#I love tasslehoff so much

[arceneades]

Burrrffoooooot!

I'm on this discord server with like 20 other people who all play DnD with the same GM. Dude runs at least 3 campaigns at all times, he's a beast of a GM, but that isn't the point.

Point is, it's also a fun little community of DnD nerds but we do have a couple of people who occasionally comment that they hate Kender and Tasselhoff Burrfoot in particular.

If you don't know what a kender is, and you don't know Tas, I have no idea why you would be reading this but I will fill you in. If you do, feel free to skip the next paragraph.

Kender are a humanoid race in the "Dragonlance" fantasy novels. They are shorter than humans (or elves or dwarves) but typically slightly built. They are a lot like hobbits, except that kender don't feel fear and have no sense of property rights. They just steal stuff, not because they're greedy, but almost as a compulsion. They don't think about it, they just absentmindedly pick pockets or shoplift or whatever. Tasslefhoff Burrfoot is a character in the Dragonlance books. He's a kender, so he tends to "find" a lot of items that other people "lost."

So the typical complaint is that Tasslehoff is a joke character, that kender are an annoying race, and that the whole thing should have been dropped kicked out of the franchise and thrown into the sun. Because people see the "you must have dropped that" part of Tas and they don't see anything else.

This is an extraordinarily shallow reading of the character, of course. I would argue that in the original series, no character goes through as many changes as Tasslehoff Burrfoot. Here's an example quote of how his worldview changes:

Something had changed inside Tas. He would never again be like other kender. Through grief, he had come to know fear; fear not for himself but for others. He decided right now that he would rather die himself than lose anyone else he loved.

Okay. You see that, right? This character changes so much that a part of him will be forever separated from his home, from the culture he grew up it. These are young adult books, coming of age stories. Tas is the one who comes of age.

So if people think the character is shallow or one-dimensional, it's because they just can't see past that one dimension. They are stuck seeing kender the way that most people in the world of the books see kender: as lazy, thieving pests.

Some strong feelings towards fantasy races is pretty common. For example, I'm pretty annoyed by JRR Tolkien's elves. They're just so... perfect. They live forever, they're smarter than everyone else, better looking than everyone else, and they know it. They think they are better than other people because they are better than other people. Gross.

But, you know, give me a specific elf and I'll judge that elf on the basis of their behavior, not on the shape of their ears. Legolas is a great character and I would happily buy the man a beer at The Prancing Pony.

We have a word in the real world for people who can't see people as themselves, but can only see them as stereotypes based on their origin.

When it comes to kender, and especially to Tasslehoff Burrfoot. This really, really bother me. Much more than it should. I mean, what do I care if other people like or don't like a character I like or don't like? I'm not the character.

Except I sort of am, in the case of Tas. Because to me, his kleptomania is a standin for my neurodiversity. His trouble was my trouble.

Because remember, Tas doesn't steal because he's greedy. Kender don't have much of a property sense. They really only own what they're wearing and their sling-staffs. Kender don't lock their doors, they consider it impolite to be protective about mere things. He doesn't consciously lift things, he just does it. Most of the time, he doesn't know what he took or who he took it from. He never tries to keep anything that someone asks for.

Tasselhoff tries. He tries to follow these rules but he can't internalize them, they never become second nature. So if he isn't constantly vigilant over his behavior, he'll act normally (for a kender) and that will cause trouble and then someone will yell at him.

If you're neurodivergent, this probably sounds a little familiar.

What's even harder is that sometimes his friends want him to pick a lock or a pocket and while he's happy to do so, it's pretty clear that there are times when it is okay to be a kender, and times when it is not okay to be a kender... and he has trouble knowing what the difference is.

Again, if you're neurodivergent, this probably sounds a little familiar.

And I guess that's the thing that really bothers me about all the hate toward kender in general and Tasslehoff in particular. It feels personal. They're saying it isn't okay to be a kender, but I feel like they're saying it isn't okay to be neurodivergent. They say it isn't okay to be Tas, and I feel like they're saying it isn't okay to be me.

#neurodivergent #dragonlanc #tasslehoff burrfoot #Dragons of Autumn Twilight #Dragons of Winter Night #Dragons of Spring Dawning #Dragonlance Chronicles #tasslehoff is the heart of that series

[cosmik-homo]

favorite fictional characters? no need to order them, just ramble about your blorbos!

Alfred is always my MVP but also i was talking to a dude yesterday about like, Star Wars and Star Trek and I mentioned stargate and he was like the what and I just had the most powerful wave of 'they don't even have a teal'c.' Shrek meme like wow imagine not having a teal'c. Others on this list are Spock and Data in a very different way than Spock - spock is like a spiritual icon to me. Data was my boyfriend, emotionally, for a tough period of highschool. And is just. An Actual Friend To Me. Sherlock Holmes..... especially Brett's is brilliant but like. There's a reason I can recognie which story is being adapted and exactly how it goes within three minutes of adapted material most of the time, I read those stories so, many, times as a kid.

Tasslehoff burrfoot always has a place of honor no matter how much I grow up beyond DL because he's literally a funny little guy and nine year old me love him beyond life.

I would say I can't choose a star wars character but truly it's between Han and Threepio they're Just Like Me For real

This helped thank you :) wait I'm also adding Haplo he's been drifting in my brain a lot this week he's such a beloved guy to me. Like If Aragorn was lightly evil and a dog owner (masc) . And so sad and repressed. And loved his fucking DOG

[thesynthesist]

I’ve often wondered why we say ‘you’ve caught a cold’. I mean, no one I ever knew went out after a cold. And I’ve certainly never heard of anyone going cold chasing. It seems to me to make more sense to say the cold’s caught you.

Tasslehoff, Dragonlance

#I don't remember what short this is #revisiting my old quote repository #I love tasslehoff so much #I love tasslehoff so much I'm basically uniformly banned from rping kender #I'm too good #kender #dragonlance #books #7.doc #hello raistlin #I'm tied to a chair! isn't this exciting? #margret weiss #tracy hickman #quotes

[crickwater]

everytime I see someone referring to halflings as Hobbits I short circuit cause while I know it's true and that's what they're based on halflings will always be kenders in my heart

#my first d&d chatacter was a halflings cause I loved tasslehoff burrfoot as a kid so much #and a ranger cause I thought bows are cool

[feyariel]

I've made it through "Book 1" (the first not-actually-a-half) of Dragons of Autumn Twilight. I know there's an animated adaptation and that this "half" adapts the first module in the Dragonlance series, so I'm tempted of watching/reading through those before continuing, but I don't know how much the the cartoon covers.

