parsley 🪻🐠

she/her Love Bird Books (trc, aftg, soc), TSC, TFOTA, and Marauders (+more)

[glonnni]

This little animation took me 3 months to complete. And yes, I am fully aware that this trend was popular on TikTok a couple of months ago. I'm late, I know

But the thing is, I started working on it back in the spring, and then life got really busy. I had to put my work on hold for 3 months due to my university studies and personal commitments. I've only recently returned to my work and have finally completed it.

The trend may have passed, but I still love this art. It's simple, sad, and means a lot to me. So I'm posting it anyway, with no regrets.

Ave atque vale Livia Blackthorn

[margareturtle]

It’s very important to me that TWP takes during peak Hamilton Craze it’ll be like:

During Kit & Ty’s Roadtrip:

Kit: Are you humming Hamilton?

Ty: yeah, how do you know Hamilton?

Kit: I’m a teen on the internet, how do YOU know Hamilton?

Ty: I have an 11 year old brother, it’s a requirement, Tavvy has the whole thing memorized

Kit: Amazing well I know what we’re listening to for the next 2 hrs and 22 minutes!

Ty: (driving)*smiles*

Kit&Ty: HOW DOES A BASTARD ORPHAN SON OF A…

—

Meanwhile in Faerie:

Dru: so how long do you think this whole kidnapping ordeal is going to take?

Ash: idk, depends, why?

Dru: Magnus is having a watch part for the Tony Awards and I promised Tavvy I’d be there

Ash: the Tony Awards?

Dru: yeah, the original broadway cast of Hamilton is performing in them!

Ash: really?! I want to go!!

Dru: How do you know Hamilton?

Ash: whenever I go into the mortal world I download new music to listen to, I kept seeing Hamilton recommended so I downloaded it a few months ago

Dru: ok you’re cooler than I thought

Ash: so can I come with you?

Dru: if we can get out of here with Clary in the next couple days then yeah, but it’s next weekend!!

—

Meanwhile Back in Brooklyn

(Tavvy is sleeping over with Rafe and Max)

Tavvy: so did you know Hamilton back then Magnus?

Magnus: no I was in France during his time

Tavvy: so did you know Lafayette?

Magnus: I bumped into him once at a vampire party but I was a little distracted trying to help Marie Antoinette escape in a hot air balloon

Tavvy: you what?!!

[margareturtle]

happy father’s day julian blackthorn my love <3

[margareturtle]

Reading the Legendborn series for the first time and a realization came upon which is that Selwyn Kane is who Midnight Heir James Herondale could’ve been and I mourn him always

[andrewminyard-josten]

do you agree with the sentiment that the aftg books are badly written? it something that ive seen a lot and like a comparison that ive seen is that it reads like fanfiction which i do agree with but i still think the books are well written personally like they're obviously not books that would win awards for writing ever but the writing isn't bad in any way to me

Hi there,

I’m going to be honest: I don’t fully understand calling an original work that is not based on any preexisting works to be like fanfiction. The fact of that matter is that fanfiction has nothing to do with ‘quality of writing.’ What makes fanfiction, fanfiction is that it is someone writing (a long story, oneshot, drabble, etc.,) using characters, plots, themes, imagery, etc., that were created by someone else. Basically, using someone else’s intellectual property (for fun! Which is allowed. For profit is illegal, which is why fanfiction cannot be sold at book stores for money). Unless, of course, someone edits their fanfiction JUST enough to be considered a new intellectual property. My detailed response is as always, long, and therefore under the Read More.

And the thing is, people have edited their fanfics to no longer be blatant plagiarism & then sold them for money (in fact someone literally has a novel out BASED on Nora’s novel). In fact, this has become astonishingly popular. Everyone knows, of course, that 50 Shades of Grey started as a Twilight fanfic. There are now SEVERAL traditionally published novels that started as Harry Potter fanfiction. There are novels that were originally Marvel fanfic or One Direction fanfic. And many of these (traditionally published) novels were not, from my understanding, edited to be that different from their fanfic counterparts & they went on to make multi-million dollar movie deals. There are also works that are in the public domain and therefore are allowed to be used by others - think ‘The Song of Achilles’ being based on the Iliad or ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’ being based on Pride & Prejudice.

However, none of this applies to AFTG. AFTG was entirely created by Nora. The characters, relationships, plot, plot twists, narrative, themes, etc., were all creatively developed by Nora. They are not based on someone else’s intellectual property. Therefore, AFTG cannot read like fanfiction.

