#( i am sensing a lotr re-read )

[choicesficwriterscreations]

December Creator of the Month: Oh-So-Youre-a-Nerd

Each month, CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers or artists, and this month’s creator of the month is @oh-so-youre-a-nerd . We're very excited because Ascindio is our very first artist to be highlighted! We hope you will enjoy learning more about them and their work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.

Quick Links:

Tumblr Blog Instagram

How do you want to be known on Tumblr? 

Ascindio 

More below...

1- When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played? 

I started playing in 2016, I can't remember if I read Endless Summer or Rules of Engagement first, but I ended up deleting the app after like 2 weeks cause I couldn't stop buying diamonds 😅🤦

I re-downloaded it about, ohh idk 2 years ago?

2- When and why did you join Choices fandom?

I joined the Fandom specifically on Tumblr and specifically for It Lives Within, which happened to come out right after I read the first two books 

3- How did you pick your blog name? 

I always try to seem cool and mysterious when I meet people irl, and then as soon as I open my mouth, I ruin it with some niche trivia or something, and they say,  “Oh, so you're a nerd.” 😂 Can't tell you how many times this exact phrase has been uttered to me. 

4- Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it!  

This is the first Choices related post I made 😂 I was just thinking about the concept of what if characters make terrible decisions cause they're controlled by a player who is out of diamonds lol I was going to do a whole series of them (next was going to be lotr “fly on eagles to mordor?” *30 diamonds* or “simply walk”) but got lazy lol

5- Do you write fanfiction, create fan art, or are you one of those really gifted people who do both? 

Only art. God, I  WISH  I wrote too. I've thought about trying cause I have so many ideas floating around in my head, but at the end of the day, I'd rather spend my free time drawing. 

6- How long have you been creating for Choices and for any other fandoms?

For Choices, since early 2022

For other fandoms, since well, forever, but I only started posting around 2017/18

7- What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to create for?

Favorite Choices book is probably It Lives in the Woods. All of the characters were so interesting, I never got bored reading it, and it had an incredible twist that made sense but I still didn't see coming. 

Favorite to create for is probably Blades of Light and Shadow though because I am such a sucker for the fantasy aesthetic.

8- Share your first Choices fanfic or fan art that you posted with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were creating it today?.

This isn't the first Choices art I made, but it IS the first I actually shared

And honestly, I DO still like it because I still remember the way I felt absolutely POSSESSED while drawing it (I hadn't drawn anything for *months*). I would definitely change the background, though. Those trees look like shit, and they're not even the correct type for the kind of forest they're in. 

9- What is your favorite piece of fiction or art that you created? 

My favorite Choices art I've done is probably this piece. 

10- Do you have a fic/art that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to do well but found it could use a little more love?

I definitely didn't expect this one to do well at all as it was so hastily drawn

And I was sad this piece didn't get more love, it was such a dope scene and I was so excited about how the sword turned out

11- If you could only draw one style or type of art for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? 

I'm not sure if I'm interpreting the question right, but if I had to pick like a specific type of art, it would be digital, and I would want to do fan art. I have a hard time painting anything that I don't already have a deep connection with (so original art with no story behind it is usually a chore for me), and digital art is just so incredibly convenient and not messy and so so versatile. 

12 - Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?

Because I use fiction as a way to safely process trauma/ grief/ other big emotions, each MC I make has a small part of me, whichever part I feel the need to explore at the time.

There's an amazing quote by Patrick Rothfuss that I feel explains it perfectly. 

It's from Wise Man's Fear

“These folk knew all about death. They killed their own livestock. They died from fevers, falls, or broken bones gone sour. Death was like an unpleasant neighbor. You didn’t talk about him for fear he might hear you and decide to pay a visit.

Except for stories, of course. Tales of poisoned kings and duels and old wars were fine. They dressed death in foreign clothes and sent him far from your door. A chimney fire or the croup cough were terrifying. But Gibea’s trial or the siege of Enfast, those were different. They were like prayers, like charms muttered late at night when you were walking alone in the dark. Stories were like ha’penny amulets you bought from a peddler, just in case.”

13 - What element of writing/art do you struggle with most?

I have a very difficult time making the poses seem natural and flowing. My all time favorite art is Baroque/Renaissance style and how fluid the poses are, how soft the skin looks, how delicately it's all done. Obviously, I will always have my own style, but those are things that I so want to incorporate but never seem to get quite right, and it drives me crazy 😂

14 - Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?

Not really. I mean, I have a ton of unfinished work, but as soon as the window of inspiration passes, I just can't get myself to care enough about it to finish it (insert Jake the Dog, “now it's gone, and I don't care about it anymore!” )

15 - If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to see your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you show them first? 

I would, and have.  I typically show them whatever most rendered recent picture from my Instagram because I don't post any nsfw there and usually try to post only my prettier work for this specific reason haha. (As opposed to here, I post everything here, ain't NO ONE from real life invited to see my tumblr 😂)

16 - Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing or art? Are there any artists that influence you?

Writers: Brandon Sanderson, for sure. He's the reason I got back into art back in 2017 ish. His stories are just so emotional they push me to create. Same with @saibug1022, there is always at least one scene from every story he shares that I desperately want to draw to try to capture the emotions. 

Artists: God, sooo many, here are just like my top 3 favorites and their instagrams.

Audra Auclair

Obsessed with her unique style, and specifically the way she draws eyelids and noses

f3lc4t

The way they draw those dripping, glowing wisps. I stare at their pieces for hours (no lie) trying to dissect them stroke by stroke to figure out how they do it.

Miho Hirano

Their art has a delicate whimsy-ness I would SELL MY SOUL to achieve 

17- Which one of your creations would you like to see a fiction written about? 

JC, this is the shit I DREAM of.

Definitely this one. 

So this is love.

This little comic means a lot to me. 

18- Do you write original fiction or create non-fandom art? 

Very rarely, but I do, every so often. This is my favorite original piece.

20-  What other hobbies do you have?

Gaming, singing, walking through the Cemetary with my wee daughter, reading, that's about it 🤷

21 - What’s your favorite emoji? 

🙇

22: BONUS - tell us anything you’d like (if you want to).

I really wanted to say that I don't believe in “good” art and “bad” art (just ethical vs non-ethical). That being said, I know what it's like to hate your art, like soooo intimately. If you ever are feeling shit about your art, you can ABSOLUTELY message me (I don't care if we're mutuals or not, I don't care if we've never interacted before) and just say, “I am feeling shit about my art” and I will go through your art and tell you every specific thing I love about it and why it's wonderful. I am not joking; I am so so serious rn. 💗💗💗💗 

#choices fic writers creations #playchoices #choices stories you play #cfwc creator of the month #oh-so-youre-a-nerd #choices fanart #playchoices fanart #december creator of the month

[iridescentoracle]

Hello! I am here to ask about your Dior headcanons re: the political cohesion of Doriath. 👀

Oh man, I didn't expect anyone to actually take me up on that!

(Okay so I got partway into writing this and then realized I should probably note up front that I tend to stick to the Silm (& LOTR/the Hobbit where applicable, but they... aren't, here) as the most authoritative version of canon, and I can get into why and where the nuances/exceptions are there (I do say tend to stick, it's not hard and fast!), but that's mostly a side note here: the point is simply that I don't really factor other drafts or the poetic Leithian into my take on Doriath, Thingol, Dior, etc, just what we're told in the actual Silm. I also read the Silm as an in-universe history text compiled by in-universe scholars, who, being people, are going to have their own biases and blind spots, even when they're doing their best to be accurate!)

So, this is a two-part thing: #1, there's the political cohesion of Doriath before & at the time of Thingol's death, which i talked about in the tags of the post that prompted this ask but is kind of necessary as context for the Dior part to make sense, and #2, there's the actual Dior headcanons. Both of these parts are very long because I've never really seen anyone else suggest any of this stuff and I want to explain where I'm coming from thoroughly enough that it actually makes sense to people who aren't me, but the TL;DRs:

TL;DR 1: I think Doriath was probably a hot mess politically after Thingol died, with tensions between various groups of Sindar and Laiquendi in the leadup to Thingol's death & Melian's departure, and more political tensions afterwards between those who wanted Beren & Lúthien to come be the new rulers, and those who thought they should stay gone, with someone still in Doriath taking over.

TL;DR 2: I think Dior became Eluchil, potentially at the request of some portion of the Iathrim, hoping to help prevent Doriath from devolving into civil war, and saw dealing with the Silmaril-Fëanorioni situation as a lower priority than stabilizing Doriath's internal political situation until it was too late.

1. The political cohesion (or rather, lack thereof) in Doriath prior to Thingol's death

So, okay, the thing about Doriath is that we don't actually have any real idea of like... how much the Iathrim liked being the Iathrim? We're never told about any intra-Iathrim conflict, but a) the Silm was probably compiled mostly by surviving Gondolindrim or their descendants, so they wouldn't know about anything liike that unless surviving Iathrim told them, and after the Second Kinslaying I don't imagine many Iathrim would've been eager to talk about how things had actually been tense/messy/etc when they could remember everything as having been perfect until it was ruined by the Fëanorionrim, and doubly so after the Third Kinslaying, so why would anything like that make it into the Silm?

and b) what we do know about Doriath is that it wasn't really Doriath as we know it until Morgoth came back to Middle-earth, and everything went to hell.

