#anyway vampire culture my beloved

[thenightling]

Demisexual and Queer language

There's been some heated "debate" about the word demisexual and if it is necessary.

I admit there are certain words I don't really think are necessary but I sort of like the sound of, like Pansexual.

First, to be clear, Bisexual didn't originally mean "excluding nonbinary and trans." It wasn't a strict attraction to the binary. It wasn't transphobic or nonbinary-phobic. And most self-identified bisexuals, even now, do NOT heed these newly added restrictions.

Bisexual was a third option when, once upon a time, there were only two options.

Late into the 90s (and even now) there are still some gay folk who think bisexuality is a myth and you have to be attracted to one or the other, men or women, but cannot be potentially attracted to all genders / either gender.

For a lot of bisexuals the term means attraction to your own gender and all other genders. And that's what the "bi" actually means. I only like the term pansexual because of its connection to the Greek Pan.

There was even the weird stigma and notion that bisexual meant you were horny for everyone. Into the 2000s you saw this in pop culture even with beloved characters like Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and as recently as the AMC Interview with The Vampire TV show version of Lestat, where bisexual felt like code for "Horny for everything" and even physically abusive and dominating. Odd that the 90s movie depiction of Lestat felt less... negative-stereotype-y.

Anyway, for a lot of older Queer folk "bisexual" was still a new term as recently as the 90s. When David Bowie came out as bisexual in 1972 a reporter mistakenly took that to mean he had the sex organs of a man and a woman. (Source: the 1993 book "Bowie: In his own words.")

Bowie was so stigmatized by America's obsession with him being bisexual that he walked back into the closet until the mid-2000s when he came back out and admitted he had only gone back into the closet because he was sick of American reporters asking him about it. And he admitted it felt like no other country did that, just America.

And when Vincent Price's daughter found out that her father had been bisexual she ran to Roddy McDowall and confronted him by asking "Why didn't you tell me my father was bisexual?" and Roddy responded with "We didn't know the word. How can you deny something when you don't know the word?"

Based on Roddy McDowall's response about Vincent Price, there are probably a lot of older and historic Queer folk who were actually bisexual but the moment they had any same-sex attraction the title of "homosexual" was pinned to them.

Language evolves for a reason. The acceptance of the idea that someone could be attracted to more than one gender is why we have the word bisexual. Demisexual has always existed, we just didn't have a term for it. Yes, there are a lot of new terms in the LGBTQAI+ spectrum. And change can be scary. This is why a lot of folk have started to positively use the term Queer, to keep things simple while also taking back a word some used to slur-like capacity. The 1963 novel The Man who fell to Earth by Walter Tevis had a line "He walked like a queer." and in the 1970s that line was changed to "He walked like a homosexual." I half-imagine that if Walter Tevis was still alive he would acknowledge the character Nathan Bryce's internalized homophobia (the character whose internal monologue uses the description) or drop the description entirely but it is interesting to note that the original wording would be more accepted today than back in 1963 when it was first published.

#Demisexual #Bisexual #Pansexual #Queer #LGBTQAI+ #LGBTQ #LGBT

[isaksbestpillow]

Gmmtv 2024 part 2

Didn't we just have part 1??? I don't remember any of the shows in part 1 but it's time to watch another 15 mock trailers. I actually haven't finished a Gmmtv show in ages so let's see whether they manage to lure me back!

Ossan's Love Th

The original franchise is my beloved and it's interesting to see it adapted to a different culture especially since Thailand is more progressive than Japan as far as lgbtq rights go, but this show is harder to adapt than something like Cherry Magic because so much of the comedy comes from Japanese language/culture and the actors. They really hit the jackpot with the original cast, they're hard to replace. I wasn't blown away by the trailer but I like Eartmix and I'm glad they cast a veteran actor as the boss so I'm going to give it a shot. I might've been more optimistic if I hadn't just seen OLR and been reminded of how great the original cast and editing is, the trailer couldn't quite meet that energy for me. But I don't think this is the official trailer yet??? I hope they'll they'll tune it up for the real thing! Anyway, it's nice to see Earth in a fun role after so many brooders.

Leap Day

This one seems to be a thriller with Dew and Pond who both suffer from a curse that kills their loved ones every leap year. The characters are called Night and Day. Where have I heard this before................... People are dying and Gun plays a disabled brother (?). I won't be tuning in.

The Heart Killers

Firstkhao and Joongdunk are making out and handling guns. Khaotung gets a terrible tattoo of 信/trust. I don't know what the plot is. This is an outing by P'Jojo, but unfortunately his latest works haven't been the moment for me, I feel like his plots fall flat in the middle and I tune out. Casting two branded bl pairs is an interesting choice, but I don't want to be there when their fans take out their rulers to measure who got the most screentime.

Friendshit Forever

30-year-olds play university students. Heterosexual activity happens. This time with knives. I'm already sensing a pattern with these shows.

Perfect10 Liners

The mandatory Jittirain university bl. Please sit down for what I'm about to say because you may be shocked by the surprise: they were engineers.

Us

Another gl??? Stop the press!! I already watched the trailer three times. A woman tries to make heterosexuality work with the brother but actually likes the sister. Finally a gl where I feel like I'm in the target audience. The high heel lesbians that we've gotten so far just don't feel that relatable to me, so I've watched those gls as entertainment but not gotten deeply emotionally invested. I don't really know the main actors sans Sing which is great since I can enter with a fresh perspective. This one feels like the first serious romance out of this batch. I'm gonna watch the hell out of this!!!!!

Hide & Sis

We start with a murder. Jan is here. The vibe feels very PS I Hate You. Oh, it's by the same producers, no wonder! I expect this to do well in Thailand but I'm not planning on tuning in.

Thame - Po Heart That Skips a Beat

Another bl with some new guys. Who will be Gmmtv's next branded pair? The story is set in the idol industry. I hate this type of music lol. My heart did not skip a beat but maybe the actual show will be more interesting.

Break up service

Off and Godji run a dubious breakup service in this story based on a webtoon. The vibes are very Midnight Motel with more grey morals since there is illegal filming of sexual activity.

Revamp The Undead Story

Bounprem have moved to Gmmtv. I don't really vibe with vampire stuff. *gets shot*

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist

We got Mark Pakin in a main role but at what cost. He's a dentist and it's another Jittirain adaptation (how many books has this author churned out???).

The Dark Dice

I feel like I already saw this same trailer like four times. Jumanji meets all the other dark trailers from this batch.

The Ex-Morning

Kristsingto return as exes with unfinished business. Krist's character is a reporter who has a scandal during a livestream, Singto's character returns from abroad to help rebuild his reputation. The setting is hilarious, I love it. Both have matured a lot since Sotus days and I'm genuinely excited for this one.

Scarlet Heart Thailand

Gmmtv tries their hand at a historical drama. A lot of popular names in the lineup. The trailer doesn't give out much but this is a remake of a Chinese series.

That was all 15 trailers, I think! I'm looking forward to Us and The Ex-Morning the most.

#gmmtv 2024

[olderthannetfic]

More writers are shitting on fanfic and fandom culture on twitter than before, it seems. Most of these writers are self-published and need to hustle constantly to get eyes on their work, which I get. But they typically write things like sexy vampires that are steeped in fandom culture, making their work equivalent to the fanfic they disparage. This is where the hypocrisy really comes in: because they know their work is exactly like fanfic, they see it as competition. It's not competition, of course, because the people reading fic for free probably wouldn't be spending money on the original stuff. But the writer tries to guilt them into consuming it anyway, which seems like a poor way to build a loyal readership.

I even saw this kind of complaint migrate to celebrity stan accounts, which one person called "viciously cruel" to them as an original creator with fewer followers. The stans have no idea who they are, which I guess is a form of vicious cruelty.

Then you have the same kind of writers filling your feed with self-promo where they talk about characters in WIPs no one's ever read as if they're widely beloved blorbos. How are you supposed to interact with that? Why should you care? And the accounts that do this are typically 70% self-promo and retweeting other people's self-promo, so you end up with a wall of aggressive sales tactics interspersed with the writer freaking out about being replaced by AI for the other 30%.

Truly the worst inducement to pick up their work lol.

--

Criiiiinge.

Sure, it's hard to get eyes on original work, but guilt doesn't make people read a second time.

It will be a cold day in hell before I'm afraid of AI as a writer.

People will buy me if they like my work or like my vibe. Stressing about it beyond that is pointless.

