Tez Has a Tumblr

Where a snarky nerd variously known as Shadow, Tez, and Lady Nighteyes talks about things. Tag novelist. Draculaposting before it was cool. Banned from a gacha game fandom wiki for malicious bird identification. Expect geekiness, tripled emoticons, JRPGs, and anything else that catches my interest. Most reblogs are queued. I tag fandoms and try to trigger warn for the basic stuff. Talk to me about Radiant Historia, but be aware that given the chance, I would set the remake on fire. AO3 (It's all Radiant Historia, natch)

[downtroddendeity]

Just in case Tumblr explodes in a puff of transmisogyny in the next week, my Discord ID is ladynighteyes.

Anyway, please play Radiant Historia for the Nintendo DS.

[bite-my-grimy-fleshy-ass]

I remember as a kid the nearby small town had a "computer expert" who had a full storefront and office. If someone bricked their computer or it loaded with viruses he'd factory reset it for them and try to get it working again. He'd also buy, refurbish, rest, and resell old computers. But the main thing he advertised was if people brought him a computer and a list of programs they wanted installed on it he'd get them all set up. Flat rate of like 20 bucks.

Didn't realize until I was older and like, looking back on some of the tech stuff my mom needed help with and knew more about how software is priced that he was pirating it. Guy had a whole business set up where people who didn't know how computers worked would pay him 20 bucks to install Microsoft Office on their laptop because it was cheaper than buying it in the store and they didn't want to be bothered with figuring out how to install programs even if they could afford them normally. Like that guy was practically printing money well into the early 2000s. Very good hustle. Only small business owner I respect.

[rederiswrites]

Just watched Adam Conover (of Adam Ruins Everything) make such a solid point that I think we should spread far and wide. Yes, having AI write your emails is lazy, sure, but people love being lazy. We need to really emphasize that sending AI emails (or using AI responses on social media, or publishing AI flyers, or or or) is rude.

It's rude. You're making someone take their time to read something you couldn't bother to write. You're telling them they were so unimportant you couldn't be bothered to actually take the time to say something yourself. And frankly, you're lying about it while you're at it.

It's rude.

[katsdom]

The above is doubly true if the content of the email is something that will be important to the person receiving - especially something that affects them negatively. They see that this thing that affected them so much didn't matter enough to you to write it yourself. I was a bystander to such a thing not long ago and it was just awful.

[fthgurdy]

RUDE!!! that is so very much it.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

If I may offer the lecturer's perspective on this idea:

Currently, it's marking season for us in the UK. I have an exam board in four hours, in fact, which is where we all go over every profile of every student on our courses, see what results they've achieved, and work out their "decision" - if all is well, the decision is to let them continue the course, or the final degree grade calculated if they're in final year. If it hasn't gone well, the decision is about whether they get to rework the pieces that failed, resit exams, repeat the whole year, or be required to withdraw.

And, as has been the case for the last two years, the profiles are now littered with plagiarism investigations. Every one of those - every single one - will have come in as an assignment that the lecturer received, and started reading, and then with a sinking feeling thought "This isn't your work." Every one had to go to an academic misconduct hearing. Every one is an enormous draw on time and resources, including the emotional reserves of the lecturer.

And I know that's not the main issue! I know in the grand scheme of things, our feelings aren't the most important part of this equation! But as we're talking about rudeness, let me explain:

Firstly, the work itself. You begin reading, you see it's AI. Contractually, we have to read it anyway, and give feedback on why it's shit, and what makes it bad, and that is absolutely fucking soul destroying. Most students who use AI are doing so because they've managed to train their brains to find reading something boring abhorrent, and they want to skip that part; but a ChatGPT-generated report is bland, vague, and utterly devoid of any passion, insight or personality. In short, it's boring. You simply passed your boredom on to us.