At the start of the first age, you suddenly get Doriath (the fenced land!) being the one protected area of a continent that used to be totally free and open. How many Sindar actually didn't particularly care for Thingol's style of leadership, or simply preferred to live nomadic lives, going basically wherever they pleased, until suddenly that wasn't safe anymore, and you were only guaranteed survival if you were close enough to Menegroth to be within the Girdle when it went up? ditto how many Laiquendi had no interest in swearing loyalty to Thingol right after their own king had just been killed, but again, made it to safety and stayed there over taking their chances on their own in the outside world?

I think it's entirely possible that there were always potential political tensions under the surface in Doriath that just... never got written about, because they never boiled over into actual political conflict, and so it was never the sort of tension that had any bearing on the historical record.

Except then Beren & Lúthien happen to the world, and a few years later the Narn, and in the blink of an eye suddenly the only king Doriath has ever had is dead, and the only queen Doriath has ever had is gone and the Girdle with her—and more than that, the only rulers the Sindar had ever had for three thousand years before Doriath existed.

And where a few years earlier I think the Iathrim would probably have turned pretty universally to Lúthien, now she's abandoned them for her human husband—and while she's my favorite character in the entire legendarium hands-down and I don't blame her, I think that's another place there might have actually been some very mixed feelings among the Iathrim that nobody wanted to admit to later because how could anyone have been upset with Lúthien—and on top of her abandoning them for him, I think it's extremely probable most of Doriath did not actually get over their xenophobia about humans in general or Beren in specific when Thingol did (we know for sure at least some of Doriath didn't, cf. Saeros insulting Túrin's mother & sister to his face), but again, who's going to admit to having had a grudge against the holy couple of Middle-earth after the fact, you know?

Conversely, there could've been a sizeable faction of Sindar who had been totally loyal to Thingol until everything happened with Beren & Lúthien, but who found his actions towards them and/or Finrod to be where they drew the line, and while (unlike B&L themselves) that faction stayed in Doriath, there could've been a new, additional tension on that front.

Finally, for all we know there were multiple factions within the Laiquendi of Doriath, with political tensions stretching back to before their king died, rooted in who-even-knows!

2. Dior

All of that, of course, sets up a very, very messy political situation for Dior to walk into.

The Doriath stuff is arguably more speculation than actual headcanon, but here's where the unambiguous headcanons come in: I don't think "Dior Eluchil set himself to raise anew the glory of the kingdom of Doriath." Obviously that's how it got written down, but bluntly, I can't see Beren and Lúthien having a kid that stupid or, like, power-hungry and arrogant?

What I can see is a situation where the messenger that brought word of Thingol's death and Melian's departure asked Beren & Lúthien to come take over as the new king and queen, we promise we're not mad about you leaving and we won't be xenophobic to your husband anymore we swear it's fine now pretty please, Beren & Lúthien said no, and the messenger either asked Dior as a second choice, or said "okay fine none of that was actually true but Doriath is falling apart and we need a leader ASAP and there's about eight different contenders* (mostly kinsmen of Thingol or Laiquendi) being backed by various factions and it's going to devolve into civil war any minute so if you care at all—" and Dior said "would I do?"

(* Ask me about my Galadriel headcanon)

I don't think Dior necessarily wanted to be king of Doriath, and I don't think he saw the throne as his birthright or anything like that; I don't think anyone involved, from Thingol to Lúthien to Dior himself, ever considered the possibility of Thingol dying and needing an heir! I think it's possible he was asked, or at most that he offered, and either way, I think he saw becoming king as taking on a responsibility for the sake of others.

(Which, like, "well here's a potentially impossible task that I'm going to take up even though probably no one thinks I'm actually capable of it, but it's my duty to help others as best I can" sure does sound to me like an attitude one might develop when raised by Lúthien "I kicked Sauron's ass cast a sleep spell on Morgoth and persuaded the Valar to find a loophole in the fabric of reality" Tinuviel and Beren "I stayed by my father's side as an outlaw to give my mother time to lead the rest of our people away hopefully to safety knowing I would never see her or any of them again (and then spent several years being a giant thorn in Morgoth's side for good measure)" Barahirion, where "apparently my grandpa I may or may not have ever met died, guess that makes me the king of a place i may or may not have ever been" does... not.)

I also think he either took on the epithet Eluchil, or was given it by whichever factions of the Iathrim accepted him as king, when he actually became king. Obviously he's going to be referred to as Dior Eluchil even before that in retrospect because that's how he's thought of later, but that doesn't mean it was actually a name he always had, you know?

The final thing is, I think if Dior essentially walked into a political situation five seconds from devolving into civil war, it makes his inaction regarding the Silmaril prior to the Second Kinslaying make more sense: the Fëanorioni have been sitting around doing nothing about the Silmaril in Doriath / with Beren & Lúthien this whole time, the letter saying "hey that's our Silmaril give it back now" is probably just a formality, and Dior's only been ruling for a couple years, there's still plenty of people dubious about whether he should be king at all, he might well be subject to at least some of whatever xenophobia remains about humans in Doriath, and in general all the work he's done on stabilizing the kingdom will absolutely come undone again if he screws up; he's trying to keep a kingdom from falling apart, the Silmaril thing can wait.

Of course, it wasn't a formality, and it couldn't wait, but why would Dior have known that?

#shrikeseams #replies #doriath #the silmarillion #dior eluchil #lotr #lotr meta #i guess? #character: dior #jesus christ this is so much longer than i meant it to be i'm so sorry #also my lunch break was supposed to end twenty minutes ago WHOOPS please forgive any typos i have no time to fix #also there wasn't a good place to stick this in #but i also think everyone in doriath probably has PTSD about thingol's death #(many of them may also have had PTSD already esp the laiquendi or those of the sindar who had to return to menegroth in a hurry #when the first waves of orcs showed up #but anyone who didn't already almost definitely does by the time dior gets there #because holy shit our king is dead the girdle is gone none of us are safe now and he was murdered before the girdle even fell #so have we even been as safe as we thought all this time or were the last couple centuries a lie?) #but yeah those are my dior headcanons!! idk if that picture of doriath or dior in particular are to anyone's taste but mine #but if nothing else i like the idea of dior getting to be... an actual person? and someone i can see having been raised by beren & lúthien #and he doesn't really get to be either of those in the silm and i rarely see him in fanworks getting fleshed out like other characters do #and i think that's kind of a shame #you know? #also yes i am completely ignoring that dior's name theoretically means ''successor'' bc like. why would they name him that #that is from an early draft and there is no way to know if ''dior'' would even have stayed his name #if tolkien had gotten around to updating all the names in B&L/CoH etc into modern Sindarin #never mind if it would have meant anything remotely similar #this is mostly a first-draft post written in one sitting in the space of 45 minutes partially while late for work #i have Definitely left many points out and i am sorry if anyone has questions about things i probably have answers / can elaborate further?

[anghraine]

I was re-reading an old LOTR post that quoted Aragorn's line from the book:

"Little do I resemble the figures of Elendil and Isildur as they stand carven in their majesty in the halls of Denethor. I am but the heir of Isildur, not Isildur himself."

Some things that immediately jumped to mind:

1) It turns out that Aragorn actually does look quite a lot like Elendil and Isildur, but it's only noticeable when a) he cleans up or b) he's coming into his own on a more ... spiritual yet practical level, I guess.

Significantly, when Pippin is later struck by Denethor's very Númenórean appearance in ROTK, he specifically associates it with how much Denethor's specific features resemble Aragorn's. The Appendix reiterates this; as Thorongil, Aragorn looked like Denethor's "nearest kin."

I don't think this response is completely false humility, though, because Aragorn doesn't really look like that in the specific scene where he disclaims the resemblance, and probably hasn't for a long time (and he's talking to Boromir, who does seem to be considered remarkably beautiful even by Tolkien standards). But I also doubt it's coincidence that Aragorn specifically mentions Denethor and their common ancestor, Elendil, in his response.

(It's possible that Elendil and Isildur themselves didn't look quite as majestic as their statues, but eh, it's actually a big deal that Aragorn and Denethor are so similar to each other and them, so I'm inclined to think the statues are accurate.)

2) The specific way he ties Denethor in is by referring to the throne room/hall, complete with majestic statues of the kings, as "the halls of Denethor" rather than one of the various other names it goes by. This could be strategic, since he's trying to dial down the tension in that moment; he goes out of his way to acknowledge the authority of Boromir's father and family to his face, when pretty much everyone else has acted like he's just some guy. It might also be a concession that right now, they are Denethor's halls.

It's also interesting because, when Aragorn later tries to exclude himself from Rohan's laws based on his royal stature, Háma sharply responds, "This is the house of Théoden, not of Aragorn, even were he King of Gondor in the seat of Denethor.”

Of course, the literal seat of Denethor, the chair of the Stewards, is pointedly not the royal throne, but lbr that's Númenórean sophistry that the Rohirrim don't care about. But I do think there's something interesting in the way that specific physical objects of the hall—the chair, the throne, the statues—are linked to Denethor and Aragorn and their own interrelationship.