Opinions of the Party So Far:

Caramon Majere: It took until just now for me to think that "Cardamom" would have been a better name. Not too much here, just your standard meathead (ye olde critique of Fighters) who is entirely loyal to his brother. He does rage once, but he's too much of a classic Fighter otherwise and I think this was at a time when Barbarian wasn't legitimately distinct anyway (though I could be wrong). Didn't care much one way or another, though I disliked that he emphasized (by being Raistlin's foil) the characterization the book ran with about how being a Fighter (i.e., a murderer) is morally superior to being a Mage.

Flint Fireforge: Other than being a woodworker living with humans, he strikes me as pretty much a P.J.!Gimli (weirdly made into comic relief via being dour). He had enough of a background that I liked him more than Cardamom, but not enough that I liked him.

Goldmoon: Token chick in just about every way -- has a love interest, is a princess, de facto cleric who becomes a full-fledge cleric at the end. She had more personality than some.

Raistlin Majere: He screams stereotype to me, but I don't know how much of that is him working in stock tropes (magic users are evil by definition, glass cannon) and how much is him codifying the same. Like, glass cannons go with magic-users mechanically, but I don't think I know of the trope being major in fiction prior to Raistlin. He almost fails as the token mage loremaster in that it's clear he knows a lot, but he's so distanced from the rest of the party that he barely contributes his knowledge. My other problem is that the only spell I was sure was higher than first level which we saw him cast was mass charm person, but I'd have to dig through the appropriate edition to figure out how many spell slots he should have.

Riverwind: I didn't think I would dislike this character much at first, but dear gods this is exactly how not to play D&D! He has a love interest within the party (fine, but I generally dislike that) who distrusts literally everyone else for almost the entire book, eventually learning to trust Tanis but then rejecting that trust at the end (intraparty fighting is a waste of time and I'm surprised he wasn't yelled at more for it). He may be a Ranger or Barbarian, but it's unclear because he contributes so little.

Sturm Brightblade: Pally Classic but without Pally abilities, ergo seems like Cardamom but with a bigger stick up his ass and (probably) more facial hair. In general, I found his opinions worse than Tanis', but he's a little more interesting than most of the other party members.

Tanis Half-Elven: Other than how much everyone (himself/the narrator) talks about him being an elf (much of which doesn't fit with what we know of him and of half-elves) and how little anyone comments about him being human, I rather liked this character. He had the best sense of the group and didn't just fall into a stereotype, try as the narration might to paint him as an elf. I wish he lived up to his Ranger class more, though; he barely seemed to know how to function outdoors, especially when compared to Riverwind and Tasslehoff.

Tasslehoff Burrfoot: I am torn between despising this character (kender = obnoxious? Yeah, the book did an excellent job of representing that, even when it wasn't saying "Oh yeah, kender") and being happy that there were some in-universe explanations for Rogues behaving as Rogues (even if they were race-specific). Tas was probably the second most competent member of the party (after either Goldmoon, Raistlin, or Tanis, depending on the issue) and the one most consistently portrayed as being competent at his class role. (Cardamom is portrayed as a competent Fighter, but contributes almost nothing else. Tas, meanwhile, is also the cartographer and occasional medic, which are not just him being a Rogue.)

Basically my likes go Tanis > Tas (competence) > Goldmoon > Flint (neutral with good backstory and bad relegation to comic relief) = Sturm (interesting but hard-ass Pally) > Cardamom (meh) = Raistlin (love-hate) > Riverwind > Tas (personality).

[ghostoftasslehoff]

Tagged by @kiranatrix 

Rules: Answer some questions and tag some bloggers you want to know better.

NAME: Ghost XD

NICKNAMES: Look, lmao, you can call me Ghost, my actual name (if you already know it), any sort of silly/cute pet names you feel like, just as long as you don’t insult me :P

GENDER: female (though consider myself pretty genderfluid)

SEXUALITY: Bisexual

HEIGHT: Okay, honestly, I have no freaking clue. My most recent ‘professionally’ recorded height was 4′11, but I’m pretty sure I’m positive I’m somewhere in the range of 5′ and 5′1 1/2

LANGUAGES: English, and I can understand basic French and Spanish (speaking it is another matter entirely)

NATIONALITY: Canadian

CURRENT TIME:  4:45 pm

FAVOURITE SEASON: Autumn

FAVOURITE FLOWER: LILACS

FAVOURITE SCENT: Oh my goodness, I have no idea. The smell of lilacs in the spring is a big contender, but so is any combination of sweet and spicy.

FAVOURITE COLOR: It always cycles through different shades, but red, blue and green remain my favourite colors.

FAVOURITE ANIMAL: Cats!

FAVOURITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER: I always TEND to gravitate towards complicated and morally grey characters. L Lawliet is currently at the top of my list, but other faves (past and present) include: Light Yagami (DN, obv), Severus Snape (Harry Potter), Loki (Marvel), Cloud Strife and Sephiroth (Final Fantasy 7), Megamind (Megamind), Harry Dresden, Thomas Raith and Johnny Marcone (Dresden Files), Raistlin Majere and Tasslehoff Burrfoot (Dragonlance). In fact, the only character I’ve named that DOESN’T match that description is Tasslehoff.

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: Insomnia is a bitch. I couldn’t tell you an ACTUAL average, but it probably averages out to between 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours a night per week, depending on how late I get to sleep.

COFFEE, TEA, OR HOT CHOCOLATE: Coffee!

NUMBER OF BLANKETS YOU SLEEP WITH: Uh, one sheet and an ugly brown fluffy throw blanket that is impossibly cozy.

DOGS OR CATS: .... Cats!

DREAM TRIP: Anywhere in Europe. Have a trip to Belgium potentially still in the works for next year, and would love to visit Barcelona and Paris.

