#lise has opinions | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

goldenstarprincesses · 4 months

Text

The human names of nations is so interesting to me. It humanizes these immortal cryptid beings. Not even for the mortal people they interact with everyday, but in some ways, for the other nations. Even for humans, names are so frequently intertwined with culture, history, and personal experiences. For a nation, it must go even deeper than that.

"Alfred" for a male America works in my opinion. While he kept his first name, he dose change his last name to Jones at some point during the early stages of the American revolution. I like to think America (both male and nyo) adopted the name from a human whose' name will never be found in a history book, but will always be remembered by their nation. Sorta in-line with him wearing glasses' to look older, I also like playing around with the idea that he added an "F" to his name during the Gilded Age because he thought it made his name look more official on paper. It's also just funny to think it really doesn't stand for anything and that he lets different people think it stands for different names. Today in day-to-day conversations he is simply "Alfred". Matt almost always (plus a few other he's close with) will always refer to him as Al. His aunt can refer to him as Alfie. His uncles often get away loving referring to him as Freddie. They are the only people that can get away with either of those names without getting decked. Ivan will often use them if he's trying to antagonize Alfred. But overall, he is pretty open to nicknames if you and him are on a friendly basis. He's a puddle on the ground when it comes to being called romantic nicknames in/from his partners native language.

For Nyo!America, it is a bit more complicated. I'm very attached to the name Amelia, but can recognize it's not a name that Arthur would have given his daughter in the 1600s. When she was taken in by Arthur, she was christened with the classic name of Elizabeth. Yet it was only Arthur that called her that even in "childhood". Little baby French speaking Matthew called her Lise or the non-Elizabeth nickname of Sissie. While most humans who she was friend's with referred to her as Bet. Because they could Bet on her. Even other humans would nearly always often shorten it to Beth. Pretty much everyone outside of the man who gave her the name could see "Elizabeth" just did not fit her. In my headcanon she was quite a bit more angry and hurt then Alfred was during the revolution. Which, along with already not "loving" the name, caused her to feel no reason not to ditch the names Arthur had given her. Like Alfred, Jones came from a human that she cared about. But this time around, so did Amelia. So up until the 1880s, it was Amelia Jones until, again just like Alfred, she added the "F" to make it Amelia F. Jones.

And as the years went on, Matt says Mel or in moments filled with fear/pain Sissie may slip out. But really outside of him, people don't use nicknames for her. Over the years, since adopting the name, she drew a firm line that she only responds to the United States of America, United States, America in formal settings. Amelia in informal settings. She simply won't respond if someone calls her something else. This mostly has to do, well, with the sexism of being one of only a handful of female nation's and simply being a woman...that exists in this world. A lot of times male nations (as well as human men) would actively use nicknames as a way to talk-down to her or dismiss her abilities. So she begin to refuse to respond to anything but her name

But one of the newest developments in this area is that starting sometime in the 1990s...Arthur was seemingly allowed to start referring to America as Elizabeth again in moments of privacy. First time Matt heard Arthur say "Elizabeth dear, would you pass me the files" he mentally started to prepare for war. The fact America did not even blink or say anything other then "oh yeah, here ya go" changed Matt's understanding of the family dynamic.

#nyo america #hws america #hws england #hws canada #hws ireland #hws scotland #historical hetalia #alfred f jones #Amelia jones #hetalia #hws russia #aph america #aph england #aph canada #aph ireland #aph scotland

97 notes · View notes

suncaptor · 1 year

Note

hi! i hope you don't mind me asking, but i need a certified opinion on sam winchester and you seemed like the person to go to :D

could you rec me some good sam-centric fic & character studies? preferably for early seasons or pre-series?

i'm showing spn to a friend and they like sam a lot, but we are both. somewhat afraid to go into the tag lol. so I figured you could have something nice bookmarked or there's maybe a rec list i dont know about.

thanks!

Okay I actually mostly read later seasons Sam stuff (or at least s5+) because the more trauma the better <3 but here are some that are either sam studies that include earlier stuff or earlier/preseries (like kripke era)

DO check trigger warnings! since these are (mostly) pre hell (and I would not read w*) they aren't as bad as some of the sam & lucifer fics I'd share, but some still have different potentially triggering themes (like addiction, suicide, etc, so please just be careful! I'm assuming you can check the tags on ao3 <3)

also some are 18+, not sure your age but I don't personally want my followers talking to me about nsfw content if they are minors. so be wary around that too, but they're all outer links so ao3 will have them rated/stop you etc.

Sam w/ OCD rec list & my old Sam rec list

samjess

Sunlight by sp8ce, samjess

The first time Sam tastes blood it's human blood, and it feels like shame and the closest he has been to truly human wrapped up in one. He's never been so safe and in love. The second time it's electric and consuming. He has nothing left, but the desire to chase the power and hold on to the objective of revenge, only still connected at her touch. The third time, he's pretty sure it will kill him, burn him like purifying light from the inside out. --- An exploration of Sam and consuming blood. This work is the first time: with Jessica Moore.

also if you like samjess sp8ce has later seasons ghost samjess too<3

sam & john

the type who doesn't burn by patrocluus

On a late October afternoon in 1997, John Winchester takes his son out into the woods and puts a bullet between his eyes.

make a mirror out of you by sp8ce - john kills jess (it's john pov though)

The thing about Jessica's death is that it makes Sa,m understand John more than anything else ever could and choose everything John's ever wanted Sam to choose. Azazel always seems to have John's silhouette.

sam / gen or multi

This Is the Way (The World Ends) by Lise

In Georgia hunting a skinwalker, Dean saw Sam. AU. Like, really.

Weblike Causality by sp8ce

Which came first? The fear or the inevitability?

instrument by sp8ce

Sam Winchester grasps with his own personhood.

Polaroid Sun Picture by sp8ce

Sam has been stalked his whole life in order to be manipulated into an instrument of his worst fears. He has no privacy to himself. He has no defence.

therefore I react by sp8ce

for a while, in the cage, all Sam sees is a tree.

(okay so I've tried to not give you any lucifer stuff but this one is a sam & learnt helplessness thesis for connecting past & present)

This Kid's Not Alright by safiyabat

What exactly did Sam get up to at Bobby's while Dean was at Sonny's? When John makes a very odd request of the older hunter, Bobby takes the boy into his home for a few months. It isn't an easy time for either of them.

the easy way out and the hardest part by queenbaskerville

Sam would rather die than be Lucifer's vessel. Lucifer will just resurrect him now, but there was a time before the seals were broken—a time before Sam broke the seals. To save the world, to save Dean—Sam knows what he has to do.

The Special Children by TheMightiestPen

After Dean reveals his Dad’s last words, he asks Sam to lay low for a while. This time, Sam says no. This time, Sam goes all in in his search for the other kids like him. S2 AU, for spnhiatuscreations on tumblr for week 5: favorite season.

sam & dean

Dear Abel by lowkey_existential_despair (it has samjess/early sam&dean basis okay)

It wasn’t always like this, is the thing. There used to be a time when caring about Dean was more than just a habit. There was a time, once, when seeing Dean with demon-black eyes would’ve been the worst thing in the world. But that was a long time ago. Now, he looks at this black-eyed version of Dean—wrapped in layers of chains, in pain, sobbing quietly—and he feels nothing. Nothing at all.

Purify by cenotaphy

"We know what happens when Sam drinks demon blood.

…but what happens when Sam drinks angel blood?"

Set at the end of season 4, before Sam gets out of the panic room.

Hell Fractal by sp8ce

Sam's last real memory is of Dean stabbing him after he let Lucifer out. Sam keeps, with varying levels of memory and awareness, waking up in the panic room. With Dean needing to kill him.

Man-in-the-middle by ambersock (who has some lovely fics <3)

Sam hears the driver’s side door open, hears footsteps approaching. He remembers that Dean still has Ruby’s demon-killing blade. Yet another voicemail fix-it.

The Choice by authoressnebula (authoressjean)

(this author has other early seasons sam&dean stuff)

One gun. One bullet. It's up to Sam and Dean to decide who will shoot the bullet…and who will die.

it’s not that i think i’m good, i know i’m evil by redskyatmorning

(author has good later seasons Sam stuff as well)

The conversation that leads up to Sam ending up in the panic room, again, to detox from demon blood.

Fade Far Away, Dissolve, and Quite Forget by Lise

You've seen isolation before, but not like this. It's not quite another hemisphere, but it's close enough.

