#but jasper. being a fictional character. means that i Can i Can look at all her appearences and consider other sources of information

[thatone-highlighter]

I just got through the Earthlings arc during my SU rewatch and im absolutely facinated by Jaspers character

She’s such an effective antagonist for so long because she clashes with every other character so fundamentally. She’s got this completely foreign to the show worldview that is shown to be contrary to what the rest of the show is trying to say but she still feels like a real person and when you think about her she’s just as much a product of her circumstances as anyone else. She doesn’t want to talk it out with Steven because why would she? She was literally born to fight as has been doing so since the second she was born, it’s all she’s ever known and has been drilled into her head that that’s what’s expected of her, she’s rewarded for fighting well and watches as others are punished for doing badly, either by losing or by facing consequences for failing.

And then there’s the whole “perfect solider” part of her character. She was literally born more capable and with a higher status than everyone else. But because of the way home world is structured to reward her and punish people like the off-colours, she’s been indoctrinated into thinking that the reason she came out on top had nothing to do with how she was made and everything to do with her behaviour and attitude. Peak “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type person but because it’s a fictional story you can see what happened to make her this way. Her and amethyst are fundamentally different, they’re different quartzes, they were born in different places, they were just created differently, from the start jasper was always going to be better at some things than amethyst and amethyst would be better at others than jasper. But because of the way jasper has been “raised” for lack of a better word she doesn’t see that, she doesn’t understand that her and amethyst are simply different gems who were made different, she’s better at fighting and is picture image of what a quartz “should” be so that means it’s possible and anyone who can’t live up to that standard simply isn’t trying hard enough. And she even manages to get that into amethysts head, if jasper is capable of this then that means that amethyst must be too, even tho that’s simply not true. Through no fault of her own amethyst would have to try infinitely harder to achieve even close to where jasper is, jasper started out with a huge head start and trying to play catch up does nothing but hurt amethyst. It’s such a good analogy for so many things I think

Her main role in the story is serving as a character who simply refuses to talk it out with Steven, but again, why would she? From her perspective the entire reason her life is like this, she reason shes spent her life fighting endlessly, all the suffering shes lives through, its his fault. Rose Quartz started the war she was quite literally born to fight in. Rose Quartz also ended that same war by killing the only person jasper ever had to look up to, forced her out of the only reason she had for existing (both as in to fight the war and to serve Pink Diamond). And then heres Rose Quartz once again, saying she wants to help her? Where was she offering help when jasper when she was living to fight as much as she was fighting to live? Where was this „help“ when she shattered Pink Diamond and Jaspers entire world with her? „Help“? Help my ass shes the reason everything thats gone wrong in jaspers life went wrong in the first place

And then she gets poofed at her lowest point, gets removed from the story entirely until Future, and Future does nothing to make anything better for her! Last jasper knew the person shes been seeking revenge on her entire existence cant even be bothered to remember what she did, and then she loses herself to the Earth and corruption, the very things she prided herself on being better than.

And then suddenly shes brought back and „hey guess what! That war we created you to fight in? The one you created your entire person around? The one you lost Everything in? Yeah so it was pointless. Actually the person you idolised for the past 6000 years is the same person who you thought killed her and have been seeking vengeance on for the same amount of time. Crazy how that happens. Anyways so do you wanna come hang out with us now that we sorted that out and were chill about it?“

Can you even IMAGINE what that feels like? No wonder she runs off into the woods and becomes a hermit what else is she supposed to do! Shes got nowhere to go! Her entire life has been turned on its head and she’s expected to just move on! That’s ridiculous!

And thats just the backdrop for her appearance in Future. When she finally does appear they kill her and thats the first and only time we ever see her happy. Someone Finally speaks to her in a way she can understand and she actually dies, and uses that to find herself a purpose. If steven is powerful enough to shatter her, a feat never before seen by a gem, then sure she can serve him, anything to give her life purpose again. and then they just forget about her! Steven literally ditched her in his house! They pull the rug out from under her Once Again. but now she can be „normal“ now she can do what other people want her to do so they all assume shes „better“ now.

I think future did her so dirty the original show handles her character So Well and im not really sure how else they could have gone further with her character because people like Jasper in real life dont really change. And if she were to change and agree with steven it would feel like the show saying steven was right and jasper was wrong and she should have listened to him from the start. Shes such an interesting character to delve into because shes the antagonist yes but shes a very specific type or antagonist that doesnt appear very often and when it does its not with as much backstory, even if just implied, or delving into the thoughts behind the actions. Its so interesting to me

#hi my name is duck and im normal about steven universe characters #steven universe #su jasper #su rose quartz #su pink diamond #su analysis #Tree Man Posts #me when i go to the bestie gc and yell about jasper for an hour straight #listen okay. Jasper. #thanks for listening #no seriously i love thinking about jasper. shes such a product of her environment #but in a different way to all the other characters #and she has such a different just fundamental worldview compared to every other character and esp compared to Steven #she represents the kind of person who i see in real life but can’t understand why they are the way they are #but jasper. being a fictional character. means that i Can i Can look at all her appearences and consider other sources of information #and really Think about why she is the way she is. and at the wnd i dont even think she’s unjustified in her actions #i highly doubt anyone else in her position would have come out any different #len look what you did you supposed my jasper analysis and now here we are

[princeescaluswords]

I’ve found that the most telling evidence that Something Else is amiss in the broad dislike of Scott is the lack of enthusiasm for Sciles. Compare it to Supernatural, which was also big at that time: 2 young attractive male leads (DOB being 3rd billed aside), good chemistry (both on-screen and IRL as friends), comedic dynamic, unbreakable bond, occasional flirting, etc. Sciles should have been THE pairing by almost any metric. Sterek had the antagonistic dynamic to set it apart, but given how much people water it down to fun banter or erase it altogether in fic, that canonical difference clearly wasn’t all that essential to shippers’ enjoyment. Allison comes up ALL the time as a complaint but other fandoms seem to be able to demonize and/or erase canon girlfriends without much of an issue. It leaves very, very few explanations when you look at it from that POV.

When I first entered fandom, I wasn't very interested in relationships; I focused more on character development in relation to plot. When I wrote, it was primarily gen fiction. As time passed, positive interactions with the fandom (there can be some!) led me to consider relationships as an important part of the greater whole. But one thing I never quite understood is the hostility to both Scott and Stiles's friendship and Scott and Allison's relationship. Unlike some people, I don't think that a non-canon relationship like romantic Stiles and Derek or Stiles and Peter simply can't work. I've written Sterek myself. It's always confused me how fandom seemed to seek validation for those ships by tearing down both of Scott's primary canonical relationships, which are completely unrelated.

Now, you know, I eventually came to several conclusions about why this happens, which I have talked about a great deal and will continue to talk about. But it's always key to me when actually grappling with an issue is an attempt to understand the other side. So I asked myself, for instance, why was Scott and Allison's canon romantic relationship so unpopular? It seems to me that those opposed to it have four major complaints which I have seen expressed in print.

It was heterosexual, and that is somehow bad.

It was stupid and dangerous: a newly bitten teenage werewolf falling in love with the teenage daughter of werewolf hunters was a recipe for disaster.

It distracted the lead protagonist (Scott) from the issues he should be addressing and the people to which he should be listening.

As the primary canon relationship of the first two seasons, parts of the audience felt it was being forced on them.

With the exception of the first one, which still mystifies me to this day, these others could have some value. I mean, the Romeo-and-Juliet trope is an old one, and people may be tired, in this modern age, of seeing it being re-enacted again. So, why don't you take an amble with me over to AO3? If these are legitimate fandom concerns, then it should hold up when we examine Teen Wolf's peer group of supernatural adventure shows.

Let's look at the famous Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003); it seems that the top two ships represented on AO3 are ...

#1 Spike and Buffy Summers

#2 Angel and Buffy Summers

Strange that the heterosexual canon ships of a vampire slayer and a vampire remain two most popular subjects. But that's an old show. We've changed. Let's look at something with more direct relevance. Tyler Posey was up for the role of Jacob in the Twilight film series (2008-2012). What ships are most popular there?

#1 Edward Cullen and Bella Swan

#2 Alice Cullen and Jasper Hale

Okay, interesting but there are still differences. There is less emphasis on inherent conflict, I guess. And those are movies, let's move back to television. (I will now switch from 'heterosexual' to 'man/woman' because some of these characters are definitely bisexual.)

True Blood (2008-2014) was a far more adult television show, so it would expand beyond the mainstream that the fandom finds so cloying:

#1 Eric Northman and Sookie Stackhouse

#2 Bill Compton and Sookie Stackhouse

Or maybe not. But that's premium cable targeted at a different audience. Let's look at the competitors, such as The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017) which ran coterminous with our show.

#1 Caroline Forbes and Klaus Mikaelson

#2 Elena Gilbert and Damon Salvatore

Or its spin off, The Originals (2013-2018)

#1 Caroline Forbes and Klaus Mikaelson

#2 Hayley Marshall and Elijah Mikaelson

It's kind of weird that these all have a certain pattern that the most popular ships to write about are all man/woman ships with built-in oppositional obstacles. Now, there are shows whose fandom are focused on non-heterosexual relationships, such as Supernatural, and while I haven't watched it and never will, I'm told that one of the reasons is that any canon man/woman ship was doomed by the narrative impulse to whack female characters. There's Legacies, which I don't know much about but it seems to be focused on a woman/woman ship and isn't that refreshing?

But I think, to paraphrase my favorite show, if three times is a pattern, five times might be a trend. It seems that fandom doesn't really have any problem exploring canonical problematic supernatural man/woman relationships as long as there is a particular trait among all the people participating in those relationships. Can you spot the pattern for yourself? Can someone explain to me why these are the most popular ships in their respective fandoms but those same characteristics make Scott and Allison's relationship distasteful. Of course, and always, we have to remember one thing

BUT IT'S NOT RACISM.

#scott mccall #allison argent #scallison #teen wolf fandom problems #fandom racism

[retrogradedreaming]

okay so i went and read your pinned post on your oc blog and i wanna hear more about gingersnap book 👀 what are the characters like? what's the world like? i'm bad at coming up with questions so just share anything you want skjhgsk

sfksdjfld grace this made my morning <3 also don't worry about being bad at questions, I sent the ask about your OCs to you before 6am when my eyes had been open a grand total of five minutes, so you're good 😂

btw before i get into it, if anyone wants to see my wips, characters, thoughts about either, and other original work, i post more of that on my wip sideblog @slippersandsmoke

gingersnap book is the oldest project I have that I'm still (sort of) working on (since...2015? 2016? i can't remember when Liam and Elliott first showed up). it's a little complicated for me because very early on, the characters started as like side OCs in a collab fic sort of thing with my ex, and then these characters developed more completely into their own thing until I took them out of the fandom world where they started and just made them their own story.

the world is just our world and the story is set in the general area of where I live. that might change, though, because one of the characters supposedly lives in his family's vacation house and no one has a vacation house here. then again, maybe he can just move, idk, I've been taking a break from working on the main story this year, so I haven't worked out a lot of the details around the setting/reasons why one of the main characters lives there. which also means that anything I tell you now is subject to change later.

the story follows Liam and Elliott, who had a long-term relationship, broke up, and then come back together through a series of unfortunate coincidences and events. the characters are all in their mid-20s (y'know, to reflect that i was in my mid-20s when I made them), and the whole story is kind of like an exploration of the mid-20s experience of "what the fuck am I doing with my life?"

since this is getting long, I'm putting the specific character info for the four main characters I think about under the cut

Liam: He's a manager at an upscale restaurant in the area, he's from London (I think) and he's...hm. Not very nice? He tries to be, and he's reliable, practical, and gets shit done, but he doesn't do feelings. He moved to [the fictional version of where I live] for school, where he met Elliott. He's really into theatre, and he prefers directing to acting (though he's quite capable at both).

Elliott: Elliott lives in western MA, and he went to school for art. He loves to draw and paint, and he works at a bookstore and as an art teacher. He's very opposite Liam in that he enjoys his alone time, but he'd much rather enjoy time with other people and he has no problem being likable and fitting in with others.