[qqueenofhades]

Oh darling fandom grandma, do you have any current recs for some good fiction books? Something kind of like Tamora Pierce's tortall books? (sorry if you haven't read those books, was the only series that I could think of to reference)

Perhaps surprisingly, I have never actually read any Tamora Pierce books, but I am going to categorize this request, hopefully not inaccurately, as "imaginative, diverse, feminist/female-centered fantasy." In which case, you are in luck, because that is also My Jam, and I have the following enthusiastic recs, many of which are doorstopper-size and should keep you busy for a while:

The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty (City of Brass, Kingdom of Copper, Empire of Gold). Set in both 18th-century Egypt and the magical djinn kingdom of Daevabad; complex and morally grey female main characters; lots of garbage men; all characters are people of color; political intrigue, magic, sass, adventure out the wazoo, and Muntadhir al-Qahtani my most beloved, I NEED MORE PEOPLE TO READ THESE BOOKS

The Rook and Rose trilogy by M.A. Carrick (only the first two books are out: The Mask of Mirrors and The Liar's Knot). A lush Venetian-inspired fantasy setting, a con-artist female main character, family intrigue, political manipulation, complicated plots, exploration of colonization and cultural appropriation; MORE PEOPLE LIKEWISE NEED TO JOIN ME IN SHIPPING REN/VARGO/GREY;

The Bone Season series by Samantha Shannon (The Bone Season, The Mime Order, The Song Rising, The Mask Falling): set in an alternate-history future England with sci-fi, telekinetics, fallen angels, a ruined Oxford, underground resistance groups in London, a badass female main character; generally one of the most imaginative spec-fic series I have ever read;

The Priory of the Orange Tree, also by Samantha Shannon; I recommended this book in a separate post recently because I love it. Tons of historically-inspired settings, lots of female, queer, POC characters; ASOIAF-style political intrigue and dragons without the Male Author grossness;

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud (The Amulet of Samarkand, The Golem's Eye, Ptolemy's Gate, plus prequel The Ring of Solomon). This series was formative for me as a teenager, all right. F O R M A T I V E. If you have not read it you need to do so right away, and I don't care how old you are. Stroud absolutely rips the British Empire to pieces, dismantles the Special White Boy fantasy trope, explores slavery and imperialism and cultural genocide, and is also both incredibly funny and incredibly heartbreaking in the course of three YA books.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri; lush female-led epic fantasy set in a fantasy world based on ancient India; supposed to be the first one of a series so there are more to come;

Uprooted and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik; retellings of fairytales with a cast of diverse female characters, especially Spinning Silver which is a reimagining of Rumpelstiltskin in an Imperial Russian-inspired world with a Jewish main character;

The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger (Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless, Timeless); set in steampunk Victorian London with vampires and werewolves; badass female main character; Absolutely Everyone Is Queer; like Jane Austen crossed with P.G. Wodehouse;

Anyway, there are possibly more that I could think of, but these are what came to mind after an initial perusal of my own bookshelves, and should be enough to get you started. Happy reading. :)

#rhymeswithtessa #ask #book recs #bookblr

[nightcolorz]

I'm so sorry I don't mean to be rude or coming for you or anything but can I ask a question? Didn't you have a post about gender recently and you said the amc iwtv show was about gay MEN? So why are you tagging Louis art with female terms? Again, I'm so sorry, I just don't understand and I think I'm probably missing something. I'm trying to learn more about gender things but it's very confusing for me. Thank you for your time 💚

dont apologize anon ur not being rude! I'm not rlly sure how to explain this, I'm gonna try my best 😭 so sorry if this is only more confusing. At least the way I see it, AMC iwtv and the tvc books handle gender very differently. Tvc vampires r described as not rlly having genders bcus of there vampirism and lack of alignment with humanity and mortal concepts of the gender binary. The way Anne rice saw it was since their genitals no longer work they r no longer male or female and so since they r so disconnected from the societal expectations around gender along with this bcus of how gender roles r always changing and vampires r outside of time, they r essentially gender neutral. The amc show (at least of now) doesn't seem to be going this route, although it does play around with gender norms and stuff, the vampires do seem to be cis men essentially (obvs ppl can have there head cannons and my read doesn't invalidate any trans reads of AMC iwtv that exist). But since they do just have cis normative sex with each other, vampirism doesn't rlly change there sexualities or gender expression, and they do identify and present gender the way gay men would, I don't see the amc vamps as particularly gender less the way the tvc vamps r. I made a post about this B4 that summarizes my thoughts much better then this or the post ur referring to (which was kinda crap which is why I deleted it 😭).

But anyways, I call Louis she/her pronouns on art (specifically Kate @loelett art love u babe) bcus Kate and I rlly like this aspect of the books, and since we talk about the gender fluidity in tvc a lot we've started using she he and they pronouns interchangeably for the vamps (mostly Louis cus Louis is Kate's fav character so we talk about him the most lol). When I call Louis she/her pronouns or feminine terms it's not cuz I see him as a woman or perceive him as particularly feminine, it's more cuz I see him as genderless so using any pronouns for him is natural to me. I usually call Louis she her when I'm especially excited about him 😭 idk maybe bcus of the cultural association with she/her + feminity and softness/loveliness and affection (like the way u call a boat she/her y'know? Or a beloved car), or maybe bcus most of my close loved ones r women so using she her is natural when it comes to compliments and affectionate terms for me. Anyways I hope this makes sense or clears things up, tbh I am very surprised that ppl I'm not friends with even perceive my blog at all sometimes so I never considered how I may have been confusing ppl 😭

#Tvc #Asks

[globofhoney]

Hellsing Alucard x Fem! Elf! Mage! Dragonborn! Reader HC

How it all began

- You are a mage, and your experiment gone wrong so here you are trapped in who knows what plane of oblivion you are in.

- A sudden change of culture and environment makes you a little stress, don't even get me started! No matter what race you are you CANNOT SPEAK ENGLISH! you are basically a gibberish speaker in Hellsing Universe, shame that they don't know Tamriellic language, oh well...who can blame them?

- You tried to live in peace, until your power started to show.

(oh! You have no money? No problem, let's fet h some wooden sticks and turn it into gold! That alone would get a lot of attention)

- And ho~ boi, no people gonna let you live in peace. Iscariot wants you on their side, Millennium wants a piece of you for experimentation, and Hellsing...they do not trust you. After all....lore wise dragonborn can crack the world if they are strong enough.

- Being a powerful mage that you are...you lived in a forest far away from people. With magic concealed you from outer world while you try to figure out how to get back.

- Magic barriers, ancient seals. You can do it all, oh bitch please! You mastered all school of magic way too long ago in your long elven lifespan anyway, and you are still young and inexperienced compared to other master wizard back on Tamriel.

- That is until the prominent factions decided to hunt you...

- Alucard found you first, and he basically retrieve you like a potato sack, and you of course fight tooth and nail in order to stay at your humble little cottage.

- In the end, you have to go back with him anyway. Not that you were willing to. But after sir Integra wants to offer you a job <or another powerful pet?> You stay, not that you have a choice anyway, and oh! You gotta live nicely in a grand estate! Why wouldn't you stay?

- You have to learn how to speak English properly, and you are a fast learner.

- eventually, you are decent enough to work and communicate in a short length of time.

Relationship with Alucard

- The very nature of your existence intrigued him. A person who has power of natural disaster at their beck and call is someone who he would like to fight with.

- He won't stop bothering you until you show him more powers you can do

"I am a mage! Not a magic trick performer!"

"Right you are, little mouse~"

- You sleep with sun burst rune spell place around your bed. Of course he found this amusing.

- Alucard is a huge tease! You want to just fus ro dah him out the manor sometimes.

- You do not trust him, but do not mind him either. Worry not, if you can't stand him, Integra got you covered.

- Everything happened so fast and it becomes your routine to the point that you used to it.

- Until he decided that one night, he would like yo invite you on a moonlit stroll outside. And by Dibella's tits! he won't take no for an answer.

- You are now his beloved little mage, the consent is already off the window.

- the success rate of extermination mission is guaranteed if you two are on the hunt together. Absolute power couple. Hellsing's most prized units.

- He loves to touch your elven ears, the nerve of this undead human is too damn high.

- You better expected to be touched and hugs from behind.

- Unlike vampire on Tamriel, he is kind of cute in his own weird way.

- So many late night strolls and conversation. The concept of romance is completely up to Alucard's mood.

"Do you know? A vampire dust in my world have a property of invisibility"

"Oh~ really? What about, human heart~?

"Poisons, lots of em"

"For your people perhaps, but not for me, i want to taste yours~"

- He is obsessed, and quite possessive. Always observed you in the shadows. Not that he doesn't trust you, he just doesn't trust the others.

- You won't be alone for a long time, he will come back to talk to you more eventually.

- Do not mentioned about your plan to go back to your world, He will make sure you stay, or...he would make sure that you stay long enough after Sir Integra die of old age and there's no more Hellsing to serves. He will take a chance to go with you. But seriously...do not mention this, it will make him stick to you more.

#hellsing #Hellsing x Skyrim #hellsing headcanons #skyrim headcanon #crossover #Dovahkiin #alucard hellsing

[zeawesomebirdie]

Going insane in your askbox again <3 true friendship right there. Anyway so you've probably noticed I am so so into Baldur's Gate 3 right now so I just want to let the thoughts out in a discombobulated fashion. There are no fun parallels here (or are there? I think I can do fun parallels) this is just word vomit because I can't play the game until either my dad finds a way to let me play from across the Channel or until Christmas. Because I couldn't bring my good PC all the way to England and my laptop sure as fuck doesn't have the specs to play it. So.

I don't know how much you've seen of it but one of my favourite things is explaining media to people in too much detail so I will pretend you only know that there's hot characters in it. It's an RPG based on the D&D system (and set in a D&D world) where you're an adventurer kidnapped by one of those yucky psychic-powered tentacle monsters, a mindflayer. You and the whole ship of kidnappees have those nasty little mindflayer tadpoles inserted in your brain (like in TCW on Geonosis, this time it's through the eye), and even though you blow up the mindflayer ship and save yourself by the end of the tutorial, that little tadpole is going to make you into a mindflayer in a few days (that's how they reproduce). So you embark, originally, on a quest to not transform into an actual monster, and it all spirals from there. On the way, you get to meet other people who have common interests with you, the main ones being six other people with a tadpole in their brain, who can team up with you & become your companions because they also don't want to become mindflayers, but there's also lots of cool NPCs of course.

