“Who the hell are you?”
“A man who was born long before the age of chivalry.”
04x10 Chivalry
These two!!!!! my first fannish loves!!!!!!!
I owe 20 years of fandom to this episode :-)
20+ Ah, yes, that scene!
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SIHYEON SLAY (Studio Choom)
go here and let me know what your short term top artists from spotify (within the last 4 weeks) are in the tags!
MORE PHOTS IN MUH REBLOG
Psst. Don't tell the jolkein rolkein rolkein estate, but this is amazing. DO consider buying a print from the extraordinary artist responsible:
Original Twitter thread with the artist's thoughts and commentary:
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isnt it insane that merry and pippin spent like the span of weeks apart in different countries and immediately made new besties whose lives they save in their final battles. like merry strikes the blow on the witch king that lets eowyn kill him and pippin pulls faramir out of denethor's pyre. and then eowyn and faramir ended up marrying each other. isn't that wild. were merry and pippin conspiring in the houses of healing like hey i think my new best friend would be great with your new best friend how quickly do you think we can get them to fall in love. was there great hobbit cacophony when faramir kisses eowyn on the ramparts. i think yes.
in honor of ace week id like to shoutout every asexual who first thought they were bi/pan because they looked at all the genders and felt no difference and zero is equal to zero so they said “huh. must be bisexual” and then shoved their sexuality back under the rug for 3-5 years
As a member of the bi community, ace people are always welcome underneath the bi umbrella
Galaxy brain take, and I’ll embrace it on the merit of being inclusive and fun.
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You are locked in, just the two of you, with no possibility of escape and no way to communicate with the outside.
This menu of terrible options brought to you by me asking myself: "which danmei characters would be the most unbearable to deal with"
(I still love them all but good gods. can you imagine.)
Dude, 24 hours with WWX is easy. You ask three questions and then spend then next twenty hours getting a crash course about How Talismans Work from the ground up that's more in-depth than most cultivators learn in twenty years. Literally all you need to do is get him going on a topic that 1) interests him, 2) interests you, and 3) does not require WWX to talk or think about WWX one bit. You have just 100% guaranteed your mutual survival in the face of the greatest horror of this situation, the infinite boredom of being trapped in one room for 24 hours at all.
The 11% of people voting for Jin Ling thus far, on the other hand...I have questions.
It really does depend on the size of the room, though. Like, if we're talking tiny room, where we have no choice but to be in each others' space, WWX all the way, cause if I can't ignore him, I might as well be entertained. Bigger room though, with a little space to spread out? I feel like i could get HC or MBJ to agree that neither of us wanted to be in this situation and it would be easiest for both of us if we just quietly ignored one another.
gen fic appreciation post. i love you gen fic. i love you serious, plot-heavy gen fic. i love you funny, lighthearted gen fic. i love you angsty whump and h/c gen fic. i love you emotionally complex and intimate gen fic. i love you super long chaptered gen fic. i love you oneshot gen fic. i love you strictly canon adherent gen fic. i love you alternate universe gen fic. i love you crossover gen fic. i love you gen fic about queer identity and relationships. i love you found family gen fic. i love you gen fic.
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Dear Author
Hello to my Purim Gifts Author! For the most part, I’m just really excited to be a part of this exchange again! It has been a great experience in the past, and hopefully it will be again this year.
