#kudos to the de-aging in this episode

[go-see-a-starwar]

HAYDEN CHRISTENSEN AS ANAKIN SKYWALKER AHSOKA (2023) | REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005)

#never beating the babygirl allegations #those fluffy curls #want to scrunch #kudos to the de-aging in this episode #Hayden looks like he came straight from the aughts here #hayden christensen #anakin skywalker #first gif is mine #2nd gif is one my faves of all time #ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers #my gifs #revenge of the sith #rots #gsaswgifs

[regulusrules]

Hi there! I've read every Hurt/Comfort Merlin fics you recommend. Thank you!! These were gorgeous. Do you have any other recommendations for hurt/comfort 👉👈?

More Hurt/Comfort? Hold my hot chocolate!

It's physically improbable for me to go through all these at this point😂 but nevertheless! of course I'll rec you some!

1. Give Me Your Fear, I'll Give You My Faith by ironfamjam. I think this fic is one of the best H/C I've read recently. Merlin is cursed to lose all his senses while Arthur could only watch. The desperation you see in Arthur trying to save Merlin.. their communication beyond humane limitations.. the sheer understanding emanating between them.. it was all just amazing. So raw and beautiful. It's also written in TSOA writing style, so the emotions are practically flowing. Kudos to the author for slowly robbing us of our own senses while reading this.

2. The Patter of Tiny Feet on Cold Stone Floors by TheAvalonian. Whenever I get rec asks, I always go back and skim the fics to be absolutely sure of what I'm recommending. But in this one, I didn't need to do that. I read this fic nearly four years ago and it still rings in my heart the same way it did when I first read it. Just the perfect semblance of golden age with proper hurt. It truly did hurt. But the comfort in it made it worth the while. Definitely recommend it if you have time for a long one.

3. Winning A Battle by OhFantasyWorld. Oh how I love this fic. It's just so simply Merlin and Arthur. It perfectly captures the essence of their dynamic while Arthur was still an emotionally constipated prince. It also has a mysterious edge to it that makes it even the more interesting. You're left wondering all fic why Arthur is so sad and so drawn into his misery. Until the very end. And the H/C is 🤌. Really recommend.

4. A Story Behind Each by CaptainOzone. I really am w e a k for Scar Reveal fics. I think this as a trope is very underrated in our fandom. The sheer number of times we see Merlin getting hurt on Arthur's behalf is just insane. So much unused material. I really loved this one for how soft it was. And BAMF Merlin was crème de la crème. If it's a scars reveal AND a BAMF fic, then what more could we possibly ask for?

5. In the woods by transcastiel. A translation of MaryBarrens's fic. If you've been following me long enough, you must know by now how much I loathe S5E5 The Disir. Legit, I cannot even write all my thoughts down here from how much I hate it. This episode was all that went wrong. It was the hamartia of the show. Therefore, anyone who just writes two words as a fix-it for this fic, I'll kudos them to eternity. And even though this one is so short, but God it just perfectly captured what SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. This was what we deserved. This and nothing else.

------

* Have you read My heart is readily yours? Can't waste an opportunity to circle this one around since I consider it my greatest H/C creation. Or Arthur-in-desperation creation. Or Screaming-in-my-face-worthy creation. I took the hurt to some real extremes, and I don't regret a single thing.

------

Thank you for following my recs! Always happy to rec some more💖

#merlin #fic recs #bbc merlin #ao3 #fic #merthur fics #merlin bbc #merthur #merlin fic recs #fic recs list #arthur pendragon #merlin x arthur #merlin fic #fic rec list #king arthur #my heart is readily yours #LJ recs #regulusrules answers #regulusrules recs

[halfagone]

fic stats

Rules: Give us the links to your fic with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words.

Thank you for the tag, @oliveofvanders!! <333

Most Hits

lex luthor's ascent from supervillainy to fatherhood - DPxDC

Based on this Tumblr prompt. Lex Luthor has recently acquired a son. Weapon? Parole officer? ...Lex now has a teenaged god and he'll be damned if someone tries to take the kid away from him.

Originally started as a collection of inter-connected one-shots. It was only meant to last twenty chapters. It grew plot. It's almost at 500k words. It's projected to finish at 150 chapters. I am in plot hell.

Second Most Kudos

Two For One Special - DPxDC

While in Gotham, Clark gets mistaken for Bruce Wayne. He's not alone in his dilemma, however, because a teenager by the name of Danny is also mistaken to be Tim Drake. At least Clark's having fun with his fellow captive. Day 2/November 15th: Mistaken Identity | It’s tough gaining respect from new League members when they find out one of their superiors is a 14-year-old

My submission for the DP/DC Crossover Week in 2022! This one was a lot of fun, and I'm pleasantly surprised to see how many people enjoyed it as well. :3

Third Most Comments

Off With [the Demon's] Head - DPxDC

As it turns out, Damian is not Talia's firstborn. Not her first child, not her first son. This would not be so horrible if Talia's actual firstborn hadn't been stolen from her as a babe. But he's alive. And he's not alone. As it turns out, Talia is a grandmother. She takes this news surprisingly well. If only Damian did the same.

This was a gift fic for an inquiring reader and it took up so much of my brain that it went from being a 10-chapter quick fic, to being a whole plot-filled, time traveling misadventure.

Fourth Most Kudos

Eldritch Toddler - DPxDC

Bruce is not prepared for when John Constantine hands over a young boy who has been de-aged. While Constantine goes off in search of the one responsible, Bruce and his family are left to care for the child. Danny is a sweet kid, he isn't fussy either! This should be fine. They quickly learn to take Constantine's warnings seriously. Day 3/November 16th: Eldritch Identities | The worst person to put in charge of teens is another teenager

This is Day 3 of my DP/DC Crossover Week 2022 submissions!! I am pleasantly surprised to see two of that work so high up on this list!! Very nice to see people still enjoy it after all this time. <3

Fifth Most Words

bloodlines - DPxDC

Diana stumbles upon a prophecy, which thus leads her tumbling into a secret long since kept from her and Batman. They had a son together, one who was ripped out of her arms not long after his birth. A son who is prophesized to cause the apocalypse and end the world as they know it. Although they are no longer a couple, they intend to find and raise their son to ensure this prophecy never comes to be. Neither of them realize that he's way ahead of them.

...This one has 34k words already? I had no idea it'd grown that much in only 4 chapters, holy cow. Welp, I hope to continue it someday, because the brainrot is REAL, my friends.

Fic With Least Words

silly, silly turtles - Tower of God

Takes place between Season 2, Episode 310 - 312 (SPOILER ALERT!!!!! if not caught up) In which Rak thinks about the many important turtles in his life.

This is actually my very first fic ever! It was just a 600 word one-shot, canon compliant as you can tell from the summary. I actually totally forgot about this fic, it's been so long. But I'm glad I could remember my roots now.

I suppose I'll tag~ @die-erlkonigin6083 @disillusioneddanny and @thewritingowl!! Apologies if you get @'d twice!!

#halfagone's fics #fic stats #tag game

[bare1ythere]

your blog title ‼️‼️‼️ finally someone who gets it. i am asking you about it

THANK YOU it’s something that’s really stuck with me in the ~100 episodes of dc that I’ve seen so far.

The first thing that really disturbed me was thinking about his teeth situation. I’m assuming Conan is physically around 8? So he would have a good portion of his baby teeth left, and his 12 year molars would have yet to erupt. Supposedly. Or does Conan still have a full set of adult teeth, too big for his mouth? Or did de-aging give him back his baby teeth? Did he spit out all his adult teeth when he deaged? Did they un-erupt back into his jaws? What about when he sometimes reages? What about losing his baby teeth as he grows up again?

And while teeth is like. The most viscerally upsetting lasting change he experiences, there’s also just the brutality of the process of deaging. Conan/Shinichi describes it as it feeling like his “bones are melting” which is. Alarming to say the least. And this happens to him multiple times as he ages and deages. Does it scare him? As much as he wants to be 17 year old Shinichi Kudo again, does he fear the pain that comes with it? The loss of control?

A good portion of it is also the body dysmorphia of once being the size of a 17 year old, now the size of an eight year old. Misjudging jumps and strength due to muscle memory, out of body feelings of floating above himself because he should really be much taller, the feeling of wrongness and discomfort as he hears his own too-high voice when he speaks- and that’s only a few examples.

Plus, socially, I imagine it’s so frustrating that nobody takes you as seriously as they once did aside from the few who know his secret. One thing that’s really stood out to me as a running theme of dc is the powerlessness of childhood. Nobody listens to or respects what you have to say. You’re physically so much smaller than everyone else. Those episodes where Conan and the Junior Detective League go out on their own to solve a crime are the most stressful ones for me, because they’re all just a bunch of little kids trying to stop real crimes. The criminals are physically so much larger than them. Adults don’t consider what they have to say with the same level of severity as other adults. It must be so dehumanizing and terrifying.

#THABK YOU FOR ASKING ME!!! #detective Conan is so. #shut up me #Pluto answers

[zivazivc]

How afraid should I be to read I Hate Space??? Because I wanna but Im sweating

oh.... ohohoho... >:D

let me copy paste some of my favorite comments i received on the last chapter that don't give away the plot or the ending to give you an idea of what you'd need to prepare for:

katstories chapter 35 . May 2, 2019

This is the most evil thing I've read in a long time. My anxiety did not go away, my stomach soured and I'm going to have issues for a long time. Congratulations, this was awesome. A eternity of Kudos for you.

Guest chapter 35 . Feb 21, 2020

I HATE YOU WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Abigail chapter 35 . Jul 9, 2020

... I had to re read this twice to get it in my head that this is just fanfiction.

You know, the first time I read it, I think I might have gone into some sort of depressional mental lockdown... geez. What a loser I am.

Tiktio.uwu chapter 35 . Nov 1, 2020

I wish I could be de-aged to before I read this chapter

Euglenid chapter 35 . May 3, 2019

Holy crap... That ending...

It is one of the most brutal and brilliant things I have read. I love this story even if I don't know how to feel about it, I mean it all works out in the end, sort of, but for Raph [REDACTED]. This is amazing and I love it and thank you!

...

but all this aside, the story actually pretty much fits back into canon once it's over (minus Raph having some trauma that the new epilogue addresses 🙃) so you can kinda imagine it's like a special episode between two space arc episodes lol. still this is a cruel tale that isn't for everyone, it's just that it becomes cruel in a very bizarre and unique way

ao3 or ffn links if anyone is interested in feeling not okay

#nothing makes me grin more than people who haven't read the story screaming in the tags under my fic drawings lmao #yes guys you should be afraid but i don't think you're afraid for the right reasons #i hate space #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #tmnt fanfiction #somehow accidentaly deleted the original ask but made a copy... #answered

[dufrau]

Which fics are your pride and joy? And why might they stand out more to you and your other writings?

