Feb 29th!

Briefly pausing the crossposts to wish you all a happy leap year day! <3

Tumblr crosspost (22 September 2020)

I reblogged a gifset focused on Anakin and Luke Skywalker, showing the "I am your father" moment and Luke's shock on the first and final gifs, with the others highlighting Luke saying "I know, Father" in ROTJ, Anakin saying "It is too late for me, son," Luke saying "I will not fight you, Father," and Anakin saying "Now go, my son."

I tagged it: #just having some skywalker feelings as usual #;_;

Tumblr crosspost (22 September 2020)

cosmonauthill responded to this post:

Don’t take this the wrong way but it’s very encouraging to see a writer I admire who has similarly hmmm feelings about their most popular works on AO3

I replied:

Oh, thanks! My feelings are certainly ‘hmmm’ wrt a lot of them … some came out of an unpleasant part of my life like Season of Courtship, some are things I wrote on the side while I was working on other ideas that seemed more important, some were mostly just getting an idea out, and a few are things where I was uncomplicatedly excited to write the idea and more or less happy with the results. It’s definitely a mishmash.

Tumblr crosspost (22 September 2020)

steinbecks responded to this post:

what would you say is your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I replied:

Oh, thanks for asking! Hmm. I’ve written well over 200 (though most of that number are quite short), so it’s hard to say, and I’m never sure whether to go more with the “my best work IMO” sort of favorite or the “dear to my heart” kind. But, to cheat slightly, off the top of my head:

Favorite One-Shot: probably The Letters of Elizabeth Darcy, 1796-1798 (AO3). I had the idea and then I wrote the idea and what I wrote is what I meant to write. It’s not OMG MY BABY!!1! but it’s probably the fic that I’m most straightforwardly satisfied with.

Favorite Multi-Chaptered Fic (WIP): if we’re going with personal affection, it probably—despite everything—has got to be my f!Luke series, The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker (AO3), which began with Ten Facts About (Everyone Except) Lucy Skywalker (AO3), and is currently stuck 20 chapters and some months past ESB in The Jedi and the Sith Lord (AO3).

Favorite Multi-Chaptered Fic (Complete): relatedly, my f!Darcy/m!Elizabeth retelling of P&P, First Impressions. Very definitely my baby :D

Tagged: #the éowyn/f!faramir fic almost squeaked in (i am nothing if not predictable!!!) but very little surpasses the lucyverse for me

Tumblr crosspost (23 September 2020)

I reblogged an animation made by getseth on Tumblr of Fingolfin facing down Morgoth.

Tagged: #and morgoth came #!!! #this is very cool op

Tumblr crosspost (23 September 2020)

I am so weak for relationships where Person B is the devoted bff and/or right hand of Person A and ready to spring to their defense at any moment … even though Person A is perfectly capable of looking after themself and probably more powerful than B, anyway.

#i was thinking of one of my ships veering that way in an au scenario #and then was like... i've only done this idk four times in my original fic #what's one more

Tumblr crosspost (24 September 2020)

I reblogged incognitajones's pulse to pulse and added:

#oh i loved this! #it was like all the id candy of soulmates without having to wrap my brain around soulmates

incognitajones's summary:

After nearly dying together on the sands of Scarif, Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor are somehow linked, with painful consequences: able to sense each other’s feelings and thoughts. The only explanation Jyn can think of is that the legendary Force bonds her mother used to tell stories of are real.

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steinbecks responded to this post:

AWWWW I love this.

I replied:

<3 <3

She said:

Of course Lucy Skywalker’s here haha

I replied:

Inevitably! adfkfjdjka and when I first heard about Lucas making Luke a girl, I was like “that would have been so cool, but there’s not really point to fic about her…”

Nine years later:



[A screenshot of the Lucy Skywalker AO3 series page, listing the creator as me, the beginning date of 2011-5-16, the then-most recent update of 2020-02-12, and the word count as 126,879.]

Tumblr crosspost (24 September 2020)

The “why do Gondorians keep naming people after Túrin” thing is kind of weird, honestly.

Like, yes, he was a tragic figure who left a trail of disaster. But he was also an icon of their ancestral people who achieved great deeds despite his personal flaws and a terrible curse. In all probability, Gondorians aren’t thinking of ill fortune when they name their sons Turambar or Túrin; they’re thinking of standing defiant against an implacable and overwhelming foe. It’s … not that strange.

Tagged: #there was a time when i disliked túrin! i get it! but also it's like #pretty indisputable that /in-story/ he's an iconic hero to the edain and dúnedain? #it is not that strange that gondorians would respect their ancestral heroes and particularly túrin and morwen #whose grim heroism seems ... very much to the dúnadan taste #idk maybe it's just because i've seen the 'lol but WHY' so many times and i'm just... y'all. come on. #you don't have to like túrin but a hell of a lot of people in middle-earth do

Tumblr crosspost (24 September 2020)

I get that fandom can be annoying and worse than annoying, but … tbh I have yet to encounter a remotely convincing argument as to why fanfic is intrinsically Not Literature.

