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jotun-philosopher · 3 months

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Good Omens/The Scarlet Pimpernel parallels (and what they might mean for s3)

We seek him here, we seek him there Those Frenchies seek him everywhere Is he in Heaven? Is he in Hell? That demmed elusive Pimpernel!

Some time back, Neil Gaiman answered an ask about Good Omens/Scarlet Pimpernel parallels in the French Revolution scene in s1e3 and whether they were intentional -- I can't find the post itself because tumblr's search function is stupidly broken (I'm starting to think I might have hallucinated it...), but I clearly recall that the reply was, "If anyone in Good Omens parallels Sir Percy Blakeney, it's Aziraphale." (or words to that effect)

Now, Neil Gaiman is an absolute master at answering questions in a way that seems all fine at first, but then you realise he hasn't really answered the question at all, in a way that forces you to think about the subject for yourself -- and the reply to which I allude above is a classic of the genre! It certainly got me very curious about the original novel (my only prior encounter with the story having been a production of the musical at the Minack in 2007), and once I got to read it for myself, the ideas they were a-flowin' ^_^ I have Thoughts about how all this might play into Season 3...

Spoilers for The Scarlet Pimpernel below the cut -- the novel might be over 100 years old, but that doesn't mean I can assume that everyone's going to be familiar with it (read it for free at Project Gutenberg here, and become one of today's lucky 10,000!). Also be aware of some minor spoilers for the Sandman arc 'The Kindly Ones'.

To start with, if we take at face value Neil's assertion that Aziraphale parallels Sir Percy Blakeney (who, like Azzy, conceals a deep well of steely badassery and daring ingenuity under outward foppishness -- though with Sir Percy it's much more of a studied and deliberate facade), then it seems fairly reasonable to assume that Crowley roughly parallels Marguerite Blakeney (nee St-Just) and the Metatrash (may he tread on Lego and d4s for all eternity) parallels that accredited agent of the Revolutionary government, Monsieur Shovellin' Chauvelin.

As a recap, the basic plot of The Scarlet Pimpernel runs thus:

The French Revolution is a-raging and many sacres aristos are having fatal meetings with Madame Guillotine, but many more are being rescued in daring and inexplicable ways by a mysterious individual whose calling-card is the image of a small red flower -- a scarlet pimpernel; meanwhile, to the general bewilderment of High Society, Marguerite St-Just (widely considered the most intelligent woman in Europe) has married the notoriously brainless fop Sir Percy Blakeney.

There is a certain degree of coldness and emotional estrangement between them, because Marguerite was tangentially involved in getting the Marquis de Saint-Cyr and his family guillotined (though the circumstances are very complex and she didn't actually mean for Saint-Cyr to die). Percy and Marguerite do still love each other, but ferocious stiff-necked pride on both sides prevents them from actually talking things out.

Chaubertin Chauvelin, suspecting that his bête noir, the Scarlet Pimpernel, is part of English high society, blackmails Marguerite into finding information on that mysterious Pimpernel for him by threatening her beloved brother's safety.

Marguerite caves and does so, but instantly regrets it. She regrets it even harder when she finally connects the dots that her foppish, foolish husband is the daring and ingenious Pimpernel.

Sir Percy having personally gone to France to rescue the Comte de Tournay, Marguerite makes a mad dash to warn her beloved husband that Shoehorn Chauvelin has rumbled him.

Without spoiling the entire ending of the novel: there is rescuing, communication, relinquishment of pride, professions of love, Chamberpot Chauvelin being so distracted by Marguerite at a crucial moment that Sir Percy is able to pull his master-stroke, with Chauvelin being defeated and (though it happens off-page) humiliated!

Looking at this summary, it seems to map eerily well onto the Final Fifteen, with the pride and blackmail and mutually less-than-perfect communication! That said, I'm personally getting the vibe that Aziraphale and Crowley are trading roles there somewhat, with Azzy being more Marguerite and Crowley being more of a Sir Percy-type. Also, Crowley is already well aware that his angel is very much the 'daring and ingenious badass' type when it comes to it :D

But what does it all mean for S3? Going from what I've said so far, my best guess is this: Aziraphale (Sir Percy) is carrying out his daring schemes of subversion against Heaven (France) and the Second Coming (the Revolution), while Crowley (Marguerite) is (at least initially) very down-in-the-dumps about their estrangement and the Metatron (Chauvelin) is keeping up pressure on Azzy to be meek and complaint by threatening Crowley. Crowley (once he gets past the initial gloom) starts making plans of his own, in close temporal proximity to his joining the dots about Aziraphale's plans. Aziraphale likewise manages to put two and two together regarding what his wily ol' serpent is up to, but one of them accidentally tips off the Metatron and co., realises it and desperately tries to warn/rescue the other (trading off or simultaneously filling both Sir Percy and Marguerite roles, per previous paragraph). This very desperation acts as a spanner in the works for Metatron and his plans for the Second Coming, drawing his focus to one of the Ineffable Husbands at a critical moment and allowing the other to complete their world/true-love-saving plans. The threat conclusively defeated, the Ineffables FINALLY FRICKIN' TALK THINGS OUT, have the proper wedding that they deserve and retire to that South Downs cottage to live happily ever after <3

Bonus points if another key factor in the Metatron's downfall is his underlings, like Chauvelin's, having been terrified into obeying orders to the letter rather than thinking independently or showing initiative! Given what we've seen of Heaven and its authoritarian abusiveness so far, this is a very distinct possibility...

One incident in Scarlet Pimpernel that is sadly unlikely to have a direct parallel in S3 is the glorious scene where Sir Percy exploits Chauvelin's (by this point well-established) snuff habit to pull off what is quite possibly the most badass pepper-sneeze prank ever put to paper. It is very possible, though, that something like it will happen as payoff for the Nazi Zombie Flesh-Eaters minisode establishing that Aziraphale can pull off sleight-of-hand PERFECTLY when it really counts :D

Thank you for reading this far! At this point, I'd like to take a wild left turn and have a little jaunt into increasingly wild extrapolation/rambling, starting with the subject of floriography, or the language of flowers. This was a craze that exploded in popularity in England during the 19th Century, assigning all sorts of meanings to all sorts of plants. The real-life pimpernel flower was assigned the meaning of 'change' or 'rendezvous/appointment/assignation' -- very appropriate for the Ineffable Husbands, since so much of their relationship has been conducted through clandestine appointments and they've both been through much change (both internal and external), with yet more change in their futures. I would say it'd be cool to see actual pimpernel flowers among the floral arrangements for the Ineffable Wedding, but I just checked the Wikipedia article and it turns out that pimpernels are interestingly poisonous... I doubt Baroness Orczy thought about that when picking floral symbolism XD

The pimpernel flower being associated with 'change' also reminds me of something Neil Gaiman said about Sandman, that the plot can be summed up as 'The King of Dreams must change or die, and he makes his choice.' At the climax of the penultimate arc of the comic, 'The Kindly Ones', Morpheus (who's been the central character of the whole comic thus far) finds himself unable to change to the degree he needs to, so he chooses to die so that another aspect of Dream of the Endless can come forth. I get the feeling that Good Omens might be in some way exploring the other branch of that choice, seeing what it might mean to opt for change rather than death. Or maybe the same 'death over change' branch as well, since it's so clear that the toxic messes of Heaven and Hell and the whole fucked-up system are too deeply entrenched for anything else?

Of course, none of this excludes or is incompatible with the Jane Austen parallels (particularly with Persuasion, as documented by other meta writers) that came up in s2 -- though to be honest, the very fact that they did appear in s2 means they're more likely to appear in s3, or at least more likely to be obvious/overt. That said, none of us can know the Mind of Gaiman, so we must perforce follow the Eleventh Commandment -- Wait And See!

It kinda feels like we're in the position of Job here (keep the faith and get back double what we lost), except with a MUCH more benevolent deity in charge of the whole shebang...

#good omens #good omens meta #speculation #fan theory #fan thoughts #the scarlet pimpernel #baroness orczy #parallels #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #the fucking metatron #fuck the metatron #sideways with a cactus

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sepublic · 2 years

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Clouds on the Horizon!

…I know we called Alador a rat man, but THIS is ridiculous! Seriously, how’d he even do that, I’m confused?

LUMITY KISS LUMITY KISS THE WAY THE ANIMATION UPGRADED!!! The animation was so SMOOTH the animators knew it had to count. The way Luz’s vines were so FLOWER filled like from Reaching Out, responding to what Luz wanted as she mentioned at that episode when showing how to grow flowers… The Lumity and Raeda parallels! The twins! EMIRA AND EDRIC NNNOOOO!!!!! I can’t believe they got put away for the final battle this literally hurts so much, and what about Bump and the other students? Not my Blight twins…

ODALIA THAT BITCH! Doesn’t Odalia realize SHE’s gonna die too… Or does she really think Belos will exempt her and Alador’s sigils?! I was half-expecting a twist where it’s revealed that Odalia didn’t have a sigil this entire time, making her all the more deplorable, especially in light of her husband having one… Glad we got to see a look at Oracle magic, or rather some confirmation in its ability to summon ghosts to fight with!

The way Odalia left… It kinda feels like it’s alluding to her finding a new partner, but I’m not sure if we’ll even get to see her again? IS IT GONNA BE TIBBLES?!?! That’d be an embarrassing for her as an ending revisit to all of the cast members… Also, apparently someone’s keeping an eye on the rebels?! Is there a turncloak, is it Eberwolf?! Or Darius… No… NO! Maybe it’s just the Oracle Head using some sophisticated magic… Maybe teaming up with the Potion head to make a scrying potion? Oh fuck…

LILITH! I love seeing Lilith voluntarily step up to take the fall for her sister this time, what a WONDERFUL culmination to her arc! And King, wanting to help but he’s still the youngest of all and if he bleeds, that could be a revealing liability… This episode seems to confirm the implication that Belos is manipulating even the Collector as well, so will the Collector preemptively betray him in retaliation? He doesn’t seem to realize King can hear him but maybe he does… Either way, that connection is def coming into play! And the Collector pointing out to Belos how much HE’S changed, and he’s still having freakouts… How the human world has likely changed!

Okay! So they’re not ignoring Hunter’s identity crisis as a grimwalker, or Luz’s guilt for helping Philip! Glad to see that confirmation and I loved seeing them team up together… Also I TOTALLY saw that switcheroo as soon as ‘Luz’ did the golden warp TO PROTECT WILLOW!!! Speaking of which, Willow new design! And Gus, too, flaunting that trophy he took from Adrian! My boi I love him… And just his and Hunter’s teamup, him using that same darkness spell from Bria against Kikimora! I saw it coming, Luz was bamboozling Kikimora as a means to get to the castle! Poor Kiki, she got DEMOTED instead of promoted… YIKES. Imagine if after all this, as a cruel joke, Belos DOES keep his promise and let Kikimora live out of a sick and twisted sense of humor.

Odalia that BITCH. I’m glad to see Amity get PISSED at her mom so openly, and I’m glad to see Alador go against her! With him destroying the factory, that’s him destroying any more Abomatons in the future… Hopefully we can see him override the Abomatons against Belos this finale, that will DEFINITELY help because Belos has made the mistake of positioning them in fairly critical places, like his own throne room during a private conversation with Hunter!

I hope this finale we get to see the remaining Coven Heads, at least voices, names, and a brief show of powers. A part of me is hoping we’ll see the remaining four side with Belos in Season 3 so we can learn about them, but I’m not holding my breath… Dammit Disney. And RAINE! Raine wanting to protect Eda, that last banter… Luz asking them to look after her, Raine never needing to be told that but. I REALLY don’t like where this is going. I’m getting kinda scared and concerned for another cliffhanger where Eda is sacrificed… But hey, at least we got Katya hanging out with Luz and King for once, and a look at her beetle palisman! Yes! I’m imagining the off-screen interaction as they flew to Blight Manor.

Oh god I’m so scared. Things are closing up… I love Luz promising a slice-of-life date and mentioning the trope. And the palisman egg! That’s SO kind of Luz to let her palisman choose that for itself… But will we not see until after the final battle? Will the egg hatch until the final crucial moment? Ngl at first I thought it was a reference to Azura’s blue staff which it could ALSO be that… Just god, I feel like there’s so much we’ve had to drop; This subplot of Odalia’s new partner, the remaining Coven Heads, the beach episode, confirmation that Steve and Mattholomule being half-brothers would be explored. The concealment stone was a nice touch…

BUT WHO’S KEEPING EYES IS IT EBERWOLF AAKDHFKDAHDKFKGKSK or maybe. Maybe! Maybe the Oracle Head is just POSSESSING someone and there isn’t an actual traitor per se! I wish I hope… THIS CAN’T BE IT! I NEED MORE DANA!!!

#the owl house #luz noceda #amity blight #lumity #alador blight #odalia blight #the owl house kikimora #the owl house hunter #raine whispers #eda clawthorne #edalyn clawthorne #king clawthorne #the owl house collector #theory #speculation #analysis

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dancinglifeboat · 2 years

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Hold up. Vampire hunting but gay??? Flower husbands??? I AM INTRIGUED PLEASE TELL ME MORE

OK OK

So this is one of the wips I have a whole universe, magic system, and arcs planner out. But I only have one or two scenes written- mostly because the more world building I did, the longer and more I needed the story to be.

In it, Jimmy is a vampire, and Scott and Lizzie are a vampire hunting duo sent to figure out whether or not a vampire is responsible for a recent kill in the area.

Scott is a fairly experienced hunter, he started young after a bunch of vampires killed his parents and sibling to revenge on his uncle. He hates vampires, and worked his way through training and then levels on hunters. He's not at the top of the pack, but he's got a decent amount of influence due to being well respected. After many successful missions, his organization is trying to promote him to a desk job, this is meant to be a boring, easy job to ease him into a less active life.

It's also meant for him to be a good influence and mentor to the youngest hunter since him, Lizzie.

Lizzie joined to try and separate herself from her family, entering the hunter section instead of the more white collar section. She breezed through her tests and classes, but lacks experience because of it. She doesn't particularly hate vampires, but she does see them as part of the job, tools to kill for the sake of proving herself.

Jimmy is a vampire, turned only about 120~ years ago. Him and his sister were walking home when the were jumped by a starving vampire. He attacked and started feeding from Jimmy first because he assumed that his sister would be the easier target and would fight back less, only to be hit with a shovel by the sister, and then stabbed through the heart with the broken handle- his weakened state helping her to be able to take him down. Unfortunately, Jimmy was already near dead when she checked for a pulse, and she had to leave him.

Jimmy woke up just a few minutes later, memory blurry, and found himself dying in an alleyway next to another man. He's scared and confused, but tries to comfort the man next to him- who seems to be in a lot of pain.

The vampire is moved by his kindness, and turns him so he doesnt die (and does something else, but we don't know that yet shhh)

Nowadays he works part time at the nursery (owned by Katherine and Shrub), and part time as a janitor at the local blood bank. Because of this, he's able to steal small amounts of blood donations that are close to their expiration date, and mix it with cows blood- which he buys extra of from the butcher, under the guise of using it for fertilizer for the nursery. He's pretty frail, given that he doesn't really get as much human blood as he should, but by mixing it with the cow blood (which actually has a lot of the same makeup as human-who knew?) And human food- he's able to eat enough to survive. Because of this, though, he doesn't have any of the "extra" abilities vampires are supposed to have. No superspeed, no shapeshifting, no super healing, ect. (The powers themselves have a whole system I made- but this post is long enough already lol)

Long story short(ish), Lizzie meets Jimmy at work at finds him delightful (especially after he invites her to go to the aquarium just out of town with him, he has a season pass and gets a free guest). They become friends, and she eventually introduces him to Scott. Who also finds him endearing despite his best efforts. (Jimmy also introduces her to the Butcher, Joel- who has seen more evidence of vampires than anybody else in the town, but still does not believe in then or see anything as suspicious.)

