sighed a lot and shouted even more.

(But honestly, it's a bit sad how bad the book is. Like, were the translators so rushed that they made it with a bad internet translator and didn't double check ? Or did they just cared so little ?

Ok, my funnier theory is that they paired one guy who was lazy and knew fuck all about LoZ and one guy who was decent at their job... And only let the first guy do the final proofread.)

But anyways, case in point, here are my evidences !

And if you thought last post was long, wait 'til you see how I realized I don't have a 10 pictures limit on computer :]

Firstly, a thing that made me laugh as I saw the pictures I gathered for this very serious case is the clear gradual lack of respect me and my... Research Partner had for the book :

There's a "sticky notes" era, a "pencils 'cause we aren't gonna waste so many sticky notes at worst we'll erase" era, and a "we don't give a fuck anymore get the markers out" era.

Last time I divided the mistakes in three categories, "Lore mistakes", "Translation mistakes" and the dreaded "What the fuck mistakes". They are... Inegal, to say the least, but let's keep this system !

Translation Mistakes

And I mean it in the sense that "the french translation have different names and stuff than the english one and this book ignores them", not in just general translation... Because if you go that way, this entire book is a translation mistake !

But here we go :

Little details, but they left "Koroks" written this way when the french version is "Korogus", they left "Impar" (the character from Twilight princess) when in french her name is, well, Impa, they left "Mia" for the name of the remlit when it's "Miou"...

As you'll see along the way, my research partner got very mad at the book and wrote a lot of funny comments. Here you can see that next to where the book says that the river zoras "become violent", she wrote "not all zora" in all caps, which I find hilarious.

And she's right ! Don't badmouth Echoes of Wisdom Dradd, he's a cool dude !

Here, the book pretends that the kikwis all have sort of teas as their name. English reader, I hear you get offended : "The book is right !"

NOT IN FRENCH IT'S NOT ! Here, kikwis have herbs inspired names, not tea.

Well, I was going to make a joke about "DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DRINK PARSLEY OR BASIL TEA ?" but apparently they exist, so. My bad. Can we still agree that these are not types of tea ? There's tea with parsley, but the parsley is not the tea, right ?

(Just for fun, our kikwis are named : Basil (for basil, shocker I know), Jasmi (for jasmine), Pirsel (for "persil", parsley), Romar (for "romarin", rosemary) and Lorion (probably for "laurier", bay leaf. This one is less obvious so I'm not sure)

So here it's a little worse than the other times because in the text, they used the literal translation of "The Imprisoned" from Skyward Sword, except in the title they used the correct french name, "the banished".

They really said : Here's a description of le Banni ! He's called le Prisonnier.

WHY

Ok so this one is a little funny to me, bear with me alright ?

In Phantom Hourglass, one type of enemies are the Phantoms in the Ocean King temple, right ? Well, Phantom in french (literally AND in Zelda, wonderful) is Spectre.

Alright ? So what do the book say about Phantoms ? That they are Fantômes. Fantôme is a word that is phonetically the exact same as Phantom, see ? But it means ghost. Not phantom.

(I mean, they're synonyms, you know ? So phantom kinda means ghost and fantôme kinda means spectre, but It Is Not The Translation in the game so it makes it worse)

Actually, it was funny, but as I explains it it makes me a little mad. It was one google search away...

URGH and it's just the same thing again, yes technically the literal translation for "Triforce of Power" would be "Triforce de la puissance", but is it what it is in french ? NO, IT'S TRIFORCE DE LA FORCE (strength). I was alright with random characters name getting mispelled, but FUCK THIS ENCYCLOPEDIA, THIS ONE IS LITERALLY IN MULTIPLE GAMES LIKE EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT LOZ YOU KNOW THAT AT LEAST

All of these are details, but damn Zelda Encyclopedia, I know I'm insane about these games so maybe it's not that deep, but you're writing for the french fans, THE LEAST YOU COULD DO IS WRITE THE FRENCH VERSION OF THINGS

Whew, ok, this is starting to annoy me I feel, so let's change subject, why not ? Here are the :

Lore Mistakes

There are not a lot of them, but they made me gesture widely at the book trying to form a sentence that, if I had managed, would probably have been "Where the fuck did they get that from ?"

Which means that there's a possibility that it's right, but seeing this bitch's track record, I'm going to assume it's not.

Here are pictures of Kokiris, what is the description ?

"Since they're the Hylians' descendants, they look a lot like them."

Since

WHEN ?

Like, genuinely, help me there. Am I the problem ? Are the kokiris supposed to be descended from the Hylians ? And if they are, where is it cited ? I literally almost completed Ocarina of Time for the second time and cannot remember it being hinted at anywhere. Like yeah, they look alike, but aren't kokiris separate forest spirits ???

The tone of the book also annoy me, like "since they're hylians' descendants", as if it was common sense. SIR I PLAY THESE GAMES SINCE I'M OLD ENOUGH TO HOLD A CONTROLLER WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INFO FROM

It's making me question whether I'm stupid or if it's just bullshitting me right now !

This one is a graph about the different worlds in LoZ. My problem here is that... Well, firstly, my problem is that there is the Sky and the Skies, but I guess that this is like... TP Sky and SS Sky, maybe ?

The real problem is that between these two categories they put "Minish World".

Minish World ? You mean, like, Hyrule ?

...Ok, I'm jesting, they probably mean Cloud Tops and the Wind Tribe. But in that case... Say that ? They make it sound like all the Minish live in the sky ! Precisely between two versions of the sky !

Are minish angels...? No, better question. ARE MINISH OOCCA ??

This one annoys me greatly for several reasons, but I'm going to be so so brave about it :

As you can see, it's a representation of the LoZ Timeline, with two games highlighted : Link's Awakening and Phantom Hourglass. It's because this is talking about when Link goes in adventures in parallel worlds.

So firstly, fuck Majora's Mask, right ?

And then, the thing I have underlined is saying that those events happened in "both case after Ganon was slayed".

See how they say Ganon and not Ganondorf. See it, 'cause I'm not going to make any comment about it because it's nOT THAT IMPORTANT

Quick reminder : Ganondorf got defeated but Hyrule was left destroyed in Wind Waker (third branch of the timeline). Ganondorf's plans were foiled before he had time to do anything in Majora's Mask (second branch of the timeline).

You know where Ganondorf didn't get defeated ?? IN THE FIRST BRANCH OF THE TIMELINE. THE ONE WHERE LINK'S AWAKENING IS.

Really, why go out of your way to say that if it's Not Fucking Correct ? This book wakes up some kind of ancient wrath in me that should only belong to children whose snack got confiscated in school !

Ok, as I said earlier, there aren't many lore mistakes, but that's good because they are the ones that makes me question my sanity the most. Let's go to the category you're probably waiting for :

What the fuck mistakes

Starting with a tame one, but :

This book is incapable of saying the word "regent". It is literally saying, for both Hilda and Midna, that these "princesses" are the "queens" of their kingdom.

No they're not, they're princesses, you just said so, IT'S NOT THE SAME GODDAMN TITLE !!

So this one almost made it to the translation mistakes, but it's in the 'what the fuck' ones simply because it's so poorly translated that I'm not even sure what they originally meant.

It's talking about Spirit Tracks' Tower of Spirit, and you can read "Sparkling trains are activated thanks to the gathered energy."

Excuse me,

Sparkling Trains ?

My guess is that they're talking about the tracks, but even then, they're not called "sparkling" ? And if they're really talking about the tracks, they're then talking about the Spirit Tracks. You know, the ones the game is named about ?

Then, a question : WHERE THE FUCK DID "SPARKLING" CAME FROM.

In the same style, but this time I simply hated it too much to put it in Translation Mistakes : Remember the Fused Shadows in Twilight Princess ? Well in french, they're called Shadow Shards.

What do they call it here ? "Melted Shadows". Not fused, not shards, I'm losing my fucking mind

As I have written on my sticky note, this one is a very disrespectful one. Ciela, the fairy from Phantom Hourglass, has the same name in french and in english, but somehow they still managed to write "Chiela".

Why is it so disrespectful ? BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE "SHIT" IN FRENCH. SPECIFICALLY, IT SOUNDS LITERALLY LIKE THE SENTENCE "SHIT HERE". CIELA IS A PRETTY NAME, DAMNIT

Actually, it annoyed me so much that I went out of my way to show that thIS BOOK KNOWS HER NAME ! THEY DON'T HAVE ANY EXCUSES !!!

JUSTICE FOR CIELA !! FUCK YOU, FRENCH ZELDA ENCYCLOPEDIA !!!!

