#anghraine's recs
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I honestly don't remember who I saw the link from, but I just found Bret Devereaux's analysis of the Siege of Gondor in the LOTR films and the book (the part most relevant to my Stewardist interests is here, but I read the whole thing once I started!). I don't agree with all his interpretations on the literary level, but they're generally defensible and the military analysis is fascinating.
An excerpt:
In contrast to the film, the book shows Faramir and Denethor’s handling of the battle as nothing short of a masterful execution of defense in depth. At each stage, the army of Mordor is forced to sustain casualties and disorder to surmount one set of defenses, only to be presented with fresh defenses and troops. At the end of it, Denethor’s sortie shatters Mordor’s vanguard and buys the escape of Faramir’s force. Thus for all of their pains and delays, the Army of Mordor faces a Minas Tirith fully defended, having lost the chance to destroy a good part of the army of Gondor in the field.
#someone who actually comprehends the strategies underpinning the siege!!!#i mean. one would hope a military historian would! but still—it's so overwritten by the films in the popular imagination#that tolkien and his characters are frequently blamed for things that the films made up#so this was genuinely refreshing as well as just generally interesting!#also as someone who is sometimes :| about the reliance on history in literary criticism#i think this is a good example of how to bridge the literature-history gap without dismissing literariness as valuable in its own right#anghraine babbles#legendarium blogging#anghraine's recs#not my meta#faramir#denethor#lord of the rings#lord of the rings movies#pj critical#(though devereaux is more generous than me by a mile. lol.)
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Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor & K-2SO
Characters: Cassian Andor, Jyn Erso, K-2SO (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Grief/Mourning, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Cybernetics, Friendship, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Dorks in Love, Serious Injuries, Hurt/Comfort
Series: Part 2 of now you're the future
Summary:
After narrowly surviving his injuries on Scarif, Cassian wakes to the loss of Kay, uncertainty about Jyn, and a damaged spine.
(Direct sequel to threshold of a dream.)
-
from @anghraine
#Cassian Andor#Jyn Erso#rebelcaptain#fanfiction#recs#anghraine#post-Scarif#Cassian's spinal injuries#Jyn's not going anywhere#star wars#search your feelings you know it to be queue
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💬(like a storm in the desert) & ❤️(somewhere never travelled)
For ❤️ for your beautiful Somewhere Never Travelled:
Jyn brushes her knuckles against his shoulder and drops the rusted out shell of a detonator switch back on the pile between them. The faint freckles across her nose set off a sharp wave of tenderness he’s learned to ride out.
And I think you might have meant for @anghraine to see this since they wrote the lovely like a storm in the desert, but here's another fave of mine from that fic:
Laughing, they walked over to the lift and stumbled inside. Standing there in each other’s arms, making nonsense conversation she couldn’t even remember for any onlookers, she did think of Scarif. They’d stood almost like this as Jyn braced him with her body, the arm about his waist then at the back of his neck, in his hair. She’d kissed him then, in fear and desperation and the sheer force of emotion at his survival, his return, just how badly he was hurt. She imagined doing it again, his mouth warm instead of cold, eyes closed instead of pained. Zara would. Lieutenant Erso would—why not?
Jyn’s gaze flickered to his mouth, lingered; Cassian’s mirrored hers, trailed down the same path. She could feel his breath against her, in his body and against her face, he must feel hers, and maybe it was her imagination, but she thought she could hear it, too, that bit heavier as he babbled on about some colonel.
But they were Jyn and Cassian, tender behind their double shells, and this time, easily victorious rather than desperately so. They did nothing except look, and pretend to more.
And I'll do safe house in the hurricane for my own 💬 response:
It’s so hard not to think of you—I have so much to tell you, a broken man whispers, his image blurring as the ground shakes, and she has to reach him, she has to—climb. She climbs up the ladder and it stretches on forever toward a light she’s afraid she can’t reach, but she has to, her hands slipping on the rungs, her teeth clenched so hard around the sobs in her throat her jaw aches steady now, a cruel familiarity.
It’s the rain of Eadu streaking down her face, it’s the cold spray of the waves crashing on Scarif’s shores. A shout rings out into the air, her name, the name she hasn’t heard in so long, certainly not spoken with any fragment of love—it’s more often a knife held against her throat, only a weapon wielded to trap her—but no. It’s Cassian’s voice reaching out to her as she climbs up the data tower, Cassian shouting her name before he falls and breaks his back.
Cassian, her heart.
[ask me about fic quotes!]
#burberrycanary#replies#writer reader quotes#star wars fic recs#rebelcaptain#jyn x cassian#anghraine#safe house in the hurricane
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Fic Rec Tag Game
I was tagged in this almost TWO YEARS AGO by the fabulous @theawkwardterrier and am just now getting to it as I clean out my drafts folder (lol sorry Leah...)
Rules: Spell out your user name using titles of fics you like and/or love - any fic that you enjoy for any reason whatsoever. Then tag at least one fandom friend to do the same.
WARNING! Only begin if you have time to kill. (This is FOR REAL! Even if you’re not digging around to find a specific fic, or trying to match a particular letter, or trying to decide which options to include, you WILL get caught up reading!)
Bonus option! Give it a 1-5 knowledge rating (KR) in terms of how well you need to know canon to enjoy the fic. 1 meaning “no previous knowledge necessary” and 5 meaning “need to be well-versed in all of canon.
(Jesus why is my url so long)
again, this is two years overdue so I have no idea who did this - but feel free to consider this me tagging you! it was so fun to go back through my bookmarks to find these fics lol
time & spaces. by thesemovingparts - pre-michelle jones/peter parker, michelle jones is tony stark’s daughter (just trust me lol). KR: 3.5
Hold Your Voice In My Heart (Till I Can Hold You In My Arms) by fluffernutter8 - steve rogers/peggy carter (aka that time that @theawkwardterrier wrote a madam secretary au bc she is the Actual Best). KR: 3.0
Extended Disarming by tara_stofse - phryne fisher/jack robinson - a short fluffy ficlet that really encapsulates them, I think. KR: 3.0.
Swipe Right, Swing Left by downn_in_flames - james potter/lily evans, a modern american politics/tinder au. yes I know. KR: 2.5.
one time thing. by bemusedbicycle - kate sharma/anthony bridgerton, modern au. hot af. KR: 2.0.
know your devils and your deeds by irnan - pepper potts/tony stark. an oldie but a goodie, god I love them. KR: 3.0 for 2012 mcu haha.
One For the Money (And Four to Go) by Lavendergaia - jemma simmons/leo fitz, daisy johnson/antoine triplett. bachelor auction au. excellence. KR: 2.5.
The Viscount Who Courted Me by theladyrainbow - kate sharma/anthony bridgerton. an au in which anthony pursues kate from day one. KR: 3.5. (it’s technically a T but mind ya business).
in tongues and quiet sighs by Elizabeth (anghraine) - cassian andor/jyn erso, han solo/leia organa. “Alderaanian runs under all the intersections of Leia Organa's and Cassian Andor's lives.” KR: 4.0.
A Strange New Story Every Time by gyzym - logan echolls/veronica mars. KR: 3.0.
no one can stop me, not even gravity or nasa by magneticwave - leia organa/han solo. KR: 4.5.
Any Fin Goes by vextant - gen. avengers. a heist. a shark. truly one of my favorites. KR: 2.0.
Casablanca by BeeDaily - james potter/lily evans. modern au. I love them. KR: 2.5.
Corner Man by Snapjack - james bond/eve moneypenny. oh yes. KR: 4.0.
