You're not going to like me after this. Cheers.

Fan entitlement, for the purposes of this post, refers to several practices, including but not limited to:

1. the expectation of fic, art, translation, or comic updates with no consideration for the creator


2. the assumption of a right to use fan art as one uses official work


3. the same as it relates to fan fiction


4. various misinterpretations of the phrase "give credit where credit is due"

In short, I'm referring to the assholes on the internet who think we, fan writers, artists, or other producers, exist to entertain them when, where, and how they want it, and reserve the right to use our hard work in any way they see fit. No, this is not directed only at icon makers who use fan art, but-- to be honest, they're the easiest to pick on, because fair use as it relates to fan art and artists/image creators is much murkier than the issue of plagiarism in fic or essay-related circles, or so it would seem from the outside. This does not relate to artists or writers who state clearly that they don't mind if their work is used, of course, nor does it apply to people who actually ask permission before they draw on a resource that isn't tagged expressly for use in other work.

cluegirl covers fans who expect fic/art to be tailored to their needs here; I clicked on the link hoping to see a wider discussion of entitled behavior and didn't get it, but that's okay - I was planning to bitch about this anyway. As a relatively obscure fic writer active only in small fandoms, I've never truly been subject to the phenomenon of readers demanding updates like they own the story, but occasionally I'll get a review or comment asking me when I'm going to get off my ass and write something because I'm taking too long. If you're one of the people who seriously reviews with messages like that, please click on the link and try to remember that we're not doing this to entertain you, and only you - so stop being obnoxious.

Now, to the topic at hand. :D

I'm astounded - honestly - at the assumption that, because a fic or work of art has been created and posted on the internet, it is free for you (general "you") to use in any way you see fit. Where did you get that idea? Uploading a fic to an archive is not an invitation to lift entire passages of writing, or plot, for use in your own story. Uploading artwork and sharing it with the fandom is not an invitation to take the piece, chop it up, slap on some new effects, and call it your own. The know-how required to use someone else's creative work is not equal to the skill necessary to produce that work from scratch. You do not deserve to demand credit for modifying someone else's creation.

And-- before you hit the comment link and tell me that using fan art is the same as using official artwork, or that the fan artist has no right to demand acknowledgment for their work, please take a look at your icon post and tell me this: are you demanding credit for your icons, or telling people that "textless icons are not bases" and therefore they had better not modify your work?

I hope you're making the same mental comparison I am. If not, think - really hard. You're producing derivative work - two times over, in the cases where you use fan art to create your icons. What gives you the right to demand credit when the original creators and fan artists aren't allowed that luxury? That's extremely rude to the artist who provided you (probably unknowingly) with material for your graphic design work, when they had no obligation to share that art with you in the first place.

There's a distinction between official and fan art that I think a lot of people who justify their iconning practices miss: that is, the official artwork released for a game, anime, or manga is universally acknowledged as a) "official," and b) as created by one person, or a specific group of people. Even if we don't know which of the three art designers drew a particular picture, we are mentally able to assign proper credit to one of them. Fan art, on the other hand, does not come with that fame, or popular assurance, except in rare cases - for instance, most fans of Fire Emblem have heard of Hanakago, and recognize the artist's work. However, the artist at Sapphire Forest, whose work has also appeared in icons all over the place, doesn't have the same kind of notoriety, and so people who snag those icons aren't mentally assigning any credit to that artist as they would for the official artwork, or someone well-known.

Not being official work doesn't lessen the value of fan art, especially if you assign value to it by using it in further derivative work. The very least you can do, if you don't have the courtesy to ask the artist for use of their work personally, is to credit them where everyone can see it - meaning, not on a list of resources buried in the farthest reach of your journal, but on the page in which you display those icons - and ask that people who use the icon to also credit the original artist.

I've noticed the majority of artists ripped off for icons are Japanese. This is another rant entirely, so I'll address it in short: on almost every Japanese art site is a comment somewhere in English asking visitors not to use material without permission. It has been such a problem in the past that Japanese artists went out of their way to create The OFP: Online Fanart Protection in which they make it clear - also in English - how they feel about unauthorized use of their work. (I would link, but it's coming up as a malicious software site on my computer, so it'll have to wait.) Here are a few examples:

+ this from Lunatic Gate
+ this from Yellowpart

These days, my own fannish participation is almost exclusively in the realm of fan fiction, which unfortunately is not immune to this problem - but the solution is much easier. When someone rips your fic wholesale and claims credit for it, you nail them with a plagiarism accusation, and they disappear. Black and white, cut and dry. In cases where the offending story isn't stolen, but only inspired by the original, the level of offense is variable according to the writers involved. This happened to me recently; there was also a highly public and wanky explosion in the Hikaru no Go fandom over fics that, in the opinion of two authors, were just borrowing from their own work too much.

