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lizziestudieshistory · 3 years

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Books of 2021: The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

I have a few things to acknowledge here before we get into the proper review - this is REALLY LONG and VERY CRITICAL. I promise you I do genuinely love The Stormlight Archive, but if you are someone who doesn’t like to see criticism of Sanderson or Stormlight, then please don’t read this.

This review has spoilers for The Stormlight Archive - you have been warned.

I’ve made no secret of my love for the Stormlight Archive - it’s my favourite ongoing fantasy series. I’ve also avoided reviewing it, and I’ve been putting it off since I first read it back in 2016 (could be 2017? It was a while ago.) How could I review something I love so much? How do I approach reviewing a 1,100 page epic fantasy novel? I just didn’t know. To be honest, I still don’t. I adore this series, it’s become part of my identity - if you asked any of my friends what’s Lizzie’s favourite book they would probably say Stormlight. Maybe Lord of the Rings but that’s a different kettle of fish.

I’ve reread The Stormlight Archive annually for the last five years. I promise myself I won’t reread it and let myself come back in anticipation for the next book. I’ve failed miserably every year. And these aren’t small undertakings - they’re each 1,000 pages and there’s four of them now! For context I usually only read 2,500 pages a month.

So, I’ve finally decided to review these doorstoppers dressed up as fantasy novels. These reviews are mainly for myself, they’re going to be self indulgent, long, and focus on what I want to discuss like characters, structure, and prose - rather than reviewing the things I should probably talk about (like the actual plot…) I want to work through all the things I love about this behemoth of the modern fantasy genre, but also focus on its flaws. The praise for Sanderson is everywhere, so I want to work through my honest opinion of these books, work out why I love them, and I’ll invite you on this journey of self discovery with me.

Structure

I’m yet to work out why I’m starting with structure but we are, I guess it helps with the framing. In case you’re reading this having not read The Way of Kings, each book in the Stormlight Archive is made up of 5 main parts that follow major viewpoint characters, and the parts are split up with small interludes that expand the worldbuilding, follow important secondary characters, or foreshadow future moments. Everybook is centred on a key character - in The Way of Kings it’s Kaladin - who we follow in the present day as a major viewpoint character and explore their backstory through a flashback sequence. Each book also has a prologue which retells the assassination of the Alethi king, Gavilar Kholin, and an epilogue from Wit.

Firstly, this book takes FAR too long to get going and even longer to get into as a reader. I’m not joking when I say there are FIVE introductory chapters: the prelude, a prologue, Cenn’s second prologue (technically the first chapter but it’s a prologue), Kaladin’s introduction, and Shallan’s introduction. It’s too much. We’re jumping around, nothing really makes sense, and we’re not sure how these characters are related. They could be taking place in different worlds for all you know on a first read.

When I first read this book I was a lot more patient with long introductions and multiple false starts - I had the time to dedicate to getting into the story. I could, and did, forgive the THREE false starts to this story before we get to Kaladin’s first chapter. However, the opening structure of this novel is a mistake. If someone gives up in this section I honestly don’t blame them - if I was reading this for the first time in 2021 I probably would too.

The prelude and prologue are both excellent. The prelude in particular is weird and confusing but also sets up a clear mystery and sense of the sheer scope of this story. Szeth’s prologue, the first time we see Gavilar’s assassination, is flawed but still wonderful. The fight scene needed a bit of cutting, for my tastes, and I think the introduction to the magic system is clumsy - there’s far too much obvious info dumping and it needed some serious editing, especially as the complicated use of the magic that Szeth uses is barely relevant in this book. However, I think the Herald’s giving up the Oathpact and a magical assassin is great! They’re a bit weird and you’re not sure what’s going on, but it’s engaging.

Then there’s Cenn. Poor, innocent Cenn. I’m sorry but he’s completely unnecessary. Independently of the rest of the introduction to the Way of Kings Cenn’s chapter would be a pretty good prologue as he’s there to set up our main hero Kaladin from an outside perspective. We love Kaladin and Cenn’s chapter is fine for establishing him as a typical fantasy hero – he’s a warrior, cares about the people, and so forth.

However, Cenn’s chapter in the context bogs down the opening too much. It’s too long, not particularly relevant, and adds yet ANOTHER prologue to this already enormous book. Cenn’s chapter offers nothing to the reader that we don’t learn later on in the text when the content of Cenn’s chapter makes more sense. We even see the exact same sequence of events from Kaladin’s perspective in a flashback! Not having Cenn’s chapter would add more interest to Kaladin’s character and add more weight to the flashback sequence because we wouldn’t have met Kaladin at his peak (sort of…?)

Kaladin’s flashbacks aren’t that engaging as it is, he’s a fairly standard fantasy hero from a small village who ends up leaving his happy family to go to war. So leaving a small mystery around him in addition to ‘how did he become a slave’ would help with my engagement. It would leave me wondering how reliable is Kaladin as a narrator, is he really as good with the spear as he claims? I wouldn’t know but Cenn’s chapter removes all the mystery apart from ‘how does Kaladin become a slave’. It needs to go to make Kaladin more interesting and cut down on some of the unnecessary page count.

While we’re at it… Just cut out ALL the interludes in this book, except for the Szeth through line. I KNOW they are here for the Cosmere connections and to foreshadow things much later in the series. However, new readers and Stormlight only readers don’t know this and, quite frankly, they SUCK. In later books the interludes make sense but here they add so much tedious, pointless crap to an already bloated book. They’re too much and add next to nothing – other than seeing Szeth lose it as he kills people, that was fun (in a disturbing, creepy way… Can you tell I like Szeth?) Either this stuff needs to be relevant to the book we’re in now, or painfully obvious that we’re coming back to this stuff in later books. I still don’t know why we got Ishikk’s interlude with the Worldhoppers, and I completely forgot Nan Balat had an interlude. I’ve read this book 5 times… THAT IS HOW POINTLESS THEY ARE! Sanderson should weave the necessary foreshadowing into the main text, intersperse the perspectives we do need for THIS story into the main sections, or cut them out. When I get to the interludes I physically sigh and sometimes put the book down - now I just skip everything but Szeth - but on a first read they’re really off putting.

To finish up with my complaints about the structure, and this is a big one for me - why do we have huge chunks of this book without major viewpoint characters? I’m biased here but Dalinar is probably the most important POV character in the story because he introduces the real stakes of the story. He has the groundbreaking visions of the past, he is the viewpoint we get into the politics of the war, he is the character who does and continues to have the most impact on the development of the story on his own.Yet, we don’t meet him until we’re 190 pages in…

Sanderson alternates Shallan and Dalinar’s chapters between the five different parts and that means they vanish for 400 pages at a time. Why? I ended up caring about them right as we’re about to lose their viewpoint again for the next part. We needed to see the three major POV characters interwoven together throughout the five parts, not randomly dropped and picked back up again. The structure of this book was a mistake.

Okay, I promise I do actually like this book…

Worldbuilding

Something I do love is the worldbuilding of Roshar, and I usually don’t care that much about worldbuilding. I can really appreciate good worldbuilding, especially on the history side of things, but for most novels it’s just fine? If I roughly know what’s going on with the world then we’re good, I can just get on with the story and not worry about it. However, Roshar is genuinely beautifully built! It takes A LOT to get me to visualise a world as I’m not a visual reader. I can feel the atmosphere, get to know characters, but can I imagine a face or setting? No.

There are three fantasy worlds that have allowed me to actually see the world and it’s landscape: Middle Earth, Discworld, and Roshar. The bleak, storm weathered landscape of the Shattered Plains is so embedded in my mind it’s ridiculous, the only place I can picture more is the Shire – and Lord of the Rings has a film to help it!

Now, to be fair it’s hard for me to separate the worldbuilding in The Way of Kings from the rest of the series, so I now have 4,000 pages worth of worldbuilding in my head… However, it’s certainly strong and I distinctly remember having a vivid image of understanding this world, the atmosphere, landscape, and so forth, on my first read. Although it did take me until Oathbringer to realise that everything, except humanity, was basically a crab… (I think that was just me being dense.)

I do think Roshar needs much more of its history to be expanded on. We don’t have much between the Last Desolation (don’t ask me to spell it's in-world title!) and it shows at times. I don’t expect something on the level of The Silmarillion for Roshar, however, I do think we need to see something more substantial in the period between the Desolations and the present day. We know about the Recreance, the attempted takeover of the Vorin Church, and the Sunmaker? That’s 4000 years! To put it into context it’s the distance between us and Jesus’s birth TWICE, it’s like we know about the end of the 11th Dynasty of Egypt, the Reformation, and the British Empire in our own history... We need to find a balance, especially as we get so much development of science in the later books. More history please - but this is a personal issue and a series wide problem, not just The Way of Kings.

Magic System

Now, this is controversial for Sanderson, but I’m going to skip this for now. This review is already well over 1,000 words long and I’ve not even started on the meat of the novel yet. The magic system isn’t really fleshed out in The Way of Kings, we only really know stuff about the Windrunners (in an abstract kind of way) and the very basics of the Knights Radiant in general. So I’m going to discuss the magic when I get around to reviewing Words of Radiance, Oathbringer, and Rhythm of War, basically whenever I have the energy and more space.

Safe to say I actually really like the magic system in the Stormlight Archive. I usually dislike hard magic systems (I think I’m the only person who dislikes Mistborn’s Allomancy - while very well developed, it’s a bit silly and is far too much for my tastes...) as they often take some of the wonder, mystery, and excitement of fantasy out of the story for me. However, I think surgebinding is a fun system and there is a lot more of it for use to discover, preserving some of that mystery. Oh and, if you were wondering, I would be a Skybreaker!

Prose

Okay if you read the structure section and were wondering - why is this woman still reading these books, you’re in for another head scratcher.

If you’ve ever talked to me about literature you’ll know that there are two things I look for in a really good book: characters and prose. Now characters are something Sanderson does phenomenally well in the Stormlight Archive, but that’s not something you can tell 100 pages into a 1,000 page tome. You have to sit with the characters for a long time and give the author some page time to familiarise you with the people you’re following. If you trust him, Sanderson pulls off some stunning character arcs, especially in the long term and I’ll talk more about characters later on (or you can just skip this section? Up to you really!).

However, prose is something you notice immediately, and Sanderson’s is…utilitarian at best. At worst it’s abysmal. These days I’m very picky about prose, a utilitarian style is fine but a book is unlikely to become a new favourite of mine without good writing. This doesn’t mean I want or expect the writing to be flowery or elaborate, but it does mean I want, and appreciate it when, the prose suits the tone of the narrative and world. I must acknowledge that I’m in a (vocal) minority here, a lot of people either don’t notice Sanderson’s style or like it - I certainly didn’t mind it when I first read ther series - so this is definitely a subjective opinion but one I’m certainly not alone in.

Nevertheless, for me Sanderson’s prose is overly simplistic, repetitive, and very American. Okay so the American is probably only noticeable if you’re not American. However, I’m used to fantasy having a certain Britishness to the writing style, even when the author isn’t British, but to me (as a Brit and fantasy reader) the Americanisms are painful at times… There is no way in hell I’m ever going to acknowledge that aluminium is aluminum no matter how many times Sanderson uses it!

Yet it goes beyond a spelling issue because, let's be honest, in this day and age American English is widely spoken and regularly used in fantasy literature - you can’t escape from it as much as I want to. It’s in the style of writing and construction of sentences. The entire narrative reads like an American has decided to tell me a story using their colloquial, everyday speech. It’s a deliberate choice on Sanderson’s part to make things accessible and digestible, and for some people this works. I do think he has a fantastic style to get readers in, especially readers who are getting to grips with high epic fantasy as it’s one less barrier to entry in an already difficult novel. But it does mean rereading isn’t always the best experience and sometimes the writing can jar me out of the story.

In places it’s too simple and colloquial, so much so the writing becomes clunky, clumsy, and unrealistic to the world he’s creating, especially in descriptive passages and dialogue. It reads like Sanderson could have used more lyrical or formal writing but deliberately chose not to - at the detriment of the prose. This is particularly noticeable with characters like Jasnah Kholin. Jasnah is a princess, brilliant scholar, and political mastermind, she’s known for her poise, elegance, and intelligence. Yet she often speaks like an everyday 21st century American and other characters who haven’t had the same education or training as she has? I can’t believe this for a moment, her dialogue is so egregious in places that it’s like I’ve been hit over the head with my own book! I physically cringe when she says things like ‘“scoot over here”’ (chapter 70, p.1083). WHY is Jasnah talking like this?! It doesn’t make sense to me – Shallan maybe, but Jasnah? No. It doesn’t fit with what we’ve been told about her character.

(Just as an aside, I loathe the word ‘scoot’ – it should be burnt from the English language as an abomination!)

Part of the issue with this is Sanderson usually doesn’t distinguish between the character's voices, both in the dialogue and prose. Most of the time if you dropped me into a random section of the Stormlight Archive with no context I honestly couldn’t tell you who’s speaking or narrating without the signposts Sanderson gives us. This isn’t a huge issue as he’s writing in third person limited, and with context and the chapter icons we know who we’re following. However, it does mean we don’t have any idea of character voice – in the general prose, internal narration/thought, or speech. What’s the difference between Kaladin’s dialogue and Jasnah’s? I have no idea from the sentence construction or speech patterns. Certain descriptions of how characters speak help to differentiate (Jasnah is commanding, Shallan squeaks, Kaladin grunts, etc.) but from their speech patterns I wouldn’t have a clue.

All of this comes back to Sanderson’s overly simple and Americanised style. It’s his choice and it does work for many people, but personally it doesn’t always work with the characters or story. I’m not expecting him to write like Robin Hobb or Guy Gavriel Kay, but some finesse and awareness of character would be appreciated, especially if it helped to differentiate character voices.

I’m also going to throw this out as a very personal issue because I’m not sure where else to put it… Sanderson has the worst sense of humour I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. The comedic moments are occasionally amusing… However, Shallan’s puns are worse than my Dad’s jokes. Every time she says something apparently ‘witty’ and someone else remarks how clever and funny she is I want to hit them... At best she’s mildly amusing, at worst she’s cruel. It’s never funny. (This only gets worse with Lift, I almost DNFed the entire series because of the Lift interlude in Words of Radiance. And don’t get me started on Lopen.)

Characters

At last! Something I genuinely love and the reason I read these books! Sanderson has created some of the best characters in modern fantasy in this series and they are the only reason I’m still going. I like the worldbuilding and plot, but I adore the character work in this book and the series as a whole. The characters are generally so good that, even when I dislike them, it's because I dislike them personally, not that they’re badly written characters! Usually I love Sanderson’s characters though, even when they’re incredibly flawed (looking at you Dalinar!) because he’s particularly good at complex character arcs.

Szeth – I love Szeth, slightly irrationally for how much he’s in both this book and the series as a whole, but he’s one of my favourite “secondary” characters in the series! Szeth is actually the character who made me fall in love with the series in the first place, which feels weird to say because he only has five or six chapters in the entire novel. However, a magical assassin with a strong, if morally dubious, sense of duty and obligations? Sign me up! The opening prologue from Szeth’s perspective is wonderful - it’s far too info-dumpy but it’s highly engaging and one hell of a way to open the series.

What really intrigued me about Szeth was his role as the interlude throughline character for The Way of Kings. His internal conflict between his obligation to follow the Truthless’ laws and his personal morality is fascinating. Szeth’s character development has been one of the highlights of the entire series for me, especially as we explore his personal morality, questioning of power, and commitment to law and justice. This conflict is one of the reasons I love the Skybreakers in general and I sincerely hope we get to see more of this (and their conflict with the theoretically similar, although realistically very different, Windrunners) in book 5. However, Szeth is a promise that Sanderson hasn’t kept yet. So much has been built up around his character and we haven’t explored him properly (as of Rhythm of War) and I’m mad about it! He’s an incredibly interesting character, morally and thematically, and I hope Sanderson can live up to the hype he’s built up around him in the first four books of the series.

Kaladin – Okay the real reason we’re all here, the shining beacon of the Stormlight Archive, everyone’s favourite heroic bridgeman: Kaladin Stormblessed. Confession time – I didn’t love Kaladin the first time I read The Way of Kings. Don’t get me wrong I liked him but I’m generally not a massive fan of underdog superhero narratives. (I’m still not a fan of Bridge Four in general for the same reason, I would apologise but I’m not sorry…)

Kaladin spends most of this novel running bridges for Highprince Sadeas on the Shattered Plains. Unjustly enslaved by a corrupt member of the aristocracy, Kaladin is fighting to keep himself and his bridgecrew alive during one of the most pointless “wars” I've read in a fantasy novel - the pointlessness isn’t actually a criticism. He’s facing systematic oppression and disregard for human life, as well as battling his own depression and forming a bond with a spren named Syl (I absolutely adore Syl! But I want to talk about her in my review for Words of Radiance.)

So… I’ve always been frustrated with Kaladin’s fundamental drive to save people and take responsibility for people’s deaths, even when there was nothing he could have done to save them. This book is probably the worst for it out of the four currently published and I just found it a bit much because I personally struggle to relate to his attitude. This level of personal responsibility is a completely alien concept to me, at least to this level, and it’s Kaladin’s entire thing - his driving personality trait - and I just didn’t get it. Kaladin and I are very different people and for a long time I really struggled to relate to him on the same level everyone else seems to in this book. It also didn’t help that the main plot around Kaladin running bridges, struggling with his depression, and trying to keep his men alive is very repetitive… So when you’re in the midst of it and struggling to connect quite so deeply with Kaladin this book can become a slog - yet, the pay off for his struggles is so satisfying and it is very much worth it for making the end feel earned.

However, my issues with connecting to Kaladin is definitely on me and this is by no means to say Kaladin is a badly written character, I’ve always admired how well Kaladin is drawn in this book. Within a few chapters I understood who Kaladin is, and really loved the conflict he had with his depression and role as a fantasy hero. It's beautifully painful to watch and, even when you’re a bit ambivalent about Kaladin, you really care about whether he and Bridge Four are going to survive the bridgecrews – and the climax sequence with Kaladin becoming Stormblessed again at the Tower is still one of my favourite moments in the entire series!

However, on this reread of the series I had a completely different experience to what I’ve had on previous reads, and a lot of this is down to Rhythm of War. I don’t want to say too much here because it’ll involve spoilers for Rhythm of Warm but having seen Kaladin confront his, as Ron Weasley would say, “saving people thing” and really struggle to keep functioning as Stormblessed, I was so much more on board with this book. Rhythm of War’s much more personal approach to Kaladin really helped me understand him as a person, not just the underdog hero. The struggle with his sense of self, the way his depression impacts his ability to act, and the way he’s moving forward in Rhythm of War let me appreciate the character work for Kaladin in The Way of Kings. The struggle, graft, and determination, especially given his mindset, is much more admirable when I can strip away the focus on doggedly protecting everyone no matter the personal cost.

Kaladin and I are very different people, but that’s okay and I’ve come to appreciate him a lot more in the last 7 months. Now I can happily adore him alongside everyone else, and not just nod along with the rest of the fandom because I understand he’s objectively a well written character. Also Kaladin’s mental health rep is some of the best I’ve seen in an epic fantasy series. However, I would approach this book, and series, carefully if you’re sensitive to depression.

Shallan – confession time round two: I hate Shallan. I really loathe her on a deeply personal level. And I’m still bitter about it because I used to love her, when I first read this book she was my favourite character! This was partly due to relating to her and partly due to my frustration with Kaladin. However, as I read Words of Radiance I grew uncomfortable with her and by Oathbringer it became a full on HATED of her…and it’s never gone away.

I first met Shallan when I was a shy 18-year-old, budding historian and scholar. I got Shallan, I loved her plotline, and found Khabranth a lot more interesting than the endless bridgeruns with Kaladin (sorry Kaladin!) I connected with her because she represented (projected) a lot of what I was at the time - and still am today, just an older version of that person. She was the main character that really drew me into the story - yes I loved Szeth and thought he was brilliant, but Szeth is largely absent from this novel and Shallan is the main female lead.

And then I got hit in the face by the infamous Words of Radiance “Boots” chapter, and I immediately got iffy vibes, then there was the Chasm sequence, and so many other moments that made me uncomfortable. I’ll avoid spoilers and, for now, just say I got hit in the face by Shallan’s innate privilege, her causal abuse of social rank, and complete lack of social and self awareness. To top it off the narrative gives her no consequences for this and even rewards her for her behaviour, rather than making Shallan work through the issues around classism (something I, as a Brit, am hyper aware of and it SHOULD NOT under ANY circumstances be ignored, especially with Kaladin’s narrative running parallel to Shallan.) However, this is later book issues and a major dropped theme that I’m fuming about, but I still found I liked Shallan in THIS book when I reread the series.

Not this time.

There are moments in The Way of Kings where we can already see Shallan’s privilege and complete disregard of anyone who is remotely lower than her in the Vorin hierarchy. The scene with the book merchant stands out. No one in that scene is innocent, and I’m much less annoyed by it than I am at the “Boots” scene, however, it shows an early form of Shallan’s complete inability to reflect on her own behaviour towards those with less power than herself. She’s casually abusive and manipulative, but no one really calls her out on it. The few moments when someone does confront Shallan about it, and the narrative consistently forgives her because Sanderson allows her to come across as the victor in each of the arguments. This isn’t to say Shallan’s causal abuse of the Vorin social system shouldn’t be present in the book. It’s actually very realistic, in our world white people (especially white women) have behaved like Shallan for centuries. However, what does matter is the narrative framing. However, I’ll dig into this when I get to reviewing Words of Radiance because a lot of my planned review for that book is centred around this issue.

I’m also resentful that Shallan’s character in The Way of Kings is a complete lie – we don’t know her at all, but not in the same way as Dalinar? We KNOW something is off with Dalinar, we KNOW he was a terrible person and a warmonger from the way people talk about the Blackthorn – but Shallan’s reveal largely comes out of nowhere in some respects and I HATE that the person I loved so much 5 years ago was a complete lie. I’m a bitter person and I will continue to hold a grudge until Shallan dies or the series ends, whichever comes first.

Jasnah – my problematic QUEEN. Is Jasnah a shitty person? Yes. Do I love her anyway? Yes. Difference is I knew Jasnah was shitty from the start… I like problematic characters, I just hate being lied to (*cue insincere smile at Shallan*)

Jasnah is a difficult character to talk about in this book because we don’t know much about her other than her public persona, however, she’s a large part of why I love it so much. I just like brilliant women who would kill me, okay? It also helps that she's an historian, I have a soft spot for murderous historians. I’ll talk more about Jasnah when I review Oathbriner, hopefully that won’t be in another 5 years…! I just wanted to highlight that I do love a female character in this book!

Actually on the topic, Sanderson is still a shitty author for female friendships – he has included more female characters in Stormlight but why are there no female friendships that aren’t rooted in backstabbing and lies?!

