Chronology of the Billabong books along with ages of the major players, as calculated to the best of my ability. I don’t know why I felt compelled to do this, but compelled I did feel, and I think it’s pretty accurate?

For all three people in the world that might be interested in this (say hi if you feel like it!), I’ll be putting up an evidence post soonish. (Lookit, did any of you realise the age difference between Jim and Tommy was a whole five years?)

@annaysayer @endless-skyway Look at this! Thank you @evienneb :D

How is there 5 years between Jim and Tommy? I thought she was Norah’s age

I’m in the process of writing a way-too-detailed explanation of all of the above! I was surprised too!

Also, the date for Billabong Adventurers is incorrect; it should be Spring 1921, it’s fixed on the original post now. 😊

@evienneb you’re a beautiful person! I was going through a chronology too, as @waltermeadows will attest! I picked her brains over it!

I’m SO DELIGHTED at the thought that this could possibly be useful to anybody! (Can you take pity on me, though, and should you ever have cause to reblog this chart again--could you use the one currently on the original post? The fact that this version has BA occupying the same timeframe as BOB is deeply upsetting! Proofreading, gah!)

Chronology of the Billabong books along with ages of the major players, as calculated to the best of my ability. I don’t know why I felt compelled to do this, but compelled I did feel, and I think it’s pretty accurate?

For all three people in the world that might be interested in this (say hi if you feel like it!), I’ll be putting up an evidence post soonish. (Lookit, did any of you realise the age difference between Jim and Tommy was a whole five years?)

@annaysayer @endless-skyway Look at this! Thank you @evienneb :D

How is there 5 years between Jim and Tommy? I thought she was Norah’s age

I'm in the process of writing a way-too-detailed explanation of all of the above! I was surprised too!

Also, the date for Billabong Adventurers is incorrect; it should be Spring 1921, it's fixed on the original post now. 😊

Star Wars rambling...

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the prequel trilogy and The Force Awakens have problems that are the opposites of each other: the prequels have a compelling underlying plot but suffer from poor execution, while TFA is marvelously executed but its plot is lackluster and derivative. As much as I adore the prequels (they were my gateway to the series, after all!), the acting is generally iffy, the romantic dialogue in Episode II especially is totally cringeworthy, and some of the characterization is a little off. But the story beneath all that- a crumbling Republic, a faltering Jedi Order faced with the resurgence of its ancient enemy, a tremendously powerful young Jedi besieged by inner demons, the man who trains him but is heartbreakingly incapable of halting his descent into the darkness, the idealistic young stateswoman he is forbidden to love, and a prophecy that promises so much more from him than the evil he’s delivering - the story is golden. It’s genius. It just got a little bogged down in the process of coming to life is all. 

TFA, on the other hand, shines in all the details that the prequels fumble on. The dialogue is snappy. The acting is, for the most part, first-rate; probably the best Star Wars has ever seen. The relationships between the characters are well-rendered and totally believable. As a whole, it’s executed so well that it’s only when you start to really think about the plot that you begin to realize that it has serious flaws. Like, for instance, the fact that the bare bones of its story are essentially stolen from the body of A New Hope. That’s troublesome in its own right (especially in the context of Star Wars’ historic ability to deliver something fantastically new), but it’s when the consequences of this blatant copying start interfering with the arcs of original trilogy characters that it becomes a serious issue. In order to carry on the “fallen family member in need of redemption” plotline, TFA splits up Han and Leia (though it does it in the best possible way, admittedly. Execution at its finest, people) and sends Luke running away from it all (???)- all this after Return of the Jedi establishes Han and Leia in a fire-forged relationship and Luke demonstrates his dogged persistence in personally restoring his fallen loved one to the Light. Seriously, what gives?

At any rate, I love both the prequels and TFA with my whole heart. Padmé is still my hero, even if her romantic scenes with Anakin give me a secondhand embarrassment so acute that I literally have to shield my face from the screen every time they pop up. And Obi-Wan’s “You were my brother, Anakin! I loved you!” is a knife in my heart EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. (I still have never cried so much at a movie as I did at my first viewing of Revenge of the Sith) The (probably infamous, now) bridge scene is one of my favorite scenes in the entirety of TFA, although the thought of Han and Leia being permanently separated after ever enduring a separation in their marriage makes me want to scream. (Insert gif of brand new Darth Vader bellowing “NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” here) And Finn and Rey’s friendship is currently my favorite thing (seconded by Finn in general). Basically, I have a lot of critical analysis thoughts about Star Wars and a lot of deep feels about it, too, and I’m really glad that the two can exist without ruining each other. Guess that’s hardcore fandom for you. ^ ^    

This is great. This is really great. :) :) :) I have a hard time articulating why I love the prequels and TFA when the way I love them is so different? But this. This is it. :D

The Force Awakens

Friend: So when did you start crying?

Me:

Star Wars: The Force Awakens has completed principal photography.

I love Sorting characters into Hogwarts Houses. It’s pretty much the most fun way to do a meta character analysis. It’s also fraught with danger, because everybody has strong opinions about which House so-and-so belongs in, and that’s very...