Catharsis by BlueIris08

Sam copes with learning of Dean's promise to John in the classic Winchester way--with alcohol. Or, the drunken, angsty post-Croatoan/Hunted scene that didn't happen.

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right by WilsonTheMoose

In which Sam gets beaten up (rookie), Dean mentions the voicemail (idiot), and nothing really changes (figures). Fits into the first episode of season 5. For an anonymous prompt on tumblr asking for Dean hitting Sam in the earlier seasons. This is not quite what you wanted anon, sorry.

yeah, well, i don't want to by AreYouReady

He didn't do it on purpose. / Dean sabotages Jess's warding in pilot

Comets, Stars, Haunted Houses, and Other Things Best Observed from a Hundred Million Miles Away by occasionallyalways

See also: violent deaths; apologies; lightning. Or; Something happened in the panic room. Something went wrong. Dean finds out six years later.

sambrady

One to Save You by sp8ce

If Brady needs Sam, he'll be there immediately.

The Piece You're Missing by sp8ce

Brady can't seem to figure out why Sam won't give up on him. They have a conversation where he tries to dissect and understand why.

Out by TheMightiestPen (also sam&dean)

A god-possessed witch reveals a secret that Sam’s been keeping for a long time. The brothers handle it like mature, well-adjusted adults, for once.

sastiel

Grace (made perfect in weakness) by Sidewoundcore (CherryHollow)

After he is freed from the panic room, Castiel, rather than Ruby, is the first person to find Sam. In the end, it changes nothing at all.

atrophy & other stories by saintsurvivor

early seasons sastiel that is sam centric

Monster by Ginipig (voicemail fic so mostly sam&dean)

After everything that happened between him and Dean with the breaking of the final seal, Sam is having trouble moving on. Dean's weird, sort-of helpful angel friend wants to know why.

Not that it's any of his damned business.

Comfort by Never_x_Better

Sam's being tormented by Lucifer and Castiel just wants to help him. Nightmares, blood addiction, hallucinations, and fluff ends up leading the two friends down an interesting path.

Wishing Is Cold This Year by Lise

Dean has his head rather determinedly up his ass, so it falls to Castiel to take this one. Post 5.03ish.

what did you bury / before those hands pulled me from the earth? by starlightswait

It’s the strangest thing. Sam’s in the Cage. And then he’s not.

(technically post kripke but it's my favourite sastiel <;3)

Ruby Red by sp8ce (also samruby but I don't read or write a lot of samruby)

An exploration of Sam and consuming blood. This work has Sam reminiscing on Ruby. He then has more blood forced upon him by some hunters who think they can purify him. (can be read standalone or in series)

#fic rec #fanfiction #writing #sam winchester #sammy #spn #supernatural #fic #incoherents #wow that took hours. making rec lists is a time warp #also there are some of my beautiful mutuals who write beautiful later seasons fic. if i didn't include you it's cause I'm focusing earlier

206 notes · View notes

yujeong · 30 days

Text

Fic Ask Game: Favorite Fic Lines

Hello people. So, I got some sudden inspiration for this little game, which goes hand in hand with the KinnPorsche Fanfic Comment Event a little bit, in my opinion: Share the lines of fics that have brought a big emotional reaction out of you. It can be anything, from sadness to happiness to horniness to anything in between. Lines that have stayed with you, no matter how long ago you read the fic. I believe our writers deserve a little praise in these trying times, don't you think? So, for me, some of them are the following: 1) "The rib hurts so much more now that someone else knows about it." - drank every scar, by @ginnymoonbeam - Tbh, I'd have to put the whole fic in here, but this is the line I tend to think of whenever the fic comes to mind. Rereading it now to find the line made my eyes water, it's so fucking visceral and perfect and I love it so much. Once again, thank you so, SO much for writing it and sharing it with the world ❤️ 2) "Vegas’ violence is unpredictable, painfully personal, and utterly, tragically ineffectual.

Pete forgives him all of it." - Civil Hands, by @ameliarating - I can't count the times I went feral over both Civil Hands and Deep Dive. As a fan of Pete, both of those fics mean the world to me, and this specific line has been on my mind since the moment I read it. I love how it showcases Vegas' effect on Pete's worldview, how Vegas made him break his own rules, and how he came to accept it, because it's him. Incredible writing, I love it so fucking much❤️ 3) "He’d rather be marked as disposable, he’d realized, than erased as invisible.

There was something bitter about realizing that he’d been both." - Once You Are Real, by @veliseraptor - Lise chose this for the summary and it's such a perfect choice. I think it's the reason I chose to read the fic in the first place. I am very emotional when it comes to the concept of Pete finding out he was forgotten, and this fic does an amazing job with it. I keep returning to it a lot, I love it to death. Painful in it's brilliance, I can't recommend it enough. 4) "“I don’t know,” Pete said unsteadily. “I don’t know. How could I know what that feels like? I’m not that kind of person.” He pulled against Vegas’s grip, and got nowhere. “You make my teeth ache. You make the world bright, like it’s real. It hurts. It’s hurt since I met you, but that means I can never forget I’m alive." - even the clearest water, by @luckydicekirby What a fic. The concept, the lines, the execution, it all deserves praise until the end of time. Pete's answer to Vegas' "Do you love me?" will always remain in my head as one of the best things VP-related I've ever read and ever will read in my life. I loved this so fucking much, I will never get over it ❤️ 5) "“And now you have nothing,” Kinn says. “As I said, a dumb move.”

“Wrong again,” Vegas says. “I now have something you don’t.”

“Oh?” Kinn doesn’t hide the way he rolls his eyes. “Massive hospital bills? Bed sores?”

“Happiness.”" - Your Power Over Me, by @wisteria-daydreamer - A very special shout out to my lovely friend who's written one of my favorite Kinn&Vegas fics I've ever had the pleasure to read. When this line came, I literally gasped out loud, it left me speechless. The way Kinn's POV is written was marvelous and the whole conversation he had with Vegas was incredible. Check it out if you crave some good Kinn&Vegas fics, it's very, very good. Disclaimer: I have so many fics and authors I love and I've made that clear to both them and my followers in the past. My brain could only handle doing 5 for this, but I absolutely have more than 5 that I'm obsessed with. Maybe one day I'll do a Part 2, I'll see how it goes in the future. No pressure tagging all the following lovely people, besides the writers that have already been tagged: @wretchedamaranth, @xpi-x-elx, @fleet-off, @lu-sn, @suzteel, @tsttoain, @thisautistic, @theoldastronomer, @vegaseatsass, @adanima, @kissporsche, @raksh-writes, @nyxelestia, @yourknightofrage, @mightymightygnomepriest, @justanothervariant, @justfionn and anyone else who wants to share the love for their fave fics and authors. You can do 5 or 10 or 100, there's no limit at all ❤️❤️

#Idk how this even came to mind but I love spreading appreciation for the people who have given me so many feels so here we go #No reason necessary tbh #I can't wait to see what people will share <33 #kinnporche the series #fanfic writing #writers asks

21 notes · View notes

helenekuragina · 2 years

Text

much to be said about the young women in war and peace who show an active desire to be in society (natasha, hélène, lise, and julie) and how the men of the novel and, by extension, tolstoy, value their worth. in all cases the fate of each woman is determined exactly by how entrenched she is in society. andrei loved lise until she "joined society" and then he abandons her and rips her away from what made her happy. julie abandons her only true friend, marya, and ends up in a marriage where everyone can tell her husband doesn't love her except for herself. we don't even need to talk about the fate tolstoy thought hélène deserved. all of natasha's hardships happen as a result of her being enticed by that life, but she's spared once she retreats back into the safety of family and tradition

it's not some sort of groundbreaking statement to point out tolstoy's opinion of russian high society nor his opinion of women, really, but it's just interesting to look this idea of how the women are treated narratively in that regard. the madonna/whore complex is so rampant in this book, it's insane.

some examples,

volume i, part one, vi.

and then, in volume ii, part one, ix.

it's devastating. lise truly never did anything to hurt anyone and narratively she's punished solely for the fact that andrei doesn't like her anymore. she becomes just a fridged woman for andrei to mourn and compare natasha to when she stumbles into society

volume ii, part five, ii.

there's an uncomfortable read to how this shows the perceived difference between julie, someone who allows herself to enjoy society, and marya, someone who hates moscow and is therefore seen as superior to julie. julie appears relatively little, but in each circumstance it's to highlight a "wrong" sort of woman compared to a "right" sort, even in the beginning when sonya sees her with nikolai

and speaking of sonya, let's get into the absolute blatant mess of dolokhov's stance on women and their morals 🧍‍♀️

from the original version, part three, xxiv.