Honestly, it's funny to me now that these first pages had sticky notes. Ah, the good time from when I still had a slither of respect for this book...

Here, it just describes every Light Spirit from Twilight princess with animals : "goat, monkey, butterfly, snake". Firstly, they don't look exactly like animals, secondly...

Butterfly ?

I mean, Eldin has always looked like an owl to me ? Ok, the wings are vaguely butterfly-shaped, but it has a body and a face ?

Was Eldin a butterfly all along ? Am I going insane ? (ok yes I am, but reader, do you really see Eldin as a butterfly ???)

Oh ok, so now we just don't translate anything anymore. Remember how this isn't the first time this encyclopedia does that to me. You're right, why bother, I STILL HAVE TO FACT-CHECK THE BOOK ANYWAY, MIGHT AS WELL LEAVE IT AS IT WAS IN ENGLISH.

You know what else we could do ?

Leave actual mistakes in the book ! Let's forget a whole ass word in a sentence ! And why stop at random words ? Let's not proof read the title of the games ! Twillight Princess with two Ls ! What's next, MINISHIP CAP ??

(I said last time I'll never get over it, well, I didn't)

I think on my first post someone commented that the LoZ offical books weren't very accurate to begin with, and I hear that... But I still think there's a difference between accuracy and whatever the fuck this encyclopedia has going on

I spared you (and myself) some longer paragraphs that would have been harder to translate, but I swear to god it sounds like it hasn't been written by a human sometimes ! It's like they just put the whole book through a translator, and then went back to ADD some more mistakes ! I genuinely don't understand how an official product can be that bad !! It is hilarious, but also I want to bite through it sometimes.

I hope at least you enjoyed watching me lose my mind again ! It is fun to share how bad this book is, and I have to admit I had good laughs out of it. We haven't even attacked the items list yet... I'm scared ! But if I find atrocities, I'll report them here too.

(Maybe in like, 6 months, but I will !)

#The French Zelda Encyclopedia Is A Nightmare #loz #the legend of zelda #zelda #zelda encyclopedia

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hazshit-hotel-hater · 6 months ago

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I'm not a "ship" person whatsoever but I do scroll character tags on occasion and see quite a bit of Vox and Vel together as well as what seems to be a lot of what I'm assuming is female original character stuff. I've even seen some Charlie and Vox too. So it's out there, but unless you're scrolling through character tags I can see how it might be hard to find. Personally, I also block/filter a lot of the big "ship" tags so maybe that also makes it easier for me to stumble across this stuff that "slips" through since I don't know if those pairings have names.

I get your point though. I do think many are inclined to erase his bisexuality when it's convenient. Interestingly, they also erase Valentino's pansexuality too. The same with Husk as well, but I check his tag a lot less so who knows.

What disappoints me, and I know I'm about to come off as nit-picky right now lol, is the lack of research people put into their "sexuality" headcanons for the characters with reference to their different eras. When reading some of them, you'd think the idea of "gay rights" was a completely new and foreign topic that only emerged after the early 2000s. I get people want to go for the simplistic "repressed and doesn't know what being [insert identity here] is" for some of the older characters but that completely ignores a fascinating and rich tapestry of queer history that could create far more interesting (and still accurate) stories for the characters/their backgrounds. I would really encourage those who haven't already or are generally unfamiliar to dive into this history as it might inspire their character ideas while also educate them on the work, art, and activism our queer elders have contributed to the community we have today.

I think this may partially relate to character ages being under explored as well. While I've seen debate on what is canon/has been decanonized many of these characters, as far as we know, died in their late 30s and beyond. That's a lot of life to live and experience. While certainly many people throughout history (and even today) kept their sexuality hidden from the public due to culture, shame, and safety that doesn't mean there weren't many incredible private venues/spaces that could be utilized to explore those feelings/identities in secret.

I could go on and on about this but I've totally strayed from your original point (I'm sorry!) and I'm very tired haha. I just think there are multiple factors coming into play here with these character interpretations and, for me, the biggest missed opportunity is the lack of historical research. But end of the day people should have their fun! Just an observation.

Completely agree with this! I doubt my response will be as long since I just woke up but other characters doing certain things or not knowing about sexualities is interesting, it just seems like a lot of people think older people don’t want to explore any of that like it only just happened recently as you said. I like to joke about Angel being shocked about gay marriage and not knowing a bunch of current terms but thats about it. With him being in the mafia when he was alive makes it much more interesting as well, I’m pretty sure around his time the mafia was blackmailing men in gay bars but dont quote me on that I might be wrong.

Anyway for Husk and Valentino pan erasure I see that a bunch too. Not exactly erasure but just… ignoring it? Moreso erasure on Valentino’s end because Ive seen people get mad at people for shipping Valentino with a woman and was like “hes gay dont do that” no he isnt. Also dont ship Valentino with anyone for the love of god. But like people are super used to just making up headcanons that they dont bother to look up actual canon stuff. I know Hazbin isn’t the best but if you want canonically LGBTQ+ characters use what you have and add on later. Or headcanon a background character, thats what I did with Molly.

People are very focused on modern day queerness and forget that this stuffs been happening for decades and it’s a bit sad. Also I seem to have strayed from my own question as well?? Anyway ty for mentioning this! Its very interesting 🩷

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phneltwrites · 3 months ago

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Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to other writers. Spread the self-love~ 🫶🏻

💚

it's tempting to pick the long fics because they took the most work and have the most Stuff in them (themes, narrative experimentation, whatever) so i want to think a little more widely about the stuff i've written.

Bad Thing Twice (Not Me, Todd/Black). Ohh I love Not Me so much. What a fantastic show about a group of people taking down the biggest billionaire in Thailand. The main romance is great, the gang is fantastic, it's beautiful to watch... and then right at the end the most perfect best friends to enemies ship appears. otp of two guys who keep trying to kill each other over ideological differences but can't because they love each other so much. So then I wrote 64k to take that friends to enemies and add on a ...to lovers. One of my faves because I got to get into some themes that I love, like how and when to compromise, what to do when the love is real but the situation is hard. Also because I don't see anything glamorous or admirable in being rich and I wanted to wallow a bit in how much money fucks things up.

Say All That You're Feeling (MDZS, wlw wangxian). lesbians!! Genuinely the process for writing this was just coming up with a big list of all the things that I thought would be hot. lwj woodworking. wwx making leather bracelets and then playing with the leather bracelet on lwj's wrist. But then ALSO this fic is about comphet. Stage 2 comphet. Stage 1 is 'is it possible to like girls???' Stage 2 is learning to be ok with experiencing attraction. It's scary to be horny! It's vulnerable. And there's so much baggage around unwanted attraction and being predatory but like. it's beautiful and fun. We all know a useless lesbian who is like 'idk if that was a date or just friends' and I'm always like WELL did YOU say if it was one or the other?? and they never do. Useless. But also we've all been there so this is like, a fond and generous read on that situation (i hope)

Retrieved from Impossibility (Leverage, Eliot/Parker/Hardison). Possibly the most Me fic I've ever written. Android Eliot desperately clinging to his humanity, Parker's fierce sense of what's okay and not, and Hardison being so smart and caring and also into robots. I love books about cognition and humanity and agency and I also am very weak to a trope about heisting a person so they can be free, so.

Falling Til Four in the Morning (MDZS, wangxian). I sure do love a hyperspecific AU. Like this, technically, is a coffee shop AU, however it's set in the 90s and wwx aspires to dotcom and lwj works in radio. I researched so much for this fic and nothing makes me feel better than people in the comments say it captured the vibe of the era. In case anyone reading this has read that fic and wondered: wwx disassociated himself from the Jiangs because he was doing AIDS activism and it was communicated to him that he was shaming them.