Every time this happens in fic circles there's an uproar. I'm at a loss to explain why this isn't also true regarding fan art and icons. I know the Japanese artists care; I've seen so many of my favorite sites disappear over the years because of this issue, and they make it clear they're tired of being ripped off. Is the standard somehow different on, say, Deviant Art? I don't see much English-fandom artwork being used this way.

The bottom line is, Hanakago isn't drawing and posting fan art so they can be your pretty icon resource. It isn't the same as using someone's textures or bases - those are offered for public use (with the stipulation you credit the creator, usually) with the knowledge their work will be used for this purpose.

Why don't fan artists deserve the same respect the iconists demand? The hypocrisy of this practice blows my mind.

asdjagsdkfjhl FSN movie ad. Damn, that makes me excited.

Hi! I need to procrastinate from my exchange fics some more. :D I will reply to more comments later, but that takes a bit more brain power than what I'm going to say here - and now that I've said that, you should leave.

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So, I'm about two thirds through Heaven's Feel, and think I can honestly say that Unlimited Blade Works is my favorite route in terms of both story/plot and characterization, despite the sad lack of Ilya scenes. Her death in UBW tempered my fondness for Gilgamesh, but other than that, the storyline is made of pure awesome.

HF, on the other hand, makes me like Sakura a lot less than before. It sounds strange to say she's a repulsive character, but even knowing her history and the style of "training" Zouken put her through, this glimpse into her thought process shows she's corrupted in ways I can't seem to ignore. Sakura is the type of character that harbors deep resentment and thoughts that aren't generally acceptable to normal society - for example, her wish that Shirou would get hurt so he wouldn't be able to leave the house - but while it's human to have these thoughts, Sakura isn't made more sympathetic by confessing them to herself. The game depicts her as thoroughly ashamed of everything she wants or thinks, usually about things society would want us to be ashamed of (sex outside of marriage, wishing harm on someone), but that shame is exactly what makes her impure - because she doesn't try to resist. She doesn't try to change.

On one hand, she was taught not to rebel against the lessons her family instilled in her - I understand that. But she doesn't try to improve herself at all. She says, does, or thinks something bad, then berates or punishes herself later, but doesn't try to stop herself from doing so the next time, even when she knows she'll feel bad about it later. Sakura is thoroughly messed up, yes - to the point that she's utterly unlikable to me. She represents an extreme stereotype beyond that, which I also dislike.

Gilgamesh doesn't inspire the same loathing because, unlike Sakura, he's an unrepentant bastard and glories in his own corruption. This doesn't make him likable, but one can say his character is pure - i.e. he lacks honor, but also doesn't try to hide his dissolute nature behind a mask of kindness. Perhaps it's also arguable that being drenched in the contents of the Holy Grail is the source of some of his er, personality flaws, but from the way Saber talks about him, he was an asshole even before the curse hit him.

That said... unfortunately, I have a lot less to say about things I like in HF - mainly the larger roles Ilya and Rider are given, both of whom I really like. Shirou treated Saber more like a servant in this route, which I certainly appreciated, but I can't comment for real on how much he's improved until I've seen the end of this route. Kotomine is more likable this time around as well, though I don't know I'd go so far as saying I do like him - only that he's more interesting, and the scene in the Chinese restaurant was made of Win and Awesome.

In short, I guess, what was revealed about Sakura has tainted my view of her character, and the jury's out on whether I'll be able to ignore it in the future or not. Also, I haven't finished HF yet - it might change my mind. You never know.

Apparently the option to reply to reviews at FF.Net is somewhat recent history (compared to the life of the site, that is). Being fairly new as an author on this site, I really can't remember a time before that option existed, and before I registered, I never left reviews, so this may be influencing my perception, but I wonder - is it just me, or does the existence of a system that allows you to respond to your reviewers turn it into an obligation?

