If Countries Established a Minimum Household Income Before Allowing People to Have Children (Supposedly We Could Greatly Reduce Poverty)

Saw this on Tumblr and while it may be technically true, in order for that not to lead to extreme fascist control, we’d have to give them the option of birth control first, or make it readily available somehow, to the impoverished. Otherwise, what? They force women to have abortions like in Perfect Ruin? Or forcibly sterilize you like what happened to Black Widow? They repossess the kid*? They fine you like in Terra Nova? What?



*Matilda reference

Prythian Lies East of the Sun and West of the Moon

Yeah, but there’s no reason not to think the B&B themes carried over into the second book, considering that ACOTAR had more than one fairy tale threading through it, so why couldn’t ACOMAF have more than one myth/legend/folkloric thingy in it too? In ACOTAR, not only do we have B&B, but we have “The Ballad of Tam Lin,” where a knight is kidnapped by a faerie queen and his lady-love has to go to the faeries and complete several trials in order to win him back.

Also, the B&B aspects of ACOTAR were heavily influenced by East of the Sun, West of the Moon - in fact, it’s far more similar to EotS/WotM than B&B, because in EotS/WotM, the beast-character is stolen from the main character, his awesome magical house-mansion is destroyed, and the the girl has to travel all over the world to where the evil magical queen is holding the dude prisoner - and then she has to accomplish several tasks set by the queen, while doing housework and getting help from a double agent, all while the prince-dude is pretending he doesn’t know her (in some versions it’s because he’s under a spell, in other versions it’s to protect her).

The only thing really missing from this is the MC getting help from the Four Winds, except that Feyre gets help from Nesta, Rhys, Lucien, and…the old lady fae maid…Ailis? We’ll say Ailis, all of whom could count as the Winds. Nesta is fiery and sharp-tempered? Southern Wind. Lucien is all warm and kind of friendly after being chilly and dickish? West Wind. Ailis is demure and sweet? East Wind. Rhysand is a bad@$$ mofo and the most powerful dude in Prythian? North Wind.

The other big thing? Although Tamlin becomes a bigger douche is ACOMAF, he is much nicer than most modern interpretations of the Beast in B&B usually are (thanks to Disney) in ACOTAR. But in EotS/WotM, the beast-dude isn’t much of a douche except when his beasty nature gets the better of him. Tamlin acts more like the Bear King/Beast King in EotS/WotM in ACOTAR and more like Gaston in ACOMAF.

So while SJM says ACOTAR is straight up B&B, it’s not. It’s mostly EotS/WotM with a huge side of The Ballad of Tam Lin (I mean, dude, even the name is the same) with some thematic elements of B&B that don’t really pop up until the EotS/WotM and Ballad of Tam aspects get shunted to the side in ACOMAF, and then we’re full on double-playe of B&B and H&P.

Not Always and Not Until the End - The Defining Quote of Harry Potter

Quote wasn’t creepy. The quote was sad and awful but ridiculously fitting. Especially since the context was more of “I will always be unhappy for the rest of my life because of the horrible things I did” versus the “I still love Lily” because yeah, he loved Lily, but the fact that his Patronus is still a doe means that he’s never had a good thing happen to him that didn’t involve her - all of the memories he uses to fuel that Patronus are of her.

Which is really sad but also kind of fitting. Like, he did it to himself…you know? Yeah, it’s sad that he’s miserable and stuff but it’s his own fault (doubly so because it seems like he was never nice to any of the teachers or anything so he has like, absolutely no friends even now) and he knows it’s his own fault which makes it so much worse and even when he’s conjuring a creature that’s supposed to represent pure joy he’s reminded of how he f***ed up his own life and ruined everything in a way that could never, ever be fixed.

And the whole point of HP really (the series) is that everything is f***ed up in ways that have yet to be fixed (Slytherins still “evil,” the Ministry really not cleaned up, nothing major has happened to fix all the issues with the government; like yeah, Wizard Hitler be dead, but what about Wizard Mengela? Wizard Himmler? And all the other Wizard Nazis who escaped prison?) or can’t ever be fixed (Lupin/Tonks, Fred, Dobby, Collin). 

