meta masterpost

[anghraine]

I've been thinking for awhile of putting all my serious meta together in some easily accessible place, since I get asked for particular links often enough, and I've posted enough that it's inconvenient to search my meta tag. It's very much a work in progress right now, but I tried to include the ones that people most often ask me about, use the most recent links, and add a brief description for each, as my titles tend to the unhelpful.

Austen || Pride and Prejudice

• Patronage rant. I read an essay arguing that Darcy's transformation will make him affable to the poor, but he hasn't got there yet, and threw a wordy tantrum at the essay in particular and generally the idea of Elizabeth transforming Beast!Darcy into Prince!Darcy.
• Why Georgiana Darcy is not Lydia Bennet. The parallels between the two girls are often discussed, to the point of overshadowing the fact that they are extremely dissimilar. I discussed their many, many differences here.
• Ten Facts About Appearance in P&P. A list of what we actually know about the characters' appearances, as opposed to what fanon tells us.
• Ten Utterances of the Voice of God (P&P). Similarly, a list of assertions from the omniscient narrator, some of which are common knowledge and some of which the fandom tends to ignore.
• A minor theory and a plot bunny. I noticed that Georgiana clearly has been told that Wickham was in the militia quartered at Meryton, and theorized that Darcy told her because he originally intended for her to join him.
• The Ubiquitous Shy Question. The debate over whether Darcy is shy or not is rather like a phoenix, or a Time Lord. It might die, but it will invariably come back in a new and bizarre form. I argued my own perspective here.
• I never thought I'd be defending this. For awhile, it was the newest, edgiest thing to argue that Elizabeth doesn't actually love Darcy. Generally I find myself in the position of arguing against the idea that theirs is a grand throbbing passion à la Harlequin, but I stepped up to the plate for this one.
• Austen timelines and crap. There's some debate over whether P&P is set in the Regency, when it was published, or the 1790s, when it was written. I went over some of the evidence here and went for the 1790s.
• Elizabeth, Family & Random Speculation. A discussion of Elizabeth's character development after her marriage, as seen in the few hints about her evolving attitude towards Darcy's family, and how it relates to her attitude towards her own.
• Darcy, Deceit and Disguise. A discussion of Darcy's approach to duplicity as compared to Wickham's. Conclusion: although they deceive about different things for different reasons with vastly difference frequency, they tend to lie in the same way.
• Random Peeves. I complained about the idea that the Bennets are poor and Darcy is fabulously wealthy; rather, the Bennets are well-off by the standards of country gentry, and Darcy is well-off by the standards of the aristocracy.
• Stereotyping the Hero. I talked about the ways in which the 1995 BBC adaptation of P&P subtly altered the details of Darcy's characterization to turn him into a conventional alpha male romance hero.

Austen || Mansfield Park

• Rediscovering Mansfield Park. I'd recently re-read MP, along with some MP criticism that invariably compares it to P&P. I took it upon myself to weigh in on the similarities and differences.

Austen || General/Fandom

• Snack Food and Austen (aka, Why Darcy Is Not A Muffin). I talked about Austen's characters through the lens of sarahtales' Snack Food theory of character types. It was pretty cracky, but fun.
• JAFF & prejudice. My thoughts on how Austen fandom deals with race and gender issues. (To sum up: badly.)
• Ten Facts About Jane Austen. A collection of relatively concise (!) pet peeves.
• OCs Past and Present: Eleanor. A reflection on my most controversial OC, Eleanor Fitzwilliam: how I wrote her, what I was trying to do with her, what I did later, and how it was all caught up in my issues with Mary Sues.
• A rant. My response to the fandom's response to the idea that Darcy might be on the autism spectrum, as my contribution for autistic speaking day.

Harry Potter

• Personal canon: Harry Potter. My HP headcanon, complete with footnotes. It's a mix of canon-compliant and canon-defiant. (AU doesn't really seem the right term for deliberately rejecting canon, rather than wondering what it would be like if...)

