#what ive seen of that book is

[daughterofzeus-the-novel]

I know some of classicsblr dislikes the way Madeline Miller modernized the Illiad for Song of Achilles but I loved Circe and I'm really liking this one so far

[obsob]

making and weaving and loving! like we have done for millennia!!

[meplusuhoney]

spider gwen vol. 0 cover

[rustyorangee]

i love this guy...

[intistone]

did i get yeeted into gravity falls?

yeah

did i plan on making any more aus?

nope.

Did I make another one? Apparently. stay tuned cause i think this one is gonna be my most unhinged

[kagoutiss]

green beetle black beetle

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

kinda funny how people will try to reason that “I pray for a glimpse of Azor Ahai, and R’hllor shows me only Snow” should be discarded as irrelevant since it’s Mel being wrong about an interpretation of prophecy (the text makes it abundantly clear that this is NOT an interpretation idk how you could even read the very simple words and come to that conclusion) but try to reason that “I have seen it in the flames….when the red star bleeds etc etc” is the gospel truth….except that one IS an interpretation of Mel’s vision. So which is it? Is Mel right or is she wrong? Why is one good and correct and the other one bad? Why do we need to twist ourselves into pretzels in order to ignore black and white text in the simplest words possible? Like…

[ryberspaceart]

these did well on twitter so im putting them here too, i think you guys would also appreciate their silliness

[dykedvonte]

I dislike takes that Danse would be just as conservative in modernized aus when it's clearly shown his staunch views of things come from his time in the Brotherhood and his deep-rooted desire to belong to something with a greater purpose.

Not to mention lines that show much more open-mindedness that get overlooked for his harsher sentiments when you first meet him. Like the oppurtunity to be a part of something is why Danse fell so far into Brotherhood dogma and it doesn't negate the offense things he does but I feel like it's just lazy to be like "hmmm he'd def be racist" just so it aligns to his BoS beliefs.

[silverskye13]

Will enby Helsknight/trans Tanguish/top surgery scars/stubborn avoidant Welsknight in a gender crisis make it into the main story of RnS? Like, a full acknowledgment of it? Because yes, us on tumblr are aware (and happily bully RnS Wels for it) but I’m curious to how it may be brought up in the main storyline instead of rambles and drabbles. (Don’t get me wrong, those rambles and drabbles are what get me through the day. But my best friend, who isn’t in the MCYT fandom whatsoever, just caught up with RnS and doesn’t use tumblr, and besides spamming her with tumblr posts I wanna know how much I can revel in the glory of the skrunkles with her!)

That is a great question, actually. And the answer is I don't really know.

So this is one of the downsides to writing things chapter by chapter. If I had gone into this going "oh heck yeah they're trans", this would've come up in the plot way sooner. It's nice information 1) for all the trans folks reading and 2) because it has the potential to inform the themes in the narrative. This whole story is about two chief things I think: death [the inevitability of] and identity [what defines you and why]. Why should you care if literally no one else (including the universe) does? That would be so cool to speak about in terms of a trans allegory! Why do you care about gender when it's just one thing in a world of crazy things? Or at the very least, how does it inform your identity? But this is a change I made on a whim suddenly, and I know Exactly Where I Want This Plot To Go, so trans topics and allegories as Plot Points probably won't happen.

On the more technical side of introducing trans characters -- how do you do that without just dropping "oh btw they're trans" in? Like, how do you make it a relevant thing to talk about, that doesn't feel forced or shoehorned in, especially this late in the story? Probably me overthinking, but I read it done wrong so often. It gets tired. And if I ever work on my original stories, there are trans characters in there! If I can figure out how to Do It Well in a fanfic, then I can figure out how to do it in original fiction someday maybe. So I kinda wanna take the introduction seriously? I've actually been thinking about it so much I've thought about rewriting the intro to the next chapter ahaha [it already needs rewritten in general, there's a lot going on, but the intro was going to be Helsknight waking up from something, and he sleeps shirtless, and not addressing top surgery scars then would be kinda silly I think.]

I can say at the very least, Gender Avoidant Wels probably won't factor in the story much. He is a character, but I don't think he'll become Enough of a character to faithfully address something like a trans self discovery arc. At best his issues with gender might be mentioned in passing.