Secondly, regardless of your personal feelings about the assignment, it at least had a purpose. It was there to stretch you, and make you think about the topic so you could learn about it, and to test that learning so we can all make sure you have actually learned what you need to. But the slop you handed in, that I now have to mark? What's the point? Literally what is the fucking point of me marking it? You didn't even write it. None of the feedback I'm obligated to give means anything to you. I'm marking ChatGPT, and it can't read.

Which means, not only is it fucking boring, it's actively pointless. Ask anyone in the world what a boring but pointless obligatory task does to your mood. Imagine that.

Thirdly, the misconduct hearing. Because listen, again, the lecturer's feelings here are, once again, not the main point. Students who cheat like this aren't doing so because life is hunky dory. They're stressed and overwhelmed and struggling, and they think they've found a magic way out, and so being pulled into a misconduct hearing - where the best they can hope for is to have to redo the whole piece for a capped mark, on top of all the rest of the work they have (functionally, a bonus assignment), and the worst is expulsion - is a mental breakdown-inducing experience. That, obviously, is the biggest issue.

But, the lecturers know all that, which means we know what we're triggering if we do report it. I cannot tell you how upsetting it is to receive a slop assignment, realise what it is, and then have to make the call to report it. I know damn well how upsetting that's going to be for you. I know how stressful and painful that's going to be. I know this might mean you're going to be thrown out of university. In some cases, I know it means you will be.

I know I could look the other way to spare you that

And oh, that gets tempting. When things are really bad for you, and I see you struggling, and this is your third strike; fuck me but it's tempting to pretend that I can't tell.

I cannot do that.

Which brings me to number four: the soul-bleachingly fucking horrible ordeal that is the misconduct hearing itself. Most people are non-confrontational; I'm no exception. I also simply do not enjoy a sobbing, panicking student sitting in front of me, telling me about how stressed and scared they are and how they're terrified they're going to fail. But that's how these things go.

Our most recent example is an international Masters student. I don't know the particulars for him; but I do know it's not uncommon in his part of the world for families to go into obscene debt, often to loan sharks, to send their kids to UK universities. Failure means more than just academia for him. Having to sit through him turning white and quietly begging us to give him another chance before he left in tears he tried to hide from us was, obviously, much worse for him than us; but it was honestly traumatic. Even now, two weeks later, I can't get it out of my head. There's nothing we can do; but, I feel guilty anyway. I could have looked the other way.

(It wouldn't have passed anyway. It was terrible. But at least he'd probably be allowed a resit - we're still waiting on the outcome of this one, but he may well be withdrawn)

To bring this back to the point of the post:

I know my feelings aren't really the ones that matter here. I do know that. But, every time a student chooses to use AI to write an assignment, all that is what happens behind the scenes. My job nosedives into being shit. Whether it's reading the boring slop, having to write pointless feedback, or making the upsetting decisions to report it when I know what the consequences will be and then having to deal with the guilt, my job that I love suddenly becomes shit. And that, actually, among the many other things it is, is fucking rude.

[downtroddendeity]

This also dovetails with a point @galileosballs has made a few times: when you are in college, and you're paying a lot of money to be there, not engaging with the coursework means that you are, in practice, throwing all that money into a hole in the ground. What you're paying for is the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge in a specialized environment- if you write a really bad essay in college, you are theoretically doing it there so that you can learn to write slightly less badly when you're surrounded by people who are motivated to help you learn and the consequences are just "you get a C- on an assignment" and not "you get fired for poor communication because no one can read your emails." If you don't participate in that environment, whether that's by not doing the coursework or not going to class, you could Not Participate while not enrolled in college and save thousands and thousands of dollars on tuition.

[lilliankillthisman]

"The word pandemonium was coined by John Milton as the name for the Parliament of Hell" is an all-timer etymology. Oh yeah did you hear that Mrs Higgins's dogs got loose at the village fête? It was like a vast golden edifice in which fallen angels debate their strategies for vengeance against god, yeah.

[prokopetz]

I have to admit sometimes I watch the fraudulent mobile game ads in their entirety just to see how incredibly fucking dumb the fake game mechanics they've made up this time are.