Sorting Jack Kelly

I love Sorting characters into Hogwarts Houses. It’s pretty much the most fun way to do a meta character analysis. It’s also fraught with danger, because everybody has strong opinions about which House so-and-so belongs in, and that’s very understandable because where you Sort people depends a lot on how your interpret the character (which of their traits you think are most important, which appeal to you most), and depending on how complex the character is, it’s quite possible to come up with four different Houses with equally compelling reasoning behind it.

So I’m going to rock the boat a bit, because I happen to be one of those people who had mentally Sorted Jack Kelly into Gryffindor, when apparently the fan-favourite House for Jack is Hufflepuff. I’ve given the thing a lot more thought since then and kept my mind wide open, but I’m sticking to my guns, and here is why. You ready? :D

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Ooh! I hope you don’t mind if I respond to this with my own explanation of why I tend to put Jack in Hufflepuff. I’m not really trying to argue with you or anything. This is a good analysis, and I definitely think you’ve got a solid basis for Gryffindor!Jack here. I just wanted to offer a counterpoint because I really love talking about sorting Newsies. (I’m also gonna stick to the movie, for simplicity’s sake)

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This is an excellent, excellent response and thank you so much for it!

House Sorting based one what the character values is a really popular way to look at things, and I agree with it, but I do think that you have to consider the way they go about protecting what they value, too. I think that both Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs are highly family/friends-motivated, they just differ in the way they express this motivation. Hufflepuffs want to be there for their friends (e.g. give them support and hugs, make them tea, band together in general to deal with problems), but Gryffindors want to defend theirs.

(I hear what you're saying about how Jack steps in and is brave for his friends, but look at Harry himself. Harry couldn’t care less about the glory and fame either; all he really wants is his parents back and his friends to be safe and to go and live a quiet life where nobody will talk to him about being the Chosen One again. But he’s called to be his friends’ hero, not their support group, and that he’s able and willing to rise to the call [as well as having a bad case of daredeviltry] is why he’s a Gryffindor.)  

You make a really good point (like, a super-duper good point) about how Jack ditches all defiance when he turns scab and that that’s really uncharacteristic of a Gryffindor, but rather than this being a natural course of action for him, I actually see it as being a huge character development moment, because Jack’s already lost one friend to the Refuge this movie already, and being defiant (let’s soak them for Crutchy!) did jack-all (excuse the pun :p) to protect him. So Jack’s trialing another approach now—one that comes less naturally to him.

Right there, I think Jack is really struggling with the decision he just made to roll over and give up, because prior to this he would absolutely have pushed back and he still really, really wants to.

In the end, though, I think it’s Jack’s natural leadership that pushes me right over at Gryffindor, because I really don't think any other House leads like a Gryffindor leads.

(But thanks again heaps and heaps for your response, I understand so much better where the Hufflepuff!Jack people are coming from now, and I have got to say that if we don’t act together then we’re nothing, if we don’t stick together, we’re nothing; and if we can’t even trust each other, then we’re nothing! is an exceedingly Hufflepuffy creed. So…he could go both ways equally easily? :) And also, okay, but a Slytherin and Hufflepuff dream team, all right, you’ve sold me there, that’s miles better than Slytherin and Gryffindor. :D)

Half-Century

Or: if you had told me that my first real long Wodehouse fanfic posting would be about vampires, I would have said you were out of your mind. But this whole “Psmith as dissatisfied immortal” concept insisted on being written, and then it got completely out of hand. So—

AU. Psmith’s a vampire, Mike’s a werewolf. Kind of a downer, if I’m gonna be honest. Read at own risk.

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NO it's too perfect and sad and apparently I can only like this once and *howls*

(I'm up in the middle of the night getting a drink of water like a sane human being and then apparently I had to check my dashboard, and now I'm reviewing this thing and I'm going to be tired out for work tomorrow and it's all your fault but I don't care a bit)

Firstly WELL DONE ON THE CRICKET REFERENCE TITLE ALLIE colour me impressed :D

Secondly, your Psmith voice is unparalleled. How on earth do you do it? Making a case for immortality based on developing cricketing expertise is so hilariously him. And it's hard to pick out a best-of Psmith line in this because they're all so perfectly perfect, but maybe this one?:

And, like, if I had a dollar for every time somebody made me choke up in the middle of this, I'd be able to retire in comfort. Psmith getting more and more honest as the conversation wears on because of how much he doesn't want to lose this one friend of his; Mike's attachments pulling him so hard both ways at once; Psmith eventually just putting himself right on the line--

I love this line. It encapsulates the whole of the fic: Psmith doing his best not to be pushy, but watching him for his answer because what Mike says matters so much--there's a lot of vulnerability here--and the little cricket pun tops it off.

Stop making me cry, please. 

This response is so inadequate for how greatly wonderful this fic is, but I do have to sleep, so just WOW this is more than I ever could have imagined it to be, and you've totally hit that elusive tone right on the head and I am so impressed and full of emotion and if I spend the day occasionally breaking down, well, that's all on you.