"depiction Is Not Automatically Glorification" Can And Should Coexist With "some Depiction Is Glorification

heyyy you mentioned vorkosigan fic recs yesterday. do you have any you could hand to me? ratty suggested aral vorkosigan's dog (i think that's the name?) to me already, but i haven't gotten to it yet. thank u

HEY, I had to wait a couple days to have time to reread things, because I knew that was inevitable. 

Aptitude - Miles added, “Security was never on my top-ten list of assignment choices.“ "Not choice. Aptitude.” (-The Vor Game)This is EXACTLY what you wanted. Miles and Ivan and SImon and fluff and Aral and politics and espionage and fireworks!! And more fluff.

Uncle Simon - Simon has no children of his own. But he has an honorary nephew.This is also exactly what you want, with less politics and more things that will squeeze your heart in a mostly good but slightly painful way. But stop after “doubting his word” if you want to avoid more significant spoilers.

Lord Gregor AU - An alternate universe in which Prince Serg Vorbarra did not die at Escobar, but lived to become Emperor of Barrayar.AU of Barrayar, basically, which I’m pretty sure you’ve read. 

Liegeman - Aral and Simon have a conversation after Warrior’s Apprentice. besties and PAIN

Aral Vorkosigan’s Dog - Illyan is assigned to watch Aral Vorkosigan during the Escobaran war. Soon he has to choose between his duty and his conscience, and the consequences rapidly get beyond him.Alternate title: The Wooing of Simon Illyan. Alternate Alternate title: That TIme Ges Vorrutyer was So Awful a Previously Well-Behaved ImpSec Lieutenant Basically Committed Treason (It’s Okay; Negri Planned It).

Young Ivan Series - a collection of drabbles about, you know, Ivan as a kid. Miles features heavily. It’s great.

Victory Conditions - Miles, Ivan, and a couple compatriots discuss their Academy exercise and subsequent debriefing over drinks. (Remix of Improvisation, which recounts the exercise itself.)

Once you’re much later in the series, I will recommend many more fics because this fandom has a disproportionate amount of stellar fic and I don’t understand it. I particularly recommend Philomytha and avanti_90, both of whom are hella prolific and hella good. 

"How can platonic BDSM be a thing". It's whatever Sam Reich is doing to his friends on Game Changer actually.

I think Neve Gallus deserves to be a blood mage. As a treat.

Title cards for a 3-part Gondolin podcast special

Situation: Solas tears down the Veil, elves across Thedas slowly gain their magic and immortality. Guess who would not like that development.

also this in an excuse to draw a long-haired fenris helping refugees or escaped slaves

bonus

Super-quick guide to reading the Vorkosigan Saga in order

We’re gonna call this the first of many, many “why you should be reading the Vorkosigan saga” posts I’ll be making. For any new initiates, the Vorkosigan Saga is a series of sci-fi novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. While they can be broadly classified as “space opera”, they also take pretty significant detours into the political thriller, romantic comedy, horror, speculative fiction, mystery, and military drama genres. It’s very much hard sci-fi, with remarkably deep thought given to world-building and technology (like BSG, this is a universe where humanity is the only race, and so all the monsters are of our own making), but it doesn’t use its rich setting as an excuse to skimp on the incredibly deep characterization or ruthlessly clever plotting. Oh man, let me tell you, the characterization in these stories is absolutely fearless. Some of what Bujold puts her main characters through is the equivalent of taking away all of Tony Stark’s money and technology and resources halfway through Iron Man and, instead of having him angst until things get back to normal, taking that opportunity to use the logical shifts in characterization as a means to explore a new type of superhero story. Gah. 

Also remarkably for sci-fi, the main characters are rarely your typical square-jawed heroes–I mean, the leading man for the majority of this action-adventure series (despite what some of the truly awful cover art would have you believe) is all of four-foot-nine with brittle bones. 

Okay. I’ll gush more later, but for now: where to get started? After all, there are 15 novels and 4 novellas, and chances are most bookstores will have various compilation volumes that collect stories together based more on theme or publication date than on chronological order. While you can make your way through in any order you please–Bujold took pains to ensure that a new reader could jump in anywhere–the careful progression of characterization lends itself best to a chronological approach. Oh, and I should mention that this isn’t one of those series where the quality declines sharply over time–the latest books are some of my favourites in the entire series.

Here’s a recommended reading order, based on the internal chronology:

1. Shards of Honor (also published in the omnibus “Cordelia’s Honor”)

2. Barrayar (also published in the omnibus “Cordelia’s Honor”)

These first two books are essentially one self-contained story. The writing’s a little shakier than a lot of what follows, IMO, but the second half of Barrayar is some of my favourite stuff in the entire series, and Cordelia is absolutely marvellous.

3. The Warrior’s Apprentice (also published in the omnibus “Young Miles”)

There’s a fairly significant time gap between this book and the first two, and a different protagonist, so you can think of this one as a second jumping-off point for the series–I started with this one and eventually worked my way back to the first two without any trouble following. It all boils down to whether you want to know more about the past than the main character does–either way, it’s a fantastic read and remains one of my favourite books in the series.

