a better son/daughter @birdhead - Tumblr Blog

Hey I have a question for y'all.

From where you are right now, could you reach the nearest sea or ocean by foot in less than a day?

Yes

Voting ended onApr 30

(reblog for sample size)

#forty-ish minutes due north #maybe an hour due south #the fact that no is winning this poll substantially somewhat blows my island-based mind

allofyourflawsand

Every time I see an interview where Rachel Reid says she wishes people knew she liked Shane as a character, I wish someone would ask her what she likes about Shane, and to point to examples of that behavior in the text.

I know what I like about Shane but I put that together based on inferences. Most of it can be extrapolated from the text but is not actually in the text. And many other interviews she’s done seem to contradict what I’m pulling from the text. And this doesn’t really matter in terms of viewing my own characterization of Shane as canon, because the stuff she’s saying is also extrapolation and inference and not actually in the text.

But my main worry about HR season 2 is that Jacob Tierney, who has stated that Ilya is his favorite character (at least in part because Ilya is the most thoughtfully explored character in the series) and who has talked a lot about how important it is to follow the book, is going to be too faithful to the text and not grant Shane the exploration and sympathy he was denied in the book.

hollzy-baby

I think it’s very possible that Reid likes Shane as a character because of what Tierney and Hudson and costumers made of him on the TV show so I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s directly contradicting her own book at this point (a book that came out early 2019, so probably finished in 2018 at the latest).

I think she’s put herself in an incredibly difficult place trying to write a 3rd book for these characters tbh b/c how does the fandom interpretation and TV versions not influence you at this point?

My main worry for S2 is that they try to do all of TLG AND a bunch of vignettes from the other books - I really think they should assume the 3rd novel won’t ever get written and stretch it all over the 2 seasons they have Hudson & Connor confirmed.

birdhead

I appreciate the point of view that Heated Rivalry is the Shane book and The Long Game is the Ilya book and The Long Game is very unkind to Shane - all of that is true but can I stick up for book!Shane a little bit here, because although he makes one big mistake, this guy is a good boyfriend in this book! Right from the start of the book he knows something is up with Ilya and he consistently asks Ilya to tell him what's wrong - and Ilya refuses to right until he completely flips at Christmas. That's not Shane's fault and it's pretty understandable Shane doesn't react with grace in that conversation.

But Shane cares SO much about Ilya. Shane is learning Russian for Ilya. He's been doing it privately for years. When he gets something wrong he pushes Ilya to correct him even though he still understands him. That is huge to me. Do you know how many people have partners who speak English as a second language who never even consider learning the other language - or they consider and discard it because oh, it's too hard, they're so busy? Shane is so all in on the relationship, he is so committed, that he, a very busy person, is learning this very hard language not because he needs to but because he wants Ilya to be able to talk to him in his own language.

Yes, Shane doesn't want to come out and that becomes incredibly painful for Ilya and Shane ends up needing a really big external push of Ilya nearly dying to change his mind. But this is completely of a piece with ashamed, disgusted, self-hating, nervous Shane from Heated Rivalry. He is still dealing with all those feelings. Iunno.

From a Doylian perspective I am constantly frustrated by how RR never lets Shane grow, she always has to give him an external push, and that is at a high pitch in TLG. But from a Watsonian perspective, Shane's worst character trait in the books is that he is trapped in the steel cage of his mind and can never break the cage without serious external impetus. He develops a vision for his life and then he traps himself in it, which has got him to the NHL and won him three Stanley Cups so you can see why he thinks he needs it. But it means he needs Rose to tell him he's gay, he needs David to catch them at the cottage to tell his parents, he needs a plane crash to realise he wants to be with Ilya publicly. But *within* that steel cage (which hurts him too) he is really trying all the time, imho, to be good to Ilya.

#heated rivalry

xiaozhan-appreciation

“I forgot to tell you I have another name: Lu Fen.”

藏海传 Legend of Zang Hai

#this reveal KILLED me #zang hai

djarin

Wow. So, when? Since our, uh, rookie season. Since your rookie season? No, it's not true. Since before that. Not helpful.

(insp.)

#heated rivalry #I have clicked like on every version of this scene on my dash #so okay here it goes

dailyhollanov

Ilya + crying

#heated rivalry

cardassiangoodreads

Previous poll remade because I forgot a whole century the first time, this is what I get for doing this on mobile LOL

Think of the oldest song that you know by heart — can sing the melody and any words it has from memory, without looking it up. Search the name of it in Wikipedia, looking for when it was first documented with both the melody and (if applicable) lyrics you know, together. When is it ACTUALLY from? (If it’s way newer than you think, you can’t switch to an older song. Answer based on this one you initially THOUGHT was the oldest.)

