#bell writes things

[ygrittebardots]

Hi! I hope you don’t mind me asking. I got the sudden urge to read Dulce et Decorum Est recently but I can’t find it anymore. Is it alright if I ask what happened to it?

😬😬 Y’all caught me. That took less time than I thought it would, to be honest.

I actually don’t mind answering this—my debut novel is being published at the end of the year and ahead of that, I made the decision to take down my fanfiction. I’m really proud of it and of my roots as an author within the fic community, and it wasn’t on the advice of my agent or publisher. I made the decision that I just didn’t want my early writing floating around on the internet for people to pick apart or point out similarities to my traditionally published work. Also, and this is where things get iffy, my book is completely original and I don’t want to get caught up in accusations of filing off the serial numbers, which has become a very real trend in recent years, simply because I used to write unrelated fanfic. So it’s just best for my own neurosis to close that chapter of my life. But thank you so much for having read and continued to revisit my work. It means the world to me.

[ygrittebardots]

I can’t watch killing eve without being violently reminded of the hp au where

after about a week petunia draws the line at flagrant child abuse

divorces vernon and takes baby dudley and harry

tracks down dumbledore - by way of remus, who she found when she was trying to find the best man from lily’s wedding, who she looked up in the phone book - and gives him a good dressing down 

(“one - you can’t just leave a baby outside overnight in october. two - a letter? really? I demand to know everything that happened.”) 

realizes the danger that voldemort (and dark wizards in general, really) pose to muggles

does a lot of soul searching and realizes that this isn’t a problem that’s going to go away by pretending it doesn’t exist

and if anyone’s good at cleaning up, it’s petunia evans

so she joins MI6’s secret wizard relations department

it’s small. thanks to the statute of secrecy it can only comprise of muggles who already know about magic because of family members, and even then not everyone’s going to be keen to join or really suited to the work 

against all odds, petunia ends up with the top job within a few years, because she’s Scary

she turns the department around from a glorified liaison office into a world-class intelligence agency, so that by the time harry enters hogwarts even cornelius fudge has a healthy fear of her

harry and dudley grow up respecting both the muggle and magical worlds in equal doses, but not nearly as much as they respect the shit out of petunia

[ygrittebardots]

What do you see as the main differences between book!jon and show!jon?

The most obvious difference is age. At the start of AGOT, Jon is 14, and while I believe he’s meant to be 17 in the pilot he’s played by 23-year-old Kit Harington who very much looks his own age. So even in the ways Jon’s character stays the same on paper, it feels different from book to screen because there’s nearly a decade’s difference in the person exhibiting the same behaviours. What’s written as early teen petulance and moodiness looks very different when it’s a young adult complaining about the unfairness of life.

So. The essence of who he is from the very start just looks incredibly different. Show!Jon feels like a man from the word go, just an incredibly young, moody, and internal one that has to learn to think outside himself for the greater good. Book!Jon is a boy who’s already had to grow up faster than most kids his age, and is then sent on a coming-of-age arc about recognizing his privilege and learning how to wield it for good.

Power and ambition – Both versions of Jon go to the Wall because he has these very clear leadership skills and a thirst to prove himself, but no other place in the world – as far as he can think of – that’ll allow him the opportunity to put them to use and rise up in the world. Book!Jon never really loses that, but show!Jon really lets go of that after his resurrection. Which, to be fair, hasn’t happened yet in the books so we can’t really know how that’ll pan out.

A few others:

Book!Jon is a sassy shit. “I’d love to see Ghost juggle,” is on a level with, “No need to call me ‘sir,’ professor.” Show!Jon is the quiet kid in the back of class who never says anything at all until that one time he actually murders Janos Slynt with, “You must not have been very good at your job.”

Book!Jon is logical, smart, and strategic, to the point that people have commented on it multiple times and he’s willing to fall out with his friends over what needs to be done. Show!Jon’s reputation as a warrior doesn’t come from his skill with strategy but swordsmanship.

Book!Jon – like the rest of his siblings – is a warg. Show!Jon is not.

Side note: A lot of things about Jon are just 100% funnier when he’s 14/15. Like being betrayed by his hormones and thinking he invented cunnilingus. With show!Jon it’s still sweet, just not as darkly funny.

Feel free to add anything I missed.