Over the years I've posted fan fiction in four types of venue: the older webpage archive (eg. here), the mailing list, the message board, and Livejournal. Of these options, only the webpage lacks an automatic reply function, but back in the day people put in the effort to click on your email address to tell you when they fell in love with your story, and email also presents an easy/automatic way to reply. I resisted registering at FF.Net for reasons I can't remember, so I've never presented my work in a medium that doesn't allow conversation between the author and reviewers. As a result, I feel that every comment I receive deserves a "thank you" at the very least to acknowledge the effort made to review and show my appreciation - because I do appreciate most responses, even if they're only a few words long. I consider it an obligation, but without the negative connotation of the word.

Now, at first, I didn't reply to reviews on FF.Net because it requires me to log in, and I'm not constantly browsing the site or checking my stats, which makes that an extra step and therefore inconvenient. After leaving reviews to stories and getting no response, however, I changed my habits and started replying to people. While the lack of response may not be negative - as in my own case - I found that it discouraged me from reviewing stories by those authors again because their silence gave the impression they didn't care, or (more illogically) that they took offense to something I said or happened to dislike me personally for reasons unknown. These are unfair assumptions to make, but if you consider a review your way of speaking to the author, or showing sincere appreciation for something you consider well-done, then the lack of response becomes a kind of rejection. Nobody likes being rejected, especially when they're going out of their way to be nice or encouraging.

To be fair, I'm paranoid and timid in fandom, generally; I have a history to look back on in which people really did hate me by reputation alone, at times, and without a position of so-called authority to fall back on - moderator status at a given community, BNF status in a fandom - I'm reluctant to put myself out in the first place. However, I don't think my thought process up above is that strange. Several of my friends avoid commenting on journals or stories written by people they don't know well, or consider to be part of a different circle, and I think the same kind of fear or paranoia drives that insecurity. You want to be nice, but you don't want to be rejected - and silence is rejection. This is why posting a story in any medium - FF.Net, one's journal, a message board - comes with the expectation of response, and why zero reviews (or just one) is so discouraging, especially if the number of page views far exceeds the number of reviews or favorites.

In any case - I started thinking about this when someone asked me why I hadn't added so-and-so to my Friends List here. My answer was along the lines above: that I'd reviewed several of her stories, received no response, and figured she wasn't interested in talking to me. Is that fair? Maybe not. But that's the impression she gave me with her silence, and since I have no indication she thinks differently, I'm reluctant to reach out to her in any other medium, nor am I willing to review more of her stories, though I read and enjoy them.

How do you look at the review and reply functions on FF.net, versus the comment system on Livejournal, or anywhere else you happen to post? Do you consider replying an obligation, or an opportunity - or unnecessary?

First, a lengthy quote (from here) to set the tone:

[Scene: Zeboim ruins]

Anyway, Elly flipping out has the nice bonus that she suddenly knows how all the computer equipment works, and she starts hitting buttons! This causes a large glass tube to rise up out of the floor, and then a young girl to appear within it.

This narration would make the obvious comparison to a troll doll, but everyone has made the obvious comparison to a troll doll, so let's just all agree that she looks like a troll doll and move on.

[...]

Shitan: This girl appears to be an artificial lifeform created inside the reactor. She was probably assembled in the reactor by using that series in the database in the control room... which means she's...

Stone: Our MacGuffin! [...] I'll just be taking that nanomachine colony with me, thank you!

During the drive to SoCal for Thanksgiving, acebullet and I started talking about Xenogears and its flaws, most notably - for this entry, anyway - characters who appear to serve no real purpose in the actual game: Emeralda and Rico. Let's ignore for the moment that one could argue this describes every player character but Fei, Shitan, and Elly, who are essential to the storyline on the first disc. I quoted the above because in the resulting discussion, Zach said the same thing about Emeralda: she's the MacGuffin, and otherwise insignificant.

On one hand, I have to protest, because she is involved in the Fei/Elly storyline, but... it's also true that the cell samples Krelian took from Emeralda - her "purpose" for appearing in the game - could have been taken from some bit of nanotechnology that wasn't humanoid and obsessed with Fei. Hell, Krelian could have just lifted more information from one of Kim's essays to accomplish his goal, in theory. Likewise, Kim and Elly could have died defending each other instead of their nanomachine daughter, as they did in every other incarnation.

