#and all of these things are specific to hera and to the themes of wolf 359 and NOT about AI characters in general

[commsroom]

to me, the question of whether hera would want a body is first and foremost a question of autonomy and ability. she has an internal self-image, i think it's meaningful that the most pivotal moments in her character arc take place in spaces where she can be perceived the way she perceives herself and interact with others in a (relatively) equal and physical capacity, and that's worth considering. but i don't think it's about how she looks, or even who she is - and i think she's the same person either way; she's equally human without a body, and having a body wouldn't make her lived experience as an AI magically disappear - so much as it's about how she would want to live.

like most things with hera, i'm looking at this through a dual lens of disability and transness, both perspectives from which the body - and particularly disconnect from the body - is a concern. the body as the mechanism by which she's able to interact with the world; understanding her physical isolation as a product of her disability, the body as a disability aid. the body as it relates to disability, in constant negotiation. the body as an expression of medical transition, of self-determination, of choice. as a statement of how she wants to be seen, how she wants to navigate the world, and at the same time reckoning with the inevitable gap between an idealized self-image and a lived reality, especially after a long time spent believing that self-image could never be visible to anyone else.

it's critical to me that it should never imply hera's disability is 'fixed' by having a body, only that it enables her to interact with the world in ways she otherwise couldn't. her fears about returning to earth are about safety and ability; the form she exists in dictates the life she's allowed to lead and has allowed people to invade her privacy and make choices for her. dysphoria and disability both contribute to disembodiment - in an increasingly digitized world, the type of alienation that feels like your life can only exist in a virtual space... maybe there's something about the concept of AI embodiment, in particular as it relates to hera, that appeals to me because of what it challenges about what makes a 'real woman.' when it's about perception, about how others see her and how she might observe / be impacted by how she's treated differently, even subconsciously. it's about feeling more present in her life and interfacing with the world. but it's not in itself a becoming; it doesn't change how she's been shaped by her history or who she is as a person.

i think it comes back to the 'big picture' as a central antagonistic force in wolf 359, and how - in that context, in this story - it adds a weight to this hypothetical choice. hera is everywhere, and she's never really anywhere. she's got access to more knowledge than most people could imagine, but it's all theoretical or highly situational; she doesn't have the same life experiences as her peers. she has the capacity to understand that 'big picture' better than most people, but whatever greater portion of the universe she understands is nothing next to infinity and meaningless without connection and context. it's interesting to me that hera is one of the most self-focused and introspective people on the show. her loyalties and decisions are absolute, personal, emotionally driven. she's lonely; she always feels physically away from the others. she misremembers herself sitting at the table with the rest of the crew. she imagines what the ocean is like. there's nothing to say that hera having a body is the only solution for that, but i like what it represents, and i honestly believe it'd make her happier than the alternatives. if there's something to a symbolically narrowed focus that allows for a more solid sense of self... that maybe the way to make something of such a big, big universe is to find a tiny portion of it that's yours and hold onto it tight.

#wolf 359 #w359 #hera wolf 359 #idk. processing something. as always i have more to say but it's impossible to communicate all at once #it's a meaningful idea to me and i think there's a LOT more that can be done with it thematically than just. the assumption of normalcy #so much of hera's existence is about feeling trapped and that's only going to get worse on earth and within these two contexts #that's something i really feel for. especially with. mmm. #i don't like the idea that who hera is is tied to the way she exists because it seems to weirdly reinforce her own misconception #that there can never be another life for her. #and all of these things are specific to hera and to the themes of wolf 359 and NOT about AI characters in general #in other stories there are other considerations. #the best argument i can make against it is that she says getting visuals from one place is weird and she doesn't like it. but that's #a totally different situation where it's a further limitation of her ability without a trade off. it's a different consideration i think #when it allows her more freedom. to go somewhere and be completely alone by herself. to feel like she has more control and more privacy #to be able to hug her friends. or feel the rain. it would be one thing if she felt content existing 'differently' #but she... doesn't. canonically she doesn't. and i think that has to be taken into account. #i think you can tell a meaningful and positive story about disability without giving her physical form on earth too #but i think it has to be considered that those are limitations for her and that the way she exists feels isolating to her. #idk. a lot of the suggestions people come up with feel like they're coming from a place of compromise that i don't think is necessary #there are plenty of ways that having a body would be difficult for hera and i guess it's hopeful to me to think #maybe she'd still find it worth it.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Stealth Strike"

In which, Character Development! and other exciting features.

I mentioned the husband loves Star Wars ships right? This is another one of his favorite episodes, he loooves the Interdictor class.

Always liked this little musical flare at the beginning, already conveys a sense of urgency and danger.

Sato sounds so aggrieved that he has to have Ezra along, lol.

I mean from his perspective Ezra's just an overconfident plucky kid, he hasn't been around Ezra long enough to know how competent the boy is.

Love the staggered Force Theme prelude in the strings there, all broken up and disjointed. Once again Ezra is sensing impending danger.

Still adore the kaleidoscope color effect Rebels uses to mark being forcibly ejected/yanked from hyperspace.

Bbbyyyyyyyy. :((((

Worried Spacefamily be worried.

Hera wisely understands that the best way to infiltrate a top-secret Imperial project is to keep the aliens off the mission lol.

Kanan is being predictably petty about having to work with Rex.

"I sent Ezra... this is the only way." Ouch. I bet Hera is feeling pretty guilty and has thought a lot about this since they learned about it, so you know she's run it through a million times in her head. Probably why Kanan acquiesces to her judgment.

I wanna know the thought process behind the Imps' decision to haul Ezra and Sato in to see Titus. Like, Sato I get, he's the obvious commander of the unit but I wanna know which trooper saw Ezra and was like, "Hmm, he seems Plot Important, I better drag him along too."

Sato still very much Not Impressed with Ezra's posturing.

Hi Brom Titus!

It's hilarious that Ezra's sarcastically used "Jabba the Hutt" so often it's been logged as a known alias of his lololol.

The Giligan Cut between Rex complaining that he'd never wear Stormtrooper armor and Zeb bringing them unconscious troopers to steal the armor from. <3

"I thought it was the same one we used before." LOL. Okay, I gotta stop before I quote every line in this episode.

Can't help it, it's just so fun.

We cut to the shuttle mid-hyperspace and Rex and Kanan are still bickering, but even in the middle of that we get some lovely worried Papa Wolf Kanan hyperfocusing on Ezra as his priority.

I swear it was explained somewhere what the specific codes Rex gives meant but I can't for the life of me remember where now. Pretty sure one of them meant the shuttle was going to explode? Anyway...

Rex seems like he's having just a grand old time. This must feel just like the old days for him.

Lol Kallus getting excited about Ezra's capture and warning Titus "[...]do not underestimate that boy." He knows firsthand how much of a threat and nuisance Ezra can be.

A little variation on the Death Star theme here, kind of appropriate given this is a very similar-feeling kind of infiltration and rescue.

Maybe that's why I like this episode so much, has a lot of A New Hope vibes.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: Chopper's legs jerking as he rolls over the hump in the doorway.

The ANH vibes continue with this turbolift scene, which is just hilarious. From Rex not knowing which button to push to the Imperial officer snarking at our hero duo, it's just... *chef's kiss*

They are a disaster pair and I just love them.

Cut to the troopers that are escorting Ezra to his "secure cell" and I'm sorry, I adore this whole sequence. Ezra being a little hyper-competent badass is my whole jam, okay?

This is so clever. <3333

Ezra makes very short work of his guards, without really hurting them (something that would contrast in S3 after the whole Malachor Loss-Of-Innocence thing) and then immediately shoots his intended rescue party lololol.

I love how smoothly he moves through this whole scene. He's obviously been practicing and of course the Force operates on a principal of "the more at peace and in tune you are with yourself, the greater strength you can channel" so after his whole soul-searching in "Brothers of the Broken Horn" deal he's come to some kind of serenity within himself that lets him be just super awesome here. Love it.

<333333

Chopper immediately rats Ezra out lol.

Kanan reluctant to split up from Ezra, aww.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The way Ezra raises his hands in aggravation when Kanan and Rex get into it again.

Ezra finally chews the two of them out for all their bickering and takes charge of the mission and you can't even tell me he didn't make Kanan just a smidge proud, with that comment about how, "He takes after Hera sometimes." <3333

No but seriously, fandom of course loves Kanan and Ezra's whole "like my father before me" vibe but let's not forget how it was Hera who first took a shine to him, who saw potential in him, who knew that he wasn't as selfish as he pretended he was, drew out that inner spark of compulsive compassion planted by his parents and has been influencing him on the Rebellion side of things to complement Kanan's Jedi teaching.

Found Family liek woah. :)

Brom Titus looking a little less confident now that the scrawny fifteen-year-old he was specifically cautioned not to underestimate has given them the slip lol.

*cries* He was so TINY!

Very glad Ezra learned binary, it enables hilarious conversations like this.

This is yet another music cue recycled from the Death Star sequence in A New Hope. Like I said, they're really leaning into that this episode.

This little troll I love him so much.

Bit of the "Shenanigans" theme as Chopper rolls up.

Can I just appreciate how well Ezra rolls with blocking shots in zero gravity?

I think Chopper enjoyed all of this a too much lol.

Remember, giving people grief is how Chopper shows affection. :)

Love how they lampshade the terrible vision quality of Stormtrooper helmets.

Sato all ready to square up with this random trooper until he sees it's Kanan.

And his anxious worry over Ezra's welfare is really sweet. Sato does care, he might find Ezra bit aggravating but he's still just a kid in Sato's eyes, someone who was under his protection. (One wonders if Ezra reminds him of Mart a bit.) It's not Sato's fault he's only now learning what a precocious badass Ezra is lol.

This move of Kanan and Rex's is slick.

Lightsaber Naruto run.

I've been told this horn cue is Rex's theme. Makes sense.

Heeeeey remember what I said about Rex's deathseeker tendencies? Yeah.