They eventually invite him over to their rental for dinner, and they find out that he's a vampire. They knock him out and lock him in the holding cell they set up downstairs. The scene directly after this is the one I have fully written.

Due to having no leads, (and neither of them really wanting to kill him despite being hurt and distrustful of him) they claim "ownership" of him, essentially making him their property and tool as far as the organization is concerned, hoping to use him to sniff out the vampire(s) killing people. Through a few twists and turns, a betrayal or two, and more than a little blood, the three of them must bond and learn to trust eachother again as their small investigation uncovers something huge about how the nefarious vampire society works and what their planning- with a surprisingly familiar face helping to lead them.

It's an angsty but sweet story that I'm actually pretty proud of- now if only I could write it!

(A/N let me know if this is glitchy or spotty, I had to rewrite it a couple times bc tumblr was having some trouble. And I'm happy to explain or awnser any more questions about this au :))

#writing #Queenie's asks #lifeboats asks #should I post the snippet? or I could send it to you if you're interested.#i might actually have this au be my next big project- if I can ever finish one of my current two #thanks for the ask!😊😊

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ilikekidsshows · 3 years

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Hey can you talk about the Agreste family. Four seasons have passed by and still we don't know anything about them. Why did Emilie use the Peacock Miraculous? How did Gabriel and Emilie find the Miraculous? What's the deal with the Graham de Vanilys? What about Nathalie and Gorilla? And how do the Bourgeois' and Tsurigis fit into this?

You know what's really interesting about the Parent Generation of Miraculous? How so many of them are connected. There's a reason people have hypothetically wondered if maybe Sabine or Tom could be connected to the rest as well, because so many Parent Generation characters are connected to another Parent Generation character in fictional version of the Six Degrees of Separation. Audrey was the one who kickstarted Gabriel's fashion career. Gabriel makes business deals with Tomoe. Emilie acted in André's film debut. André works closely with Roger. Roger is familiar with Anarka. Anarka is Jagged's ex. It's a very interwoven web and it also establishes that the kids' parents have pasts. They had lives before they were just Parental Units.

The Agreste/DeVanilly family is an interesting target of speculation, but a lot of the theorizing I've seen has focused on merely very surface level stuff. This is mostly because the Miraculous fandom in general has a preoccupation with treating pretty obvious facts as mysteries to be solved. For example, people are so focused on asking "Does Chloé deserve a redemption?" (it doesn’t matter, her arc will be what the plot requires) that they rarely wonder what’s up between Audrey and André even when we got blatant confirmation that Audrey cheated on André. Similarly, people are so busy asking "Does Gabriel love Adrien?" (yes, but selfishly) that they don't wonder what part Emilie played in Adrien's upbringing, even though Adrien’s abuse was going on even before she disappeared.

Emilie, Audrey and Tomoe all have suspicious things to them in the show. Audrey is away so much she could have been getting away with anything off screen, including cheating on her husband. She and Tomoe both got cutaways in the scene in 'Feast' where the Guardian Temple made the news. Tomoe's car Tatsu's symbol looks a lot like the symbol on Ryuko and the car is even named "dragon" (these Tomoe details have actually been noticed before but seemed to stop being discussed after season four started airing). Emilie is a nonentity and the only people who speak in her favor are Adrien and Gabriel, both of whom are Unreliable Narrators. Adrien also defends Gabriel, and Gabriel himself is absolutely convinced Adrien is some fragile, demure flower who must be protected specifically from other people, instead of a lonely boy in desperate need of friends. Adrien has been conditioned to excuse his abusers because they love him while abusing him, while Gabriel only sees what he can use to justify acting the ways he does. Of course Adrien would focus on Emilie being a loving mother and of course Gabriel would focus on the things that would confirm her to deserve the things he does in her name in his mind.

Actually, with Audrey's connection to Gabriel and André's to Emilie, in addition to the theory that one of the other actresses for 'Solitude' was Tomoe, my brother theorizes that Audrey, Tomoe and Emilie might all be connected, perhaps some type of villainous trio, like an evil Totally Spies. We have no idea what Gabriel’s role in such a setup would be, but his villainy would probably be entirely separate from theirs.

Then we get to the extremely limited Agreste household staff. Nathalie is blindly loyal. She'd literally do anything for Gabriel, including risking her life and committing acts of supervillainy. However, it's implied she only fell in love with Gabriel after seeing just how far he'd go to get Emilie back, meaning it's a new development, but Nathalie has been around for a while, or Gabriel wouldn't trust her with his secrets. What was her loyalty originally based on?

The Gorilla, on the other hand, is more of a symbol than a character. He mostly functions as a way to disrupt or unwittingly aid Adrien’s attempts to sneak off to turn into Cat Noir. Even his Akumatization revolved around this role. If he is in fact mute, he is very similar to guards in fairytales, who'd be struck blind so that they wouldn't view the beauty of whatever they're guiding and be tempted to steal it. I'm saying Gabriel, a man with a whole lot of secrets, hired a man who couldn't tell any tales. It's more a symbolic thing in terms of character design rather than Gabriel's actual in-universe reasoning specifically because other forms of communication also exist, as do languages that don't require spoken words. I mean, four seasons in and the closest thing he has to a name is his job descriptor. He might as well be called The Bodyguard. He’s a symbol.

As for the Graham de Vanilys, hooboy, where do I begin? Amelie’s "I'd smile while I stab you in the back and drink tea while you bleed out on the floor" manner is suspicious enough even without the blatant clues that she taught her son to be a manipulative thief and is proud of him for palming Gabriel's ring based on both his dishonest skills and getting the family heirloom back. Then we add the fact that Félix is, in fact, a master thief in the making, capable of robbing both Adrien and Gabriel without them noticing until they realize they're missing items. Then he moves like a rubberband man while avoiding three Akumas out to end him. Finally, he's fully willing to make a pact with Hawk Moth. He's utterly immoral, has almost superhuman abilities and he's clearly dedicated to the Graham de Vanily heritage. He has his mother's last name, implying his father did as well. The Graham de Vanilys have a family legacy that he's willing to maintain, with his focus on the family rings. And, considering how proud his mother was of his thievery, the family business might indeed be something criminal, most likely related to relieving people of their valuables.

To sum this essay up, we know very few actual facts about any of these characters, but one thing is certain: They All Are Suspicious as Hell.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #gabriel agreste #emilie agreste #audrey bourgeois #tomoe tsurugi #ml meta #long post

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freddiekluger · 3 years

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I am all ears for your season 3 cap's big gay awakening ideas 👀👀

alright, you asked so sit down and strap in

before we get started- a few details are recycled/repurposed from earlier headcanons/ask answers (characterisation is like that), and i came up with all this a couple weeks back, so any overlap with other peoples suggestions is totally unintentional! i’ve just been finding the energy to properly write them up as originally i riffed them with a friend late at night lmao

the captain: homo evolution

introduction (scroll down if you’re not bothered for the hardcore analysis/logic)

this isn’t necessarily what i think WILL happen as much as how i would do it. over the past two seasons of Ghosts, we’ve seen the captain’s main character arc being centred around him loosening up, from learning to value mike, alison, and the other ghosts more as equals than soldiers/means to an end to the season 2 finale, where cap is not only expressing an interest in flowers and fashion (distinctly un-soldierly pursuits) but joining the party and other men (the direct opposite of About Last Night, in which cap bah humbugs partying/’gay abandon’ and is left speechless by the mere presence of a mostly naked man). that being said, the captain is still the captain: his character is still centred around this need for rules and structure and he still finds his identity in the archetypal WW2 military man- all of his incremental moves towards a more ‘modern’ perspective have ultimately been made possible because, like Ben said on twitter, the captain isn’t CONSCIOUSLY aware that he’s gay. he has the underlying feeling that he’s different, he knows of his tendency to attach himself to specific men and form incredibly close bonds (and, as demonstrated by his attempts to hide them, is at least somewhat aware that that’s not the norm), but in his mind he’s written that off as merely “not being a ladies man”.

the captain is from the 1940s- it’s one thing for him to see and be supportive of a same-gender wedding in present day England where gay=legal unions, marketed doritos, and homophobia being still present but generally frowned upon, and another thing entirely for him to have to apply it to himself. we’ve already seen that the captain appears to be stuck in the past more than any of the other ghosts (”the war is over!” “is it, alison? is it?”- he also references the past more frequently than most of the others), and in his past sodomite gay=punishable by imprisonment and chemical castration, back alley hookups, and the constant threat of blackmail and violence. obviously, despite all this, there was a vibrant underground queer history taking place in England during this time & not all of the above is accurate, but it’s what cap would have seen, and the England of the early 20th century is denoted as being a particularly brutal period for lgbtq+ folks (the destruction of the first world war exacerbated rage and frustration, and lgbtq+ people weren’t the only gorup to end up on the receiving end of that, but i digress). this is basiclly just a really long way of me saying that the captain compartmentalising to that degree was, and to some extent is, a survival mechanism. confronting his homoseuxality means confronting what it means for a 1940s man to be a dreaded homosexual, and all of that directly conflicts with the image of ‘the Captain’ he’s built in his mind.

we’ve seen this in Redding Weddy, where the captain is aware that Havers means/meant more to him than was normal for a captain/2ic relationship (he does attempts to hide his affection- “i shall miss you, Havers. by which of course i mean we shall miss you “he left me, i mean he left for the front”), but is never able to fully verbalise WHY, and it only takes a series of increasingly dramatic prompts before he will even mention the idea of Havers, let alone begin to articulate their relationship.

all this just goes to prove that for the captain to properly ‘come out’, there needs to be an external inciting incident- he could easily have gone on shadowing attractive men whenever they visit and avoiding interrogating those feelings for another seventy years if Button house remained without alison and mike.

while at least julian, pat, and robin have noticed that the cap is not the most heteroseual of men (they’re the only ghosts who have visibly reacted when cap says gay shit), they all appear to have decided to just not mention it, which makes alison and mike our wildcards. not only has alison’s ability to see and communicate with the ghosts already connected them more to the modern world than they ever have been, alison, and mike by extension, has a personal stake in the wellbeing/general growth of the ghosts. happy ghosts=happy house, and like it or not some of them are even beginning to become friends. [i probably didn’t need to write all this like explaining my decisions, but i think figuring out the motivations behind everyon just develops the flavour and lets us have a sexy and accurate headcanon]

so,

the episode

while the captain might not consciously know he’s a fruit (derogatory), he is well and truly terrible at concealing the thirst (it’s not his fault things just keep slipping out!)- i love the idea of just having a supercut near the beginning of the episode that just shows that the captain has gotten even GAYER since last season, with slip ups becoming almost a daily occurence, but it’s getting to the point where it’s actually becoming a serious hazard. last week, he was supposed to be looking out for alison while attempted to put up blinds, but one of mike’s friends (who was over ‘helping out’, which mostly meant eating chips and covering himself in paint) walked through the room with his shirt off and paint handprints on the seat of his shorts, distracting the captain from realising that alison’s stepladder was about to give way.

with the increased presence of non elderly men in the house (the previous owner wasn’t exactly the life of the party) the captain is getting gayer and gayer, but he’s also becoming more and more defensive, while his brisk demeanour and need for control regresses to much more of a season 1 state (a subconscious attempt to regain control as things get close to spilling over). it’s not the first time his repression has almost slipped, he spent much of his life surrounded by soldiers after all, but with no war and no corporeal body he’s got almost nothing to distract himself from it. needless to say, between the safety hazards and the almost agressive defensiveness which derails any interaction, something needs to be done about the captain.

throughout the week, alison tries to find the opportune time to talk to the captain about what’s going on with him for everyone’s sake, but cap keeps masterfully evading any ‘deep’ talk with willful misunderstanding or just straight up dismissal (which at times gets a bit rude), and alison really doesn’t have the time- her and mike are caught up with managing the first official room redecoration and butting heads with a passive agressive delivery driver. insert general shenangigans, but at some point the captain’s whole “accidentally sabotage something by being distracted and then attack anyone who dares even look at him the wrong way afterwards” act causes alison to exasperatedly blurt out “we all know you’re gay! we get it! you like men! you can drop the act!”. there’s no malice or anything but, as we know, when alison gets run ragged things don’t tend to come out quite right.

everything falls silent (and mike is vaguely confused), and the captain just looks like a deer in headlights. as alison catches her breath, pat pipes up with a “it’s alright, cap, we don’t mind- now we can focus on the task at hand”. the captain sort of regains his composure and once again attempts to brush them all off with a scoff and a “i haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about. if any of us is distracted, i-it’s... kitty!” but it’s easy to tell he looks rattled. most of his words don’t come out right, and after trying to blame kitty for their failures (she just had the unfortunate luck of being in his line of sight), he ends up doing an awkward little walk away which quickly turns into a full on sprint. mike, having finished processing alison yelling about gay shit to the air and kind of pieced together what must have happened awkwardly chimes in with “it’s okay to be gay!”- alison just pats him on the back (”yeah no he’s gone, mike.” “gone?” “sprinted away.” “huh”)

the episode continues with the captain flat out avoiding alison and the other ghosts to an almost funny extent as the other plots continue. it takes a bit for alison to realise why the captain reacted so badly (in fact, it’s actually mike who remembers that he’s 1940s ghost- “he’s probably just scared and taking it out on everyone else”). while thomas and julian vote for leaving the captain be so they can have some peace and quiet, fanny/pat/alison/robin decide someone needs to talk to him (fanny surprised everyone but after all, she got murdered because her husband had to live in secrecy- if talking to the captain will avert any further crises, she’s happy to make sure someone else does it for her). kitty’s still upset about being singled out, but she knows better than anyone that sometimes all you need is a friend- cue realisation no. 2.

with the captain avoiding everyone, sending in a regular emissary isn’t going to work. they need to find the least threatening person possible, with no agenda or history other than being there to help (a friend, if you will)- cue everyone looking at mike.

a quick offscreen briefing later, we see mike wandering out to the field where the captain has exiled himself- remember that up until this point, the captain was still in conscious denial about his sexuality, so being forced to confront it head on (and finding out that apparently everyone ‘knew’, which for cap would feel like an intimate invasion of privacy/forced vulnerability) would rattle him to the point of self-exile- he might not be able to run from his sexuality, but he can run from people. the thing is, mike can’t see or hear the ghosts, which means the captain can’t be frightened off by any expectations (mike actually talks to/at cap while facing completely the wrong direction, but consdiering the above point, this works rather well).

the captain was alternating between pacing, fiddling with his swagger stick, and sitting, but he unconsciously stands to attention as mike wanders over. he’s used to mike not being able to see them, so mike asking to sit down takes him by surprise, disrupting his instinct to flee again.

mike begins a little awkwardly (”mind if i sit?” *silence* “...i’m just gonna assume that’s a no. or is it a yes? yeah anyways i’m just gonna sit. so... heard you’ve been going through a rough patch”), and the captain almost scoffs and wanders off, but something about the clumsy earnestness in mike’s voice, the captain’s vulnerable state, and the fact that it’s been so long since cap has had anyone actually check in on him, that he stays put. he keeps standing and staring away from button house, and mike keeps speaking to the empty air to his left, and alison and the ghosts stay hidden behind their bush a few metres away, but at least the captain is listening. for the first time in weeks, he’s not on the offensive.