The Bill & Frank AU and Bigfoot 1.5 are the ones im most proud of.

Mostly because I think they're the best things I've written, but also the process of writing them was really engaging for different reasons. I could tell when I was writing them that they were, i guess, important? If only to me, but still.

Bigfoot 1.5 was a labor. I started and stopped it over and over again and changed the format of it repeatedly. It was hard to write every step of the way and by the time I posted it I was sure it was awful but then when I finally summoned the courage to read it outside of the fog of editing I realized I loved it. And I learned a lot. It was really the first time writing something felt actually hard. But it was also the first time writing something where i felt like I absolutely needed to finish it no matter what. And even just the fact of finishing something that gave me that much trouble, even if I didnt wind up loving it, was a big moment for me.

The Bill & Frank AU was not hard to write, almost at all. It took a long time because it's just twice as long as anything else I've written and because I edited and polished it a lot throughout the process. But when I was actively writing it it mostly felt like it was writing itself (probably largely due to the fact that I had the episode to use as an outline for pacing etc.) But I just wanted to write it so bad and it was fun from the beginning, like I feel like I know everything about that universe because all of it wrote itself so clearly in my brain.

(I am also extremely attached to the Nancy/Barb prequel to the Bill & Frank AU because i love that universe so much an this fic only has 28 kudos and i feel like it deserves more than that! not for me, for them! for nancy and barb! like this is my child who doesnt have any friends and I will fight anybody who doesnt like them lol)

The only time I got hung up writing the Bill & Frank AU was at the sex scene just trying to figure out what it should be. It's a fade to black in the episode, and it happens so early in the story it's not really a climactic moment so much as a shift, so it didnt make sense to have it be like a full-on smut scene, i think that would have been distracting? But I was also like, these are middle aged women and it was important to me to not de-sexualize them because that's kind of a thing you know? I wanted it to be clear that these old ladies fuck, lol.

But that story was a lot more plot/genre than usually creeps into my stories. Mostly I just write the leadup to kissing, and that story had like action and whole lifetimes baked into it, and I was surprised by how much I loved writing it.

thank you for this ask this was really fun to answer! 🫘❤️🫘

#sweepystringvibes #asks #ronance #writing #you can tell when im writing something good because i get obsessed with it and talk about it constantly #unfortunately i am not obsessed with anything i am currently writing lol

[beholdthemem]

Popped back into tumblr to discover that @thestuffedalligator had tagged me to list one favorite character from ten pieces of media- thank you so much! This was such a fun (and unexpectedly challenging, only ONE character from each?? You're killing me here) thing!

1) Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano from the Percy Jackson books. I loved her from the first chapter she was introduced, and years later I still do. ¡La reina de mi corazon!

2) Eddie Bloomberg/Kid Devil/Red Devil from DC comics. I first encountered this dude at age 11 in a stack of comics somebody had donated to the library, and just kind of imprinted on him- I used to secretly imagine him as like, the big brother I didn't actually have, but desperately wanted. Now matter how bad things sucked, no matter how mean people were, no matter what was going on with him behind the scenes, Eddie always tried his damndest to be the nice, goofy friend that everyone needed while keeping the sinking ship that was the 2003 Titans run together.

Growing older than him was the weirdest thing. 'Oh shit, now I would be his big sister. I would have to, like- drop by the tower all the time to affectionately call him a dipshit, and secretly make sure his teammates weren't being dicks."

3) Syb Rook from NADDPOD's Eldermourne. Their gender is fantasy greaser, their pronouns are they/them/bastard (probably), and they have my undying affection. I love this criminal-with-standards, what-kinda-loser-doesn't-sit-like-A.C.-Slater, multiple-cigars-at-once ass jerk. I miss them so much. Either I need to get wiser about picking plot related favorite characters, or Brian Murphy needs to stop being so good at making side characters to get attached to.

4) Chrissy Cunningham from Stranger Things.

My brave, brave girl.

We saw Chrissy for one episode, and in that time she managed to leave a handprint on my heart the likes of which I have never before experienced. Kudos to her actress, I was living under the impression that I am a stone-cold bitch, and unfortunately it turns out I am NOT. I think what grabbed me most about this girl is that she is silently going through hell, has absolutely nobody she feels that she can safely admit that to, is surrounded by people who love the person they THINK she is and the life they THINK she has, while having never once noticed one real thing about her...

...and she still tries her hardest to be kind.

If she wanted to be a bitch to people, if she wanted to start smashing windows, I would get it. I would probably have done worse in her position. But she doesn't. She's like 'That's my problem, it's nobody else's fault, I don't have the right to take it out on anybody else,' and really tries to back that up. She's genuinely disappointed in herself when she can't remember the name of Eddie's band from six years ago, and makes an effort to try and recall it. When she remembers at last, she's as delighted as Eddie is. She was just... a sweet girl in an awful, lonely situation, and I wanted more than anything to watch her heal from her mother's abuse, recover from her eating disorder, and find people she could be honest with. Who'd be there for her when her family never was.

I would've liked that.

5) Glenda Sugarbean from Discworld, and you CANNOT IMAGINE how hard it was to narrow this down to just one character. What I love about her is that she carries on the grand Pratchett tradition of furiously caring about people when the world hasn't, but unlike Vimes, or Granny Weatherwax, Susan, she has no special power- magical or political- to do it with. All she has is her own two hands, common sense, an unparalleled gift for cookery, and a spine of steel- and she makes it work. She's my hero.

6) Ash Campbell from Sally Face.

A fact about me, which rarely serves me well but has nevertheless been true for as long as I can remember- is that in a fictional friend group that's All Guys, One Girl, I am always going to be ten million times more interested in the girl than I am the dudes. There's tons of dudes. They're interchangeable. You can swap em all out for each other, who cares, talk to me about HER.

What drew her there? What's her relationship like with the others? What's SHE like, period? I wanna know!

The thing with Ash is that intentionally or not, I think she was set up to be a pretty interesting character. We get a lot of offhanded tidbits of information about her that aren't really explored or followed up on, but- when put together- end up painting a very intriguing picture. We know she has difficulty expressing her emotions openly- she has a social, friendly front that might not be a complete fabrication, but that ends up being almost the only one anyone sees publicly. She'll get angry at times, she'll threaten violence and vengeance on her friends' behalf, but when someone's upset rather than angry, she doesn't know how to react. She's got nothing in her emotional toolkit for this.

We know that she doesn't feel comfortable showing a vulnerable side in front of other people, no matter WHO those people are- in chapter 4, she mentions her brother accusing her of being 'some kind of soulless monster' over her lack of tears during their grandmother's funeral. She tries to play this off like a joke, like this was a ridiculous thing to say, but the fact that she brought it up at all seems to indicate it genuinely hurt her. But she still can't say that, even to Sal, who she trusts a lot. She just has to trust that he understands.

Why? Was she always like this, or did something happen to make her feel this way?

We know she has family members in Nockfell, but we never actually see them. She mentions them a lot throughout chapters 3 and 4, but in 5, they never come up- even during the apocalypse. Did they cut contact with her over her years spent trying to prove an alleged murderer was ill instead of malicious? Did she cut contact with them? Were they among the townspeople "replaced", and she doesn't have the luxury of mourning them?

We don't know.

I love her for her potential, because exploring characters that canon didn't care enough to flesh out is my favorite thing to do.

7) Pete Conlan, from Dimension 20's The Unsleeping City. I adore this motherfucker. He is a disaster of a man, trying his level best to be a better person. He desperately wants to be in love, but has the worst taste in women and an undying attraction to English accents/things that are bad for him. As soon as he realizes a small child looks up to him, he immediately starts trying to model himself into a Good Big Brother despite the fact that this small child is probably thousands of years older than him. Irrelevant. Pete wants to be a better role model. I want nothing but good things for him, and someday I'm gonna have to get Dropout and find out what happens to him in Chapter 2.

8) Robbie Reyes from Marvel comics 2015 Ghost Rider, MARVEL, IF YOU DON'T GIVE MY BOY A REGULAR SERIES AGAIN, I SWEAR TO FUCK-

He loves his little brother more than anything else in the world. His parents died, and he stepped the fuck up as a young teenager to make sure the kid would never want for anything. He has an undying passion for nice cars. He only ever indulged this once, for the sake of providing for Gabe while doing one of a limited amount of things he feels he's actually good at it. It almost cost him everything, and all he could think about while facing death was 'I'm so sorry Gabe'. One of his classmates pretended she needed a calculus tutor to trick him into spending a night doing something fun with her because she correctly assumed that the only way she could get him to relax and do something for himself was if he thought he was doing it to help somebody else. He deserves the world.

9) Kohaku from Dr. Stone. She has an incredibly strong sense of justice, she's five foot nothing and still manages to be the group's undisputed tank, and when she heard somebody say he intended to marry her high ranking, chronically ill sister for power and then leave her to die because he didn't feel like taking care of her, she immediately tried to kill him in front of a live audience. A girl after my own heart.

10) Kaldur'ahm from Young Justice. I loved him in middle school, I love him now. I am very happy he now has a relationship with somebody who puts him first, but every time I see his boyfriend I can't help but be like 'Bro, are you SERIOUS?'

'WERE GARTH AND ROY BOTH BUSY?'

'If that's what you want, fine, but I PROMISE YOU HAVE OTHER OPTIONS-'

If you guys are up for it, I tag @sandpancakecat @grimmalkerie @oreozfox @humble-wayside-flower @alwaysatomicconniseur @kyonite @faithluvscabadre and... pretty much anyone else who wants to!

#ed mention #ed cw #like it's brief but i don't wanna blindside anybody #thanks again! this was fun.

[hmsquared]

My dad binged The Book of Boba Fett this past weekend, and I sat with him for the last episode and a quarter.

An interesting fact about the two of us: my dad is undoubtedly the bigger Star Wars fan, but I’m the one who watched Clone Wars. So when Cad Bane showed up, I sat down to watch the episode while my dad was confused by my excitement.

Kudos to the staff as well. It’s been years since I watched Clone Wars, to the point that I didn’t even remember Cad’s name. But when I saw him, I immediately knew who he was. And it was glorious.

Side tangent: it’s been really good to see Clone Wars characters in live-action. Ahsoka is one of my favorite Star Wars characters and they haven’t missed a step with her. I thought Cad’s appearance was brief but still great. There are two others I want to see, though I know at least one is probably impossible.

I would love to see Rex in live-action form at some point. He’s such a great character, and I think he’d jell with the Disney+ shows. Plus we’d get more of his interactions with Ahsoka.

The other character I want to see probably won’t happen considering she died during the Clone Wars. Then again, they de-aged Mark Hamill, so who knows? Anyway, I want to see Asajj Ventress again. I know she was in The Bad Batch, maybe I should finally start watching that. Part of me wants to see her in live-action form, though. It’d be cool to see.