4. “Mountains of Mourning” novella (also published in the omnibus “Young Miles”)

5. The Vor Game (also published in the omnibus “Young Miles”)

6. Cetaganda (also published in the omnibus “Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem”)

7. “Labyrinth” novella (also published in the omnibus “Miles, Mystery, and Mayhem”, as well as “Miles, Mutants, and Microbes”, for some reason)

8. “Borders of Infinity” novella (also published in the omnibus “Miles Errant”)

I frickin’ love this story okay.

9. Brothers in Arms (also published in the omnibus “Miles Errant”)

10. Mirror Dance (also published in the omnibus “Miles Errant”)

11. Memory (I think this one was only ever published as a standalone)

One of my all-time favourite novels, period.

12. Komarr (also published in the omnibus “Miles in Love”)

13. A Civil Campaign (also published in the omnibus “Miles in Love”)

If the incredibly dark books mid-series start getting you down, let me assure you that this one is frequently laugh-until-you-cry funny.

14. “Winterfair Gifts” novella (also published in the omnibus “Miles in Love”)

15. Diplomatic Immunity (also published in the omnibus “Miles, Mutants, and Microbes”)

16. Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance

Latest book to be published, haven’t read it yet, heard good things!

17. Cryoburn

There are also two novels which influence the main plotline a little more obliquely and are more background reading than anything else, and that's Falling Free (takes place long before the main series, should probably be read before Diplomatic Immunity) and Ethan of Athos (essentially a side-plot taking place approximately between Cetaganda and “Labyrinth”).

Phew. Okay. There you go. Have fun! If you want to try before you buy, even the smallish libraries I’ve been to will generally have the omnibus editions on the shelves. If you really can’t find these books anywhere, drop me an ask and I’ll see if I can help out.

those friendship books

Golden

I want to write this someday

if luke and leia were born during the clone wars

like, during season 4, not after when everything went terribly wrong

- Padme, 6-9 months pregnant, rushes into combat all the time. Anakin has an aneurysm. “YOU ARE A SENATOR. HOW DO YOU GET SHOT AT ALL THE TIME???” and yet she never actually takes damage because she is ~flawless~

- officially, Padme’s children have no father. In an interview with the press, she said “I wanted a baby, so I acquired one” and that’s that. unofficially, anyone with the Force knows Anakin is the father. Honestly, anyone with eyes knows Anakin is the father.

- because you know how Anakin and Padme are the least subtle secret couple? Yeah, that goes out the window when she gets pregnant. Anakin kisses her mid-battle and smooches her back at camp and watches her with stars in his eyes and professes his love for her all the time. When Padme asks about this, he just shrugs and says “well they haven’t kicked me out of the order yet!”

- which is mostly because of Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan is deliberately pretending he didn’t see his former padawan makeout with a senator. it’s like, okay, he knows he’s supposed to do something about this, but they are in the middle of a war, and if they have to kick Anakin out of the Order right now for knocking up a senator then they will lose this war. Obi-Wan has more important things to worry about than Anakin’s libido. 

- KIX  👐 TELLS  👐 PADME  👐 THERE  👐 ARE  👐 TWIN  👐 BABIES  👐 IN  👐 THERE  👐

- speaking of the clones, oh man, they are so fiercely protective of Padme. She is their general’s lady and their senator and they would gladly die before letting her or her babies get hurt.

- (but also, preggars Padme makes them sad, because will any of them ever get that for themselves? probably not–they were made to die, and with the rapid aging…but maybe one day…)

- Rex has absolutely had to go get weird food combinations in the middle of the night for his general’s wife. absolutely. that is in Rex’s job description.

- also you thought Padme gave effective speeches before? Imagine pregnant Padme giving speeches about needing to end the war for peace for the future. 110% approval rating comes from soft pregnancy glow.

- the twins are born on a battlefield in a camp where there’s blasterfire and smoke not two feet away. Obi-Wan is there, and he intends to tell Anakin and Padme both that he’s sorry, that they’ll get the twins for a little while, but they’ll have to go to the temple, they’ll have to be raised in the creche–

- but then luke is born, and the Force screams at Obi-Wan this is your padawan and obi-wan goes “oh” softly.

- also, Leia comes into the world and Ahsoka watches and goes “oh look it’s my padawan. I mean I’m a padawan myself but that girl is going to be my padawan some day this is rad.”

- so Anakin relaxes a bit, ‘cause the Force is going to take care of its grandchildren okay, it wants it’s favorite son to be happy.

- which means Palpatine has lost any and all chance of converting Anakin to the dark side. It will never happen now.

- i’m not saying that after they are born, Anakin and Padme strap a twin each to their back and then head out into battle, but Luke and Leia’s first lullaby is the sound of blasterfire and lightsabers

✨️This Group Is Full Of Weirdos!✨️

When I started this Oracle Cards project in January, I wanted to create 10 cards with all of the companions and origin characters (all of the cards have been updated since I first showed them!).

Well, mission completed, but I'm not ready to say goodbye to this series, and I am going to create 4 more cards with my(and probably your) favorite NPCs.

“I’m thinking ‘bout how people fall in love in mysterious ways Maybe it’s all part of a plan I’ll just keep on making the same mistakes Hoping that you’ll understand” 

Thinking Out Loud–Ed Sheeran

Inktober Day 15. Mysterious. Alabaster, Syenite, and Innon from The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin.