#i do have a million drafts i could make coherent enough to post
Text
#slay the princess#so sorry to anyone who followed this account for stuff#especially for art#here's something dumb i made a while back as an apology#barely making stuff and barely ever being online is a bad combo :)#i do have a million drafts i could make coherent enough to post#i just gotta get enough energy to be more than just a husk of a person
155 notes
·
View notes
Note
I care about Rose! In fact, we started watching house of dragon (only 2 episode so far though) and it constantly makes me think of Rose because you use it as inspiration. Like obviously there’s the coronation scene which reminds me of stars. And there’s the character Willum is sorta kinda inspired by. And it’s an entirely different world, but every time I’m drawn back to Rose wondering how things will play out. (Which is not pressure to finish writing it if you don’t want to. Writer’s block can be a bitch and I get that the motivation for this project has been sucked out, but I just want you to know that I still care, and I’m not the only one.)
Also, I’ve been meaning to start my Ready, Set, Detonate analysis but I keeps getting away from me. I’m not sure there will be much to analyse, but there’s definitely fun details I want to point out. Oh and I am Looking 👀 at the fit/pac tag and kicking my feet. I don’t actually know if they are already in a relationship (I’m sure we’ll find out, but I just loved Fit’s little “Pac’s here?” That man is gone. Oh and I’m so excited for this Tubbo and to read more Bagi and the lore. Just all of it.
Then the original writing is a mood. I keep getting like a few chapters into my story before deciding it’s not good enough or thinking of something else I could do and throwing it all out. It’s this constant loop that never seems to get anywhere even though the story gets more and more fleshed out in my head every time. I think it’s because the opportunities are endless. Like there’s no characters and personalities and dynamics to stick to like there is in fan fiction. It’s free game but that does mean you have to decide everything yourself.
Anyway, best original writing advice I can give is remember the drafting process. There’s going to be a shit ton of drafts, which feels different for you because you’ve been mostly writing stories and posting them as you go, which means some minor or major editing, but leaves you without a chance to do a once over. It’s a sort of pressure to get everything right the first time. Meanwhile, original writing is something you keep close to your chest. There’s different drafting stages ranging from the zero draft (aka excessive daydreaming about all the possibilities) to the final draft (where you just go through and kill all your darlings and pour over ever single word to find the right one).
I’m struggling a lot with the first draft, which is literally just getting words onto a page. It’s a somewhat coherent mess that just allows you to shape the story and its structure so you can work off of that and edit it later on. I don’t know if this actually helps, but yeah, the first draft sucks and then it mostly gets easier. Just write, is kinda shitty advice, but it’s mainly, just get words onto a page, you will get a million chances to fix it, you don’t need to be happy about what you wrote right now.
-🌲
ohhhh I'm so excited you've started watching hotd!! good timing since the second season is going to come out later this year :D I hope you enjoy!! and I'm so happy to hear you're still excited about rose. I definitely want to finish writing it, like I said it's just me worrying about if anyone will bother to read it but a lot of you have said you would so that helps assuage my worries a bit
feel free to send whatever random thoughts you have about ready set detonate you know idc if it's analysis or not I just love seeing peoples reactions!! fit and pac are not in a relationship (yet) in the fic but theres a lot of flirty pining going on lol
god yeah it's so much harder with original fiction because it feels like there's so much pressure. you have too much freedom to do whatever you want so you're constantly second guessing if it's good enough or not. and ofc I know rough drafts are supposed to be shitty but I've tried to hone my skills so that my first draft is always incredibly solid because I rarely have the patience to do heavy edits, but that's with fanfiction. it has to be different with original fiction I know but it's hard to make my brain okay with that. I keep feeling like it needs to be nearly perfect on the first run :( but yeah I'm mostly trying to get words on a page. but then I think back and realize I forgot to mention this or I need to mention more of that etc etc and it's just stressful arghhh
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
So I wanted to make a pinned post compiling every post I've made that I have any intent at all to do anything with as a fan work.
Most of these are just drafts currently but as stuff gets released I'll edit this post and reblog with the news.
This post is long so the info will be under the cut but as a contents:
Franmaya Narumitsu Kids Au
Turnabout Orca
Ace Attorney DnD
Narumitsu Enjoying Art
Trucy V Kristoph
PTA Narumitsu
No Children Krisnix
Narumitsu Who Wait Too Long
Full Breakdown of My Plan For a Fic EU:
-Untitled Disbarment
-Untiled Turnabout Trump Missing scenesand Fallout
-Untitled Hell
-Turnabout PTA
-A Stray Turnabout
-Turnabout Orca
-A Christmas Turnabout
-Untitled DnD
-Turnabout Date
-A Family Turnabout
-The Perfect Wedding Turnabout
-2 Bonus Fics
FranMaya Narumitsu Kids Au
Original post - full AU breakdown. Warning it's long
Ask about the Richards relationship to his sisters
Plan:
I'd love to do some fun comics. Maybe a fic but it would be a bitch to format as such. May become a series of drabbles instead
Current status:
No words on the page for fics. Ideas planned for comic but I'm really not happy with my art style at the moment and struggling to get someone drawn that I don't instantly hate and want to restart. Happy to take ideas to expand on this AU with questions
Turnabout Orca
Original post - Concept Breakdown
Additional post - Additional discussion of concept
Fic link
Plan:
Fic. A part of my larger series I have planned that I don't talk about that much here but separate enough to be posted on its own before the rest
Current Status:
Chapter 1 published. Chapter 2 needs edits but could honestly be posted whenever. I just keep procrastinating. I had ideas for a chapter 3 when playing this case but don't remember what it was so I'd need to replay the case.
Ace Attorney DnD
Original post - Character role breakdown
Character sheets
Plan:
A spin off midquel of a fic within my extended fic universe
Current status:
Ugh. So. I have a Klapollo Christmas fic within the previously mentioned extended fic series. There are 4 fics I need to post first or else it will make no sense.
The fic itself has a good amount written but is not finished but I probably could write the remaining scenes pretty easily. I would love to post this at Christmas but erm. We'll see.
I could cut down the previous references and just have it all be out of order as I post.
The first fic is a good good way done.The second is short sweet and basically done. The forth is a short sweet fluff fic that's not got too much written yet but should be easy enough to bang out. The third one is a complete god damn shitshow that I'm really unhappy with at the moment. I want to rearrange a tone of stuff before I post it. There's some stuff in there I adore. Then there's other stuff I hate and want to cut out immediately but can't because the stuff I like its currently dependant on it. It's got no coherent structure. There's a million things I want to cover in it but not over riding theme. A lot of the later stuff hinges on events in this one so I can't just completely kill it. It's overstuffed and just a complete Trainwreck. I recognize that what I post doesn't have to be good and this is a fan space but I genuinely don't want to put this out there in this state. Like to explain what a state it's in its currently dealing with a mirror to FmT, sibling reveal, setting up Klapollo, Manfred's execution, Narumitsu proposal, another thing on this list, AJ fallout, and Edgeworth's promotion and very very little connective tissue between these concepts.
This is relevent because the DND fic is kind of a midquel to said Christmas fic so need to come out after it.
Idk guys Christmas sounds a little too optimistic. I may post the Christmas fic very very late.
Narumitsu Enjoying Art
Original post - concept breakdown
Plan
Included in a part of one of the fics in the extended fic universe
Current status
Hey so remember what I just said about the third fic having a planned segment for another point in this list. Suprise guess which one it was. This one. So yeah development hell. I've not even written that part yet because even opening that doc demoralises me. Will it be in the end product? I literally have no fucking clue. It's linked in with the FmT mirror segment which is the most likely to get the axe and also the hardest to fucking cut so just ugh.
Trucy V Kristoph
Original post - beginnings of concept
Extended post on this idea - concept breakdown
Plan:
Finally, its own thing. A multi chapter canon divergence fic
Current status:
Honestly doing pretty well. I've got like 3 chapters written but am struggling to know where to go from where I am. Kind of on hiatus but I could also just post what I have so far and then have it be a more public hiatus.
PTA Narumitsu
Original post - concept discussion
Plan
Fic. Similar to Turnabout Orca in that it fits within the canon of the extended fic universe and may get plonked in there as a series but works as a stand alone
Current status:
One scene written. I have ideas but it's a hard one to get motivated to write. I love the concept but it's just not the document I instinctively open up.
No Children Krisnix
Original post- lyric by lyric scene description
Link to homeforall's own version of said idea
Plan
Animatic
Current status
I have done a handful of scenes but I'm having the same issue I was with the Au comic. I just need my art to be a bit better to feel comfortable.
Narumitsu Who Wait Too Long
Proper concept breakdown
Related prior post
Plan:
It's own fic as its own thing but also a general feeling and concept I try to bring in whenever I write 7yg stuff
Current status:
A brief scene written as its own thing though I may change it to go a different way because I have being think about it more. Also a theme I have in the first of the extended fic universe stories
Aforementioned extended fic universe
Ok so this one is more complicated because I don't really have posts for it but I did want to break it down for me and for future reference.