One Hundred and Eleven Days by themonkeycabal - bucky barnes/darcy lewis, darcy lewis is tony stark’s daughter. ‘run verse. this whole series is one of my all-time favorites, but picking this one bc I needed a fic that started with ‘o’ but also bc it’s emotionally wrecked me for years :D KR: 4.0.
Rosehill Cottage by agentverbivore (verbivore8642) - leo fitz/jemma simmons, a holiday-esque au. a delight! KR: 3.5.
Don't Stop Me Now by CloudAtlas - clint barton/natasha romanoff, peggy carter/steve rogers, pepper potts/tony stark. college au, another oldie but a goodie. KR 2.5.
Summer Soldier by Remember When (scribblemyname) - bucky barnes/susan pevensie, one of the only ones out there. I need more people to understand how this ship is important to me and to the world at large. KR 3.5.
#from the vault (aka the drafts folder)#omg this took so long but it was worth it#ask meme#anything to avoid doing my schoolwork ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#originally tagged in may 2020 haha
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I was really interested in your comment about your Narn AUs being a spectrum of completely different universes to only one or two events changing. I have way way too many questions but I just thought I'd first ask if you had any AUs in the second category, where only one or two things change
-@outofangband
Maybe I made it sound like something more interesting than it is, but it's just our good old "what if" scenarios, you know? Like, "what if Beleg hadn't managed to rescue Túrin", "what if Finduilas had survived", "what if Nienor didn't kill herself", etc, I guess the proper name for this is really not AU but Canon Divergence?
I have a bunch of scenarios like that hahaha 😝 I wrote one, “Wolf Men” which I know you’ve read, and I have two more as WIPs: one where Túrin never leaves to Doriath when he’s a child, and one where Nienor in Brethil still remembers she is Nienor. My top favorite, which is also the least impactful overall, is the one where Nienor has a friend for a day; I sketched ideas for it here: [link].
Apart from that... Idk, I like to play with genderbent Túrin, but never take it suuuper far.
As for recs, off the top of my head:
@anghraine’s [Aurë Entuluva], although with this one a LOT of things go differently
@swampdiamonds [Sore Subject], where Niënor and Morwen meet Túrin in Nargothrond
I’m SURE there are more I love and just can’t recall right now, I’ll reblog this later and add them if I can remember :^) if you have recs, please let me know!
#outofangband#canon divergence#the children of húrin#I'm positive I read a more ambitious Finduilas lives AU but I can't seem to find it or remember more details
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@anghraine asked: Top five ships? (alternately, top five Jyn/Cassian fics? I read a lot, but I keep finding I've missed good ones)
Top Five Ships
I wasn't sure whether this was supposed to be the top 5 ships I will ship until my dying breath? or the top 5 ships I love in canon? or enjoy reading fic for...? So I went for a combination of all of the above.
1. Eowyn/Faramir (The Lord of the Rings): canon, book, movie, fic, fanon, whatever. Number one by virtue of being my longest-running ship--ever since I read the book for the first time at age 11.
2. Scully/Mulder (The X-Files): canon, fic, etc. Sorry not sorry; this was my first Internet-era fandom and I imprinted hard on them. Picture my mid-twenties mind being blown when I discovered fanfic while searching for spoilers during a season hiatus. You mean I could have MORE than canon??!? (We do not speak of the reboot.)
3. Rodney McKay/John Shepard (Stargate Atlantis): fic only. A mildly guilty pleasure since a) I never watched the show and b) I'm given to understand that a majority of the fic is ATG slash... but I quite enjoy the fanon characterization of Rodney as a tetchy genius insecure about everything but his brain, so it works for me.
4. Kade Carrion/Thomas Boniface (The Element of Fire): canon, fanon, fic (not that there is much), whatever, I want it all! Give me your political intrigue in both mortal and fae realms, your crabby, antisocial heroine and your bone-weary but deeply honourable hero (you may detect a pattern here, ahem). Also, thanks to this post I now headcast Thomas as Diego Luna...
5. Anne Elliott/Captain Wentworth (Persuasion): canon, book, movie, etc. The distilled essence of pining.
Top Five Jyn/Cassian Fics
With the caveats that this is in alphabetical order, not preferentially ranked; that I know I'm leaving something out which will probably come to mind as soon as I click Post; and that I deliberately restricted myself to complete longer stories which I think are somewhat unknown/underrated (if I considered short pieces and WIPs as well, choosing only five would be literally impossible):
In the Shadows by StormDancer: A modern-day AU in which former criminal Jyn is an extremely reluctant (at first) partner to Cassian's FBI agent. Great chemistry, both of the whole team and the romantic relationship.
It's a Small Crime by glorious-spoon: It feels inappropriate to call a story that opens with sexual assault "heart-warming," and yet I find it deeply cathartic. How Jyn & Cassian manage to rebuild their trust in each other is moving and lovely.
Take Shelter by nymja: Not precisely underrated, as it was an early classic in the fandom, but possibly somewhat forgotten by now?
to treat everything as if it were a nail by thingswithteeth: Jyn grows up under the thumb of the Empire, but is just as defiant as ever. Detailed AU world-building and wonderful Bodhi characterization.
the entire Won't You Let Us Wander series by AngelDeux (which is probably cheating, but whatever): Well-done action plots combined with a relationship arc that doesn't resolve as soon as Jyn & Cassian get together, because let's face it they would have issues upon issues
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Ooh what's the pride and prejudice fic? Can you recommend?
CAN I RECOMMEND, you ask!
The one I was referencing is: Season of Courtship by Elizabeth (anghraine)
Other ao3 recs:
The Brighton Effect by Shem. Kitty-focused instead of Elizabeth/Darcy (although they, of course, feature, and there is another story called The Pemberley Effect that focuses on them). SO well written, and I’m normally one who shies away from OC stuff. Reread this one every few months because I can’t escape from it. I’d kill a man to get a sequel.
Mr. Hurst Does a Kindness, Or, Courtship of Dreams by 56Peonies. AU where Mr. Hurst gives a shit, basically. There’s a great sense of humor in this story, and the voices all feel very authentic, which is hugely important for me.
Talk Any Louder by PutItBriefly. AU, but only slightly - Darcy is honest with Elizabeth at the Lambton Inn about wanting to help with Lydia, and when Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner return to the inn, they mistakenly think he has proposed. Honestly, I’d recommend any of PutItBriefly’s work, especially Mending His Pen and An Odd Notion of Kindness, but the second one is super angsty.
There are so many good P&P works, but many of them are actually published. I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, and there are some great authors that have all their works available through that. Just a few of my favorite authors for JAFF are:
Jodi L. Covey
Sophie Turner
Joana Starnes
Elizabeth Adams
Christina Morland
Heather Moll
Amy D’Orazio
I’m posting this publicly because I spent too long formatting it lol
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June Fic Recs: Soulmates!
This month's theme was a request from a reader (whose name I unfortunately forgot to note, please wave hi if it was you!) When I sat down to pull this list together, I realized that I actually hadn't read a whole lot of soulmate fics, at least according to what I'd tagged on my own blog. Luckily, other readers came to the rescue and reminded me of some classics.
As Though From a Dream by Jaded
Canon compliant, one-shot, 1.2k
All his life, Cassian has dreamt of a girl his age, growing up along with him. She may not have his words on her skin, he may not have a mark that matches hers, but he knows she's his soulmate anyway. When he opens a file and discovers that she's his next target, his mission suddenly becomes as much personal as ideological.
Note the canon-compliant warning up there. This does follow the path of the movie, all the way to the end (sob, sob, sob) but there's a whisper of hope, that they could be together and happy the next time around.