#star wars #hannah and her dad enjoying fandom together #spoilers #the book of boba fett #the clone wars #cad bane #ahsoka tano #star wars rex #asajj ventress #fangirling

[fffinnagain]

10 Years of Sherlock (TV)  AO3 stats!

Sherlock fans, new and old, click below to read a long list of graphs and comments about our communities fanworks over the last 10 years. I scraped AO3 again and demonstrate that:

More creators are writing longer works in 2020

Readers engaged more as the fandom changed after S4

Top ten new tags per year for the last 10 years

And a lot more. 

PS the code to gather this data and analyse it can be found way over here. 

Activity over 10 years

The last 10 years in the BBC Sherlock fandom have been tumultuous, but this community persists, with engagement from new fans and continued creative output. To commemorate over a decade of squee, I’ve done another scrape of the fandom’s imprint on the Archive of Our Own and will share some insights from the numbers in these plots. A very late update on my post S4 snapshot from 2018.

Note: This analysis is of completed public fanworks only, about 101000 of the 122000 Sherlock (TV) works available at present. This is to remove the late WIP effect, which adds a bulge to the last few months, and out of respect to creators who wish to have their material reserved for other registered AO3 users.

The works are still coming

Counting the number of works posted per day, we can see the peaks associated with each series airing (in UK and US). After that, the number of works continues fairly evenly, 20-30 per day, plus seasonal peaks. This rate is continuing on without a hint of new canon in sight. So who is posting all this work?

Creator-waves, monthly output

Years ago I started plotting creator waves, basically I group fanwork producers by the year they first posted to the fandom and then count how many of this group are active in later time intervals. This lets us get a sense of how long people are contributing and whether new fans are getting the urge to create. 

This plot of the Sherlock (TV) fanworks on AO3 shows the standard shape of plump participation in the first year of any given set of creators, followed by a slowly thinning tail as they because less active over time. Turnover is natural in fandoms, with most only posting a work or two within a fairly limited amount of time, while a precious few persist for years.  The surprise for me here is that the ratio of new creators is higher in 2020 than it was in 2019. Maybe the excuse of lockdown encouraged more folks to take a turn at creating content. 

Another way to look at the output of fan creators on AO3 is to see the total amount of words being shared across all fanworks. The total has been pretty close to 300-400k words per month since 2018! To get a sense of what that means per work, I also plotted the median number of words per fanwork in these monthly sets. The median in higher in the last year than it had been staying for a while. 

Reader behaviour: Hits & Kudos & Comments

Fan creators are only part of the story. Stats on engagement are a bit trick to interpret, I’ve got some plots here that tell us something about how works have been engaged with over time. 

The obvious first to consider is Hits. Above is the total number of Hits given to works published each month. This is the current totals, not a historical snapshot, so we have a very strong bias  towards early works, what we might call the Classics Effect. Works that have been around longer have had the chance to be seen by more people, and in particular those works that become must-read classics in a fandom, extending their exposure through prominence in top ranked works and recommendations. 

To cut down on the advantage of the classics, we can also consider median hits per work for each month. As most works get a lot attention when they are first posted and then fade out of sight, the median number of hits reflects instead the ratio of readers to creators, basically how many eyeballs are around to look at the latest work, regardless of status. The median plot shows how the hyper-visibility of the few work available before 2012, and then a more steady curve once the fandom had gotten established on the platform after Series 2. Amazingly, the hit rate for the median work was steady through the big bumps in activity with later series, a 1000 hits for median works between 2013 and 2018, followed by a slow decline. I’d expect the 2020 works to continue gaining for a few months yet, but the median is probably 50-60% of what is was when the show was in production.

Kudos counts and medians show a similar story to hits, but there is a dip down around 2013 for kudos reflects the frenzy of productivity that saw the fandom grow during the Series 2 hiatus. Readers were getting spoiled! From the airing of Series 3 (2014) until a year following Series 4 (2018), the median work received an even 60ish kudos and 1000 hits, a niche audience that decreased to 50/750 through 2018-2019. The numbers of 2020 suggest a smaller community of readers again, though these numbers may still rise a bit in the next few months before the median works are forgotten. 

The statistic that tells a different story is Comments. Looking at the total comments counts, there isn’t a drop after Series 3 (2014). Instead, the fandom compensated for changing numbers with more feedback and discussion attached to works. This is reflected in the median comment rate as well, which shows seasonal variation but doesn’t really drop off until 2020.

It’s remarkable that without fresh canon we continue to have new creators contributing to the fandom, and while that may be outpacing the readership somewhat, the standard of engagement has been very high. One could say the fandom is chugging along quite nicely!

What about Tags

So, with all that turnover and shifting population, is there a change in the kinds of works being posted? We can look at tags, all tags and freeform tags, to see if there were any meaningful trends. 

First up, I did a creator-wave like analysis of works just for tags, to see how tags continue to be used after being introduced. Unlike the creators, tags clearly persist for years. After 2015, it looks like the core tag set has been established, with very few tags persisting in usage per  subsequent year.

This graph reports numbers over time that are not proportional to the number of works or creators active. Instead, works on AO3 have been getting more and more tags over the years, with the average steadily growing from 5 in 2011 to 15 in 2020, with freeform tags (not characters or ships) from 2 to 8.

To get a sense of fic and tagging culture changes over time, I counted the most popular NEW tags of each year (wave). Note: this analysis is using exact matches, not the networked associations of tag meanings wrangled into AO3 today, so some things that pop up aren’t new concepts but instead newly popular TAGs for whatever they represent. 

2011: 2752 (First year, so all solid stuff, tags that continue to be popular forever)

Angst                 323

Fluff                 232

Humor                 216

Hurt/Comfort          188

Romance               168

Friendship            168

Crossover             138

Crack                 121

Alternate Universe    119

First Time            106

2012: 11637 (still early, first references to Series 2)

Fluff and Angst                           145

Episode: s02e03 The Reichenbach Fall       97

Kid Sherlock                               54

Puppies                                    50

Sad                                        48

Episode: s02e01 A Scandal in Belgravia     47

Mathematics                                42

Season 2 spoilers                          38

Omega Verse                                38

Feels                                      38

2013: 16176 (Omegaverse nomenclature is growing, Top/Bottom terminology, new challenges)

Alpha Sherlock                               65

Omega John                                   61

30 Day OTP Challenge                         59

Tumblr: letswritesherlock                    56

Top John                                     49

Sherlock Holmes Returns after Reichenbach    44

Bottom Sherlock                              40

Reichenbach Angst                            30

Don't copy work to another site              29

Age Regression/De-Aging                      27

2014: 19256 (Mostly Series 3 related

Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow         249

Episode: s03e02 The Sign of Three    167

Post-His Last Vow                    149

His Last Vow Spoilers                142

Sherlock Series 3 Spoilers           128

2000 AU                              100

The Sign of Three Spoilers            74

Fatlock                               72

Post-The Sign of Three                66

Post-Season/Series 03                 57

2015: 14272 (New challenges, new prominent Sherlolly tags)

Chats                                      47

International Fanworks Day 2015            34

Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2015    27

S3 referenced                              25

Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper Kissing       22

English Accent                             22

Sound cloud                                19

Eventual Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper      19

Protective John Watson                     18

but not that kind of graphic               17

2016: 13517 (New stylistic tagging, TAB references, a lot of epilepsy?)

Slowwww burn                         92

John Watson Loves Sherlock Holmes    37

Sherlock Holmes Loves John Watson    33

post-tab                             30

JME                                  27

Post TAB                             25

Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy          23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2016     19

epileptic                            19

fraternal love                       17

2017: 15067 (Series 4 tags and challenges)

Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective         133

Episode: s04e01 The Six Thatchers            93

Post TFP                                     73

Sherlock Series 4 Spoilers                   69

Episode: s04e03 The Final Problem            60

Post-Episode: s04e02 The Lying Detective     55

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2017             50

Post S4                                      48

Sherstrade Month 2017                        44

31 Days of Porn Challenge 2017               41

2018: 10733 (Lost of new challenges, seasonal and weekly)

Towel Day 2018                       64

Mystrade Valentines Calendar 2018    25

Kinktober 2018                       23

Pregnant Molly Hooper                23

Soft Smut Sunday                     23

Tom Robbins                          23

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2018     21

Inktober 2018                        20

established universe                 16

Always1895                           16

2019: 7785 (More prompts, and character attitudes)

Sherlolly Appreciation Week 2019    25

221B Autumn Challenge               21

A-Z Christmas Prompt                19

KatsJohnlockXmas2019                16

Whumptober                          11

Poor Greg Lestrade                  11

Kinktober 2019                      10

Dissonance                          10

John Watson is a Good Friend         9

Sleepy Sherlock Holmes               8

2020: 8074 (Not all COVID related, thank heavens)

Mystrade Monday                           59

COVID-19                                  48

Coronavirus                               46

Mystrade Monday Prompts                   40

Whumptober 2020                           36

warning for a covid-19 setting            33

Flufftober prompts 2020                   24

Do Not Translate                          24

they're all right they're just at home    23

Granada Sherlolly                         21

A little note from looking across all freeform tags, not just the new ones, we see a curious pattern with regards to two actions: First Kiss and Anal Sex. They appear amongst the most common tags as of 2014, neck in neck for two years, than Anal Sex drops off the top ten in 2016. From there out, First Kiss stays in the top 5 from that point on, while anal sex appears at rank 9 from 2017-2019 and is gone again in 2020. This probably says something about the fandom, somehow. 

Bravo for making it to the end and thank you for reading! 

Questions/comments welcome.

#Fandom stats #Sherlock #AO3 #Graphs #python

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 15

(Masterpost)(Other Canary Content)

Warning: Spoilers for all 50 episodes!

This rewatch is going to fit into a single post, because a third of the episode is just crying and yelling on a very slow boat. If you want to learn the Chinese words for “Mother” and “Father” this is your episode. 

Captain Blowhard

Clan Leader Yao shows up, having barely survived the massacre of his clan, along with two disciples who aren't too excited about their unwilling promotion to top targets. Jiang Cheng tells his dad that the Wens are systematically exterminating the smaller clans, and have said anyone who helps the survivors is going to be punished. 

Jiang Fengmian tells Yao that the Jiang Clan will protect him. Which is why Wei Wuxian is responsible for the massacre of the Jiang Clan. 

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both think that taking Yao to the Jin clan is the best way to keep him safe. Wei Wuxian was wrong to help the heirs of the powerfullest richest clans, but sure, let's save this asshole.

Road Tripping

The boys go down to the dock to send Jiang Yanli and Jiang Fengmian off, saying a formal goodbye with a bunch of disciples and showing off how extremely good they look in these close-fitted, simply cut robes with cool belts.

Yu Ziyuan comes down to say goodbye to Yanli and give her some medicine, covering by saying it's for Jiang Fengmian, because being sick is bad for marriage prospects, probably. 