1: Untitled: Disbarment
Concept:
Begins with some small stuff during the trilogy, Choosing death, forbbien hospital scene and what not but is primarily about Phoenix's disbarment. Narumitsu fic mainly but there's a good deal of Franmaya and also some deeply toxic Krisnix.
Status:
A lot written but missing a lot of connective tissue and I want to put in some fluff padding at points. Also there's probably a smut scene or two that I want to write but have been putting off.
2: Untitled- Turnabout Trump Missing Scenes and Fallout
Concept:
Kind of tieing some loose ends from the last fic with some headcaons I have about this case in particular. Short. Probably a one shot. Could be an epilogue to the previous but I think will be worth publishing as its own thing.
Status:
Basically done. Need to be published in order.
3: Untitled Hell
Concept:
After Turnabout succession Phoenix goes to Europe with Edgeworth and Trucy and Apollo stay behind to take a case. When Apollo is writing up his journal notes from the Misham Trial they look through Phoenix's paper work to clear up some loose ends and find out a lot they didn't know. Meanwhile stuff gets more and more out of hand in Europe
Status:
Already said. Absolute hell.
4: Turnabout PTA
Concept:
When Edgeworth gets promoted to Chief Procecutor, Phoenix takes him to the PTA to show off. Chaos ensues
Status:
Already said. This and turnabout Orca are the only ons before the Christmas Turnabout that doesn't have to be posted before it. This one could probably come out on its own but it's best after the 3rd fic
5: A Stray turnabout
Concept:
Short sweet fluff fic. Athena meets her Boss's fiance. Edgeworth worried about Trucy's grades. Phoenix adopts a stray puppy. Apollo gets to subject the agency to one of his special interests
Status:
Like half written and the other half is inmy brain. It's just not been a priority.
6: Turnabout Orca
Concept:
Turnabout reclaimed from Edgeworth's perspective
Status:
Already said. Will be posted when it's posted.
7: A Christmas Turnabout
Concept:
Just after the end of dual destinies, Apollo invites Klavier to the Wright-Edgeworth Christmas party given that his previous plus one is now dead. It's the obligatory Klavier joins the found family and gets "forgiven" (read: realised he was never blamed I'm the first place) for Phoenix's disbarment fic that I always eat up. Also dealing with the fallout of DD and Clays death and Klavier's fallout after AJ. Big ensemble cast. Angst and fluff.
Status:
Solid half way done
7.5 Untitled DnD
Concept:
Some for the cast are bored and unable to sleep on Christmas Eve so Trucy runs a Christmas one shot for their DnD party.
The idea for this was that all the family members have a DnD character but it's kind of expected that not everyone can always make it. So it's an induction for Klavier and Simon into the fold by making their characters and joining in. The players for this fic are Klavier, Apollo, Simon, Athena, Kay, Pearl and Sebastian. Maya, Phoenix, Ema and Edgeworth all also have characters but aren't present for the game for reasons that make sense in context.
Status:
Already said
8: Turnabout Date
Concept:
A direct sequel to A Christmas Turnabout taking place a day or so after that one leaves off. Klavier has asked Apollo on a dated to an intimidatingly fancy restaurant.
Meanwhile as the anniversary of DL6 draws closer Edgeworth ends up giving up and giving the prosecutors office a holiday break until the New Year. In turn Phoenix gives the WAA the time off too given the stress of the last week. Both offices decide to help their respective idiot in love prepare for the date. Though the weird girls of Maya and Kay end up on the opposite of their usual sides as Phoenix needs requests the aid of everyone's favourite great thief and Maya get caught up in the chaos after an attempt to seduce her girlfriend.
Status:
About a third written. I'm really really fond of this one though.
9: A Family Turnabout
Concept:
A pair of ghosts from Phoenix's past turn up on the agency door all related to Athena's most recent case. A poisoning in a tea shop that she herself witnessed.
Tensions are high as more than one Wright family member's life hang in the balance. As Phoenix's mental state grows slowly more unstable, his relationship with his daughter is put to the test.
While Athena and Apollo butt heads about how much their powers are to be trusted and ask they begin to learn more and more about the mysterious group the victim and defendant belong to, Phoenix's protegee are forced to ask serious questions about what justice really means and if the WAA's tactics in court are really moral and safe.
Status:
Hey idk if you can tell. This is my favourite. If I could just post this and focus on it I would. Unfortunately it needs a lot of fucking context. Stuff that's fine to just be explained to a reader who knows they can learn more in other available fics but will sound insane if not. How much is written. A whole lot. The stuff that's missing is the case fic stuff but I know exactly what I'm doing with that now so it just needs to be properly written out. There's probably a few posts I could have linked to put this bad boy on the mentioned works in progress section but that would probably spoil it a bit and I don't want to do that.
10: A Perfect wedding Turnabout
Concept:
Narumitsu wedding. Big old ensemble piece. Stuff will get crazy but I don't want to spoil anything. But those two could never have a normal wedding come on.
Status:
This was like the 3rd fic is started writing and well. It shows. I don't love how a lot of it reads. I want to rewrite a tone. But there is a lot already on the page. The other 2 I wrote this early were a very early draft of the first fic which has been revised enough to be fixed and then the 3rd fic which is the bane of my existence. I like the plot concept I have. But I worry about the prose. When I wrote this is had been a long ass while since I'd tried to write a big cast like this and it fucking shows. Also just the character voice is off. It's kind of expositiony. It's not as unsalvageable as 3 it's just not there yet.
2 Bonus fics
Status:
Completely unwritten
Concept:
I kind of want to do a narumitsu fluff fic of them buying a house together and putting up furniture after 3 and I wouldn't mind a reunion faraskye fic before 3. But the benefit of me having written nothing and having planned nothing is that they have no vital link to the others so they can just be punished whenever and I'll say where they are in the timeline.
12 notes
·
View notes
Note
breakup au prompt if you’re interested 🥺 nali in comfy subspace for the first time with rosie after they get back together 🥺🥺 he’s a little anxious at first because of his trauma with it but he trusts rosie and it’s so so easy to glide into it when he’s on his back and being kissed and praised by daddy
I had this in my drafts but forgot to post it the other day oops<3
——
Rosé held Denali's face in his hands, warm and comfortable being snug inside his baby. He watched Denali's eyes shift, turning glossy and less focused, more doe-like. Rosé had seen this a million times before, the way his eyes got softer when he'd fall into subspace something Rosé could never not recognize. Though, this time he seemed tentative to let himself fall, afraid Rosé would leave him again.
Rosé smiled softly at him, a hint of sadness. “You can let go, baby, daddy’s not gonna go anywhere.”
Denali blinked up at him a few times, nervously biting his lip. “Promise?”
“I promise. I’m not gonna leave you all alone ever again.”
Feeling safer, Denali tucked his head under Rosé’s chin, shutting his eyes and taking a few deep breaths before letting the feeling consume him, the warm and floaty feeling of being in subspace and not scared anymore.
He lifted his head, his gaze meeting Rosé’s, who smiled softly at him. “My pretty baby boy,” he cooed, “can I lay you down?”
Denali nodded, clumsily climbing off Rosé’s lap and whining when he slid off his dick. Rosé didn’t let him feel empty for long, he quickly and sweetly lowered Denali to his back, his starry eyed beauty staring back at him, letting out breathy moans when Rosé entered him again.
“You are such a good boy, so pretty and sweet. I’m so lucky to have you.”
Rosé’s praises when straight to Denali’s cock, his tummy filling with delight.
“Daddy,” he whimpered, wrapping his legs around Rosé’s waist to pull him deeper. Rosé met him there again and slid his hands underneath Denali’s sweater to grab onto his bare waist, get them that much closer.
Rosé fucked him slow and soft, deep thrusts hitting his spot right every time, making his head spin. The way Rosé touched him made him want to come undone alone, he felt like something precious underneath Rosé’s fingertips, like his skin was made of the softest most delicate silk and his heart was more breakable than glass, every touch was gentle and had a hidden ‘I love you’ in it.
Holding himself up with one arm, Rosé delicately traced the features of Denali’s face. “So beautiful, go ahead and cum whenever you need to, pumpkin. It’s all about you tonight.”
“I’m close,” Denali whispered, cheeks red with embarrassment, confirming Rosé’s suspicions.
Rosé quickened his pace slightly, keeping the same slower deep strokes that we’re pushing Denali over the edge. “I know, so pretty like this. So gorgeous when you’re about to cum for me. Let go whenever, honey, no shame. Daddy’s close too.”
One, two, three more deep thrusts and Denali was unraveling underneath Rosé, gripping the sheets as he made a mess on his sweater and Rosé made a mess inside him. The sticky warmth he felt propelled him further into subspace, just floating and letting Rosé take care of everything because he could now. It had been so long since he felt that secure being in a submissive state like that, even when he was hooking up with Mik, it never felt the same even though he treated him just as kindly as Rosé was doing now.