Subtle animation appreciation moment: The drifting smoke in the hallway from the firefight holy cow. Attention to detail.

"I serve the order you put into place, Captain." Ohhhhhh Imma dent his face in.

*hurts in Order 66 feels*

THEY WERE JUST TOOLS TO PALPATINE, THEY HAD A SINGLE PURPOSE AND HE JUST DISCARDED THEM ONCE IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED.

This Hitchcock Zoom with Kanan as if he's sensing Rex's pain. <33333

Character growth! <33333

Ezra one-manning this hallway with Skill and Confidence. <33333

My gosh look how smooth and effortless this is for him. No wonder Sato was impressed.

Nice to see more classic lightsaber positions creeping into the choreography here.

Ezra being all, "OH HECK NO, THERE WILL BE NO SELF-SACRIFICING TODAY!" over the comms. He's very tired of them doing that lol.

The dolly shots this episode are tight.

Aww Ezra still looks really worried tho.

Don't think about him remembering, "I'll take the next one." and "I'll be right behind you."

Aaaaaaaand Chopper just scored the highest body count on the show, lol. (Up until the finale anyway with the Dome explosion and the purrgil-ening.)

My gosh this show even makes total destruction look pretty.

Yeah, getting a top-secret Interdictor prototype imploded is pretty demotion worthy ha ha.

Love how Kallus is basically perfectly fine assigning all of that chaos to Ezra in particular. XD

KANAN SALUTING REX NOT ONLY AS A SIGN OF FINALLY BURYING THE HATCHET BUT ALSO TAKING UP THE MANTLE OF SOLDIER HE WAS SO RELUCTANT TO AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON.

This is one of the best episodes of the season, no joke. It's fun, it brings the nostalgia without being kitschy, it lets Ezra and Sato have a little bit of nice interaction (underrated relationship, fanficers have let me down), it shows how Ezra's developing in combat, it finishes the whole Rex and Kanan animosity plot, and Chopper murders three whole Imperial cruisers effortlessly.

Love it.

#star wars #star wars rebels #rebels rewatch #liveblog #ezra bridger #agent kallus #space dad and his precious pumpkin child #stan ezra bridger he's great

[kbirbpods]

Click below for my "dear podficcer," letter for Summer Swap 2023!

Dear Podficcer,

It's me, Kaje, I'm the problem I'm kbirb pods!

Things I like, regardless of fandom:

THEMES: trans/nobinary characters (extra points for neopronouns); gender exploration in general; found family (genfic or otherwise); angst with a happy ending; polyamory; good asexual or aromantic representation

TROPES: fix-it fics!! extra points for time travel or time loops in fix its; fake dating/marriage; mutual pining; soulmates (AU or just clearly soulmates); crack treated seriously; rivals-to-friends/lovers; oops only one bed

AUs: soulmates soulmates soulmates; regency era (or any different era); modern AU; crossovers, provided i know the other fandom or the fic doesn't require knowledge of the other fandom!; college/sport AU; fantasy/fae AUs

PODFIC SPECIFIC: anything epistolary (texting/chat fics especially but letters and such are also fun to explore); including music / SFX if you're comfortable; including bloopers if you have them/are comfortable exposing them

RATINGS: Contrary to popular belief I do not hate explicit fics so really any rating but I generally prefer G-M I guess

Do Not Wants (triggers, squicks, please no):

major archive warnings (major character death is okay so long as it's temporary and resolved); unhappy endings; I really don't like pregnancy, which includes MPREG (I like a/b/o dynamics minus that aspect) - kidfic is cool I just don't want pregnancy as a theme & especially not graphic depictions of it; suicide/self-harm "on screen" (mentions of past suicidal ideation/self harm are fine if not a flashback/graphic); non-/dub-con or any depictions of rape (once again, recovery is okay if done well); adult/minor relationships or relationships with unaddressed/starkly imbalanced power dynamics; any sort of poorly depicted mental health tropes (no BPD or other personality disorder bashing, no institutionalization, no "split personality" as a trope) - i really like explorations of PTSD/trauma but it has to be handled with fidelity and gentleness

Main Fandoms I Would Love to Receive:

Star Wars: I love so much Star Wars that to split them like I did on AO3 would make this post too long. I think it's easiest to say this: I prefer Clone Wars, Rebels, anything about Jon Antilles, and anything Ahsoka Tano.

My main ships are: Cody/Obi-Wan, Kallus/Zeb, Hevy/anyone (consensual), Finn/Poe or Finn/Poe/Rey, blackkat rarepairs (mainly Jon Antilles/anyone), Jon Antilles & Fay (platonic), Waxer/Boil, Fives/Echo, Kanan/Hera, and Quinlan/Fox My favorite characters are: Hevy, Fox, Ahsoka, Leia, Poe, Fives, Luke, Jon Antilles, Fay (Legends) My favorite themes/tropes are: force sensitive clones, trans!clones, force sensitive Leia, modern AUs, Domino Squad lives

Ted Lasso: My current hyperfixation! My favorite ships are Roy/Keeley/Jamie, Ted/Trent, Roy/Keeley, and Jamie/Dani. Ted & Rebecca as platonic soulmates/besties in general. I love explorations of how much Dr. Jacob sucks and fix-its for the ending!

Batfam/DC: I can be picky and yet not? Basically, I just prefer no inner-Batfam fics of the boys because I truly view them as brothers. My favorite ships are Jason Todd/Roy Harper, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Harley/Ivy, Tim Drake/Kon, and Wally/Artemis from Young Justice. This is the fandom that I specifically am obsessed with found family in. I love exploring Alfred being the boys Grandpa and Bruce's complex dadhood.

The Locked Tomb: dying waiting for Alecto news..... I'm definitely Gideon/Harrow on main; I really like fics where one or both of them are trans/nonbinary. Nona is my favorite character so explorations of her found family (the household or the friends or all of them) are important to me. Cam/Pal is important to me. I love modern AUs a lot.

Additional Fandoms I Love:

Teen Wolf: I'm basic and therefore Sterek on main! But I also really love Scisaac and never get enough content for them. Boyd/Erica is always so good. Scott/Isaac/Allison and Scott/Allison hold a special place in my heart, too. I'll never say no to Lydia/Allison or Lydia/Kira either. Found family is incredible for this fandom, too, especially Mama McCall adopting any of the pack! Magic!Stiles is my shit and I love explorations of the Hale family being alive. Genfic is wonderful.

Our Flag Means Death: Obviously Blackbeard/Stede is a big deal and I ship it forever. But my heart belongs to Jim/Olu and any explorations of Jim's gender identity! Pining Izzy Hands makes me weak, as long as he's not being abusive towards Edward or Stede.

All for the Game: My two main pairs are Jean/Jeremy and Allison/Renee but of course Andrew/Neil is always a yes. Andrew/Neil/Kevin is my weakness. My favorite friendships to explore are Renee & Andrew, Renee & Jean, Allison & Neil, and Renee & Neil. (Can you tell who my fave is). I like any fics exploring any of the Fox friendships, though!

The Old Guard: I really like fics that explore the gang's experiences in other time periods. Andy/Quynh is my OTP along with Joe/Nicky so any fics about them. Nile/Quynh is my favorite rarepair in the fandom. I like fics that look at Andy & Booker's friendship and why they're definitely platonic soulmates.

I selected a few other fandoms like First Kill; The Adventure Zone; Red, White and Royal Blue; Good Omens; The Tarot Sequence; and Sandman. I didn't talk much about them because I'm basically just into the main ships for them (Juliette/Cal for FK, Taako/Kravitz for TAZ, Aubrey/Dani for TAZ, Alex/Henry for RWRB, Crowley/Az for GO, Rune/Addam or Rune/Addam/Brand for TTS, Hob/Dream for Sandman). For Teen Wolf and First Kill I don't like Mature/Explicit fics unless they're adults in it. My favorite TAZ eras are Balance and Amnesty.

Fandoms/Ships I Will Create Content For:

Anything I listed above with any of the caveats! This would get really long if I repeated those again. THAT BEING SAID: I will create content for those fandoms even if it's not one of my listed ships.

However I will not create podfic for the following ships: STAR WARS: Rey/Kylo, Leia/Luke, Rex/Ahsoka, any Master/Padawan relationship, or Palpatine/Anakin. BATFAM: inner!Batboys as mentioned TED LASSO: Ted/Jamie (love Ted & Jamie tho) AFTG: Andrew/Aaron SANDMAN: Dream/any of his siblings

Other fandoms I will create content for:

ATLA: Zuko/Sokka, found family Star Trek: Spock/Kirk, Spock/Kirk/Bones, Kirk/Bones Leverage: OT3 is Hardison/Parker/Eliot LOTR / The Hobbit: Gimli/Legolas, Eowyn/Faramir, Boromir/being alive, Bilbo/Thorin. I like anything just exploring the lore and history of the universe and its cultures Venom: Venom/Eddie(/Annie/Dan) The Witcher: Yen/Jaskier/Geralt, Jaskir/Geralt, Geralt/Triss, Yen/Triss Sense8: anything I can find! it's small but there's nothing I won't do in this fandom, honestly... Trigun: Vash/Wolfwood (the only thing I know about it) Marvel/MCU: Steve/Bucky, Clint/Bucky, Kate Bishop/America Chavez, and Spideypool (as long as they're both adults). WITH A LOT OF CAVEATS... Harry Potter. I will only podfic trans-centric Tonks who does not get with Remus or Wolfstar with a happy ending.

Love, Kaje / kbirb

#dear podficcer #summer swap #dear creator #podfic #podficcers #podficcing #summer swap 2023 #creator letter #podfic letter

[daughterofluthien]

Rules: Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Don’t cheat. Tag some people.

Tagged by @brambleberrycottage! Thank you!!

