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meikuree · 2 months

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book review: exordia by seth dickinson

alternative title: more people should read exordia please please please so I can talk to people about this book because it's eaten my brain.

note: not a spoiler-free review.

"where do I begin" is a common response to this book and I can see why. if you thought the locked tomb was adventurous for bending genres across books, Exordia does it six times or so in a single book.

perhaps I should start with how I got interested in reading this: i'd just come off the back of reading Serious Weighty books about memory, war atrocities, complicity and genocide, so I figured this would be a nice palate cleanser and 'transition' book. it's still about ethics and genocides after all, only dressed in the clothes of an author-described “fun” indulgent SFF book. a friend also sirened me with details and screenshots of a fraught central mother-daughter relationship (involving said mother [Khaje] pointing a gun to her daughter's head when she reunites with her) which I’ll admit expedited my interest.

long story short: I ended up so sucked into this that I was reluctant to put it down, and I inhaled it in 1.5 days. a 576-page book! that has happened a total of never times in my recent imaginatively parched life. this book reminded me in a way that reading can be limbically fun and unhinged, which sounds absurd and as if i should return to primary school but is true. i've been stuck in the academic reading mines for too long. I felt like my brain was being squeezed into a wormhole and emptied out in fragments on the other end, albeit in a nice and dysfunctionally salutary way reminiscent of crack.

the barebones plot is as such: anna sinjari (birth name jiyan) is a disenchanted 30-something office worker in new york city who's just been fired and is dealing with PTSD symptoms when she comes across an eight-headed "snake centaur hydra" eating turtles out of a pond. cue the rest of the plot. cue the second act, where a mysterious "spaceship" construct thing has landed near anna's hometown village Tawakul and she gets parachuted in to figure out what's happening and whether it'll accidentally spark off intergalactic conflicts. cue, also, a long ensemble structure that cycles between eight different characters' POVs and time and metaphysically-bendy happenings.

or, TLDR: it's a subversion (or rather anti-homage, cr. transversely) of first contact and geopolitical narratives with a relatively considered and considerate indictment of american imperialism, that also explores the practical ramifications of trolley problem-style situations*.

* fun fact: the beginnings of the trolley problem were developed in 1967 by british philosopher Philippa Foot. there may be something to be said for how the concept's been de-gendered since then, since I don't think it's really common knowledge these days that it was written about by a philosopher who was a woman

the not so much tone shift as tone derailing between acts 1 and 2 caught me off guard (the first act is very domestic and features cursed slice of life stuff, very much my thing!) but act 2 captured me once the bio-body horror shenanigans started happening, annihilation style, though... uh... with two of the characters (Erik and Clayton) who took up a lot of narrative time in early act 2, I was incredibly bored and going I'M JUST HERE FOR THE KURDISH FAILMOTHER [Khaje], GET OUTTA MY WAY GAYBOYS. but every character is important to the narrative and even if I think the 50 pages of davoud being plane-sexual should've been trimmed, they all add flavour!

arguably for instance the most beneficial purpose of davoud's interludes is to charm plane otakus into reading this book, which I can get behind. if I can get my plane otaku friends to be insane about this book along with me, even if it's for completely different reasons (I'm mooning over the complicated snake sisters and mother-daughter dynamics and kurdish side characters and worldbuilding) it'll have been worth it.

the big "scifi" element of this book centres around souls and narratives -- the snake alien Anna meets is called Ssrin (and also now my morally grey babygirl, more on that later) and also part of Exordia, the prevailing imperialistic system which 'pinions' (enslaves) other species' souls. this system's been explained better elsewhere, so I'll move on.

by the way, the marketing copy for this book by tor fails utterly to do it justice aside from Seth's own snake woman courts Kurdish faildaughter. just ignore it and go in blind like I did if you want. it's better that way.

what I liked

i've read the first Baru Cormorant book and bounced off it emotionally, even though cerebrally it should've been everything I'd have loved. bits where I would've exulted in war by inflation along with Baru, for instance, felt like I was simply revising my macroeconomics and monetary policy textbooks, and not in a positive way. well, I enjoyed this book a lot, which surprised me! there were many elements that were YMMV and which are usually incredibly inadvisable to pair together, but seth pulls it off. somehow. it's intentionally maximalist and deranged and A LOT but seth was clearly leaning into their id and if it works for you, it will work well.

this book directly references and subverts the whole anthropocentric "humans are destined saviours of the universe" scifi pillar shtick in the first act:

“Nooo,” Anna protests. “That’s it?” “That’s it.” “We’re not unusually stubborn? We’re not particularly diverse? Experimental? Curious? Willing to take risks? Jacks of all trades but masters of none?” “No,” Ssrin says, crossing two of her necks in a big X of negation. “You are jacks of running and masters of being inbred.” [...] “Good. You’re learning. The story of man is a story of mediocrity. But so are most stories, I think. Most things are average, or median; if they were not, nothing would make sense.” Ssrin begins to unwrap herself. “Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. Your species is not special. It is not destined. But it is very, very inbred … and that makes it transparent to a certain kind of analysis. Your souls all bear the same tint. They are touched by the same story. It rings in your myths, deep down, lower than you know. [...]"

the story is often irreverent and driven by black comedy, but it does have real tragedy at its core (the Anfal genocide). the black humour isn't edgy, it's very resonant with the way communities who have suffered genocide or repression will use humour as a coping mechanism, something something sloppy james scott citation here.

the disavowal of humanity as a homogeneous group or race was refreshing, and I don't just mean in terms of the international posse of characters. I really appreciate the awareness in the narrative of the fact that apocalypses and disasters are nothing new to communities who have already experienced turmoil and the ongoing present/slow violence/necropolitics of colonialism and imperialism. as the common refrain in decolonial circles goes: the world ended long ago in 1492. and the book takes that seriously and grapples with why the residents of Tawakul would be deeply suspicious of the american secret ops teams coming to them, and is sympathetic to them if not siding with them. there's a good evisceration and explicit consideration of american imperialism and homo sacer regimes, eg. this segment where seth lays it bare and we're transparently not meant to see this as a good thing:

You are a contractor, and therefore you are not subject to American military law. But you are not on American soil, and therefore you are not subject to American criminal or civil law. No law exists for you. So I have created myself to enforce a deeper law. The law of right and wrong.

and the epigraph has this obama quote:

Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine. —President Barack Obama

which seth includes a citation for probably because they anticipated people going "wait, obama really said that?"

