#Le second c'est Croquignole

[onaperduamedee]

Not maintagging because this is dangerously close to shitposting but her face as Nyn and Egwene walk in cracks me up:

About to indulge in a smidge of rhetoric mastery to persuade twenty-somethings to save the world.

#j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #Le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #Siuan Sanche #Clever as a pike #I've read up to a certain point in the books and I love her mind so bloody much #I love her so much in general #but HER MIND #nom d'un petit bonhomme I think I stop breathing when I read her chapters #she's a force of nature #if Moiraine is indomitable Siuan is inexorable #I cannot explain for the life of me why every tiny sliver of Siuan scene hits so hard but they do #she is deliciously unyielding and smart #her mind constantly in the fast lane #and everyone failing to catch up #ANYWAY this scene was so good and part of it is how much it shows about Siuan #her intelligence and steeliness and fragility and warmth and distrust and impatience and emotional acuity and presence #and the actress captures them all exactly

[flo-n-flon]

hands.png

#j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #WIP #dis Flo quand est-ce que tu comptes finir un dessin? #question à un million #here's the thing I'm trying to actually paint with Krita and it's still complicated #the paint brushes are either quite liquid or dry #so I'm tricking the stroke into looking wetter than it is #with a marker brush #incredible #next episode somewhen somehow #peut-être pour les ides de Mars? #peut-être pour les calendes grecques #it'll end up on AO3 anyway because there's too much skin for tumblr

[onaperduamedee]

Moiraine for the blorbo chart? 🙏

Hello, I realise that some of these may be contradictory but listen, I was switching between my Doylist and Watsonian hats while making this and now I am too tired to give more cohesive answers. In short, I enjoy that the narrative is giving her such a tough time, as well as the privilege to be the maker of her own demise, but...

She's (canonically) very little and you are hurting her.

Thank you for playing!

Send me blorbos and I'll rate them.

#remblai #ask game #j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #moiraine damodred #the wheel of time #I haven't read far enough into the books to discover if she has a tragic backstory #in the sense that no tragedy befell her like Nynaeve or Lan #but she has been going through it for 20 years so hey she deserves a break #or at least a soft epilogue #anyway women who are consumed by duty as always you own my brain #hated by all is mostly in the story as I believe she is beloved by the fandom at large #but she certainly gets a Kassandra treatment from other characters #bringer of bad omen and truths read as lies #I love her but she probably wouldn't be the best of company either #and I do believe she is smart but her single-mindedness is a serious blindspot #I could talk about her for hours

[onaperduamedee]

Happy new year 2023!

I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve, but I wish you all sweet wanderings and journeys as far and wide as you wish them to be!

#All about me #j'en connais au moins un et peut être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est anatole #le second c'est croquignole #le troisième c'est barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore anatole #Belated celebrations but still #I hope it'll be a kind year to you all

[onaperduamedee]

I am sad to report that I am at a point in my reading where I straight up dislike Lan instead of just not really enjoying him.

While I grew considerably fonder of Rand and ended up enjoying more certain characters in the books (Moiraine, Loial and Perrin to name a few), Lan has gotten more unlikable to me with each interaction he has with other characters and uh, I was not expecting that.

I feel like he's constantly setting others characters up because of his tunnel vision of the world. Which is something you could expect from Aes Sedai. Except everyone distrusts Aes Sedai, yet no one seems to question his biases.

I do hope it gets better as many of my favourite relationships in the show involves him (Moi & Lan, Nyn/Lan) and I don't want my perception of the character to taint my enjoyment.

Thank the light for D. Henney though, because how I adore Lan in the show!

#J'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #Le premier c'est Anatole #Le second c'est Croquignole #Le troisième c'est Barbemolle #Le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #Ramblings #Wot book spoilers #Obviously not tagging anything beyond spoilers but man am I disappointed #I am not going to live blog the entire thing #Except to L #I don't like this at all #Perhaps I should have waited for the new season to come out to continue my reading as I had originally planned

[onaperduamedee]

Nynaeve : Moiraine annoys me so much

Nynaeve, two seconds after: Lan annoys me even more, I don't know why

Nynaeve: Lan's grip on my arm... He is so strong

Nynaeve, two seconds after : Moiraine's grip is almost as strong as Lan's

....

Wisdom...