He barely came to as Rosé cleaned him gently with a warm washcloth and changed his sweater, only coherent enough to snuggle up to Rosé’s chest when he laid beside him, wrapping his arms tightly around Denali’s middle and kissing the crown of his head.
“Thank you for staying,” Denali whispered, half asleep.
Rosé sighed. “I’m not gonna leave ever again, I promise.”
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
I already squeed quite a bit on Twitter, but turns out my Shadow and Bone thoughts demand longform. So that was a 40+ tweet thread or using my Tumblr for an original post for once.
I was wary about the Shadow and Bone adaptation the way I'm usually wary about good books being adapted onscreen. It was amplified because my actual favourites are the Six of Crows books, and because the American-based movie complex has a bad track record of doing anything based on Eastern Europe. 8 episodes in 3 days should tell you how much I loved it - the moment I finished, I wanted more.
First, the technical praise:
Damn but the plotting is tight. It took me a while to realised it's based on heist movie bones, where every little thing (The Freaking Bullet!) is important. The story fulfills its promises and manages not to bore at the same time - it delights by the way they're fulfilled. I called out a few plot developments moments before they happened, and I was happy about it. Such a joy after so many series where "not doing what viewers expect" led to plot holes and lack of sense. It might be an upside to the streaming model after all.
From a dramatic point of view I can tell all the reasons for all the changes, especially providing additional outsider points of view on Ravka (Crows) and letting viewers see Mal for themselves the way he only comes across in later books.
Speaking of which, this is a masterclass in rewriting a story draft. SaB was Bardugo's first, and having read later books you can really see where she didn't quite dare to break the YA rules yet, especially Single POV that necessitated a tight focus on Alina's often negative feelings rather than the big picture and a triangle that felt a bit forced. The world in the series is so much bigger, the way Bardugo could finally paint it when SaB success gave her more creative freedom, and some structural choices feel familiar too. It's a combination of various choices by crew and cast, but the end result meshes together so tightly and naturally.
Visuals! Especially the war parts because Every Soviet Movie Ever, but also the clothes (I would kill for Nina's blouse in the bar), the jewelry, the interiors. The stag was so very beautiful. And a deep commitment to a coherent aesthetic for each character and setting.
Look, you can do a serious fantasy series with colours! Both skin colours and bright sets and clothing! And all scenes were well lit enough to know what's going on, even in the Fold!
Representation (aka I Am Emotion)
To start with: I was born behind the Iron Curtain, in the last years of the Cold War. The Curtain was always permeable to some extent, and we have always been aware that while we have talented artists of our own, we never had the budgets and polish of the Anglosphere Entertainment Machine. So we watched a hell of a lot of American visual storytelling especially because yeah, you can tell we don't have the budgets. 90s and 2000s especially, it's getting better now.
In American stories, the BEST case scenario for Eastern European representation is the Big Dumb Pole, the ethnic stereotype Americans don't even notice they use, where the punchline is that his English is bad or that he grew up outside Anglo culture. Other than that, it's criminals, beggars, sex trafficking victims, refugees. Sure, we may look similar (except we really really don't, not if you're raised here and see the distinct lack of all those long-jawed Anglo faces), but we are not and have never been the West, never mind America. It's probably better for younger people now, but I was raised under rationing and passport bans. Star Trek and Beverly Hills 90210 were exactly as foreign to me.
The first ever character I really identified with was Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5 (written by J. Michael Straczynski, yay behind-camera representation). This was a Russian Jewish woman very much in charge, in the way of strong women I know so well, not taking any bullshit, not repressing her feminity. I recognised her bones, she could be my cousin. The sheer relief of it. There have been few such occasions since.
The reason I picked up Shadow and Bone in the first place was recommendations from other Polish people. I've had no problems finding representation in Eastern European books because wow our scene is strong in SFF especially, but it's always a treat to find a book in English that gets it. And Leigh gets it, the bones of our culture, and I could even look past the grammar issue (dear gods and Americans, Starkova for a woman, Morozov for a guy) that really irked me because of the love for the setting and the characters, the weaving in of religion/mysticism (we never laicisized the same way as the West, natch), the understanding of how deep are the scars left in a nation at war for centuries. The books are precious to me, they and Arden's Winternight and Novik's Spinning Silver.
To sum up: Shadow and Bone the Netflix series gets it. You can tell just how much they've immersed themselves in Eastern European culture and media, it comes across so well in visuals and writing and characters. Not just the obvious bits (though the WWII propaganda posters gave me a giggle), but the palaces, the additional plotlines and characters, the costumes, the attitudes. About the only thing missing in the soldier scenes was someone singing and/or quoting poetry.
I will blame the Apparat's lack of beard on filming in a non-Orthodox country. Poland's Catholic too, but I very much imagined him as an Orthodox patriarch, possibly because I read the books shortly after a visit to Pecherska Lavra in Kiev and the labyrinthine holy catacombs there. Small quibble, not my religion, not my place to speak.
(I've seen discussion on the issues with biracial representation in the show, which is visceral and apparently based on bad experiences of one of the show writers in a way that's caused pain to other Asian and biracial people. I'm not qualified to speak on those parts, other that Eastern Europe is... yeah. Racist in subtly different ways. If anything, the treatment of the Suli as explained in Six of Crows always read so very true of the way Roma are treated, and even sanitised.)
And now for the spoiler-filled bits:
Kaz and Inej. I mean... just THEM. So many props to the actors, the writers, the bloody goat.
I adore the fact the only people who get to have sex in the show are Jesper and a very lucky stablehand.
Ben Barnes needs either an award or a kick. The man's acting choices and puppy eyes are as epic as his hair.
So Much Love for Alina initiating the kiss. Her book characterisation makes sense, she's so trapped in her own head because she has no time to process everything that's happening, but grabbing life by the lapels is a much more active choice. Still not making the relationship equal, but closer to it.
Speaking of, Kaz's constant awareness of how unequal his relationship with Inej is, and attempts to give her agency. I'm really curious how his touch issues come across to someone who doesn't know the backstory there.
Feodor and his actor. He looks exactly like the pre-war heartthrob Adolf Dymsza, a specific upper-class Polish ethnic type that's much rarer now that, well, Nazis killed millions of Polish intellectuals in their attempt to reduce us to unskilled labour only. The faces he makes are the Best.
Nina!! Nina is perfect, those cheekbones, that cheek, I was giggling myself silly half the time. I cannot wait to see Danielle Galligan take on the challenge of Nina's plotline in Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, she'll kill us dead.
I already mentioned that the writers fixed Mal's absence from the first book, but Mal in general! The haircut gives him a kind of rugby charm, and Archie Renaux is outstanding at emoting without talking. Honestly, all the casting in this series is inspired, but him in particular.
Extra bonus: Howard Charles and Luke Pasqualino playing so very much against the type of the swaggering Musketeers I saw them play last. Arken dropping the mask at the end... Howard Charles is love.
I can't believe not only was Milo's bullet a plot point, but the fact Alina was wearing a particularly sparkly hair ornament in a long series of beautiful hair ornaments was a plot point.
In conclusion: so much love, and next three season NOW please. Okay, give me a week to reread the books, and an extra day because new Murderbot drops tomorrow...
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
On the hell that is editing
Have I talked before about my editing process? This is massively long and navel gazey.
I think all my fics until Shadow Holocron actually (including Velvet and Care) were posted on the fly. Once I ended Shadow Holocron as I’ve mentioned, I felt really unhappy. In fact, it’s the one fic of mine I don’t reread because it’s an embarrassing hot mess. The individual scenes are neat but it doesn’t gel in any coherent way. I wish I had focused on coming up with a cohesive story from the get-go rather than string up a bunch of “ain’t it cool” scenes.
The next time I posted (around Feb of a million years ago, I think), I wrote the whole thing and edited it in one month. That story turned out to be Flying Cage and to this day it’s my fave mid-form story and the most technically tight thing I’ve written (there’s a lot of foreshadowing and clues in the language and pov work that set up the dreamscape). Because of that, it’s the fic of mine I most reread. That happy satisfaction is what I look for when I post something -- balanced, of course, with the work that it takes to get something there. I have several fics in my drawer where the work to get them satisfying feels like scaling a mountain at a ninety degree angle, so they languish. Oftentimes what helps with the desperation is looking at Shadow Holocron or Phantasmagoria (where I once again went against what I knew because goddamn it WHERE WAS FEMDOM) and feeling like I wanted to crawl under a table.
As it pertains to my longfic (Ricochet, River of Stone, Thresholds, Burn Up My Heels), my process has gone generally like this:
1. word vomit the entire story.