Middle-earth || LOTR

• [to be edited]

Star Wars

• Reasons To Love ESB. When Irvin Kershner, director of The Empire Strikes Back, died, a wave of fannish warfare ensued over the relative merits of Lucas, the prequels, ROTJ, ESB, and the barely-cold-in-his-grave Kershner himself. I responded with a list of reasons that ESB makes me happy.
• weight of the retcons. A consideration of how the more retcons we get, the more the initial exposition (and Captain Exposition himself, Obi-Wan) suffers from them.
• KNEEL BEFORE LEIA. I wondered why Leia is always a princess and never a queen, even in the EU, and discovered that in some of the earlier ideas for ROTJ, she was going to be crowned queen. Squee ensued.
• Action Girls and Leia. I ruminated on why Leia is such a more powerful character for me than Padmé and her fellow 90s Action Girls, though I like many of them. I concluded that a major difference is that ANH sets up an expectation of Leia as a distressed princess locked in a tower à la Mario Bros' Peach, only to gleefully shatter it into a million pieces. That expectation never exists for the others, so there isn't the same payoff.
• Women and Star Wars. An essay I wrote for my feminist psychology course, on the treatment of women in the SW movies. My (unsurprising) conclusion was that SW combines the occasional progressive impulse with tons of sexist claptrap.
• Yoda theory. I theorized that Yoda's inexplicable insistence that Luke rushing off to rescue Han and Leia would end up destroying everything is actually the consequence of seeing a glimpse of a future more probable than the one that happens, where Vader does manage to carbon-freeze Luke and Luke ends up joining him.
• asexuality and SW. I talked about how I can see Luke as an aromantic asexual, and why it makes me happy to think of him that way.
• Pet peeve: the Death Star. I ranted about the completely nonsensical idea that Luke's attack on the Death Star constitutes murder by any stretch of the imagination or that, in the circumstances, it's anything but heroic.
• A very limited defense of Anakin Skywalker. An indirect follow-up to the previous; this time, I argued against the idea that Vader can justifiably be blamed for (1) the murder of Owen and Beru, and (2) the destruction of Alderaan, particularly the latter.
• theorizing about the Force. My crack!theory about the nature of the Force, the effect of stagnation on the Force, and Anakin Skywalker's role as avatar of the Force.
• kidnapping for great justice! I talked about why the separation of the Skywalker twins bugs me.
• this would totally never happen, but it would be awesome if it did. I posted my dream cast for a SW reboot. Genderswapped, of course.
• The Skywalker twins and family resemblance. I went on, and on, and on about which qualities Luke and Leia share with which parents, and particularly rejected the idea that (1) Luke and Leia are total opposites, (2) Leia is more like Anakin, and (3) Luke is just like Padmé.
• hatred empowers us. I talked about why I didn't like Tatooine Ghost, and particularly about its use of a trope I particularly dislike - when a character who has been wronged by another character is made to come to terms with them by irrationally overreacting to what they did, allowing their concerns to be rejected.
• In my fandom, getting my cooties on it. I talked about Leia kissing Luke in ESB, and why it bothers me to hear her motivations reduced to "she was just trying to make Han jealous!" (aka, why Han's behaviour is considerably skeevier than the twins kissing.)
• what. I responded to a would-be feminist, actually painfully misogynistic critique of ANH from the 70s. I hope it's from the 70s, anyway.
• Elizabeth's theory of balancing the Force. I complained about the nonsensical if indefatigable theory that Anakin brought balance to the Force by evening out the numbers of Jedi and Sith (1 = 0, apparently), and theorized that the Light Side is an invention of fandom and the Force as spoken of by the Jedi is naturally in a state of neutrality without the Dark Side.

Star Wars || Ten Things

• Ten things I don't hate about the prequel trilogy. Up to this point I'd mostly just complained about it, but I'd spent enough time in the fandom by this point that I wanted to be fair, so ... exactly what it says on the tin.
• Ten things I hate being told about the prequel trilogy. A sort of response to the above, likewise pretty self-explanatory. A bit schmaltzy at the end, but I can't say I've changed my mind about any of it.
• Ten things George Lucas has said that don't fill my soul with rage. In fact, they're things I actively like (unlike the first set, which really is "things I don't hate"). And not all are his "lala not listening" comments on the EU.

