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Tales from the Bladeship

Summary: You were once human but now you're an andalite, an andalite who's just about to be sold to one of the worst warlords in the universe.

Complaints, among several others:
1) Visser Three, somewhat incompetent villain that he is, would not allow an uninfested Andalite on his ship under any circumstances
2) Visser Three would definitely not keep said Andalite as a "pet" for kinky reasons
3) Said Andalite agreeing to be temporarily infested by some random Yeerk on the blade ship so long as they leave when asked is pretty dumb
4) ...

- Tomash

We don't have one, and I've got a find (courtesy of GMA in a voice chat a bit back) to terrify everyone with show you.

Went for one of the less popular William Shakespeare plays this time. Sir John Falstaff had a minor appearance in the last Thursday Next novel I read, and the back cover blurb for the next one indicates that Merry Wives itself will be important to the plot. I’m debating whether I want to read through all the Henry plays as well before I continue with Thursday Next; I’ll admit I’m not too interested in the purely historical plays. I like my Shakespeare with a little fantasy.

Spoiler warning for The Merry Wives of Windsor.

It took me quite a while to really get into this play, partly because I had difficulty keeping track of the characters early on. This is probably my fault for, as I mentioned above, not reading the Henry plays first. (Also, my work schedule means I can typically only get reading done in fifteen-minute chunks separated by hours of work time during most of the week.) Either way, I did get into the play and its characters as time went on. I mean, its primary action is about a straight dude getting dumped on by everyone around him for being a horndog, so as an asexual person, it was hard not for me to be amused. I was cheering on the “merry wives” the whole time!

I was surprised at how modern this play felt to me. A lot of the humor—pratfalls, veiled pun-based insults, intentional and unintentional innuendo—are still hallmarks of modern humor, especially in film. In particular, the scene where Mistress Quickly keeps misinterpreting Sir Hugh’s innocent Latin as vulgar English, and the boy learning English is clearly more aware of the dual meanings than the grown Sir Hugh, felt like something out of a modern comedy.

It’s also interesting that the play, written so many centuries ago, very clearly puts female roles in the lead, while showing most of the main male roles to have character failings. We’re still struggling with presenting good female characters in fiction today, yet here’s Shakespeare back around 1600, making them the leads of a play, and the undeniable moral superiors of the story. The one thing Mistress Page is shown to get wrong is her plans for marrying her daughter off to Doctor Caius, but even then, it’s Anne Page’s desire to marry for love that’s cast as the correct decision; again, the smart decision comes from a woman. I also like that Fenton serves as a contrast to Falstaff by initially courting Anne for the same financial reasons as Falstaff was targeting Anne’s mother, but then got to know Anne and fell in true love.

—doctorlit, rooting for Anne to get paired with no one . . . but he guesses that’s just not in the cards, in this time period . . .

“Spoiler? I would I could wash myself of the spoiler. Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler! Ay, spoiler! I warrant you, spoiler, and of the season too, it shall appear.”

(Even without seeing season 2 yet.)

I don't get the onion joke. Is that a reference to another character the actor has played?

—doctorlit never thought about casting actors for his spinoff

In some part because, over the course of the show, his actor made his way firmly onto my list of people I'd cast to play Nume. Ward is that type. Moreso in season two, even, IIRC. {= )

Is anyone else wondering when Davos will smuggle a bunch of onions into the country and get his fingers cut off?

~Neshomeh

My brother tried to convince me not to watch this series, because he said it was too boring. I’m learning to ignore his word when he says he doesn’t like something, because he’s way more critical of fiction than I am. Sometimes, you just have a to let a story unfold over you, know what I mean?

Spoilers for Iron Fist season one. (And there are some major twist reveals about character allegiance this season, so if you’re planning to watch, please don’t read this.)

Like I said in my Luke Cage season one review, I was put off a bit by how dark the Daredevil and Jessica Jones series have been up to this point. While Iron Fist wasn’t quite as light in tone as Luke Cage, it was definitely more enjoyable than the other two. Cage is still my favorite, though.

