Toss a Cassowary?

Thinking about the SW prequels versus the original trilogy again and I was trying to come up with a "Binary Sunset" equivalent moment within "The Phantom Menace". You know that moment where Luke stands alone on Tatooine before his adventure begins, looking off into the darkening horizon, and the music swells with all of these unspoken emotions?

Watching "A New Hope" after watching the prequel trilogy is interesting, because the original film is a lot slower in many ways. It allows the viewer to really sit in this fantasy world, appreciate its unfamiliar details, and think about what the characters must be feeling without being directly told. While I don't think that TPM should try to copy ANH beat for beat by any means, I do think that the prequel trilogy, especially TPM, could have used more scenes that let the actors and the music work to impress upon us that kind of emotional interiority.

For example, Obi-Wan is given a stunning lack of emotional focus throughout TPM, up UNTIL his solo battle against Darth Maul and his grief urging him to take on Anakin as an apprentice afterwards. It's good that we have those moments, and yet I don't think the battle hits as hard as it could have if we'd been offered scenes beforehand that told and showed us more about who young Obi-Wan was and how he felt about what was going on, so that we cared a little more about his deep personal loss, especially given that the Obi-Wan and Anakin later relationship is an emotional core of the trilogy's tragedy. Obi-Wan spends a lot of TPM as just "that guy standing next to Qui-Gon", leaving fans to turn to novelizations and their own assumptions for a little more depth, which I think is poor filmmaking.

Padmé receives perhaps even worse treatment than Obi-Wan in regards to her emotional interiority early on. (Especially in "Attack of the Clones", which is so focused on how Anakin feels about everything that it's hard to know from the films alone why Padmé as a specifically flawed person might find him appealing, making what could be a deliciously ill-advised affair of passion and need for comfort much more one-sided and flatter (and creepier and sexist) than it could have been.) You could even argue that TPM really ought to be "Padmé's" movie, in that it's her homeworld under attack, for which she (despite being a child) has been made responsible. Her desperation, her fear, her anger, is manipulated to put a future Sith Emperor in a position of power. The Jedi are helping her, yes, but it's Padmé relentlessly driving the plot forward.

Instead of being relegated to more of a supporting character position, I think Padmé should have been given some of those slow "protagonist" moments in TPM to showcase her emotional state, specifically a scene that would have been the rough equivalent of Luke returning to the destroyed farm after the stormtroopers attacked. Padmé's party manages to escape Naboo without the film ever really dwelling on the violence, which is yet another missed opportunity. TPM ends up treating war a lot more comedically than the shootouts and climatic dogfights of ANH.

I think it would have kicked ass if the fight to get the queen on an escape ship had been even harder. The queen is hustled onboard, the ship takes off, and then we see one of the handmaidens (Padmé) rush to the window to watch as another wave of attack rushes over her city, her people. The prequel trilogy is tonally all over the place, so it's nice to imagine another version of TPM setting the tone with its own version of the "Binary Sunset" moment in which a devastated Padmé silently looks out over a horizon that's falling to pieces. Fire reflected in her eyes and everything. With the music swelling grandly with the unforgettable, life-ruining horror of war already begun.

If I had to put a "Binary Sunset" moment in the prequels, that's where I'd put it and who I'd give it to. Young Luke still has an entire heroic future ahead of him, but young Padmé is going to helplessly watch everything she cares about be destroyed by powers far greater than her.

Starting a habit in which when I see or hear about a book that looks interesting, I go to my local library website and put a hold on it immediately. Right away. Right now. Do NOT wait. Will I actually have time to read it? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'll only make it through a few chapters, which can still be nice, especially if it's non-fiction. However, either way, this does mean that I go to the library more often, which is just a nice space to visit generally. Also, whenever I think to myself, "Hey, what was the name of that book about [subject] again?" the book is easy to find in my library history.

The longer I sit on and look back at it, the more I unfortunately dislike "Star Trek: Discovery", especially the episode featuring the Kelpian homeworld. It's been bugging me. Sure, I'm maybe too soft on older ST shows comparatively, which are Trying, but also usually Should Have Known Better even back then; but ST:D happened at a point where the writers DEFINITELY Should Have Known Better, so I'm petty. Like, you have decades of people criticizing "Star Trek" for various reasons, so act like it.

So, spoilers for the Kelpian homeworld episode, because I am going to explain and then complain about it as best that I can remember it. Warning for discussion of character death, suicide, genocide, and non-consensual medical procedures. Long post.