All I can say in Emeralda's defense, reasonably, is that she's present to replace Elly as your ether user for gameplay purposes once you reach the second disc - not that there's much action on the second disc to begin with. She has a reason for existing, but her place in the storyline isn't absolutely essential as the other three are. She isn't even Animus. The storyline abandons Emeralda after you fight her at the Gate so far as I recall and only revisits her if you decide to run back down to Zeboim to look for treasure and happen to have her in your battle party. [edit: wait, was she part of the solution to the Wels problem on the second disc? Like I can remember these things. Emeralda's fate is to be society's petri dish.]

Anyway, she, like Rico, could be a casualty of the design process. So many things were. Sometimes I'm surprised we didn't all drop the game at Kislev and never pick it up again. :P

All that said, I like Emeralda, and do not object to her presence in-game, nor do I think she's purposeless; just that she could have a) been better developed, and b) been introduced with a little more... ah, set up? I don't know. I never thought about it, to be honest, but I also didn't think Xenogears was confusing - and I'm not sure if that's a mark in my favor or not, considering what people think of the game's execution. :P

I'm completely ignoring Rico in this entry - just like the game! :D But we already know he was screwed by the development process. Honestly, if they'd left Kislev out of the game completely, it would be better - not because Kislev isn't worth exploring, but because they didn't complete what they were trying to do there. Alas, axing it would have been extra work and time too.

Ha ha ha, now I've just offended every Emeralda and Rico fan there is, haven't I? But I have a reputation for doing that sort of thing.

Only one or two people on the list even care about FE1/3/11. It's kind of sad, but this is just a bunch of rambling anyway. I haven't spent that much time thinking about the game, but started reading the Mystery of the Emblem script for more on Macedon, and this mess is the result. I did find what I was looking for, though.

Reading the FE3 translation is slowly giving me a better understanding of FE11, though I see what people mean about Marth's characterization changing drastically in the remake - he's so cute and naive in FE3, and this is after the War of Darkness. Seriously, how do you maintain that kind of optimism after Macedon and Grust? And people are just handing their power to him as he sweeps the land toward Archanea. This is hard to believe.

(Damn you, localization teams. Why do there have to be four different versions of the same name? I bet I'm spelling these differently every time I type them.)

Speaking of which, Grust and Macedon have the worst locations in relation to Dolhr. I'd be afraid to oppose Medeus too if he were sitting only two hundred leagues away and blocking my access to the rest of the continent. If the plan Michalis came up with involved hitting Dolhr from two sides at once, well, that's pretty smart, and probably the only way he can oppose them without getting his ass handed to him. It would've been smarter to find a way to ally with Altea, though, once it became clear Marth was going to rescue his country. He's proven his power by then, hasn't he? Camus is strong, but... >_> Actually, Altea and Gra are worse off than Grust, according to the FE3 map, so maybe Camus doesn't have an excuse. In fact, he deserves to be smacked. If Lawrence can side against the king for the betterment of his country when he no doubt has served longer, the story Camus gives you is just pride. Or maybe he wanted to punish himself. And yet again, he turns her down in favor of country, hahahaha poor Nyna.

Shadow Dragon doesn't mention the Grustian king's illness at all to my memory. Maybe I forgot about it? On the other hand, depriving me of that bit of knowledge is all that makes Camus's behavior remotely sensible, though... it's pretty much a given that Sirius is Camus, isn't it? With that in mind, maybe his loyalty wasn't to the king, but to the children, in which case his decision to stay with Grust is a little more understandable. His dedication is admirable, but considering how impractical it is to continue fighting when he could do more for his country by surrendering, it comes off as very unreasonable.

Well anyway, the Archanean characters still interest me somewhat, just because they're all cursed. I don't care about Hardin and Nyna, but Midia's rebellion could be an interesting subject to explore. Nyna's decision to leave just blows me away, and I know Archanea welcomed Marth when he marched in, but she's their princess - the one they wept and mourned for in the last game, etc. etc., and now she just disappears? I mean-- okay, she's had a very bad decade, and I can understand why she would want to get away. I guess if she's cursed she might be doing the country a favor, but come on.

I assume she runs off with "Sirius." It's the most likely explanation.