Will: He works with Liam at the restaurant, and he bounces between jobs to pay for his apartment and help his mom support/care for his younger siblings. He has a German shepherd named Milo, and he's kind of a work hard play hard type of person, where he works a LOT but he knows how to have a good time. He's involved with Jasper, but they both have their own commitment issues, so they're mostly friends with benefits who are inextricably connected.

Jasper: He's a bartender, and he's had a rough life. He met Will in high school and spent most of his time at Will's house, so he essentially integrated into their family until Will's dad died when they were in college (Will dropped out after that because he needed to work). And that's when Jasper kind of left the picture for a while, since he thought his struggles would make it worse for them. But Jasper himself is really sweet, super outgoing, and he's the kind of person that people naturally look after because he's such a disaster that everyone's like "should probably watch that guy." But he means well, and he loves Will despite his commitment issues.

#grace thank you so much for asking seriously i could talk about my characters/wips all day long #i have so much useless info for all of these characters #this story is special to me even though i have complicated feelings about it now #will and jasper have been more the center of it lately where i just send my friend a bunch of thoughts about them #i'll hopefully go back to it someday with a new and better plot #gingersnap wip #oc liam #oc elliott #oc will #oc jasper #grace tag

[shinonometrash]

Un-magical Altercations - Lance Ira

Court of Darkness Fan Fiction - Special Story

Part 1

Rating: General

Significant characters: MC, Lance Ira, Guy Avari, Toa Qelsum

Guy lost his magic...and you’re the only thing that could help?! Yikes! This isn’t going to end well...

| >>Part 1<< | Part 2 | Part 3 | Other Works/Content |

The moment of impact is accompanied by a cracking noise and I wince.

Guy stands there for a minute, seeming to be in shock trying to process what just happened.

We all watch to see what he does next.

Guy: How dare you have the nerve to punch ME? I am the Prince of Avari!

You see, this all started a few days back...

~

Lou: -but not to worry. Your magical abilities should return to normal after about a week, two at most.

Guy: Hmph.

Fenn: Whoa, a whole week or two without any magic?? Will you survive, Guy?

Roy: Master Guy, please let me know what I can do to help. I would like to assist in any way possible.

Lynt: Mmn…it’ll go by quickly, just take lots of naps…

Lou: Master Akedia, if you would please refrain from napping in my office while we are having an active meeting...

Toa: Is this all you called us here to say? If so, I will be taking my leave. I have lessons to prepare.

Lou: Please do not be so hasty, Master Qelsum.

The S-ranks and I have been summoned to a meeting in the headmaster’s office.

A few days ago, Guy returned from Avari after being sent there to investigate some magic ruins. At the time, everything seemed normal.

However, a day after he returned, he found himself suddenly unable to use magic.

The headmaster believes that something Guy encountered in the ruins was likely the cause.

While he says that whatever caused looks to be harmless, it’s still a major inconvenience for somebody who regularly uses magic on a daily basis.

To make matters worse, Jasper had to stay back in Avari to help with documentation of their discoveries–which means that Guy is not only magic-less but he’s also valet-less at the same time.

Unsure why I was called to be part of this meeting, I’m listening quietly in the corner as everybody discusses the situation.

Roy: Headmaster, are you certain that there is nothing that can be done to accelerate the return of his powers?

Lou: Hmm…there is a possibility that, should MC choose to share her powers with Master Avari, it may return sooner. However, I believe it would require her to share a significant amount of power.

I freeze at the headmaster’s words as everyone’s attention is suddenly focused on me.

(Sharing my power?)

That would entail…

Making out with Guy.

(Yeah, no thanks.)

MC: Ahaha, um, I’d...I’d rather not...sorry...

Lou: That is perfectly alright, we would never force you to use your powers if you are uncomfortable.

Lou: Isn’t that right, Master Avari?

He smiles at Guy, who is wearing a very unpleased expression at the moment.

Guy: Tch.

Lou: MC, you may leave now. That is all the information I wished to tell you.

MC: Okay, bye guys…

I awkwardly walk towards the door as the headmaster turns to the remaining S-ranks.

Lou: Now then, I would like for you all to take over teaching all of Master Avari’s magic lessons…

~

That evening–

I’m sitting on the couch in Lance’s room as I tell him about my day while he listens intently.

It’s a normal routine of ours at this point, to try to meet daily and tell each other about our days.

He always gives me his full attention as he listens, even if it’s just about mundane or boring stuff.

The truth is, we’ve been dating for a month or so, but nobody else knows.

We’re not exactly trying to keep it secret, per se, but more like we’ve got no reason to go out of our way to tell anyone.

MC: -and then the headmaster basically asked me in front of everybody to make out with Guy!

Lance: And? What was your answer?

MC: Oh, come on! Is that really even a question?!

Lance snorts in amusement at my offended reaction.

MC: …well obviously I said yes!

Lance: …huh?

MC: Making out with Guy has always been an absolutely huge, deep, secret dream of mine. Like, total life goal. You didn’t know that??

Shock and confusion play across his face momentarily before he fully processes the sarcasm in my statement.

Lance: Oi, you-

I laugh and squirm away as he reaches out to tickle me.

I grab a pillow and hold it up between us like a shield, but it doesn’t do much after he’s got me on my back at the edge of the couch.

MC: Ahh, okay, okay!! I surrender!

Lance: Good.

He grabs the pillow and throws it to the side before leaning over and giving me a passionate, sweet kiss.

MC: Mn?!

Using my surprise to his advantage, he deepens the kiss and continues kissing me until my lungs are burning for air.

(This is nice but...can’t breathe!)

I’m about to hit him on the chest to release me when he finally pulls away with a smug smile.

Lance: There. That was your punishment.

MC: O-Oh…then…maybe I should do it again…

Lance: You…

He shakes his head at my comment before his expression turns serious.

Lance: You need to be extra careful around Avari until he gets his magic back.

MC: Huh?

Lance: If he thinks you’re the answer to getting his magic back sooner, who knows what he might do. I don’t trust that man not to try and do something to you.

Lance: I’m going to walk you to and between classes for now.

(That doesn’t sound too bad, but…)

MC: Aren’t you working on rehabilitating some injured animals right now?

Lance: I am…

MC: Are they going to be alright if you aren’t able to work with them for a week?

Lance goes silent and breaks eye contact.

The conflict in his expression makes it clear what the answer is to that question.

MC: It makes me happy that you’re worried about me, but you don’t need to become my constant bodyguard because Guy lost his powers temporarily. Especially if it’s going to be detrimental to the animals you’ve been putting so much care into.

MC: Sure, he’s definitely a huge dick, but I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt me in order to get his magic back a few days earlier.

Lance doesn’t look convinced.

(Hm…)

I don’t want to make it seem like I’m just brushing off his concern, but I also don’t want him to have to sacrifice something important to him.

MC: Oh! How about this? I’ll make sure to always walk with Rio or Sherry during the day, and I’ll also have Robin to stay nearby in case anything happens. And then you can come get me after classes are over.

MC: I’ll be extra careful, I promise.

He seems hesitant to agree to my suggestion, but ends up nodding reluctantly.

Happy that we reached some sort of compromise, I wrap my arms around his neck to pull him in for a kiss.

To be continued...

>>Part 2

| >>Part 1<< | Part 2 | Part 3 | Other Works/Content |

I’ll come back and add screenshots to this eventually...

#my trash fan fiction #court of darkness #lance ira #shinonometrash

[masonhawth0rne]

What I read in February

I had intended to post this much earlier in the month, but what can you do (aside from doing the thing when you think of it, instead of putting it off for first thing tomorrow, I promise!) Oh well, who's counting?

Anyways, here we go!

Beneath Strange Lights, Vivian Valentine ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Search for the Green River Killer (nf), Carlton Smith & Tomas Guillen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Trace Evidence (nf), Bruce Henderson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Red X, David Demchuk ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gate of Ivrel, CJ Cherryh ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Persuasion, Jane Austen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ghosts of Tomorrow, Michael R Fletcher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kill Your Husbands, Jack Heath ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (ss), Washington Irving ⭐️⭐️

Corrupted Vessels, Briar Ripley Page ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ada Blackjack (nf), Jennifer Niven ⭐️⭐️

Time to Orbit: Unknown, Derin Edala ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Splinter, Jasper Hyde ⭐️

Writing Great Fiction (nf), James Hynes ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Original Sin, Derin Edala ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Infinity Wars Anthology, ed Jonathan Strahan ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Started off strong this month, Beneath Strange Lights by Vivian Valentine was a really great surprise--I'm not super into young adultish books most of the time, but the voice and characterisation of this one were really outstanding, and the way that it plays with eldrich and cosmic horror was extremely well done. The friendships between the characters were endearing without being overly saccharine, and overall it was just really well done, I'll definitely be looking forward to the sequel. (Oh and also the main character is a trans girl!)

Red X by David Demchuk was also a really strong book. It's a pretty challenging read given its close attention to violence against and among the LGBT+ community in Canada, as well as its very interesting interpolation of semi-fictionalised autobiographical elements into the narrative. It was really worthwhile, even though it was almost impossible to get ahold of it in Australia (reminds me I need to ask my library to order a copy!) But I would recommend making sure you're in a good headspace before you start this one.

And there are two older stories that I hadn't read before, Persuasion by Jane Austen, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving.

I've got to say, I'm a bit disappointed with all the Austen-heads in my life that they never pushed Persuasion to the front of the line! It's a second-chance romance with an older cast than the other Austen books I've read so far, and I think it's really a strong contender for my top Austen book! It's got its sad and heartwarming moments, and the Great Big Letter Declaring His Love is, honestly, probably beating out Darcy's hash of things in P&P. This is a great book! It's a shame it gets overshadowed!

Sleepy Hollow, Sleepy Hollow. What can I say about The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. How about, first off, I've never been able to sit through a whole movie or show adaptation of this story without getting bored halfway through. Not sure what exactly it is about them, but I just bounce right off. Now I read the story, and discover that every adaptation has taken the bold decision to do the exact opposite of the story? This doesn't mean that I enjoyed the short story! I found it...fine. A little bit boring. But short!! There was some nice descriptive language, but overall, not what I wanted to be doing with my time. But I am still befuddled and bemused; how does a short story about how silly and gullible it is to believe in ghosts get turned around and adapted into an avalanche of 'OMG! the ghost is REAL!' movies and shows? I don't get it!

Anyhow, that's that for February! Overall, it was a pretty good time!

ss=short story nf=non-fiction

Stars awarded at my whim.

#what i read

[panlight]

if u had to ascribe a main love language to each main character what would u assign?

So this has been sitting here awhile because it's hard! And obviously people can't be fit into neat little boxes so this is more about patterns than absolutes and obviously THESE people are fictional which complicates things even more. THAT SAID:

Edward feels like a Words of Affirmation person to me? He's always giving these melodramatic speeches about how much Bella means to him. Now this could be a function of it being a romance novel at heart, but still he has like the Moonless Night speech, he has "You are my life now" he has "the outside world is no interest to me without you" "Look after my heart, I've left it with you" "If I could dream I would dream about you" etc. And I think he needs this in return, too, because he lives in his head so much and has convinced himself he's a monster so he has to hear repeatedly "Yes I love you" and that's why Bella showing him her thoughts at the end is so powerful. It's the ultimate affirmation, and only wordless because of the superpowers involved. But there's also the constant gifts Bella doesn't want that he's giving her, too.

Bella is hard because Bella exists as the reader-proxy. She's there to be loved and adored and fussed over by the hot guys and how she reciprocates is less relevant because that's not the heart of the fantasy. But in a larger sense maybe she's an Acts of Service person--certainly in her non-romantic relationships she shows her love by cooking for Charlie, for example, or just her constant acts of martyrdom to help others. Exiling herself to Forks so Renee can be happy. Going to James alone to save Renee, etc. But she does need those Words of Affirmation too because she doesn't really believe Edward could love her that much.