I made a post about "Fandom Darling" characters who are super popular but very often have their personalities and personal relationships warped or replaced in fan works, usually also warping everyone around them. Which is, you know, let people have fun and all that, whatever, it's just mildly frustrating if you liked the canonical version of that character.

And people are sharing a lot of fun salt in the tags about this pattern, but usually about the darling's personality or narrative importance, when what finally pushed me to articulate the post was another case with the altered personal relationships aspect.

THAT'S one of the most disorienting ways for a character to be "out of character", in my opinion, because their personality can be mostly intact, but their canonical family, friends, and love interests may have just... mysteriously vanished from both the world and the character's priorities. (Usually in order to prioritize a new love interest above all else.) It's especially weird if those canonical relationships are integral to a character's backstory and their driving motivations. It's like the logical foundation has been taken out from underneath the character's personality, but it somehow remains? Weirdly disconnected?

Like, if I enjoy a character who has an unpleasant family situation, then ideally, I want to see explorations of that character dealing with that. Maybe the unpleasant family is no longer present, but we're still exploring the healing process. I'm less interested in a Modern AU where the character's mentor figure is suddenly and inexplicably their biological parent(???), unrelated characters are their new biological siblings(???!!!), and their childhood was apparently totally happy. That's... that's not my character anymore, even if they mysteriously still have the personality quirks that were a direct result of the canonical unpleasant family situation. Happy for them, I guess, but I don't really know who that character is now.

I've talked about ace-spectrum Shen Yuan before, but now I'm thinking about asexual Mobei-Jun too.

At some point in his childhood, someone told Mobei-Jun to never EVER have sex outside of marriage, because that's how you end up with 1) bastards and a succession crisis, and 2) getting stupidly killed by a man-eating demoness!!! (Love and desire are also perhaps how you end up with whatever the fuck is Linguang-Jun's damage.) And Mobei-Jun was like, "Got it. 👍" And did not need to be told again. And probably judged everyone else around him VERY harshly for not simply being able to resist temptation.

And in PIDW, this worked out pretty well, as far as anything does in that continuity, because at least one of Bing-Ge's many, many wives or love interests probably got angry or bored or lonely enough to drop some hints at some point. And Mobei-Jun did not pick up what was being put down because 1) he did not notice, or 2) he did notice, but was like, "I'm not touching that situation. Goodbye."

In SVSSS, this aligns well with Shang Qinghua apparently fleeing the sect and coming to hang out with Mobei-Jun without even working for his keep as a servant or becoming Mobei-Jun's lover at that point. Shang Qinghua himself doesn't really know what's going on and doesn't really want to question a good thing, which is very unhelpful. (To be fair, I don't think Mobei-Jun truly knows what's going on either.) The demon servants are baffled by the weird human cultivator being kept around as some sort of amusing pet.

"The prince isn't even fucking him???" they regularly mutter to themselves. "It's not even a weird sex thing???!!!"

In more joking terms: every Soulmate AU that insists that its non-consensual One True Predestined Love setup is right every single time with zero exceptions is being disrespectful to the long history of people poisoning their way out marriage for fun, freedom, and/or profit. 😔🫖🍵

With the disclaimer that I have read interesting Soulmate AUs that actively engaged with the non-consensual elements of the setup (ex: choosing to be alone or with someone who isn't your soulmate), the wide variety of totally normal exceptions that might exist to a "One True Love" story (ex: polyamory, platonic soulmates, no soulmates, second loves), and the tragedies that are an inescapable part of life (ex: abusive partners, mental health breaks, widows and widowers)...

Some of these Soulmate AUs have shallow worldbuilds that are so obliviously, oppressively, traumatically amatonormative, monogamous, and hideously non-consensual that - if they don't have easy access to divorce, then - I have to believe that the domestic abuse and murder rates in this society are insaaaaane. Like, uh, bud, am I supposed to be getting "cornered wild animal about to start chewing its own limbs off to escape certain death" vibes from your love story here? The disrespect for autonomy in these societies is horrifying and depressing.

"Oh, these people just need to be forced into couples therapy to work out their forced relationship!" No??? What these people need is simply to not be a fucking relationship with each other before someone dies, actually.

The "Behind the Bastards" podcast this week (and next week) is on one of the cults (and some murders!) that came partially out of fanfiction communities. I looked at the title of the episode and I knew EXACTLY which infamous shitty fanfiction and its associated cult group they were talking about IMMEDIATELY, then I had to put my head in my hands because I dislike remembering this story. Do not cite the deep magic to me and all the jazz, I was trying to ignore it when it happened!!!

