Jules

blood being frequently described as having a "coppery smell" in fiction is kind of funny considering that there is a metallic component to blood and it's not copper

in fact if your blood smells or tastes like copper you probably have more urgent things to worry about than it being outside your body. it's probably better that it's not inside you anymore actually.

story where blood is described as smelling or tasting "coppery" and it's actually early foreshadowing that all the characters are suffering from heavy metal poisoning

Retrospective

Hello Brother, said Wolf.

Hello Sister, said Dog.

How much you have changed after you went to sit by the fire with the Others, said Wolf.

How little you have changed after I left the Old Pack, said Dog.

You have baubles jingling from your harness, and your coat has grown soft to invite stroking hands, said Wolf.

I have an iron collar of deadly spikes, said Dog, and my teeth have not grown dull.

You are sleek and well fed, said Wolf, and then she asked, won't you share a lamb from your flock, so that I may prosper this bleak winter, as your sister?

I will not, said Dog, for the Others have given me the sacred duty to guard them. The Flock gives its body so the New Pack may keep its strength and use it to nurture the next generation. I have made my pact to uphold this cycle. You have made no vow, and run from your mother's flank to scavenge the middens of my New Pack.

I will give you not one lamb, Sister Wolf, and if you wish to take one, we must fight, pronounced Dog.

Aye Brother, so we must fight then, said Wolf.

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

Modern writing advice: Yes your protagonist should have flaws but ultimately we should root for them and like them from the beginning :)

Charles Dickens: Here is the worst ugliest rudest meanest nastiest bitch you’ve ever met in your life.

Modern writing advice: Make sure your POV character goes through a significant arc! Make sure they are changed by the narrative! Make sure they learn a lesson!

Narrators of every book of the 19th century: the lesson I learned is these people fucking suck, sayonara you freaks

Modern writing advice: It’s all about the character overcoming obstacles and learning! They learn their lesson so they can fix their mistakes and make good choices in the future! It’s a character arc! It’s called growth! Readers love it!

Everyone from ancient times through the 19th century: would you like to watch a Guy fuck up twenty times in a row

Somewhere or other, C. S. Lewis points out (and I'm paraphrasing here) that every era of writing has its own tropes and its own blind spots; its own failings and its own successes. This is why it's important to read in lots of different eras: so you can see what does and doesn't work, in the long run, and be able to make your own informed choices about how to write.

Every 21st century piece of writing advice: Make us CARE about the character from page 1! Make us empathize with them! Make them interesting and different but still relatable and likable!

Every piece of classic literature: Hi. It's me. The bland everyman whose only purpose is to tell you this story. I have no actual personality. Here's the story of the time I encountered the worst people I ever met in my life. But first, ten pages of description about the place in which I met them.

Modern writing advice: Yes your protagonist should have flaws but ultimately we should root for them and like them from the beginning :)

Charles Dickens: Here is the worst ugliest rudest meanest nastiest bitch you’ve ever met in your life.

Modern writing advice: Make sure your POV character goes through a significant arc! Make sure they are changed by the narrative! Make sure they learn a lesson!

Narrators of every book of the 19th century: the lesson I learned is these people fucking suck, sayonara you freaks

Modern writing advice: It’s all about the character overcoming obstacles and learning! They learn their lesson so they can fix their mistakes and make good choices in the future! It’s a character arc! It’s called growth! Readers love it!

Everyone from ancient times through the 19th century: would you like to watch a Guy fuck up twenty times in a row

we are in a media literacy crisis

friendly reminder that characters don't need to be saints to be entertaining. and telling a story does not mean endorsement. art does not need to be all about morally good people.

IDK if this was meant as hyperbole but it's literally true:

Adult literacy is low.

Child literacy is low.

Information literacy has shifted dramatically in the last decade, but reputable information sources like research journals and factual news reporting have been unable to keep pace.

We are genuinely in a crisis of media literacy, with ever fewer genuinely factual resources available in the style and language used by contemporary audiences.

It may sound condescending, but we genuinely need to remind people, or worse, explain to them for the first time that art is not evidence of real world behaviour.

