Anghraine

heckofabecca responded to this post:

:D

cosmiclattes said (on Feb 16th):

Yeah, I joined the LOK fandom… this year actually lol. ATLA was my favorite show when I was a kid and I wasn’t really willing to give LOK a chance and now that I am I’m trying to catch up on so much meta and stories. But Tarrlok is such an intense and fascinating character omg

I replied (on Feb 19th):

Oh, cool—welcome!! LOK has its flaws, but I am super fond of its high moments, and I think the sort of character arc highlights reel that Tarrlok gets from early in the show to his end is definitely one of them.

I also think “intense” is a really good word for him. Even at his most slippery and ambitious, there’s something intense and concentrated about him—he doesn’t do anything halfway, whether it’s good or terrible (Tarrlok: maybe my lie won’t be convincing enough … better electrocute myself to make sure!). And the turn in his character and his account of himself and Noatak makes so much look different in retrospect; it’s really interesting and rewarding IMO.

Tagged: #faaaave

dynadratina responded to my reply (on Feb 20th):

#i agree! #tarrlok is awesome

theantagonistfiles replied to the original ask (on Feb 28th):

*goes immediately to fanfiction.net to find the fic* HOLY CRAP IT'S AMAZINGLY WRITTEN THANK YOU DEAR AUTHOR

I'm taking a brief break from my dissertation to ... uh, amuse myself by figuring out my readers' ranking of my genderbending fics on AO3.

Rules I'm applying: 1) I'm only including fic verses that are collectively at least 2000 words long because, well, I do have to go back to the diss, 2) verses comprised of multiple fics are ranked according to either the popularity of the series as a whole or the most popular individual fic (depending on which is higher; not combining them because there's a lot of overlap), 3) I'm considering both bookmarks and kudos in my judgment—we'll see if it makes a difference, and 4) I'm ignoring everything with less than 30 kudos and 5 bookmarks.

1. First Impressions | 215 bookmarks | 876 kudos | genderbent characters: Elizabeth Bennet (-> Henry Bennet) and Fitzwilliam Darcy (-> Catherine Darcy)

This is a genderswapped retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in its original period (not really a true "what if"). All stats are specifically for the original (completed) 36k fic. It individually beats out every possible stat for every other fic in the series as well as the series as a whole. (Note: The overall series is 44k words long.)

2. Lucy Skywalker series | 163 bookmarks | 406 kudos (The Jedi and the Sith Lord) | genderbent characters: Luke Skywalker (-> Lucy Skywalker)

This is a genderbent AU that mostly, but not completely, sticks to the rails of canon until the end of the ESB timeline, at which point it swerves into the "real" AU. The Jedi and the Sith Lord is the sequel to The Imperial Menace/the ESB plot, and the third fic in the main series, focusing on the consequences of Vader capturing Lucy. It's technically completed at 70k, but only in the sense that it explores what happens to/with Lucy and Vader until the nature of her captivity fundamentally changes, and everything after that will be a separate fic but hasn't been written yet. Although none of the individual fics have as many bookmarks as the series as a whole, my #2, #3, and #4 most bookmarked genderbent fics are all for the Lucyverse. (Note: the overall series is 129k words long.)

3. Love, Pride & Delicacy | 25 bookmarks | 163 kudos | genderbent characters: Fitzwilliam Darcy (-> Catherine Darcy, for convenience)

This is an actual Elizabeth/f!Darcy "what if" femslash AU rather than a retelling, though a slow one—it's still early in the overall story at 25k. It's also placed in the original P&P setting. There is no wider series.

4. The Lady of Gondor | 25 bookmarks | 119 kudos (we also are daughters of the great) | genderbent characters: Faramir (-> Fíriel)

This is a deeply self-indulgent Aragorn/f!Faramir/Éowyn AU, though it's not only a WIP but split into different vaguely related fics (some of which are also WIPs!) about some aspect of the verse in relation to Fíriel. I think the norms of Gondor and Middle-earth make the gender change particularly significant (in some ways more than any other verse), so actual plot and relationship changes tend to be the focus. The kudos are for the specific linked fic, which is a WIP at nearly 5k and the most Éowyn-centric of them. (Note: the overall series is about 9.5k words long.)