Esme seems like an Acts of Service person, too. She shows her love by caretaking. She makes the house a home, she cooks for friends who eat. I think Carlisle learning to let her take of him was part of their relationship development because a) he had been alone for so long and just doing everything himself and b) because he didn't want to give the impression of like "oh I turned you into a vampire so you could clean the house for me." But that's just the way Esme expresses her love and they eventually figured it out.

Carlisle . . . I mean there's Isle Esme but that's the only gift we really know about, so giving/receiving gifts isn't necessarily his language. He feels somewhere along Acts of Service/Quality time to me here, too. Certainly in his work--he's dedicated his eternity to helping people as a doctor, so I could see that sort of mentality manifesting in relationships, too. And with him being alone for so long, I think just time with the people he loves is maybe the more important. He doesn't need/want them to do things for him, just BE with him. And Esme recognizes that Quality Time aspect; it's a Big Deal when he takes time off from work to spend with her. Isle Esme makes more sense as a Place to Spend Time than an ostentatious display of wealth.

SM clearly intended Rosalie and Emmett to be the Physical Touch couple. I don't know that we have enough detail in canon to really refute that, but I do think it's wrong to read that as shallow because of all the baggage and trauma they would have had to work through to get to a place where they are so joyously touchy-feely together.

Alice and Jasper just exist in such a different universe in terms of relationships because of their gifts. They don't need words--they know how the other feels or will react. Time? What is time? Alice lives one foot in the future. They are written not to be especially touchy-feely; that scene in New Moon where they just stare at each other in the airport is an example. If I HAD to try and put them in a box I guess maybe it's Quality Time. They can just BE together and vibe because they know what the other is feeling/needing/wanting in that moment but they clearly also have independent hobbies and interests.

#asks

[therealvinelle]

If Jake can redeem himself then Jasper can too, sorry, I'm it's just, it just sucks that the twilight fandom is so selective. They talk sh*t about Meyer being a racist and a selective mormon but they're doing the same thing.

This is just a thought of mine 🙃🙃

Sorry to spill my anger here

I do think there’s a difference between defending a Native American character who’s characterized aggressive and as an abuser, and given a paedophilic storyline (this anon made some very very good points on this), and defending a rich white male who was unquestionably racist. Jasper enlisted to fight for the white man’s right to own the black man, there’s no non-racist way out of that one. People are justified in not wanting anything to do with his character.

(Also, before we go any further, I should mention that I’m “double neutral beige”-foundation levels of white (yes, actual shade match for me. Double neutral beige. I feel so flavorless and boring), so this is a debate I’m very leery of. When Jasper dropped his “fun fact, I fought for the right to own slaves!” line, I wasn’t one of the fans hurt by that. So, I’ll say my piece on Jasper, and hope I manage to do so as consciously as possible, but let me know if I offend.)

That being said, something I find strange about the disavowal of Jasper Hale’s character is that he’s a fictional character. We’re not holding actual Confederates accountable here, Jasper is words in a book. A throwaway line, at that. Enjoying his character hurts nobody, nor does disowning his character help African Americans. By all means if people aren’t comfortable with his character, but we’re not making a grand stand against racism here. I can think of more efficient ways to be an activist.

More, in-universe, I think there’s something to be said of the fact that Jasper’s gift means he physically can’t dehumanize others. In life he viewed African Americans as subhuman and acted accordingly, as a direct result of that he spends decades in hell on earth and is burdened by a gift that means he can’t ever dismiss anybody again. That gift, for someone like Jasper, is the ultimate karmic irony.

Beyond that…

Fandom is first and foremost about having fun. If people want to enjoy a certain character, that’s up to them, and if a character doesn’t spark joy, they don’t have to engage with him. None of these people are real, so we can do what we want.

For the record, I think Meyer should either have dropped the Confederate line, or explored it. What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history? To look at atrocities like the holocaust, and know that he would probably have been right there with the nazis? It's easy for the other Cullens to say "My bad actions are caused by my vampirism", for Jasper the problem is... Jasper. What does that do to a person? 

 This builds up under his codependency with Alice too, since Jasper knows that on his own, he's not a good person and he won't do the right thing. He has to let her define him.

#jacob black #jasper hale #twilight #twilight meta #twilight renaissance #stephenie meyer #twilight racism #racism tw #cw racism #Anonymous #ask

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

do you read any fancomics? i feel like there aren't any good ones other than yours so if you like some maybe I'll like them too

There are TONS of good fancomics, but the thing is, everyone has different tastes to everyone’s ideas of what is ‘good’ is going to be different. 

Here’s some fancomics in the SU-sphere that you can check out!

Disclaimer: A few of the comics mentioned below contain heavier themes dealing with things like abandonment, abuse, grief and death. Although I believe these themes should be explored in art, they have the potential to be stressful and I have done my best to put warnings on all of them. Please READ THE WARNINGS. There is not anything wrong with reading about difficult or dark things, but you need to be conscious of how/what you are consuming and how it’s affecting you emotionally. Part of consuming content responsibly is knowing when to stop consuming, take a break, and put your mental health first.

Without further ado!

SU Fancomics 

SU-B-Sides: A Steven Universe AU fancomic that reimagines the Crystal Gems as a different team - Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot take the center stage! This comic is wonderfully expressive with true-to-canon silliness and opens up a fascinating world of possibilities while staying true to the direction of the show! (Read here!)

Twiniverse: A Steven Universe AU fancomic about twin half-gems - Steven and Nora! When Rose discovered that she was pregnant with twins, she was devastated by the prospect that only one of the children would inherit her gem. Pearl fused with her instead and as a result, Nora now has Pearl’s gem! (Read here!)

Bad Prediction AU: This Steven Universe AU follows the timeline where Sapphire’s vision from The Answer came true - the Rebellion stopped 5750 years ago. Pink Diamond was captured and forced to be a puppet government figure, stripped of her power and instead given the Zoo to watch over. She still met Greg and had Steven - who has now grown up as a Diamond. (Read here!)

Tourmaline: A fan comic of Cartoon Network's 'Steven Universe', set in an alternate universe where Peridot never got caught. (Based off of PhantomRose96's story by the same name.) (Read here)

YellowDiamond!Steven AU: An AU that reimagines Steven as the son of Yellow Diamond. (Read here)

Pressure: A fanmade comic of the time Lapis and Jasper spend together as Malachite. Intense amount of action as well as a fascinating look into both characters’ psyche. Warning: This comic deals with a lot of trauma and includes violence and body horror. (Read here)

SU AU Gone Wrong: If you like dark stories - and I do mean DARK, as in ones that address *major character death* - you can venture into this comic. I need to stress that this deals EXPLICITLY with death, loss, grief and etc. WARNING: Death, blood, gore and very realistic depictions of grief and mourning. Do NOT read if you know you are not in a state of mind to consume this kind of content.

. . .

Original Fiction Webcomics:

I actually read very little of original webcomics lately but I feel I should recommend the ones I do know of: 

Stand Still Stay Silent: This is one of my favorite comics and I own two hardback volumes of it. The story is a bit darker - set in a fantastical post-apocalyptic nordic landscape full of creatures the humans no longer have an understanding of. It’s beautifully illustrated and incredibly poignant. 

Warnings: It does feature heavily in death and leans a little bit towards horror. (Read it here!)

The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn:  Follow the journey of the world's greatest paranormal investigator - Oscar Zahn. Friend to lost souls, enemy of evil, he may lack a body but that doesn't mean he's missing a heart! This one fits into the slightly-spooky-but-not-quite-horror category. Loved the atmosphere of it when I read it. (Read here!)

Lady of the Shard: This comic is one of those that bread the barriers of the medium it’s in and absolutely grow onto you despite the fact that you’re only reading it on a screen. The story has it all - heart, kindness, beings that seem beyond our understanding but end up being more human than meets the eye... and love. (Read here!)

17776 aka What Football Will Look Like In The Future: I hesitate to call this a comic because it’s more like an immersive web novella. Or rather, it’s more like a time capsule from the future that ends up being silly and moving and sobering and inspirational all at once. If you like satellites developing personalities, if you like humans fighting through the boredom of immortality by inventing and reinventing the game of football into more and more convoluted ways of playing it - this story is for you. 

Warning: The very beginning of the comic contains multiple animations, and starts with a web-page morphing into something else that might be disorienting/startling for some. (Read here!)

Barbarous: I will sheepishly admit that I started Barbarous back when it came out and never caught up - but maybe recommending it will help me restart again! (Read here!)

.

This is, of course, a non-exhaustive list and I’m sure I missed many wonderful comics. Feel free to drop recs in the comments but please tag and warn for non-general themes so people can know what they’re clicking into. 

#comics #webcomics #fancomics #fancomic #webcomic #recommends #recs #chekhov recs #Anonymous

[septembercfawkes]

The Technicalities of Writing Thoughts

On a few occasions, I've been asked how to actually write thoughts on the page in a story. If you are newer to writing, this can be confusing for several reasons (and you'll see why by the end of this article).

Just to clarify, this post isn't about what makes one passage of introspection better than another, or how to keep a moment of introspection interesting. If you want to learn about that, check out my articles "How to Write Excellent Introspection" and "Breaking Writing Rules Right: 'Never Open with Introspection.'" No, this post is about actually writing character thoughts on the page. Even if you already know how to do that, this topic may be worth a review. And who knows, I might cover some points you didn't know, you didn't know.

A Quick Breakdown of Point of View

Before getting your character's thoughts on the page, it's helpful to know what point of view you are writing in. So real quick:

In first person, the character is telling the story. This uses "I" in the narration. This means the character's thoughts are right there in the text (generally speaking, though there are exceptions and we could get more complicated).

In third person, the prose is slightly more distant, like the audience is following a specific character around. This uses "he" or "she" (or some agender pronoun) and not "I" in the narration. In third person, it's possible to write very distant and objective, so the text never shares the character's thoughts--it's like watching a movie. Some crime fiction is traditionally written this way. But today, that approach isn't very popular; usually, at least some of the viewpoint character's thoughts are on the page.

Today, in third person, you will almost always be telling the story from one character's head at a time. You can have more than one viewpoint character in the story, but it's (almost always) one specific viewpoint character's perspective per scene or chapter.

Omniscient is an ambiguous term--it gets defined slightly differently depending on who you talk to. But most people explain that in omniscient, the author can zoom in and out of any characters' heads within a matter of paragraphs or sentences. Omniscient isn't very popular today, but it isn't necessarily "wrong."

Writers can also technically use second person point of view, as well. This is where "you" is used in the narration. This almost never works in fiction, and is best left for writing instructions ("First, you take out the product. Then you insert the batteries").

This is just a brief overview. If you want to learn more about any of the viewpoints, you can find articles in my Writing Tip Index.

A Quick Breakdown of Point of View Penetration

Point of view is about more than simply picking first, second, third, or omniscient. It's also about how deep you get into that character's perspective.

As I mentioned above, you could technically write a third person story that never shares the viewpoint character's thoughts. This is the most distant option. It's like the audience is witnessing what the characters do, but never gets access to any of their minds.

Point of view penetration is really a spectrum. As far as I've discovered, it really has four points. Here they are from most distant to closest.

(Point 1) Out of breath, Todd wiped the sweat off his face and fanned himself. He got a glass of cold water.

(Point 2) Todd was thinking about how hot it was outside as he got a glass of cold water.

(Point 3) It's freaking hot outside, Todd thought, like the devil's oven. He got a glass of cold water, even though it wouldn't do anything to fight the heat. Better than nothing, Todd thought.

(Point 4) It was freaking hot outside. Like the devil's oven. A glass of cold water wouldn't do squat, but it was better than nothing.

Notice the first example shows that Todd thinks it's hot from the outside--but we never get in his head. In the last example, the prose takes on his thoughts and attitude and we know he thinks it's hot from the inside.

POV penetration is one of the reasons it can seem a little confusing on how to actually write thoughts on the page . . . because there are several ways.

And one thing I must mention is that most stories will use different levels of penetration--zooming in and out, so to speak.

You can learn more about point of view penetration in my article here. (And trust me, that's not a term you want to google 😬)

Writing Characters' Thoughts

How you actually write character thoughts in a story, depends on the point of view you are using and how deep the POV goes.

Some people say that POV penetration doesn't apply to first person--I actually think it does, though the blanket statement sounds nice.