Hm. Relations between Nyna and Hardin could be interesting after the emblem is given away. Considering my own version of her story with Camus, I'd imagine Hardin was very dissatisfied with her to begin with. :D

.

Anyway. Most importantly - what the hell is this supposed to mean?

Grunia maiden Malliesia
After the war she vanished without a trace, much to Marth’s worry. Perhaps she has already become a bad girl...

Like, what, selling herself into prostitution? What are you trying to tell me, FE3?

This is not meant to be an argument about the roles female characters play in the Fire Emblem games, so much as a visual analysis of the character distribution between traditionally male and female classes. For the purpose of this post, "traditionally male classes" refer to warrior and heavy armor classes such as knights, soldiers, swordsmen; "traditionally female classes" refer to magic-based classes such as clerics and mages of various types.

Fire Emblem also gives us female-only classes (the pegasus knight and the dancer) which appear to be based on traditional fantasy gender roles - i.e. dancing entertainers are usually women, and pegusi appear to be modeled on the example of the unicorn; only female characters may ride pegusi, for whatever reason, though there is no indication of purity as a requirement to associating them, as there is with unicorns. The original mythology, as far as I know, does not distinguish between male and female riders.

There may be flaws in my separation of the pegasus class from the other warrior classes. While they're heavy weapon users, and promote to the dragon knight by default in earlier games (which is not a female-only class) I don't think the all-female designation of pegasus riders can be ignored. Also, games six to eight feature dragon characters that are all female, and all children but one (Idoun). As such I gave them a separate classification, and I'm not sure where on the spectrum they fit. While they all have the potential to be powerful, they're also depicted as victims and innocents, not as warriors.

This only covers characters in games six to eleven, and does not take personality into example - only the blank template. It does not take the ratio of male to female characters in any given game into account. It also assumes you're familiar with observations and complaints regarding female characters in fantasy being relegated to these very roles - mages, clerics, or otherwise vulnerable types of characters.

Female characters on the opposing side have also been listed.


( Tables for Sword of Seals all the way to Shadow Dragon. )


In short, female characters in those classes considered "feminine" by fantasy standards or FE standards specifically - so, magic classes and pegusi - outnumber their counterparts in "masculine" classes in Shadow Dragon, Sacred Stones, Blazing Sword, and Sword of Seals, while the Tellius games balance the ratio and, in fact, present the player with more women in warrior classes than any other game on the list when one takes the laguz into account.

Now, if the pegasus knights are considered warriors, without the female-only nature of the class being taken into account, then the balance tips in the other direction. The distribution of female characters between the types of classes appears to be fair, though each game has different canon requirements of women - Sword of Seals, for instance, makes a point of mentioning Cecilia was not welcome among the higher ranks of the Etrurian military because of her gender, and Blazing Sword reveals that the Lorca tribe would not follow Lyn for the same reason.

According to the games, the existence of female knights and warriors is the exception, not the rule. Practically speaking, we're probably given so many female characters of both types so players of both genders have something to relate to, but the story almost always surrounds the efforts of a male protagonist and a male antagonist, even if women number among the enemy. Ashera (FE10) is the only female "last boss" that stands on her own; Idoun (FE6) is the finale after Jahn and Zephiel, both of whom are more difficult and arguably more important to the storyline, which is proven by the basic ending that takes place after one defeats King Zephiel. Special requirements must be met to reach Idoun, and as mentioned above, Jahn is the real challenge - and he is also the one responsible for Idoun's behavior, which further negates her role as an antagonist.

To insist female characters are treated one way or another just by comparing their character classes would be useless, when the writing does enough to discriminate on its own, either by accident or design. Since the Fire Emblem games are in general based on historical fantasy (mostly medieval, but sometimes other, as in Sacae), the difference in gender roles is to be expected.

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Originally the purpose of this entry was different, but I think it's impossible to argue that FE doesn't give us any strong female characters, in terms of either character class or storyline. Lilina, despite her timid appearance and behavior, is quite strong. Lyn is strong. Sanaki, Micaiah, and Elincia are strong characters and also in positions of authority. This is true of the previous two characters as well.

So really, I'd just like to state that I'm not making this entry because I'm angry about something, or trying to prove a point. It just happened to interest me, and kept popping up when I was trying to think about other things.

Anyway, as per usual, there's probably a major flaw in my reasoning somewhere.