“i can’t actually see or hear you, so i’m just gonna talk and assume you’re listening. alison mentioned you have a habit of running away but, um, maybe don’t do that please?”

“my mate daniel's gay. uh, homosexual, you’d probably say- did you have gay when you were alive? did it just mean happy? anyway, he didn’t come out- that means tell people- until he left high school. we all kind of guessed it, the other kids at school gave him a real tough time for it, but he just squashed it down. couldn’t imagine that all the things people were shouting at him were true, so he ignored it. he’s doing good now though. got married to his husband last year, currently runs a bookshop. so that’s nice.”

it goes quiet for a bit. the captain hasn’t moved, and we’re still only seeing shots of him from the back, but there’s a little less tension in his stance than there was before. mike clears his throat before continuing.

“i’m guessing you’re probably pretty scared right now. i would be- i mean not that you should be, you shouldn’t, but coming from your... situation, i’m guessing it’d be hard. no one’s saying you have to be anything you’re not ready to be, but lots of things that are scary are actually not bad. airplanes, skydiving, clowns- well, not the clown from that movie, but he gives clowns a bad rep- i’m sure there are plenty of lovely clowns out in the world. still give me the creeps though.” the captain makes a captain-y noise of assent about the clown comment- he never liked them either.

mike glances over to the bush where alison and the ghosts were attempting to listen in (they could only catch every few words- mary got particularly concerned about why mike had referenced clowns), and the captain still hasn’t run away, so alison motions for mike to keep going. he starts telling the captain a story from his uni days. it’s got nothing to do with the captain, or being gay, or self-acceptance, or anything like that- it’s just a standard tale of comedic but inventive problem solving. the captain sits himself down next to mike (to his right, avoiding mike’s gaze, and still staring away from button house), muttering that his legs are getting a bit tired. he sits there for a while, and mike just talks. sometimes he circles back to the gay thing, sometimes he just asks the captain questions, before remembering that he can’t actually hear any answer, but then he keeps asking anyway, thinking that cap might need to talk. he doesn’t at first, but slowly he offers up a word or two. and then a sentence, and then maybe more- mike will accidentally cut the captain off, or leave the silence to long, but the captain doesn’t mind (it’s a nice reminder that nothing he says will actually go on to have consequence). at one point, mike gets out his phone to show the captain photos of his mate daniel and daniel's husband, not just their wedding day but casual photos- couples drinks with him and alison, dinners at each other's places, the bookshop.

alison and the other ghosts have long gone, and the sun is just about to sink below the horizon by the time the captain stands himself back up with the traditional knee crack and grunt. he looks at mike and nods, giving him a simple thank you before turning to walk (not run) back to button house, head held slightly higher and looking more relaxed than he’s been all episode. the captain has still got a lot to figure out, but at least it’s a start.

[i love the dramatic ending but the implication is that alison has to go and fetch mike bc he has no ideas cap has left and is prepared to keep going lol- also by no means is cap suddenly going to ditch his characterisation and become a yas kween gay right away, i didn’t go into the aftermath bc this is alreayd fucking LONG but let me know if you want follow up????}

EDIT: i've rbed this with the follow up/part 2 attached!

EDIT 2, much later: switched out mike's reference to his 'younger brother' to a school friend, since the christmas special confirmed mike only has sisters and we're all about accuracy here

#bbc ghosts #ghosts bbc #the captain #ben willbond #bbc ghosts captain #bbc ghosts headcanon #ghosts headcanon #lgbt #lgbtq #gay #mlm

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andsmile · 3 years

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Honestly I'm starting to lose hope to ever get Varchie back. First KJ saying he and Lili have a lot scenes together, then writers changing Betty's personality so she can become Archie's doormat and now this Betty's interview about ba having a emotional scene... Seriously their fans are so sure ba is not only happening post time jump but for the whole season and I- I don't know, I swear I'm not a troll but I'm really starting to lose hope. I don't even want to think about it because I'm a huge Varchie fan and like I could survive a few episodes of those two cheaters dating, but the whole season? Pls, tell me ba fans are just being cocky and there's still a hope for us?

By the way I love your tumblr. Your replies are always so mature and make so much sense. Your positivity is what's making me still having hope for Varchie get back eventually.

OOOOOKAY nonnie, and other 39 anons I’ve got ever since Lili mentioned the word “emotional” somewhere.

Listen to me. I’m old (lol) and shouldn’t even be in the Riverdale fandom but I am and here we are, this show is entertaining, I love writing fics for it and I love Varchie, Veronica, Archie, Bughead, and all the characters. I just don’t love B*rchie, as you guys know, and the writers. But anyway, this love and dedication for my hobby -- before I get anyone else saying I should get a life (I’ve got a troll recently saying that) -- has brought me many great friends, some of which work in the industry or are close to people who do. I don’t say the stuff I say just because I’m big brained, it’s a combination of analyzing spoilers, behind-the-scenes, the actors interviews, reviewers analysis, and hints from people who definitely know more than I do.

Do I know everything? No. Can I be wrong and fall flat face and y’all will hate me? Unlikely, but it can happen.

However, listen to me when I say: Varchie and Bughead are not threatened by Betty and Archie dating in seven years from now.

Of course, it’s bumming that they have to go there, that the cheating plot happened (even though RAS clearly rewrote stuff to downplay it) and that they’ll be explored, but explored is the key word here. I’ve been telling you guys since May that Betty and Archie are gonna date after the time-jump. I’ve been telling you guys that I just didn’t know if they’d start together already or if they’d start because they see their main romantic interests with other people. Lili’s interview basically confirms the latter.

Do I know if Archie and Betty have feelings for each other that were lingering for seven or however many years etc etc? No, I don’t know. But think logically, it was bound to happen. They’re all going to be apart. Betty and Archie were best friends their entire life (as KJ said in his interview, where he called her his best friend 3 times and never mentioned ‘love’ unless talking about Veronica) and it’s probably easier for them to reconnect. Lili alluded to Betty going through some changes, too. Nostalgia is B*rchies biggest theme so far, so why would it be different? They’re all coming back. Jughead has a girlfriend, even if not for long. Veronica has a husband. It’s the next logical step, to have them date.

I know the big B*rchie accounts out there will try to make it look like BA are having this epic slow burn build up that will come to a head around episode 10/11 (filmed in February) where Archie will give her flowers and declare his undying love or something, but please. The casting call was proved fake but even if it wasn’t, this isn’t going to happen. You guys -- us Varchies especially -- need to stop catering to the B*rchies narrative so easily just because they’re loud. KJ and Lili most likely have already filmed their romantic arc, are probably in the way of finishing this arc right now (hence the ‘emotional’ scene), he’s been steadily filming with Cami, Chris and other people involved in that arc, even if in group scenes, and their schedules (and Lili and Cole’s too) are bound to change from now on to be more focused around each other.

Trust me when I say this isn’t permanent. Bughead and Varchie are not going anywhere and the only people who believe that are just catering to this narrative that the BAs plant in our minds through their excessively annoying tweeting of headcanons and well-crafted edits.

Also, and just because I don’t want to answer anyone else, people need to STOP blaming this arc on Lili or KJ or Cole. Cole and Lili breaking up hasn’t affected the storyline, they are professionals and will film together again. Lili and KJ are talking about B*rchie now because that’s the storyline for early in the timejump and it’s their job to promote half of the ship they’re in. I know before hand Lili hasn’t enjoyed the idea of B*rchie but she has no power over the narrative, and if she does now, what if she changed her mind? She’s not gonna change what the writers have in store; if she did, Betty would have never stripped in front of a group of grown man, I’m sure.

KJ doesn’t ship B*rchie or Varchie, Lili doesn’t ship Bughead or B*rchie, they’re professional actors getting paid to tell this story. They enjoy working together because they’re friends just as KJ and Cami, KJ and Cole, Cami and Cole, etc. And as for Sprousehart breaking up affecting the storyline: this isn’t One Tree Hill.

So, I hope this help keep your chin up. It won’t be easy to see BA dating, but you have to trust Archie and Veronica’s and Betty and Jughead’s journey, that has been built for four seasons already, and it’s clearly not over. You guys need to keep your focus on them. And if BA dating affects you a lot, just jump season 5A and you’ll be most likely good.

And please don’t share this on Twitter, I get enough trolls and hate as it is!

#bugvarchie endgame 2k21 #rd negativity #riverdale speculation #anti b*rchie

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jadelotusflower · 3 years

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Roundup: August 2021

This month: Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Don’t Call it a Cult, The Secret Garden, Showbiz Kids, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Lucifer.

Reading Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) - I’ve been meaning to read the Wide Sargasso Sea for a long, long time, but first I thought I’d revisit the source material. I find my opinion hasn’t much changed - I still love the prose, still love Jane as a character, and still find Rochester extremely unappealing. The section with Jane at school is the most engaging for me, and her early time as a governess at Thornfield, but as soon as Rochester shows up I just find him so irritating I have no idea why Jane loves him so much (other than he was the first man to ever show her a scrap of attention). I mean, I know to an extent - I've read the Takes, and part of fiction is accepting what you want for the character as a reader and what they want for themselves can be two different things, and that's not the fault of the text. I can be satisfied by the ending because Jane gets what she wants, I just can’t help but wonder about a Jane who was found by John Eyre before she went to Thornfield, or who took her inheritance and made her own way after Moor House. Byronic heroes just aren't my thing I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys) - The first Mrs Rochester of Jane Eyre strikes an uneasy tone to a modern reader; she does not utter a word in the novel, is depicted as animalistic and almost demonic, her story only told in a self-serving manner by Rochester, and conveniently disposed of so Jane can return to claim him. Rhys reimagines Bertha as Antoinette, a “white Creole” of Jamaica in a postcolonial take on the racial/social prejudices and hierarchy only hinted at in Eyre, where Bertha being Creole primarily an aspect of her Otherness, and in which Rochester describes himself as being desired as a husband because he was "of good race" . In Sea, although Antoinette is white (passing, perhaps), he sees her "not English or European either" and this contributes to his rejection of her (and perhaps his willingness to believe she is mad). The novel is surprisingly short - it skips over the meeting and courtship of Antoinette and Rochester (tellingly unnamed in the novel) entirely, jumping directly from her childhood/coming of age to the couple already married, and over much of Bertha's (renamed by Rochester) sad life in the attic. Still, there's a density to the writing, much is implied beyond the sparse use of words and recurring imagery - subjugation, reflection, and of course, fire - when freed slaves (Rhys changes the timeframe to after the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1833) set fire to Antoinette's family plantation, a pet parrot whose wings have been clipped by her English step-father Mason, cannot flee and falls to a fiery doom, in a grim omen of Bertha's fate. It did, however, leave me wanting more - I understand Rhys' stylistic choices and restraint, but in her effort to give voice to the voiceless, Antoinette/Bertha remains somewhat an enigma. Don’t Call it a Cult: Keith Raniere and the women of NXIVM (Sarah Berman) - I continue to be disturbed but intrigued by the NXIVM case, not only because of my abhorrence of MLMs/pyramid schemes, but my bafflement as to how this thoroughly unremarkable man was able to hold sway over so many women. My mild criticism of the two documentaries on this subject was that they tended to jump around in time so you never really got a good idea of what happened when. This book provides a well researched, detailed summary of events and linear chronology of Raniere’s perverse pathology reaching all the way back to childhood, and so is both an excellent supplement to the already informed, and broad overview to those new to the case. Berman is a Vancouver-based journalist who was present at Raniere’s trial and gives insight into witness testimony, supported by her own interviews and extensive research. There's less of a focus on the sensationalised celebrity members, with greater emphasis on the lesser known victims - including the three Mexican sisters who were all abused by Raniere, one of whom was kept confined to a room for years. It's difficult reading, consolation being the

knowledge that Raniere is rotting in prison and that his crimes finally caught up with him. Watching The Secret Garden (dir. Marc Munden) - Spoilers, if one needs a spoiler warning for a 110 year old novel. One of those stories that is adapted every generation, and generally I have no problem with this, since new adaptations can often bring something new or be a different take on old material (see Little Women 2019). But a part of me can’t help feel why bother with this when the perfect 1993 version exists. There is an Attempt at something new with this film, moving the setting forward to 1947 (Mary’s parents having died during the Partition), and turning the garden from a small walled secret to a mystical, huge wonderland full of ferns and flowers and endless sun. But in doing so, the central metaphor is lost - rather than Mary discovering something abandoned and run wild, gently bringing it back to life with love and care, she merely discovers a magical place that requires no effort on her part. There’s also less of a character arc for Mary, remaining unpleasant far into the proceedings, forcing Colin to visit the garden instead of it being his true wish, and generally succeeding by imposing her will on everyone else. In many ways she’s more like Burnett's other child heroine Sarah Crewe - the film opens I’m with her telling stories to her doll including Ramayana, which is eerily reminiscent of Alfonso Cuaron's (also perfect) 1995 adaptation of A Little Princess. But I suppose a sliver of credit where it's due - Julie Walters' Mrs Medlock is less of an antagonist, with Colin Firth's Lord Craven being Mary's primary obstacle. There's also a subplot with Mary's mother's depression following the death of her sister being the reason for her neglect (and Merlin alum Rupert Young shows up briefly as Mary's father) but like shifting the time period, there just doesn't seem to be a point to it. The climax of the film involves the Manor burning down (writer Jack Thorne stealing from Rebecca too, lol), with Mary and Craven have a very calm conversation as fire and smoke surrounds them. It’s all very bizarre, but also…rather dull? Don't bother with this, just watch the 1993 film again. Showbiz Kids (dir. Alex Winter) - a really interesting documentary on the titular subject - Winter was himself a child actor on Broadway before his film career kicked off in The Lost Boys and Bill and Ted, and has been able to assemble a broad range of interview subjects - Mara Wilson, Evan Rachel Wood, Wil Wheaton, Jada Pinkett Smith among others - former child actors, those still in the business, and some up and comers like Disney star Cameron Boyce (who I was sad to see in the coda has passed away). We also follow two young hopefuls - Marc, attending acting classes and auditioning in pilot season, yet to book a job but his parents are invested in "his" dream, and Demi, already established on Broadway but having to start to make choices between a career and a childhood. There's no voiceover, no expert opinions in this, letting the actors speak for themselves, but there is a telling juxtaposition of Marc returning home, jobless but having fun in the pool with his friends, while Demi has to cancel the summer camp she had been so looking forward to because she has booked a new role. The film is fairly even handed, but ultimately I took away that there just seems to be more harm than not in this industry, and abuses of many kinds. It does make you wonder about the ethics of child acting, at least in the current system where the cautionary tales are plentiful. Masters of the Universe: Revelation (episodes 1-5) - Mild spoilers I guess? I was never really into He-Man as a kid, other than the Secret of the Sword movie, so most of the in jokes and references in this went over my head. I have to admit, it was actually seeing all the outrage that made me want to check this out and see what all the complaining was about. I actually…really enjoyed it?!? I’m sympathetic to the complaints of a bait and switch (creators really need to learn to say

“just wait and see”), but other than that in my view the rest seemed completely unfounded. Adam/He-Man being killed in the first episode and the impact that has on Eternia and those left behind is actually a really interesting premise. This isn’t a TLJ situation; in contrast everyone (except Evil-Lyn) is always going on about how much they miss Adam, and the whole point of the first arc is him coming back. There’s also a nice little detail of Adam in Preternia (heroes heaven) choosing to remain as he is rather than as He-Man where all his predecessors have chosen their “ultimate” forms. I love him and his Magical Girl transformation. As for Teela - female characters can’t win, it seems. If they are perfect, they’re Mary Sues, if they have flaws, they’re unlikeable. Teela is Going Through things and is on a journey, but I often feel (and it seems the case here) that people confuse a character arc with author intent. No! Just because a character says/does something it doesn't mean you're supposed to agree with them! Some of Teela's actions may be petty and her demeanor less than sweet, but people make bad choices as a response to grief, and I actually thought her anger over Adam never telling her his secret and how that manifested was a pretty interesting take. I'll be interested to see the next half of the season, and ignore the ragebait youtube commentary. One more thing - Evil-Lyn (perfectly voiced by Lena Headey) was an absolute delight. Lucifer (season 5 part 2): They’ve basically given up on the procedural side of things by now and are leaning heavily into the mythology, which works for me since the case of the week is always the least interesting part of any show. It also struck me this season that there’s gender parity in the main cast (Lucifer, Amenadiel, Dan and then Chloe, Maze, Ella, Linda) - and actually, that’s more women than men. How often does that happen?!? I can’t say I’m particularly engaged with the Lucifer/Chloe pairing, but am happy to go along with it since that’s where the whole plot revolves. The best scenes for me this season were with God’s Dysfunctional Family, even if the lead up to the finale felt rushed (I understand the need to wrap things up in case of cancellation but still). I would have liked to see more of the sibling dynamics between the angels and less romantic drama, but hey. The character death got me, as well. I didn't see it coming and I didn't realise how much I had enjoyed that character until they were gone and well...it got me. I see the last season is coming soon, I'm not exactly sure where they can go from here, but looking forward to it nonetheless. Writing I was actually quite sick this month with a throat infection, so wasn't in the best frame of mind to get anything finished like I had planned to. I'm going to hold off posting the word count this month and roll it over to September when hopefully I've actually posted things.