Tagged: #i am up to my ears in early modern lit right now and while i wouldn't personally term all derivative literature 'fanfic' #bc i think the term is more specific #a LOT of the time when people say fanfic what they mean is 'anything that reuses pre-existing stories/characters for any reason' #apart from direct adaptations #and when they're arguing about why fanfic is not Real Literature the derivative quality is /why/ it isn't Real Literature #'i'm not saying that can't be good ... i'm just saying it can't be THAT good' mmhmm #and then if you point out that a lot of things generally considered That Good share that same quality #hdu compare yourself with the greats! point proved!!!! #the whole rationale just seems totally incoherent and arbitrary to me #bonus points for 'i can't say why it's different from early modern reinterpretations it just is'

Tumblr crosspost (25 September 2020)

I reblogged art by fortheorlinga at Tumblr of Ivriniel and Lothíriel at Dol Amroth, and added:

#aww! #i headcanon them as really close (if in a different setting) so it's super nice to see something focused on them together!

Tumblr crosspost (25 September 2020)

sqbr responded to this post:

I don’t remember Zaheer’s plot very well, but wouldn’t the middling-evil version of Amon just be a Very Flawed Activist Leader?

Not the sort who suddenly turns into a supervillain just…while he does achieve SOME good things, he refuses to acknowledge any marginalisations other than his pet Issue exist, is kind of cult-leader-ish, accuses any non-bender who disagrees with him of being Part of the System, any groups with slightly different approaches of being Evil and Wrong etc.

You could have him act like the Rachel Dolezai’s of this world, who decide they can run a civil rights organisation best despite being a member of the relevantly privileged class, and thus are 100% justified in painting their face to mimic an made-up angsty marginalised backstory. (Not that being a non-bender is the same as being black, but she’s the best known example I can think of) Or you could have him be open about being a non-bender from the start, and the fact he talks over and silences actual non-benders who disagree with is him one of his obvious issues during the season.

And then at the end you’ve got all these other actual-non-bender activists who over the show have been shown to have idealogical and practical conflicts with Amon, and so are in a position to continue the work less terribly once he’s gone. Like a less simplisticly Good Marginalised Folk Support The Status Quo version of Magneto vs Professor X in Xmen. Have one of them be a major secondary character working with Korra, so it’s less benders vs civil rights group and more benders-and-non-benders vs this ONE civil rights group.

I replied:

Hmm, that makes sense! I was thinking of middling Amon as a little darker—still carrying off the Amon persona to some extent, and trying to figure out how he could manage that without going full villain. But yeah, I think “he refuses to acknowledge any marginalisations other than his pet Issue exist, is kind of cult-leader-ish, accuses any non-bender who disagrees with him of being Part of the System, any groups with slightly different approaches of being Evil and Wrong etc” have got to be pretty essential to how he operates.

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I reblogged this post, and added:

#i'm just ... thinking about it again ... i love this image so much #someday i'll commission it #(okay ngl i'm weak and i particularly really want to order the fíriel/éowyn version #but i'd have to write it first #...hm...)

Tumblr crosspost (25 September 2020)

I don’t know why I even click on the Gondor discussions that Quora sends me

Tagged: #even when it's not directly about the stewards it's ... pretty bad #either a) inane b) weak defenses of movie gondor c) super racist or d) some combination thereof #not that there isn't the occasional good post but mostly #concentrated yikes

Tumblr crosspost (25 September 2020)

xtoad on Tumblr said:

I've watched a series of videos by Kay & Skittles on Youtube that makes me think that a grey Zaheer could be one who interacts with the people he claims to want to liberate and tries to build his revolution from the ground-up rather than in a purely top-down manner.

I replied:

Hmm, that would certainly be an improved Zaheer.

I guess my difficulty is that it seems like that version would be so improved as to be essentially a good guy. I do think “what if the villains were actually heroic exemplars of their ideologies” is an interesting concept, it’s just not quite the one I’m struggling with—it’s making Noatak and Zaheer fall in that morally-dubious-but-not-evil zone where I’m kind of pulling a blank.

Tumblr crosspost (26 September 2020)

jubaah reblogged my first post of my Jyn/Cassian Persuasion AU from 2017, and said:

#GOD I LOVE THIS ONEEEE #even though looking back now it is the only thing that makes perfect sense... i wasn't expecting jyn 2 be the wentworth #also bc i'm super predictable i love the complicated saw stuff...

I replied:

Thank you!! I wish I’d kept going with it but kept getting swept up in other things, but it was a really fun concept to develop and sketch out.