DREAM JOB: Singer

FOLLOWERS: Pfft, between 200-300, I won’t get any more specific than that. 

BLOG ESTABLISHED: Uhhhh, I CREATED it in 2015. I didn’t really start using it as a multifandom (but MAINLY Death Note) blog until September of 2018.

REASON FOR MY URL: I already answered this in way too much detail, so this time I will merely say it is a reference to my favourite scene with my favourite character from Dragonlance, which is an old fantasy series most people don’t care about anymore.

RANDOM FACT: Uhhhhh.... My dad taught me how to harmonize at a young age, and I’m now usually able to easily hear potential harmonies or alternate melodies to make songs more interesting. And because it comes so naturally to me after honing the skill for most of my life, I am constantly surprised by how many people who want to be professional singers don’t know how to do it.

Tagging: NO-ONE. XD Seriously, though, if anyone wants to do it, please feel free!

#memes #about me #i know I did one of these already #but there are some different questions on this one i wanted to answer so :D

[meldelen]

Dragonlance’s Lost Chronicles I: Dragons of the Dwarven Depths - A rambling review

Cover art by Matt Stawicki depicting Tanis Half-Elven, Flint Fireforge and Tasslehoff Burrfoot, three of the main characters.

By now I should be rereading the second trilogy of the Dragonlance Tales, but I couldn’t resist and started with this trilogy of The Lost Chronicles which, to my eternal shame as Dragonlance fan, I didn’t even know it existed until a few months ago during confinement, when I decided to re-explore this beloved franchise of my teen years. The Lost Chronicles is a relatively recent trilogy - year 2006 - if we compare it with the first original trilogy, Dragonlance Chronicles (1984) that complete each other. Those who have read the Chronicles will remember that after finishing the first volume - Dragons of Autumn Twilight - in the second, Dragons of Winter Night, the authors made a temporary leap omitting part of the story - due to lack of time and creativity, they admitted at the time - in which the main characters’ group was recovering a sacred relic from the Dwarven nation of Thorbardin, The Hammer of Kharas, in exchange for providing protection and accommodation to refugees driven from Solace and enslaved by the Dragon Highord Verminaard. Well, precisely, this what the first volume of The Lost Chronicles is about, written no less than 20 years later, to complete this and other gaps in the original plot.

I have to say that on one hand I was excited to find this trilogy written to complete the original, and on the other hand, I was skeptical about it. Because writing decades later to complete something you had already done usually results in a grievance compared to the original work; it seems unlikely that something better will be done so long later; and unless you go with the lead feet, reread your original work VERY WELL and have a good publisher, it’s very likely to fall into contradictions and inconsistencies in the plot.

Well, nothing of that! This book is great! Not only have the authors recovered the original spirit of the Chronicles, but also - at the risk of being burned as heretic at the bonfire of fandom - they have improved it, and how! On the other hand it is logical, because writers are supposed to improve with time if they care for what they do, and let's not forget that Weis and Hickman are also the authors of that wonderful series called The Death Gate Cycle, which it is totally on another level. All that experience of years has been invested now and it shows.

How does it show? The pace of the plot, for example. The Chronicles, specially the first volume, had a very stressful rhythm - it was like climbing a roller coaster without harness - while Dragons of the Dwarven Depths has a sensible and constant pace, dosing the action and the dialogues in a balanced, fluid and consistent way. Secondly: it’s much better written than the original trilogy, both in terms of prose and setting. They take more time to describe the environments and the lore without becoming tedious, boring, or too hasty as sometimes happened in the original trilogy. Of course, the poems of Michael Williams are still horrible - or perhaps it is the translation that is horrible, I will give him the benefit of the doubt -; that issue seems to be doomed.

And finally I stop at what has always been, for me, the best of Dragonlance and the reason why I love it: the characterization. It has always been wonderful, and in this volume it shows. The Companions, very different in their origins, abilities and personality, have always fascinated me because they seem absolutely human and relatable, believable although many of them are not "humans" per se or have supernatural abilities, of course. They are supposed to be childhood friends and allies of their own free will in a world at war, but they actually malfunction as some kind of dysfunctional family, if I may allow redundancy. The mean-spirited and grumpy dwarf messes with everyone and scolds them all like a curmudgeonly grandfather, the others handle him making him believe that his decisions matter and his intervention is essential to them, the knight won’t stop annoying everyone with his ideals of honor and justice, lecturing them on what is right and good and cooperating rather little when it comes to making morally questionable decisions, the mage messes with everyone and everyone messes with the mage, who reacts like a furious snake because he’s aware that without him they would not make it to the corner alive, and in the absence of a real culprit, his fangs always end up stuck in his poor twin - an actual cinnamon roll, an example of the most tragic Stockholm syndrome -; the barbarians distrust everyone but they have no choice but to get along with them, the kender is, if possible, the most chaotic element of the group, whose burden and responsibility are passing each other as if they could really control him somehow; all of them led by a half-elf with remorse of conscience because he’s a disbelieving atheist who cannot even make up his own mind about if he feels elf, feels human, feels everything or feels nothing, and is not able to choose if he is in love with the elf girl or of the human girl, having enough work with babysitting this sociopathic group. Anyway. A delight for the senses.

Already experts in handling such a bunch of misfits, Weis and Hickman make you laugh hard at the interactions between them. In the Chronicles it wasn’t yet quite funny - especially if you hadn’t gotten used to Raistlin's mood, whom you’ve to swallow in little doses like a bitter medicine - but here, you’ve a great time! The knight annoying the mage, the mage messing with the knight, the two messing with the dwarf, the dwarf messing with everyone, the kender in the middle messing around... it seems incredible that these people saved the world, right? Well, they did! And even though they can’t totally get along, without a single one of them it would not have been possible. There, the greatness of the story.

