So Much Better - Tumblr Posts
ANDD…!!!
…Rumpelteazer :3
And there’s nothing at all to be done about that! :D
asking as a 14 yr old currently Going Through It. no nuance (sorry if this is too sad for your blog)
It does get better. I promise - H :)
It’s hard to realize this, but Embers and Light was the first ACOTAR fanfic I ever read, and we’re coming up on my one year anniversary of finding it. If you haven’t read it, it is one of the most beautiful depictions of trauma, healing, love, and strength that I’ve ever had the privilege of reading. The world building of Illyria is perfection, and it has one of my all-time OC characters from a fanfiction ever (Mas, who is present in this snippet) (one of the others being Arina from @separatist-apologist). If you somehow haven’t read this yet and you’re thinking about it, DO IT. 💖
Embers and Light: Chapter 54 (teaser)
Notes: The longest delay in getting you this chapter but I’m so nearly there! Here’s a snippet to keep you guys warm until I post… 12k. 12! I promised myself I’d never go there again but here we are 🤷🏻♀️
“You forget I have seen battle fatigue, sinta,” Mas told Cassian. “I have seen battlegrounds—I’ve been a part of them.”
The skin around Cassian’s mouth tightened, bracketing his mouth like a grim smile. Because Mas was wrong on that count. He would never forget the day of the kerit attacks. He would never forget Mas’s body on the ground, her blood. He would never forget Nesta kneeling beside her, wreathed in the purest of light as she knitted the torn flesh back together. As she healed long brutalised wings.
“Nesta saved me,” Mas continued, her voice resolutely soft in its purpose but determined all the same. “She brought me back for another life and I intend to fight for that life. For you. For Nesta. For everyone who has ever suffered under our own people. For a better life.”
Her words fell away and into more silence. Mas retracted her hands and reached back into the suds, her fingers slipping against cutlery which clattered against the sink. Eventually, she drew out a teaspoon and began to methodically clean it before she extended it out to him without glancing away from her task.
Cassian found that he was relieved. To look at Mas now would mean to memorise every inch of her face, terrified that he’d not have the chance to study it again. He’d already begun to do it with Nesta without meaning to, his mind whispering its own cruel prophecy.
“You saved me, too,” Mas continued into the grim yet resigned silence Cassian had woven himself into. “When we met, I was beaten down. I was so small and insubstantial, the wind could have just tossed me away. Do you remember?”
Now, Cassian forced himself to look at her. He felt his brow collapse in on itself, his eyes felt as if they might melt with the emotion—with the memory. “Of course I do,” he rasped through the chokehold in his throat.
Because of course he did.
Tags (let me know if you want to be added/removed): @arinbelle @superspiritfestival @sayosdreams @perseusannabeth @mylittlebigplanet @biggestwingspan-az @bellsqueen @ekaterinakostrova @bookstantrash @prophecyerised @rainbowcheetah512 @awesomelena555 @wannawriteyouabook @lovelynesta @melphss @laylaameer01 @a-trifling-matter @fanboy7794 @thalia-2-rose @champanheandluxxury @swankii-art-teacher @lavendergoomsltd @princessofmerchants-reads @jeakat @imwritingthesewords @nestable @inejbrekkxr @silvernesta @amelie775 @helen-the-weirdo @pizzaneverdisappoints @wishfulimaginings @trash-for-nessian @my-fan-side @sophilightwood @valkyriesupremacy @vidalinav @onceupona-chaos @inardour @thesunremembersyourface @teagoddess99 @misswonderflower @nessiantrashh @miamorganvel18
Hear me out all the dancestors deserved sm better their characters had potential for a great storyline esp in contrast with what we know about the ancestors
Consider not only how he was handled, but how you wish he was handled, and if you think he had any potential that was unused.
Note: If I see someone insulting or threatening people over this poll, I will block you so fast your head will spin.
Nona my love
If what you feel is new, That's just first bloom (Who are you? Where are you growing to?) As you inch towards the clues Bless whatever brings you here and to...
this started off as a quick companion sketch for my Nona (& Friends) playlist, but of course became something much more involved. If she'd had a portable tape player, I feel like Nona might have taken some moments to relax like this.