Later the boys will mention their hope that YZY will be mollified by the time JFM returns, which means this possibly isn't the usual state of their relationship. The dislike and jealousy seem to be constant, but perhaps being openly at war with each other is not.

(more after the cut!)

Club Ruohan

At Club Ruohan, Wen Ruohan is tired of sitting on his big uncomfortable throne so he's sitting on the floor next to it, instead. He's suffering the embarrassing problem of black smoke leakage, and needs Wen Qing to give him acupuncture to fix it, but she's not around. Wen Ruohan has an awful lot of trouble containing resentful energy, possibly because he is controlling a bunch of zombies 24x7 instead of letting them take a break. Wei Wuxian is mostly able to control it--except when he, you know, totally isn't--without ever needing an attractive acupuncturist to give him a poke.

WRH learns from Wen Chao that Wei Wuxian 1. killed a boss-level monster on nightmare level difficulty without his sword 2. took whatever thing had been suppressing the nightmare monster for the previous really long time.  WRH wants whatever it is.

Boys in Charge

When the boys get back to Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng doesn't understand why they couldn't all go to the Lins together, and Wei Wuxian explains it to him. Wei Wuxian is the one seeing the big picture, and he wants to plan how to handle the Wen forces when they, inevitably, arrive. 

Jiang Cheng would rather talk big than actually plan, showing how--at this age--his anger management problem is an issue on a strategic level, not just a personal one.  As a clan leader he will eventually master this aspect, for the most part, and learn to keep a cool head in regard to martial matters, while continuing to feed his interpersonal rage problem.

The brothers supervise the archery practice of the Jiang disciples, having their last nice time together, and still without a plan. Wei Wuxian is bored and calls practice early so he can go be bored on the porch or in his room, since he isn't allowed out. In fact he's so bored by lockdown that he starts an irreverent niche blog.  

(he’s kidding! keep your mask on, don’t go to wine houses)

Knowing that the Wen Clan is gunning for enemy cultivators, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng send the whole group of disciples, including children, outside the compound walls to retrieve their kites. This is what happens when you don't have a plan.

Wen the Levee Breaks

Wen Chao’s girlfriend Wang Lingjiao finds a kite with a hole in it and uses it as a pretext to snatch up the youngest disciple. 

The other disciples come running back and tell WWX and JC what happened. Wei Wuxian calmly gets all of the information from them and starts figuring out what to do, while Jiang Cheng freaks out. 

Jiang Cheng is a good fighter, and matures into an excellent one after a core upgrade and war experience. But Wei Wuxian is a born battle leader, developing strategies on the fly and staying cool under pressure.

Madame Yu is as brave as a barrel full of bears and Yinzhu and Jinzhu chase lions down the stairs

Yu Ziyuan and the murder twins show up and all of the disciples line up behind them, relieved to have someone scary in charge.. Yu Ziyuan is also a natural leader and an awesome fighter, but her judgement is terrible, as we're about to discover. 

Bitchfest

Wang Lingjiao strolls in to the main hall and has the nerve to comment on the interior decorating, because it doesn't have enough rough-hewn black rock and lava pits, apparently.

She shows them all the kite and says that because it looks (kind of) like the sun, using it for target practice is an attack on the Wen Clan. Bitch, everything your clan wears and uses has fire on it and is red. The sun is not your emblem, no matter what the text says. This kite situation is presumably where the anti-Wen campaign gets its name of "Sunshot," however, which sounds pretty cool.

Wang Lingjiao moves along to her main point, which is that Wei Wuxian needs his ass kicked, and she'd like Yu Ziyuan to do the kicking. To goad her, she starts talking about the rumors about Wei Wuxian's parentage.

Let it Whip

So let it whip (let's whip it, baby) Get a grip (let's whip it baby) Well, what's your trip? (Oh no)

Yu Ziyuan takes the bait, and proceeds to whip the shit out of her strongest battle asset, in a sequence that's either horrifying or completely fucking awesome, depending on how you feel about whump.

There are a lot of bad effects in this show and a lot of questionable fighting, but any time Zidian flies, I am HERE for it. I gave this beatdown its own gifset over here.

Jiang Cheng is devastated and tries again and again to protect Wei Wuxian, but his mother and her lieutenants keep moving him out of the way so the beating can continue.

Yu Ziyuan hits Wei Wuxian at least 5 times, until he is totally unable to get up off the floor. Wang Lingjiao has succeeded in eliminating him as a threat for the moment.

Gotta Hand It To You

Wang Lingjiao isn't satisfied with the brutal whipping, however; she wants his right hand as a trophy, and for him to be unable to recover.  Yu Ziyuan tells Jinzhu and Yinzhu to close the doors because some blood is going to fly. 

I'd like to think this is when Yu Ziyuan decides to kill the Wens, rather than maiming WWX, but I'm not certain. Because she doesn't start attacking until after Wang Lingjiao says the Wens are taking Lotus Pier, and tells her to discipline Jiang Cheng. So maybe she is okay with taking WWX’s hand, but draws the line at giving up her house.

Through all of this, Wei Wuxian doesn't once protest, even when he thinks they're getting ready to take his hand off. He'll do whatever it takes to make peace. THIS is the core of his heroism; he will sacrifice anything to do what he thinks is right. He's not "playing the hero;" not doing this for fame or kudos, but for a clear conscience.

It’s a Murder Party

Wang Lingjiao explains the new Wen World order, and Yu Ziyuan smacks her to the floor and then takes out all 8 of the Wen soldiers in one elegant move. 

Can we talk about how incredibly effective a fighter Yu Ziyuan is, without a sword? With her first-class spiritual tool as her only weapon? Nobody is telling her she needs to carry a sword. She shows she can use one, after she gives Zidian to Jiang Cheng, but she's absolutely devastating without one.

Having defied Wang Lingjiao, Yu Ziyuan...doesn't kill her. She chokes her, slaps her and yells at her. Then she insults her clan and sticks her FOOT on her FACE.

She sics the murder twins on the guards in the room, and they shank all of them at super speed while the boys watch with alarm. 

Then she has them sloooowly advance on Wang Lingjiao, giving her plenty of time to holler for Wen Zhuliu before they can kill her.

Het Heat

Wen Zhuliu comes flying in, literally, kicking both murder twins across the room at the same time. This is followed by Core-Melting Hand x Violet Spider suddenly becoming the most shippable M/F couple in this thing, because wow, they have some serious chemistry.

I never saw a pretty girl look so tough

Actor Feng Mingjing continues to do an awful lot with almost no lines, in his portrayal of Wen Zhuliu. WZL politely apologizes to Yu Ziyuan. Is he offering to withdraw, or is he just being polite before getting down to the killy bit? Either way, Yu Ziyuan is ready to rumble, and doesn't even consider de-escalating.

You know who was able to rein in his temper, after fighting with this same extremely dangerous dude, and therefore lived to fight another day? Fucking Nie Mingjue, that's who, who has a generational CURSE making him angry. While Yu Ziyuan, is like, "fuck the safety of my clan, this is Wei Wuxian's fault anyway" and throws down.

Wen Zhuliu and Yu Ziyuan proceed to have an epic, sexy fight, where he catches her whip and she dodges his attempt to feel up her core.

He's a magic man, mama, he's got the magic hands.

Wei Wuxian, still incapacitated, tells Jiang Cheng to stop Wang Lingjiao from calling for help, but JC gets distracted by the threat to his mom, and goes to engage with Wen Zhuliu.

Jiang Cheng takes a horrifying smack in the chest, which injures him and takes him out, while Wang Lingjiao sends the signal that seals the fate of Lotus Pier.

It’s All Over Except for the Crying

Yu Ziyuan immediately sees that she's lost the battle, and has the murder twins divert Wen Zhuliu while she brings the two boys to the pier. 

She verifies that Jiang Cheng's core is still intact, showing the viewers, for future reference, that it's possible to tell by touch if someone's core is missing, although a casual touch won't do it.  

Then she re-codes the Zidian so that it recognizes Jiang Cheng and puts it on his wrist. She follows this with a display of maternal affection for Jiang Cheng unlike anything we've seen so far, which super fails to reassure him.  

She follows this up with screaming at Wei Wuxian and telling him how much she hates him, and blaming him for the multiple shitty choices she just made..  

With a heart full of rage, she reminds him that his worth lies in what he can do for more important people.

She binds the boys with Zidian and then sends the boat on its way....

...with a frickin' TALISMAN, holeee shit. As toxic as she is for Wei Wuxian, there is a direct line from her cultivation skills to his.  

Dad To The  Rescue...sort of

The last third of the episode is basically yelling and crying punctuated by a couple of interactions out on the water. The extreme emotions go on for long enough that I eventually stop feeling bad for the characters and start feeling bad for the actors, who had to maintain this level of feeling for probably days of shooting.

The boys eventually meet up with Jiang Fengmian and Jiang Yanli. JFM discovers that Zidian responds to his control, which tells him something is very, very wrong, since it probably knows how his wife feels about him.

This thing isn’t biting me; your mom is in serious trouble. 

Here Jiang Fengmian decides to do the heroic, totally futile thing, which is exactly his style. He tosses Jiang Yanli in with the boys and takes his leave so he can go die with his wife while the children survive.  

He has to know that Yu Ziyuan is the stronger fighter of the two of them, and that he's not going back to rescue her. He's just going to stand with her and die together, which is the most romantic thing you can do in a C-drama, after all.  

How Much Do You Owe the Jiang Clan?

Jiang Fengmian tells his two children not to cry, making them and the viewer cry extra hard. (specially ouchy gifset here).

Then he turns to Wei Wuxian and, with a heart full of tenderness, reminds him that his worth lies in what he can do for more important people.

Next episode: Is going to be even more horrible! 

Soundtrack: 1. When The Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin 2. The Tale of Custard the Dragon (poem) by Ogden Nash 3. Let it Whip by the Dazz Band 4. U Got the Look by Prince & Sheena Easton 5. Magic Man by Heart

#fytheuntamed #the untamed #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #yi ziyuan #restless rewatch the untamed #canary3d-original #my gifs #the untamed spoilers #tw: crying #omg this episode

[aion-rsa]

A Discovery of Witches Season 3 Episode 2 Review: the Blood Rage Killer Revealed

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Warning: this A Discovery of Witches review contains spoilers.

Who’d be a vampire? Yes, the eternal youth, fashion, cars, French castles and beautifully wallpapered Mayfair abodes are one thing, but oh the guilt and inflexible hierarchy that goes with it. Matthew de Clermont should be spending this time dancing sexy tangos with his magical wife and deciding on nursery décor for the twins, but no. He’s got DNA to harvest, a disease to cure, a scion to form, and the not-insignificant task of coming out to a roomful of human PhDs who are definitely about to ask him if he can turn into a bat. No rest for the wicked(ly) handsome and tormented, I suppose.