I don't want to wind up much more. In this volume, the authors take the opportunity to correct other failures their original narrative had, such as devoting more attention to Riverwind, who plays a fantastic role as leader of the refugees - at the cost of casting a shadow over Goldmoon and therefore obtaining the inverse result of the original trilogy - and also, to pay a little more attention to poor Tika - the most human and perhaps most relatable of them all, although unfortunately she’s forgotten, like Goldmoon, halfway through the book - and above all, pay much more attention to Flint Fireforge, the dwarf, who’s really the main character of the book, and who finds himself faced with a moral dilemma: recover the sacred relic of the dwarves, the Hammer of Kharas, and hide it from his own people to take it to the Knights of Solamnia and therefore be used as an artifact to solve the war and give the world in danger of destruction a chance; or willingly return it to the dwarf nation and risk losing it to the cause.

5 stars. Great. Fantastic. It’s not boring for a single moment, there is no tedious, long or unnecessary part, the characters are genuinely themselves, the plot is better written and the style much improved. In short: it seems that time has not passed at all, or rather, it has passed, but for good. Highly recommended for Dragonlance fans and especially for those who are already familiar with the Chronicles. You will not regret it.

Geez, I need to shorten these reviews.

#dragonlance #books #margaret weis #tracy hickman #dragons of the dwarven depths #reviews #my reviews

[venndaai]

Tagged by @distractionactivated, ty!

Tagging @moocowmoocow  @anghraine @1nsomnizac @darling-child-tisarwat  @gardenvarietyunique @trans-rights-tasslehoff and anyone else who wants to!

Rules: List ten of your favorite characters from ten different fandoms!

Imperial Radch- Seivarden Vendaai. The Forever Fave. Which I never would have predicted, before reading the series; I think a bunch of very specific things combined to cement her into my heart. The main one though is probably just the relatable mental illness struggles, unromanticized and explicitly triggered by shame and failure. 

Dragon Age- Iron Bull. So like. I’ve gone through a lot of different Dragon Age phases, and he’s only been my focus for the latest one, and I will freely admit I find his voice acting dissatisfying and his romance corny and occasionally uncomfortable. But I can’t stop thinking about this dude. He hits my “friendly bro with hidden darkness and repression” character weak spot, and he has a canon npc romance that hits all of my favorite tropes, and his identity issues are fun. Also, I kind of wonder how much my current obsession has to do with how Weekes did manage to (perhaps accidentally?) hit on a comforting transmasc fantasy of the big masculine bro friend who loves and accepts and protects you. Yes his relationship with Krem is at times very Cis Man Writing but it also. Gets to me.

The Expanse- Y’know, this is a really tough one, considering the immense love and adoration I have in my heart for at least five characters from this show/series, but since I just read Nemesis Games, it has to be Naomi Fucking Nagata. If there’s one thing- Well. If there’s 2 things I’d change about the show it’d be 1) explicit gay/bi mains 2) make Naomi the main character. She’s like an iceberg with her incredible hidden depths, and I alternately feel like cheering and sobbing about twice each of her chapters. Her battles with with suicidality, her struggle to define herself and her past and her people, “the only right you have with anyone is the right to walk away”... ugh she’s so good.

Star Wars- Kreia. Still. Always. Out of the entire franchise. Didn’t know my #1 narrative kink was “old lady lectures you about objectivism for a whole game, is the secret final boss and makes you kill her while confessing her love for you” before I played KOTOR 2 but now I know and I can never go back.

Marvel Comics- Xavin. Low key I’m still a little devastated over the way the Runaways show adapted them :/ I want my arrogant, violent, prejudiced, selfless, courageous, loving teenage space royal back :( Still holding out hope for an eventual comics return...

Doctor Who- Izzy Sinclair. Read the Doctor Who Magazine comics for the best companion ever!!! Love that gay Trekkie nerd and her banter with Eight. 

Less obscurely, Romana. A big crush since childhood. Then I got into the audios where she’s an egomaniac constantly teetering on the edge of tyranny and fell for her forever. 

Deep Space Nine: Unfortunately, Quark. Loving him feels like going down a mud slide- weirdly liberating.

Tolkein: Gimli!!! He wasn’t my fave when I was a kid- that was Aragorn, who was the center of a bunch of confusing baby transmasc feels, and then second place was a toss up between Eowyn and Galadriel- but when I reread in high school he utterly won my heart and I played dwarves in every rpg where that was an option from then onwards. 

Machineries of Empire: Khiruev. I don’t think YHL loved her quite as much as I did (where’s my resolution to her story, yoon? ;__;) but that’s ok. RS is my favorite in the series because of her. Greying scarred older bisexual woman who’s a mess of extreme loyalty and passive suicidality and FEELINGS? aw yeees. 

Uhhh shoot I need one more. What even are my fandoms. Uhhh well I still need to get back to Star Trek Disco but my fave was definitely Emperor Georgiou. I feel a bit guilty whenever I see people upset that we didn’t get regular Georgiou back, because Emperor Georgiou is like, one of the best things Star Trek has ever done for me personally. I love her so much.

#meme

[proserpine-in-phases]

@nachttour tagged me in a writing question thing!

1) is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

uh yeah there’s like, several. some of them are better developed than other but a lot of the reason I’ve been holding off on writing them just comes down to feeling inadequate due to my own limited experience with relationships and feelings of complete inadequacy. it’s hard to write an epic romancu when I’m aromantic as fuck and have a hard time conceptualizing what those feelings might be like to experience, for example, or like, I want the story to be funny but I feel like I’m not actually a very funny person?

also I always feel like I need to do more research. I get stuck on the research phase about 85% of the time haha

2) what work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

man I am embarrassed by MYSELF existing, so  idk probably all of it when you get right down to it

3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

it seems to vary a bit. sometimes I just power through start to finish, but sometimes I need to write the ending first to remind myself of what I’m shooting for. sometimes I just gotta write some random scenes in the middle before I forget what they are and have to figure out where they’ll go later.

considering the longest thing I’ve managed to finish comes in at about 12 k  I don’t know if I have enough data to really come up with a firm answer for this one though. from what I can tell, it really does seem like I start at the beginning and go for a bit, write the end, and try to connect the two with occasional random middle bits getting written out of order and a general feeling of “I’ll fix it in post” carrying me through

4) favorite character you’ve written

probably Samantha Traynor. she’s such a fucking nerd and I love her. it was surprisingly easy to write for her once I got started. at least I THINK I did a good job writing her, I have no actual idea haha