And Cursed Child didn’t really help and Fantastic Beasts is set way back before that so basically, yeah, Wizard Hitler is dead but the Nazis are still in power and yet apparently “all was well,” or as well as could be expected, which is about as well as “my ex-friend who’s the only person I ever loved and who ever loved me not only married the guy who tortured me for years, but I ruined it all by getting her and him killed, I’ve realized what a dick I was but it’s too late, so I’mma try to help fight the evil I’ve created…and then f*** it all up again because Dumbledore, but hey, if I hadn’t been an ass, this wouldn’t have happened…oh, and now I’ve died the same death as my childhood enemies. Ergh, blegh.”

And then we just…start the series all over again. Infant being dropped off on a doorstep in the middle of the night by a decrepit old sociopath, dead parents, blown up house, abusive guardians, and a talking snake, and somehow we expect it not to end with Harry being betrayed by a decrepit old sociopath, a dead Wizard Hitler and dead Hog-baes, abandoned abusive fam, and a hacked up snake.

After all this time, do we still keep coming back to Hogwarts hoping McG takes that baby and pops it off to someone else? Hoping somehow it’ll be less painful? Always. And we always, always, always get stabbed in the heart with Winky’s alcoholism, Sirius blasted through the mirror, Draco blackmailed into trying to kill Dumbledick, Ron abandoning Hermione and Harry because Horcrux, Dobby dying to save Harry and company, Luna’s dad having to do bad things to protect his daughter, Fred dying with his last laugh ringing in Percy’s ears, Baby Teddy never seeing his parents again, Collin’s corpse on the ground, the Slytherins as a group turning evil because Slyther-slither mofos, and then randomly Harry and Ginny shacked up and had three kids which makes everything better.

You know what? Screw it. James, Sirius, Snape, and Dumbledick were all douches. Pick a Dobby quote. Didn’t he have that nice thing about being with friends or something before he died?

People Say Matched Is Stereotypical Dystopian Fiction And...

I can’t agree with the stereotypical, if for no other reason than there’s no war or major battles affecting the main plot. The Hunger Games was all about the violence - which isn’t a bad thing, just saying. Delirium? People were dying or being imprisoned left and right, lobotomized, blah blah blah. The Maze Runner? I don’t even know the percentage of dead kids. Divergent? All the death and dying and shooting and guns and blood. There’s typically so much death by violence in modern dystopian novels. Not so in the Matched trilogy. There’s some in Crossed but not much compared to other series.

Also, you say love triangle, but it was more of a tangle? Cassia sort of likes Xander, Xander loves Cassia, Cassia loves Ky, Ky loves Cassia, Ky gets a crush on Indi, Indi still mourns her dead boyfriend, Indi loves Ky, Xander loves…the doctor girl from book 3, I forget her name, who is mourning dead husband but loves Ky, I mean…I don’t know, I thought that was an interesting message: your first love isn’t always your last. How often do we see that in YA?

I'm Reading Ivory & Bone by Julie Eshbaugh And...

“"Walk three miles in all that dirt? You won’t be fit to be seen!”

“I shall be fit to see Jane, which is all I want.”

It’s not a point-for-point adaptation, but I totally see it. And we have now come to the moment when Jane goes to visit Bingley and gets sick and Lizzy goes to take care of her. :)

Catherynne Valente vs SJ Tucker

I think I prefer Ms. Tucker as the Fairyland narrator, even though Ms. Valente has such a rich voice. SJ Tucker gives September such a cute voice, and I love Saturday's accent and the depth of Ell's voice. Definitely glad I got all of these.

Me and Institutionalized Feminism

So, I was editing my book (I tend to obsessively polish a ms before a contest and there’s one coming up at the end of the month) and I realized how…not very girl-power it was. Which is weird, because when I came up with my girl Juliet, one of the reasons I set this ms where I did is because the Wild West was one of the few places in 1800s America where girls could be bad@$$ without it being as “shocking” because, like, farm girls and female ranch owners could ride horses, cook, shoot, do farm work, mend and often make their own clothes, knew some first-aid because doctors lived sometimes hours away…and if a girl was educated, for whatever reason, wanting to go to college, you basically had a recipe for Wild West Hermione - a nerd who could fight. And I wanted to make sure my girl didn’t disdain the “girly” stuff like makeup and dresses because hey, if Catwoman can look hot and kick @$$, any girl has the option.

