🇵🇸 neolith || fandom sideblog 🇵🇸

Some time back I made this list of questions for writers and thought I'd make one for readers as well. Most of the questions can be applied not just to written stories, but stories of any format that you consume.

Which is the bigger crime: a weak opening or a weak ending? 

Do you prefer stories that allow you to escape thinking about the real world or stories that instead make you think more? 

When a story feels real to you, what does that mean and what about a story evokes that feeling? What is it that really sells that sense of “realness” to you? 

On a scale of beige to purple, what are your preferences for prose? 

Think of a story you liked, even though it really didn’t fit into your usual taste. What made it different? What made it still do it for you? 

What’s been something consistent in your taste since you were a kid?

What’s a way your taste has clearly grown with age?

Something that separates good dialogue from bad dialogue for you? 

Which is the bigger crime: pace too slow or pace too fast?

What can make you put down a book/stop watching a show and not ever getting back to it? 

What makes you reread/rewatch something? 

How do you find new things to read/watch? 

What qualities does a main character need to catch your interest?

What qualities do you want in a villain?

And then the hero goes home, and finds home a smoking desolation, his neighbors turned on one another, that secondary villain no one finished off having destroyed Frodo’s last oasis not even out of evil so much as spite, and then that villain dies pointlessly, and then his killer dies pointlessly. The hero is left not with a cathartic homecoming, the story come full circle in another party; he is left to pick up the pieces of what was and what shall never be again. 

And it’s not enough. The hero cannot heal, and so departs for the fabled western shores in what remains a blunt and bracing metaphor for death (especially given his aged companions). When Sam tells his family, “Well, I’m back” at the very end, it is an earned triumph, but the very fact that someone making it back qualifies as a triumph tells you what kind of story this is: one that is too honest to allow its characters to claim a clean victory over entropy, let alone evil. 

“I can’t recall the taste of food, nor the sound of water, nor the touch of grass. I’m naked in the dark. There’s nothing–no veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him with my waking eyes.”

TLOTR has some of the type of valorization of war that you find in the Old Norse and Anglo-Saxon literature that JRRT loved and studied and taught because he loved that style and it’s deeply fitting for cultures like the Rohirrim, but it’s also full of the slog of war, the waste and tragedy, and the irrevocable damage that even victorious survivors carry for the rest of their lives. Frodo’s symbolic “death” is also resonant for survivors of what was called “shell-shock” then and PTSD now.

Because imagine that all of the Fellowship did swear to go with Frodo to Mount Doom. Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn would have felt obligated to abandon Merry and Pippin to the orcs to go with Frodo; who knows how the Ring could have used that guilt to twist them. Gollum would never have had the same dynamic with Frodo, because he hated Aragorn. Gollum wouldn’t have been at Mount Doom to destroy the Ring. Aragorn wouldn’t have been there to take the Paths of the Dead. Minas Tirith would have fallen. There would have been no march on the Black Gate that cleared a path to Mount Doom by distracting Sauron.

I'm so fucking tired of good, earnest, diverse media getting held to ridiculous standards by both networks AND fans, and then getting cancelled.

It was supposed to be three seasons. David Jenkins fucking said it was supposed to be three seasons. And then the network dragged its ass on renewing for season 2, and now...no season 3.

FUCK this shit. I'm so tired of media by and for marginalized artists getting fucked over. I'm tired of marginalized people fighting for scraps and then getting the rug whipped out from under us.

Yeah, OFMD isn't the only thing out there. There are other things to go enjoy, for the moment. But the fact that it's the shows that are queer and multicultural that keep getting cancelled is pretty fucking transparent, and I've seen quite a lot of concern from people in the industry about the direction we're headed. The outlook is concerning. It's more important now than ever to support marginalized artists, whether they're making indie art or trying to get something made by a mainstream studio.

Our Flag Means Death. Warrior Nun. One Day At A Time. Willow. Dead End: Paranormal Park. First Kill. Q-Force. The Owl House. Steven Universe. A League of Their Own. Vampire Academy. I could go on, but I don't need to, because there are entire lists that have been curated by news sites: Gay Times, Out, Autostraddle, Pride, Movieweb, Collider.

There's a reason I spend so much time and energy studying things like the Hays Code and the history of censorship. This shit comes in waves, and the only way marginalized artists survive it is through community support, mutual aid, and being really goddamn loud.

So.

in light of that.

Check the replies/notes of this post :)

I was informed that posts containing links in them aren't findable in the search so i'll just.... drop a link in a seperate reboot :)

first things first though, copy this key:

and also the Google drive link :

it's about what happens after the realization, after the confession, after the happily ever after. it's not enough for them to know they're in love. they also have to figure out how the fuck to live a life together. how do you start making decisions for your life while also considering the other person? how do you forgive each other when you fight? how do you reconcile when you want different things? how do you compromise? how do you let yourself trust someone that much? how do you give that much vulnerability? how do you let someone love the parts of yourself that you hate? how do you love someone who hates parts of themself?

love is a choice. yeah sure it's a feeling, but to love, the act of loving, it's an action, it's a choice. an ongoing everyday choice. there will be days in any relationship where you find yourself tired or exasperated or impatient or scared or angry even, and you have to choose love over that. you have to decide to act out of love anyway. when they are tired or exasperated or impatient or scared or angry, you have to choose to love them anyway.

the show is about their relationship. finding each other. falling in love. and now - learning how to be in love. how to be tired and exasperated and impatient and scared and angry, even, and how to choose love anyway. learning that loving each other isn't a fantasy. it's not going to be as easy as running into each other's arms and having forgiveness handed to you. it's not going to be the silent mermaid saving your life without you having to ask. growth takes work. resolution takes effort. it's not enough to want it. it's not enough to sit in the moment when everything's okay and hope it lasts.

but the fact that it's hard doesn't mean it's not love. the fact that it takes work doesn't mean the love isn't good enough. it means that the love is worth it.

It brings me joy to see creatives celebrating their work now that the strike is over. My heart goes out to all who struggled during these tough months. I’m excited to celebrate this show I love, and flood you all with bts. Thank you SAG neg commitee, and all creatives🙏🏾❤️🏴‍☠️ #ofmd

*goes and screams into the ao3 tags/rereads my favorite fics to soothe my wretched soul*

Obsessed with the idea of Ed waking up after that night, watching Stede sleep in the gentle glow of morning light against the bed nook, falling more in love with him and the moment and life and just thinking ‘you know what would make this even better? A piece of twine.”