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

I’ve written TWO mass effect fics featuring Samara as a main character and I have no idea how this happened or why because she’s about in the middle when it comes to my most to least favorite mass effect characters list

6) something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

there’s a couple of fics I wrote for fic exchanges that I kinda wish I could take back and turn into something else because I love the concept but feel guilty about idk, using as a springboard because the original is a gift, or something. it feels ehhhhhhhhh disingenuous to continue them when the gift is supposed to be a singular and self contained unit

for example, oh man I would love to take that vrisrezi space pirates au someplace, but I don’t know if I should because the fic itself is a gift, complete, and so forth. 

plus I hate the way I run out of steam about 4 chapters into everything. I would like to not run out of motivation please

7) when asked, are you embarrassed or enthusiastic to tell people that you write?

considering my output is so low I barely consider myself a writer at all tbh.

but yes, embarrassed. I hope to god the three people I know irl who follow me just like. never see those posts haha

8) favorite genre to write

space adventure! and lately? mysteries even though I have no FUCKING idea why or even how to write them, which is why I have at least three projects stalled out on me haha

9) what, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I read a lot, mostly. sometimes I stare at a wall. or play minesweeper. 

also when I’m doing something fairly mindless sometimes my mind wanders and I hit something. 

oh and music. music is great

10) write in silence or with background noise? with people or alone?

I usually need music, mood music preferable, instrumental so the lyrics don’t distract me. generally I prefer to not be around people when I write, though a public setting is also fun to write in. I’m too distractable to actually get any done though, so I usually end up just looking like a tool with their notebook out if I try to write in a coffee shop or whatever tho, haha

11) what aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

I think writing fanfic has really helped me figure out what it means to write in character. also I think I’m starting to get better at balancing dialogue versus narration? at least a little bit

12) your weaknesses as an author

the inability to actually finish shit. 

unwillingness to approach emotions that make me feel uncomfortable. 

the fact that I often approach writing a character with the thought of what I would do in a situation rather than what the character would do (which is why writing fanfiction is helping me with that haha)

coming up with plots that lend themselves well to longer stuff

13) your strengths as an author

pretty good at dialogue

when it comes to my own shit, pretty good at coming up with interesting fantasy worlds (I think they’re interesting at least)

I’ve got a pretty firm grasp overall just the nuts and bolts of writing: I mean I tutored English in college for fuck’s sake I know how to write a grammatically correct run on sentence when I want to 

14) do you make playlists for your current wips?

not really

15) why did you start writing?

I wanted to know what happened next

16) are there any characters who haunt you?

not really? I mean, there are specific character TYPES that’ll get me every time, though, like the happy go lucky person who has to learn what pain is but still come out the other side a LOT worse for wear but not completely broken (think Tasslehoff Burrfoot, or perhaps less obscure Vash the Stampede) but I wouldn’t say they haunt me, per say

17) if you could give your fledgling author self any advice, what would it be?

don’t be afraid to be self indulgent. you’ll enjoy it more and who the fuck cares, anyway? people who’ll make fun of you for doing what you love are ass holes

18) were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? what were they?

If I’m honest I can’t really say what influences my writing style, if I even have one. Mostly all I can do is list off my favorite authors because I’m pretty sure they all have something to do with it. 

so let’s just do that I guess.  when I was a teenager I tended to find a single author and just read through all their works before moving on, and these are the big ones that stand out:

Connie Willis, Anne McCaffrey, Steven Brust and Ursula K. Le Guin. Connie Willis for the humor she includes in almost all her writing, Anne McCaffrey because I STILL spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about Pern. She had a real skill for coming up with both great characters and great settings, even if what she did with them, and also her inability to keep continuity were less good. Steven Brust introduced me to the idea of relating to morally reprehensible characters at an alarmingly young age. Ursula K. Le Guin, I just love her. No idea if it’s actually done anything GOOD to my writing but she gives me something to aspire to.

I read just. a ridiculous amount of fantasy and science fiction as a kid, the genres as a whole without a doubt influence the type of shit I end up writing. also in seventh grade I mainlined dragonlance, just the whole damn thing

later in college I got really into Margaret Atwood. her focus on female characters and narrative just is really great.  

then I went through a depressive phase in my late 20s and just exclusively read Julia Quinn, Joanna Lindsey, Sabrina Jeffreys and Eloisa James, and that was IT. so I’m pretty sure my foray into the romance genre is what makes me honestly prefer povs limited to two or three characters  hey, reading romance novels also lead me to the realization that I’m aromantic so \o/ I guess

19) when it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timeline, ect.?

I outline and then give up lol

20) do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

little spurts until something grabs me and makes me marathon. usually that’s a deadline, but sometimes it’s also inspiration 

21) what do you think when you read over your older work?

mostly just holy shit I can’t believe I wrote this! sometimes that’s bad, sometimes it’s good. I can’t really tell if I’m good at divorcing myself from my writing enough to give me perspective on it, to tell the truth, because for a good lot of it, I still think it’s pretty good so ???

22) are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

it’s hard for me to let a character be embarrassed by the dumb shit they do. I don’t want them to do dumb shit because of it, which makes it hard for the character to have shit to grow and learn from.

23) any obscure life experiences that you feel have helped your writing?

I’m pretty sure my own issues with having and experiencing some emotions makes its way into the stuff I choose to write about, especially when it comes to the original stuff (I have. at LEAST three different plot outlines that involve characters literally losing the ability to experience emotions and having to find a way to heal or gain it back haha)  

also the fic I wrote about the box ghost is literally just about what it’s like to work in a factory haha

24) have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene or a story?

listen. 

yes.

I fucking. LOVE. research. 

honestly this is the stage where I most often get lost in the weeds, distracted by my own need to know more

25) copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph that you’re particularly proud of

“He was not the knight Casey taught him to be, but he was close enough for government work“ remains the single best pun I’ve ever written

tagging: @anthropwashere @inktail @manicpixiesdreamdragon if you guys are up for it!

#meme #writing meme #questions about writing

[skull-bearer]

01/12/17

So I finished Nano at 68,000 words. Not finished Temporal just yet, but I’m finally at the last fucking furlong.