Sorry! I know you probably want a better answer! My answer is basically: I don't know I'm still working on it. I want it to be there, but the capacity it's there is undecided.

That being said, I've been sitting on this glorious ask since the shenanigans started and the temptation to just Do That grows every time I read it:

[consistentisnonexistent]

Does anyone know what the FUCK this damn cipher means???? I'VE BEEN TRYING EVERYTHING FOR LIKE AN HOUR

[cosmicpines]

few things annoy me as much as people whose recommendations or reviews for things start and end with "it's queer!"

[cyberkn1fe]

Attempted to explain Oltyx's subminds in one image each, results inconclusive

[sixxxer]

what do you MEAN the people who received screeners of ep 7 & 8 said it was some of the saddest stuff they've ever seen??? i just watched ep 6 and im sobbing and falling to the ground

[rewritingcanon]

I have an Albus Severus Potter face claim I want to share with the class! I have no idea who this man is, I think he’s like an influencer maybe, but I just remember seeing a picture of him and instantly thinking “that’s just Albus right there, I don’t know who else you could possibly think that is”. Like, even down to the way this man dresses, he just looks like Albus to me. I think his name is Atticus, which honestly when I saw that made me think there was no way that isn’t just Albus’ fake social media name for when he doesn’t want people to know who he is.

This man is literally just Albus. The hair, the face, the clothes, the poses (the cig). It all screams Albus to me.

how do you have multiple photos of this man and not know who he is 😭😭

im usually not a big fan of face claims but i gotta say this is one of the better albus ones i’ve seen. better than louis garrel at least 🧍‍♀️ i think the only one i’ve seen before this fc that i’ve marginally liked was mehul somar

[northern-passage]

i've been thinking a lot about the word "representation" and what it means and how it's changed over the last few years, particularly when it comes to the writing/publishing landscape but also in movies and tv shows… and i really don't like it anymore. to be clear, of course i think it's important to have diversity in your work, i'm not saying i hate the concept of representation. but i do really dislike the way it's used now, and i really just hate the word itself

in a broader sense it's just become a marketing tool. i'm not impressed by any publisher or author who just describes their book by listing all of the minorities/identities the characters represent as if that should be enough. it feels very gross, very exploitative and disingenuous. it also really bothers me because it's always marginalized identities- which i understand Why, but it feels very othering to me (and again. Very exploitative as an advertisement). you would never list out "cishet able-bodied white man" as a character description to pat yourself on the back over. so why do it to everyone else? why insinuate that one is the "default" and the other one is "special"? (and when i say this i'm mainly talking about advertisements/marketing. i understand why people would specify about characters in descriptions with the plot, but i don't like to see an ad that's just "this book has gay people!" with nothing else)

which then leads me to my other point, which is that a lot of people treat "representation" as if it's "too hard." like "oh i don't know enough to write about that, i don't have that experience, etc" which is a fair way to feel! however… it's weird that people only say this about writing trans characters or characters of color. i'm writing a story right now with a character who is really into motorcycles. i personally do not know that much about motorcycles, so i researched what parts are what & what different kinds of models there are & what basic bike care looks like. i guarantee Most people will have to google something at some point in their writing process. so what's the problem? it also, again, feels very othering when authors treat certain groups of people as "impossible" to write, "too hard" to understand. they are just.. people. you write them as a person. and then you figure out the rest later.

and i think part of the refusal or fear to write something outside of your experience is because of the way representation is treated as So Special. these characters are So Special that they aren't allowed to be anything other than "representation." they're Not allowed to be characters with complex emotions and interesting motivations, they have to just be Trans or Gay or Disabled or whatever. they're not allowed to be people. which means, at the end of the day, we loop right back around to where we were at the start….

there is bad representation. there are depictions of certain marginalized people that are harmful and that are damaging, i'm not trying to minimize that or argue against it at all, in fact we should all be mindful of that while writing and reading. but i also think it's possible to swing too far in the opposite direction as well and put certain groups of people on a pedestal and not allow them to do anything at all but be Perfect Representation, if that makes sense.