Thinking about what early Qijiu must look like to all the other (non-transmigrator) peak lords. Like, Yue Qingyuan is their bro! They like him! He kind of had a horrific injury that resulted in a year of forced seclusion, which may or may not have involved a mental breakdown or two or a hundred, and ended in him running away, and he looked kind of dead inside when he came back. But he's cool! Strong and hardworking and reliable! Nice guy.

"That dude needs to get laid," someone says, nodding to themself. "His secret depression is making me a little depressed, you know? Maybe falling in love with a beauty would fix him a little bit."

And then Shen Qingqiu shows up and they can only be like, "Wait, not like that."

The fun thing about Luo Binghe potentially NOT being pushed into the Endless Abyss at the Immortal Alliance Conference, imo, is that he's still a forcibly outed heavenly demon stuck in the middle of the cultivation world after a deadly invasion. There are so many different fun ways to play it.

So, Shen Yuan groggily wakes up and the first thing he sees is that traitorous asshole Shang Qinghua's relieved face and disheveled appearance. Ugh. And then first thing that the An Ding Peak Lord says is: "Wow, and I thought the System hated my ass. It had it OUT for you, bro."

What the fuck.

At which point, Shen Yuan sits bolt upright because what the hell happened? The last thing he remembers is not moving, the weight of the sword in his hand, the thunder of his heart in his ears, not being able to go through with it, hoping against all reason that this was all some sort of sick test and that the System wouldn't really-

"Where's Binghe?" Shen Yuan demands.

Shang Qinghua winces. "About that..."

And Shen Yuan's heart falls because Binghe ended up in the Endless Abyss anyway, obviously. There were apparently two transmigrators all along and neither of them could truly change the story.

"He got arrested for your murder and the invasion of the conference," Shang Qinghua says, scratching the back of his neck. "It was ugly. So ugly. I probably would have died if Liu Qingge hadn't shown up to put him down. The Palace Master is saying that this is obviously revenge for Tianlang-Jun's sealing and Yue Qingyuan has pretty much stopped talking-"

"What."

An age-swap AU that's been stuck in my head forever is actually for the Fantastic Four. The only FF comic I've ever read properly was actually a Spider-Girl comic, but I remain enthralled by the general concept of 16-year-old, life-ruining levels of super-celebrity Johnny Storm, and also 20-something Sue Storm struggling to raise her brother and "have it all" while also suffering life-ruining levels of super-celebrity.

So, I'm also enthralled by the concept of a role reversal AU in which Johnny Storm is the oldest member of the original FF and stuck on a team of teenagers. He caught superpowers because his beloved baby sister (whom he has struggled to raise since their mom died and dad fell off the rails) and her two dumbass friends (whom she met at space camp when they were 12 or something) built a damn rocketship out of alien scrap, delivering them all into the hellworld of celebrity heroism. Johnny is the adult in the room here, but Reed and Ben do NOT want to listen to him (Johnny barely finished high school) and Sue only half-listens to him anyway. Shit.

Related to the "these characters wouldn't know what a safeword is and wouldn't think to use one even if they did" characterization problem is the "these characters wouldn't pause having sex just because they're drunk and concerned about consent" problem.

Like, it's kind of bewildering when one character stops in the middle of a scene and all but turns to the camera to say, "It's not good to have sex with someone whose judgement may be impaired! You should wait until you're both safely sober again to have a respectful conversation."

Because yeah, sure, but I don't think THESE horny, repressed idiots would have sex UNLESS their inhibitions were lowered by intoxication and they had that plausible deniability. Some characters? Some situations? They'd responsibly hit the brakes for one reason or another, yes. Other characters? They're doing three shots just so that they can unlock sucking face without having to take responsibility for their actions.

On one hand, I am a firm believer in "just start writing a fictional story without hard research if that's what it takes to get the first draft down, mistakes can be fixed in future drafts". On the other hand, I am also a firm believer in cultivating the reflex of "hang on, I don't really know what that means, let me at least go skim the Wikipedia page right now to make sure I'm headed in the right direction here".

Sometimes, especially with original fiction that's presumably been professionally edited, obvious mistakes that are harmful can be infuriating, but I'm usually just amused whenever I encounter an author who clearly hasn't done research for the industry or skill that plays a central role in their story. If one of your main characters is an athlete, you should probably know the rules of that sport??? How its professional leagues work??? Maybe???

