hiii crab how are u doing. ive been seeing u post about temeraire(?) recently and i had like, 0 idea what it was. i think someone checked it out of the library yesterday? is it a book? i could search this but im interested in hearing what u find compelling about it......
they're a series of books! i've been rereading them and liveblogging, i will sometimes mention specific book names. wikipedia page with all of the titles although my set is also numbered
the setting of the books is britain* in the napoleonic wars, except dragons exist. the british (and most other countries) keep an 'aerial corps' of dragons (and human crews). dragons get very attached to the person that names them/feeds them/puts them in harness (for baby dragons this is like a little cat leash) for the first time
enter William Laurence, a british naval captain. he loves his job so much he loves his ship. his ship takes a french ship (they're at war) (napoleonic) and the french ship has a dragon egg on it.
the british desperately need dragons so William Laurence who is nothing if not dedicated to king and country is like okay. this egg is probably going to hatch before we hit land and we cannot let it not become harnessed and fly away. we Must harness this thing. for our country.
through various errors, who ends up harnessing the dragon but William Laurence himself?! now he has to quit his job he loves so much because you cannot keep a heavyweight dragon on a ship:( his poor ship:( but also the dragon is dainty and has sleek black scales and likes baths and napping in laurence's hammock so maybe its not all that bad.
*they end up going a lot of places so much of the books are not actually set in britain
i like these books a lot but they're hard to talk about without spoilers because a lot of the interesting bits are like. unpacking stuff you are told in the first book. laurence is 100% biting all of the british propaganda*, both real stuff and fictional stuff about dragons, and the books are aware of this as a specific character trait. the plot is sort of designed to make him question every single one of his morals from the ground up. i think it is really really easy to make a character questioning outdated beliefs very clunky and unbelievable but while he is not like... statistically realistic, i buy that having those experiences in that order would change that specific guy like that. i am also never not on laurences side even when he is thinking some fuck ass shit. this is mostly because a) he is so infallibly polite that he avoids being a dick to most other characters about this, and b) he does immediately start examining his beliefs when prompted
*EXCEPT slavery. he is an abolitionist. they do not make you watch him defend the slave trade in any sense, he is actively and loudly opposed from the beginning
as an example, there are female members of dragon crews, which is technically a spoiler but i need you to know there are women in these books and this happens early. laurence is not like..... totally cool with the idea of women being ~subjected to so much danger~ for their country but he is aware enough to never voice this concern to any of the female officers and he is always respectful of following their lead. and then you get to watch him Get Over It. (there are non-white characters in these books, too. i don't want to spoil who specifically ends up important, as i think this makes their introductions less fun, but i promise several important characters are not white by the end) (if this is a serious barrier i can give more detailed spoilers)
the pacing can be odd; they are mostly set up like an old style travel log where there is sometimes 3 chapters dedicated to Being On A Ship. people have various levels of tolerance for this. i actually love that sort of shit but admittedly there are some chapters in a reread where im like oh god the fucking desert again
if you like books focused on platonic relationships (they are bonded forever) (laurence can't get married because he already has temeraire) (he sleeps on temeraires leg when he's upset) (i didn't say this so for context temeraire ends up the size of a house) then you will probably like temeraire. this is mostly what i come to dragon books for so i was delighted.
there is also just so much Shit that Happens. its all mostly spoilery but if you are a fan of Characters in Situations........ laurence is getting put on tumble dry there is truly just always some new event he has to deal with now.
temeraire likes math!!
please read them (i will find you epubs* if you want<3) warnings for: period typical racism, incl. not... super graphic slavery but like. it is slavery handled realistically. period typical misogyny, homophobia, etc. mostly non-graphic blood, death, warfare etc.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
It's wild to watch the phrase "tumblr sexyman" morph into "man that tumblr thinks is sexy," because when I first saw the phrase come into use, I always saw it used in reference to the phenomenon of "when presented with a wide array of fictional characters, tumblr will always pick the skinny white man to obsess over, and if the fan-favorite character has no canonical human appearance, the fandom will inevitably create a popular fanon of the character as as a skinny white man."
When I hear "tumblr sexyman," I think of Cecil Night Vale being constantly depicted as a skinny white man instead of literally anything else. I think of the background character white men who get elevated over protagonists that are women, people of color, or otherwise not the white man power fantasy.
"Tumblr sexyman" is, like. An insult. I DON'T want any of my blorbos to win a "tumblr sexyman" poll. "Tumblr sexyman" is the exact opposite of what I want my own OCs to be. If any of my characters ever get called "tumblr sexyman," I will have to immediately re-evaluate myself and the art I'm making.
Oncelercest, because if there aren't two skinny white men to ship, tumblr fandom will start shipping the skinny white man with himself.
Bill Cipher inexplicably being fanon'd as a white twink despite being a fucking triangle.
Everyone fawning over Marvel Loki while shoving every woman and Black person in the MCU aside.
The way nearly every single character in Hazbin Hotel has the same "tall and skinny" body type, along with all the criticisms Black audience members have made about the issues with Alastor's design.
The way tumblr got obsessed with the white man villain in Sinners.
the best way i can think to describe the experience of reading moby dick is you’re in line at the dmv and this guy behind you very loudly says “well who HASN’T had a gay experience” and then proceeds to tell you every detail about his life in between anecdotes about how great sperm is and how ropes work and sometimes he’ll say the most poetic shit you’ve ever heard in your life and them jump RIGHT back into explaining how a whale is a fish because 1) it swims in water and you’re still only like halfway through the dmv line
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Close! Its an Eevee who dresses as all the types that don't have eeveelutions, I sorta created them as a way to express having very atypical body dysphoria, which I myself have.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Sure, you know how to self-flagellate, but do you know how to apologize? Saying "I'm a stupid idiot" is not the same thing as saying "I did something wrong."
People who want an apology pretty much never want to hear "I'm a stupid idiot." If someone is actually trying to get you to say you're a stupid idiot, it's not because it will make up for a mistake you made or harm you caused. It's because they want you to feel like a stupid idiot. People who care about you do not want you to feel like a stupid idiot and it hurts them when they see you putting yourself down in their name.
Plus, this can feel really manipulative. An apology is acknowledgement that a mistake was made and reassurance that it won't happen again (or at least, reassurance that the person apologizing will make an effort). Reframing the situation so that's it's all about how bad you feel or how badly you screwed up means that the person expecting an apology is getting a negative reaction to a reasonable request and is now expected to reassure whoever did harm. It's making it all about you, not about righting what you did, and it's a great way to alienate people.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