If you're gonna let me down, let me down gently by Kacka / @katchyalater
Modern AU, one-shot, 5k
Although she's had a soulmark for years, Jyn instinctively distrusts anyone or anything that tries to tell her what to do. Luckily, her newest sparring partner is smarter than that. He's definitely smart enough not to show off his own soulmark before she gets to know him.
Every time I run across this story and its synopsis, I have to laugh: Jyn is aggressively uninterested in meeting her soulmate. To be fair, she's also just generally aggressive. Jyn is snarky and wary and not at a great place in life, but Cassian is patient and smart and finds his way in around her defenses, both on the mat and off. Thanks to @athalar for the rec
This is the Fate You've Carved on Me by Selkit
Canon-verse, 14 chapters, 54k
Jyn is only four when her soulmark appears on her arm, the first words that her soulmate will say to her. It doesn't mean much to her at the time, but as the years pass and her life gets battered by trauma, she grows more and more resistant to the idea. Then she meets the man who says those words: When was the last time you were in contact with your father?
This is one of my very favorite ways to do soulmates. While they knew they're soulmates from the beginning, they're not sure what that means and whether they really want to fall in line with fate, and they spend as much time fighting destiny as they do each other, resulting in some divergences from the movie's storyline. There's also the intriguing wrinkle that Galen and Lyra Erso weren't each others' soulmates, and Jyn struggles with what that means about her and how she'll reconcile with her own fate. Thanks to @anghraine and @incognitajones for the rec
--
As always, if you’re one of the authors featured and would like me to change anything about the way I’ve listed your story, please drop me a line via PM or ask and I would be pleased to edit.
Next month’s theme is Neighbors! If you have a perfect story to rec, drop me a line via PM or ask with the title, a link to the story, and maybe a few words about why you liked it, and I’ll include it with your handle.
Happy reading! Love, @mosylufanfic
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MAKE YOUR CHOICE: FIC EDITION
I was tagged by @spacepandar, thank you so much!! Of course, I bend the rule a little and make some recs because I can. So enjoy!
slowburn or love at first sight // Hope in the air by sshysmm
fake dating or secret dating // you keep coming back, coming back again by @ladytharen
enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers // no one can choose who they fall for (or when they fall, or how they fall, or why) by @oh-nostalgiaa
oh no there’s only one bed or long-distance correspondence // P.S. by @warqueenfuriosa-ao3
hurt/comfort or amnesia// Get Up by @literatiruinedme
fantasy au or modern au// By stardust and moonlight by @imsfire2
mutual pining or domestic bliss // Fixer Upper by @incognitajones
smut or fluff // Echoes of Another Life by @lost-inthesunlight
canon-compliant or fix-it // Sinners' Worth by @ruby-red-inky-blue
reincarnation or character death // We've Been Here Before by angel_deux
one-shot or multi chapter // of death, springtime, and three-headed dogs by slugmutt
kid fic or road trip fic // We were Strangers (Starting Out on a Journey) by Mimozka
arranged marriage or accidental marriage // I've Lived Since Then by scioscribe
high school romance or middle aged romance // You just have to find the story by orphan_account
time travel or isolated together // per ardua ad astra by @anghraine
neighbors or roommates // On My Way by @cats-and-metersticks
sci-fi au or magic au // or the path the walker by @rain-sleet-snow
body swap or genderbend // https://archiveofourown.org/works/16155866/chapters/43899952 from Affirmation by @hoofgirl
angst or crack // METANOIA by @fulcrumstardust
apocalyptic or mundane // they say he likes a good time by @youareiron-andyouarestrong
And with this, I think I tagged enough people but if anyone wants to give a try, the rec part is totally optional!
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fic rec: we get dark, only to shine by anghraine
fandom: The Borgias (Showtime 2011)
pairing: Cesare Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia
word count: 168k, unfinished
Is it canon: Yes
Is it explicit: Yes
Is it endgame: Yes
Is it shippable: Yes
Bottom line: hi my name is asdfghhkl i’ve been in fandom half my life and this is without a doubt a top 5 fic for me. i mean i got to the end and i went right back to the beginning to reread it
This is a Season 1 AU where Cesare and Lucrezia are each other’s first loves, as they ought to have been. First of all I absorbed more Borgia history via this fic than three published biographies put together (Sarah Bradford, Lucrezia Borgia: Life Love and Death in Renaissance Italy; GJ Meyer, The Borgias: The Secret History; Christopher Hibbert, The Borgias and Their Enemies). I found myself looking forward to the end of every chapter so I could devour the footnotes. This is a meticulously researched, perfectly paced, ingeniously plotted gem of a story that made all the historical details relevant. It is also a very cerebral story, which is not to say it didn’t sucker-punch me in the gut, just that it isn’t rough around the edges — it is SHARP. Lucrezia and Cesare are whip-smart; all the secondary characters are smart; the author is obviously brill and you, dear reader, better bring both your brain cells if you want to keep up.
To set the scene, we are in Rome at the beginning of the papacy of Alexander VI aka Rodrigo Borgia, the first pope to openly acknowledge his children gotten out of wedlock. The primary thing to understand about the Borgias is they are FOREIGNERS. They are from Valencia and their native tongue is Catalan; and while Cesare, Juan, Lucrezia and Jofre may have been born in Rome, foreigners they will forever remain in the eyes of the xenophobic populace. Rome is a cesspit of backstabbing and the Borgias are an unusually close-knit, insular clan. Here is an overview of Cesare and Lucrezia’s codependent-from-the-cradle relationship, intensified ofc by the hostile environment of Rome:
At first, Lucrezia would scream whenever the nurse took her away, and sneak after him at all hours. Cesare scarcely spoke, except to her. They looked like kicked puppies.
Yet it had always been that way with them: Lucrècia a little queen reigning over their games, Cèsar devoted to her.
he never paid much attention to other women around Lucrezia, even when she was little more than a prattling child.
Cesare had woken with Lucrezia in his bed more times than he could count. At eight, twelve, a newly-returned sixteen, he often opened his eyes to his sister sprawled beside him or curled up under his blankets. On more anxious nights, when she had an unpleasant dream or felt particularly troubled, he would find her pressed against him
“When he left for Perugia, one might have believed him going to his gallows. Their letters must have stripped a forest.”
Ok not to be an incest junkie on main but shoutout to the Childhood Bedsharing Trope. “When he left for Perguia” is when he went away to university, leaving Lucrezia disconsolate. When he came home following this extended absence is when her feelings for him flowered into sexual desire. The fic opens on the eve of Lucrezia’s marriage to Giovanni Sforza. Her impending nuptials are causing her anxiety:
”But I am a Borgia. I should not be afraid of anything.” “Nonsense,” said Cesare, “I fear dozens of things, myself.” “You?”
So much to unpack here:
being a Borgia means never letting the world see your weakness
Lucrezia’s hero-worship!!! she obviously thinks he’s the bravest person she knows
Cesare confessing his vulnerability, his fears, chief of which is “I fear most of all for your happiness. I shall not be able to ensure it from so far.” i am y e l l i n g
To relieve her anxiety about pleasing her bridegroom, she convinces Cesare to give her KISSING LESSONS. That’s how it starts. Did someone say I Want My Brother to Be My First because I love this song.
“Is there no one else?” he demanded. She tilted her head inquisitively. “Is there a man you would rather instructed me? Really, is there another man you would permit to touch me? To even remain alone with me? Juan? Should I ask him instead?” “No!” Cesare scrambled to his feet.