The game plays pretty close to actual D&D, if you've played it/seen people play it, so there's all the classes (except artificer alas), the spells, the combat is turn-by-turn, and you roll dice for a lot of stuff that requires skills. There's a lot of options for how you play things, dialogue, actions, etc, and it doesn't feel as "good normal thing to do vs the most cartoonishly cruel thing ever" as a lot of those immersive RPGs do (it does sometimes but way less). The story looks pretty insane from what I've seen trying not to spoil myself too much, and I say that in a very positive way.

And okay, I'm going insane about the story, sure, but mostly it's the companions. The main six are really fleshed out and interesting, their voice actors all did a great job, their writing is great, and they're so so compelling aargh. In order of when you meet them, we have... 1) Lae'zel the Githyanki, a race of alien looking green guys from a different plane of reality with a very warrior culture. They have a deep hatred of mindflayers, so Lae'zel is extremely intense about finding a cure for the tadpole issue, and they're very ferocious, so she's pretty abrasive if you haven't befriended her. 2) Shadowheart the cleric, who's a bit racist at first to be honest, and very mysterious... In part because she doesn't remember much of her life, in part because she's secretive about the bits she does remember. Then the next two are in the same area and you can see whichever first, but 3) Gale of Waterdeep, the scrungly wizard, and yes he really is so scrungly. Wizards in D&D are the spellcasters who weren't born with magic but who studied it and who owe their powers to hours of reading books, consequently he's kind of a nerd. He also asks to eat your magic items pretty early on because he's got a condition where he needs to eat magic or bad things happen. 4) Astarion, my beloved, the pale elf, the vampire spawn. Yes, him, you know who it is everyone posts about him and they're correct to do so, I mean what's not to love? He's a vampire, he's hot, he's judgy and flirty and fucked up, his morals are atrocious, absolutely great character. 5) Wyll Ravengard, the Blade of Frontiers, a charming knight in shining armour type, who given his skill with a rapier you'd think is some kind of fighter, but actually he's a warlock with a patron who's both hot and suspect. And 6) Karlach (pronounced Kar-lack, not Kar-lash), a tiefling with a burning engine for a heart and the nicest personality of any of the companions honestly. She's tall, she's strong, all the lesbians want her, and because of the engine-for-a-heart thing she runs really really hot and subsequently she can't touch things (or people) or they burn.

That's the main guys, which you can also play as if you want (but it's not the best idea for a main playthrough, you're better off creating your own adventurer and then maybe on a second/third/etc. playthrough trying one of the origins characters, or the Dark Urge, which, that's something else entirely, ignore that). They're all interesting and fun and I want to do their quests so bad and I would romance all of them at the same time if I could, but alas they're not all into polyamory. My first run is 100% going to be romancing Astarion, because I love them all but I am positively insane about him.

Now I've tried not to spoil myself too much but let's be honest I still managed to, so, eh, but it's more like sunlight through the leaves of a tree, there's still a lot of shadows, I just have a clear-ish picture of a certain amount of stuff. From that picture, I'll say that I love interactions between the companions especially, like I find all the similarities and differences between them so interesting, and the different relationships they could have fascinate me.

For example, and yes I have Astarion tunnel vision, there's an interesting dynamic with him and Wyll, or him and Karlach, there's room for fun stuff with him and Gale as well, and honestly if I knew Shadowheart and Lae'zel well enough I could say there's something there as well but I don't - except that Lae'zel and Astarion are often together in the morals thing. Oh yeah there's a companions approval thing, so sometimes when you do an action they'll approve or disapprove, and it's weighted based on how important the issue is to them. Lae'zel approves of violence, Wyll approves of helping people, etc. Well Lae'zel loves violence, because that's her culture, and Astarion - also likes violence lol, and he doesn't like stopping to save all the pathetic lifeforms you encounter. So in that way they're both focused on the goal, curing themselves from the tadpole, unwilling to stop and help every damsel in distress, and they think the best resolution to a conflict is someone's blood outside of their body.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel have this hate relationship where at the start of the game Shadowheart is kind of against Lae'zel's people (kind of rightfully so, their reputation as fierce warriors who'll destroy anything as long as it means getting rid of a mindflayer isn't exactly wrong), and Lae'zel isn't nice to anyone but especially not those who antagonise her (and people love to make them fuck about it, which. Yeah. Yeah, make them fuck about it). Karlach is part of Wyll's backstory, he was meant to kill her because she killed people but you can like, smooth things over and uncover truths or something (I haven't played that part yet!) and she can join your party and it's good now, but there's a connection there. I'm trying to connect Gale to someone but honestly I don't know now that I think about it, I need to look into him some more he's so fun to me.

But you could argue that there's things that they all have in common - I feel like, off the top of my head, they all have this authority figure who sucks in their life? Gale has Mystra, the goddess he follows (followed?) who apparently sucks violently as a person, Astarion has Cazador, the vampire who turned him and abused him for centuries, Shadowheart has I think Shar, her goddess, Wyll has Mizora, his patron who's hot and shitty, I mean she's a warlock patron, Karlach has I believe Zariel, who - kept her trapped in one of the nine Hells?, and Lae'zel has whatever the fuck is happening with the Githyanki and their queen Vlaakith which honestly sounds like a shitty cult. Like they've all got fucked up authority figures <3 it's different flavours, like Astarion and Karlach actually have a fair bit in common with the way they were treated (but they're opposites in the way they reacted, which to be fair they weren't in the exact same situation so y'know - Karlach is joyful and passionate and pretty straightforward, Astarion is sarcastic and secretive and guarded, and also he approves of you letting children get hurt), or Gale and Shadowheart who both have religion/deity issues, and Wyll and Karlach share a person from their past that sucks, but like. Lil group of fucked up homies <3 I can't wait to hold all of their hands while we decimate whoever hurt them.

I'm not kidding btw there's a scene at the start where you can literally crush the skull of the mindflayer who abducted you (off screen but it does make a crunch) and I can't wait to do the closest thing to that that the game will allow to Cazador :) I think I'm also going to have a Reaction to Gale's storyline but I've managed to keep the details fuzzy for now so I don't know more.

So hi this is me chewing at drywall desperately waiting to get to play the game <3 how's it going in DC land, having fun with all the Robins? I personally think you should look at Gale a little, he has a vibe in common with Obi-Wan (the "looks like an english professor, is actually pretty slutty" vibe) and also he says pish posh unironically and he wears pyjamas at camp (everyone else just takes off some layers and looks kind of dressed for the club, he full on gets the velvet pj top out, it's incredible). Though Wyll is also very charming, like I keep going on about how Astarion is incredible because of course I think that, and Gale has the nerd charm, and next to that Wyll looks a little Less (and he has hours less of content I think), but the man has a charm. And the ladies are great too, it's just that you're less into women, but -

Oh wait I forgot to say: you know how in D&D there's 6 stats, strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and charisma, and the highest any of your stats can be at character creation is 17 and the lowest is 8? Astarion, unsurprisingly, has an 8 in strength, he's a rogue, it's normal; Gale also has an 8, but he's a nerd who loves books, so that's fair; and Karlach and Lae'zel both have 17 in strength, because they're great warriors, so that tracks. Shadowheart has a 13, which is fair for a cleric, and Wyll - Wyll, even though he's great with a rapier, is a warlock, and warlocks cast with their charisma, so it's not his highest stat, but it's fine, it's not going to be the dump stat either, right? Wrong. 8 strength for Wyll. It kills me every time. You've got those three women, two of whom could snap you in half and the third who could probably win at arm wrestling against random men, and three men, all with 8 in strength. 8 for an adventurer is pathetic, to be clear. 8 is your dump stat. The human average is 8 or 9. Adventurers are well above human in terms of stats. 8 in strength is normal for a wizard, but man, Wyll on his own, but also the combo of all of them having 8 in that one stat? It kills me.

