#beejones2180

this is very interesting because after spending a lot of time thinking about this (say, the past two years?) my answer is: post series :)

You caught me doing something dangerous and flipped out —“What the hell!” Catra yells. Adora shoves her again. None too gently, mind you. She’s pissed. At Bright Moon they’ve taught her to manage her frustration through healthier mechanisms, ones that don’t involve brawling. But when she’s mad? Not just mad. Furious. When the blood in her veins is boiling? All of the progress and patience she’s learned slide away like mud, like steam off hot metal. Like sea water off of the rocks they’re standing on. She falls back to what she knows. And what she know right is Catra is an idiot.“Adora!” Catra shrieks as she steps forward and pushes her again. She wants to fight. She wants to settle this with a brawl. She wants to live in a world where problems can be solved by the simplicity of an exchange of blows.“You can’t…do that!” She explodes. “You can’t just throw yourself away like that!”“Can you chill? It’s no big deal.”“No big deal!” Her voice cracks but she’s too far gone to be embarrassed. “You threw yourself into a time vortex! For a data chip! You could’ve died! Worse, you could’ve been erased from existence!”“I got it, didn’t I?” She waves the chip in her hand like it’s going to exonerate her from her actions. Adora wants to punch her right in her cocky face.“That is not the point.” Her hands are still balled into fists. Her shoes grip the slick rock as water splashes up against her back and salt stings her nose.“It’s the whole reason we’re here! It’s exactly the point!”“The point is you put yourself in immediate danger!”“What are you even talking about? We put ourselves in danger literally every day! That’s kind of what happens when you fight in a war, Adora.”

“The risk you took was unnecessary.” Her chest aches with the ferocity of her anger. “Entrapta would have learned what she needed from another chip.”“You don’t know that.” Catra’s lip curls back in a snarl. The palms of her hands are scraped. Adora’s heart is raw from her claws.

Ricky Q = Gaston

oh ABSOLUTELY. in the incredibly bizarre disneyland-character-actor AU, ricky q thinks he is god’s gift to parkgoers and probably makes small children cry by insisting they’re so lucky to get to take a photo with him, don’t you know he makes every photo better, these children who are saying they don’t want a picture clearly have no idea what they’re talking about!!

Hi there! I will try to help, although to be honest, I mostly feel really really fortunate to have the friends that I do, and “be very lucky” is just not good advice.

Here’s what I got:

There are two parts to this, really. One is to find people whose opinion you respect who are willing to look at your stuff, and one is to get yourself in a mental/emotional place where you’re able to share imperfect first drafts without reflexively diving under the table to hide. (WIP anxiety is the realest thing)

In terms of finding reviewers, it certainly helps if you are also willing to beta their stuff in return. If we’re talking internet friendships, fandom is a pretty good place to find people; by poking around you can sort of locate folks who are into the same tropes/archetypes that you are, and then they’ll have a vested interest in helping you bring more such stories into the world.

In terms of getting a little more comfortable with showing people unfinished works, this is part of why it helps to reach out to other writers/creatives; they know first drafts are messy and imperfect. They know it well. I used to effusively apologize to my betas for the flaws in my first drafts, and finally one of them was basically like “well yeah dude, you’re not a wizard. i’m aware this is a process; you don’t actually have to point this out to me.”

first impression: KAYLEE!! and you have Simon's job now?! (sorry, I'm an old Firefly fan so my thoughts basically ran around the obvious and distracting lack of monkey wrench in Miss Jewel Staite's hands hehe)

impression now: my opinion of her as a character both in her own right & in how she's written really plummeted after watching Brain Storm. that episode still makes me feel a lot of weird & negative feelings and it's still a damn surprise every time I remember that it was written by Martin Gero, who used to be such a fantastic name to see at the beginning of an episode if you're a McKay fan. she could've been such a cool addition to the expedition, though! Keller certainly had that spunky gumption that people who survive Atlantis & Pegasus seem to be made of, so it's a shame the writers never seem to have figured out what they wanted with & for her