Star Wars || Recaps

• SW: ANH, redux (1/?). Almost two years ago, I started a careful rewatch of ANH, trying to see what the story and the background looked like before the bazillion retcons. I soon gave up on completely ignoring them, but I'd never watched it in this detailed, scene-by-scene way, so it still feels like I'm watching it with "new" eyes. This section covers the attack on the Tantive IV --> Leia's and Artoo's respective captures.
• SW: ANH (2/?). The Jawas' capture of Artoo --> Luke, Artoo, and Threepio going off to look for Sand People.
• SW: ANH (3/?). The Sand People's attack on Luke --> Obi-Wan's description of Vader's fall.
• ANH 4/?? Obi-Wan's explanation of the Force --> Luke's offer to take Obi-Wan to Anchorhead.
• ANH 5/?? A bunch of Imperials meet on the Death Star --> Motti chooses a very unwise target for his anti-Jedi bigotry.
• ANH 6/?? Luke discovers the slaughter of the Jawas --> Obi-Wan slices and dices in the cantina.
• ANH 7/?? Enter Han Solo --> Han, Obi-Wan, Luke & Co flee Tatooine on the Falcon.
• Alas, poor Alderaan (SW:ANH 8/??). Luke asks what's flashing and Han slaps him --> Han announces his Flat Earth Atheism.
• SW:ANH 9/?? Han elaborates on the Force atheism --> Luke lectures Han and Chewie on their lack of subtlety.
• Cunning plans! (SW: ANH, 10/?). Obi-Wan leaves --> Han, Luke and Chewie confront the commander in Leia's cell block.
• Enter the distressing damsel (SW: ANH, 11/?). Luke smoothly lies to the commander --> the walls of the trash compactor move in.
• ANH 12/?? Threepio smoothly lies to the stormtroopers --> Leia snarks at Han and Chewie and strides past like a BAMF.
• Escaping the Death Star! (ANH 13/??). Obi-Wan skulks around, deactivating things --> Vader kills Obi-Wan.
• To Yavin! (ANH 14/??). Luke goes apeshit --> the Falcon arrives at the Rebel base.

Star Wars || Response to fangirlblog (and, to be fair, plenty of other people)

• it turns out I have feelings about that fangirlblog post. In response to a post (with which I very strongly disagreed) at fangirlblog, I aired my feelings about her points. And Star Wars. And everything. For two hours. This first part was an overview of fangirlblog - that is, my thoughts about fangirlblog generally - and why a single image of female strength will always be problematic.
• part 2. In this part, I went on a roll about exactly why I dislike Leia's treatment in ROTJ and particularly the slave bikini, and why in-story defenses are insufficient.
• part 3. This was more general: fanservice, why condemning fanservice is not slut-shaming, Leia's non-exemplariness thanks to ROTJ, Leia's iconic status and narrative role, Leia in the EU, and a little about Padmé's shifting characterization in AOTC.
• part 4. Continuation of the last, and general discussion of Padmé's derailment, the meaning of "strong" and the difference between strong male characters and strong female characters.
• part 5. Talking about physical strength, magical power, moral strength and how they interrelate in our ideas of strong characters.
• part 6. In a weird twist, I sort of ended up defending Padmé, in response to the OP's suggestions of reasons why people don't like her, but ultimately to argue that there are other, more significant reasons that many people don't care for her characterization.
• part 7. And then talking about Padmé's choices and inevitable comparisons between Padmé and other characters, especially Luke; I have a particular distaste for the Luke = Padmé fanon, so I had plenty to say here.
• part 8. Some general stuff and then comparing her to Luke and Leia (!).
• part 9. The end!

Star Wars || Thirty Days of Star Wars

• Day 1. I started a 30 Days meme, where each day the meme asks you about a different aspect of SW, and instead of settling for "Luke and Leia Skywalker for supreme lords of everything," went on long rambles just about every day. Day 1 was my favourite character (Luke Skywalker).
• Day 2. I answered with my favourite villain (Darth Vader).
• Day 3. I answered with my favourite diva (Darth Vader).
• Day 4. I answered with my favourite moment to mock (Anakin and Padmé's scene on the balcony in ROTS).
• Days 5 & 6. I answered with my favourite pirate (Han Solo) and my favourite political entity (the old Republic).
• Day 7. I answered with my favourite creature (Salacious Crumb).
• Days 8 & 9. I answered with my favourite SW movie (The Empire Strikes Back) and my favourite movie character (Luke).
• Day 10. I answered with my favourite EU character (Jaina Solo).
• Day 11. I answered with my favourite weapon (lightsabers).
• Days 12-15. I answered with my favourite nonhuman species (Twileks), the most memorable death (Anakin Skywalker's), my favourite EU novel (I hadn't yet managed to finish one), and my favourite vehicle (the Executor).
• Day 16. I answered with my favourite planet (Coruscant).
• Day 17 & 18. I answered with my favourite romance (Han/Leia) and my favourite scene ("No. I am your father").
• Day 19. I answered with my favourite era (the OT/Rebellion).
• Day 20. I answered with my favourite spoof (Spaceballs).
• Day 21. I answered with the most memorable music (the Imperial March).
• Day 22. I answered with my favuorite droid (R2-D2).
• Days 23, 24 & 25. I answered with my favourite Jedi (Luke Skywalker), my favourite Force power (Force-choke), and my favourite cartoon adaptation (none).
• Day 26. I answered with the most heartbreaking moment (Anakin's pyre).
• Days 27 & 28. I answered with the most heroic moment (Anakin's death) and my least favourite moment (OT: Leia as Luke's sister; PT: Yoda's "advice" to Anakin in ROTS).
• Days 29 & 30. I answered with how I'd introduce a newcomer to SW (ANH, gasp shock) and what I'd like to see in the future (a new SE with all the filmed scenes, ever, all nice and cleaned up and all).