I'm not inclined to laud seth dickinson just for depicting viewpoints that have long been the default in segments of fiction outside the US media landscape (all this is not new to anyone who's spent 30 minutes researching the CIA on wikipedia or read about the USA's interventions in Southeast Asia) but I do like the gumption in centering the wretched of the earth. and very few things in this book feel tacked on, from subaltern perspectives to sexuality to the magic system. for better or worse everything is very intentional and constructed. whether that feels like rigid artifice or art to you will depend.

I also have a line in my notes for this post that goes "seth is very sciencey: he expresses human insights via mathematical language. compare to anthropological slant of le guin" I've forgotten what I was going to say, but I like that seth is interdisciplinary to steal a friend's phrase. I was bamboozled by the abstract maths in this (I'm not conversant in mathematical theory, alas, I should fix that) but after a while I was like: oh! these math debates are just like the structuralism/poststructuralism split, albeit expressed in well, STEM language, and: hey, this sounds just like assemblage theory. I've connected the dots.

other things (actually very central):

Khaje and Anna's relationship. THEIR RELATIONSHIP!!! the bit where khaje says "I should've asked my daughter to come home sooner so I could spend more time with her" ...

Ssrin and Ssenenet (her sister), all the tantalising nuggets of complicated sister relationships Seth gave us. if you thought I wouldn't be going in the direction of lesbian snake incest, you thought wrong, I am entirely down for that shit and craving fic though we've gotten barely 4 paragraphs about them

Khaje, Arin, and Anna/Jiyan, aka weird snarly triangle of platonic jealousy between a slighted actual daughter, her estranged mother, and said mother’s sort-of surrogate daughter

THE BODY HORROR I didn't get nightmares but you might and the body horror is impeccable and mixes both metaphysical horror (what if Hell was an actual place?) and fleshly ones

the ubiets and old gods, yay for cosmic

i should've also expected it given that it's seth, but the ending can be quite a downer. seth does the thing where they build up hope and then it crashes. i'm TragedySicko #6969 and have a libido for melancholic misery so I loved the emotional devastation, but I felt like I needed a drink and to inhale a depressing book about grief to properly process my feelings after.

segments I wheezed at:

Khaje groans. She can tolerate Arîn Tawakuli, but only when she has been awake for between three and eight hours, only if she doesn’t have a hangover, and only if she doesn’t hear any particularly cheerful birds. Arîn is too young to remember the hard times of civil war. She’s an Apoist and a true believer in jineology and Khaje resents her. Not for her beliefs, but for the ability to believe. Arîn also loves to tell people that Khaje isn’t really crazy, she just has PTSD. For that Khaje truly despises her.

“He’s my uniformed prisoner now. What do you think I’m going to do, heval? Torture him?” “You have been acting pretty strange!” Arîn blurts. “Sitting out there all night watching the Ugandans—skipping all the assembly meetings—I mean, you’re sober, that’s kind of out of character!” People laugh. Khaje bristles: “Fuck your mother, Arîn.” “Hey, we don’t curse mothers here,” Arîn snaps. “It’s bad jineology.” “Can everyone stop talking about mothers!” Haydar screams.

3 (after a nuclear detonation):

“How can our pickups be broken, but not their tanks?” Khaje demands. “Look at them, driving all over our meadow. Look, Arîn, they’re destroying your sustainably planted wildflowers. They’re ruining your topsoil.” “This is amazing,” Arîn says. “Look, the blasts cover the whole sky! They must have hit the entire hemisphere, at least!” “So?” “So the power is out everywhere. This could be the intervention we need to break out of the trap of endless growth, Khaje! The end of the Anthropocene!”

what I didn't vibe with as much

the Erik and Clayton interludes. dear god. I'm sorry, they represent the key levers of the american imperialist establishment and their presence has narrative importance and clayton is an expy/critique of Obama and "first Black guy to drop an atomic bomb"-style diversity rhetoric + there's a scene where it all does pay off, but... to borrow a meme, I'm tired of hearing about all these american men. I just did not care about their childhood reminisces and I would've loved to hear more about Anna and Khaje's childhoods instead. their madonna complex over Rosamaria was also tiring

and a paratextual note: I came into this a little suspicious of Seth or at least not as generous as I could be after reading Baru 1. I was proven wrong. still, they have this annoying habit of chastising themself in interviews for not citing female writers as inspirations off the cuff more often when it's like... you could prepare your answers beforehand. but I digress.

things I'm musing about

I've been comparing this a little to le guin's oeuvre, because I'm thinking about stories that centre small interactions but have high-concept interplanetary stakes. both le guin and seth do that, but le guin's writing distinctly feels anti-epic to me in a way seth's doesn't. perhaps because seth appears to subscribe to a "maths and engineering is the answer to the universe"-style idea.

lastly: I've never really believed in the recent grimdark/cozy division in sff circles, it's as meaningless to me as angst/fluff categories in fic. form IS related to content but there are stories with grimdark or gritty aesthetics that have pretty hopeful conceptions of justice, ethics, history, revolution, etc. and feel-good stories that are the inverse, that refuse myopically to reckon with uncomfortable histories and ironically end up looking way more cynical and nihilist to me. in the first category I'd place films like mad max: fury road. this is a book that ironically does have a spark of hope at the end: anna's people survive a nuclear apocalypse. and this book, I think, might very loosely belong in the former, which is an endorsement coming from me.