Standing in Sharpening Wind (Game of Thrones, Jon/Tormund). A fave cause I think the setting comes through clearly, which is always something I'm working on. I feel cold in the spaces in the sentences. I can't believe I never had any fic writing inclination for this show until the end of S8 pissed me off SO bad. Not even the point of this fic but Brienne/Sansa forever I can't believe that show fucked me so bad. uhh anyway yeah north of the wall vibes, some culture clash stuff, Tormund pining like an idiot, lots of fun for me to write

#i almost put toast fic (earthquake) on here #but i had to turn off comments on that fic #and the response was the final thing that broke my fannishness for mdzs #some people were SO mad at lwj #cause he clearly communicated that it was a one night stand #like i guess it's good that i got people so into wwx's head?#but his complex is not lwj's responsibility #Lwj Did Nothing Wrong #so it can't be a favourite #but im soso grateful many people liked it!#writing thoughts #ask meme

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crazylittlejester · 3 months ago

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HELLO JES!!! hdjsdhjsk im back to sending asks im feeling a bit better now so hopefully i can send in some stuff

ANYWAYS i've been playing a lot of hyrule warriors recently and i keep thinking of wars and stuff so i thought i'd give you something funny

so in hw when you're just doing the scenarios or adventure mode you can collect magic jars and i like to think that wars has some stashed in his bag or whatever just incase the need for them arises but but picture this

the chain roaming through a new era and ending up in a very very dark place where they unfortunately have no light source and no way of seeing where they're going

that's where wars comes in where he just starts rummaging through his things and eventually comes across one of those special magic jars, chugging the whole thing and then starting to walk infront of everyone as they all stare at him with a bunch of different reactions because like.. he just drank magic... and now he's glowing like a fucking nightlight....

it runs out a short while after though and then everyone is plunged back into darkness... whoops........

i love hyrule warriors so so so much and linking it to warriors and thinking about how he'd still have some of the traits and items that he did in the game and how he'd use them and what not is so interesting and funny to me because it opens like so many different doors

anywho i hope you've been well!!! you are so so awesome and i appreciate you sm!!

HI HELLO!!! I’m glad you’re feelin better I was worried about ya

Banger game I support your obsession

YES YES YES. First of all it’s hilarious to imagine the chain’s reactions to him holding out a finger like “one second please”, downing a bottle of something, and then turning into a glowstick. I’ve been trying to figure out how I wanna incorporate how his magic works in fics, because I want to USE IT but I want to find like, a reasonable way for him to “charge” his magic up without having to rely on buying potions constantly. It’s something I’m fiddling around with alskddalld

and I’M GOOD, I’m losing my mind a bit and doing research for a ✨yap✨. It feels like I’m using my powers for evil but I’m having fun. And we’re all gonna find out together if tumblr has a word limit for posts because I’ve never tried to post like 2k words before-

ANYWAYS IM GLAD YOURE FEELING BETTER, TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF GET SOME WATER AND FOODS AND REST. YOU’RE AWESOME 🫶

@hyruledwarriorr

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ask-zerotrio · 2 years ago

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Epilogue/Author’s final note

Idk if anyone’s been paying attention to how the blog has been transforming over the course of the story, both in answers + meta blog layer, but I hope it’s been a fun ride! I wanted to thank you those who wrote really nice words again ;u; it means a lot, especially when I poured a lot into this blog (Probably more than I should lol.)

Anyway, I really wanted to do a full write up of the blog’s plot/timeline... A summary of the vision, if you will.

Arc 1: An idyllic universe

I’d be lying if I had this plot from the beginning, but the whole of it certainly came in a rush. Anyway, the beginning of this story was very much an AU where Sada and Turo did leave the crater, reuniting with Clavell and Arven before dying. It’s a universe where everything is perfect, and certainly one that Clavell of every universe dreams of, regardless of whether he’s romantically involved with anyone.

Arven gets to have his parents, Clavell gets to have his childhood friends by his side, Sada and Turo see that Paradise was never something found in the past and future.

Arc 2: A crumbling dream

Then, a desire to explore zerotrio “canon” overcame me, and I thought it might be fun to pursue a change in direction via story, as opposed to usual ask blog announcements/retcons. So... upon the mention of harm coming to the trio, Clavell assures himself that Sada and Turo are fine.

Thus begins the crumbling of this ideal world, with Clavell becoming sickly and grieving for something he doesn’t know... But Sada and Turo do. Throughout these few asks, whoever’s responsible for this dream is implied... and I think I’ll leave that for you to guess :)

Reality is rushing back at Clavell, and eventually time runs out for him. Sada and Turo know this, and I hoped I made it clear how apologetic they are (Love these complex, problematic, but fiercely loving professors lol. Their personalities are so intense, Clavell always in the crossfire)...

Arc 3: Zero Lab era

Suddenly, Clavell was no longer available to respond... as per his injury. Instead we have the Zero Lab Search queries: An opportunity for people to investigate what truly happened between the trio historically. No better certainty in happenings than real video footage, no?

An added plus was to show the trio’s early relationship together during the Tera Orb research eras... Fluffy filler between the grimness of what becomes of them.

Although the “footage” isn’t posted in chronological order, they are all still roughly dated to show a coherent-ish timeline of Sada +Turo and Clavell beginning to have different priorities for Arven’s sake. Arguments had and never truly resolved... logs of Sada and Turo’s absence in Arven’s young life... so forth.

Peppered amidst all these were little clues, as well as puzzles. I attempted to throw a red herring, wanting to keep Sada and Turo’s deaths a not so secret for longer.

Eventually however, we reach present day, with lots of footage locked or damaged. Clavell, Sada and Turo are never shown, but their impacts of their action are. (These poor poor wild Scream Tails haha.)

Arc 4: Present day

We finally arrive at the true present day... with Clavell facing off Protocol Sada and Turo on his own.

The reveal isn’t a crazy twist, nor did I really want it to. But the build up had been for a tragedy we already knew/are familiar with: that Sada and Turo died for their dreams....

But in these final moments where Clavell woke from a vision that felt too real, Protocol Sada and Turo weren’t immune to it either.

Zero Lab queries no longer function as they used to, and asking about the past hurts. Sada and Turo’s conscious speaks through the logs. (Its true workings I leave to your imagination, but I liked the thought of the AI and Protocol representing the two parts of a whole Professor.) We see the final moments of Sada and Turo in what is a death-defying retrospective.

What next... complicated/messy resolutions. Clavell saved, Sada and Turo “alive” but different. It’s more open ended than I intended, but I think it’s also alright to leave things to the imagination...

The trio have always been in search of their respective treasures, and though it takes a long and rough journey...

... lost treasure can always be found.

#//ooc #look at all this art i made for this blog #jeezus #i put a lot of heart into these stories #i hope it's fun!!!#unconventional storytelling #my jam #i adore it

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alagaisia · 1 year ago

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Okay I don’t have anything specific to say, but I just finished the fourth book in the Lady Trent Memoirs series (by Marie Brennan), and I’ve been reading these between other books but I don’t think I’ve taken the time to make a recommendation. I wholeheartedly recommend these books. If you like fantasy, or naturalism, or archaeology, or dragons, or books, you should try these. The first one is A Natural History of Dragons.

It’s second-world fantasy set in a pseudo-Victorian era, which is very fun and has a different charm than the pseudo-medieval fantasy that’s so common. Isabella, the memoirist (who later becomes the Lady Trent), is a naturalist who studied dragons in the early days of naturalism when dragons had not been studied very much in the modern era (although there’s a well-known ancient civilization (this is where the archaeology comes in!) that seemingly knew much more about them).

The books are mostly her adventures in the field, but as memoirs, they also address the struggles she faces as a woman scientist in an era where most science is happening through “gentleman scholars,” and both her gender and hands-on approach are unconventional. The books also touch on the classism faced by one of her friends and research partners. Neither of those is the whole book- it’s not a book about those things by any means- but it’s present, and it makes the whole thing feel so believable. Honestly, I should have listed sociology/anthropology as another interest here, because in her travels we encounter a lot of people and spend time in cultures other than Isabella’s pseudo-European background, and the ones we spend more time on and get to learn about are so interesting (and treated with respect by the narrative). (Also, in Isabella’s pseudo-European home country of Scirling, the dominant religion is based on Judaism! It doesn’t come up that often since Isabella doesn’t think of herself as very religious, but is fun if you look for it, and another neat difference in flavor from fantasy religions made up from a Christian perspective)

Anyway the point is the books are very good, Isabella is a very fun character and there are a lot of funny moments, the world building is amazing and engaging and has a lot of depth, and you get very caught up in the excitement of what they’re doing. I am making this post because they just made a big discovery at the end of the book I just finished, and I was really so caught up in the thrill of how groundbreaking this would be, for their, you know, fictional society to learn about this other fictional culture and history.

I would not be making this post at all if I was at home because I have the 5th book in the series waiting for me there (thank goodness!) and I would have moved straight on to that one.

Oh also sometimes there are maps. And illustrations! Isabella sketches a lot of her work and sometimes we get to see them. But I know how we love a fantasy book with a map in the front.