[serenaoculis]

is there any actual insight to be gained from this or is it just entertaining

[prokopetz]

I like to try and imagine the hypothetical game where the mechanics depicted in the ad could possibly serve any functional purpose.

[mcnostril]

The real treasure was the fancy hat we found along the way.

As a rule of thumb, if you have to dig it up it's a crime, but if you can just yoink it then it's a-okay.

PS: Please note that some steps of the Troll Dance® were simplified for artistic purposes and I am not responsible for any of your characters being turned into sauce.

[grickle14]

Instincts.

[ode-on-a-grecian-butt]

art by Curtis Lanaghan

[dragon-in-a-fez]

under US law, it's illegal for anyone who's not a member of a recognised native tribe to own an eagle feather. the penalty is a $100,000 fine.

14 years ago when I had recently moved to Alaska, I went hiking with an Aleut friend, and she pointed to a feather lying on the ground and said "hey that's a bald eagle tail feather, you should grab it!" and I was like "uhh I'm very white and that's very illegal" and she went "they're fuckin everywhere up here man. I have 20." so she grabs it off the ground and hands it to me and says "there, now it's a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person."

and I'm like, okay, cool, I guess this is how we do things in Alaska. nice.

so I keep this bald eagle tail feather around for years. display it in my home among other cherished memorabilia from places I've lived and visited, etc.

on a whim, I have just now looked it up. there is no exemption to that law for a ceremonial gift from an indigenous person. the last 7 years I lived in the US, I was technically a bald eagle poacher.

probably a good thing I don't intend to move back there anytime soon. I wonder what the statute of limitations is on bird crimes.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

@freedomisscaryshit I'm fucking dying I think you forgot the word "feathers" in your tags?? or do you just wish you could grab whole ass eagles that land in your yard??

[emotional-support-husband]

As an Indigenous person, it continues to astound me that there are such strict laws (written by White people) in our name, laws against...picking up things just found on the ground. Like, stop pretending this is "for" us. We don't want this.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

so, for clarity, that's not what this is. the law against possessing feathers is an anti-poaching measure, derived from a North American treaty protecting certain migratory bird species from hunting. that treaty has an exemption for indigenous people to allow tribes that use eagle feathers in ceremonial or religious practices to continue doing so.

[chekhovs-raygun]

i used to collect feathers (illegally) as a teenager and the thing is that it's incredibly important for feathers from wild birds to be illegal to possess because it ensures that they never become fashionable to wear. the reason we passed the migratory bird act was because the american and european fashion industry was driving species to extinction in a timespan of years. not just decades. the ecological devastation of exporting birds for hats was absolutely insane and people were watching wetlands and forests and meadows just empty out in realtime. look at the wikipedia article for the plume trade.

the law against 'picking feathers up off the ground' means that you can't go shoot an eagle then sell the feathers on etsy by saying you 'just found them'. you can't own them no matter where they came from, which makes sure that they're not going to come from any birds killed and then secretly disposed of.

these laws, as harsh and ridiculous as they seem, saved flamingos, spoonbills, egrets, and all kinds of hawks and eagles from extinction. the minute these laws weaken and people can make money off killing them again, they're fucked.

[sermna]

"I can't believe [media] was actually about _____ the whole time!!!"

[one possible interpretation, yep]

[literally the main theme??]

[worst take you've seen in your life]

[theonethatwatchesalotofshows]

"Maturing is realizing that ____"

[Something negative about the main character]

[Literally the point of the story]

[The most batshit insane non-sensical take you've seen in your life]

[orteil42]

given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that

[knightwithahundredkings]

I really recommend the Táin Bó Cúailnge to anyone looking to get into medieval literature because it's a great story, brilliant poetry (I read the Carson translation, and the way he translates the roscada sections are beautiful) and the backbone of the Ulster Cycle, but it's also just really fucking funny. It has a very slapstick yet dry sense of humor that provides just enough comic relief to make the dramatic moments of the story even more impactful. Genuinely I laugh out loud every few pages. Go read it.