#exordia #seth dickinson #book reviews #meikuree talks #long post

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emphasisonthehomo · 22 days

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Since most of your WIP titles speak for themselves and others I remember you talked about before, I'm gonna ask about "OH NO another one" please?!

OKAY so. My thing re: writing Danny as trans and putting him into a Five 0 setting, is part of me is genuinely like "no recently transitioned trans person in their right fucking mind is going to become a cop." Danny in canon became a cop right out of college. But cops suck. The fact that my ass is writing about fictional cops still boggles my mind.

Because of this, even if I don't mention it explicitly, in my head all of my fic where Danny is trans, is the flavor of him being a PI/lawyer/whatever first, and getting caught up in the Task Force. But that adds too much plot to go into, so it's just not brought up.

But, what I have been thinking a lot of, is what if Danny was actually just a detective? Just that kid who wanted to be a cop from a young age, and then did it? How would Danny do that and still be trans? WELL. What if Danny transitioned at work?

And then I get into the fact that I haven't written about trans women as much as I have trans men. Mostly because Stef is just. Not cooperating and difficult to write, for a variety of reasons. So! What if Danny was a trans woman? And came out and transitioned while being a detective in New Jersey? And then wound up in Hawai'i? That's basically the premise. of the fic.

The fact that it's called 'OH NO not another one' is because I've landed myself into writing another deeply involved gender exploration story. Which shows now sign of being finished anytime soon, because the fact that I wrapped up the first one is a miracle.

#aron's fic #i seem only capable of writing one shots rn #it's driving me crazy

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cosettepontmercys · 9 months

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I think seeing the movie with people will be fun though and it has a different vibe than just watching a livestream so.im excited even if it might feel long and having to sit for that long haha. For the twenty one pilots one, we were the only ones in there so I think there will be more people this time! Oh I love debut so much..and it seems like she will sing Our Song in the movie! It's just that I never had the cd or anything at first so I was only familiar with the singles mostly and wasn't as familiar with some other songs until they were on streaming so they're just kinda there..but now the song does remind me of my sister and I!

I love Maisie too and have heard all of her music and I love that she's inspired by Taylor. I think she is an amazing songwriter and wasn't trying to compare too much or anything. I totally get what you mean how songwriters are more brave or straightforward with their lyrics cuz of Taylors influence and I love it. The similarity of We are Never and Lost the Breakup is just that they mentioned breakups and had similar pettiness I guess which isn't a bad thing. What I meant was I think Maisie has more details in her lyrics than songs being about the feeling..if that makes sense? Maybe that's why I said it was maybe more like Fearless to me and ya I'm excited to see the growth in her career going forward. I guess I just preferred the songs that aren't specifically about a breakup, like Body Better, Watch, Run and Want You Back..and prefer The Band and I, Wendy, Therapy, There it Goes, History of Man. Therapy I interpreted as similar to Renegade by Taylor which is why it was one of my favorites. I also really love John Hughes Movie by her! But that's why I said people have different writing styles and it's fine. Like Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter wrote about their breakups too which didn't bother me but Maisie just stuck out for some reason at first but has grown on me a lot since! I've noticed I like albums to have more topics in songs more often than not but it might just be a me thing. I'm excited for Olivia's album and like Griff too!

Ya I would say the best thing about Kiss Me Kate is a few of the songs and maybe some dancing. I'm only familiar with the movie musical though..which is kinda old fashioned..so I wonder how they updated that. But it could also not work if the leads didn't have chemistry or something. I did just see Into the Woods recently but ya they didn't really do much to change it..and Sweeney is probably similar but I'd still love to watch it. I hadn't thought of Company and forgot about it but it's definitely an example of a revival trying to do something different with the gender swap and more modern. I would love to see it on tour!

I will read more of the book later today and try to be almost done with it haha. I already have some books picked out for the readathon and looking forward to reading more! But i will probably use it for the rest of the year honestly and just see how many I can get to. I'm also trying to fit some books that were already on my list..but like if I use Beach Read and People We Meet for yellow and orange cover but these books are about summer..lol. I have a few that idk if they count. Like rereading if he had been with Me with my sister..but the main characters name is Autumn so I put that as reread an autumn favorite haha and also takes place in September I have a book with red in the title but the cover wasn't red. . The Stepping Off Place also takes place at the end of August to September if you wanna add it to your list and since that person was asking for recs. Then I have the boarding school one..Sharp Edge of Silence, and that is also in September. I'm unsure where I'll give you the Sun or you'll Miss me when I'm gone can fit. I'm thinking Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre too possibly wherever that fits. These Violent Delights I think is a retelling and that's been on my list forever. I'll think.of more later maybe or maybe you could share some of your picks!

it definitely will!! i'm super excited and i'm going to be seeing it twice! i'm seeing it once with my best friend (who i'm going to eras 2024 with) — she's very offline but loves taylor swift, so i'm excited to experience it with her and teach her all the chants and stuff! right after we got our tickets (well, after i got our tickets then texted her all before she woke up because it was 5 am here) she was like "i already know what i'm wearing" and was sooo cute about it :") i'm so excited! and then i'm seeing it again with my mom, who i didn't get to take to eras :(

and you're totally good!! i think i kind of get what you mean! speaking of olivia, i'm intrigued for guts' release tonight! i am not the biggest "pop punk" girlie, and it did take a while for bad idea right & vampire to grow on me but eventually i did really love it! i don't think i'll get a chance to properly listen to it till tomorrow night or saturday, though — i'm heading up to vancouver for the day tomorrow so i'll probably call it an early early night!