To start off with, here are some things I love in fanfic:
- Exploring background (character, history, families, world) - a great example of this would be fic in LotR that explores the histories of female characters in the kingdoms of men (Gondor, Arnor, Rohan, etc…). This is something that I’ve both written and like to read, but the same concept can be applied to a lot of fandoms
- No romance or making it queer - in general, I’m more into character studies and friendship and found family fic, but when it comes to relationships, I am way more interested in an array of queer relationships, but I’d still rather not have a relationship be the focus in most of the fics that I read
- Friendship and found family
- Positive sibling dynamics
- Kid fic - this kind of ties into exploring background, but I really enjoy happy kid fic
On the other side of things, a few things to preferably avoid:
- I think that most of this is covered by No Archive Warnings Apply
- And by the fact that I’ve requested General Audiences as my rating
- straight relationships as the focus - I’m totally fine with straight relationships being present, or even tangentially important to a fic, but in general, I would prefer not having a story that I’m reading be about a straight relationship
- tragic/sad/hopeless endings - these are just something that I don’t seek out in fiction in general, be it fanfic or books/movies/tv shows
As a side note for a few of my fandoms:
- I’m not completely caught up in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books: I’ve not read the Beka Cooper or Numair books
- I’m not completely caught up in Tamora Pierce’s Emelan books either: I still need to read Melting Stones and Battle Magic
- For Bujold’s Vorkosigan saga, I’ve read everything prior to Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
- In Star Wars, there are also some things that I’ve not finished: I’ve only watched about half of Rebels, I’ve not seen the final season of Clone Wars, I’ve not seen the last movie of the Sequel Trilogy, and I’ve only watched the first few episodes of The Mandalorian. I’m also not particularly deep into legends, and I’ve not watched Resistance.
Overall though, I am super excited to see what you come up with!
Etienne
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I think that something that is good to remember about the “Jin Guangyao vs. Nie Huaisang conflict” is that the two of them are not playing chess against each other. Jin Guangyao is playing chess against maybe 80% of the cultivation world while Nie Huaisang is sitting next to him eating his pieces when he’s not looking.
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“Accidentally Asexual” should be an AO3 tag for when a character gets written as ace mostly because the author was ace and Forgot.
Like the character was intended to be allo but an ace author just. Forgot. That sexual attraction isn’t just a plot device.
Libido ex Machina
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So, writing advice from someone who has done marginally okay with writing;
- Get on Twitter: all of publishing rn is on Twitter right now. That’s where you need to be.
- Participate in Pitch Parties. These are events on Twitter where you put out a short pitch (usually between 5-10 throughout the day) and agents like pitches they’re interested in. DO NOT LIKE OTHER WRITER’S PITCHES. Retweet to show support unless the rules specify otherwise. But never ever do the thing exclusive to agents (usually likes).
- Get into some writing discords. Not only are these great places to find fellow writers and to network but they’re a great way to build a whisper network
- Build a whisper network. Publishing is a shady game. There are lots of “publishing houses” you shouldn’t sign with if your life depended on it. One example of these are vanity press scams. If you don’t have a whisper network yet, follow the Twitter account @/YaWhispers - these are a great source of info on shady agents and publishers.
- Before you sign with anyone CHECK CHECK CHECK their reputation. Talk to their other clients, see what their sales are like, check where they’ve worked before, ask around other authors, search their name on Twitter and see if they’ve been in any scandals. New agents can be great - they often have more time for you because they have fewer clients, so this isn’t to say never sign with a new agent, but just be cautious.
- MSWLs (Manuscript Wishlists) are your best friend. Search using sites like manuscriptwishlist.com and mswishlist.com to find agents who are actively seeking out works like yours. Then, once you’ve found them, vet those agents like it’s your job.
- Look agents up on querytracker. Querytracker is your new best friend, so say hi and get well-acquainted. This is where you’ll be able to read feedback, see what their generic response forms look like, check their response times, etc etc etc. Enjoy! You’ll be spending a LOT of time researching on here.
- Follow authors who write in your genre, find out who their agents are, and follow those agents. From there, you’ll find agents THEY retweet and interact with and build your network.
- Speaking of, interact! Lots of authors are super sweet and love chatting to up-and-coming authors (shout out to Ryan La Sala, Rebecca Mix, and all those lovelies) and will be super generous with their time as long as you’re also being supportive of them.
- If you want, try entering contests on Twitter! Though I didn’t get anywhere in PitchWars, one of my good friends is in the finals right now! But from PW I got a whole new group of writing buds and met loads of great people. This isn’t your only way into publishing, it’s just one.
