I was tagged by@annerbhpto post the last sentence on my current WIP. I wrote this, it seems, back on May 31. (Which seems like a very long time ago…)
“Ground rules later, got it,” Emma said.
It’s from the friends-with-benefits fic I started to write pre-finale, but it doesn’t address Emma’s kid and I can’t quite decide if I just want to ignore that she has one or incorporate the baby into the fic…
It was too long. I kept thinking that it was almost over and then there was another scene, and another one, and another one.
I really don’t know what they’re going to do from here…
I actually liked what they did with Kylo Ren–gave him more motivation for what he did that made sense but also didn’t excuse him. And I appreciate that he turned away again in the end.
I loved Luke.
I could barely manage to watch a good 10 minutes of the movie. I don’t think I need to spell out which part.
I don’t quite understand why Finn and Rose needed to have a romantic subplot in this movie. I liked her, though!
Some of the jokes might have been a little much, but at least they were funny, which is more than you could say about the prequel jokes.
I took a day off work yesterday that ended up giving me the bad news that I need a new car. I am lucky; I can afford one. But new situations stress me out. People asking me questions about what I want stresses me out. Dealing with loans and figuring out transportation in the meantime stresses me out.
And then I get to work and find out that my boss didn’t even try to have some of my work done by others yesterday, and yesterday was incredibly busy. And then another person in the office created more work that’s coming in today but isn’t there to deal with it. I have to do that. I am so angry and frustrated and overwhelmed and I actually usually like my job but this kind of thing just pisses me off.
This on top of having a new roommate who I like but even so there’s just so much change I can deal with.
And also I’m hungry.
Anyway, I’m eating lunch and crying and I’ll be okay, but I needed to feel not alone.
Even if your fandom looks quiet and seems to be free from drama, chances are good that there’s resentment lurking just under the surface, waiting to explode onto the blogs of people you know and like.
This weekend, I hung out with some wonderful people, and I did the following amazing things:
Had a wonderful drive to and from the Oregon Coast. Beautiful weather, a nice, easy drive through forest in the sunshine–absolutely perfect.
Enjoyed early-morning breakfasts with nice people and learned how to properly pronounce “chafing dish.”
Went to the beach in the early morning and took this picture:
Went to the beach later in the morning and chased a three-and-a-half-year-old to the water to keep her from diving headfirst into the briny deep and then carried her one-and-a-half-year-old sister back to the camp.
Ate delicious food.
Did some arts and crafts.
Went on an ill-advised hike by myself, hiking up to a 450 foot elevation on narrow, treacherous paths, coming back down on slippery grass and mud. I only fell once and only almost sprained my ankle. I saw no other living soul (except Bigfoot, but who doesn’t meet Bigfoot in the woods these days?)
I confessed said ill-advised trip to my friend and promised her never to do that again.
I learned the theory on how to ascend to a higher hammock from a lower hammock, but did not try this myself.
I avoided laughing my ass off during a very sincere, heartfelt, and technically inept singing performance during our “un-talent show,” which basically makes me a hero. (It would have been easy except I was literally laughing hysterically from the previous performance…)
I hung out around campfires with cool people.
I went star-gazing with cool people.
I played early-morning mini-golf.
I laughed, I cried, I cleaned up my cabin and went home.
Okay, but what if the character assassination of Emma Swan in seasons 6 and 7 is deliberate?
1. They had to know that the logical, meaningful end to Emma’s run as Savior was her death at the end of season 6.
2. In this show, getting married in That Dress, having a kid and basically abandoning another one is a more permanent death than death.
3. This theory does not explain any character assassination prior to the end of season 6.
#ouat spoilers #Ouat #anti emma swan #I'm so mad about this whole thing #I can't wait for this ep to be done and gone #I ranted at people all night last night
No, criticism of Emma Swan that talks about her becoming a Stepford wife is not the same as saying a strong female character can’t fall in love, get, married, and have kids. That is not what the criticism is about.
What it is about is that ONE THING becoming her defining characteristic.
I’m sorry, but if you think her growing up and learning to love means that she has to accept every shitty thing her boyfriend does without more than a “that was kinda bad, lol”, if you think that means that Emma’s happy ending isn’t getting to fight for her son and his happy ending… Then I don’t fucking understand your definition of “strong female character.”