#roundup #reading watching writing #august roundup

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thecloserkin · 4 years

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book review: Carolyn Slaughter, Relations (1976)

Genre: Gothic psychological suspense

Is it the main pairing: yes

Is it canon: yes

Is it explicit: yes

Is it endgame: no

Is it shippable: yes

Bottom line: I read this concurrently with Wuthering Heights and allow me to play sommelier—10/10 recommend this wine pairing for maximum gothic extraness. tw: suicide

There’s boatloads of sex but this is not a horny story. It’s a lyrical story—in the sense of expressing direct, spontaneous feeling. Not that a story couldn’t be both (Wuthering Heights is both horny and lyrical) but I actually want to spend a minute defending this book to my past self. The first time I read it, I was unimpressed because Relations wasn’t much of a Love Story. You know the kind I’m talking about, you know the beats you’d expect it to hit: here is a pair of siblings tOrMeNtEd by their iLLiCiT pAsSiOn!!! I mean, the mode isn’t always tragic or dark but even the cream-puff versions of this arc entail some sort of line being crossed or feelings being caught. We are used to characters who begin in initial-state, a journey brings them to end-state and a clear delta separates the two conditions. This book says: fuck that. Fuck change. Fuck growth. My best days are behind me and I’m ok with that because now my brother is lost to me and I give zero fucks about anything else. We have a novel steeped in the symbolism of winter (the season of loss & deadness that is impermeable to change). Our pregnant heroine dreads her impending due date, in part because the child is not her beloved brother’s; but mostly because having a baby is just about the biggest change a body can be subjected to, and she’s actively averse to change. All she wants is her brother back. If you’re looking for characters to fall in love, as in transition from feeling one way to feeling another way, this is most likely not the book for you. But I enjoyed it a whole helluva lot and let me tell you why.

The predominant note of this story is MELANCHOLY. It’s backwards-looking rather than forward-looking, things just keep getting worse and worse for our protagonist and yet she’s unapologetic about what she did: she loved her brother, loves him still and always will. What I admire is that she is steadfast in the face of remorseless despair. Compare these quotes, this one from near the beginning: “I feel listless, often close to tears. I am beset by fiendish pangs.” This is from near the end: “I am hollow, clanging with emptiness; there is no solution.” Do you see what I mean by no delta between initial-state and end-state? I think there is an important distinction between this book and Forbidden, which holds out the promise of a happy ending only to snatch it away at the last minute, in that Relations puts its cards on the table & promises no such thing. It’s melancholy all the way down (well, three-quarters of the way down it transpires this book is in fact a high-concept Folgercest prequel I SHIT YOU NOT friends read it yourself).

In the novel’s present, our girl Catherine is entombed in a emotionally sterile marriage; in the past she grows up warmed by the sun of her brother Christopher’s regard & affection. Slaughter chooses to locate these strands at two crucial points in Cathy’s development—age ten (prepubescent) and age thirty (the age at which women’s “biological clocks” start ticking—this is relevant because Slaughter is writing in the 1970s even if Cathy is living in the late Victorian Era). We should note here that Christopher is older than Catherine by two years, aka the universally acknowledged INCEST SWEET SPOT (I know some of you favor twincest but you are WRONG and I will prove it in my forthcoming monograph on the topic). At age ten, Cathy and Christopher have intercourse for the first time after stumbling on their father’s secret porn stash. The sex is more mechanical than enjoyable, and that’s the point: they start banging out of curiosity, keep banging out of habit, and only later do hormones and feelings kick in. Ten- and twelve-year-olds just don’t get horny the way older kids do, and that is, again, the entire point. Slaughter structures it so the sex happens first (in the very first flashback chapter). The feelings don’t follow, the feelings don’t emerge, the feelings were there all along. What the sex does is seal a secret between the two of them, the secret of their father’s porn stash (hidden in an abandoned wing of the house).

If we turn back to the present, we find Catherine yoked to a man who excites zero feelings in her. By her own admission she married him because “I found him pleasant to listen to and he never made any demands upon me.”These are the qualities that recommend a husband to her—that he impose no psychic demands whatsoever! All her energies are already absorbed in reminiscence lol. We find out he proposed to her with a speech worthy of Pride & Prejudice’s Mr. Collins, and that he possesses not a particle of passion. Which is exactly how Cathy wanted it:

I entered the marriage in a state of apathy; simply undergoing it because of Mamma’s pressure, and because there seemed no other real alternative apart from marriage open to me.

We were married in the winter of my thirtieth year.

I walked down the aisle in a state of complete inertia, my sense muffled by the laudanum … I wished with all my heart he could have been my brother.

File away that glancing reference to winter; more on that later. For now please focus on how numb she is—not discontent, just apathetic. Cathy insists the present brings her nothing but pain and insists she doesn’t regret the choices that brought her here. She’s unrepentant about loving Chris, and explicitly rejects the conventional moral framing that would view her past self as “sinning” and her present self as “redeemed”:

I could not rid myself of the old and over-riding passion of my childhood. I decided eventually that no one would ever, could ever, be what my brother had been to me.

If I could have felt then, and now, that there was some evil in what we did, then I could have borne it. But I could find no evil in it.

I would not be so oppressed if I could but feel my past was wicked and scandalous. If I believed that, i could gladly submit to the institution or the grave. But some buoyant spirit within me keeps insisting that what I had was fine, and contained elements of true beauty.

“The institution or the grave,” she says. Those are the choices. If you want to have Thoughts and Feelings and not just a Body, then your lot as a woman is to end up either in a sanitarium or dead in childbed. Only when she looks back at her childhood does Cathy perceive a time when it was different, when Christopher, at least, saw her as a whole-ass person. Yes, this is another entry in dr. thecloserkin’s ongoing “Incest vs. the Patriarchy” series; if you guys thought I was going to stay off my bullshit for more than ten minutes then joke’s on you hahaha. Here are some quotes that show she was getting her emotional needs met as a child (she’s borderline suicidal as an adult):

leaves me with only the memory of such complete intimacy. It is beyond my reach now, and perhaps I shall never agin recapture it though I live to be ninety.

there was no discord in our interests and desires.

We talked all the time. We never ran out of conversation; I never grew tired of his speech.

It never occurred to me…that we would not always be together. There seemed no need for anyone else—he filled out my present and my past.

Ok so if everything was so idyllic back then what the heck happened? How did it all fall apart? Slaughter withholds the crucial revelatory scene until close to the end, but the story up till then is permeated by a very Gothic sense of creeping dread. The elephant on the horizon is change. Cathy and Chris are on the precipice of puberty, which portends seismic changes in their bodies, and the accompanying changes in their roles as they inch toward adulthood. Cathy doesn’t handle it well:

the old fear. A fear of things changing; of his face looking at me in an unfamiliar way; of our world altering and growing cold about me.

There seemed no question why it should not always continue in this way, and no reason why our bodies or our minds should change or suddenly not fit.

Our life became a little cloister: and I never wanted to leave it. The idea of change haunted me.

I was insisting, always, like a child, the nothing must change; nothing must happen to destroy our life together.

And here is where I connect her fear of change with her favorite season, winter:

I was afraid of change. It seemed menacing. I realized the sadness and bleakness of the winter really suited my nature best. It made me feel more real; sadness now seemed more real than happiness; more permanent, and therefore easier to bear.

the seasons change and find me the same. Nothing touches me, nothing makes me laugh or weep. I have no real substance.

OMG SHE’S A FUCKING REVENANT

”You are so thin. Your limbs are slim as these winter branches.”

I have touched my roots, my beginnings, the things that have formed me.

This book is an anti-change pro-winter manifesto. Winter is the season of desolation, where nothing grows, and if there is one change she adjures above all others it’s the life presently taking root within her womb:

If I am a seed about to burst, if I am to flower, the old seed, my Self, must die. Some new thing will grow out of me; but I must perish. I cannot have it; I cannot allow it to happen. I must protect myself from this that would devour me.

My body continued to change according to its own will, nothing could shift the determined embryo within me … I cannot bear the thought of this thing growing within me, living off my blood … I feel nothing but doom, and a great fear if this shall finally come to pass.

The progress of her pregnancy is literally making her mentally ill. I want to link this horror imagery to child!Cathy’s musings on the decomposition of her father’s corpse:

I wondered if all the flesh had fallen off by this time. I imagined his bones growing into the wood of the coffin, and the trees growing into his skull, the roots twisting around his rotting limbs.

People who read this passage and think “this is a really tight horror aesthetic but what is it doing in the middle of my luscious love story” are missing the point. This is a horror story. But instead of framing the incest as the impure act that violates and threatens our accepted categories, we are invited to view the pregnancy as a gross & unnatural hijacking of Cathy’s body. Her body’s fecundity defeats and puzzles her. She actually tells us about her nightmare wedding before she tells us about her real wedding; in her nightmare she looks at her bridegroom and:

transfixed with horror because he is without the male member — all that resides in the space between his thighs is a burnt-out stub—like the hacked branch of a tree deadened and blacked by many winters.

So far we’ve had body horror associated with (1) her father (2) her husband (3) her unborn baby. Notice who’s not on this list? Notice who she always thinks of with tenderness? Notice who doesn’t ever evoke an iota of fear or horror in Cathy? That’s right! Her brother. The whole incestuous affair is really an own-goal on patriarchy’s part, because the same doctor who warns Cathy’s mother against Cathy’s “wild and unnatural attachment to her brother” goes on to say:

Little girls, Madam, are the scourge of the earth. They have no future, but to grow into that unhealthy state of womanhood, with its unclean festerings and grotesque swellings of the abdomen. I would that little girls could always stay the pure young things they are before the age of eight.

This is some next-level IT WAS EVE’S FAULT SHE ATE THE APPLE spin. Can you blame Cathy for taking this venerable authority figure at his word, and staying “pure” by staying a child, by warding off womanhood and childbearing altogether? goodforher.jpg

Real quick here are some lighthearted episodes from their childhood since it’s not all doom and gloom: Christopher marches next door to confront the Frenchman who is maybe sleeping with their mom and is definitely perving on Cathy. Christopher returns the Frenchman’s gift of silk stockings with a grand declaration of “My sister Catherine has no need for these.” That’s right shut him down Chris!!! Also: Cathy falls into a frozen pond and Christopher rescues her. Their negligent mother blames Christopher. Cathy is shaking with pneumonia and all she wants to do is “make the sad look leave my brother’s sweet face.” Christopher refuses to leave her side until she rallies from the fever. He is thirteen:

I think that Christopher and I half-died together in that terrible week, and afterward, when the terror had passed, we were never quite the children we had been before.

Congrats kids you have undertaken a symbolic journey to the underworld!!!! Good job.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

It wouldn’t be a real incest story without a third sibling, an odd-man-out who helps us triangulate our main pairing’s relationship. Edward is a sociopath and a bully. Parents playing favorites always wreaks havoc with children’s sense of self-worth, but I think in this case it’s 90% down to Edward just being a bad egg (fwiw their father, when he was alive, did favor Christopher). Edward is a peripheral figure for most of their childhood; he appears only to “bang on our door to tell us to be silent for our giggling kept him awake.” That’s right, our door—teenage Catherine and Christopher share not just a room but a bed (!). Edward resurfaces as an adult to beg for Catherine’s intercession with his wife. He married an heiress, and now he seems to have soured on her. He talks about her “malady” and her “hysterical nonsense.” She has “phantom confinements.” They are “phantom” because she is barren. Sir you are literally a Victorian dude named Edward who keeps his mad wife locked up in the attic, you can sit allllll the way down. A heavily pregnant Catherine rolls up to Edward’s house just in time to witness his wife’s suicide: ”I had to make sure there was nothing inside me,” explains the poor woman, lying in a pool of blood after cutting her abdomen open with a knife. This seems fine. This whole society seems fine, right? Catherine reflects: “Ill-health or madness was her only solution, married as she was to a man who so complacently felt himself her superior” and “We are sepulchered alive in this close world, and want more room.” If this applies to her sister-in-law’s tragic fate it applies with equal force to her own situation. Cathy may not be physically barren but her inner life is empty af.

I’m going to talk about the breakup now. The climax of this book is the last time Cathy and Chris have sex. Contrast the arc of many slow-burn stories where the climax is the first time the main pairing has sex. Cathy’s menses doesn’t even arrive until after the incestuous affair is over! And what precipitates the breakup? Well, their mother decides to take the family on a seaside vacation. This is the summer when everything changes (Cathy’s favorite season is winter, and she abhors change). As for what changes, exactly, it’s kind of unclear? Wasn’t like they got caught having beach sex (which they had a ton of). The forces of change are wholly internal. They’re growing up. They’re waking up to the existence of social taboos that will brand their love “unnatural” & worse. As readers we can see that Catherine and Christopher’s attachment is as natural as breathing, and it’s actually the Incest Is Icky crowd that’s drawing harmful artificial boundaries. What happens is there’s a local girl who has obvious designs on Chris. She’s a nonentity but the mere existence of someone outside of Catherine and Christopher, someone who views one of them as an object of sexual desire, sort of punctures the bubble they’ve hitherto been living in. They can’t pretend society doesn’t exist or that what they’re doing isn’t immoral by its lights:

”We have never felt bad before. It just happened and there was no harm in it. I see no harm in it now—I cannot feel suddenly that it is wrong … but even if it is, why does it signify? Nobody knows.” ”Yes, but why does nobody know? It must be because we have deliberately tried to hide it?”

Christopher is the one who unilaterally decides that incest is wrongdirtybad and it has to end. Christopher is the one who seeks out Rando Local Girl and fucks her just to prove how serious he is about ending it with Cathy, which imo was inflicting a pointlessly cruel injury for no reason?? Wtf Chris I thought you were one of the good ones. What I love about Cathy is the steadfastness of her conviction—she accepts Christopher’s decision but she is far from convinced by his reasoning, his deference to social norms. Here’s Cathy’s take: “it seems to me that to live in a way that is contrary to one’s own nature, to live in a way that is false, that is the evil. The discontent grows like a cancer.” Authenticity ought to count for something, no? But these kids and their beautiful love are ultimately outmatched by, and broken by, the weight of social mores:

I could not bear to think of anything changing. I wanted it to stay the same dear way it had always been; ever since I could remember … but the spell was broken; we could not pretend any more. We had to stop being children. “Please. Once more.”