Dalinar – if Jasnah is my problematic Queen then Dalinar has to be the problematic King. Dalinar is my favourite Stormlight Archive character. I could wax lyrical about what a BRILLIANT character he is. You may not like Dalinar, you may not forgive him, but you have to admit he is the best written character in ANYTHING Sanderson has written, and one of the best in modern fantasy. Nevertheless, much like Jasnah I’m going to wait until I review Oathbringer before I talk about Dalinar because I can’t do him justice without his flashbacks. However, I will tell you a story about the time I first met Dalinar Kholin.

So, I first read The Way of Kings on my commute back and forth to Worcester Cathedral because I had a work placement in the Cathedral’s archives. I’d been doing this commute for months and reached the point where I knew when to get off the train by feeling, no need to check the stations (this is relevant).

I was on my commute home, and as I was walking to the train station I started part two. I met Adolin and he was fine. I was a bit confused because this was a whole new perspective and set of characters, but I was doing okay. (Yes I was walking and reading, no I do not recommend this arrangement for health reasons.)

And then I met Dalinar. As I got on the train we got into his own head, with the mystery of the visions just starting, the hints towards his complicated relationship with Elhokar, and the amazing fight with the Chasmfiend. Bearing in mind I was automatically doing my commute through this – I’d become so invested in Dalinar, I missed my transfer on the train. I’ve never done anything like this before in my life. I’m paranoid about it! But I was so engrossed in this aged general, who was potentially going mad, that I missed the stop on my train and didn’t even notice until we hit Birmingham New Street.

I was so in love with Dalinar Kholin that I travelled to the wrong city… And my love for him has only gotten stronger*.

Conclusion

Overall I have a complicated relationship with The Way of Kings, and The Stormlight Archive in general. I love this series, I particularly adore the characters and character work Sanderson is doing as the books continue. However, it is severely overhyped. There are a lot of flaws in this book, especially with the writing and structural aspect of this novel. It’s poorly paced, clumsily written, and lacking finesse. For me Sanderson is an okay writer but a wonderful storyteller. As a storyteller he’s made a huge contribution to the fantasy genre and I’m here for the major improvement he’s made in popularising more complex character work and the inclusion of mental health representation. We’re just seeing the start of this shift in the fantasy genre and I’m excited to see where Stormlight and fantasy are going to go with this movement.

However, as a writer he has a long way to go in improving his craft of writing. These are big books, and I will often forgive mistakes with narrative structure in books of this size because they are so huge. However, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t acknowledge them when reviewing the novel. Mistakes were made, especially in The Way of Kings, and are still being made but Sanderson has been slowly improving with the later books.

There’s a lot to love in The Stormlight Archive - the worldbuilding is insane, the characters are incredible, and the plots are gripping. I love them, and I will continue to eagerly await the next installments! But they’re far from perfect, and that’s okay. Sanderson has captured the imaginations of thousands of fantasy readers and I would highly recommend you give these books a go, despite my critical review. This is a fabulous time to be a fantasy reader and The Stormlight Archive is one of the most exciting reasons to be reading the genre!

*Dalinar and I are going to be on thin ice if Sanderson continues with his character as he did in Rhythm of War, but again I’ll address that when I review Rhythm of War.

#the way of kings #the stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #cosmere #book review #kaladin stormblessed #dalinar kholin #jasnah kholin #szeth son son vallano #not tagging a certain character because last time I had really nasty comments #i promise i really do love this book #i'm just critical of everything I read these days #especially when I've read it five times

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thebluewritingbench · 3 years

Text

fic writer review!

thanks @inkedroplets for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

Seven at the moment! Gearing up to start posting a longer multichap I've been working on soon, though. ;)

2. Whats your total ao3 word count?

35,678 - though I have an additional 198,658 on my old fanfic.net account lol

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Four or five, depending on whether you count ATLA/LoK as one fandom or two. My old account had PJO and Harry Potter, and Supergirl most recently.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

I mean, that's most of them, since there are only seven rn but:

lucky i'm in love with my best friend - supercorp, kara goes on a date with william and then interrupts it by realizing she's actually in love with Lena.

and rain will make the flowers grow - supercorp, a 'what if lena only found out kara was supergirl as kara was dying' (it's sad)

rhymes with monopoly - supercorp, same as this tumblr prompt idk i wanted to try cross-posting one of my tumblr fics. Not sure I'll do it again, tbh.

Missed Notifications in Your Chat: ‘operation expose kyalin - lok, kyalin/korrasami - university au text fic where they're convinced their profs are dating and are overall insufferable about it

we're all in the mood for a melody - lok, korrasami - asami plays the piano a lot it's very domestic fluff

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do! Usually not all of them, though, depends on the mood i'm in I suppose. And what the comment says. I read them all multiple times though!

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending

I'd say the wrong side of a second, which is just essentially just: what if Lena didn't manage to turn off Lex's mount norquay kryptonite canons on time in 5x8 and they hit Kara. The fic is the conversation where Lena has to tell Alex. It's one of two fics I've written where Kara dies, though I'd say the angstier of the two because they don't get time for love confessions and last kisses in that one. You may ask, helena, why do you have two oneshots in which Kara dies? Is this the name you're trying to make for yourself? I'm not sure, honestly. I'll just say i was enabled on discord for the second one. And that angst is kind of thrilling to write. And Kara is (masochistically, perhaps) a great character to kill.

(I tend to reserve tragic endings to oneshots I can knock out in an evening, though. If I'm investing major time into something, I want that happily ever after, please and thank you.)

7. Do you write crossovers?

I haven't, no, though that's not to say I never would.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

I mean, not seriously. I've received the occasional negative/nasty comment but nothing I couldn't delete or disregard.

9. Do you write smut?

I have it was very scary. I'll probably do it again tho.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of?? I hope not. I think someone asked me if they could post a fic of mine to Wattpad once. I said no.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Once back on ff.net! A lovely person translated a oneshot i'd written into french. It was very cool.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Not really, no. Though I had a friend that added so much in her beta-reading that it may as well have been cowriting.

13. All time fav ship?

All time fave? Oh idk. But supercorp has my whole heart at the mo

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

mm well I started a (modern) Pride and Prejudice Supercorp AU but I got stuck trying to keep both Kara and Lena in character and the general plot structure of P&P. Maybe I'll go back to it if I ever figure out a way around that. Otherwise, i try to only post things I know I can finish.

15. Writing strengths?

Uhhhhhh gee idk. I like writing descriptions. Also dialogue.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Overuse of ellipses and M-dashes, perhaps? Repetition of certain adjectives and adverbs? Mostly lots of small things.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Not sure I'd trust myself to do it accurately, tbh. Maybe with a beta who spoke the language?

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson!

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

how do you possibly choose? I'm gonna say my road trip AU (still in the works, but upcoming soon) to drum up some hype for anyone who actually read this to the end. (Because i'm not sure i would, tbh. So if you did, hi here's a cookie don't tell anyone.)

i'll tag @mike-wachowski @mssirey @janusa @tsunderegirlfriend @smileymikey if y'all feel like it idk

#what do you tag these #tag games #writing #?

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theyarebothgunshot · 3 years

Note

ROSE I AM FREAKING OUT HAVE YOU SEEN THE PREQUEL STUFF???? WHAT IS GOING ON, my god... I was literally about to go to sleep, decided to check Tumblr one last time and see this.... what WHAT!! WHATTTT!!!!!! I don't even know if this is good bad or what but just JENSEN IS PRODUCING A SUPERNATURAL PREQUEL AND DEAN'S GONNA BE THE NARRATOR OR Sth LIKE???? -🐸

YEAH i am normal about this <3 (jk i am also freaking out) welcome to: people screaming to me in my inbox about prequelgate ft. j/2 fallout theory. let's goooo!

Another copypasta and suddenly chaos machine is full on gay I love this prophecy

you know whats funny i just checked the j/2 tag and i feel like for the first time in a long time they are starting to realise that maybe THEY should be the ones who are "gutted" *sips tea*

ROSE HOLY SHIT ROOOOOOOOSE ITS HAPPENING HOLY SHIIIIIT

YEAH

Nevermind just read prequel and well good luck I guess but just you know kind of bleh who wants to watch John Winchester well let’s have hope anyways

i know a lot of people are bummed out but i am kind of very excited actually?? i trust robbie and even though yeah j*hn winchester turned into a nasty abusive bastard, it can be interesting to explore how it all started (imo). it's just the first of many stories they can tell.

I can only accept this circus if it’s Dean telling the stories to his and Cas’ kids and then we have a revival to show that the whole finale was in fact the end Chuck wanted there Jensen I fixed it

i would not say no to this

heyloo bee anon here

um- wtf is happening?

jackles prequel series?? why? i want to be excited about this but sheesh im scared

because supernatural is never dead <3

okay, but, jensen... john winchester ≠ jdm, you don’t have to go /that/ hard for him 🙃

true true... though i am waiting for jdm to comment on this, please i need it

WAIT A SECOND J2 FALLOUT THEORY TRUE??

LMAO HELL YEAH BESTIE

Rose you really picked the worst time to sleep for real

bestie it was literally 4 in the morning, what do you expect from me sdfjsfhsf

I can’t literally can’t we were all right LMAO j2 fallout theory is real and cockles (Misha supporting Jensen) is [gunshots] I’m just laughing cause what the hell is this timeline we’re living LMAOOOOOOOOOO

we would always end up here <3

Do we have the copypaste anons to thank for JP basically confirming the J2 fallout? lol 🦚

yes, everybody say 'thanks annoying idiots!'

ROSE, WAKE UP, COME HERE,

THERE'S A LOT GOING ON FFS

YEAH I KNOW BUT I NEEDED SLEEP

Anticipating that there's going to be a lot of yelling about the prequel on here: I am cackling, but also, I mean, the first time Dean got a look into his parent's past, Cas was the catalyst: literally entered Dean's mind and catapulted him to the 70s. So idk, it's not completely unreasonable to expect some Cas cameos, maybe setting up a parallel timeline since Dean is narrating. What I'm saying is, this is Jackles, he's getting JDM and Misha in on this lmao -Honeymoon Anon

you were right lmfaooo also i fully agree. misha's tweet further cemented that thought for me. he knew about this prequel and i dont think he is cas-baiting us, i think he'll be involved. i'd also be obsessed to see jensen and jdm act together again (though idk who jdm could play seeing as it's a prequel and he is way too old to play young j*hn)

longlivethetribbles heeft gevraagd:

Heyyyyyy bestie, are you SEEING the absolute madness going on right now holy shit

well a little late but I SURE AM BESTIE

bestie wake up pls s16 finale just dropped.

- 🍯

and WHAT a great one it was

I love coming home from work to see all of the chaos unfolding on Tumblr and Twitter. I'm absolutely buzzing right now. I'll probably still be here by the time you wake up and check tumblr 😂 - 🐢

lmaooo and were you still awake?? did you see my freak out??

Oooh bestie wake the fuck up, I know you’re gonna be excited for this one jsnsjsj

god i had SUCH a morning like. it's 12:00 now and all i did since i woke up is check tumblr rip

short summary: jen and dee gain the rights, they post on ig/twitter about a prequel ft john and mary that no one asked for, the fandom loses its everloving shit as usual, they trend on twitter thanks to the beloved twt intern who missed us, misha qt’s jen about cas possibly benefiting from being in the prequel, then j*red qt’s jensen abt how his feelings got hurt by him not being told about a prequel his character as no involvement in & he initially throws a tantrum, and the rest is history - 🦋 anon (ps: i hope this helps a little, i’ve been scattered brained trying to keep up with it all night lmao so pls let me know if i missed anything, bug crew !!)

thank you so much darling i figured it out eventually but this is a helpful summary!!!

I hope you enjoyed waking up to all of this XD -🐢

i sure did!!! also that answers my question about you being awake lmao

I WILL NEVER EVER EVER FORGIVE MYSELF FOR SLEEPING THROUGH ALL OF THIS DRAMA AND NOT EXPERIENCING IT IN PERSON I DIDN'T NEED THIS SLEEP - tea anon

well the party was still going strong this morning so im not TOO "gutted" see what i did there lmaooo

Now that you are caught up with the news... So idk if you remember this but...didn't jarpad tell jackles he was up for a reboot in an online panel? And jackles answered that this was news to him??

-🍯

yeah i think you are right but he was clearly joking and didnt expect jackles to actually be working on something already

J2 anon spare more of those anons let's finish this - tea anon

please, we're having a ball in this bitch

I saw a post on tumblr where someone said now that Kripke gave J&D the rights, maybe they’re starting with a prequel just to end on a reboot in years time and honestly ? I wanna believe that so badly. This is tinhatty but what if this is all calculated in a way that makes it so that Jensen is slowly starting to fix everything that was wrong with spn - now that he has the rights and he’s slowly making spn his own story ?! I mean he did say in his ig post he wants to ‘fill in the rest’ - and maybe Mary and John’s story is only the beginning of spn related content from J&D to come ??? Maybe he wants to give spn the justice it deserves ?? Thoughts ??

i dont think this is tinhatty at all i think this is very possible and not that much of a reach. i could see this happening yeah for sure

want to hear something funny. I found out I had a ruptured blood vessel in my eye because I was sending my friend a video freaking out when the prequel news dropped and I noticed the corner of my eye was red af. and when I got back online jared had tweeted.

DJFHSJD ANON THE CHAOS OF IT ALL, HELP, are you okay? <3

rose.. bestie... how are you feeling about The News? nsfshsf being european is a curse </3 🐞

i feel GREAT im living for it i feel on top of the world tbh (and yeah it really is dsjfhs)

What am I waking up to I can't WHAT I rested my eyes for like 5 minutes help *hits reblog button* - anon anon

yep yep essentially djfhs

“Jensen and Misha are Co workers who barley talk”

I can’t be sure of course but I’m fairly certain that this is the copypasta that brought the j/2 fallout theory back to life. Who’s apparently ‘barely talking’ now? skansjsjsj. It’s almost prophetic, these j/2 anons have superpowers I’m telling ya.

-poker face anon

next time we get one of them we should be thanking them lmaooo

ok, but are we gonna talk about the "When Daneel and I formed Chaos Machine Productions, we knew that the first story we wanted to tell was the story of John and Mary Winchester [...]"-quote because the way this is phrased implies they formed CHAOS MACHINE Productions with the intent of telling this story (first), i haven't been in this dumpster long enough but the name just tickles me in that Misha way, isn't it so sus??? am i missing something???? i mean with this announcement they SURE lived up to that name... 🧩-anon

you are absolutely right, chaos machine SCREAMS misha and we are all here for it!!

hey hey hey. joining the clownverse, there's no way THEE cas girl danneel doesn't know just how much the fandom loves misha and cas. so 2 + 2 = misha in the spn prequel!

AGREED

So I think I finally managed to catch up on wtf happened while I was asleep and my brain melted. What a shit show to wake up to.

Anyway thoughts.

I don't hate the idea of a Mary&John sequel. I think it has the potential to be good (It has the potential to be really bad too, so I'm kind scared).

🕯️🕯️🕯️ manifesting Mary being badass and John being kinda useless🕯️🕯️🕯️

As for the Jensen and J*red thing.

I can see Jensen not telling J*red even if they are still friends, because J*red is kinda good at accidentally telling Secrets. He could have told him right before he announced it so, so that J*red didn't have to find out from twitter. He was on the show for 15 years, he is bound to get asked about it. The public twitter meltdown was really unprofessional so. Like you have Jensen's number J*red. You could have sorted that out in private like a normal person, but instead you choose to act like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

Is it weird that I'm actually going to be kinda that for them if the actually had a falling out, even tho I don't like J*red all that much. They seemed to be really important to each other and while I thought before that the might have triefted apart a bit, I didn't think that the where actively fighting.

- 🐌 anon

the thing is, the polite/normal thing for jensen to do was text him before announcing it on twitter. it's weird he didn't, and that makes me believe that maybe yeah they did have a falling out. especially with the way j*red responded to it on twitter. if he had no other reason to be this upset (no prior beef or falling out) you'd think that he wouldn't be responding like this. on the other hand, the man is a mysterie to me so who the hell knows. i'm not gonna mourn about it if they did/do grow apart because j*red is just.... awful imo.

#frog anon #bee anon #peacock anon #subtlerainy #honeymoon anon #bestie mutual #honeypot anon #turtle anon #butterfly anon #tea anon #ladybug anon #anon anon #poker face anon #puzzle pieces anon #snail anon #good lord i think i got more anons about this than about anything else before lmao #good luck to anybody who actually reads this <3

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middleearthpixie · 3 years

Text

Someone to Watch Over Me ~ Chapter Four

In honor of Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day, I thought I'd move up tomorrow's chapter and let it go out into the wild today. So, if you enjoy it, please let me know - comment, reblog, recommend, what have you! <3

Author's Note: Here is where the story will begin to mirror the events of The Hobbit, with some poetic license taken, of course.

Summary: Thorin and Seren arrive in the Shire, and she meets the Company, as well Bilbo Baggins.

Pairing: Thorin Oakenshield/Seren (female OC, formerly of Dale)

Characters: Gandalf the Grey, the Company, Bilbo Baggins

Rating: T

Warnings: The sexual tension between Thorin and Seren ratchets up a bit now.

Word Count: 4,359

Tagging: @tschrist1 and if anyone else wishes to be added, just let me know!

Thorin stared up at the ceiling, only just barely able to make out the stains on the plaster. Water stains, most likely. He couldn’t imagine what else they might be. Didn’t want to imagine what else they might be.

To his right, Seren was sound asleep in her bed. Every now and again, she let out a snore that made him smile. At least one of them could sleep. He was far too busy mentally berating himself for his idiocy earlier.

He hadn’t meant to try to look down her tunic. It simply… happened. He didn’t know why he asked her about it, either. Up until the words crossed his lips, he had given no more than a passing thought about the fact that she was a girl pretending to a certain extent to be a boy. Her reasoning made perfect sense, after all, and he could hardly fault her.

But once she’d told him her secret, his eyes slid of their own accord to her chest. There was no indication whatsoever of any sort of curvature. Which made him wonder. Which made images pop into his mind. Images he neither wanted nor needed.

Trouble was, they were there now and that was why he couldn’t sleep.

Perhaps it would be easier if she looked more like a mountain troll. Or a goblin. But, in fact, she was actually cute. Pretty, even. Her hair was a pale, shimmering gold, like that of the elves of the Woodland Realm. She kept it back in a neat braid, which she then tucked into the neck of her tunic (stop thinking about that damn tunic!)

But her eyes were by far her most striking feature. They were wide and green, but unlike no green he’d ever seen. The outer ring of her iris was the deep green of a forest in summer, but as the color swirled nearer to her pupils, it softened to paler green, and finally yellow. They were almost mesmerizing in their tranquility. By far the most beautiful eyes he’d ever seen.

And that was also why he stared up into the darkness, at the questionable stains. The fire smoldered on the grate. The fire she’d ended up having to start because all he was successful in doing was crumbling the flint like a fool.

That seemed to amuse her as she took it from him, saying, “Perhaps I should do this. I have the feeling that nasty little man at the desk wouldn’t be too keen on giving me another flint, knowing I’d be using it to keep a dwarf warm.”

He’d rolled his eyes. “I’ll go down and get a new flint. He won’t dare try to put me off.”

“You don’t know that.” She’d shaken her head. “He might have steel of his own or worse. It would be better for me to deal with him, if it comes to that.”

His gut twisted with irritation over that. A girl coming to his defense. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time she came to his defense, much as he hated to admit it. He appreciated it, but would rather not think about it, if at all possible.

Which led his mind right back to what happened earlier. He groaned softly into the darkness, rolling over to punch his pillow as he tried to will himself to sleep. It didn’t help. All he could think about now was what she kept hidden beneath that oversized tunic. And that was enough to drive him mad. His imagination ran wild, torturing him as the night wore on and the logs on the fire were slowly consumed by the flames.

He rolled onto his side, facing Seren. A mistake. She lay on her side, facing him, with only the light sheet drawn over her. In the darkness, without the shapeless clothes to hide her, the curve of her hips, the slope of her waist, were as plain as the nose on his face. And when he closed his eyes? It made things worse. Now he saw her in the rain, peering up at him as she had that first night. Rain beaded on her cheeks, caught in her eyelashes, shimmered against lips that he suddenly wanted to taste.

He squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to will alway the sudden rush of desire he felt for this woman. No. She wasn’t for him. She was of Man and should stay of Man. Dwarves and Men would do well to remain far apart from one another. Nothing good could come of his desiring Seren Gilwynn, nothing at all. He would enjoy himself in the moment, no doubt, for he had the feeling she would be far different from any woman he’d known prior to meeting her, but in the end, it could never work. They were far too different and their paths would never be the same.

Now if only he could convince himself of that.

Finally, sleep crept in and his eyes slid shut. But, his dreams were every bit as frustrating as his waking thoughts; steamy and erotic and when he woke at the first light of dawn, the ache that settled into him was all too real.

He opened his eyes slowly, his entire body humming from the force of his dreams. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d dreamed so vividly and as his gaze fell upon Seren, whose back was now to him, he bit back a groan. Perhaps letting her accompany him was a terrible idea, after all.

No. He’d overcome this. It would pass, as every other infatuation did. He had far more important matters with which to concern himself, and with that, he threw back the quilts and sat up. His trousers were draped over the foot of his bed and he slid into them before crossing to Seren to catch her shoulder.

“We need to move on,” he said, giving her a gentle shake. “Seren?”

She rolled over with a low sigh and her eyes slowly opened. She gazed up at him and his belly gave a sharp flip as a sleepy smile lifted her lips and she said, “I was dreaming about you.”

“Were you?” He tried to keep his voice as neutral as possible as he turned away.

“I was, yes.” The linens rustled and he peered over his shoulder to see she’d sat up and was now rubbing one eye with a fist. “It was interesting, really. We were in an earthen cavern, surrounded by goblins. And one was about to stab you through the throat, when Gandalf appeared.”

He spun around to face her. “What?”

“It was so odd,” she said softly, looking up at him. “But so vivid. I’d swear it was real, but we are right here in Bree, and there are no goblins here, so…”

He sank onto the edge of his bed. “Perhaps you should remain here, or in the Shire. If we are to go to Erebor and face a dragon—“

“That dragon destroyed my home as well,” she told him, her voice low and soft. “I want it to pay as much as you do.”

He looked over at her. Her eyes held a sadness he hadn’t seen before, and his first instinct was to offer her comfort. “So, you and I fight for the honor of killing Smaug?”

To his relief, she offered up a sleepy smile. “I don’t delude myself into thinking I could kill a dragon. But I would like to be there when it happens.”

“How is it you lived in Dale, yet I only ever saw you that one afternoon?”

She lowered the hand that had been rubbing her eye. “I didn’t wish you to see me.”