(for the anecdote, their stats are roughly as follows: Astarion has an 8 in strength and a 17 in dexterity, normal for a rogue, and only 10 in charisma, which is truly enough to get him into bad situations and not enough to get out of them; Gale is a squishy wizard who, obviously, put all his points into intelligence, which - in D&D intelligence is book smarts and wisdom is street smarts, and it's the casting stat for wizards, so that tracks, his charisma manages to be higher than Astarion's also; Lae'zel has a 17 in strength and an 8 in charisma, which also tracks, she's a warrior and she doesn't need words to make people pay attention to her, she's also got a good constitution; Karlach also has the 17 strength, but her 8 is in intelligence, normal for her background and normal for a barbarian, and she has the same constitution as Lae'zel, a respectable 15; Shadowheart has a 17 in wisdom, which actually shines an interesting light on her character now that I think about it, and she's got the same 8 in charisma as Lae'zel, which, they should kiss about it; and Wyll's 17 is in charisma, which makes him the most charismatic of the group, which tracks with his vibe and the way he behaves on top of making sense for game mechanics, because once again warlocks cast with charisma. This game is turning me into a D&D player the way 3½ years of my bestie talking my ears off about the TTRPG didn't)

Actually I didn't even get to the fun point of Karlach and Astarion being contrasts in so many ways!! Because she's nice, he's mean, okay, but also. They're both kinda touch starved, but she's once again very open about it, she's overtly sad she can't touch people or pets because of her burning skin, and it feels like if you helped her with that she'd be trying to start a cuddle pile every evening at camp with zero shame about it, and also apparently there's a horny aspect to the no touch frustration thing if you're in a romance with her, because you both want to go for it but her skin says no. Astarion has spent 200 years obeying every order of a very cruel vampire lord, and he's both kind of desperate for someone to be nice to him, but also really really against people getting close to him in every sense of the term. He does also like cuddles though <3 and then there's the Wyll-Astarion thing, where Wyll is this very prince charming kinda guy, saves the widow and the innocent, just goes around helping people all the time, absolute bleeding heart, and Astarion spent 200 years suffering, hoping that someone would help, and nobody came - which is part of why he disapproves of you helping people, seeing people be so nice everywhere makes him mad, because he certainly didn't get any kindness for most of him life! You're saying that there are kind adventurers who help poor victims of fate, that there's actually a lot of those guys, it's just that none of them crossed his path, ever, in 200 years, when he was one of many and his sire is somewhat notorious?

Actually, thinking of that, there's a dialogue with Gale where Astarion says that the others can go pray to their deities if they want, but he won't, and Gale asks him if he's every prayed to any of them. He just goes "oh, I did, every one of them. None answered" and like. Arghhhh. The god worldbuilding in those two sentences!! Because there's gods of lots of things in the setting. Gods of the forgotten, the downtrodden, the victims, the abused, and the implications of that!!! I love the idea of deities actually existing, but them being both very human and also completely inhuman. Human in that they are Like Us, prone to the same fits of temper, the same cruelty, the same extremes as us, including also kindness, but inhuman in that it's pushed to eleven and distorted, because they're not actually human, either they never were or they aren't anymore. This shines a light on the human facet of them, because here it's about people, even well intentioned, kind people, turning away from suffering because it's complex and nuanced and difficult to help. Astarion was a vampire spawn, and he'd done terrible things, and his master was powerful, so... The gods are like us, they look away from pain and misery too. Insane sentences. Especially because the other gods we see also suck: Gale's goddess seems very shitty, and Shadowheart's also looks uuuh bad. I love the "gods suck" because in D&D lore those aren't just the christian god, they're kind of human, and a little bit of greek mythology vibes I would assume, and for real some of them just ascended to godhood from humanity, it's a thing that happens. So. Yeah. Sucks for Astarion obviously but that makes my brain effervescent. It's so crunchy for the worldbuilding. None of them answered..... Chewing on drywall!!

ANYWAY this is a BEAST holy shit. I have many thoughts about this game. Crunch crunch crunch. Good night beloved sleep well thank you for at least reading the unhinged ramblings, when I get the game I'll be back with even less hinges <3 can't wait for the wedding I'm going to be honest <3 <3

Ram my beloved. This is me rn:

Thank you for the hinges in my inbox!!! This was a delight to wake up to!!! No I don't understand at all but I am loving this for you!!!! May you get this game soon!!!!!!

(And thanks for all the context, like half my dash is this game and I think my boyfriend is playing it but I have somehow remained Unknowledgable about everything, so I appreciate it!!)

You asked how things are going in DC land. So. Funny story.

I'm still recovering from covid, like I'm negative now but by the Force I'm still so sick. I can't write. Like at all. Like I can't even tell you the last time I was too sick to write, it never happens. So my current fanfic reading word count is a 1.5 million words in the last three weeks. And I now have plans to make a rec list. And that's not even all!

I've also written three folk songs for superbat. Because I am Totally Normal about themb. I have spent the last several months trying to write songs In General and then three weeks of covid later I have three. About stupid idiots being in love. Because I'm Clearly Normal about them. And I low key am now just going to write a whole entire album because why not, and because none of the songs are explicitly fansongs they just sound like normal folk songs, so who's gonna know but me anyway (and all of tumblr. Bc if I manage to finish this thing I will never shut up about it)

AND. And I've also watched several movies, and started another TV show, exclusively so I could understand more fic. And that is. Going. My parents are very confused. The librarians probably get a kick out of my requests. My brothers have already started teasing me. I am having the time of my life

Also Dick is my favourite character, he's beautiful and wonderful and such a good oldest brother I love himb he is baby. I'm still working on learning about the other Robins, but I've read enough fic and seen enough comics to know sort of who the others are, it's just that my interest in things tends to fall in the pre-90's category, which means Dick is the only Robin for a lot of what I'm reading/watching

I love you, I hope you are enjoying your weekend and you and your hinges are always welcome in my inbox <3

#anon ☂️ #i just want to watch the animated 90s batman tv show #but my dad is so. so judgmental about animated stuff #and its very obviously a 90s kids show #(and thats what i love about it i love stuff from the 90s and before it is So Wonderful) #but i loathe watching things with him because he Has to comment on Everything #and i just want to suspend my belief a little #and he isnt even one to talk!!! #he watches shitty low budget horror movies!!!!! #i should be able to watch quote unquote classic movies and tv!!!!!! #(i feel so old saying something from the 90s is classic but) #anyway #hi im still clearly sick i love you

[batpham-discord-highlights]

Jason the Strigoi Mort

Souce: Gotham

Warning: Cultural confusion between Romani and Romanian. It is corrected and people become informed in a positive way.

G

As a random side note, Jason’s more akin to a traditional revenant (which is a weird gray area between zombie/ghost/vampire) than an actual zombie.

A

Revenant sounds creepier than zombie to me

G

There's a lot of different variations of them in folklore, but they can be absolutely horrifying

Like, the strigoi mort in Romanian lore (one of the 3 types of strigoi). In some lore, it's not a vampire but a ressurrected loved one who reinserts themselves into the family and brings death (usually via disease) and destruction to the family

A

...Jason must've been especially scary to Dick at first then

G

Absolutely!!!

I

amg that would of been a blast

G

In the comic version of UtRH, Dick fought Red Hood before the reveal... and it's suggested Bruce didn't let any of the others know. And then at the end of the comic, you have the destruction of Bludhaven that put Dick in a coma for about a month

A

Oh gosh

I

oof

G

So, Dick comes to, deals with the destruction of his city, learns his younger brother is somehow alive and a criminal

A

Jason being a strigoi mort would explain a lot

Especially if his dip in the pit changed his nature further

G

And trying to figure out how to reconcile his brother, who (depending on comic version) he'd given his Robin costume to with the hulking dangerous crime lord

One of the things in the Red Hood: the Lost Days that strikes me as very odd... after Talia threw him in the Pit and restored his mind, her explanation to him, before pushing him off a cliff, is "you remain unavenged"

She basically triggered his obsessive... need regarding that....

I

guess to make him go back to gotham? ??

G

The one thing that really bothers me regarding Talia in that story line is she goes from "you haven't been avenged" to (indirectly) "oh, he's going to try to kill my beloved... and I'm going to stall him, but not stop him... while giving him training to be more dangerous"

A

So you're saying this all could've been fixed if they stuck garlic under his tongue

G

Hahahaha!!!!!

Maybe

I

LOL

G

Specifically garlic flowers or even rose branches

A

Post-pit, it might not have even killed him :dick_laugh:

I

so talia makes a mess doesnt fix it but just delays it

G

Yes

Like, Jason before his training starts (that he's aware of)... goes to Gotham, and plants a bomb on the underside of the batmobile

Bruce never knew

Until long after Jason retreated because Jay thought it was too easy

Bruce wouldn't have known he's the one who planted it

..... I miss scheming Jason...

A

Now I want to see a fic where Dick sees Jason and just knows he's a strigoi mort

But Bruce doesn't believe him

G

Dick is Romani... not Romanian

A

Okay, please set me straight

Because I currently don't know the difference

G

While there are similar legends in the Romani, I'd have to go digging for specifics

Romani is the correct terminology for gypsy

A

Huh

G

I don't know if correct is accurate, but that's what they call themselves and most wish to be called that

A

So we don't actually know where he comes from other than the circus

Or Damien either, now that we think about it 🤔

Heritage wise

G

Other than a form of Middle Eastern, not really

I don't think Talia's given a specific country... and Ra's is several hundred years old

A

Nanda Parbat is even in Tibet

So is it even necessarily that?