this is right before his proposal to sonya. sonya, who is someone far outside society at this point (and is also, notably, a child...), especially in comparison to hélène, who he blames her inability to love him on her "impurity." tolstoy didn't hold back with dolokhov and his clear-cut madonna/whore complex. there are the madonnas, the women in his family and a young girl who has never been around anyone but her family, and every other woman is a whore

(this excerpt also leads into a lot of my thoughts about the dynamic between hélène and dolokhov and my conspiracy theory that their "Affair" was nowhere near what it was made out to be, but that's a post for another day)

this all brings us to natasha

volume ii, part five, xix.

pierre's opinion of women, like tolstoy's, deals in extremes. the second natasha is no longer an innocent child, she's a "vile woman," just like how he views hélène

i think i'll end by airing out some frustration about how fans of the men of war and peace excuse these ideologies rather than denouncing them? i'd rather see a fan of them talk about their complicated feelings about women rather than go "haha its because he likes boys" because as real as that is, that feels like the weirdest copout in the face of just ....... misogyny. like i think they're gay too but that's not an excuse to ignore their women hating LMAO it just seems like it would be more interesting to dissect that and make for a good character study

that's a lot of the fun in being a fan of this book today, the opportunity to give life and analyze a character in a way that the author never would have. we can look at his flaws and make something better out of them! death of the author babey it's our city now!!! anyways these women deserve so much better, but that comes at absolutely no surprise

#🪵.txt #war and peace #'we live in a society' - leo tolstoy #natasha rostova #lise meinen #hélène kuragina #julie karagina #sonya rostova #marya bolkonskaya #imagine if i could shut up 🙈#lm #hk #jk #me abt to talk abt my dislike of dolokhov: lets have THAT conversation

158 notes · View notes

adarkrainbow · 1 year

Text

The Yaga journal: A system of supernatural characters

Baba-Yaga’s house, as depicted in Bill Willingham’s Fables

The second article of the journal is “The Baba Yaga and the other supernatural characters of the fairytale. Do they form a system?” by Lise Gruel-Apert.

The Baba Yaga, or the crone. The princess, or fair maiden. The dragon, snake or devil. These are a few of the several supernatural characters that the hero or heroine of the fairytale meets during their quest. Vladimir Propp heavily talked about them in his “Historical roots of the fairytale”. This article doesn’t want to study these characters from a psycho-analysis point of view, because Gruel-Apert considers that the psychoanalysis doesn’t include enough the economical and socio-cultural context of the fairytale. This article will try to study the baba Yaga in her context, in the socio-cultural environment of which she belongs.

However the writer mentions that such a reading can lead to many mistakes - because no matter how many interpretation and analysis one gives to a fairytale, it will stay blurry and unclear, for the fairytale itself is a foggy and unclear material. It is the realm of the “Once upon a time”, of the “In a certain kingdom, in a certain State”, where nothing is clarified. Ever since the 19th century, numerous fairytale interpretations were created, each following the different fashion of the time (first were the “moralizing” interpretations and the “Christianizing” interpretations, then came the “mythology” interpretations and the “meteorological” ones, then the “psychanalytic” ones, etc...). Gruel-Apert shares the opinion of a certain Luzel on this subject: that the mistake is that each searcher tried to stick only to one theory, reducing the fairytale to this exclusive theory. So the author of the article wishes to do an “inductive” rather than “deductive” study - that is to say, just like Propp, going from the text towards the formation of a theory (instead of taking a theory and applying it to the text).

As Propp repeatedly said, the fairytale relies on the separation between our world and the “other world, the other side”, and on the travel from one to another - and the supernatural characters of the fairytale belong to the “other world”. The baba Yaga is the most emblematic, fascinating, and yet mysterious of those supernatural figures.

I) The Baba Yaga

Should we say “Baba-Yaga” or “the baba Yaga”? Should there be an article? It is hard to tell since the Slavic languages do not have articles, so technically speaking both ways are correct. However the Russian term “baba” is not a first name, or a person’s name, it is actually a word meaning “the woman of the lower class, the female peasant”. As for the name “Yaga”, it might be a deformation of “snake” - so her name might mean the “Snake woman”. The baba Yaga has several “aspects” to her character.

1) The abductor baba Yaga. Appearing suddenly out of nowhere, she steals away a little boy to roast him. But tricked by the boy-hero, she rather eats her own daughter. She appears as a huntress, and moves around in her mortar - she waits until she can rush on her prey (a prey that “smells like a Russian”, that is to say is alive). She is a cannibal, and she is a character revealing a society that is based on hunting but also knows primitive agriculture (the use of the mortar). She appears in tales such as “Small-Thomas” or “Filiouchka” (tales number 78 and 80 of Afanassiev’s fairytales).

2) The warrior baba Yaga. In the tale “Small Piece” (tale number 76), tricked again by the hero, the baba Yaga kills her forty-one daughters instead of the forty-one brother-protagonists (including Small Piece/Small Bit). Near a lake, the baba Yaga fights them: she is as an Amazon, riding on a horse, with a fire-projecting shield. There is a clear divide between girls and boys. In the fairytale “Ivachko-Bear-cub” (tale number 105-106) she fights the companions of the hero, and cuts from each of them a strip of skin on the back. The hero inverts the situation by cutting three skin-strips from the back of the baba Yaga. The baba Yaga escape him, and returns under the ground, where she lives with her daughter - but the adult daughter betrays her mother to go away with Ivachko-Bear-cub. There is a divide baba Yaga/hero, but also daughter/mother.

3) The donor baba Yaga. The hero of the story reaches a small isba in the forest, undergoes there trials, and receives gifts allowing them to cross from one realm to another and fulfill their goal (the quest of the desired person). According to Propp, the little isba marks the frontier between the two worlds.

4) The baba Yaga guardian of the realm of the dead. According to Propp’s analysis, the small isba is equivalent to a coffin: the Baba Yaga fills it from one corner to another, she is lying down on her stove with her nose touching the ceiling. She has a leg of bone, and she hates the smell of living things. Propp interprets the stay in the small isba as a remnant of the initiation rite of primitive societies, which caused a “temporary death”. For him, the baba Yaga is a caricature of the ritual’s leader.

5) The baba Yaga (or the Crone) mistress of the forest and of the wild animals. In “The Beauty of all Beauties”, tale number 119, she is said to rule over all the animals of the world - the beasts of the forest, the fishes, and the bird. In the sylvan world, the woman/mother/crone is the ruler.

6) Baba Yaga as a sexual or familial character. The author rejects the analysis of Propp that claims “While she is mother and mistress of all animals, she doesn’t have human children”. She points out that, while it is true she doesn’t have a husband or a son, she has daughters (sometimes one, other times three, sometimes many more). As for her sexual attributes, fairytales insist a lot on her breasts, instead of her genitalia. She is said to have her “teats tied to a hook” in one story, which proves that it is rather the maternity of the baba Yaga that is interesting, rather than her sexuality proper.

7) The soldar side of the baba Yaga. In two famous stories (Vassilissa the Beautiful, number 75, and Maria Marievna, tale 121) she commands the celestial phenomenon, but this aspect is quite limited in tales.

In conclusion: if the Baba Yaga was perceived as the leader of an initiation rite, as a great goddess with multiple attributes - but she is before all a spirit tied to the forest and the hunt. She has daughters rather than sons, and her behavior changes depending on genders: she defends girls but attacks boys, there is a clear “maternal clan” at work. Like many spirits of nature, she is benevolent and malevolent at the same time, which manifests in the trial she imposes to the hero. For Propp, her ugly appearance and old age were meant to say that she belonged to a “dead and outdated religion” - she is an “archaic character”.

II) The princess

The character of the princess also corresponds to the various names of: The Maiden-Tsar/the King-Girl ; the frog princess ; the daughter of the baba Yaga ; Vassilissa the Magical ; the Beautiful Daughter.