[knightwithahundredkings]

You can't make this shit up

[nariarts]

Longtime readers may be aware of how much I relish an excuse to bully a company, so I'm sharing the wealth;

Clothing company Patagonia is currently sueing drag queen Pattie Gonia for "irreparable” harm to their brand.

To be clear; Pattie named herself after the region in South America.

So Pattie is asking people to politely ask Patagonia to drop the lawsuit.

I'm extending the invitation to all of you, because sueing a drag queen for 'infringement' in the current political cultural landscape is vile. Especially a drag queen who has raised millions of dollars for non-profits, uses her platform to raise awareness for climate activism, and fully aligns with Patagonia's apparent climate-conscious mission statement.

They're claiming they're sueing for $1. They're actually asking her to stop using her name, and pay over $1 million in legal fees. They're straight up harassing her.

In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen.

Anyway. Be respectful(ish), but feel free to be annoying on Patagnoia's socials, asking them to 'DROP THE LAWSUIT'

I think they have a twitter and tiktok too!

[carriesthewind]

Unfortunately, Pattie is lying.

"Pattie named herself after the region in South America." Come the fuck on. https://www.self.com/story/pattie-gonia-backpacking-drag-queen

Patagonia is not trying to "take away her name." Patagonia has no problem with her calling herself Pattie Gonia or performing as such, or using it for activism, or whatever. They are suing her to stop her from directly competing with them with a substantially similar trademark in clothing sales.

You can read the complaint here.

The relevant prayer for relief is on page 34-36. It asks the court to stop Pattie from selling, distributing, or advertising, "any goods or services that display any words or symbols that so resemble the PATAGONIA trademarks as to be likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception;" destroy the merch she was selling that would so cause confusion; and to not do it again in the future. It doesn't ask for damages more than $1 and for attorneys fees (aka pay us back for making us have to file this stupid lawsuit).

It also asks the court to stop Pattie from trying to register her drag name as a trademark specifically to sell branded apparel that says "PATTIEGONIA" - aka the same market, to an overlapping sales base.

2. Yeah this is 100% a "brand conflict." Patagonia had no issues with her existence, her drag name, her activism. (According to facts in the complaint, which she has not denied) it had no issue with even her partnering with competing brands, as long as

When Pattie started selling her own branded merch, Patagonia tried to reach out to her to resolve things informally. They were not able to do so. (And in my opinion, the email from Pattie in response looks really really bad - as I read it, it is essentially a threat to try to use her fanbase and progressive credentials to attack and harm Patagonia's brand if they try to enforce their trademark. And to be clear - if she has issues with Patagonia's actions as a brand, using those as a private threat against the company to advance her commercial interests while continuing to publicly directly associate herself with the brand - examples both in the lawsuit and in this thread: https://bsky.app/profile/kathryntewson.bsky.social/post/3mnbadc2egk2e - is. Well, I don't think it's behavior that looks good for Pattie.)

They filed this lawsuit b/c she filed to trademark the "Pattie Gonia" brand to directly compete with Patagonia in the same market. This is 100% a brand conflict. She's just lying to people.

Two other quick comments:

OP above used scare quotes around "irreparable" harm. This happens every time there is a lawsuit for injunctive relief and the person posting about it wants to make the plaintiff sound unreasonable and absurd. Irreparable harm is just literally the legal standard for injunctive relief.

I think OP's comment that, "In contrast, drag queen Jan Sport has a Jansport bag line. It's that easy to just... work with a queen," is ironically a good demonstration about the potential for brand confusion. Based on this comment, OP is demonstrating that their assumption, should they see "Pattie Gonia" branded clothing, is that it would be a collaboration. But Pattie Gonia wasn't trying to work with Patagonia. She specifically said she did not want to do so. She wants sell her own merch.