#J'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #Le premier c'est Anatole #Le second c'est Croquignole #Le troisième c'est Barbemolle #Le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #The wheel of time #the eye of the world #wot book spoilers #nynaeve al'meara #I am sorry this is so funny #Their chapters are turning into fantasy Lubitsch #She even says she isn't in competition with Lan #... #Nynaeve... That's gay #Her hatred of Moiraine is so strong it has circled back into attraction #It's funny

[onaperduamedee]

Probably, on the Wheel of Time.

#J'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #Le premier c'est Anatole #Le second c'est croquignole #Le troisième c'est barbemolle #Le quatrième c'est encore anatole #ramblings #not tagging this because it's shitposting #but yeah I am loving the way they are depicting Moiraine and Lan's established relationship vs. Lan and Nynaeve's delicious pining #and in typical me fashion I am shipping all of this #whatever this is #it's what I would have wanted Elementary to do with Marcus so HELLO #before anyone says anything about future canon ships: also yes - in these waters we ship like monohulls on the Vendée Globe start line #needless to say there's love aplenty #having the time of my life watching the show so far and I know next to nothing about the books #WoT spoilers #just to be safe

[onaperduamedee]

Thoughts on The Eye of the World to keep track:

- The Manetheren speech and how much of a nerd Moiraine is;

- Egwene just inviting herself on the quest;

- Moiraine's Sturm and Drang at Baerlon and her weather antics during the chase. It left me wide-eyed and had I been a teenager, I would have followed Moiraine to the end of the world for that only;

- Nynaeve tracking and sneaking behind Lan & Moiraine. I love what the show gave her and us the greatest cold open ever, but I had a blast getting to see Nynaeve on a journey, filled with guilt and concern for her friends;

- Moiraine and Nynaeve's face to face after the separation. I wish we got that scene in the show because it added much needed nuance to the overall depiction of Aes Sedai;

- needless to say, all of Moiraine and Nynaeve's conversations were fantastic, in no small part because it's obvious that early on Moiraine tries to position herself as a mentor for Nynaeve, as she did with Egwene, and it fails miserably. Nynaeve has nothing to learn from Moiraine (or so she believes) and now sees her own mentor role challenged, which makes for a fascinating dynamic between them.

- the ruins from the age of legends and how striking they look, especially with the knowledge they are supposed to be technologically advanced architecture;

- the relentless pursuit of Mat and Rand by Darkfriends (although I could really have done without the endless going from point a to b), but I enjoyed the tension and exhaustion building;

- Rand's little side-adventure meeting the royal family in Caemlyn was a delight;

- Loial, everything about him, his story and infodumping, his arc that's actually the most streamlined and satisfying of the first book to me. He embodies the wide-eyed hero who left his home to see the world, got swept away by a mysterious figure and overcame his fears through bullying encouragement by said figure;

- actually, I do enjoy the way that book! Moiraine's uncompromising and threatening side comes out way sooner than in the show. She tells the kids very early on to their face that she will kill them before she lets the Dark One have them. For all their talks about Moiraine being untrustworthy, they witness her being incredibly candid in her intentions.

- Moiraine and the cat - this was such a sweet moment;

- Perrin's arc was actually quite engaging too, even if I have reservations about the pacing of it and how the Elyas encounter fits into the overall flow of the story. I do hope it only got shifted to season 2;

- the Ways... Gorgeous description but I can absolutely see why the show depicted them the way it did. It just would not have looked anything but confusing on screen. Same observation with the Blight: stunning descriptions, but difficult to render visually;

- Nynaeve launching herself at the forsaken with a knife. Truly amazing peak dumbass overprotective behavior;

- the Eye of World was not nearly as confusing as fans led me to believe and I am disappointed. I was expecting Boris Vian;

- the Green Man is Treebeard;

- I am having feelings about just how much of a trouper Moiraine is and how much she is willing to use her body as a shield to help these kids.

- I also am a tiny bit confused by Lan during the EotW because from the way it was described it reads like he stood there doing nothing while Moiraine was getting obliterated by Aginor. I am aware he was doing everything he could protecting everyone from an overpowered channeler after getting knocked down, but the framing made him look like an NPC waiting for his turn to matter to the plot;

- best character growth of the book is by far Loial, first presenting himself as a rebel, then recoiling in fear when crossing the Ways and finally his delight at Fal Dara and the blight;

- the book can be divided into three parts : "it's like The Fellowship of the ring's first chapter but make it Zola", "if I hear once more about juggling and innkeeping I am throwing that book through the window", "Moiraine is a fucking trouper;"

Overall, I am ambivalent about this one.