She is of a beauty that is hard to describe - her beauty is equivalent to the one of the sun, as she is tied to the day and to gold. The princess is also tied to the water of springs - in “The Water of Youth and the Beautiful Girl”, tale 135, the water of youth and life appears out of her hands and feet. There are three different “subtypes” to her. First subtype: she is the beautiful girl ravished away, but strangely in the other world she is found as a ruler and not as a prisoner, the captured prey becomes the one giving orders. This contradiction hasn’t been studied enough for the writer of the article. Second subtype: she is the Girl-King, an Amazon character with an immense strength and leading a group of female warriors. When the hero finds her sleeping, her breath is “like the one of the oak tree’s leaf” (Water of Youth and the Beautiful Girl), and in one version of the story collected by Khoudiakov “apple-trees grow from her arm-pits”. She symbolies the sleeping earth. Third subtype: Vassilissa the Magic One, the frog-princess, they are the creators of a civilized nature, they invent agriculture, they invent marriage, they are cultural heros.

III) The snake or the adversary

The snake is the main form taken by the “Adversary”. But he appears under different names: the she-snake, the dragon or she-dragon, Tchoudo-Youdo, the devil, the Hurricane, Kactcheï the Immortal.

The word meaning snake in the Slavic languages is “zmeja”, a word coming from “zemlja”, the earth - the snake is the animal that comes out of the earth. In Slavic legends, the snake has positive sides: he has the power to heal, he owns riches, he guards the hearth. In some fairytales he is even the magical helper (Helena the Wizardess, tale number 182).

However, most of the time, the dragon wishes to live with a maiden or a woman that was ravished (Roll-little-pea, tale 96-98) or to devour her (The Apple of Youth and the Kingdom below, tale 133). The dragon will also try to eat the hero (The Dragon and the Gypsy, tale 111, The two Ivan-sons of soldier, tale 117). Hence why the hero has to fght the dragon: the hero will cuts his heads, which will be difficult because he has many and they grow back. A second fight, more dangerous, is the fight with the mace - the head of the snake or dragon has to be placed under the earth. It is an archaic fight that highlights the monster’s tie to the earth - the same way the creature tried to eat the hero, the hero needs to have the creature “eaten” by the earth. The third type of fight, the most dangerous of all, is the one that happens when the dragons are killed, and when their women and mother enters: the mother-dragon opens a maw that goes from the heaven to the earth, and gulps down everything in front of her. The hero is only saved by a miracle, and never by his own means (it is a group of blacksmiths or a winged horse that saves the day). We have here a fight with a female figure of devoration. So the female dragon is extremely unpredictable and dangerous.

Another role of the dragon is to try to marry the hero. He has so many females around hm that he can ask the hero, before the fight “Do you come to marry one of my sisters or daughters?”, while the hero answer “I am not here to marry in your family, I am here to beat you up!” (Hurricane the Brave, tale 100). While this function of “wedding-planner” is not that present for the dragon, it is very present for the Tsar of the Water or for the devil. The Tsar of the Water, Tchoudo-Youdo, the devil/Tchort, all belong to the category of the “Adversary”. Surrounded by wives and daughters, they are tied to the motif of the “sell in advance”, aka “Give what you have in your house without knowing it”. These demonic characters take a son away from his father to marry him. They are marriage-creators as much as devourers.

IV) The relationship between the Baba Yaga and her daughter, the Hag and the Maiden

Sometimes the Baba Yaga is merely the guardian of the kingdom of the Beautiful Girl, and she is submissive to the latter (variations of the “Water of Youth” tales, tales 134, 136-138, 140). However these two characters, of different generations and cultures, are often tied by a parentage. Sometimes they are mother/daughters (the hero married the Baba Yaga’s daughter in “Go I don’t know where, bring back I don’t know what, tale 164) ; other times they are aunt and niece (in Tchoudo-Youdo and Vassilissa the Magic Girl, tale 172) ; and they can be grand-mother and grand-daughter (the tales on the Finiste bird, tales 179 180). The young girls or the maidens are always descendants of the baba Yaga - a baba Yaga who herself has sisters. However the baba Yaga is never part of the hero’s family - she is of the family of the wife, of the bride-to-be, of the searched woman.

However these characters are opposites. Sometimes the opposition is direct: in Ivachko-Bear-cub, the daughter of the baba Yaga wishes to leave the world of her mother, and tells the hero how to kill her. The character of the baba Yaga daughter’s is simple: is she is a child, she will be killed accidentally by her mother, if she is adult, she will have her mother killed. Meanwhile, the characters of Vassilissa the Magic Girl/the princess frog are more complex. They create a wold different from the one of their mother/aunt/grand-mother, a world not relying on the forest and the hunt, but on field and agricultures: they realizes agricultural and domestic chores, which are unusual in the wild and sylvan world they come from, they train and domesticate animals, they build bridges and palaces, through their dance they create civilization or prepare weddings. They do not attack directly the baba Yaga, but they create a new world, and so they wish to leave the archaic world - and thus fight other supernatural beings.

There are however many common points between the Old One and the Young One. The princess of the silver-kingdom in “The three kingdoms”, tale 93, welcomes the hero by saying “Until then I had never seen nor smelled the body of a Russian man, but today one is here before me!” - which are the exact same words the baba Yaga uses in other tales. In “The Two Ivan-sons of soldier”, the story ends when the beautiful maiden turns into a lionness, swells up to monstrous proportions, and devours the two heroes. So the maiden can eat people, just like the baba Yaga... In a variation of “The princess-frog” tale (number 207), the character is indeed the regular frog-princess that can “create from a gesture of her hand, gardens and meadows” - but she has a threatening cannibalism. When she arrives at her mother’s home where the hero is hidden, she says “It smells like a Russian man! If Ivan-tsarevitch was under my hand, I’d rip him to pieces!”. Strangely here it is the mother that moderates her daughter, and advices the hero: the mother/daughter roles are inverted, the daughter fulfilling the role of the ogress, while the mother is civilized. But the hero still ends up figuratively devoured, since the frog, now in love with him, takes him away to her “seventh kingdom”. In the tale “The Water of Youth and the Beautiful Girl”, the titular Beautiful Girl, raped in her sleep by the hero, kills him, then after calming down and finding him to be a pretty boy, she heals the deadly wound with the water of youth-and-life that comes from her hand - the man is resurrected and they marry. So in conclusion, between the two different generations, we find two characters malevolent and benevolent at the same time, two cannibals, two characters tied to nature (be it wild or civilized nature), two characters placing trials on the hero, and whose advice always leads to a wedding.

V) The relationship with the male monster

We saw that the male monster (the dragon, Tchoudo-Youdo, the Tsar of the Water, the devil) is at the same time concerned with devouring and marrying. His second role, as a marriage-driven character, is quite enigmatic when present in the dragon’s character - and to see things a bit clearly, we must look at other male supernatural characters.

The water monster, the devil, Tchoudo-Youdo all have an unclear physical appearance, but their names reveal their heretical nature. They are called the “Miscreant Tsar”, “Tchoudo-Youdo the Outlaw”, “The Tsar with an unbaptized forehead”, “Satan”, “the devil” or “Hell”. They have a female entourage: they only have daughters, sometimes a sister. The daughter is an essential figure that can even be part of the tale’s title (The Devil and the clever girl, tale 173). But the baba Yaga also appears though this female parentage. In “Tchoudo-Youdo and Vassilissa the Magic One”, tale 172, baba Yaga reveals that Tchoudo-Youdo is her brother. And just like the male monster, the baba Yaga also has sisters (such as in “Finiste-Clear-Falcon”, tale 180). And we also saw earlier that Vassilissa the Magic Girl, who can be the daughter of Tchoudo Youdo, also is regularly the daughter, niece or granddaughter of the baba Yaga (or of the Old Woman of the Forest): we are here in a family. But which type of family are we confronted with? If we study the members of the baba Yaga’s family, we discover the intervention of a “father” or even of two fathers.

For example, let’s look at “The Tsar of the Water and Vassilissa the Magic Girl”, also known as “The Devil and the clever girl”. This tale is as ancient as it is famous: in the fairytale Aarne-Thompson Index, it is the AT 313. It is found in numerous places in Europe, its most ancient traces date back to Babylon, and the myth of Jason and Medea relies on its structure. It is very present in the oral fairytales of France, and of course in Russia it has numerous rich and archaic versions. The starting scene in the Russian tales is relatively stable: a travelling tsar is thirsty. As he is about to drink from a lake, a monster appears out of the water, holds the tsar’s beard and says he will only let him go if he gives him what he has in his home, without knowing what it is. The tsar, who believes he knows everything, agrees, but in truth he gave up his recently newborn son. The son will only be given when he reaches puberty - this is the motif of the “sell in advance”. However the monster out of the water - the Tsar of the Water - turns out to be the father of Vassilissa the Magical Maiden. So we have a fairytale with two fathers - the father of the hero (Ivan-tsarevitch) and the father of the intended bride, Vassilissa. But we have an anomaly here: the first father, Ivan’s father, didn’t know that he was about to have a child, while the second father, Vassilissa’s father, knew that the first father was about to have a child. As a result it seems that the first father’s isn’t regularly in the presence of his wife, or maybe doesn’t form a true couple with this female partner - he might be a man from a different clan than her. But the father of Vassilissa seems to be from the same clan as Ivan’s mother, since he knows what is happening to her, he knows that she is pregnant. The first father is a new father, an ordinary and biological father, with a very limited power, while the second is a powerful sorcerer, talented when it comes to marrying his daughters - because Vassilissa has variously numbered “sisters”.