eeee i really hope griff releases more new music soon! i really like vertigo and can't wait to see what she has next in store for us!

the costumes in kiss me kate are phenomenal too!! i really miss the old golden age musical movie style of dancing (like an american in paris, on the town, etc). 2015-2017 was such a good year for me!!! i love my dance heavy shows! i really wish i'd gotten to see the into the woods tour :( i will forever be bitter about the weird into the woods we did here in seattle during that time — i posted briefly about it back then but just ... look at the ... set .... i just saw the company touring cast announcement too and i'm so stoked! i love tyler hardwick, he was great in little dancer/marie dancing still and he's a sweetheart; it'll be fun to see him in something again!

and yay!!! i'm so glad you're joining the readathon :") i normally just read as i go for readathons and try to work them into prompts but this time i'm trying to go in with things picked out! wuthering heights works for a gothic! you could also fit either one for the "a classic" prompt! and if you're talking about these violent delights by chloe gong, yes that one is a retelling!! i really liked these violent delights and our violent ends (the sequel) when i first read them!! <3

these are currently my choices for the readathon! but i'll probably end up doing something different/changing some things around! i'm not sure what yet though!! i already changed a few things earlier (i was going to do frankenstein for orange cover then decided to do you again because i wanted to switch up some genres, etc!)

hope you have a lovely weekend!

#post: answered #🩷 anon

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plasticnightmaredoll · 3 years

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All right, this is an Arkham Knight Riddler x female o/c fic that I've been working on recently that originally started as a drabble chapter for "i might not be flawless," but it's become far too long and complicated. It's actually some of my best work (in my opinion, at least), and there is a lot of time and effort I'm putting into this fic. @justasimplesinner has been kind enough to review the fic as I've worked on it, and I feel ready to let everyone else take a look.

Since this is still a WIP, keep in mind:

Hasn't been properly beta-read/proofread, so spelling and grammar mistakes may be present. Some word usage may be repetitive. Some sentences may need to be reworked or rearranged to fix the flow of the story.

Chapter 4 has no content yet -- just the tentative title and a one-sentence summary of what to expect.

Chapters 1 and 2 are mostly complete. Chapter 3 has content but it's only got what is probably going to be the ending for it.

This may or may not appeal to your personal headcanons or interpretations of Arkham Knight Riddler. Then again, this story is a very deep dive into his psyche, so he isn't behaving like his usual self because of this.

In case anyone may be wondering: I don't h/c Arkhamverse Riddler as heterosexual despite writing him with female o/cs. I see him as sapio-bisexual/pansexual. I strongly believe that he would value intelligence over physical attractiveness (a hot guy/girl with the brains of a stick bug just won't work for him in the long run). But he is bisexual because I think he's much more invested in what a person's mind is like and not their gender.

I know some people do h/c Arkham Knight/Arkhamverse Riddler as asexual, but.......................I don't. Now, now, I have my reasons, and I've mentioned them in my NSFW Alphabet for Arkham Knight Riddler, so I don't want to repeat them here.

This fic does have some trigger warnings! It contains discussion about emotionally, verbally, and physically abusive childhoods. It also deals with severe depression, anxiety, panic attacks, and some very confusing, illogical, and delusional opinions on dating, relationships, and men. This is a story focusing on two people with serious mental health issues so...what did you expect?

You can see a WIP here. The tentative title is "Pull You In (But Don't Get Too Close," but that may change. The 4 chapter titles may also change ( I got them from the names of Revolutionary Girl Utena duels ).

#edward nigma #arkham knight riddler #riddler #riddler x oc #arkhamverse riddler #riddler x female oc #edward nigma x oc #edward nigma x female oc #the riddler

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thedreadvampy · 3 years

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please keep talking abt wrestling. i've kinda fallen into this hole recently and, since you're cool af, I would love to know whatever you have to say about it

Well I mostly watch AEW although I was very into Progress before the pandemic (which is a London-based indie promotion that's also basically the feed source for NXT UK) but idk whether or in what state Progress will come back not just bc of the pandemic but bc this year's wrestling abuse scandals involved a lot of their management and core roster so they've had to really reshuffle.

anyway that's an unnecessarily grim diversion let's talk AEW (I'm a few episodes behind bc I watch on Zoom with my pals and it's easy to fall behind while trying to line up our schedules, we're gonna watch Winter Is Coming tonight)

This blog's opinions are:

Women's wrestling is severely underrated and that's the fault of the promotion not the fans, AEW has a phenomenally talented women's roster with a big fan following but consistently gives them no air time, very little space to develop plots, one match per episode that the commentators half-ignore, and only ever one plot at a time. I love Hikaru Shida, Nyla Rose and Britt Baker as characters but there's a huge women's roster of compelling characters who only ever show up on Dark or for a single bout not tied into any particular plot on Dynamite and it's very wearing. When they launched AEW they made a big deal about equal pay for the men and women's rosters and paying the same regardless of gender and fan status, purely based on card position, but that means absolutely nothing if there's only ever one women's match and it's always at the same mid-card position. Sorry to open on a negative but it makes me so mad that WWE, the company which is notoriously misogynistic and whose director had to be shown Asian schoolgirl porn to accept that the audience would find Japanese wrestlers "sexy enough" to put in the ring, is somehow a better venue for women's wrestling than AEW. like fuckkkkkkkkk just treat the women's roster like you would the men's!!!!

