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Chapter 46: Dragons and Dragonflies

Out now.

So I wake up today and see that a new public bookmark on ‘Tides’ has a very concise title: shit.

Now, I have grown so used to all types of hate when it comes to this work that I barely blinked an eye. But, as I am a type of psycho who likes to spy on others, I clicked on the user’s name… and struck gold. Or, to put it in their own words, a whole load of shit.

I speak a lot about fandom etiquette and why it is important and sometimes people comment that it is just basic, worldwide known rules and that they had no idea that some people didn’t abide by them. Well, here we have a perfect example of a person who didn’t get a memo.

My favorite bookmark of theirs must be this one:

It’s not cheap. If anything, it’s free. Like every other work you dragged through the mud in your public bookmarks, e.g:

This is a callout. I am not going to pretend that it isn’t. Because I am so tired to see good writers, nice and generous people, deleting their works because of these so-called “critics”.

Sl-Slowly?

Friends, I wrote over 635k words in 3,5 years (and that’s just for one story). That’s like a book per year, and not a short book.

And mind you, this is fanfiction. I am not getting paid for this, this isn’t my source of income or my obligation.

It’s just my passion, something that I love to do and choose to share with you.

I actually started ‘Tides’ in 2022, it just didn’t get posted till January of 2023, so it’s even older than people think💔

And yes, it did.

Of course, 3 years ago it was already a thing, compared to let’s say 2016, but these days the trend has become obsolete: any literary work gets judged from the perspective of contemporary agenda, and if it doesn’t tick all the boxes and doesn’t please everyone, it’s considered trash, the author automatically being called names I don’t care to repeat. And don’t even get me started on the whole proship/antiship discourse.

‘Tides’, being a targcest fic, didn’t escape criticism back in 2023, survived a new wave of hatred that came with S2 in 2024, and is slowly putting up shields now, on the dawn of S3. To be frank, I am side-eyeing this June and already preparing myself for the rise of purists and people who seem to have forgotten the definition of words fiction and fun. These are the same people who will knock on my inbox wearing an anon mask and try to dig up some subtext that has never been in ‘Tides’ in the first place and say that it doesn’t have enough representation and that I should burn in hell for my ships and tropes and writing.

And I agree that some rough edges have to be polished, especially in those first chapters, but I cannot understand people who judge fictional characters as if they are real and get so worked up about a fanfiction work just because it follows tropes they don’t like. In 2022, when everyone was peeing their pants over Daemyra edits, purists were much quieter than they are now, that’s for sure. ‘Tides’ has been called ‘harmful’ on the clock-clock app, while ironically, I have never heard that from any of the readers. On the contrary, I received messages how it helped them deal with their personal stuff.

In all truth, I believe that ‘Tides’ became what it is because it was never meant to please everyone. I needed this story to be complex and painful and provocative, so that readers’ hearts would pound madly in their chests when they read it, and if ‘Tides’ offends someone by its mere existence… well, no good story seeks everyone’s approval.

Hatred and revenge.

He knew now that there was only one thing more powerful than those two. And it was hope.

In Otto’s view of the world, hope was useless. He didn’t believe in it, but used it to his advantage because other people did. His mother, in contrast, thought that hoping was enough to tilt the axis of the world.

And Aemond, raised by both of them, got stuck somewhere in the middle.

He wondered whether Daemon had hoped for anything in his life or simply twisted and turned the world to take it. Their tale wasn’t the one of Maegor and Aegon the Uncrowned: Daemon didn’t usurp the throne and Aemond wasn’t the one leading an army against him—still, it had been the nephew of the tyrant king who died in that battle, which later had been written into history books as the Battle Beneath the God’s Eye.

Life had a good sense of humor when it came to House Targaryen. ❞

Chapter 45: Second Sons

Out now.

I will agree with you on the last bit, nothing is unique, because everything has already been written and we all are just playing around with tropes.

I don’t read lucemond and don’t know how much of this is true, but “stealing ideas” from a fanfiction work is a weird concept to me, because as long as it’s not copypasting word for word, it’s not stealing. It’s fanfiction for crying out loud, and if we are going to phrase it like that, then I am stealing ideas from George Martin and even Ryan Condall.

Also I feel like in this fandom, various works circle around the topic of war, enemies to lovers, dragonlore and all that shebang. I am pretty sure if someone was “stealing” Tides, I would’ve caught wind of it.

Insane. I imagine a room with 2500 people in it and get chills.

Thank you guys for keeping up with my insanity.

I fear he’ll be a bit busy with other… stuff to lose consciousness on spot, but let your imagination run wild and free.

Luke to his brain (and other parts):

Ch 44: A Man with a Reason

Out now.

Somebody sedate me.

Oh you are so sweet, thank you! I honestly mostly ignore all the baseless whining, but sometimes haters catch me on a bad day)

Plot is definitely plotting in ch44… which is currently sitting at 25k words… and might have driven me a bit crazy with how many turns it made so far… *evil giggling*