#sazanes

"Stay with me?" 

"Always," he replies then takes off his boots and lies down, cradling her in his arms.

Sighing contently, she places a hand on his chest and closes her eyes. "Goodnight, Jax."

He brushes a strand of hair away from her face, kisses her forehead and whispers. "Goodnight, my love."

Excerpt of Giving In (Wanted series)

I just got the sweetest early Christmas gift from my dearest @sazanes, who kindly offered to draw Jax and Samantha for me 😭💕

Haha I think you’re in clear for spoilers. Batman: The Telltale Series is probably my favorite alternate media batcat. It makes me feel bad that I enjoyed the game so much, when Telltale employees were being mistreated. Bruce and Selina’s characterizations were flawless. I know that to a certain extent it depended on the decisions you made in the game, but by the way I played Bruce was a genuinely nice person who wanted to help everyone and give everyone a chance. He was kind of an embodiment of BTAS Bruce Wayne. Firm but fair.

I had kind of mixed feelings about Selina at the end of season one, but I came around after season two. Overall, I think that she had the right amount of moral ambiguity and repentance. I like that Selina’s redemption arc in season two was on her own terms. She made mistakes, regretted them, and wanted to make up for them.

Obviously, we got the first non-comic sex scene, which is bizarre that it only happened in 2016 considering just how much history Batman and Catwoman have. Although I enjoyed it immensely, what I really liked was how the writers/developers had a great understanding of Bruce and Selina’s dynamics and it didn’t come off as contrived. You can read more about it here, but even in the earlier episodes they really conveyed how Bruce believes that Selina is a good person, even when no one else (including her) thinks so.

My personal favorite scene in the series was the apartment scene in “New World Orde.” Selina was telling Bruce about her criminal lifestyle, and how she felt trapped by it. It was very subtle, but it conveyed Selina’s own insecurities about who she is. Selina also admits that she steals from good people as well as bad, and what I like about this confession is that it holds her accountable. Sometimes I feel that fans try to sanitize Selina’s thievery and create this perception that she’s some kind of Robin Hood who only steals from evil rich people, but this is not always the case. Sometimes it’s purely self-interest, and, even though I don’t think it’s ever really her intention, what she’s doing is very selfish and she’s hurting people.

In this moment there are a few different ways that you can have Bruce respond:

1.       “There’s more to you than that”

2.       “I’m not sure I trust you”

3.       “That’s what I like about you”

This moment is important because Selina remembers this. You can either confirm what Selina thinks about herself and the little expectation she expects of how others view her (options 2 and 3) or tell her differently (option 1). If you choose Option One, Selina says “Now you’ve ruined it.” Telling Selina that there’s more to her, inspires her. I am truly amazed the good folks over at Telltale Games, knew to include this.

I’m sorry you’re upset and disappointed. It’s just what DC do. They disappoint their readers over and over and over to make money.

But please don’t blame yourself for believing their lies. They were quite convincing this time. Even I almost thought “oh maybe they will actually go through with this” but I’ve been burned by them way too often to get excited.

Plus King is just a bad writer and a bad writer writes bad things so no surprise there. Speaking of King, he’s been doing poor damage control by saying “just keep buying my comic books, eventually they WILL get married, just you wait, we’re totally celebrating the ship.” Yeah right. By showing the Batfamily constantly eating fast food and almost never having Bruce and Selina in one panel together. Does he even know how far up his own ass he is?!

Today, I’ve coined the word “shipbaiting” in a conversation I was having; that’s what DC have been doing. They promised us a positive game changer but delivered just another slap in the face. And it wouldn’t have hurt people so deeply if the build-up hadn’t been so huge. The higher you climb, the farther you fall. They should not have said “it’s 100% happening, folks!” but always followed up with “but who knows what could happen” to soften the blow for trusting readers.

This whole marketing plan was a complete and utter disaster for which people should get fired. So much money and effort was poured into this and for what? A stunt to boost numbers. Congrats, DC. You’ve done it and again alienated your readers. Fuck you.

So sazanes, don’t feel too bad. It was bound to happen. You trusted them and got burned. It happens. It’s not your fault DC are such a shitty company.

The good news is you will always have over 70 years of well-written BatCat stories to fall back on. You can go back and read e.g. Hush or Earth-2′s BatCat who actually got married and had a daughter.

(This ask was actually sent a week ago but it still sounds relevant to this chapter. Sorry for the delay, @sazanes!)

I kinda didn't mind the Jaylen part actually. Yes the MC has the option to look down on Jaylen because she didn't write her own songs - but there were options to choose not to judge her too...AND even though the rivalry was encouraged, in the long run being respectful to her turned out to be more advantageous. Beyond the lack of songwriting ability, the narrative itself makes it clear that Jaylen clearly has the pipes and the drive. She is good at her job - and not every singer necessarily needs to be a songwriter. I think that storyline was needed because it showed you the price young aspirants have to pay just so they can pursue this dream - Jaylen had to change who she was completely to fit in, the MC has to give away an intensely personal piece of writing not knowing who will pick it up and sing it in her stead.

Ooooh. I love doing asks for this one xD

2. What scene did you first put down?

I tend to map out my entire chapter via notes first and then go forward chronologically, so it definitely was the first few words you read in that chapter. I have to say the fact that I had this story whirring around in my head for FIVE MONTHS kinda helped 😅 So...yeah. Liam thinking about how much Olivia has changed and quizzing Maxwell on why he wasn't sitting with the suitor he sponsored was the first thing I put down for this chapter.

9. Were there any alternate versions?

Yeah but it would've been way way shorter. A close friend of mine was originally planning a fic series exploring Liam and her MC's feelings all through Book 2, and both Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay were going to be smaller scenes with Liam as a focus. It was fantastic, Liam would have his own sections that explored his growing feelings for the MC, and her MC was extremely relatable and was given her own background and motives which made sense of her actions in canon.

That didn't pan out, unfortunately, but the exercise did get me thinking about the behind-the-scenes! In some ways, I'm personally glad it worked out this way coz I'm shit at not elaborating on things 🤣🤣

15. What did you learn from this fic?

Four things:

- the importance of oak in winemaking. Jesus, the amount of research I did on the wines alone...

- ballroom seating placements. originally I planned to have Liam catch glimpses of Esther pretending to faint, except my betas told me the arrangement of tables and the size of the ballroom would make it near impossible to get a clear view 😅

- Maxwell is so much more fun to write when he's not merely reduced to the court jester

Read Of Wine and Waltzes: Chardonnay here.