But as I’m reading through my ms, I’m seeing all of these missed opportunities and inconsistencies. Juliet has a sister - they have one scene together. Granted, the plot of the book is the sister is kidnapped and Juliet has to save her, but as I’m editing, my brain is like, “Oh, we could have this cute sister-scene right there real quick!” and I’m thinking, “Why didn’t I do that before?” Especially because the sister is such a hugely motivating force for Juliet. Why didn’t I try to develop that more? I don’t know. It never occurred to me.

Juliet has a wicked stepmother and negligent dad, but she has female friends and more responsible and loving mother-figures…but only one of them (the group consists of like 6 girls) has a large role and I cut it short halfway through the book when characters have a parting of the ways. That second part isn’t so bad except that no other girl steps into the vacuum and instead the role is now filled by a boy - who had his own role already. Why didn’t I bring one of the other girls forward? I have no idea. It never even occurred to me to do it. No one even tries; there’s no “I’m not ready to have someone take So-and-So’s place yet” or anything. It’s a non-thing.

Even my mythos lacks some opportunities and world-building points. The whole plot spun out from two sisters who were queens who hated each other but I never even gave a reason why (I fixed this in my edits but still) and nobody ever asked and I never thought of one. Everyone in the story just assumes two sisters wanting to literally murder each other is normal, even though Juliet’s relationship with her sister is so strong (and a few other characters have good relationships with their siblings). But when a male character is shown to be a betrayer, Juliet asks why? She questions a lack of reliability from a male but not from a female.

This never even popped into my brain as being a thing, whether good or bad. I never noticed the lack of strong foundations for the relationships between girls. I never noticed the double-standard against female characters. I didn’t even realize it was there. And I was going out of my way to try to make this book girl-positive to begin with.

I don’t know…I’m not sure what I’m trying to say except to maybe wonder how terribly prevalent all of it might be in media I didn’t create myself and I (or other people) never even noticed…

Concerning Iron Sickness and Once Upon a Time

so how does iron sickness work in OUAT exactly? Because human blood can make Dylan's brownie sick and Nuada hates the smell of blood but it doesn't hurt him and the iron chains his dad used were magicked to stop him from resisting the iron but in the first few chaps he had iron fatigue? was it b/c he was sick? Does Sreng have a sensitivity to iron since he was made immortal by fae magic? And how come the cubs don't worry about iron? Or Wink?

Iron sickness only affects certain fae. I’m not sure why iron affects faeries (apparently it’s a holy metal because it’s an element, not an alloy? And it’s hard to manipulate which I guess makes it constant??? I dunno) but in a lot of western euro-centric mythology, it does. However, for some creatures, even western euro-centric ones, it clearly doesn’t. Redcaps, for instance, wear iron shoes and have hats that bleed human blood (which has iron in it). Dwarves obviously don’t have an issue with iron, and dullahan are said to fear gold, not iron, because it’s such a bright and cheerful color.

So Becan would get sick if he had to handle human blood (wash it off the floor, etc) because he’s one of the Wee Folk and doesn’t have a lot of magic, but Nils Fjonisse, who’s a tomte (the farm/barn equivalent of a brownie) can handle iron because he has magic that concerns horses, which wear horseshoes. Wink isn’t sensitive to iron because he’s a cave troll (so he has immunity similar to Dwarves).

Nuada is sensitive to iron - it smells really bad to him, though he’s become accustomed to it over the centuries - and if he’s unwell, it can cause mild irritation, a rash, or even burn him. He can smell iron in Dylan’s blood very strongly when they first meet because she’s bleeding, but as she heals it becomes bearable and by now he doesn’t even notice unless she’s injured.

Although sensitive to iron, as long as he is otherwise okay - not sick, not hurt - mundane iron doesn’t affect him other than to make him a little twitchy/uncomfortable because he’s a royal and he just has sooo much innate magic, the iron can’t deplete it enough to make him sick or kill him. If he were to become king, he wouldn’t notice it at all except for the smell. So the magic would have to be enchanted - only a very powerful fae could enchant iron - with magic-killing spells in order to hurt Nuada. Which is what the king used on him for the whip and the shackles when he was flogged.