Like blood rage, torment runs through Matthew’s line, and both combine in his newest family member: Jack Blackfriars, played by The Last Kingdom’s Toby Regbo. The blood-raged killer responsible for last season’s grisly Oxford crime scenes wasn’t Benjamin Fuchs, or one of Marcus’ brood, but the little boy Matthew and Diana adopted in 1590. Jack’s is a woeful tale. First he was saved from the streets and then abandoned, before being saved from the plague and then groomed by a vampire with a grudge as old as the Crusades. Poor Jack was used as a tool by the biggest tool of them all – Benjamin Fuchs.

That’s right, another baddie. While we were thinking Peter Knox was the villain of the piece, in snuck that sneaky Fuchs. Here’s an idea – seeing as Knox hates vampires and Fuchs hates everything, why not sic the pair on each other, and everybody else can go for a picnic?

(A possibly dumb question: if Jack spent his early vampire life pining for Diana and Matthew, obsessed with proving himself as a true de Clermont, and met Philippe, why did he never cross paths with past-Matthew? And why wouldn’t Philippe have instructed Matthew to cull the blood-raged vampire with the rest of them instead of telling Jack to wait for Matthew to teach him control? Never mind. This is a magical story after all, if not necessarily a logical one.)

Knox and Fuchs aren’t even the extent of the conflict, as Baldwin’s arrival at Mayfair showed. Tense as it was to see teeth bared among the de Clermonts, it was fun to be reminded that vampires have more in their repertoire than grave family dinners and angst. They can also zip around like speedy little mosquitos and bite like… much bigger mosquitos. Kudos to Diana too, for that bit of violent improvisation with the home décor. Baldwin found out the hard way about the boundless powers of “the witch“.

Matthew kneeling to Baldwin might be the family way, but it felt unnatural to see our imperious male lead bow to tradition. On which subject – is Matthew’s age getting to him? “To save Jack, I would have to disobey Baldwin, the head of my family. That’s insanity.” More insane than, say, breaking a centuries-old covenant and marrying into a species hated and hunted by your family? Disobeying Baldwin is all Matthew’s done ever since we’ve known him. Why stop now?

He hasn’t stopped now. In fact, Matthew’s moved further than ever before from de Clermont tradition. Disobeying Baldwin by refusing to kill Jack is step one, outing creature chromosomes to humans is step two. (A round of applause to Dr Roberts, incidentally, for bursting the balloons at Matthew’s pity party with his “black man from Alabama” speech, and reminding the vampire that his people are hardly the only ones who’ve suffered at the hands of evil.)

Change must come, Matthew decided this episode. After all, everything Philippe devised was designed to conceal and protect creatures from warm-bloods, and where did that lead? An inability to sire, dwindling magic and mentally ill daemons (we sorely need an episode set solely among that last crew to give us any sense of what daemonhood actually means, but I don’t think one’s coming). For creatures to have a future, the status quo needs shaking up and this sixth century patriarch knows it. His trip back to Elizabeth’s court taught Matthew that he was more than somebody else’s assassin, a lesson he’s brought back to the present.

Baldwin wasn’t the only patriarch disobeyed this episode, Satu had a set-to with Knox in a satisfying continuation of last week’s rebellion against her former master. There was beautiful work from the dark witch, who whipped away Knox’s balls and told him in no uncertain terms that he was no longer the boss of her. A pity that stained-glass window got in the way of her show of force, but every war has its casualties.

Another casualty will be Gallowglass’ heart, by the looks of it. The poor vamp’s in unrequited love with his Auntie Diana, just to add an extra frill of torment to proceedings – a torment side salad if you will. Unaware of her nephew’s feelings, Diana sailed through this episode, instantly acting as a protective and loving mother to Jack, uttering “Matthew” disapprovingly at the worst of her husband’s outbursts, and fronting out the discovery of her big blood-Hubbard secret with characteristic ‘I did it, so what?’ straight-forwardness. Her pregnancy having advanced considerably, Diana’s now in the ‘lounging on the bed, eating lychees’ trimester. It’s as good a place to be as any while she prepares for the fight of her life.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

A Discovery of Witches season 3 continues next Saturday on Sundance Now, AMC+ and Shudder in the US.

The post A Discovery of Witches Season 3 Episode 2 Review: the Blood Rage Killer Revealed appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3Kf3vhu

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[highfunctioningflailgirl]

My Lethal White episode 1 recap

After having had a lot of fun recapping episode 2, I went back and did episode 1 as well. It got a bit out of hand and is a loooong post...

Under the cut, because, evidently, there will be ALL THE SPOILERS! 🚨

*SQUEEEEE!!!* THEY’RE BACK!!! 🤗💃🏻🙌🏼  (Yes, I’m still squeeing, although this is a rewatch)

Let’s look at the title sequence, shall we? They’ve added a few new details: There’s the wooden cross from the dell, the White Horse of Uffington and Robin’s Houses of Parliament guest pass. The child from Billy’s memories and the pink blanket. Someone’s already mentioned the ‘whore’ swirling in the coffee cup, and then later we have a fencing icon in the pint. Cool hints. 😎

Cut to tired, head-achy Cormoran at the wedding. Strike has a slightly different haircut, and I wonder: they dye Tom’s hair darker for the role, but he has a glint of natural first grey at the temples that I’ve seen on Tom pre-Strike. How did they keep that? (Sorry about the hair kink digression…☺️)

Pet peeve of mine they carried over from Career of Evil: in the book, Donald Laing slashes Strike’s palm, but it didn’t happen in the series. There was no blood on his hand when he called Robin, and his glove was intact. And yet, Strike has his hand bandaged. I know it’s a silly pet peeve of mine, but stuff like that pulls me out of the moment. And Strike wouldn’t slap on a bandage just for a little bruising. *steps off soap box*

“You look beautiful.” - “And you look terrible.” - “It’s this jacket, needs taking in.” 😂

“I want you back.” - “What?” Augh, the double meaning of it all, Strike’s softness and Robin’s initial uncertainty of what he means. 🥺

When she realizes that Matt deleted Strike’s messages, there’s a tear spilling from her eye, and she quickly wipes it away. 😢 Such good acting. Such a brave girl.

A few of us have already addressed this in the chat: did Matt BLOCK Strike, or delete his calls and messages? Or both? They’re frustratingly unclear about this detail, and it makes a difference in terms of Strike being able to reach her or not. (I’m a continuity nerd, sorry)

Sarah standing next to Matthew. *gags*

Robin looks so beautiful! And so very sad. (Holliday is acting her heart out of this season, can’t say it enough). This is award material, hands-down. 🏆

Her look across the room at Cormoran while they’re eating! And he’s… just been staring at her all through the meal? Good god. These two.

If Cormoran falls asleep before dessert he’s got to be really, REALLY tired.☺️ Poor baby.

We’ve got to work on your fine dining skills, Cormoran darling! It’s very cowboy and rugged, handling cutlery like that, but you would SINK during an aristocracy under-cover op. Maybe the Comte de la Fère is available for a lesson?

The first chords of The Calling’s “Wherever you will go”. Ack. They really went for the original, and as someone who’s always been ridiculously in love with that cheesy song, I AM HERE FOR IT.

Cormoran walking slow-mo past the bridesmaids, looking at Robin dancing with Matt The Twat. My heart…💔

When I’m gone you’ll need love to light the shadows on your face… *sniff*

Cormoran’s FACE during the dance. I can’t. He looks like a puppy about to get shot. 🥺

(and what a juxtaposition to the little lady with the funny hat bobbing happily next to him, to everyone looking awww and being completely ignorant of the drama that’s playing out. Ugh. I’m dead.)

Matthew moves like someone who’s (painstakingly) learned exactly one (1) dance, and for their wedding only, and why is he even smiling so proudly? They must’ve just had the biggest row in history? Is he really so full of himself?

Even Robin is smiling, although staring longingly at Strike. I bet they did that so Strike would be a little mad at her and want to walk away.

AND HE DOES! 😟 You can just see the “Fuck this” from the book crossing his face as he turns around and leaves. Ack. I’m dead again.

If I could then I would, I’ll go wherever you will go

(Perfectly placed, kudos) 👏🏼

And she runs after him, looking like a fairy-tale princess. Did you see how frigging COLD it must’ve been, judging by her breath?! Poor Holliday must have been freezing to death during the shoot. And then to pull off such a heartbreaking scene…

(Also, the lawn in the park? A shitload of rolled sods. No grass looks this lusciously green in winter, and you can see the edges everywhere. Some landscaper had a field day there!)

“Are you sure?” - “Yeah. I am.” About WHAT, you idiots?! *wrings hands* To her coming back to work, of course, but there’s so much more to their statements. And I’m sure that non-book-readers thought they were about to kiss and elope, but - alas! - we know that’s not going to happen.😔

But at least we get The Hug™️, and it’s everything we hoped for: Robin crying, digging her fingers into his jacket; Cormoran closing his eyes… God help us, we are all DOOMED sailing this ship! 🙈💔

I was a little miffed upon first watching that they faded out of that hug so quickly. That was it? No, it wasn’t, as we now know, and I love, love, love that we’re getting all these extended flashbacks that reveal more and more of what happened to us!

ONE BLOODY YEAR LATER (I still can’t get over that time jump)

Lol at the subcontractor crashing his moped into the cab! It was only briefly mentioned in the book, and turning it into an actual dialogue was a fun idea.😂

And there’s Denise (that IS her, right?), completely uninterested in doing her job. Good grief - Strike and Robin are BAD a picking employees! 🙈

Robin looking not-jealous-at-all at Strike walking off with Lorelei. Ouch.

I like Lorelei, btw. They chose the actress well, and she’s nice and mature. Which doesn’t mean that I’m not secretly flinching every time she kisses Cormoran. It’s just not right.

Billy. Joseph Quinn does an incredible job playing him. 👏🏼 As dangerous as he appears at first, his despair and his efforts at holding himself together are heartbreaking. That battle he wages against his mental illness is on full display, and his scared big eyes are killing me. 🥺

Cormoran is admirably unfazed by Billy’s appearance - is that his Army training kicking in? Robin, though, is shaking but braving it out, recording with her phone although her hands are trembling. Good acting by Holliday.

Good riddance, Denise.

The good ole’ pencil trick. “I didn’t know people still did this.” 😌

I was surprised that Cormoran chose to simply break into the house on Charlemont road. It’s breaking and entering for no good reason. Could’ve been anybody’s home.

He’s not going to- EWW! He’s sitting down on that filthy couch. And plucking hairs from it. EWW!🤢

Robin: “...and some porn.” 😂 Says it as if it’s what they always find. The usual. Men… 🙄

Who’s the guy taking pictures of Cormoran? I seriously don’t remember this from the b- Oh, WAIT! Reporter guy. Patterson. Yeah. Him.

The CORE members are as cliché in their looks as are Chiswell’s upper class folks. It’s all a bit on the nose for my taste, but then clichés are clichés for a reason.