(a note: these are not necessarily my fave shows or anything, but they are the shows that are more on my mind than others :P)

Teen Wolf

Star Wars Rebels

Stargate: SG-1

Leverage

Parks & Recreation

Who is your favorite character in 2? Kanan Jarrus. He has a fantastic character arc, he’s a wonderful mentor and space dad, and he’s probably my fave Jedi (and character) in all of Star Wars. Sorry about it, Obi Wan 

Who is your least favorite character in 1? I mean, I don’t tend to focus on least favorite characters too often. However, I do generally have a vague desire to punch Theo in the face anytime he’s onscreen.... He’s slightly better in 6B with the (incredibly rushed) redemption arc and all that, but like. Also.

What is your favorite episode of 4? Oh man, that’s a really difficult question for this show, actually. But for sheer creativity and memorability, I’d probably say “The Rashomon Job.” That was one of the ones that really stuck in my from when I first watched the show, and it ended up being just as good as I remembered.

What is your favorite season of 5? Hmmm I wanna say either S3 or S5. The harvest festival arc in 3 is great, but all the Leslie/Ben stuff in S5? Beautiful and iconic.

Who is your favorite couple in 3? I was a Jack/Sam shipper way back in the day, and that honestly hasn’t changed.

Who is your favorite couple in 2? Kanan/Hera! They’re just... !!! They care about each other! They’re supportive! They just love each other so much and I have so many feelings

What is your favorite episode of 1? “Frayed” Like !!! The entirety of 3A up to this point has been building up to the idea of Scott being/becoming an Alpha, and, like, throughout the season we see him do little Alpha things -- being a leader, pretty much everything about his relationship w/ Isaac, etc. And then!! Then!! This is the episode where he actually starts to realize it! And where he actively chooses the leadership role!

And I’m sorry, I’m not done talking about this episode yet, because I honestly just have so many feelings?? And it’s got this one moment. One moment in particular. Which may be one of my favorite moments in the entire series. Like the whole set up is really good (it’s also one of the few TW eps where anachronic order actually worked), and there’s this whole moment in the middle where Scott and Isaac have to calm Boyd down and keep him from attacking Ethan, as Boyd thinks the Alpha Pack killed Derek. And then, at the end of the episode, Isaac (who did not get upset about Derek in the same way Boyd did) learns that Scott isn’t healing from the wound he got fighting the Alphas, and he just. Absolutely freaks out and attacks Ethan.

(The show directly parallels Boyd’s reaction about Derek to Isaac’s reaction about Scott, and !!!)

BUT THEN. Then Scott comes out. And he roars.

And it’s not technically a roar, but he yells Isaac’s name and it has power behind it. And everyone (including Boyd) notices.

But Isaac!! Isaac stops! He responds as if it was a roar! And I’m!! Gonna go!! Absolutely!! Feral!!!

Ahem.

Anywho that’s my fave episode of TW, and I really love my Alpha son

What is your favorite episode of 5? Oh man, I don’t actually remember a lot of specific favorite episodes, even though I know there’s a lot of eps that I really like... I’m thinking “Flu Season”? But also that’s just one among many very good episodes.

What is your favorite season of 2? I’m gonna say S4, actually. I thought the show had a really strong ending, and I love the final arcs of all the characters.

How long have you watched 1? So I started watching in... 2012 or 2013 I think? And then watched off and on through at least part of S4. Then I started a rewatch here in the year of our Lord 2020 and uh. Here we are :P

How did you become interested in 3? This was actually one of the first fandoms that tiny!Carolyn was ever involved in! My mom discovered it back in like... 2003 or something, decided it was not inappropriate for her barely nine-year-old daughter, and from then on we were both pretty much hooked. 

Who is your favorite actor in 4? Mmm frick, do I have to pick? Probably either Christian Kane or Aldis Hodge. But also Beth Riesgraf is fantastic, too, the whole show is just so delightful. 

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5? Okay okay okay. So. Rebels is definitely the tighter written and better show, imo, but also I’m having a ton of Teen Wolf feelings right now and I just care so much about this characters. So like, currently and tentatively, Teen Wolf? (Sorry P&R, I love you, but straight sitcoms are probably never going to be my pick, even though it is really good)

Which show have you seen more episodes of - 1 or 3? So like, this is really just a contest of how many episodes each show has, right? Since I can’t imagine picking a show for a game like this if I hadn’t seen all the eps? Anywho, seeing as Teen Wolf has 100 episodes and SG-1 has 213 episodes, I think SG-1 is the clear winner here.

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be? So like, I wanna say Amy Palavi, the waitress in their Brewpub in S5? She doesn’t have a terribly intense life or tragic backstory, but she also gets to befriend and hang out with Parker -- along with some mild involvement in shenanigans -- so that seems ideal, honestly.

(And yes, I know she gets kidnapped in that one ep, but that works out all right in the end, so I’m still down.)

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work? Weirdly, absolutely yes. I’ve actually read a few that were pretty good.

In fact, according to Word of God, Leverage and Stargate actually take place in the same universe? Apparently there were going to be a flashback gag with Eliot going through the gate as part of one of his many past jobs, but they weren’t able to do it, due to the sets already have been dismantled.

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple? Huh, oh man. I’m not usually much of rarepair person tbh. And like this is literally something I’m pulling out of absolutely nowhere and haven’t actually thought about before now. But maybe Sydney/Hayden? or Sydney/Lori?

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5? Y’know, I was gonna go with Stargate with this one, but actually the big storyarcs were never my favorite part of SG-1. Whereas P&R actually had some really good and emotionally compelling arcs. So I’m actually gonna go with Parks & Rec with this one.

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4? Neither of them really have much theme music to speak of, but if we’re just talking about music, then Rebels is the clear winner here. Like seriously, props to Kevin Kiner et al., it has some seriously fantastic musical cues. Heck, the score for the finale got nominated for an emmy.

Tagging @whitecatgraycatblackcat, @experimentaldata, and @darnitjack! Also, as always, feel free to do this if you feel so inclined, and please tag me and let me know!

#as always I wrote /far/ too much #but this was fun! #tag meme #brambleberrycottage #teen wolf #star wars: rebels #Stargate: SG-1 #leverage #parks and recreation #star wars #stargate

[callunavulgari]

Yuletide Letter | 2020 edition

Dear Yuletide author,

Hi there! First, I’d like to apologize for the fact that parts of this is almost entirely copy/pasted from last year’s yuletide letter. I’m aware you probably had no idea, but I’m gonna feel weird about it unless I say something. Secondly, thanks so much for telling me a story! My most sincere wish is that you have fun writing this. I trust that I’ll love whatever you come up with. :) 

Fandoms:

The Locked Tomb trilogy, Wolf 359, Rolling in the Deep, Stormlight Archive, Spirited Away, Modao Zushi.

Over all, I’m pretty sure I’ll be pretty happy with whatever you decide to throw at me. I’m not particularly picky, and enjoy a variety of ratings, themes, and genres. I have a list of over 2000 bookmarks on Ao3, which I would like to say might help you find the things that I like, but odds are you’d just get stuck in it.

General flavors on things: I really love atmospheric settings, stories that you can really feel. A great example of this is A Cornstalk Fiddle. Or wild peaches. I enjoy alternate universes in almost every variation, from soulmates to daemons to canon divergence (I really like canon divergence). I’m super fond of slow burns, though it’ll be hard to convey that in a yuletide fic unless you’re REALLY inspired and/or bored and decide to make it 20k+. 

Other things I like:

sun/moon trope

enemies to lovers

poly

YEARNING

AUs that are almost entirely canon except one of the characters is secretly some kind of creature (vampire, demon, selkie, etc)

magical realism

post-canon fic

found families

I do tend to prefer a fic to have some kind of ship to it, but that’s definitely not required. I am fully on board with explicit fics, but do ask that if there is smut, it’s not just smut. I like how introducing sex to a story changes various character dynamics, and I really, really like the sexually/emotionally charged lead up, but when it really comes down to it, I’m reading the story for the characters.

Dislikes:

Non-con 

Dubious consent is usually okay, but varies based on the circumstances and the pairing. My anon box will be on for the duration of the holiday season, so if you feel the urge, just ask me.

Most hard kinks. Again, it varies, and you can ask me, but I’m not particularly interested in any hard smut for the above fandoms.

Mpreg and/or omegaverse

And then more specific info on the fandoms below the cut because this is already long.

The Locked Tomb trilogy

This series has basically wedged itself right up under my ribcage and made itself at home. I’m okay with a variety of the characters in the tag set, but I mostly would love to see a story centering around either Harrow and Gideon or Augustine, John, and Mercymorn. I am super, super weak for enemies to lovers AND all things yearning and tragic it’s really no surprise I seized onto both of these. I would love a fic exploring the relationship between the above three (the more pining and tragic, the better). But like, that fic would also probably delve into some dubious consent, which again. Is fine to a point. But I mean? Two characters who are torn between loving the third and hating him (and at least slightly torn between two different feelings with each other? Poetic cinema.

If you go the Harrow & Gideon route, I’m actually kind of interested in the idea of an AU that still keeps the necromancy? I mean, necromancers in space is a great concept and I LOVE it, but I also love the idea of necromancers who work in a flower shop! Or a morgue! Or who have a shitty kiosk job at the mall and keeps raising rabid undead squirrels and setting them loose in the food court for fun.

Wolf 359

This podcast. Haunts me. It has basically ruined me for all other podcasts. I adore all of the characters, so you can feel free to write about whoever you want. Favorites are Eiffel, Jacobi, and Hera, so if you throw something at me that has the three of them interacting I could probably die happy. I’m good with gen fic, but I’m also a fan of Jacobi/Kepler, Eiffel/Jacobi, Hera/Eiffel, and would honestly probably fully embrace any other ship you could possibly throw at me.

I like the idea of Hera getting a body after the series. I like the idea of Eiffel finding himself again. I like the idea of Jacobi finding a new family (cough, Hera and Eiffel). I like the idea of Jacobi and Hera becoming best buds. I like the idea of Jacobi working through his grief over Maxwell and Kepler. I like the idea of Hera learning how to be herself in a big wide world that isn’t entirely on her side. I like the idea of every single member of the crew who touches back down on earth learning how to be people afterwards. I like the idea of Minkowski and Lovelace getting closer, especially if Minkowski’s husband is a part of that dynamic.