“You hid from me?”

“More or less, yes. I watched you, but after that day, you thought me a pest. I’d follow you if you came into Dale, with my little sword at my side, just in case anyone thought to give you trouble.”

“I thought you a pest?”

To his discomfort, she nodded. “You caught me once, around Athluna Farydale’s shop. I’m sure you’ve put it from your mind, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. I confess, Mr. Oakenshield, I had a bit of a crush on you back then. You were so handsome and fearless… But then, you laughed at me and said I was but a child and I should go home.”

He tried to bring up the memory, and little by little, it came into focus.

He’d first spied her as she ducked behind a table displaying Miss Farydale’s goods, and had thought nothing of it. But then, the distinct feeling of being watched had settled over him and at least twice more, he’d turned to catch a flash of blonde hair disappearing around a corner, behind a table, lost in a crowd.

It went on that way as he’d made his way from one end of the square to the other, when finally, he ducked behind a corner and as the girl passed, he stepped out to grab her by the arm, growling,“What are you doing?”

The tiny girl with long blonde curls and wide green eyes blinked up at him, gazed up at him as if the sun rose and set on his shoulders. In one hand, she held a sword. At first glance, he thought it was a toy, but then realized it was anything but. Small, perhaps, but honed to a lethal degree from the looks of it.

He released her, folding his arms. “I’m waiting.”

Those green eyes met his and to his surprise, her fair cheeks grew pink as she stammered,“I—that is, you—well… I mean… I’m here for you to watch over.”

They winced in unison and he’d replied, “I beg your pardon?”

“I’m here to watch over you. In case Alfryd tries to make good on his threats.””

“Watch over me? Whatever for? I need no one to do such a thing. Especially not a child. Run along now, and bother me no more.”

“But—“

He didn’t wait for her to finish, but turned and stalked off, shaking his head at the very thought of that child thinking she was protecting him from the people of Dale, from Alfryd. Laughable.

“That was you?” he murmured, reaching for his tunic, draped over the foot of the bed as well.

As he drew it on, she said, “It was. Do you remember? I made a fool of myself.”

“I remember I was far too old for you at the time.”

“Yes, you probably were.” She kicked back the coverlet and rose and he swallowed hard at the sight as, once again, she was in only her tunic.

To make matters worse, her trousers lay draped over the table, before the windows, and as she stepped before them, the sunlight streamed in behind her and the effect stunned him into silence. No matter how he tried not to look, he couldn’t help but see the outline of slender, shapely thighs, softly curved hips, the slope of her waist, and the faint hint of those bandages of which she spoke last evening.

He turned about, the only way he could avert his gaze. “I was and I still am and we need to go.”

“Well, it no longer matters,” came her pert reply and he breathed a sigh of relief as the swish of fabric against skin reached his ears. Her trousers, hopefully. Unless of course, she was trying deliberately to drive him mad. “I’m not that same girl any longer.”

A relief that. He turned back to find her dressed once more, which came as another relief for him. Now, they just need to make for the Shire and once the entire Company was assembled, his thoughts would no longer center on the girl in his room at the moment. In time, she would just be one the others.

Or so he hoped.

“So,” Seren was saying as she tugged on hose that had seen better days, “how long will it take us to reach the Shire?”

“No more than a few hours.”

“Good. And do you know where we’re going?”

“Haven’t the foggiest,” he replied as he fastened his scabbard about his hips. “But, we’ll find it.”

“And if we don’t?”

He offered up a long look. “We will.”

“Very well.” She tugged on her left boot, then her right, and straightened up. Her brows pulled low as she peered at him. “Is something wrong? You look a little flushed this morning.”

“I’m fine,” he told her, shrugging into his fur wrap and then his cloak. “We need to move.”

“If you say so.”

He held open the door for her. The sooner he put this room, and its two comfortable beds, far behind them, the happier he’d be for it. Perhaps then his thoughts would stop torturing him.

Seren shielded her eyes from the sun as she waited for Thorin to emerge from the inn. Something bothered him. He avoided meeting her eyes, or even looking directly at her, and that made her smile. He had no trouble doing so until she teased him about catching him trying to peek down her tunic. It wasn’t until she’d teased him about it that this sudden change came about.

Was it possible that he really had tried to look down her tunic? She thought that’s what he’d been doing, but it was entirely possible she was wrong.

Or so she’d thought.

Then, he came thudding down the steps and out into the road and she smiled up at him. “I thought you’d gotten lost.”

“It seems our innkeeper friend thought we damaged the room. I don’t know what he thought we were doing, but he charged us an extra fifty for it.”

“Fifty?” Her belly kinked sharply. She didn’t have much more than a hundred or so left in her purse. Still, she set her sack on the ground to open it. “Well, let me—“

“Worry not about it,” he said, catching the sack to lift it in one smooth motion and thrust it back at her. “I let him think we’d had the time of our lives up there and paid him. It was the quickest way to get out of there.”

She bit back a smile. “I wonder what he thought we were doing?”

He shrugged. “I neither know nor care. Now, come along. We still have a way to travel.”

For the first time since catching up with him at the bridge, when he’d dragged her into the underbrush, she fell into step alongside him. “How far is the Shire from here?”

“About half a day’s walk. We will be there by nightfall.”

“And is there an inn there?”

He shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. But no matter, we will find somewhere to sleep.”

She cast a sideline glance up at him. The sunlight danced along the dark strands of his hair and highlighted the silver streaking through it. The small silvery cube braided into his hair caught the light, threw it off in flashes of blue and white light. “What is that?”

“What is what?”

She gestured to her own ear. “That block in your hair. What is it?”

“It’s a rune. Woven in by my nephew, Kili, when he was a toddler.”

“And how old is he now?”

Thorin glanced down at her. “Not much older than you, I’d wager. He would like you.”

“Really? What makes you say that?”

He shrugged. “Kili likes pretty girls. Fili as well, but he isn’t quite the flirt as his brother is.”

Hearing him say he thought her pretty did something odd to her. It made her belly flip in a way that was as delicious as it was unnerving. But, she didn’t wish to embarrass him again, and so merely smiled and said, “Tell me more of them.”

“Kili and Fili?” He glanced down at her, then looked ahead once more. “They are the sons of my younger sister, Dis. They are typical boys—reckless and headstrong and eager for a fight. You will meet them at some point in the next day or so.”

“I look forward to it,” she replied.

Perhaps it was but her imagination, but it seemed to her that his shoulders tensed with her words. But then, he said, “And they will most likely thank you,” and smiled down at her.

They walked on in silence a bit longer. As the sun warmed the air, she unfastened her cloak to drape it over her arm, and winced at the hint of sweat trickling down between her breasts. The linen wrapped around her was even warmer, and she wished she at least had the satisfaction in knowing she’d be able to unbind herself soon.

But, the truth was that as long as she traveled with a group of men, she would have to pretend to be a boy. And that mean remaining wrapped tight.

Not exactly the most pleasant of thoughts.

She tugged her braid from her tunic. The ends of it rubbed oddly against her skin, which irritated her as the healing blister on her foot irritated her, as the cut on her arm irritated hers. But, she kept her complaints to herself. Mama always said it did no good to complain and that energy was best spent trying to find a solution instead. Trouble was, the only solution was to confess her true gender and she wasn’t at all certain that would be wise. Thorin, she could trust. The others? She didn’t know them. And anyone else with whom they might cross paths, such as orcs, goblins, or trolls? She definitely did not want any of them to know the truth about her.

“Thorin?”

He peered down. “What?”

“Do you think I should come clean about who I am to the others? To Gandalf?”

He stopped and faced her. “Why?”

She also stopped and shrugged. “It’s warm. And that makes me a little… uncomfortable.”

She half-expected his gaze to lower, as it did the night before, but to her surprise, he held her gaze as he said, “It’s up to you. No one will touch you, if that is your fear. But, I cannot say the same for anyone we might meet along the way.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she said softly, looking off into the distance, where the fields rolled an even deeper emerald green than the woods from which they’d come. She saw curious buildings in the distance, ones that looked as if they’d been built into the countryside. It all looked so lush, so peaceful, it was unlike anything she’d ever seen. She’d never been this far west before.

“How uncomfortable are you?”

“Fairly.” She resisted the urge to tug at the bandage where it rubbed along the left side of her ribcage. “My skin gets sore.”

“How quickly can you rewrap, if necessary?”

She smiled up at him. “I’m quick. Maybe a minute or two. As I said, I haven’t much to wrap.”

He looked around, only there was nothing but rolling lush fields, beautiful lush trees, and those odd buildings in the distance. Behind them, Bree was but a smudge on the horizon. “Unwrap yourself then. At least for a night or two.”

“Here?”

He nodded. “No one is around and I promise,” a hint of mischief glinted in his blue eyes, “I will not try to peek.”

She couldn’t help but smile. “Do you really promise?”

Another nod. “I really promise.”

And with that, he turned his back to her. She looked around, then dropped her sack, shrugged out of her scabbard and set the knives down, then tugged her tunic free to reach beneath it. The bandage was knotted between her breasts, and it took her only a minute to work it free and then, with a low sigh, she unwound the length of linen. At first, the sore patch just below her left breast stung, but after a minute or two, the sting faded. The relief was so great, she couldn’t hold back her lusty sigh.

Thorin turned back to her then. “Are you all right?”

She held up the roll of bandages, tossing it into the air and catching it in the same hand. “Freedom feels wonderful.”

He grinned and she didn’t miss the hint of blush that crept across his cheekbones. She couldn’t resist teasing him a little. “You are blushing, Thorin Oakenshield.”

“The deuce I am,” he retorted, turning away.

But she wasn’t letting him off that easily. She darted about to stand before him again. “You are, you know.”

Then, she tossed the bandages at him. “Catch!”

He did just that. “What are you about?”

“Did you ever have a splinter that hurt. That hurt no matter what and when you finally got it out, it just felt so good, that your mood improved tenfold?”

“I have.” He tossed the roll back to her. “If it hurts so much, why do it?”

“Because I have to. You don’t understand. You’re a man. A dwarf warrior. No one will trifle with you. I, however,” she pressed a hand against her chest, “have no such luxury. I have to pretend to be what you already are and hope no one learns the truth.”

“I know the truth.”

She dropped the roll into her sack and gazed up at him. “But I know you won’t tell anyone. I trust you.”

“No one will harm you, Seren. Not as long as I walk this earth with you.” He stepped closer. “I give you my word. If you wish to remain unbound, know you will be safe with us. With all of us.”

He sounded so serious, his eyes holding not a hint of mischief and his blush had vanished. She knew her trust had yet to be misplaced or unfounded. She nodded. “Will you tell anyone?”

“Not if you don’t wish me to, no.”

“Can I let you know once I’ve met everyone?”

“Of course.”

She nodded. “Good.”

“We should keep moving. We still have a bit of a way to go.”

She nodded and crouched to slip the sack’s strap over her shoulder again, then stood and they continued along the road to the Shire. The sun sank low, streaking blue and coral across the sky. Red skies. A promise of good weather to come. Thank the maker the rain had finally come to an end.

But the landscape was deceiving, as it seemed they wandered from one end of the Shire to the other. She began to wonder if Thorin had any clue as to where they were actually supposed to be when he stopped for the third time, muttered something under his breath and said, "There it is!"

It was a house built into the hillside, with brilliant green trim and a round door that looked like the bottom of a barrel. On the brilliant green door, someone had carved a sigil and Thorin sighed as he grumbled, “Easy to find, my foot.”

Seren peered through one of the windows. Warm light filled the interior, and she heard the cheerful stamping of feet and the muffled voices rising as one in song. A party? It seemed odd that this was where Gandalf had sent them, and she was about to say as much to Thorin when he rapped on the door with a fist.

She held her breath as it swung open and Thorin leaned in to say, “Gandalf! I thought you said this place was easy to find? We lost our way. Twice.” He ducked as he stepped through doorway. “We wouldn’t have found it at all, had it not been for the mark on the door. You remember Seren, don’t you?”

He turned, saw she still hung back, and reached to catch her by the wrist. As his fingers brushed hers, a jolt rippled along her arm, strong enough that her head snapped up and she looked at hi. But he didn’t seem to notice as he tugged, pulling her through the doorway into a small house. For the first time in her life, she felt tall—almost giantlike—in that house. Everything was small. The furniture was tiny, the ceilings were low, she almost had to bow her head as she followed Thorin into a cozy, warmly lit dining room and found herself staring at twelve very curious dwarves and one very stressed halfling.

“Who’ve you there?” A dwarf with huge white hair and an even bigger white beard, gestured to her.

“Everyone, this is Seren Gilwynn, of Dale. He will be accompanying us and—” he held up a hand as a chorus of protests rose—“Enough. I’ve seen him with steel and his fists. He will be an asset.”

Then, he turned to her. “Seren, this is the Company.” He pointed to the white haired dwarf and moved along the crowed, “Balin. Dwalin. Oín. Gloín. Bofur. Bifur. Bombur. Nori. Dori. Ori.”

Then he moved to two young dwarves, both strikingly handsome, one blond, the other dark. “Fili. Kili.”

His nephews. She smiled. There was no way she would ever remember all their names, but at the same time, she nodded and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.”

They all greeted her with friendly, if confused smiles and minutes later, she and Thorin sat at the table, plates of something delicious before them, and she just listened as Gandalf outlined their plan for retaking Erebor, with the halfling being the burglar who was going to take something called the Arkenstone. The halfling who looked terrified at the very prospect of doing so.

With a sigh, she settled back in her chair and just listened. And as she did so, she couldn’t help but gaze over at Thorin. Had he felt that jolt when they touched or was she just projecting what she wished he would feel? Because truth be told, she still had a crush on him. Only now, she was no longer a child and that could mean serious trouble for both of them.

#The Hobbit #Thorin Oakenshield #Hobbit Fic #Hobbit Fanfic #Fan fiction #The Hobbit fan fiction #Thorin x OC #AU #Thorin Fic #fanfic writer appreciation day

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40sbarnes · 4 years

Text

Medici: Spymasters of Florence

Chapter 9: Fool Me Twice

9 chapters already oh my goodness and we still have some ways to go so i hope you’re all still enjoying it!! i can’t say how much your likes and comments mean so thank you! there’s a little bit of overlap in this chapter from last chapter so sorry you had to reread the first conversation but now we get to hear the readers thoughts i guess, anyways!!! enjoy <3

pairings; slow slowburn lorenzo x reader, (friends) francesco x reader (i told yall!)

tag list; @brynthebulldozer @mythicalamphitrite @nana035 @valravnsraven @hannahhistorian92

The skirt of your dress was so heavy, your desperate pulls at it leaving your leg exposed to the cold cobble below you, the adrenaline flowing through your veins stopping you from feeling it. The moment you could, you grabbed your dagger out its holster, and drove it into your opponent’s stomach. But his hold around your neck didn't falter, he simply glanced down at where you'd impaled him, and began laughing maniacally, his grip on you only tightening. Your breath hitched in your throat, not knowing what to do. A door creaked open across the street, your head snapping towards it for help. But instead, you faced Lorenzo's bedroom door, finding yourself in his bed yet again. Just a dream, a nasty dream. You relaxed into his soft bed sheets, as he noticed you were awake. Where was he returning from? Oh, Lucrezia's... of course.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, not bothering to look at you as he turned away, beginning to get dressed.

"Like stealing your bed linen," you groaned, flopping onto your back, your skin soothed by the softness.

A beat passed before he spun around to answer. "They're yours, a starting payment for last night," He had a shit eating grin on his face as he worked on the buttons of his shirt. You failed to mirror his expression. Last night cost a lot more to you then Medici bed sheets. And you imagined it would cost a whole lot more to make it up to Lorenzo.

"I really am sorry, Lorenzo." You pulled yourself away from his bed, moving closer to him. The cool morning air nipping at your bare legs as a reminder you were only wearing one of his shirts. His eyes poured into yours, his gaze unfaltering.

"No need for an apology," he pulled his jacket on before doing it up, making a mess of the buttons as he focused on keeping eye contact with you instead of them, "that's the last time I'm saying that." You still didn't believe he wasn't furious with you.

You closed the space between you two, gently dropping your hands onto his, moving them to do up the buttons for him. He didn't say anything, but his jaw clenched.

"Okay," you wondered how to approach the topic, "no apologies, but we still have to discuss it."

He looked to the ceiling as you continued with the buttons. "And we will. When I'm back."

"Back?" You were quick to remark. He had only just returned from spending the night with Lucrezia, and he was leaving again?

"The Orsini girl is downstairs. I won't be long," He almost seemed scared to say it to you. As he should be. Why was Clarice here? You were certain your little talk had dissuaded her. Honestly you expected better of her.

"I thought you said-" Lorenzo didn't give you the chance to finish your thought.

"The visit was unexpected. I was certain she didn't wish to marry. She still couldn't. But she's been waiting long enough," he continued with his explanation. You couldn't hide your anger. Lorenzo was focusing on such trivial matters when you had ended another person’s existence last night. And going to speak to Clarice when he was still having dalliances with Lucrezia? It wasn't fair... to Clarice.

"Well good luck," you kept your thoughts to yourself for once, and turned for the window as you'd finished dressing Lorenzo.

"Y/n," his hand found yours, "I shan't be long. Please wait here for me. You need some rest and it's just easier." You could tell how sincere he was.

You didn't bother fighting, or speaking at all. A simple nod sufficed.

"Thank you, lock the door after me," Using the hand holding yours, he brought it to his lips to place a kiss onto your knuckles, leaving instantly after. Why did he do that? You held the hand to your chest, confused. After a moment’s thought, you did as he said and locked the door, your eyebrows still furrowed. How peculiar. You weren't some noble woman at a ball, he's probably just stuck in his ways, a force of habit. It didn't mean anything.

A shiver involuntarily slipped through your body. You thought of just climbing back into the warmth of bed but didn't want Lorenzo to return to you that way. You didn't have anything to change into as Lorenzo decided to burn half your closet last night. You went to root in his instead, but surprise, surprise, it was all men's clothes. You knew that wouldn't bode well when you had to walk through the streets of Florence later. Instead, you made your way back to the door, trying your best to listen before unlocking it and pulling it open gently. The coast seemed clear, so you danced across the hall to what you believed to be his sister, Bianca’s, room. The door was already open a crack. You listened carefully, hoping to hear her sound asleep but there was no noise to be heard. Maybe you had slept longer than you imagined. You slipped through the crack, seeing the room to be empty. You began to wonder where she was before you caught yourself, it didn't really matter and you should really be counting your blessings. You quickly stole a dress from her wardrobe, before sneaking your way back into Lorenzo's room to get dressed. You sat on the bed beside his folded shirt, awaiting his return, fidgeting in Bianca's dress, it had been hard to fasten by yourself and didn't seem to quite sit right.

Minutes passed and there was no sign of the Medici. You had picked at your nails long enough, and decided to give into your urge to snoop. Who could blame you? It was basically your job. You made your way around Lorenzo's room, picking up some of his trinkets for further inspection, and, although notably out of character for you, you put them back. It just didn't feel right to steal from him anymore. You hated yourself for feeling that way but you couldn't help it.

Your fingers landed on a small vial in the drawer of his desk, your tube of poisons. You still had most of what you'd purchased at home, but this was your original assortment you'd made he'd taken from you. You shook it slightly as you examined it. You were still fascinated with the practice of mithridatism. After contemplating it for a moment, you took another (tiny) dose. Things couldn't get much worse for you anyways. You'd just be more patient this time.

You soon grew bored, as you weren't making any money from your rummaging, and floated back towards the door. You pressed your ear to it, but you couldn't pick up anything from the thick wood. You went to the window instead, glancing around, watching as light rainfall splashed in the puddles from last night’s downpour. No one was out for walks in the garden because of the weather, so you didn't have to worry too much about staying hidden. Your eyes trailed down to the path by the front doors, to see Clarice being helped into her chariot. So they were finished speaking. You couldn't make out her expression from where you were, but her body language gave you some hints, although you weren't sure whether her hung shoulders and dragged feet meant the marriage was on or off. You turned to face the door, expecting Lorenzo any moment. But your expectations weren't met. Minutes passed and there was still no sign of him. Your eyes wandered back to the window, the raindrops soothing as they trickled down the pane, distracting you from your inner turmoil.

A bright blue blob appeared in the corner of your eyes. You blinked to refocus them, to see Lorenzo leaving in the same blue cloak he'd worn the day you first met. He headed in the same direction as Clarice, towards the town. It was a long walk in rain, you would know. You cursed out loud, 'shan't be long' indeed. You stomped throughout his room, going back to his closet to steal the plainest cloak you could find. You considered leaving the door locked just to irritate him, but decided against it, and exited through the window.

You followed the same route you took as last night, going around the city altogether, rather than taking all the winding paths into it. You kept your head down, and your footsteps light. You still weren't one hundred percent, but you were starting to feel much more yourself now that you'd rested. You didn't feel as weak as last night, and you made a mental promise to yourself to never let yourself be that weak ever again. You weren't sure you were fully in control anymore. It all seemed so fun just a little while ago, getting all this extra coin, for basically the same work. And you couldn't lie and say sneaking around with Lorenzo de ‘Medici behind Pazzi's back wasn't thrilling. But now it was all just stress. You'd gone too far. You couldn't turn back now. And you felt like you only had so much time left on this path. The walls were closing in around you, and there was no way out.

"Is that y/n Bellondini? “A familiar voice brought you out of your spiral.

"Who's asking?" You teased, turning to face Francesco. Your chest tightened as he embraced you, somehow also feeling a sense of relief to see him.

"How are you?" He asked when you eventually pulled away.

"Glad to see you," you reply, not sure how honest you were being. His grin grew at your words. "How have you been keeping?"

"As good as I look," he stood taller as he complimented himself.

"Oh," you frowned, "I'm sorry," you continued your mocking, resting your hand on the side of his shoulder as if to comfort him.

"I haven't missed your mockery, Bellondini," his hand moved to sit atop yours.

"But you've missed me, Pazzi," you used each other's names against each other. You couldn't say you didn't miss this light hearted teasing either, but it wasn't the same anymore.

Francesco didn't say anything more, he just contained a small smirk, while you both continued to look at each other. You smiled back, although you were far from happy. You knew you could never truly be his friend after what you'd done. You could never go back to just being a Pazzi spy. You could never return to a life you didn't even realise you'd been leaving behind.

"We better get out of this rain," you spoke after a second too many had passed. The clouds were falling down with more severity as the minutes ticked by.

"We best. I was just heading home," your hands fell as the moment ended, and Francesco's grin faded.

"I'll walk you," you offered, and you did just that. You spoke of trivial matters for the short walk, halting at the entrance, where you parted your ways. You dared not enter in the way the devil dared not enter a church.