On Pattie's website, she says about this lawsuit,

I agree with Pattie on this point. But right now, while there are so many attacks on both the climate and on queer people, especially trans people? To lie about a (legally speaking, entirely reasonable, lawsuit) and to use people's fears and concerns in the - as OP says - "current political landscape" - to try to sell you her own merch? (Because that is what the lawsuit is about. She is telling you to harass Patagonia so she can sell you branded merch instead.)

I have a lot of feelings about someone taking the energy - our fears, our need to protect each other, our love - of our community, and redirecting it toward their own commercial benefit. It's really hard for me to see what Pattie is doing in any other light.

[downtroddendeity]

I'm sorry, what?

Thanks for linking the complaint, because I am reading it, and, uh. It doesn't say what you're saying it does!

What I am seeing in this document is that in 2022, Pattie did a collab with a water bottle company, and made an agreement with the Patagonia company that none of that merch would use their logos or similar/parody designs, the font their logo is in, or have the phrase "Pattie Gonia" printed on it. Three years later, Pattie took a picture with and later wore a couple of outfits with tags of parodies of the Patagonia logo, which were never for sale, and made one (1) joke at a live event about Patagonia clothes being "my merch." Consequently, Patagonia, Inc. declared it was a violation of their agreement for her to put the words "Pattie Gonia" on anything she sells, ever. None of the products in her store in the filing are using anything resembling the logo or the font. While they're only asking for nominal monetary damages, if she lost she would be stuck with all the legal fees from their court case, and they are also asking that she be required to never use "Pattie Gonia" on anything, ever.

How on earth is this

stealing business from this?

Hot take: I think that right now, while there are so many attacks on both the climate and on queer people, especially trans people, it is in fact much worse for a billion-with-a-B dollar corporation to bring a huge public lawsuit against a single queer person who is theoretically on their side in that political conflict that would stick her with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees than to change your story about whether your drag name is a pun on a clothing company.

And you know what? I also have a lot of feelings about redirecting energy that could be going to something useful to commercial benefit. Specifically, the commercial benefit of a billion-with-a-B dollar corporation, because god forbid an environmentalist drag queen sell t-shirts.

[amnhnyc]

Meet the rusty-spotted cat (Prionailurus rubiginosus). Known as the “hummingbird of cats,” this species is one of the world’s smallest felines, reaching weights of only 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg). Primarily nocturnal, this cat uses its large eyes to hunt under the cover of darkness. It can be spotted in parts of Southeast Asia including India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal.

Photo: Cloudtail the Snow Leopard, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, flickr 

[galileosballs]

We can all agree on one thing: the Judge from Ace Attorney would think that ChatGPT is sentient

[bennetsbonnet]

My main issue with The Other Bennet Sister (both as a book and series) is that it operates on the premise that Mary actually understands and is upset that she is not as brilliant as her sisters, when Pride and Prejudice tells us explicitly that hearing herself described as 'the most accomplished girl in the neighbourhood' at the Meryton assembly is enough for her to have enjoyed a 'pleasant' evening.

I understand that Mary is somewhat of a blank slate (given how little she is in the original novel) and thus that ability to be able to project onto her would be appealing for an author because she is the most infrequently mentioned Bennet sister. But equally, she is seldom in the story because she is not particularly relevant to the plot; it's not an oversight on Austen's part. Her character is clearly defined and we have a good sense of who Mary is (selfish and sanctimonious, rather than neglected and overlooked) even if there are not entire chapters dedicated to her.

Mary Bennet is not heroine material and that is perfectly okay.

[taradactyls]

Mary is also, by the standards of the day, constantly putting herself forward in a way which was interpreted as a moral failing.

There's a reason we have so many scenes of Austen heroines and other respectable ladies demurring when first asked to play on the piano until the host/hostess insists some more. It isn't modesty, it's morality, and it's why Mary not waiting to be asked to play and not being aware of when she's performed an excessive amount is judged so harshly.