5. The Edge of Darkness | 17 bookmarks | 106 kudos | genderbent characters: Tarrlok (-> Taraka)

This is a genderbent f!Tarrlok AU, though told entirely from Noatak/Amon's perspective, and to some extent more about the impact on him than on Taraka herself (though she's extremely important to the fic). Even more than that, the linked fic is focused on the effect of the change on their family dynamics as children, until teenage Noatak leaves her behind per canon. The fic can look like a retelling à la First Impressions, since the basic plot points don't change, but the larger series is on course to swerve into full "what if" territory as well. However, like First Impressions, these stats are all for the completed opening fic (18k) and not the longer WIP series (32k), which is temporarily paused at the point where 37-year-old Taraka openly identifies Amon as Noatak. CW: child abuse.

6. Blood and Fire | 16 bookmarks | 67 kudos | genderbent characters: Tarrlok (-> Taraka) and Noatak (-> Nataka)

This is a dark(er) AU of The Edge of Darkness in which Noatak/Amon is also genderbent, and the bloodbending siblings never separated. Taraka fled home with Nataka back in the day, they only grew closer (...too close), and although Taraka still ended up on the Republic City council, her true loyalty is to Amon. She promptly turns Korra over when Amon shows up, which is where the fic begins; it's told entirely through Korra's attempts to navigate her circumstances as a prisoner of the Equalists. CW: incest, complicated F/F/F dubcon??? emotional bonding kink with occasional violence yet little overt romance and no sex. I am what I am. The stats are for the completed (though deliberately ambiguous) main fic, which is 10k, and not the side fics or the series as a whole (13k).

7. The Queer Rogue One AU | 12 bookmarks | 57 kudos (the words we've both fallen under) | genderbent characters: Cassian Andor (-> Cassia Andor)

This is, on one level, a relatively straightforward genderbent!Cassian AU that is more or less complete at 13k. The underlying concepts are: a) what if my male fave was a hot lesbian and my ship was f/f and b) what if we headcanon every single member of the main team as queer in some capacity :D and c) the SW universe is so blatantly patriarchal in the films that it's a particularly interesting setting for exploring the effects of the gender change on someone like Cassia, a female revolutionary and spy :D :D. It's a little challenging to properly evaluate where it sits wrt stats because I revised the scattered, vaguely connected scraps of the universe into a single fic through both sentence-level revisions and significant additions, but that revision is only on Tumblr (where the link currently goes to, sorry) and my GoogleDrive, not AO3. It's not even a series in my heart! But it is on AO3. Evaluate as you will, but when I finally get around to converting the AO3 version to the correct format this may or may not change. For now this is where it goes by AO3 stats.

8. Daughters of Númenor series | 5 bookmarks | 33 kudos (the voices of the sea) | genderbent characters: all Númenórean throwbacks in LOTR, but specifically Aragorn (-> Aranor), Faramir (-> Míriel), Denethor (-> Andreth), and Imrahil (-> Imraphel)

As might be guessed, this is an AU where every Númenórean throwback mentioned in LOTR is genderbent (in the backstory, this also includes Ivriniel and Finduilas of Dol Amroth, who become Túrin, Prince of Dol Amroth, and Gwindor of Dol Amroth). It's Aranor/Míriel and definitely focused on them despite the broader change (where Arwen is a non-factor for the OT3 in The Lady of Gondor because she went to Valinor with Celebrían, she actually is present in Middle-earth in this series, though unfortunately very straight). While Fíriel in The Lady of Gondor was never expected to be a warrior and gets on reasonably well with Denethor, this AU is more about the broader effects—so even though we rarely see f!Denethor/Andreth, it's significant that she was a trailblazer as a female warrior, loremaster, and ultimately the first female ruler of Gondor, inadvertently laying a foundation that Aranor could build on later (which would have horrified Andreth herself!). The specific fic with the most kudos in the series, linked above, is a nearly 2k fic about the effect of Faramir's canonical visions on Míriel. (Note: the overall series is currently 3k words long.)

The user suyinsimp responded to my fic Ten Facts About Tarrlok, originally posted on Tumblr for a Tarrlok Appreciation Day in 2012. It's also at AO3. suyinsimp said:

#you have the absolute best characterization of tarrlok ever #noatak too for that matter

I replied:

Wow, thank you very, very much! I really enjoyed writing them and I’m still immensely fond of them both.

Tagged: #apart from taraka i think the last lok fic i wrote was years ago #so it's really nice to know that people are still reading and enjoying them!