Let's go through penetration points 2 - 4 and talk about the technicalities.

Please note that on a sentence-by-sentence level, third person and omniscient usually sound the same, so to distinguish them, I've included two characters' minds in the omniscient examples.

Point 2

This is sorta like summary, and really, it's telling. The text simply tells the audience what the character is thinking in general. This means it doesn't need any kind of special treatment.

First Person: As I did the dishes, I thought about last spring when Sparky died.

Third Person: As Kacie did the dishes, she thought about last spring when Sparky died.

Omniscient: As Kacie did the dishes, she thought about last spring when Sparky died, while Jasper thought about football.

Point 3

In the writing world, people refer to Point 3 as "direct thoughts" (which I think is kinda misleading since Point 4 is arguably "direct thoughts" as well, but whatever--it's important you understand the terminology).

Technically, this is handled like dialogue. The only difference is that instead of using quotes, you use italics. If you can't italicize (if you are writing by hand for example), then you underline instead.

Just like dialogue, you have what's being "said" (in this case, thought), and you may have a "tag" (the part that tells you who is "saying" it). How you punctuate this is exactly the same way you punctuate dialogue.

This means you can have no tag:

"I'm hungry and tired."

I'm hungry and tired.

You can technically have a tag in the beginning (less common).

She said, "I'm hungry and tired."

She thought, I'm hungry and tired.

You can have a tag in the middle of a complete sentence.

"I'm hungry," she said, "and tired."

I'm hungry, she thought, and tired.

You can have a tag at the end of a complete sentence.

"I'm hungry and tired," she said.

I'm hungry and tired, she thought.

To learn more about how to punctuate Point 3, visit my article "How to Punctuate Dialogue," as they are essentially the same.

First Person: The consensus in the writing world is that you don't use Point 3 when writing first person, because the narration is already always in that character's thoughts.

Personally, I think this is a flawed argument, as you could just as well write third person without ever using Point 3, and can probably do the same with omniscient if you are really really clever (much more tricky), and I have occasionally seen Point 3 used in first person, back in the day. But as I am not the authority of the writing world, what I think probably isn't that important.

If you want to play it safe, you probably don't want to use Point 3. However, just as a demonstration of the wild side, here is how it would technically look:

I'm freaking exhausted, I thought.

One may argue that you can cut the tag and have the same effect:

I was freaking exhausted.

But you can do the exact same thing in third person:

I'm freaking exhausted, he thought. --> He was freaking exhausted.

So . . . I'll stop there, but I think this tool could be used for other effects, but again, I'm not the authority of the writing world. Maybe I'll share more of my thoughts on this another day--I think it's more about how much distance you want.

Third Person: I'm freaking exhausted, he thought.

Omniscient: I'm freaking exhausted, he thought, as he gently passed the salt and pepper to Jen. Jen swiped them up. He could at least have the decency to pretend to be listening, she thought.

Worth noting is that if you happen to be writing characters who are telepathic, Point 3 is usually where those characters have conversations:

He's lying to us, I told Michael.

You're being paranoid, he thought back.

Point 4

This is the deepest level. At Point 4, the prose takes on the thoughts and attitudes of the character.

In first person, it is argued that you are doing this all the time.

But if you are writing in third person or omniscient, you can also do this. You just might have to be a little more careful with transitions.

Because the prose takes on the attitudes of the viewpoint character, you don't need to italicize or use a tag or even use the words "thought" or "think." However, using those things can help transition the reader into Point 4 (more on that in a sec).

First Person: It was freaking hot outside. Like the devil's oven. A glass of cold water wouldn't do squat, but it was better than nothing.

Third Person: It was freaking hot outside. Like the devil's oven. A glass of cold water wouldn't do squat, but it was better than nothing.

Omniscient: Todd stepped outside. It was freaking hot. Like the devil's oven. Cold water wouldn't do squat, but it was better than nothing. He unscrewed his water bottle. Humming, Jen followed him through the door. She breathed in the flowery scents of summer. It was the perfect day for a bike ride. As a teen in Southern Utah, she'd spent long days riding the trail along the river. Todd was in for a real treat.

Transitions

Because first person is written from within the character's mind, it can be easier to start writing that character's thoughts on the page.

In third person or omniscient, it's possible that the narrator has a different attitude or tone than the viewpoint character, which makes transitions more important.

And if you are writing in omniscient, you may have a lot of minds to transition the reader in and out of in a single scene, in addition to the narrator.

To keep things simple, let's just say there are a lot of gray areas.

Understanding POV penetration can help you, help the reader transition into deep thoughts, since the different points essentially zoom in or out.

For example, zooming in:

Sweat dripped down Todd's face (Point 1). He recalled last spring when Sparky died (Point 2). Best dog I ever had, he thought (Point 3). It'd been freaking hot like this. Like the devil's oven (Point 4).

Or zooming out:

It'd been freaking hot like this. Like the devil's oven (Point 4). I was drenched by the time I finished the grave, he thought (Point 3). He remembered the way Sparky howled for treats, chewed up the couch, and gently licked his hand after a walk (Point 2). Blinking rapidly, Todd took a deep breath, then wiped his eyes (Point 1).

It's not necessary to hit every point when you zoom in and out. You can totally skip.

What you don't want is to be jolting--jumping in and out and all over the place randomly.

Well, unless that's exactly the effect you want, such as when you want to give a passage a feeling of disorder and chaos 😉 (All rules can be broken).

There are so many ways to move into a character's thoughts, that what works and what doesn't may be something you have to learn from experience. But using the points of POV penetration is one way.

#writing tips #writing tip #writing tips and tricks #writing help #writeblr #writing thoughts #writing reference

[winelover1989]

I hear a lot of smeyer is not a feminist as she claims stuff, but honestly, I know women with PhDs or women running companies, who have been in toxic codependent relationships like edward and bella. I know both men and women who had their mental health ruined and their personality grow toxic by getting sucked into unbalanced attachments with emotionally unavailable people like Jacob did. Hell, I have been in fair share of toxic relationships and I used to spit on twilight and bella as a teen. We live in a patriarchy and these power dynamics can sneak up on anyone. I mean, look at Bella, starts out writing essays on feminism, but can't put it into practice, mainly because of her disorganized upbringing and her environment. She's a product of those things no matter what theoritical concepts she subscribes to. That's a very real thing. You know why? Writing essays on feminism is easy. Examining your own psyche and issues and behavioral patterns is HARD! And this story is so self aware of its toxicity that even someone with zero reading comprehension would be able to grasp they are reading a toxic romance. Stalking, sexual assault, issues, insanity, and controlling toxic behavior are labelled as what they are in this story and the narrative or some character points that out from time to time. Unlike romcoms where characters stalk, and assault, and run across the town in the midst of a mental breakdown of manic episode, and that's painted by the narrative as "romantic wish fulfillment" because there was pretty pop music playing in the background. Not to mention, how there is a creepy atmosphere in the story created with the juxtaposition of the teenage epic romance high and all the experienced characters like charlie, renee, rosalie, esme, and jasper telling very different stories of their early relationships. Is this story "feminist" in the Hollywood Strong Female Character™ way where an effortlessly sexy woman, who is great with punching or swords or has every single superpower under the sun, and gets into fights with perfect hair and makeup and even heels, while scoffing at feminity and being "one of the guys" cool girl? No it's not feminist like that. But does it capture a formative aspect of many women's toxic experiences when they start dating and find themselves repeating deeply ingrained toxic patterns and make bad choices that go against everything they believe in, bringing shame and regret in the future for not being strong enough? Yes! These ugly aspects of feminity in a patriarchal world need to be explored in the safe space of fiction which isn't meant just for wish fulfillment. I used to be so self righteous in my hate of twilight, but honestly, now that I've read it I can see why so many teenage girls and women cling to it for comfort. There's something dark and messed up here that makes you feel heard. Makes you feel seen. Understood. It makes you feel deeply and evokes a visceral reaction whether you love it, hate it, or have a love-hate relationship with it. The why of that reaction is what should elicit effort for internal exploration. And I wish women didn't have to constantly keep justifying their enjoyment of messy media with "I like this but I'm a real feminist so I'll write several essays on why smeyer is problematic" disclaimers. Do you really have to? Aren't you tired of constantly justifying your taste for being stupid and girly and even problematic? Don't you want to just enjoy things with the same confidence with which men enjoy thir problematic trash that make them feel seen in terms of the toxic aspects of masculinity?

#Twilight revival #Twilight renaissance #Vin reads twilight #I went off I guess

[anti-anti-stevinel]

What the fuck is the deal with "ankle-beez"? They seem to be the biggest Steven Universe blog around. Every other SU blog I know (even the world's only proshipper Connverse normie, picturejasper20) reblogs from them.

They're also the world's biggest hypocrite.

They make analysis posts about the real message of SU, about love and forgiveness, against revenge and that sort of stuff.

At the same time, they are a hardcore anti-shipper bully.

They sent me gore and death threats last year when I was 17, for shipping Stevinel. Said "yer a pedo kill yerself!!11" (okay, that's paraphrased).

What's wrong with Stevinel?

Is it that Steven is "a minuh and not ready for sexual relationships"? Then, why is Connie, a human fourteen-year-old in-universe, ready for sexual relationships when it's with Steven? Why is Steven ready for it with Connie?

This leads me to believe it's the stated "aGe GaP!!11". In that case, Greg/Rose, which ankle-beez likes, is child rape (he wuz twenty an she wuz twentythousand!) That's fucking stupid. Kataang and Bubbline are "child rape" too, by those standards. Stating an exaggerated number next to a supernatural, non-aging, cartoon character does not child rape make. Is Katara a "necrophile" for having kids with Aang, a so-called "hundred-and-forty-something-year-old" character? Because 140-year-old men are all known to be dead? Is everyone who's read the Bible a Child Rapist™️, because the eternal, ageless God impregnated the thirteen-year-old Virgin Mary, as part of the biblical canon leading to the birth of Our Saviour Jesus Christ?

Also, by the same fucking stupid standards they use to call Spinel an "aDulT", Steven is one too. Gems don't fucking age. They're robots. If I have a 200-year-old baby doll, it's still a baby doll. Dolls don't age. Since Steven's gemstone (and with it, Pink's/his memories) has been around for 20000 years, he is "an adult", an "elderly man".

That brings me to the next point: one cannot "ship pedophilia". I wish I could "ship" mental disorders. I wish my autism, ADHD, OCD, Tourette's, depression and paranoia were as simple as fictional "ships".

More or less, "pedo" hysteria is NOT about protecting chilluns. When a child is murdered, nobody bats an eye. When child-on-child sexual abuse occurs, the same applies. Also, when an adult is raped. It's not about healing sexually abused children, or preventing rape. When adult-on-child sexual abuse occurs, the emphasis in media is never about helping the kid. It's always about torturing and murdering the "pedo" (sexual abuser). Basically, because nobody cares when there's no "pedo" to punish, it's not about protecting children, it's about hating people with mental disorders. Apparently, because I turned 18 two days ago, I lose my human right not to be raped.

What "paedophilia" actually is, is a mental disorder characterised by a greater level of arousal towards prepubescent individuals to pubescent ones. You cannot support or oppose it - you cannot be convicted for it or commit it - it's a disorder. Something you're pretty much born with and can't change. Conflating it with rape is like conflating "schizophrenia" with serial murder. While schizophrenic individuals have a higher murder risk compared to the general population, nobody ever says "commit schizophrenia" when talking about murder.

Fandom discourse is not a PhD. You cannot diagnose me with a disorder from the DSM-5 for writing the wrong fanfiction. You cannot convict me of a crime for it, either.

The most common anti argument that fanfic/hentai/whatever "encourages pedophilia". You cannot encourage a disorder. I will not magically sprout mental illness from reading fanfic. If you mean it ""encourages child rape"", if I were to rape someone, I could not blame reading a fanfic. Rape is caused by far deeper issues than having read a stupid fanfic.