On one hand, the parts I enjoyed were really engaging and fun, and I appreciated the slower pacing when it came to describing high fantasy concepts (Age of legends sites, the Ways, the Blight, the Ogier). Jordan has a quasi photographic approach to description which turns fantasy landscapes into hyperrealistic paintings. I loved getting to see more of certain relationships (the Nynaeve and Moiraine content almost made up for how little Moiraine and Lan content there was) and the characters inner life were often rich and complicated. The last part of the story after the group's reunion was phenomenal, with the quicker pacing truly enhancing the sense of urgency and despair.

On the other hand, there are writing quirks that made this book frankly difficult to get through: the pacing can be excruciatingly slow for scenes that should be blood-pumping and fast (everything in the Two Rivers, Rand going down the mountain with Tam, the dreams), the prose itself is at times confusing (dear light, Rand stop "fingering" the hem of your coat that's not how that works, the dreams), the dreams. Yes, I really did not enjoy the way the dreams were written.

Most of all, I have gripes with the way this work is supposed to subvert gender dynamics while a) still depicting casual in-world sexism without characters challenging them, b) coating every female character, their perception by other characters and their internal pov, in a thin layer of ironic distanciation bordering on préciosité, as if women were inherently pettier and more foolish. I don't know how to describe it else beside the usual "men from Mars, women from Venus" approach to gender, except in a high fantasy setting. It pulled me out of the story quite a few times, enough for me to seriously question whether I should carry on.

I don't think I will read the rest ahead of the show, although primarily because I do not want to spoil the story too much. I did enjoy this one quite a lot and it definitely left me wanting to know read more, even with the show.

#wot review #remblai #J'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #Le premier c'est Anatole #Le second c'est Croquignole #Le troisième c'est Barbemolle #Le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #Wot book spoilers #Remblai #The wheel of time #I wanted to save these thoughts here #I have much more to say about the gender dynamics esp. regarding magic and Aes Sedai #But this was becoming long #In the end I don't fault Jordan that much for the way he writes women #Others have done worse and more recently #And he does write fascinating characters #However it becomes annoying to be pulled out of the story because Lan or Thom suddenly says something sexist out of nowhere #Wot criticism #To be safe #Wot meta #Meta

[onaperduamedee]

Me: I still need to do this and that before tomorrow and then I'll have two days to finish...

That Milippa fic about Michael cradling Philippa’s body and reflecting about how much she isn't ready to let go of Philippa and what it means for their relationship:

#Milippa #j'en connais au moins un et peut être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est anatole #le second c'est croquignole #le troisième c'est barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore anatole #Star trek discovery #star trek discovery season 3 #Star trek discovery spoilers #Michael Burnham #Emperor Georgiou #be good... philippa #What I feel for you... Belongs to you #trickster kaiser specter spy #The only word to effectively describe it is wow #Ajdhjxhzhhfjf someone give me time to do stuff

[onaperduamedee]

and this week on another episode of Star Trek "here are 3 different romantic relationships paralleling each other and Michael & Philippa squeezed in the middle but how very dare you imply there's even a nanometre of subtext between them" Discovery

#j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore barbemolle #milippa #Star Trek Discovery spoilers #Star Trek Discovery season 3 #just to be safe #but yeah from the promo pics it seems this week's episode is going to be big on relationships - a lot of them romantic #as always no judgement whatsoever #it's merely one of those things I find extremely funny about this show's writing choices #reminds me of the way Leverage handled certain relationships that were absolutely not romantic #I am excited for Friday but I have to get through Thursday first and UGH #I have been enjoying this season so much

[onaperduamedee]

It didn’t escape me that right after getting a scene where Book teased Michael about her thing for uniforms, in comes Mirrorgiou with admiral stripes.

#j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #Star Trek Discovery spoilers #Star Trek Discovery season 3 #milippa #I JUST FIND THIS EXTREMELY FUNNY #like it's just after #in this house we multiship or we die

[onaperduamedee]

The people in the Disco fandom who are all "you are loving this show wrong; you are doing fandom wrong; you are wrong"... 2021 is the year I am blocking/muting them on sight.