3) Aragorn is extremely careful here and often elsewhere to not link himself to Anárion, though he is also descended from him and the tie to Anárion formed a critical part of the original formal claim made by Arvedui (though IMO Arvedui did pretty significantly misrepresent its significance under Númenórean law and tradition).

Aragorn's choice may be because of the failure of the original claim and to avoid getting caught up in legal minutia when both he and Denethor are descendants of Anárion outside the direct male line. And his ultimate presentation to Gondor as claimant makes zero mention of Anárion or Fíriel. So here's one of the first instances of that careful downplaying of the tie to Anárion.

4) Not to make literally everything about my gripes with the Jackson movies, but this is a very clear example of something the movies do a lot, which apparently was one of Christopher Tolkien's main causes of frustration—taking lines (esp dialogue) from the original novel and moving them to different characters or contexts to serve some different purpose that changes their meaning, sometimes radically.

That is very definitely the case here. Even though the full quote above, in its original context, would make zero sense for movie Aragorn, the bolded part does make it into the movies, but in a context which completely reverses its meaning.

In the book, the point of "I am but the heir of Isildur, not Isildur himself" is that Aragorn is freely acknowledging that he knows he doesn't have the spectacular majesty that Isildur did and he is only Isildur's heir. In the films, the line shifts to Arwen IIRC, and is re-contextualized as comfort for Aragorn that he isn't doomed to being a morally weak fuck-up like movie Isildur just because he's descended from him.

And honestly, while re-purposing Tolkien's lines doesn't always bother me, re-purposing them to mean exactly the opposite from the original does rub me the wrong way, ngl, esp given how difficult it's been to even talk about Isildur for the last ... uhh 20 years without everything being reduced to some movie!Isildur meme that makes zero sense for Tolkien's characters.

#anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #pj critical #aragorn #isildur #denethor #lord of the rings #legendarium fanwank #etc #long post #anghraine's meta #anghraine's rants

[lamemaster]

Elves and Middle-Earth

Okay gather Tolkien nuts, I have a question (I am genuinely curious).

I've seen so many posts about the Nature of Middle Earth excerpt that removing Eldar from Middle-Earth was not Eru's design. Doing so resulted in diminishing elves of Middle-Earth and taking away their guidance from their younger brethren, men.

Now my question is, if Aman was not a part of Iluvatar's plans for elves, why re-shape the world and go on an entire ordeal with the Numenorians? Wouldn't making Arda inaccessible make it harder for elves to return? Why would Eru allow elves to be separated from Middle-Earth later in the legendarium?

What about the Vanyar and Teleri, for whom Aman became a permanent residence and they did not experience the Doom as the Noldor did? Was their connection to Middle-Earth destined to be lesser than the Noldor?

What would have leaving elves in the Middle-Earth have meant for the Halls of Mandos and re-birth? Would the elves who died in Middle-Earth be reborn in Aman as in cannon or would they be reincarnated back to Middle-Earth?

While researching I found another excerpt from Morgoth's Ring-

"For of this summons came

many woes that after befell; yet those who hold that the Valar

erred, thinking rather of the bliss of Valinor than of the Earth,

and seeking to wrest the will of Iluvatar to their own pleasure,

speak with the tongues [read tongue] of Melkor"(P. 162)

Does this excerpt mean that narratives that were said to argue that bringing elves to Valinor had been an error and the Valar's disobedience to the will of Illuvatar were influenced by Melkor? We do hear a similar argument from Feanor who thinks that the Valar are conspiring against the elves by keeping them away from Middle Earth and in return favoring men.

Lastly- if Aman is not THE place for Elves then why do they feel the pull towards the sea and Valinor in general? (I think it is mentioned in LOTR or the Hobbit)

(P.S.- I know I have a bias towards the Valar and that my arguments favor them so for this post specifically please ignore if you can sense me simping for them)

I am confusion.

#the silmarillion #tolkien elves #middle earth #the valar #eru iluvatar #tolkien men #morgoth's ring #nature of middle earth #huh-ing in my corner

[afaramir]

LOLL i was gonna start like ‘hey there im denethor anon’ but u beat me to it. SIMILAR MINDS. Haha i read one of ur fics, was immediately smitten & was like i MUST follow them. (I’m glad i did, love the vibe of ur blog and the Flavour of ur opinions.. TASTY) so im a more recent follower but i’m gathering younger you weren’t a fan of denethor, huh? Can’t say i blame you. PJ certainly made some Decisions. he was like how do i convert a complex character into The most loathsome creature ever. He really did our fav gondorians sooo dirty. I literally watch through those scenes SEETHING in rage.

So I’ve been Thinking about denethor and faramir and nothing else for two days. like i am a denethor girlie. in my mind. spiritually. haven’t posted much abt him on tumblr. but nowww. you’re exactly right, ‘denethor Is a good leader…[insert ur paragraph here]’ yes yes yes you get it. listen denethor was a prideful, angry, resentful man but he was also valiant, resilient and noble. He guarded his city, alone (which takes GUTS, again, he was a badass!!), so well, for literal YEARS that Sauron was fearful/wary of him. i wish people were more understanding of him. he’s such an interesting character there’s so much to explore there. as you said the duty-vs-love, the weapon-first-person-next of it all. the layers. denethor as a weapon. denethor as a symbol of both sword/shield. AAHHH

BUT i think some people dismiss him hate him bc he is the mirror (the ugly side? if that makes sense) of humanity, of us. we ought to show him some compassion tho ‘cause havent u ever been taken under the darkness of life? felt the world slipping away & struggle to keep up w it? dont u ever feel hopeless? that things will never change, no matter what u do? DO YOU HAVE FEARS HAVE YOU FACED THE MONSTERS? WERE YOU ALONE, SCARED AND HOPELESS? AND HAVENT YOU MADE MISTAKES IN YOUR GRIEF AND PUSHED PEOPLE AWAY?? THAT’S what denethor experienced. He was described as a leader & a learned one at that for christ sake. He knew that evil was awaiting him and his kin and his people! he saw his future. yet. yet he soldiered on until. war declared. his sons killed (or so he believed). that’s when hope abandoned him. what was the point of staying alive now anyway? Evil was upon them, they would surely be tortured w a fate worse than death, so why should he not end the pain and kill himself? he fought the war against Time, Evil and The Dark Enemy himself and WON. he was a brave man indeed, to have fought these dark forces so much stronger than him. but he finally lost the war against Despair (and Grief), the cruelest of them all. imma cry 😭😭😭 no no no u don’t understand he didnt give up hope, hope abandoned him he- [GUNSHOT] (i don’t know how much of this even made sense lmao) anyway,

Faramir <333. do i even have to say anything about faramir? he’s the specialest little guy i love himm 🥰. On god i am one step away from rereading lotr just for him (plsss dont tempt me finals are in less than a fortnight) his and denethor’s relationship like u described my godddd XDD. fucked up familial relationships MY BELOVED. i am feral about this trope. the resentment… the jealousy… the mirror image of each other… the you’re-the-same-like-me-and-i-hate-that… mmmhm. hey do u ever think about 12 year old faramir admiring his father much the same way he did boromir and wishing he would grow up to be just like him? and do you ever think about 28 year old faramir knowing that he’s more like his father than anyone else and hating that? hating him? i do.

I’ll stop now lol im afraid my coherency has diminished by now. also sorry sorry for replying so late i am preparing for my exams. but rest assured i WILL be Rotating faramir around in my brain :3

hiiii denethor anon LOL this is the greatest ask ive ever received. every day i endeavour to provide only THE juiciest of opinions. aka this is my diary and you all are subjected to it. anyway im so glad you liked my fic i would love to know which one you read! i got into lotr via the films when i was super young so my past opinions were def coloured by The Choices. i have learned and grown since then<3 i was watching the book-to-film analysis vids on the extended edition dvds a couple weeks back and it made me so mad that i had to get up and turn off the tv. did you know there are other character options besides 'paragon of virtue' and 'one dimensional villain'...truly kind of a "nice dichotomy idiot! now what lies outside of it" situation. A Waste Of Your John Noble, To Be Honest. idk i still hold the films very close to my heart but the choices...i will simply respectfully disagree. and dont even get me started on faramir we WILL be here all night. another time. i have denethor thorongil situationship-fic to write. (i am serious about that) (i was simultaneously playing it 100% straight serious AND kind of joking about them. i shouldve known better. well.........we are so in it.)

you are so real for this. i have ALSO been Thinking about denethor and faramir and nothing else for days. weeks, even. sorry to everyone coming to the faramir goes to rivendell au for faramir and the fellowship the first 10k is literally just Keeping Up With The Stewards. we'll get there. i Will blame you for the impetus for my recent denethorposting on main but also encourage you to also do this. do whatever you want forever<3 nooo but straight up...guy who has so much strength and will that The Lord Of All Evil wouldnt contend directly against him and had to bring out the big palantir guns to bring him down. and if he'd not lost both of his sons i mean...who knows what would've happened. sometimes your sons ARE the only thing keeping you from killing yourself Do It For Them-style and lets be real that is a valid coping method. (i don't have an answer for that one and boy oh boy do i wish i did. it is going to become a massive thorn in my side in, oh, 70k or so when i hit rotk. well...i will blow up that bridge when i get to it.)