Original
- Youth Project: Memories of a Young Magician (draft 3; myth/fantasy; complete; + 1533 words this month, 5525 total)
- Youth Project: We Are Not Egypt (draft 4; myth/fantasy; complete; 6720 words)
- Empress Project: Star Home (draft 2; myth/sf; incomplete; 7462 words)
- Regency Paintings (draft 1; surreal/contemporary; incomplete; 919 words)


Fire Emblem 9/10
- Haunted (Sephiran/Zelgius - + 3362 words, 4702 total)
- The Truth Can't Be Burned (Sephiran, Sanaki - 883 words)
- Libation (Sephiran/Zelgius - 1772 words)
- Call it Politics (Lehran/Sanaki - 1140 words)
- Halfway to Darkness (Sephiran, Ashera - 1340 words)
- Below the Waters (Sephiran, Sanaki - 623 words)
- Cymbeline (Sanaki, Sephiran - 1480 words)


Fire Emblem 6
- A Higher Calling (Guinevere, Miledy - 1164 words)
- A Rare Smile (Percival/Elphin - 825 words)
- Fate is the Enemy (Percival, Elphin - 966 words)


Fire Emblem 7
- Top of the Morning (Lyn, Kent - 661 words)
- The Land of Legends (Pent/Louise - 6088 words)


Fire Emblem 8
- Unadorned (Seth, Eirika - 823 words)


Saiunkoku
- Desert of Letters (Reishin, Kurou - 982 words)
- Beauty on a Winter Morning (Juusanhime, Shuurei - 3013 words)


Suikoden
- Not Without Strategic Value (Chris, Percival - 798 words)


Valkyrie Profile
- A Matter of Time (Alicia, Silmeria - 961 words)


Total word count: 51,053 (includes a few longer projects not listed here)


Reading suffered a lot this month. I could blame it on Nanowrimo, but the real problem was that Elantris started out really slowly and made me drag my feet, and Attending Daedalus was somewhat heavy reading after such a long break from reading essays on literature. Also, asking myself to average ten books a month when I spend most of my time writing is probably too much. October was an exception, considering all that happened. No wonder I blazed through my reading list.

Many of the fanfic projects up there are from the list of warm-ups everyone gave me (which needs to be updated, whoops), or lonely prompts over at comment_fic. Several were written for Sprink Kink, also. I have a few personal favorites, but otherwise they're all pretty sad. :P

So! Those warm up requests will extend to Christmas.

Saiunkoku, First Season: Episode 15 (4:30)
(Context: they just discussed the harassment Shuurei has to put up with as a female official - cleaning bathrooms, etc., and Reishin declared he wouldn't hesitate to abandon the emperor if he proved unable to fix the problems he caused with his bid to let women take the Civil Service Exam.)

Ryuuki: We actually... hold a great deal of love for you.

Reishin: It's about a hundred years too early for me to welcome you to my bed.

HOW DID I MISS THIS THE FIRST TIME AROUND? XDDDDDDD Oh man, Reishin has subtext with freakin' everybody. XD Damn, why couldn't I have seen this before I commented with my Secret Santa request? This would have been PERFECT!

Aside from the LOL factor, it's-- well no, everything involving Reishin has some kind of lulzy undertone. In this case, he went on about how he can't stand people who are lazy, spoiled, stupid, and given every advantage by virtue of money or birth, but well, he's basically describing himself, isn't he? Except for the 'stupid' remark. XD Though honestly, for all we hear about Reishin's supposed genius, he doesn't do anything impressive, and in fact misses a lot of clues and screws his own career over because he has no idea how to handle his own emotions, much less those of others.

Ah, the plight of the genius, right?

Totally unrelated: Kouchou is fucking awesome. I forgot how amazing she is. Give the woman a sword and she'll win a war with one hand tied behind her back. I have to find screencaps of her and make some kind of icon.

Before I do that, I should probably find a way to install Adobe Gamma. Go to hell, Photoshop.

Potatoes: do you peel them, or leave the peels on?

(If you don't like potatoes heretic I guess you won't be answering.)

Personally, I like potato peels when they're in something - on their own they're bland, possibly taste like dirt, and so on, although a nicely crisped peel caked with salt and spices of your choice can still be good, but more because of the spices than any virtue of the peel itself. My mother and grandmother insist that they're healthy, have vitamins, blah blah. Since I leave them on when I cook, I just smile, nod, and go on my merry way.