I reblogged a gifset of Korra shouting "You and I are NOTHING alike!" at Tarrlok back in B1, and Kuvira shouting "We are NOTHING alike!" at Korra in B4. My tags:

#lmao i remember how people were 'how dare!!!' at the idea that 'when extremes meet' was about extremes meeting #and then it carried all the way through to the end of b4 and people were still 'how dare!!!'

An anon asked:

AU where due to spirit shenanigans/Varrick's latest invention malfunctioning/etc., series finale Korra winds up back at the beginning of Book 1, right when she arrives in Republic City. Would she try to change anything, or let things proceed as how she experienced it?

I replied:

Oh, I definitely can’t see Korra passively going along with keeping things the same. Off the top of my head, things I think she’d change/try to change:

• the love triangle/quadrangle
• airbending/Avatar training
• communication with her past lives (if they’re restored)
• her general approach to the more benign Equalist sympathizers
• dealing with Hiroshi
• her relationship with Lin
• her relationship with Tarrlok/his approach to Amon
• the trauma and destruction that Amon/Noatak causes and his and Tarrlok’s “escape”; I think she’d try and head off both
• the laser-focus on Republic City; she’d especially have Unalaq+the Red Lotus’s plots in the back of her mind

How successful she’d be is an open question, of course, but I think she’d try and prevent as much harm as possible. I also think she’d have access to airbending and the Avatar State, given that her spiritual state would be basically what it is at the end of B4. She might try and hide it for a little while, but I don’t think for long (Noatak might get a nasty surprise when he tries to ambush her :D).

It’s a really interesting idea, btw.

( tags )

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... )

I posted the next chapter of one more tomorrow!

An anon said:

Got another AU for you! Yakone actually does turn over a new leaf. He genuinely loves his wife and sons. When Noatak and Tarrlok discover that they're waterbenders, he doesn't go for revenge, train them vigorously, or teach them bloodbending. They're one big happy family. How much changes because of this?

I replied:

It’s a little difficult to envision, given that almost everything we see of Yakone is either a) evil crime boss or b) abusive father who warps his originally sweet-natured sons into proto-villains by the respective ages of 14 and 11. But accepting that he did … well, it’d change a whole lot, of course, to such an extent that it’s hard to even say. But here are some ideas.

Okay—I see that final interchange between young Noatak and Tarrlok as a defining moment for both of them, where Noatak finally rejects his role as Tarrlok’s protector and Tarrlok is abandoned over his supposed weakness. Noatak reinvents himself as protector of the vulnerable; Tarrlok reinvents himself as a figure of power and strength. If that moment alone had gone differently, even if it still resulted in Noatak fleeing, I think they would have taken very different paths than in canon. And that’s just one moment among many that shaped them. They’d just be radically different people, and they play such important roles in what’s happening in B1 that it would also be radically different.

We really have to backtrack to little Noatak and Tarrlok, who are adorably sweet kids. We can see that Noatak is already protective and concerned, and we hear that even as a small child, he wanted everyone to be treated fairly. So there’s that. Little Tarrlok is a more ambiguous figure, but under pressure his most noticeable quality is his distaste for causing pain. Without bloodbending driving a wedge between them, I tend to think their most distinctive qualities would influence each other more—Tarrlok would be more egalitarian and Noatak would be more soft-hearted.

( Read more... )

Back in the later heyday of the B1 fandom, ikkinthekitsune posted partial transcripts of the commentaries on B1, which affirmed that "When Extremes Meet" was, in fact, supposed to be about extremes meeting in Tarrlok and Korra (certain contingents of fandom were very resistant to this), and that Korra preparing to burn Tarrlok was meant to be a big deal, as she (Ikkin) and I had argued for a long time. Bryke pointed out that it would take a drastic threat for Tarrlok to bloodbend and we're not clear where (if anywhere) Korra's going to stop in that scene.

I said:

Ah, the sweet sound of validation in the morning.

(I’m generally leaning strongly to the-author-is-dead, but hearing my own interpretations out of the mouths of the creators is nice, ngl.)

A lot of people were handwringing over the commentary and I was just :D :D

I took a brief break from screaming about Noatak and Tarrlok on Twitter to scream about Denethor and Faramir, which feels right and proper.

(And also sort of the same! I mean, obviously they're very different people, but my Emotions are the same. Angsty families where they nevertheless do love each other powerfully are my kryptonite.)

[from 2021, in the midst of renewed Skywalker stanning: lol]