swim through the fires to stay in this world

There was a post going around tumblr that really got under my skin - it was a fairy accurate summary of the king and lionheart dynamic, but the line about not being able to find a example with a lady just***... triggered all my past experience of people dismissing het and femme-slash because [pick a square from your slash fangirl bingo card, pick any square].

*** I also want to note that the person I linked from tagged this post 'Kate/Clint' SO CLEARLY I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO THINKS THAT THIS DYNAMIC EXISTS WITH LADIES.

So, queen and lionheart dynamics. The examples that came to mind:

Lydia/Allison (Teen Wolf)
Sabriel/Touchstone (Sabriel, bolded because so much yes.)
Tremaine/Ilias (although that's more spy/lionheart)
Mulan/Aurora (Once Upon A Time)
Jane/Darcy (would be the super-fluffy version of this trope)
Any Evil Queen/Huntsman story would be the evil example of this trope
I'd accept a case for Hermione/Ron here.
I think a case could also be made for Cameron/John from TSCC.
Richard/Cara (LOTS)

I’m doing a selected Once Upon A Time In Wonderland re-watch (i.e. skipping around to interesting bits) with an eye towards Will and his interactions with Alice and Anastasia to clarify my ideas about what Will’s like in bed.

So, if you have any opinions about that, share.

Also, skipping over to a different pairing, I love Cyrus' expression the first time he sees Alice.

Navel-gazing fanfic questions gacked from musesfool:

Leitmotif of the year:

"Clint/Natasha, Stephanie Brown, and ships that involve a dude pining" is one answer. I almost feel like a more accurate one would be, "this are people I want to kiss. See them kiss."

What's the story that makes you happiest?

I'm really pleased with You Only Live Twice, both because I am so happy that Jason/Stephanie fanfic exists, and because I really enjoy that story.

My favorite story this year:

Couldn't Get That Boy To Kill Me (Natasha/Clint)

I love the prompt, the section of Natasha's history I was working with, what I ended up saying about Clint and Natasha, and just.... this went through several drafts and I think it shows (in a good way).

My 5 best stories this year:

This Is The Art Of Living With A Ticking Heart (Felicity/Oliver)
End Of The World News (Darcy/Steve)
Please Believe Me When I Say The Last Thing You Need Is Fixing (Stephanie Brown/Nick Gage, Barbara Gordon/Dick Grayson)
Couldn't Get That Boy To Kill Me (Natasha/Clint)
I'm Yours (Ghosts & All) (Natasha/Clint)

( ............ )

This post had made me DESPERATELY craving some good arranged marriage books/fanfic.

AND SPEAKING OF TRASHY ROMANCE, I just sneakily snagged a free book today. The SOLD moment came when it said something about the heroine being into her brother (who was raised apart from her) and there's something about a cosmetics company and being forced to work together? Further bulletins as events warrant.

In other smutty news, I just banged out 1,000 words of Knave/Alice. It was a madcap race to get through the plot threads I had to snip to facilitate the banging.

Can be please stop comparing every ship in the world to a Captain-Hook (OUAT) ship?

Please. My delicate sensibilities can't handle it.

ON ANOTHER NOTE, I would like to start off the new year by posting some smutty Alice/Will (Once Upon A Time In Wonderland) fanfic. Any suggestions for prompts?

I really love the staging for this scene with Alice, Knave and Alice'snot!father.



Alice and her not!father having this intense discussion and Will fixedly staring off into the distance to give them the illusion of privacy but CLEARLY ready to react at a moment's notice.

...but should I be watching OUAT: Wonderland? Tumblr might be suggesting that. Or do I just want to not even go there. I hear its doing terribly in the ratings and will probably be canceled, which is actually a plus in my book.

So, did Once actually commit to a lesbian relationship last Sunday? Or did Mulan say something that could have conceivably been followed by ‘no homo’?

And regardless, did it end with Aurora staying home and having heterosexual sex with Phillip and making babies?

I was just lamenting with backtothesea about the fact that I don’t have a television show that’s my fannish sweet spot.

Here is the way the television landscape lies:

Arrow: I watched four episodes, didn’t love it, may give it another try. One the one hand, the lead is really hot. On the other, they did an absolutely insulting job with Dinah Laurel Lance.

Elementary: this show is a gift. Such a gift, that the canon and people’s escatic tags on tumblr fulfill my entire fannish needs. …although I would never say no to more BDSM-y fanfics of Joan and Sherlock.

Game of Thrones: It’s hard for me to interact fannishly with this show the way I do others because I basically know what’s going to happen, so it’s hard for me to get super-invested. It takes a lot of the drama out. I’m hoping that next season, when we start to get to more narratives that diverge from the book and more storylines that I’m not spoiled for, I’ll get more invested. (It doesn’t help that I feel like only now, three seasons in, are we getting to the meat of the narrative.)

Nikita: I enjoy watching this, especially when I’m marathoning it, but I don’t have any unmet fannish needs. The perils of shipping canon and being a season and a half behind.

Once Upon A Time: still haven’t watched the last episode. Needless to say, I’m unlikely to be watching season three.

Teen Wolf: I love this show but LJ fandom is pretty non-existent, so my fannish experience is basically reblogging all the transformative fierce lady graphics.

Prospective TV for the 2013/14 season:

SHIELD
Sleepy Hollow
more Nikita?