Now, if we are saying AFTG is ‘like fanfiction’ b/c we are trying to say AFTG is ‘poorly written’ then we should say ‘poorly written’ and not ‘like fanfiction.’ Because otherwise we are distorting what makes fanfiction, fanfiction (and what published (self or traditional) works SHOULD be brought up in relation to fanfic - and that is works that were originally fanfics themselves or heavily based on someone else’s already published works). And that is partially because not all fanfiction is poorly written (despite what some people may insistent). Fanfiction is written by thousands of people globally and therefore not all fanfics can be lumped together so simply.

Some people writing fanfiction are 30+, 40+, 50+ and they have college diplomas, undergraduate university degrees, postgraduate degrees, masters, doctorates. Decades of work experience - possibly even IN publishing - or academia, or film, working at libraries, law, medicine or the sciences. Some of these people even use Beta readers, which means their stories are being edited by their peers similar to how self & traditionally published novels are (and considering what I said earlier about published novels that WERE originally fanfics being barely edited when they BECOME published clearly there isn’t much to change even by ‘professional’ standards). There are many fanfics that are, in fact, excellently written on par with published works.

Now, some fanfics are written by younger people who are still developing their skills & voice. High school students or elementary aged students. I do not think it is appropriate to compare them to adults with decades more writing & life experience. Younger writers are not ‘poor’ writers nor is their work ‘poorly written.’ They are developing skills that take hard-work and continuous effort to excel at - you can only get better at writing BY writing. Some fanfics are also written by people studying a second language, which is also extremely difficult - not just to learn a second language, but to be able to creatively write in it.

I have critiqued Fanon several times for simplifying AFTG & I have also critiqued people who conflate their Fanon with Canon or harass authors like Nora to make their Fanon Canon ‘or else.’ And yes, sometimes popular Fanon can warp the way people characterize Canon characters & ignore significant canonical narrative events, character growth, what the themes of a novel were meant to be conveying. However, this behaviour is not a reflection of all fanfic writers or the intent of every single person who writes fanfic nor does it mean fanfic is automatically poorly written. Even if someone IS writing a pwp or a fluffy oneshot - that does not automatically correlate to how they analyze the canon novels or that they think their fanfic is narratively superior than the canon novels.

I do think that some people, in trying to defend fanfic from unfair criticisms that all fanfic is universally bad and devoid of talent or deeper meaning, have catapulted their arguments TOO far to the other side: an insistence that fanfic is ALWAYS better written than canon, that fans ALWAYS have a better understanding of the characters than their creator does (this rhetoric all tends to treat fans as a hivemind who all have the exact same opinions). This is not a sentiment I agree with. Moreover, I would also argue that some peoples insistence that AFTG is ‘basically fanfiction’ is to ignore Nora AS the higher creative authority on her work. Nora DID come up with the characters, their character journeys, their relationships, the plot & plot twists, the imagery & symbolism and deeper narrative meanings. To suggest that she is the same & her work is of the same quality as the people who write fanfic based on HER works is ridiculous. Furthermore, this conflation is what allows people to treat their fanons as being equal in Fandom to what Canon states & then lash out at other readers for not complying with their interpretation of the text (because they consider themselves to be an Ultimate Authority despite not being one).

Additionally, it can be argued that not all published novels (self or traditional) are ‘well-written.’ What is considered a ‘well-written’ novel can vary from person to person. There are many VERY popular novels that some people love & other people consider garbage that never should have been accepted for publishing. There are several classic novels that are considered by some to be the ‘standard of literature’ (and this itself I think is something to investigate: what authors often get to be considered the ‘standard of literature’ and what authors are considered to be ‘trashy’ - who gets to set the ‘standard of literature?’ Why is that the standard? Who is enforcing the standard? Who is often deliberately ignored?) while some consider those same classics to be boring and derivative. Some people love long, flowing and metaphorical prose & some consider the same prose to be ‘purpose prose’ that detracts from a story. Some love dialogue while others do not. Nora has a direct, easy to follow writing style that has its merits especially for the story she is telling. Not all writers, including fanfic writers, self-published or traditionally published novels have the same writing style. If someone thinks this, maybe they need to expand their reading material to start including writers who DO write differently from what they are accustomed to.

Moreover, good writing is not JUST about prose. It’s about crafting a story that readers will love, which Nora did. When someone says ‘oh I think AFTG is poorly written but I still love it!’ Then how can you think it is poorly written if you love it? You can say the prose isn’t what you prefer but if it was poorly written you would not be so attached to the characters or the story. Clearly, Nora has done something right. The sole purpose of a writer is not to be the Best Technical Writer it is to write a story that people will love and speak about for years into the future. A novel could be technically perfect and devoid of any genuine passion or meaning.

