Tumblr crosspost (2 December 2019)

Sometimes I’m torn, because I really don’t feel that unfinished side-projects should be required reading for a published and widespread text, but …

Well, my favourite Tolkien work is LOTR. But my understanding of LOTR has a lot of influence from Tolkien’s later work, and I feel that it’s not quite fair to talk about what he was doing while ignoring large of swaths of what he did.

And yet, people shouldn’t need to read ancillary material to come away with a valid reading of a text.

Then again …

(This touches a lot of discussions for me, but especially takes on Isildur that ignore "Gladden Fields.")

Tumblr crosspost (4 December 2019)

An anon said:

Councilman Noatak and Tarrlok is Amon AU. How different would things be?

I replied:

It’d really depend on the circumstances that led to it, of course. There are a lot of pretty different possible scenarios there. But if we’re adhering to canon as much as possible—

Well, in canon, they have their obvious differences, but they echo each other in their approaches to their respective causes. That is, they combine ruthless power trips with very sincere belief in their own righteousness. So that would still be present in both cases—it’d be fun to envision a world where Councilman Noatak + masked vigilante Tarrlok are actually fairly benign figures, and I think in some scenarios that’s possible, but again, if we’re trying to stick as much to canon as possible, that doesn’t quite work with the thirst for power and righteousness that they share.

So the real question is what their causes would be. Noatak is so tightly associated with non-bender equality that I definitely was envisioning Councilman Noatak as still preoccupied with that— a crusading politician whose pet issue is equality and who sees all other issues as either offshoots of that or comparatively insignificant. But (like Tarrlok) he’s perfectly ready to use the crusade to fuel his own rise to power.

( Read more... )

Tumblr crosspost (6 December 2019)

I just saw Darcy’s character development described as a redemption arc, and … lololol, wow.

Tumblr crosspost (11 December 2019)

I know people mean well when they keep asking me about how the reading for my exams is going, but also

AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(I'm not mad, just stressed. It's not going! I'm just grading, and grading, and grading.)

Tumblr crosspost (11 December 2019)

ladytharen / elperian said:

are you remembering to get sleep and drink water? <3

I replied:

I’d get more done if I could sleep less, tbh, but I can’t seem to function on less than 9-10 hours right now. >_<

Thank you, though!

Tumblr crosspost (12 December 2019)

I’ve been rewatching ATLA to drag myself through the end of the semester, and “The Storm” was as heartwrenching as ever.

Also, little Azula’s satisfaction at her father brutally attacking her brother is creepy, but at this point in my life, less creepy to me than the fact that little Azula was there at all.

Tumblr crosspost (12 December 2019)

An anon said:

I finally found someone who agree with me about: 1) what Luke did for Vader was out of intense love for his father, and not out of pure kindness exactly (as you say, “he’s more of a loving person than an forgiving one,” because before knowing who Vader was he hated Vader and wanted him dead) and 2) Luke and Anakin are Gryffindors, not Hufflepuffs (this one is so controversial, but I’m so glad at least one person agrees with me! One of Hufflepuff’s qualities on Pottermore is freaking PATIENCE??!)

I replied:

You have my sword, anon! We are few but stalwart :)

Tumblr crosspost (16 December 2019)

I'm so tired, y'all.

Tumblr crosspost (16 December 2019)

gigi-mari asked:

Do you plan to update your fem!Luke AU? I love Lucy! She’s so dreamy and idealistic and gentle but tomboyish and determined and brave to the point of recklessness at the same time; she’s still Luke, but not quite, as Luke already displays some characteristics traditionally associated with women, such as being driven by his emotions, but Lucy has a charm of her own. Now that the Skywalker twins are both girls, their personalities are even more contrasting, a dynamic of genuine foils.

I searched for genderbent SW fics but couldn’t find nothing like yours (I’m curious to see how Lucy’s gender, as the main protagonist, specifically, affects others’ perceptions of her), it’s a rare gem! You stopped in one of the best parts, when Lucy finally meets Vader (dressed in Padmé’s gown!), the father she loved blindly since childhood… I’m excited to see how the father-daughter dynamic will play out in opposite as a father-son one (as Vader never bonded with Leia in the OT).

I replied:

Oh, thank you very much!

Rambling a bit, but: at first, when I saw the Ralph McQuarrie painting of f!Luke, I loved the idea of her but also, since Luke is pretty androgynous to me in canon, didn’t see the point in writing fic about her—it’d just be canon with the pronouns changed (and, well, sometimes it is that). But then I thought about how male-dominated the Rebellion and the Empire are onscreen and how that could impact things, and how it would highlight both the similarities and differences with Leia, and definitely affect the dynamic with Han, and I do think Luke and Vader’s dynamic is heavily shaped by masculinity issues, and-and-and. Basically, I was trying to do exactly what you described! So—thanks again. :)

( Read more... )

Tumblr crosspost (17 December 2019)

Re: TROS [2021: before I had seen it]—

adf;kadf;kad my Twitter feed is all like “if you loved TLJ, you’ll hate it!” “if you loved TLJ, you love how this makes it even better!” “it is the WORST and ALL IS RUINED” “it’s amazingly brilliant! who knew JJ had it in him”

(otoh my Tumblr dash is firmly on the RUINED FOREVER boat.)