She knows exactly how to push his buttons, doesn’t she? She baits him with the idea of another man touching her—specifically Juan, his archrival—an idea guaranteed to get his blood up, and Cesare instantly shoves his scruples aside. A kissing lesson ensues, Lucrezia is married shortly thereafter, and that’s how things stand when this fic diverges from canon: Cesare stops by Pesaro to visit Lucrezia.
Now we all know how Lucrezia’s first marriage went—her husband treated his horse a sight better than he treated her. And we see her struggle with telling Cesare the truth about the abuse, because the importance of the Sforza alliance must stay Cesare’s hand from his natural impulse to pulverize anyone who hurts Lucrezia. I like how this fic draws a distinction between the family’s reaction and Cesare’s reaction:
as soon as Cesare understood, he would be set on vengeance. Any brother would, even one less devoted than Cesare. Jofrè would probably cheer him on. Juan would have strung Sforza up already. And of course, Cesare was Cesare.
Juan and Jofre are her brothers too, and neither of them would have let Sforza’s behavior slide. Cesare, though, is on a whole other level. Cesare actually sees red. The most romantic thing he does in this entire story is play chess with Lucrezia all night to spare her the nightly ordeal of marital rape. That was the first night. The second day he has Micheletto loosen the girth of Sforza’s saddle to cause a nonfatal riding accident which—honestly it makes way more sense thematically for the brother who loves her more than life to do this, than for an untutored stableboy whom Lucrezia met 5 minutes ago to suddenly exhibit master assassin skills?!! Fuck canon, this is what happened. Also fuck insta-love, I’m so glad Cesare and Lucrezia are head over heels for each other rather than some randos.
His pulse quickened in his throat, yet it was nothing he had not seen before, when he read to her until she fell asleep, talked to her as she sulked in her room, sat at her bedside wiping cloths all over her feverish head.
I’m so soft for this!!! Tfw it’s not the physical proximity to your sibling—that part’s familiar—what’s new is your feelings shifting like tectonic plates?? Askjdfkdjfd.
The thing that really precipitates the affair is Lucrezia’s brute of a husband, obviously. This fic has one or two Giovanni Sforza POVS and it does such a great job of depicting that discomfort of being laughed at by people smarter than you. Sforza was strong-armed into this match and he feels slighted by the choice of bride—because she’s bastard-born, because she’s Spanish, he thinks he’s married down. This brings him into inevitable conflict with Cesare, who will brook no insult to Lucrezia on his watch:
“My sister, Lord Sforza, is a daughter of Rome. Roman-born, Roman-bred, Roman to her fingertips. Is it not so, Lucretia?”
The POWER of this line—remember when i said the Borgias are forever seen as outsiders despite being BORN IN ROME? i felt that.
Perhaps their mother was right, and she loved him too much. Too much, at any rate, to spare that kind of love for anyone else. Sforza was a monster, but if he had not been, she still would not have loved him.
Vanozza is very perceptive; she fears her children’s all-consuming love for each other leaves little room for other attachments AND SHE WAS RIGHT. To put it baldly:
They had spent their hearts on each other, all they had to give, with only scraps left for anyone else.
“I am your brother, Lucrezia … There is a word for this. I would not have anyone say it of you.” “A word for what? … For loving me more than the baronessa Ursula, or some other woman you only half-know?”
THERE IS A WORD, Cesare intimates. He won’t even say it aloud. But this black cloud of rumor and innuendo that hangs over their family is not going to dissipate just because they refrain from giving into their feelings. The first time Cesare heard someone call his sister a whore, she was literally four years old. They’ve had to guard their hearts their whole lives because there is no one they can trust outside the family — and yet the family itself is riven by strife and jealousy (Lucrezia has a good laugh when her maid mistakes “my brother is coming to dinner” for “the Duke of Gandia is coming to dinner”— as if Juan would ever visit her in Pesaro!):
“I am the only person in the world you love without qualification or resentment or confusion, aren’t I?” “Yes … Well. Some confusion.” “And yet you pull away from me. You have spent our lives pulling away from me, because--what? There is a word? You will not even say it. Why should we care if people who hate us, hate our blood and our language and our father, use one more insult? For heavens’ sake, Cesare, you yourself told me that this friar in Florence preaches against my hair.”
!!!! The dig at Savonarola I fell out of my chair looooool
“We have no real friends here, do we? We don’t even have allies beyond the Sforza. Everything depends on Papa. If anything happens, perhaps--perhaps it would be better to go home.” “We could run away to Valencia,” he murmured, eyes distant, almost wistful.
They never entertain this as a serious possibility because “anything is better than obscurity” and sry2say a modern AU is the only place these kids are going to get a happy ending. They’re too ambitious and fiercely protective of their family for aught else.
the affinity they’d always felt flaring to life, the certainty that he could depend on her abilities as well as her loyalties. Together they had outwitted Giovanni Sforza and all of Pesaro; now there was the Pope, their family, Rome, and then--all of Italy? The world? Why not?
I say again, HE COULD DEPEND ON HER ABILITIES AS WELL AS HER LOYALTIES. Because they’re a team. Picture Cesare and Lucrezia, weapons in hand, back to back holding off a horde of enemies—but like, metaphorically. That’s the kind of partnership they have, that’s the kind of trust they share.
he would put her before ambition and glory. Even their father had not … Cesare wasn’t like the Pope. He loved her more than anything.
Meaning there are things her father would put before her happiness, but there is absolutely NOTHING Cesare would not do for her. What woman could resist this utter unhesitating devotion when it is laid at her feet??
gazing at her with all the adoration he had never offered to God
He would never hurt me. If she knew nothing else, she knew that.
She resolves to consummate their relationship, despite all her knowledge of sex being bound up with pain. Like, she literally doesn’t know if sex can even be pleasurable for women, but she wants Cesare in the face of her fear, which is impressive and heartbreaking:
there were Roman courtesans who knew something of him that Lucrezia did not, and it was intolerable. She wanted everything.
Yessss she already has the rest of him, she just wants this one last piece of Cesare to belong to her too. And as for Cesare, this is the first & only time physical attraction and emotional connection have been united in the same partner:
he had never been one to stay in a woman’s bed, afterwards, but he felt no inclination to move.
She laid her hand against his face, rubbing her thumb over his cheekbone, gazing at him with her impossible mix of steady, companionable affection and rapture.
He had long known that he did not love anyone as he did Lucrezia; now he could not imagine desiring anyone as much, either.
What I love is that the romantic/sexual aspect is just another layer overlaid on what has always been the most important relationship in their respective lives; it doesn’t change the underlying dynamic:
“Have we been mauled by bears, do you think?” “Nothing so dramatic, I’m afraid. We would need scratches for that.”
This is them putting their clothes on after an assignation in the woods (they go riding a lot). What strikes me is the companionable tenor of their conspirational lies.
She relished each touch, yet there was something ordinary in it, familiar and commonplace. Your cross is crooked. Your cap is falling off. Let me adjust your sleeve. I can mend your tunic. They had always been peculiarly domestic together, a comfortable intimacy they never repeated with their brothers.
hello siblings being simultaneously incestuous & domestic is my kink byeeeee
“Cesare,” said Lucrezia, eyes widening, “am I your mistress now?” “You are Lucrezia Borgia. The Pope’s daughter and my beloved sister. The man who calls you anyone’s mistress will lose his tongue. As for you and I, we are what we are. I love you. We belong to each other. That is all.”
NO LABELS WE JUST BELONG TO EACH OTHER. Favorite favorite favorite line forever
His sister, his — lover? How could he give up either? What have I done?