If you wondered why I dropped out of DL fandom all those years back? This fic. This fucking fic. Yes, the lack of reviews was annoying and the earlier installments were pretty poorly written compared to what I was doing after I’d finished my Creative Writing degree. But-

This fic.

Holy fuck this fic.

You think I was horrible to Raistlin and Dalamar before? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Everyone is absolutely awful in this story, which the exception of Tasslehoff, who I liked a hell of a lot more on this read-through. Joke’s on him, because the characters I like? Go through hell. Seriously, although he’s not the main character, Tasslehoff’s part of the story is about one half morality pet, one half kick the dog on multiple character’s parts, and entirely Break the Cutie.

Seriously, I have a little epilogue lined up that is just fucking heartbeaking. 

Characters that came off much, much worse in this re-read are mostly Caramon and Tanis. 

Caramon because Raistlin had a sudden wake-up moment of ‘hang on, why did Caramon love hanging out with people who liked beating the snot out of me? Why was he so eager to make friends with kids who’d just stomped on me? There’s a connection there I’m not very comfortable with.’

(I know W&H did it to make Caramon seem more likable, but mostly it made him look like he liked keeping people around Raistlin who’d give him an excuse to be a savior)

(Also what the hell was with this series for showing the Kingpriest as being sort of pathetic and scared? Dude was burning people alive and massacring entire species. It’s like trying to humanise Hitler. I don’t care how he feels about it, I’m not feeling sorry for the fucker)

(Finally, the Gods are dicks in this one. I mean, I think they’re dicks in canon too, but it’s really fucking obvious in this one. Fuck those guys. I’m going full Discworld on their arses. Last Hero Discworld)

Tanis because... handing Kitiara to Lord Soth ftw. Like, there’s a middle ground between continuing to be hung up on your old girlfriend and handing her over to eternal undead shittiness. Tanis just got himself a forever ticket in my ‘not good at all wtf’s wrong with you’ book.

Maybe my Dalamar is way more sensitive to this after the whole Fistandantilus debacle, but holy shit the Majeres (and ust Matars) have a problem with attracting undead.

(Palin, if you meet any nice vampires, run for the fucking hills)

Anyway, finally. Fucking finally. After over sixty thousand words of everything getting progressively worse, Dalamar got his Big Damn Hero moment and we’re finally lurching towards a happy ending. 

For Raistlin and Dalamar anyway. 

Caramon won’t be getting one. 

Tanis is getting an extended buttmonkey ending. 

Crysania has had such a shitty time I don’t feel like putting her though worse. 

Tasslehoff might eventually feel better. 

Maybe. 

After a few years. 

I am so sorry.

#I&E #Raistlin #Dalamar #Tasslehoff #Temporal #nanowrimo

[givencontext]

My Favorite Fantasy

This month for book club, I read two fantasy books. Is it right and proper for someone with a degree in English literature to admit that they prefer fantasy books above all others? That’s not going to surprise anyone, is it? It is a close call between fantasy, horror, and sci-fi when trying to pinpoint my favorite genre. Yes, I love the classics and have even been known to argue in favor of a literary canon – everyone should read Shakespeare, even in high school – but fantasy is the genre I return to when I want to lose myself in a book. Keep reading for a brief history of my favorite fantasy.

Fantastic Beginnings

Some of the first books I considered favorites were fantasy. A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth come to mind. Granted, those are very science and math heavy for fantasy, and a recent re-read of Wrinkle was disappointing. Nevertheless, these books made me a fan of books. I also loved The Chronicles of Narnia at a young age and, thanks to my sister, read a lot of Roger Zelazny. I remember a set of Oz books, but I can’t remember if I read them or just looked at them. Credit also goes to my Granny for reading me fantastic poems like The Owl and the Pussycat and Jabberwocky. If it wasn’t for fantasy, who knows if I would have grown up to be someone who reads. It was stories like these that sparked my interest early and kept me coming back for more.

Teenage Fantasy

There’s this funny story about when I was a teenager and my mom’s church had told her that kids should not be allowed to play Dungeons & Dragons or else those kids would go to the devil. They also told her not to let me watch Smurfs, which might have been the first documented occurrence of me taking a stand for what I believe in, because I believed in my Smurfs. Maybe I also never played D&D because I didn’t understand how it worked and it seemed to take longer than Monopoly, which my kids will tell you, I try to avoid like the plague. So here’s the funny part…. my mom was dead set against me playing it, but when I asked her for a Dragonlance novel at the mall book store, she didn’t think twice about buying it. Games are apparently harmful, but books are just fantasy, I guess. On subsequent trips to the mall, my mom proceeded to buy me the whole Dragonlance Legends series, and more. I was obsessed with finding out what happened to those twins. And if Tasslehoff Burrfoot isn’t the best character name ever, well, I don’t know what is. (Feel free to suggest your favorites in the comments.)

Later Daze

I did go through a phase in my early adulthood when I was not reading much. I was a single mom with two little kids, so mostly I was reading to them. At some point, I made some grown up friends, and we started going to dinner and movies. We would pop into the book store to kill time in between. I think this is where I learned that the secret to overcoming a reading slump is to dig into a good series. “Good” could be a relative term here, but it just has to be something that keeps you reading once you start. I discovered a renewed love for reading, and for fantasy in particular, when I picked up Shadow of a Dark Queen by Raymond E. Fiest. I devoured the Serpentwar Saga and moved on to a few of his related series. This is what really got me reading again.

Recent Reads

As I said, this month I read two fantasy books for book club. I read these simultaneously, as one was A Darker Shade of Magic via Audible and the other was Throne of Glass via Kindle. Each of them is the first book in a series. I honestly have read so many Book Ones that I could spend the rest of my life just finishing a variety of series. I am not sure if I will carry on with the subsequent books in either of these. There were things I liked and disliked about both of these. I felt like ADSOM moved a little slowly. There were points where it was sluggish. I liked the idea of different Londons, and it does end with a bit of a cliffhanger that made me curious about what happens next. TOG on the other hand kept me on the edge of my seat better, but some of the language in this book was excruciating, and the lead character is a bit of an OP complainer. Imagine that you were just liberated from slave labor and you instantly go into whiny diva mode. It made me disconnect from the character, but I still liked the story and the beginnings of the mythology. My chief complaint with TOG was that all of the melodrama made it sound like it was written by a teenager. I garnered some forgiveness for it after I discovered that it was, in fact, written by a teenager. Rumor has it that the writing gets better. There are also rumors that this series gets very steamy later, and is not appropriate for the young audience for whom it was intended…. Now you know that increased my curiosity on this one! I have also been instructed to direct prospective readers to the prequel novellas first for some context that I was missing. In short, the most likely way for either of these Book Twos to get on my TBR is to get themselves elected by one of my book clubs.