Additionally, I also think some people call AFTG ‘poorly written’ or ‘without deeper meaning’ b/c then, once again, they can justify why THEIR interpretations of the text/how Canon “should have gone” is just Inherently Better than what Nora wrote (even if it’s really not). I notice a lot of people say “this part of AFTG was poorly written” to mean “what I wanted to happen didn’t happen and instead of analyzing the text for WHY what I wanted to happen didn’t happen (perhaps b/c it did not narratively make sense) I’m simply going to say Nora is a BAD writer.” Or “Nora writes her characters OOC in this scene” (already a wild statement to make) actually means “the characters aren’t behaving in a way I like & instead of considering that perhaps I, the reader, am projecting onto the characters to behave in the way I would even if it goes against their characterization, I’m going to Blame Nora for being a Bad Writer.” I guess what I’m trying to say is: a story being written in a way that someone PERSONALLY doesn’t like/how THEY would have written it doesn’t necessarily mean the author is a bad writer. Because honestly, sometimes the ideas people have about what ‘would have been better’ are Frankly Worse.

Critical thinking demands that people make their own choices regarding what they think is ‘good’ writing. Instead of simply accepting what their 12th Grade English teacher says is good writing (and sometimes this means saying ‘I acknowledge the merits of this story & why many of my peers consider it to be good writing but frankly it is not for me and I Personally Do Not Like It).

Now, what traditional publishing companies supply authors is: marketing & brand (in exchange for taking a share of the profits). Traditional publishing is a business, in which the goal is to make a lot of money by selling books that will appeal to A LOT of people. This is why people with already built-in audiences (celebrities, influences, Youtubers back in the day) get book deals for books that are ghost-written by someone with actual writing talent or they try writing themselves and then their audiences wonders ‘why isn’t this any good’ (hint: it’s because those people are not writers and do not practice creative writing with any sort of passion or regularity). Nora was able to build a Fandom without a famous publishing company brand name or them investing money in marketing her. That is already a sign of skill. Many self-published writers DREAM of the kind of success Nora has achieved. Pretending that what she has achieved isn’t remarkable comes across as demeaning and a combination of elitism and sexism.

Even if AFTG would ‘never win any awards’ (and again we need to investigate - who created these awards & who wins these awards with any regularity, anyway - and who, once again, is often left out and dismissed from winning awards). Such sentiment ‘well it won’t win any awards’ also dismisses what AFTG HAS achieved for a self-published author. Moreover, most novels don’t win awards & not everyone publishes with the intent to win awards, anyway. Nora stayed true to her vision & the story she wanted to tell & while AFTG certainly is not without problems (I myself have critiqued how race was handled several times) a lot of elements in Nora’s books also risked being possibly removed if she had been traditionally published in 2013.

[bauliya]

so women are supposed to grin and bear the books, the comics, the movies, the plays, the tv shows, the stories, the sci-fi, the translated ancient poems, the fucking millennia of men writing about their self inserts torturing women and it being declared as High Art by other men, we’re supposed to read it in our free time, study it in classrooms, include their styles in our own writing, accept their cultural influence as natural, watch it in the cinema, write about it, talk about it, accept it, aspire it, but men can’t tolerate three seconds of female wish fulfilment of a woman snapping the wrist of a creep without feeling personally kicked in the balls.

[darkshrimpemotions]

This reminds me of something I observed in college while I was doing my honors thesis on women in modern horror films. I watched a LOT of horror during that time as part of my research, and sometimes that was done with my family around.

And my dad and brothers? Were deeply disturbed by the movie Jennifer’s Body. I was flabbergasted. It’s not scary! It’s not even that gory. But they were horrified by it. These men who grew up on 70s slashers were legitimately shook by 90 minutes of Megan Fox eating a few teenage boys, mostly off-screen.

Similarly, my all-male reading panel for my thesis? Were so disturbed by my synopsis of the film Teeth that they couldn’t even talk about it. One of them said he couldn’t look at his wife for a week after reading it.

Again, grown-ass men who study and teach media for a living. Who definitely watch and enjoy horror movies. One of whom was a huge Tarantino buff. We watched and read worse in his intro to mass media class! But one movie about a girl whose vag could bite was enough to haunt him.

Then of course you have things like the Gone Girl backlash–men yelling that Amy Dunne is evil and women clamoring to assure everyone that they know she is not someone to emulate–the backlash against Carol Danvers, and, more recently, the griping from MRAs against the upcoming film Hustlers, which is about strippers scamming their Wall Street clients.

My conclusion? Most men–at least most straight, cisgender men, who are both my sample population and most of the ones whining that Carol is a “villain”–are perfectly fine with, and desensitized to, media where men do violence to women (horror movies), or men do violence to men (horror and action movies). They’re even sort of fine when women do violence to women (“ooooo cat fight!”).