G

Possibly, and I'm aware that they have a base in mountains of Switzerland too

A

We know so little 👀

G

Yeah... the League of Assassins are a newer addition to the lore compared to so many of the other rogues associated with Batman

A

Well, for the case of this story, Dick's Mom is Romanian then. I think it's his Dad who is Romani anyway

Or at least so my roommate says

She will join the server eventually >:)

G

Lol

Perhaps that's it

A

There's probably a pretty large blend of cultures in the circus, so you'd probably be able to explain it away as a story someone else in the circus told him

G

That's very true!! Forgot about that aspect

A

So either way, for bullcrap plot reasons, let's say he recognizes Jason as a strigoi mort

Bruce refuses to tolerate the idea

So Dick, Tim, and Alfred come up with a plan behind his back

Alfred is open minded about things like this

Tim is desperate to explain away his childhood hero's actions

...how they do it, I'm not sure

G

So.... traditionally, the only way you destroy one is... to destroy the heart

Physically destroy the heart

If a person has become ill from said Strigoi... sometimes the heart is burned and the ashes are mixed with a drink or food as a type of remedy

But they can also be trapped in the coffin... which doesn't destroy them... but the uh... techniques are something

A

In this one, I'm thinking of Jason having a more general doing-bad-things-to-them effect instead of illness

G

Gotcha

In some lore... strigoi and other revenants/vampires have 2 hearts

or 2 souls

it's the presence of the 2nd one that triggers the situation

A

And since Jason went through the pit, maybe some of the prevention methods would work

G

Maybe

Again, rose branches

Mountain ash

garlic, specifically the flowers

A

So we can either tear a second heart out of his chest, or we could do one of those

G

(as a random side note, I have an absolute hatred of garlic flowers. They look so stupid)

A

To each their own

G

They also come in white

A

I think they're kinda cute

But anyway

They catch him off guard and stick one of those things in his mouth

Bam

Pit rage cured

G

Lol

So simple. Oh, maybe it's something that has to be done regularly

A

Because the pit rage was just the strigoi mort-ness

"You must take your medicine this morning, Master Jason"

"...but those taste nasty Alfie"

"Would you rather turn back into a rude rage monster then, Master Jason?"

"Fine! Give me the dang flowers!"

G

That whole exchange reminded me of the Snickers commercials

Roses probably taste better than the garlic flowers

and that raw garlic can cause legitimate burns on the skin

... there are things I know... because of medicine, that I wish I didn't know

A

Let's go with roses instead of garlic flowers then

rose branches specifically, right?

G

Yes - the branches were placed on graves to prevent things from crawling out of them

because thorns

There's a specific word I'm looking for that it falls under... only it's a nicer form of it

Give me a sec

It can be considered an Apotropaic

Which is an object or practice designed to keep things in the grave

But there's another word I want

Maschalismos

That's it

Maschalismos is specifically the practice of preventing a corpse from getting out of the grave... it's something... you have something as simple as placing something on the grave like a thorny plant.... burying someone face down... or more... uh.... interesting things

.... I've spent a lot of time looking up revenant and vampire folklore

A

O.O

#gotham channel #batman #strigoi mort #romanian legends #circus culture #cw culture confusion #jason todd #dick grayson #tim drake #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #flower consumption #garlic flowers #revenant #not-a-zombie!Jason #just close #shows you how much we know

[devilbrakers]

3, 19, 30 for sylvan, 7, 18, 31 for valen, 5, 22, 32 for helena pleaseeys

thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu beloved <3333 from this ask game

Sylvan:

3. weapon of choice? any particular reason they chose their weapon?

He uses a sword and shield more often than not but he can rarely be seen using a bow. He wasn't really blessed with that natural bosmer talent nor with any magical prowess so he trained with warriors or just by himself growing up. His weapons are made of bone since I assume that would be custom in Valenwood?

19. are they quick to anger? what sets them off?

No, he's pretty tolerant for the most part! He's usually the one pissing people off jfkldsf. But lying (which is a bit hypocritical) and social injustices are the probably the best way to piss him off. Also messing with Valen or any of his family.

30. do they smell like anything notable?

He most often smells of leather and sweat so not the most pleasant but honestly probably just blends in with everyone else in the group especially after battle. Though maybe for more formal events, he'll use cologne or something like that if they have that in tamriel 😭. He'd like something earthy so maybe cedar or sandalwood.

Valen:

7. favorite animal? why?

She LOVESSSS monkeys so much. She just thinks they're cute and she still has a plushie from when she was little 😭.

18. their opinion on lying, stealing, and killing?

She's pretty chill about stealing especially since she used to be a bit of a klepto as a teenager. If I remember correctly it's common in bosmer culture to just take shit from each other and then return it when you need it without saying anything, or something like that? I guess that's more like borrowing but that's a big reason as to why she's okay with it.

As for lying and killing, they are certainly not her favorite things in the world but understands the necessity (mostly lying) from time to time. She actually had never killed anyone until she came to Skyrim and knowing that would be a very real possibility caused some reservations but her love for Sylvan obviously overrode that. But it's not something she does senselessly, it's always out of self-defense. As for lying, she very rarely ever does. It makes her feel guilty and she sees it as a type of betrayal if that makes sense? So she's pretty much always honest. She might just rephrase certain things to make the impact softer for more serious things.

31. do they like receiving gifts? giving gifts? what is their ideal gift?

She loves gifts, both giving and receiving! Though she does have a slight preference for receiving. She's always been most partial to jewelry/accessories so she especially treasures what Sylvan's made for her and Kaidan's talisman :)

Helena:

5. how do they typically dress? does their wardrobe lean more towards practicality or aesthetics?

As much as she loves aesthetics, she mostly leans towards practicality. While out on contracts that don't require much socializing, she's usually wearing black hand robes since they're dark and light-weight, allowing for easier stealth kills. But she'll occasionally go for the armor if she knows she might have to do a lot of fighting.

Around the sanctuary, she's also probably just wearing robes though maybe something more elegant looking, or maybe just a simple looking dress with some jewelry. She really only dresses overly formal for balls or social events where she actually has people to impress.

Ik I pin a lot of stuff or put stuff on my oc blog that kinda contradicts this but 😭😭

22. do they sleep well at night?

In more recent years, yeah, she sleeps like a baby. But in her earlier years as a vampire, she had a much harder time sleeping because of all the awful shit she's been through but the memories have faded with time and she's moved on from a lot of it anyway.

32. do they have any habits that aren't particularly self-destructive, just maybe odd?

Idk if this is really odd but she likes to smell books especially newer ones? She also talks to herself a lot since she's spent a VERY long time by herself.

#beans my beloved ... #ask #my ocs #sylvan #valen #helena

[dashingdcboys]

I WROTE A BOOK

Boo! I’m back with a my first novel after over a decade of writing short stories for myself. I got really sucked into the TGCF fandom and kind of abandonned DC so sorry y’all. I just came onto this account for the first time in years to promote this, and I might create an account for this novel if it kicks off.

I just  . . .

how.

Anyway, I'll be thankful for anyone who'd check it out and possibly leave an honest review. As I said this is my first novel so constructive criticism is welcome!

The Lone Lake of Glass Lilies is a long, twisting romance novel full of suspense, thrill and silly loving characters as well as horredously cruel characters (it's 322 pages long, with themes of fantasy/romance/thriller/age progression!). 

The romance side of things is inspired from books such as Heaven's Official Blessing and with some background elements of Howl's Moving Castle.

The novel takes place in my own self-made fantasy world, where elves, fairies, tieflings, werewolves, giants, cyclopses, goblins, four covens of witches, sorcerers, humans and vampires all live in relative harmony until a particular coven, the Coven of Crows, drops from their noble standing as renowned healers to the darkest pits of anatomy magic after a tragic death of a beloved young lord. The lord’s close brother seeks his revenge on the leading kingdom of the supernatural world and its counterpart fairy kingdom; the elves. The elf king was the ulmtimate leader of their realm whom could halt all wars and battles with the rise of his finger however preferred to hide away from the backlash of intervening in other commuinities’ affairs by sending the crows - most commonly known as the Corbeaus - to offer support on both sides of the battlefield instead.

The typical fantasy characters that all have little twists to their regular characteristics to fit the story; all with their own cultures, beliefs and supersitions; practising both good values and bad as most follow the herd of the community they grew up in. Most.

Our protagonist is the first to stand up against his peoples’ vain belief system with the aid of a most powerful yet gentle presense in his life whose melodious voice guides him through the worst of astrocities.

The plot is jam packed with action that leaves readers wondering what will happen next as our protagonist slowly begins to doubt their own sanity with every heart wrenching decision.

The story revolves around a homeless elf boy who was brought up in the slums of a wealthy elven kingdom. He had slowly grown accustomed to being the victim of mistreatment until he develops his first crush on a  bold, endearing fairy princess who is the first to give him a chance to reach his full potential. The story goes through all his stages in life from boy to young teen to teenager, adult and further; as his innocent crush blooms into a deeply fond love for her, keeping him soft and tender even as life becomes unbearble to the brink of death. 

The Lone Lake of Glass Lilies can get dreadly depressing at points, and ridiculously silly at others, with sombre topics as well as highly suggestive scenes that make it 18+

The two lovers are kept apart for the majority of the novel, as the love interest becomes too invested in her own duties to contact the lovesick protagonist however the spark between them is always present in the background like the soft glow of a night light in the swallowing darkness. 

Available on Amazon Kindle!

Check this out! https://amzn.eu/d/i8As302

Cover done by the great @yuliydominik on insta

#original novel #book #original book #writing #fantasy #romance #thriller #action #age progression #novel #elves #fairytalecore #fantasy romance #original world #original character #original characters #supernatural #supernatural world

[finniestoncrane]

thank you for those answers on the Breakfast Discourse!