on which note, AEW Heels, the Paid Fanclub For Women Who Like Wrestling, is the most half-assed attempt to court the female wrestling audience I've ever seen (and I watched WWE's Revolution pay-per-view where the line was 'isn't it nice that the men have allowed women to have their own PPV thanks to all the men who made this possible'). like ok I COULD give you money to Be A Female Fan OR, wild concept, you could do more than one women's match per episode on your flagship show and not relegate the women's tag title to YouTube

Relatedly, There's Too Much Wrestling. As you can probably tell from the fact I'm 4 episodes behind on Dynamite, I struggle enough to fit 2 hours of wrestling into my week, but AEW also expected me to keep up with Dark, BTE, and sometimes other side projects? and now also Impact and NWA and sometimes NJPW. and then if I want to recognise big names they're bringing in I would also have had to watch WWE which like. there's even more WWE than AEW. idk I'm a completionist and it's simply not possible to watch All The Relevant Wrestling bc that would be like. 20 hours a week and I have a job and a life and stuff. like I watch AEW Dynamite and BTE and that does me.

this is all very negative but I love wrestling! I got into it a couple of years ago and it's absolutely incredible to me I love the artistry I love the athleticism I love the creativity and the fun people have with their characters. and the reason I gave up on WWE as soon as AEW started up is that it feels so much like the wrestlers are given space to play and to find the stories they want to tell.

MJF is a DELIGHT he's like one of my favourite heels he's so loathsome and so much fun! and there's like a really good consistent emotional core to his overall storyline of desperate insecurity I'm so into it and I'm so hype about when inevitably Wardlow's gonna turn on him. I love the resonance of his relationship with Cody vs his relationship with Wardlow and also the extremely strong gay unrequited love vibes that keep popping up here.

Hikaru Shida is AMAZING I love her. did u know she makes her own ring gear and learnt to speak English pretty much from scratch when she joined AEW a year ago and is now cutting full promos in English? also her facial acting? 😘👌👌👌👌

Sonny Kiss is phenomenal I hope they're on Dynamite more bc not only is she a phenomenal character in their own right but when she started tagging with Joey Janela their in-ring chemistry actually made me LIKE Janela for the first time. also it warms my heart that JR, despite being kind of an old fogey, is regularly correcting other commentators on their pronoun use and vocally acknowledging that Sonny is nonbinary.

honestly JR does just warm my heart in general like he visibly struggled early on with getting out of the 2000s mindset on Female Wrestlers Are Sexy Divas and he accidentally misgendered Nyla Rose one time but he's been really open to criticism and often gone to bat for the trans and queer members of the roster. he seems like a nice guy and I'm glad he's here, which I didn't think I'd be saying a year ago yk?

I know I already said this but Chris Jericho is a phenomenon. he just makes everything FUCKING FUN every story he tells is wild and hilarious. The Inner Circle gives me life (on this blog we stan Ortiz) and his beef with Orange Cassidy was pure gold.

Also Matt Hardy is here!!!! I love Matt Hardy, I think his Ultimate Deletion match with Bray Wyatt was what made me realise how fun wrestling can be and he always brings the creativity. He's been through a lot of shit in his life, I'm really happy that he's able to work with a promotion that gives him room to be as hogwild as he wants because Matt Hardy's great strength is being absolutely off-the-chain weird. I love him.

Speaking of Matt Hardy and the Inner Circle have you seen the Stadium Stampede from this summer? honestly worth buying the whole PPV just for that it's wild choice after wild choice for 45 minutes it might be the best wrestling match ever. idk if I like it better when Matt Jackson Northern Lights suplexes Sammy Guevara the entire length of a football field, when Matt Hardy chases Sammy with a golf cart, the whole bit where Adam Page just goes off and gets drunk in a bar and has a brawl with Jake Hager, the bit where Proud & Powerful try to drown Matt Hardy but every time he goes underwater he comes up in a different costume and persona - holy shit it's just amazing it's everything I love about wrestling

Moving away from AEW, the best wrestling storyline I've ever seen is Progress' story with Cara Noir and Ilya Dragonov. They're both phenomenal wrestlers but also the raw power and emotional weight of the story? it's simple but it's heartachingly beautiful I was lucky enough to be in the audience for the second of 3 matches in the story and I was nearly in tears it's so theatrical and balletic???? Check it out if you can it's in Progress' video archives (those are all pay-to-watch though. I think they're also on Amazon Prime for American viewers?)

Cara Noir is probably my favourite wrestler, although Nyla Rose, Charlotte Flair, Chris Jericho, Luchasaurus and Adam Page are all up there. He's just the most phenomenal physical performer and he really gets how much theatre is in wrestling, his facial acting is impeccable and he's not afraid to take hard bumps and really sell. also he just seems like a very sound person out of character (touch wood), he's very principled and takes his work and the wellbeing of his colleagues really seriously which is what you want in a wrestler

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arethereanyoriginalusernames · 4 years

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ZP Fanfiction Review

Hellooo internet! Welcome to GAAAAAAYYY THEORY-

I am so sorry.

Anyway, welcome to what I can only call a test run for a series I've decided to start. For more info, I'd recommend reading my previous post. To give a brief explanation, I criticize written works done by others in order to help myself and others improve, and recently I've turned my attention to ZP fanfiction (as you do). This series is in no way meant to shame anyone or anything like that. I am simply stating my opinion, and anyone reading this can take whatever they want from it.

Now, while I do take requests, for the first few of these posts, I put the titles of random fics that I have read, and pulled one out at random. Since I admittedly haven't asked these writers for permission, if one of them contact me and wish for me to take a review down, I will. Do not send any negative bullshit to anyone whose fics I review.

