With love, Thalia
I think a big part of why I love JD so much is because you just KNOW that when "would you still love me if I was a worm" became a thing he wouldn't even wait for Veronica to ask. boy would be messaging her unprompted the second he heard about it like "oh btw I would still love you if you were a worm. I would get you a terrarium with dirt and plants and moss and I would also do my best to become a worm too. I would bring you dead bodies for enrichment" and she'd be like "what. what was that last part" and he'd be like "I'd do my best to become a worm too. so we could get worm-married"
I see so many 'ohmyfuckinggod thats so cool' words and adjectives used by authors. And sometimes i think of noting them down(to use them). but it feels like cheating. also feels like that'll hinder in me getting original ideas. so i stop. i wanted your opinion on this, if you could?
As someone who has countless 'ohmyfuckinggod thats so cool' moments when reading & watching films & listening to music, thus had been creating lists of these words for over a decade to use as writing references... idk if I'm the right person to have an unbiased opinion on this...
But no, it's quite an old "technique"/"strategy"/advice that's been given to writers (and people in general) that has many benefits like widening vocabulary, creating a running list of personalised writing prompts/inspiration as reference to help overcome writer's block etc. (All depends on the writer though, if it works for them) So from a words-list-maker's wholly biased angle, do create all the word lists to your heart's desire!
Perhaps the it-feels-like-cheating thoughts could arise when we feel we've used a certain amount of quite "distinct" words that another writer has used (or if they're known to use them), or maybe if we start to lift entire phrases, especially the more uniquely-written ones. Those instances definitely could feel like hindering our own creativity/originality. Could feel like cheating/stealing/plagiarizing. I guess it's a matter of finding the right balance & giving credit at a certain point. At which point—I'm not entirely sure either. Writing can be quite subjective, and there's always that argument that there's no longer any "original" ideas/phrases at this point. But for me personally, I just love to give credit if specific phrases I use had been influenced by certain writers. Also it might help to include credit when the reference isn't a well-known phrase/quite obscure/inspired by a not-well-known writer etc.
Apologies for rambling, but I hope this made sense. Would love to hear your thoughts on this as well!
Happy Valentine's day! 💖
(comic continues below) ⤵
The “That’s immoral you shouldn’t write that, we need to get that taken down” discourse on tiktok right now is PISSING ME OFFF
Wdym you want censorship for a literal ARCHIVE are you fucking stupid
Ao3 was literally founded to preserve works that were largely getting taken down due to censorship
Censorship is the opposite of what Archive of Our Own stands for
The TAGS and WARNINGS are there for a REASON. Use them and stop complaining
The universal rule—don’t like, don’t read
It’s THAT simple
It's been 3000 years, but finally the second part of this! Garrus needs to learn not to push Shep's buttons when she has clearance to override the shower time limits. He's lucky he's cute.
Also 'shorter second part'? Yeah I'm gonna stop saying that...
Something that really stuck with me while I was playing Mass Effect 2, and that I feel was so important to understanding the relationship between Shepard and Garrus, whether you romance him or not, is that Garrus is your only companion from ME1 who never moved on.
You died. The crew watched you die. Assumedly they grieved you, there was a funeral service, there were tears and all five stages of grief. Things were rough, but eventually life took on a shade of normalcy again.
Kaiden/Ashley got reassigned and continued their work for the alliance. Liara fights tooth and nail to get your body to Cerberus, but then it’s out of her hands and she becomes an information broker. Tali goes back to the Floatilla, like she was always supposed to. Wrex becomes a clan leader. And yes, they’re all fundamentally changed by their time on the Normandy, but no one seems as stuck as Garrus Vakarian.
Because he doesn’t go back to the Citadel. He doesn’t join the Turian Hierarchy. He ships himself off to Omega, one of the most dangerous places he could be, and makes a life out of pissing off the most dangerous people there. It’s kind of a suicide mission, especially after what happened with Sidonis. He kind of figures he’s going to die doing this, but what else can he do?
There is no normalcy for Garrus in a world without Shepard, and I think that’s why he’s always immediately ready to come back to the Normandy. The Normandy, and Shepard, are home for Garrus and that’s why I think romancing him feels like the natural conclusion for so many femme Sheps, because Shepard feels that way too.
Of all the companions, no one needs Shepard to live more than Garrus, and no one needs Garrus more than Shepard. They’re perfectly matched, as lovers, as friends, as soldiers, as whatever they are in your universe and when you’re that perfectly matched with someone, you never quite feel whole without them.
No Shepard without Vakarian.
From that post I saw going around. I just wanted to add something