#memoirs of lady trent #a natural history of dragons #lady Trent’s memoirs #marie brennan #mine #my book log

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 4 months ago

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Finished the Peacock & Gamble FUBAR Radio things last week, decided I’ll probably get into other Ian Boldsworth things later, but for now that’s enough of it. Then immediately went back on that as I found the shows he did with Angela Barnes, and have spent the last week listening to those. Which add up, at 8 shows with three hours per episode. Suddenly threw an extra 24 hours on the end of my binge listen, more than I’d really planned. Plus I found an episode with Peacock and Charlie Baker from the middle of the Peacock & Gamble run, when Ed was in the hospital or filming in America or some shit like that.

I think I have now covered the entire run of Ray Peacock on FUBAR Radio from the Peacock & Gamble era, aside from that one episode with Danielle Ward, which may be lost to history, which is unfortunate as it’s up there with what I’d most want to hear. But I got the rest, and got air dates for them, so the completist in me is happy about that. My Peacock & Gamble folder is now up to 225 hours of content, and I’m pleased that I’ve finished listening to everything in it today, just before I go off on my trip. Because I joke about the completist in me, but what I actually mean is “the OCD in me that always has it in the back of my mind, if I’m in the middle of watching/reading/listening to something that I’ve not completed all the way through yet, that will bother me constantly until I finish it”. And I don’t want that bothering me while I’m traveling for the next two weeks.

But that’s all right, I’m caught up on everything. Finished Pierre Novellie’s book, which I enjoyed very much, much more in-depth research than I was expected and I learned some stuff even though I already know quite a bit about autism, I recommend it a lot to anyone who’s interested in learning more, delivered in a funny and interesting way. Taskmaster Australia just finished (though the new NZ one starts soon, I’ll have to catch up on that when I get home). Even The Bugle has just begun its summer hiatus, as if to kindly refrain from adding “stuff to catch up on” into my podcast feed right before I go on a trip. Last Week Tonight came back last weekend with a very strong episode, so I’ll catch up on those when I get home too. And I have my actual news podcasts that I’ve categorically decided I’m putting on hold for two weeks. The world can do what it likes.

And I finished the 8 episodes of Barnes & Peacock, which I’d meant to just dabble in but ended up not being able to stop until I’d run out of them. Three episodes of the regular comedy radio show but with Angela Barnes instead of Ed Gamble, and five episodes of their separate “Do Sex” show, which was meant to be still a funny comedy show but also informative and for serious discussions about many things related to sex, and that was weird, because the main thing I learned from this sort-of educational show is that I’m not mature enough to handle serious in-depth discussions about sex. Actually that’s not true – the main thing I learned from the Barnes & Peacock Do Sex show is that apparently, most of the ideas in The Ray Peacock Podcast were taken directly from Ian Boldsworth’s actual sex life. So that’s good. Glad they found a way to make that podcast even weirder.

Anyway, the Barnes and Peacock stuff was a lot of fun. Put some of the stuff that went on in Peacock & Gamble from the same time in a bit of context, seeing how a different person reacted to the same version of Ray Peacock. I’d say Angela Barnes did at least as well with it as Ed Gamble, which is impressive as she didn’t have the 7 years of history in figuring out how to fit her performance into whatever the hell Ray Peacock was doing.

She really is good, I’d forgotten how much I like her. She used to be one of my favourites on The News Quiz, during the times when the years when I listened to that show every weekend (2009 to 2023, I stopped following it so much when I started listening to The Bugle, which covers a lot of the same ground but without some of the less good guests that the BBC brings in for balance). And she was excellent on Mock the Week, they gave her all those spots for a reason. I know “good on Mock the Week” is not the highest of praise in all circles, something that’s at the front of my mind as I’ve been listening to so much Ian Boldsworth lately. And if Ian Boldsworth wants to call Ed Gamble or anyone else a sellout for Mock the Week (for the record, I have never heard him call Angela Barnes a sellout), he has retained the moral high ground from which to do that, voluntarily or otherwise. But I’ve watched every single episode of Mock the Week (like I said, compulsive completism), and I found Ed Gamble and Angela Barnes both very funny on a lot of them. So I couldn’t call anyone a sellout for that even if I wanted to, which I don’t. I’m aware that it is not always the highest quality of television. I’m aware that it’s a pantomime where people pretend to say things spontaneously that they’ve actually planned out beforehand (but I’ve also been reminded this week of the popularity of professional wrestling, and as long as people are watching that shit, I don’t see why panel shows get singled out as a terrible thing because it turns out this TV show has been written by writers!). It’s still a vehicle where some people were very funny sometimes, particularly Angela Barnes.

Angela Barnes did also have a fantastic special on NextUp last year, Hot Mess, one of my favourite 2023 shows that I’ve had the chance to see. And I won’t get to see her 2024 show in person since she gets to Edinburgh right after I leave, but I’m hoping she’ll film it again somewhere. She also had a great Radio 4 series some years ago, taking back the dead dad show. She’s great. I already knew she was great, I’ve known that for longer than I’ve known about most of these comedians (because I got into a lot of this stuff in 2020, but The News Quiz much earlier), but I’d not thought of her in a while and was pleased to be reminded.

She did a really good job of holding her own with whatever Ray threw at her, moving seamlessly between high and low status, between trying to keep a handle on things and falling apart herself. And Ray was very good at switching places just as quickly, from being the child she has to control to yelling at her for falling apart. A bit like the old Peacock & Gamble ability to seamlessly trade off the straight man role – a dynamic they’d sort of lost by 2024, so it was fun to hear that again.

My Peacock & Gamble folder has sort of blown up into a “all the things Ray Peacock did between 2007 and 2014, which were the Peacock & Gamble years so all of that, but it includes non-Gamble stuff too” folder. Though even that’s not all-inclusive, because it includes a couple of pre-2007 Ray Peacock stand-up clips that I dug up, and a “retrospectives” folder of them both discussing those years post-2014, which, in the interests of honesty, I have subtitled the “celebrity gossip” folder. And I know that after I get back from my trip that’s likely to get broader. I might end up getting into all his post-Peacock & Gamble FUBAR radio stuff. Also I’ve not scratched the surface of his Patreon content. But I still refuse to listen to anyone talk about ghosts.

So that’s what’s going on in my life, in terms of my comedy content journey. I fly to fucking London tomorrow. That doesn’t feel real. I’ve packed some thing. Checked into my flight online. Loaded my phone with a folder of old audio comedy, shows that fit most squarely into my special interests/part of comedy I know the most about, all recordings I've heard before, most of them recordings I've heard multiple times before. Comfort shows. The five albums that David O'Doherty's released, Nish Kumar's 2016 and 2019 stand-up albums, and a selection of Kitson stand-up and radio stuff, mainly from the 00s. Stuff to listen to while traveling that won't activate the "You have to finish listening to this now" part of my brain, because I've heard it plenty before. Stuff that's a fun reminder of why I got so deeply obsessed with the history of 21st-Century Edinburgh Fringe Festival comedy, now that I'm going to go fucking see it.

Oh, have I mentioned that I've added to my schedule? I'm now seeing a Romesh Ranganathan WIP on Sunday evening, the day I arrive (I fly overnight tomorrow). Meaning I've booked comedy for every night that I'm in London - Romesh WIP, Kitson's Collaborator, Brynley Stent's polished 2023 show at the Soho Theatre, Nish Kumar WIP at the Bill Murray because it's not like I'll see Nish Kumar enough other times (I don't actually listen to Pod Save the UK, I have booked into both recordings of it because it's a chance to pay to be in a room with Nish Kumar, in addition to seeing his own show in Edinburgh, in 2022 I drove 8.5 hours to New York City just for a Nish Kumar show and then 2 months later drove 2 hours to Montreal just to see him do the same show I'd already seen, it was totally worth it, you may ask why I don't listen to Pod Save the UK if I want that much Nish Kumar in my life, the answer is I am at max capacity on topical shows and the world is too terrible to add any more), Desiree Burch WIP at ABC. That is a fucking strong lineup. I got very lucky with who's playing while I'm in London. I'm really excited to see Romesh, I've heard some of his recent stuff and it's incredibly funny, to be honest better than I was expecting (not that I'd expected it to be bad, I just hadn't heard his stand-up before and knew he's mostly a TV presenter these days, but it turns out he is very very good at stand-up). I also like the narrative parallel, as Romesh throwing a watermelon on the floor in s01e01 of Taskmaster was the moment, when I first saw it 4.5-ish years ago, that really really hooked me on this stuff. Honestly I was just watching that first Taskmaster episode out of curiosity and I hadn't really "got" it up until that moment, not sure how much longer I would have given it if Romesh Ranganathan hadn't made me absolutely die laughing by going feral on a watermelon. How different my life might be now, if Romesh Ranganathan had not done the funniest thing that's ever been committed to television, which made me 100% sure that I need to watch every episode of that show and also every other thing every person remotely involved in it has ever done. I like that he'll be the first comedian I see when I travel to the UK.