favorite moment: I really love her in The Shrine, I really do. her determination to save her patient (er, Dubious Brain Surgery In A Cave notwithstanding) is such an echo to how much she & Rodney wanted so badly to save Elizabeth half a season prior that while it would've been a cop out & an easy way to find a solution, I wanted her to find a cure if only to see that drive not be trumped by magical radiation no one even knew about

idea for a story: it'd be nice to write/read about a character piece that tackles the pressure of being a young prodigy being thrust into such an important position with a beloved predecessor everyone you work with is still grieving in this active war zone in another galaxy. (also!! I wanna know more about her dad!)

unpopular opinion: her actions & decisions during The Shrine are actually the more reasonable ones and NO ONE is allowed to bully her for them (fite me)

favorite relationship: Teyla!!! that is a sisterhood (maybe even a girlfriendship? who knows!) that could've grown from the seeds of Elizabeth Weir's loss & legacy

one of the things I enjoy about Rodney is he's the geek, the hero, and the damsel of the narrative. he's complex and multi-faceted but with real flaws that ensure he doesn't run the risk of being a functional Gary Stu. (that he's afforded this complexity because he's a fan favorite and arguably the self-insert of the Very Male, Very White, & Very Geeky writers is a damn shame, though, and a different discussion altogether.)

still, most what makes him compelling is the result of great acting, greater chemistry, and one of the greatest set ups for an inevitable cult hit (seriously, Stargate and SGA? fandom gold) — all of which owed itself more to kismet than any deliberate planning.

because of this, it's hard not to notice that the writing for his character often gets a little lost. (David — and most of the people who share scenes with him — are so fantastic in making do with what they've got that fans always had more than enough material to work with, but it's really quite evident.)

his allergies and hypochondria? only remembered when they're good for a quick laugh or when Rodney needs to rant about something. (the citrus allergy seems to be a SG-1 thing because Sheppard is seen to have no qualms about eating a wholeass orange in front of McKay in The Game; smarter people than I have also made metas about whether or not Rodney really has Hypoglycemia because for someone in his line of work in the kind of food situation they're in — rationing the first year, lots of foreign food all throughout — that should be more of A Thing.)

his relationship with the more-physical aspects of his job(s)? also rather incongruous with what's supposed to be logical for his character development. Rodney losing his head in a very important rescue mission (him shooting an imaginary mouse in Common Ground) doesn't make sense. I'm not saying he's supposed to be Rambo all of a sudden, but this guy's been an active member of the expedition's flagship gate team for years now. allow him to retain a little self-respect.

his treatment of women is, as we all know, also a controversial issue. this seems to be tied to his general bad-with-people-ness. (honestly? the man has the most compelling friendships in the show, and his individual dynamics with colorful characters having little to no similarities in either background or personality should have made Rodney's narrative journey even more interesting.)

I seem to remember Clariel by Garth Nix featuring an asexual protagonist... but it didn’t end well. Other than that I’ve got nothing 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’m Suffering TM through She-ra season 3. So I’m also in need of distraction! Can you recommend your favourite books/podcasts/fanfic whatever with ace characters? And preferably happy endings...

aaaah i haven’t seen season 3 yet!! hopefully it’s causing the good kind of Suffering and not the ‘ugh why tho’ kind

as for your question - okay, full disclosure? i know there are books and shows and fic out there with ace characters (probably more of the last than the former two, of course.)

but a) i don’t like to assume characters who are single are canonically ace because it’s not an if-then....

and b) i’ve definitely read fics with ace characters in them, and i frequently look for genfic, but i don’t know that i’ve ever read a story with aceness as a central element and gone oh yes, THIS.

(if i had, i probably wouldn’t have felt so desperately that i needed to write my own. the fact that somewhere out there on the internet there are multiple fics under a different handle about being ace should tell you something about how that went...)