(fanart for the book Nona the Ninth, from Tamsyn Muir's The Locked Tomb series)
how do you think rachel would've reacted after seeing cal and andre's crosses burnt down to ash? i've been wondering this for a bit now and i just wanted to ask
rachel would be furious. she wouldn’t be angry. she wouldn’t be frustrated. furious. she would be shaking with anger the moment she saw footage of the crosses burning on the news.
the nights that she had spent at cal and andre’s crosses, placing roses at the base of the wooden sculptures, the conversations she had with the memories of them—all gone, all pointless.
her parents would try to comfort her, saying that those crosses weren’t their actual graves, but she would storm out of the house. her friends would say she shouldn’t feel bad, that cal was a piece of shit and that she didn’t like andre in the first place.
rachel would isolate herself, thinking no one understood her. no one knew cal like she did, other than andre, and he was gone.
she had changed her mind on andre, by the way. even though it was obvious he was a bad person, apparently cal was too. but if cal had loved andre so much to perpetrate zero day with him, she realized there must be something to love about the dark haired boy.
I just can't stop listening to this shit, y'all...😂
Janto request: Jack letting his guard down and letting Ianto comfort him about some of the things he's been through
sorry for disappearing everyone here is a little comic to apologise
i don't like the shading of it anymore :’)
forgot the doodle whoops
i forgot my doodle of Ryan but I don't have the original one so take the one I made digitally instead of the original one today and as soon as I find it i’ll post it as an extra art piece with one of these doodle posts anyways here ya go
Things are a bit rough with it and if you can find little things I can improve upon let me know anyway see ya tomorrow :D
How ??? I HADN'T EVEN THOUGHT OF THAT ! It's so obvious now that you made it.
S1B MEME TIME (part 2): sad Cuphead edition
*Spoiler alert*
It was at this moment that Cuphead knew he fuc*ed up
Poor lil' Muggy in hell
Gee- I felt like a monster while doing this. I'm sorry-
Or am I ? 👀
Wow thanks, Elder Kettle ! You're not helping at all 😀
A version with the Devil because I couldn't decide which one was best. This one feels ominous 👁👄👁
Time for Sad Dramatic Cuphead on a beach, replacing King Dice in part 1.
Oh no MY BABIES 🥺🥺🥺
LET THEM REUNITE AND HUG FFS !!!
Where are the fix-it/reunion/hurt-comfort/fluff fics people ?? 🥺
ABOUT THAT WRONG THING
Here’s the analysis I promised. *** CROOKED KINGDOM SPOILERS *** WHY WAS MATTHIAS HELVAR’S DEATH JUST WRONG? 1. THE WAY IT HAPPENED 1.1. The Hand of the Author “The Hand of the Author” is an expression that indicates how much we feel the presence of the author into the story, the moments in which they intervene to manipulate the events in a forced and unrealistic way instead of following the coherency of their own plots. Now, let’s think about the sequence of the scene: a) Matthias if left alone and unarmed at job done; b) the boy has been able to follow him despite the messy situation; c) Matthias decides not to defend himself and talks to him in a kind and totally reasonable manner; d) the boy shoots him anyway. This death is absolutely anti-climatic, forced and disrespectful for such a character and the scenes from chapter 38 to 40 seem to be completely disconnected from the rest of the story. It looks like the author (despite her statements) was going to finish the book and said : “Oh, no, I cannot end this story without killing at least one main character, let’s kill the one I think the readers like less!” Even though Matthias was the worst character to kill off, as I’m going to explain in Chapter 2, if the author desperately wanted to kill him, she could at least give him a more decent death, like, for example, making him sacrifice to save someone. 1.2. Confusing sequences Matthias is shot by the young drüskelle, but he is still able to run to Nina. What does this mean? Why does the boy let him go, after shooting him? I honestly doubt Matthias has killed him to escape. Maybe he has knocked him down, but that wouldn’t make more sense to the entire context. 1.3. Fjerdan mentality Matthias gives the young drüskelle valid reasons to put his gun down: he has no weapons and cannot go anywhere. Do Fjerdans, filled with hatred but also obsessed with honour and discipline, really teach their young soldiers to be blinded by anger and kill a wanted man (“Dead OR ALIVE”) who is unarmed and willing to cooperate? The boy could have become a Fjerdan hero, if he had brought Matthias as a prisoner to his companions, rather than shooting him for no reasons and then being also unable to prove he killed him. 1.4. Double standards An author cannot build an unrealistic plot armor to some characters (for example, Kaz, a limping boy, who defeats all the Dregs alone) and kill others in a totally “random” and anti-climatic way, at job done. As I say in my small guide “Five simple rules every author should know about characters’ deaths”, double standards compromise the logic and the coherency of the story. 2. THE WAY IT BREAKS BASIC NARRATIVE RULES 2. 