Rick/Morty is canon in the multiverse, and Morty is a fictional teenager (who wishes incest porn had more mainstream appeal) with Rick, his equally fictional grandfather. So, who is raped by this? Nobody. Again, if you rape someone, you can't say Rick x Morty incest fanfic made you do it.

ALL ships are fine. Even stupid shit like Rick/Morty. Stevinel, though, isn't even of that kind. It's literally no worse than Bubbline, Kataang and Gregrose, all of which are canon to their shows.

So, what is it? "She """tried""" to kill him"? Strange. When Steven lets his shield down, Spinel could just blow him to fucking bits with that city-sized, injector-smashing fist of hers. She doesn't. SU's definition of "try" means "stop yourself". "Try" suggests someone else has to stop you with force, and that didn't happen, in which case, Steven "tried" to kill Greg in Mr. Universe, White (and with her, every Gem) in Homeworld Bound, and Connie in Buddle Buddies and every episode where he gets Connie into fights, and, and EVERYONE in Laser Light Cannon, Little Graduation and I am My Monster. He also "actually murdered" Jasper in Fragments by the standards (mind you, shattering isn't lethal and the Diamonds did nothing wrong).

Anti-shippers have implanted this stupid idea that non-aging things age as humans into my head. The idea is there to virtue-signal against MUH EBIL PEEDOUGHS. Now, I have paranoid thoughts about being a child rapist when I cuddle naked with a pillow that's been manufactured one year ago. Pillows don't age. But, in antis' heads, they do.

Why am I supposed to think of Spinel as an elderly woman? The character who is shorter, less mature and higher-pitched than Steven, sobs like a baby, plays peekaboo and gets adopted at the end of the movie?

It just disturbs me, honestly, how anklebeez can understand the show's message against violence and for healing, while literally murdering real children (and adults) for the rights of fictional ones, by bullying into suicide.

Why are they so popular? Anyway, I accidentally got carried away and wrote a masterpost when I meant for a quick ask. Hope you appreciate it.

Also, what determines whether a cartoon character is okay to "sexualise" or not?

Stated number? Then I can draw a stickman with a dick, then write the number 15 next to him, then you're a Child Rapist™️ for having looked at the image?

Height? Then is why is R34 of Madeline from Celeste, Sans and Amethyst, okay, when it's not okay for Steven and Hat Kid?

The word "kid"? Then, kill any teenager with a crush on a cartoon of Kid Cudi, I guess?

Don't harass ankle-beez. It's not worth it. Revenge is pointless. Never, though, have I been so confused by someone's self-contradictions.

Seriously.

Wow, this is huge, I didn’t know they allowed asks to get this long now, lol.

Um, but no comment on all of this since it’s just a rant, lol. But I don’t disagree.

#Anonymous

[ardenttheories]

ardent, I have a real rough question to ask you. is it worth it to read hs^2? Ive been avoiding reading it because I didnt want to ruin what I loved about homestuck, but seeing the amount of art and interaction makes me feel like I'm missing out. I know it's not going to be good, but do I still take the risk? are there homestuck fanprojects you'd suggest instead?

An anon asked:  Hi, may I ask what is your opinion of fan creation inspired from Homestuck? I'm not the biggest fan of where homestuck is heading but was wondering on your opinions of fan comics. I'm leaning towards reading them over Homestuck2 because of some of the writing that Hussie and his team of writers have produced in Homestuck2 feels off and a bit weird for Homestuck. (Ps. Have a lovely day.)

I forgot to answer the anon when I first got it, but since both mention fanvantures, I’ll combine the two!

I would absolutely not recommend reading HS^2, personally. There’s just a lot wrong with it that I genuinely don’t like and am deeply uncomfortable with. Futanari Jade making Rose cheat on Kanaya to have a baby she then completely abandoned is really just the tip of the iceberg, from what I’ve read and seen; there’s also just an outright lack of care for triggers (the warnings for which were taken off chapter by chapter, so you’ve got no idea what you’re going into anymore) and so much bullshit around facts from Homestuck not being taken into consideration during writing (for instance, Rose tells Terezi about the Exiles despite Terezi being the one who told Dave about them back in Act 5).

It’s uncomfortable, sloggish, uncaring, actively written to ruin Homestuck for fans, and overall just unpleasant to read. Not only is it a bad continuation, it’s just bad fiction in general. Some of this of course is exacerbated by the writers themselves, which is another reason I refuse to read it; I do not want to support them in any capacity. 

I wouldn’t say you’re missing out. There’s some genuinely interesting things in HS^2, but a lot of it is overshadowed by how bad it is. That’s why I stopped reading, personally. You could always give it a go, see what you think and if you can handle it or if it appeals to you - because it’s different for everyone! Some people genuinely like it, and that’s okay, too - but I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you read the Epilogues just fine, you should be okay? But if they were rough for you to read, I’d definitely say HS^2 will be worse. You can still enjoy the content on the peripheral, though; for instance, acejams/sarcasmprodigy draws some HS^2 bits, but only really the designs that she likes. Consuming fan content while avoiding the comic itself is no issue, as far as I can tell.

That said, I’d 100% recommend reading fanventures. There’s a lot of benefits to them, actually!

Firstly, since they’re made by fans doing it for free, there’s a lot of love that goes into them. You know that what you’re getting is going to some degree be a homage to Homestuck, and that even if it’s an AU or divergent somehow, it’s still going to be loyal to characters you love. 

There’s a lot less - and I mean a lot less - bullshittery in fanventures than HS^2 proper. It’s done for fun, for love! It’s going to connect with you, as a fan, a little more, because it’s literally written by fans for fans; by people who know what the fandom wants because they’re actively part of it. 

Also, the writers don’t want to ruin the characters, so that’s an incredible bonus.

That said, here are a few fanventures I’d recommend:

SOULSTUCK: A fanventure that takes place in the Soul Eater universe, following Roxy and Dirk as they work towards getting that sweet, sweet final Witch soul to become a proper duo. I haven’t read too much of it, but the art is beautiful, the writing is well in character, and it’s also pretty faithful to the original Soul Eater while staying uniquely Homestuck, too.

Guidestuck: A pretty wellknown fanventure that started up again recently, following a kidswap universe where the kids’ initial sprite prototypings (the Harlequin doll, Jaspers, Bec, and Cal) are the kids (Cal Strider, Bec Harley, Quinn Egbert, Jaspers Lalonde), and our kids are their associated items (John’s a plush toy; Bro and Dave are dolls; Jade is a puppy; Rose is a cat). Also features a very unique look at what Alternia would be like if the lusii were the sapient species, and the trolls the symbiotic one.

TLCstuck: Double Death of the Author: A fairly interesting redo of Homestuck, taking control of the narrative a little after Game Over - so, essentially completely changing the story of Homestuck partway through Act 6. There’s a FAQ to give you more information - on how it’s written, how it’s changed, and how it works overall. 

Note for TLCstuck, though; it’s very explicitly ship-neutral. This means that although characters’ sexualities remain the same, no actual shipping generally happens in the comic. It also, since it continues from Game Over, doesn’t have a lot of the content that occurred in the Retcon timeline - including DaveKat and Davepeta (alongside the other combosprites). Keep this in mind on whether or not you want to read it, but I think it’s still a good read regardless.

Act 8: Might be one you’ve seen in the tags before! Unsurprisingly, it picks up after Act 7, and works a little like TLCstuck in that it changes the narrative from that point on. Just before the kids can go through the door to Earth C, the white door explodes. It’s animated beautifully, drawn amazingly well, and is well written! If you want to continue Homestuck’s story with the Retcon changes, this would be best for you to read. 

Well, that, or...

Act Omega: Like Act 8, it picks up after Act 7, only this time before they can claim their reward, a foe we’ve seen before appears to take the win from their grasp. It’s incredibly well animated and drawn from what I’ve seen so far, with an amazing initial fight sequence. It’s well written, and even from a cursory read-through, they reintroduce most of the main characters (including the Alpha trolls) for a second try at characterisation. Pretty nifty!

Homestuck: Subscript: I know significantly less about this one, except that there is some gorgeous art and design in it. It’s an interesting take compared to the others, since it actually happens on Earth C - so it’s more of a HS^2 replacement than anything else I’ve shown so far. It’s also incredibly different, though, and takes a little more a of a Candy route in so far as it focuses a lot more on relationships. It depends on your tastes!

Karkat goes to a Convention: Everything I know about this comes from a friend talking about it. It’s entirely satirical, I think, and a bit of a pisstake more than anything else? It’s quite literally what it says; actual Homestuck Karkat ends up at a normal, everyday convention. From what I understand it does get more detailed and involved as it goes on, but it’s also good for laughs. 

Abodebound: A webcomic a friend of mine wrote! It’s a completely original fanventure, essentially a fansession. There’s music and animation, as well as Homestuck-eqsue writing and original comedy, and some really sweet videos. I’ve never read it all the way through (life’s a bitch like that) but it’s what inspired me to create my own fanventure, and for something completely original but with the same feel as Homestuck, it’s pretty spot-on. 

Also, though it’s never been finished, what little exists of Heinoustuck is a delicious treat if you’re into horror. And Prequel -or- Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure is a really good Skyrim comic done in the old Homestuck style. Definitely NOT Homestuck, but it’s got the same art and humour, as well as games and animation - so it’s pretty sweet to look into, if nothing else. 

#long post// #homestuck^2 critical #ardenttheories out of theory #homestuck fanventures #princefaux

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Charles Schulz vs Andrew Dobson: What a Blockhead!

There are certain things about Dobson’s behavior and particularly his approach at being a nerd and presenting himself as someone who enjoys the art of storytelling that I have issues with. Issues I want to tackle on in more detail within later entries quite a bit.

One such tendency is, that he mocks directly or indirectly the work and accomplishments of others.

See, if Dobson doesn’t like you as a content creator because he does not like something you work on, he will try to show it. He will make stupid assumptions of you (like how he accused Kojima of being a sexist creep because of Quiet and how he deals with “male gaze” in MGS compared to Death Stranding), half heartedly mock you (look at anything he makes about Ethan Van Sciver) or he will call a piece of work boring and dull based on a minor element instead of overarching problems (calling Batman the character a white supremacist based on the dumb work of only one author).

By doing that he also tries indirectly to insinuate that he is better in some manner, though most of the time it really just shows his own ego and that his pet peeves are rather petty compared to the overall quality of the work he criticizes as well as its flaws.

One such sight of ego boosting while mocking the work of his better is in my opinion to be found in this comic he uploaded sometimes around 2016/17 randomly online.

This comic in my opinion is both laughable and insulting. Why? I will explain soon.

First however I want to clarify that I get that this comic is supposed to be a joke mostly. The old “What others expect, what I expect” thing, where the punchline is supposed to be the discrepancy between the two fractions and what they expect, mostly by making one of the expectations come off as worse than the other. However, I find the punchline to be Charlie Brown (and as such what Dobson seems to see as something he does not want to be favorable compared too) quite insulting. Why, as I said, will be elaborated on sooner.

First, let me just get on the part I find laughable: The fact that Dobson in his own head seems to believe he can be even remotely compared to people like Paul Dinni, Bruce Timm, Greg Weismann, Justin Roiland, Miyazaki, Shigeru Miyamoto and all the other character creators and animators whose creations we see in the first panel.

 Dobson, don’t make me laugh. Putting aside the fact that those people are animators more than cartoonists, what makes you even believe in your wildest dreams you are on the same level as them? The fact you too are an animator, seeing how you graduated from an art school with a degree in that field? I have seen your contributions to the field and honestly, I would expect a bit more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0tdWNCrIxo

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6PfiUCxHQ

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PyonOqClf8

 I give you credit, you can animate. Which is more than I can say for myself when it comes to the arts. But when you look what other freelance animators can do online, some of them younger than you and NOT with a degree in animation…

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=64&v=FmkAcGz1BJk&feature=emb_title

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97IfPfjSaDg

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEUoxQ4qSfs

 Viviepop’s demo reels alone are just gorgeous to look at and more fluid than what I have seen of you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFlha-KOKCc

 And it is not just the technical quality, Dobson. It is also just the overall “originality” of your work. Cause this is the thing with those animators hinted on in the first pic and even many, many freelancers/fanartists as well as webcomic creators online: They have a spark of originality in presentation and storytelling that you lack. I will one day go more into detail for that, but here is the most brutal thing I can say at the moment: I know shitty porn fanfictions, that have more plot development and character growth than all of Alex ze Pirate.