I don't personally agree with a lot of regency lady behavioural standards, but to contemporary readers Mary is attention seeking and vain, not demonstrating any modesty or that demure behaviour which spoke of a woman having good principles. In that way she's way more like Kitty and Lydia then modern audiences can easily see, though their exhibiting takes very different avenues. But it was still an indicator of improper principles.

It's why she's included in the 'that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by [your mother], by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father' (ch35) line that Darcy writes to Elizabeth. She isn't just awkward, unlikeable, or not well rounded - she was often completely lacking propriety. Elizabeth names this judgement on her family a 'mortifying, yet merited reproach ... The justice of the charge struck her too forcibly for denial' (ch36). She doesn't make an excuse for Mary, but includes her equally in the condemnation against the behaviour of Mrs Bennet, Kitty, and Lydia.

Here's the definition of the word propriety, as I believe Austen used it in this context, from the Oxford English Dictionary: 'Conformity to accepted standards of behaviour or morals, esp. with regard to good manners or polite usage; seemliness, decorousness, decency; (observance of) convention.' That is what contemporary audiences, and the sensible characters within Pride and Prejudice itself, thought Mary was lacking. She has a problem with morals, good manners, and decorum. Not awkwardness or being unlikeable, nor shyness or trouble socialising (and in fact, I'd argue that Mary's behaviour is the opposite of shy). Though she's such a minor character it isn't as important a change, many modern interpretations of Mary are very similar to the 'Darcy isn't a snob, he's just socially awkward!' thinking which ignores the book canon.

I'm also a proponent of the idea that, where Kitty and Lydia demonstrate the flaws of seeking experiences and no reflection, Mary demonstrates the flaws of seeking only reflections and disdaining a lot of real world experiences. A situation rectified somewhat at the ending of the book, as with her sisters gone, 'Mary was obliged to mix more with the world, but she could still moralize over every morning visit' (ch61). Hopefully this situation also made her more self-aware, and less inclined to put herself forward indelicately when she didn't feel the need to compete for recognition.

It's so understandable that modern readers project social awkwardness and shy bookish-ness onto Mary, because social standards of behaviour have altered so much in 200+ years and she's a minor character, but Austen did actually write her as confident and forward to the point of vanity and disregarding morals. I have yet to see any novel that focuses on Mary recognise that, and work within that framework for her character arc. And, because it's missed, so too is the nuance of why she's disparaged by the narrator and not praised or particularly liked by Elizabeth and Jane.

This has a flow-on effect of authors needing to find some justification for why Mary is so overlooked, which, since they don't recognise Mary's own flaws, generally means they need to invent or exaggerate flaws in other characters. Which is why you get characters suddenly focusing on likeability, or looks, or social prowess, to a degree that they never did in canon, if at all. I enjoy reimaginings, but you have to be really careful and knowledgeable when making beloved characters shallower or meaner in a way they weren't in canon in order to white-wash a minor character for it to work well, and I'm not convinced they've done that in this instance.

I know I've been very harsh on Mary's character here, so I should add the disclaimer that I actually adore Mary, as I do Kitty and Lydia (yes, even Lydia). They're teenagers whose education (and emotional well being, in the case of at least Mary and Kitty) has been neglected and thrown out into society at a young age to figure it out for themselves, so I'm not at all surprised they've misstepped and gone too far in seeking external validation. Mary sure as hell didn't get enough of it growing up. But Mary isn't judged by the world because she doesn't fit the pretty, sociable, likeable mold her other sisters do, she's judged because of her own actions and the values that demonstrates to respectable society.

I just wish that more works focusing on the younger Bennet sisters recognised the actual (contemporary) errors of their behaviour in a sympathetic way and worked to show how they might improve as they grow, rather than excusing all or most of it and saying that it's everyone else who is acting wrong.