In the first chapter, Nuada was suffering from iron fatigue because a few weeks earlier, he’d been bitten by a dipsa serpent. A single bite can kill a human in less than a minute, and kill most fae, but Nuada was at peak health when he was bitten, he spent most of his recovery time in a healing-spelled chamber, and his blood is saturated with royal magic. But he spent the first couple weeks after being bitten so sick that Wink had to take care of him and he couldn’t get out of bed and he barely ate anything, which left his body weakened to the iron and lead of the city above him once he moved out of the healing sanctuary to a normal hideaway.

Sreng has iron sensitivity like Nuada - royal magic made him immortal - because of the magic flowing through his veins, but he also has iron in his blood, so he is in constant pain. It’s one of the reasons he’s insane - he’s been in mild agony for over three thousand years and he has iron sickness, but can’t die from it because he’s immortal, and the pain is exceptionally bad because he’s a human with raw, wild, royal magic poured into his body to keep him alive without any sort of buffering spells to balance him out.

The kids don’t have to worry about iron because as far as I know, Cherokee otherworldly beings don’t have iron allergies.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir Review (4.5/5 stars)

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

“Just because he’s a good leader doesn’t mean he’s a good person.”

“I’d rather die than live with no mercy, no honor, no soul.”

“Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be. Too much fear and you’re paralyzed. Too little fear and you’re arrogant.”

What I Liked: Oh my gosh, so much! I like that Laia is really scared all the time even though she’s trying to be brave. I like that Elias is biracial and that we don’t know much about his dad and that he comes from a very non-traditional family, being raised by his maternal grandfather. I also like that even though his mother hates him, she still loves him a little, too, even though she doesn’t want to and hates herself. I loved all the characters - Laia, Elias, Helene, Telmun, Elias’s grandfather, even Marcus and Zak - because they’re very fleshed out and believable, even though some of them suck so bad, because each of them is well realized and has strengths and weaknesses, fears and wants, etc. I even found myself pitying Marcus a little bit at the end of the third Trial and then once again at the end of the fourth.

I loved the Trials, even though they were just awful. I loved all the plot twists - I wondered what the fudge was going on with Helene the whole time and I can’t wait to get her POV in A Torch Against the Night. I love how even though the book left us with questions, it wasn’t super frustrating because the author answered just enough to satisfy my need to know things while also keeping some of my questions alive for the next book. I had several “oh s***” moments during the Trials, especially the last one. The book left me wanting to know more without making me frustrated.

The writing was pretty simplistic but still managed to keep that lyrical quality I like in most of the book, even with Elias. And there’s humor in it, too, which can be difficult to pull off when doing that style. The mythology is so interesting - a mixture of Roman and Middle-Eastern things but shown in an all new way. I recognized the mix of cultures in the book within the first few chapters, which really impressed me - a low-key fantasy set in what is essentially Roman-occupied Israel but without the religious contentions that were occurring at the time. I love how there is magic in the world but it’s fairly low-key, only manifesting in the thing about the silverskin and the augurs and the monsters they have to fight. Magic isn’t something everyone has access to, which is cool and makes the stakes harder to compete against, you know?

I loved this book. I need the whole series in my life now. Omg. There were only a few things I didn’t like.

What I Didn’t Like: Very little. There were only a few things. I didn’t like how Elias sort of bought into the whole “the dance of death is my prayer” thing his grandfather came up with for him. Like, I felt changing it a little to get away from the homicidal aspect of it versus the battle aspect (so keeping the first 2 lines, ditching the last 2) would’ve been more in keeping with his character.

And then how people talked about raping Helene like it would totally be okay and it’s like, I feel like the Commandant would’ve stopped him from raping her? Slave girls, I could see the Commandant not caring. And Helene manages to take care of herself, of course, so nothing happens, but Marcus is just like, “Yeah, I’m gonna do it eventually” and nobody thinks to tell an adult? Or Helene’s parents?

And then the Emperor is made out to be this big bad problem but we never see him before he gets killed by the Commandant’s goombas, which was kind of a letdown. Lastly, I do not ship Elias and Laia. I don’t mind them feeling some sort of attraction to each other but Laia has Keegan and Elias has Helene and I do not want Helene getting shafted in this way, she is so loyal to Elias and she loves him so much and I’m a teensy bit tired of the male and female leads falling for each other in YA. I’d like to see where that doesn’t happen.