20th century (1900s) or later

19th century (1800s)

18th century (1700s)

17th century (1600s)

15th-16th centuries (1400s-1500s)

13th-14th centuries (1200s-1300s)

11th-12th centuries (1000s-1100s)

First millennium CE (if you are not a musician, no you don't, go back)

It's the Seikilos Epitaph (circa 1st century CE), oldest complete melody found

Voting ended onJan 3

I am a music historian with a PhD and the point of this poll is that the vast majority of people don’t actually know much music from pre-1500s or so, and most music that people think is ancient or medieval is actually far more recent.

There are no options before the first millennium CE because the Epitaph of Seikilos is the oldest complete work of music found anywhere in the world, and it's around 2000 years old. If you think you know something older than that, either only the text was written down (e.g. Biblical, Vedic and Greco-Roman hymns) or it only exists in fragments (e.g. the Hurrian hymns and Orestes stasimon). Which is to say, it does not count for this.

If it fits into a few of these potential time frames, pick the one that's considered the most likely. If historians genuinely have no fucking clue, THEN you can go back and try with another really old song.

cardassiangoodreads

Boost this one please! Now that I've finally got it right and the spread actually makes some sense, I'd like to see what happens when more people take it :)

#the coventry carol #which is sixteenth century #at one point I think I knew some mediaeval recorder music but not any more

ritavonbees

Is this how it goes?

ritavonbees

The Body: You know you can’t grab my ghost [redacted], Harrow

birdhead

hey OP this is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius

#gideon the ninth #harrow

playinquiryforme

Nothing can stop two hearts that are meant to be the one by 香芋拌饭

birdhead

I don’t go here but I did have to reblog this beautiful piece (people make moving art now??? amazing) with a link to the classic fanvid “The Glass” by thingswithwings.

#the untamed

eaion

Due South 03x02

#I'm not sure why I can never not reblog due South shit #a fandom I was in for about five minutes years after everyone else had left #nevertheless #this callum keith rennie performance remains #SO GOOD #due South #Ray

sharonvalerii

#waking my blog up bc i'm physically unable to scroll past these gifs #WHAT ABOUT IT #bsg #kara

podsaveoursouls

Favs, acceptance (did I spend about 20 minutes agonising over whether I wanted to angle for the future happy ending of dweller!verse or the au I wrote in my head where Take From Me has a tommyjon happy ending even though I know that's against the entire artistic purpose of that work? I did. did I also consider "Tommy, cruel" bc sometimes I am a masochist? I did. anyway have fun)

FAVS ACCEPTANCE MADE ME SAAAAD , how did you know i had this tiny snippet waiting in the depths of my divorce verse gdoc? carefully trimmed to avoid any spoilers because this verse REALLY got away from me and is absolutely silly and unpostable at this point.

(and “tommy, cruel” really makes me want to finish my 5-reasons-lovett-wasnt-a-groomsman fic so… stay tuned ??? maybe?)

—-

“You know you’re still the same person, right?” Lovett’s staring into the pool. “Like, your whole personality is still the same. You’re not like some kind of alien now, you’re just gay. It’s not that different.”

For some reason Jon’s throat clenches up. He swallows hard.

“I don’t know,” he manages to say. “It feels different.”

“Well it’s not. And if they’re making it feel like that, that’s on them.”

“Come on.” Jon chokes a laugh. “It’s no one else’s fault that I did what I did.”

Lovett’s quiet for a long second.

“You want to know what I think?” he says finally.

Jon’s not sure. He stays silent.

“It was weird. At first. Even for me. Not because I thought you lied. But because I had to, like, rethink so many things I thought I knew about you. And- and realize that there was something about you I was just, like, totally blind to.”

Jon’s holding himself so tightly he can’t breathe. He feels like they just took a dangerous sharp turn in this conversation but he can’t say a word to stop it. “And I guess- I guess it made me sad. To think about all the time where- where we could have had this thing in common and we didn’t. And I-” he sucks in a breath. “It made me think of what my mom said when I came out to her in high school. That she was sad that I had been going through it alone. I guess it made me sad to think of you going through it alone for so long. Like, I know how lonely it is. I know you don’t think I get it, but I do.”

Jon blinks and his eyes fill up, hot. He looks away.

“And it took me a while. To like- reconcile it in my head, you know? And- and I think maybe I was so focused on it in my own head that I just, like- I just let you keep going through it alone. And I’m- I’m sorry for that. I should’ve been a better friend.”

His voice breaks. Jon has no idea what to say. If he turns his head Lovett will see his wet eyes. He can’t stop thinking about all of it, all the months and years after the divorce he spent hating himself, wanting to change. He thought he was past it but there it is again, just as big. It fills up his throat and he coughs out a wet breath.

“Jon?”

Jon clears his throat again. “Yeah. Sorry.” He wipes his nose.

birdhead

oh no this is --- HELP. this hurts my heart. Lovett thinking about Jon going it alone EVEN AS JON IS STILL GOING IT ALONE BECAUSE HE CAN’T TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT HOW MISERABLE HE IS or how in love with Lovett he is!!!! ouch. OUCH.