"Character A is a chef in a 5-star Michelin restaurant!" <- Michelin stars only go up to 3, bud. "Character B is a famous Michelin food critic!" <- Michelin reviewers are also famously anonymous, bud.

The easy fix for the above example is to just invent a fake food guide company for your story, with known reviewers and a system that goes up to 5 stars. Michelin Guides came out of a tire company and they're not infallible; they've received plenty of reasonable criticism over the years. If you know what Michelin stars actually are and where they came from, they can be modified and replaced in your fictional world's alternate universe to suit your purpose. Instead of you being very obviously misinformed about, uh, the basic facts of your setting in your own summary.

Does anyone have any memorable examples of "that's not how that works" experiences with fiction that have stuck with them?

Part of this (Doylist explanations) is "Airplane doesn't come into the story as a character until the Immortal Alliance Conference" and also "the author wants the second transmigrator reveal to happen at this particular point in the story and also in this particular way".

But I enjoy how these plot beats construct a situation in which Shen Yuan overhears one (1) offhand exclamation in the middle of an emotionally devastating battle and somehow recalls it perfectly later (he could have misheard!), immediately concludes that Shang Qinghua is a transmigrator, and is so confident in this that he head-on confronts the sect traitor about being a traitor (he could have been wrong! this could have been Original SQH!) BEFORE referencing PIDW or usernames or transmigration.

Side note: If it had been Original SQH, I do personally think that Shen Yuan would have been more than willing to throw down, but he makes a few really wild assumptions here. He's correct about the transmigrator thing. But there are other assumptions he makes (that the Black Moon Rhino-Python wasn't there because SQH was actively trying to stop LBH from going into the abyss) that he apparently does NOT confirm as true. He also kind of assumes that a fellow transmigrator will be an ally and remain an ally instead of a potential very dangerous enemy???

Meanwhile, Airplane had multiple years of experiencing Shen Qingqiu apparently having woken up one day with a wildly different personality, to the point where the other peak lords are having secret "Is he possessed and should we do anything about that???" meetings, and he didn't really do anything with that. I need to reread the Airplane Extras again to review Airplane's exact thoughts on WTF was going here, but just looking back at the vague plot beats of main story... Shen Yuan had a tiny crumb and ran like hell with it. Airplane had a multi-course feast of evidence and was apparently like, "I don't know. I don't want to know. I'm staying away from that."

Bidding for FTH 2025 is open! I have one offering up this year for a 5-10k written fanwork, which could be an entirely new story or a remix (sequel, prequel, AU) of an older story. The fandoms are SVSSS and any fandom I've written in before.

Details are on the offering page. You can check my AO3 account's works in collections for examples of fics I've written for FTH and for other fan events. If you have any specific questions about my offering or about my FTH experiences generally, then you can ask me here (I don't have anon asks on, but I will reply privately) (or just reply to this post and I'll answer you) or email me directly.

I tend to go over the indicated word count if I'm really vibing with an idea, but if you're keen on something short and sweet, I will try to hit 5,000 words on the dot and no more if you request that. If you have a specific prompt in mind that pushes some of the boundaries I've outlined, then we can talk about it and see if we can work it out, I might be tempted, but the final answer might still be no.

All the best to everyone participating! ❤️

There's something... tremendously funny and bewildering to me about AU choices in fanfiction that are distractingly irrelevant to the story. I'm going to pick on omegaverse here for my example, because my feelings on it as a setting are complicated and nuanced and also often petty as hell. But it can apply to any other AU type.

I view omegaverse as, essentially, a speculative science-fiction concept. It asks questions like "What if there were these 3+ accepted genders?" and "What if people had THIS weird feature of biology?" and then it runs with that, creating and exploring new worlds and, in doing so, making statements on our own world's relationships to sex and gender and sexuality and bodily autonomy and so on. There are many, many different ways to do omegaverse, some of which admittedly squick me out personally, some of which I just don't like.

Sometimes, the world building is fascinatingly intricate and thoughtful. Sometimes, the world building has the painted-cardboard quality of a "Star Trek" episode: it's just there to make a heavy-handed statement about sex and gender discrimination and it'll fall apart if you poke it too hard. With fanfiction, it also generally becomes a tool with which to examine a specific character's relationship to sex, gender, sexuality, and so on.

Sometimes, the main purpose of omegaverse as an element in a story is sexual titillation. It's a vessel for kinky stuff, like power dynamics and fantasy sex characteristics, uninterested in the broader world implications, and that's fine! Great! "Porn without plot" is still a purpose! It's very relevant to the story!