Come to think of it, this describes my relationship with most of my extended family members.

So anyway, this year's mashed potatoes had peels in them, and that was tasty, and added interesting texture. This morning saw some delicious fried potato cakes, so crispy on the outside, so soft on the inside, that it made me wonder why I don't make mashed potatoes at other times of the year, just for this.

Answer: it's kind of messy and a pain in the ass. Oh well.

Anyway, I'm told sweet potatoes are ten times more nutritious than the starchier varieties, which is good since I like them. Their peels are tough and just as tasteless, though. I have a recipe for "temple style" tempura pancakes that uses various root vegetables and, of all things, yam peels to make up the pancake. That's interesting to me. I'm going to try it. Washoku hasn't failed me yet. Her miso-broiled salmon recipe has made me love fish night, despite the unfortunate fact I'm doing most of the work for that dish.

Also, my early gift to myself for Nanowrimo (so I'd better finish, dammit) was a holiday issue of Bon Apetit, which has a recipe for fried sweet potato and peels, and it looks really good. I'll have to try it.


I need a 'useless post' tag.

I'm looking at my leftover 30_kisses prompts and thinking it's really, truly time to finish this challenge. It'll be the last time I do anything with thirty prompts for real, too, because I think that's too many. It encourages me to write the same old thing about the same old characters, and while that hits all of my happy buttons - usually - it doesn't leave much creative juice for other characters I want to explore (Rafiel, Nailah, Minerva, Ephraim, Ismaire), and it gets me into the habit of writing formulaic romance, which I hate. You wouldn't believe it by looking at my so-called body of work, but it's true. I LIKE GEN. Writing thirty fics about Lehran and Sanaki will not make the pairing more popular, nor will it necessarily satisfy me as a fan, since I have to write all of the material for it. It's more fun to read what other people write.

(Note that other people have allowed themselves to be bribed into writing Lehran/Sanaki fic. I'm generalizing.)

This brings me back to a review I got for Call of the Heron expressing a preference for romance in the background (as it was in Call), as opposed to repetitive pairing fic, and that commenter did have a point - Thirty Kisses fic, for instance, requires a kiss in every entry, and this leads to that kiss being the focus of each story, even though the rules state you can shove it into the background. That's not why you join the challenge; you join to make your favorite characters kiss. It's not rocket science. However, thirty stories or entries is a lot of work. I write really fast compared to most fans I know, and it has taken me a year to whittle the list down to what, seven remaining?

That's a year of harping on a single pairing. You can be the judge of how many good entries have come out of it, as I'm biased in both directions. As for originality? That can be determined by a few tiny summaries: ( Cut for that. )

In a sense, Elysium and the post-game scenarios are all the same thing - Sanaki gets older to soothe my conscience, stuff happens, and then they get together. The end. As an AU Elysium offers the characters more flexibility in how and when these things happen, but they're basically the same thing with a different context.

All of this babbling is to say that I think writing for Thirty Kisses - and thirty challenges in general when they force you to make character claims - is encouraging me to be lazy with my story concepts and entrenching my so-called muse in a single tiny groove. It's doing this by forming a habit - writing Lehran/Sanaki for fun and profit - that I didn't deviate from at first because it was shiny, new, and fun, and now can't deviate from because it's all my "muse" thinks about and feels motivated to write. Obviously I can make myself switch gears, but when you love your comfortable little niche that's hard. In another fandom with a more popular pairing, this would be reinforced by reader response and the general popularity of the fics - Sesshomaru/Kagome fic (Inu Yasha), for example, always serves me well when I want feedback.

I think the closed challenge/theme challenge with pairing claims is more to blame for this lack of creativity than pairing fic in general, although I wonder if those don't encourage us to be repetitive in a different way - this time with story structure or plotting, instead of character choice. It isn't really the fault of the challenge, of course, since nobody makes us stake a claim and write thirty fics for it.

What is it about pairing fic and romance? Why is it so attractive to read and write? I, for one, am not lacking in the real life equivalent, nor am I dissatisfied with my marriage or any crap like that, so isn't it a little strange?

Well, anyway. I wonder what I should do about this, besides trying to write something different. I feel like I've gotten lazy - or that I haven't improved, or have been slow to improve, but it's hard to gauge my own progress.