[ygrittebardots]

I keep thinking about the au where Sansa goes to dragonstone to negotiate instead of Jon, and it all works out so much better for the North.

sansa wouldn’t bend the knee not only because she doesn’t want to but because she doesn’t have the authority

she’d have to find a way to convince dany to join the fight against the undead using diplomacy

and while arya & bran were off joining cults during uni and jon studied battle command & stabbing things, sansa’s the who double majored in pre-law and poli-sci

which means she’d find a way to do it

and would immediately shut down any ideas about trying to get cersei on their side

which means the mission north of the wall never happens, viserion’s still around and very much not undead, and the wall is still standing

I also think that with the opportunity to meet on a more level playing field where neither of them felt particularly threatened by the other but still wanted something, sansa and dany would actually end up finding a lot of common ground and mutual respect

this leaves jon in the north to shore up and solidify his support amongst the northern lords

it also means he’s the one welcoming bran & arya back to winterfell

which means that since brienne definitely went south with sansa, it’s jon that arya goes up against in the sparring session that was promised

(this has no effect on the plot it just makes me happy)

it also means that littlefinger is running around winterfell trying to manipulate the jock!starks who aren’t nearly as subtle as sansa

the moment bran tells jon about how littlefinger betrayed ned, petyr’s losing his head

the man who passes the sentence swings the sword & jon beheaded janos slynt for way less it is known

I have no idea what’s even happening in season 8 at this point so I’m just gonna leave it there.

[ygrittebardots]

Daniel Handler aka Lemony Snicket is Jewish and has explicitly said that the Baudelaires are also Jewish. Klaus’ thirteenth birthday, therefore, marks his passage into manhood - or should have, if someone had bothered to throw him a bar mitzvah. Try not to think about the fact that his parents were probably in the middle of planning a legendary one. Unfortunately he’s orphaned and in jail with his sisters during this crucially symbolic birthday, and will have no more legal guardians for the duration of the series. From here on in, the Baudelaires are self-reliant. In this essay I will discuss

[ygrittebardots]

How about Madi for the headcanons?

1. It takes years for Madi to reconcile her mother’s version of the Guthries - masters, owners, thieves - with the memories she has of Eleanor - soft hands crowning Madi’s head with flowers, high pitched laughter and golden curls, her sister. She knows white men are not to be trusted, but there’s a dissonance for her between the concept and the individual. When she sees Eleanor for the first time in fifteen years, she finally thinks she understands. It’s not Eleanor’s fault, she’s just as much a product of her circumstances as Madi is, but she understands all the same what her mother’s spent a lifetime trying to tell her. 

2. Among other things she becomes a playwright, later in life. Under an assumed name, male and Christian and English and respectable, but it’s her words all the same. She learns quickly upon moving to Bristol that the English are far more receptive to revolution and subversive words when they think it’s coming from one of their own. 

3. Her other work in England concerns the network of spies and agents she builds, spread across the isles, all connecting back to the Spyglass. John settles into the role of tavern master and innkeeper with an ease that ceased to be astonishing years ago, and Madi plays the role of innkeeper’s wife, all the while spiriting goods and funds back to her mother and the Maroons under another false name, again male and Christian and English. And if half or so of these ‘goods’ happen to be escaped slaves from across Great Britain, no one seems to really notice.

4. She calls him Jesse - Yesse. Yes-si. - when they are alone. He laughs the first time, makes some airy comment about how he ought to have never told her, but doesn’t really protest. The Guthries had called her Mary. Her mother had been Alice. Her father Scott. She knows the importance of a name. She also knows that what is secret can never be taken from you, and for this reason she keeps his name between the two of them alone.

[ygrittebardots]

For shmi: there's the basic "she was 100% force sensitive", the "force baby shouldn't be your first conclusion when a slave woman says her child has no father", the "grandmother/midwife/wisewoman of the slave quarters." shmi is kind warmth from the sun, a cool breeze out of the desert, plants peeking out of the sand, steady and comforting. shmi is that one post from roachpatrol: kindness is the most radical thing you can do with your pain and your anger"

PRAIIIIISE be to that quote. shmi IS radical. she’s the one who made sure anakin knew his own worth in a society actively teaching him he has none. moreover, that everyone else has inherent worth as well and it’s imperative to be kind and work together.

Also

shmi: there’s no dadqui-gon: FORCE BABYshmi: do u accept constructive criticism

[ygrittebardots]

listen like I’m obsessed with the fact that shmi means ‘my name is’ and all that goes into my big feelings about the skywalkers when it comes to things like identity and autonomy and the fact that the most famous family in the galaxy started with a matriarch who probably created this grand last name for herself despite or perhaps because of the terrible cards she’d been dealt in life but

imagine the retroactive pain and agony all throughout the OT if her name had been leia