The daughters of the powerful sorcerer can be three, twelve, or seven 77 in the tale 172, or a hundred - and nothing is ever said about their mother, so maybe they are not actually sisters, but cousins, and maybe the tsar of the water is their uncle rather than their father. We can take into account the fact that, even in modern Russian, the wors “brat” and “sestra” mean as much “cousin” as they mean “brother/sister”. So the father of Vassilissa might be her father-uncle, and we would come back to an archaic form of family. The father-uncle is the male leader of a family unit where only girls and wives are taken into account when drawing the bloodlines. The baba Yaga, who is also defined by her descendants, belongs to this clan and, by her role of guardian, by her orders, she “leads” this clan in her own way. It seems thus that Ivan’s marriage is organized by the clan of his mother, while the father of Ivan has no voice to the chapter. So, in the Russian fairytale, there is a very clear clan-structure, of “maternal clan” type, with an old woman, guardian of the order, a male leader, father-uncle, and numerous daughters or sisters, forming the uterine bloodline.

Maybe we can have more clues if we look at the epic Russian songs - much more misogynistic than the Russian fairytales. For example, in the famous novgorodian song “Sadko”: after a shipwreck, Sadko is at the palace of the sea-king. The sea-king wants to marry him with one of his three hundred girls, but Saint Nicholas appears and tells Sadko: “Choose the last girl that will be presented to you, but do not make love with her, only then will you be able to return to Novgorod”. Through his abstinence, Sadko finds himself the following morning all alone, but back in his hometown. If he had not restrained himself, he would have been absorbed, “drowned” by the maternal clan of the sea-king. We find here again the “swallowing” theme: for the hero, champion of the patriarchy, marrying in a maternal clan means disappearing, be absorbed, be swallowed.

#russian folklore #russian fairytales #afanassiev fairytales #baba yaga #fairytale archetypes #family in fairytales #marriage in fairytales

23 notes · View notes

ballet-symphonie · 10 months

Note

Dunno if you're following POB news but José Martinez bless him has made good on his promise to announce casts early.

Inès McIntosh debuting as Clara in Nureyev's Nutcracker alongside Paul Marque this winter (her first leading role!!!)

Bleuenn Battistoni debuting as Lise in La Fille Mal Gardée next spring.

Personal fave Hohyun Kang debuting as Kitri alongside Pablo Legasa.

Guillaume Diop will debute as the Prince (in the Nutcracker) with Dorothée Gilbert, and as Colas with Léonore Baulac.

And in general lots of of premiers danseurs and sujets cast in leading roles which makes for an interesting season!

This is all super exciting, great to see big chances given to various rising stars! Hopefully all will go well! I also saw on insta that Inès McIntosh will debut Kitri as well? It's going to be a big season for her, her career is about to really take off.

I am happy that José Martinez is fulfilling his promise, it shows he has great confidence in his dancers - sometimes casting is withheld from the public because the management is unsure or as a way to influence dancers. Releasing the casting in advance is a much more holistic way of doing things in my opinion.

#paris opera ballet #ballet #ballet ask #ballerina

12 notes · View notes

the-lesbianest-batman · 2 years

Text

The Great War - Taylor Swift

I'm going to be analysing the song from a merthur perspective, trying to prove to you how merthur coded it really is!!!!

In my opinion the song is mostly from Arthur's perspective.

My knuckles were bruised like violets

so this is arthur, always a fighter, trained to kill since birth et cetera

Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep talked

arthur is very repressed emotionally and has feelings for merlin he's not accepting, so he let's that out through anger (also the sleep talk thing fits really nice because we've had scenes of both merlin and arthur sleeping/waking up saying each others names)

Spineless in my tomb of silence

I feel like the tomb of silence can be read has his fear of dying/ never being able to express his true feelings and arthur living his life like that- rigid and spineless because of his father's influence.

Tore your banners down, took the battle underground

so yes the banners are merlins openness, regarding both magic and being gay and arthur is repressed and ignores merlin being queer in more way than one. the battle of ofc the actual literal battles and also his internal battle over his feelings

And maybe it was ego swinging

this could be arthur thinking his ego/arrogance are responsible for the conflicts and the war

Maybe it was her

personally I see this as morgana, since she is the only valid love interest merlins ever had (in arthur's mind at least - tbt "where are my flowers") and also morgana being responsible for the war

Flashes of the battle come back to me in a blur

this one's obvious- in my version of the great war of camelot vs morgana, arthur didn't die but got injured and is now regaining consciousness, so his memories start to come back. this could be when the song is playing because he's thinking about his feelings and the situation and all that.

now for the chorus

All that blood shed, crimson clover

so blood shed is like arthur thinking about like all the casualties of the war and also him having killed so many innocent magic users. plus him and his gang have killed many ppl so yes it fits.

Uh-huh, sweet dream was over

so yes this could be s2e10 sweet dreams (aka the ep with the best merthur potential imo) or more likely arthurs infatuation for merlin feeling like a dream (yk that high when you fall in love)

My hand was the one you reached for

All throughout the Great War

them both supporting each other during the war <3 (maybe merlins magic was revealed and they're fighting side by side?

Always remember

Uh-huh, tears on the letter

omg I have a great idea for this: post magic reveal merlin gives him a letter being all "I'm leaving" and arthur crying -> tears on the letter.

I vowed not to cry anymore

If we survived the Great War

them hoping for their eventual happy ending (which they DESERVE)

You drew up some good faith treaties

court sorcerer merlin helping arthur with political stuff/ lowkey being an advisor th3 way he kinda is in the show already???

I drew curtains closed, drank my poison all alone

again, arthur shuts himself off and doesn't accept or express his feelings. drawing curtains closed is very "I'm not out to myself/I'm the closet/ !!!beard!!!" to me and drinking my poison all alone is also heavily leaning on repressed feelings/ sexuality crisis.

You said I have to trust more freely

this is arthur trying to get over his prejudices/fears about magic. and perhaps even getting over his internalised homophobia and trust issues and merlin is for sure helping with that.

But diesel is desire, you were playin' with fire

arthurs internalised homophobia and stuff kicking in- he's scared after all. it's like the golden-harry styles thing. merlin: "I know that you're scared because I'm so open."

And maybe it's the past that's talkin'

Screamin' from a crypt

uthers god awful parenting and influences being the past that's talking. say it with me IN-TER-NA-LISED HO-MO-PHO-BI-A

Tellin' me to punish you for things you never did

arthur sees that magic is not a crime and that he shouldn't punish merlin for "the crime" of using magic. and on a subtextual leven this could again also apply for gayness since magic=gay (watch the aretheygay video on merthur, I'm not gonna explain that concept rn)

So I justified it

this right here is arthurs character development. he's no longer hiding behind his father's politics but taking matters into his own hands-legalisong magic and making a case for all magic users- justifying how magic should be legal in front of the conservative councilmen

All that blood shed, crimson clover

Uh-huh, the bombs were close and

My hand was the one you reached for

All throughout the Great War

Always remember

Uh-huh, the burning embers

I vowed not to fight anymore

If we survived the Great War

pretty much the same as the first chorus BUT "the bombs were close" and "the burning embers" "and the last two lines. so the first difference is a reference to the war yes. the burning embers are imo merlins eyes when he uses magic. seeing merlins eyes go golden woudl be a pivotal moment for arthur-it being the undeniable proof that YES, MERLIN HAS MAGIC. and the last two lines are again about hoping for their happy ever after. arthur did dream about him and merlin living on a farm. if that's not gay then what is tbh

It turned into something bigger

friends to lovers say what

Somewhere in the haze got a sense I'd been betrayed

again this is both applicable to magic or gay. arthur felt betrayed that merlin didn't trust him and maybe even that merlin WAS that way (he's repressed not homophobic or magicphobic(???)