- Your query letter, your pitch, and your first 3 chapters are arguably the most important things you’ll ever write. Write them. Rewrite them. Send them to your author friends. Rewrite them again. These are the things that will make an agent go ‘ooh, interesting’ and request more pages, or send you straight to the slush pile.
- If you decide to use comps, make them strong. Comps (or comparisons) are titles that are like yours, and will paint a picture for an agent of the vibe of your book. For example, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell might be comped as ‘HARRY POTTER’s Drarry meets 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU’. Magic? Check. Enemies to lovers? Check. Yay.
- When picking comps, you want something that’s not too mainstream and not to obscure, and you want to say your books are like that. Don’t say you’re the next JK Rowling, or your book is the next Harry Potter, because that sounds gross af.
Okay I have so so so many more tips so if you have specific questions, queries, etc. then drop me a DM and I can answer specific questions or make lists that are around particular topics (e.g. query letters, elevator pitches, choosing comps, any jargon that you don’t know, etc.)
Okayyyy byeeeee and good luck for those out on query!
This is all good advice. I’ve done a number of pitch parties on Twitter, and while I haven’t found an agent yet, I’ve recently gotten into two different anthologies thanks to socializing between pitches. The writing community is big. (Full of spam, but big.)
Twitter is like any social media: follow people whose content you want to actually see. Just be prepared for it to come with an inescapable percentage of Current Events that isn’t filtered through memes first.
Tumblr is a fast food joint with your friends, laughing about how well C3PO would get along with Data. Twitter is a cocktail party with the actual creators of Star Trek and Star Wars mingling with hordes of newbies, all of whom are keeping an ear open for mentions of a job opening. Everyone in the room would probably also be interested in seeing C3PO meet Data.
Forever obsessed with the fact that even the in-universe annotation in the appendices talking about how Legolas brought Gimli along to Valinor with him is like “We don’t actually know how they managed this. By all accounts, it doesn’t make any sense”
Gimli: So you know I’m on board with this, obviously, but like. If the world is flat for you, and it’s NOT flat for me, and the boat is only supposed to be able to get there the flat way…
Legolas: ?
Gimli: What happens if we’re both on the boat?
Legolas: I don’t know, but we’re gonna find out
[Insert title card reading MYTHBUSTERS: ARDA EDITION]
For reference:
Appendix A:
“Gimli Gloin’s son is renowned, for he was one of the Nine Walkers that set out with the Ring; and he remained in the company of King Elessar throughout the War. He was named Elf-friend because of the great love that grew between him and Legolas, son of King Thranduil, and because of his reverence for the Lady Galadriel.
After the fall of Sauron, Gimli brought south a part of the Dwarf-folk of Erebor, and he became Lord of the Glittering Caves. He and his people did great works in Gondor and Rohan. For Minas Tirith they forged gates of mithril and steel to replace those broken by the Witch-king. Legolas his friend also brought south Elves out of Greenwood, and they dwelt in Ithilien, and it became once again the fairest country in all the westlands.
But when King Elessar gave up his life Legolas followed at last the desire of his heart and sailed over Sea.
Here follows one of the last notes in the Red Book
We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Gloin’s son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-Earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of a desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter.”
Appendix B:
“1541 – In this year on March 1st came at last the Passing of King Elessar. It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king. Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-Earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.”