With that said, I hope you enjoy, because today we're going to look at a fanfiction posted on Wattpad by a Tumblr user known as @thiccdemonlover69-blog. Now, something I want to make clear is that this was written back in 2017. This isn't representative of this user (who I will refer to as TDL) 's current writing abilities. The fic in question is this one here,

So, originally, I was going to do a full synopsis of the story, but I ultimately decided against it. Not only did it make the post longer than it needed to be, but knowing myself, I would undoubtedly leave something out by mistake. Therefore, I encourage you to read the story before continuing this review. I will be going through it chapter by chapter, and I will give my thoughts on each one.

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Chapter 1 "A Normal Day... or so Damian thought "

Not too much to say here since this is an introductory chapter and not much really happens in it. Because of this, however, I thought that I would take the opportunity to address what I already predict will be an elephant in the room.

Like most of us fans, TDL has their Headcanons and theories about the ZP characters. You'll notice in the story that Satan and Damian have a slightly different relationship than in the comic, as Satan is more present in his son's life here. This is just an example of what I'm talking about. Now, I actually don't have a problem with this by itself. I'm all for writers including their own unique ideas in fanfiction, however, I have a problem with some of the changes made by TDL to the characters and setting. There's nothing egregious here, but as we go on, I think you'll be able to understand what I mean.

One positive for this chapter is that it serves its' purpose as an intro very well. We get an idea of the upcoming conflict without it being spelt out.

Chapter 2 "At Hell No. 2 (School)"

Ok, so overall this chapter in itself isn't terrible considering how it introduces the relationships between various characters here and further sets up the upcoming conflict. However, I have to ask some questions about the characters. First, I've noticed that throughout the story, certain characters that you'd expect to make an appearance I guess just don't exist here. Sahara and Narissa (Dame's mum), for instance, have apparently been snapped by Thanos. Meanwhile, some characters have noticeably different personalities. Jack, for instance, is much less shy and passive and has more or less taken on Zill's personality. Also, I guess he and Dame are buds now. Kayla... is a whole topic that I will touch on later. Eli wasn't introduced in the comic, and the best we have is his character sheet, so I guess he's ok here? Addi is in character, Autumn barely exists, Zill... just kind of exists? Finally, Dame has had a few weird changes to him that I'll touch on in a bit.

Ch. 3 "A Not-So-Normal School day"

Ok, so let's talk about Kayla real quick, shall we?

A common sin committed by inexperienced writers is the tendency to villanize characters in order to push the narrative forward. In this story, Kayla is practically cartoonish in how awful she is. She's physically harmful, a bitch, a homophobe, and is overpossesive of Zill. I get the idea that TDL doesn't like Kayla, because to me it seems like she was turned into a bitchy Leeson. Now, Kayla in cannon can get frustrated and angry at times, but for the most part, she's a nice person. She's the type to defend others against bullying, and would never bully someone else. Not only that, but I don't buy this version of Kayla because canonically she's scared of Dame. His appearance alone is enough to make her yeet herself across the room. If she did something such as knocking something of his off his desk, she'd probably panic.

I can only imagine two reasons why she was changed in such a way. One, to have Damian not crush on her. Now, if this is the case, I don't think villainizing Kayla is necessary. You can just say that Damian outgrew his crush on her and be done with it. Two, is to create drama. If this is the case, is Kayla really the best candidate for the drama causer here? I wouldn't think so, and you could probably replace Kayla with someone who'd be more likely to bully someone, like Rusty or Baltimore or something.

Aside from Kayla, another problem I want to mention is that art class scene. Addi's mum getting a minor to pose nude in front of his class is actually kind of creepy, and I don't believe that it would be aloud.

Chapter 4. "The Second, more worst bully"

First of all, that title could use a rewrite.

This chapter mainly exists so the story can show how much of a bitch Kayla is now, and I've already spoken about that. I will mention some positives, however. Something I like in this story is whenever TDL adds in little details like characters having secret handshakes or characters eating dinosaur nuggets. I know this seems small, but this random little specifics give the story a cute, quirky charm that I am here for.

Chapter 5. "The Moment Damian has Been Waiting for "

Not too much goes on in this chapter. We get some funny bit of dialogue ("Ooh, is that drama I see" made me crack up) and a wierd scene where Dame is suddenly One Punch Man, and he cracks Jack's skull open by simply bonking him on the back of the head.

Since there's not much to say, I want to take the opportunity to talk about Damian in this story. First, again, I don't have an issue with writers adding in their ideas to their fics. The whole thing with him being a cross dresser? Cool. That's it. That is my entire thought on that.

There are some other changes that confuse me, however. For instance, the ADHD is integrated really weirdly. It gets brought up at really random times, nothing is really done with it, and overall it just seems to serve as a reason for Dame acting hyper. The story could have just had one line that said "Damian has ADHD " and nothing would have changed.

Another thing, and this isn't something exclusive to TDL, but apparently Damian is homosexual. Not bi, just gay. This is a change I actually see a lot of the time with Dame, and I don't know why. Like... is it so difficult to imagine him liking more than one gender? Do you think that he needs to be gay in order to be in a homosexual relationship? Because he doesn't. Bisexuals can do the same thing as gays. It's just such a random change that it just bugs me.

There's also the fact that Damian is apparently amazing at everything. He's an A plus student, a great actor, a great artist, etc. I'm not sure what TDL is going for with this angle. It's something else that just seems random, because the only thing that this does is make teachers confused about why Dame is sad and it makes other characters freak out about how brilliant Damian is.

Chapter 6. "The Date"

Ok, let's all just admit it. Damian going "RIBS RIBS RIBS RIBS..." is in one way or another a fucking mood for everyone. Don't you fucking lie to me.