im actually putting a read more in this time bc this post broke a thousand words. continue at your own risk. there IS also faramirposting at the end here i promise.

just imagining denethor leading the siege of minas tirith. um. now stay with me here...riding out with imrahil's sortie. STAY WITH ME HERE. what do you think the livery of a steward going to war looks like. jesus christ i need to go lay down. yes i purposefully placed the read more before i decided to go momentarily horny on main. its also lowkey very vague au spoilers. sorry everyone but denethor IS canonically hot and we need to acknowledge it. Anyway.

denethor as a weapon denethor as both a sword and a shield...i am chewing glass for real. you GET IT. god i love person-as-weapon metaphor soooo much. When The Iconography Is Getting A Little Too Real. denethor as gondor, as her vanguard and standard-bearer and. i am straight up frothing at the mouth. all he ever wanted was to be a gentle lord in a time of peace.....and death was his reward...Sorry For Stealing The Fingon Death Quotation But I'm Right. so much of his behaviour and the strain on his relationships with his sons and all that is sooo...informed by the fact that to cope with having to be lord of a country at war he had to be so so unbending. he couldn't allow himself to waver, ever, not even for love, not even to save his sons.

did you know he was 21 when sauron returned. pov you are 21 years young and you have been alone all your life you are the steward's only son you are his strange numenorean heir and no one else has the LITERAL PSYCHIC POWERS AND VISIONS that you do and you have had to contend with that, alone. master your own mind, alone. learn how the shape of politics and lordship and life bends around you. and the dark lord the enemy who brought down your forebears has now set his eye on your lands again. Jesus Christ. How Would You Fucking Deal. sorry i would have a nervous breakdown and go and live in the desert. Man. TWENTY ONE? LIKE ME? most days i feel like a teletubby with a job and a credit card. if you scale it to account for numenorean lifespan inflation i mean i don't know how the math works but like. i bet it comes out to being like. 17. HELLO? basically everyone i know was barely a person at 17. the dark lord of all evil and he's MY problem to deal with?

i mean exactly. haven't we all been prideful and angry and resentful. haven't we all been there. once again [pippin voice] let's all understand poor denethor a little better. havent you ever been taken under the darkness of life [your paragraph here] yeah exactly what you said. the idea that he fucking won the war against the darkness and only lost to despair is..........so much! goodbye i have to go cry!

faramir, me AND fate's most special precious little guy....oh captain my captain....exactly. Exactly. i cant morally endorse a reread right this second but like. After. make it through finals and then it is Faramir Time. (and good luck! you got this!) tactical smartass little bitch master of both man and beast wizard's pupil (complimentary) star and hope and jewel of minas tirith knight in shining armour...my beloved. the idea that like faramir as presented, as the diplomat, as the scholar, as the numenorean, was supposed to be the one to go to rivendell...it haunts me. where is denethor sends the right son to do the right job.txt. he is gondor's no. 1 horse girl he is better suited to the wild than the battlefield he has read every sindarin text in the library he KNOWS the story of elrond and elros. he is literally telepathic and psychic and prophetic. thinking about him interacting with elrond and galadriel (and every other elf. but them in particular) makes me feel deranged. its very...self taught dnd wizard meets guy who went to wizard school energy. he's insane.

YEAH ITS CRAZY THAT THEYRE THE SAME GUY. it's. boromir gets to be boromir but faramir has to be denethor.txt. gracious and lordly as a king of old...now who is consistently referred to as noble and kingly...that a younger faramir would've looked up to...yeah. the perpetuation of denethor's second-best complex. i have a whole nother post in the drafts about that i CANT get into it here but jesus christ men who are NOT breaking the cycle. they even look the same. i mean 37 year old faramir as steward is 100% the spitting image of his father and that makes me....genuinely fucking insane actually. i mean like older councillors are doing double takes every time he walks by. i mean like sometimes people call him by the wrong fucking name. WOW where did that come from. the complex that that would give him...hello? turning this over inside my brain at WARP speed.

you are not late at all lol we are leaving little letters in each other's mailboxes to read when we have the time. i hope your exams go well!!! there will be more Faramir And Denethor Hours soon<33

#from the inbox #Anonymous #denethor anon #Another 1000+ Word Denethor Post From Yours Truly (both of us). Sorry To The Dash. #by the way the idea of ONE GUY bearing both sides of the sword/shield dichotomy made me feel like i was gonna black out in the coffee shop #that was crazy shit LOL #btw if u want me to talk about the denethor thorongil situationship I Fucking Will. idk if u were here before my faramir february url chang #but what has happened to me with them is soooooo typical abby rarepairnation behaviour. Hey Wouldn't That Be Funny. now hold on a second. #long post #denethorposting

[cuddleswinchester]

20 Questions For Fic Writers

thank you for the tag @remyfire - if any of my writer friends want to play too, please feel free, i am shy abt tagging people but ily all

How many works do you have on Ao3?

116

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

1,045,864

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently, MASH. Though I did do a short LotR piece at the beginning of this year.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Oh they're all older ones. The top two are Data/Geordi fics! Then a Kirk/Spock/McCoy, A Garak/Bashir, and an IT Crowd poly fic.

5. Do you respond to comments?

If I understand them (I think I get bot ones sometimes bc they don't make sense). I figure I can never go wrong with thanking someone for their time reading.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

If this means 'saddest' then it's certainly Hearts On Paper which I found fascinating to write and will still re-read when I need a good cry.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think most of my fics end happily or at least optimistically? I love ending with a big party or wedding or something like that. I have several that way.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not in many years. And to be fair I was like 12 and did not know how to spell, but I do remember some of those unkind comments still yeah :(

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Sometimes. I used to write kink and then had a breakdown over it (I am still proud of what I wrote it just was not a sustainable thing for my OCD, is all) but now I write what I would describe as Fussy Sex. Literally the more compromising and special considerations made from one partner to another makes me so happy. Or solo sex acts, I have enjoyed writing those this year and that's new for me.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I don't think I've ever written one. I get very stuck in the rules of whatever universe I'm working in and it's hard for me to follow two sets of rules at once.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes, I have, and was greatly honored! It was an older smut fic, quite dark themes, and a reader approached me and asked if they could translate it into Russian and I thought that was so amazingly cool. I'll go find the link if anyone is curious.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Most recently, The Famous 4077 Dog Tag Party :) we picked pairings randomly and each did a chapter.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I cannot possibly pick just one. Every ship that appeals to me does so at a different time and for a different reason, and the journey they take me on is always emotional and much appreciated in hindsight. My little fictional couples or their families are my family.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

oughhh presently I'm not sure if I have the right approach to finish Dull Instruments which is a shame because I really want to and I hate to start posting things I won't finish. But it feels awkward to me so I may not do it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like my character voices.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I try to give each piece its own style on a sliding scale of casual-formal but I wish I had more variety in like POV and stuff. Branching out into present tense this year has been nice.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I do write dialogue in American Sign Language sometimes. Because I am fluent in it. If I'm not fluent in a language I won't write a lot of it, maybe a few words here and there for the POV character to try and pick up, assuming they understand as little of it as I do.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Truly can't remember if High School Musical or 24 was first. The range, I know.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

I don't know if I could choose! Sorry to give a lot of boring wishywashy answers but like. Whatever I'm writing is important to me at the moment I'm writing me, it's helping me get through something that may or may not be clear in the themes, and I am grateful to all of the stories I've written for letting me spend time with them. I've been working on some kind of fic almost daily for going on 15 years now, it's how I experience emotions and all the things in the world I'll never be able to do firsthand. It's how I have conversations I'm too shy to otherwise, it's how I see old friends, it's how I learn more about topics I never did in school. Fic is so dear to me, every word.

#thank you for tagging me this was fun ! #and now it is time to write : )

[is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer]

LOTR movie lover here!

I just read your post about why you don’t like the LOTR films, and found this an interesting read!

Here’s the points I’m with you on:

John Rhys Davies makes me laugh. However, his character definitely suffered due to the comic relief angle. Especially when compared to Legolas.

Their little competitions are just as amusing in the books without reducing it to “haha, look at this bumbling dumb dwarf next to this flawless pretty elf who is obviously the better fighter”.

Nah man, they are EQUALS!

Also, Theoden needing Aragorn to hold his hand with everything. As someone who prefers the movie’s characterization of Aragorn to the book, they fumbled this.

Theoden is the king of ROHAN, so they should have let him be the king of Rohan. Aragorn came across as being the king of both Gondor and Rohan in all but name. Dude, Aragorn’s awesome but let other characters shine a bit!

The whole Arwen’s life being tied to the ring made no sense and is dumb. They set her up as this powerful awesome person but then she spends the rest of the film crying and dying. *sigh*

I am still on my way to re-reading the books, so I’m sure I will have more thoughts on this when I read it! I was gifted these gorgeous leatherbound editions of the books, complete with maps and illustrations! I have already finished The Hobbit, and will movie onto the rest! (Including The Silmarillion, not pictured here!)