But those were the only things honestly that I didn’t like and didn’t work for me.

Things of Note: I did edit out some of the violence in the book, just because I couldn’t really handle it. A kid gets flogged to death (he’s like, 10) and I had to edit that. Also, I’d say trigger warning for child abuse, parental neglect, parental slut-shaming, mentions of rape, torture, and mentions of attempted infanticide.

Would I Recommend: If you can handle all the things I mentioned in the above paragraph, than heck yes!!! I absolutely loved An Ember in the Ashes. I read it in less than 3 days even though I had to go to work and pre-ordered the sequel right after I finished it. So there. :)

Characterization: 1 star
Plot: ¾  star
Realism: 1 star
Word Choice: ¾ star
World-Building: 1 star

Plus ½ stars for originality (Roman-occupied Israel for a low fantasy? Dude)
Plus ¼ star for biracial protagonist
Minus ¼ star because why is there only one girl a generation at Blackcliff?
Minus ¼ star because of normalization of rape
Minus ¼ star because it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test

Victoria Aveyard and Plagiarism

Okay, I was just on Goodreads and apparently according to a bunch of people Victoria Aveyard ripped off Pierce Brown’s Red Rising with her book Red Queen.

I almost cyber-punched someone because obviously these people have never actually double-checked one very important detail.

Red Rising came out January 28, 2014.

Red Queen came out February 10, 2015.

That literally means Victoria Aveyard managed to: 

- read Red Rising

- write the rough draft of Red Queen (her debut novel)
- edit it
- send it to an agent
- have her future agent read it (slush can take up to 6 months, you guys)
- have her future agent schedule a phone call with her
- have the actual phone call
- sign the agent contract
- mail the contract back to the agency
- start the agent-editing process (which takes up to 3-4 months)
- finish the agent-editing process
- send it out to editors
- have an editor read it (can take a month or more)
- have the editor contact her agent
- negotiate a contract
- have Victoria sign the contract and mail it back
- start and finish the publishers-editing process
- create a cover
- put together ARCS
- send out all the ARCS

And somehow Victoria the Whiz Kid Queen managed to do all of this in…let’s see, ARCs come out 2-3 months before a book’s release date, so she had to be done by say, December with that whole list. So she managed to do all of that…in 10 months.

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me???

Next person that libels an author needs to get cyber-slapped, because that stuff isn’t okay. Like, if you don’t like her book, fine. But don’t lie about her to make you look like you’re oh so fucking smart.

Someone Asked My Beta This Question...

WHY does LA like to debate w/ people tho? Like what does she get out of it?

It’s a way to sharpen the mind. It’s like mental chess. It helps you learn to think fast, adapt to changing circumstances, overcome obstacles. My parents and my brother and sister and I have held debates on random things since I was like, 3 years old. I learned research skills, how to keep calm under pressure, how to handle overwhelming odds without cracking, and how to read certain things from people (mostly when they’re starting to get nervous cuz I’m winning).

It’s also just a good way to learn how people think about things (which in turn can tell you a lot about their background) and you can learn things from debates, too. It opens up new avenues of thought for me when someone mentions something I haven’t thought of before. And as long as everyone keeps their cool and we don’t resort to name calling or insults or whatever, it’s a great way to make friends with people who like to analyze stuff (mostly books but sometimes not) as well.

It also taught me something major that’s helped me a lot in my life - don’t commit to something unless you’re sure. When my dad and I would debate things and he would say, “That’s wrong,” if I argued, he would say, “I bet you. I bet you.” My dad doesn’t bet unless he’s certain. And so winning a bet of that kind with my dad was always a big deal, a sign that I’d taught him something.

But being wrong sucked. So I learned to make sure that in a situation where I was like, “No, this isn’t just conjecture, I’m positive I’m right,” I was pretty d*** positive before I even put myself out there.

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord Review (1.5/5 stars)

On a remote island in a tropical sea, Celaena Sardothien, feared assassin, has come for retribution. She’s been sent by the Assassin’s Guild to collect on a debt they are owed by the Lord of the Pirates. But when Celaena learns that the agreed payment is not in money, but in slaves, her mission suddenly changes—and she will risk everything to right the wrong she’s been sent to bring about.