And obviously I've changed around my Edinburgh schedule, since I last posted it and said that was the final one. Added Lou Wall on Monday night, because I'd dropped Greg Larsen (only because I learned I'd get a chance post-Edinburgh to hear his 2024 show, no one should drop Greg Larsen otherwise) and I had to do something to keep up the way I'm using my Edinburgh schedule to prove that there are no straight Australian comedians (Lou Wall, Laura Davis, Tom Ballard, Zoe Coombs Marr, Dan Rath - my schedule is surprisingly heavy on Australians). I moved several things around to be able to see Jin Hao Li, because I got to hear a bit of his stuff this week, immediately fell in love with him and decided I was willing to sacrifice other things (specifically, I sacrificed Susie McCabe for this, hopefully she'll film her show like she did last year so I can still see it), if I can pay to hear him say stuff in a room.

I dropped Kiri Pritchard-McLean, which I found difficult because I've read about her show this year and it looks very interesting, about the foster and social care system (in addition to the fact that I've seen three previous Kiri Pritchard-McLean stand-up hours and they've all been excellent). I know there are confidentiality issues with that show, but presumably she's solved them now since I've read interviews in which she talked about it openly, so hopefully she'll still end up filming it in some form, at some point. I really wanted to see it. But the only time I could see it was a time when it would run into Sophie Duker's show, I'd had it set up so I could try to see both, but realized I won't enjoy either if I'm worried about having no time in between. And I really, really want to see Sophie Duker. So I replaced Kiri with Kanan Gill, a comedian from India who got four stars off Chortle for this show at MICF this year, which doesn't necessarily mean anything (Acaster's Heckler's Welcome got four stars off Chortle last year, which is a 5-star show if I have ever seen one, but Jazz Emu's You Shouldn't Have also got four stars off Chortle, which was... I mean I don't want to be too much of a dick about this and I guess some people like that stuff but my God did I ever find that show annoying), but the actual content of the review made me think that show sounded very interesting. So I'll see how that goes. And he can't run into Sophie Duker's show because he's in the same room as her, right before (not just the same venue, the same room, I checked). And then I realized I could slot Stevie Martin right into another gap, and I like the little bits I've seen her do on other things, and I heard her show is one of those interesting ones of the sort that I should see at a fringe festival, so I'll try it.

I think my Fringe schedule, as it stands now, is more focused on taking chances on smaller names/comedians I don't know quite as much about, as it was in the original version. Which is good, for a fringe festival. Particularly in terms of seeing comedians who do offbeat things that don't really work if you're not live in the room with them (Mat Ewins) - it's good to take the opportunity to see that when I'm over there, and I can hear the more straightforward comedy from home. Hopefully that works out. Hopefully I didn't overbook.

Looking at this is odd, right after finishing Pierre Novellie's book, which contained a chapter on autism burnout that I related to very hard. You know, that thing where you try to do too many things at once, particularly things with a lot of people around and a lot of sensory input, with not enough downtime in between, and then you crash physically and psychologically as a result. I listened to that chapter that described something that's happened to me a lot in my life, and I listened to it while booking this schedule.

I do, cautiously optimistically, think it might be all right. It helps that even though I'll be around a lot of people, I won't be expected to do much actual interacting with people. I'll be in control of what I do, I don't have to follow a group's plan. And, obviously, it helps that it's something I really really really want to do. Autism burnout countered by special interests? I mean, that isn't actually how it works, really, but I like to think it could be.

I do feel like one of those kids in a newspaper article about autism. Like the stereotype that all autistic people are 8-year-old white boys who are obsessed with trains, and then you read an article in a tiny local paper about an 8-year-old white boy who's autistically obsessed with trains, and he got to meet a train conductor and go to a train museum and lost his mind with excitement, and it's sweet and heartwarming in addition to having vaguely weird inspirational stereotype energy. I feel like I've read a lot of articles like that, and I am excited to be a protagonist in one. In terms of autism stereotypes, with this vacation I have booked, I am 8-year-old white boy, and these are my trains.

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broomsticks · 2 years ago

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today's hp fandom excavation fun: the hp_essays livejournal comm

1) When will the fandom end? posted by (ljuser)vegetasbubble on 07 December 2007

As much as we (any of us) hate to admit it, the Harry Potter fandom will one day (hopefully not one day soon) come to an end. Authors will write thier last ever fanfiction, draw thier last ever fanart, and put down the pencil and say "Thats it." Its a stage of life that no one, (I am one of those people), wants to see. The end of a generation, so to speak.

i was especially amused by this given the recent stats by destinationtoast that had HP as THE fastest growing fandom (and second largest to MCU overall) on AO3 in 2022.

anyway, virtually all the comments disagreed, pointing out the longevity of many many many other literary and movie/TV fandoms.

interestingly, though, i don't think i saw much note of how specifically groundbreaking HP was. aside from this:

Aside from the complete falsity of this claim, I'd rather pursue a new line of thought. In the past few years we seen the HP fanfiction exponentially grow being one of the hugest on general fanfiction websites, spawning huge websites in general for one specific IP and even within the fanfictiondom having different sub-sections, (such as slash, a particular ship or adult) of fanfiction having moderately large collections of works on their own. This is basically a testatment to HP being on of the biggest franchises of this generation to be able to generate such an incredible amount fandom, not to mention an almost serendipitously bring together the forces capitalism, luck, forture, marketing, publishing and talent to make it such a huge hit. The question I pose is to what degree will this fandom die down if at all? Obviously some people will hand up their brushes, mice and pens to abandon contributions to the monster than is HP fandom; but just as the longevity of slash Star Trek fics and LOTR fan art; to what extent will HP fandom survive? Does the content of being a youth fantasy or children's coming of age story have a bearing on how long it will last, when it will last and how slowly (or quickly) the fandom will die down?

this observation on the cyclical nature of fandom was fascinating too:

Hah. I used to ask myself the same question the first time that I was in a fandom. (Tolkien´s Silmarillion) People were writing everything off and exhausting all the good ideas by doing them over and over. Eventually, the people I knew grew tired, and I grew tired too, so most of us left. Years later, however, I suddenly had an impulse to go back and write some more… and guess what I found. New people had taken the place of the old, and the old fic ideas, the old controversies were coming up again as if they were new. Because for those people, they were new. They had not been there back when we wrote and discussed, and most of them had none or little knowledge of what had been done. Fandom repeats itself just like history, because new generations come, and they do not know what has been done before. And, as is the case with history, research about the past is a minoritary hobby. Do you read all the posts in a forum when you join? Or the mails in a mailing list that has been going for seven years? Well, it´s the same with the people who suddenly read Harry Potter and decide that they like it… they will start from zero, and probably read some classics that a friend reccomends to them, but they will not spend their first fannish months reading everything that has been already done, yelled, discussed, squeed and kept saved in Potter sites years before. They will spend them writing feverishly, noticing things, squeeing, yelling and discussing on their own- just as the others once did.

other Very Good essays:

2) Participatory Interpretation; Or, How Fanon Showed Me My Canon by gjules, posted 10 Sep 2004

Partly because of the size and complexity of its universe and partly because of its large and varied cast, the Harry Potter fandom has one of the widest spreads of potential interpretation… So how are we to take the author's intentions into this? As interesting as auctorial intent is in extra-textual interpretation, it still can be misleading. Authors are aware of their creation on many levels, and not all of those levels are consciously accessible. That's one of the strengths of the beta reader: they're not telling you what to do-- they're telling you what you've done.

For me, for example, rereading the books after finding HG/SS was an exercise in reinterpretation. Incorrect reinterpretation, reinterpretation informed and created by my hopeless enjoyment of Sevmione, I have no doubt, at least in light of the probability of that particular OTP occurring in future canon-- but still an interesting perspective on a given text which I might otherwise never have considered. Naturally, this leads to accusations of fanon muddying the waters of the original canon, making things confusing, blinding the fanfic reader and writer to what's really going on. I don't buy this. I would argue that instead, the reader who takes diverse perspectives from fanfic back to the original canon is instead more likely to see all of the possibilities, is less likely to be blinded by the initial assumptions anyone draws when encountering a text.

I've found that reading fanfiction often shows me the assumptions I've unconsciously held about canon. In my view of canon, Snape is more often the tormented hero, and Harry often closer to being in the wrong-- but the different views I have read of fanon Snape show me the other ways other readers see him.