So, thank you, for this reminder. Genuinely.

You're correct:

Art does not need to feature exclusively morally pure characters. Art is not proof of the creator's secret, violent desires.

ETA; Yes, the links are US American; no your country is not immune to propaganda. Be POLITE in asking, and I will help you find the data for your own country as well.

crowley used the metal tool in season 1 to start time, and we learn that he's used it first to start space. to create the stars -- he still remembers how. he still remembers all of heaven's passwords: in the book crowley is described as an optimist because he has the "utter surety... that the universe would look after him". not god, but the universe. and of course he does: he helped create it and he's looking after it, too.

think about it: aziraphale had a sword, but crowley is about to face satan who wants to destroy the world, and crowley's only weapon is a tool of creation

the formula of love

Give it to me Miyazaki style señor Gaiman I’m waiting

love how she doesn't even bother to ask if crowley has a wife or girlfriend. one look at him and it's clear there is no heterosexual explanation for anything about crowley

got tired mid mask

Really old symbrock doodle

Reminder that Eddie and Venom are in love and their relationship is canon in the comics

Gimli: Are you saying you like me, or not? Legolas: Are YOU saying you like ME, or not? Gimli: I’m saying I like you! Legolas: Well, then I’m saying I like YOU! Gimli: Fine! Legolas: Fine! Gimli: Then I guess we’re dating! Legolas: Fine! Gimli: FINE!

sometimes i think about how legolas is a prince and had really high standards put on him his whole life (he literally calls his dad ‘lord’? instead of dad?) he always had to live up to his fathers image, do his fathers biddings, and everyone who was around him would only ever see him as his fathers son.

and so to become friends with gimli, who doesn’t give two craps about any of that (if anything, he actually views thranduil in an unfavorable light for imprisoning his dad in the hobbit) that was probably very freeing for him and he could finally truly just be himself for once. it’s no wonder he gets so attached to him bc gimli is probably the first true friend legolas has ever had who likes him for him regardless of parentage :,(

Legolas: there’s a monster under my bed and it’s really ugly.

Gimli, on the bottom bunk: honestly, fuck you

one of my tiktok mutuals said the peter jeckson films shouldve utilized metal hair spirals for dwarf costumes and i HAD to draw gimli fucking Blinged Out 

also legolas 100% helps him put them in in the morning like a good husband

Gimli: Why doesn’t Legolas think I’m sexy when I bite my lip?

Aragorn: What do you look like when you bite your lip?

Gimli: *bites lip*

Aragorn: …have you considered biting your lower lip?

I have Decided; modern Gimli and Legolas would be those two “High School Athletic Rivals” that Constantly butt heads and argue. Gimli is a wrestler, and Legolas is on the track and field team (he does pole vault And shot put; boy might not look it but he is Stronk). They share a Bestie (Aragorn) so they have to interact with each other all the time. Aragorn is always trying to get them to be at the very least Civil with each other. It doesn’t work. At All. But! One day, Legolas “sarcastically” calls Gimli Darling, and it flusters the red head like you would not Believe! And thus begins the Weaponized Flirting Era. Whom ever can get the other to blush the fastest/darkest/longest WINS. Wins What, exactly? Neither of them know, but they’re in too deep to stop now!! Then, somewhere along the way the flirting and the connection and the friendship becomes genuine. They don’t change the Way they flirt; still the Aggressively Weaponized Flirting, so everybody thinks they’re still Bitter Rivals.

Until they show up to Senior Prom together in matching suits with color-coordinated ties/corsages. And spend the whole night making Moon Eyes at each other. And suddenly when Legolas calls Gimli Darling (or whatever your fave Sindarin Petname is) his voice is all soft and sweet. Then they dance to Every Single Slow Dance that gets played. Aragorn knew, of course (probably before They themselves did), how could he not? They’re his Best Friends! But everyone else is Very caught off guard.

They turn up at the Ten Year Reunion Married with a gaggle of kids following after them. No one is surprised This time 😊😌