I was side-eyeing this going in, because it’s essentially got a white character taking on aspects of Asian culture and martial arts, and I wasn’t sure how well it would be handled. I think it did quite well, with the actor who played Danny Rand finding a good balance between reverence for his monastery training, and a bit of childishness at seeing aspects of his old New York life for the first time since age ten. I also liked that the show addressed the failings of K’un-Lun’s training in teaching Danny to ignore his own feelings, preventing him from healing emotionally through the kind of psychiatric treatment he would have received growing up in the States. By the end of the season, Danny really feels like a balance between the eastern and western aspects of his life, not bound too tightly to the rules of K’un-Lun, but not entirely given over to the anger and regret he felt from losing his parents.

Up until this point, I thought that Madame Gao was a Celestial, or another similar being, who got tied up with Wilson Fisk’s criminal enterprises partly out of an ignorance of human culture and biology. Even on the occasions when Daredevil encountered her, she always seemed so calm and aloof, and non-threatening (except when Daredevil tried to grab her), that I rather liked her as a character. This means that I was actually disappointed to learn in this series that she was a member of the Hand. Even though it gave her more screen time to be cool in, it also means she’s a much more dangerous threat than I realized, and considering the fact that she seems to be immortal, her character will inevitably need to be killed off eventually. I am both anticipating that, to see an end of the damage she causes to innocent people, and sad about it, because her voice is cool.

The sheer number of villain factions in this season was a little overwhelming, and it doesn’t help that when we are first introduced to them, we don’t know the real moral standings of the Meachums, Davos, or Bakuto, and that’s saying nothing of the fact that Colleen Wing was secretly Hand all along. (Small side note: I’m terrible at guessing plot reveals before they arrive, partly because I don’t try to, because I love the little feeling of thrill when something unexpected happens in a story I’ve invested in. But I actually guessed Colleen’s real allegiance many episodes in advance, although my one friend who’s also into the MCU managed to convince me I was wrong at the time, for which I am grateful. But I still wish I had been wrong.) By the end of the season, once everyone’s standing was a little more firmly established, it was kind of fun having so many villains going after each other, since it lead to scenes where, no matter who won/died, it was a win for the “good side.” But it also left me feeling like the actual protagonists were often floundering to make any real progress, especially considering how long Danny was manipulated by Harold Meachum.

Putting aside my love of hearing Madame Gao speak, I thought all three actors playing the Meachum family were particularly excellent. Joy Meachum seems so kind and sympathetic whenever she’s alone with Danny or Ward, but her actor turns her into an absolute shark in the board room scenes. Ward’s actor was so good at wearing that mask of straight-laced and uncaring disdain, for so many episodes, it makes it even more disarming when he starts to crack under the pressure later in the season as he comes to realize how dangerous Harold 2.0 and 3.0 are. And Harold’s actor is so good at sounding both sincere and manipulative in a single sentence, I think the only time we’re presented with Harold’s honest self is when he’s in a rage, or right after his second resurrection, when he’s wandering around deliriously piecing his memories back together—and how telling that even in that state of mind, he sees the Rand Enterprises logo, and asks, “Why isn’t it my name?” His ambition, and fury over not getting what he wants, are his defining traits, always hidden under telling others what they want to hear to get them to do what he really wants. It’s also interesting (and kind of sad) that Joy and Ward swap relationships with Danny by the end of the season, with Ward going from having Danny committed to a mental hospital at the start of the season to saving his life at the end, while Joy goes from helping Danny get a foot back in the door of their company at the start to plotting with two other villains to have him killed in the final scene.

—doctorlit is ticked off that he’s eventually going to have to start going after the MCU stuff that’s on networks he isn’t already paying for

“You took a vow of spoilers? “You took a vow of spoilers?” “You took a vow of spoilers?” “You took a vow of spoilers?”

Or just drop in and say what you're reading/watching/playing right now!

This better still be here tomorrow, you understand~?

We must not lose out on something so cute so quickly!

I got diabetes reading that. The fluff was too much for even my experience writing overwhelming sweetness.