Please picture me shoveling popcorn into my mouth as I type this. This is the pinnacle of everything I love about incest ships. You don’t fuck your sister unless you fucking mean it. It’s like you’re married from the first kiss. As Lucrezia explains later to someone who has ferreted out their secret: “He is not some lover to be mourned and forgotten. If I lose him over this, I lose him in everything.”
You can’t date your brother casually, the stakes are HIGH.
A lover is invented in order to explain Lucrezia’s love bites and torn clothing to her maid. Micheletto accepts this explanation as well, until one day he realizes the true state of affairs, and it’s such an innocuous little moment, it’s not like Micheletto wALks iN On tHEM or anything similarly dramatic, oh no. He is watching them—he is always watching—and he must have picked up on some subtle cue of body language or something bc all of a sudden it hits him they’re in love:
Valentino bent his head down; Lucrezia was saying something, Catalan, scarcely comprehensible through her heavy accent and giggles--Micheletto thought it had to do with the Duke of Gandía and a race. Whatever it was, Valentino whispered back to her, mouth against her ear, and they burst out laughing. There was no lover. He could not say, exactly, how he knew for certain then, with no proof, and not before or after. But he knew it. There were no others for them, no room for others: only Valentino and Lucrezia, and Micheletto watching over them.
The perfect encapsulation of this show tbh!!!
They are recalled to Rome to attend Joffre’s wedding to Sancia d’Aragon. They leave Lucrezia’s recuperating husband behind in Pesaro.
“If this all depends upon the impression that Juan makes--” “God help us,” said Cesare.
first of all, FINISHING EACH OTHER’S SENTENCES. but also, this is a delicate mission Juan’s been dispatched on—sent to Naples to woo Jofre’s bride—and i am l i v i n g as I watch Cesare & Lucrezia bond over their low opinion of Juan’s diplomatic mettle. it reminds me of that scene in S2E1 during the masquerade ball when Lucrezia asks Cesare if he can make her laugh, and IMMEDIATELY he causes Juan (who is dancing) to take a humiliating stumble and then Lucrezia & Cesare choke back giggles behind their masks. What’s great about returning to Rome is we get to see them interact with the rest of their family. The Pope is wroth with Cesare for staying so long away and for ignoring his summonses, but Cesare tells him the truth—that Lucrezia needed him:
“Your daughter, Holy Father, could wring concessions out of a saint, and I am anything but that.”
The audacity!! Cesare straight up confessed to fucking the Pope’s daughter but he said it flippantly, so Alexander heard what he wanted to hear.
Then there’s Giulia, who takes one look at Lucrezia and detects the glow of first love. Lucrezia fobs her off with the same story of a clandestine lover, assignations in the woods, etc.:
“Swear to me that you will not repeat what I have said.” “To your father? I already promised that.” “To anyone! … Father would separate us. Juan would kill him. If my husband discovered it …” Lucrezia shuddered. “That would indeed be a disaster,” Giulia said, “but I think you have forgotten someone, Lucrezia.” “What do you mean?” She touched Lucrezia's face. “Your brother Cesare.” Lucrezia absolutely froze.
BWAHAHAHA and then Lucrezia scrambles to convince Giulia that her secret is that Cesare is discreetly facilitating her affair, rather than the far more salacious secret that Cesare is her affair.
“Men,” Giulia said carefully, “say many things, Lucrezia.” “Other men,” said Lucrezia …. The very idea that Cesare might not love her!
And of course Lucrezia is in a v unique situation here but it is the lot of highborn girls in Renaissance Europe to be bartered off to seal an alliance; Lucrezia was raised to expect it. She did no more than her duty. She also recognizes the balance of power is never going to be in her favor when it comes to matters of the heart. With one notable exception, of course:
But Lucrezia had never shown the slightest inclination to guard herself from him. I love you, she’d said as soon as she could babble out the words, clambering into his lap, wrapping her arms about his neck, toddling after him, I love you best, I love you most. And now she declared herself dozens of times a day, in word or deed: whispering into his ear, laughing at his side, crawling into his arms when she could and watching him with a greedy, possessive look when she could not.
Cesare is the only one she trusts to never hurt her, whose interests are always aligned with hers, are never opposed to her family’s since Cesare is her family. The only wrinkle is, he can’t protect her adequately as he promised to. Cesare reflects that if the truth about the incest ever came out “he would be lucky to escape with excommunication, while Giovanni Sforza could violate her nightly and nobody would say a word.” The unjustness of this, the way patriarchy arrays itself in Sforza’s defense, galls Cesare to no end.
Another person who comes into their orbit in Rome is Jofre’s new bride, Sancia of Aragon. It’s historical canon that she slept with both Juan and Cesare; in this fic of course Cesare/Lucrezia are exclusive. Lucrezia can’t decide whether Sancia is predatory (she wants to bang Cesare) or suspicious (she has a hunch Cesare is banging Lucrezia). Either way:
Lucrezia wanted Sancia dead, or disfigured, or shamed--and she wanted her to leave happily with Jofrè--and she wanted Juan to take her away, to satisfy her with some kind of discretion--and for one mad moment, Lucrezia wanted everyone to know what Cesare was to her.
Sancia and Juan, by the way, conduct an outrageously indiscreet affair where their lovemaking is so obnoxious it keeps Lucrezia up at night. She does what she always does when she seeks solace: she crawls into Cesare’s bed. They’re young, they’re honry, they’re in love … but the sound of Juan pounding away at Sancia definitively kills the mood. Lmao. The next morning at breakfast Cesare & Lucrezia lay their complaints before Alexander, who gives Cesare a cardinal’s palace to live in and bids him take Lucrezia with him. So now the two of them move out of the papal palace into their very own palace. I mean, the possibilities are endless! Here is a gem from Sancia and Juan’s pillowtalk, where Juan’s assessment is simultaneously hilariously off base and 100% accurate:
“Cesare has always been a sanctimonious prude, if you ask me. At any rate, Lucrezia says he's having a fit of celibacy.” “Lucrezia?” Sancia said, nearly laughing. “What, he tells her about his—?” Juan snorted. “They probably tell each other about their bowel movements.”
Some of my favorite moments from this “Cesare + Lucrezia keeping house together” idyll: She visits him in the confessional, they hold a lengthy strategy conference about Sancia’s divided loyalties, and he wraps up with:
“Have you any other sins to confess?” “No … Well, I am guilty of the sin of lust, but you knew that already.”
LOOOOOL and how could I forget this:
She always wanted him: when he approached her, when he touched her, looked at her, when she thought of him, when someone mentioned his name.
I give you my main bitch Lucrezia Borgia, who fantasizes about being rawed by her brother WHENEVER SOMEONE MENTIONS HIS NAME. We stan a bona fide legend.
Ok so among the people they encounter in Rome are their cousins Isabel and Bernardo, who are also Borgias, and who independently unravel the truth re: Cesare & Lucrezia, which means that we get not one but two Outsider POVs which means I have probably died and gone to heaven. My friends TONIGHT WE FEAST IN VALHALLA. Ain’t nothing I love more than an Outsider POV angle on an incestuous romance, and in this case we are truly blessed because we get two. This is Bernardo as he listens to Cesare wax lyrical about his new paramour:
Yet Bernardo heard none of the wild passion or simpering folly of men in the throes of infatuation; Cesare looked and sounded less like a newly enthralled lover, and more like a man speaking of someone he knew well and liked a great deal. Bernardo felt a flicker of alarm.