Fantastic Futures

Despite loving and reading a lot of fantasy, there are some glaring omissions from my “already read that” list. I have never read The Lord of the Rings. I have slept through the audiobook of The Hobbit, and I have seen all of the movies, but I haven’t read the books. Maybe someday. I have also only read one book by Ursula K. Le Guin. That feels a little like sacrilege. I would like to read more of hers and explore lots of other female writers of fantasy. Except maybe not Octavia Butler. Kindred scarred me for life. That book is intense! I’m afraid to even attempt any of her others. I haven’t read Robert Jordan either. I would love to get suggestions of other fantasy I should be reading. Obviously, the books mentioned here are not an exhaustive list. I have read the Game of Thrones series and Harry Potter. I’m not a total heathen.

What are your favorite fantasy titles or authors? Leave a comment to let me know!

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#IFTTT #WordPress

[cosmik-homo]

Wait. Wait. Here. Flint/Tas. 1

1. Who would end a heated argument by defending their actions with ‘because I love you!’ ?

Absolutely Flint. The scene in autumn twilight - when they're climbing in that shaft I think -where Tas is like. I don't want to die I'll miss my friends :( and flint imagines his dead body and gets really sad and mad and flushed and is glad the darkness is hiding it,,, changed my nine years old brain irreversibly. But yeah Tasslehoff is a very honest lil guy about this stuff he throws out "that was sooo fun... I love you so much man <3" as easily as he empties and refills his pockets. Flint would rather choke on his bones (a McCoy pun? In my flint posting? Of course. Same girl twice) rather than admit to a feeling and he's soooo protective over. A lot of them, actually, but of course especially tas. Do you KNOW how hard it is to convince tasslehoff burrfoot to stay safe. Of course that line is a flint one. To me.

#wow they really are the artoo threepio of tiger and rabbit #8 year old me was like no you dont understand comics relief guys are everything. and she was right

[jocelyndent774-blog]

The Thanksgiving I Fire My Uncle Harry (Just About).

It is an intense understanding of the growing brutality and also health2017-dietportal.info problem worldwide if there is actually one factor I created in the course of my life-time. Though his mom loved him above all, she is a exceptionally deluded and also damaged female which despite a life time from misuse as well as poor selections is actually persuaded that her whole life would possess been much better if she had actually merely been birthed white colored. On Monday, December 2, 1912, one month after the townspeople had actually recognized their treasured physician on Sunday, Nov 3rd, with an unpleasant surprise 25th-wedding wedding anniversary celebration - which likewise stood for the duration from his solution as the community's physician, deliverer of 1,000 babies - Frank undertook a function for gallstones at Boston's Eliot Hospital. Accurate, but it doesn't help ... it performs nevertheless give me the opportunity to mention what kith" is actually, if anybody ever before wondered about that. Kith pertains to your associates or pals ... in addition to kin, your relatives, which are actually defined differently for other communities, they make up individuals you recognize. Dying, she removes a guarantee from her father to free Tom to make sure that he could return to his better half as well as youngsters in Kentucky, yet Augustine is actually gotten rid of before authorizing the papers that will make Tom a cost-free guy, and his self-seeking and also self-indulgent widow sells Tom to a slave investor. I possess a pal who informed her boy he could possibly not go on Facebook unless he permitted her to become some of his Facebook buddies (she needed to vow certainly never to speak to any of his close friends herself, just to become found in the area, as that were actually) which appeared like a great way from monitoring what he was carrying out on Facebook-but then my more mature little girl told me that there is actually a secret level from friends, a sanctum sanctorum for your closest friends, that she is sure he performed not allow his mom into. " I could not assist sensation that I, which have had a child of my very own, could finest raise a gal; and I am very much pleasantly surprised that George carried out not leave her to me," observed Aunt Myra, with a sky from melancholy significance, for she was actually the only one who had actually offered a little girl to the family, and she really felt that she had recognized herself, though ill-natured folks mentioned that she had actually dosed her favorite to death. Tasslehoff became a good friend from the Partners and assisted in The Battle from the Lance 1 Tasslehoff (or Tas, as he is actually known by his close friends) additionally participated in a large task in the War of Souls, regularly opportunity traveling to numerous grows older on wild adventures. I would love to thank the biographers, viewers, intellectuals, activists, theatre companies, and long varied list of notables including the Angelou Household, Hilton Als, Rich Blint, Herb Boyd, Common, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Colman Domingo, George Faison, Lupe Disaster, Nikki Finney, Holly Louis Gates Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Expense T. Jones, Khary Lazare-White, Fran Lebowitz, Samuel Legitimus, David Linx, Audra McDonald, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Nas, Clarence Nero, Brandon Odums, Raoul Poke, Ernest Shaw, Agitation, Colm Toibin, Jose Antonio Vargas, Kerry Washington, Lawrence Weschler and all the stewards from my uncle's tradition. The landscape through which the story takes place, "in even more means compared to one comes to be a microcosm of contemporary Iranian society" (Nafisi 2006 ). The unfamiliar, at its primary a love story, unfurls around the younger storyteller' affection for his relative Layli, a passion which is actually consistently endangered by a military from loved one and the pandemonium of their flirtations and also machinations. Neither is that the kind of story said to by CORE's Paul Driessen in his syndicated oped items, which were actually timed to coincide with CENTER's UN "World Seminar." Driessen informed his viewers that "these risk-free, scrumptious foods" were actually necessary for Africa since they could "substitute staples devastated through disease-including Kenyan wonderful white potatos." Remarkably, merely a week approximately before Driessen created that claim, the Kenyan reporter Gatonye Gathura acquired a Kalam award for journalistic distinction for his post on the delightful white potato task, "GM Technology Fails Nearby White Potatos." Gathura's part blew the sound on the miserable failure from Monsanto's showcase task in Africa-a project that had garnered essentially lots of column inches of positive press. In the beginning i was unsure, hesitant as well as doubtful, but i only offered that a in 7 times when i returned to Canada, my partner( now partner) called me through themselves and came to me asking forgiveness that whatever had actually been actually cleared up along with his mother as well as family members as well as he acquired a brand-new job interview so our company should get wed. What I indicate below is actually insulting the followers and degrade them is bothersome and also in some cases hazardous yet if you are a benign individual and also live your own lifestyle without aiming to transform other individuals opinions, no one will throw down the gauntlet.