I suppose I'll just have to say "think vampire, think vampire," the next time I try black pudding bc I do think that would help me, so thanks for the tip!

also uhhhh I'm so sorry but the beans with nothing???? I just.... 😔😔 that just ain't it for me I'm so sorry 😭😭 they gotta have something on them 😫😫 (but also, differing cultural norms/expectations, so I totally get it, it's just really different than what I'm used to)

okay and then your response sparked another question: not sure if this is just me being stupid, but what's brown sauce?

and yes omg London SUCKS. that horrid city pretty much ruined my life for a little while there lmao. (except the cemeteries. they can stay. those were fucking fantastic.)

with shared distaste for London,

peng-anon 💜💜

mmmm Breakfast Discourse™ at breakfast time 💚

you're welcome, i love the iron-y taste of it, i crave the violence lmao

nah see i don't like uh like bbq sauce or shit so baked beans work for me but i totally get why they would seem like such a heathen treat!!

OK OK OK OK OK my beloved, it's like this weird kinda tangy, tart, maybe a bit sweet flavour? like it's supposedly kinda similar to worcestersererserer sauce but i don't know, i can tell the difference (i like both) ANYWAY it is good and wonderful and i even like the bastardised east coast version where they cut it with vinegar:

#anon #friends being friends

[unhingedreviews]

Carmilla the show ft. something broke

So I didn't live review the majority of S3 because I was eating, or too busy trying to figure out what the writers were thinking. but I did keep a few notes and I do think I'd make a great critic. and by great I do mean, beloved by audiences and loathed by creators because despite being a qualified, experienced-ish storyteller I have clearly no fucking clue what is going on in other people's heads. BECAUSE IF I DID, I WOULD UNDERSTAND THIS SHOW. anyway, the notes:

Sherlock S3 ignore haha At least they can't put their feet up on the furniture if there's less furniture Who's restocking the vending machines? The yoga scene is actually very funny Ginger haired girl was a lot more fun when she was ginger Omg DAD 'I have faces too' oh dude How. How. Is Carmilla putting her boots on the chair Omg Dad and the stories WHERE DID THE TELEPHONE COME FROM AND WHERE CAN I GET ONE also, yeah, kissing good There's no way podcast girl has been in a cave for two months and has eyebrows that well groomed "Cultural Chernobyl" this dad is so much better than Le Fanu's dad 'Technical difficulties' ahahaa Dad is the only sensible person Carmilla's new philosophy is actually quite good Is it in their contracts that the more evil the character gets, the more not-quite English the actor must pretend to be 'you couldn't stab a swimming pool if your body was a knife' They waited until the end of series three for a Good Omens reference OH MY GOD I have no idea how this show ended because I got distracted by Carmilla in short shorts in the parallel universe and never really zoned back in. But I am confident that a vampire, when confronted by her dead girlfriend, could TURN HER INTO A FUCKING VAMPIRE  

#Carmilla the show

[becomingpart2]

i actually take back what i said about buffy and daenerys being the most popular in their respective fandoms. i was more thinking in terms of dany and buffy being cultural icons and beloved characters than fandom discourse. their are definitely parts of the btvs fandom where people prefer willow/cordy/faith and resent buffy for being the main character. actually the more that I think about it i can kinda see what candy meant by sansa being the fandom darling, dany and arya are more iconic and beloved by general audiences, but i do think sansa stans have dominated a lot of fandom discourse. the thing is I actually think sansa stans are more like caroline stans than elena stans. their entire online presence is being jealous of daenerys in the same way caroline stans are jealous of elena, so it’s weird that candy could recognize and call out this behaviour from sansa stans while engaging in the exact same behaviour when it came to caroline and elena.

Lol yes. There are several segments of the btvs fandom that stan other female characters rather than buffy. I wouldn't say they hate her, or at least they don't admit to that (because really, why would you dislike buffy on such a visceral level??) but she's certainly not the one that they feel more strongly about. There's this really popular btvs podcast call "buffering" and they adore pretty much all the other female characters but don't seem to show the same level of enthusiasm for the protagonist.

Anyway, yeah I never watched GOT and I don't know its fandom dynamic outside of what reaches "mainstream" fandom so I can't really offer any opinion on that. I can assume some behaviors based on general perceptions people tend to have about female characters though.

In my opinion, I think Arya and Dany are characters more prone to become fandom faves bc they are the types of characters that attract the more general audiences. They fit the Strong Female Character archetype that's widely accepted. Sansa doesn't, which is why I find her very similar to Elena. On the other hand, Post-vampirism Caroline also fits a fandom fave checklist bc she's just oh so quirky and fun! She tells it like it is!! She's unapologetic about who she is!! But here's the tthing: despite all of Caroline's qualities, Elena was still the one unfairly getting all the attention in canon!! A couple of feminists on tumblr liked and defend her every move!! So that obviously provoked a violent jealous reaction on a subset of her fans that weren't satisfied with all her progress and well-liked status: they needed to have her to check all the boxes and take over everything, otherwise she was being oppressed!

I can't speak for Sansa stans and how much they are in fandom though. What I see from an outsider perspective is that Sansa's fanbase seems to be mostly made-up of feminist and feminist-leaning women in specific niche parts of the internet. But I could be wrong!

#anonymous #tobin theory

[helioxed]

Culture's not your friend

#if you noticed i did his hand backwards no you didn't <333 #anyway vampire culture my beloved #madness combat #madcom #vampire culture #hank j wimbleton #hank j. wimbleton #hank madness #hank madness combat #eyestrain #repetition #eyestrain tw #repetition tw #uno's art

[shezzaspeare]

Pilot/Episode 1: Patching Things Up With Pastiche & Fanfiction

Hi, hello, and the wait is finally over! My name is Blessie, and welcome to the first episode webisode log installation I've decided to call these things an episode for now because why not also let me know what do you actually call these things episode of The Science of Fanfiction, where we take a closer look into our beloved works of fanon because we've all got plenty of time to spare till Season 5. Before I continue, I would like to thank everyone who's liked and reblogged the last few posts before this one. It means a lot for a small and growing Tumblr user like me, and your support is something I cherish more than my modules. You guys rock!

Anyways, like with most things, we have to talk about the boring and bland stuff before we proceed with the fun stuff. For today, we are going to settle the difference between a couple of things: first being the confusion between pastiche and fanfiction; then the distinctions between tropes, clichés, and stereotypes, which we'll tackle the next time. It's important for us to establish their true meanings in order for us to really understand what fanfiction truly is, even if it's merely just a work done for the fandom. I know – it's boring, it's something that shouldn't be expounded that much, but I believe that all forms of writing (unless it's plagiarised) is a work of art — and fanfiction is not something we always talk about. I hope that by the end of this, you'll learn about what they really are as much as I did. Let's begin to talk about the—

[Image ID: A flashback of John (left) and Sherlock (right) finding an elephant (not in the screen) in a room in The Sign of Three. End ID]

. . . I did say that this GIF will always have to make an appearance here, didn't I?

So, just as with Sherlock Holmes, all other works of fiction have their own pastiches and fanfiction, and many more original works out there have taken inspiration from them to create their own books. Although they've gained popular attention, this will not be possible if they did not have taken inspiration from the materials their writers had at the time.

[Image ID: Various actors as Dracula. Jeremy Brett in 'Dracula' (1978) (upper left), Adam Sandler in a voice role for 'Hotel Transylvania' (2012) (upper right), Gary Oldman in 'Dracula' (1992) (lower left), and Bela Lugosi in 'Dracula' (1933) (lower right). End ID]

For instance, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' (the second most adapted literary character, next to the consulting detective himself) has been portrayed on the screen over 200 times — from Gary Oldman to Adam Sandler — and has spawned off numerous books and pastiches of its own such as Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot'. Its cultural impact served as a basis of how we see vampires today, since some characteristics of the Count were made by Stoker himself. Stoker's creation is the brainchild of his predecessors and inspirations.

[Image ID: Vlad the Impaler (left) and a book cover of 'Carmilla' by J. Sheridan Le Fanu (right). End ID]

Other than the ongoing hysteria over dead back then and the existing vampire folklore, Stoker also took his inspirations from the published books on vampires he had at hand. He is said to have taken inspiration from Vlad the Impaler, a Romanian national hero known allegedly for having impalement as his favourite method of torture. He is also said to have been inspired by the J. Sheridan Le Fanu's 'Carmilla', a Gothic lesbian vampire novella that predates Dracula by 26 years. I could go on, but hey, we're going back to Sherlock Holmes now before I deviate any further. However, if you want to know about Dracula's literary origins, I suggest you watch Ted-ED's videos about the subject matter such as this one or this one.

Very much like Stoker, ACD didn't just conceive Holmes on his own. He took his own inspirations from what he had available at the time.

[Image ID: Dr Joseph Bell (left) and Edgar Allan Poe (right). End ID]

As we all know, ACD's biggest inspiration for Sherlock Holmes was one of his teachers at the Edinburgh University, Joseph Bell. He was famous for his powers of deduction, and he was also interested in forensic science — both characteristics which Holmes is greatly known for. He also drew inspiration from Edgar Allan Poe's sleuth, C. Auguste Dupin ('The Purloined Letter' & 'Murders in Rue Morgue'). As ACD himself has said at the 1909 Poe Centennial Dinner: "Where was the detective story until Poe breathed life into it?" Some other writers he took after are Wilkie Collins, Émile Gaboriau, and Oscar Wilde.

Now, what does this say about us Sherlockians/Holmesians (depending if you're the coloniser or the one that was colonised)? Basically, ACD laid the groundwork for us with Sherlock Holmes: his humble abode 221B that he shares with his flatmate Dr. John Watson, his adventures, memoirs, return, casebook, last vow, and all that. Now that we have this material at hand, we can now make our own versions, takes, or even original stories featuring the characters of the Canon. Our inspiration comes from ACD's Sherlock Holmes, and we now get the chance to make our very own stories/conspiracy theories about them.

