Discover Top Posts Tagged with #be-sapphic-do-crime

sokeefe: oh keefe is absolutely a bottom

marellinh: yep

delivvy: still not wrong

keefitz: absolutely

sophiana: yeah

hekster: still right

qualden: this is still accurate wHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AUGUST WHY ARE YOU A GENIUS

Marelliana: yeah probably

The logic almost never fails (and if it does I just choose a new ship name)

I DON'T KNOW WHY OKAY

#tw swearing #tw caps #aesks #inbox #be-sapphic-do-crime #kotlc #ember asks #august answers tm

okay, so- i’m currently rereading the first keeper book, and i just noticed something that i found interesting. why is it that all elves are described as representing their parents so strongly? keefe, fitz, dex, biana, alvar, even sophie with oralie- literally all the examples i can think of are described as having a family resemblance. it made we wonder about elven genetics- like, are they somehow “stronger” (that’s not a great word but it’s what i can think of right now) than human ones? and then, i wonder if so, if it’s, like, the reason that there’s the whole thing with abilities? if because genetics are so strong, they deemed it so that certain elves shouldn’t be allowed to get married? anyways i was just curious if you had any thoughts on this because you always have such cool theories and ideas lol

that's an interesting question! It is definitely not typical for humans to look so strongly like their parents, but from what I've seen people tend to only notice those things when they're actively looking at a parent and child side by side. However, in keeper, not only is it something visible when they're not side by side, but it's also an unusually strong resemblance.

I think it has more to do with Sophie's perception of the elven world and how she views her peers than having any significance in terms of plot or worldbuilding. Having children so strongly reflect their parents doesn't really impact the battles against the Neverseen, planning to evade the council, etc.

What I mean is that it affects how Sophie sees herself there. Everyone else, all her friends that she's around, look very strongly like their parents, who are clearly elves. These adults definitely belong in this world, have been there for centuries to thousands of years, ingrained in the world. By looking like their parents, looking like these people who belong, in a way its a physical representation of how they are part of the elven world. They look like elves, though they're Sophie's age. It separates her from them, because she doesn't/didn't have someone she could point to and be like "this is who I look like, so that means I belong."

There's also the element of trying to keep characters clearly distinct as an author. Shannon limited herself with the way the world built itself, emphasizing the natural beauty above all. This means there's a very limited number of hair colors, hair styles, attire, etc. that she can give these characters. In the human world, you've got everything natural and then all the unnatural colors, combinations and patterns and everything to separate each other. People all dress different, torn clothes and fitted clothes and exposed and covered. The human world has so much more variety. So because Shannon is so limited--even further with the eye color thing--it would be more difficult to create completely unique looking characters. If she had all the parents look as they are, different as they can be, and then tried to make all the kids look unique from the adults and each other...that would be a lot harder to keep track of and more confusing.

So instead, she used repeats. Either she had the kids first or the adults first (probably the kids), and then just transferred over the features so that everyone remained as distinct from each other as possible. While the adults and the kids may look similar, the age difference creates enough dissimilarity that it's excusable as genetics.

It's possible that, as you suggested, this would canonically be explained away as elven genetics being stronger. They'd probably say something about how since there's so many fewer elves than humans, their genetics haven't gotten as diluted. Humans have been mixing with each other a lot more, having kids more often, being a larger population in general, and genetics becoming more and more muddled. Elves, on the other hand, have children less often and there are less of them in general, so not as many different backgrounds to draw from for each elven appearance.

that's personally how I've rationalized it! I could be wrong, but I also don't think it's an important enough aspect of the story for Shannon to ever try and explain it as thoroughly as I'd like--though I'd probably want her to be much more thorough than reasonable. And thanks for the compliments! I'm glad that at least some of what I say is cool, as I love to share them. My less frequent posting recently might seem like I don't, but I really do wish I could just answer all my asks as once because all of your ideas and questions are so cool!! I want to give each of them the attention they deserve, but I can only do so much.

it's an interesting observation, so thanks for bringing it to my attention!

#take me for example: my hair is dyed orange. my eyes are brown but have a ring of hazel-green in the light. my clothes are all black and #intentionally torn. my arms are covered in scabs from always picking at them #those are all very defining and more unique characteristics that Shannon doesn't have access to. because the elven world doesn't allow it #certainly makes it harder to differentiate characters #make them distinct #when so much is shared #especially when she seems to be unconsciously imitating human genetics #like the percentage of red heads #it's one of the very few hair colors she can use and yet. hardly anyone #there's only so many shades of brown she can describe #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #quil's queries #kotlc worldbuilding #be-sapphic-do-crime

okay, this is completely for lack of a better word but you are just so. friend shaped???? you are just someone who i want to just be like hello my friend, my friend that i am also a friend of, everyone look at my friend please appreciate my friend OKAY

I think you’re very Friend also

Yeah I don’t think we interact as much but I 100% feel the same way. If I knew you irl I’d parade you around and say “this is my friend. Hurt em and I will hurt you. Anyways” yeah idk if that came across as I attempted it to but anyways ily mwah 😘

#aesks #inbox #be-sapphic-do-crime #fox asks #autumn answers tm