I just really like found family and people holding each other up when the going gets tough, and this podcast has that in spades. Also? Have you listened to Zero Hours? Because if you want to introduce some of that dynamic I would be forever in love.

Rolling in the Deep 

I honestly wasn’t sure whether to include this one in my list of wants or not, but ultimately decided on it because I think that anything you wrote for it I would be happy about. I’ve left the character section blank because I’d be okay with whoever you wrote about. This is one of those books where I don’t have many shippy feelings, but love the concept. Though, if you want to write about the mermaid they brought back with them and ANY of the characters, I would be particularly cool with that. 

I just really liked this book a lot, so yeah. Anything. Bonus points for post canon. Bonus bonus points for mermaids.

Stormlight Archive

Kaladin/Shallan/Adolin. I know Sanderson said that thing about how Adolin and Shallan would be down for it, but Kaladin would balk and just - listen to me: forget all that. My default reaction to love triangles is usually to happily ship them in a poly setting and these three are no exception. 

You want to write me an AU? Sure! Throw it at me! Canon and/or canon-divergence? Even better! Daemons? Yes, please. 

Alternatively, if you’re not really crazy about poly, I would be okay with something exploring the relationship between Shallan and Jasnah. I really adore Jasnah’s character and wish we had more of her headspace. 

Spirited Away

Spirited Away is my ultimate comfort movie. It is my go-to when I’m sad or sick or upset, and let’s be real here. It’s been a particularly upsetting year. And I would really love post-canon content with either Chihiru, Haku, or both. 

I would love fic where they find each other again. Where they keep finding each other. Where Chihiru walks from her new house down through the forest and just, stares at the entrance for a while. Where Chihiru is haunted by that place through the years, where she both yearns for it and marvels at how like a dream it felt. Where it’s changed her fundamentally, like walking into the fae realm. Where she meets spirits in strange places and speaks to them, only to realize no one else can see them. A fic where Chihiru is twelve, and then fifteen, and then twenty-three, and then even older, and is still just so taken by that place she disappeared to when she was a child and the people she found there.

Above I mentioned wild peaches as an example of a story that I really like, which is a fic of Sarah in the aftermath of the Labyrinth. That is almost precisely the feeling I’ve been craving from a Spirited Away fic, basically since I first watched the movie.

Modao Zushi

I’m weak for Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. That is basically all it comes down to. The yearning. The rivals (kind of?) to friends to enemies to friends to lovers concept in this had me really messed up, let me tell you. I am particularly weak for Wei Wuxian as the Yiling Patriarch. That could tread close to the dubious consent line if you want it to, or it could not. Don’t worry about it. As long as it’s not non-con, I will happily accept whatever you have to offer.

I am also pretty okay with basically any AU for this. Not really picky. I will say though that I am particularly enamored with the idea of a dancer and/or composer/musician AU for this one. I’ve written about it twice and it still hasn’t scratched the itch. I just really want them to dance with each other. 

#heather says what #yuletide letter #yuletide #yuletide 2020

[geejaysmith]

Wolf 359 Classpects, pt. 1

Soooo, while I was still busy with the last few weeks of my summer internship, I did keep thinking about classpecting the Wolf 359 cast. Possibly too much, because it wouldn't leave me alone until I'd solved my own God Tier riddle. Unfortunately, it got really long in the solving because I have many Thoughts and want to share all of them, always, so uh, a complete Classpect Analysis of Wolf 359 will be in parts? This first one covers Eiffel's, Hera's, Lovelace's and Minkowski's aspects.

DOUG EIFFEL: An utter no-brainer; ya boi Dougie Fresh is a Breath player if I ever saw one. For Chrissakes, he's the communications officer, and the first one to start complaining about the monotony of being stuck in a deep space sardine can. Breath is associated with communication, freedom, openness, and change - "free as the breeze", you might think of it, but that also leads to Breath players having trouble pinning themselves down to anything. They get skittish if they feel pinned down, and frustrated when stuck in place. Doug's noncommittal aloofness, the way he's off in his own little world (partially to hide from the fact he really does not like himself very much at all), and the way he's incorporated media into his self-perception all match pretty well with John and the Nitrams. But at the same time, he's the one playing mediator even as early as The Sound And The Fury. Being largely outside of the War Industrial Complex the other characters are so familiar with and thus mostly free from its dogmatic worldview of hierarchy and order, he's becomes the One Sane Man when he's the one to shout "what is WRONG with you people?" when "murder" shows up in the top 3 potential solutions to a problem, and he has no hesitation in saying what's on his mind. And it's not all complaints and bad ideas, either; he's got whole speeches telling the others how amazing he thinks they are and how in awe he is of their skills. A key catalyst in the plot of Wolf 359 is the reaching effects of his radio broadcasts. Also, there's something hilarious to the fact that for the aspect associated with communication, Doug *literally* cannot lie to save his life. I kept my ears open for the infamous Breath Hex on my second listen - that is, the strange little way in which things Breath players say tend to come to pass in reality. Cigarette Candy is basically 20 straight minutes of the Decima virus being Breath Hexed into existence, and he guessed Lovelace's situation in one - "Maybe she's a clone, or like a *really* good robot replica."

HERA: Another easy one. Although Hera is resistant to splintering as we've come to recognize it, Heart players are nothing if not determined to be an individual. They have a firm idea of themselves as a person and defend it fiercely, including compartmentalizing away pieces that don't fit their self-image. Maybe less actively putting them down like Jade Harley did to Jadesprite (the manifestation of the negative feelings she repressed out of fear they'd make her less useful) - that would mean attacking or denying a part of themselves - and more... "why yes, I put this part of myself in this box, and I may look at the box on occasion, the box definitely exists, but I don't go near the box and I definitely do not touch or open or interact with the box. And then one day, I will die." So that piece finds other avenues to express itself because it can't not do that. Hera's programming dictates she be "chipper and non-confrontational and always ready to help", but she actively resists being a mere utility and always has - her earliest know action was to attempt a jailbreak of the manufacturing facility she was made in, born rebel that she is. She will insist upon her name over her serial number unless you force her not to, and gets passive-aggressive at people treating her like a machine. And yet, even as she teaches herself to ignore commands literally written into the base of her personality, she doesn't reject her directive to be helpful, nor does she express a wish to be a flesh-and-blood human, or even really to have a physical form? She has a human self-image in mental spaces (we presume, I will semi-seriously point out there's nothing definitively stating she doesn't see herself as like, her fursona or something), but when she has to limit herself to a human-like view of the ship, her immediate reaction is "this is weird, I don't like it."  This is honestly something about Hera that I think may be unique among non-villainous AI characters; she seems to be content with being what she is in general, and she just wishes for people to treat her as a person and not a piece of equipment they can do with as they please.  

ISABEL LOVELACE: Arm-wrestled Hera for the Heart aspect and lost, despite Hera not actually having any arms, but that's okay because there's two aspects that fit her much better: Blood and Time. I ultimately went with Blood.

This is the part where you notice I'm onto the third of four characters in an aspects-only meta post, yet there is still a lot of post to go. This is because These Kinds Of Characters, the sort that're constantly on emotional lockdown, are a Challenge Mode, and for me to truly be satisfied with my classification I have to start drilling into the bedrock of what it even means to have an aspect in general, what it means to have a specific aspect, and what each aspect is really about. When you're on that level you tend to find yourself throwing out explicit expositional statements as incomplete, oversimplified, or unreliable, and looking at the text directly with a subtextual electron microscope. Brace yourselves. I have thrown the author out of the airlock, and I am about to get verbose.  

Lovelace's character sheet describes her in contradictions, and we get to see two different sides to her that resolve into the complete picture by the time Lovelace Mk. III wakes up. There's Captain Isabel Lovelace, goofing around in her earlier logs, and The Terminator. She does things Her Way and is very much prepared to fight you if you object - the whole reason she was picked for the Hephaestus mission was her willingness to go against (in her words) "stupid orders" and do what she thought was right. She's also fiercely loyal; The Terminator is the end result of her anger and grief for her lost crew and at her failure to get them home alive. Her backstory episode has her summing up her complicated relationship to the Air Force with "I owe a lot of who I am to them." And even before she and Minkowski have completely stopped butting heads, Lovelace shoves her out of the way of an exploding wall panel that would've killed her, and takes a near-fatal bit of shrapnel to the gut in the process. At her best, Lovelace is a fearless, boundlessly determined, dedicated firebrand of a leader. At worst, she can be impatient, stubborn, shortsighted, and ruthless. I dunno about you but that reminds me of a certain... angry crab that I know.

"Time" was what a few people chimed in with for Lovelace and while I see some of the connections (her awareness of the time loop, "Variations on a Theme", her multiple selves and multiple deaths, the repeated motif of clocks and pocketwatches) I don't think she quite fits in with the other Time players. Unlike most Time players, she doesn't have a fixation with historic context, the "Why Things Are The Way That They Are." This manifests in Dave's paleontology and his taking of source material for ironic twisting, Aradia's archaeology and knowledge of The Nature Of The Game, Damara's... /noises and vague gestures bc I don't want to go back through Meenahbound but her role as The Handmaid fits the pattern, and Caliborn's own warped, thoughtless replication of narrative archetypes. Context. Decisions. What came before and how it shapes the now, where your decisions will take it from here. The consequences those decisions will have. The details versus the larger picture. Even failure has its place in that scheme - that's the Time aspect. Lovelace doesn't like to dwell, she's a very "barrelling forward momentum" kind of person.

Side note: Aradia, Dave, and Damara all face hesitation to take action they had to learn to overcome. Also, all of them had to be pushed to use violence except in self-defense; Aradia let Vriska cross a series of lines before beating the everloving shit out of her, and Damara snapped after what, years? Of Meenah's abuse. Dave, on the other hand, never raises a hand to another person except as a complete necessity. Caliborn is, if anything, an aberration here in that he's outright homocidal and self-doubt is something that happens to other people. Caliborn is an outright aberration to a lot of Time player patterns, and to SBURB in general, because it's SBURB, so the rules are made up and the points don't fucking matter, except when they do, because Fuck You, The Author Said So.