As I have mentioned earlier, Sherlock Holmes is the most adapted literary character in history. He has been adapted in over 200 films, more than 750 radio adaptations, a ballet, 2 musicals; and he's become a mouse, a woman, a dog, even a bloody cucumber. On top of all that are numerous pastiches and fanfics, and finally, we have arrived at the main topic of our post!

Fanfiction and pastiche are often confused together since they have three common elements: they take after the original work, they usually use the characters in that original work, and more often than not do are they set in that same time frame/period or not long after that. The common misconception is that pastiche are printed fanfiction, which is only partly true. While pastiche is definitely fanfiction in some ways and vice versa, there are fanfictions out there that aren't necessarily classified as pastiche that have been published.

Let's get on with our definition of terms to clear up the confusion a little more. Pastiche, according to Literary Terms, is:

. . . a creative work that imitates another author or genre. It’s a way of paying respect, or honor, to great works of the past. Pastiche differs from parody in that pastiche isn’t making fun of the works it imitates – however, the tone of pastiche is often humorous.

A good example of a pastiche is Sophie Hannah's 'The Monogram Murders', which is her take from Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.

[Image ID: A book cover of 'The Monogram Murders' by Sophie Hannah. End ID.]

Although this was a commission from Christie's estate, it's still considered as a pastiche as:

It's takes after Christie's writing style;

It is set in the early years of Poirot's career (1929), which is still within the time frame that the author wrote him in;

It features Poirot and;

It pays respect to Christie in a sense that it stays true to her (Christie) characters and way of storytelling.

Meanwhile, our good and slightly unreliable friend Wikipedia defines fanfiction as:

. . . is fictional writing written by fans, commonly of an existing work of fiction. The author uses copyrighted characters, settings, or other intellectual property from the original creator(s) as a basis for their writing. [It] ranges from a couple of sentences to an entire novel, and fans can both keep the creator's characters and settings and/or add their own. [ . . . ] [It] can be based on any fictional (and sometimes non-fictional) subject. Common bases for fanfiction include novels, movies, bands, and video games.

To avoid any copyright infringement issues if I ever use a popular fanfic in the fandom, we'll use my (unfinished and unpopular) Sherlock Wattpad fic, 'Play Pretend'. You can read it here.

[Image ID: The second self-made book cover of Blessie/shezzaspeare's 'Play Pretend'. End ID]

Why is it considered a fanfiction and not a pastiche?

It takes after an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock) which is a TV show, not the ACD canon itself;

The author (in this case myself) uses her own writing style and does not take after the original story's style;

Although it is set well in modern-day London and after Season 4, it also features scenes decades before the actual fanfic is set and outside of London;

I added a considerable number of characters, i.e. siblings to canon characters;

I had my own take some of the canon characters' personality especially after the events of Sherrinford;

It is written by a fan – myself. It is a work of fan labour and;

It is only a work of fanon, and isn't likely going to be considered by the show as its writing style is different from the actual show.

To put it simply, you can have more freedom in a fanfiction as it does not necessarily restrict you to follow or take after the original stories. Alternate universes (AUs) such as Unilock and Teenlock are perfect examples of this thing.

So can a pastiche be classified as fanfiction? Yes.

Can a fanfiction be classified as pastiche? Not all the time.

What's the difference? While yes, they share the basics, pastiche is technically leans more onto the original work's fundamental elements whereas fanfiction is a broader range of works inspired by the original work but doesn't necessarily follow all or any of its fundamental elements.

In order for us to understand it more, I'll give another example.

[Image ID: The 'Enola Holmes' title card (upper left) and Henry Cavill as its Sherlock holmes (upper right). Underneath it is a a scene from the opening titles of BBC Sherlock (lower left) and Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes in A Scandal In Belgravia. (lower right) End ID]

Most of you are familiar with these 21st-century adaptations of Holmes: the 2020 adaptation of Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books and BBC Sherlock, which needs no further explanation – but for those who don't know, it's basically Holmes and the gang if they were alive today. I specifically chose these two as they are the ones that I believe would get my points across best. Though both are considered as wonderful pastiches with a well-rounded cast and awesome visuals, if we break them down bit by bit, we'll see which one is more of a pastiche and which one is more of a fanfic. (Yes, I know they're both screen adaptations. However, as Enola Holmes was based on the books and BBC Sherlock's fanfiction has the show's scenes written out in most fanfics, hear me out.)

They share these characteristics of a pastiche:

They feature characters from the Canon (Sherlock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, and Lestrade);

They have additional characters added by the writers (Including but not limited to Molly Hooper, Eurus Holmes, and Philip Anderson for BBC Sherlock while Enola Holmes has Lord Tewkesbury, Eudoria Holmes, and Enola herself) and;

They pay respect to the original Canon as their stories are based on the cases (BBC Sherlock) or simply what was going on around them (Enola Holmes).

They also share these characteristics of a fanfic:

They are made by enthusiasts of Sherlock Holmes (Moffat has called himself and Mark Gatiss 'Sherlock Holmes geeks', while Nancy Springer's Enola Holmes books are not just one or two but six);

They follow a common trope (we'll discuss these tropes in the following episodes) that goes on in the fandom (Sherlock's Sister & Modern AU)

They are based on a fictional subject (Sherlock Holmes);

They used characters and story elements that are copyrighted by the author/author's estate (fun fact: prior to the production of Enola Holmes, the Conan Doyle Estate filed a lawsuit against Springer & Netflix over Sherlock's emotions since he was more 'sympathetic' than he was portrayed in the Canon – this was later dismissed by both parties) and;

Their writing styles don't necessarily follow ACD's.

Despite these similarities, there are very obvious differences between the two that separates them from being a pastiche and a fanfiction.

Enola Holmes embodies pastiche more as it doesn't stray far away from the original elements of the Canon. It's still set in Victorian England. While Springer added characters of her own and definitely twisted the Canon to suit her series, she didn't necessarily place them out of the social construct that was going on around the characters. It follows ACD's writing style more as Enola Holmes' setting still remains within the Canon's original setting.

Meanwhile, we can safely say that BBC Sherlock is a work of fanfiction. While it did give us The Abominable Bride, the main series focused on Holmes and Watson in 21st-century England, which is drastically different from Victorian England. There are phones, black cabs, and cellphones — things which ACD Sherlock Holmes doesn't have. It also diverted from the Canon in the characters themselves, which is mostly seen in the names: Henry Baskerville became Henry Knight, Charles Augustus Milverton became Charles Augustus Magnussen, the H in Dr Watson's name stood for Hamish and Sherlock's full name is actually William Sherlock Scott Holmes. They also changed the personalities of some Canon characters: Mary was actually an ex-assassin, Mrs Hudson was an exotic dancer who drove a kick-ass sports car, Irene Adler is a dominatrix, to name a few. Moffat and Gatiss created a world of their own featuring the characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which is really what most of us fanfic writers do with Mofftiss' rendition of Holmes.

In conclusion: while pastiche and fanfiction could have been the same thing, they're actually not. There's more to them that just printed fanfiction or pastiche e-books, and we all should take some time to see and observe them in a closer perspective.

And that's it for our first episode! I hope you enjoyed it. It was a lot fun for me to write this, especially now that I'm only starting. I would also like to note that while intensive research has been done on this series, some parts of this comes from my own observation and opinion, which may vary from yours. I am very much open to criticism, as long as it is said in a polite and civil manner. I'm still young, and to be educated as I go is something that could really help me with this series.

Like and reblog this you like it. It helps out a lot. Be sure to follow me as well and the tags underneath if you want to see more of TSoF.

See you soon!

Blessie presents – The Science of Fanfiction: A Study In Sherlock (2021) • Next

Follow me! • My Carrd | My YouTube Channel

SOURCES • Pinterest, Google Images, Wikipedia, Literary Terms, Conan Doyle Estate, Definitions, The Sherlock Holmes Book, and Google

#the science of fanfiction #sherlock #sherlock holmes #johnlock #bbc sherlock #dracula #enola holmes #lord tewkesbury #jeremy brett #shezzaspeare #bram stoker #acd #canon #fanfiction #pastiche #holmes #adlock #sherlolly #molly hooper #greg lestrade

[floxalopex]

I don't know if somebody already did this specifically. But yh the heck let's go.

WARNING 1: THIS IS NOT A POST FOR SENSITIVE PEOPLE AND/OR MINORS. (it contains gore and sexual themes and more).

And yes, SALT. Lots of salt.

WARNING 2: this has nothing to do with Christianity specifically. Atheism isn't hate towards your god(s) and/or its believers. Although there are many forms of atheism (some of which are so strong and violent they make me furious) think about mine as a general form of indifference. I hate the Church state, yes, but sorry I have that "at home" so please don't blame me. I don't like Abrahamic religions in general, but I've grown up with one.

I'm thankfully not a cult survivor, but I can understand some things.

WARNING 3: living in a very religious contest I have many beloved friends and relatives (starting with my mother) who believe in their god a lot. So if my words are too disrespectful tell me, I really don't want to hurt anybody.

Okay.

So.