Cormoran needs to work on his disguises. Not fitting in at all with the CORE crowd, age-wise or in his look. No wonder they don’t trust him. He does it better in the books.

Oh Robin. I actually think you need a lot more therapy to work through your shit.

Ah, here we go. Seaborn bacteria. But first, Matt’s got to be a prick again. 🙄

Chiswell with his arrogance and his rudeness and his finger-snapping. *shakes head* I think if Cormoran hadn’t known he could make some serious money with this case, he may have walked out on him.

Btw, the “large” jacket is making Strike look slimmer instead of bigger. 😄 They’re so desperately mentioning Strike’s largeness, as if beating it over our heads could actually make us not see barely-6-foot and slender Tom Burke.

“Couple more potatoes wouldn’t hurt.” And his FACE! 🥰

Glenister is a really good actor. I always listen to the Strike audiobooks that he narrates, and I was worried hearing his voice in the show would be confusing, but it’s not because he sounds so different. Can’t wait for him reading “Troubled Blood” to me! 🎧

Is it a coincidence that Drummond’s art gallery has a painting of a horse in its front window? I think not.

I love that soft blue shirt they put Cormoran in. Makes him look very huggable. *blushes*

“Not sure I would make a convincing goddaughter either.”😂

So in England you can just walk up to a minister’s house and ring the doorbell without any security people stopping you? Interesting.

Chiswell just shutting the door in Cormoran’s face. RUDE.😠

The brown contact lenses. 👀 Okay, they make her look different, but not THAT different. It’s her sudden posh accent that’s the real stunner.

The panic attacks. Holliday plays them so well, I almost feel like I can’t breathe myself. 😧

I was expecting the Houses of Parliament to look a little less like a stuffy basement full of old junk. *ducks*

Barclay! Definitely looking more attractive than his description in the book. And I thought I’d gotten food at understanding Scottish. I haven’t. *turns subtitles on*

Izzy is the only Chiswell offspring who doesn’t make me want to immediately vomit.

“Venetia. Like the blinds.” Oh God. 🙈

Winn is such a creep. 🤮 Poor Robin. GET AWAY FROM HER YOU LEECH!

Of course Matt doesn’t want Robin to wear the Green Dress. Twat.🙄

The house warming party. I always wonder why Robin doesn’t have friends of her own. I have a feeling Matt has something to do with that.

The earrings. So we will see Robin finding out Matt’s cheating on her! I can’t wait for her to rip him a new one! 😈

Robin calls Cormoran - and it’s not Coco but Lorelei who picks up. That’s a smart change from the book. And it makes her the rebound girl. Which she doesn’t deserve, but it is what it is.

“And she bakes.” 🥴 Is it just me wondering how Lorelei got that cake into the tin without ruining the icing?!

Flashback to The Hug™️. God, their faces are so close. Cormoran is so soft. Nnnnhhhggggg.

Enter the plaid shirt. Lumber!Cormoran is a good look on him! 😍

The Armchair of Sadness™️. Of course that’s where the devastating phone call to Robin’s house happens! The disbelief and disappointment on Cormoran’s face is heart rending. 😢💔

@lulacat3 and I have already established the continuity error with Cormoran’s facial injuries suddenly missing when he’s reached the pub. (And they should still be there; he’s still wearing the plaid shirt from that same evening.) If I were the makeup person I would have been deeply regretful of having missed dabbing fake injuries on Tom’s face again.

The Uffington Horse. Robin’s in appropriate Wellingtons, weather jacket and a beanie for their outing. Cormoran is wearing what he always wears, and Tom clearly wishes he had a beanie. At least he gets to wear a t-shirt under his eternally blue shirts this season. REVOLUTION! 😄

Sure. Let’s just go and dig for a corpse with a shovel so conveniently available! Just the two of them - one delicate Robin and one invalid. And then Robin finds the bones after ten seconds of digging. No further comment. 🙄

But I like the change with Cormoran’s leg. As stupidly heroic as he acted in the book, I like it better in the show where he has to acknowledge his handicap and Robin takes charge.

The bones. Dun-dun-DUN!

(Good first episode, although all in all the pacing wasn’t quite right yet, and compared to the book it all felt a bit rushed. I liked episode two better.)

#lethal white #cormoran strike #lw #lethal white episode 1 #cb strike #bbc strike #spoiler alert 🚨

[grayintogreen]

I was not technically tagged, but at least two people on my dash were like DO WHAT YOU WANT NO ONE IS YOUR GOD, and you know what? They’re right and valid. 

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

96! And 90% of them are from just this year. Can’t wait to find out what the big 100 is gonna be. Any one of my WIPS could be Disney’s next 100th fic.

2) What’s your total AO3 word count?

455,024 (also mostly from this year...)

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

In my entire life??? Since I was twelve??? I don’t even know, man. I wrote a lot of ooc crackfic and fic for cartoons when I was on FF.net, and then I was on LJ and wrote for a TON of different fandoms, but on AO3, I have written for Critical Role (so much CR), Yashahime/Inuyasha, Guardians of the Galaxy, His Dark Materials (TV), Steven Universe, Bleach, Alias, Supernatural, Dollhouse, Pushing Daisies (the last four were all transferred here from LJ, though)

4) What are your top five fics by kudos?

- turning wine back into water (Critical Role, de-aging fic with plot, 30457 words)

I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE HOW POPULAR THIS FIC IS. It beat out two of my super popular GotG fics that have been up since 2017 BY A LOT. Apparently, there was a market for the Mighty Nein being adorable cocktail brats and saving the world. Thanks, Liam’s Quest!

It is probably one of the most wholesome fics I will ever write too. I love it.

- Sunshine Came Softly (Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket and Mantis friendship, 3188 words)

THIS FIC STILL GETS HITS EVEN TODAY. It was written right after I saw the movie so it hit hard and fast on the hype train. 

- Mine Is Just a Slower Sacrifice (Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket-centric, 2248 words)

BOY YOU CAN TELL THESE FICS ARE ANCIENT BECAUSE I HADN’T DEVELOPED MY TITLE NICHE YET. where are the lower caps and Seanan McGuire lyrics!!

Anyway, this was written probably IMMEDIATELY after I saw the movie and had to process Rocket’s emotions during the last moments, because of who I am as a person. For what’s mostly a character study, it got some mileage on it.

- they drink dreamers up like brandy (Critical Role, 1625 words)

Back to Critical Role! I wrote this one when I was in a fucking blind post-finale haze and producing massive amounts of Kingsley content and I wanted to write a silly fic about Caleb being tiefling catnip. 

- if adversity breeds character (we’ve character enough for two) (Critical Role, Beau and Molly-centric, 1824 words)

I feel like most of my most kudos-ed CR fics are Beau-related, which is funny because I never really wrote her EVER. I guess I need to write her more often. ANYWAY, this one got jossed immediately after 141, but I needed to write Beau and Molly bantering and I couldn’t get her flipping him off after revealing her card is Rumor out of my head.

(Incidentally my sixth most kudos-ed fic is my Fjorester next gen fic, WHICH I WAS NOT EXPECTING AT ALL. IT’S A FIC BASED ON MY OC FANCHILDREN!! I’M VERY EMOTIONAL ABOUT THAT!!)

5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Usually!! There are times when I forget and then it’s been so long that I never go back, but I like responding to comments. They make me so happy and I want to make sure the people who take the time to comment know that I see them and appreciate them. Especially if they give me long comments. You long commenters know who you are and I value you and also flail incoherently in your direction.

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

God, probably this church takes no conversions simply because, like, the whole ending scenes are MISERABLE AND FULL OF ANGST and then it has the hopeful ending that is actually a bullshit lie.

But second place probably goes to what couldn’t i offer, what couldn’t i give, which is just misery porn in disguise as a character study. Sorry, Cree.

7) Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

Okay, so back in the day when I was a tineh fanbrat I wrote a lot of self-indulgent crossovers featuring my friends and I in true Mary Sue format being ~saviors of the world~ alongside our favorite fictional characters and after I grew out of that, I very rarely did it again, because as someone who can only write AUs if they’re high concept and can only write crossovers if the canon welding is pristine, it’s difficult.

I have ideas for some! I just haven’t written them yet. Or they’re sitting in Google Docs partially written.

8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not to my recollection, which is insane, because I’ve written some things in my youth that deserved it, but also I was a kid, so maybe I definitely did not deserve it. Don’t send hate to kids!!

9) Do you write smut? If so what kind?

The first smut I ever posted on AO3 involved some fucking American Gods flesh horror shit, so that answers your second question.

Basically, yes, but I write smut to facilitate character development in a way that regular story beats can’t, mainly with characters who are in some way deeply fucked up and have unbalanced dynamics. 

So basically chances of me writing smut that isn’t Creecien or Lucigast? Very low. (I haven’t written Lucigast smut yet but I will. Inevitably.)

10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that anyone’s told me, but one time when I was a teenager someone ripped off an entire group messageboard RP I was in and tried to pass it off as a fic they wrote.

11) Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that anyone’s told me!

12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I tried and it did not work out, because of (non-wanky) reasons, but it’s just not something I’d be very good at. I was the kid who wanted to work alone on group projects. I’m bad at group work.

13) What’s your all time favourite ship?

That I’ve WRITTEN??? Because that at least narrows it down significantly. Sesshoumaru/Rin hands down. It’s a good dynamic and they’re fun and sad at the same time. 

My self-indulgent ass does also enjoy writing Creecien though. I’m putting it out there because I want it.

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

GOD POOR SUPERNOVAS OF ALL SOUND AND LIGHT. THAT FIC COULD’VE BEEN A CONTENDER, but I unfortunately posted it RIGHT BEFORE the White Diamond episodes aired and it became so jossed by canon so fast that I gave up on life with chapter two half finished. I need to delete it but I can’t bring myself to bury my shame.

15) What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and meta-narrative and character-specific stuff. I go into every story with CHARACTER FIRST mentality, which is how I end up writing so many damn character studies or why my word counts explode. I’m just out here naval gazing because I love character stuff SO MUCH.

I’ve been told I’m good at fight/action scenes too, which... Shocks me, but I think watching and playing a lot of D&D stuff has really improved how I write fighting and action sequences.

16) What are your writing weaknesses?

[whispers] too much naval gaze. dial it back, bitch. 

I get really caught up in character stuff and forget to do important things like ADVANCE THE SCENE OR DESCRIBE THE SCENE OR LITERALLY ANYTHING. I also don’t think my prose is all that great, but I’m pretty sure every writer feels that imposter syndrome bullshit, so /waves hands. All I’m saying is I have seen some writers on AO3 who are writing some fucking vivid imagery and stringing flawless sentences together and weaving introspection and description together like beautiful baskets and they are stronger than any US Marine and I salute them and wish to be them.

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

Iiii try not to. There’s times where I want to throw in, like, a little Zemnian for Caleb flair, but I try to stick to things that are either untranslatable (like German compound words), common phrases (like please or come here), or insults/curses/ pet names. Things that I don’t think Google will fucking lie to me about.