The interactions between Eli and Dame are mostly cute, and we get some funny dialogue here too. The one issue I have is something not exclusive to this chapter, and it's how Damian is kind of treated like a child. Characters talk about him like his a little kid, and even the way Eli talks to him to calm him down in this chapter is (to me) reminiscent of a babysitter dealing with a hyperactive kid. I bring this up now because I want you all to remember this. It will get creepy later on...

Chapter 7. "The crazy household of Damian "

Easily my favorite chapter.

We still get bits where Dame is kind of treated like a child, but it's barely noticeable here. TDL is actually pretty good at writing wholesome scenes and scenes where a couple characters are just hanging out. This chapter actually reminded me of events that happened in my own life, so believe it or not, I actually got a nostalgia hit reading this. This chapter just put a smile on my face. Shame that it came right before the worst chapter. Buckle in kids.

Chapter "It's Time... and Absolutely Everything goes to shit"

What a fitting title!

First, let's talk about how not a lot in this chapter makes sense. Ok, so everyone knows that Kayla doesn't like Dame and shit could go down if they ever cross paths. And yet, they bring Damian to a party at Kayla's house, and act surprised when shit hits the fan. This happens again when Damian tries to talk to Kayla, and she spits in his drink. I don't know what any of these characters were expecting. There's a weird focus on food in this chapter. Kayla ironically becomes a badass because she decks someone and immediately follows that up by heading off to pop lock and drop it on the dance floor. Zill exists, and he's drunk. He makes out with Damian because.... Kayla's a homophobe? I think that's the reason? Jack literally gets into a fucking wrestling match with Kayla. Rusty is just here. Eli disappears for a while, and I guess Addi just teleported out of the party because the only contribution that he makes is that he messes up the time.

Ok, my favorite scene here is when Dame is like "oh I don't wanna dance bc I sad" and Rusty just shows up for some reason and remarks very loudly that Damian is good at ballet. This info is so shocking, the DJ, who somehow heard this over the music, turns off the tunes, there's awkward silence, and then everyone laughs at Damian. No. I don't get it either. Like... how did anyone hear Rusty, how fucking loud was Rusty talking, how did people know who Rusty was referring to, why is the concept that a dude does ballet so shocking, especially when you'd think that the fact that he's the antichrist is more shocking? Like... am I just having a fucking stroke right now?

Oh, and remember how I mentioned how Damian is treated like a child in this story? Remember how Damian is a teenager, and in other words, a minor? So, apparently, not only do we learn that Damian once got a boner but his father spanking him, but apparently Styx, an adult, has had sex with Damian on multiple occasions. And yes, this info is revealed in throwaway lines. If you listen closely, you can faintly make out the sound of someone screaming "FBI, OPEN UP!"

Granted, TDL was a teen at the time of writing this, so no big whoop on their part. Still doesn't make this any less creepy.

Oh yeah, and Damian fucking dies at the end except he doesn't because plot twist, bitch! We were reading a Steven Universe fanfiction the entire time! Ok, no, this is actually another Headcanon by TDL, but st this rate, between the Headcanons which anyone who doesn't know TDL would be confused by and the characters acting weirdly, I am honestly having trouble saying for sure if this fic takes place in the comic's setting, or in some type of AU.

For brevity's sake, I'll just go over the last two chapters. Tldr, Damian is fine, Lucifer gets Kayla expelled, Kayla get tortured, Lucifer is super happy with himself, and everyone lives happily ever after.

*************************

If I had to sum up my feelings on this story, the first half for me is a mixed bag. It has its' glaring problems, but the humor and writing style make the fic endearing and enjoyable. If the story ended at "the Date ", I would have thoroughly enjoyed it. But then everything just kind of falls off the rails. Stuff happens because... well I guess just because. We get an unintentionally creepy ending to an otherwise wholesome trip, and the Headcanons included here are put in so randomly with no explanation that I can only imagine what someone who didn't have any context to them would say.

The thing is, I think that this fic actually gives a good example of a lot of problems beginners have. I'm certain that TDL nowadays could write a better story, and they certainly have potential. Hell, if one were to fix a few things in here, this fic would be a lot better.

Still, I hope that this review gives you at least a couple ideas of what to look for in some of your own stories. Also, feel free to tell me what you think.

I apologize for wasting your time.

- ATOUN

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thedeadflag · 7 years

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1 When thinking of the word daddy I've always thought of a women? if i ever thought of a man as a daddy ive never sexualized it or ?? but i can now see the daddy kink and its effect. Ive read the g!p fic analysis and i didnt know a lot about the stuff ive read. The clexa fandom is the first fandom ive been in and its where ive first seen anything about g!p or about a/b/o? or even the word dubcon. Dont know if im naive or just didnt think about looking more into it and what it all really means.

(2/5) and not going to lie here i have read a few g!p and the a/b/o stories and ive read another post where you also have a lot of questions how in these fics writers "g!p fics get our bodies wrong" (not sure what how to title the post) and reading through it theyre many questions that are sometimes to never mentioned in them and it just sounds more or a interesting read if stories did mentioned those things and were written well and right about trans/intersex women?