Usually this first go is a bunch of holes. Ricochet actually started as a seat-of-my-pants thing and I hiatus’ed that mofo in ch4 when I realized I wanted to do something more ambitious. Finished it a year later. Stone was a fifty page novella with lots and lots of gaps (mostly in the middle, my hook was the mindlink scene, all the depression shit was added in rewrites) for a year too before I went back to it.
2. rewrite.
My first pass is all about forward movement. I fuck up massively with continuity. I forget shit characters said. I barely sketch out how characters feel about a turn of events (unless it’s a hook). I barely describe. All that gets tightened on the second rewrite where I do my homework, plus I stick in some foreshadowing, make sure that past events are referenced and ‘put to work’ in a character’s interior landscape for coherence.
3. I show someone else and/or begin line editing.
When I have a beta I try not to inflict a draft zero on them (though sometimes it can’t be helped but I don’t for longfic). I usually send it for eyes after I do a first rewrite. I’m rarely interested in proofing. Of course, I want a clean draft and I strive not to embarrass myself too much with typos, but I think proofing is a really low bar to clear. I once took a writing course where the prof said that a large portion of grammar failures were indicative of a thinking failure. That is to say, if your ideas and intentions are clear enough, the writing itself will need minimal tweaking. I’ve taken this to heart when I look at writing. As a reader, I’m more interested in whether something is conceptually solid (do the ideas make sense? are the characterizations consistent? do the characterizations mesh with the events that they enable or what’s the connection between them?) than whether someone typoed and fucked up with homophones or messed up with their verb tenses or had dangling pronouns. It’s like the GRE, spag will get you in the door but past that is where the real fun begins. I can ignore all sorts of front face issues for a story that has heft and depth. While I appreciate the extra proofing, when I send my shit for eyes it’s how they suss out my aims and evaluate my execution (in terms of consistency) that guides me forward.
4. I start posting and run through edits before I post a chapter.
Editing doesn’t ever end until something is posted, I know this for a fact. When I was writing The Care and Training of an Apprentice, I had Trust Thing “done” as in fully written, all ready to go in my drafts on AO3...I overedited the living daylights out of that shit. I would literally edit out a paragraph then edit it back in the next day. Holding onto anything is just space to overthink what *else* it could be so there’s a balancing act there. That said, letting things percolate is fantastic. My characters definitely get more and more layered and my worldbuilding gets more involved the longer I think about something. Ricochet started out as a feel good violence circus, but pivoted into saying quite a bit about Mara, about the underworld, etc. Stone was about teen!Mara being a fanatic and pivoted into this elegiac take on love and growing up. Magic tends to happen when things are left to simmer for a bit.
The downside to this third pass (where I’m at times still adding whole scenes though most of the time it’s for clarity or to elaborate on something), is the time it still takes to get through posting. Inevitably during the long posting run of a novel-length story, I will either officially or unofficially hiatus. By that I mean, I will run into a time crunch and get behind on posting for weeks to a month to a couple of months. It also happens that because the posting run is long, I do get distracted by writing something else. So you have pwp or a halloween fic or something else interfering.
So this is my process. For me, it helps to have other things to work on when the main work gets to be too tiring. It helps to have someone in your corner to bat ideas with. It helps to always keep in mind the fun/work balance so you know when to consider something “done,” even though it never is. I remind myself a lot that “done” might not exist, but “posted” does.
And of course, it helps to be thoroughly and completely obsessed with an idea and eager of when you can have it all posted so that it can exist in finished form.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
the beginning of the end.
for those of you who remember, i said i would post my final draft of my letter to alex when i got closer to my graduation date. although it's still three months away, i'm satisfied with the final draft of said letter so i will go ahead and post it now. i'm not going to give this to him. here we go:
I honestly don’t know where to start with this letter. You don’t know how many times I have written and rewritten every single word. I have decided that this is going to be my final draft whether I like it or not. Forgive me if it gets all over the place; my thought process when I’m feeling emotional isn’t very coherent. I guess, let me start off by saying that I wish this could be written better. I wish it could sound sophisticated and meaningful but frankly, my mindset is incapable of finding eloquent ways to express my feelings. I suppose a written letter is better than me attempting to speak to you; that would not go well. It’s sad that I still haven’t been able to properly talk to you after knowing you for two school years. Anyways, time for me to pour my heart out in this farewell letter.
Truth be told, I didn’t quite like you when I first came into your AP European History class. It’s not that I disliked you; you just intimidated me. You intimidated me from the first time I met you during orientation, when it was just me and you in your classroom. You intimidated me from forty feet down the hallway. Even during school assemblies, with all of those hundreds of people, your presence still intimidated me. I say ‘intimidated’ like it’s past tense but you still do, if I’m being honest.
Do you want to know what changed and why I so obviously became attached to you?
I doubt you remember, but some kid (Andre or Connor probably) pronounced ‘gif’ incorrectly and you told him that if he pronounced it like that again you would hang yourself with the blinds in your classroom. I know that it’s kind of odd but that is a really fond memory to me. It made me realize that you weren’t as scary as I thought and that you have the millennial sense of humor that I’m so comfortable with. It’s a weird feeling, being so comfortable around someone yet on edge at the same time.
It’s exhilarating.
It’s exhausting.
Being around you is so exhausting but I wouldn’t change it for the world because you have taught me so much. You got me motivated when I just wanted to give up. I wanted to try and succeed, which is something that had been buried for so long. I wanted to make you proud. I know that in the second semester of last year I failed at that.
When I got suspended I wasn’t thinking about myself; I was just thinking about you (which is idiotic, I'm aware).
I was devastated because I knew that I had disappointed you. I didn’t want you to see me as an idiotic child who couldn’t care less about succeeding. I didn’t want you to think less of me. The logical part of me would tell myself everyday that you would understand that people make mistakes but I was still terrified.
Even as I write this now (August 3rd, 2019; 2:55 AM), I still don’t know if I can stand to see you when school starts. Part of me wants you to be mad at me because I deserve it. I want you to tell me you’re disappointed in me. I want you to tell me this because that would mean you noticed and you actually cared. Another, larger part if terrified because I know that the truth is, you probably don’t care enough to get angry with me or to feel anger about what I did (if you do in fact know why I was suspended; if you don’t, long story short, I had a drinking problem and it finally caught up with me). You won’t tell me you were disappointed with my actions or that you forgive me because you’re not as deeply invested in me as I am you.
I’m just another student and that’s perfectly okay with me.
Of course it hurts, but I would rather have my heart broken a million times than have the possibility of your happiness being taken away from you. Seeing you happy is all I need to be at peace with my emotions. Nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.
With that being said, I probably acted distant and indifferent to you throughout the year. I don’t know yet since I’m writing this before school even starts—it’s pathetic, writing about the end before it’s even begun. I have made a promise to myself to just treat you like any other teacher because if I allow myself any flicker of warmth, I know I will just fall back into this overwhelming pit. I’m sorry if it hurts your feelings (I doubt it will). It’s okay if you feel relieved (I expect you to). Addendum (August 25th, 2019): This letter was written under the impression that I would be in your government class, which I obviously was not. I don’t know why because I switched from AP to CP as soon as I heard that you were teaching CP Government this year and I put in a request to specifically be placed in your class with my counselor. She did that for me last year when I transferred to your APUSH class instead of Mrs. Wilson’s. With the new policy, I won’t be able to switch out of any of my classes next semester to take AP Human Geography or something that you might be teaching. I have a TA block next semester but it’s during first period and if it hasn’t changed, first period is your planning period. Plus even if it wasn’t, it is so hard to TA for you. A lot of people want to be your TA!
Now this is the part where you probably want to stop because having someone confess the whole truth to you is something that a lot of people can’t handle. The only reason that I feel comfortable enough to tell all of this to you is because you are one of the few people that I can 100% trust. I grasp onto the thought that you still stand by what you said about never getting mad at me ever with every coming sentence.
The saddest part about unrequited love is that you always try. Even as I tell myself to shut out anything other than teacher worthy emotions, I find myself clutching onto a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe you could love me back.
Please understand that although I did and do have feelings for you, everything that I did for you was not me trying to make you uncomfortable or seduce you or something like that. I would never never never want to do that to you. I truly did those things because I liked to make you happy. I love to do things for the people I love.
I don’t think you realized how devastated I was that time I got called to Student Services about you. I was so distraught that I had pushed too far and made you upset. Just the thought of me being the cause of you experiencing negative emotions makes me so upset with myself. I was so close to crying when I came into your classroom to ask if I did something wrong. Then you told me that everything was okay and for the first time in a long time, I actually believed it. You made me believe it.
I know I’ll miss you forever because the parts of you I have seen are some of the most beautiful pieces of a person that I have ever known. A wonderful quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald goes, “Suddenly, she realized that what she was regretting was not the lost past but the lost future, not what had not been but what would never be.” That quote flickers through my head a lot these days and I think it is very fitting for me and how our time is coming to an end. Even though we will never be together, it warms my heart to know that a person like you exists.