I don’t know, tbh, because there have been a lot of things I thought silly or at least undesirable in theory that I ended up really liking in execution. So, general mood atm is … huh.

I'm honestly not super stressed, though, because I've hated SW things before and I'll undoubtedly hate them again. It's what headcanon and AUs are for, even if I do end up hating it!

[2021: it was too middling for me to really hate, but I ended up being dissatisfied and, predictably, incorporating fix-fic AU ideas into the Lucyverse.]

Tumblr crosspost (17 December 2019)

when will I reached the promised land

the end is in sight ... and yet so far!

[2021: this was about grading.]

Tumblr crosspost (18 December 2019)

I really appreciate that World Anvil has a place not only for your characters’ birthdates, physical appearances, spoken languages etc, but also one for their D&D alignment.

It's like ... hmm, I never thought about it for this minor character but I want her to have an entry. Let's go "dignified True Neutral."

Tumblr crosspost (18 December 2019)

re: this, I HAVE ARRIVED!

Grading is finished, at last, and my 18th century class did great. :D

Tumblr crosspost (19 December 2019)

venndaai said, in response to this:

I’ve completely drifted away from SW movie fandom but reading your reactions is probably the thing I’m looking forward to most about this movie coming out

I replied:

Oh, thanks! <3

I’m not seeing it until after the 1st, though it’s an exercise in self-control not to respond to all the spoilers, lol

Not a crosspost

Every pro author I follow has talked about getting rejected a gazillion times and persevering, and it's like ... I have this short story that's been rejected twice (against very steep competition), and my kneejerk reaction is "okay, clearly not publishable, I should just put it away forever." I know that's a terrible way to think about it and I shouldn't give up on my child story so easily, but—respect to people who just keep carrying on. Someday, I'll get there.

Tumblr crosspost (21 December 2019)

Several people responded to this post (the Tumblr version, of course) to agree and thank me for it.

I said:

Thank you very much!

It's struck me for a long time that Austen is just ... there is no tolerance of the slightest whiff of sexual exploitation, so the But As a Man of the Times reasoning just seems to wildly miss a pretty major point.

Tumblr crosspost (21 December 2019)

I’ve been thinking about P&P, and … one of my favourite things about it is just how ambiguous the first half is, without necessarily appearing to be so.

Almost every interaction between Darcy and Elizabeth can be read in multiple ways, depending on how you’re approaching the novel and how you align yourselves with the characters. And those readings can lead to very different senses of what’s going on; people who wholly align themselves with Elizabeth are often reading a very different book from people who are mostly reading with an eye to Darcy/Elizabeth, say.

( Read more... )

Tumblr crosspost (25 December 2019)

I reblogged my P&P Christmas post:

"Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?"

"I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."

"I am happier even than Jane; she only smiles, I laugh. Mr Darcy sends you all the love in the world that he can spare from me. You are all to come to Pemberley at Christmas."

<3

Tumblr crosspost (28 December 2019)

steinbecks at Tumblr responded to my TROS post:

ELIZABETH HAVE YOU SEEN IT YET. I SAW IT AND I DIDNT LIKE IT. LET’S RECONVENE

I said:

I haven’t! I will after the 1st, though.

Tumblr crosspost (29 December 2019)

I reblogged a nice comment on my elaborate Avatar/Star Wars plotbunny + the original (May 2013) post, which is:

I’ve written Avatar in the Star Wars ‘verse in varying ways, but what I really want is Star Wars in the Avatar verse. I mentioned some vague ideas before, but what I’d really to either see or get around to writing someday is this:

Air

- The Order of the White Lotus is highly visible and active as a body of warriors. Originally, they were neutral peacekeepers from all four nations, and guardians of the Avatar. Now they’ve largely evolved into defenders/diplomats for the Fire Nation. They also take command of all benders they find as young children and train them in the bending arts and traditions of the Order, but plenty are never found and have to make their own way.

- Qui-Gon Jinn is an earthbender and unorthodox Lotus warrior. Through some various adventures involving his apprentice Obi-Wan (an airbender) and the (disguised, non-bender) Southern Water Tribe chieftainess Padmé, he discovers that the Avatar, believed to be vanished from the earth for generations, has reincarnated as a young boy named Anakin Skywalker. Anakin is a suspiciously golden-eyed slave in the Earth Kingdom.

( Read more... )

Tumblr crosspost (30 December 2019)

Honestly, there’s nothing that reignites interest in an old fandom like people bringing up things that I bitterly loathed. Fandoms come and fandoms go, but the embers of my hatred burn on!

Tumblr crosspost (31 December 2019)

An anon said:

Is it bad that when I saw your most recent post, I immediately thought of Lieumon? I know you hate it, after all!

I replied:

Haha, I do, but it wasn’t that!

Tumblr crosspost (31 December 2019)

New Year’s resolution: actually put together the readings for my exams, and then actually read them.

[2021: lol]

[2021: also, that's all of 2019 crossposted!]