Bruh you’re supposed to talk about your mistress’s tits not her personality clearly Cesare did not get the memo?? And this is Bernardo when the pieces finally click into place for him—he walks in on Lucrezia dyeing her hair:
A Spaniard, very fair? By nature? No, Cesare had said, half-laughing, and even then Bernardo caught the odd shift in his tone, from the adoration of a lover to an easy, familiar affection. And he remembered Cesare, indignant even for a young man in the throes of infatuation. She is not my mistress!
It’s the vehemence with which he denies it, the “not my mistress” part, that gives Cesare away. Because she’s not; she’s his everything. Bernardo cannot seem to wrap his head around how they can be both siblings and soulmates, since for him there is just no overlap between those categories:
Cesare certainly looked and sounded more brother than forbidden paramour. That, in itself, troubled him; if they had rejected the fact of their blood relationship in pursuit of their lusts, convinced themselves that they did not truly feel themselves family, pretended to be something other than what they were—well, that would have been bad enough. But they did not pretend. They acted less as if they willfully transgressed the boundary between siblings and lovers, and more as if they utterly failed to notice its existence.
Cesare and Lucrezia glanced at each other, their conspiratorial smiles alarmingly familiar. He’d seen those exact expressions on their faces before, dozens if not hundreds of times. They’d always had secrets, their little schemes and confidences, childish mischief. And now—what? Deeper secrets, more convoluted schemes, more dangerous mischief. Was that it? Did they lie together and think it little different from the rest?—altered in degree, but not kind? Did they … when had catapulting oranges at the unwary become a hidden incestuous affair?
This is Bernardo watching Cesare & Lucrezia argue about who “made the first move” as far as initiating their relationship:
he knew not whether he was witnessing a lovers’ quarrel or a sibling one. He felt uncomfortably that, subject aside, it sounded very much more like the latter.
I think part of Bernardo’s difficulty is the way patriarchy teaches men to think about women, and treat them as means to an end:
There were, after all, other ways to avoid a pregnancy—though in his experience of eighteen-year-old boys, they did not bother with such things, and rarely thought that far in the first place. But then, in his experience of eighteen-year-old boys, they did not fuck their sisters, either.
Because eighteen-year-old boys are typically in lust whereas Cesare Borgia has found the love of his life. Can we also take a moment to appreciate that Cesare and Lucrezia are eighteen and fourteen respectively?? This must be their canon ages. They’re not even fetuses they’re like, homunculi. I won’t bother to look it up since this author clearly has forgotten more details about the Borgias than I ever knew—as God is my witness I would take her footnotes with me to a desert island over 80% of the other fics in existence. Holliday Grainger was 22 when The Borgias started filming, and Isolde Dychauk was 17 in S1 of Borgia, and of course we’re used to Hollywood giving us thirty-year-olds playing high schoolers so it’s not as if Lucrezia’s been aged up an unconscionable amount, but wow, fourteen is young.
Isabel and Bernardo have another sister, Jeromina, whose husband’s neglect is indirectly responsible for her death in childbed. Lucrezia holds up poor Jeromina’s fate as a cautionary tale of what can happen to any woman who lacks a male protector in her corner:
”We are not speaking of Jeromina.” “Indeed not. Her brother never came for her.”
Shots fired!!! This is Lucrezia’s implied rebuke to Bernardo: that he wasn’t there for Jeromina, that Lucrezia’s own brother would never have let her down as Bernardo let Jeromina down. Later on Lucrezia even locates the origins of her incestuous passion in the same system that killed Jeromina—she describes loving Cesare thusly:
“Something I chose, for myself,” said Lucrezia. “Everything else has been chosen for me”
Excuse me while I emit a series of high-pitched pterodactyl noises. It’s a subject the fic touches on very lightly, but the topic of aristocratic girls falling in love with their brothers as a big middle finger to The Patriarchy? This is a topic NEAR AND DEAR to my heart.
Isabel is a woman and sees more clearly than Bernardo does that Cesare & Lucrezia’s attachment is not mere puppy love:
Nor did she believe that a passion built on lifelong intimacy would be easily broken.
Damn straight, this is the real deal. Isabel then takes a different tack—she suggests that Lucrezia is at an age where girls itch to exercise their power over men. Lucrezia grants her the justice of this observation but counters that she’d never use Cesare so ill:
“Do you mean to say that your distress was such that you would have seduced any man who cared for you? You chose your brother because … he was there?” ”I could not have seduced a satyr. Cesare desired me as I did him.”
I COULD NOT HAVE SEDUCED A SATYR lmao. But it’s true, she was bruised body and soul, and Cesare rode up like a white knight and the dam burst. It wasn’t inevitable, but a confluence of events forced them to reckon with their feelings. And once they crossed that Rubicon there was of course no going back. Because they fit and they’re perfect for each other obvs. Just look at my babies reminiscing about childhood hijinks:
“The night that Juan switched your glass with Mother’s,” said Cesare, “You were what, nine?” Lucrezia stared at him, then laughed. “Ten. I spent a wretched night, and morning too. What made you think of it?” “Only that we have shared every part of our lives,” he said. “There is nothing to hide or pretend. We already know everything there is to know.”
otpotpotpotpotpotpotpotpotp
I need to quote a few more Bernardo POV passages because that’s where Cesare gives us some declarations of love worthy of the ages:
”I cannot remember a time when I did not love her above all else. Above the family, the world, God. I remember nothing of any time when I have not lived for her, when I would not die for her.”
“Some degree of remorse would not go amiss.” “I regret nothing,” said Cesare. “And your—” Bernardo shook his head. “What do I even call her now?” “My sister,” Cesare replied.
tl;dr Cesare: I HAVE ZERO REGRETS NONE
“Tell me that somewhere in Italy, or Spain, or any other nation, exists a woman I could love as I have loved Lucrezia. Tell me that there is a woman who could understand me half as well as she does. A woman who would know me as I am, and not as the world or my father or anyone would shape me. A woman who would see my true nature without fear—see the mark on it—share it. Look me in the eye, Bernardo, and tell me there is any woman who is so much my own soul.”
If you don’t ship them after that speech then your mom’s a hoe, I don’t make the rules.
Cesare: I am sanctified in her.
Bernardo:
Narrator: Bernardo hardly knew where to look.
Me: ascends to a higher plane
Bernardo eventually comes around. He’s had longer than Isabel to adjust to the incest revelation, so he tries to soften the blow for her. This is the two of them comparing notes:
”The last time I saw them together, Cesare had his hand on his dagger half the time, and then they started arguing about which one of them was the more responsible, as if they’d stolen a pastry. He laughs about her hair. Outside of themselves, they treat the whole matter as a … a lark.” This aligned so exactly with Cesare and Lucrezia as Isabel knew them that she winced. Nevertheless, her dry voice didn’t alter. “How uncivil. They might at least have the courtesy to pretend that they regard the change as a matter of gravity.” “They don’t think they have changed,” he replied.
THEY DON’T THINK THEY HAVE CHANGED— winner winner chicken dinner. Finally he gets it.