18) What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think it was a Sailor Moon crackfic about Haruka being forced to enter a beauty pageant which was just a blatant rip-off of Ms Congeniality and oh my god was it awful. I don’t even wanna talk about it.

19) What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

this church takes no conversions, probably BECAUSE it’s my little red-headed stepchild of a fic involving so many things that are just never going to make it popular (backstory fic, fic that is almost 85% headcanon, doesn’t involve popular characters, etc.), but godDAMMIT I love that fic so much. It was fun and I use every bit of that headcanon in almost everything like it’s my job.

shattered stage is a close second, because it was such a crazy concept for a fic that I PULLED OFF SOMEHOW and is this wonderful mix of crazy plot and character and lore and my three favorite tieflings having to work together. And also Jayne Merriweather as the main villain. 

A lot of love went into both of those fics and they are my babies. this time next year we’ll see if I add Creedemption and shoot at fate to this list- probably. All of my epic long fics resolve to be my babies because I spent so much time on them, and I have to love them and cherish them because I raised them into gigantic wordy attempts to write a doorstopper.

#writing meme #my writing #shattered stage #this church takes no conversions

[fuckyeaharthuriana]

Top arthurian tv shows in preference order (26 entries)

Now that “Cursed” is in the game, I decided to re-order my favorite tv shows!

This was my god tier/not good shows list:

So welcome to the slighty updated list, now with Cursed, and small explanations

GOD TIER

01. The Legend of King Arthur (BBC): BEST arthurian show ever. It is the closest to Malory. It has a scheming, pleasant, smart Morgana who still manages to be sympathetic (I was rooting for her), some very nice scheming Mordred, some heartbreaking scenes, and I cried because of Bors, so be warned. The show goes a bit quickly for some parts because it tries to tell the whole story from baby Arthur to his death, so some characters end up becoming secondary (ex. Gawain or Lancelot and Guinevere and their love, which I didn’t mind too much).

02. Kaamelott: This tv show is amazingly heartbreaking? It starts slow, mostly comedic sketches (and I am not even sure the first seasons are subtitled), but continues quite strongly by adding more and more drama. I’d suggest starting from season 4 if you are here for the plot more than the comedy! The main character is Arthur, who plays the role of the classic straight man in comedy, at least at the beginning, but ends up on a character development journey that I loved to pieces.

03. Arthur et les enfants de la Table Ronde: this animated series is absolutely adorable (and I am slowly making subtitles here). The story revolves around young Arthur (only a few know of his destiny) and his friends: princess Guinevere, Gawain, Morgana and Tristan. Mordred and Morgause are also in the show as the classic mayhem villains, and Uther is the king... and pretty awful for a kids show! Every episode is lovely.

04. The Adventures of Sir Lancelot: I am probably biased, because this was one of my first arthurian tv shows, but this is a great fun family show with episodic stories where Lancelot just saves the day! There is nothing too deep (not even the Lancelot and Guinevere story), but each episode is fun and independent from the others.

TOP TIER

05. Camelot (Starz): This show had the misfortune of coming out at the wrong time, as I believe it would be much more successful nowadays, so it is only one season. The story set up a great Morgana, both pleasant, sympathetic and ambitious, trying to kill the less charismatic Arthur (who is probably the weak point of the show). Other great characters are peppered around (a great Merlin, interesting Igraine, adorable Kay, interesting Gawain), but the show spends a little too much time on the Guinevere-Arthur-Guinevere’s husband triangle and it drags the show down. Still, all the scenes with Morgana were gold!

06. The Mists of Avalon: A good miniseries of a less good book. The miniseries ends up making Guinevere slightly more sympathetic, which helped a lot, and cutting some of the plot related to paganism vs Christianity (which also helped). The story is the classic (classic because Mists of Avalon made it popular!) Morgana’s journey, from her childhood to Arthur’s death, with some interesting wrapping up of Arthur’s destiny and Morgana desperately trying to fix things.

07. The Adventures of Sir Galahad: A very old fun show which is more like a very long movie (one single story over different episodes, I think 7? If I remember correctly?). The old age is quite prominent (the way the show handles the continuous “Galahad is in trouble... Galahad manages to escape!”), but it is still good content for the Galahad fans! Furthermore, there is a lot of Mordred too. Basically, Galahad has to guard Excalibur for a night, when the sword disappears, and Galahad has to look for it.

08. The Boy Merlin: A very underrated show, maybe because it is quite short, but this is pretty good. It’s just a season of young child Merlin growing up with his adoptive family (his mother had to give him away) and his grandmother teaching him magic. It is quite wholesome, so expect the fluffiest adorable family and young Merlin slowly learning about his own destiny and future (lady of the lake also makes an appearance).

09. Cursed (Netflix): A new tv show about Nimue (hopefully it will have a season 2) deciding to stand up and fight for her people (the fay) with the use of a mythical Sword. The Sword (cursed sword) concept is quite interesting and I greatly enjoyed that, Nimue is a bit bland as a character, but the show has some great secondary characters like Morgana, Arthur and other spoilery characters and all of them have their personal arc, as well. Also kudos for having the first queer character in a tv show with a wlw Morgana!

10. Prince Valiant (animated series): An animated series about Prince Valiant and how he arrived at King Arthur’s court to reclaim his own kingdom and name. This show is quite good, with some interesting arcs and doesn’t chicken out from rounding up the secondary characters, in particular Guinevere, Gawain and Merlin.

MID TIER

11. Arthur of the Britons: This show follows the adventures of Arthur and his adoptive brother Kay, in a very historical settings. Don’t expect medieval castles or knightly armors, but a Celtic village and Arthur going on different adventures to help his clan or fight Saxons (or compete with Kay, who is an amazing character in this show). Sadly, Ector, Arthur and Kay are the only arthurian characters in the whole show. 

12. Trollhunters: An animated series with three main parts (part 3: Wizards is coming out soon). The arthurian themes are secondary but will probably increase with the new season, and, in general, the show is quite enjoyable. It tells the adventures of human Jim Lake who is chosen to become a trollhunter and goes on various adventures to help “the good trolls” and defeat the villains, alongside his friends. Morgana is one of the main villains of the series, and Merlin instead works with Jim (but the show is not as black and white as it seems, and Merlin is definitely not a great character). 

13. The Librarians: This is another ancillary arthurian show, just like Trollhunters. It is based on the movies but focuses on new characters so you won’t need to watch the movies. It follows the adventures of a group of people (found family trope!) who have to protect The Library, a place that keeps all magical artifacts. Galahad is one of these people and a main character, and absolutely one of the best parts of the show. Morgana and Lancelot also make an appearance.

14. Fate/Apocrypha: an anime in the Fate universe, but can be watched independently from the others as this is an AU story. It follows the adventures of a group of characters who summons Servants (historical and mythical figures) to help them in a ritual war to find the Holy Grail. While the show is set in modern times, there are arthurian characters among these summoned Servants and Mordred is one of them. Mordred is a great character here and it is interesting to see the father/son relationship he develops with the guy who summoned him. Plus, there are some arthurian flashbacks from Mordred’s times!

15. King Arthur (anime): I haven’t finished this anime yet (and I am slowly subtitleing it) but I love it! It flattens out a lot of arthurian plot points, and ends up mixing them up together to get a classic “Arthur goes on a quest with his arhturian friends” story. Arthur leaves to save his kingdom after finding out he is Uther’s son, and various arthurian characters join him (ex. Tristan, Percival, Lancelot). The Arthur and Lancelot relationship is particularly interesting as Arthur initially dislikes Lancelot, as he thinks Lancelot’s family caused Uther’s demise. The second season of the show ends up.... weirdly, with Arthur joining new non arthurian characters to have some more adventures, so I won’t subtitle that part.

16. Merlin (1998 miniseries): A miniseries about Merlin, from his childhood to Arthur’s death. While extremely popular, and with some amazing actors and actresses, I cannot say I am a big fan. The story has some good points (there are some prophecies that really wrap up the plot quite nicely at the end, plus the concept of gods kept alive by worship is interesting), but the story in some parts is accelerated to get to the point, and.... all female characters seem obsessed by beauty, which was annoying. I have to say, my main point of dislike was actually how female characters are good (Nimue) and subservient, or not good and vain (Morgana, Guinevere, Mab).

LOW TIER

17. Merlin (BBC): This is probably at the same level of Merlin 1998 for me. While the story starts with mixing up arthurian character to give us an interesting begin point, and show us the journey that would lead to Arthur and Guinevere as king and queen, the show seems to forget its initial premise. Instead of a character journey we have “character points”. For example, we start with Morgana being all about justice, then we have Morgana evil, just like that she forgets all her previous characterization. Furthermore, the show doesn’t let the main relationship of the show (Arthur and Merlin) grow and the two ends up stuck in the same dynamic till the end, because the show was too chicken to actually turn Arthur into a good king and change the status quo (he remains anti magic for all the 5 years of his kindgom, while the prophecy said he would create a great kingdom??). Still, on the good side, the episodes are pretty comedic and light, Guinevere actually has a character arc, and the scenery is always beautiful.

18. Stargate SG-1 (arthurian seasons): Vary vaguely arthurian, just a couple of characters and names. Still, the show is fun if you enjoy sci fi, and you can directly start from season 7 (I think that’s where the new team comes in and where the arthurian seasons start). Still, don’t expect a lot of arthuriana.

19. Sir Gadabout: Okay, this is actually funny. This is a parody about a goofy knight called Sir Gadabout, in King Arthur’s court. The reason why it is so low is because I was a bit disappointed by the lack of arthurian themes and characters (I remember only Guinevere and Arthur), and the dvds were also hard to find.

20. Fate Zero: I actually enjoyed this Fate series more than the original Fate Stay Night, and Arthur (Saber) is a bit more of a character here than the Fate Stay Night anime. Still, minimal arthuriana.

21. King Arthur’s Disasters: Comedy/parody animated series about Arthur ending up in various troubles trying to impress Guinevere, who is a bit of a sexist stereotype.

22. Seven Deadly Sins: A four seasons anime (with the new season coming out soon) about mythical knights considered both terrible villains and monsters, but clearly misunderstood by history. These knights are partially arthurian, as there is Meliodas (Tristan’s father), Ban (Lancelot’s father) and Merlin (a woman, in this show). Arthur also makes an appearance as the king of a nearby kingdom and Merlin’s friend and protegee. The show is fun and light, but even for an anime the sexism is high (Meliodas is a horrible protagonist).

SHIT TIER

23. Fate Stay Night: The original Fate anime where Saber (Arthur) is summoned as a servant to fight in the modern war for the Holy Grail. She is the only arthurian character.

24. Once Upon a Time (only the arthurian episodes): The arthurian season of Once Upon a Time was a disappointment full of plot holes, forgotten storylines and villain Arthur.