This discussion eventually leads to a disturbing question, however: can all views of canon be considered equally privileged?

a response:

Short answer: no. Why? Because not all views of canon can be equally supported. If your view of canon can be demonstrably shown to contradict something like a significant point of the text, it is weakened. If you have an analysis of canon that fails to account for some major features of the text, or is contradicted by them, it is less priviledged than an analysis which is able to comphrend more things. The completeness criterion is one that I've found is applied across a lot of topics of analysis, from literature to hard-core music theory (yep, there is such a thing).

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3) a lovely (if slightly ranty!) tonks character study meta:

The Deconstruction of a Miss Nymphadora Tonks by theregoesyamum on 09 Apr 2006:

1. She's direct. 2. She's intelligent. 3. She has a sense of humour. 4. She hasn't got a rotten bone in her body. 5. She's irreverent and unconventional. 6. She's a Black by blood, if not by name.

go read it in full! keeping in mind the fandom post-HBP was full of massive tonks-related wank (alluded to in the (mostly good! worth reading!) discussion here).

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4) i'm sad this post (Fanfiction Writing Style and Stylistic Trends by ignipes, posted 04 September 2005) doesn't seem to exist on the internet anymore (yes, i did try wayback machine)

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5) no shortage of peter pettigrew meta -- though a lot of these were written pre-DH, some even pre-OOTP and pre-HBP. interesting reads, but none i felt were especially notable.

#hp fandom history #hp meta #fanfiction meta #nymphadora tonks #canon compliance

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thedragonsfate · 2 years ago

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anyway I'm just gonna dump some fantasy High stuff here bc work got cancelled coz of the snow/ice and I'm rewatching freshman year rn

- riz/fabian qpr? VERY different story for me than romantic involvement. give me that very particular friendship give me that "this is confusing" for riz bc he knows he's not ~into~ fabian and he's terrified of fabian being into him but also he just wants needs HAS to be closer to him than his other friends and them navigating together what exactly that means. also bc I just. adore when fabian gives away that he 100% considers riz to be his best friend it's always v sweet and meaningful even when it's silly im

- sorry but I just have to believe that for a small time in freshman year fabian has a crush on adaine and that played a small part in his reaction to aelwyn being her sister

- that being said the boy is Not straight I like bi fabian I like pan fabian I like gay comphet fabian I like gay repressed fabian give me any queer fabian you've got my stamp of approval

- also bc I DO agree that fabian probably had a small crush on riz at somepoint as well that would eventually turn into a v different but still intense and loving partnership

- which is fun to think abt bc sophomore year DID fully convert me into a fabragh shipper, and ragh is very very different than both riz and adaine in terms of like. post-bully/post-being groomed/post a year of counseling w Jawbone Era ragh is so emotionally open and intelligent and vulnerable I feel like (things that riz and adaine aren't necessarily NOT, but definitely not in the public way that ragh is) and in that ragh is genuinely just not a very smart guy - which is in direct opposition to adaine and riz as the two big research bad kids yk. they really are the two who love to learn with a hunger for knowledge. they both love to KNOW things (albeit in slightly different ways) also theyre both v sarcastic and straightforward, whereas ragh is someone who I feel like reacts to situation just as straightforward but with more genuine emotion, and with a simple minded approach to the world that just screams genuineness

- I like fabian finding that the part of him drawn to that hunger for knowledge and a little bitchiness and Knowing Things can be sated in his friendships but particularly in a qpr with riz, and also finding that in terms of a romantic partner, having someone who knows the depths of toxic masculinity repressing your emotions who also actively draws vulnerability out of the people around him through exhibiting his own/ his own acceptance of those harder feelings- is someone REALLY good for fabian. and finding that being as attentive and admiring and uplifting to his partner as fabian can be is something really good for ragh considering raghs past relationships

- anyway obvs I'm not the biggest fan of fabian and aelwyn at the end of soph year but also I think it's something that wouldn't last v long anyway and I think it's maybe good for leading them both into making a pivot into more deliberate self care and discovery

- also just. care a LOT abt fig and gorgugs friendship. underrated best friends. maybe not underrated there's so much fan content I've yet to explore but yk what I mean. from the first few episodes? they are Best Friends. gorgug and fabian and ragh have a fun important jock friend dynamic and ofc gorgug has an important relationship with Zelda but I fully believe wholeheartedly that fig is gorgugs best friend. fig also has her important relationships - ayda, adaine, Kristen (or. honestly fig has a v particular friendship with every bad kid that I value SUPER highly. she cares a LOT) but gorgug was her first ride or die and there's a lot that can be shared between two people who can quietly admit just how much they CARE.

- damn now I'm thinking abt fig too much

- also fig and fabians relationship changing as gilear and hallariel get more serious and fabian accepts gilear into his family unit a bit more - fig was SO full speed ahead abt gorgug or riz being her brother to have fabian actually kind of fall into that position? amazing incredible

- fig also becoming pseudo sisters with adaine and aelwyn??? also very important???

- fig and riz kind of potentially becoming siblings????? CHAOS and also PERFECTION maybe it's just the Emily Murph chemistry but there's something so particularly FUN abt these two. and also. this connection of having been the. two at the beginning of sophomore year nabbed to fulfill that first part of getting kalina and later the abernants etc a way into the forest of the nightmare king

- I'll admit I have a harder time pinning Kristen down in my head post sophomore year. I think I need to fully explore what I think it looks like for Kristen to Fully Understand what Tracker is expressing she needs, and letting herself look outside of herself a little more. she's had so much battle within herself in terms of self acceptance and world views shattering and religious and spiritual journey that. I think she just hasn't gotten old enough yet to FULLY experience looking outside of herself. not necessarily in a selfish way but also a little bit? Kristen's not the only one struggling with this necessarily but I think she is the one who's struggling with it the MOST

- if anybody actually reads this and has any good fic recommendations exploring Kristen and tracker separately and together post sophomore year when tracker goes on her mission with ragh PLEASE hit me up

- nothing I can say abr riz will ever be as poignant as the post abt his bloody hands.

- adaine having family in a semi traditional sense??? also extremely important to me. to see her and jawbone like. doing parent kid stuff together on purpose to build memories with one another? adaine and aelwyn being awkward hovery unsure sisters as they both work on continuing recovery? adaine being a guiding influence in aelwyns life, and supporting her through a new family landscape and personal landscape and disability landscape when she is able and helping aelwyn find therapy and jawbone and other adults and peers to lean on as well to flush out that support system she never had? adaine getting to settle even further into her growing network of people who LOVE her, and say it and show it and clearly value her input. her seeing a new therapist to process how difficult it can be to accept love from a parent a figure when all you've know is rejection in the past

-there are essays I could write abt aelwyn abernant and her relationship with her sister but alas not today

- fig being this glue. I really TRULY believe that fig plays a particular role in the bad kids

- riz and Kristen continuing to be this chaos duo purely on accident despite fully believing in themselves to Not be that

- riz and gorgugs quieter friendship

- gorgug and fig talking about bisexuality

- Kristen and fabian talking abt internalized homophobia, and their own relationships with self image and selfishness amongst a genuine drive to be kind

- literally any of them and all of them talking abt their dad's. it's all so different and yet so intertwined

- Kristen and fig just being genuinely p good friends, perhaps not huge confidants for one another in a way outside of the bad kid dynamic, but someone to lean on with gf stuff, and impulsively stuff, etc

- fig and tracker becoming p good friends feels good to me. tracker and ragh becoming kind of?? fully best friends on their quest?? getting to lean into one another as someone who has embraced their sexuality in a particularly mirrored way? as people in the lives of the bad kids but also just individuals going through their own shit

- I have a lot to add abt the seven but this rambly post is already too long probably

- gorgugs friends fully appreciating him and understanding him at different levels. more of adaine being extra supportive and uplifting of him Re: his first date with Zelda.

- more of any of them teasing the others abt romantic endeavors

- honestly more adaine being invested in her friends love lives bc she just. loves her friends and wants them to be happy regardless of her own journey of finding out who she is in that arena.

- personally a big fan of sex repulsed ace adaine but I also am kind of just. particularly open to most things sexuality/attraction wise with adaine. I really TRULY love adaine taking YEARS to figure out where she thinks her attention and interest is or isn't drawn

- adaine and riz research friends / fiends

- fabian gorgug and adaine being Voices of Reason for an overworked and sleepless riz, fabian gorgug adaine and riz being voices of reason to fig and Kristen's separate shenanigans

- the list of voices of reason goes on and on ; having such a tight network of friends is genuinely such a particular gift

- slumber parties at mordrid

- the bad kids annual kidnap gilear to ditch school day

- the bad kids reoccurring shrimp parties

- fig and the sig figs concerts and tours and interviews and breaks

- ayda getting to know other members of the bad kids better. ayda hanging out with adaine bc they're best friends. ayda hanging out with fig and uplifting eachother and finding solace in one another and someone who just. sees them.