It’s weird to think about all of the things that I think about when it comes to you. It’s weird that I’m even writing this letter to you, which you have probably already stopped reading and have thrown it away or given it to administration or something of the like. None of it matters though because even if you have or haven’t stopped, I’m going to get everything out that I need to.
For starters, you confuse me. I doubt it was your intention but some of the things you said to me made me overthink everything. You randomly told me one day after I brought you coffee, and I quote, “Don’t ever worry about making me mad, okay? You could never make me mad.” You even repeated it to me when I didn’t respond to you the first time. You know what I did after that? I took that little bone and ran with it like a starving puppy. Then when I jokingly told Faith to tell you that I love you and you said you loved me too. Then at the Black and White, when I swear time froze when we saw each other for the first time that night. And then when you placed me in my AP Euro seat at the beginning of APUSH, when you were seating us alphabetically by last names and when you got to my seat you were still at the ‘Cs’ but you put me there instead, in the front row and the place you lecture in front of the most. All of those moments mean so much to me even though I know they were thoughtless to you.
Secondly, you ignite me. I know I said this earlier, but I am going to repeat myself because I mean it with every fiber of my being. You motivated me again. You were the only reason I kept coming to school when all I wanted to do was quit. It was so easy for me to get away with not coming to school but when I got into your class, I never wanted to leave. I was actually so disappointed every day I missed school because I wouldn’t get to see you that day.
Lastly, I love you. I love you in a way that I want you to succeed with everything in your life. I love you in a way that I want you to always be happy and content. I love you in a way that is so foreign to me because it is completely selfless. If you asked anything of me, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it. That’s a scary thought to know that you have so much power over me. The only reason I can tell you all of this is because I know you won’t abuse it or me.
I wish I had more time with you. I could sit in those stupid, uncomfortable desks 24/7 and listen to you talk about history, politics, whatever else you wanted for the rest of my life and never be satisfied with the amount of time spent with you.
Although we will most likely never talk again after graduation, please remember that I am forever changed by who you are and what you mean to me. You will always be important to me. I will fade from your memory but I want you to know that you will never fade from mine.
that's the end!
i feel like the letter is really all over the place but i think it does a great job reflecting my mindset and emotions when it came to him. i use past tense here because i have been thinking over a few things for a while. i am not going to be updating on this blog anymore and i am closing it down. i know that i've said this before in the past, but i truly do believe that i have lost feelings for alex now. since my last update, i actually saw him quite a bit and i... didn't feel anything? people change and mature and i believe that i have done that. thanks so much for taking the time to read that monstrosity as well as go on this tiring journey with me through the latter half of my high school years. it means a lot.
please remember to stay safe! thanks again!
#teacher student#tc crush#unrequited love#teacher crush#tcc blog#tc love#tcc#tcc update#tc community#tcc post#teacherxstudent#teacher and student#teacher x student#teachercrush#teacher crush confession#tc confession#teacher crush community
54 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Rise Of Skywalker Review [SPOILERICIOUS]
=0=
I’m going to post all the SPOILER stuff way below in section 3, so as not to ruin anything for anybody who hasn’t seen the movie yet.
You’ll get plenty of warnings.
=1=
In my old age I’m starting to divide creative works into three groups: Good, bad, and not-so-good.
A good creative work is any where the strengths overwhelmingly outweigh the weaknesses; a bad one is the obverse.
A not-so-good work is one where the strengths and weaknesses balance each other out.
It’s the kind of a work that will doubtless please those audience members who really enjoy the strengths in it, and equally irritate those annoyed by the weaknesses.
In my estimation, a not-so-good work is one done with straight forward intent and as often as not, a fair degree of technical and aesthetic competency, but fails to jell as a cohesive whole.
No one need feel ashamed for enjoying a not-so-good work, and no one involved in the making of a not-so-good work should feel bad about their contribution (unless, of course, their contribution turns out to be one of the weaknesses that should have been avoided).
Theodore Sturgeon famously observed “90% of everything is crap.”
I think that’s a little harsh.
I agree with him that only 10% of anything is good, but think only 40% falls into the crap bin.
Most stuff falls in the 50% I call not-so-good.
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker is in that 50%.
. . .
The good stuff is really good.
Elsewhere I’ve posted my enthusiasm for Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hinge in no small part on just how emo Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) could get, and holy cow, does he ever deliver in The Rise Of Skywalker.
Easily my favorite parts of the picture.
Doesn’t really mesh with anything else in the movie but, hey, ya can’t have everything, right? (I’ll discuss his performance in a little more detail in section =3=.)
Other performances range from adequate to doing-the-best-they-can-with-the-material to okay-smartass-you-try-recreating-a-dead-actress-via-CGI.
The dialog in The Rise Of Skywalker is the worst of any film in the series, with the possible exception Star Wars Episode III: The Revenge Of The Sith, which I haven’t seen and have no intention of seeing (but more on that below…).
It’s not an attempt to depict characters talking, it’s a series of shouted declarative sentences.
Elsewhere I’ve referred to The Rise Of Skywalker as the best Jason Of Star Command episode ever made.
For those who don’t get the reference, Jason Of Star Command was a low budget albeit imaginative Saturday morning kid-vid Star Wars rip off by Filmation Studios.
To make sure the youngest kids in the audience understood what was going on, they tended to hammer home plot points repeatedly.
DRAGOS
Jason! In just sixteen hours my space fleet
will destroy Star Command!
STAR COMMAND
Jason! Dragos is going to destroy us with his
space fleet in just sixteen hours!
JASON
Don’t worry, Star Command! I’ll stop Dragos from
destroying you with his space fleet in sixteen hours.
NARRATOR
(i.e., Norm Prescott)
Jason has only sixteen hours to stop Dragos from
destroying Star Command with his space fleet!
There is far too much of that in The Rise Of Skywalker.
Ten minutes into the movie, and there was already far too much of that…
The opening credit crawl reveals an off camera plot development that literally deserved an entire film of its own to fully explore.
There is no sustained coherent plot to The Rise Of Skywalker:
Well, we gotta do this,
now we gotta do that,
first we gotta find this thing,
then we gotta find that thing,
now I’m feeling blue,
now I’m gonna get encouraged,
etc., etc., and of course, etc.
Everything feel frenetic, not fast paced.
There are far too many scenes that exist just to sell action figures and toy vehicles.
There was a desire to tie off loose ends and say good-bye to favorite characters and that was a mistake.
It undercuts the urgency of the story (or rather, the desired urgency; the fact the film is called The Rise Of Skywalker means everybody in the freakin’ audience ALREADY KNOWS HOW THE DAMN THING IS GONNA END!
(This is not a problem unique to Star Wars. Gene Siskell famously upbraided Roger Ebert for spoiling the ending to the third Star Trek movie, to which Ebert retorted, “Oh, come on! They’re going to call a forty million dollar movie The Search For Spock and not find him?!?!?”)
There is one nice little breather scene (“little” only in screen time; visually it’s pretty big and impressive): The Festival of the Ancestors on the desert world Pasaana that gives a nice touch of exotic space opera flavor to the proceedings.
All of the Star Wars movies offer really great art direction and visual design, and The Rise Of Skywalker certainly delivers in that category.
Which makes the occasional mediocre special effects shots all the more obvious.
The Rise Of Skywalker has a few painfully obvious matte shots, a few shots obviously composed in post-production, and a few shots where the audience becomes aware the actors are performing in front of a greenscreen.
You can get away with mediocre visuals so long as there is consistency in their mediocrity.
If everything else consistently looks great, a so-so shot spoils the illusion; if everything consistently looks so-so, it’s simply part of the work’s look.
Indeed, you’re better off with consistently mediocre work highlighted by a few great shots than consistently great stuff undercut by a few mediocre ones.
Best thing about the movie is the complete lack of Jar Jar Binks.
=2=
Before diving deeper in The Rise Of Skywalker, let’s look at the series as a whole (just the numbered theatrical episodes, not standalone films, TV series, video games, comics, novels, etc.).
I’ve said the original Star Wars was the movie an entire generation had been waiting all their lives to see.
George Lucas wanted to do Flash Gordon but when Universal turned him down, created his own space opera.
Lucas, it needs be noted, is not a good writer.
Whatever visual talents he has, they don’t extend to telling a good story.
One can easily find early drafts of Star Wars online, and while they all share certain elements, they’re all pretty bad.
The development of Star Wars the movie grew organically with storyboard and production art, characters and incidents changing and evolving along the way.
It’s long been rumored that a more skilled writer than Lucas came in to do the final draft; one thing’s for sure, the shooting script is head and shoulders above the earlier drafts.
Star Wars the original Han-shoots-first-dammit theatrical release is very much a product of the 1970s.
20th Century Fox thought they had a good enough kiddee matinee movie for summer release; they expected their big sci-fi blockbuster of the year to be Damnation Alley.
