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blake kathryn
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we're not kids anymore.
titsay
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taylor price
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dirt enthusiast
i don't do bad sauce passes
AnasAbdin
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
Product Placement
d e v o n
@theartofmadeline
Andulka
Show & Tell
Cosimo Galluzzi
TVSTRANGERTHINGS
trying on a metaphor
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@tiodolma
"I hope at last I may make you happy even if it is with my blood. But when one can be sacrificed for the many... why not two? or three? or ten? Little by little we will find reasons for sacrificing the many for the happiness of the many and we will think it was a bargain."
--Jules Michelet, French Revolution historian
-jack rackam (quote said by the Louis XVI character in the youtube video: The Pacifist who Killed 20,000 | The Lifes and Times of Robespierre)
can we talk about how funny it is that tennyson just decided that he shipped two different people to what was generally accepted as canon so he just. changed it. just changed the couple in his arthuriana texts. knew no one could stop him and went for it.
and he was right too for the record gareth/lynette is far superior
I love all med lit but nothing, not even the vulgate, holds up to the nuances of characterization in Malory
Le Morte d' Artur is a great and fun Arthurian Work and reading it is fine.
I do think the funniest thing about the BBC Merlin as a show is that in actual terms of the role of Merlin in Arthurian mythos he really has like 1 core important thing he does and that's help Uther conceive Arthur, so by moving him back to be the same age as Arthur the show cuts his like one actual mythological role in the story.
Broke: Arthur only liked Guinevere because she was attractive
Woke: Arthur only wanted Guinevere because Lancelot wanted her, and he wanted any part of Lancelot he could have
Bespoke: Arthur was Aroace and everyone thought Guinevere was beautiful, so he thought it made sense for the King to be with her. Plus, he needed a wife anyway. So he married her to go along with social convention rather than because he actually wanted her.
DEVA CASSEL AS ANGELICA SEDARA Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (2025)
If criminals don't get to have human rights, then the people in charge of deciding what a criminal is get to decide who is and is not human. Do you understand? Is this not blindingly obvious? Do you care?
Or do you assume you will always be "one of the good ones"?
“When Other is not only dehumanized but has been successfully converted into an ‘it’, deprived of humanhood, the stage is set for any type of direct violence, which is then blamed on the victim. Extermination becomes a psychologically possible duty.”
— Johan Galtung, Cultural Violence (Journal of Peace Research)
following weird horny furries who are into shit like pooltoys and transformation and stuff is enrichment. the vitamins and minerals of posting
once you get over your ass and realise you will never get some people and that’s ok you are basically immune to right wing fearmongering. otherkin? none of my fucking business
merlin who holds onto his loyalty to arthur because if he didn’t, then what would all of the deaths he has caused be for? merlin who has basically betrayed his kind, but no it’s okay, because the ends justify the means! merlin who is fucking terrified of himself. merlin who wants to run every time he’s depended on. who hears the words ‘destiny’ or ‘prophecy’ or ‘emrys’ or even ‘I’m scared’ and hesitates.
if he chose either heart or mind, if he could have stuck with a path, then maybe they would have been saved. kill morgana or care for her, not both. help mordred or kill him, not both. but his indecision was the death of everyone around him.
merlin with a lack of confidence so bad that everything he is anymore is just a persona, an archetype of a fool he has been trying to fill for ten years. he’s the most powerful sorcerer to ever walk the earth, but he’s so disconnected from the version of him that takes initiative, that acts from the heart, that stands up for what is right. he’s given so much of himself to these lies, shamed himself into keeping his magic secret even when it was better if he shared it, repressed who he truly was so much to the point where he doesn’t even know who he is anymore.
merlin who, after arthur dies, has to look at his hands, red with the blood of his kin, and realise just how badly he has fucked up. and then he has to look in the mirror and realise he doesn’t know who or what he is anymore.
Hello.