No, Lovelace's approach to decision-making is that regrets are for afterwards, and "if I fail I deserve to be out of this picture; also, this situation has gone entirely pear-shaped, time to fling myself into the sun." (and that sounds an awful lot like someone that I know very well, but I'll deal with that royal mess when I get to the crazy whamma-jamma that is Classes). Impatience and railroading of other people can be her undoing just the same as assertiveness and decisiveness are her gifts.

...aaand then I went ahead and watched the live episode and yeah, major Karkat vibes there. However, I note that I don't believe we have ever hit hard evidence in Homestuck that Blood players are capable of Chilling The Fuck Out - this is part of the limitations of classpecting characters who weren't made for this system, you really have to dig into how much of their behavior is situational and where you see the kernel of individual perception shine through, the Rosetta Stone by which you begin to see the constants. "Where the object becomes the subject", to quote Memoria.

Finally, I think it's also worth noting that while Lovelace has a lot of connections to Time motifs, she also has connections to a lot of Blood motifs that arguably become more important to her story. Personal bonds and social justice are two of the Blood aspects strongest associations - see Lovelace's loyalty to her crew, and extending her desire to avenge them out to everyone Goddard Futuristics has ever used and tossed aside. The physical body and literal blood are other strong associations, and gee, how many times does the O-negative Cure-All Alien Juice in Lovelace's veins become a critical plot point? Not to mention the implication that her new friends all pulled through the finale because all of them now have her blood in their system. I'll accept that she's closer to the line between Blood and Time than some, but I'm holding by ground here: 

(Also, here's some irony for you, she may share an aspect with the Cancer trolls, but her birthday is August 11th, making her a Leo.)

RENEE MINKOWSKI: Minkowski was the hardest of these 4 to come to a decision on. My first inclination was Mind. Her general disposition put me in mind of a Life player. But then, I sat down and thought my way past the Commander's layers of emotional armor and ultimately settled on Light.

First off, by being a stickler for protocol and procedure as well as an Actual Responsible Adult, Minkowski is a kind of character that Homestuck straight-up just does not have, so snap judgements aren't gonna cut it here.  This is, again, another limitation of the classpecting system - all the examples we have to draw from are teenage disasters stuck in a lawless hellscape of some description or another, and written by an author allergic to boxing himself in with hard conclusions. But I digress.

Commander Minkowski is also stubborn. When she sets her mind to something, she digs in her heels, cranks the dial to 11, and then breaks off the knob and pockets it so you can't turn it back down. We see this as soon as episode 2, and at it's most hyperbolic when she Captain Ahabs the plant monster. Her's is iron-willed, bloody-minded, unstoppable, Determi-fucking-nation - when she sets her mind to it.

The submarine thought exercise is what had me initially lock her down as a hero of Mind before I mulled it over. The exercise is meant to provoke thought about priorities - what you think your role's purpose is in that situation will determine your priorities, and thus, your decisions. Mind heroes' most prominent skills are in riding the flow of causality, watching decisions, their causes and their consequences, and directing that path. They know people, and how to direct people. But the need for this means that they can get a little co-dependent. Other people are understandable - it's themselves that Mind heroes have the greatest struggle with. Without that vehicle of another person, Mind heroes may find themselves adrift and struggling to define themselves. This is fitting, given Mind is the most direct counterpart to the Heart aspect.

However, upon further examination, I found that this framework of priorities setting your decisions can also be extended to the Light aspect. What is "lucky" in a given situation? What do you define as a fortunate outcome? Rose arguably gets Grimdark'd by something like this, she asks the cue ball "are the horrorterrors evil?" and in doing so attempts to pry into the motivations and intent of *indescribable eldritch beings existing on a nigh-incomprehensible plane* and wedge it down into a relative human understanding of morality, which is sort of like trying to fit the Pacific Ocean into a water bottle. She was trying to deduce what impact the horrorterrors would have upon her and her friends, but asked the wrong question and got an answer she couldn't handle. She didn't recognize Doc Scratch was baiting her into this by leading her into a specific framework through which to ask the question. Vriska died because of her failure to recognize she was in a situation where luck didn't matter. Aranea got trounced because of her inability to recognize that reshuffling reality to prioritize herself and her preferred outcomes still didn't overcome the fundamental nature of timelines - you try to take over the alpha timeline with an insubordinate branch? That's a doomed timeline no matter how you slice it, and we know what happens to those. Luck and knowledge are both used by the Light-bound to give themselves power, whether in showing themselves off as The Smart One or the The Helpful One or The Unstoppable One, but their limited viewpoint often leads them to overlook the limitations of their own framework, or in other words, missing the bigger picture. I'll point out here also how Minkowski has the entire DSSPPM memorized and is the one who wants to get to the bottom of whatever the hell is really going on up at Wolf 359. Additionally, one of her other ambitions, at least once upon a time, was writing musicals. The verbal arts are one of the domains of Light players.

So while on the surface, Minkowski bears the most resemblance to a Life player, Life players tend to have an element of conformity to them. Unquestioned assumptions they've internalized have about the context in which they exist. Light heroes, on the other hand, need conformity so they have something to defy when they jump up and down screaming LOOK AT ME!  

So after much pontificating, I came to a decision. In the end, what Minkowski wanted more than anything else was a stage. Maybe to direct rather than hold the spotlight, but still; that's a Light hero if ever I saw one.

#wolf 359 #homestuck #classpect meta #holy crossover batman #wolf 359 classpects

[ravencromwell]

I wanna talk @wolf359radio, specifically their incredible juxtaposition of comedy with deeper themes, and their brilliant gamble about slow-building character investment. Because this is a podcast I feared I wouldn't like, but that became my motivation to become a patron of something for the first time, well before I was finished with season 1. So I wanna dissect precisely what they're doing so right on a crafting level. Mild spoilers up through the end of EP 11 below the cut.

I don't normally like what we've come to view as comedy. Primarily because it's come to be less about brilliant comedic timing on an actor's part and more about ridiculous physical/situational slapstick almost entirely driven by external factors. So when I heard that the first few eps of Wolf 359 were mostly office shenanigans in space, my stomach rolled and I almost ignored; but I'd heard that Gabriel and Sarah were fucking geniuses (yeah; pretty much perfect advertising), and I'd been recced it by two folks, so I figured I'd dive in.

Almost instantly, I was intrigued and on alert, because Zach's comedic timing was very reminiscent of something like Girl Friday for me, which I utterly adore. The humor derived almost exclusively from the way he chose to convey the monologue. And that brilliant opening patter monologue. By the time he started talking about the pizza delivery missing his hotel by a few thousand light-years, and calling Hilbert Russian Dr. Doom, I was clapping and cackling in sheer delight. And then, when you're like oh, that was a nice comedic moment in space, they slide that ending hook of Doug possibly discovering...something into place. And it's such an intriguing little hook, because all right, this was a false alarm, but you can't always be the boy who cried wolf with your hooks. So, clearly, they're setting up for a not false alarm. And then realizing Zach played Hilbert as well; I was just floored by his range and skill. Any show that netted this versatile an actor had to be something special.

So you're set up to have high expectations from the pilot, and then Little Revolución and Discomforts, Pains, and Irregularities form this incredible duology to further your investment. There're so many shows that cram character detail into the pilot. There's a frantic rush to have you be invested, to catch your attention with anything, that it becomes throwing paint at a wall and seeing what sticks. As much as making 359 on no budget those first couple years must've been an unmitigated nightmare in a lotta ways, this was their moon shot. No expectation, no profit margin, and by God if they were going to put in the work to make the thing, you were going to have to put in a little trust and time to love it. That created this marvelous, constantly expanding canvas, with this thrumming excitement on discovering which part of the canvas they were going to shade in or fill each episode. Anyway: I digress.

Little Revolución sets up Doug's melodrama and lays the seeds for the expanding family dynamic we continue to see throughout the season in one fell swoop. After all, if Hilbert and Minkowski are engaging in an extreme prank war, they can't be the figures of unremitting dread Doug's nicknames would make them out to be. And Doug, oh Doug. Zach's comedic timing and inflection continued to be stellar there, drawing me into stitches over Doug determined to die on his foolish hill. There were so many moments where dialogue and inflection melded seamlessly, and showed just how thoroughly Gabriel and the rest of the team understood how they wanted their words to resonate with the audience, and precisely what beats an actor would need to hit to get there. I'm thinking of something like Doug's explanation of the last time he was cajoled into accepting substitutions. It is obviously written to be amusing, and Zach utterly mines that potential. Even then, I couldn't imagine anyone else as Doug.

If EP 2 was watching Minkowski and Hilbert work together and starting to see Minkowski unbend, EP 3 made me fall in love with Commander Minkowski, and much of that was the way Emma sold the comic timing. Minkowski's sheepishness at avoiding the physical! Getting that moment of humanity from her, like unlocking a puzzle. And also in the best traditions of puzzles, really starting to realize that we're in the midst of an ongoing story. That moment when Doug says that he thought she was joking about the plant monster entirely spins the story around: he expects her to joke. As much as they often infuriate one another, there's also a comradeship. And then his nicknames start to feel more like snide sibling rivalry, glorious sibling rivalry. This's further strengthened by watching them work together against the plant monster. We expected Minkowski to be competent of course; Emma's usual no-nonsense tones guarantee that even if she weren't the commander. And we *knew* Doug had to be competent. But this; this is the moment we start to see it. And there again, the juxtaposition of serious and comedic elements. That they're not afraid to raise the stakes in the midst of what should be folks skiving off a physical utterly delighted me. The authorial confidence required to seesaw like that started to reassure me I was in very. very good hands, even if some of the genres employed weren't my usual fair.