And that’s the breakup scene. It’s devastating. Cathy keeps staring at this one beauty mark on Christopher’s familiar well-loved face and she’s crying and I’m crying too. Recall that they’re still sharing a room/a bed up to this point? “The first night alone was the worst,” says Cathy. Imagine losing the person who is your whole world….overnight. Oof. There’s a time-jump of a few years, and Chris announces he’s off to—I think South Africa? I think this is around the time of the Boer War? I didn’t make any detailed notes and I’ll be damned if I’m going to fish for my copy of the book just to confirm what we already know, that it’s the 1800’s and the sun never set on the British Empire:

”I must get away from here and see something different; begin again…I cannot imagine a day without your face, or your sweet companionship. I do love you. But this must be for the best.”

Christopher goes off to doing colonial-settler stuff, initially. Here’s his first letter home:

I want you to be happy and grow up straight without me.

As opposed to growing up crooked, or growing up gay?? Here are subsequent letters where he seems to have done a complete 180:

thought it would be simpler to be away from you, from the constant temptation. It is not. My nightmares terrify me, they are eating my brain. I don’t know how long this can last.

AND THEN he writes he’ll be coming home for Christmas! I must’ve missed the memo where this story turns into a straight-up Folgers fic but that’s about where we are. It’s literally Folgercest. He goes to Africa explicitly to get away from her. Time and distance cannot suppress their feelings. He comes home to find her still waiting for him:

”Why have you clung to me, or rather the memory of me. For surely the memory is better than this twisted, pathetic creature before you?” “I have found no one better,” I said simply.

Asdfdfkdfjd this reunion scene is heartbreaking bc Christopher and Catherine are barely five minutes in each other’s company before Edward intrudes, claims to have found them in a compromising position, claims to have suspected all along about the incest, almost comes to blows with Christopher, tells him to get out. And Chris does. Cathy doesn’t even get to say goodbye. Edward’s presence is so clearly a case of entrapment—he was expecting Chris to come to her, he was expecting to catch them doing something “inappropriate” even though it sounds like they were only embracing—that there is no doubt in my mind Edward’s intent was to hurt Cathy and Chris, rather than to protect Cathy’s reputation or whatever bullshit he was spouting. We have seen from Edward’s abuse of his wife that he is no kind of moral authority. He does, however, succeed in “making me feel unclean, and dirt was attaching itself to me with every foul word he said.” In this scene Edward is handy synecdoche for patriarchy, which berates Cathy with accusations of sinfulness while actively stifling her every creative impulse and intellectual endeavor. If this book has a villain (and I don’t think it does; it’s not that kind of book) Edward is it. I find that edifying. It’s not Cathy’s husband who’s the primary antagonist standing in the way of her self-actualization—the husband is no more than an empty suit—it’s her other brother. One brother saves her and the other damns her.

After Edward runs Chris off and Chris goes back to Africa there are a few more letters, including this one: “that nothing has changed in my heart. That I love you with the passion of our youth, with the strength of all these long, long years.” Thank you for the affirmation Chris! I needed it even if Cathy didn’t. But the war is ramping up and Chris is headed into a combat zone and the odds of his survival do not look good. Cathy is already preparing to grieve him. She’s also preparing to go into labor any day now. These two threads, her brother’s impending death and her child’s impending birth, merge in the final pages of the book where Cathy is just clearly SO OVER IT:

I have nothing to fight, yet the waiting is most terrible … I have nothing to do but wait. I have nothing to leave.

It is hard to go on. How can I escape this life, this round of boredom and other births? O, that I could be ten and happy!

That’s the end but come on. Raise your hand if you don’t think this girl will 100% yeet herself into the sea and they’ll rule it “postpartum depression”? Anybody? No?

#book review #carolyn slaughter

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unnursvanablog · 5 years

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Things I am watching lately. I feel like I am having a hard time connecting to some of the new tv I have been trying to watch lately - but I also feel that way with the books I have been trying to read or Rookie Historian Goo Hae Ryung. Like it doesn't fully hold my attention. I still find Rookie Historian to be a cute, enjoyable show. I am just not as emotionally invested as before. The last few weeks have been kinda hectic though. Not too much free time to watch tv shows or really get immersed into the stories I have tried to consume. And being sick for two days hasn't helped, since I don't always feel like I have the attention span to take in new shows when I am sick. I just watch endless amount of Friends since I don't have to think too much. It is junk food for the brain and I adore it.

The Good Place: It is very unlike myself to truly binge watch a show. I much prefer watching stuff week by week and even with a simple sit com like The Good Place it can take me months to finish it. But I pretty much binge watched the entire first and a half season in a day (stayed up late and went sleepy to work the next day) or so. I got super hooked on it. I am now almost fished with season three. I am enjoying myself.

The Great British Bake Off, s10: Just the best show to just drink tea and chill over. The worst thing about the show is that it sort of makes me hungry and I keep snacking over it. But GBBO is just the coziest baking show there is. I adore watching it. I look forward to it every year (since I started watching it a few years back). I like so many of the contestants (like always) but this year Michael and Helena are probably my favorites.

Sanditon: It lacks something story wise but I am not sure what, but it is stunning to look at and I do find it enjoyable Jane Austen type story (and it is based on her unfinished novel) but it lacks a certain wow factor for me that often Jane Austen adaptations have. That Austen flare if you will. I am not totally hooked, I don't watch it as each episodes comes out. But I do find it kinda enjoyable and pretty to look at. And gorgeous old houses, pretty clothes and scenery is one of the reasons why I like British (or any) period dramas. I am a simple girl. I like watching pretty period clothes and old things.

Why Women Kill: My main problem with this show is that I don't find the different timelines or storylines of this house to be equally interesting or fun. But I am enjoying the show a lot. I find the story set in our time to be very boring - I kinda don't care for it or the characters there. That is also the storyline where the man in the story get's sort of his storyline along with the women, which sort of contrasts with the men in the other stories. Does that make sense.The other two storylines are so much more fun to watch for me, and I especially feel for Beth Ann and her blossoming friendship with the mistress of her husband. What makes the sort of 1980s storyline tick is probably just Lucy Liu as Simone. That women is just so stunning and great in everything I see her in! She is a dream in this one.

Flower Crew: Joseon Marriage Agency: Don’t feel like making a first impression post, so I am sticking this one in there. This show has a moments of kinda sincerely and more intriguing moments, but it is also kinda over the top silly at times (which I don't always like and often goes into over-acting or over-reacting to something) and there isn't that much of a balance between those. There were parts of back stories and hint of political tension and so forth that I liked. But the sort of over-acting and the more silly stuff sort of took me out of the story again. I don’t mind a bit of comedy (although super slapstick stuff isn't my cup of tea) to defuse the tension in a story, but there needs to be a bit of a balance or it sort of needs to fit together better. The first episode was just sort of OK. It is cute and pretty to look at, but I wonder about how much substance it has. I wanted a bit more of a hook. But I shall give it a few more episodes to truly see how I feel about it. But with all of the other kdramas coming up, it might not have enough to hold my attention for too long.

The Crown: setting goals like finishing the first two seasons of The Crown before Olivia Colman steps into the role of Elizabeth actually motivates me to start shows that have been on my to-watch-list for ages. That also happens with book series that are being turned into films/tv but that is another matter. The Crown is a very well executed and stunning to watch period drama, as I expected - which is one of the main requires I have for period dramas according to this list. I have yet to be hooked my it, but first episodes can't always do that. I was strange seeing Matt Smith again. I am not sure I have seen him in anything other than Doctor Who. But this show seems to be the sort of thing that I would enjoy.

Shows I tried to watch:

Strangers from Hell: I want to watch horror show. It is the season for creepy, dark shows. But yet I opted out of Strangers from Hell for some reason after about 30 minutes. It was somehow not holding my attention that well. Maybe it was just because I was getting sick or something, but I just wasn't super into it.

The Terror - Infamy: I had a hard time connecting the the first season of The Terror. I also had a hard time connecting and emerging myself into the book as well. I found myself having a similar problem with the first episode of this season. But I am thinking about giving it another go.

I have not been keeping up with the part 3 of Arthdal Chronicals. The show was kinda lost to me towards the end of part 2. It just could not hold my attention, the episodes felt so long (and the are long) and the show struggled so in the beginning where the worldbuilding and stuff dragged on for too long and by the time the character arcs started to really come to light I just wasn’t emotionally invested anymore.

But still, Arthdal is one of those shows that I kinda wish I was watching, or could enjoy, because I like the idea of it, so it is sort of always in the back of my mind that I should pick it up again. But at the same time, I can’t be bothered to turn on Netflix and watch an episode. I would much rather watch The Good Place or The Crown on there.

#the good place #gbbo #sanditon #why women kill #strangers from hell #flower crew: joseon marriage agency #the terror: infamy #the crown #blog post #I like making lists like these #I should do more of these I think #What I have been watching

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janiedean · 5 years

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What do you think about all those dudebros talking about how BRieNNe ARc Is NoW COmPlEte and she can rest in peace? Please, send help. =__=

well.

*deep breath*

first thing to be entirely truthful I would like to broaden that statement to ‘people in general who say that’ because from what I’m seeing it’s hardly a dudebro exclusive and it’s been a pseudo anti-brienne argument for ages around here (ie the SHE’S A KNIGHT SHE CAN ONLY BE A KNIGHT THE MOMENT SHE’S ONE HER ARC IS OVER) so like.... I wish it was just one category X°D

second thing: nope.

nooowwww, here goes the rant.

I would like to start by pointing out that this episode was named a knight of the seven kingdoms. and what’s the point, you will say. well:

now: who is the protagonist of AKOTSK?

and what’s the point, you will tell me?

well, half of it is that he’s most likely brienne’s great-grandfather:

which is not just because of that but also because he’s basically genderswapped brienne:

or better, he’s genderswapped brienne except that he’s Hot For Regular Standards but like if you read those novels he’s so much like her it hurts and actually... THICK AS A CASTLE WALL?

The wench has built a fortress inside herself. They will rape her soon enough, but behind her walls they cannot touch her. But Jaime's walls were gone. (asos, jaime iv)

"Do you mock me?"That pricked him back to anger. "Are you as thick as a castle wall? That was an apology. I am tired of fighting with you. What say we make a truce?""Truces are built on trust. Would you have me trust��" (asos, jaime v)

I’m not gonna go into how the most important romance dunk has in those novels is with a great-great-aunt of jaime’s and how those two have actual jb imagery in their novel because that’s not the point of this rant, but my point is: while obviously this is book canon, in the show they called her the way her ancestor is called in the collection of novels about his adventures and both brienne and duncan are 100% what you’d want in real knights, like dunk is 100% True Knight TM material if jaime had run into him instead of arthur dayne he’d have gotten an even worse mancrush.

now, dunk starts the novels as already knighted (even if no one gives him much credit for it), but what happens to dunk is that before going into the kingsguard he has a very long time of going around westeros with egg doing good deeds and establishing his name to the point that when he goes into egg’s kg everyone recognizes him as a paragon.

now: brienne has strived all her life for that validation of being knighted and recognized as such and she’s spent all her life dreaming of not only being a knight but to be seen as one and respected as one, she gets her wish with the man she’s in love with (because she is) and that she respects and whose worth and honor and bravery she sees to the point that she’s willing to put her own reputation on the line for him in front of people who might not take her seriously actually knighting her, in an episode titled after her ancestor who’s a true paragon of knighthood and who’s known for having been a knight for years and for his quests, and I’m supposed to think that the coronation of her arc is that.......... she dies not even twelve hours after that? it’d be cheap, it’d make no sense and it completely would kill the importance of the moment. if she’s been recognized as one after years of efforts and eating shit for it, it means that now she a) gets to prove it, b) gets to go around and say well fuck you I’ve earned that title, c) gets to come into herself fully and she can be whoever and whatever she wanted to and if she dies that gesture and that moment are worth shit because what was it that for? the last hurrah so she can die happy? fuck that, brienne worked her entire life for it, she got it and now she’ll damn well make use of it, and sorry but if gwendoline is going around talking about how this season she takes her decisions, she goes beyond serving others and does finally things for herself that include embracing her womanly side which she denied until now there is really no way that this is it. this is the premise brienne needs to get the push to actually see herself as not just someone whose worth is tied to her being in service of someone else, and the fact that jaime basically pledged his service to her even before knighting her should say everything about where the priorities lay here.

brienne’s arc isn’t complete for shit. brienne’s arc has just started and it’ll be complete when she’s lived a long fulfilling life in which she’s been a knight, saved people, held up that paragon of virtue thing she has going for her, didn’t do it sacrificing her own wants and needs but along with that and doing it with people who finally see her for the amazing person she is. and like.... ‘okay but grrm is evil’ and ‘okay but people die on got’ aren’t Actual Objections because grrm is hardly as bad as everyone thinks he is and he actually does like a good love story himself and he said he wants the bittersweet ending like lotr, not a bloodbath, and I would like to remind everyone that lotr ends with sam gamgee going back home to his wife and children and living a happy life before going off to join frodo in valinor, not with middle earth being razed to the ground by sauron.

also: the fact that she’s directly paralleled with dunk doesn’t mean that she’s ending up in a kings or queensguard whatsoever. the point is that *dunk* being in the kg was something he’d never even dream of and his coronation of his journey, brienne being paralleled with him means that she most likely has to get what *she* wants full package after being denied it for all her life and I’d like to remind everyone that brienne of tarth actually never said she never wanted a husband or a family case in:

Brienne had been betrothed at seven, to a boy three years her senior, Lord Caron's younger son, a shy boy with a mole above his lip. They had only met the once, on the occasion of their betrothal. Two years later he was dead, carried off by the same chill that took Lord and Lady Caron and their daughters. Had he lived, they would have been wed within a year of her first flowering, and her whole life would have been different. She would not be here now, dressed in man's mail and carrying a sword, hunting for a dead woman's child. More like she'd be at Nightsong, swaddling a child of her own and nursing another. It was not a new thought for Brienne. It always made her feel a little sad, but a little relieved as well. (affc, brienne iii)

never mind that she is attracted to men and she does suffers knowing it’s Not For Her To Be In Love With Guys Who Respect Her.

well, guess what, she has one now riiiight there who has just knighted her. *shrug* and okay, you’ll say, that’s book canon and not show canon, but ffs since this season it seems like they remembered proper characterization and the endgame should be roughly the books’s....... well. my money is that she gets to have the cake and eat it after all the metaphorical (and not) shit she had to wade through for years to get it and that’s my two cents.

#brienne of tarth #jaime x brienne #duncan the tall #oops my hand slipped SORRY #game of thrones spoilers #sorry guys but like I Don't Agree ;)#janie writes meta #i said what i said see you on may 20th #Anonymous #ask post

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holyfourthofjulyweenieroast · 4 years

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Notes on Season 15- Part 1 (contains spoilers, are mostly complaints about Torres (and Quinn in Pandora’s Box (Part 1)), and are my personal opinions, don’t @ me)

Since Season 15 started rerunning in Australia on 19 November, I’ve decided to write down things I forgot or would like to emphasise upon:

House Divided

I’m so glad Quinn’s gone, good riddance

Reeves saying NCIS wasn’t allowed to look for Gibbs and McGee, then the dispatch guy looking around at their efforts to do just that was great

Why does Torres have to be so disrespectful, even in court- poor Vance having to witness it

Were Bishop and Jimmy being serious about the phone booth?