[cosmik-homo]

Not to have literally made the Show Blorbo Thing today but tasslehoff burfoot would have loved my kiddie jewelry collection I wanna show him my shiny plastic bangles so much

[cosmik-homo]

true signs I am growing up: spock is slowly replacing tas

#i am so afraid of that #i had such a meaningful connection with tasslhoff #he was my comfort character but #he was more then that #he truly meant almost everything to me #but now this link is fading and i find it harder to enjoy dragonlance as much as i used to #and that scares me because dragonlance was something constant for me #always there #and i feel guilty for not liking it that much and for not crying that much but it's not like i can control it #the most scary thing is how trek is REPLACING dragonlance #going from tasslehoff burrfoot to spock is the most extreme most scary change there is #i am afraid what it means to me #dont reblog but please please please comment or ask or chat i am feeling weird and weak today #thats another thing scary about going from tas to spock #your fave loves you and understands you at this time of weakness is a lot less convincing now

[meldelen]

Dragons of Autumn Twilight - A review (that will mostly get me blocked by the fandom)

*stares into the distance* I am glad it exists. 

How mean some people are with criticism, really. I’ve been reading fantastic literature since I was a child, and for the record I started with The Lord of the Rings. That's why I have very little patience and empathy with those who throw garbage to the Dragonlance saga as something cheap and unworthy, comparing it to Tolkien's work. Well, I am a Tolkien fan as much as I am a Dragonlance fan. Whatever some may claim, they are not bad books. It's not a bad saga at all, even if it came out of a Dungeons & Dragons game. The world is well built, the characters are diverse and well defined, the story is entertaining and easy to follow, and if you stay loyal for at least 6 books - the main core, which is the Chronicles and Legends - you get to have a lot, much love for this story.

And now we are going into this adaptation to animation cinema. I saw it yesterday in fear and terror due to the bad reviews I had read. Truth is, it hasn’t been as bad as I expected.

Yes, compressing Dragons of Autumn Twilight - the first book of the Chronicles - in an hour and a half film is risky and the result is that the pace is overwhelming and many events and details have been removed, does this surprise anyone? 

Yes, combining 2D and 3D animation is a terrible idea, it looks awful.

Yes, the animation of the characters - not the design itself - is quite awkward and limited.

Well, maybe Goldmoon shouldn’t look THAT white, after all. She’s canonically a WOC, even if her hair is golden and silver. She should look like Riverwind, at least for the skin tone.

BUT - the soundtrack is beautiful and enough immersive, the voice acting is more than correct - I actually enjoyed Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin -; the characters are well defined; the movie is fast-paced and entertaining, even too brief. In fact, I kinda regret that at least the second and third parts of the trilogy were never adapted, because we were left in a cliffhanger at the end. Unfortunately, with the reception it had, it was expected they tried no more.

The main problem has been a lack of budget. This story needs a serious and deep investment; I would say a generous series in the style of Game of Thrones on HBO or The Witcher on Netflix ... because one film, or several, are not enough to adapt well the complexity of the world of Krynn and this story. As long as this doesn’t happen, I am glad that this film exists. I would take it as a modest work of animation for fans and to introduce children to the world of Dragonlance. Why not? I wish these beloved books were better known and loved, because they are totally worth it. Meanwhile, this movie would serve as an introduction. Of course, everyone must read the books.

In short, I give it a 6 out of 10. It’s decent enough, it’s entertaining, it shows some care. And in the name of Raistlin, my favorite character, who’s mostly well portrayed - when I was expecting a catastrophe  - I absolve this cringy little treasure of all its sins.

Did I say you should read the books? You cannot imagine how far they will take you.

Average reaction of the fandom to this movie.

Moments that make it worthwhile:

- Raistlin. His voice, his crooked smile, that horrible cough - I spit my coffee the first time I heard it I swear to God - and it’s hilarious he doesn't bother to cover his mouth. - A goblin spits out a very thick... spittle... on Tanis' forehead. - Caramon staring at Tika's breasts and butt, swaying them around the inn. - Flint, sounding suspiciously like Gimli from The Lord of the Rings, dressed as a woman, with huge fake boobs, saying, "I want to make one thing clear. This never happened." - Tasslehoff yelling: "Where are the gods when we need them!" and Fizban replying, "Here, let me." Only fans will understand why this is so funny. - Caramon lifting Tasslehoff up to his face level. I didn't know I needed this. - Raistlin and Sturm being mean to each other. This cannot be more canon. - Laurana kissing Elistan on the mouth and dancing with him. WTF?! ??!?! - Raistlin casts a friendship spell on Bupu. Bupu hugs his waist. Caramon comments, "It looks like you overdid a little." - Tanis sighing: "I wish Kitiara has survived all of this, wherever she is". Change to the scene with Kitiara turned into a dragon highlord, completely invested in the Evil’s plan and smirking wickedly. - A draconian licks longly and slowly Laurana's face. - Raistlin throwing hints about the promiscuity of his stepsister and about Laurana flirting with Elistan for the sole purpose of tormenting Tanis. - Did I already say that Raistlin is great? - The human form Khisanth chooses to speak to Lord Verminaard is that of a practically naked succubus. - Also, although this is what Dragonlance fans are used to, the same happens to Takhisis. - AND Raistlin.

#dragonlance #movies #dragons of autumn twilight #reviews #dragonlance animated movie #my reviews #don't block me please i just had a lil' fun