It was EPs 4 and 5 that made me determined to watch through at least the rest of the season. Cataracts and Hurricanoes alchemized my liking for Minkowski into fierce adoration. And we continued to be exposed to more and more evidence that she and Doug's relationship was as sibling-like as it could be, considering the differences in rank. This's the first EP, too, where I realized Hera was very likely to steal my heart. Her concern for Doug was so well-acted. The way all the actors were able to spin, going from Doug and Minkowski bantering one second to deeply dangerous rescue the next was astounding. While I was coming to take for granted that the writing would veer, the spot-on casting, just how much these actors were starting to embody the versatility of the writing, get comfortable and play, took my breath away.

And then came EP 6, wherein I decided yeah Gabriel was a fucking genius. Because the juxtaposition of the dire and the hilarious actually *became a plot device* He whipsawed our perceptions of Hilbert madly throughout the episode. Had Doug's melodrama about the physical--which you could easily take in EP 3 as the clash of an overeager doctor with someone who. just didn't like doctors much--foreboded something more dire? And you really start to realize how *smart* Doug is here. Not just competent, but quick on his feet. The reveal at the end was so well-done; it would have been too early, too abrupt of a tonal shift, to pull us into true chaos. But Gabriel was starting to gradually give us a taste, and use the comedy as the tether to continue to ground us within the plot. Always bringing us back, centering us, like a skillful pilot starting to fly through mild turbulence.

EP 6 confirmed my deep Hera empathy. That moment when we see her show annoyance, and Doug acknowledge her programming for the first time. We start to see the gulf between them, but also the commonality. And again, we're whipsawing just a little, very gently, on Hilbert. The way he's slowly pulling back from the comedic elements, weaning us off gradually, while never entirely losing sight of them is so clever. Both the writing and the acting really show the understanding that to endure serious narrative often requires just the right proportions of levity mixed in. And again, we started to see hints of the serialized story from EP 1 by the end of 6, hints this will be the overarching plot. The way the show becomes comfortable tossing all sorts of genre elements about makes clear that very. very good hands should be revised to excellent. And then for anyone still watching but on the fence, there's no way to stop now with the mystery hook of the odd voices.

The way comedy is used in Sound and Fury is sheer perfection. How clearly uncomfortable Doug is lying, his desperate adroitness that fools no one--and the implication he knew it would fool no one-- had me in stitches. And we needed the levity desperately there, to balance out Hera's insecurity and vulnerability. Minkowski's insults would hurt far less if she were not quite so aware of her flaws, if she had not, I suspect, become far more sentient than she was intended to be. And with that comes a very human fear of not entirely belonging, of being dispensable.

I wanna skip now to 9-11, which isn't to say that the other EPs aren't amazing; they are! but much of what they do on a structural level are things done by the previous eps.

I loved seeing the core group functioning as a core group in these last few; we'd seen dyads before, but seeing that full puzzle snap together was marvelously breathtaking. I loved Emma's use of levity at the end of EP 9, because man oh man, that's where the writing really starts to preview a tenseness that's. well, my heart was pounding, let's leave it at that. That tone Emma adopted, of trying desperately to remain the straight-laced commander, but there starting to be real fear and vulnerability there, and then her just throwing up her hands and going yeah, I'm as pissed as them. popped the bubble of the tension so perfectly. And the writing, giving Minkowski that vulnerability: it makes this show feel so rewarding, like you're peeling back character layers like onion skin. Every moment you continue to be invested in the show will reward you with some greater revelation about these people you're coming to love.

And that just continues into the last two: Hilbert's gentleness in EP 10! contrasted with Doug's melodrama over the spider, which never felt campy and felt viscerally real for someone who regularly engages in melodrama over creepy crawlies. And Minkowski, being fierce gentle mother bear again; the best of Minkowski comes to the surface when her crew is under threat. Which was a theory from EP 4, but now we have it brilliantly confirmed.

And the juxtaposition of the droll with the dangerous in EP 11 was just masterful. The way Hilbert's thoughtful, almost mournful reflections about solitude and why we still fear it and Hera's wrenching struggle with not only not being quite human but with the folks she's closest to not quite understanding it were softened by Doug's brilliantly funny psych test was just enough. Just enough to ensure that those sections resonated, that there are still lines from both of them reverberating in my head a day later, without being crushing. Which leads me to another thought: the comedic elements are a herald of 359's underlying hope imho. Even in the midst of deeply bleak things, like Minkowski reconfirming Doug's unreliability that we'd almost forgotten about from EP 5 and that now seems to be a crew unreliability oh shit! is offset by that very gentle, fiercely human wish to send her best wishes and love to someone on their name day. That's the...not gentlest we've seen Minkowski, but perhaps the softest, and it made me a little weepy.

At any rate, there're my long, disjointed thoughts on 359, and how it does the brilliant things it does, at least so far.

#Wolf 359 #My Meta #oh god so much meta; this got so long #but it's so good it deserves meta on precisely what was done to achieve that goodness #Podcasts #Podcast Babbling

[ds4design]

Wonder Woman's Director Teases an Amazing Throwback

Joe Mangienello hints when The Batman is set to start filming. Get a new tease of Gerard Butler’s new environmental disaster movie. Matt Nix’s X-Men TV show finds the final member of its main cast. Plus, a Batman legend comes to Powerless, and another new clip from Beauty and the Beast. Praise Hera, the spoilers are here!

Wonder Woman

Patty Jenkins compares the movie to Richard Donner’s Superman, Casablanca, and Indiana Jones:

It ended up being very Superman. For me it’s Casablanca a lot. It came up a lot. And Indiana Jones. It’s those three films. It’s a classic film. We’re making a classic film. We care about humor. We care about epic. We care about heroicism. We care about arc and story. Make it elegant. Go for it. Don’t hold back. Just try for that pocket all the time. Really those three films with a kind of war hero, who Steve Trevor is. Indiana Jones or Rick from Casablanca meets Wonder Woman and I’m in.

Jenkins also confirms perhaps the most delightful news about the film yet: the iconic Wonder Woman theme song of the ‘70s TV series will appear in the movie in some capacity.

It’s gonna show up, although it’s an interesting thing. It is a great theme, but it is a very specific theme. So it’s not the kind of thing you can just ladle all over a little girl, or a naive person, so it has its own journey. I see the movie as both the creation of the character and the theme. But it’s not the easiest thing to just throw all over the place.

In your satin tights/fighting for your rights/and the old red, white, and bluuuuuueee!

[/Film]

Dumbo

Eva Green is in talks to star in Tim Burton’s Dumbo remake. According to Deadline, Green is up for “one of the three main adult roles” in the movie.

Underwater

Jessica Henwick and T.J. Miller have joined the cast of the sea lab disaster movie that pretty much sounds like a watery version of Armageddon. [Variety]

The Batman

In an interview with Robert Irvine Magazine, Joe Manganiello hinted he may begin filming in June. But if not, who cares? It’ll happen at some point:

They have big plans for this movie. Whether or not we start exactly on that date or in June, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. Here’s the thing: The creative process needs to be respected and no one involved in this film wants to make anything less than an unbelievable film, a legendary film. The movie will start shooting whenever those pieces are in place and we know this is gonna be something that we’re proud of. What we’re not gonna do is be backed into a start date, scrambling to get something off the ground just to get it off the ground.

Everyone involved wants to make this the best film possible, so that’s really what it’s about. It’s funny how the media likes to run with, “Oh there’s trouble!” “Oh, the script needs to be revised!” They’re drama queens. There’s a creative process, and everyone on the cast and crew wants to make this the best movie possible. So that’s what we’re gonna do. When we start shooting it, we’ll start shooting it. It will be soon, I can say that. Here’s the thing: No one wants to create that superhero movie that’s polarizing to fans and critics. Rest assured, we’re gonna do this thing right.

Ant-Man & the Wasp

The Ant-Man sequel starts production in June, under the working title,“Cherry Blue.” [MC Exchange]

It

As /Film reports, producer Seth Grahame-Smith stated that Stephen King has seen the film and believes they did a “wonderful job” adapting his story.

King followed up on Twitter that the remake exceeded his expectations.

It doesn’t tell us much, sure, but still nice to hear.

First Man

The Neil Armstrong biopic, starring Ryan Gosling, has been set a release date of October 12, 2018. [Coming Soon]

Geostorm

The whole world gets destroyed in various teasers posted to social media, ahead of a full trailer for the film coming today.

Beauty & the Beast

Lumiere plays matchmaker in a new clip from the film.

Riverdale

Good news! Riverdale has already officially been renewed for a second season at the CW. [TV Line]

X-Men TV Series

Coby Bell is the final actor to join the main cast. He’ll play Jace Turner, “a weathered man who quietly wrestles with the moral ambiguities of a job that regularly requires cold-blooded, calculating efficiency on a day-to-day basis.” [Deadline]

Powerless

Adam West will guest-star in an upcoming episode as Dean West, chairman of Wayne Industries—who has to visit Charm City following an attack in Gotham, necessitating some budget cuts across the vast Wayne empire. [Coming Soon]

Archer

Here’s a synopsis for the season premiere, “Dreamland: No Good Deed.”

Archer tries to find out who killed his partner, but accidentally gets in bed with Mother, a notorious L.A. crime boss.

[Spoiler TV]

Samurai Jack

Genndy Tartakovsky spoke to Coming Soon about Jack’s current headspace leading into the new season.

It’s soul searching rather than everything on the surface. The first series is very good or bad. Jack does the right thing all the time. I don’t think we ever really dove into it deeper than that. With this, we’re diving in right from the first episode. Wow, he went past those people and he didn’t help them. The haunting of the past is my favorite thing. Then his dialogue with himself. His turmoil is his fun because we never really got to get it to this level.

Teen Wolf

Meagan Tandy will not be returning for the show’s final episodes.

Arrow

Stephen Amell posted a set pic wearing what appears to be his costume from season four—which is basically his costume as it is right now, sans sleeves. Another costume tweak or maybe even a flashback moment?

iZombie

A synopsis—and a few pictures—have been released for the season three premiere, “Heaven Just Got a Little Bit Smoother.”