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!! If you're up for it, if these were the things you were with me on, I'd be very interested in hearing about the points you weren't, and why. Hearing "you are right" feels really good, but it's hearing "you are wrong" (in a non-confrontational tone) that makes us grow and learn!

So Arwen does almost die in the movies? I wasn't sure about that, I'm very sad to hear I was right. How does that work? I can't think of any mechanism in the novels that would allow that to happen...

You say you like Aragorn better in the movies, care to elaborate? I'm curious.

Also, your books look gorgeous!!

#answer time #lord of the rings #lord of the rings movies #text posts #photos #movie adaptations #adaptations #gimli #legolas #aragorn #Théoden #Arwen

[frodo-with-glasses]

Via @o-lei-o-lai-o-lord on this post:

You people are the sweetest ;u;

Essay below the cut because it got way too hecking long:

It’s such a sad thing to me that “non-ironic nostalgic fondness” is so rare these days, like you said. Everybody jumps on the “new big thing” because it’s new and big and popular. Everybody is so eager to tear the “new big thing” to shreds because it’s new and big and popular. Everybody drops it like a hot rock the minute it stops being new and big and popular and starts being “outdated” and “cringe”.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that liking things ironically because you’re afraid of being “cringe” is, in itself, cringe. If I love something, I go full hog. It becomes a part of my life, a piece of who I am, a facet on the kaleidoscope of how I view the world. If I don’t like something, I just ignore it. I don’t like things just because they’re new or popular or trendy. I like them because they speak to me, personally, and no one can take that away from me.

I’ll gladly list off all the fandoms I’ve been in over the years, and the memories—both good and bad—that I have of each. The difference with Lord of the Rings is that every time I go back, it’s exactly the same as when I left it. It’s not new, evolving material. It’s not the work of multiple people meeting word count quotas in a writers’ room. It’s the work of one unmitigated genius, and it’s been here for nearly a century, remaining just the same as it’s always been—staid, unchanging, immutable.

What good is loving something if you don’t do it with complete sincerity? If you’re in love with someone, you don’t say “oh lol I only like them for the memes” or “oh lol I only like them because they’re popular”. If you can say that about your significant other, that’s not true love; that’s manipulation. So why do we treat stories the same way? Why is it “cool” to be cynical, sarcastic, ironic, and deconstructive?

The worst thing is that this attitude—this destructive way of interacting with stories—has now infected the creation of those stories as well. You can argue chicken or the egg all day long—and to be honest, I think the two attitudes probably feed on each other—but the fact remains that storytelling (that beautiful art form that’s existed since the dawn of humanity) has itself been poisoned by cynicism in most forms of media today.

Someone said once that the magic of the Peter Jackson LotR films is that they embraced the source material with complete sincerity. There’s no fourth-wall breaks, no snarky gags, nothing that deliberately mocks Tolkien or his work or breaks your immersion in the story. Imagine that level of love for the craft in something that came out this year! Before this re-read, I was deep in the MCU fandom—was, mind you—and I watched Endgame crap all over Thor: Ragnarok, the first Captain America movie, and even the first Avengers movie, without which it wouldn’t even exist. There isn’t even a sense of love and camaraderie between installments in the same franchise. Imagine if Frodo and Sam in Return of the King mocked and berated who they were back in Fellowship. That’s absurd! And yet, modern storytelling does exactly that all the time.

I think both of these attitudes stem from a desire to preemptively shut down any potential embarrassment that may happen later on. People are so obsessed with what others think about them that they want to shoot down any negative reception before it even starts. “You can’t mock my story if I mock it first!” or “You can’t make fun of me for liking a thing if I just like it ironically!” People want to feel smart, and superior, and clever, because they’re afraid of feeling stupid, inferior, and embarrassed.

But here’s the thing, as Tolkien’s best frienemy forever so aptly put it: “To love is to be vulnerable.” To love is to open yourself to embarrassment, to confused glances, to people “not getting it” or “thinking it’s silly” or “thinking you’re weird”.

And here’s the amazing thing: That’s okay! My mom taught me, ever since I was a little kid, that when someone calls me “weird”, I should just flash a big smile and say “THANKS!” It throws them right off-balance, and I can go on with my day. Now that I’m older—after having grown up Christian, home-schooled, mixed race, on a strict diet due to health reasons, and possibly on the spectrum—I realize now more than ever the wisdom she had back then. Because when you’re confident in yourself, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. If you truly love something or someone, the joy you get from that love is so potent that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. Someone called you weird and cringe? Don’t care! It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks! And few ideas in my life have been as liberating as that.

So I’ll keep drawing my silly little doodles of hobbits, and I’ll keep loving things with my whole heart, for no other reason than because it makes me happy—and as long as you all want to join me, you are more than welcome to come along for the ride.

#sweet people saying sweet things #my writing #in which i wax eloquent about the value of sincerity and ultimate irrelevance of ‘cringe’ #i have a lot of thoughts about storytelling and the culture around it #being a writer myself will do that to ya lol #anyway thank you again; y'all are so sweet i swear ;u;

[longsightmyth]

Hey I’ve really enjoyed reading what you post about rings of power. I went into it expecting to hate it, but I ended up enjoying it a lot! There were still some choices I didn’t like, but overall I thought it was done well. I think the Sauron reveal scene was crazy good and well written. My biggest issue, is how unmagical the elves are. I started rewatching the hobbit, and in it Galadriel appears with her hair glowing from the trees and her presence just screams power. I get that in rings of power, Galadriel is supposed to be younger, more brash, and not the mature and powerful leader we see in lotr. And I like that choice. But what I don’t get, where is her magic? I like her fighting and being a warrior, but shouldn’t there be some magic? Even if she just fights with glowing hair? Idk. That bothers me, the Silmaril is so full of elven magic, and I feel like we don’t get any of that here. Did that bother you at all?

Yeah! I loved the Galadriel and Sauron raft scene honestly. "What will they think when they know you have saved me" "it doesn't matter because I am also going to end you" (paraphrased, of course) was honestly amazing.

Regarding Galadriel's hair? It didn't bother me, no. I think given the constraints on what they were allowed to discuss/portray and what they weren't (and the themes they are exploring) they did an excellent job with Galadriel especially. Given that elves literally lose fea when they kill, and Galadriel has demonstrably been doing a lot of killing/ violence lately, it makes sense to me that she might not currently be shining with the light of heaven etc etc. I'm not sure they were doing that on purpose or not, but given the themes of Galadriel touching the darkness and perhaps even being rather dark herself at the moment, I think it makes sense even without that bit of elf lore.

Re: general elf magic? I thought the silm was the least ethereally magic elves we ever got, personally? People are going to disagree with me obviously and that's chill. Within the lore of TROP though, I don't think a people in constant trudging war for millennia are necessarily going to be ethereal and magic right now. They're also, per the lore of the show, all fading a little faster than they are in canon, probably due to the condensed timeline. I think it was a deliberate choice and one that I think works with what they're trying to say. Whether watchers like what they're trying to say is a different matter lol.

#the rings of power

[orphicpoieses]

Q & A – Writer Edition

I stole this open tag from @writingpotato07 🥸 Since I love talking about writing in general, I will now answer these questions, even no one asked xD

I'm tagging: passing on the open tag! 💕 Use this to have a little q&a about your writings! 💕

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you've ever had?

It starts with a tricky question. I had many ideas I would consider to be unique. Starting with the first story I told myself when I was younger (way younger, like about 18 years younger — no, I’m not going to tell you what this story was about). The first official story was about animal humans with special abilities and I would say this was the moment, my favourite ability grew.

It was a roleplaying game and I had a character who could sense emotions. Reading other people's emotions (and being able to control them!) is actually the most underrated and most beautiful idea I ever had. I, myself, underestimated this ability, until someone pointed out, that in a battle, being able to exactly know the emotions of the person in front of you, can be a dangerous weapon.

2. Is there a question you've been asked in the past that really stands out to you and you still think about sometimes?

I don't get many asks about my books, so no. I don't have a question I think about sometimes.

Most of the time, I ask myself questions, but these are more questions to develop my thinking further.

3. What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

Writing down the first draft. This is my absolutely favourite part of writing. When the story in your head finally leaves and forms in front of you on your paper. When I do it, I feel pure ecstasy. Not kidding.

What I absolutely hate is having gaps in my draft. This is also the reason why I don't leave gaps while writing my first draft. I simply cannot work when I have brackets like [insert action here] as placeholders. It is either push through or don't write the scene at all. So I push through. Every time.

4. What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

The simple act of storytelling. I don't have a goal, other than getting the story on paper. Telling the story to myself, being able to re-read it whenever I like, without the need of remembering the scenes in my head... That's all I need. That's all I am working for.

I write, because I don't find interesting books anymore. I write, because I want to read it.

5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever read or been given as a writer?

It was my first ever roleplaying game. I had a partner, which I believe was the best partner I've ever had.

There was a scene (it was LotR themed), where my character and his character took a break from traveling, resting at a campfire, ready to go into the night. We had horses with us and I - inexperienced as I was - skipped the part, where I told the story of how my character prepares to rest, including taking the gear off of my horse. In a private chat, he asked me: "And your horse? Don't you take the saddle from its back?"