So there is this ring. A family heirloom which belonged to their grandfather, which Lucrezia inherits from poor died-in-childbed Jeromina, and recklessly bestows upon Cesare. This is the visible token of her affection, this is her way of letting the whole world know what he means to her. The problem is that Isabel is the one who disbursed Jeromina’s effects, so she knows full well the provenance of the ring in question, and what it signifies that Lucrezia gave it to Cesare. Subtlety, these kids do not have it. Cesare openly wearing the ring clues Isabel in on the incest, which is maybe not the worst result ever because family is still family but damn kids you gotta be more careful. What happens next, though, is a scene that absolutely wrecked me. We get a a scene where they EXCHANGE RINGS:
“Isabel gave it to me.” Lucrezia clasped her fingers in her lap. “For my husband.” “Do you remember what I studied at Pisa?” “Civil and canon law.” “Yes.” His voice was hoarse. “Did you know that if a man and a woman consent together, the ring and vows alone bind them in marriage? The Church does not wish for unblessed marriages, but by precedent and decree, they are marriages nonetheless.” His cardinal ring rested still in her palm. Cesare closed her fingers over it. “Alexander III declared that if the parties concerned say I receive you as mine to one another, they are married as solemnly as if blessed by a priest.”
So he gives her his cardinal’s ring to wear. And when his father notes its absence on his finger he straight up admits Lucrezia made off with it, you know how i can’t deny her anything, and the dinner table conversation turns to another topic. Because Cesare & Lucrezia are apparently just Like That and everyone who knows them is used to it. For pete’s sake they are supposed to be the well-adjusted ones among the Pope’s children. Every other member of this family is further along the disaster spectrum than these two, according to Isabel’s internal monologue:
Cesare and Lucrezia, those oases of sense and proper feeling among Alexander’s children, committing incest. Adultery too, now that she thought of it. Perhaps. It depended on the particulars.
Adultery is almost an afterthought lol
Parenthetically I do wanna draw y’all’s attention to this passage:
“I will kill him. I swear to you, Lucrezia, I shall carve his heart out of his body and give it to you on a platter.” Lucrezia put a hand over his chest. “I don’t want his heart,” she said. “I want yours.”
The above passage has the same energy as this passage:
One night she had Jaime follow him, to confirm her suspicions. When her brother returned he asked her if she wanted Robert dead. "No," she had replied, "I want him horned." She liked to think that was the night when Joffrey was conceived.
That’s a Cersei POV and the thing about looking at Cesare/Lucrezia and Cersei/Jaime parallels is I feel like the former is usually more sinned against than sinning, and the latter is the opposite. Cersei doesn’t want Jaime, she wants Robert cuckolded, she wants to Show Them that she’s Lord Tywin’s daughter and nobody gets away with disrespecting her. Idk maybe it would have read differently if we’d had the same events from Jaime’s POV?
I realize that you guys don’t need any more reasons to love this fic but I want to end with the scene where Cesare’s gearing up to challenge Count What’s-His-Face, Ursula’s dumbass husband, for the insupportable insult he gave Vanozza at Lucrezia’s wedding. One thing I appreciate about Showtime!The Borgias over Canal+!Borgia is this Cesare’s relationship with his mom is much closer than his counterpart’s. His willingness to fight a duel for his mother’s honor demonstrates (1) that his sister isn’t the only woman he cares about and (2) that he puts his family first. Lucrezia’s “Return to me victorious” still slaps more than any line in actual canon, don’t @ me. In that moment, he could have slain Mars. “I will,” he promises her.
If I don’t burn
if you don’t burn
if we don’t burn
how will the light
vanquish the darkness?
That’s Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet writing about a folk hero who spontaneously combusted of love. In conclusion no one burns brighter than Cesare & Lucrezia, the actual loves of my life.
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Do you have any book recommendations for the Jane Austen fan who's read every one of her books?
DO I EVER.
Okay, it really depends on your preferences and what you're looking for. If you want to read things that were part of the background noise when Austen started writing and have similar concerns, you might look at things like Frances Burney's Evelina, Charlotte Lennox's The Female Quixote, The Italian or (more famously) The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe, or going a little further afield, William Godwin's Caleb Williams, Mary Wollstonecraft's Maria (or, for non-fiction, "Vindication of the Rights of Woman"), Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall, or various novels of Henry Fielding (I like Jonathan Wild, though it's quite different).
If you want to go nineteenth rather than eighteenth century, you can look at someone like Maria Edgeworth (also mentioned in NA!). Jumping ahead, Emily Eden is clearly an Austen fan (she gives P&P a shout-out in The Semi-Attached Couple, which is significantly different but obviously influenced by Austen). Frances Trollope's One Fault gives a very clear idea of why Elizabeth Bennet was so concerned about good nature as well as basic virtue (it's essentially about psychological abuse). There are the big names like George Eliot and the Brontës (Anne Brontë's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my personal favorite and probably the most akin to Austen of any of them).
If you want to read on Jane Austen, some faves:
Jane Austen and the Fabric of Dialogue by Howard S. Babb is from the 60s, so you may want to take some of it with a grain of salt, but I've always found it really interesting and engaging.
Even earlier, there's Fields of Light by Reuben A. Brower (1951), which I had to save to track down years ago, but which apparently has been republished since. There's a chapter on Austen that's really good IMO.
I like most of Julia Prewitt Brown's work on Austen, though I have a particular fondness for "The Feminist Depreciation of Jane Austen," which is basically a 90s-era guided tour through (and breakdown of) bad takes that had been filtered through a narrow sort of feminism.
I'm really fond of some of John Wiltshire's interpretations in Recreating Jane Austen. This is also from the 90s, iirc, so it doesn't address later adaptations, but he also was a co-author of the later (2009) The Cinematic Jane Austen, in which he expanded his essay on Darcy's smile and its minimization in adaptations (not where I got my gripe over it, but validating to see someone talk about it!).
Persuasions (Jane Austen literary journal): it's a bit hit and miss, but there are some very good articles that can only really be found there. I own a few volumes of it and have used them repeatedly.
The Gentleman's Daughter by Amanda Vickery: this gives more of a historical context leading up to Austen's time that periodically references Austen, but can be useful!
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Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Leia Organa & Cassian Andor, Background Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso, Background Leia Organa/Han Solo, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker
Characters: Leia Organa, Cassian Andor, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Jyn Erso
Additional Tags: Ambiguous Relationships, Developing Friendships, Male-Female Friendship, Language, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Series: Part 5 of Rime Royal, Part 4 of now you're the future
Summary:
Alderaanian runs under all the intersections of Leia Organa's and Cassian Andor's lives.
#Leia Organa#Cassian Andor#fanfiction#recs#anghraine#oooooo#I love how the language connects them here#also Leia snarking at Cassian is A+#star wars#search your feelings you know it to be queue
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Errr, 💬 and ❤️ ?
For ❤️ from your like a storm in the desert:
Yearning hit her like punch in the throat, a heady longing to reach out for more. She could, in this very moment. For once, though, she didn’t dare.
And for 💬 from my safe house in the hurricane:
“You’ll be informed if something happens. I put you in my records.” The words are stark, but his voice isn’t—it’s the warmth of their bed, it’s his arms around her when she shakes awake from a nightmare. It’s his lips gentle against the back of her neck, his breath on her skin in the quiet dark: I’m here.
[ask me about fic quotes!]
#anghraine#replies#writer reader quotes#did you call it the russian nesting dolls fic? i can't remember. i love it though#rebelcaptain#star wars fic recs#also#safe house in the hurricane#jyn x cassian
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Hi! I love your blog and everyday I always get excited to see what you post and what you talk about and it’s just a great sense of calm I get bc you seem to just want to have a good happy experience on here. To jump off that point I’ve been starting to unfollow like nearly everyone bc I’m just tired of seeing drama and people hating on things I love. So I was wondering if you have any favorite blogs that are similar to yours that you wouldn’t mind sharing? :) Thank you! Have a great night :)
Hi! thank you so much!