Your finger on my hair pin triggers

Hold you down on that icy ground

oooh what if merlin was like injured and it would be kinda opposite of s5e13 with arthur being the one panicking over merlins dying body (except that merlins immortal ofc)

Looked up at me with honor and truth

Broken and blue, so I called off the troops

so yes merlin is on his not-really death bed, loyal, honest and honourable until the very end proving to arthur that all his prejudices were for nothing because this, THIS is all that matters. HE is all that matters

That was the night I nearly lost you

I really thought I lost you

the "merlin almost dies and arthur realises everything right then and there" vision is SO CLEAR omg

We can plant a memory garden

Say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair

it's giving "vision of the future and their happy ending". arthur dreams of their future together and wants more happy memories with merlin. plus the poppy flower thing is adding onto my merthur farmers au for this song. escapism due to war trauma so true

There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair

yeah so to me this is by now post war. the war is won. they're trying to pick up the pieces.

And we will never go back

confirming that arthur has had his acceptance arc, he's now accepting merlin, himself, magic, being gay and also turning his back to the violence, striving to bring a new peaceful era to the lands of albion.

To that bloodshed, crimson clover

Uh-huh, the worst was over

My hand was the one you reached for

All throughout the Great War

Always remember

Uh-huh, we burn for better

I vowed I would always be yours

'Cause we survived the Great War

yes so end of war. the worst was over. also "we burn for better" is such a raw line? omfg taylor!!! so yes they got together in a "I might die tonight so I have to tell you something" situation, vowed they would always love each other and BOTH survived the great war. haply ending confirmed.

I would always be yours

Cause we survived the Great War

I vowed I would always be yours

repetition for emphasis.

so yeah. that was my analysis of the great war. I hope this wa enjoyable and I hope you all now add this to your merthur playlists.

#merthur #merlin #arthur pendragon #bbc merlin #emrys #colin morgan #bradley james #taylor swift #midnights #the great war #merlin the great war #merthur the great war

28 notes · View notes

vasyashumkov · 11 months

Note

Opinions on each of the Kuragins?

i have many opinuons... ill say the first thing that comes to my mind

umm helene i really really adore her and she deserved so much better i thnk tolstoy missed out on letting her have like a comically bad marriage disaster with those two men she was trying to choose between. that would have been misogunustic too ofc but it would have been better than What Happened. i lobe her manipultive shit with natasha (i dont APPROVE but those types of shenegains are fun!!!) and i wish she got to say more things bc the things she said never missed.

anatole 8throws hands in air* my most awufl girl i think i will just say its SAD that he doesnt appear to have any genuine relationships going on like he sucks and fucked up big time but he has no one to knock sense into him bc he is just let loose into the world without anyone who cares enough to jave a real big boy talk with him. thats kind of a thing with mayratole for me bc she would be so so real with him ! he isnot a lost cause sort of dissaster hes just a fucking idiot who hurts people and needs someone to intervene. pierre had the right idea with a little shakey shakey

ippolette :-) my dearest. he has a rich inner life beesides being the funny guy who tells bad jokes and i love it. whats he doing with the ladies? we'll never know. thats his business. quiet fool. i like how unlike the other two cunts he is Real like his funny story he told? thats real ippolit right there. baring his SOUL. hes just not giving a shit but in a different way from anatole so instead of causing destructiona dn debris to fall from the sky hes just flirting with lise and going on about his life bc he doesnt give a shit

vasily worst father of the year award but i appreciate his dedication to maryatole. one of the architects of my dreams. sorry he doesnt desver ehtta nevermind hes fucked up for usuing hsi two useful kids for money and cant even do it rigt he failed big time

aline well who knows maybe shes a great person and you know what as a FEMINUST im going to beleieve this we dont know whats going on there but she should stop engaging in vasilys marrying children off addiction and do hot girl shit idk. i could fix her (give her a personality) but i havent yet. give me time

vasily and opbs bastard child: we will see

#asks #tolstoyposting #thank you this cleared out my gutters

5 notes · View notes

locallibrarylover · 11 months

Text

okay wait here are like...my w&p opinions so far.... 1. I LOVE THS KURAGINS. theyre so silly.. i love hélène so much i think shes great. ippolit is sooo fucking funny i love him. THE OPERA GLASSES! anatole is insane. how many times can j say i love these guys.. 2. dolokhov has shown up ONCE i think hes hilarious. hes this poor guy who lives with anatole and hes a crazy good duelist & gambler and everyone respects him like crazy. 3. i really do like pierre... hes currently just being VERY silly and stuff. i love his relationships to other poeple (his friendships with boris & andrei in particular..!) 4. ack. andrei is so mean to everyone stop that. especially stop meaning mean to your wife. i think its really funny how much be likes pierre compared to everyone else..

5. eek! this js getting long. i 💗 the rostovs. natasha is very funny & also 13. shes good for a 13 year old...sonya is sweet. i need nikolai to stop flirting with julie for sonyas sake shes SO distraught. petya is funny. 6. LISE. I LOVE HER. andrei doesnt deserve her AT ALL! 7. i like boris i think hes funny. 8. same goes for berg. i like berg is great 👍👍

#musings

3 notes · View notes

maggot-monger · 2 years

Text

fic recs: not-true vessels (part 2)

last year i made a rec list of non-angel-focused fics that are primarily about angel vessels who aren’t sam or dean. i wanted to do another fic rec list like that, but instead of keeping the focus off of the main characters, this one has a focus on those vessels + at least one main character.

Nick

Vessels (oschun — M, Sam/Nick, 11,861 words) some pre-canon backstory for nick and sam, and an encounter early in sam’s time at stanford, with particular attention to characterization of nick and sam relative to each other (and, inevitably, to the archangel they have in common)

Erosion (entanglednow — M, Sam/Nick, 3,883 words) sam and nick cohabitate uneasily after s5, haunting each other, looking for stability

The Faces We Wear (entanglednow — M, Sam/Nick, 866 words) similar setup implied to Erosion. sam and nick attempt physical intimacy. it doesn’t go great.

This Hollow Full of Fire (entanglednow — T, Sam/Nick, 2,763 words) similar setup to Erosion. sam and nick assure each other that they are not lucifer

Making Amends (mithrel — T, Sam/Nick, 5,472 words) nick gets a chance to atone for saying yes by helping sam get back on his feet

moving on (chiaroscure — M, Sam/Nick, 7,808 words) sam moves in with nick after s5. their differing opinions on lucifer make the living situation complicated. **reccing my own fic**

Adam

interregnum (goodbyechunkylemonmilk — T, gen, Adam & Sam, 16,818 words) post-canon adam, alone and unused to life outside the cage, is living with sam in the bunker. the domesticity is tense and resentful.

Golden Embers (WhisperOfTheHeart925 — T, gen, Adam & Sam, Michael & Sam, Lucifer & Sam, Michael & Lucifer, 15,164 words) sam and adam explore the strange, twisting environment of the cage. the things they find are confusing, but informative.

the freshly turned earth of a guilty mind (axilet — T, gen, Adam & Sam, 1,306 words) post-cage sam is hallucinating both lucifer and adam.

bright dead things (savoryoatmeal — T, Adam/Sam, 1,238 words) post-canon sam and adam make an uncomfortable visit to a coffee shop. (the bleak tone and complex character dynamics of this one rewired me)

don’t be afraid, our whole world is dead (savoryoatmeal — M, Adam/Sam, 1,661 words) and the sequel blue, with swans (M, Adam/Sam, 999 words) post-canon adam is trying to cope with being alone in his body in an unfamiliar environment. it’s a struggle.

A Mad Boy's Love Song (ladyknightanka — M, Adam & Dean & Sam, Adam/Michael, Adam/Sam, 2,358 words) sam and dean are taking care of a post-cage adam, who is not experiencing the reality the way he used to.

A Man Who Wasn’t There (Min Daae (Lise) — T, gen, Adam & Sam, 3,387 words) post-cage hallucifer and hallucinadam. on top of that, sam is being followed by something vengeful that seems realer than the visions.

Jimmy

apricity (BlueCookiesForRick — M, gen, Jimmy & Castiel, 5,428 words) castiel and jimmy are both present in the person they are together. their dynamic is asymmetrical, but they're figuring it out.