Instead, they hit a nerve and found themselves with a blockbuster on their hands.
Lucas did show one great example of foresight: He trademarked all the names / characters / vehicles and held the licenses on them, not 20th Century Fox.
This gave him the war chest he needed to build the Lucasfilm empire.
And let’s give Lucas and his crew their due: They added immeasurably to the technical art of film making, as well as making several entertaining films.
What Lucas did not fully envision was how to mold his Star Wars material into a coherent and thematically cohesive saga.
He started out with grandiose plans -- four trilogies with a standalone film connecting each for a total of 15 movies -- but that gradually got whittled down to 12, then 9.
After Star Wars Episode VI: The Return Of The Jedi, Lucas put the Star Wars movie series on hold, waiting for film making technology to develop to the point where he could tell the stories the way he wanted to tell them.
Okay, fair enough.
But the problem is that while the film making technology improved, the technology of the Star Wars universe didn’t.
As I said, the original Star Wars is very much a 70s movie in taste / tone / style / sensibility.
While the designs look sufficiently sci-fi, they reflect robots and spacecraft designs of the 1970s -- in fact, even earlier in many cases.
That fit in with Lucas’ “used universe” look and the tag line “A long ago in a galaxy far, far away...”
But compare the original Star Wars with Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Kubrick spent a lot of time researching where technology was heading.
Long before visual displays and vector graphics became commonplace in real world aircraft, he showed them being used in the future.
The first example of what we refer to today as a computer tablet appeared in 2001 as a throwaway background detail.
Kubrick’s next film was A Clockwork Orange and he successfully predicted punk culture a decade ahead of reality (his only mistake being the assumption white, not black, would be the base color).
Star Wars Eps I - III take place a generation before the original Star Wars movie.
Star Wars Eps VII - IX take place a generation after.
Name a two generation span since the start of the industrial age that is not marked by radical technological change that produces an ensuing change in the social order.
Now I grant you, the Star Wars universe isn’t trying to tell that kind of story, but the story it is telling is static.
Characters in The Rise Of Skywalker talk about cloning as if it were A Really Big Deal.
Cloning today is cutting edge bio-tech, to be sure, but it’s already common place.
It’s as if the Star Wars characters were getting worked up over steam engines.
One can intercut scenes from the movies and, unless one is a familiar with each movie, it’s impossible to tell one film from another.
Lucas’ financial success enabled him to issue edicts re Star Wars (and other Lucasfilm projects) that undercut the strengths of his projects.
Lucas is a technological guru and a savvy businessman, but he really struggles to tell a story.
Frankly, I think he would have been a better film maker if he’d spent a decade or so making American Graffiti scale movies, not space operas and epic fantasies and adventure movies.
His decision to make the original Star Wars the fourth episode in his saga and going back to start his story with his villain was fatally flawed.
I grant following the Skywalker saga from Anakin to Luke to Rey could work if it started with Anakin.
But what he did was the equivalent of the James Bond movies jumping back in time to follow the pre-Bond career of Ernst Stavo Blofeld.
(And the Bond movies, at least up until the Daniel Craig era, are all standalone films insofar as one does not have to see any of the previous films to understand and enjoy the one being watched, not does the sequence they’re viewed in matter. And the Craig films were conceived from the beginning as having a coherent overall arc, so in that case they are the exception to the rule.)
The joyous whiz-bang space opera of the original Star Wars got bogged down in a lot of meaningless politics and talks of trade treaties, none of which explained why anyone would want to conquer the universe in order to rule it as a decrepit, diseased dictator in a dark hole.
Look at Hitler and Stalin and Castro and Mao and the Kim family in North Korea.
These guys enjoyed themselves (well, Hitler did until things went south for him). They loved the attention and went around preening themselves in public.
The off screen Empire (and implied Emperor) of the original Star Wars served that film well: It was a story about a tactical conflict, not a treatise on the philosophy of governance.
Lucas’ universe does not make sense even in its own context.
And because of that, it becomes harder and harder to fully engage with it.
A sci-fi movie doesn’t have to explain everything, but it has to at least imply there is an underlying order that links up.
Lucas began subverting his own universe almost immediately.
The Force was originally presented as a spiritual discipline that any sufficiently dedicated intelligent being could gain access to. (Robots seem to be specifically excluded from The Force, implying it needs a biological connection. But that would seem to exclude intelligences that may not be organic in the commonly accepted sense of the word, which means such beings cannot appear in the Star Wars universe, which means…well, I digress…)
That was a big hunk of the original Star Wars’ appeal, the thought that literally anybody could become a Jedi if they so desired.
It speaks to a religious bent in audiences from many different cultures around the world, and it offers up an egalitarian hope that allows everyone access to the Star Wars fantasy (“fantasy” in this context meaning the shared ideal).
But already in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Lucas began betraying his original concept, sowing the seeds for self-serving deception and innate superiority as endemic in The Force.
By the time he got around to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Lucas abandoned the hope established in the original Star Wars movie.
Now one has to be a special somebody, not just dedicated.
Mind you, that sort of story has its adherents, too.
Way back in the 1940s sci-fi fans were saying “Fans are slans” in order to claim superiority over “mundanes”. Today many Harry Potter fans like to think of themselves as inherently superior to “Muggles”.
It’s a very appealing idea, so appealing that the United States of America is based on it, the assumption being that white people are endowed with more blessings -- and therefore more rights -- than non-white people (add force multipliers such as “rich” / “male” / “Christian” / “straight” and you get to lord it over everybody).
Lucas with his stupid midichlorians robbed audiences of their healthy egalitarian fantasy and replaced it with a far more toxic elitism.
It appeals to the narcissistic stain in the human soul, and encourages dominance and bullying and cruelty and harm as a result.
It’s an elitism that requires a technologically and sociologically stagnant society, one where clones and robots and slaves can all co-exist and nobody points out they are all essentially the same thing.
A progressive society -- and here I use “progressive” strictly in a scientific and technological sense (though as stated above, advances in scientific fields invariably lead to changes elsewhere) -- does not let such conditions exist unchanged for generations.
As technology changes and improves, the culture/s around it change (and hopefully improve, too).
As I mentioned above, I’ve never seen Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.
My reason for not seeing it? Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.
Little Anakin Skywalker and his mom are slaves in The Phantom Menace.
He saves the Jedis and Princess Padame’s collective asses in that movie.
Okay, you’d think at the end of the movie that Padame would hand Qui-gon her ATM card and say, “Here, go back to Tatooine and bail the kid’s mom out. He did a solid for us, it’s the least we can do for him.”
No, they leave her there because there is no desire to change the underlying social order of their universe.
There can be no changes in Lucas’ bleak, barren moral universe.
There can be no help, no hope, no improvement.
When an edict is issue -- be it Jedi council or Emperor (or president of Lucasfilm) -- it is to be obeyed without question or pause.
Daring to say one can change their status -- change their destiny -- results in tragedy (and ironically, proof that is their destiny).
It’s dismaying enough that a large number of people enjoy cosplaying Star Wars villains, especially storm troopers, as that seems to indicate they’re missing the whole point of why the rebels were striving against the Empire in the first place.
Originally that could be written off as (at best) just enjoying the cool costumes and props or (at worst) finding an excuse for bad behavior (i.e., “I vuz only followink orders”).
But Lucas’ tacitly endorsing a sense of innate superiority pretty much destroys everything about The Force that the original Star Wars audience found enlightening and ennobling.
The Star Wars universe has become at its core a very ugly thing, and The Rise Of Skywalker doesn’t really clean it up.
SPOILERS ahead.
=3=
Seriously, SPOILERS follow.
Holy crap, The Rise Of Skywalker is a damn mess.
Nice eye candy, but a mess.
It pretty much undoes everything good in the previous two episodes.
I’m glad it’s the “official” end of the original saga because now I never need to see another Star Wars movie ever again.
(Oh, I’ll keep my DVD of the original Star Wars and if I find Solo in a bargain bin somewhere I might pick that up, but as far as the rest of Star Wars goes, I am D.O.N.E.)
The series stopped making sense long ago, so I’m really in no mood to analyze why nothing links up or really works.
It’s full of absurd, stupid ideas, such as space barbarians galloping across the deck of a star destroyed on their space horsies.
The whole back and forth between among Palpatine / Kylo / Rey goes on for two long. If hating somebody is bad because it sucks you over to the Dark Side, then why doesn’t somebody start building Terminators that can track down beings with midichlorians and kill them? (They’ve got the technology to detect midichlorians, that’s canon.)
It’s not anywhere near a good movie. It’s not as bad as George Lucas’ Star Wars Episodes I - III, but it’s clearly the worst of the last trilogy.
The scene where Rey gets off camera encouragement from all the dead Jedi? It seemed awfully familiar to me, as if the writers consciously or unconsciously remembered the John Wilkes Booth / Lee Harvey Oswald scene in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins where all the presidential assassins and would-be assassins past and future encourage him to plug Kennedy.