Star Wars || Ten Days of Star Wars

• Day 1. I answered with my favourite movie (Empire).
• Day 2. I answered with my favourite character (Luke).
• Day 3. I answered with my favourite music (Princess Leia's Theme).
• Day 4. I answered with my least favourite character (Palpatine).
• Day 5. I answered with things I like about SW (music, effects, Skywalkers, fantasy + sci-fi trappings, archetypes done right, lightsabers, beauty, drama, happy but not too happy ending, epic lines).
• Day 6. I answered with how I became a SW fan (I saw snips of TPM that I didn't like, snips of ANH that scared me, and finally sat down to a marathon of the OT and fell in love).
• Day 7. I answered with my favourite couple (Han/Leia, if reluctantly).
• Day 8. I answered with my favourite part (the revelation that Vader is Luke's father).
• Day 9. I answered whether or not I'd change anything about the saga (yes).
• Day 10. I answered with my favourite villain (Vader).

Avatar

• LOK meta! I talked about why Tarrlok as the sweet, cowed kid and Noatak as the protective, power-hungry prodigy actually works better for me than the fandom idea that it'd be better if Tarrlok had been the creepy one and Noatak the nice, earnest one.

Multi/General

• More MBTI, Part 1 (Austen recap & LOTR). I applied Keirseyish MBTI types to Austen and LOTR characters; I find that it works much better for fictional characters, anyway. (Incidentally, the wordpress version is by far my most popular post.)
• The Halfblood Prince, matters of degree, and the ubiquitous Rowling/Austen connection. Around the time HBP (which I disliked) came out, I found quite a few comparisons between Draco and Harry/Darcy and Elizabeth. Occasionally the comparison was Draco-Emma, instead. I talked about why it doesn't really work.
• JA & Houses. I assigned the Jane Austen characters to Hogwarts houses, because WHY NOT. I made a point of not just throwing unlikable people into Slytherin unless I seriously thought they fit, though (Lady Catherine: Gryffindor to the bone).
• *yawn* (part 2) & reposting. After complaining about some Austen fans a bit, I talked about the issue of extratextual "canon" and whether it really exists on the same level as the text, or on any level of canon at all.
• Elizabeth's Rule of Fanfic. I wrote about how I see fanfic generally, and how I classify it; most of the examples were from Austen fandom, but it's a very general discussion.
• thinking about Mary Sues. Awhile back, there was a huge blow-up around Mary Sues; it still comes back every now and then. I'm not one of those people who thinks that they're good or that they don't exist, but I did agree with a lot of the critiques, so I wrote my ideas about what Mary Sues are.
• there's character assassination, and then there's this. A rant about how certain characters are bashed not by simply making unsubstantiated assertions about them, but by reducing them to what they really were when they first appeared and ignoring their later development.
• I meta'd for a grade. I wrote a quick, citation-free paper on fanfiction/modern obsession with originality and ownership.
• The One Ring and the Problem of Evil. I wrote about mundane vs supernatural evil in fantastic settings, and wondered about the ramifications on characterization.
• some thoughts on retroactive characterization. I rambled on about how our understanding of characters at earlier points is influenced by our knowledge of their characterization later on, and wondered how far it goes.
• If things were different, they wouldn't be the same. I defended the double standards applied to female characters' conduct versus male characters', and why "but if a man did that" is largely irrelevant.