Poor Reeves- never lend anything to Torres

I love it when Vance gets angry on the team’s behalf, it’s awesome

Don’t be such a dick, Torres

Jezebel Poppins sort of looks like Britney Spears- sidenote, I wonder how the show comes up with character names

Gibbs’ carving was amazing

Bishop and Reeves look so good together, ugh

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children- in relation to Torres, that explains a lot

Fuck off with your insulting Reeves, Torres- like you haven’t made a mistake before (and much bigger than letting not-so-relevant information slip)

The committee backing Vance up was awesome

‘hobbies?’ ‘not dying’ amazing

The end scenes were so sweet

Every time Delilah said ‘husband’ and McGee said ‘wife’, I went ‘aww’ inside

McGee had such great lines this episode

WHY COULDN’T REEVES HAVE BEEN THE THIRD AGENT SO TORRES AND QUINN WOULD HAVE NEVER EXISTED AND CBS WOULD’VE SAVED HEAPS OF MONEY HIRING ONE MAIN CHARACTER THAT AUDIENCES ALREADY KNEW AND LOVED INSTEAD OF TWO NEW ANNOYING ONES

Twofer

Dr. Grace! I love her so much, and her reaction to Gibbs catching her off-guard was awesome

When does Torres not have doubts about Bishop and her competency for just about anything

I almost forgot about Ducky’s ringtone

Ugh, I hate Torres’ macho persona

I don’t get the whole falling-in-love-with-someone-your-S.O.-was-close-to (or falling in love with anyone after your S.O. died, for that matter)

When did Abby make the switch from coffin to casket (or is it a backup or something)? I forgot if it’s been mentioned previously

I was really worried watching the Jimmy-and-the-liver bit for the first time

For some reason, Gibbs and McGee’s basement conversation reminded me of McGee and Tony’s in 3x10

Aww, Ducky getting invited to be honoured as an alumnus was so sweet

McGee’s shrink appointment with Dr. Grace was a really great scene

Dr. Grace and Gibbs have a such great friendship, and this episode was no exception

Exit Strategy

McGee talking about all the old cases, so nostalgic

I love McGee and Jimmy’s friendship

SPORTELLI! I kind of missed him, not going to lie (I wish his story didn’t end the way it did)

Torres is such an asshole to and about everyone, ugh

Torres’ flower drawing looked more like a hubcap

Aww, Ducky teaching the lecture was so cute

Jimmy standing up for himself, go Autopsy Gremlin

Ducky’s fanclub is way too over-eager

Seriously, Torres? You’re a federal agent, and you think saying you’d steal bearer bonds out loud is a good idea?

Ducky and Jimmy have such a sweet relationship

The plot of this episode sucked, I don’t get why they had to make Sportelli dirty

Skeleton Crew

Why is Toccata and Fugue the music piece of choice for every spooky TV show scene ever (it’s great, though, don’t get me wrong)

SLOANE! Her entrance is one of the most iconic (and obvious, I caught the ID flash the first time I watched it) ever, plus she looked just so beautiful

McGee talking about Delilah was so cute

Torres is so pigheaded and obnoxious

Abby’s zombie apocalypse kits were such a sweet idea

Abby and Jimmy have such a cute friendship (and the Hamilton bit was hilarious)

Sloane and Vance are such a great brotp from the very first scene

SHUT. UP. TORRES.

I hate it whenever Torres says something along the lines of ‘I’m not trying to be ________, but...’- he uses it as an excuse for his shitty behaviour, and it’s never addressed

‘I don’t believe in absolutes’ well, we know that Sloane’s not a Sith, then (I know the Sith deal in absolutes, but to deal in something, you most likely have to believe in it first)

$300, 000 really isn’t a lot, especially split between two people

The last two Bishop-and-Buckner scenes were sweet, but didn’t make up for his previous behaviour towards her

Akin to 17x06, this episode glossed over the bullying Bishop endured, and how it’s a serious issue

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

The first time I saw this, I instantly knew it was Tony’s doing- how could anyone not

Reeves is so caring and kind, it sucks how Melissa played him

Abby and Reeves (Rabby? Clabby?) were such a great brotp while it lasted

FUCK. OFF. TORRES.

Why is Torres such an asshole? He’s rude and insensitive to everyone, even recovering addicts- how have the writers not been called out for their writing of him yet

I love Sloane so much-she’s awesome

Those tap-lights are horribly hipster and ugly

The end scene in the bullpen was hilarious, and the end scene with Reeves was so emotional and heartbreaking

Rishop’s friendship (not their more-than-friendship, they’re two separate things) was so prevalent in this episode, and it was great to see

This episode had such a powerful message, and was a great instance in the Rule 10 debate

Trapped

Aww, Jimmy’s so sweet

Torres is so ungrateful and stingy

Torres using work time for personal stuff, not surprising

Reeves’ chess pun was absolutely the best

For some reason, I really love it when Reeves does that thing where he puts his hands behind his back and slightly leans forward

‘The Timinator’ I’m dying

Like Reeves said, Torres always has to one-up everyone else and I hate it

That kid was so sassy, omfG

Bishop knows Reeves so well, and it’s too adorable- how could the writers set up Ellick when Rishop already had an outline

That’s what you get for being such an asshole, Torres, and trying to get it back was one of the lowest things a character has done

I love it when NCIS includes charities (real and based-on-real) and the like in episodes

Words can’t even describe how much I hated Torres in this episode- he was at his worst

Pandora’s Box (Part 1)- Season 14, didn’t re-air with the other episodes because Part 2 (NOLA) is re-airing in two days from time of writing

Bishop being a fangirl was completely understandable (and relatable)

Good job insulting Abby, Torres- not

I’m gonna try and start saying ‘Aristotle banana split’ in everyday conversation

Poor Abby- such a sucky situation

Quinn is so annoying

JJ looks to old to have a daughter in preschool

‘Dr. Ducky’ TOO ADORABLE

Ducky and Reeves having banter about British things was the best thing ever

Bishop and Reeves are so cute together (also the ‘smart girl’ comment was definitely about her)

Bishop was on the shortlist after all, I’m so proud of her (even though the mission went south)

The NYB memorial wall, so sad

LaSalle (rip)! I just love his Alabama accent

Torres is just such a douche

McAbby is such a great brotp

Why does Torres have to be so dramatic and show-offy

Burden Of Proof

Yuck, I hate Torres, and even more when he talks about himself

Sloane’s choker top, YES

I hate it when Torres messes with Bishop’s mind and feelings- that’s not how you show you care about someone

Oof, Fornell- it sucks his job was brought into this mess, and that he lost it as a result

I really don’t want to know why ‘feet’ was the first thing that came to Torres’ mind

There’s something to just love about when Vance breaks up Fornell and Gibbs’ arguments

‘Name That Profile’ actually sounds like a pretty fun game

I hate Torres’ innate cockiness- he risks the suspect getting away just so he can put on a show beforehand

Ouch, poor Fornell- it was the wrong decision, and I don’t know if I would’ve done it, but I did get why he did it- the evidence that Hicks killed the Lieutenant was compelling

Poor Gibbs, you can just see the inner turmoil in his head

Aww, Sloane

Fornell, aww- I’ll fight anyone who says he’s an inherently bad person

Hicks really is a great liar to be able to fool a shrink

I really liked the Gabriel Hicks arc, this episode was the first of a few great ones

Voices

It’s rich of Torres to back up a woman’s side of things

Never stop being awkward and adorkable, Jimmy (adwarkable?)

‘Jack, knock yourself out’ ‘I will, Gibbs’- funniest exchange ever

Ducky lives for the drama and I love it

Collapsing floor during a birthday party- hell of a way to go

Delilah putting up a firewall to prevent McGee from finding out the baby’s gender was so funny

Mike Franks popping up for all of ten seconds was just so iconic

The twins reveal was pretty cute

The foreshadowing in this episode with Sloane and the losing-a-daughter storyline (whether intentional or not) was really good to watch back

The amount of times the word ‘sex’ was said during this episode made me extremely uncomfortable- how hard is it to say ‘gender’ instead

Ready Or Not

Don’t be such an asshole to Reeves, Torres

The Harrison Ford-themed names were kind of bad, but definitely not as much as they could have been

Abby and Delilah’s friendship has come such a long way, I’m so proud

Aww, Morgan, he was so sweet and didn’t deserve to die

Poor Sloane

McGee making a duplicate comfort kit for Delilah was the most adorable thing ever, and Abby yelling along with her was so funny

Bishop and Reeves always stand and sit so close together, too cute

I remember watching this for the first time and being really shocked when Yorka shot Morgan, especially since it was so early on in the episode

Abby really is a terrible liar

Bishop and Gibbs’ little performance was awesome

I don’t know why they didn’t think about putting Sloane in in the first place

Sloane making snarky comments was awesome

Morgan dying was so sad

Seriously, Torres? Do you want everything to blow up?

Reeves and Torres debating the bomb was hilarious

I loved how Gibbs just straight-up punched the driver in the face

The end scene with the twin-naming was so cute

High Tide (originally Ep. 11, but for some reason it aired as Ep. 10)

Torres is so obnoxious and a really bad law enforcer- lives are always more important than the op

Reeves worried about Bishop, so sweet

Torres is such a dick for ignoring Bishop and protocol

Ugh, why is Torres so arrogant and bigheaded- I hate him so much, yuck

How could those girls not know the capital of Maine

Insubordination is Torres’ middle name, and I could’ve watched a whole season’s worth of Vance chewing him out

Bishop’s anger was completely justified, but I wish it wasn’t because of feelings for him

I FUCKING HATE TORRES SO MUCH I WANT TO KILL HIM

Torres absolutely cannot be trusted, Sloane- you know it and so does everyone else

Yuuuck, I hated that part so much, and it didn’t even make sense- Bishop was super-angry at him just before, why would she do a complete 180

What other sort of cop is there, you idiot

Go, Bishop! So badass

Ya think, McGee?

Torres is such an idiot- don’t admit anything to someone who can’t be 100% trusted, and that plot twist was pretty predictable

More like a soft zero

Seriously? What if he died, you dickhead- also the fact that Torres had no backup plan and was only okay because the team saved him shows how self-obsessed and incompetent he is

The fact that the team doubted Torres shows how little he can be trusted, and how little they trust him

There was absolutely no chemistry between Bishop and Torres in this episode (or ever), and words can’t express how much I loathe and despise him and everything about him, which sucks because he could’ve been really well-written

Dark Secrets (originally Ep. 12, but for some reason it aired as Ep. 11)

I think all babies are pretty ugly, but Johnny and Morgan are cute

It’s just an ID photo, Torres- stop complaining

‘is there a spouse’ Autopsy Gremlin for the gender-inclusive win!

Carol mention! She’s awesome

Bud again! I’m using a lot of exclamation marks, but they’re things to exclaim about

Poor guy- she was a total asshole, lying to and cheating on him

Bishop and Sloane have such a pure relationship

Seriously, Torres? Not everyone dates in high school, and shaming someone about it is pathetic and juvenile (and it doesn’t help if they’re dead, either)

Recording your infidelity exploits isn’t a good idea (infidelity isn’t, full-stop)

I hate how obnoxious and over-confident Torres is

Just another instance of Torres manipulating someone into doing something for him

This was easily one of the most gross and uncomfortable plots I’ve seen, but a good way of showing that it’s not only guys that cheat and lie- girls do as well

#season 15 #ncis season 15 #ncis #naval criminal investigative service

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tisfan · 5 years

Text

Lost Boys and Girls

Square: T5 - lost their powers Warning: fairies, magic, alternate history, dad!Tony Pairing: Tony Stark/Stephen Strange Summary: The queen of the fairies wants to meet Iron Man. Why does this sound like a really bad idea? Word Count: 1690 Link: A03 For the @tonystarkbingo

A/n I’m totally blaming @monobuu for this...

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Uh, no?” Stephen rubbed absently at his wrist, like his fingers were aching.

“You want me, me, Iron Man, me,” Tony said, thumping his chest a few times to make his point better known, “to, and I quote, strip down all tech, and walk unarmed into what, exactly, did you say?”

“A court of faeries,” Stephen repeated. “It’s the summer court, if that helps any.”

“It does not help any, how does it help any, you do know that the arc reactor is the thing keeping a buttload of shrapnel from reaching my heart, right?”

“The Summer Queen has promised you safe passage,” Stephen said.

“Does she understand that I will die if--”

“The land of the Fey will keep you alive, until you return,” Stephen said. “I have it on good authority.”

“Whose, exactly?”

“Titania’s,” Stephen said. “She’s the queen of the summerlands, and more powerful than you can comprehend. Offending her, under these circumstances…”

“I want to know exactly how these circumstances ended up with my having to walk naked through fairyland. That sounds like a bad porno, Stephen. I don’t like that it sounds like a bad porno, I want good quality porn, with active consent and --”

“I don’t know the circumstances,” Stephen said. “That’s why we have to go to Titania’s court in the first place. To find out.”

“I love how you’re the one who has a magical fairy dust curse put on you, and I’m the one who has to go bargain on your behalf, with a magical fairy dust princess--”

“--queen--”

“Princess,” Tony said again, loftily, “to get it removed. How did that happen, Stephen, tell me that part, if you can’t explain the rest of it.”

(more below the cut)

“Part of the etiquette of the fairy court is stating your important connections,” Stephen said. “Name-dropping, if you will, to impress on the fairy you’re dealing with that you are, in fact, a person worth speaking with. If I didn’t have enough connections to impress, then I wouldn’t get a hearing at all.”

“I have a reputation, even in the fairy lands?” Tony wondered, scratching absently at his beard.

“Tony,” Stephen said, gently, “you wielded the infinity gauntlet and brought half the universe back from oblivion. Including Titania’s husband, Oberon. You’re quite literally the best known person alive in the universe. In any multitude of universes.”

“That’s… unhealthy for my ego,” Tony said. “I prefer just being the guy who did what needed to be done. And I don’t have the gauntlet anymore, I destroyed it.” He had wanted to destroy the stones, too, but they were too powerful for that. The best he could have done in those circumstances, he did. Returning them to vastly well-protected hiding places.

Even now, years later, he could feel the one in Stephen’s necklace, the time stone, and the way it called to him.

He couldn’t be trusted with that power. Not for long, and he knew it.

“She wants to thank you, and in exchange for your notice, she’s agreed to aid me with my… issue.”

“Your issue where your skin changes colors with the season and I might add, you’re growing leaves out of your hair.”

“More than likely, I accidentally annoyed a dryad, but as I cannot cure myself, I need to know to whom I owe amends. Will you please assist?”

“If the alternative is that my boyfriend turns into a tree, yes, I’ll help. I just don’t like these conditions.”

“I know,” Stephen said. “But I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“I’m comforted,” Tony said, as dryly as he could manage. Even if it was true, he didn’t need to scrape his face raw and present his sincerity to the world.

Tony pressed his hand over the arc reactor, feeling the dull ache where his sternum used to be. “All right, open up,” Tony told the suit. He slid his shirt up, twisted the reactor and removed it from its casing.

The pain was… well, he’d had worse. But not lots worse. His heart stuttered and slammed around in his ribcage like it was trying to escape. He gave the reactor core over to the suit and let it close up, sealing itself around the precious device.

“Come on--” Stephen held out his hand. Tony took it, and they stepped over the circle of mushrooms, from reality, to somewhere else.

It was cold, for somewhere called the Summer Lands. Like the day after an ice storm. Everything was bright and sunny, even if he couldn’t see the sun, but also frozen.