Not what I want in a Star Wars movie.
I think we may be seeing the end of Star Wars. It’s been crammed down our throats for too long. I’m aware of The Mandalorian series and how insanely popular it is, but y’know, sooner or later every pop culture craze dies out.
Star Wars has nowhere to go. Star Trek is hemmed in, too, but nowhere nearly as bad as Star Wars.
We’re about to enter a generational shift in America, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a badly dated 1970s sci-fi concept fails to make the cut.
It ends on a frustrating note, taking much too long to come to a close, far too much self-congratulatory bullshit, and the deliberate planting of clues for a future set of sequels should the Mouse start jonesin’ for that sweet, sweet Star Wars franchise money fix.
It’s a really bad script, and dragging Carrie Fisher’s digitally reanimated corpse into it and then killing her off by suicide is a damned stupid / offensive idea.
Mark Hamill’s ghost walking out of the flames of Jedi hell (thank you for that analogy, David Brin)? Wow, who didn’t see that one marching down the avenue?
Harrison Ford coming back as a memory / hallucination to tell Kylo to do the right thing? Skrue dat noiz.
(Though I have to say Kylo Ren is the best thing about the movie and his character turn parallels both Luke’s and Vader’s in The Return Of The Jedi only his is much more believable and poignant so dammit, Disney, you could have done a much better job with this movie than you did.)
The plot and pacing is straight out of a video game. First do this, then do that, now ya gotta do another thing -- feh!
And unless I misheard the dialog, this whole film supposedly takes place over a span of sixteen hours!!!
They visit a half dozen worlds, crash and repair spaceships, go undercover, get captured and escape, fight duels to the deal -- all in sixteen hours?!?!?
Yeesh.
And I’ll say this, the last line is wrong wrong WRONG.
If the Star Wars saga has taught us anything, it’s that Force users are a threat to everything.
They should be eliminated for the good of the universe.
Rey shouldn’t have buried the Skywalker lightsabers.
She should have destroyed them -- and the one she made, and any others she found lying around.
And when she’s asked at the very end what her name is, the answer should have been: “Rey…just Rey.”
I know I put The Rise Of Skywalker in the not-so-good bin, but truth be told, that’s the nostalgia talking; it’s only a eyelash away from being bad.
The whole epic saga is a failure as far as I’m concerned. One and done is the way to go; the moment it started making money as a toy franchise it went south.
© Buzz Dixon
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
so, I saw many people who think that the ending in Billie's book is suicide? But I kinda felt like, there was no ending. The only other option is for Dean to not die, to keep Michael locked up forever. What do you think is the ending?
Eh, the billion dollar question. Which, thanks for sending because I’ve just been so overwhelmed with feels that I have simply given up on making something coherent out of it.
Let me make a little detour first and say how the show is making explicit some things that we were saying but have been made textual now - cosmic consequences doesn’t mean something neat and clearly visible as the direct consequence of a particular action. It’s a ripple effect, a butterfly effect. Playing with the castle of cards that the universe is... you end up rewriting fate. That’s what Billie keeps saying. To the people who accuse the show of belittling Billie because she warns the Winchesters that Terrible Things(TM) are coming if they do certain things, but then they do the things and Terrible Things(TM) don’t happen - this is the answer. There are no “obvious” Terrible Things(TM) coming, it’s the fabric of fate being changed in ways that Billie can see, but that the other characters - and us - can’t unless Billie tells them (and us).
In an episode where Michael discusses about God being a writer, of course (in a classic Dabb era move, I mean) eventually we come to see where the story is really being written. Just like Anubis said that God doesn’t decide whether a person goes to hell or heaven, but the person themselves decides with their actions -- so the story of the world is not being written by God. There was a script, but it was revealed that following it was a choice (that Team Free Will rejected). There are, obviously, guidelines. But it’s fundamentally choices made by people that write the story. Billie had already shown us that there are many, many possible ways a person’s story can go, and now we learn explicitly that a person’s entire array of fate possibilities can be even rewritten, if that person messes up with the order of the cosmos enough.
Michael, the dark Dean double, says that God can be killed, and that he’ll destroy his “draft worlds” because he can. This is basically the dark equivalent of what Dean does - Dean, who metaphorically destroys God’s scripts, who metaphorically “kill gods”. Dean “Free Will” Winchester can destroy the stories who have been written so far, he can kill God, he can shape his own destiny and the destiny of the cosmos. Of course, right now things are probably going to take a difficult turn because this is Supernatural, but the point is that Dean does what Michael claims for himself - he “destroys worlds-stories” and “kills God” in this sense.
Now, I don’t know what the book Billie shows Dean says, and I’m not particularly interested in making speculations about it because we just don’t know, but what really interests me is Billie’s behavior in this episode.
She breaks the rules. She intervenes, she sends Sam, Cas, Jack and the Michael+Dean package to the bunker so Cas and Sam can enter Dean’s mind, return Dean to the control room of his body, and stuff Michael away for the time being.
Sam said that one of your reapers really came through with the assist. I’m thinking that was probably you.Don’t tell anyone.You broke the rules.I took a calculated risk.
She is interested in the world not being destroyed, and she is making an investment in Dean in the perspective of Dean possibly choosing that one path that doesn’t end with Michael destroying the world. Of course, she is not going to force Dean to choose, she is not going to arrange things in a way that Dean cannot but go in that direction. She is leaving him the fundamental choice. That’s up to you. But breaking the hands-off rule, letting Dean read out of a book from her office - that’s a big move. I’m supposing that Death revealing about the books back about Sam and Rowena wasn’t exactly orthodox already, but now she has handed a book to Dean, which I’m sure is just as unorthodox and the various other adventures Dean has had with Death.
*sound of the millions of Death Dean/Reaper Dean meta-spec written along the course of the show crying of emotion in the distance*
(Consider also Michael basically saying he plans to kill God - the original Death said he was going to reap God, and Michael is a mirror for Dean in this narrative; and now Billie basically puts Dean in a narrative position where he’s framed as Death, because reading those books, holding those books, is what Death does: Dean is consistently shown across the show as on equal footing with reapers and Death, and literally (s6) or metaphorically in their shoes.)
Billie is taking a big “calculated risk” in putting this much... responsibility? trust? in Dean, and I might add that she’s acknowledging Dean not really as an equal - obviously they’re not the same thing - but on an equal footing of sorts when it comes to this situation.
But no, I really don’t know what the book might say.
What are the alternatives to Michael running loose? Either keeping him locked up forever (a), or destroying him (b).
The former is... impossible, or just not really worth investing on. Even if Dean arranged some kind of send-me-to-outer-space-to-be-a-lock-forever situation - oh, wait, that has never worked. The Cage God built is not a very solid solution - Lucifer got out twice, Michael is still there but another Michael showed up, so, really, the purpose of it is basically bypassed. Basically, you lock one Michael up, another one takes his place on the cosmic chessboard, you know? I feel confident in saying locking up Michael doesn’t work.
In fact, locking up your problems doesn’t work. It’s not a coincidence that in this episode Michael mentions God: locking up things is God’s specialty. And it doesn’t work. The Cage is like Swiss cheese. Amara, the ultimate problem he locked up to get rid of, also escaped and almost killed God if it weren’t for Dean’s intervention. In this episode, there are several attempts to lock things up that don’t work in a way or another: in the hotel, they need to be teleported away because the door wasn’t going to hold; the shapeshifter pretending to be a hunter doesn’t lock the bunker... rule of three, the third locking up, Michael’s, succeeds for the time being, but we can’t expect it to last forever.
Unless Dean manages to find a way to mute Michael, to lock him up to well he doesn’t make any noise, literally and figuratively. But... well, no. For the simple extradiegetic reason that we can’t have Dean get to the end the show with Michael just locked inside and that’s it. In-story, it just doesn’t seem like a sustainable solution. And knowing that Dean has a neutralized archangel inside of him in a fridge? Not exactly the prettiest scenario.
Also, it’s probably early to really make statements about this, but all of this Michael, Michael vs God, Dean vs Michael situation is all a mirror for Dean’s dynamic with John, and we know something huge regarding Dean and John is coming, so... whatever the solution to the Michael problem is going to be, it’s going to be a mirror to whatever the resolution of Dean’s John-related trauma is going to be like. Stuffing the problem inside of you forever is not a solution to trauma, and it can’t be a solution to Michael.
And now we get to (b). And we have two possibilities: Dean manages to find a way to destroy Michael that allows him to live, or Dean destroys himself and Michael. But what does it mean to destroy an angel...? Well, we know what happens to dead angels. Is whatever the book says related to the Empty and the Shadow that rules it? That’s a possibility, and also a way the Michael/Dean storyline could merge with the Empty/Cas storyline, but I’m putting the carriage before the horses.