[idefilarate]

%100, weird how this misinterpretation is so common…Mary is not shy, she’s actually very thick-skinned, to the extent she completely fails to notice the unreasonable amount of time she’s been demanding attention at the piano. She likes to show off: “such an opportunity of exhibiting was delightful to her” - she continues into another song after only “the hint of a hope she might be asked again” despite the fact she is just not good at it. I don’t think it’s just regency decorum that makes this problematic either - their society was certainly less comfortable with young people who didn’t possess much talent demanding attention and applause than ours is - but I think that type of insistent misplaced self-confidence is always quite irritating…. Also, by rewriting Mary as shy and upset by her conception of her own inferiority (basically Fanny Price) you put this weird lens on the other characters treatment of her and (as Jane would say) “make everyone acting unnaturally and wrong!”😂. Yeah, if she was a sensitive Fanny maybe they should have treated her with extreme sensitivity , but it’s a fictional fact that she *isn’t … she’s more like Mr Collins, self-satisfied and oblivious to her own failings . Her problem is her lack of sensitivity , not crippling shyness or low self esteem .

[earlgraytay]

See, I think Mary Bennett could absolutely be hero material, it's just that she couldn't be the hero of Pride and Prejudice. Her story has its own themes to play with.

I think that Mary has fallen victim to the Classic Autism Blunder- if someone tells you "this is what you need to be successful! Here is a list of concrete skills and talents you can acquire! Here's a bunch of frustratingly nebulous social skills you need to cultivate!", and you're on the spectrum, it's really easy to go "cool! I will do the concrete stuff that I know I can learn how to do and ignore all the boring difficult social graces!" Except that, outside some very very rare circumstances, the horrible social bullshit is the part that is going to make or break whether you can be successful.

So Mary is working very very hard to Be Accomplished- the piano! the moralizing! The reading! - and to show off that she's Accomplished. But she's presumably largely self-taught (you think Mr. Bennett is paying for tutors? Hah.), and so is not as good at any of this as she thinks she is. When you factor in that she's lacking in social graces to boot, she's embarrassing herself. But she doesn't have the social skills to even notice that this is what is happening, much less understand why she needs to notice.

If I were going to write her, I'd probably have her be able to realize that people don't really seem to like her or to appreciate her accomplishments... and have no earthly idea why, because no one has been able to get through to her why what she's doing is wrong. She knows that people react really badly to her when she plays the piano without being asked or when she tries to show off her Deep and Profound Learning. But she's under the very mistaken belief that she just isn't trying hard enough, and if she can just impress them enough with her Accomplishments (TM) then maybe, maybe, people will start to like her.

(And, tbh, I don't think anyone has tried particularly hard to explain it to her. Jane is too kind to point out someone else's flaws, Elizabeth finds Mary super grating and interacts with her as little as possible, Mrs. Bennett doesn't care because it doesn't seem to get in the way of her Look How Accomplished My Daughter Is Please Put A Ring On Her quest, and Mr. Bennett encourages her to be Like That because he thinks it's super funny.)

And the problem for Mary is... I've said it before, I'll say it again- most modern fiction set in the Regency* is functionally fantasy, it's just set in a world where social graces are magic. If you're writing A Bridgerton, everyone wants to see the heroine destroy her rival or the local Lady Catherine equivalent with three carefully chosen words and a spockbrow, without being visibly impolite. They want to see the hero and heroine verbally duking it out as a way of carefully testing each other's boundaries. Dances are wizard duels. The drawing room is a battleground.

If you look at it through that lens, Mary Bennett is actually a pretty common hero archetype- she's the kid with no talent for magic who is, functionally, trapped at wizardy death school. If you're a woman in a Regency romance, and you don't get married, you're boned, and everyone knows it. But Mary does not really have the skills to come out of The Season with a man on her arm, and everyone knows that, too. So Mary has to use whatever other skills she has- some of which will still get her a 'good grade in Accomplished Lady', some of which 'wizardy' society has no interest in- to get by.