Tumblr crosspost (26 September 2020)

actualreyofsunshine on Tumblr had posted about how enemies to friends to lovers is a cool trope when the enmity is over something extremely trivial and nobody's actually done anything seriously bad.

My friend venndaai reblogged it with a comment about Radch fandom, and I added:

OP has an interesting idea of “enemies.”

Tumblr crosspost (26 September 2020)

kungfunurse on Tumblr asked:

Hiya! I’ve got a LOTR question and I’m hoping you can help me - when I read ROtK I’d assumed that Arwen’s life would be the same length as Aragorn‘s. In Peter Jackson’s movies it seemed like she would live on in grief for ever into the modern age. That doesn’t seem very mortal to me? Like if she’s gonna be alive that long why doesn’t she hop on Legolas and Gimli’s boat and head to the undying lands with them? What’s the best way to interpret Arwen’s lifespan? Thanks!!

I replied:

No problem! In “The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen,” Arwen leaves Gondor after Aragorn’s death, goes to Lothlórien, and dies there before the following spring. She’s not immortal.

Tumblr crosspost (27 September 2020)

Apparently I’ve been plagiarized on Amazon again

>_<

Tagged: #it's also something i would never have wanted published in any case #bc it's bizarre and came out of a really difficult headspace #but least of all published /by someone else/ D:
#sort of flattering but mostly intensely irritating

Tumblr crosspost (27 September 2020)

Aragorn: *does literally anything*

me:

[A screenshot of Facebook's drop-down list for relationship status, with "It's Complicated" highlighted out of a list of "Single," "In a Relationship," "Engaged," "Married," "It's Complicated," "In an Open Relationship," and "Widowed."]

Tagged: #i would not ship him with my precious fave if i ultimately disliked him #and there's a lot that i find fascinating about him #but there is a lot of ...... complication

Tumblr crosspost (27 September 2020)

xtoad on Tumblr asked:

Do you think that a natural progression for Bolin might be to straight-up join the Air Nomads ? It would fit his desire to help people, he's pretty much hitched to an Air Nomad already and it could be an interesting debut to a new policy of diversification for Tenzin & Co, perhaps followed by a similar movement in the other nations ?

I replied:

Hmm. The Air Nomads under Tenzin already had non-airbenders with the Air Acolytes, so it wouldn’t be at all strange for someone to join. I’m not sure Bolin really fits their mentality and practices, though—he could work with the Air Nomads without being one himself.

Tagged: #but also i'm not a fan of his so i might not be the best judge tbh

Tumblr crosspost (28 September 2020)

I reblogged a post about the value of platonic relationships and specifically about not regarding or treating them as lesser forms of love, and added:

Tagged: #tbh wish that a lot of people who say they feel this way actually did #'it's not lesser just DIFFERENT' yeah sure jan

Tumblr crosspost (28 September 2020)

I reblogged this post and added:

Oh hey, plagiarism book got removed. Shout-out to whoever reported it!

Tagged: #i didn't!

The first set of women's wrongs poll results showed up!

Over at Tumblr, the main women's wrongs poll finished. After 4,464 votes (easily my most voted upon poll ever), the top four results were:

1) Clytemnestra from the Oresteia (19.5%)
2) Carmilla from (Le Fanu's) Carmilla (16.4%)
3) Catra from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (15.3%)
4) Cersei Lannister from ASOIAF (10.7%)

C is the letter of choice for beloved morally dubious female characters, apparently!

Tumblr crosspost (28 September 2020)

Back to my Aeneid notes, and I really love this description of the morning star:

Like the Morning Star, loved by Venus
As no other star, when it rises from Ocean,
A sacred light in the sky melting the dark.

Eärendil!!!

Tagged: #look this has reminded me of tolkien multiple times but ESPECIALLY this passage

Tumblr crosspost (29 September 2020)

I reblogged my original posting of this f!Faramir/Éowyn fic, and added:

I’m having very powerful Éowyn/Fíriel feelings rn ;_;

Tagged: #my fave genderbent characters will always be lucy and catherine/philadelphia but fíriel is very very dear to me #and so is her whole verse! #i didn't intend it to be fíriel/éowyn but the lure was irresistible so OT3 IT IS

Tumblr crosspost (29 September 2020)

You all are probably tired of hearing about the Aeneid, but I just have to share this bit of an incredibly cool speech that Juno gets:

“But if my powers
Are not great enough, why should I hesitate
To seek help from any source whatever?
If I cannot sway Heaven, I will awaken Hell!”

Tagged: #not at all favorably portrayed but unmistakably badass #also i like venus here but juno's call-out of her re: paris was very satisfying

Tumblr crosspost (29 September 2020)

I reblogged this graphic for Fíriel (f!Faramir), which I originally posted on 25 October 2015:

I too am a healer, and I say to you: it may be that you were born for this hour, Fíriel daughter of Denethor.