Multi/General || Thirty Days of Female Characters

• This Has Been Awesome! (Day 1). On my twenty-fifth birthday, I started a Thirty Days meme for female characters; each day the meme asks for a different variety of favourite-female-character. I didn't manage to do it every day, but I did manage to finish. Day 1 was my favourite lead female character: Mary Lennox.
• meme (days 2, 3, 4 & 5). I answered with my favourite supporting female character (Romana from Doctor Who), a female character I hated, but grew to love (Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice), a female character I relate to (Nita Callahan from the Young Wizard books), and my favourite female character on a male-driven show (Gillian Foster from Lie to Me).
• (Day 6). I answered with my favourite female-driven show: She-Ra, Princess of Power!
• Days 7 & 8. I answered with a female character that needs more screen time (Jane Bennet from Pride and Prejudice) and my favourite female character from a comedy show was nobody in particular, but maybe Samantha and/or her mother from Bewitched.
• Days 9, 10, 11 & 12. I answered with my favourite female character in a drama show (Dr Temperance Brennan from Bones), my favourite female character in a sci-fi/supernatural show (Donna Noble from Doctor Who), my favourite female character in a children's show (Carmen Sandiego), and my favourite female character in a movie (Princess Leia).
• Days 13 & 14. I answered with my favourite female character in a book (Aravis from The Chronicles of Narnia), and my favourite older female character (Polgara the Sorceress from The Belgariad).
• Days 15, 16, 17 & 18. I answered with my favourite female character arc (Romana, again), my favourite mother character (Lily Evans from Harry Potter), my favourite female warrior (Athena), and my favourite non-warrior female character (Esther from the Bible).
• Days 19 & 20. I answered with my favourite nonhuman female character (Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty) and my favourite female antagonist (Catherine Vernon from Lady Susan).
• Day 21. I answered with my favourite female character screwed over by canon (Donna Noble, again).
• meme. I answered with a female character I love that everybody else hates (Emma Woodhouse from Emma), my favourite female platonic relationship (Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai from Avatar: The Last Airbender), and my favourite female romantic relationship (Lark and Rosethorn from The Circle of Magic books).
• Days 25-28. I answered with my favourite mother/daughter or sister relationship (Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa Black), my favourite pre-twentieth century female character (Helen Lawrence from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall), a female character I have elaborate personal canon for (Lady Anne Darcy from Pride and Prejudice), and my favourite female author (Jane Austen, duh).
• Days 29 & 30. I answered with a female-centric fic rec (Imagine the Ocean, an Avatar!Katara fic by Damkianna), and then a rec for a fic focusing on a female character I love but didn't get around to mentioning elsewhere, Charlotte Lucas.

Multi/General || Thirty Days of Fanfic

• Day 1. How I got into writing fanfic, for what fandom, and why that fandom?
• Day 2. The fandoms I've written in, how much I've written for them, and if I still write in them.
• Day 3. For each of Day 2's fandoms, who are my favourite characters to write?
• Day 4. Do I have a muse character?
• Day 5. Have I ever had a character "push" their way into a fic?
• Day 6. Do I prefer to write male or female characters?
• Day 7. Have I ever had a fic change my opinion of a character?
• Day 8. Have I written OCs?
• Day 9. What are my favourite pairings to write for my fandoms?
• Day 10. Have I ever gone outside my comfort zone, pairing-wise?
• Days 11 & 12. Do I prefer certain genres and have I ever written a fusion?
• Day 13. Do I prefer canon or fanon? Has writing changed my opinion of canon?
• Day 14. What ratings do I write?
• Day 15. What is important to warn for, and what's the oddest thing I've warned for?
• Day 16. What do I think about summaries?
• Day 17. Are titles easier or hard?
• Day 18. Where do I get inspiration?
• Day 19. How do I deal with plot bunnies?
• Day 20. Do I get inspired by other people's stories/art?
• Day 21. How do I feel about sequels?
• Day 22. Have I participated in a fest/bigbang?
• Day 23. Where do I post?
• Day 24. Do I have betas?
• Day 25. Do I use music to write?
• Days 26, 27, 28, 29 & 30. What is the oddest thing I've had to research? Where is my favourite place to write? Have I ever co-written anything? What is my current project? (LOL!) What is my favourite fic that I've written?

Multi/General || Fic Commentary

• Left to Follow. The fic commentaries are, simply, me reading fic and commenting as I go (shocking!). Most are my fics, because those are what I have permission for. (Obviously.) This one was on one of my earliest fics from Austen fandom, about Mr Darcy's wife leaving him with their premature baby. (I try to provide transcripts for everything.)
• The Adventures of Lucy Skywalker, Prologue. My commentary on the prologue of my girl!Luke fic.
• Lucy, Ch 1.
• Lucy, Ch 2.
• Lucy, Ch 3.
• Legends of a Fall (1/3). My commentary on a pseudo-academic SW fic by wyncatastrophe.
• Legends of a Fall (2/3).
• Legends of a Fall (3/3).