I think you could get a really good story out of... say, a German princeling coming to town, who happens to be the most neurodivergent man in the three nearest continents, who thinks Mary's flavour of doggedly persistent autism is deeply charming. He appreciates that she can speak his language- in both senses- even if her grammar isn't quite up to snuff. He's well-read in like six different languages, he's interested in science and art and morals and would like a woman who's actually interested in debating all of these things, he's incredibly sick of the petty social-wizardy death game that is the marriage market, and he'd very much like to find a wife this year and be done with it.

Mary has to deal with her mom shoving her at him by any means necessary in ways that even she can realize are profoundly embarrassing. And with the fact that, at first, she kind of hates this guy, because he's willing to do things like 'play devil's advocate for atheism to make you really defend why religion is important', which she sees as Absolutely Heinous and Rascally Behaviour. But because of her mom's clumsy social maneuvering, they're always kind of stuck in the same room together, and he's the only person who isn't constantly reacting to her like she's doing something wrong for reasons she can't ascertain...

...and she's slowly realizing, through arguing with the princeling, that she's neither as well-read nor as deep of a thinker as she thought she was, and forcing herself to grow out of her Tumblrina Your Fave Is Problematic phase into having actual well-reasoned moral convictions of her own and being able to defend them...

...while making a fool of herself, once she's decided that courting him is necessary, by trying desperately to impress him with her other Accomplishments (TM), which would not be particularly impressive to him even if she was as good as she thinks she is, and she is not nearly there....

...and realizing that, no, this man is not a rascal, he's also got strong moral convictions and is also willing to defend them, and they're actually perfectly suited for each other if she can catch up to him intellectually.

It'd be about Mary figuring out how to woo and live with this man in a way that actually works for the both of them, rather than trying to follow her broken-ass social scripts that she can't really pull off. About her finally dropping the idea of Being Accomplished Being The Way To Find Love And Respect. About both of them figuring out how to handle the social obligations that come with being a Goddamn Rich Person without going insane, and having an easier time of it when they've got someone else to lean on.

I think that's an incredibly compelling story and one where Mary is absolutely the heroine, no character assassination needed.

*I don't think this is necessarily true of Austen, but any modern Austen adaptation is probably going to be a Regency Romance (TM) even if its source is not.

[whetstonefires]

an interesting aspect of this hypothetical mary protagonist scenario is that i think it could only be carried off with intensive logistical support from Mr. Bennett and his library.

see. the thing is, i think mary's whole deal reflects a certain attempt to appeal to her father. the man who just wants to read all day.

she was never going to be liked by her mother, she doesn't have it in her. but father liked elizabeth for being clever, so it made sense for mary to try to book-learn her way into his sponsorship. it didn't work. he had a favorite already, and mary has no wit to recommend her.

but elizabeth is gone. she isn't coming back. she has left their household forever.

so for the first time ever, for a few years at least, mary has a real chance of getting her father's attention.

and if coming to him for attention, an annoying behavior I'm sure he discourages as much as possible, turns into coming to his library in order to get materials to try to make an actually good argument to get back at that horrid german boy with next time, he might actually be drawn into engaging with her, and her now more sincerely intellectual ambitions. and like. belatedly actually provide her with some of the education he undoubtedly received as a matter of course.

so she winds up building an actual relationship with her father, as a teenager, as a side effect of the one she's building with A Boy.

and i think that's the only way you could make this romance protagonist mary concept work on anything close to the level of the original book, is if the process of getting to know this guy and herself was both mediated through, and a medium for gaining better understanding of, her family unit and the ways it has defined her.

[almoststedytimetravel]

Everyone say Ogre stupid and it true! Ogre has been playing Hollow Knight, but Ogre can only understand surface level themes like Perseverance and Breaking the Cycle and can't comprehend deep ideas like "Don't dash directly in an enemy's hit box" that make Team Cherry's metroidvania an indie gaming classic! Ogre so dumb! It make Ogre sad! At this rate Ogre will never understand Silksong!