As you turned to head back home, your eyes flickered towards the docks, as if your victim would be swimming along with no worries. You were relieved to see no such thing, and no trace of your crimes left. You would never curse the rain again. Your mind wandered as you walked, would Lorenzo have returned yet? Would he even notice your absence? Maybe he would, and feel relief that he didn't have to deal with you. You recognised that you were quickly becoming a bigger problem to him than you were an asset. You also recognised you had no real leverage with the Pazzi's over him anymore. Where had he even gone? Clarice had left separately. Where else would he go in such a hurry that he couldn't even tell you. If he were truly that busy why not just inform you rather than leave you waiting. You were glad you left when you did, humiliated that you even stayed that long in the first place.

A voice in the back of your mind was whispering her name. It made sense. What was the one place Lorenzo snuck off to? But he had only seen her last night? Unless you'd thought wrong. Maybe he did stay with you all night, and went to explain now. Your curiosity got the best of you and you switched your course, making your way towards Lucrezia's house in the heart of the city. You took shelter under roofs as you ignored your better sense, and continued on your path. Why did you even care if he was with her? Because he'd left you for her. Left you after you'd quite literally killed for him. That's why.

You reached her street, hiding around the corner of a building across from her home. You didn't risk getting any closer, still not feeling in the best shape. You stood there, the rain falling down all around you, questioning yourself every second you did. You kept telling yourself to just go home, warm up and recover from recent events but you just couldn't. You stayed, watching, it wasn't anything you weren't used to. You often had to wait hours on missions, but none that you'd been so invested in. It was difficult to let your mind wander to other things, your focus was unwavering for once.

Eventually, the door opened, and you watched as you had the first time as Lorenzo stepped out. He glanced upwards at the raindrops, quickly pulling his hood up, before making his way down the street, away from you. You don't know what else you were expecting. That first night on the rooftop you'd been waiting hopefully, before bragging your advantage to Lorenzo himself. But now you no longer felt you had the upper hand.

#daniel sharman #daniel sharman x reader #lorenzo de medici #lorenzo de medici x reader #medici fic #medici: masters of florence #medici: spymasters of florence #medici #francesco pazzi x reader #francesco x reader

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takaraphoenix · 4 years

Note

This may or may not be a touchy question (I guess it depends?), but how do you deal with hate with people who don't particularly like your work or the pairings you like? Because I've seen a fair amount of people stop creating content they want to make because of the backlash or hate they get simply for shipping something, so I do wonder... How do you do it? After all these years, how are you still standing, head held up high? – Much love! <3

I suppose a huge part in that is... personality? I mean, what type of person one is. Some people are very sensitive and negativity gets to them heavily.

Which, is ironic, because I am normally that type of person. I always overthink what other people may think of me and in real life I am easily deterred.

But something about the internet changes the dynamic for me.

If it’s in person? If someone looks me in the eye and criticizes the things I like? That has me fuming. But ain’t nothing more unpersonal than getting an anon and having this round fella with the sunglasses stare at you, or having a “guest” on AO3 comment something nasty.

Because they’re cowards. And the cowardice of the other party tells me that, so a certain degree, they themselves know they’re full of shit. Because if they were confident in what they’re saying, if they knew they were right with whatever they’re claiming, there’s no need to go anon. They could tell me “to my face” - as much as the internet allows that; by being logged in and starting a dialogue.

But someone who hides behind the grey round fella with the sunglasses to tell me I’m morally wrong? Makes me genuinely laugh. Because if I were, you had no reason to hide.

(At this point, I’d like to add, since you’re on anon too, that there’s different reasons for going on anon. Sometimes, it’s shyness. But if you think yourself morally superior to someone and want to ring the bell of shame behind them, you can’t hide behind anonymity. That’s different.)

I just really can’t take people seriously who hide in the shadows of anonymity to scream at me about how wrong I am. You’d do that with confidence if you knew you were right. But they’re wrong and full of shit. Because they are.

There is no “right” or “wrong” about taste. A ship ain’t only valid for being morally upstanding, pure, canon, whatever. And a person ain’t inherently vile for shipping something that’s unleathy, or toxic, or whatever buzzword they throw around.

Which is another part. I just... absolutely can not take anyone seriously who throws buzzwords around wildly and with no foundation, because they lack any common sense.

Yeah, they’re brothers and it’s incest, what do I care, they’re also fictional characters, I ain’t telling two real life brothers to bang and get married, what’s wrong with the people who can’t tell fiction apart from reality. That’s just pitiful.

I’ve also seen the other side of that. I’ve seen antis ship the exact thing that they’re judging, insulting and harrassing other shippers for. From incest to abuse apologism to just plain toxic canon dynamics. All the things they find a justification to harrass others about, but they ship things of that kind themselves. But their ships are ““different”“ from the ones they hate.

It all boils down to taste and it boils down to a bunch of morons who can’t grasp the concept of “taste” and the fact that... you can like something without it being pure and you can dislike something without it being every shade of morally corrupt.

They bend over backward to find justifications for why the ships they dislike are inherently bad, while they also bend over backward to justify why the exact same things they judge other ships for are actually wholesome and pure in the ships they like.

And at that point, I just genuinely feel bad for those people and am terrified for them. Because I am fully aware of what I ship. I know every deprived nook and cranny of my ships. I know the exact level of toxicity of the canon dynamics. I’m just also aware that they’re fictional characters. But the moment you start reaching to justify why abuse isn’t technically abuse, that’s when it becomes worrisome. And that’s what they do, to justify their own ships.

Now, I’m not gonna lie, this isn’t an attitude I always had and it’s not something I just woke up with one day.

I’ve been in fandom for 15 years now. I’ve seen a lot and I’ve dealt with a lot. I’ve seen when shipwars were primarily reserved to the canon straight love triangles. I’ve seen it devolve into “your ship isn’t valid the gays are getting in the way of the CANON STRAIGHTS”. I’ve seen the number of canon gays grow in media and how it affected these ship wars, invalidating ships where a canon gay ship was split up. And now this shit-show of antis.

My attitude grew out of seeing and experiencing a lot. I was lucky to be “raised” in a safe fandom environment, where the fandom olds took us youngsters under their wings and guided us, taught us how to improve our writing, helped us establish connections in a community.

And that last part, that’s important. Important in dealing with hate. Maybe the most important part, really. You have to find your community. Don’t let yourself be sucked into a circle of hate. Find the people who love the same things as you - the same show, the same characters, the same ships. Form friendships, find that community of positivity.

Fandom is what you make it. Even when other people try to make it something else, try to turn it into a hateful, gross place filled with harrassment and fear and moral policing. Regardless of how hard they try; your fandom is up to you.

Find the people who bring the positivity, who will come into your fics and leave reviews of love and positivity. And weed out the bad. Block them. Block the antis in your fandom, avoid them. Sometimes, preemtively going into an anti tag and just going on a block-spree can be really helpful already. You can block anons on tumblr too! Granted, only their ID, but at one point they’re gonna run out of devices to post anon hate from.

That much to my personal attitude toward it. Now to the act of actually dealing with it.

Many adivse, rightfully so, to ignore it. AO3 allows you to delete comments. On tumlr, you can just delete an anon and not answer it. Especially when you’re the type who is affected by it, not engaging is the best solution.

Personally, I like arguing with people. Everyone who ever talked to me might have noticed that. I live for a good argument. And I’m really bad at letting something just stand. So I usually argue back. I do that, because I am very bad at keeping my mouth shut, but also because it brings me a certain amount of glee to mock their nonsense.

I do it here. I have my “Dear Anonymous Shithead” tag where I address anon bullshit and anon hate from FFNet and AO3 - because FFNet doesn’t let you answer to anons. And then I delete the original comments on my fics, because I don’t like shitstains on my fics.

I call that approach meeting them on your own terms. Because they think they are doing something grand somehow by publicly leaving their vile comments on your fics. Delete them, take their voice away. Put it somewhere else to argue their nonsense on your own terms, mock them if you want, it’s fun. Fight your battle, the way you want to fight it - and that does include just deleting them and not engaging at all; that’s not running away, that’s self-care.

Like I said, my attitude’s not always been like that. It got me before too. Way, way back - and I really do mean way back, it’s been surely over five years ago - there was a tumblr account on here that spent an unreasonable amount of time openly hating on me. It’s the reason I avoided getting a tumblr, because back then I was not in a mental state to openly engage with such a hateful place.

And it’s still a hateful place; all those anti communities here. People proudly proclaiming they’re antis in their biography. People taking screenshots of other tumblrs or artists to mock them and make fun of them. The thing that changed isn’t tumblr, it’s me. I waited to engage with this place until I was ready to engage with it. I got my tumblr account when I already had the attitude of scoffing at anon hate.

I do think that only getting actively involved in a website when you are ready for it is another important part. The thing you mention in your ask, the people who stopped creating because of anon hate. It breaks my heart, it absolutely does, and I hate losing creators to it, but I do think that if those creators made that judgment call for themselves and their own mental health because they knew they couldn’t handle the harrassment, then they did the right thing. Even if they themselves may hate it, because they want to create. But sometimes, taking a step back is the right thing to do. I do hope that they will find it in themselves to overcome this and come back stronger, but constant harrassment and bullying can have severe consequences on a person and removing yourself from that kind of environment can sometimes be a last resort that needs to be taken.

I’ll also admit that I’ve been calculating what fandom to interact with to what degree ever since I got a tumblr account and started to see just how deep the hatred goes. Some things I might have created for, but I saw just how nasty the antis in the fandom were and... it wasn’t worth the fight for me.

Percy Jackson and Shadowhunters are my loves. My ride-or-die fandoms. I can, and will, fight for them. No one will chase me out of these fandoms, regardless of what kinds of insults and bullshit they throw at me. I’ve been here years longer than most of these newbie antis and I will be here long after they moved on to other things.

New things that I don’t have attachment to, I will weight if my level of interest in the thing will be worth engaging with the fandom nonsense with. Sometimes, it’s not, sometimes I make the judgment call for myself to step a way from a thing.

I admit, that happend with Teen Wolf too. Back when I did my last rewatch and enthusiastically engaged with it on here on tumblr, live posting about my rewatch and it... showed me startling, ugly sides of this fandom that I hadn’t known before, back when all my engagement had been to read fics and to write that one fic I had. That rewatch could have dragged me back into the deep end - but the brand of hate I encountered here... genuinely got to me. It really messed with my head, a lot, I’ve never been threatened before, I’ve never been insulted and constantly harrassed to such a degree. It was the first time I ever turned off anon on here, it put me into a sense of dread for just coming online for a while. I didn’t expect that, neither that it’d happen nor the extend of it or that it’d get to me like this. I still love Sterek to bits and pieces, it’ll be one of those ships I will always be attached to, but that experience with the bad side of the fandom made me recoil from getting involved with Teen Wolf again.

But in the Percy Jackson fandom? I’ve stood here for ten years now. I’ve gotten shit thrown at me about pretty much anything. I’ve also created over five hundred works for this fandom. I have received love and excitement in comments. I have received fanarts. I have received fanfiction to my fics. I’ve gotten fics dedicated to me by people who liked my work and wanted to write something nice for me. I’ve met one of my best friends and I’ve met my girlfriend in this fandom. Sure, I’ve been called names and been mocked, but I also know what I have.

I know I’m a damn good writer. I may not have much self-esteem, but what little self-esteem I have is located here, in the very thing they think they can attack. The thing is, I have no insecurities in this. This is the one area where you can’t attack me. And on top of that, I have that community of amazing people who love the same things as I do. I have the support, the friends, the shared hype. What do I care about some pitiful little fool hiding behind anonymity to whine about how wrong and gross I am? Their opinion weights nothing compared to that of the people who leave me anon love, who leave me squealy and excited comments.

To sum it all up:

Someone who has to hide behind anonymity is aware they don’t have the moral high ground.

Their definition of the “moral high ground” is so pitiful that it makes me feel bad for them.

I know the difference between fiction and reality and I pity the fools who don’t.

Find a positive fandom space for yourself and claim it.

Either delete anon hate, or meet it on your own terms.

Sometimes, I don’t. Sometimes, I lose and the hate does get to me.

You need to make the judgment call for yourself, if you can mentally handle a situation or not, and do what is best for you.

#About Me #Fandom Life #How To Handle Antis #Fandom Discourse #and how to handle that #Phoe Giving Advise #Anonymous

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cobalt-penguin · 4 years

Text

y’know what i’m still feeling annoyed and petty, plus i’m stuck inside and it’s storming out so why not type out a checklist of what everyone in TOW did to me.

since i am mean and manipulative, petty and pathetic, and so much more? why not bring up some old beef and give ya’ll something to eat.

Gansey: tried repeatedly to instigate drama -- if not actively break up -- my OC ships by encouraging -- through IC shenanigans -- cheating and lying. One of these happened while I was on vacation with my family and i still remember crying about it in a hotel bathroom because i thought one of my few ships in the RP was over and I hadn’t even been asked about it. This also included trying to get his OC Tomas to make IC/OOC (hey you can feign innocence when it’s in that dubiously OOC space, until its receptive in which case you can say it was IC the whole time!) at one of my ship partner’s OCs. Made repeated fat jokes at one of my fat characters (the same one they were clearly trying to get away from their partner...hmm...). Claimed I was always running to vague on my personal. Fair enough, I did, but they did the same thing. In poem form. Never answered my message about leaving the RP group because they felt ‘disrespected” by it. Repeatedly including untagged dubcon/noncon elements on the dashboard and triggering me. Lying to Ivy and me about having a full Overwatch party then trying to say “oh it just emptied you can join now”. hid this “FAR” idea from the rest of the RP community and then played coy when they got found out and asked about it by another anon (not me). Made fun of other RP groups in Tumblr tags then, when I asked them and their friends not to, was told “we’re a step above them.” Saying I was excluding them from things when I asked to play OW with them AND invited them to my horror RP group AND, only months beforehand, were inviting them to my Marvel RP??Trying to emotionally manipulate me through threatening to kill characters they had obviously grown tired of playing (probably because their major connections were to me and not their other friends) -- “haha i’m probably going to kill (my oc) idk but doesn’t that make you upset?? what will (your character) even do??” Engaging in nasty “”IC”” interactions with my character, basically telling me, through them, off, and being supported by the entire community in doing so. All of this really hurt me because I considered Gansey a friend and a major inspiration at one point in my life. Someone I non-jokingly looked up to and trusted. I feel like Gansey left TAR, our first RP group, because of how controlling, self-interested, petty, and mean-spirited the admins there were. That they were limiting other people’s creativity while building up their own narrative -- everyone else just there to be their audience. But you and Roman literally became Usa and Jen. Congrats. You lived long enough to become everything you’d rebelled against. And yes Gansey -- I saw all of your messages to everyone. Emotionally manipulating others -- telling them how terrible you are you don’t deserve their friendship, but would like to -- isn’t an apology. Its a tactic. Do better in the future. And despite me “blocking” you? There were a hundred ways to still reach out to me if that was what you really wanted. But let’s be real. It wasn’t. That was part of your gambit to. Goodbye.

Rosie: asked literally EVERYONE about what had happened with the ““TOW explosion”” except me. never even asked my side of the story. Rosie I don’t even get because the other admins treated her like shit -- making her do all the coding and technical components for the entire RP -- but she was still defending them to the end. Okay. And then to treat Shelly like utter SHIT even though Reyne was running her passive-aggressive mouth off about people who couldn't even defend themselves? Amazing. Yeah, she’s the bully. Your perspective was so twitested by your biases that you were ready to victim blame Shelly just because Reyne had to run at the sight of someone actually throwing their bulltshit back at them.

Reyne: Like Gansey, frequently indulged in cheating/cucking scnearios for fun -- again, including my own characters without asking or telling me. Don’t think Reyne ever apologized for this, IC or OOC. Dropped ships with me repeatedly -- leaving the group even -- without a word. Passive-aggressive to the max. Made a ship with Gansey just to play out her Teen Wolf OTP -- something that will never not be funny to me, when she called Gansey’s “character” Stiles. Smooth.

Frankii: Repeatedly dropped me and my characters from plots. Gave me one of the most hurtful comments of my RP community by essentially being like “maybe if your plots and characters weren’t so confusing than more people would want to RP with you.” Invited to join my horror RP group and never made a character. also told me this after Gansey wrote that enormous callout about me, that Roman piggybacked on while the getting was good: “also I'm not here to advocate on behalf of my friend but I really don't think Gansey was trying to be rude last night, they can come off a certain way when they're stressed.” COOL. The rest of Frankii’s message I really appreciated, at the time, but, surprise surprise, then despite us being “cool” they never spoke to me again.

Laura: I actually really liked Laura tbh but I guess she didn’t feel the same. Some of our interactions back in TAR were actually some of my favorites. I invited her to join my horror RP group and she never made a character. When I asked about this -- and if she needed any help making someone or wanted to leave -- she said she was working on it. Basically stonewalled me over time. Honestly though? Not a lot to say I actually think Laura is a good writer and pretty cool. Its just obvious who her friends were and I, stupidly, thought I was included in that.

Anna: Actually I really liked Anna too tbh but I guess I vastly overestimated our friendship? It happens. Dropped me from one of her plots -- after talking to me about including me in one of hers because she felt “obligated” basically, from being featured in my own -- without mentioning why or talking to me about it. Invited to join new RP -- refused (not mad about this, just making note of it). Refused to follow my new account when I lost my old one because “lol they’re such a furry”.

Roman: lmao where to even start. Roman was condescending and elitist literally from the beginning of TAR. barely acknowledged my existence until he had to.I started a plot with an open invitation to the entire RP group, with a deadline so I could start writing. Roman waits until its over and complains that they were left out. I include him anyway. Roman mocks the fact that I ask to tag or outright remove aphrodisiac dust -- because I don’t like seeing untagged dubcon/noncon on my dashboard, it upsets me a lot -- and then goes on a whole thread about it after I go to bed and can’t even defend myself. Apparently told his friends not to invite me to things because he doesn’t like me??? And then he has the nerve to be like communication is key and you can come talk anytime??? While having me on their public “friends” list with a description about me on his blog??? omfg...I literally can’t. To this day. Actually let this image speak for itself.

Everything Else: The repeated, childish treatment of strippers as immoral (””your character is stripping?? my character is so upset and is going to protect them!!”). The implication that characters who were stripping were also automatically sex workers. The continued references to my character, who owned this establishment, as being sleazy and manipulative. Also, honestly, what was with ya’ll adopting some random teenager into your OW groups? That was weird af. And then bringing some random person into TOW without asking anyone and trying to pull rank like “we’re the admin team and we can do whatever we want”. and shit-talking Meg and me in your “open forum” when all we wanted to do was get on with out lives. Like? Who cares? Ya’ll didn’t want me, at least, there anyway, clearly. You don’t get to exclude me then talk about how disrespectful and “wrong” the way I left was..........

Me: I didn’t do everything perfectly either. I know I could be passive-aggressive. I could be self-interested. I could make bitter comments. I dealt with feeling angry and upset by making memes -- which, I’m gonna be honest, I get why ya’ll were upset but I don’t regret either. I had spent so long in TAR/TOW with nobody interested in my characters and plots -- originally because I didn’t vid and played furries but, later, well.........see above -- that I did focus on my own narrative. I wasn’t invited to plots. I didn’t have sexy vampires and boy band werewolves. I played weird characters that didn’t fit the common niche of the cast of an angst and hookup filled supernatural YA novel. Maybe my plots were confusing but, honestly? It was because they were always going to be in the background. I wasn’t disinterested in anyone’s stories. I had just been left out of them for so long -- having to beg to even be a mention in a single mention -- that I had to make my own. I wasn’t there to just be an audience member to be aghast by Roman’s newest quirky boy or Gansey’s newest possessed twink. I was a writer. A member of the community. And, at the time? I thought a friend. Someone who deserved appreciation and respect.

I know who my true friends are now. We did, ironically, exactly what you did -- we have out own group, our own setting, our own community.

And I still live with the mean and manipulative things YALL said everyday. Even as an adult -- even with everything I’ve accomplished and am so proud of -- I’m still traumatized by being treated so poorly -- for years -- and not even realizing it. Something I’m still working on -- one of the many reasons I still have trust issues to this day. Congrats. That’s your legacy on me. aNYWAY

byeeeeeee

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mando-chicken · 4 years

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The Bad Batch & Their Daemons | Guns n Golden Dust

Y’all I’m back on my Star Wars bullshit again and I’ve decided to pick up my old Star Wars/His Dark Materials AU now that I’ve got some new characters to play with! I was planning on posting a short introductory fic to kinda re-introduce people to this universe (since it’s been years since I last touched it), but I got a bit excited with this new season 0-0′

For those who don’t know much about daemons or His Dark Materials, a daemon is, basically, a physical manifestation of someone’s soul that takes the form of an animal that represents their inner personality and mind. I’ll expand on the universe a bit more in later posts and fics, but here’s a general idea for the Bad Batch and their daemons.

I had to put this under a read more because omg this got really long really fast. Feel free to add comments or your thoughts! Guns n Golden Dust will be the tag for all SW daemon content I post.

First up we have Wrecker and his daemon Tracinya (trah-SHEE-nah) meaning Flame.

When she settles she takes the form of a large Tooka with a gorgeous cream coat and warm, orange eyes. She’s far from what most would think of when looking at the large, boisterous clone, but she’s a perfect example of the softer side he doesn’t often show.

She’s friendly around the other members of the Bad Batch, but that certainly isn’t to say that she’s by any means soft. She can be just as fierce as her counterpart (I mean cat scratches are nasty!).

To those they don’t know she can be a little standoff-ish thanks to the many times she’s seen people insult Wrecker or grow impatient with his excitable nature. While she doesn’t usually speak up in the moment, she’s a crafty girl and isn’t above ‘accidentally’ breaking important things or inconveniencing people in the pettiest ways imaginable as her way of payback.

She enjoys teasing the other members of the group by annoying them with typical misbehaving cat behaviour, such as knocking Crosshair’s weapons off the armoury shelves or lying on Tech’s datapad when he’s trying to type.

She likes to sit on Wrecker’s shoulder because it makes her feel tall and keeps her close to him physically at the same time.

Next, we have Crosshair and his girl Ca’tra (KAH-tra) meaning Night Sky. She’s a powerful and graceful Bonegnawer with feathers of a vibrant golden colour - a splash of crimson across her chest and tail feathers that match her eyes.

While most Bonegnawers have a wingspan of 8-10 meters in length, Ca’tra measures quite small at only 3 meters, but this is purely her decision to remain a more manageable size.

Together they’re quite the intimidating duo, and Ca’tra derives a certain amount of pleasure from leering down at the smaller daemons of other clones and GAR members and watching them try their best to not look anxious in her presence.

It certainly doesn’t help that she likes to openly joke about how tasty all the other animals look while dragging her tongue across the large teeth jutting from her beak.