On the subject of AI, I have a confession to make: I use it. Not to write for me, but to help me check for inconsistencies, to brainstorm ideas, to write outlines, to give me a couple of lines when I've been stuck for hours, to be my beta reader, if you will. Generative AI is bad? Yes, but it also a useful tool if one isn't lazy. I don't ask: write me a story. I go with my story and ask: help me with continuity. Look, this paragraph is clunky, how do I make it better? The demonization of generative AI is fair, but to be honest, I also understand people who use it. Maybe they're afraid of writing themselves, maybe they're insecure and don't trust their prose. Maybe they have brilliannt ideas but they need help to make them become fics.
To me, this is very much connected to my last ask where I was talking about how we don't have enough mentors in fandom to support the influx of people entering it.
All of the things that you're asking AI to do used to be done by a beta reader (or more than one!). A fandom friend (or even a random stranger who volunteered) would read through your work and help you with those issues.
Betas are amazing. They can help with grammar and spelling. They can regionalize language. They can provide sensitivity reading if they're from a marginalized community that you're writing about and aren't a member of. They can track canon, help with research, even just be a sounding board to discuss ideas with.
And sometimes, they're just a cheer reader - someone reading your story and telling you how awesome it is because they love it just as much as you do.
I understand turning to AI if you 1) don't know beta readers exist or 2) don't know how to obtain one. The need for that kind of support doesn't go away just because you can't access it.
But for anyone out there who needs this kind of help and wants to avoid Gen AI, you can write a post on your blog, add it to an author's note, check out resources like @needabeta or - if the time of year is right and you have the funds - place a bid on beta reading services during @fandomtrumpshate
Beta readers are often involved in fandom events like big bangs and exchanges, and if anyone is looking to host such an event, it's a great way to get people involved who aren't writers or artists but would love to help out.
I get it, anon. We use the tools that are available to us. But here's another potential tool if you're interested in branching out?
Also, respectfully, part of the writing process IS creating the outlines, reworking clunky paragraphs, and throwing a couple of subpar lines into your draft just to keep it going when you feel stuck. Having AI do that for you IS having AI write your story.
And I get how frustrating those moments are, some of my fics didn't survive the initial outline process and some have been WIPs for a decade because I just don't quite have the right idea or energy to wrap them up.
But if you have a brilliant idea and ask AI to turn it into a story for you, you didn't write it! The robot did! Your personal grasp of prose doesn't improve, and the chance to process and learn from your own frustration is sacrificed. Moreover, the potential human connections you might gain from that fic and from the process of creating are diluted.
One of the coolest parts about fandom for me is getting to talk out ideas with other folks! To be inspired or solve a problem with a friend!
Seriously - our skills as writers improve through the effort, by buckling up for the hard parts where we feel stuck or insecure and choosing to be brave - by continuing to write and experiment anyway. We learn by doing!!!
I don't like the word lazy, but avoiding the harder, riskier parts of the writing process is actually a surefire way to increase anxiety and insecurity in the long term. I'm sympathetic to perfectionism, to the fear of rejection, but I beg you not to turn to AI to soothe that!
If you feel unable to write or share anything without AI helping you create it, that's a sign AI has taken a predatory role in your life.
When AI completely takes over a role that was meant to be filled by creative peers, it becomes harmful and ultimately isolating. Beta readers are a great resource, other writers who you can bounce ideas off of and bond with over the joy of creating will help you grow. Give yourself the grace and kindness to be an imperfect person who writes imperfect stories.
Merlin shouldn't have ever left Ealdor. For once, he has a friend that actually provides him some questions for self-reflection. Who actually challenges him and who he can't hide from.
I believe in reform and gradual improvement sure, but you can't reform something created with the specific goal of enacting violence against minorities, the most reform you can get out of them is either more efficient violence or more subtle violence, not a removal of the violence
Saying we can reform ICE is in effect the same as saying in 1939 that we can reform the Gestapo and Camps
NEVER HEAL indulge in self sabotage romaniticize self isolation ALWAYS QUIT reject your potential never break the cycle let the curse win
Helen Mirren in John Boorman's Excalibur. (1981)