I was confused, wasn't it a simple thing to do with no need of explanation. But he continued:

"If you do something, then write it down."

I hold this advice dear to my heart. In every sentence, in every scene, I can imagine him saying "Are you sure you described everything? Are you sure, the action is too simple to be told in a story?"

If there is an advice I follow religiously, then it is this one question from a dear friend.

(And again, I have tears in my eyes thinking about it xD)

6. What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

Honestly? Nothing. The way I learned to write stories, the way my friend described the way of thinking to me, I would never replace it.

I've learned so much in the first few months from this guy, I talked about in the previous question and I can say, without him, I would not be the writer I am today. I needed every step of this journey. And I am grateful for it.

7. What is your favorite story you've written TO COMPLETION? Link it if you'd like and can!

The only stories I have finished yet, are written games. Most of them are only a small part of something bigger and are currently in the drafting phase.

8. What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

"Your sky. Your limit." ~ Tom Hiddleston

9. Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

I tend to only write controversial people. My characters are mostly morally grey, with tendencies to villains.

I do have characters who drown themselves in drugs, alcohol and sex, being completely ruthless and would probably be hated by many in real life.

I, personally, love exploring these kind of characters. Characters, that are dark at heart, cold and people would absolutely hate for how they behave. Playing around with controversy, the "mask you wear". The reasons behind those actions.

I believe, most of the time, you could actually argue about wether or not the characters are villains or heroes. I don't have a finite cut between these two. Most of them are both.

10. If you when you first started writing met you now, what would younger you think?

My younger self would probably be surprised that I haven't finished my first series just yet xD But I also believe, my younger self would look up to the person I am now. She would be proud of me, for still writing and she would be happy to see that I managed to shift my schedule so that I can write while studying in university.

#q&a questions #q&a time #writeblr #writing #creative writing #writers on tumblr #writerblr #writerscommunity #writerscorner #writersociety #writblr #literature

[penny-anna]

i was tagged by @handwrittenhello, thank u! <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

i got uhh... 355! that's a lot

What’s your total AO3 word count?

aww don't make me check it. *checks* 988,031.

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

i have 12 currently listed on ao3 tho a couple of those are for crossovers. uhh i'm not going to say them all as some are embarrassing. the Big Ones are the Witcher, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings & Merlin, anyway.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

they are all witcher fics are present!

New Monster Stories

The Price of a Touch

Somebody to Love

sandstorms and hazy dawns

Constellations

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

OH that's a good question! i actually used to but i got out of the habit (oddly) when i moved to a fandom where i get less comments. the reason for this is that getting less comments meant i liked to go back and re-read them as if they were new comments and once i replied that would mean i was 'done' with them. so if i haven't replied to your comment that is because. i am still enjoying it.

i do reply when someone has a question or other comment that i feel warrants a response tho

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oof so the answer is definitely this merlin series which tbh i can't say i'd recommend as it's genuinely pretty brutal. i don't know if i can say that i regret the bleakness of the ending tho.

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

very rarely write 'crossovers' in the strictest sense BUT i do rly like writing fusions & of those i think the weirdest is the merlin/borrowers fusion bcos the whole concept of M-rated borrowers fic is just. frankly unacceptable!! but i did it anyway.

side note i do actually have a bunch more material around that one drabble (a whole au that's like the plot of the first borrowers but a romance essentially)

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

uhh kind of? yes. way back when i was about 14 and had just started posting fanfic i got a hm Scathing review on a fic i posted. however i was not especially bothered as i was very up myself when i was 14 and it would have taken more than 1 rude person to make me think what i was doing was anything less than Stellar and also the review was pretty dumb.

a lot of the stuff they didn't like in my story seemed to come down to them having failed to realise it was an AU & what i learned from that experience was you can't trust people to actually read your author's notes. the other stuff they took issue with came down to 'this was clearly written by a teenage girl' and in retrospect i'm like yeah no shit. this sounds like it was written by a teenager bcos i was in fact a teenager. do u have nothing better to do.

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

yes. tho not super often these days.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

sorta? once someone translated one of my fics & posted it without crediting the original. it was very very obviously a direct translation even without speaking the language it was written in. they'd been doing it for a while and i believe they got reported but i don't actually remember what came of it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

answered this above lol. yes i've had a few fics translated!! i don't really keep track of them. i used to go through and look at the comments on translations but i don't really bother these days.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

ok so i'm going to go with my gut instinct on this one & say Two/Jamie, even tho i'm not that into it these days. just in terms of. the level of enjoyment i had back when i was shipping it.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

OH you know i was actually thinking about this the other day! i always wanted to do a fourth installment of my Merlin urban fantasy AU that would tie some stuff together (and also feature gwen! who was absent from the entire fic bcos i was saving her for later!! i'm so sorry!) but i just lost interest in the fandom. i remember being conscious when i posted the 3rd part that it was kind of a parting gift to the Merlin fandom as a whole. am still pretty proud of that one.

What are your writing strengths?

dialogue!

What are your writing weaknesses?

basically. everything but dialogue lol.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i did it 1 time using google translate in an original story & then i ended up actually selling the story so i had to scrabble around trying to find someone who spoke the language who could help me in advance of publishing it and then the process of translating it turned out to be much more complicated than i expected.

i don't remember the usernames of the very kind people who helped me out w it off the top of my head but thank you again!!

anyway no i will not be doing that again probably.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

it was lord of the rings & tbh as lotr fanfics written aged 12 go it really wasn't that embarrassing but it is no longer online.

for some reason (and this is probably for the best) my tastes ran exclusively to crack fic & i also really liked legolas so it was just an extended fic about legolas having really stupid adventures which i thought was very funny at the time. it was co-written w a friend and tbph her chapters were legit funny. go figure.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

i feel like i end up saying this every time this question comes up but the thing i'm proudest of is prolly the LOTR daemon au (if you can count that as one fic lol)

uhh who do i know who writes fic & hasn't been tagged. @thescarletpaperback @uighean

[elizabethrobertajones]

I don't even go here, but for your ships ask game, Urianger. (That's how you spell your Blorbo's name, right?)

(that is the nicest ask I've ever gotten because you know my blorbo :'))

The indisputable best ship for him is with his childhood sweetheart girl next door, who is a terrifying 7ft tall lady with an axe who keeps picking him up like he weighs nothing and crushing him :3

The next top ship for him is the Legolas to his Gimli or vice versa (I would need a month to work out which one is more coded which way and re-read LotR so I'm not gonna :P) because they're like. Deancas level metaphorically written in this one specific quest once at level 76, where I've now done three playthroughs of Shadowbringers and each time I get to that part, I narrow my eyes further because no one else seems to have been through the meat grinder I did with Destiel and then landed in FFXIV so no one else is just pointing at it and yelling but I AM, I KNOW. I AM PERCIEVING ON ANOTHER PLANE OF EXISTENCE.

And finally, there's a bunch of both good and/or hilarious options but I did a silly cackle when my friends were trying to ship my Horrible Rabbit Boy with various characters and it was a terrible conversation but I resolved it by concluding he and Urianger were almost weird enough for each other for it to make sense in that reality, so in Galvin-verse, they are dating and it's truly, truly awful. This is Galvin's fault, and he just makes everything else worse by being there :)

#asks #ffxiv #I took ages to answer this because trying to think of a 3rd sent me into a crisis #he and Thancred really are one of the few clear OTPs for me in there

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 4

Horse Girls Unite! 

OK Y’all, here’s the deal. This is a battle episode. Picking up where we left off from last week, the girls are racing to the inside of the temple on their magical horses, chased by a veritable hoard of strange, leafy harpies and hybrid, teleporting monstrosities. 

It’s a pretty straightforward setup with not a lot of plot relevant shakeups so rather than a play by play I am going to give you a highlight reel as the Seven make it to safety. Because of this, there won’t be a separate additional notes section. It’ll all just run together like my OG recap posts. Let’s go!

“Just as Gandalf said, get to the chopper!” and “Come with me if you want to live you fools” are tied for funniest LOTR/Arnold mashups from the top of the episode.

“Sam is a top--” Everyone loses their minds before the sentence is finished. 

Sam makes her horse, Taffodil, fly and then gets knocked out of the air shortly after (Penny casting Featherfall to save her), which means she spends a good deal of this episode aesthetically falling as Claire de Lune plays in the background. She looks Nat 20 hot while falling and that is not me being cute, she rolled for it and that was the result. 

Katja on her socials re the above: Friend is dying #dying. 

You simply love to have a DM in the party (Aabria) who knows the rules and can rules lawyer for the team. As they said in game, “Come through Aabria!”

Sam, falling to her death, recently hit by one of Ostentatia’s rings which woke her up, helping to save her life: I feel like I got hit by something very expensive...no, cheap!

Ostentatia: Go back to sleep you BITCH!

As she’s falling to her death, Sam is told they posted pics of falling online which are going viral and she asks, “What are the comments like?” to which Ant says, “Bitch you are still technically dying!”

Danielle does another beastly 64 points of goose damage in one go which I think must be acknowledged. 