Recently in deviantart I ended up in a bit of a debate with another artist over how I was doing an OC character as well as how I was doing a certain game.
Then, following a recent comment, I made the mistake of posting my issues of the local forum without consulting the rules.

I'll admit that was pretty stupid of me... I ended up causing drama.

I had to give this a great deal of thought after reading the following replies. Then I came to the conclusion that I'm not good at writing LGBT OCs.

So I decided that on April 2, I'll be taking down all my fanfic on both deviantart and FF.net and do a complete overhaul. As of tomorrow all my LGTH OCs will be straight.

I know what I'm doing will be seen as completely stupid but I just wanted to clean my slate and start over again.

This was the cutest bloody thing I've ever read. Which is, in all things, surprising considering Jacques' nature.

That was such a cute interlude! I really liked the bit where all the kids fell asleep on Jacques. My heart just about burst at that.

(:P)

Yes, you heard correctly! At long last. I'm very pleased.

So, without further ado...

"Completely Adopted Baby."

In which Jacques brings his son Cai, newly adopted, to meet the Sato children. Set early 2019, after the mission to "Partially Kissed Hero."

Because this was too adorable an idea not to write, once I had the plotbunny.

Thanks to Karen DuLay for betaing!

with the sun burning the dashboard by theappleppielifestyle
Summary:
The war is over and everyone goes their separate ways until Marco suggests something to drag them back together.

(Or: the road-trip fic where everyone needs therapy, the teenagers attempt to have teenage experiences and Enpury arire qvrq.)

---

I'd recommend this fic since it does a good job of showing the effects of the war on all the characters and doesn't provide a particularly happy ending despite the spoilerly thing I rot13'd in the summary not happening.

It's also got a bunch of funny moments and, as near as I can tell, keeps everyone pretty well in character.

I really like how you use the piles of books to show the contrast in the two agents' reading interests, but also that they aren't what I expected each agent to be interested in. It's cool that May, the more calm and serious one, is into the more schlocky fiction, while Melissa, the less mature one, prefers the deep, rich fantasy settings.

It's definitely fun thinking about trades! As a community, we need to expand on the General Store more.

The author's note (heh) and gifts were cute. It reminds me of the LiveJournal RPs of old, where Artemis and Teena and such would hang out with their agents in universe. Good to know the authors are still keeping tabs on things, even if they don't swing around to visit any more!

—doctorlit

Very clever. ;)

Thank you for having us on as betas!

In which we see how the agents are adapting to life in HQ.
https://rc746.dreamwidth.org/691.html#cutid1
Once again, many thanks to Quincy, Badger and S.M.F. for their beta-work.

If it's any consolation, the entire fic is a lot worse than what you saw here in the mission. *sigh* I really do wish sometimes that Bleepka were real.

As for the fic itself... sometimes I wonder what in the name of very deity out there is wrong with some people!? This is the kind of thing that makes me want to scrub my brain out with a wire brush and acid...

I have it set to "invite only". I've been working with Google Docs as a platform for writing for a while, including collaborations with others, so I know a bit about how it works.

Sill, thank you for the concern. I'll add you, if you'd like.

Here's one piece of advice right here and now, however: Posting the link to your document publicly BEFORE the beta-reading process generally isn't recommended. Public links on the Board generally mean that a work has already been reviewed by several people who have agreed to inspect it beforehand, as opposed to putting up a public link asking for reviews via crowdsourcing. The latter MIGHT be more applicable on a Discord server for example, but as a means of general feedback rather than a full beta-reading.

Since the link is already out there, though, I assume your permissions on the doc were set to "anyone can read, but only you can edit"? This would minimize the risk of people coming across the link and tampering with the document without your consent. Then when certain people agree to check for issues such as SPaG, you can give them permission to edit as well.

That's just my two Pokémon Dollars, and I'm not sure about others' reactions (though I doubt there'd be much disagreement tbh). If it's any compensation, though, I'll still be willing to check out the Permission attempt itself as a beta-reader if only for grammar-checking purposes (though canon familiarity always helps, of course). My Discord is also available on request if you want feedback a bit sooner.