Bonegnawers can see twice the distance of a regular human and are able to fly in almost complete silence. This makes her a perfect companion for the sniper, able to scope out places even he can’t see, especially with her powerful night vision.

Ca’tra is actually able to partially separate from Crosshair, allowing her to stray as far from his side as she desires while causing neither of them any pain. This is, of course, very unnatural for a daemon and their counterpart and is enough to terrify most people of them.

Ca’tra and Crosshair dislike others touching her, unlike many other clones who are perfectly okay with brothers interacting with their other halves, but they are occasionally willing to allow their fellow group members to stroke her feathers every now and then when they’re both in a fairly placid mood.

Tech’s daemon is named Kar’tayl (kar-TILE) meaning Awareness or Knowledge. He’s a small Nudj, a lizard native to Dagobah, with light grey scales and pupilless black eyes.

He is surprisingly a male daemon - going against the norm and upsetting the Kaminoans greatly - but he’s small enough to remain largely out of sight and therefore out of mind.

Despite his small stature, he’s quite a feisty little thing. He doesn’t like to be in the spotlight and isn’t exactly a great fighter, but he’s clever and witty and knows how to curse people out in multiple languages.

With friends and the Bad Batch, however, Kar’tayl is perhaps the friendliest daemon one will ever meet. He gets excited over learning new facts about pretty much anything and will eagerly join in Tech’s babbling over a certain topic, firing out information faster than anyone can ever hope to process.

One of his favourite places to nap is on top of Wrecker’s daemon Tracinya - she’s warm and comfortable to sleep on - the perfect place to recharge after running out of steam and inevitably crashing.

Kar’tayl often helps Tech with rewiring panels and accessing any areas that only the small lizard can reach.

He gets anxious when not physically attached to Tech or one of their group members due to regular threats from the Kaminoans. It isn’t uncommon for ‘defective’ clones and daemons to be forcibly separated from one another, completely severing their connection, and Kar’tayl still fears being separated from Tech.

Finally, we have Hunter’s daemon Anade (ah-NAH-day).

Anade never ends up choosing a settled form and is able to shift throughout the entirety of her life. Many clones die too young for their daemons to truly settle and so, for the most part, no one notices this.

While Hunter is able to sense electromagnetic fields, Anade had the strange ability to sense dust (a type of conscious elementary particle similar to the force) around them and often allowed it to guide her, though at the time did not know what exactly it was she was sensing.

Anade is essentially a walking Alethiometer, able to sense answers to certain questions. She tells no one but Hunter of this ability, worried they would be outcast even further.

For the most part she’s a very cool, calm and collected daemon, and takes most things seriously, but she’s also known to have a sense of humour and enjoys spending time playing with her fellow daemons within the Bad Batch.

Usually, she favours the forms of large predators when in battle as it allows her to get up close and personal with the enemy they’re fighting, but in private she may tone down her forms to be a little more approachable, depending on their company.

She’s known to be very protective of the other daemons and members of their squad. After difficult missions, she tends to gather the other three daemons of their group together and will curl around them, satisfied with the knowledge that they’re all safe. It’s one of the few times Crosshair’s daemon, Ca’tra, will allow herself to be embraced in such a way.

#star wars #the clone wars #swtcw #swtcw season 7 #bad batch #the bad batch #wrecker #crosshair #tech #hunter #daemons #his dark materials #dust #au #guns n golden dust

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crescentmoon223 · 4 years

Note

Fanfiction Writer Asks - 8, 9 (Two Worlds Collide), 12, 17, 20, 21, 33, 34, 36, 38, 44, 45, 47 (“Pull Me Closer”), 49 & 50 🤔☺️🌸

8) Where do you take your inspiration from?

Mostly from the shows/characters themselves. I rewatch a lot of relevant episodes while I’m writing, although at this point, I do have a lot of my own headcanons when it comes to Stella/Scully that I also draw on when I’m writing them.

9) In your xxx fic, what’s your favourite scene that you wrote? (Two Worlds Collide)

Oh, that’s really hard! I think maybe the scene where they arrive in Wyoming, and Stella is so grumpy about having to camp in the woods and feeling so uncomfortable about being there for Scully’s reunion with Will (is it bad if I admit that I cracked myself up writing grumpy-in-the-woods Stella?) She’s so out of her element and just wants to be there for Scully and when Scully surprises her with the lake so she can swim, Stella realizes she’s in love.

12) Who is your favourite character to write for? Why?

It has to be Stella. She’s so challenging to write, because she’s so complex, but I just love getting inside her head (and watching her lose all her inhibitions with a certain redhead.)

17) Post a line from a WIP that you’re working on.

“Today was everything,” Scully whispered, back arching so that her hips pressed against Stella’s.

“And tonight will be everything else.”

20) Are there any stories that you wished you’d ended differently?

Mmmm, no, not really (but I’ve only published 8!)

21) Tell me about another writer(s) who you admire? What is it about them that you admire?

Oh my gosh, so many! I feel inspired every time I see a new fic cross my dash. I’m still fairly new to the world of fan fiction, and I just find it endlessly inspiring the way writers bring out all these nuanced details in the characters that were never fully explored in the show, or the way they can come up with an ingenious idea off of a prompt. Everyone has their own style, and their own headcanons, and brings their own spin on things, and I just love it all. I feel like it’s given me a whole new appreciation for my favorite shows and characters.

I don’t want to start naming names, because I’m certain to forget someone!

33) What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten?

Any time someone tells me they’ve reread one of my fics, that feels like the ultimate compliment. But honestly, I get super thrilled about every comment I receive! ❤️

34) What’s the harshest criticism you’ve gotten?

I haven’t gotten much criticism on my fan fiction, and it’s one of the things I love most about writing it. Everyone is so lovely and supportive! I’m an author in my real life, and let me tell you, those readers can be harsh. I’ve gotten some really nasty, hurtful emails, which makes me even more thankful for fanfic readers. You guys are truly THE BEST.

36) Can you give us a spoiler for one of your WIP’s?

Scully saying “yes, ma’am,” while Stella fucks her in uniform.

38) If you could collab with any other writer on here, who would it be? (Perhaps this question will inspire some collabs!) If you’re shy, don’t tag the blog, just name it.

Gah! I honestly have no idea. I’ve never written with anyone before, and I’m always baffled by the process, but I would be totally open to trying if anyone ever asked me.

44) What is the last line you wrote?

Stella smiled, burying her face in the crimson depths of Scully’s hair. “I won’t forget.”

45) What spurs you on during the writing process?

I set deadlines for myself, even for fic. It helps me to stay on task.

47) Here’s a fic title - insert a made up title. What would this story be about? (”Pull Me Closer”)

Scully comforts Stella on the anniversary of her father’s death.

49) Can you remember the first fic you read? What was it about?

I think the very first one was a TXF fic set post-Field Trip. Mulder and Scully were still under the influence of the mushrooms, and they could read each other’s minds, thus revealing secret feelings.

50) If you could write only angst, fluff or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?

Noooooo, it’s an impossible choice haha! If I had to choose, I guess fluff, because they deserve it, but no...I can’t choose haha!

Phew - this was a lot! Thanks so much for the asks! 🥰

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franklyshipping · 5 years

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Love Never Gives Up On You ~ A Markiplier and Jacksepticeye Ego Fanfic

THIS IS A HECKIN WONDERUL ANON PROMPT THAT I'M VERY EXCITED TO WRITE! WARNING: THIS STARTS OFF WITH SOME ANGST REGARDING TOXIC AND UPSETTING RELATIONSHIPS, SO DON'T READ ON IF YOU FEEL THAT THOSE THEMES MIGHT AFFECT YOU! PRIORITISE YOUR OWN HEALTH PLEASE! Okey dokey LET'S DO IT!

TAGGING: @silvlee-shepherd and @chase-brodlee

The only real sound in the room was laboured, rasping breathing. The only movement was that of a half-curled body, rocking back and forth and back and forth, never stopping. This is why the worst thing you can do if you're feeling even a little bit not good, is stew in your own thoughts. That's what Chase Brody was doing and let me tell you, he was NOT having a good time inside his own head right now.

It was official, he and Stacy were no longer married. The divorce had been finalised and all was said and done, Chase was in a stable living space with all the Septics too....but he honestly couldn't have felt worse about the situation. Up until right now, he'd never actually imagined what it would be like not being with Stacy anymore. He felt so empty....he even missed the fighting....because then at the very least she was talking to him. Most of all though, he missed his kids. His beautiful, innocent, smart kids who had none of their father's sadness or their mother's anger, they were just all perfect. Chase whimpered into his hands....he just wanted things to be back like they were, he just wanted his famil-'

'JACKIE-BOOOOYYY-o-oh my! O-Oh Mr Brody I-I am so sorry!'

Chase jumped and hurried to wipe his face when his door was opened at speed, by none other than Silver Shepherd himself, who evidently was looking for the heroic septic. Silver wrung his huge gloved hands awkwardly, since at the moment to him it just looked like he'd severely startled Chase. Chase averted his eyes, every thought in his head was wishing Silver out of the room.

'J-Jackie's in the gym, y-you'll find him th-there....'

Chase's teeth were gritted as he stammered, hoping he could hide his shit emotions for just a few more seconds, long enough for Silver to accept his words and just get out. However, whatever you might think of Silver Shepherd, if he sees even the slightest hint of distress or discontent he will fight it until it's not even atoms. Silver saw Chase's tension, his watery eyes, his blotchy tear-stained cheeks. Jackie-Boy Man could wait.

'Hey ah....are you alright? You don't look...well....'

Silver tensed when Chase let out a dry, joyless laugh before replying lowly.

'Wow, thanks, you r-reeeeally know how to s-sweet talk a guy huh?'

Silver nibbled his bottom lip nervously, before shutting Chase's bedroom door behind him and tentatively stepping further into the room, looking down at Chase as he spoke softly.

'L-Look uhm....if it's worth anything, I-I'm quite an unnoticeable person. B-By that I mean, if you were to tell me things, the odds of someone asking me about you is basically impossible...I'd never repeat anything you told me....'

Silver was getting closer to Chase as he spoke, and eventually decided to sit next to Chase on the carpeted floor. Now, Chase may not have been looking at Silver, but I can assure you that he was listening. With all the chaotic thoughts swirling around in Chase's head, the one thing he needed was just plain logic. And it was logic and honesty that Silver was offering him.

'I g-....guess that m-makes sense.'

As Chase sniffed and wiped his face, Silver decided to keep quiet. He knew that he needed to be careful and tactful with this situation of delicacy, and to do that he had to allow Chase to gather his thoughts at his own pace and without pressure. It didn't matter that Chase wasn't looking at him, what DID matter....was the fact that he talked.

'I-I've ah....just gotten divorced, from the person who a-always put me down and....made me feel like everything I ever d-did was wrong and never good enough....'

Silver's expression softened under his mask because, for reasons that will be addressed later, Silver knew before Chase even said it...that there was a but coming.

'But it....despite what everyone is saying, it just feels l-like I've made the biggest mistake imaginable. Y-Y'know she did love me! She always said I w-was cute a-and quirky! We were good together, and I was good at making her laugh and smile and she always looked happy when one of my trick-shot vids got loads of views, sh-she was proud of me!'

Chase was resolute as he wiped his eyes, and yet his shaky voice persisted. Silver felt a pit in his stomach grow as he saw it....as he saw Chase trying to defend her.

'I-I mean y'know, granted, i-it couldn't last I mean this is the real world! I could never actually s-support her off all of that, we had to prioritise, f-for family's sake! It was always just a stupid hobbie, I-I had to grow out of it eventually! A-And when the kids came along y'know, changes had to be made. I c-couldn't be a-around them dressed like a teenage thug, I had to be an example to them! S-Stacy was so good y'know, planning what we all ate s-so I never had to think about it, k-keeping track of my weight s-so I didn't risk my health around the kids....'

Chase said much more besides this, how even though Stacy would be stern, making sure his sugar intake was monitored, keeping track of his phone calls so the bill could be managed, always having the location on his phone turned on wherever he went so she always knew where he was in case of emergencies. And of course, making sure she always supervised if any of his septic family visited. They were weird she said, she had to make sure the kids were safe she said. Of course, with how much Chase loved Stacy, whatever she said he went along with...with all of his heart. As Chase talked, Silver felt sick. Sick that he wasn't closer to Chase so that he could fix all of this, but by God he was going to help in some way even if it killed him.

'....b-but I-I know all the things I did wrong now! I-I shouldn't have over-reacted and left I mean, sh-she was just always trying to look out for me and the kids and m-maybe if I can just see her again we coul-'

'Chase.....I-I'm sorry, may I say something? Is that okay?'

Chase swallowed, shakily exhaling at Silver's interjection as he glanced at the hero. Chase laced his fingers together and nodded, mainly because his mouth was so dry that it felt like it was going to light up on fire at any second. Silver exhaled through his nose as he thought for a few seconds....before making a decision. First, he slipped off his oversized gloves, setting them aside, before he pulled off the mask part of his costume. Once that was set aside, he smiled gently to Chase.

'You uh....y-you've just told me a-a lot about yourself, that takes a lot of strength, i-if that doesn't sound too cheesy. Uhm, w-with your permission, can I tell you a little about me? Just so it's more even, yeah?'

Through his slightly blurred vision, Chase looked over Silver's face. He was an Iplier alright, and Mark's face was a trusting one....but something about Silver's just had this innocence and....strange tranquility that made Chase want to focus. Another step away from the chaos.

'....yeah....a-alright.'

Silver smiles at Chase, before taking a few seconds to collect himself. This was going to be a raw conversation.

'I uh....I-I had a girlfriend once. She was funny, clever, a-and just more than I thought I deserved in a person....but uhm....she would say things, make comments about things....'

Silver fiddled with his fingers as he spoke, and Chase couldn't help but listen to him. When Silver trailed off, Chase sat up a little straighter, looking the hero up and down.

'What....what things d-did she comment on?'

Silver smiled dryly as he replied.

'At first, she said I was too fat, and that I was an idiot.'

'That's nasty-'

Chase's breath hitched in his throat as the words came out of his mouth, out of instinct. Because that's what happens when you see something bad happening to someone that isn't you....everyone's always faster to fight back when it's someone else. Chase bowed his head a tad, but Silver's smile was a little wider as he softly nodded.

'Yes....yes it was. It was nasty, it was cruel bullying, and it bordered on verbal abuse with how many times she reminded me of my weight and lack of brain cells....'

Silver let out a light, shaky sigh as he remembered it all, rubbing the back of his neck as he continued.

'But ah....well, I always thought she was looking out for me, she wanted me healthy and all that. Plus, she always told me that i-if I was really meant to be a superhero there were....certain things I had to be. I had to have strength, I had to hone my look for the public and....well, that was the basic gist of it all. I even ended up creating an ego of myself with a six pack of abs and the charisma of a book character....and she chose him over me.'

Silver never stopped smiling his dry smile as he said his piece. Chase swallowed as Silver then looked at him, his voice softening as he asked.

'What do you think? About all those things she said, all those things she told me I had to do?'

Chase sniffed harshly, feeling a pit develop in his stomach, since he was almost reeling from everything Silver had told him. Chase looked up a the hero as he replied, shakily, but with a certainty that made Silver feel that he was doing some good here.

'Nasty....sh-she was nasty to you, you shouldn't have had to change for her....'

Silver perked up at Chase's words, tentatively placing a hand on Chase's shoulder as he whispered.

'....that last bit....can you say it again for me?'

Chase was starting to feel new tears springing to his eyes. He knew where this was going, he knew what Silver was getting at....but thankfully, deep down, Chase wanted to get at it too.

'....you sh-shouldn't have had to change for her.'

Silver squeezed Chase's shoulder reassuringly, because he could see in Chase's eyes that it wasn't just Silver he was saying this for. There was a little silence between them now, where Silver watched and waited, and Chase repeated that phrase. Over and over again in his head until he had them blaring in neon lights in the front of his brain.

'H-How....uhm....'

Silver smiled reassuringly as Chase cleared his throat and moistened his lips, before muttering.

'How d-did you....get away from it?'

As Chase and Silver's eyes met, Silver smiled his biggest smile so far.

'My family. Do you know how many of them there are? I didn't....until they found out what I was going through, and then I got love and support from every single one of them.'

Chase let out a light laugh through his nose at the thought of about thirty people aggressively providing Silver with their support....and he smiled at the thought of how his brothers would probably be even more intense and wildly loving if he asked for their help.

'I....Ihi can kinda imagine that....'

Silver giggled, nudging Chase's shoulder with his as he replied.

'Oh yeah? I bet even one of mine could be wilder than all of yours put together, have you met Wilford Warfstache?'

Now, Chase could take things like insults and nastiness....but you question the wild energy of his brothers and you good sir have a storm coming. Chase felt himself smiling and playfully glaring at Silver's smug, challenging smile and thinking....game on.

'Have you met Antisepticeye? Dude he's feral!'

Silver spluttered and burst into giggles, but he was still determined to defend the absolutely crazy honour of his Iplier family.

'Yeheah well King LITERALLY lihives in a tree!'

Chase was giggling too now....things from earlier were not forgotten, they were just being marvellously overshadowed by all the good that Chase's true loved ones had to offer. Chase folded his arms resolutely as he pursed his lips at Silver, speaking matter-of-factly.

'Well Marvin spits at people who touch his crispy cereal, and Robbie communicates with nibbles instead of words!'

Silver sat up straighter, raising his brow and folding his own arms playfully.

'Well Bim is way more of a nibbler than Robbie is! H-He's obsessed with p-people with soft tummies....'

Chase grinned at that as he listened to Silver stammer and avert his eyes....and Chase just couldn't help himself. He poked Silver's spandex covered belly with a teasy grin.

'Awww does he target yooou? Poor little Silveeer!'

Silver's eyes widened as he squeaked and covered his tummy, his eyes widening with embarrassment. Obviously he was overjoyed at Chase being so playful, but damn he already got targeted for tickles nearly every day at home and he was NOT going to let it happen now! He narrowed his eyes at Chase.

'....you shouldn't have done that.'

Chase grinned, looking Silver up and down curiously as he saw the hero's pink cheeks and narrowed eyes.

'Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?'

Silver smirked then, a smirk that you wouldn't fathom a superhero wearing, but I can tell you that Silver wore it scarily well. So much so that it made Chase gulp, especially when Silver leant closer and replied with a giggle.

'Ohhh I think you already knooow....'

Chase's eyes widened, and he let out quite a prompt squeak when Silver grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him into his chest, trapping him in a giggly hug.

'I looove cuddles, don't you?'

Silver had affectionately buried his face into the crook of Chase's neck, grinning as Chase giggled and struggled and became the far blushier one out of the two of them.

'N-Noho w-wahait c-c'mon I-Ihi ohonly pohoked you!'

Silver chuckled into Chase's neck, sending tickly vibrations down the man's spine as the hero kept his arms wrapped around Chase's torso. He was trapped, and all Silver's for the tickling, so Silver let the nuzzling begin as he purred.

'Ohhh but that was all it took Chase....that was all it took to bring forth my tickly vengeance!'

Silver growled dramatically as he nuzzled into the soft, sensitive skin that Chase had to offer as said man attempted to scrunch up and fight back. Emphasis on attempted. No matter how hard he pushed, Silver's hold on him remained strong, and with his face buried deep into the crook of Chase's neck....there was no way to block it now.

'N-Nohohoho stahahappihit stahahap! Ihihi'll g-gehehet yohou bahack!'

Chase spluttered amidst his mirth, attempting to fight back with his words since he knew Silver's strength surpassed his by a mile. His little threat merely made Silver giggle, before he developed a devious little thought.

'....are you threatening a superhero?'

Chase wriggled, getting chills down his spine at Silver's lowered tone. He got even more chills when he felt Silver smirk into his neck and growl.

'Because if that's the case....then that would make you a villain that I must vanquish!'

As soon as Chase heard Silver's words, his eyes widened and he started to formulate a reply saying that Silver absolutely did not need to vanquish him and that it was all a big misunderstanding. However, Silver didn't give him the chance to wiggle out of what he had planned, in any regard. Silver smirked and let his hands slip down to Chase's fleshy sides where he could attack them with the most evil squeezy tickles you have ever seen.

'NOHOHO NOHOHOHO PLEHEHEHEASE!!'

Chase threw his head back with his hysterical giggles before trying to curl up his upper body, but Silver had the talent of being a very dextrous fellow. He was rather adept at tickling you see....well, how else was he supposed to interrogate his regular villains, he couldn't very well HURT people! So Silver's torture method of choice was tickling, and as Chase was now realising, Silver very much made it into a torture.

'Beg all you want but I will NOT stand for villainy, no sir! And if that means tickling villains like you into submission then by heck I'll do it!'

Silver heroically spoke with his chest puffed out, his resolute fingers wiggling into and scratching Chase's sides non-stop. Chase tried to push his hands away, but every time he moved or shifted he just felt like he was exposing himself more, he was caught between wanted to attack and wanting to defend himself! Being caught in the middle like this meant he could do neither, all he could do was scrunch his red face up with flustered mirth.

'IHIHI'M NAHAHAT AHA VIHIHILLAIN!!'

Silver raised an eyebrow at that, letting his tickling fingers sneak under Chase's t-shirt to target his bare sides as he mused.

'Oh? Then why, pray tell, would you threaten a superhero such as myself?'

Chase shook his head as he squealed, kicking out with ticklish desperation as he cried out VERY preciously.

'IHIHI DIHIDN'T MEHEHEAN IHIT!!'

Silver grinned, fighting hard to hide how giddy he felt at having such a cutie at the mercy of his tickling. Chase was so cute in the way his face scrunched up when he was embarrassed, and how as time went on his struggling got weaker and weaker, which made it easy for Silver to keep on tickling and teasing to his villaino-HEROIC heart's content.

'Hmmm, how do I know you're not just saying that to get me to stop tickling you?'

Chase gasped as his giggles softened a little, since Silver had slowed his tickling so only his fingertips traced Chase's sides rather than wiggling deep into the flesh. Chase gulped and shivered, hurrying to stammer in a way that he hoped would sound believable because my goodness the tickling was breaking him.

'N-Noho I-I-I'm ahan h-honest person I-I'm t-tehelling the truth!'

Chase exclaimed with a whimper, trying to crane his head round to try and see if Silver was thinking about being merciful. Granted, Silver did think about it...however, there was something in his way that was preventing him from providing mercy. Amidst the tickly kerfuffle, Chase's t-shirt had ridden up and exposed Chase's stunning, ticklish-looking stomach. Silver couldn't resist. He leant in close to Chase's ear, and grinned with shining eyes as he whispered.

'Sorry....but I don't think I believe you just yet!'

Chase....absolutely....shrieked. Not only had Silver had the evil idea of blowing a raspberry into the crook of Chase's neck, but all ten of his devilish fingers had set about poking and scribbling all over Chase's stomach.