PONTIAC 1989 (voynichs (Xenerik) — G, Jimmy & Castiel, 3,372 words) and the sequel PONTIAC 2008 (T, Jimmy & Castiel, 1,173 words) backstory for jimmy and for castiel, their meeting, and joining. particular focus on identity through (trans) jimmy’s transition as a human and castiel’s transition from having no vessel to occupying jimmy’s body.

“With Intent” (a_carnal_mink — M, Castiel/Dean/Jimmy, 2,218 words) there has been a third person present while castiel and dean have gotten to know each other, contributing to the angel’s experiences and having reactions of his own

how to make basil tomato soup (kinwinchester — T, Castiel/Jimmy, 2,814 words) jimmy shares the experience of making soup with castiel. it’s both a religious and domestic experience.

#fic recs #fanfiction #spn #vessels #nick supernatural #adam milligan #jimmy novak

16 notes · View notes

veliseraptor · 2 months

Note

Top five spiciest untamed opinions!

man, I've been in my own little corner of fandom for long enough that I feel like I struggle a little to parse what is spicy of my opinions and what isn't, but here's a go at it

The Untamed is a show with complex, morally grey characters that's telling a slightly different but not inherently inferior story. Maybe I'm just a bit defensive about this, and I have with time come to appreciate a lot of things about the novel over the way they play out in the show, but The Untamed was the first version of the story that I fell in love with and I think at least some of the criticisms of it overstate the degree to which it morally simplifies the story. I think, whether because of requirements of censorship or other reasons, that the moral messiness of the story is subtler, I don't think it's absent, and while Jin Guangyao in particular falls victim to a pretty intense villain edit the narrative still has plenty of sympathy for him (even if the audience, all too often, does not). I think it's telling a slightly different story (as others have discussed), but I think it's a strong adaptation that still works with the underlying themes of the text.

However, that being said, The lessening of Wei Wuxian's culpability, as in the introduction of the second flautist, weakens his character. I feel like the character of Wei Wuxian as we see him in The Untamed still has the recognizable flaws of the character from the novel - I think the degree to which they're sometimes claimed to be toned down is overstated, which I think I've written some about before. He's still at least a little arrogant, causes problems, has a definite temper, and doesn't always respect other peoples' choices, among other things. But what The Untamed does do is remove some of his culpability, or at least temper it - both for Jin Zixuan's death and the massacre at Nightless City, which are two moments that contribute to a strong tragic arc in the first life, which makes for a more powerful (imo) arc in the second life. Removing, or at least lessening, Wei Wuxian's culpability for Jin Zixuan's death and Jiang Yanli's death makes him more a victim of circumstance than of his own human flaws, and at least for me, a character who is doomed by their own flaws is a far more compelling one than one who just happens to fall victim to outside forces. It makes him, I would argue, more passive and less of an active force, and I think the culpability for those two deaths - and the loss of control that causes it - makes for a more powerful narrative than that of a man who is victimized by someone else's actions.

Jin Guangyao was a good Chief Cultivator. I see people talk about him as though he was corrupt and evil and just plotting all the time, but the Bad Things™ he does mostly happen before his tenure as Chief Cultivator and, even taking those into account, have a limited impact on the world at large (with the exception of Nie Mingjue's death, but even that I would argue has more personal repercussions than broader political ones). As far as his responsibility for the cultivation world at large, we have no evidence prior to his downfall that he is negatively perceived by people, except for the fact of his birth/origins.

this is more MDZS-related than Untamed specific, but: MXTX deserves praise for writing "problematic" and messy queer sex, but it's just not hot. I don't have a whole lot to add on this one, but one of my least favorite parts of some corners of The Untamed fandom are people who are thoroughgoing MXTX antis who are quick to cry about the ~problematic~ aspects of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian's sex life (which, honestly, I think are overstated a lot of the time, as is the weirdness of the sex scenes); however, in my opinion, the sex scenes as they stand just aren't very sexy, and I don't think that's intentional (as it arguably is in SVSSS). The sex scenes may be a shortcoming in the text, perhaps, but not the one certain people think it is.

this is again a stronger argument in the novel but I think it's present in the show as well: Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian are "there but for the grace of god" foils, but not in the sense of Jin Guangyao being "Wei Wuxian if he made bad moral choices" but in the sense of "who Wei Wuxian could've been if his circumstances were different." I've definitely written about this before and how much it drives me nuts the way people treat narrative foils in this story in general as Goofus and Gallant style duos, but this is a specific one. I think Jin Guangyao is an example of a story that runs alongside Wei Wuxian's, but ends in a different place, and I think the story isn't saying that he ends in that place because of something inherently worse about Jin Guangyao, but because of the way his circumstances happen to diverge from Wei Wuxian's in specific key ways. In some ways his ending is even a near beat-for-beat rewrite of Wei Wuxian's death, and Wei Wuxian receives the grace of a second life not because of any inherent merit, but actually because of his bad reputation. I think this goes for Xue Yang, too, actually.

I absolutely know I'm forgetting things and there are probably things back in my bitchy opinions tag that I could dig out, but here's at least a few that came to mind.

#conversating #maester of spreadsheets #lise has opinions #none of these feel so bitchy they need to go in the bitchy opinions tag but just in case i think i'll #lise's aggressively bitchy opinions about irrelevant and unimportant matters #lise memes #top five meme #the sad queer cultivators show

72 notes · View notes

s1ithers · 2 years

Note

Ah, I didn’t know you were treating the oc challenge as a “send asks” thing, in that case:

“Fighting” and “above average” for Lisi?

ALSO kind of a dumb one but how do you pronounce her name? I’ve been saying it like “lisee” but I’m not sure that’s correct

yeah, like Lisa with an 'ee' sound instead of the a

Fighting. Skills or magic? A general description or perhaps a favourite spell? A special style or move? A situation where it was used?

from this list

2H warrior for life!

Canon sort of implies you and Carver join the Fereldan army as Blight recruits, but I had her enlist at 17 bc wanted her to be more proficient than she'd realistically get by training with her dad in the back yard, which was also pretty much Malcolm's reasoning. By that point they’re settling down in Lothering longterm and it’s clear she isn’t a mage, he’s training her hard to be his heir essentially as family protector, but he’s also still healthy and thinks they have time. so he hoped the army would teach her what his time with the mercenary company served him so well, the combat/survival skills as well as that discipline and the mental part of doing violence if necessary, yknow

& also to help with the household income, they're subsistence farmers in lothering right

she does really well, promoted to elite infantry to learn the longsword, almost gets married, she's an NCO by the time of the blight, so there’s 7-8 years where she's spending harvest and planting seasons in Lothering but otherwise has sort of a life outside the family bubble

which I like for her character development bc I think growing up, she has so much hatred for the templars & the chantry, she's radicalized on the issue that directly affects her, right, but it never really occurs to her to question the military as an institution and the feudal/monarchist system it upholds, or more broadly, yknow, examine the power structures that the chantry’s abuses are a facet of

Ostagar really shatters her world like, the mighty Fereldan army can crumble to dust. The king can fucking die. Loghain the national hero can leave her comrades to be slaughtered which is honestly a bigger blow.

Makes a nice thematic bookend to her story with the chantry boom, I think :3

Above-average. Does your OC excel in something? Do they have special features? How about in the opinion of others?

hm, most of her skill points are in combat and manipulation lol, she’s good at a few things but not really the Best of the Best. honestly I’d say the one thing she really truly has going for her is self-confidence to the point of grandiosity. just sheer readiness to play chicken with god

like you think about Hawke on that first night in Gamlen’s shitty apartment in the worst part of town, roof leaking, not a silver to the their name, whole family traumatized, refugees in a city that doesn’t want them, they’ve just found out templar influence in Kirkwall is even stronger than they feared, and she looks around and decides welp, i’m just going to have to become so rich and powerful not a soul in this patently hostile police state of a city will dare fuck with my sister :)

like that’s an insane response!! & it works for you bc you’re a video game character but that’s just not something someone who’s afraid of reality at all is going to think. I think by far the most fun way to characterize Hawke is to play that up to the max

#da #lisi hawke #sparing you all the longass tangent of a novel i started writing in drafts #but #yeah i do have a lot of thoughts abt maric(/cailan/anora) seeking to retain & professionalize a more modern-style standing army #as opposed to ye olde feudal levies #as part of a post-occupation nation-building project w/ the double benefit of defense against future orlesian aggression while also #consolidating the power of the monarchy vs the landsmeet #all of which may or may not be canon-friendly in any way i'll never know if i never read any of the supplemental content :)

9 notes · View notes

cherries-n-rocknroll · 1 year

Text

How feasible is sustainable touring? Guestlist episode ft. Aurora

Translation description:

In times of energy crisis and global warming this question seems more relevant than ever, because touring also has an impact on our climate.