- ayda bonding with other autistic bad kids. seem some rlly good gorgug riz and Kristen autistic hcs and they're all v nice in their different ways so honestly any combination of that

- ayda and Kristen just sort of. not getting eachother?? ayda and FABIAN just sort of. not getting eachother but being kind and thoughtful just as people ans also in an effort to find friendship in someone else v important to fig

- gorgug and ayda getting along just. genuinely pretty easily cbjdsbxnksxkc

- ok I'm done for rn xbjdnzncm

#long post #d20 fantasy high

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robotnik-mun · 2 years ago

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What do you think would happen if SatAM Robotnik and games Eggman (for some reason in my mind classic Eggman is what shows up usually when I consider the scenario) somehow managed to switch places?

Would SatAM Robotnik have a more difficult time dealing with the games universe considering it seems like the game characters are much more physically powerful than the SatAM cast, and they have access to resources like the chaos emeralds? Or would he find it easier since there is no tactile resistance force akin to the Freedom Fighters?

Would games Eggman find himself struggling against such a well-coordinated resistance effort, or would his more creative, extreme plans and creations put the Freedom Fighters at a disadvantage? Would he find Robotropolis and it’s completely Roboticized subjects boring since there is nobody really around (besides Snively) to give him attention and to boost his ego?

It makes sense that you'd picture classic Eggman for it given that this was the time when SatAM first debuted and when Julian was concurrent with the guy, before Sonic Adventure changed the name of the game. As such I'll use the classic era of things as the benchmark here.

Anyway-

Julian upon winding up in the classic Sonic world and swiftly discovering he no longer has the vast resources he commanded back on Mobius, I feel, would actually make efforts for a more subtle means of taking over than Ivo is prone to. His first step would be to create a working Roboticizer, and the next step would be to use whatever resources he presently has to create a hidden fortress to co-ordinate his new schemes from and doing research on the world and its defenders. Naturally he'd be miffed to discover that The Hedgehog is still around along with Tails, though curiously none of the other Freedom Fighters.

One point of definite interest for Julian would be the existence of the Chaos Emeralds and the data on this world's version of the Floating Island. Rather than overt conquest immediately, Julian instead builds up his new Swatbot army slowly, while carefully kidnapping and capturing people to be roboticized to serve as a new slave labor force. From there he uses the Robian slaves to build more robots and expand his hidden, underground fortress-city, all the while gathering data on Sonic and friends. Something that, due to their relatively public lives (save for Knuckles) is a lot easier by comparison.

In any event when the time comes for him to show his hand, Sonic and Friends are going to have a VERY hard time with things. Not only are Swatbots and the like much more formidable than Badniks, Julian having experience as a military strategist and planner means he's not prone to the same kind of errors that Ivo makes (or at least not as often), and as such our heroes are kept on their feet almost constantly, and whatever victories they do enjoy are by the skin of their teeth. Quickly it becomes less a matter of beating Robotnik's forces and more a matter of rescuing people before they can be added to his growing forces. Pretty soon they find themselves playing things out as they are in SatAM (or if you will, Sonic forces), forced into hiding and having to better organize themselves against Robotnik's encroachment.

So yeah, not a fun time for the SEGA crew.

Eggman on Mobius by contrast would have different problems and different goals, and provide different challenges for the Freedom Fighters compared to his Mobius counterpart. To begin with, the realization that he controls a global empire here with all the resources that entails would be a cause for ecstacy, as would the revelation of the Roboticizer being basically the perfect means of creating obedient slave workers out of a conquered populace… up until the reveal that Sonic and Tails are still around here. That'd put a damper on his good mood.

Still, despite that setback, Eggman none the less realizes he has a good thing here. Especially since now, with the resources at his disposal, all he needs to do is find a way back to his original home and bring his newfound army with him, and thus reign supereme over both worlds. Snively at first would underestimate Eggman thinking of him as a childish buffoon, only to quickly learn the error of his ways… Eggman might not be as vicious or cruel as Julian, but he is far, far from harmless.

Eggman would proceed to re-organize things in Robotnik's empire more in accordance with his own style of things, but his primary goal would be focus his attention on building a new super weapon to send back home and facilitate his conquest of the world. Work would begin on a new, improved Death Egg, and he would also deploy Swatbots in order to capture small animals for usage in Badnik shells. The Freedom Fighters would find themselves deeply confounded by the birds they typically use for communications being captured, as well as the Great Forest suddenly being infested with various Badnik types. Being unused to the Badniks, they're forced to re-adjust to the swarms of new robots infesting every corner of things… and that's without getting into the terror of Metal Sonic. One particular adjustment is that Eggman does not hate Sonic with the same obsessive zeal that Robotnik does, and as such, they can no longer rely on familiar tactics to distract the ovoid one.

Their great advantage is that Eggman's showboating and lack of preparation in dealing with this kind of organized resistance means that dealing with him isn't quite the ordeal it could be, but things are not easy for the Freedom Fighters. EAsier than what their SEGA counterparts are dealing with, but not easy by a long shot.

Take note that this is all very Broad Strokes and I haven't really got a super specific idea for this beyond this point, other than what you might expect- sooner or later the heroes of both dimensions make contact and aid each other in taking down their respective Egg Men, and Robotnik's master plan is revealed- using the Chaos Emeralds to merge the counterpart planets into one, an act that would devastate SEGAworld and allow his empire to move in and lay claim swiftly to the new lands and people availble while swelling up his army. Naturally at some point Eggman would lend a hand to the Heroes in order to save his own world rather than let an 'inferior copy' have control over it before he can do it.

The Day Is Saved, everyone returns to their proper place, but not before the two Sonics decide to engage in a Chilli-Dog Eating Contest to end them all.

As I said this is all fairly broad strokes and without a super exact sequence of events in mind, but that's pretty much how I might see it playing out... honestly all of 'these' kind of scenarios wind up ending the same way in my head, with Julian ultimately proving himself to be the bigger danger and Everybody Working Together To Thwart Him In The End.

#Sonic the Hedgehog #Dr. Robotnik #Dr. Eggman #SatAM

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mermaidsirennikita · 2 years ago

Note

I have a semi-serious question for you, as you seem to have your thumb pretty firmly on the pulse of romance novels these days.

What do you think of the "retellings" type works where people are taking, pretty specifically, Pride and Prejudice and the like, and leaving it in the setting but changing it up somewhat? Like putting Elizabeth with Colonel Fitzwilliam, or something like that?

Because I actually have -- and have had -- an idea puttering around my brain surrounding another Austen novel, and I'm wondering if there's actually an audience and if it might be worth working on or not. I mean, I like the idea anyway, I might do it in a completely different setting at some point, but to play with it in the actual Regency would be...I think it would be a lot of fun, and I've done some research into the Regency Era anyway.

Anyway, just a question, thought I'd ask. Thanks!

Well, thanks--I don't know how in touch I am with romance, but that's flattering!

I'm pro-Austen retelling because I feel like there's a level of glorification of her work that I think could stand be shaken up a little. That said, Austenites are very protective of the work, so there's always a level of controversy surrounding them. I actually have one on my shelf--Mr. Darcy Takes A Wife. That one is soooo controversial, because--among other things--Darcy and Lizzie (omg!) have married couple sex!

Recently, Ash Dylan (whose Twitter is so much fun) posted a lot about writing a Darcy/Lizzie book that would be... irreverent and graphic, from what I could see. Everyone loved that--I loved it.

To me, you really need to focus on making it your own and not worshipping or feeling beholden to the source material. But there's a lot of potential in that space!

#romance novel blogging

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whennnow · 1 year ago

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A Regency Re-Do

August 6, 2020

[Image ID: a photo of Alex from the back showcasing the back closure of a green Regency dress. It is tied at the neck and waist with black drawstrings.]

Several years ago (possibly 2014) I took my first foray into historical costuming and made a vaguely Regency-era dress using a dark green cotton and Simplicity 4055 (which is evidently no longer in print). I was proud of how it turned out then, and frankly I'm still proud of it, considering my lack of sewing knowledge at the time. Since then I've done more research and learned more about sewing, so I decided to make some slight alterations to the dress.

