Ooooh. A truly challenging and very important question.
The best enfolding, bone-squeezing, I’m-so-glad-to-see-you, my-arms-are-a-safe-wall-for-you, holy-shit-we’re-alive-we-made-it hugs? Gimli.
The best silent and still and peaceful hugs, the breathing-slowly-together hugs, the ones which make your shoulders loosen and your heart gentle? Legolas.
The best comfort hugs, the cry-it-out hugs, they-can’t-get-you you’re-safe, your ear upon his heartbeat, rocking ever so slightly hugs? Gimli.
The best joyous hug, the one that sweeps you off your feet, full of sunlight and laughter and twirling and leaping, the celebratory hug to rule them all? Legolas.
(however, they’re both equally good at the you-are-the-dearest-thing-in-this-world-to-me, you-are-so-wonderful, I-could-hold-you-forever hugs, the ones which say I love you over and over again.)
Just some warm fuzzies on the Friday before classes start. The phases of a Sam Vimes/Sybil Ramkin hug, I commissioned it from pmendicant, please check out pmendicant’s art at http://pmendicant.tumblr.com/ (it is wonderful).
The practice started in the late 1990s, when somebody decided to leave a lipstick kiss on the tomb. Since then lipstick kisses and hearts have been joined by a rash of red graffiti containing expressions of love, such as: “Wilde child we remember you”, “Keep looking at the stars” and “Real beauty ends where intellect begins”. Kissing Oscar’s tomb on the Paris tourist circuit has become a cult pastime.
A fine of €9,000 ($12,000) was imposed on anyone caught kissing or damaging the historical monument, but it had no effect. It was hard to catch people in the act, and most culprits were tourists who were long gone before the police could bring them to court. Appeals from Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland to stop the practice also fell on deaf ears. A plaque asking fans to respect the tomb instead of defacing it went in vain.
Meanwhile, those greasy red lipstick stains seeped into the stone making it harder and harder to clean. Every cleaning eroded a layer of stone rendering it even more porous, so the next cleaning had to go even deeper and wear away the stone even more.
I have no idea why anyone would believe Oscar Wilde isn’t delighted by this.
Han is all “there’s to much Vader in him,” without mentioning that there is too much Vader in Leia too.
Like, Bail Organa, bless his poor poor soul, tried to politician the Vader out of her. He tried SO FUCKING HARD.
But the fact that she abandoned politics to be a General in the Resistance says a lot about her similarities to Anakin Skywalker.
See, people get it wrong. They assume because Luke got the blond hair and the lightsaber that he is Anakin’s child. He’s not. He’s Padme’s.
Leia, though. Leia is very much Anakin’s child. She is the one with the deep anger in her. She is the one who will bring peace to her new empire freedom and justice back to the galaxy whether the galaxy wants it or not. She is the one who commands armies and amasses followers as easy as breathing. She joined the Rebellion while she was in her teens. She is the one with the spirit of a warrior.
Don’t get me wrong; Bail Organa did his damnedest to raise her in the mold of her mother, fighting her battles in the halls of power with words as her weapons. And she was very good at it. But unlike Padme, Leia’s words always had an edge to them, her tone and meaning always a little too sharp, a little too angry.
Peace and mercy are the trademarks of Luke and Padme. Justice and order, obtained by whatever means necessary, are the marks of Leia and Anakin.
How the throne room scene actually should’ve gone:
“If you will not turn to the Dark Side, perhaps she will.”
“Pffffthahahahaha yeah, okay Dad, let me know how that turns out. Look, the reason I’m here instead of her is because I want you alive and not a cloud of vaporized plastic. You know she strangled Jabba the Hutt with the chain he put around her neck, right? That’s what she does to people who try to control her. Better tell your Emperor you’re not allowed to have any more ideas.”
I’m roughly the shade of beetroot here. You are WAY WAY TOO GENEROUS. Thank you, beautiful kind person.
Ohboy, okay, here we go, answers one after the other:
At what point did you realize that Sansukh would be not just long, but OMG Freakin’ Epic?