What I liked: I liked the premise. I liked the new location (we’re out of Rifthold!) and I really liked the map the Pirate Lord has. That map was freaking amazing and I want someone else to get a map like that sometime in a later book. I loved getting to see Sam’s backstory, see people Calaena cared about from her assassin days, see how she interacted with Arobynn. I liked that her relationship with Sam started off with them as rivals. I liked the introduction of Ben, because it explains - among other things - why Calaena didn’t realize how awful things were with Arobynn.

And I liked the basic plot. The action scenes were well-written and the tavern brawl was awesome. That time when Sam and Calaena starting fighting on the beach after going to inspect the slaves was brilliantly written, too. And the voice/word choice was, as usual, fairly fantastic.

What I Didn’t Like: Oh, boy…let me count the things. 

Sam is an idiot. The way he just rips off Calaena’s mask like that? Like, what the frack? Her identity is a carefully guarded secret you could be tortured to death for revealing. Are you stupid? Apparently. Despite being Arobynn’s second-best student.

The use of slavery? Calaena is very much a white savior. It would’ve been better if all the slaves we see weren’t almost 100% from Ellywe, but even then…I feel like maybe more time should’ve been spent on maybe a slave coming to the fore and having more of a spotlight/helping out more to get somewhat away from the white savior trope. But here it just feels like SJM threw in the slavery thing as a way to show how good at heart Calaena was?

The sudden fondness Calaena feels for Sam felt very rushed. And I get that it’s a novella (which is why I typically don’t read romance novellas anymore) but there are ways to do it where it wouldn’t seem so abrupt. It could’ve started a bit earlier. Or maybe Calaena could, instead of straight-up hatingSam to begin with, could’ve always wondered why he didn’t like her and wishing he’d stop being so antagonistic - so that when he is, she’s more receptive to softening up to him. Here it just felt forced.

Calaena has no reaction to the heat except to sweat but she’s sweating buckets and not drinking anything hardly at all. Because she’s from Adarlan, dehydration would be a problem for her. Now, it could be assumed that she’d be okay since she’s worn that cloak ensemble before, but she wouldn’t be if she didn’t drink between breakfast and late dinner and was sweating like that. It would be like being in a sauna all day, but without the ability to drink or even lick the sweat off your skin. If nothing else, she’d have dehydration headaches, but she doesn’t. I’m pretty sure Sarah J. Maas has never actually been dehydrated or lost in a desert in her life.

Because I loved Throne of Glass - even with its flaws - I expected to love The Assassin’s Blade. But I didn’t. I didn’t love “The Assassin and the Pirate Lord.” It was okay. I didn’t hate it. But unlike Throne of Glass, I’m not going to be raving about it. And it wasn’t so good that the flaws didn’t detract from my enjoyment of it, as with books like Throne of Glass.

Also, since peeps might be wondering about the ¼ star for characterization - Calaena is so unlikeable in Throne of Glass and in this that she loses ½ a star. Sam being an idiot dropped it another ¼.

Things of Note: It’ll get a little better, but then it only gets worse as the novellas go on. You’ve been warned.

Would I Recommend: I would tell people who are curious about Calaena’s thoughts on slaves in the beginning of Throne of Glass that they could find out more in this novella, but that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Characterization: ¼ star
Plot: ¼ star
Realism: ½ star
Word Choice: ¾ star
World-Building: ½ star

Minus ¾ a star for bad usage of slavery and use of the White Savior trope; it’s used here to show Calaena as a white savior, but the slaves are mainly objects, with no real value as their own characters.

One of the Scariest Things I've Ever Done

When I was 7, in my swim class they offered…some kind of prize, I forget what…for jumping off the lifeguard stand into the deep end of the pool. It was perfectly safe but a) I was only 7, b) I was afraid of heights, and c) I couldn’t swim very well. I mean, I wouldn’t drown, but I didn’t go into the deep end without floaties because I wasn’t confident in myself that way.