But they get intensely uncomfortable when women are depicted doing any kind of violence to men, especially in films that tilt the balance of power to the other side of the m/f gender binary beyond a single moment or scene.

So woman as flesh-eating monster with men as her preferred cuisine? Woman who responds to unwanted sexual contact by biting it off? Woman who frames her cheating husband for murder? Woman whose response to harassment–behavior that many of the loudest whiners know is both creepy and reflective of their own thoughts/actions–is to break something?

Too scary. Unacceptable. Disturbing. These men hate being presented with the idea, even in fiction, that their position of power is socially constructed, that it could easily be flipped the other way. It terrifies them.

In feeling that terror, they experience a tiny modicum of what living, existing, moving, being perceived as a woman in the world is like.

And they flinch every time.

[tzikeh]

Here have a newspaper comic from 1993

[tsc-reader]

REMINDER TO PLEASE NOT SUPPORT AI ART!! there are people on this app sharing ai art as their own and then deleting comments of people who call them out on it, BE VIGILANT!!

[wikitpowers]

I'M CRYING THE CONCEPT OF JACE HERONDALE MEETING SHANE HOLLANDER IS TOO FUNNY😭

[margareturtle]

The parallels between city of bones and TLKOF make me so emotional—

Like clary gets told off by Jocelyn and Luke

Dru gets told off by Luke and see Jocelyn too

Opening scene at the Pandemonium in both books

Clary following Jace who no one else can see/hear

Dru following Livvy who no one else can see/hear

Valentine kidnaps Jocelyn

Janus kidnaps Clary

Jace saves Clary from almost dying and brings her home with him

Ash saves Dru from almost dying and brings her home

[margareturtle]

It’s ok that we probably won’t see a lot of Tavvy in the Wicked Powers bc me and Tavvy are the same age so i can tell you with certainty that in 2016 he was choreographing Hamilton songs in the yard of the institute with his buddies (Magnus takes him and Rafe and Max to see it), he’s watching Captain America Civil War in theaters with Aline, he’s surfing with Helen, and he’s working on training his sabre, knife throwing, sword, and crossbow skills so that he can keep up with all of his siblings.

[margareturtle]

Inspired by @drusilla-carstairs poll about which tsc ship would be best if it was sapphic

Answer: most all of them but here’s my ranking

1) EMMA AND JULIAN

like ahhh the queerness of parabatai is already there and the way that the clave says it’s against the law for parabatai to be in love but they don’t give any reason for it like the metaphors are right there!!

Secondlyyy falling in love with your girl bestfriend is such a canon event for queer teen girls and the not knowing if it’s reciprocated ahhdjddnr

Plus Julian as the Eldest daughter taking care of her siblings would be such good representation. Obviously boys can be placed in that roll but it is more common with girls and with cc’s audience being more predominately women it would be great rep to have !!

Also women can be ruthless too!! I already love Jules so much but Jules as a girl would just be even better!

2) SIMON AND IZZY

Again the falling in love with your best friend as a canon event with queer teen girls!! Also I’m tired of the trope that a boy can have a boy bestfriend but a girl can also only have a boy bestfriend (not only in tsc but in a lot of popular media) like Simon being a girl would just make sense !!

Also again!! The queer metaphor is right there with Simon coming to terms with and coming out as a vampire it’s even talked about in the books with the coming out pamphlet!! Simon being a lesbian vampire girl would be so good!! She could even keep all of Simon’s jokes about “not being a good judge of male beauty”. Plus we would get bi Izzy too !!

3) LUCIE & GRACE

imo Jesse doesn’t need to be a girl but TLH would’ve been x10 more interesting if Lucie ended up with Grace. #if you do necromancy together you stay together!! They would have paralleled kit x ty so beautifully too. And the would be so many conflicting feelings as James is Lucie’s brother!! Even better if they end up becoming necromancy witches who leave the clave together and Lucie keeps her powers. Ngl Lucie and Jesse have always been the most boring TLH couple to me.

4) DRU AND ASH

bi Dru is a need !! Also couldn’t we get at least one of the faerie royalty being a girl. Like we already have Kieran and Kit!! Also I think Ash as a girl would draw more comparisons to the Seelie Queen and Jocelyn than to Sebastian which would be more interesting imo. More parallels to Auraline too!

Also we haven’t read morgenthorns story yet and I’n sure I will eat it up as I always do with the mysterious faerie prince trope— but that’s also the thing!! The mysterious faerie prince has been done many times before (ex: Kieran, Cardan),, imagine if we got a mysterious faerie Princess!! Ugh it would be so good!!