I really don’t like using the CW promo for the next episode to speculate on, because CW promos are notoriously not a reliable tool for speculation, and the Onwards trailer doesn’t seem to give anything away in this regard, so I’m not going to speculate on what Dean “acting strange” might be specifically an indicator of. (He’s planning to die soon? He’s attempting some kind of strategy like when he was trying to control the Mark of Cain? We just don’t know yet.)
This post has gotten long enough, so I’m ending it on with a note on Jensen’s acting. First of all: give this man all the prizes. He’s superb in every episode, but this episode allowed him to showcase his talents beautifully, both as Michael and as Dean.
In the final scene, Jensen initially plays Dean as half-heartedly trying to put on a façade of confidence in front of Billie - I think he’s purposely played it as Dean not really trying, because he does know there’s no point to it (I think he’s doing it more for himself than for Billie, if you get what I mean). The subtle horror when Billie says that ‘all the books’ end with Michael getting control, the wariness when she mentions an exception, the frown when he basically asks her silently if he can/should open it, the shock/surprise -- I think then Dean’s expression reveals a sort of mixture of disorientation and understanding at the same time. He understands what what is written means - Billie doesn’t feel the need to explain more, after all - and that understanding leaves him lost and vulnerable. That’s eventually what Jensen plays - that almost childlike quality what Jensen gives Dean when he’s unguarded in his helplessness. It’s the way Jensen played Dean overwhelmed by the horror of losing his own sense of identity when he lost his memory under the witch’s spell...
Interestingly, he gives a quick glance to the book and he looks up at Billie wide-eyed and slack-mouthed, asking what he’s supposed to do with that knowledge - a sign that he’s understood the gist of what’s in the book - then he reads more and he seems to find some additional detail that further gets him shaken.
But then again, we just don’t know what’s in that book, so we just have to wait and see.
In the meanwhile I’m expecting the fandom to provide crack suggestions :3
187 notes
·
View notes
Link
MAGA scrambles to repair the Hunter Biden narrative
Instead of publishing the more salacious allegations, conservative media has been more focused on covering alleged suppression of the story.
Weeks ago, when Rudy Giuliani first threw the contents of Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop online, he promised a trove of even more damning information 10 days before the election.
Yet with less than a week to go, Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, is still moving down the conservative media food chain, looking for takers.
The Wall Street Journal and Fox News have both reported finding no evidence that former Vice President Joe Biden benefited from the Hunter Biden business dealings that have drawn scrutiny. More explicitly pro-Trump media outlets — OAN, Breitbart, Newsmax — have mostly shied away from publishing fresher, more salacious allegations. And conservative talking heads — pundits, politicians, and loud MAGA Twitter personalities alike — have been more focused on the meta-narrative around the laptop, arguing that mainstream media, social media companies and the deep state are conspiring to prevent President Donald Trump’s reelection by suppressing the story.
When Breitbart did touch on new revelations, it preemptively distanced itself, carefully framing a fresh trove of emails as an independent investigation by Peter Schweizer, author of “Clinton Cash,” the 2015 look into the Clinton family’s extensive foreign financial ties that made several overstated or inaccurate claims.
So the story has gone elsewhere. Videos apparently showing Hunter Biden in compromising positions, allegedly obtained from the laptop, have been uploaded to a Chinese website owned partially by Steve Bannon, the former Trump aide who has been helping Giuliani. The explicit photos ended up on Gateway Pundit, a site known for promoting conspiracy theories about various Democratic figures. An email allegedly tying Hunter Biden to a Kazakh oligarch ended up in the British tabloid The Daily Mail, with only a passing mention of Biden. Other details have been published by outlets connected to prominent conservative super PACs.
Ultimately, the bulk of fresh allegations have been reduced to public statements from Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, who found a willing partner in Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night. Bobulinski got an extensive, 45-minute segment to lay out his case to Carlson’s millions of viewers. Yet elsewhere, Giuliani has groused on his podcast, “Common Sense,” that the public can only find out the truth from him, “because I'm not allowed on main television to tell you these things.”
It’s not the way Trumpworld would have wanted it. As much disdain as the president’s supporters have for the media, their ultimate goal was to place a story in a well-known, conservative-leaning outlet that conclusively showed Biden profiting off his son’s business deals. Doing so would simultaneously establish the conservative media’s journalistic prowess and bolster MAGA claims of mainstream media bias.
But no A-list conservative outlet has published anything living up to those claims. Instead, these outlets have turned their firepower toward other reliable topics: social media bias; deep state plots; and the media’s failure to cover a story they themselves have backed away from, leaving Giuliani and Bobulinski to sell the story to the fringe.
“I think we're seeing a tactic of something like flooding the zone,” said Chris Loofte, the senior editor of First Draft, a nonprofit that works to combat disinformation. “And it could be backfiring, in that all of these leads are circulating, but none of them are really getting all the attention that would be required for an outlet like The Wall Street Journal to give them any attention.”
A group of Trump allies initially tried to give the story to The Wall Street Journal in the hopes of an exposé, according to The New York Times. But as the Journal reviewed the Hunter Biden documents, Giuliani and Bobulinski started to push every part of the story everywhere — first in the New York Post, then across OAN, Newsmax and whatever outlet would take their content. Then a second trove of emails dropped, given to Schweizer and published on Breitbart.
But with bits and pieces of the entire Hunter Biden narrative floating across the conservative mediasphere, few people on the right have been able to explain who, exactly, did what, on behalf of whom.
Last week, Sebastian Gorka, a former White House official and conservative radio host, asked Bannon on his radio show, when the bombshell was coming.
“Steve, I implore you, we are 15 days out from the election. When is the big shoe drop going to drop?” he asked.
At that point, though, the majority of the Hunter story had, in fact, already dropped.
Even the president himself has had a hard time citing the convoluted storyline, making arcane references during the last debate, randomly bringing up pieces of the story during his rallies, and referring, frequently, to the “laptop from hell” but not explaining what’s actually on the device.
“You know the laptop? You know what it’s called? I said it last night in Wisconsin. It’s called the laptop from hell. Right?” Trump declared Sunday night at a rally in Manchester, N.H. “That laptop. That laptop is not good.”
Angelo Carusone, a longtime monitor of conservative media and president of the progressive group Media Matters for America, said the situation has all the ingredients of a scandal, but that no one can agree on exactly what the scandal is.
“They have this diary, but it doesn't actually say anything. They have these videos, but they don't really demonstrate anything about Joe Biden, so most mainstream outlets aren't going to pick it up,” Carusone said. “But in order to scandalize it, you would need Fox News and the rest of the right-wing echo chamber to sing from that page, and they're not.”
There is, Loofte argued, a straightforward problem with it.
“There hasn't been evident in those emails that any of these deals actually happened, or that Hunter’s relationship with Joe was the deciding factor,” Loofte said. “I'm not commenting on the story itself. I'm just talking about the sourcing. I mean, it's just these emails.”
But the insinuation of the story, and its promotion by the president, is enough to keep the emotional core of the narrative alive. Stories about the Hunter story keep popping up on lesser right-wing blogs, and coverage about the elites’ alleged censorship of the story dominates the conservative news cycle.
“That's a side effect of a broader trait of media consumption online, which is that recommendation algorithms tend to direct people to material that's already familiar to them,” Loofte said.
The timeline is certainly working against Trump’s allies, though. About 70 million Americans have already cast their votes. And with less than a week left before the election, the window for conservatives to center around a singular narrative about Hunter Biden’s alleged crimes — and how they actually connect with Joe Biden — is closing by the day.
On Tuesday night, Bobulinski made his final pitch to America. Appearing on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, he laid out his claims about the Biden family’s business dealings with China in 2017, flashing emails, texts, and documents. It was his attempt to paint a coherent narrative: “Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised,” he told Carlson.
The appearance brought immediate gratification to the conservative world, ranging from calls to investigate Biden to calls for the story to break out of the right-wing echo chamber. “One rule” should govern: However news organizations dealt w/ allegations of Russian collusion w/ @realDonaldTrump, it should deal w/these,” tweeted prominent conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
And Trump immediately picked up on it at a Tuesday night rally.
“Some bad news just came out on Biden,” he said, referencing Bobulinski's just-concluded appearance. “You’ll find out about it tomorrow.” A few minutes later, Trump ticked through a synopsis of the interview, reading it off the teleprompter.
"Lock him up," the crowd chanted.
Still, over on the Fox Business Network on Tuesday night, Giuliani was threatening to storm off the set of Lisa Kennedy Montgomery’s show mid-interview, after the host compared his allegations to the mostly unverified Russian dossier.
“You are now repeating lying propaganda — I think our interview is now over," he shouted, starting to tear off his microphone and flapping his hands in anger, before agreeing to stay until the end of the segment.
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
aiyuuweek2024
AiYuu Week 2024
cromahi
Cromahi
avery-the-psychic
Avery-The-Psychic
pergolasperth-blog
Patio Perfect
karls-airsuspension
Karls Air Suspension