But I did it and it scared the bejeebies out of me. My dad was super proud of me and took me to McDonald’s and my brother picked me up and carried me to the car because he was so impressed. :)

Why Do You Hate the Marauders!? (Comment-Question)

*sigh*

Okay, most of Booklr who’s seen any of my posts about the Marauders-era young people probably already know this…but.

Now, when I say Marauders-era peeps, I’m not talking about the Weasley parents (I feel like they’re a bit older than James & Lily were?) or Tonks (she’s quite a bit younger). I specifically mean James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Snape, and Lily. And we’ll throw in Dumbledouche for kicks because he was headmaster at the time, right? I seem to recall he was.

So that’s…7 people. Why do I hate those 7 people?

Do we really need to ask about Peter, Snape, or Dumbledore? Nah. So that leaves me with four - Sirius, James, Remus, and Lily.

Sirius: a bully and an unrepentant thief, a little creep who picked on other kids (including his so-called friend, Peter, and on Lily), who tried to murder someone for funsies.

James: add the the first 3 things I mentioned for Sirius.

Remus: allowed the first 3 things to happen. Also abandoned his child to go fight in a war (twice) because “oh poor me, I’m a werewolf, my self-loathing and cowardice is more important than being a decent father and husband”

Lily: shacked up with the douche-nozzle mentioned previously. And okay, supposedly she waited until James got his head on straight, but what does that say? Sexually harass a girl for 6 years, profess you’ve had a change of heart in 3 months, and she’ll have your babies, even after you tortured her best friend for years. People say Snape was a lousy friend, and the older he got, it becomes truer and truer. But that b**** was a lousy friend, too.

And yeah, she dies sacrificing herself to protect Harry, but you know who else has sacrificed their lives for their children? Malcolm Merlin, who’s massacred hundreds of people. Marissa Coulter, who helped murdered dozens upon dozens of kids all under the age of 12. Darth Vader risked his life to save Luke. Risking your life to save your child does not make you a hero, because plenty of villains have done it.

Oh, well, they fought Voldemort. So? Regulus Black was a racist little turkey but he gave Voldemort the ultimate f*** you (and good on him, too). You know who else fought Voldemort? Narcissa Malfoy, who would’ve let Harry die if he hadn’t been key to saving her child. The goblins of Gringotts, who torture animals and loathe all wizards to ever exist ever. Fighting Voldemort doesn’t make you a good person, either. Fudge and Scrimgeour would’ve fought Voldy if they could’ve and they are both evil little men.

So yeah, I’m posting this slightly long and hissy answer so that the next time someone asks, I can just link it because I realized I’d never gone into much detail about why I dislike the Marauders so much - because they’re bad people, who are lauded as good people because they were heroes. James, Sirius, and Lupin? They’re just as bad as Snape and Peter. Lily’s not as bad, but she’s still a cutthroat b****. And I know there’s that whole “strong girls are often called b****es,” well yes, they are. So are treacherous ones.

This is why Gen 2 is better. Harry and Ron and Draco, Neville and Ginny and Luna and Hermione, are better people than James, Sirius, Snape, Peter, Lily, and Remus. I love them. Their predecessors suck. All of them.

For the record: if you like the Marauders, fine. I don’t care/mind, I’m not gonna hate you or say you should be ashamed of yourself. People can like what they like. I have a very admittedly critical view of Harry Potter the series anyway. But this is why I don’t like the Marauders and why I wish Lily had stayed single and someone else could’ve been Harry’s mom and Tonks could’ve hooked up with someone better than Lupin who could love her like she deserved.\

Concerning Chinese Dragon-Elves in Once Upon a Time

In Once Upon A Time, do all chinese/dragon elves have the slitted eyes and scaly eyebrows/necks? Or just the royal ones? I like your story, it's very good :)

Dragon blood is what causes vertical pupils instead of circular ones, so the stronger the dragon ancestry/bloodline, the more likely you’ll get reptilian/draconian eyes and scales. 

This means all royals and most nobles have them (the emperor tends to take at least one or two dragon concubines every generation to make sure the top princes are dragon Elves), and about 50% of the common Elven population has them (although to varying degrees). 

Dragon blood tends to pop up in different ways in non-Elven Chinese fae, and also can have interesting results in fae with more than two bloodlines (can you imagine a fox-dragon vampire?).