YOUR FAVORITE ZOM-COM-ROM-DRAM IS BACK FOR SEASON 3 — Liv (Rose McIver) has discovered there are more zombies living in Seattle than she previously believed. In fact, there’s a private military contractor employing a small zombie army, and that army is preparing for the day humans learn of their existence. Major (Robert Buckley) was exonerated for the crimes of the Chaos Killer, but is still considered a pariah. He manages to land a job with the one and only place that will hire him. Meanwhile, Blaine (David Anders) is accused of lying. Malcolm Goodwin and Rahul Kohli also star.

There are more pictures at the link. [Ksite TV]

Supergirl

Finally, the King and Queen of Daxam (Kevin Sorbo and Teri Hatcher, respectively) arrive in a new teaser for next week’s episode, “Star-Crossed.”

Additional reporting by Gordon Jackson. Banner art by Jim Cooke.

[commsroom]

i think what really bothers me about calling hera or lovelace "non-human" is that they are both traumatized, marginalized women in a show where those "non-human" science fiction aspects serve as a direct commentary about dehumanization and alienation. (made extremely clear by shut up and listen.) resisting dehumanization - internalized, interpersonal, carceral, corporate, cosmic - is a major theme of wolf 359 that impacts all of the characters in some way, but the ways that hera and lovelace are othered mark them as especially vulnerable. that's why, for the purposes of the story, the details of AI integration on earth or the exact nature of the dear listeners' clones doesn't really matter. those things are primarily mirrors that reflect real-world issues on a very personal level, and so are best understood in the context of wolf 359 in terms of what they mean to hera and lovelace specifically. they are represented as fundamentally human people who have been made to feel as if they're not, hera's humanity is linked to lovelace's, and in both cases that humanity is narratively connected to their womanhood. ("you are never touching that woman ever again." + "that woman? for the last two weeks, she was the only person who even tried to resist what pryce and cutter were doing to us.") and i just... think all of that is worth keeping in mind.

#wolf 359 #w359 #hera wolf 359 #isabel lovelace #wanted to see if i could put this a little more succinctly #i just don't think it can be a neutral statement

[commsroom]

i think there's something to be said about what exactly it means to be "non-human" in a story that is as much about humanity as wolf 359 is, where even the dear listeners are defined less by their own perspective and more by what they fail to understand and therefore reflect about the human perspective - to the point that they don't even have their own voices or faces or identities that aren't either given to them or taken from humans. they speak to humanity as a mirror.

even pryce and cutter are "very much humans" - pryce defined by her resentment of and desire to transcend its limitations, and cutter by his aspirations to redefine and create a "better" type of human - and find the idea that they might not be human laughable. it's interesting that they have distinctly transhumanist aspirations when their goal is the narrative opposite of common science fiction fears: that we will expand the definition of humanity so much that we'll lose whatever it is that makes us human. pryce and cutter's transhumanism narrows the definition of humanity to the worthy and the useful, as defined by them; "there will still be a humanity; it'll just be our humanity."

in direct opposition to that, i think it's meaningful that the show instead expands the definition of humanity in ways that include lovelace and hera, who in another show with different themes might be considered (in the descriptive, non-moralistic sense) non-human. i will always make a point of saying that personhood and humanity are two often-related but meaningfully distinct concepts, especially when talking about sci-fi and fantasy. i am talking about humanity.

the question of how hera identifies, and what social pressures influence that, is a complicated one. i've talked about it before and i will talk about again. what's important for the purposes of this post is that i think the show considers her fundamentally human. think about her role in shut up and listen - consider jacobi's lion example and the concept of different paradigms - that even things that are close to humans, comparatively speaking, understand the world in different ways. whatever differences hera may have from the others, it's primarily in experience, not fundamental understanding. she shares their emotions, their concerns, their values, their thought patterns. she has an appreciation for music, which the show considers a hallmark of humanity. she fits within the framework of humanity as the show defines and is, in her own words, left feeling "uneasy" about how difficult it might be to communicate with beings who don't. and it's significant that this takes place in shut up and listen, of all episodes, specifically because the way she is clearly and unambiguously included in the show's understanding of what it means to be human highlights the ways she and lovelace are othered by eiffel's careless comments that suggest otherwise.

(i don't want to get too into these details for this particular post, but it's worth noting that hera will refer to 'humans' as a category, often when she is upset and feeling isolated, but has never said that she 'isn't human' - she has never been upset that people are treating her 'too' human. i've seen it said about the line "you need to get it through your heads that what goes for you doesn't always go for me", but that's a frustration related to ability and safety, not identity. far more often, she will refer to herself in 'human' terms - referring idiomatically to experiences or body parts etc. that she doesn't literally have - and is upset primarily with comments referring to her status as an AI. it does not diminish how being an AI influences her perspective and experience, but again, so much of that is in terms of ability that it feels almost inseparable from a discussion about disability.)

lovelace's humanity and hera's humanity are so interlinked and directly paralleled in the text that i think it's impossible to really argue one of them is "not" human without making implications about the other. in desperate measures, lovelace tells kepler he's "not human" and he responds "you're hilarious. on a multitude of levels." later, defending lovelace against kepler's repeated dehumanization, hera very pointedly uses the phrase "that woman." in out of the loop, hera says she's never met anyone who "worked so hard at being inhuman" as jacobi, who says "what do you know about being human?" hera very emphatically responds, "i know plenty." later, defending hera against jacobi's repeated dehumanization, minkowski pointedly uses the phrase "that woman." with the care taken towards language and the way scenes and turns of phrase will parallel each other, that's not a coincidence. it might seem strange to have the "non-human" characters be the ones to express criticisms based on perceived "humanity" (something hera will do in other contexts as well - "we don't have funerals for animals" etc.) but in the broader context of the show, i think it's the point.

so, whether hera would ever call herself human, or be comfortable with that, is a complicated question for another time and depends on a lot of other factors. but wolf 359 is a show about humanity, it includes her within its definition of what it means to be human, and i wouldn't be comfortable definitively saying she's not human because of that. it can't be a neutral statement within the particular context of this show.

#wolf 359 #w359 #hera wolf 359 #there are so many concepts here that could be posts on their own #but this is already too long. sorry. #i think it's also worth noting how often i see the discussion of hera and humanity conflated with the discussion of #whether hera would want a body and while i think there's some degree of influence in that. if she has human experiences without human form #there's something uniquely isolating about that that could influence her decision. BUT. the form she exists or doesn't exist in #is separate from whether the show includes her within its 'in group' of humanity. which thematically it does. #hera can be considered equally human without ever having any type of physical form. that's part of expanding the definition #and i think that's an important distinction. #anyway sorry i'm kind of passionate about this it just. doesn't quite sit right with me i guess #in a lot of cases i think it's important to acknowledge that non-human characters have different experiences from human ones and #a lot of science fiction will (or should) decentralize the human experience. but it's core to the themes of wolf 359. it's different. #i think hera is so interesting as a take on the 'human AI' character because. the mistake a lot of them make is having a character #'learn how to be human' and it feels patronizing. but hera is. a fundamentally human person who has been told she isn't #and internalized that. and i think that's much more complex and. well. human. i know she's just a fictional character but #i can't help but feel a little defensive sometimes #it's also part of a larger discussion but feeling inhuman is a not uncommon human experience. it is within those bounds

[commsroom]

i need to relisten to wolf359 bc it was YEARS ago so i don't remember much, but i have this specific idea about hera post-canon

i don't remember if they get her onto the escape vessel (im pretty sure they have to? she has the power of navigation being a literal slave station?) but when they get back to earth, in the chaos that ensues, jacobi makes sure to somehow... store hera? only her personality matrix, if that's possible. he could break into the high performance computing cluster of some university and store her in a little known spot, then "break her out" later.

i don't remember how much in character this is (he seemed a bit more chummy with the haephestus crew by this point), but i imagined him building either (1) a robot body (who knows how common that is on earth at this point) or (2) an eyepiece and earpiece for here's personality to exist in, so she can in SOME way go out, see the world and talk to them still once they're off the escape vessel.

i want her to still be with them even when they're not on a ship anymore.

first: you should absolutely relisten! and you should let me know your thoughts, when you relisten. especially if it's been years, i'd be really curious to know if and how your opinions have changed!

thankfully, you remember right - hera does go back with them, and the final scene and sentiment of the show definitely implies that eiffel, hera, and minkowski intend to stick together. they would fight for her to stay with them. which does get potentially complicated, from both a legal and practical standpoint.

(and i won't get into my thoughts about post-canon jacobi here, but i will say... he went to MIT and was friends with maxwell; he's more likely than eiffel or minkowski or lovelace to know people who know people who could maybe help hera. and wolf 359 loves to put characters in situations where they have to rely on people they don't particularly like. they've even done that with jacobi and hera specifically - ep 57. "sure. fine. as long as it's not jacobi doing it, it's fine." cut to jacobi doing it. of course.)

i don't think AI is actually that common in the world of wolf 359; hera is the first AI eiffel and minkowski have met, and even maxwell, working for the "best AI research lab in the country" was unaware of the existence of "full-minded" AI (however that's defined) until she was recruited by goddard in 2013. my impression is that it's, like, something people are aware of, but it's still very detached from the average person's life, and AI personhood is not even a consideration yet. having an android body would definitely make hera... visible, in some ways that she might not like.

maybe worth noting that goddard is also very into biotech, and there's some interesting... overlap with that and the dear listeners' duplicates in terms of what it asks about 'artificiality', in my opinion. wolf 359 is very much a show about humanity, and i think any post-canon extension of those themes would have to be about... learning to be a person on earth, with all that entails, and the way that applies to hera's situation is meaningful to me. all of which is just kind of a rambling way to say, yes, i'm also totally in favor of hera having a body. like, on one hand, because i think there's something to it as a discussion about disability and bodies in general, with the way it would re-contextualize her experiences on the hephaestus and the pain she's been living with - and that a lot of things she experienced without a body and felt were unique to her, she would still experience with one. but i also think it's the best option for her; i really think anything else would by design deny her autonomy and freedom of movement on earth. from a more sentimental standpoint, i just want her to be able to go to a real beach and put her hands in the ocean.