Your characters and stories tend to be derivative and you barely take any risks in telling a story. Neither in your fanbased work (like the Miraculous comics) nor your original content (mostly because you take comfort in four panel strips anyway)  and when you have an idea for something on which the basis idea actually sounds good, you screw it up by a lackluster execution. One example I want to give for that, would be this fanart of yours in regard to Steven Universe.  

(I apologize for not getting one in better quality) This pic was something Dobson created around 2015 for Steven Universe. The picture is supposed to show Lapis, trapped under the ocean following the events of the season 1 finale of the show. A very emotional situation if you are aware of why Lapis sacrificed herself and was “banned” to the ocean floor. Short explanation: Fused with Jasper and then took primarily control of the fused being they became (Malachite) by using her water powers to bond it with heavy water chains on the ocean floor, so that Jasper would not hurt Steven anymore.

 How much of that was even an emotional strain on her and her psyche was in one episode of season 2 even a theme, as seen here.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK3l8mGNhMg

 I am not even a fan of the show and I get the emotional weight and impact of Lapis actions.

So… why is that not conveyed in the artwork? If you are so talented Dobson, why is none of the strain and despair on the character? The idea of a pic showing Lapis under water, longingly looking up, even in despair is a good basis for a fanart. But the execution lacks any emotional detail. You want to know how I would execute the thing if I had the artistic talent? Make the picture a huge horizontal pic, where we slowly decent from water surface down the ocean. The light getting dimmer. Blue turning into dark. The silhouette of a hand and an arm similar to Malachite’s in the background, trying to travel up, the fingertips barely touching the surface. Heavy chains around the flesh. Symbolic of the fusion trying to break free and cause havoc. And down on the dark bottom, beaten and exhausted Lapis with tears in her eyes and chains all over her body like she is Jacob Marley, desperately trying to keep Malachite at bay for the sake of the only being on earth who ever showed just a little bit of kindness towards her.

 Why can’t we have something like this here, Dobson? If you were even remotely as original as the creators you want to be compared with, I think you could come up with something like that and perhaps even draw it.

But you know, his delusions of being as good as them is one thing. It is even funny.

Pissing over the Peanuts is another. Dobson, what are you trying to hint at?

That people comparing you to Charles Schulz and his creation is in your eyes automatically a sort of insult? That it is something that should at best only be a mockable punchline in a comparison?

Just to clarify a few things: I am NOT much of a fan of Charlie Brown and the Peanuts as a property. As a child, I was just not very entertained by them. Yes, I saw animated movies, episodes and specials of them here and there and my grandparents gave me volumes of them to read, but as a whole I never thought them quite as entertaining than other comics or cartoons I watched. Some parts of Peanuts animation felt to me often times like just dead air (especially parts of Snooby dancing with Woodstuck, as they had no function to move the plots forward) and I really could not stand how some characters treat Charles on a regular basis. I mean, we all agree that Lucy is one of the worst female characters in fiction and that even while we hate Family Guy, this clip likely gave some of us some sort of satisfaction, right?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZkJAx8FycI

 But before the Peanuts fan out there go and want my head on a silver platter, let me make one thing clear: I may not like the Peanuts franchise… but I respect it and the man behind it.

 Charles Schulz drew the comic strip from October 1950 till late 1999 (the final strip being finished months before it would be published on February 13 of 2000, one day after he died of colon cancer) , creating a total amount of 17,897 Peanuts’ strips. His work marks a major impact in the nature of newspaper comic strips and inspired many people out there, including Bill Watterson, to create comics or be in the field of animation. His achievements include among other things, that he created what many people consider the first animated Christmas special ever. The names of his creations became nicknames for the Apollo 10 command module and its’ lunar modul. Four of the five Peanuts movies in existence (animated made for tv specials not withstanding now) were written by him. And the fifth was only not by him, because that one came out in 2015, a decade and a half after he died.

And speaking of things Schulz wrote for the Peanuts, let me mention two things. Two things that though I am not a fan of the Peanuts, I have mad respect for existing in the realm of animation. Two animated specials that stuck with me ever since I was eight.

 “What have we learnt, Charlie Brown?” from 1983 and “Why, Charlie Brown, Why?” from 1990.

 In the first special, which functions as a semi sequel to the fourth Peanuts’ movie “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown”, the characters actually travel across France and after ending up on Omaha Beach and Ypres the special turns into a tribute to the soldiers who fought in World War 1 and 2, elaborating on the sacrifices made during the war by showing actual footage of fights, recordings of Eisenhower and reciting the poem “In Flanders Fields” among other things. Do you know how impactful it is to learn about the world wars as a small kid, by being reminded of the actual sacrifices others made in order for your own grandparents to survive?

 And speaking of grandparents, I lost my grandmother as a child by cancer. So when I saw the second special I mentioned, you can bet it stuck with me. After all, of all the things in the world, the Peanuts addressing the seriousness of cancer by having a story where a friend of Linus is diagnosed with leukemia and we follow the emotional impact it has on Linus and the girl? Again, I may not like the franchise, but I am not ashamed to admit I think the special treats the subject with a lot of respect and dignity while telling a good story. You bet your ass I get a bit teary eyed when the little girl survives her leukemia treatment and finally gets on that swing again. Those two specials alone are more mature than ¾ of the shit Dobson likes to gosh about, including his oh so precious gay space rocks. And just for those things existing I have respect for Schulz, his creation and the impact it had on so many people. As such, Dobson “belittling” the Peanuts, at least for me, is a freaking insult. The only way Dobson could have been even more insulting is if he called Schulz something derogative.  Dobson should be glad if his life’s work in total could even amount to 10% of what Schulz has done and achieved.

 Cause Dobson, you are NOT a Charles Schulz. Schulz served during the second world war on the front, fighting actual Nazis instead of calling idiots on the internet fascists for not liking Star Wars. He had integrity and work ethics that drove him to draw and write over 17.000 strips, while you can not even finish one FREAKING story. He knew how to tackle a mature subject, while you make shitty shipping jokes involving Ladybug and Cat Noir and claim Steven Universe knows how to be about psychological trauma, when it just romanticizes abuse. He may have drawn simplistically, but at least he could tell a joke instead of constantly berating others for not sharing his opinion. He did all of that and more without having graduated from college.

 And what have you done, Andrew Dobson?

If Dobson reads this, there is one thing in my opinion he should take away from more than anything else: That if people compare him to Charles Schulz’s work, that it means a) he should not be ashamed of it and b) they overestimate him.

#adobsonartworks #andrew dobson #so you are a cartoonist #syac #sjw #peanuts #charles chulz #charlie brown #snoopy #fuck you #animation #steven universe #disney #cartoons #cartoonist #adobsonartwork

[goose-books]

darklingverse & magic

as promised! a look at the magical system in my speculative fiction loose-retelling-of-king-lear WIP, which you can find out more about here and here! this is a terribly, terribly long post, so i’m sticking most of it under a cut, but i can guarantee there are at least a few fun diagrams in there. (all character images used are from this picrew by cinnasmores!)

shoutout to waya @harehearts​ for helping me work out some of the kinks in this by asking incredibly helpful questions... waya i will untag you if you want i just wanted to appreciate your contribution. also going to tag @suits-of-woe​ because you mentioned wanting to see this!

Jasper’s dad talks about it like oil. Petroleum has to be refined before you can put it in your car. Unrefined, it’ll just as soon kill you as anything else. The natural clock ticks. A mage hits twelve, or thirteen, or fourteen. And then it’s roaring under their skin, like an electric volt, like a fever, burning in them, fighting tooth and nail to get out.

It always gets out. You pick the route. Or you don’t.

The first thing Vee ever learned was duplication. Small objects only. Jasper was crawling through stacks of post-it notes for weeks. It was like an illness: Vee would get too itchy, his magic nipping at his neck, and he’d clench his fists and then they’d have another goddamn stack of stickies. “He has to get it out somehow,” Dad had admonished Jasper, when he’d complained. “Otherwise it’ll hurt him. I do it, too. The difference is I’m useful.” And he had demonstrated by snapping his fingers and cleaning all the house’s dishes at once.

Jasper is loath to give his father props for anything. But he was, on that particular occasion, right. Within a year Vee could flick his hands and shut windows, heat leftovers, unlock doors, send laundry skittering across the floor into the hamper.

It makes sense; Vee’s an infuriatingly quick study, magically and academically. And he inherited their dad’s style of magic. Easygoing. Quiet. Unobtrusive. Less explosive, more creative. Nowadays the worst that happens when he gets hot under the collar is that he spawns another houseplant and Jasper has to brush the leaves off the kitchen table.

Because Vee followed Dad’s instructions. He annotated all of his textbooks. He mastered it early, by seventeen, because of-fucking-course he did, but he was already in control by fifteen. Everyone learns to control their magic eventually.

Most people do eventually.

— darkling, segment iv: control

okay so let’s get into this!!!

isn’t darkling a modern king lear retelling? what do you mean, “the magic system?”

great question! darkling is, in fact, a modern king lear retelling (well, very loosely; it’s my city now and i reserve the right to do what i want). it takes place entirely in and around a city called dovermorry, an extremely isolated place secluded in the mountains, surrounded by wilderness for hundreds of miles, and only reachable via a single train through the mountains. dovermorry is loosely in the american northwest, sort of, i guess. by which i mean that’s kind of where i’m picturing it, but also it’s incredibly vague and honestly i don’t really know. dovermorry is, like, you know… [gesturing] it’s around. [kicking any kind of definable map under the rug]

the plot is set in the modern day with modern technology. the magic that exists is woven into daily life alongside said modern technology, which is the primary reason i’m calling darkling speculative fiction. most people in darklingverse aren’t actually heavily affected by magic (for reasons i’ll get into but which basically boil down to “they don’t have much”); however, dovermorry as a city is mostly known for being The Place Where Mages Go. most of the families in the city have been there for a long time; they’re old money families with powerful magic who use their inheritances to study increasingly esoteric forms of magic that aren’t very helpful in praxis. this is because dovermorry is home to the large and powerful Mage’s Guild, which is in charge of setting the laws around what kind of magic can be practiced in the city and by who. if you want to study magic at a scholarly level, you’d better pay your dues to the guild, otherwise you’re gonna get the boot.

every large city has a guild, but dovermorry’s in specific is Really Big and, unusually, has more political power than the actual mayor / government of the city. partially because leovald stayer, the guild’s president, is just… ughghhebwfbefbdsbfbdsfsd. That Way. in dovermorry if you’re not getting the boot you’re licking it

“wait, slow down. what is a mage anyway?”

well, technically, anyone! everyone in darklingverse has at least a little bit of natural magic (though it might be very little) that develops during puberty/adolescence! so by its literal definition, A Person Who Does Magic, everyone is a mage. that said, in colloquial terms, the word mage has taken on a connotation that basically means… exactly the kind of people who live in dovermorry. like i just said: scholarly, probably rich, probably a little elitist. so your average working-class person is TECHNICALLY a mage, but if you asked they’d say something like, “oh, mages are those hoity-toity folks who join guilds and stuff, WE’RE just regular folks over here.”

“you keep saying magic. what are you talking about. magic is a word that means so many things”

don’t worry, in darkling it just means [gestures vaguely]. re: everyone has magic, it develops in puberty, and there aren’t really specifications - it isn’t like some folks get fire magic and others get shapeshifting magic or etc. it’s more like everyone has a certain amount of raw energy inside them that can be drawn out and funneled into different tasks/spells. some ground rules:

1. you can’t change the amount of magic you have. your magic develops naturally, and maybe you get a lot of raw energy, or maybe you only get a little, but that’s what you’re stuck with and no amount of practicing is gonna give you more.

2. that said, magic is hard to control when it first develops - and practicing WILL help you get better at controlling it. so while you’ll always have the same base amount, you’ll get faster and more efficient about concentrating it into tasks.