Rekha, of course, talks Brennan into letting her jump from Cinnamon to one of the beasts and grab a barbed tentacle to attack itself with because a tentacle barb, as we know, is basically like a brush and this all makes total sense. If you have any questions about this totally normal sequence of events, I don’t know what to tell you. 

She asks if she can stick the tentacle in the king beast’s ass and Erika does an IRL spit take.

Sam (once she’s no longer falling) uses a magic item she has (a harp) to enthrall some of the monsters, including the king beast (w/ the extra help of the Suggestion spell), taking some major heat off of the others. Then Ostentatia straight up banishes him (“Arrivederci”), taking the second most dangerous enemy off the field completely!

When O banishes him, she sees a vision of his soul getting sucked into a forge which may be plot relevant seeing as her got is forge related and usually doesn’t talk to people but we shall see. 

So previously, Penny got snatched up by a harpy and flown away. And Becca describes her plan as a “Rekha level idea” Said plan is to make an illusion of the Harpy Queen so the underling harpy will give her over but everyone misinterprets this to mean she wants to make a copy of the harpy who is already holding her and being D20 fans, the people at the table are like, “No, no, no that’s not a REKHA level idea you are going FULL Emily Axford here.”

This plan works by the way. Penny gets a 6 in being convincing but the Harpy rolls a 6 with a minus 1. D&D. Best game ever. 

Danielle gets the last hit on the Harpy Queen, getting her down with a mite Infestation which is exactly the 24 HP she has left. Supremely gross but effective! The bugs eat her leaf wings and she fully dissolves. 

Katja and Antiope go way back and Katja made her read all the Babysitter Horse books too which is adorable. Where is my art of baby Ant and Kat?

Once she’s close enough, O casts Animate Object on the statute of one of the dwarven heroes (who is clean shaven like her) which starts absolutely wrecking house. What a use of Animate Object!

And, of course, all the girls make it in safe! Like I said, fun but not lots of plot. 

There is apparently a band called Stone Temple Pilots which I didn’t know which means this ep title is a pun and the more you know. 

Ant, Sam, Penny, and a non-Zelda NPC all roll 1 nat 20 apiece. Kat and Sam each roll a Nat 1. Penny does also but she gets to reroll it. 

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #the seven #the seven spoilers #I'm probably going to do battle episodes like this unless they're really wild/plot relevant/in a plot episode #bc play by plays are lots of detail with little narrative purpose most of the time #better watched than read ya feel?

[theshopislocal]

So I joined tumblr in December after seething about 15.20 for a little while. Before that I’d been an AO3 lurker and occasional writer in several fandoms, and before that I was (proudly!) kicked off of LJ for my disgusting and offensive PG-13 Harry/Draco drabbles that apparently squicked (a term I’ve recently learned no one uses any more :/) the random Christians who were inexplicably trolling LJ.

I knew very little about the spn fandom - specifically their demographics - when I first came here. I’d sort of been enjoying the show (usually? Eh, like 70/30) in my own little bubble - the same with fanfic and fanart.

To be frank, I was startled to discover the sheer number of younger folks and LGBT+ who are fans. Of course, reading all of your discourse and meta and musings, it makes perfect sense that spn and its characters would speak to young members of the LGBT+ community; I’d just been a little too ‘in my own head’ to put that together.

I’m a cisgender woman, and I’m generally fine with being called straight, though it’s not 100% accurate (what ever is, really?). That said, I wasn’t sexually or romantically attracted to anyone until I was in my early twenties, and my interests didn’t really align with those of other girls when I was in school. So, around seventh or eighth grade when most of the other girls started to go a little boy crazy, a few of them (my friends, actually) decided I was a lesbian. Their 12-year-old, early 2000s reasoning was “well, if you don’t like boys, and you keep your hair short, you’re probably a lesbian.” And I sort of just said “yeah, okay.”

So, when I was around 13 or so (and a newly minted “lesbian”), I started to get interested in media with gay themes. I started with shows like Queer As Folk and The L Word, and oddly enough, even though I didn’t relate to the romantic or sexual stuff because I didn’t feel things like that at the time, I did relate to the characters’ struggles. Feeling like no one knows you, like people can’t accept you, want to change you, feeling alone and different and outcast. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t very pretty, maybe because I was one of the only black girls in my grade, maybe because I was an only child and a latchkey kid; whatever the reason, these gay characters spoke to me. I felt like I knew them, and they knew me.

In true millennial style, I blew through pretty much all the gay stuff my mom would let me watch (she actually got suuuuper into The L Word, we watched like seven episodes in a row on Christmas Eve once), and then started scouring the internet for more content. That’s when I came across sites like Ink-Stained Fingers (a Harry Potter slash archive that might still exist? Idk) and Library of Moria (same thing but for LotR). And suddenly - anyone could be gay! And even though I wasn’t actually a lesbian (though at the time I was rather convinced I was), it still felt fantastic that I could actually relate to these characters, some of whom I’d only vaguely liked in reading their original canons.

I very quickly became a fanfic connoisseur - and it even went beyond slash pairings or any pairings at all. I just liked seeing characters in a new light. I liked seeing people and relationship dynamics that were different, taboo, subversive - because it made me feel better about being me.

I went off to college. Screwed around with some boys, some girls, some people who didn’t call themselves either. Became pretty sure I wasn’t a lesbian, but still didn’t really know what I was; this was over ten years ago, and all the various terminology was still pretty new. Eventually, I met a boy who made me smile and turned me on - both of which were entirely new and singular experiences for me - and I married him.

Cut to: my husband and I watching 15.20, and both of us - cisgender and predominately straight - looking at each other like “wtf is this bro-y bullshit?”

So I thought “fuck this, I need to vent,” hopped on tumblr, and - low and behold - here you all are! It took me a minute to wrap my head around it, to get past the initial excitement of just look at all the people the different people the real people the people who are so very unapologetically themselves!

I don’t think any of you could possibly know how happy I was (am) to see you all, how very beautiful it is that you’re all here.

Anyway. To all the LGBT+ shippers reading this, I just want you to know (re: the deancas wedding, but also just... everything): if even my dumb, straight, weird, who-even-am-I ass can see it, it’s real. You’re not crazy, you’re not delusional, your opinions are not invalid. You’re not just “projecting,” and even if you were, there’s no damn law that says only straight people get to project. Please don’t let shitty people (who are literally too stupid to even capitalize on your interest for their own gain) ruin anything for you.

To any straight shippers: if you’re anything like me, you’re not fetishizing or objectifying gay relationships - you’re relating to characters that you adore in the best way you know how. You’re celebrating the qualities in people that make the world diverse and colorful and beautiful.

To any young shippers: it gets better. You’ll get out. You’ll find better answers. You’ll learn better questions. You’ll figure it all out, or (slightly more likely) you’ll figure out that not everything needs to be figured out. People do hear you, and people do care about you and what you have to say. Your voice matters.

To everyone: there’s nothing wrong with you. And I’m so damn sorry that anyone has ever made you believe that there is. Honestly. I’m sorry.

#idk how to tag this #I guess um #destiel #??? #deancas wedding #stfu #chad lindberg #extra stfu #samantha ferris #fandom stuff #tmi #sorryyyy #i love you all

[janiedean]

Amazing how you can erase and twist everything someone says and not even bother to check things before launching in your 1000 words answer where you repeat the same things over and over again. When I say “Theon’s story is about destroying death”, I AM talking about his trauma and abuse. I’m not saying that Theon is a superhero, I’m saying that Theon’s story is literally about surviving and saying no to the dying of light, he’s always been trapped between life and death. How is that less meaningful than Jon being AA just because he’s special. Jon is stereotypical, not matter how much you deny it. He is the bastard son of the “good” Ned Stark that everyone seems to venerate, he becomes important, he’s actually a prince, and heir to the kingdom, he’s going to come back from the dead and apparently it’s not enough because he’s also AA. Also “I search for AA and see only Snow”, how is that not a red flag? Didn’t you think that it could be about Ramsay hiding Theon? I didn’t say that everything is about mythology and ancient literature, I said Theon has a lot of connections to it, connections that are hard not to notice, that actually make sense and are not taken out of nowhere like everyone in this fandom does. Theon’s story is about himself, not about Bran or any Stark, you’re just obsessed with throbb. Theon is connected to magic and to the gods, Theon is the rightful king of the Iron Islands, so why it’s so amusing to people when someone suggests that Theon has something to do. I’m not saying that Theon has to be important for his story to count, but why it’s so amusing to people the idea that Theon is an abuse and rape victim and at the same time he has something to do. When it comes to female victims, they want them to do great things, when it comes to Theon they constantly reduce him to poor say boy, but Theon is not like that, Theon is in pain and he wants everything to end, but he’s also angry and he wants to be free. I didn’t say that he has to explore the sea because he’s an Ironborn, you said that, not me. I think that that’s something Book!Theon would want to do if he survives everything. Because he would be free and he would go into the unknown. That’s not true Theon has no connection to the sea, the Drowned God himself wants him as king and he likes ships, there’s also the fact that he never learned how to use a ship because he was kidnapped at 10. Also what’s so wrong about him connecting with his culture? He could change things, he wouldn’t be a viking, he would be an explorer. The way you talk about it, it’s like dealing with trauma means closing himself in an house. And about the prophecy, what’s so amusing about saying that Theon has a lot that fits? I know that the prophecy is vague, but Davos and Stannis don’t come close to it as Theon does. Theon died in almost every possible way and managed to come back on his own. He keeps saying that he died in Winterfell. Read the last chapters in ACOK, it’s all there and it all happens at the same time, and still there’s so much more, so many things. And it’s like this HAS to be true, but you say no to everything, you don’t even think that he has something to do with the Iron Islands, you just think he has to “atone” to Bran, so how are you different from D&D? Theon doesn’t have to atone to Bran, Robb or anyone else called Stark, his story is about identity. And Bran is talking to Theon and yes, Theon took Winterfell, but it’s not the only reason their stories are connected, Theon taking Winterfell from Bran was a foreshadowing to them interacting in the future for different more important reasons, that was always clear to me