#hi!! thank you for the ask. i really appreciate it #i'm so sorry it took me a while to get back to you. i've been really sick this week. but! i have a ton of thoughts #about hera and embodiment - especially as that relates to transness and disability. if that is an interesting topic to you #i would love to talk more about it. one of my favorite things. #asks #wolf 359 #w359

[commsroom]

I think a lot about communication as it relates to Wolf 359 - specifically, about interpretation as an aspect of communication. How that central theme of communication extends beyond the text of the show and into every level of its production, which is also to say: how Wolf 359 is a show that trusts its audience.

I've always found it fascinating that the recording scripts are written with so much physical direction to them, but rarely description - there's a quality to them that almost feels as if the show is meant to be seen; there's this suggested physicality to it and it never resorts to over-explanation. The characters and the setting look however they look to you, and there's rarely even some base framework to extrapolate that image from. This is one side of that trust, I think, in the way it... allows for individual interpretation, but also that it works with the medium rather than in spite of it.

But the other side, the side I'm more interested in, is the way it trusts you to know exactly what is meant to be conveyed, effortlessly and without doubt. Sound design is a language. Music is a language. It can't be overstated how much the quality, the tone and nuance and direction and understanding, of the voice acting matters when we're talking about communication. There are very deliberate and structured choices at every point telling you what you’re ‘seeing.’

One of my absolute favorite things about Wolf 359 is the way it manages to translate visual cues to auditory ones, particularly something... like switching scenes, or cameras. The comedic swish transition, or that moment in Memoria where Hera's perspective changes from being 'here' to 'there', or the moment in episode 15 where Eiffel tells Minkowski to go ahead and shut off the recorder... and then the scene continues, permanently breaking the early structure of the show.

It works because of context. Because the show understands the context it exists in and it builds on existing expectations, relies on cues and associations so well they become almost invisible in the moment.

... Cutter's official title is Director of Communications. In Volte Face, Rachel calls him the "nerve center" of Goddard Futuristics, and I can't help but think about the connection there - how much Cutter understands the power of communication, and how he willfully distorts and manipulates its purpose. So vital that its importance is taken for granted. So necessary that when it is effective, it is almost invisible.

The positive corollary to that, of course, is Eiffel - but it's also Lambert. On one hand, because Cutter understands the power of communication, he intentionally chooses Communications Officers who will be at odds with their respective Commanders. On the other hand - neither Minkowski nor Lovelace could ever have realized how necessary Eiffel and Lambert were - to the mission, to the crew at large... to them, how much and how personally they would miss them - until they felt that loss.

I suppose the real point to all of this is the idea that humanity cannot be separated from communication, which cannot be separated from connection. Communication itself requires reciprocity, requires interpretation, or it's just... words, reaching nothing. It's a beautiful sentiment that music is the most valuable creation we have, the most inherently human, because it isn't the creation of music alone that gives it its meaning: it has to be heard before it can be felt. Of all the art we make, of all the signals we send into space - isn't that always the hope? That it will reach someone, and they will understand.

#oh nooo this is so much longer than it seemed... #i wanted to talk about the dear listeners more too #uh. anyway. #wolf 359 is a show where the writing says 'these things are some of the best humanity has to offer' #and the production shows you why that is true #wolf 359 #w359

[callunavulgari]

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thanks so much for participating with me! It’s my first year with Yuletide, though I’ve followed along pretty avidly over the years. I hope you have a fantastic time, and am looking forward to whatever story you decide to tell me.

First off - fandoms. 

Spinning Silver, Uprooted, Bartimaeus, Red White and Royal Blue, Wolf 359, and The Bright Sessions.

Over all, I’m pretty sure I’ll be pretty happy with whatever you decide to throw at me. I’m not particularly picky, and enjoy a variety of ratings, themes, and genres. I have a list of over 2000 bookmarks on Ao3, which I would like to say might help you find the things that I like, but odds are you’d just get stuck in it.

General flavors on things: I really love atmospheric settings, stories that you can really feel. A great example of this is A Cornstalk Fiddle. Or wild peaches. I like soulmate AU’s, daemon AU’s, slow burns, AU’s where a character (or several characters) are secretly monsters but it barely shifts canon at all. I’m super fond of the sun/moon trope, the enemies to lovers trope, and all things a little bit magical.

I do tend to prefer a fic to have some kind of ship to it, but I like gen as well. I am fully on board with explicit fics, but do ask that if there is smut, it’s not just smut. I like how introducing sex to a story changes various character dynamics, and I really, really like the sexually/emotionally charged lead up, but when it really comes down to it, I’m reading the story for the characters. The sex has to flow with the rest of the story.

I don’t have a lot of dislikes? I’d prefer that the fic doesn’t delve into any hard kinks if you do decide to make it explicit. I’m not a fan of non-con, but dubious consent is usually pretty okay, depending on the situation. I’m very okay with playing on power dynamics and the inherent rough-but-consensual that typically accompanies enemy to lover fics, but I’m going to turn my anon box on for the holiday season, so if there’s something you aren’t sure about? Just ask.

A little more specific info on each of the fandoms is under the cut.

Spinning Silver

My absolute favorite dynamic in Spinning Silver is Miryem and the Staryk Lord, which probably comes as no surprise considering the listing above of both sun/moon and enemy to lovers tropes. I would really love to see more of the aftermath of the book. How they come to handle themselves as friends and then lovers, how Miryem copes with ruling a kingdom, how the Staryk Lord goes soft for her. Which, another thing? Supernatural cold-as-ice types going soft for their human is another trope that makes me melt.

Uprooted

Shocker, another fantastic novel by Novak which is great at embracing my favorite type of character dynamic. Agnieszka and Sarkan are such a great backbone to the story, and I love how their relationship just kind of simmers quietly until you realize that it has 100% caught on fire. Things that I would love to have explored: again, what happened after the book. How do the two of them adjust to their new lives? Where do they settle down? Do they settle down, or do they just keep coming back to each other year after year? As far as non-shippy things go, I’d love to see something involving their relationship with Kasia. Whether that’s something that happens prior to/during the events after the book or afterwards is entirely up to you.

Bartimaeus

I’ve had a soft spot for this trilogy since I discovered it back in 2005. It has everything that I used to (and still sort of do) go ga-ga over. Sorcerers summoning demons, sorcerers going soft for their demons, demons going soft for their sorcerers, a generous helping of Egyptian backstory, pretty rebel girls not afraid to kick rich assholes in the teeth, and a tragic, but still somehow perfect ending. 

I would be completely down with whatever ship you want for this- Bartimaeus/Nathaniel, Ptolemy/Bartimaeus, Kitty/Nathaniel, Kitty/Bartimaeus, or my absolute favorite, Kitty/Bartimaeus/Nathaniel. Or if you decide to leave out the ships? That’s fine too. I really like fics that explore Bartimaeus and Kitty coming back together years after the book and hashing all their feelings out for Nathaniel. I also like the idea of exploring events between books two and three, where things were frosting up a bit between Bartimaeus and Nathaniel. And I would be 100% okay with an AU, as well. I just really like these characters.

Red, White, and Royal Blue

This book smacked me in the face with feelings a couple months ago. Rivals to lovers? Check. Modern day prince consorting with someone he shouldn’t? Check. A heady, emotionally packed dosing of politics that somehow manages to both uplift the story and make it significantly sexier? Check, check, check.

I have absolutely no idea what you might write me for this and don’t really have many suggestions, because the book was just that perfect. So I guess the most I can say is strive for that same feeling that this lovely book gave us.

Wolf 359

This podcast. Haunts me. It has basically ruined me for all other podcasts. I adore all of the characters, so you can feel free to write about whoever you want. Favorites are Eiffel, Jacobi, and Hera, so if you throw something at me that has the three of them interacting I could probably die happy. I’m good with gen fic, but I’m also a fan of Jacobi/Kepler, Eiffel/Jacobi, Hera/Eiffel, and would honestly probably fully embrace any other ship you could possibly throw at me. 

I like the idea of Hera getting a body afterwards. I like the idea of Eiffel finding himself again. I like the idea of Jacobi finding a new family. I like the idea of Jacobi and Hera becoming best buds. I like the idea of Jacobi working through his grief over Maxwell and Kepler. I like the idea of Hera learning how to be herself in a big wide world that isn’t entirely on her side. I like the idea of every single member of the crew who touches back down on earth learning how to be people afterwards. I like the idea of Minkowski and Lovelace getting closer, especially if Minkowski’s husband is a part of that dynamic. 

I just really like found family and people holding each other up when the going gets tough, and this podcast has that in spades. Also? Have you listened to Zero Hours? Because if you want to introduce some of that dynamic I would be forever in love.

The Bright Sessions

Okay, I’m going to be honest here. I like the garbage man stink monster. Damien is my actual favorite, and I love the thought of him becoming a more nuanced human being. Redeemable villains are my jam, and villains that realize they were fucking awful and make the attempt to turn themselves around (especially if it’s for both themselves and the soft person they’ve fallen hard for) will probably always be my happy place. 

I have a gigantic weak spot for the idea of Damien, Mark, and Sam working as a poly couple. This is a difficult thing, and it’s really hard to get that dynamic right, but gosh, when it’s done right it’s truly lovely. 

I like Mark/Damien on their own as well, especially if it’s with an added dose of bad wrong, that is edging into that ‘I can’t quit you’ place. If you don’t want to make it shippy? That’s okay, too. I still like the dynamic. Damien being a pretty focal point would be ideal, though.

#heather says what #dear creator letter #yuletide #yuletide 2019 #the bright sessions #wolf 359 #uprooted #spinning silver #bartimaeus #red white and royal blue