3. re: amount of raw energy: that shit isn’t limitless. whether you have a lot or a little, it will eventually run out and you’ll have to wait for your juice to recharge. like a battery. you are a battery. how long this recharge period takes depends on how much magic you have, how fast you used it all up (if you push your limits to do something Really Big, you’re gonna be wiped), and also just how you’re doing physically in general? if you use up all of your magic in one go and you haven’t slept in a while, you might want to, like, sit down. drink a juice box. take a nap

4. while magic isn’t limitless, you can’t just NOT use it, either. when you aren’t using your magic, that raw magical energy builds up in you. and builds up. and builds up. and it does not particularly want to be in you. it wants to be out in the world, actually, and by god your fragile human meatsack is not going to stop it. so if you don’t choose a task to funnel your magical energy into (eg, i use my built-up energy to send my socks scuttling across the floor of their own accord to get into the laundry basket), that energy will eventually decide to just come out on its own. more on this later.

5. like i said, the mage’s guild of any particular city sets the rules, but there’s generally one core rule and that’s “don’t do necromancy.” like, obviously you’re not allowed to kill someone magically, but you’re also not allowed to kill someone NONMAGICALLY, so that’s kind of a given? but necromancy is something only a few very powerful mages can do and it is a BIG no-no. don’t fuck around with death, man. people don’t come back right, but also, just, like, let them rest, all right? let the dead rest.

[image description: the “society if X” meme, showing a futuristic “ideal” society full of green landscapes, smooth silver buildings, and flying cars. the text on the top reads “society if no one did necromancy.” the text on the bottom reads “this post made by the official mage’s guild don’t do necromancy you freaks bottom text.” in the corner you can see the imgflip.com watermark that i could have erased were i less lazy.]

“so what CAN you do with magic?”

the average joe? not much. again, there aren’t specific categories of magic; there aren’t any ATLA-style bending divisions. if you and i have the same raw amount of energy, there’s no reason we can’t both learn the same spells.

that said, the average person doesn’t have a lot of magic! it is much less dramatic than i’ve made it sound. there are not big magical firefights happening marvel-movie-style on every city street. if you want to talk to your friend, you use your iphone, not some kind of distance-speaking spell (which would be hard to maintain anyway and oh my god the phone lines are right there). the average person, on a daily basis, will use their small amounts of magic to heat their coffee up, or to wipe up a mess or spill, or to clean their floor re: the socks i mentioned earlier. (while writing this post, i had to begrudgingly admit that the socks were not going to scuttle anywhere, and i was forced to pick them up with my hands, manually. tragic, i know.)

again. dovermorry is the exception to this rule. most of the people in dovermorry have a little too much money and a little too much magic and not nearly enough chill. but dovermorry has also been festering like a petri dish alone up in the mountains for decades so what can you do.

“hold on, are you telling me that people in darklingverse didn’t immediately start wielding innate magic quantities as a tool of classism? sounds fake”

regretfully i cannot retcon classism out of darklingverse as it is relevant to the plot. this is because the plot is “Incredible: This Rich White Guy Has Never Been Told No And Doesn’t Know How To Handle It Without Crytyping!”

[image description: a picrew of leovald stayer, a pale-skinned man with short blond hair and an angry-looking frown, plus tears that i drew onto him with the paint tool in paint.net. beside his head is red crytyping text reading “ii’mm sso; so..rryy i didn’t[ mme  a nit wwhy . are yu,,o suiiicdee .bai,,it,ing MMe gr;;acen im yuour da[d,,,”]

the general implicit belief across the country, but especially in highly stratified cities like dovermorry, is that upper-class people from distinguished noble families are just naturally born with more magic, and lower-class people are born with progressively less as we trip down the social ladder. is this kind of true, demographically? yeah but everyone’s got their cause-and-effect turned around. class doesn’t dictate natural magic so much as natural magic dictates class. the people on top like to be on top. and having jacked-up magic is a nice way to stay on top. so rip to the rich kids born with piddly little amounts of raw magic, because your family probably is not going to help you get places. and rip to everyone else born with piddly little amounts of magic, too, because unless you’re REALLY good at something nonmagical, you probably are not going to Strike It Big because those in power are gonna keep you down. and if you DO make it to the top you’ll be viewed as an exception that proves the rule.

there is some magic that is genuinely naturally harder to work with. the upper classes are personally really invested in making sure that kind of magic is painted as rough and lower-class. this is because it is threatening to them! and they do not want to be threatened. unless, of course, it’s them with the hard-to-handle magic. and then they’re fine with it.

“but didn’t you say everyone’s magic is basically the same?”

everyone’s magic can be wielded to do basically the same things. you can’t control how much flows through you. you CAN control where/how it gets out. and everyone’s pathways for how to let it out are basically the same (see the examples i mentioned above!). but some magic is a lot easier to control than other magic.

you can’t just not use magic, because if you don’t use it, it will use itself. it will Do Shit On Its Own. and that’s where this gets sticky.

so let’s get into that.

active vs. passive magic

now with fun diagrams!

[image description: a rainbow spectrum stretching from blue to red. the leftmost end (blue) is labeled “’passive’ magic” and “way down here you can mostly do fun party tricks.” the rightmost end (red) is labeled “’active’ magic” and “way down here you’re officially a ‘witch’ lol.”]

when i say active vs. passive magic, i should specify that this is not a strict binary! i’m about to use the terms in a sort of binary way to simplify this post down, but magic exists on a spectrum.* generally the less raw magic energy you have, the more “passive” your magic will be, but that’s not a hard and fast rule! characters vee and rory, for example, both have comparatively passive magic; however, rory’s is smaller and generally good for party tricks, illusions, and sleight of hand, while vee has more magic that he finds is really good for things like Growing Plants Really Fast and Making The Plants Do What You Want.

*i know this looks like some kind of metaphor for gender but i swear it’s not. you can trans your gender no matter WHAT your magic looks like i promise <3

i mentioned that if it builds up for too long unused, magic will Do Shit On Its Own. with passive magic, the Shit It Does is, like, accidentally growing a plant where plants shouldn’t grow, or changing your hair color when you aren’t looking. slow seeping magic that just kind of oozes out of you until you notice, “wait, shit, my hair didn’t used to be blue.” with active magic, if you don’t control it, it will Break Shit and it will not be nice about it.

active magic is - if we simplify both the magic binary and human genetics until they’re really really blurry - the dominant trait. if you made a middle school biology punnet square, active magic would be the dominant allele and passive the recessive allele. (i haven’t taken a bio class in two years no one get my ass for this analogy.) the child’s magic will take after whichever parent has more active magic. so, to illustrate that, let’s look at a normal family with a normal non-scandalous family tree. by which of course i mean the greenwoods. [canned laugh track playing in the studio]

here are ara, griffin, and medea (parents) charted by how active their magic is:

[image description: the same spectrum, now featuring three picrews of characters. ara, a dark-skinned woman with wavy black hair, freckles, and glasses, is placed leftmost, closest to the blue/passive end. griffin, a dark-skinned man with short black hair and glasses, is placed near the middle of the spectrum, slightly to the left. medea, a pale-skinned woman with spiky white hair, freckles, and gold hoop earrings, is placed rightmost, at the very edge of the red/active end.]

...and here’s how that went for them, progeny-wise:

[image description: a little family tree. ara and griffin’s child, vee, a dark-skinned person with wavy black hair, a worried look, and band-aids on his face, is labeled “quiet unobtrusive plant-based magic” in green text. medea and griffin’s child, jasper, a lighter-skinned person with spiky brown hair and freckles, is labeled “once accidentally shattered 50 champagne glasses at his dad’s birthday party” in red text.]

(yes, i know i said there aren’t any ATLA-esque magical divisions; that’s still true; vee just happens to get on really, really well with plants. much like jasper gets on really really well with entropy and causing problems on purpose.)

so the thing about “active” magic is that it’s usually more powerful, but if it’s too powerful it gets incredibly destructive. like i said earlier - if you’re part of the upper class, it shakes out fine; otherwise not so much. your choices with this kind of dangerous magic are to either fight it and keep it tamped down, or to lean completely into it and embrace your massive amounts of dangerous power. if you are rich, you can do that second thing! that’s what leovald stayer does, and he’s the president of the mage’s guild! good for him! [i say, through gritted teeth.] but if you aren’t rich, you had better try to keep that shit on lockdown, unless you want to be branded a reckless uncultured social deviant and - in most cases - a witch.

mages vs. witches

everyone with magic is a mage. only a few mages are witches. it’s like squares and rectangles, you know? you can hear gracen talk about that here in nice prose (plus baby cressida!), but the bottom line is that “witch” is shorthand for “woman* who has magic so powerful it’s unsafe, who uses it to break shit and be reckless,” and anyone with the “wrong” type of magic who doesn’t have a trust fund to back them up is getting tarred with that brush. they’re nothing like those elegant learned mages casting down benevolent laws from their ivory towers, you see.

*this isn’t a gender specific thing but usually women are the ones who get called witches because Women Should Know How To Control Themselves But Men Are Just Like That. god we love misogyny <3

tl;dr: misogyny and classism real. if you have hard-to-control magic that breaks shit then you’re destined to be a pariah UNLESS of course you’re rich and powerful and then it’s COOL that if you got too out-of-control you could collapse a building or cause a monumental storm or something. you know. cool.

[image description: the same magic spectrum. medea is still there, placed exactly where she was before. leovald’s face is also there, right above hers; in terms of magic, they are equally placed on the spectrum. leovald is labeled “runs the whole city” and medea is labeled “lives in a cave in the woods,” both in white text. there are three thinking emojis at the very top of the image.]

funny how these things work out.

in conclusion

in conclusion, if you’ve read all of this, you’re braver than the marines and have my undying love. if you’re down here for a tl;dr: magic is a natural force everyone is born with; some magic is comparatively harder to control; classism & other social structures affect the way a person’s magic is viewed (there are a lot of double standards); i really enjoy making little oc diagrams.

if you have questions, comments, etc, about this post or darkling in general, my ask box is always open! thank you for reading! [blowing you a kiss]

#i dream of hitting leovald stayer with rocks <3 #anyway this is terribly long but i had a friend scan through it and they said it was comprehensive and helpful so! #oh also i hope the image descriptions work i should start doing those... if anyone has concrit on that come shout into my inbox #this post could also be called 'reasons why jasper acts like a neurotic prey animal all the time' #though i did try not to delve into specific characters unless i was using them as examples. this here crash course doesn't need 2 get longer #max.txt #darkling tag #leovald stayer #ara greenwood #griffin greenwood #medea the witch #vee greenwood #jasper greenwood

[thisblogisalsoboundforglory]

WHAT I HAVE BEEN READING LATELY

Kage Baker’s Company Series

In the Garden of Iden

Sky Coyote

Mendoza in Hollywood

The Graveyard Game

The Life of the World to Come

The Children of the Company

The Machine's Child

The Sons of Heaven

The Empress of Mars

Not Less than Gods

Nell Gwynne's On Land and At Sea

Black Projects, White Knights: The Company Dossiers

Gods and Pawns

In the Company of Thieves

Ø  Science Fiction written by a woman with Asperger’s. Wildly uneven. Main protagonist is female, but there are lots of POV characters, male and female.

Ø  Big ideas.

Ø  Lots of adventure, some action.

Ø   Small doses of humor.

 Neil Gaiman

Good Omens (with Sir Terry Pratchett)

Neverwhere

Stardust

American Gods

Anansi Boys

The Graveyard Book

The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Ø  Neil’s books are a road trip with Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and a baggie full of sativa.

Ø  Ideas are incidental. The Milieu’s in charge.

Ø  Adventure happens whether you like it or not.

Ø   Cosmic humor. The joke’s on us.

 Connie Willis’s Oxford Time Travel Series

Firewatch

Doomsday Book

To Say Nothing of the Dog (and the novel that inspired it – Jerome K. Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat)

Blackout/All Clear

Assorted:

The Last of the Winnebagos

Ø  Connie loves her historical research. Blackout/All Clear actually lasts as long as the Blitz, but anything in the Oxford Time Travel series is worth reading. Doomsday Book reads like prophecy in retrospect.