1. Character development Matthias’ storyline is mainly focused on two topics: his relationship with Nina and his character development. He literally spends two books to work on himself, unlearning everything he was taught since he was a child and finding a new purpose based on his change of heart. When characters are made to evolve during the story, the most logical choice is to give them an opportunity to make their development useful and significant outside of their safe zone (for example, their group of friends). And, most important thing, an author should never kill their characters if they haven’t complete their development. And that’s why Matthias was the worst character to kill off at the end of Crooked Kingdom: first of all, he hadn’t fully complete his development (he was still very insecure during social interactions and was still fighting against crumbles of Fjerdan mentality); secondly, no one out of the Crows has seen his development, since the author made him fail during his first real attempt to demonstrate something. I think people would need practical demonstrations to make a change possible, it can’t really be enough for them to hear his story from Nina. It’s just not realistic. Killing Matthias in that way and in that moment, made the character uncompleted and his entire development vain. I’ll conclude the subchapter with a simple example: why do you think it was Jack to die in Titanic, instead of Rose? Because Jack was a complete character, while Rose was still completing her development and had to put it into practice. The criterion is the same. 2.2. Characters’ deaths and their impact on the story Authors owe respect to their characters and have to build their paths properly from the beginning to the end, to guarantee quality to the story. Unless they’re writing a story about random events of human life, they should kill characters only when their deaths make sense to the plot and can give a valuable contribute to other characters’ storylines. A story lacks of quality when characters (especially main characters) are killed just for shock value, to add unnecessary angst and suffering to other characters or because “I cannot give a happy ending to everyone, happy endings are for children”. Matthias’ death was anti-climatic, useless and has so little impact that, if a reader jumps chapters from 38 to 41, it almost seems nothing has changed. 2.3. The failure After everything Matthias did to change and evolve, the author made his first attempt to put in practice what he learnt a huge, undeserving failure. First of all, even though he is unarmed, Matthias is fully able to defeat the boy but he doesn’t do that, that means he chooses not to defend himself. He wants to give the boy a possibility, he wants to demonstrate that there’s still hope for Fjerda. And his faith is repaid with death. These kind of plot choices SOMETIMES (and not in this case) can make sense if written at the beginning or in the middle of a story, not at the ending, when everything seems to be resolved. What is the author trying to suggest us? Fjerdan people are hopeless? If Matthias hasn’t been able to persuade a young boy, who, despite his anger and hatred, should have a more “elastic” mind, how could it be possible to convince older people in Fjerda, who have lived with their beliefs for decades? Does the author really think it is realistic that Nina’s words will be heard by Fjerdans? I’m starting to think her and Matthias’ dream is just destined to fail… * SPOILER FROM NIKOLAI DUOLOGY * (Please, don’t mention me the Nikolai Duology, which I tried to read but I abandoned due to several reasons, one of them, I consider the Crows’ arc closed, after that ending, and I don’t like the idea of using the group only as a “passage moment” for both a character and a major plot. And to be honest, I think it’s just not fair that the work Matthias started to change Fjerdans’ mentality would be finished by a character who is just similar to him (well, even too much similar) but hasn’t faced everything he went through with Nina. It sounds like Bardugo is trying to replace him and this is bad. 3. THE AUTHOR’S STATEMENTS And now, in the third and final part of my work, I’m going to report some statements the author said during interviews about this choice and explain why I cannot help but strongly disagree with her. 1. “Matthias didn’t deserve a happy ending because he spread too much hate, he had to pay.” Okay, first of all, Matthias didn’t just wake up one morning, deciding to spread hate for no reasons. Do we need to think about his background? 1. He had always been taught to fear Grishas and see them as monsters; 2. A group of those monsters killed his family and he has been taken by a man who took advantage of his trauma to turn him into a weapon. He received bad teachings (and not only from Jarl Brum, but also from Grisha people who burnt his family alive), he has also been able to unlearn those teaching and decide to do something to repair and make things better. About the “he had to pay” stuff, excuse me, but he has been tortured in Hellgate for a year, being forced to kill wolves, that were not only sacred to him, but also reminded him of his own pet wolf, and living with the belief that the girl he fell in love with had betrayed him. Wasn’t that enough? And, last but not less important, here we go again with double standards: Matthias, who understood his mistakes and was determined to fix them “didn’t deserve a happy ending,” but Kaz Brekker did? Kaz is a great character, but he also did terrible things and I’m sure he’ll never do anything to fix them because he’s too broken and rotten inside. That’s okay, not all the characters are made to have a great development, but statements like this, when we compare the two characters, just sound a bit incoherent. 