Because I don’t read verbally (that is, I don’t mentally read “out-loud” to myself and listen to the sounds in order to interpret the meaning), there is nothing–NOTHING–that throws me more than the wrong homonym. If you want a concrete tip to make your writing easier to read, this is a good place to start.
Become religious about using the right to, too, or two. Be militant about your there, their, they’re’s. Learn the difference between effect and affect, accept and except. Google every idiom you use to make sure you have it right. I GUARANTEE that you have at least one wrong. (I have rooted (not routed) out more than one in my own writing.)
LOOK EVERYTHING UP UNTIL YOU KNOW YOU GOT IT RIGHT.
And then ask someone else to read your stuff, someone you’re pretty sure gets this right 95% of the time. Because you already know what you’re trying to say, and these mistakes will be invisible to you.
I don’t know why it is that I keep making what-if fixit meta with Captain Swan. Maybe because if I’m going to do an SQ version, I’d rather write the fic.
Note: this takes into account vague spoilers from the upcoming seventh season, so you have been warned if that’s not something you want to see.
What if Hook sacrifices himself and everyone goes to the Underworld but they can’t get him back? What if death can’t be overridden? What if Hook stays dead and Emma mourns him at the end of the season and then the next season a duplicate version of him shows up? What if he and Emma have that connection but it’s not the same and it takes them the rest of the season to start to overcome this massive problem–that Emma loved him, tried to save him from death, that they went through all these things together but this Hook is not the same person, just similar enough that it’s sometimes wonderful and sometimes awful?
What if they overcome all that (in a meaningful way) and then Emma, who is fated to die, makes the hero’s choice and dies to save Gideon and defeat the Black Fairy?
Instead of breaking death on the show, you make it mean something. You’ve given the audience sympathy for Emma because her love is dead and gone and she’s dealing with that–and you’ve still managed to keep Hook. Not only that but suddenly Emma doesn’t look selfish–she looks like someone who has grown, who has learned that loving is worth it, that laying down her life is worth it for her family. You have made her death meaningful, important, and you have solved the problem of why she isn’t in the next season–again without coming up with some awful contrivance and without making her selfish.
To top it all off, you don’t have to introduce a new Hook, just continue on with the version of Hook people already know from the last season. And this one, while he loved and lost Emma, too, isn’t as tied to her, is better served by moving on.
That’s my high-level idea about how to fix this show in retrospect while keeping the Captain Swan ship. It sure is easier to think of ways to fix shows in retrospect…
My dad linked me and my brother a video about how self-esteem is self-defeating and I wrote back a 500 word essay that basically boiled down to “Welcome to Tumblr we’ve been talking about the crap that is self-esteem for a while and also that video is condescending and rude.”
He also linked me a 13-minute video with religious propaganda about the founding of the United States that boiled down to “Liberty isn’t liberty without Christ because reasons” that I’m not going to respond to at all.
Today I tried to explain to a co-worker that we don’t actually know the biological differences between men and women because we can’t separate what is biological from what is the product of culture and upbringing. It was like talking to a wall. In her mind men and women are different, so therefore boys and girls are treated differently. I couldn’t get her to flip that and see that if boys and girls are treated differently, then men and women will be different. It was frustrating. I run into this kind of thing a lot, where people take something as a given that shouldn’t be, and I have yet to find more than a few people who are willing to put aside that given to consider new evidence.
DQ is fantastic, and if I had to pick a ship to actually happen on the actual show, DQ would win because I don’t feel like the show left Emma and Regina in the right spot for each other, whereas I feel that DQ could be a good, strong, mature ship for Mal and Regina–and it’s a lovely story of two complicated people finding each other in a less-than-perfect way in a less-than-perfect world.
However, my soul belongs to SQ, definitely. I love the idea of these two destined enemies turning around and finding each other to be compatible in ways that they certainly never expected or even really wanted. I love the way they are honest and open with each other in ways that they normally aren’t with other people. I love that it’s complicated and messy and I have no explanation for the way they look at each other otherwise.
Does anyone else have that coping strategy where they tell themselves they don’t actually have to GO workout, they just have to get dressed as if they were going to work out and get their stuff ready to go work out but don’t worry, we are not actually going to work out?
(and then the brain magically says*, “Well, we are all ready to work out–why don’t we just go?)
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