Ø  One idea: Hi! This is the human condition! How fucking amazing is that?!?

Ø  Gut-punch adventure with extra consequences. Background action.

Ø   I’d have to say that Doomsday Book is the funniest book about the black death I’ve ever read, which isn’t saying much. To Say Nothing of the Dog is classic farce, though. Girl’s got range.

Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash (After the apocalypse, the world will be ruled by Home-Owners Associations. Be afraid.)

Cryptonomicon

Anathem

Seveneves

Ø  Neal writes big, undisciplined, unfocused books that keep unfolding in your mind for months after you’ve read them. He’s a very guy-type writer, in spite of a female protagonist or two. Seveneves, be warned, starts out brilliant and devolves into extreme meh.

Ø  Big. Fucking. Ideas.

Ø  Battles, crashes, fistfights, parachute jumps, nuclear powered motorcycles and extreme gardening action. Is there an MPAA acronym for that?

Ø   Humor dry enough to be garnished with two green olives on a stick.

  Christopher Moore

Pine Cove Series:

Practical Demonkeeping

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove

The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror (Okay, yeah, Christmas. But Christmas with zombies, so that’s all right.)

Fluke (Not strictly Pine Cove, but in the same universe. Ever wonder why whales sing? They’re ordering Pastrami sandwiches. I’m not kidding.)

Death Merchant Chronicles:

A Dirty Job

Secondhand Souls (Best literary dogs this side of Jack London)

Coyote Blue (Kind of an outlier. Overlapping characters)

Shakespeare Series:

Fool

The Serpent of Venice

Shakespeare for Squirrels

Assorted:

Island of the Sequined Love Nun (Cargo cults with Pine Cove crossovers. I have a theory that the characters in this book are direct descendants of certain characters in Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon.)

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal (So I have a favorite first-century wonder rabbi. Who doesn’t?)

Sacre Bleu

Noir

Ø  Not for the squeamish, the easily offended, or those who can’t lovingly embrace the fact that the human species is pretty much a bunch of idiots snatching at moments of grace.

Ø  No big ideas whatever. Barely any half-baked notions.

Ø  Enthusiastic geek adventure. Action as a last resort.

Ø   Nonstop funny from beginning to end.

 Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London Series

Rivers of London

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Under Ground

Broken Homes

Foxglove Summer

The Hanging Tree

The Furthest Station

Lies Sleeping

The October Man

False Value

Tales From the Folly

Ø  Lean, self-deprecating police procedurals disguised as fantasy novels. Excellent writing.

Ø  These will not expand your mind. They might expand your Latin vocabulary.

Ø  Crisply described action, judiciously used. Whodunnit adventure. It’s all about good storytelling.

Ø  Generous servings of sly humor. Aaronovitch is a geek culture blueblood who drops so many inside jokes, there are websites devoted to indexing them.

  John Scalzi

Old Man’s War Series:

Old Man’s War

Questions for a Soldier

The Ghost Brigades

The Sagan Diary

The Last Colony

Zoe’s Tale

After the Coup

The Human Division

The End of All Things

Ø  Star Trek with realpolitik instead of optimism.

Ø  The Big Idea is that there’s nothing new under the sun. Nor over it.

Ø  Action-adventure final frontier saga with high stakes.

Ø  It’s funny when the characters are being funny, and precisely to the same degree that the character is funny.

Assorted:

The Dispatcher

Murder by Other Means

Redshirts (Star Trek, sideways, with occasional optimism)

Ø  Scalzi abandons (or skewers) his space-opera tendencies with these three little gems of speculative fiction. Scalzi’s gift is patience. He lets the scenario unfold like a striptease.

Ø  What-if thought experiments that jolt the brain like espresso shots.

Ø  Action/misadventure as necessary to accomplish the psychological special effects.

Ø  Redshirts is satire, so the humor is built-in, but it’s buried in the mix.

  David Wong/Jason Pargin

John Dies at the End

This Book is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don’t Touch It

What the Hell Did I Just Read?

Ø  Pargin clearly starts his novels with a handful of arresting scenes and images, then looses the characters on an unsuspecting world to wander wither they will.

Ø  Ideas aren’t as big or obvious as Heinlein, but they are there to challenge all your assumptions in the same way that Heinlein’s were.

Ø  Classic action/adventure for anyone raised on Scooby-Doo.

Ø  Occasional gusts of humor in a climate that’s predominantly tongue-in-cheek.

 Jodi Taylor’s Chronicles of St. Mary’s Series

Just One Damned Thing After Another

The Very First Damned Thing

A Symphony of Echoes

When a Child is Born*

A Second Chance

Roman Holiday*

A Trail Through Time

Christmas Present*

No Time Like the Past

What Could Possible Go Wrong?

Ships and Stings and Wedding Rings*

Lies, Damned Lies and History

The Great St Mary’s Day Out*

My Name is Markham*

And the Rest is History

A Perfect Storm*

Christmas Past*

An Argumentation of Historians

The Battersea Barricades*

The Steam Pump Jump*

And Now for Something Completely Different*

Hope for the Best

When Did You Last See Your Father?*

Why Is Nothing Ever Simple*

Plan For The Worst

The Ordeal of the Haunted Room

Ø  The * denotes a short story or novella. Okay, try to imagine Indiana Jones as a smartassed redheaded woman with a time machine and a merry band of full contact historians. I love history, and I especially love history narrated by a woman who can kick T. Rex ass.

Ø  The ideas are toys, not themes. Soapy in spots.

Ø  Action! Adventure! More action! More adventure! Tea break. Action again!

Ø  Big, squishy dollops of snort-worthy stuff.

 Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell Series

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

A Letter of Mary

The Moor

Jerusalem

Justice Hall

The Game

Locked Rooms

The Language of Bees

The God of the Hive

Beekeeping for Beginners

Pirate King

Garment of Shadows

Dreaming Spies

The Marriage of Mary Russell

The Murder of Mary Russell

Mary Russell's War And Other Stories of Suspense

Island of the Mad

Riviera Gold

The Art of Detection (Strictly speaking, this is in the action!lesbian Detective Kate Martinelli series, but it crosses over to the Sherlock Holmes genre. If you’ve ever wondered how Holmes would deal with the transgendered, this is the book.)

Ø  Sherlock Holmes retires to Sussex, keeps bees, marries a nice Jewish girl who is smarter than he is and less than half his age and he’s mentored since she was fifteen in an extremely problematic power dynamic relationship that should repulse me but doesn’t, somehow, because this is the best Sherlock Holmes pastiche out there. Mary should have been a rabbi, but it is 1920, so she learns martial arts and becomes an international detective instead. Guest appearances by Conan Doyle, Kimball O’Hara, T.E. Lawrence, Cole Porter, and the Oxford Comma.

Ø  Nothing mind-expanding here, unless the levels of meta present in a fictional world that is about how the fictional world might not be as fictional as you thought come as a surprise to anyone in the era of tie-in books, films, tv, interactive social media and RPGs.

Ø  If these two geniuses can’t catch the bad guys with their dazzling brilliance, they will happily kick some ass. Adventure takes center stage and the action sequences are especially creative.

Ø  Amusement is afoot.

 Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next Series

The Eyre Affair

Lost in a Good Book

The Well of Lost Plots

Something Rotten

First Among Sequels

One of Our Thursdays is Missing

The Woman Who Died a Lot

Ø  In a world where Librarians are revered and Shakespeare is more popular than the Beatles, someone has to facilitate the weekly anger-management sessions for the characters of Wuthering Heights, if only to keep them from killing each other before the novel actually ends. That someone is Thursday Next – Literature Cop.

Ø  Mind-bending enough to give Noam Chomsky material for another hundred years.

Ø  Adventure aplenty. Action? Even the punctuation will try to kill you.

Ø  This is a frolicsome look at humorous situations filled with funny people. Pretty much a full house in the laugh department.

 Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Series/City Watch Arc

Guards! Guards!

Men at Arms

Feet of Clay

Jingo

The Fifth Elephant

Night Watch

Thud!

Snuff

Raising Steam

Ø  If this were a game of CLUE, the answer would be Niccolo Machiavelli in Narnia with a Monty Python. Everything you think you know about books with dragons and trolls and dwarves and wizards is expertly ripped to shreds and reassembled as social satire that can save your soul, even if it turns out you don’t really have one. Do not be fooled by the Tolkien chassis – there’s a Vonnegut-class engine at work.

Ø  Caution: Ideas in the Mirror Universe May be Larger Than They Appear

Ø  The City Watch arc has plenty of thrilling action sequences. Some other of the fifty-million Discworld novels have less. Every one of them is nonstop adventure. Most of the adventure, however, takes the form of characters desperately trying to avoid thrilling action sequences.

Ø  Funny? Even though I’ve read every book in the series at least ten times, I still have to make sure I have cold packs on hand in case I laugh so hard I rupture something.

[the100tagawards]

Hi everyone! The rumors are true... It is official, the Tag Awards will be happening! Some of the details are still being worked out and I need your input to make this as comprehensive as possible!

What are the Tag Awards?

They are a way to spread positivity and have fun in the tag by recognizing great moments on the show and in our tumblr community. This show means so much to so many of us, and after seven dramatic seasons for better or worse it is ending. It’s only right that we take a poll of our opinions to look back and appreciate the journey we’ve been on!

How does it work?

I will facilitate a survey for different categories about the show and the tag and give out “Awards” for the winners of each!

What happens between now and then and what do you need to do?

Follow this blog for updates. Reblog this post to increase visibility so I can get feedback from a wide variety of people in the tag!

Review my proposed list of categories below and either reply/reblog or send me a message or ask and tell me who am I missing in each category? Tell me what categories you think would be fun to include that I haven’t already! This is all just from the top of my head so it’s very likely that I’ve missed important ideas and characters.

My current plan is to create a nomination survey where people will be able to submit their favorite moments for each of the categories for characters and nominate people in the tag for the blogger awards. Then I will sift through these and create a multiple choice survey to take on finale night

Proposed Categories

The Ship Wars to End All Wars

Top 5 Bellarke Moments

Top 5 Clexa Moments

Top 5 Becho Moments

Top 5 Murphy/Emori Moments

Top 5 Monty/Harper Moments

Favorite OT3

Best non-canon ship

Characters in all 7 seasons - Top 3 Moments for each listed

Clarke Griffin

Bellamy Blake

Octavia Blake

Raven Reyes

John Murphy

Nate Miller

Characters in part of the series - Favorite Moment for each listed

Monty Green

Harper McIntyre

Lexa com Trikru

Echo

Lincoln

Jasper Jordan

Finn Collins

Gabriel Santiago

Emori

Hope Diyoza

Jordan Green

King Roan

Maddi Griffin

Wells Jaha

Becca Pramheda

Gaia

Wells Jaha

Josephine

Adults - Favorite Moments

Abby Griffin

Jake Griffin

Marcus Kane

Thelonious Jaha

Indra

Charmaine Diyoza

Cece Green

Favorite Villain

The Reapers

Dante Wallace

Cage Wallace

Alie

Pike

Charmaine Diyoza

Octavia??

Sheidheda

This cult leader from season 7 idk his name I’ll look it up

Season, Episodes and Plot archs

Best season opener

Best season finale

Best season

Best multi season story arch

Favorite Planet

Best Betrayal

Best Death

Character you’ll miss the most

Messiest Character

Thirstiest Character

Most Loyal Character

Pettiest Character

Tumblr tag - top 3 (or 5?) will be listed for each category.

Favorite fan fiction writers

Favorite gif creaters

Favorite editors

Funniest Blogger

Mx. Congeniality

Chillest Blogger

Thirstiest Blogger

Shadiest Blogger

Gayest Blogger

Hardest Bellarke Stan

Hardest Clexa Stan

Best the 100 themed tumblr handle

Unbreakable duo/trio

Messiest blogger

Most likely to actually survive the apocalypse

Most off topic

Please provide feedback! I can’t do this without you! I hope you are all as excited as I am to enjoy the last few episodes together!

#the 100 #the100tagawards #clarke griffin #bellarke #clexa