Flowers in bloom were encased in ice. Fruits were perfect glass globes. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground, and the crust of ice didn’t break beneath their feet.

Tony took a deep breath, and then another, before he realized that he wasn’t in pain. That nothing hurt, at all. He stared.

“We’re frozen in time,” Stephen said. “Like everything else here. The shrapnel won’t reach your heart, because no time at all will actually pass.”

“Magic sucks,” Tony said.

“That’s not what you said last night,” Stephen joked.

“Great one,” a voice said, and Tony had to turn all the way around before he saw the speck of light that addressed them.

If a lense flare could come to life, that was what Tony was looking at. A tiny little… person that existed inside a ball of light. That flew. And talked, apparently.

“If you’ll come this way, the Queen awaits.”

“After you,” Tony said, waving dramatically.

“At the same time as me,” the JJ Abrams special effects critter said. “Or you’ll be left behind.”

“Right,” Tony said. He wiggled his eyebrows, trying to express exasperation without actually expressing it.

He expected to be lead to a castle. An ice palace might have been nifty, and in keeping with the setting.

Instead, the little creature -- Tony couldn’t tell if it was a boy, or a girl, or even if it mattered at all -- lead them to what appeared to be a grove in the woods. Inside, the air was warm, the grass was green, and the trees were moving in the slight breeze. A girl sat there, in the grass, with red hair and a smart, watchful expression. She was playing with a puzzle, a dozen moving parts, and she changed it from a ball to a cage to a jacob’s ladder with seeming ease.

A woman, barely older than the girl, stood at their arrival.

She was beautiful. And deadly.

“Iron Man,” she said, and her voice was like singing crystal. “Welcome to the Summer lands.”

“A bit cold for that, but thanks,” Tony said.

“Ixnay on the arcasm-say,” Stephen muttered.

“And the good doctor, welcome.”

“I’m honored, your Majesty.”

“Quite the lover’s bond between you,” she said, and she reached out one long fingered hand -- Tony thought she had an extra joint in each finger, but she still looked graceful, perfect. Like his hand was the one deficient -- to touch something. Tony couldn’t see what she touched, but it played havoc with his feelings. He remembered everything, from that first moment when Stephen appeared, to the moment where Stephen promised the Time Stone in exchange for Tony. To the moment when Stephen returned and fell, weeping, into Tony’s embrace. And all the moments after, and the ones in between.

He looked at his lover with fresh eyes, seeing everything, everything between them, as the Queen must be seeing it, in that exact instant.

“You truly love him,” she murmured. “And he truly loves you.”

“It’s a chance not one in a thousand couples get, no matter what the storybooks say,” Tony said, unable to stop his mouth before it smarted off again.

“I like you, Tony Stark,” the Queen said.

“That’s good, I think,” Tony said.

“For the moment,” she said. “But I’ll warn you, I collect the things I like.. Falter in your devotion, and I may take it upon myself to claim you.”

“Not a chance, lady. You’re beautiful, and all that, but, Stephen is all I’m ever going to need,” Tony responded.

“Here, perhaps,” she said. “And now. In this world. But there are infinite worlds, as you well know. So, I will give you a gift.”

“I was told it was unwise to accept gifts, without something of equal value to exchange,” Tony said.

“Perhaps,” the Queen said. “But this is not mine to give you. She was entrusted to me in a universe that died. A last minute plea, from another Tony Stark, in another where, another when, who loved someone else. Morgan, darling?”

The woman held out her hand and the girl got up and came to her. “Yes, your Majesty?” She had a soft, reedy voice, and her eyes were deep brown and full of intelligence.

“This is Tony Stark,” the Queen said. “Tony Stark, this is the child of your counterpart, in a universe that no longer exists. She has no family, no friends, even the very molecules that formed her solar system are gone. She is truly, one of the orphans. And in that universe, the person that Tony Stark loved the most… was Pepper Potts. Morgan is their child.”

Tony looked down into a pair of eyes that were almost identical to his own.

“I cannot repay the Tony Stark of that universe for the favor he did me,” the Queen said, “but I can protect his child, and I can let her go into the hands of those that will love her, and cherish her. If you will accept this burden, I will consult with the good Doctor on the nature of the curse he is under.”

Morgan let go of the fairy queen’s hand and held out those tiny fingers to him. “Are you my daddy?”

Tony dropped to one knee, studying the child. In his world, Pepper had married Happy Hogan, had suffered through several miscarriages, and finally ended up adopting. She’d dated Tony briefly, but it hadn’t worked out.

Tony had never considered being a father.

But he saw that child, that little soul…

“I am now.”

#tonystarkbingo2019 #IronStrange #morgan stark #fae and fairies #lost their powers

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butlerpower · 5 years

Text

festive bestowal|

(( Because the mun doesn’t want to flood the dash as much, and I’m really lazy to put it all in your inboxes atm- it’s all in one post. ))

@apiescatch Dear Dear Madame Adelaine , With a smile so sweet and hair that glows in golden silk, I bestow to you this hair pin, which made me think of your lovely face. May the holidays treat you kindly and will the new year bring you great joy. Best, Vishnal @gourmaid To my Alice, Sweet, sweet Felicity, My gift to you, you wondrous but most curious soul I’ve ever met in the realms of eateries and the such. May you ever continue to wander on your most joyest journey of finding the best bite. My gift to you is this old quill set I’ve owned for quite some time. I figure you may have a wonderous time whist writing, my sweet. Best, Vishnal @cagedlepidoptera Darling Mistel, I know we never spoke to one another much, but I always wanted to say you work so hard and diligently in your work. I hope to get to know you more in the upcoming year, and I hope this gift of a well loved book will bring you great joy for this season. Best, Vishnal @endlessmadrigal Lovely Madame Margaret, Has anyone told you-- that you have a gift of music? The children at the academy look up towards you ever so fondly, and I wanted to let you know how much I admire that. Hopefully you will like my gift, it’s not much- I admit- but I suppose its the thought that counts. Best, Vishnal @fireflyfairytale Kindest Madame Mary, I always enjoyed your love and enthusiasm of books and the sort. You always had sported one of the most loveliest smiles I had ever seen. I will never forget the great deed you had done for me, Mary- you are more stronger than you’ll ever know. I do hope you enjoy this, as much as I did. Best, Vishnal @anephemeralwish Dolcezza Clorica, Do you get enough rest? Do you dream while you’re still awake? I hope to shine as bright as you are one day, and I pray that you are able to perchance dream on a full nights of rest. I bestow you this, in hopes to make you smile. Best, Vishnal @forte-days-and-knights

Ah yes, my Knight in shining armor, my Jeanne of Arc, Miss Forte, Do you know how it feels to have the wind blowing through your toes? Do you know how it feels to fly? I must say, I will never forget the day you swept me right off of my feet- literally. Ha ha. I am forever in your debt, but I want to say-- your smile is the greatest gift you give to all. And here is mine for you. Your servant at your command, Vishnal @honeybee-txt

Kindest Ella, I hope the holiday season has been keeping you warm. Perhaps some time we shall chat and drink some hot cocoa without worrying over potential kissing, yes? Ha ha ha. Oh, you have a big heart of gold, I hope things go your way someday. Best, Vishnal @leoleotheviii Gallant Leon, I must say! You are quite the curious fellow! I enjoy your wit, humor, and spirit! May you return to Mon Cherry sometime soon! Happy Holidays! Hope you enjoy these candies! -Vishnal @perfume-beux Monsieur Winters, Tell me what big eyes you have? Hahaha. I jest, you have quite the lovely assortment of eyes I’ve seen on a man. ( Well, actually- everyone’s eyes are quite captivating with a story, no? ) I wanted to thank you for always stopping by to say hello, and this may seem rather cheesy but I feel like this will do. Best, Vishnal @fashionistaextraordinaire Madame Yamamoto, First of all, I’d like to congratulate you for getting married! That’s such a joyous thing, to be in love and be bounded by the threads of fate to be with your significant other for the rest of your life. You have a fiery spirit, and I mean that in the best of ways. May you create beautiful things with your fingers, forever more- and spend the rest of your days with one you love. I may not know you well, but I hope to learn more of your story- of how you and your husband had met, fell in love, and so forth. So here’s my gift to you, a photo album I’ve made myself-- for you and your husband to put and cherish your memories for the future to come. Best wishes, Vishnal @flower-of-oak-tree

Dear Miss Konohana, I never had the chance to tell you, that I’ve visited your gardens as of late! They were the most darling exhibitions I had ever seen in my entire life! Your love and care for your plants shows, and I hope you enjoy this trinklet, it reminds me of your beautiful place. Best, Vishnal @violinsnotheanswer

Mr. Mikhail Weiss- Your eyes speak as loud as your songs do. I always admire how you can traverse the world and see the things you’ve seen. Tell me, does it ever get lonely? Probably not, you’d might say- “As music is always the best company.” Although, the first we’ve met, right beside those prairie fires had always left me quite the impression. And so, I gift you this, a postcard I’ve found in a small shop on the mainland. It reminded me of you. May this season treat you kindly, and stay by the fires to keep yourself warm. Best, Vishnal

#7 #i'm dying

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sxpiosexualx · 6 years

Note

why do you ship jonsa? my best friend is a hard core jonerys shipper but lately ive been really critical of daenerys, so i cant really hop on that train. i dont really have a preference for jon either way so i wanted to know why you ship them

Oh hello! What a lovely question to ask, though I must warn you this could most likely get draggy and long because I’m so passionate about these two and this ship, they’re my OTP. Actually I only started reading the books last year, before then I was a casual watcher until up to Feb 2016 before season 7 aired. Jon and Sansa had just reunited on the show and I came across this Jonsa instagram on my explore page and I thought, what the fuck is this? It was such an absurd ship to consider - and this is coming from someone who was crack shipping Tommen and Sansa! But I kept scrolling through, the captions in the post came from posts on Tumblr(with credit) explaining the parallels and the ways in which Jonsa could go down and it was sort of like… this strange theory that I subscribed to and was soon convinced of. I tried bringing it up to my friend but she was a casual watcher and didn’t really pay much attention to it so I was craved of my need to discuss this. So come season 7, I rejoined Tumblr and the Jonsa tag was SO rich in content and meta, detailing all the parallels, how it could happen, why it makes sense and how it would wrap up up the narrative in the most satisfying manner. I’ve never shipped something so hard and wanted it to be canon more than with Jonsa(though canon or not I’m not fussy lol).

I’m gonna outline to you some of the main reasons why I think Jonsa has a strong chance of happening in canon, because they’re really why I ship them so hard, they complement each other perfectly though it’s very easy to miss this. I’m keeping this under a ‘Keep Reading’ tab because I know this will get lengthy. Also, any of my followers/people seeing this, do add on in the comments why you ship jonsa or perhaps leave some links to some of your fav meta’s in the comments for OP to screen through if they feel like it!

This will be lengthy but remember I am trying my best to be brief, hopefully the other Jonsa’s will link some metas/parallel series to give you a better idea - I’m only outlining the backbone of the ship!

The Ashford Tourney Pattern

So it actually began when I came across this theory: The Tourney at Ashford was held in-universe, and I wont go much into detail except to mention that all of the 5 champions in that tourney coincide with the houses of the men Sansa is betrothed/married to (i.e. Sansa’s suitors). It goes

Lyonel Baratheon

Leo Tyrell

Tybolt Lannister

Humfrey Hardyng, and,

Valarr Targaryen.

Now, granted the show’s made some changes but ultimately they’re coming to the same conclusion, and as for book!Sansa(i.e. canon) she’s first betrothed to Joffrey Baratheon, then is promised to Willas Tyrell(changed to Loras on the show), marries Tyrion Lannister, is currently in the works of being betrothed to Harry Hardyng(in the Vale - the Ramsay plot is not hers), and so the logical conclusion would be to complete the pattern by marrying her final suitor, the endgame - a Targaryen. That makes Jon the only candidate viable to her, and yes that sounds ‘out there’ but if you take a look at the narrative, it could make complete sense, so let’s go into how this could logically happen.

Logic

Given the story began with the Starks being the heart of the series, you can only anticipate that the final installation, initially named A Time For Wolves would promise a continuation of the Stark line, and that could come about through Jon and Sansa. They are the only Starks left who’s storyline touches on ideas of fatherhood and motherhood - the only Starks left to ever consider having future children(and weirdly enough where Sansa wants to name her children Bran and Rickon and thinks of a girl who looks like Arya in her dreams of children, Jon wants to name his son Robb - even their dreams complement each other, they’d be rebuilding the Stark family with themselves), the only Starks left to think of restoring Winterfell(and they already go on to do this on the show) etc. When you think of Sansa and how she’s had to fight hard to retain her Stark identity and reclaim it, I cannot imagine GRRM marrying her off to some random lord at the end of the series, when she’s just made it back home. For Jon too, he’s wanted Winterfell, and dreamed of that domestic life as Lord of Winterfell, as a Stark, and Sansa, the Key to the North, could give him that - the same way her marrying Jon who’s actually a prince would be fulfilling her childhood dream as well. They both get what they want in the way they least expect it, something very GRRM-esque. There’s the narrative convenience of R+L=J that would allow for some catharsis once Jon realises he’s not her half-brother, and the convenience of them being the only Starks to not have an established relationship beforehand. But despite that, whenever they do think of the other in the books, it’s never with any resentment, contrary to popular belief, they don’t hate each other(they think of each other fondly, even). It’s something that could work politically in show!verse just as well, say word gets out that Jon’s a Targaryen, the Northern lords would never accept him unless Sansa brokers a political marriage to tame them.

History would also be repeating itself in a poetic way, but done right this time. Jon and Sansa marrying would parallel Ned x Cat, they each parallel them so much and S7 has hammered those visual parallels more than ever. A Stark would be wedding a Tully. And if you embraced Jon as a Targaryen, then they would parallel Rhaegar and Lyanna in a sense too by having a Targaryen prince wed a Stark lady. It also nicely twists what happened to Cersei, where she was supposed to marry a Targaryen prince(Rhaegar) but ends up marrying a Baratheon(Robert) - Sansa was betrothed to Joffrey Baratheon, but would be marrying a Targaryen prince in Jon, which only adds another layer to her being the YMBQ from Cersei’s prophecy if you subscribe to that!

Complementary Storylines

If you take a closer look at Jon and Sansa’s arcs, they tend to echo off of each other, always linking the two through themes, yet the author does a great deal to ensure they’re the last two Starks we ever associate with each other which honestly, would be something he’d do if he meant to pull them marrying as a huge plot twist no one would expect. But thematically, both Jon and Sansa:

start their arcs as naive,

are the Starks most interested in leaving WF - Jon goes to the Wall where he assumes the men are ideal knights, and Sansa journeys South with romanticised ideas of court, and both characters are quickly disappointed.

Jon gets dubbed “crow” for most of his arc, the same way Sansa gets dubbed “little bird/dove”.

Both characters at the same time, have to pretend to be something they’re not around their enemies - Jon going undercover as a Wildling, while Sansa had to blend in with the Lannisters.

They both get dubbed traitor around the same time too, Jon’s seen as a traitor for leaving the Wildlilngs while Sansa gets dubbed traitor/murderer once they thought she poisoned Joffrey as she leaves KL.

Jon who starts off as a bastard, rises to the title of Lord Commander at the Nights Watch the same time Sansa, who starts off as a Lady, gets forced to pose as Littlefinger’s bastard daughter.

It’s the same case on the show, and there’s reason enough to believe Jon and Sansa will be the first Starks to reunite in the books and reclaim Winterfell as well(though the circumstances may be different, it’s heavily foreshadowed in Sansa’s final ASOS chapter).