I've seen many similarities between the cult Horde Prime put his clones in and your very average, very white, very western idea of Christianity.

1) Theophagy:

First of all, I really don't know much how this thing is lived in other Christian countries, but in mine they put a lot of emphasis on the Eucharist.

As far as I've seen I think it's pretty obvious how much in ancient cultures there's a very carnal and very grounded idea of the spirit. That can result in believing the soul to be the "psyche", so literally "the breath of life", the coordination of your sinapsis togheter (to me a very poetic definition of how our whole being ourselves is just us being our central nervous system) or it can lead to you eating the ashes of your granpa so you get his good qualities (something some cultures still do today). They said that the head of Orpheus was buried in the island of Lesbo and that's why its land was filled with amazing poets like Sappho. There's this very, sorry, brutal idea of the embodyment of the soul, the talents of a person, that even a piece of corpse is considered a magic thingy.

This is no different in the very old, very ancient, very rural Christian religion (at least in the most common version of it, we have many flavours of one truth apperentely).

When I was in High School we studied a lot Bacchus and the Baccanalia, because there are several commedies about it. My teacher, being very religious, was almost ashamed to admit that a lot of acts of those festivities (let's say that the most normal thing was for women to give their milk to animal cubs) were actually not very dissimilar in their rawness to certain habits of the religion.

So, what about Horde Prime? (me *yh, what about it, stupid ADHD?*). I have seen a post in the past explaining that yes, even though spacebats have the dentition of a frugivore bat and not haematophagus bat, the scene of Prime recharging in his throne with all those disgusting cables filled with green liquid referred as "the life force" of his clones...well, it's surely something.

Looks like a sort of sci-fi vampire thing. Which is very cool and I love this headcanon. So again I kept thinking...what is THAT amniotic fluid? I am a student, so correct me if I say something wrong.

Amniotic fluid is a combination of water 99%, proteins, glucids, fats and some salts (...it's even effective for electric conduction...the heck is that pool).

The most similar body fluid is plasma, so blood less cells. Even the serum, so plasma less proteins, is very similar.

Now, stated that Prime is a manipulative jerk, stated that I don't know much about aliens' physiology, stated that that fluid can come from blood potentially, in Church they say this:

*and Jesus said: "This is my body/blood which I offer in sacrifice for you"*

Apart from it being very creepy, there's this idea in the whole religion-thingy: if you are human you are a selfish monster, so monstrous you made our Lord and Savior die for your sins for how messed up you were.

So basically you don't become a sinner, you are concived as one. Humanity is sin itself, it can never lead to something good.

So are the clones. That's why Prime, in his benevolence, feeds them with himself. To make them pure, to protect them from the outside world. To make them remember who their strenght comes from.

If you don't want to read all of this just go for the Futurama soda episode, it's basically the same thing. Bleah.

2) Corpse feticism and more.

Again, don't know you guys, but here we are filled with mummies. I went in a place in Palermo and ...my gosh why did I do that.

We have everything here, hands, heads, feet, teeth so many of them, dead babies, dead virgins, dead popes, dead elders, all of them for half the prize, but only if you call today.

We are. Filled. With these atrocities. At least we don't touch them anymore.

Sometimes I wonder if, apart from the "hygene", people in Middle Ages used to die at the honorable age of 13 also because they kissed those... thingies there.

So, can we please talk about Horde Prime collection of "previous selves"?

This man has a whole room filled with corpses of himself. In the Vatican you can find corpses of dead popes as well, preserved and even dressed in a very good way. In Italy in general we have these, I remember a whole room in a town near my city filled with skeletons of "saints". Personally I find it very disturbing because you are basically not allowing that body to rest and serve its last biological purpose, especially if you consider that most of these "saints" were mentally impared young kids who were killed brutally and died as "martyrs". In ancient Greece the WORST thing you could do to a corpse was to leave it unburied, without dignity.

It's getting darker now.

I like both headcanons for Prime, that of a spoiled (maybe even sexist) royal of a lost culture who wanted to conquer the universe and that of him being a sort of ancient evil spirit, but I personally like to stick with the latter.

Imagine the old bodies of the clones Prime used for himself. Pushed to their limits. Clones dying young is horrific as well, but like these people were forced to go on. Not to die. Not to age as much as possible. And now that they are dead they can't even rest. They are a show off for anyone to see. Their brains preserved and their literal dead flesh still tormented for reading.

One may ask me, then what about corpses in formalin for medical use? Well, one thing is a donor or a dead fetus or a corpse nobody claims. That's the story of the skeleton in my university, a young male who didn't eat much. A very lonely man. Well at least now he is well loved and appreciated, ah if only he knew that.

The point is, we respect them. We are grateful for the informations they give us. Gosh, I know I'm creepy, but I even cuddled one bone once. We know they probably suffered. Like, search for HeLa cells. That lady has my highest respect.

But Prime? Those are. Vessels. Just that.

Anyways, apart for the "respect the deads thing" I found Hordak's behaviour in that room that of high distress. Like, ehm, any normal person? Search for "Convento Dei Cappuccini", that place I was talking about in Palermo. The fact that I heard kids cry and "MEMENTO MORI" everywhere.

Everyone and everything is afraid of death, I just accepted that fear because it's normal. That doesn't mean I want to be reminded of it every week, especially if I'm a 7 yo kid.

Honorable mentions: that horrible art collection.

3) Double standards

When I went to catechism my teacher used a very feather hand on males and an iron fist on us ladies. We weren't allowed to wear trousers, to play football, to raise our voice. We were forced to be very clean, to sit with our legs as closed as possible. I heard it was worse before, at least we could play volleyball and weren't forced to knit.

We were however "encouraged" to sing and bake stupid cakes for Sundays. Mind you, I'm very feminine, but one thing is liking ribbons one thing is being a slave.

The boys...well, they could literally do anything. They broke things, used petards, beat each other. They were NEVER reproached, the teachers would say "oh, they are just boys". Like once I was so engrossed. I remember I had to sit behind a guy with his butt almost uncovered (because the lower you put the helm of your trousers the cooler you were) while I had to stay still with my head high, chest out, belly in and legs closed for 2h. The problem was: I almost pitied him. I was like "poor thing he doesn't know how to behave properly". That's so crazy, I was piting a free soul while I had my hands handcuffed because I truly believed the bullshit they put into my mind.

Now, imagine how did Horde Prime's clones feel about Catra and Glimmer.

They can dress as they please. Eat non amniotic fluid. Catra can even go wherever she wants.

To me, they didn't feel envious. As they should! That's how far an indoctrination can go.

Take Yudi interaction with Catra, he believes everything he is saying.

But I think deep down he knows, they all know, the truth, juding by his bitter reaction after being possesed. He knows he is the slave here, not the free man. But he wants to believe the other way round.

I think that yes, of course Prime kept Glimmer and Catra (and Hordak) because he needed them to conquer Etheria. But that is also a good way to show to the poor clones of how lost people far away from Prime's light can be. Slaves of their bodly needs and slaves of their individuality.

4) Sexual abuse

Do I need to explain this? Plus all those sick touches Prime gives not only to Hordak, but to Glimmer, Catra and Adora as well?

I don't know much about other countries, again, but here the Church is a real cancer. If a priest gets accoused of raping children he just gets put into another Church far away, and generally he keeps being a pedo even there and the game goes on.

I wouldn't exately say that Prime is a pedophile but clones are pretty innocent and neotenic to me so...idk.

Of course, Prime is his own state and his own rules, so yh. Raping all day. That's why I don't like to ship him with anything rather than a 100 m fall. Not even with his clones, sorry I know its kinky maybe but he is a monster.

Also, the way the clones feel like...honored to be raped. That's so sad. Maybe he convinced them this is the only right way they could experience sex and intimacy. I really don't know.

One thing I'm sure of is that Christian religion likes to often put shame on some "impure" acts. That's the name. The most impure of all is masturbation. If you are a male ...mmm well it's okay dear, it's not your fault you are male and so a sex starved animal. But if you are a girl? Ihhh oh dare you bitch.

Mind you, I fall in the ace spectrum but I did too have puberty and needs, and these thoughts in my head made me only conflicted.

Last thing. More of an asking. And more irriverent, so please stay away if you don't want to read.

So basically I understood I was atheist at 5 yo, just because I read two different versions of the birth of the Universe, one in my science book and one in my Bible (MY Bible, I still have it, was a gift of my aunt) and preferred the science version. I still felt conflicted, like once during a religion lesson at School (well...I don't blame Mussolini much in this case, I mean the Vatican wasn't still recognizing country indipendence and we needed a compromise) the teacher told me to stop drawing dinosaurs with Adam and Eve because they never existed. I mean...yes that's anachronistic but still I felt very sad, dinosaurs were cooler than that story. I remember I even made an experiment "if I say I don't believe in god will I get thunderstruck?". It didn't happen so I was like "oh cool, science wins". But then CATECHISM ecc ecc. The fun fact is that they think atheists are those who don't study religion, while I was the most zelous of the class.

So.

I just wonder...my baby boy Hordak is a man of science, what were his thoughts after his separation from Prime. I mean of course he still believed, but also not as much after some time. Entrapta is a support system for him of course, but he accepts her affection quite easily on canon. Which is amazing, still... maybe he was already doubting his devotion?

#Horde prime #horde clones #spacebats #Hordak #Yudi #atheism