(3/5) i dont know where i went with all this but it was a well interesting read that i dont not understand all of it just yet but will continue to reread and look more into it :)

(4/5) lastly i didnt mean to disrecpect you if i did it was unintentionally. sorry. i saw a post where somewhere around the lines you said it hurts to write clexa because of how horribly written lexa is as a trans/intersex women or in g!p fics and all and fetished and pain. i was deeply hurt by it all when she died and knowing this side in fics it adds to the hurt and how some people dont talk about it more or writers not listening due to wanting popularity

(5/5) wanted to add that even in ouat there was the same issues? in fics so it looks like and now in clexa fics involving all this. even though its been more then an year since lexas death lots of people were hurt in many different ways so many things happened after some for the better and some things thats are still arent talked about and not only effects this fandom but others. sorry just have many thoughts on it that slowly ill become more aware of. dont need to answer this just needed to say more

Like, I know the whole “She calls me daddy too” meme floats around wlw fandom and all, but that sort of thing literally did start in hetero fandom. I’ll definitely take your word that that’s what you think when you see/read/hear it, but 99+% of the time, that’s not going to be the case, and it’s not going to chance that ‘daddy’ is an explicitly primarily male-coded word. it will always be associated with maleness before anything. When cis women have it applied to them, that primary meaning gets to fall away temporarily because their womanhood, their validity, cannot be questioned. By design of cissexism, it cannot be questioned without undermining the sex and gender binaries and the power cis people wield.

So cis women get access to the term temporarily, in a non-serious non-threatening manner. But it’s still one of the most male-coded words, it’s infused with maleness, and attributing to a trans woman is the exact same as calling her a man, a male person, because we don’t have cis privilege.

As for if you’re naive, honestly, there’s always a variety of reasons why folks don’t know this stuff, why they don’t pick up on this stuff. Whether it’s age, or lack of prior education, lack of exposure to trans women, naivete, etc., most people are unaware. So don’t feel guilty on that front. Everyone has to learn sometime...when the opportunity rolls around doesn’t matter so much as what folks do with the opportunity. A lot of people choose not to think too hard about it, not to concern themselves. It’s a good thing to learn, and it’s good that you’re thinking about it now.

Yeah, the big jot-note list of questions points out the flaws in the g!p/abo stories. Like, it’d be nice if authors actually did write more representative stuff...it wouldn’t actually be difficult, and it’d make for better, more engaging stories, and it’d help fandom be less exclusionary and hostile for us. There’s such a wealth of possibilities when writing trans woman characters, or intersex women, but all so many writers and readers care about are these fetishistic fantasies that get them off. There’s a considerable lack of care and concern about us as real, complex human beings.

And there’s no disrespect. I can see Clexa stuff on tumblr, see fanart of Clarke and Lexa, it doesn’t usually bother me unless it’s fetishistic stuff (but i’ve blocked the artists of those so they don’t show up on my dash). Sometimes if I think only about Lexa, yeah, things can get soured, but so long as it’s canon material or art that looks canon-aligned, I’m generally good. Sad, given what JRoth and the show’s writers did, but I can handle sadness a lot better than dysphoria.

My issue is that I need to essentially get into the heads of my characters when i write, and whenever I try to get into Lexa’s, I can’t help but think about all the stories and depictions of her that are transmisogynistic and hurtful and fetishistic. I can’t block those memories and thoughts out when I’m trying to mentally collect everything I know about her as a character to decide how she’d behave or react in character in my stories, what she’d say, what she’d do, etc. There’s such a drastic split in who’s been used as a vehicle for trans fetishization that it’s essentially left barely any harmful material on Clarke’s end, which is why it’s so easy for me to write Clanya. So I can’t write Lexa as a character, because the process disgusts and upsets me, and I can’t watch the show because it makes me sad, and I can’t engage in fandoma and other people’s fanworks all that much because so many people are unsafe. So her character’s just altogether been tainted for me.

And it sucks, because like you said, so many people rushed to fandom as a balm to their pain from the loss of Lexa and the betrayal from the show. And it just hurt that so many could do that, knowing how it felt to be hurt and betrayed by writers that created cheap harmful content instead of good representative content, only to turn around and create mountains of cheap harmful content that sent trans women out of the fandom in droves, without much of anywhere to go, no big social network to bond together with and help each other with the pain and loss. All those people who would loudly yell “Support your sisters, not just your Cis-ters”, and then push us out of fandom without a care in the world to the hurt they caused us.

Yeah, these tropes have been around a while. A/B/O is relatively newish, having cropped up in the past decade, but it’s just a big mash-up of common tropes like g!p, mpreg, werewolf, bestiality, dubcon, sex pollen, BDSM, etc. So they’ve definitely been in and around OUAT across its tenure, I did a minor survey on that fandom’s use of g!p and its own magical variant, magic!cock. it’s been in Glee. In X-Files. In Xena. Lower volume, but there are g!p works out there in just about everything. Easy to ignore if they’re rare, outliers.

In recent years, though, with greater exposure to trans women in media, there’s been a boom in mainstream trans-women porn. And, mirroring that growth in that male-driven market, there’s been a big boom in g!p fiction. It used to be small and largely avoidable, and now it’s everywhere and growing in popularity still. The 100 is just a fandom where it’s been the most saturated in femslash. There were more g!p works in Glee’s fandom, but Glee’s femslash fanfiction count dwarfs Clexa and other femslash fanfiction in The 100 fandom.

But the big boom of popularity in The 100 wasn’t just self-contained. All the ones who took to the trope, those who felt compelled to write about it, they’re carrying that desire to the new fandoms they’re in. WLW fandom does migrate, it’s a big running joke, so when we migrate, these patterns continue.

And while, yeah, a lot’s happened, and not a lot of people like to talk about what’s wrong in fandom, most folks try to avoid conflict. But stuff like this is important. It needs to be talked about, because people need to be aware, they need to learn, they need to see what’s happened/happening because of trans fetishization. Most don’t want to, but they need to know. They need to think about this and understand.

Anywho, it’s cool. I’m half asleep and rambling, and just happy to know that of the 14 messages that found there way into my inbox last night, a few of them were positive and good stuff. I like when people learn, when they want to learn. it’s a good, healthy thing. I’m glad I managed to help you understand the situation better. Feel free to hit me up again if you have any questions in the future :) I hope you have a good day!

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