Complementary Dreams

GRRM has a weird way of connecting these two through their shared dreams. Where Sansa’s final chapter in ASOS heavily foreshadows that she’ll come to rebuild Winterfell with Jon(and she already goes onto do this on the show with Jon), Jon is also the only other Stark to think of reclaiming and rebuilding it, and this occurs in the same book. They’re both weirdly also the only Stark kids to be referred to as the Blood of Winterfell. ASOS(the 3rd book in the series) is also where both these characters start to undergo a sexual awakening(Ygritte’s attempts with Jon, and Sansa coming into her own body and developing).

It’s the same book where Jon considers having a son of his own, thinking he could name him after Robb, and Sansa thinks of giving her betrothed children, noting that in her dreams her children looked like the brothers she had lost and that she wants to name them Eddard and Brandon and Rickon(after the brothers she’s lost). So yes, while that sounds very odd, these two coming together would actually be giving each other what they long for in a family, children who look like named after their pack. Once you remember that book wise, Jon looks like a carbon copy of Ned and Sansa looks like a more beautiful version of Catelyn then you could only assume their children would look very much like the siblings they grew up with too.

It’s actually strange how alike they are and how their arcs tend to echo off of each other but it even comes down to the same romanticised idea of courtship. Sansa remembers the rose Loras gave to her during the Hand’s Tourney, and when met with the prospect of marrying Willas, starts fantasising of sitting with her lord husband in a garden. Lo and behold, a couple chapters later Jon thinks of showing Ygritte Winterfell, and plucking a flower for her from Winterfell’s glass garden. In other words… they would be perfect together.

Their first loves are stand-ins for each other

Ygritte could actually be seen as a foreshadowing for Sansa, namely because so many of her traits are things we’ve come to associate with the latter but GRRM makes a point to keep this out of Jon’s subconscious in his POV chapters. First in the choice of words in her description, her red hair, her blue-grey eyes(sansa’s eyes are blue), but people tend to stop right there and use it as an excuse to mock the idea of Jon x Sansa immediately which honestly, is lazy. It goes deeper than that. Ygritte weeps when she sings and hears the song of the last of giants, and she’s known to favour songs and tales - things we again associate with Sansa. There’s also the instance of her telling Jon Snow that she’s “half a fish” which seems to nod at the fact that Sansa’s basically half a fish too(Half Tully). Strangely, right after Ygritte words out her famous line “You know nothing, Jon Snow,” in Sansa’s chapter, Sansa sees Margaery’s cousins and comments that “they know nothing,” on their naivety. When Jon gets stabbed, the line is again associated with Sansa in his final thoughts:

“Of Sansa, brushing out Lady’s coat and singing to herself. You know nothing, Jon Snow. ”

In Sansa’s case, her first love(crush, really) was a man of the Night’s watch named Waymar Royce(“She had fallen wildly in love with Ser Waymar,”) - who is described as grey-eyed, graceful and slender the same way Jon is first described in AGOT as having grey eyes, being graceful and being slender. The connection between Waymar Royce and Jon Snow is further strengthened in the fact that Waymar(who appears in the very first prologue of the first book) death foreshadows Jon’s death.

Other parallels and easter eggs

There are other ways GRRM’s linked the two in his novels through easter eggs too, for e.g. Sansa calls out for the heroes she knows, calling for Prince Aemon the Dragonknight(from the songs), and then we get a flashback of Jon remembering how he’d play with Robb in the field and pretend to be Prince Aemon the Dragonknight. Sansa also wishes someone would behead Janos Slynt, and Jon goes onto do this in ADWD, unknowingly being the literal hero she asked for.

They both have a strong connection to the pomegranate symbolism, tying them both to the greek mythology of Persephone. And in terms of actual history, Jon and Sansa share heavy parallels with Henry Tudor and Elizabeth of York(who ended up joining their houses through marriage after the War of the Roses of which one of the main conflicts of GoT was based on).

There are plenty of other parallels throughout their chapters, one off instances of both characters put in the same environment or situation, more than I could count really. But what I personally find most odd is how some of their chapters completely mirror each other’s in terms of environment, theme and situation. Look to Jon and Sansa’s first and second ASOS chapters(that come right after the other’s) and you’ll find it’s almost like reading the same chapter twice. GRRM’s a man with words, it’s strange how similarly he words and crafts the environment he puts them in, unless he meant for their chapters to echo each other.

It’s not beyond GRRM

We know from his original outline that he intended for Jon and Arya to be the first Starks to reunite at the wall and struggle for non-platonic and very inappropriate feelings for each other which would torment them until Jon’s parentage is revealed in the final book - sounds not that far from what’s happened with Sansa tbh. Again, you have to remember that yes things have changed from the outline, Sansa was meant to choose Joffrey over her family, bore him children, then die, and none of that happened. Arya was also supposed to do a heck lot more in her storyline but what seems to happened is that GRRM knew he could never have Arya accomplish that much plot in so little time and so he might’ve split initial Arya into a fully fleshed version of Sansa, thus why Sansa and Arya are two sides of the same coin. It would also explain why while Arya looks like Lyanna, both sisters possess her traits and parallel her in their respective ways.

With Jonerys… listen… it’s just a doomed pairing. I was open to the idea but there are one too many kinks in it to have it be endgame not to mention Jonerys on the throne would completely go against the anti-war message ASOIAF has established. Not that doomed pairings have ever stopped me from shipping but they’re just so fundamentally different at this point that the idea of them just doesn’t work anymore(season 7′s rushed tryst was problematic and didn’t sell it to me either).

Additional Thoughts

I could drag on but these I think are some of the main points for me. There are a plethora of other reasons backing this up but yeah I think they have a solid chance. Points aside, I guess I also ship them because there is literally no man who’s a viable suitor for Sansa and her status, that could treat her how she deserves - show!Jon has proved himself worthy, and Sansa has fed him with the well deserved validation he’s needed and craved, acknowledgement of him being a Stark. They work so well together.

Jon is the only man in her arc who canonly has acknowledged that “Winterfell belongs to […] Sansa.” i.e. the only man who wouldn’t marry her for her claim. For a girl who came to the realisation that “No one will ever marry me for love.”(which was followed by Jon’s chapter right after btw), that’s a huge deal. A JonSa endgame would be done so out of political reasons but love would no doubt follow. He is the only man to respect her boundaries and treat her as a human being, to see her for more than just her beauty. You can comment a suitor in her arc she was involved with and I will be able to point out how it’s problematic and wouldn’t work for endgame, how Sansa deserves better. JonSa is my OTP because they genuinely and effortlessly are perfect for each other :)

Trust me I could point out more and more, but hopefully people who see this post link some of their metas/own reasons in the comments in case you want to learn more! Thanks for the ask, this was lovely x

#jonsa #jon x sansa #jonsa fam do contribute <3

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dailythranduilproject · 6 years

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Today it’s @floranocturna turn with being interviewed! I would like to thank you for sharing with all of us! - Mirky.

General Questions: Username(s) we can find you under: Floranocturna and The Real Floranocturna (FanFiction.Net)

What Media do you create? Fanfictions, sometimes image edits

Are you self-taught or did you go to art school? I have a Masters degree in Literature (and History) and writing is indeed my job, but writing fanfiction and fantasy stories is my passion.

Which artists have influenced your style? Mainly Tolkien and Rowling, but there are numerous others along the way,which have shaped my style into what it is now.

Which are your favourite artists? Fragonard and Boucher (yes I love French rococo) and in the fandom my favorite artists are Kinko-White and Bohemianweasel.

Where can we find your work? AO3, Wattpad, tumblr, FanFiction.net, Quotev, DeviantArt and Inkitt.

What would you say you are best known for in the fandom? My writing

Do you have a favorite pairing? *ahem* I ship Thranduil with me of course XD

Do you have a favorite creation of yours you are especially proud of? My ongoing Thranduil story *The Secret of the Forest*, which I have recently rewritten into a Thranduil/OC story (it used to be a reader insert before). I have been working on this since 2016 and this story is very close to my heart.

Do you have a favourite fictional character, besides Thranduil of course? Severus Snape, because I really love how his character is neither good nor evil and the astounding amount of depth Rowling gave him.

What other fandoms are you part of? Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Avatar

Do you do commissions? Nope, sorry, no spare time left.

Any advice/words for others in the fandom?

First: Be kind and respectful and always remember that we are in this fandom to share our love for Thranduil and not to fight over him.

Second: Do not steal other people’s hard work. This is something I had to experience myself and it is NOT nice! Create your own works and if you cannot do that then support the artists by sharing their work and encouraging them with likes and comments.

Third: If you are a writer getting started I would like you to remember that only practice makes perfect. Keep writing, keep searching for that voice of yours and keep reading! Read books, read stories and then read even more! And then sit down and write again, let the words flow and don’t think about what others will think of it. Write for yourself and only when you feel comfortable with it, then put it out there for others to see. Don’t take criticism personally, but try to see it as a possibility to grow as an author.

Personal Questions:

If you could name a song (or two or three) that would describe you or your life, what would it be? ‘Unknown Legend’ by Neil Young, ‘Lost Direction’ by Beecake, ‘Resolve’ by Sleeping At Last

Favorite color? Green

Favorite Book? Since I cannot choose only one here go my top choices: ’The Silmarillion’, ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit’ by Tolkien, Harry Potter 1-7 by Rowling, ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell’ by Susanna Clarke.

Favorite movie? ‘The Fall’, because of its absolutely stunning cinematography, magical storytelling and of course Lee Pace and the adorable Cantinca Untaru.

Do you have a pet peeve? Ignorance and rudeness.

What country are you from? Austria, that place where the hills are apparently alive with the sound of music ;)

Who do you think you might have been in a past life? I have no idea, but hopefully someone remotely cool.

What do you like to do in your spare time other than create the media you work on? Photography, cosplay, reading and I enjoy taking walks alone or with my dogs while listening to music and thinking about new plot twists for my stories (yeah I can never really turn off the writing)

When did you join the fandom? I have been in the Tolkien fandom for a while (since the LOTR movies) and I have been a fan of Lee Pace already before The Hobbit movies (because of ‘the Fall’), but I started being more active around 2014/15.

TheMirkyKing’s Questions:

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

This is a difficult question, because many parts can be hard depending on my inspiration or the lack of it. The easiest part is usually the dialogue, because I just listen to what my protagonists say in my head and write it down. What’s hard is to keep track where everyone is standing, walking, moving around. Sometimes I think that my characters take on a life of their own and keep walking around and then I don’t know what are they doing. Sounds crazy, but it does happen! And actually sticking to my decisions regarding the plot is hard for me too, because I keep constantly having new ideas.

How do you fell about the upcoming series based off Middle-earth?

I do have mixed feelings about this. On one hand more Middle-earth is always a good thing and maybe a fresh take on Tolkien’s writings might bring a whole lot of characters and events to life on screen. But, and yes there is always a but, I honestly hope that the producers will not try to drag Middle-earth to Westeros, wanting to have a share in the success of Game of Thrones. Tolkien is not Martin and as much as I like Game of Thrones — hey, why do we have to wait until 2019 for that final season? —, I do not think that trying to imitate something that is successful in its own way is the path for this new Middle-earth series. Finding a new voice maybe even away from what Peter Jackson has set as standard might be a more logical and creative way to go.

If you could travel to Middle-earth, where would you want to call home?

This is an easy answer: Mirkwood of course. I would love to see Thranduil’s kingdom, especially after the War of the Ring, when the darkness has been destroyed and the forest has been renamed *Eryn Lasgalen*, the Wood of Greenleaves. I want to see the beauty of this primeval forest restored, the sunlit canopies of green and gold, the peaceful glades, flowers and trees growing in a new spring. Maybe even catch a glimpse of Thranduil’s new elk, which I am sure he will have. I’ve written about these woods so many times in my story that I somehow feel at home there although I’ve never even been there. Well, my heart is there and that is enough for me.

Follower Questions:

From @moonofmorrigan - How did you conceive the idea for your story, The Secret of the Forest?

This story started out quite simple because of my love for Thranduil, but it has grown into a much more complex project. I first had the idea of a romance, a love story with many obstacles involving an elf and a human. Over the course of 1,5 years many more layers have been added to it. I really love exploring Thranduil’s past, finding a credible backstory for his wife’s death and the many hardships he has suffered in his long lifetime, but I also have discovered that I enjoy playing around with my own characters, like the brothers Amardir and Faeldir. And the best part is that the readers like them too! This story is not just a fanfic about a beautiful Elvenking, but it is a story about love and loss, grief and sacrifice and the search for absolution. There are some universal truths to be found in this tale showing us that elves and humans might not be so different from each other after all.

From @moonofmorrigan - What things inspire you to continue writing it, and your original story about the dark elf?

Thranduil is the one thing that continues to inspire me every day to keep writing this story. But also all the readers and their comments, kudos, likes and votes keep me going. I am still overwhelmed by all the support I have gotten and the nice people I have met along the way in this fandom! My original story *The Enchanted Spring* about the dark elf Andor is my new ‘baby’ and I have a complete plot laid out already. It is quite different from my Thranduil story, although it does feature another beautiful elf. It is much darker and closer to folk tales and folklore. What I love about it is that this is all my own creation, no boundaries, no given facts. I can do whatever I want and play god in my world *evil laughter*.

@bellevox asked- I loved the fact that your husband made a song for your story. He’s a very talented musician! This is real love! If you do not mind, could you tell us a little about your family? If you do not want to, you do not need to.

I am really blessed to have such a loving husband! Not only does he support my writing, but he is also extremely patient and listens to my ramblings about plot twists, character arcs and synonyms. He has written 2 songs for my story (Nameless Lady and Thranduil’s Lament) and he keeps asking me for the next poem ;). As many of you must have guessed around here, I am a bit older than your average tumblr user, but hey, one is never too old to be passionate about something. I am a working mum of 5 (in between the age of 20 and 7) and we have 2 dogs (Yavanna and Nenya) and 3 cats (Mina, Zuko and Sansa). Our kids are growing up with Tolkien, Harry Potter and fantasy in general, Gandalf is a household name and even the little one can sing ‘They’re taking the hobbits to Isengard’ ;).

@beelovesbutterfly wanted to know- What is one cause that is dear to your heart?

As a mother of an angel baby, miscarriage and stillbirth are causes that are very close to my heart. These topics are still widely a taboo in our society and yet it happens to mothers all the time. I strongly believe that it is important to offer those mothers help and support and to let them know that they are not alone in their grief.

@beelovesbutterfly - What is your favorite flower? Daisy (it’s small, simple and perfect)

@beelovesbutterfly -Do you have a bad writing habit? I write too much. Just kidding, but no, seriously, I can deviate too much from what I want to say and I can spend hours researching synonyms and searching for that perfect word instead of just going ahead with the story. I’m trying to keep my sentences short and focused, but it’s difficult. And I have the tendency to get enamored with specific words, says my husband ;)

@beelovesbutterfly -Who is your Hollywood crush? **ahem** Lee Pace (obviously ;))

And from @eldritchmage - What story would you want to write about your favorite king that you haven’t written yet?

In have lots of other ideas about possible stories with Thranduil. I’ve been thinking on a story with an elvish OC, just to give it a different twist away from the dichotomy of mortal and immortal. But what I really would love to write is a humorous story, something light and funny and completely different from the angsty romance I am writing now. Possibly even a modern AU with Thrandy running a beauty parlor or something like that ;). I’m sure this would be loads of fun!

#interviews #floranocturna #themirkyking #dailythranduilproject #interview 3

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