Rule 63!Faramir, from the young daughter of the Steward, to the fey princess of Minas Tirith, to the regent of Gondor.

2020 addition:

I made this five years ago and I still have a) a ton of feelings about this verse and b) yet to write most of it.

Tagged: #it's definitely become a ot3 in my head though #i was re-reading some of my scraps and drafts and just. consumed with emotions #one scrap is just entirely about fíriel and denethor's relationship #i wanna write more about fíriel and éowyn's #there's 'a hard matter' with fíriel and aragorn figuring out What Now #there's théoden surviving as an outcome of denethor stuff and returning in honor and glory to rohan with éomer and éowyn at his side #there's pippin's love for faramir becoming a sort of scaled-down version of gimli and galadriel with fíriel #gandalf telling young fíriel his true maia name #AND WHAT ABOUT ELROND #esp if i go with my headcanon that the stewards' 'royal origin' is tindómiel...? #there's just #so much #...fíriel's nose is a bit different in my head but otherwise the second picture is especially super close to how i picture her #anyway

Tumblr crosspost (30 September 2020)

I don’t really have time for fic, but I just wrote six pages of, uh, Merry fic?

(It’s in the f!Faramir verse, so not completely off-brand, but … yeah, idk.)

Tagged: #fíriel of minas tirith #it's my 'verse tag—she hasn't even shown up yet

Tumblr crosspost (30 September 2020)

Several people responded to this:

lotesse said:

Merry is the best tho *encourages*

velvet-jellyfish said:

Ooh exciting!

heckofabecca said:

I LOVE MERRY

I replied:

Here’s a bit of him!

“What is she like?” Merry asked.

Pippin tilted his head, thinking about it. In fact, he thought about it for so long that Merry might have poked him, if not for the chain mail.

“A bit Elvish,” he said at last. “She belongs to those heights, right enough—but isn’t so far-off, if you understand me. It’s hard to explain. You can talk to her, and at the same time, she … you can’t help feeling that you would do anything for her.”

He flushed a little as he spoke. Merry hid a smile. 

“Did you ask for a strand of her hair?” he said.

Tumblr crosspost (30 September 2020)

An anon asked:

omg wait ok did you ever write f!faramir fic on ao3 with like a hint of farawyn? Bc if so I’ll tell you what I adored that fic so much. Would you ever consider writing more of them? Thank you for your time you’re lovely hope you have a great day x

I replied:

Indeed I did, if you mean this one. There’s another that has a few hints, a hard matter, though it’s more OT3 hints + focused on Fíriel wrestling with what to do about Aragorn’s claim.

If it was one of those, thank you very much! I know the verse has a relatively niche appeal, so I appreciate hearing about it, and that (the first one, with Éowyn meeting Fíriel) is what I’m continuing now. :)

Tumblr crosspost (30 September 2020)

Back on 3 June 2019, I posted a pair of quotes about Éowyn and Faramir:

1: Éowyn

“In whom do my people trust?”

“In the House of Eorl,” answered Háma.

“But Éomer I cannot spare, nor would he stay,” said the king; “and he is the last of that House.”

“I said not Éomer,” answered Háma. “And he is not the last. There is Éowyn, daughter of Éomund, his sister. She is fearless and high-hearted. All love her. Let her be as lord to the Eorlingas, while we are gone.”

2: Faramir

at last the red sunset filled all the sky, and the light through the windows fell on the grey faces of the sick. Then it seemed to those who stood by that in the glow the faces flushed softly as with health returning, but it was only a mockery of hope.

Then an old wife, Ioreth, the eldest of the women who served in that house, looking on the fair face of Faramir, wept, for all the people loved him. And she said, "Alas! if he should die.”

❤️ ❤️ ❤️

Tagged: #peak power couple who marry for love! #what a ship #there's something deeply satisfying about everyone in-story loving my faves ;kjafd;jkaf #and that's separately

Then, in Sep 2020: I reblogged this and added:

#my extremely lovable beloveds :) #also #háma #ioreth #i love them both a lot too! #i was just re-reading ioreth's section for the éowyn-merry-fíriel fic and she's just...bless her

Tumblr crosspost (30 September 2020)

Speaking of Háma:

Aragorn stood a while hesitating. “It is not my will,” he said, “to put aside my sword or to deliver Andúril to the hand of any other man.”

“It is the will of Théoden,” said Háma.

“It is not clear to me that the will of Théoden son of Thengel, even though he be lord of the Mark, should prevail over the will of Aragorn son of Arathorn, Elendil’s heir of Gondor.”

“This is the house of Théoden, not of Aragorn, even were he King of Gondor in the seat of Denethor,” said Háma.

AN ICON

Tagged: #i like the rohirrim but am not super fannish about them by and large #but háma is up there with éowyn tbh #(in part bc of éowyn but also bc of this but also bc of dying heroically ... truly a legend)