Several Notes:
Firstly: Gimli was named Elf-friend because of the great love and friendship that grew between him and Legolas, ‘greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf’
Secondly: It is, indeed, considered absolutely baffling to everybody that Legolas could have successfully managed to smuggle a dwarf into elf heaven, and that Gimli would have been willing to go (that a dwarf would go ‘for any love’)
Thirdly: Best guess anyone has is that they maybe flattered Galadriel enough for her to successfully bully gods into letting them in
Fourthly: Legolas built the ship. Legolas. The landlocked forest elf who’s never sailed an ocean or seen the Undying Lands in his life, and neither have any of his people. Now, granted, there was about a hundred years between the Quest and them sailing, so probably, hopefully, there was enough time for Legolas to learn ship-building and navigation and all that, but still. Legolas learned how to build himself and Gimli a ship, from scratch, to sail across an unknown ocean to an elf heaven that mortals cannot reach in hopes of staying together
Fifthly: Gimli went along with this. Gimli son of Gloin got into Legolas’ homemade boat and sailed across an ocean neither of them knew on the hope that Legolas could somehow smuggle him into elf heaven against all precedent and history at the end of it. Like, either Gimli just had complete and utter faith in Legolas and in the elves he’d known who’d gone before them, OR Gimli considered it worth it to die lost on the ocean just to accompany Legolas as much of the way as he could
I love these two so much, because on the one hand I’m crying about the faith and friendship, and on the other hand I’m just reconsidering once again that, in Gimli’s old age, when pretty much all their other friends were dead or gone west, this pair of idiots decided to build a ship from scratch, sail an ocean, and smuggle a dwarf into elf heaven, because fuck it, what’s the worst that could happen? Gimli’s going to die eventually regardless. Might as well at least attempt the impossible on the way, you know?
They were resolutely ridiculously right up to their literal (un)dying day, and I adore them
Enjoying the image of galadriel successfully bullying gods to get gimli into elf heaven
I’m sorry but where is the nine hour masterpiece of THIS
The Untamed ★ Characters:
THE JUNIOR QUARTET
i cant describe how much i love the junior quartet so here u go
I keep thinking about this tweet, how meaningful and reassuring it was that when one pillar of my childhoods crumbled, the others stepped forward to show they would continue to shoulder the remaining weight all their own.
And this phrase in particular — “I do not think these things of you” — is such a quintessential Piercian refrain. It’s direct in a way that cuts to the core of the argument. It’s a little old fashioned, a bit clunky in its plainness. It acknowledges the distasteful power an argument may hold while simultaneously denying it room to breathe.
I keep hearing that thing Tammy said about Alanna and Kel—which itself is not particularly meaningful to me—playing in my head over and over like a mantra. Because it’s catchy.
“Alanna prefers “Sir” because she was making a point. Kel prefers “Lady Knight” because she’s making a different point.”
…The clarity! The concision! The oddly plain, repetitive twist, easily avoided, that nonetheless persists and makes you stumble.
The statement cuts straight to the point, but it leaves space for you to draw the conclusion yourself. It’s instructive but not pedagogical. It’s a bit awkward, but somehow that works in its favor.
It’s a way Tammy has of writing that I (an overwriter, an overthinker) have held up in my head as a model for years. As much as I am grateful for Tammy’s consistent stance on the right side of the fight for justice, I am also grateful for her specific way with words: simple, blunt, and unadorned, which has meant something to me for so long.
Anyone else remember that scene in Bloodhound where Bekah asks a trans woman how she can just get on stage and be a beautiful woman and she was all, “It’s cuz I *am* a beautiful woman, and we have Queer mythology btw.”
she retroactively made kel ace almost on a whim and then when ace fans damn near cried with joy over it, she went all in and doubled down on it to make sure we got that protagonist representation, while also validating aces who spent a while figuring out their orientation or have dated before - a thing you NEVER see in any medium EVER tammy pierce knows damn well the power an author can wield for good, and has spent decades learning alongside her audience and trying to meet the needs of her fans in any way she can
[Image Description: A tweet by Tamora Pierce @/TamoraPierce, dated June 10, 2020. It reads, “Regarding JKR’s statement: I do not think these things of you. I do not believe you are not who you are. I know you have fought a long, hard battle to become yourselves in the eyes of the world. In my eyes, you are heroic. #TransWomenAreWomen #TransMenAreMen” /End ID]