Since you didn’t specify any fandom in particular, I’m just gonna casually rec
@liesmyth (my brain twin); @janiedean; @robb-greyjoy (multifandom + general shitposting + anti dumblr shenanigans)
@joannalannister, @bitchfromtheseventhhell (a+++ asoiaf meta)
@goodqueenalys (sansa stanning)
@anghraine, @caffeinosis (star wars + rogue one/rebelcaptain)
@galacticprideandprejudice, @pixelrey; (extra quality sw gifs/fics)
@joons; @kylooren; @valyriansword; @and-then-bam-cassiopeia; @corseque; (star wars + villain blogging + reylo + monster romance)
if you need more specific recs, feel free to come off anon! :)))
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Jyn/Cassian fic rec - part 2
I posted my first fic rec in july and I’ve read many fics since then, so they deserve to be recommended too ♥.
(sorted by rating)
RATED G:
1. this is so you'll know the sound (by @jynersq) (WIP)
Never in Jyn's years as a partisan, her time as an outlaw, or even in her current post with the Rebellion has anyone even remotely expected her to possess the ability to care for a child.
Until today.
(Or, Jyn and Cassian find an abandoned infant after a mission goes sideways, and the Rogue One crew must temporarily care for it.)
2. should have taken the A1 (by @moonprincess92nz) (modern AU)
“Is the traffic always like this in England?”
(or a ‘we’re both stuck in stand still traffic and I’m bored as all hell, please entertain me’ au)
3. once upon a time (by @skitzofreak)
And the story was this: Everything Happens.
4. this can only end in tears (by @mosylufanfic)
On her kid's first day of kindergarten, Jyn is running late. Turns out the cute single dad she saw at kindergarten roundup is running late too.
5. i'll be there for you (by @ohstardustgirl)
Chapter 1: @thestarbirdfromtheashes requested the Welcome Home scene, in particular what Cassian and K-2SO had said to each other to prompt the droid promising to be by Jyn's side.
Chapter 2: @rover-Kelevra then asked for a follow-up discussion between Cassian and K-2SO after they survive Scarif
Chapter 3: Jyn and K-2SO have a chat about loyalty and Cassian.
6. what the princess saw (by @ohstardustgirl)
Leia can’t sleep on the Falcon, and a romantic moment between Jyn and Cassian breaks her heart.
7. the heavy weight of your dreams (by @ladytharen)
“I’d never seen anything like that before,” she says. His mouth presses into a tight line, his arms following suit. “No,” he says. “But we were lucky.”
She’d heard that before, usually from soldiers who didn’t know how to explain their escape or their skill. Usually, she didn’t believe it when she heard it.
Still, it was hard to contest his point.
“Do you dream about it?” she asks and he finally looks at her. He doesn’t wake from nightmares like she does but he does sleep in a taut line, thrown out into war, and she wonders. She wonders how alone they both are.
“All day,” he says.
(She wraps her arms around him, holds him tight until he falls asleep.)
8. what comes after tiny fractures (by @carry-the-sky)
“Bad dream?” she asks, barely audible above the rush of tide. Her fingers are moving slowly, tracing soft lines down his cheeks, and that’s when he realizes the taste of salt isn’t coming from the ocean.
(It’s been a long time since anyone has seen him cry.)
“How could you tell?” he quips back, instantly regretting it but she just laughs, leans in and presses her forehead to the curve of space between his nose and cheek. Her breath is rhythmic and steady, warm against his skin, and it’s too much, it’s not enough. Jyn, his body thrums, and then his hand is at the base of her neck, pulling her in.
RATED T:
9. in warm water (swimming down) (by @skitzofreak)
Cassian warms Jyn up.
10. between your bones and your soul (by @skitzofreak) (WIP)
Cassian is bad at healing. Jyn is unimpressed.
Or: Jyn tries her hand at physical therapy.
11. your voice will make it through (by @romanitas)
Even across the planets, Jyn and Cassian understand each other and all the extra meanings behind every word.
Or, when please come home means I love you.
12. no grave to bury sorrow in (by @incognitajones)
Cassian had been missing in action for two standard months and three weeks now.
13. far from home with these aching bones (by @jynersq)
Jyn wakes to a painfully stiff body and cold metal flooring against her cheek.
(Or, Rogue One AU where Jyn and Cassian escape Scarif in a life pod.)
14. come undone (by jaded)
Jyn gets caught watching Cassian undress.
15. a thread of light (by jaded)
An ice planet. One bed. Two rebels. And a whole bunch of unresolved sexual tension.
16. sweet tooth (by @rxbxlcaptain)
“I’m leaving the system for a week in a few days,” Cassian whispered into the dark.
Jyn stiffened at the reminder. “I haven’t forgotten.”
“Maybe I’ll find chocolate for you, out in a real civilization.”
17. are you still there (by roverkelevra)
By the time Jyn realises her past is closing in around her it's already too late..
18. how or when or why (by @rain-sleet-snow)
Cassian struggles to quantify falling in love with Jyn.
19. per ardua ad astra (by @anghraine) (WIP)
Bodhi, Jyn, and Cassian make it through adversity, to the stars.
Well, to a star.
20. prism by (@yavemiel)
Jyn’s perspective of her parents changes over the years as her own life experiences change.
RATED M:
20. stolen moments (by @dasakuryo)
The mission to Ithor was supposed to be easy, safe. So naturally, Cassian panics when he wakes up and he can't find Jyn anywhere. Little do Cassian and Jyn know how unusual this mission will be for both of them— giving them a glimpse into that future that may become true.
21. heart of kyber (by@ohstardustgirl)
As Cassian and Jyn become intimate for the first time, he notices the kyber crystal.
22. all you had to do was ask (by @targaryenyang) (modern AU) (WIP)
Jyn had been an idiot to think that moving in with her best friend would immediately quell her growing interest in him.
Yet another modern day roommate AU.
RATED E:
23. when it's done (by alp)
Jyn and Cassian reunite after the Battle of Endor.
24. shape of you (by @jynandcassianandor)
Cassian can't stop thinking of Jyn. Luckily, she's there to help him out.
25. the right time for the waiting (by @hooksandheroics)
The Galaxy is out to interrupt them every single time. It's a miracle they find time to themselves.
26. if we're still alive (by @incognitajones)
Around him friends, comrades, lovers are greeting each other in a dozen languages and equally varied embraces, but Cassian weaves through all of them and keeps moving toward Jyn.
#rebelcaptain#cassian x jyn#jyn erso#cassian andor#rogue one#star wars#fanfic#fic rec#i've reblogged some of these already on my blog but i have to mention them again#♥♥♥#happy reading :')#ficrec
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This was lost and has been found. It’s fanfic author self-rec time!
It’s fanfic author self-rec time! Recommend 3 of your favourite fics that you’ve written. Then ask at least 3 other writers to do the same! ( ◠‿◠ )~☆
Thx, @feanope for tagging me <3
Why not? I love all my stories--the good, the bad, and the terrible ones--sweated blood bearing them. Here are some I like a lot.
The Princess and the Horse Lord (started working on this again over the holiday--want to finish in the first part of the new year) LotR epic novel.
A Sad Tale’s Best for Winter (because it is a Yule story and this is its season) Silmarillion/LotR with Elrond, Celebrian and the Rivendell crowd, and Maedhros, Maglor, and Elros in the First Age, with Erestor in both parts.
A New Day (My first Silmarillion really long story). After Fingon’s rescue of Maedhros from Thangorodrim, they reunite and resolve to heal the divisions among the Noldor. Yay! It ain’t perfect but I still love it.
I want to hear from @ignoblebard, @nimium-amatrix-ingenii-sui, @anghraine, please.
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