I always knew it was gonna be enormous – I think there’s a note right at the first chapter that is a little bit jokey, a little bit ‘it’s ME so ofc it’s gonna be long and over-complicated hahaha aren’t I a dumb’ – but I NEVER THOUGHT IT’D BE THIS ENORMOUS holy shit. I think it was about chapter 19-20 or so, when I began to think ‘okay, that’s one book down… ohgod but The Two Towers is SO MUCH MORE COMPLICATED and ROTK IS EVEN MORE SO … ok, breathe, shit we’re gonna be here A WHILE.’
And that was when I started to think, all right. So it’s going to be a behemoth. That’s ok. That’s fine. You can do it. No rush. Don’t burn out and abandon it because you pushed yourself for more than you have to give at a time. You WANT to finish it. It means too much to you to have a forever-WIP on your slate bc of something as stupid as burnout.
So, I’ve taken my time. When I can’t, I don’t. When I can, I do. Slow and steady, as the tortoise said 🙂
Did you ever think you’d be writing well in excess of HALF A MILLION words just on AO3, to say nothing of tumblr headcanons, ficlets, meta, songs, and and and?
NOPE. NOT IN A MILLION ZILLION YEARS. NOT TO ANY OF IT. NOT TO THE WORDCOUNT, AND NOT TO THE COMPOSITIONS AND HEADCANON SPLURGES AND META AND FICLETS AND APPENDICES. I’d wouldn’t have dared to dream that I could make all that. I wouldn’t have thought I could even do HALF of that.
I think I trust myself a bit more, nowadays 🙂
Ohgod you’ve reminded me too – I really really have to update the masterposts, they’re SO behind!
Do you anticipate writing at that length ever again (after a suitable recovery period)?
Oooooh. Um. Possibly. I would have to find the kind of premise that really grabs me. Also, it would have to be a story I need to tell. there are elements of Sansukh (the Dwarf-centric and Dwarf-sympathetic viewpoint, for example, as well as many of the themes – such as hope having virtue in itself rather than as a means to an end, fucking up and moving past it, found family, learning who you are, working through institutionalised racism, mental illness and management, racial and sexual and gender diversity, etc etc) that mean so damn much to me, that came pouring out of me in a torrent.
Plus, if I were ever to write anything as massive as this ever again, I would have to ensure not to have a baby in the middle of writing the dang thing. Puts a massive crimp on your writing time!!! 😛
Did you think your creativity would inspire so many others?
Never. I didn’t even think it would get noticed. When I began writing it, the trend in fandom was for very fluffy Beorn’s-house or Laketown fics, some cute pining, mostly requited, lots of very enthusiastic porn.
And there I was, with HELLO ANGSTY CHILDREN, EVERYONE’S DEAD AND EVERYTHING SUCKS. HERE ARE A MILLION FOOTNOTES AND HALF A RESEARCH PAPER. AND JUST IN CASE YOU’RE FEELING TOO CHIPPER… HEEEEEEEERE’S MORIA!! *jazz hands*
I’ve never really stopped being overawed and amazed at the creativity of everyone. The animators, artists, singers, musicians, writers, the cosplayers and voice actors, the sound editors and podfic folks and composers and recipe-makers and those who had a giggle on the sansukh page at TVtropes and GOD, so many folks. I’ve made so many dear friends, ones I will hold in my heart my whole life long. I’m so so grateful. I’m constantly, never-endingly staggered.
And @fishfingersandscarves, who is behind the Sansukh Graphic Novel, and has created over 100 individual pieces of art for Sansukh. 100. Just. Wow. Fishy is a powerhouse, a fountain of creation and creativity. She has an incredible future ahead of her.
And finally, did you ever know that you’re my hero?
I’m curious– What style of clothing would y’all wear if public ridicule, financial limitations, and general inconvenience weren’t a thing?
I’d wear ball gowns; I’m talmbout big, flowy, fluffy chiffon and taffeta 1980s prom night sequined nightmares. Catch me buying Hot Pockets at the Wal*Mart looking like Jennifer Connelly’s hallucination in Labyrinth.
Aw Yiss 