... anon never mind that I hadn't talked about this in ages so like you came into my inbox with some 500 words of replying at 8 am on a sunday morning and idk how *I* am supposedly twisting things when

you brought this out of nowhere

I hadn't talked about the AA thing nor anything wrt theon's ending in like... a year

you are basically making up half of what I said or didn't because like 'oh I didn't say he had a tying to the sea because he's an ironborn' but two lines later you say 'what's the issue if he reconnects with his ancestry' which.... means that he'd have a tie to the sea because he's an ironborn so what's the truth here

'you're obsessed with throbb' I didn't mention robb once in my entire answer nor throbb nor I have written throbb meta recently like... I ship throbb but I don't see how that has any relevance to an answer where I literally didn't mention it and I said theon's sl can't be just about the starks

idk why you seem to think I have great stakes re jon snow and 'he's stereotypical no matter how much you say he's not', I'm saying that for a chosen one archetype he's a deconstruction so he's not stereotypical in the way h*rry p*tter is or aragorn is or whatever and it's like objective text and honestly I have fic to write and stuff to do and I could have like completely ignored your ask and said 'I think you're wrong' instead yesterday I spent half an hour answering you like... you don't need to sound that aggressive or come at me with this entire block of text when I wasn't even the one starting this conversation

what’s so amusing about saying that Theon has a lot that fits?

anon I explained in those 1k reply or whatever all the reasons why everything theon has that fits is something every single other character has at that point dany has the exact same reasons for fitting it and I told you all the reasons why jon has extra things that fit that no one else has, like.... it's my opinion, I haven't changed my mind since 2012 on it, you aren't going to change it and no one is until grrm writes different, you don't need to convince me or look for me to validate your reading because you can have whichever reading you want and no one stops you, I just don't think it's correct, the end

The way you talk about it, it’s like dealing with trauma means closing himself in an house.

anon you keep on saying I say that but you are aware that if I say I want char X to get their little house in the village/woods/city of their choice and grow strawberries with their loved ones and be happy I'm not saying what you said and I'm talking abt endgame? jaime and brienne both also deal with trauma and when I say that I hope they get married on tarth have fifteen kids and never set foot in a court again I'm not saying having children is the only way to deal with trauma like.... one thing is the endgame one thing is how you get there, where did I say theon is gonna lock himself in a cottage in wow and stay there until ados? nowhere, like.... please a bit of chill here? you read a thing and arbitrarily decided it meant stuff it doesn't mean but I am the one twisting and erasing? like sorry but it sounds like you want a fight about it or smth and believe me fighting about who is AA is not on my list of to-do things for today, also 'I died in winterfell' is like... yeah, theon greyjoy died in wf then he became reek then he became theon again, it's metaphorical, jon literally died, also like if AA wasn't a main fiver then it'd probably be someone completely out of left field that no one gaf about and for that matter there's a character who has been dying and coming back to life who has a flaming sword since like acok, but do I see you telling me it's textual proof beric is AA? no, but that would make more textual sense than theon imvho so *shrug*

in short: anon sorry but it sounds like being that theon is your fave - which... I mean he's in my top three so I agree that he's a great fave choice - you want him desperately to have the main role in the main storyline which is imvho not the case and again... even if jon was stereotypical (which we can argue on but like... from your wording I think you hate jon ngl which fair enough everyone has their dislikes) it wouldn't make the textual evidence less evidence and like... idk how to say it nicely but not liking the protagonist is more common than not and if you don't whatever but that doesn't mean he's not and that the textual stuff indicating he has the mystical hero storyline doesn't exist, I'd suggest you make peace with that concept and with the concept that your fave doesn't need to have any specialness in their sl to be a legitimate fave, also like... in asoiaf everyone who is special™ has a shit life and when grrm says he wants a bittersweet ending like in lotr, do I have to remind anyone what was lotr's ending? samwise gamgee goes back to his little house and children and wife in the shire and says he's home and we're all happy that the dude who deserved it most got it great, if that's what he's aiming for I really don't think presuming everyone gets the magical great™ storyline is in the cards X°D but most of all: again, everyone who's had a sl being full of magic prophecies and shit in these books has had a crap life and hated every second of it that was related to those prophecies and I want theon to be happy at the end so in lack of any imvho text proof that says it's anyone but jon I'll stick with that because it means none of my faves is in line to hate their life, which is exactly what happens to jon if he's AA and exactly what I think is gonna happen and I don't particularly like that for him either bc I do want jon to have nice things but idt he'll get them, doesn't mean I'm trying to find any textual reason to decide on my own that AA is dany (a char I care a lot less about) so that she gets the brunt of it because that's now how it works, I made peace with it too X°D

#1 #2 #34 #5 #6 #anonymous #ask post #ch: theon greyjoy #ch: jon snow #honestly anon i'd ask myself why you're so invested in this you're looking for a fight #bc that's how you sound like #*shrug* #peace

[beautifultypewriter]

Dude, I can't tell you how much I love the Mandalorian. I don't know, something about the bucket head? Boba Fett, too! I think it's actually amazing how much emotion and info that they can share without using any facial expressions. And maybe not being able to see their face makes it more attractive, because you have to actively watch their body language? What are your thoughts on it?

Also...I have not been able to get into Lord of the Rings! I believe that's one you write for? I haven't watched more than 5mins of any movie! I know that Thurandiul is hot, but other than that, I know NOTHING. Gandalf exists? Bleh. Is it worth getting into? What is the Hobbit vs Lord of the Rings??

That is all! I love your writing, and I hope you're doing well 💜

First of all, thank you so much for this. It’s amazing.

Second, I know exactly what you mean about the bucket head. I don’t know why. It makes no sense, but the bucket head. Yes. What Pedro does on that show as Din is truly amazing. You’re right, you can’t rely on facial expressions so you have to pay attention to what he does and how he does it. The how - all of his movements have purpose and a secureness about them. Like this man is strong, and I’m not talking physically, he’s solid. And the what - he’s protecting that little baby. Like he was sent to kill Grogu, but he saw he was just a little green bean and so instead he sacrificed everything that held meaning to him to make sure that Grogu was safe. He’s a protector. And for me personally, these things are all attractive. What he does and how he does it.

Omg. Okay, so yes, I do write for Lord of the Rings and I love it very much. It’s actually my very first hyper fixation and it’s the oldest media I have that I’m very much still involved in. I am trying to figure out how to talk about it without rambling for 10 years. It’s difficult. Yes, Gandalf exists and he’s awesome. I think it’s worth getting into, especially if you like fantasy. If we’re talking about the films, the Lord of the Rings films came out 20 years ago and they still hold up really well. There is very little cgi used, so you’re not watching it and thinking ‘this is 20 years old’ like that thought never even enters your head which is awesome. The casting was perfect. Every character. Every single one. I have no complaints.

Okay, so The Hobbit came first. Tolkien published it in 1937, I think, and it was actually a children’s book (not a picture book, it’s a novel, it was just meant for children). Then The Lord of the Rings came in 1954. It’s what happens after The Hobbit and because of certain events that take place in that novel. Different characters with the exception of a few who appear in Lord of the Rings as well. The Lord of the Rings films were made before The Hobbit films were. The first one came out in 2001 and the first Hobbit film came out in 2012. If you’re gonna watch films, then I suggest you watch The Lord of the Rings (they’re better. I don’t make the rules, they just are). If you’re gonna read the books, then start with The Hobbit. It’s an easier read and it is absolutely delightful. I re read it every year. Love it.

Now, what makes The Lord of the Rings so wonderful? Very simply put, it’s comfort. LoTR was never about the violence and the epic battles (yes we see these things in the films, but it’s not the main attraction). It was never about the fighting. It’s about the what are we fighting for. It’s about home and friendship and protecting the things that are worth protecting. There are really awesome, epic scenes that we love, but more importantly we see these characters. We see what they love and how they care for each other. We see their softness and their strength. What they’re willing to sacrifice, what they’re willing to do for what they care about. And it’s beautiful and comforting and I love it. I’m gonna stop now, though I’ve barely scratched the surface, because I don’t wanna go too crazy (it may be too late for that).

Thank you so much for this ask. I loved your thoughts about The Mandalorian and I loved getting to gush about Lord of the Rings.

#talk fandom to me