'AAHHH NOHOHO NOHO FAHAHAHACK!!!'

Silver gasped dramatically, scribbling harder as Chase writhed about hysterically; I mean, if that wasn't a villain's vocabulary then he didn't know what was!

'You rude little villain! Oh yes, I think some more laughter should wash that rudeness out of your mouth!'

Chase laughed and laughed for sure, arching his back as his limbs flailed about recklessly. His face was crimson and his eyes were filled with tears of mirth...even through the madness of the tickling Chase was still having thoughts. Flustering thoughts of his family, how Schneeple always reprimanded him about his cheeky mouth, how Anti and Jackie would gang tickle him until he wept with joy and nothing else....how they'd all make him just feel happiness, and nothing else.

'IHIHIHI'M SAHAHARRY SIHIHIHILVEHER EHEHEHEE PLEHEHEEEEASE!!!'

Chases laughter was flitting between different shrill pitches as Chase thrashed and weakly tugged at Silver's fingers. Silver kept up the tickling though, giving Chase's lower tummy a good hearty scratch as he mused with a grin.

'You've got a seriously tickly tummy haven't you? Does that tickle Chase, hmm? Does it tickle bad?'

Silver almost started to sound like Wilford fricking Warfstache with how much he was cooing, and that just pushed Chase over the edge of flusteredness. He was shrieking and bucking from the scratching and teasing, it was all he was thinking about, anything else that might have been in his mind before had been seriously overshadowed.

'YEHEHEHES YEHEHES!!! PLEHEHEASE NOHO MOHOHOOORE!!!'

Chase whined through his desperate laughter, feeling achy already from the force of his own laughter, and thankfully Silver heeded his sweet begs. Silver's fingers drew away from Chase's tummy, making the man gasp and hug his abdomen as his residual giggles made him titter adorably. Silver kept hugging him though, Silver's hugs were inescapable.

'Ahalright, alright no more....for now at least.'

Silver snorted and giggled when Chase loudly whined into his shoulder....before his whines swiftly turned into little huffs and snores. Silver grinned and rooted around for his phone, before throwing out a text to his heroic septic companion saying that their planned mission for today was going to lean more towards snuggling rather than the scaling of buildings.

WOOOO HOPE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS FICCY LEMME KNOW IF YA DO WOOOOO LUV YOUS XX

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volturialice · 4 years

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Hey! How are you? How did you end up having a blog here? And how did you manage to get so many followers? I mean I'm pretty sure you have hundreds of followers... Anyway, thank you for your time!

I’m good, thanks! and that’s an excellent question! I ask myself the same things every day tbh.

how did I end up having a blog here: in fall 2018, ads for the twilight 10th anniversary showings in theaters prompted me to check whether there was an active twilight fandom on tumblr. “oh, that’s cool,” I thought upon discovering it, “maybe I’ll lurk this a bit.” I had no intention of making my own blog. then I was scavenging the Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale tag on ao3 and came across shannon’s magnum opus and just HAD to make memes about it!! I needed to! and for that I needed a blog! so I made one.

how did I manage to get so many followers: I think a lot of factors went into this. #1 is timing. I showed up right at PEAK renaissance, when this hellsite was flooded with nostalgic people rediscovering twilight. I gained about 500 followers between nov 2018-jan 2019 just by reblogging shitposts/edits and occasionally posting my own observations/takes/whatever—which I think was true for most people posting at that time. everyone was starving for content and following each other like CRAZY.

then in jan/feb/march 2019 a bunch of things happened almost at once:

I tried my hand at making some name edits

I opened up fic prompts

the fandom exploded into a nasty round of Ace Discourse. I was fairly outspoken about being ace myself and (once I had finished blocking a dozen or so people) tried to signal boost as many aroace-positive blogs as I could—with the result that I was signal boosted in turn by some pretty big blogs.

and that’s right when this blog really took off. kind of crazy, because I’m 99% certain I lost followers due to my stance on aroace inclusion—but my count was rising so fast by then that if I did, I didn’t notice. it’s hard to attribute the sudden influx of followers to any one of the three things above, but I think it was kind of a case of the planets aligning so that suddenly I was getting reblogged a lot by tons of different people for a bunch of different reasons. and then, of course, the more followers you have, the more you get reblogged, etc etc, until you just…have a lot of followers.

I also had several shitposts last year get up to 1k+ notes (starting with this one,) which isn’t exactly something you can control but it def made that follower count skyrocket, and by the end of 2019:

started from the bottom now we’re here. actually that’s a lie I’ve since blown way past this but it’s the aesthetic that counts.

but yeah. it’s tough to come up with a 1:1 explanation, but there’s a lot of little stuff you can do to gain followers! it just so happened to be stuff I was doing anyway because it’s fun and I really like interacting with the twilight renaissance community ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. y’all the goat.

G’s tips for gaining followers:

make sure you’re using tags! this one feels kind of obvious, but has to be stated, since tags are extra important if you don’t already have a large following. tag for ships, characters, actors, individual books/movies, and categories like “#twilight renaissance,” “#twilight edit” “#twilight fanfiction” etc.

shitposts. this fandom is all about the shitposts. basically, leave yourself open to inspiration, and whenever you come across something (text meme, reaction image, netflix screencap, product in a store, etc) that could easily apply to twilight, edit & post it!

interaction. comment on things, send asks off anon, participate in ask games, dm people if you have questions/observations/recs (and even if you don’t!)

rec things yourself! and tag the creators! it’s easy to make rec lists and it makes people SO happy

if you make content of any kind (art, edits, moodboards, fic, etc) taking prompts will hella boost your engagement. (just be careful not to overwork yourself or bite off more than you can chew!)

design posts that are open-ended/interactive. examples include “tag yourself” games, generators, posts like this one. basically anything that’s a conversation, and invites some kind of response!

hosting contests, giveaways, and challenges also gets lots of engagement. @twilight-af‘s recent 15 (extended to 25) Day Challenge is a great example. I hosted this ridiculous contest last spring and it was SO much fun! I absolutely plan to host a similar contest this spring (stay tuned)

read-along/watch-along content is fun and easy to post. examples: see the time I read the graphic novels or the time shannon and I invented a drinking game

if anyone else has suggestions, feel free to add on!

#asks #this was super interesting to think about #long post //#alcohol mention //#acephobia mention //#mm2305

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lizziestudieshistory · 3 years

Text

Books of 2021 - Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

It’s probably time to admit what is probably my most unpopular opinion about the Cosmere: I hate Words of Radiance. It’s the book I have to slog my way through to get to Oathbringer. Part of my dislike is heavily linked to my disillusionment about Shallan… However, I do think the big moments in this book – most notably the duel scene and final battle – cloud people to the genuine faults in it. It is a technical step up from The Way of Kings, but there are huge parts of this book that are unnecessarily slow to read and there is a huge thematic drop that starts in this book that I cannot forgive Sanderson for. I also dislike a lot of the individual plotlines, major characters are barely in this book, and a lot of the big reveals/developments feel unearned because they had to happen in this book so we could get on with the more important conflicts in the rest of the series.

This review has spoilers for The Stormlight Archive, you have been warned.

Structure and Plot

I don’t want to touch on the structure too much because a lot of my niggles for The Way of Kings continue into Words of Radiance. All of these books have too much fat around them – the interludes continue to feel irrelevant; the main bulk of the book is drawn out slightly too much; and the flashbacks are merely okay, they haven’t reached the level of Oathbringers’ flashback sequence yet. However, Sanderson does make some serious improvements in this book.

Shallan, our focus character, does have a much more interesting backstory and the flashbacks have slightly more bearing on the present-day plotline. However, for me, they lose interest on subsequent rereads and there are slightly too many of them that don’t add any new information once we’re aware of how terrible her family life is. They are an improvement on Kaladin’s, and I like them a lot more, however, considering how much we STILL don’t know about Shallan (as of Rhythm of War) Sanderson could have utilised them better in this book. Saying this, I do remember really liking the flashbacks on my first read, so I really do think my current negativity is a product of having read this book one too many times? I’m going to hold off on Sanderson for a couple of years after this reread so (if I remember) I’ll come back and reevaluate how I feel about Shallan’s flashbacks with a fresher eye.

Sanderson also gets us into this book a lot quicker than he did in The Way of Kings. Jasnah’s prologue is one of my favourites in the series so far, and part one does hit the ground running. It sucks the reader back into the world, refamiliarised with the essentials of the story, as well as introducing the next leg of the plot. It’s a fabulous introduction and it’s one of the strongest first parts in the series as a whole.

Unfortunately, the pacing doesn’t reflect this strong introduction – once Shallan loses Jasnah’s guidance, and Kaladin is established as Dalinar’s guard the book dramatically slows down. Kaladin’s chapters, while slow, have some differentiation to break them up with Bridge Four learning how to be guards. Shallan’s turns into an interminable slog across the countryside. One of the things I loathe in fantasy are the long journeys with nothing going on – sometimes they can be done beautifully. For example, I love Sam and Frodo’s section in The Two Towers, but Shallan’s is just painful. Sam and Frodo’s journey is so fascinating because of the internal struggle they are going through (together and separately), it’s atmospheric and powerful because of its character work. Yes they are trying to get to Mordor, but the goal isn’t what matters here – it’s whether Sam and Frodo can survive the journey, and what state they will be in when they get there.

Shallan’s journey is clearly a way to get her to the Shattered Plains in the right circumstances and it shows. We’re journeying from A to B, with a few obstacles thrown in. There is some development from Shallan as she learns the basics to being a conwoman from Tyn. However, again this is something thrown in to keep Shallan’s point of view interesting while she’s riding through the countryside. It’s not vital character growth that can only be done at this point in the journey. If we’re going to slog it through the wilderness there needs to be a point to it that can only be learnt from showing such a long journey – otherwise cut down Shallan’s chapters in this section and only show the necessary highlights, while hinting at the longer journey through her internal reflections.

I’m also just going to throw out that I was bored in part three – the end of this part is phenomenal, and contains the famous duel scene with Adolin and Kaladin, which is one of the highlights of the whole series. However, the build up to this scene is repetitive and a bit dull in places? It’s possibly because I’m not a huge fan of Shallan and Kaladins’ arcs in this book. I’ve never liked the Ghostbloods plotline (and it’s only gotten worse with the Thaidakar reveal in Rhythm of War), Shallan’s romance with Adolin is slightly cringey, and I’m going to have a rant about the Kaladin/Moash conflict when I get to writing about Kaladin’s character. The main plotlines in this book are a bit…painful? They scream filler for a lot of part three – I don’t necessarily mind it; I actually like the conflict between Adolin and Kaladin because it does make sense for both characters. It doesn’t do much except build a camaraderie between them and develop their characters, but there are a few too many scenes of it, along with the painful romance scenes. Sorry, romance isn’t Sanderson’s strong point…

Prose

Still painful, still don’t love it. I do think there is a slight improvement between The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance because there aren’t any egregious moments that stand out to me in this book. Some moments, such as Kaladin’s first flight through the chasms and then when he’s flying with Syl over the Shattered Plains, even stand out as highlights for Sanderson’s writing – I really feel Kaladin’s joy and sense of freedom. There are some lovely moments in this book, and it does mark an improvement in Sanderson’s writing style! However, I’m still not a fan of Sanderson’s prose as a whole, it still feels clunky in places, and I’d prefer it to be a little bit more refined. This is very much a personal preference complaint though, as I stressed in my The Way of Kings review.

Magic System

I should probably discuss Sanderson’s magic system in the Stormlight Archive at this point, especially as it’s becoming more and more relevant as we continue into the series.

So, for those of you who are reading this without having read the book (why?!), Stormlight is dominated by a hard magic system called Surgebinding. Human Surgebinders (I’ll probably discuss the Singer’s surgebinding abilities in a later review) are members of one of the ten orders of the Knight’s Radiant: Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers, Edgedancers, Truthwatchers, Lightweavers, Elsecallers, Willshapers, Stonewards, and Bondsmiths. Each order possess the ability to manipulate two of the ten surges using Stormlight to power their abilities:

Windrunners: adhesion and gravitation

Skybreakers: gravitation and division

Dustbringers: division and abrasion

Edgedancers: abrasion and progression

Truthwatchers: progression and illumination

Lightweavers: illimitation and transformation

Elsecallers: transformation and transportation

Willshapers: transportation and cohesion

Stonewards: cohesion and tension

Bondsmiths: tension and adhesion

They also gain magical armour and weapons known as Shardplate and Shardblades, although when each order gets their plate and plate depends on the order and spren/nahel bond. The order of the Radiant will depend on what oaths they swear and what type of spren they are bonded to:

Windrunners: honorspren

Skybreakers: highspren

Dustbringers: ashspren

Edgedancers: cultivationspren

Lightweavers: cryptics (“liespren”)

Elsecallers: inkspren

Willshapers: lightspren

Stonewards: peakspren

Bondsmiths: the Stormfather, Nightwatcher, or the Sibling (I don’t think we have a spren category for these three)

In Words of Radiance, we get the most insight into Windrunners and Lightweavers through Kaladin and Shallan, respectively, so I’m going to focus on these orders. This does actually work well because the Windrunners and Lightweavers can represent the two “styles” of orders quite well, each one being fairly structured or esoteric respectively.

Kaladin’s Windrunner powers are the most stereotypical magical ability – using gravitation Kaladin can fly, well technically fall in any direction, but the effect is the same. We see him using his powers to soar through the skies above the Shattered Plains, and run on walls. The effect is incredibly cinematic to read (although I suspect it would look ridiculous if poorly adapted into a visual medium) and enhances Kaladin’s status as an ‘action hero’. His other ability, adhesion, is slightly less dramatic – at least when it’s used straightforwardly. He can stick things together, or draw objects towards something else, including people, with magical superglue.

However, Kaladin’s, and the rest of the Knights Radiants’, powers are connected to the oaths he swears and his bond with Sylphrena (Syl). The Knights are granted the ability to surgebind and control their powers through 5 oaths, each order has different oaths but the first is universal: ‘Life before Death, Strength before Weakness, Journey before Destination’. In Kaladin’s case his oaths are connected to protecting others, which does slightly excuse Kaladin’s “saving people thing” and inability to let it go if people he cares about die. Whether Kaladin keeps his oath depends on whether Syl, his bonded Honorspren, best friend, and a tiny piece of divinity in her own right, agrees whether he is keeping them in spirit – something we explore at length with Kaladin’s plotline in this book.

Shallan’s Lightweaver powers are also incredibly visual, especially as she spends all of this book focusing on illumination, which gives her the ability to shape Stormlight into realistic illusions. Her abilities are particularly useful for subterfuge and lies as Shallan can use them on herself to change her appearance, or on their own to make it appear as if something is there when it’s not. Her other ability – soulcasting, the surge of transformation – still hasn’t been explored as of Rhythm of War. Soulcasting changes one substance into another, but exactly how it works and the extent of its power is still uncertain. However, from what we’ve seen through Jasnah, who also has the ability, it is overpowered and very cool.

Shallan’s oaths are less obvious than Kaladin’s and it’s hard to tell what oath she’s on by the end of the book – although this is also heavily linked to Shallan’s backstory and developments in her character in later books,Shallan is definitely a non-standard Radiant! Her oaths, after the initial oath, are made up of truths about herself. She speaks her truths to her spren, Pattern, in order to progress as a Radiant. Her oaths also force her to develop as a person, which has been a painful process because Shallan has been lying to herself since she was a child and doesn’t want to admit what she’s done.

The magic system is clearly very complicated, and we still don’t know everything about it, six of the ten orders haven’t been explored through their specific books, and even the orders we have seen a lot from through our viewpoint characters are shrouded in mystery – I’m still not entirely sure what Bondsmiths do despite having the Bondsmith book (Oathbringer) because the order is so esoteric. It’s well drawn and compelling, especially as Sanderson uses the progression of the Knights as a mystery throughout the books. Despite not being that interested in hard magic systems the magic in this book is interesting and I really like the structure around the Radiants – it also makes for interesting discussion, debates, and Harry Potter style quizzes in the fandom, which is fun!

Characters and Plotlines

Kaladin, Syl, and Moash – Unfortunately, my new found love of Kaladin was tried in this novel because Kaladin REALLY gets on my nerves in Words of Radiance. It’s not because I disagree with Kaladin per se… I actually agree with a lot of Kaladin’s anger, resentment, and sense of injustice with the social system in Vorin/Alethi society. Kaladin has a right to feel angry and seek retribution for what was done to him, and Bridge Four.

However, Kaladin walks around with a massive chip on his shoulder in this book, particularly in how he talks to and thinks about Dalinar and his immediate family. His motivation I can understand and sympathise with, but the impression of ‘I’m so hard done to, the world is against me’ that Kaladin radiates in this book feels completely at odds with the reality of his situation. Yes, Kaladin has a right to be angry. Yes, he has a right to seek justice. But there is no reason he should be so personally antagonistic towards everyone because of their social position. He is in a position of power, he’s outside the social hierarchy to a large extent, and in control of his own life (and the lives of the ex-Bridgecrews). Kaladin is angry at everyone and everything, but he’s losing the justification for a lot of his resentment, particularly when it’s expressed towards Dalinar and his sons.

In particular I have an issue with Kaladin’s main plotline around Moash and the attempt to assassinate Elhokar. Aside from the fact I hate Moash, to the extent where Moash could be dropped from the books without resolution and I wouldn’t bat an eye (sorry Moash fans - I’ve never liked him…), this plotline just doesn’t feel right for Kaladin’s character. It actually feels like a betrayal of the character we got to know in The Way of Kings and continue with in Oathbringer/Rhythm of War. I can’t see a world where Kaladin Stormblessed is okay with murder or assassination.

Kaladin’s whole deal is honour and justice - justice as in what’s morally right (legality is another thing entirely!) He also wants to protect everyone, including Syl - Syl perhaps above everyone else as Tien is dead - but this plot is something she explicitly isn’t comfortable with and is concerned about. I CAN see a world where Kaladin pursues a plan to see Elhokar removed from power, but not assassinated. The argument about Elhokar’s removal being like removing a gangrenous limb (or whatever the exact metaphor was) doesn’t hold up for his character.

What makes this whole plotline worse is it doesn’t really lead anywhere, other than placing Moash on the opposite side to Kaladin in the upcoming war. All that we really get from it is confirmation that Kaladin is a Windrunner to the core (which we already knew) and Moash is on whatever side Kaladin isn’t because they’re foils for each other. However, the only real outcome of this entire 1,000 page plotline is Moash is maneuvered into position for his arc in Oathbringer, and Kaladin gets to swear his third ideal. Yet Kaladin’s perspective doesn’t radically change and quite frankly working out the third ideal could have been done in another way, without betraying Kaladin’s character for two thirds of a book. It was there to conveniently get a few characters where they needed to be for the next book, and to let Kaladin have another superhero moment. I love Kaladin superhero moments as much as anyone else - I just wish it wasn’t prefaced with this plotline.

One thing I really don’t understand - and is why I dislike this plotline so much - is why we’re stressing so much on a Kaladin-Moash friendship anyway. They don’t feel like friends! Honestly, this is a larger problem with Bridge Four as a whole - their friendship with Kaladin doesn’t feel earnt. Well no, Rock, Teft, and Lopen do. But the larger part of Bridge Four feels like they’re just there? They definitely feel like they’re friends with each other, but not necessarily with Kaladin.

I’ve already confessed that I’m not the biggest fan of Bridge Four at the best of times because they feel like a sports team underdog narrative, which is honestly my worst nightmare of a storyline. However, I DO want to see Sanderson actually show Kaladin being friends with them, especially as they are such a huge part of his motivation to protect. We have one scene - the bar scene - with a few of them acting like a genuine friendship group. Yet this doesn’t make for a genuine friendship, we need more little moments throughout the book, including Kaladin.

Sanderson does improve on the Bridge Four dynamic, Oathbringer and Rhythm of War make me feel like Bridge Four are genuine mates a lot more than Words of Radiance does. However, for this book we do need to see Kaladin and Moash as real friends, maybe even as close as brothers, for the Elhokar assassination plotline to work. But we don’t! It’s easier for me to believe Adolin and Kaladin’s friendship than Moash and Kaladin! And Adolin and Kaladin spend most of this book bickering…

I think the real issue with this plotline is the execution. The way Kaladin’s character has been established, the lack of page time spent on Bridge Four as a whole and Moash in particular, and ultimately small outcomes for this plotline makes it feel tedious and slightly pointless. Sanderson needed to increase the REAL stakes - there was no way Kaladin was really going to lose his status as a radiant, just for narrative reasons - and work on the emotional impact. We need to believe Kaladin would really go through with the assassination, and his friendship with Moash before getting to this plotline. But as we don’t, or at least I don’t, feel this so Kaladin’s anger and it’s consequential plotline ends up frustrating me to the point where Kaladin is on thin ice for a lot of this novel.

Shallan - Okay, I’m going to address the elephant in the room later - the elephant is Shallan and the “Boots scene” if you weren’t aware. However, I do have a few other complaints about Shallan in this book.

My main issue with Shallan, excluding the classism I’m addressing later, is that a lot of her character feels unearned (in this book specifically not as a general rule.) Not in the sense that her powers feel unearned, or her backstory isn’t believable (which I really love), but her achievements and relationships in Words of Radiance feel cheap. There are several moments that stick out to me as being particularly annoying.

Firstly, Shallan’s ability to control Tvlakv, Tyn, and the merchant caravans. Personally, I find this whole situation ridiculous when I think about it. I can go along with Shallan being able to get to the Shattered Plains miraculously meeting the slave trader who sold Kaladin. However, the fact Shallan is apparently capable of manipulating Tvlakv into taking her there with very little conflict is ludicrous.

Shallan’s a shipwrecked, fairly middling noble with few resources at her immediate disposal, and a somewhat shy (if on later acquaintance bubbly) personality. It doesn’t make sense to me that she can have this influence over Tvlakv. Yes she’s been taught by Jasnah, and yes she does have some confidence/authority from her own position as a lighteyes. However, I’m really struggling to believe that, at this point in her story, she is a good enough actress to pull off an aloof lighteyed woman of significant enough rank to make Tvlakv do what she wants, especially when they’ve met in the middle of nowhere and Shallan has no other options.

My second issue with this is with Adolin and Sabarial. Adolin also falls into my larger complaints about Sanderson’s romances, which are by far the weakest elements in any of his books. However, let’s start with Sabarial:

So… Why the hell does Sabarial take her in? It makes ZERO sense. The ‘because it annoys Dalinar’ argument just doesn’t cut it, and neither does the ‘Sabarial is so weird’ perspective. As bonkers as he appears on the surface, we know Sabarial is a shrewd businessman. He’s lazy, but also a clever and manipulative leader, he doesn’t do anything without getting something in return. However, he doesn’t get anything from taking Shallan in except the satisfaction of getting one up on Dalinar? She doesn’t even do his accounts properly! It feels like an inconsistent character move that is only there to suit the storytelling and give Shallan more freedom, rather than demonstrate Sabarial's motivations.