Norwegian electropop artist Aurora, who recently performed in a sold out AB, has an outspoken opinion about this theme and has been actively trying to contribute to more sustainability for many years. Rik De Bruycker talks with her about growing up in the forests, climate depression, injustice and resistance, the pressure of social media and Brian Eno!

When you talk about sustainable touring, you’re also talking about Mathias Cobbaut. As a tour manager at Lobbycall for Foals, Boys Noize and The 1975, he tries to put the theorie into practice. We talk about how small bands can speak do their part, a point system for venues and tours, making enough money and about stages in bamboe.

Lise De Coster, HR-worker at AB, tells us about who is endlessly on repeat at home.

Click here to listen to the episode on Spotify

#aurora aksnes #aurora #podcast #Spotify #sustainability

2 notes · View notes

msitp · 9 months

Text

Chapter 6: Where One Belongs

I didn’t know what to expect now that I was within the Division. I had already stumbled my way into staying in the wrong Willow branch. Compared to the original story, I was healthier than the cannon Orion. Which allowed me to be included in discussions, seen as more then Lise’s sickly brother.

A nurse had come to check on me not long after Lise set out for the day. I guess I had been made an added chore for the girl. She changed by shoulder wrap; the sting of the balm wasn’t as severe as the day before. She seemed less concerned as she left this time, shyly smiling at me on her way out. I didn’t have to worry about feeling lonely it seemed. The young boy from the day before, was next to knock on my door breakfast in hand. He seemed a bit intimidated now that I was just me without Lise.

I’d be the first to admit, even in my last life I was considered cold and unapproachable. Now I had a good face at least. Or does being handsome only make my anti social aura harder to deal with? The boy hovered in the doorway after he handed the platter to me. I set the breakfast down at the table. Whoever had made up my meal had been generous with portions. I motioned at him to come in, setting a place for him. I only needed to place a hearty portion on the plate to finally tempt the kid into relaxing and coming to join me. He sat down and eagerly began scarfing down the food. Though I’d convinced the kid to join me for my meal, he still proved cautious. Speaking only to ask if he could take something before eating it. I assumed he was to take me somewhere after the meal, or else he surely wouldn’t have stuck around. Even with the temptation of second breakfast. After I had my fill and the kid had the rest, he finally spoke up.

“Sir Reign asked to see you in his office. If your ready to go, I can take you there,” the boy said while whipping food off his face.

I couldn’t help smiling at the kids still messy face, “Of course. And you missed a spot.”

He took the fresh tissue I held out to him, an embarrassed frown on his face. After a few more vigorous rubs he got up, energetically rushing towards the door. I tried holding my chuckle as I got up to follow him. As expected, leaving the guest area, and returning to the mountain peak was no less confusing the second time. I nearly lost the small boy a few times as he nimbly took the many twists of the winding path. He warmed up to me a bit, after seeing my helpless sense of direction. Grabbing hold of my sleeve to keep me from straying again.

Like a pet on a walk, I was finally led again to the main office. The boy let out a relieved huff letting me go and knocking on the door. Within a voice said something I couldn’t catch. The boy opened the door and nearly pushed me in. As if he was worried, I’d find a way to get turned around otherwise. The door was shut swiftly behind me.

Reign looked up at me from his desk. A welcoming smile beamed out in an instant. As he beckoned me to come sit in the chair set in front of him. The unnerving feeling like I had just stepped into a second interview without preparing settled over me. I sat down trying to stop myself from sweating, with Reign’s undivided attention on me.

“Thank You for joining me so early,” Reign’s smile felt with a spell that made his words feel sweet and genuine.

“I was hoping I could have a proper talk with you. Now that you’ve had some time to rest. May I ask how your stay with us has been so far?” His eyes held some sort of eagerness, he was warming up to something.

I tried to keep my own curiosity at bay as I responded, “Your Division has been more then generous to me. My sister also seems to be quite happy having found a place here.” Keeping my response short seemed a good idea. Reign clearly has more to ask already sitting on the edge of his tongue, as he listened.

“That’s good. Would you mind if I ask your opinions on our organization overall then. What we do here isn’t well known to most folk after all. Do you have any idea what we do here?” His hands fidgeted with the edge of the parchment in front of him as he spoke.

This question was harder to answer. As a reader of course I was well versed with the Division’s work. Even the independent branches I was fairly aware of. The heroines branch Akava was the one I was most familiar with, since it was the base of her operations. The regular person of this world though doesn’t seem to know much. Just that the Division has impressive resources, nothing more. It seemed Reign was more then willing to let me collect my thoughts, even looking away to relive any pressure his eyes might cause me.

“It seems… That you help people? At least, that’s what you’ve shown me.” I hoped this answer would be enough of a response. Reign’s eyes returned to me; his smile softening. Seeming relieved after my answer.

“My friend, you have the root of it. The Division at its core, was designed to assist the people of this world. In anyway we are able. We study medicine, war, and peace in equal measure. Our archives are the oldest, yet the most well preserved- I’ll try not to boast much more then that.”

He laughs as he relaxes a bit more in his chair. His pride in not only his part but the whole of the Division is clear. Though the Division has many trees in its forest, its Willow sect acts as it’s heart. All knowledge was stored in the 4-mountain peaked rage. It was the strongest in terms of its natural defences and those chosen to guard it.

Reign asks next for me to tell him what happened on my journey here. Admitting when the animals arrived without the carriage or me, most had assumed a tragedy. The hawk in charge of leading me had arrived to the mountain desperate to get help. When a small party had followed it back to the location of the robbery. The fading light made it hard to discern much but drying blood. I was relived when he admitted that I had barley made it to the base of the mountain a moment before, they called in Lise to tell her the news.

I took my time explaining, trying at first to downplay the robbery and how I had gotten my injury. The bandits after all hadn’t been more then an annoying inconvenience. Despite my intentions, it seemed like Reign was skilled at reading between the lines. Asking about anything I tried to glaze over. In the end he had somehow gotten every detail out of me. Reign seemed more then content after my explanation. Even agreeing to not share the struggles of my story with Lise needlessly. He stood then suddenly eager to bring up the topic he had been patiently waiting to address.

“I admit I was remiss, when your sister was recruited by Akava so swiftly. I cannot deny that your timing, was very much in my favour. Your injuries were just slight enough to give me an excuse to keep you within my own branch. The anticipation of your explanation was worth the wait. You seem to be a capable young man, perhaps more then you realise. This might be my selfishness as the leader Pathosmet, but before any of my colleagues are able to. I would like to request your admittance into my branch.”

Reign had begun pacing slightly from behind his desk. He seemed to intentionally turn his back to me as he made his request. I was thankful he had given me the privacy to react. I could feel my eyes bulge at his shocking demand. Demand? Request? Was there a difference??

Pathosmet was in simple terms the explorer branch of the Division. If this was a D&D campaign all parties would no doubt be formed or hired from this branch. The original Orion had never been officially scouted by the Akava branch but had been allowed to stay there more for his sister’s sake. I could feel my precious peace fading ever further from my grasp.

Joining a different branch of the Willow Division wasn’t a bad idea. It would give me enough distance from Lise to maybe keep me from getting in her story’s way. While still being close enough to provide her with any brotherly support when she may need. This wouldn’t be completely unknown territory. One of Lise’s main love interests was in this branch after all. -a reliable and quick-witted rogue, who would provide the street smarts the rest of the sheltered youths would desperately need- Besides I had read more then enough books and played enough RPG’s to probably be of use here. The side quests were my favorite part of most games! I could see no reason to go against it, if this was the way the plot wanted to go.

“If I can payback even a bit of your Division’s goodwill, I am willing. So, if you think I can be of use here. I will try and live up to your expectations. Please be patient with me.”

Trying to sound cool about the offer, it feels like I’ve just been cast for a part I don’t suit. Reign turns to me, an almost fatherly pride upon his face. I realise Lise’s adorable round face won’t be the only danger to my peace. If the division has more people even a fraction as handsome as their leader, I will be doomed.

#my sister is the protagonist #msitp #MSITP #ongoing story #original story #writers on tumblr #isekai #portal fantasy #polyamory #queer story #queer writers #transmasc character #transmigration #fantasy setting

0 notes