5) Kieran, Mark, and Cristina

It would just be cool in a world with lesbian Blackstairs for us to also have a sapphic throuple. Maybe in this au Mark is the one banished and Helen is taken by the hunt. And Aline does her travel year at the LA Institute. Then we could have a lot more sister angst with Helen and Fem! Jules.

Honorable Mention: Clace

Female Jace would be super cool, but Clace is one of the few ships that can stay straight tbh. It just works best that way. Even in a world where Simon is a girl.

[drusilla-carstairs]

Before finals!!

Which of these TSC ships would be better as wlw?

Emma Carstairs/Julian Blackthorn

Lucie Herondale/Jesse Blackthorn

Simon Lovelace/Izzy Lightwood

Clary Fairchild/Jace Herondale

Dru Blackthorn/Ash Morgenstern

Other (comments pls!)

Voting ended onApr 10

[margareturtle]

just finished reread of tmi and ahh despite liliths blood in him Jonathan still had Jocelyn’s artist hands and her yearning to be loved and and and—

What if Ash also has Jocelyns artist hands and her yearning to be loved (and her eyes of course)

Like his loyalty spell and faerie magic and nature is from the Seelie Queen but the yearning to be loved by Dru and Nene and Janus that’s all his Fairchild sidee ahahhdhsbswjrhsbrjejrhrdb

[margareturtle]

I love tsc but there’s just one thing that is missing from it for me which is two girls as parabatai with a bond to rival Jem & Will or Clary & Simon

And no I don’t count Lucie & Cordelia bc 1) they don’t even become parabatai during TLH and 2) for the majority of TLH they’re on pretty separate quests and we rarely see their friendship

And in that same vein I would also appreciate more real sisters representation

Like we have have so many strong brother and sisterbrother pairs (Alastair&Cordelia, Mark&Julian, Alec&Izzy&Jace, etc)

But in regards to sisters there’s

Barbara&Eugenia - who don’t get any page time

And Helen, Livvy, & Dru which could have potential. Except Dru is more of Helen’s baby like Tavvy is Julians. And before Livvy died she hung out with Ty & Kit but we barely saw her and Dru connect.

Like I do still appreciate the female friendships we do have like Emma&Cristina, Tessa&Sophie, Clary&Izzy

But it’s just not the same as true parabatai or sisters that have grown up together that would die for each other and also wanna kill each other sometimes ya know?

[margareturtle]

Ok but when Clary and Ash fight back to back with heosphoros and phaesphoros what then !!?!!?!

[margareturtle]

Do you think there’ll be a seen in TWP that’s like:

Ash: Janus says I have to take out my competition

Dru: Who’s your competition?

Ash: well King Kieran of course

Dru: no can do

Ash: why?

Dru: that would make my brother sad :( also he’s a pretty fun guy to watch movies with once you get to know him

Ash: well I don’t think Janus cares that kieran is a “fun guy” when his power is a threat to mine

Dru: oh well boo you! But sorry no can do. Who else?

Ash: huh?

Dru: well you said competition, and it can’t just be Kieran so who else?

Ash: oh yeah,, Janus said there’s this blonde shadowhunter boy what was his name…

Dru: jonathan? Alexander? gabriel? Michael?

Ash: what?

Dru: trying to help out here by listing common shadowhunter names…edmund, christopher, jonah—

Ash: oh yes that was it! Christopher, but he goes by something else like…

Dru: Kit?

Ash: yes! Kit Herondale!

Dru: pffft, are you suddenly into my brother Ty?

Ash: what no?!

Dru: then Kit is no threat to you

Ash: no Janus says he’s supposedly as powerful as me and a real threat as the First Heir of faerie!

Dru: yeah,, right my nerd friend bring a fork to a fight Kit Herondale is some big supernatural threat to you?!

Ash: yes!

Dru: mmm sure, well if that’s true then I’ll be your girlfriend 🙄

Ash: really?!

Dru: yeah but that’s a big IF it’s true, and also if it is you still can’t kill Kit! It would make my brother sad :( and he’s also really fun to hang out with once you get to know him!

Ash: well I guess I have to tell janus I can’t take out my competition!

Dru: I suppose you do.

Ash: but maybe not yet, bc if I go track Kit like I told him I would, Janus won’t get suspicious and we can get Kit to show you his first heir powers so you’ll be my girlfriend!

Dru: sounds good to me! If Kit has powers that is 🙄

[margareturtle]

The way that Ash’s eye’s are described as ice green in BIB and Jocelyn’s eyes are described as ice green in TMI i cry