Okay Adolin is both better and worse than Sabarial. I can genuinely understand why Adolin likes Shallan so much and vice versa. I love the relationship they have once it’s been established - they’re good for each other (well I think Adolin is better for Shallan than she is for him, but the point stands.) However, it’s just so insta-lovey! They just meet and it’s like the heavens aligned, and a perfect relationship blossoms. It’s not quite that fast, but it’s pretty quick. And I just don’t buy that initial push into their bond.

I just find this initial meeting and first couple of dates unbelievable? It’s also very cringey… I can’t read some of their ‘banter’ because it’s painful for me at this point - I’m literally Kaladin whenever he has to watch them together. It’s the worst combination of Sanderson’s sense of humour, his poor romances, and annoyingly quirky characters. By Oathbringer I do think they have a good, settled relationship going on, but in this book I really dislike the way it’s sparked. (I’m also questioning why Adolin doesn’t seem to be mourning Jasnah and is going out on dates? It just seems off to me!)

Honestly, I could probably live with both of these aspects if it wasn’t for the final, most egregious issue I have with Shallan in Words of Radiance. Her discovering Urithiru.

I cannot stress enough how much I HATE that Shallan discovered the Oathgate on the Shattered Plains. The other successes feel unrealistic and unearnt but are ultimately small moments that would have to happen in some form - Shallan has to get to the Shattered Plains, and she has to meet/fall in love with Adolin. They’re irritating in how they’re executed but are ultimately okay instagatory moments.

On the other hand, finding Urithiru is one of the biggest moments in the whole series! It’s a significant part of the climax of the whole book! Without it we’d be reading a very different series in Oathbringer and beyond. But giving this huge moment to Shallan is completely out of proportion to the work she’s put in. Yes, Shallan has been looking for it for a few months, she wants to continue Jasnah’s work. However, Jasnah has been slaving away at this for YEARS, literally YEARS. Why does Shallan get this moment of triumph? It’s completely unwarranted for what she’s done, especially as she literally couldn’t have done it without Jasnah’s research. It just pisses me off that we seem to give all the credit to her when, in reality, she drew a map.

I think this annoys me so much because Sanderson went down the ‘kill the mentor’ trope for this book. There was actually very little reason to remove Jasnah in the way he did in Words of Radiance - Shallan could have easily been ignored by Jasnah once they reached Shattered Plains as she’s dealing with the high stakes politics/war effort with Dalinar, leaving Shallan to get embroiled with the Ghostbloods and Adolin. This would have left small amounts of time to see them working together on their scholarship, whilst also giving Shallan room to grow. Using ‘kill the mentor’ AND having Jasnah return from the ‘dead’ felt cheap the first time around (nevermind this one!) whilst achieving very little that couldn’t have been done in other ways.

Overall, I just think Sanderson overplays Shallan’s competence in this book. She’s still a 17/18 year old girl and he’s overdoing it with her abilities that aren’t related to her Radiant powers. The discoveries she makes don’t live up to her reality of character and I find it irritating.

I’ve said a lot that is negative about Shallan - I do get more positive after this book, so that’s something I guess? Nevertheless, I do want to say one thing I really love about Shallan and this book is her backstory. Apart from Dalinar, Shallan has the best backstory out of the main characters we’ve seen so far. The abuse from her father, casual cruelty and neglect within her family, and Shallan’s own darkness is fascinating to read about - if slightly distressing. I don’t have much to say about it as a whole because I think it’s very effective in adding a darker layer into Shallan’s character, as well as being a much more interesting story than Kaladin’s was in The Way of Kings.

Sanderson hasn’t quite mastered the interweaving of the flashbacks into the main storyline in Words of Radiance, then again Oathbringer was exceptionally good in comparison to all the other books for this aspect. However, the Words of Radiance flashbacks are a marked improvement and made for a great way to deepen Shallan’s character past the hints we’d seen in her chapters in the first book. I think it’s a very believable backstory. It’s probably the backstory that’s having the most ‘present day’ impact on the character in question (again Dalinar is a close second but Sanderson dropped the ball with his character growth in Rhythm of War.) Shallan’s past is fabulous and well utilised by Sanderson to make her grow - and I did want to say something positive about Shallan because, despite not liking her, I do think she is a very well written character.

Pattern - I want to say that, despite my apparent vendetta against Shallan, I REALLY love Pattern! He’s so annoyingly sweet, sincere, and genuine! Actually he reminds me a lot of one of my dogs, which might be a contributing factor to my enjoyment of him? Either way Pattern is one of the best spren characters we’ve met so far - he’s amazing!

Dalinar - I’m mainly here to complain there isn’t enough Dalinar in this book and I miss him… I understand why he isn’t as present in Words of Radiance as he is in The Way of Kings and Oathbringer. However, I do think the absence of both Dalinar and Jasnah - my two “problematic faves”, plus Kaladin feeling very off for most of this book, contributes to why I don’t like it very much. Their loss leaves a big hole for my personal enjoyment and attachment, especially on rereads. It’s a very personal problem and comes down to who you read the series for (and whether you like Shallan or not.)

Although, when we get one of the few Dalinar chapters I am ecstatic because they’re all particularly punchy in this book! Chapter 67 - Spit and Bile - when Wit and Dalinar discuss his nature as a ‘benevolent tyrant’ is one of my favourites in the whole series. It’s a real moment of character realisation for Dalinar and gives us some FANTASTIC food for thought before we get to the shocking revelations of Oathbringer.

Kaladin and Shallan, Class Status, and the Boots Scene

Okay, it’s time to address the elephant in the room – Sanderson dropping the ball on his discussion of class conflict. I loved Sanderson’s introduction of class conflict, it’s something I’m particularly interested in as a British person. However, he handles this theme badly in Words of Radiance and drops it completely in Oathbringer, and it was almost a deal breaker for me on this reread. I’m genuinely upset about it.

So, a lot of Kaladin’s arc in this book is centred around him learning to look past his (valid) anger over what was done to him by the lighteyes, and specifically Amaram. Of course, this can’t really be resolved in one book, and I do hope Sanderson listens to the very vocal criticism around his “resolving” of Kaladin’s anger by pressing Kaladin into siding with his oppressors without uncritically examining his choices in books 3 and 4 (as well as making him a de facto lighteyes himself). However, in Words of Radiance Kaladin is very much giving into his anger now he has the opportunity to live, rather than just survive, and Sanderson uses a lot of his interactions with Dalinar, Adolin, and Shallan to show him ‘not all lighteyes are bad’.

I do have issues with the way Sanderson handles this with Adolin and Dalinar - maybe Dalinar not so much because his character has A LOT of other issues going on and his interactions with Kaladin are very much structured by their positions in the army. Their relationship remains largely professional, especially in this book, and Kaladin is shown to trust and respect Dalinar and vice versa. Not to mention that Dalinar is actually prepared to listen to Kaladin’s version of events and do his best to get justice for Kaladin against Amaram - it’s just not an easy situation to prove or resolve, and it can’t be done in the way Kaladin wants.

As an aside for the rest of the series - I do have issues with Kaladin’s long term idolisation of Dalinar as a leader and ‘noble’ lighteyes. We haven’t really seen Kaladin’s reaction to the revelations from Oathbringer (the in-world version) which I do think would change the dynamic between them. After all, the revelations about Dalinar show him to be worse than Amaram in many respects! Kaladin should have a reaction to the morality around Dalinar’s actions in the past, even if he is trying to change, and not just continue as they did before. Although, this issue ties into the larger problems with the series structure and how Sanderson keeps all but dropping Dalinar’s character growth in every other book - we need to address the consequences for revealing his past to the world, particularly with his family and political allies, not just sweep them under the carpet as we did in Rhythm of War!

In contrast to Kaladin’s relationship with Dalinar, he and Adolin are on a slightly more (although not completely) equal level, as demonstrated by their bickering, banter, and eventual friendship. Their relationship begins with Adolin’s suspicions about Kaladin, Kaladin’s hatred for lighteyes, and a mutual grudge against each other, but their relationship grows into a very real friendship after the duel sequence. Their relationship is one that has never bothered me because they had that rocky start. They grow into a friendship of equals, their distrust turns into a genuine bond because they learn to trust each other as they prove to each other that they aren’t what they first assumed.

Most importantly, despite the rocky start, neither of them are actively dismissive of the other based on their social status - Adolin never demeens Kaladin for being darkeyed and once Kaladin gets to know Adolin better his hostility towards lighteyes in general vanishes as they established their personal bond. The only moment you can point to Adolin actively dismissing Kaladin due to his social status is in The Way of Kings when he asks him to take a message to someone in the prostitute scene (sorry I’m not looking up the page numbers.) Adolin never shows dislike of anyone because they are darkeyes and definitely does not toy with those of a lesser social status than himself. Yes, I do agree Sanderson could do a better job of using the relationships between Adolin, Kaladin, and Bridge Four to address some of the subconscious biases Adolin holds. But Adolin is never cruel or manipulative to those with less social status.

This brings me to the big reason why I’ve come to loathe Shallan and the key reason I dislike Sanderson’s mishandling of the social class discussion. It’s not even necessarily Shallan herself that I dislike, it’s the way the narrative frames her character and Sanderson’s dismissal of Kaladin’s anger. I could look past most of the problems I’ve raised against Shallan if it wasn’t for the way Sanderson portrayed her in this book. I still don’t think she’d be my favourite character now but I wouldn’t feel the urge to close the book every time I have to read her chapters.

However, Shallan is probably the best example we have in a point of view character of the minor abuses of the lighteyes against anyone of a lower social class than themselves. I’m not talking about the major crimes committed by Sadeas or Amaram where they show a blatant disregard for life, but I am talking about the subtle abuses of those with wealth and rank against those less fortunate.

Throughout the series we see Shallan casually and absentmindedly manipulate, dismiss, and bully darkeyed individuals. She’s not maliciously cruel, but she is casually abusive. She treats people like Kaladin or the slaves she ends up owning as less than herself, especially when she first meets them. I’m not here to say this is Shallan’s fault per se. She has been taught to do so by her society, she’s been indoctrinated into a system that believes those with darkeyes are lesser than herself because the Almighty has deemed it to be this way. It’s an inbuilt, largely unconscious bias formed by the society she was brought up in. I’d actually like this character trait if Sanderson used it to challenge Shallan and make her grow as a character, like pretty much EVERYONE else has to do with aspects of their character!

But Sanderson doesn’t. Shallan is given a free pass for toying with darkeyes or those of a lower dahn than herself and using them to amuse herself, or even for dismissing them. And it’s not just once she does it, it’s a systematic behaviour in this book. Now, I will admit most of the time this behaviour is used against...unsavoury characters - it’s usually people like Tvlakv, a slave trader, who often fall victim to Shallan’s manipulation. As an audience we don’t like Tvlakv and don’t really care if he’s manipulated and pushed around by Shallan because of his earlier treatment of Kaladin. We like Kaladin, we like Shallan, but Tvlakv? Not so much. But her casual dismissal of Tvlakv’s life and livelihood (putting my loathing of slavery aside for the moment) does show Shallan’s contempt of those beneath her in general.

The better case to demonstrate Shallan’s classism is in her scenes with Kaladin. There are two moments I could use to make my point: the infamous “Boots” scene in chapter 28 and the Chasm sequence in Part 4. In both these scenes we see Shallan, in a position of power, dismiss Kaladin - the “Boots” scene is by far the worst of these two, but the later sequence give us a better glimpse into the problems with Sanderson’s framing of Shallan’s and Kaladin’s past traumas. Shallan’s trauma is validated by this scene, but Kaladin’s very justified dislike and anger is dismissed by both Sanderson and Shallan. There is very little, leading up to the Chasm sequence, that suggests Shallan is a nice person to Kaladin and he has a lot of long-term trauma from mistreatment and abuse from lighteyes in general. Kaladin should be allowed to hold onto his resentment to some extent. Instead he is forced to get rid of it because of Sanderson’s inflexible belief that all anger, even righteous anger, is wrong.

I could elaborate on this scene but as this review is now ludicrously long, I’m going to stick to the Boots scene as it is simpler and I don’t really need to summarise the scene because it’s so well. The basics you need are: Shallan uses her gender, social position, and Kaladin’s relative lack of authority to humiliate him in front of his men and con him out of his boots. And it’s played for laughs.

There is a small hint later on that Shallan shouldn’t have done what she did when Kaladin confronts her about the incident outside the meeting of the Highprinces. Yet, a large part of this was Shallan saving face when she realised he is Captain of the Kholins’ guard and could pose a serious threat to her plans if he felt so inclined. She doesn’t express any remorse for her behaviour morally speaking, nor does she think that she shouldn’t mess around with people who can’t fight back. No, she’s remorseful because it’s convenient for her.

The 'Boots' scene isn’t funny. It’s a clear, if childish, display of the sheer amount of power lighteyes have over everyone socially below them. But Sanderson doesn’t depict it in that way. It’s just there as an amusing scene, and to get Shallan and Kaladin off on the wrong foot. Kaladin was just doing his job, grumpily, and didn’t deserve this treatment from Tyn or Shallan. Especially as Shallan very much knows that she ISN’T a conwoman and she really IS Adolin’s betrothed - she doesn’t need to impress Tyn, especially not this close to the Shattered Plains. So, she has little excuse for acting in the way that she did, and she really didn’t need to humiliate Kaladin in front of his men. As the audience, we know Kaladin’s command isn’t going to be affected because of his history with Bridge Four, and we know he can replace his boots. But Shallan doesn’t and it only shows how little she really considers the lives of those below her. It’s just casual cruelty that served no purpose except to entertain her and Tyn.

The fact that Shallan has never really been called out for this by the narrative/Sanderson, only by Kaladin and more socially aware fans, is outrageous. Anyone else would be - and everyone else has similar issues that narrative insists they work on and overcome. Yet Shallan is consistently let off for this behaviour. On the other end of this scene, Kaladin is forced into letting go of his anger and falling into line with the Kholins and other lighteyes, despite being systematically oppressed and mistreated by the lighteyes as a whole. Sanderson doesn’t allow Kaladin his anger and he’s punished for it throughout this book.

I will say that Kaladin isn’t completely in the right here, he did need to learn that not everyone is the embodiment of evil just because they are born into wealth and privilege. However, neither was it okay to dismiss the complex dilemma around Kaladin and class - where he needs to overcome his prejudice against everyone at the top of the social system, because there are good lighteyes, whilst still challenging that system - by making him a lighteyes. This doesn’t solve anything! His anger is valid and righteous. The Vorin social system does need a complete overhaul and Kaladin should be allowed to take the helm for that social movement - even if this arc isn’t at the forefront of the series (you know because we’re all slightly busy saving the world!)

Sanderson shouldn’t keep allowing Shallan a free pass for deeply rooted and problematic behaviours and attitudes. It doesn’t need to be a major point of discussion, especially as the series has evolved and everyone is more concerned with staying alive. However, this is a huge series, there is space in it to address this issue every now and again in the background of the novel, particularly in non-combative plotlines. It would also help to change the perspective in moments like the “Boots” scene. Rather than showing these as just funny moments, take the time to show that they are symptoms of a serious problem in Vorin society and demonstrations of the casual abuses of power lighteyes can get away with on a daily basis.

At the end of the day, Kaladin is going to be fine - and he does drive me nuts with the huge chip on his shoulder that he has throughout Words of Radiance. His only real consequence from this scene is wounded pride, he’ll recover. However, Shallan shouldn’t be let off the hook for it either and Sanderson does need to pick up this plotline on the abuse of power and class in the series. He introduced a serious discussion on the dangers of a class-based society and it’s a shame (and irresponsible) to just drop it now.

Conclusion

So I think we can all agree I don’t like a lot of this book. I’m in the minority here. There are some fantastic moments throughout Words of Radiance, but as a whole I struggle when rereading this particular entry into The Stormlight Archive. Sanderson drops the ball on one too many issues, and I really dislike Shallan here. I do get on with her slightly more in later novels - well in Rhythm of War - however, having such a heavy focus on her here makes it a slog for me to read.

Still, onward and upwards! Oathbringer is (probably) my favourite book in the whole series, although I’ve only read RoW once so that might change when I finish this reread. Hopefully I’ll have a lot more positive things to say in my next review - and I finally get to make my speech on why I love Dalinar and his backstory!

#words of radiance #brandon sanderson #stormlight archive #cosmere #book review #kaladin stormblessed #dalinar kholin #moash #pattern #not tagging a certain character because last time i had really nasty comments #i still really love this series #just not this book #fabulous sanderlanches here though #the stormlight archive

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commander-hanji-zoe · 4 years

Note

Do you have any advice for a new blog?

🌸 Oh this is such an interesting ask, I’ve been thinking about it for a few days now, sorry it’s taken a while to get back to you but I was thinking how best to answer it! While this blog has only been around for 3 years and I’ve only really started posting in it recently, I have had my main tumblr blog for 10 years and several side blogs with quite a few followers so I’m hoping I can provide some insight! I do apologise as this turned into a bit of a ramble that I feel is about tumblr but beings to overlap into life advice lol - I blame my age. 🌸

1.) I would say firstly, enjoy it. I feel sometimes there’s a lot of pressure to get loads of followers, create new content etc. and you can forget why you’re here. I got tumblr to reblog photos of things that made me happy from bands to tattoos, movie stuff, art etc and occasionally I would forget that and end up getting bogged down in comparing stats and myself to others. So yeah, enjoy it and remember why you joined ^_^

2.) If you love work that others create (writing/art/gif sets etc.) show your appreciation not just with likes but with comments and reblogging where you can/feel comfortable doing so. Likes are great and always appreciated but comments help to inspire and reblogging means more people will see their work. It encourages content creators to continue creating, it’s also a really good way of gaining followers and make friends. If you support others they will likely support you in return.

3.) Share the art/fan art/cosplay photos you love as per above - but don’t repost work. This was something I wasn’t really aware of when I first joined tumblr, a lot of people would just save photos from google or deviant art (it was a very different place back then) and post them on tumblr to show appreciation. But often there would be no artist detail or link to the artist, instead if you find something you like reblog it from the creator. If it isn’t on tumblr and you’d really like to post it here, contact the creator and ask their permission to post - then include a link in the post and explain you have the artist’s permission.

4.) Talk to people :) - Okay like Alice in Wonderland here’s some advice I could really use sometimes! Through tumblr I have met some of the most amazing friends. When I first started out I started chatting to a girl who went to the same Uni as me, we met up to go for coffee, browse record shops and saw The Vaccines together. I’ve also met numerous people who encouraged me to go to Hobbit Con in Germany - I had the most amazing time, remained friends, one of them came to my wedding. I guess the message here is that internet friends are great and you never know what a friendship can blossom into. If there’s someone whose work you admire or blog you love, don’t be afraid to reach out and send a message, even if you feel a bit silly (I often do!).

5.) Tags - My take on tags is pretty simple, tag correctly. I often tag things quite heavily but I make sure that I only tag characters that feature in a post or fandoms that feature in that post etc. You often come across posts where every character in the show has been tagged, I get why people do it, it means the post will come up in more results but it is rather infuriating when you’re looking for something specific. It also looks messy and can make things hard to find on your own blog. So yeah tag the show/film/book etc, tag the relevant characters, add whatever tags you want regarding your feelings/emotions about the post or thoughts on it. But ideally keep it relevant. On that note, tag ships (people often blacklist ships they dislike or that they find problematic) so doing this helps everyone. Anything that’s only really suitable for people 18+ tag however you see fit (due to Tumblr’s changes last year we had to revert to tagging things on the citrus scale again so I tag anything like that as lemon as well as nsft) Finally Trigger/content warnings - I do use them, some people put warnings on everything, some people don’t do at all. Again like with shipping it is helpful for people who have

6.) Remember to take breaks - tumblr can be a little addictive and easy to pass time (like social media) so remember to take breaks, when you get back they’ll be loads of new stuff on your dashboard to look at ^_^

7.) Follow loads of blogs! I probably should have put this higher up. But have a think about the kind of content you want to see and spend some time searching for blogs that fit that, I also find it’s nice to follow some more aesthetic blogs or blogs that are calming/relaxing, seeing things like that on my dash is always a reminder to have a breather!

8.) Enjoy playing around with themes - decide what you want your blog to be about (and remember there’s nothing wrong with having a main blog that’s a little bit of everything you love as well as personal stuff!) and then have fun with the settings. There’s a lot of free tumblr themes, some of which are pretty neat and user friendly in terms of customisation. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you’re stuck.

9.) Side blogs are also really great. I begun to create side blogs because I didn’t want to spam my main blog with Game of Thrones, The Hobbit, Red Dead Redemption 2 or Attack on Titan, so I created side blogs. I still post about all these things on main but not as frequently. A side blog can also be good if you want to create a blog you can share with employers - I have a side blog for my photography and one for my writing. Sideblogs are also a good way of keeping certain material away from the blog where people in real life are most likely to find you. Generally I won’t post 18+ material on my main blog, so smutty fan fiction etc. goes on the side blogs. As a side note, when you have a side blog you cannot like posts or ask questions as that side blog - it will be from your main blog.

10.) Try not to get disheartened if you create original content and it doesn’t get a lot of attention at first. When you create a blog it can take time to gain followers/traction. But remember as per point 1, that Tumblr should be fun and creating content should first and fore mostly be for you and your enjoyement. But if you continue to create, tag appropriately but also show appreciation for fellow creators there’s no reason why in time you won’t flourish. And as per point 3, if you reblog others work there’s a chance they in return will reblog your art.

11.) There’s extension kits you can get for tumblr, I know some people use them and find them helpful. I’m not sure they’re as poplar/needed now as they used to be. I used to use one but don’t feel the need now, however might be worth a google or asking someone more knowledgeable to see if it’ll work for you.

12.) You can blacklist tags through settings, if there’s any ships, characters, things you’d rather not see on your dash or that you find upsetting or triggering I’d recommend blacklisting them. If people tag correctly you shouldn’t much/if any of it.

13.) Under blog settings you can also choose whether you want your blog to be searchable via the email address you registered with and on google. I switched this off pretty much as soon as it became a feature! My blogs, even my main blog are a piece of me which is only shared with a select few people in real life. I really do not need my colleagues, employers, certain family/friends finding this!