25. Merlin’s Apprentice (miniseries, sequel of the 1998 one): Nah. Please.

26. Alias the Jester (animated series): this is barely arthurian. Watching it was a mistake.

#arthurian #merlin #king arthur #guinevere #arthurian legends #list #tv shows #resource #sort of #resources #top tiers

[roread]

ALL THE BOOKS I READ in 2020

I read 56 books in 2020. I’ll begin with the three I’ve read in 2021:

After Claude, Iris Owens

Bitter and nasty

Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages, Phyllis Rose

This was wonderful – really sane and wise and made me think a lot about power in relationships. What kind of partnership do I want? Maybe none?

Excellent Women, Barbara Pym

I think a cold and rubbish January is a very nice time to be reading Barbara Pym – novels about quiet bat people, plain little nobodies who notice things and do good works. They’re comforting in an abstract way and also quite tragic. I do hate that they give Barbara Pym novels such awful and sexist front covers. Just because a book is written by a woman does not mean it should have a rubbish cover that makes it look like the kind of book people buy at the airport and then leave on holiday.

In 2020

(rereads in italics, best books in bold)

Theft By Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, David Sedaris

Convenience Store Woman, Sakaya Murata

Kudos, Rachel Cusk

this was good but I find all of her work so incredibly depressing that I’m not sure I’ll read anymore. Her way of describing life sucks all of the joy from every possible experience.

Motherhood, Sheila Heti

Sheila Heti is one of my favourite writers – Women in Clothes is an incredible book. This was so good to read.

The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

Gang Leader for A Day, Sudhir Venkatesh

How to argue with a racist, Adam Rutherford

Shiver, Maggie Stiefvater

Pachinko, Min Jin Lee

Attention, Joshua Cohen 

Reading Attention was an experience that made me think; isn’t it incredible that really intelligent people write things down and we get to read them and see how they think? What a joy and a privilege.

My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh

I read a review of Ottessa Moshfegh’s latest novel in the LRB where the reviewer called her a high-functioning literary troll. I agree.

Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh

The Topeka School, Ben Lerner

Later, Paul Lisicky

Me and my friend Z love to read memoirs and this is a lovely memoir/book of thoughts by a writer living in Provincetown during the AIDS epidemic.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (I reread all 5 Percy Jackson books)

Between You & Me, Mary Norris

War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

I can’t believe I read all of War and Peace. I loved the Peace bits and skipped a few of the War parts. The Peace bits are like a good episode of Eastenders except where you just get the sense that the writer has the utmost love, care, and affection for their characters. It is as good as people say it is!

The Princess Diaries (Books 1-10) Meg Cabot

The Mediator (Books 1-6) Meg Cabot

Weather, Jenny Offill

I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan

This is one of the best books I’ve read in ages – I wish I could read it again for the first time. I have never found writing about surfing (a sport my brother loves that I don’t know that much about) so incredibly fascinating and beautiful. Astonishingly good.

Heimat, Nora Krug

Bunny, Mona Awad

Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead

This is probably the most tragic book I have ever read – but not in a Little Life pain-porn suffering kind of way. Very good.

Girl, Woman, Other, Bernadine Evaristo

The Robber Bride, Margaret Atwood

I think Margaret Atwood is a genius and this book is an excellent piece of evidence to back up my point of view.

All about love, bell hooks

How to Fail, Elizabeth Day

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

Why I’m not longer talking to white people about race, Reni Eddo-Lodge

The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How it’s broken

Oryx & Crake, Margaret Atwood

El camino de Ida, Ricardo Piglia

I read this in Spanish for uni but it was great – all about the Unabomber (kind of).

In the Distance, Hernan Diaz

This fits into one of my favourite genres – it is a Western. Wonderful. I was reading it in the sitting room and kept reading out sentences to my flatmates because they were so good.

The Appointment, Katherina Volckmer

This is both good and short.

Index Cards, Moyra Davey

I read this in one afternoon in Ridley Road Social Club. They had an event in the evening and as I sat there reading it some drunk girls came and sat across from me and asked me how I could concentrate and read for so long. I was with a friend who was listening to records at Hidden Sounds. I loved it and it made me feel like I did when I read Joshua Cohen’s Attention – how nice to be able to see into other people’s brains and think more about what they’ve been thinking about.

The Mothers, Brit Bennett

#books

[ruffiorocks]

She Ra! This show was amazing! (Long post)

Omg! I stayed up until 4.00am to binge watch the last season of She Ra. I'm gutted that before I put it on I opened Twitter for a second and the Catradora kiss was ruined for me! 😞

But what a bloody season! What a show! I grew up watching the original She Ra and the original He Man. Mine and brothers favourite movie was "The Secret of the Sword" (the He Man and She Ra film where she is first introduced). That show was brilliant for its day, it depicted strong women who didn't need men to save them. Plus She Ra was so much better than He Man, she could heal people, talk to animals and turn her sword into anything she liked! She also had a flying unicorn that could talk! What else could a girl want in a show?

When I heard this was going to be revived I was a bit apprehensive, especially after the failed He Man reboot and the failed Thunder Cats one. (Dont even get me started on that monstrosity they call a reboot! At least the anime version was cool).

I decided to give the show a watch, convincing myself that is was for nostalgic purposes only, and wow! I could not stop watching it!

This version is great, because it wasn't trying to be the same as the original. The basic premise was the same but the story and the characters were fleshed out so much more. The relationships between the characters was just something else. I loved how they de-aged them, so it was teenagers and not adults this time.

Making Adora and Catra best friends? I loved it! The fact that this friendship/enemies story between the two became the heart of this show was something else. The original series had Catra being jealous of Adora and becoming a force Captain after Adora left but that was the extent of their relationship.

I love how Hordak wasn't even all the fussed about conquering Etheria. He had so much more depth to him than the original one did. OG Hordak was a bumbling idiot who laughed evilly and could turn himself into rockets and canons. The most interesting thing about him was he used to be Skeletors mentor. The very idea or Hordak caring for anything or anyone other than imp was unthinkable. This Hordak has a tragic back story, he's had it rough, he has a specific goal and conquering Etheria seems to become less and less important to him. He's even able to form a close friendship with Entrapta.

Shadow Weaver being a maternal figure for Adora was something the original had but wasn't mentioned much at all. The fact that she was the foster mother of both Catra and Adora and favoured Adora to the point of obsession in getting her back gave the back story so much more. The fact that Shadow weaver is more connected to the other characters and has her own back story and then a redemption, I love it.

I also love how the relationship between Shadow Weaver and Catra was really explored. It made Catra so much more than just a boring villain of the week when you see the neglect and abuse she went through. How her only solice was Adora, you can totally understand why she feels broken when Adora leaves everything they both know. But I also love how even though she was villian she kept her sense of humour and she just couldnt get over Adora no matter how hard she tried to.

Glimmer? So much more character than the original. Her relationship with her mother was brilliant. Angela was so funny and I was gutted when she died. In the original it was Angela that had been gone a long time and had to be rescued by He Man and She Ra to be reunited with Glimmer. Her father didn't show up, but it was rumoured that a mysterious red knight who Angela thought she knew could have been him.

Bow? This bow was amazing with all of his tech and his sass and his sensitivity. The original bow was OK but he wasn't the character you watched the show for. I'm also glad they didnt have him pining for She Ra like the OG did. The fact he has two gay dads was amazing! I do wish they had kept Kowl though.

Swift Wind is hands down by favourite side character! That horse is so sassy he just make me crack up no matter what he does. I'm glad they did him justice, because when I was younger I always wanted a white horse and to call it Spirit like the Original She Ra and so that meant a lot that they just improved on him.

I love how everyone knows who Adora is, there is no secret identity.

The fact that the princesses have so much more personality and backstory than their OG counter parts did is brilliant. My absolute favourite is Mermista!

Scorpia? I love how she wasn't just a bad guy like her OG counter part was. This character is so much more interesting. She goes on her own journey, she doesn't even seem to grasp what she's doing half the time because she is just desperate to have friends. She never gave up on her friendship with Catra, even when Catra didn't want her she was still there. I love that.

Sea Hawk? Omg! One of my favourites! A far cry from his OG character. I'm so glad they didnt have him and Adora as a couple like the OG did! "ADVENTURE!!"

This show had everything! So much more humour than the OG one. It allowed violence as well which is something the OG one didn't allow. If you ever watch it you'll notice She Ra doesn't hit any one who is alive (Robots don't count) she would beat them in ways they couldn't be harmed, like she ra throwing into mud or water. But this? This show has some ass kicking going on!

The shape of the characters is also brilliant. I love how Glimmer is slightly bigger than than the other characters. How we have them in all shapes and sizes. The OG characters were always drawn using the same template. The footage was also constantly reused in every episode.

Now for the change I love the most! The LGBTQ rep! This would have been unthinkable when the OG show was on! No one would have dared suggest it. (Although He Man always had gay under tones, especially after the live action movie happened). But when I was watching this show being gay wasn't something people discussed and certainly not with children. The most we saw was the occasional gay couple on a soap. For me it was Tony and Simon in Eastenders and Zoe Tate on Emmerdale. But a children's show? NEVER!

I wish I had had this show when I was a kid. It took me until i became an adult to admit that I liked women. If I had had this show and these characters in my life perhaps things would have been easier. It would have helped me understand myself better. Unfortunately for the time it still would have been frowned upon and even though my family are much more accepting after a lot of education I don't think I would have been allowed to watch this show this way when I was a kid.

But kids now are so lucky! They are exposed to the LGBT every day. It's everywhere! It isn't hiding anymore, it's so much more accepted. Even when I was a teen at school a lot of gay people were still in the "we know you exist but we don't want to know about it" phase.

This show handled it so well!! There was no coming out story line, no trying to figure out why they had these feelings. It was treated the exact same way any hetro storyline would be. The fact that there was a canon lesbian couple from the get go said it all. As the seasons went in they progressed and gave us Bows gay dad's. They had Adora crushing on women. They didn't even try to hide what they were doing with Catra and Adora. I love how this last season gave more screen time and story to Spinereella and Netalia rather than them just "being there". It was just handled so well. None of the characters battered an eye lid at the thought of Adora and Catra as a couple. I'm just gutted its over. They even gave us an epilogue!!

Last point, maybe it's an unpopular opinion but I feel like they didn't need to put Glimmer and Bow together. I always adored how they had this wonderful best friend relationship between a boy and girl that didn't need to end in them falling in love. I never saw them as a couple, just best friends. Plus I always saw Bow as asexual.

Catradora reminds me so much of Supercorp from Supergirl. It gives me hope that maybe the show will be brave and give us a canon Lena and Kara. But I won't hold my breath 😅

All the kudos to She Ra!

#supercorp #lena luthor #supergirl #kara danvers #she ra #she ra adora #catra #catradora #glimmer #adora #catra x scorpia #catra x adora #hordak