2. “He has been killed by the younger version of himself” Does the author really think this is a great symbolism? Doesn’t she know that being killed by a younger version of yourself, especially after you went through a great redemption arc, just means “Regression”? She’s basically saying that it doesn’t matter if you worked hard to change and to fix your mistakes, you don’t deserve to be forgiven, you are your past and you’re destined to be destroyed by it (unless your name is Kaz Brekker). Past is a part of us, of course, we cannot change it and we can be hurt by it, but we cannot let it “kill” us. The message the author gave is just wrong and filled with extremist, unnecessary moralism. It definitely doesn’t fit the atmosphere of a Young Adult novel, which should promote progression, instead of regression. As I said, she also seems to be willing to demonstrate that Fjerdans are just evil and will never change. I wonder if Bardugo has ever seen “The Lion King”, because Rafiki would be very disappointed by all of this. 3. “I knew from the beginning I would have killed him off” Even though the way she killed him seems to demonstrate something different, Bardugo has always stated that she wanted to kill Matthias by the moment she created him. Okay, we can believe it, but I can still speak against this statement. How? I’m sure this thing has happened to many writers: we create characters and decidespecific endings for their storylines, but, while we’re writing, those characters “come to life” into our hands and they sometimes evolve out of our control and start to lead us to a different path. Since the story is made by our characters, we should follow the directions they take, for the sake of the plot: we shouldn’t listen to fanservice or to old plans, we should listen to our characters. That’s why it can happen we end up saving a character we were meant to kill of at the beginning, as well as killing a character we hadn’t plan to kill off. It is just wrong to stubbornly follow an old idea that doesn’t fit the story anymore, that’s why authors cannot use it as an excuse to justify their mistakes. (The finale of “How I Met Your Mother” is a great example to explain this concept). 4. CONCLUSIONS “Geez, what was that for?” - It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past. “Yeah, but it still hurts!” - Ah, yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from it, or… learn from it. (“The Lion King”, 1994) Matthias wasn’t even running away from his past. He faced it. He wanted to do something about it. He was ready to rise from the ashes of his past and work for a better future. And those are all the reasons his death is just wrong from every kind of perspective: narrative, logic, symbolism. Matthias Helvar deserved better. Not only from his life, but also, and especially, from the author who created him. *** Hope you agree with me. Haters stay away, I won’t change my mind. Don’t make flame under my post. If you agree with me and like my work, feel free to share. Thanks for reading!
Exactly! My man deserves to go FERAL in the finale!
I can't imagine how irreparably shattered Roman's trust must be right now, even without the whole "evil twin" comment:
Because really, who on earth could be possibly think to rely on anymore, after it's been made clear that nearly everyone either openly dislikes him or pretends they don't just to use him?
Roman expressed that he didn't like it when people said things about him when he wasn't there, and Logan all but confirmed that he very much does or would do that.
This very well could just be Logan taking a phrase literally again, but it sounds like he's also stating that there are things he wants to say about Roman that he doesn't want him hearing, and considering their differences I doubt he'd say anything good.
Patton has been Roman's biggest cheerleader since day one, always backing him up and supporting him even when it seemed noone else would, which I'm sure he appreciated.
However, the moment he didn't follow Patton's ideals he was immediately scolded, even when he was just doing his job by focusing on Thomas's dreams.
Janus was probably the worst of them, though. He showered roman with praise and compliments at a point where he no doubt desperately needed them, what with his popularity swiftly plummeting.
Then, much like Patton did, he immediately rejected Roman the second he didn't give him what he wanted.
At this point, I don't think he can believe anything anyone tells him anymore, especially not if it's what he needs to hear...
(forgive the poor quality screenshot lol, it was hard to crop this)