14.) Use Queues! I adore a queue.... Once I discovered they were a thing I try to have around 100 posts in my queue on main at any time. You can amend how many times you post a day (mine is around 8-12 times, I change it when i go away). It just means your blog remains active even if you can’t really log on for a week or two or if you’re on holiday. Occasionally I’ll add original posts into my queue with writing, it can be nice to come back and see the feedback. A lot of people put ‘queue’ in the tag, but you’ll realise most people have a quirky tag. For example on main mine is - one does not simply queue their way through tumblr. And on my red dead blog it’s - I had a god damn queue! Sadly on here I haven’t got one yet!

15.) Finally I would say engage in discourse as little as possible. It can be tempting and while drama can be fun for a while, even just to watch from the outside it can quickly escalate into something nasty and toxic. At first you might want to join in but tumblr can be, well it can be a lot at times and very noisy with everyone screaming their opinions and trying to be louder than the person before. I would say no fandom is inherently toxic, but it happens. A fandom I was heavily involved in last year had so much discourse and there was so much drama that even though I wasn’t involved in it my anxiety was through the roof, I had a panic attack over it and felt paranoid. After speaking to other older members in the fandom I felt much better (they too were annoyed with what was happening) and we realised that essentially a lot of it boiled down to a real lack of critical thinking. I’m not saying don’t get involved at all, sometimes I have seen things where I’ve felt things need to be said/action taken especially when it comes to intolerance and hatred. But I would say when you do engage - pick your battles. (I hope this last one makes sense). I started writing a lot more and going into the politics of it and ranting about bigots and then thought that’s probably enough! 😁

I hope this post helps! Like I said I’ve never been asked something like this so it took a bit of thinking but these are some of the key thoughts I had.

edit - I meant to add that obviously the above is just my opinion and based on my experiences on tumblr/thoughts about things.

#asks #blogging #tumblr stuff #advice I guess?#rambling #non aot #non snk

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kinkyacademia · 5 years

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Rules

Here they are! I know I recently answered an ask about our Rules/Guidelines but I hadn’t had the chance to update the Rules on the Blog yet. These Rules below are the new and updated Rules. These are our expectations of the people who follow out Blog but also to Rules that we as the Mods follow when responding to requests or questions. I hope these are good enough for all of you and that you can all respect them properly.

COMMON RULES

~ This is an 18+ Blog! There is no exception to this, almost everything we write here will contain sexual content in some way. This is not a place for Minors and as such, they should take care as to avoid our page. We make no apologies to those who stumble onto our Blog and are offended to find the content is nasty, kinky material because we make it very clear this is an 18+ Blog and no place for children!

~ SPOILERS!! Can’t make it any clearer that by following this blog you run the risk of finding spoilers. We make no apologies if you chance a look and are greeted with spoilers, this is not a spoiler free blog, there will be Manga spoilers here! So please, do not come bitch at us about finding spoiler content on our blog, it will be ignored!

~ We mods here on the blog, cover many different subjects while diving into our writings. Things can range from fluff to full blown kinky material within the blink of an eye. Be warned though, we also cover subjects like angst, depression and anxiety here on the blog. So please, be aware of that before delving too far.

~ All posts on the Blog are tagged as they need to be. If we believe that something is deserving of a Trigger Warning, it will be written in bold at the top of the request what the Trigger Warning is for. We tag things so that people can avoid reading content that they do not wish to be exposed to. Every now and again we may tag some things wrong, if that is to happen please let us know in a polite manner and without abusing us.

~ Any and all characters written for on this blog are AGED UP, even if it says they are in school or class. We will not write for minors in sexual content, so please don’t even ask for it.

~ Please be sure to be kind, not only to one another but also to the Mods of this blog. We write this content for free and we do our best to tailor the requests to your desires, so please keep in mind that any requests here will take time and energy. Keep in mind also, that all of us here at this blog are only HUMAN and have lives outside of the blog, screaming at us about your request not having been finished yet or taking too long will more than likely result in it not getting done

~ NO FIGHTING!! We will not tolerate fighting of any kind here on this Blog, no matter if it be with us or fellow followers. This entails and hate towards ships that you don’t fancy, if you don’t like a certain ship and we happen to write for it then please, don’t leave rude comments about it and just move on. Being toxic towards us and followers will see you blocked from the Blog; we will not tolerate that here!

~ Please be sure to check out our Masterlist if you find yourself wanting to read for a specific character or from a specific Mods works. Mobile users will have to search for the tag #masterlist in order to access the Masterlist and if it doesn’t work, we’re sorry, there really isn’t much we can do.

ASK BOX

~Mods on this Blog will open their Ask Box individually and take a specific number of requests before deciding to close their Ask Box again. Each time the Ask Box is opened by a Mod, there will be an announcement as well as the Bio of the Blog being changed to state which Mod is open. When their Ask Box is closed again, the Bio will be changed to state so and another announcement will be made to say the Mod is closing. Please, pay attention to the Bio before sending in requests.

~ If more than one Mod happens to be open at any one time, you will need to be sure to SPECIFY which Mod you’re sending in an Ask for, otherwise the Ask may end up getting deleted if neither Mod can figure out who it belongs to.

~ The only exception we have for requests being sent in while our Ask Box is closed are EMERGENCY Requests! Even then, we Mods will decided whether the request is really an emergency or just someone trying to be cheeky with us and get an ask in. Any requests sent in while the Ask Box is closed will be rejected and there for DELETED!

~ Please be sure to check up on what characters our Mods write for, not all of us write for the same characters and there are some characters that we absolutely refuse to write for. Please be mindful that some Mods will not write for certain things either, we ask that you respect our wished and follow the guidelines we set up for you. A list of characters that we write for is normally posted when we announce that we are opening our Ask Boxes, make sure to read it thoroughly.

~ There is a limit to three characters per every headcanons request that is sent in, this is to ensure the response doesn’t become too long or too repetitive as it tends to do.

~ We do not judge people for their kinks that they may ask of us here or the type of request they may send in, hell, we’re a bunch of perverse people anyways so we’ve probably seen worse. As much as we have nothing against generic requests, we tend to find it hard to work with them as there isn’t much to work with. We are only human after all and unfortunately that means that even we have limits to our imagination. Here is an example of what not to send in: “Can I get sfw and nsfw hc’s for (Character).” Instead trying adding a bit of detail about what you would like the headcanons to be about for example: “Can I get some hc’s for (Character) where they punish S/O after they’ve been cheeky towards them?” It’s nice and simple, but not too simple and there is plenty of room for us to expand on it. Please don’t go overboard though, there is no point sending us in a break down of the whole story and expecting us to expand on it, it’s just impossible as there is nothing left to work with; such requests will be automatically rejected.

~ MANNERS! We can not stress enough how important it is to use manners with us! Please, use your manners? As we have said before, we Mods here on the Blog are only human and not machines, we don’t just take orders. So please, can you be sure to throw in a little Please and Thank You when you’re making your requests of us?

~ No Spamming! Please, do not take it upon yourself to spam our inbox with requests. WE love to write and all but when we receive several requests in a row for the same character and they’re similar, we will not write for them. Spamming is unnecessary and unfair on the other followers of the blog. Please be mindful of the fact other people may want to make requests of us, not just you.

~ Character x Character requests are welcome here now. For a while there we weren’t writing for Character x Character and were keeping it for events only, but now we will write for it on a general basis so long as you stick to the rules and guidelines for asks and make sure that the Mod open writes Character x Character.

~ Hell, to the Heck NO! We will not under any circumstances write for Mineta or Endeavour here on this Blog, those characters are taboo here and are not talked about! There are several subjects that we as a whole refuse to write for, under no circumstances will we EVER write for Paedophilia or anything else that contains/involves underage sexual conduct. To elaborate of that, we will not write for situations where reader has been exposed to sexual situations as a child or anything else a child shouldn’t have to endure, that sort of thing is not tolerated here! We do not take student x teacher requests here either. The exception to that being if the reader is the teacher in their early years and the students in their last year of school!

~ Please be advised, if you ask one of the Mods for a darker theme such as angst, depression or anxiety. Please expect to get a darker themed response. We will NOT tolerate people being angry at us because a darker themed ask got a dark themed response, we can only work with what we’re given!

~ Reading the Mods Do’s and Don’ts before sending in asks is important, that information can be found in the Mods section on the blog, Mobile Users will have to search for the #mods in order to find this information. Any request that breaches a Mods Do’s and Don’ts will be deleted.

~ We reserve the right to delete any and all requests that we don’t exactly feel comfortable writing for, even if it’s not precisely breaching any rules. For instance, some Mods my be more open to writing extreme kinks or certain scenarios than others.

~ Anonymity is a privilege and one that can be revoked at any stage! Being snarky or rude to the Mods of this blog will result in the ability to send in Asks on Anonymous being removed. This is usually something we only do for a short period of time before restoring it but it can become permanent should problems be recurring.

#rules #new and updated #guidelines #please respect them #not a request #chatter #lady lucifer

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maychorian · 7 years

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Weekly Voltron Fic Recs #39

I’ve let this go too long and now the list is going to be ridiculous. But well, it’s going to be ridiculous for a while, so buckle up.

Rules: You can find past weekly rec lists here, and non-list recs in my general fic rec tag. Also follow @maychorianrecs for individually tagged posts, the easier to search and reblog. This is stuff I like, and I have a huge bias toward Lance, hurt/comfort, and general fluff, in that order. Gen unless otherwise noted. Please comment on the fics if you read and enjoy them!

Of Warmth, of Heat, of Dancing Sparks, of Burning Blaze by twilighteve Words: 11,074 Author’s Summary: When they landed in a planet for a mission, the last thing Keith expected Lance to do was for him to lean in close, squint, and exclaim, “Keith, you’re hot.” Or, in which Keith unlocks his powers, meets quintessence zombies, and cures them with his and Lance’s quintessence. My Comments: I’ve recced this series before, in which the paladins get elemental powers. This is a fun action/adventure type installment that requires Keith and Lance to work together to save a civilization. Great stuff.

The Wounds We Heal, and Those We Don’t by wingedflower Words: 2,336 (1/7) Author’s Summary: The time Lance has spent in the cryopod, being the first human ever to do so, results in him getting healing abilities. As first sight, it seems like a blessing - but some wounds cannot be healed so easily, as the team learns the hard way. My Comments: Really fun concept that’s well-written, and I can’t wait to see how this goes. Lance seems almost scared of his new powers, which is understandable when you stop to think about it. The author promises lots of angst.

Something Good by burlesquecomposer for loozers19 Words: 1,800 Author’s Summary: Pidge has a burden to bear, a mission to complete—a family to save. She picks up another one along the way. My Comments: Really sweet Garrison Trio bonding fic. Pidge wasn’t expecting to enjoy Hunk and Lance’s company, but she certainly does.

Champion and Challenger by BajillionKittens Words: 2,243 Author’s Summary: Night after night, there are transmissions. Chatter. Words. From some civilization far off world. She listens intently. Trying to make some sense of it all. There are broadcasts, communications. Every once in a while, there is music. And for nearly a week solid, there are sports. My Comments: Really cool concept, played out in an unexpected way.

Over the Edge by IcyPanther Words: 4,987 Author’s Summary: It was supposed to be a simple nature hike. What it turned into was anything but. And now Pidge and Lance are just hoping they can make it back alive. No pairings, friendship and bonding. My Comments: Good ol’ whump fic with both Pidge and Lance getting injured pretty badly, though Lance gets it worse by the end. They take care of each other, and somehow afterward they think it was a fun bonding experience, smh.

if i can’t drown, i’ll drift by catmittens Words: 4,228 Author’s Summary: A rendezvous mission turned sour. Some nasty injuries to tend to. They were fine, though. (That’s not quite true.) My Comments: In the aftermath of a bad mission, Pidge, Allura, and Shiro take care of each other. A bittersweet but lovely story that ends with some good ol’ platonic cuddling.

But I’m With You by Stratagem Words: 1,921 Author’s Summary: Lance plays with his younger siblings, turns into a kraken in a kiddie pool, and is saved by his mother. Go Mama McClain! Soft fluffy family story. Basically Lance playing with his younger siblings. My Comments: Super cute and fluffy, just Lance being happy pre-series with his little siblings and his mom. Very enjoyable read. This author excels at family fluff.

Home by Winchester_In_The_TARDIS_Of_Marvels Words: 2,112 Author’s Summary: Pidge left Earth far behind, but she still has a family and she still has a home. A reflection of Pidge’s relationship with the other Paladins. My Comments: Really lovely character study with Pidge connecting with each of the other paladins. Very soothing read.

if you’re bleeding from the heart by asexualrey Words: 8,675 Author’s Summary: Keith’s impulsiveness has never had dire consequences before—at least not ones that affect anybody but him. So when a split-second decision changes one of his teammate’s lives, he doesn’t know what to do. My Comments: Very deep fic, a lot of complex emotions and heartache. Poor Keith takes this event really, really hard, and it seems like no one can help him because he doesn’t really want to be helped.

Friends don’t let friends be sore (losers) by WildWolf25 Words: 8,031 Author’s Summary: Five times Lance gives someone on the team a massage and the one time he gets one in return My Comments: This is a very relaxing fic. The downside is that I really want a massage now. Mild Klance.

Luzia by Glyphhunter Words: 20,513 Author’s Summary: Keith doesn’t know where he is. In fact, he barely even knows who he is. All he remembers is a voice and face and even those are fading. But there’s one thing he knows for certain and it’s that forests generally don’t have three foot keys sticking out of the dirt. He’s going to touch it. My Comments: Cool sort of fantasy/otherworld mashup where Keith finds himself on a journey with some mythical creatures that actually look a lot like people we know. Fun to read.

Room with a View by isabeau25 Words: 10,089 Author’s Summary: Lance manages to carve out a space for himself in a hidden part of the castle. The rest of the team find their way there eventually. My Comments: Gah, I love this author’s fics so much. They are such a happy place for me. This is the most perfect fic about Lance dealing with homesickness by building a blanket fort and everyone gradually joining him that could possible exist. There are lots of hugs and cuddle piles, and it immediately shot into my favorite fics of all time. Lance so deserves a cozy place to sleep. Also Shiro gets a nap, that’s a good part, too. This one made my chest hurt, in a good way.

Finding My Place by SmolGooDragon Words: 16,581 Author’s Summary: When you’re one of five brand-new, elite pilots with the literal fate of the universe resting upon your shoulders, doubting yourself at some point is pretty much inevitable. Still dealing with the emotional aftermath of the fight with Sendak, a mission gone wrong is enough to shatter Pidge’s self-confidence… and it’ll take a lot of help from her teammates to pick up the pieces. My Comments: Great action and angst, with a really in-depth look at Pidge’s character, her fears and desires and insecurities. Along the way, Lance gets hurt, and Pidge blames herself. But it’s a happy ending, no worries.

We Are The Dead by MoonlitWaterSunnyRiver for ocathalain Words: 8,989 Author’s Summary: Their home is gone. Their families are dead. All Coran and Allura have are each other - and memories, bittersweet and drifting, of faces they’ll never see again. Written for Voltron Gen Mini Bang 2017, in collaboration with ocathalain! Betaed by Nightpelt and Cipheral. :) My Comments: Very poignant and bittersweet. Coran and Allura have both lost so, so much, and it’s good for us to take a moment to appreciate that. The worldbuilding and OCs are lovely in this.

The Library by lizzpercush Words: 36,155 Author’s Summary: Things you’re allowed to do when recovering from a concussion: Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Banned from Voltron and after a week of bed rest, Pidge is ready to climb the walls. So when Allura announces an Away Mission to the Library of Attaleia, Pidge is determined to go. After all, the Library is quiet, completely empty, and full of alien tech. She might not be allowed to fly the Green Lion or leave the Castle, but no one will notice if she tags along. My Comments: Fun action/adventure fic with the crew visiting an alien library that, whoops, has dangerous security systems. Mostly it’s about exploration and the Garrison Trio working together, with some tension between Pidge and Lance because Lance accidentally injured her and she’s extremely irritated about it.

what the living won’t let go by mumblefox Words: 9,132 Author’s Summary: After their battle with Zarkon, it takes Shiro a moment to realize that something’s a little strange. It takes him even longer to fix it. My Comments: Really beautiful fic about Shiro taking a journey through time and space after Season Two. He gets some rest, and some perspective, and comes back feeling great. The best possible outcome. I HOPE canon will be kind to him, too.

In the Aftermath by Smoke_Wisp Words: 32,686 Author’s Summary: “How do we bring him back?” It was the first time Keith had spoken since they’d found the Black Lion’s cockpit empty. “Well, I don’t know if we even can,” stammered Slav as Keith walked down the ramp towards him, “I don’t know the probabilities for where he might have gone.” “Then. Go. Figure. It. Out.” With each word, Slav kept bending backwards until he resembled one of those hot air stick people outside of car washes. His beak opened and closed, but no sound emerged and his eyes shifted towards Keith’s hand, which seemed uncomfortably close to his Bayard. “This will require quite a bit of math,” he said at last, “The kind that’s mostly letters and at least eight types of infinities.” Shiro’s vanished. The team has a lead on his whereabouts, but is it a trap?A drama with a good deal of humor and action mixed in. My Comments: Very fun post season two fic with the crew running into a new adventure while on the hunt for Shiro. I really enjoyed all of the worldbuilding, as well as the backstory for Keith and Pidge. Some drama and humor in there, too. It was like getting a good stand-alone episode of the show.

When the Cat’s Away by VelkynKarma Words: 22,758 Author’s Summary: Fresh after the Olkari liberation, the Voltron Alliance is contacted for assistance in rescuing valuable young hostages from their Galra occupiers. Voltron accepts the challenge, but when the prison break proves to be more complicated than anticipated, they need to change up their tactics…and rely on a few unexpected, and extremely tiny, allies. Keith is all for defeating the Galra and rescuing the hostages, but he’s not entirely certain how to feel about his newest paladin partner being a mouse, and not a Lion. My Comments: This is adorable and delightful! I love the way Velkyn writes the mice SO MUCH, and here Keith gets to learn how to get along and bond with another team member who is far too much like him for safety. A complete pleasure to read from beginning to end. I wish more fanfic featured the mice.

Until the Stars Burn Blue by Emerald_Ashes Words: 3,150 Author’s Summary: Even though it’s not always a constant presence, sometimes it’s hard to combat homesickness. Fortunately for Lance, he has some wonderful, and amazing friends. My Comments: Just exactly what I want in a birthday fic for Lance. It was so sweet and satisfying. Everyone hug the boy.

Another Year by MidnightCreator Words: 1,712 Author’s Summary: Lance’s birthday has rolled around and Coran decided to give the young human a surprise. My Comments: Super cute! Coran is such a good guy, doing something special for Lance’s birthday, and I also loved Hunk and Pidge talking about how to give Lance a good day far away from home.

A Thousand Burning Eyes by VelkynKarma Words: 55,900 Author’s Summary: He is the black paladin. In his very blood is the ability to lead, and his purpose has always been to protect. He will fulfill that purpose to protect the universe, no matter what it takes. That is the duty he swore to, and he will keep to that oath as a paladin until his dying breath. No matter what the cost may be. My Comments: I didn’t know that I NEEDED a fic from Zarkon’s perspective until I read this. The reasons for his fall and eventual descent into horrifying tyranny make so much sense, but that never detracts from just how awful his actions truly are. Everything fits together so WELL. I came very to feeling sorry for Zarkon when everything eventually falls apart, though I never rooted for him. This fic is definitely worth your time, just for the plot and the insight into what could have been. I hope canon will be even half this good.

Previously Recced Fics That Updated:

The Ones Who Were Left Behind (30922 words) The Field of Blood (15226 words) Slav has Seen Some Shit (3957 words) Ten Days (39234 words) Truce (162548 words) The Times They Remembered Pidge Was a Girl (13987 words) Watching You Fall (5966 words) - complete A (Space) Mother's Work is Never Done (8040 words) - complete If You Trust Me (10359 words) Takashi Shirogane Takes the World (6484 words) The Machinations of Perception (38637 words) Coran's Guide to the Care and Keeping of Earthling Humans (26148 words) Scattered (60269 words) Fusion Confusion (12739 words) Playing Catch-Up (33771 words) Out of Phase (18740 words) As Color Fades Away (90384 words) Lost Boys (18930 words) - complete familiar (85997 words) All The World Will Be Your Enemy (35111 words) - complete Grayscale Images (17841 words)

Stories with Season Three spoilers are under the cut.

silver linings by missmarvellous Words: 6,956 Author’s Summary: “Um,” says Lance, waving his fingers around a little bit, “It looks cool. You should try it." "We are not going to waste our time to paint our nails so we can match.” deadpans Kolivan. "Well sure,“ says Lance, "but don’t come crawling back to us when you can’t defeat Lotor ‘cause you refused to harness the power of friendship." /OR/ The one with Lance as nail polish god, a surprising amount homesickness, and memes. My Comments: Season Three spoilers, though written before the season came out. Really cute team bonding fic with everyone enjoying doing nail art together, even Keith. Kolivan is the only exception, and he is clearly missing out.

Voltron: Civil War by CrzyFun Words: 1,974 Author’s Summary: Spoilers for season 3 After saving yet another planet, Allura decides it’s time for Keith to learn better diplomacy skills. “That’s your leader?” My Comments: Season Three spoilers. Oooh, no they didn’t! I love that Allura speaks up in this one, when she used to be prejudiced against Keith, too.

Mad for Lance by Titans_R_Us Words: 1,422 Author’s Summary: It’s like being underwater. But you realize only have a couple seconds before your lungs burst. So you paddle for the surface frantically, desperately because you can’t breathe, but you’re not gonna make it. Lance gasps for air, but he can’t see anything in front of him except for Blue’s glowing barrier.And how it’s shutting him out. He’s tried everything. Tried using reason, his best flirty lines getting nothing, not even a blip, to frustrated begging because his, no their team, is out there and they need him. Don’t they? My Comments: Season Three spoilers. This one made my heart hurt, but in a good way. It’s not that Blue doesn’t want Lance. It’s that Red really, really wants him, and asks super hard for him. And she calls him Little Blue, which is the cutest thing I’ve read in fanfic for a while.

Mannequin by CelesteIsHere Words: 1,305 Author’s Summary: Shiro startled when he saw his reflection. Wet hair to his shoulders, sunken, dark circles around his eyes; a mostly black beard sprinkled with white. It was the first time he’d really seen himself. He was scared. My Comments: Season Three spoilers. This is short but very poignant, really captured how I feel about the show right now. Everything is uncomfortable. Everything is WRONG. Poor, poor Shiro.

New Born by Demenior Words: 7,084 Author’s Summary: [s3 compliant/inspired] Shiro doesn’t know how they found him. He doesn’t remember anything after the black bayard. But he woke up in this cell. He’s alone, cut off, and confused. That is, until, the Galra start bringing in the clones. My Comments: Season 3 spoilers. This story is horrific, like seriously, don’t read it unless you have a strong stomach. But it’s fascinating, too.

#voltron legendary defender #weekly voltron fic recs #fic rec #vldgen

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