Reblogged
*in penelope's costume* this is my husband
Reblogged
I would love to see a fantasy novel where the lore that the reader / protagonist learns at first is not true
e.g. they're told that this kind of creature has some kind of psychic or pheromone-based "mate bond" that cannot be broken; but it turns out that's a popular myth that has never been scientifically substantiated, and is basically used to keep people in bad relationships (basically the equivalent of "human women are biologically submissive")
"lore" is imo too often treated like information that the author is giving the reader, and it just happens to be using the medium of diagetic (that is, 'in-story') exposition.
it's so much more interesting and dynamic to treat "lore" as information that is generated and disseminated in-story. who is telling the protagonist this information? under what historical and social circumstances was this idea formed? what political motives are there for trying to get people to believe this information? which characters would disagree with it? would the protagonist believe it, or be sceptical? does the plot bear it out, or cast doubt on it?
OK so Massive spoilers for the first Mistborn book. Brandon Sanderson does this really well, I think. A lot if not all the lore we're given in the first book is called into question by the end of the book and this continues on into the second book. I've got a lot of examples down below but I must insist that these are massive spoilers they will taint your enjoyment of the book since it heavily relies on these misconceptions, misunderstandings and altered histories to drive the plot.
Seriously if you want to read Mistborn go do it and do not read further.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
They've got a class divide between the slaves called Skaa and the nobles. Most nobles are taught to believe the Skaa are lesser and stupid. This is such a widely held belief that even the main characters question if it's true and they are Skaa and have fooled other nobles into believing they aren't. But it's later revealed that it's not just the Skaa being a repressed, uneducated and generally beaten down people. The Ministry actually has emotion dampening stations scattered through the slums to keep them from having any passion or strong emotions.
The Lord Rulers is an immortal that can survive burnings, decapitations and you name it because he's a "sliver of god"? Nope just a combination of magic systems that make him appear that way.
The little paragraphs at the start of each chapter are from the Lord Rulers diary that the main cast steal at the mid point of the book? No! It's the Hero's diary and his packman killed him and took his place. Which is why they don't match up personality wise and not because becoming a part god changed him.
There are only 8 standard magic powers and the 2 timey wimey magics? No again there's a 9 and the 2 time ones are separate magics and not a pair so there's another 3 undiscovered ones out there. By the start of the 2nd book the main character is doing research into them because if people missed that many how many more could there be? There's a secret 11th magic that can kill the Lord Ruler? Nope, I think this one might be a broken telephone situation. "The 11th metal will reveal that the Lord Ruler killed the Hero" became "The 11th metal can kill him" because he was faking being the hero and wires got crossed but it is never confirmed in the books.
People using copper magic can't be detected as using magic? Nope turns out the inquisitors can still detect you. Which recontectualises the supposed betrayal the main suffered.
mistborn is an especially fun example of this because (spoilers ahoy) if the reader is paying attention, you can watch the lore change in real time, because it is being actively fucked with by an antagonist god(?)
one of the key plot points of the second book is an established prophecy about the 'Hero of the Ages.' One of the characters goes to examine the original text of the prophecy and realizes to his excitement that the description of the Hero is gender neutral! Does this mean the prophecy could actually apply to his friend, Vin, after all?!
Nope! The prophecy always used male pronouns. It was being edited on the fly to mislead the characters.
Reblogged mikkeneko
Reblog for greater sample size.
We have 24 hours to make this the most voted on poll in Tumblr history
Reblogged theapplepielifestyle
Ok this might be a bit of a weird question but I keep arguing with my mom and sis about this so I need y'all to answer this
[For context my mom and sis keep telling me I shower for too long but my showers are usually 45 minutes to an hour]
(edit: *your showers not you showers)
Reblogged dduane
Btw much as I love to make fun of twitter and reddit's business decisions, I have 0% trust in tumblr's management to not go a similar route so this is your gentle reminder that you should regularly go to your blog settings to export your blog. That's a fancy way of saying you can download a backup of your blog so if everything goes down you'll still have a backup of your posts & convos.
It's gonna come as a surprise to most of you, but if you don't want to do that for whatever reason you're allowed to not reblog this post. I'm not holding a gun to your head here I'm just trying to spread the word for people who do want a backup of their stuff.
Also, made this guide for backup Tumblr blogs (ft. export blog method, and python 3 script method):
Reblogged mikkeneko
Every writing advice ever: If you’re having trouble with a scene, skip it and write a different part of the story.
Me: If I don’t write in chronological order, I will die
Reblogged flange5
my brother had a brilliant idea that i wanted to share with other people who have four-legged family members: he trained our two cats to go directly to the door when they hear the fire alarm.
obviously at first the fire alarm sent them scrambling for cover, but he started slowly by giving them treats whenever it went off, when someone burned food or forgot to open the fireplace flu. he then progressed to calling them to the door to offer treats immediately after the alarm went off. and it actually wasn't too long before the cats voluntarily started going to the door upon hearing the alarm.
i think this was genius because in the event of a real emergency we know exactly where the cats will be and we will not have to waste precious time trying to find them to rescue them. i think this method would work equally well with dogs and probably other free-roaming pets such as rabbits, ferrets, etc. and i certainly encourage others to give it a shot!
I trained Neelix to alert me to Sounds. So in the even of A Sound he'd find me to let me know about it. Oven timers, knocking at the door, weird creature stuck in the yard, etc. This has the added effect of being able to scoop him up and bring him to safety in the event said sound is a fire alarm or a tornado siren.
The downside is, when I had a baby, every time it cried he'd barrel into the room to let me know. Even if I was already in the room. And if I couldn't make The Sound stop (because an infant works differently than an oven timer), he'd start biting me urgently. 😅
Confused, but doing his best:
Oh, context is that I'm deaf not that I wanted to create a beast that'd harass me over sounds.
Reblogged flange5
the emotion i just experienced is kind of indescribable
the funniest part of this post to me is that the reblog:like ratio is nearly 1:1. nobody’s just liking everyone who sees this video goes yeah i gotta inflict it on as many people as possible