Or it started as "slight" alterations - just making the sleeves shorter and letting out the hem. Then, much in the style of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," I decided that I wanted to re-set the sleeve completely, and fix the neck drawstring casing, and I should probably fix the waist drawstring too, and, well, I might as well just remove the bodice completely and re-pleat the skirt...

Yeah.

When I put on the dress to decide on alterations, I discovered that the gathering in the sleeves was more toward the front of the dress, which gave them an awkward look. So, I grabbed my seam ripper and removed the sleeves. After a quick iron, I re-set them by machine, keeping all the gathering in the upper back panel of the bodice (see the picture below). I tried it on again and discovered that re-setting the sleeves that way also fixed an issue I was having that limited my arm mobility!

The dress was originally long-sleeved, but they were a bit too short for my arms. I like the elbow-length sleeves seen in a lot of fashion plates from the era, so I cut off the bottom of the sleeve and hemmed the new sleeve by hand.

Seeing the nice hand stitching compared to my wonky, inexperienced machine stitching on the neckline drawstring casing convinced me to rip out that stitching and re-sew it by hand with a simple running stitch. I also decided to make the casing slightly narrower - somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2", instead of 3/4". This had the added benefit of making the gathered drawstring look neater.

And If I re-do the neckline casing, I had better make the waistline casing match, right? So I picked up my seam ripper once again.

Unfortunately, that gave me an up-close-and-personal look at where the bodice and skirt were attached. The inside bodice (it's two layers) had been topstitched to encase the raw edge of the skirt, but I hadn't turned under the raw edge of the inside bodice! So, of course, I had to re-do that, too. At some point I picked at the wrong line of stitching and...

Well, I didn't like the way the back of the skirt was gathered anyway.

So the skirt was removed, ironed, re-pleated, and reattached by machine. Then the lower edge of the inner bodice was turned under and stitched down by hand. A running stitch finished off the drawstring casing at the waist.

That just left the hem. Like the sleeves, it was a bit shorter than I liked (or perhaps I was shorter when I first made the dress). Luckily, it had a fairly deep hem - there were just over two inches of fabric available. So out came the seam ripper and the iron and the needle and thread, and I gave the skirt a narrow, hand-sewn hem. And, finally (FINALLY), I was done.

Ultimately, the dress doesn't look drastically different than it originally did (despite the fact that I completely removed the bodice and sleeves), but I'm still much happier with how it looks! It was kind of fun to look back at something I sewed so long ago and see how far my skills have come, too.

I might like to re-do the sleeves again in the future. They are very loose around the arm, which I don't think is very flattering, and most fashion plates and paintings from the era show more snug sleeves. I might also remove the machine top-stitching around the back closure. We'll see.

Stay warm. Stay safe. Stay healthy.

[Image ID: a full-length, 3/4 view of Alex wearing a simple dark green Regency dress in the woods.]

#wnn projects #regency sewing #regency era #regency wardrobe #wnn green regency dress

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garaksapprentice · 5 months ago

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D) All of the above.

The concept of "stealing patterns" is, to my mind, almost entirely a result of the commercialisation and commodification of fibre crafts that started circa the Victorian era, combined with the clusterfuck that is the modern copyright system.

(Usual caveats that I mostly deal with European history, I'm not a professional historian, etc. Also I'm mostly going to talk about knitting - sorry crochet, I know you deserve love too, but I just haven't done as much historical research on you.)

Consider: The Victorian era was the time when social and industrial factors collided to start making knitting and crochet a leisure activity, rather than an economic one. It was possibly the first time in history when it was both possible, and socially acceptable/enforced, for ladies of a certain social class to pursue such hobbies for fun, rather than for income.

The printing press meant ladies' magazines were exploding in popularity, and they needed stuff to put in them. You could easily modify an existing pattern, either a little or a lot, and pass it off as your own creation.

Hell, you could just steal someone else's pattern if you didn't want to bother. Straight up copypasta of each other people's patterns was rampant, to the point that textile scholars can't always pinpoint the 'original' designer of some patterns. Just like content creators today, the biggest names weren't always (often?) the ones who came up with the things they were publishing.

I know from our modern perspective that seems quite iffy, to say the least. But bear in mind that our modern view of these things is an outlier on the timespan of humanity's relationship with cultural knowledge.

The modern copyright system has been championed in large part by massive companies, the Disneys and Penguins and Warner Brothers of the world. They're desperate to hold onto the rights they have to control other people's works, far past any sane time period. It's a form of cultural enclosure (video link), to borrow Tom Nicholas' wonderful phrase.

As I said above, this is an aberration. (I highly recommend the video I linked above for a better explanation.) Before copyright got out of hand, this kind of textile knowledge existed in the commons. It was assumed that patterns for crochet pineapple doilies or the King Charles brocade were just... there, hanging about in the cultural aether, for anyone who wanted to use them.

And this, I think, stems from knitting (and crochet when you get closer to the modern day) being ubiquitous at the time. Knitted piecework was A Thing before, and for quite a while after, the Industrial Revolution. It mostly didn't pay well, but for many people, knitting stockings, caps, and gloves was their main source of income in a time when subsistence farming was all the rage.

I really cannot over-emphasise the sheer amount of people knitting for income from the Elizabethan period onwards. It's a safe bet to say that any time after 1600, if you didn't knit yourself, you knew someone who did.

Even up into the 1950s, knitting provided a subsistence income in many places, especially poorer regions like the Shetlands and the Aran Isles. Heck, one of my grandmothers used to knit things on commission for her local yarn shop here in Australia when she was young.

So what does that mean in practice?

It means you have a broad population of highly competent knitters that don't need written patterns. (Most of them wouldn't have been able to read them anyway.) Average, working-class knitters in the 18th century (and before, and quite a while after) thought nothing of copying a design they saw on someone else's work, especially if it was new or different. They thought even less of making a pattern up as they went along. You saw, or thought of, a thing you liked, and you knit it, and away you went. (Yes, I'm afraid the common myth that gansey patterns were family- or region-specific is very, very mythical.)

This is a far cry from today. Now the vast majority of handknitters and crocheters are hobbyists, and there's just not that many of us per capita compared to the past. A lot of us got started from videos because we didn't have anyone in our lives that could teach us. That ubiquitous knowledge from a living textile tradition has been lost. As a result, most of us don't have the skill to look at a knit or crochet object in the wild and go "yes, I like that, I shall put that on my next jumper".

We also grew up with a vastly different attitude towards who owns what, and how, and why. And knitters and crocheters today are far more likely to make a living (lolsob) selling patterns they've designed, rather than finished objects. (Thanks, fast fashion, you're a real pal.)

This shift to selling information instead of goods means that culturally, we hold patterns and their makers in higher esteem than our forebears did. So the idea of modifying an existing pattern, combining it with others etc, and then calling it your own creation, carries a different weight than it used to.

Partly this is because we don't want to step on the toes of people who've worked hard to create good patterns. (Having tried several Not Good patterns, I respect the designers who go the extra mile soooooo much more now.) The other part is that we simply don't have the internalised ability to do that shit for ourselves like we used to.

To be clear, I don't think either way of looking at things is necessarily better than the other. It's just different.

Please note that I have no evidence to back up this hypothesis. I'm taking it mostly from vibes, and an uneven reading of as much textile history as I've been able to lay my hands on in the last decade.

(I also resisted the urge to go Full Philosophical and ask "what do we mean by the word 'pattern', anyway?" so you're welcome I guess?)

---

And for the curious: Nowadays I tend to self-draft a lot of my projects. A few years ago I went hard into learning the fundamentals of knitwear design (crochet is much easier to freehand to the right size/shape). Why? Because I was sick of spending hours looking for The Pattern That Matches The Idea In My Head, only to be disappointed when I couldn't find it. (spoiler: this pattern doesn't exist on the internet.)

Now I've got that technical foundation, I will absolutely use ideas from pretty much anywhere, whether for colour, stitch pattern, construction, whatever. I always use a short-row heel instead of the heel flap that the sock pattern gives you. I've crocheted a version of a knitted item, and vice versa. I've taken a jumper pattern built for top-down construction and knit it from the bottom up.

The two books I've found most helpful are "Knitting From the Top" by Barbara Walker, and "Knitting Without Tears" by Elizabeth Zimmerman. Between those two and a couple of good stitch dictionaries, the world quickly becomes your woolly oyster. Right now I'm using instructions from "Knitting From the Top" to make a colour-blocked, peasant-sleeve jumper with saddle shoulders. Out of Tunisian crochet.

the concept of “stealing patterns” from people has always been a prevalent conversation so I’m curious.

#crochet #knitting #textile history

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