If I wanted such a patronizing lecture, I would go to cram school.

#j'en connais au moins un et peut être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est anatole #le second c'est croquignole #le troisième c'est barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore barbemolle #... #Anyway this is truly the year I have decided to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt #I am sure they are nice people but they carry the same energy some of my teachers in prépa did and oh boy #If your energy in fandom is upholding word of god and a hierarchy #And you are quite vocal about the disdain you have for the people who harmlessly don't follow the doxa #And feel that your opinion and judgment of the silly creatures who don't get fandom is worth leaving your DMs #Yeah no I am not interested in any of this #Keep that energy for racism and harmful behaviors in fandom #You are not a scholar you are just the fandom equivalent of elitism #Don't reblog #fandom criticism #fandom negativity

[onaperduamedee]

Hi again!! I can imagine Michelle as Grand Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker wielding a purple lightsaber, which means she can control the light and dark side of the Force. Grand Jedi Master Luke remains the symbol of hope, at least he found happiness with his own family. Ben Skywalker is a Jedi knight of the new order who carries on their legacy. Also he wields a dual bladed blue lightsaber. 3/4

4/4: Bonus: Jessica Henwick could play Luke and Mara’s daughter named Stella (if they had one in canon she’d be the younger sister of Ben lol) so imagine instead of finishing her Jedi training, she explores the unknown regions of the galaxy finding lost planets and ancient Jedi relics. Anyway you’re welcome! Hope you enjoyed this! 😄

Anon, this is amazing! I would absolutely watch this film (or new trilogy 👀). I love the concept of a greyer jedi, incorporating light and dark. And to imagine Michelle Yeoh playing it...

Also please tell me more about Stella Skywalker because everything you are telling me about her is fascinating.

Thank you very much! That message made me dream a little of stars and sabers!

#j'en connais au moins un et peut être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est anatole #le second c'est croquignole #le troisième c'est barbemole #le quatrième c'est encore anatole #Rescribo #Michelle Yeoh #Star wars #❤️ #I do really want this

[onaperduamedee]

I’m probably going to do a set of Disco S3 icons (tumblr/twitter) with transparent background, so if any of you lot have a request for one or two characters, now’s the time!

This is the kind of icon I will be trying:

[Image description: Picture of Michael Burnham from the shoulders up against a semi transparent background showing a blue sphere and stylised stars. She is wearing a dark uniform and a strand escapes her short curly hair. She is turning her head slightly to the side, pensively looking down. End description]

#j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore Anatole #Star Trek Discovery #I'm going to bed with a book for now because oh boy this has been a day #I have been especially absentminded today and it led to the kind of situations only I can find myself in #I am not angry with myself more astounded that my capacity for blunder doesn't seem to lessen AT ALL with the years #Tryphon Tournesol is my name

[onaperduamedee]

Concerning Disco, my spoilers policy is:

- no reblogging gifs from a new episode in the first two days after the episode;

- spoilers for an episode will be tagged "#star trek discovery spoilers" for a week after the episode was released.

(if you do want to scream in my inbox right after the episode, don't hesitate. I don't mind spoilers for myself!)

#j'en connais au moins un et peut être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est anatole #le second c'est croquignole #le troisième c'est barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore anatole #I personally welcome spoilers because I love anticipation #But many people don't so here's the deal in this house #I know many don't have time to watch before the weekend either

[onaperduamedee]

When French people are going on lockdown again tonight only two weeks after curfew:

[Image description: gif of Two from Dark Matter, a young Asian woman all dressed in black. She stares at someone in front of her in disbelief, looks away and smirks, clearly annoyed, before laughing and thinning her lips. She looks back at the person and talks, eyebrows raised. The caption reads: “You had me going here.” End description]

#j'en connais au moins un et peut-être aussi les trois autres #le premier c'est Anatole #le second c'est Croquignole #le troisième c'est Barbemolle #le quatrième c'est encore barbemolle #France #joking -- we all know it was going to happen #THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING #like the parisians are already leaving Paris like the cowards they are #and no one at work knows what exactly will happen #''we'll see tomorrow'' #mdr #fuck this incompetent government #the curfew was so useless if they knew all along they were going to lockdown everyone again