Scaramouche, Scaramouche

Okay I’m not going to scold people for liking tragic romance type storylines—whatever floats your boat, seriously.

But I’m really not interested in pursuing such plotlines with regard to the queer couples/trios/catpiles I write.

I’m not averse to putting them through some hella gloominous doominous shit—I like hard-won happy endings, the trial-by-fire makes the s’mores at the end taste that much better and so on…

But I’m not in it for the downer ending with regard to the queer romances I write.

So while I will tell tales of Sylvanas and Lana’thel, or Koltira and Thassarian, going through all kinds of difficult and nightmarish malarkey…I’m not going to rob them of their happy endings.

And yeah, i think it is possible for these couples to have such. Seriously, if people in fandom are going to speak of undeath as synonymous to disability--and then turn around and say that no one undead can ever have a happy ending? That’s treading perilously close to the same kind of ‘logic’ that says disability is God’s punishment for a sin, that disabled folks are somehow b0rken and cannot be happy.

People who have been dealt a shitty hand by fate are allowed to be angry; they are also capable of finding happiness and being joyful, and are allowed to do both! Sorry, but I'm not obliged to suffer nobly for anybody's Hallmark moments! Nor is anyone else who's marginalized in any way, shape or form. This narrative bollocks about bearing up oh-so-nobly under great sorrow and strife needs to go away because it serves mostly to perpetuate the suffering.

I’m sorry, I did not come here to dance at that party.

And yeah I know not everyone who likes tragic stuff runs on that rationale! I just resent the stuff that does! A LOT! Tragedy is something that all of us contend with, and I am not saying that nobody marginalized must ever suffer in writing because pfffttt. But when things wander into the territory of 'X is suffering BECAUSE she is Y and oh the TRAGEDY of FORBIDDEN LOVE THAT CAN NEVER BE' I start to bang my head on the desk and seek beer.

For people in positions of privilege, that's just story fodder, but for marginalized people, sometimes that's our lives, so - no thanks. None of those walnuts are going into my brownies.

So yeah. Koltira and Thassarian have a right to be crabby about perpetually cold feet, no heartbeat, and all the WTF that goes along with being undead. They also have a right to sleep in and like pancakes. And Sylvanas and Lana'thel have a right to be annoyed as fuck with Arthas and frustrated with their circumstances (Lana with wing cramps = crabby forever), but also have a right to snuggle and hold hands and enjoy lichboom tea with lots of honey and lemon.

Because, seriously, so fucking many queer folks (and PWD, and PoC, and people who are any and all combos of the aforementioned, because INTERSECTIONALITY IS A THING AND IT MATTERS) IRL -are- denied a happy ending. And if you add in the cultural coding of elves, and the insistence some people have on treating undeath as analogous to disability—yeah, it gets even more facepalmy.

Guys, a lot of my friends have been denied a happy ending through shitty happenstance and terrible circumstances, and I’m writing in the end for myself and my girlfriend—and in the memory of those people who had to stop too fucking soon.

A desire for a happy ending is not childish. The world is often crapsack, and if some people get a kick out of crapsack world fiction, they’re free to get it, but don’t go scolding me for not caring for such stories. I don’t care for bleu cheese either. it’s not because my palate is immature; I just don’t like the taste of friggin’ bleu cheese.

idk where i was going here i had a point lololololol

tl;dr other people are free to write what they want but since I do not like bleu cheese I will continue to write my hard-won happy endings. Fighting for a happy ending doesn’t always work IRL, especially for marginalized people…so I figure I can give myself and others such satisfying endings in my head instead. XD

I promise I'll be uploading my NY photos when I can make my digital camera stop hating all that is creation and also me. XD

For no reason I've been watching a lot of LPs, in particular HC Bailly's SNES Final Fantasy VI one. He's got Shadow back in the WoR and it getting all the dreams. That reminded me of the BRING GENERAL LEO BACK TO LIFE DUDE rumours.

I wasn't really ONLINE during the big old heyday of those, or in FF fandom. I started up online in 1996 in Sailormoon and X-Files fandom, and the first final Fantasy I knew of was VII from the commercials. I still remember how cool those were. But I digress! Two of my friends had FFVI - well, it was FF3 here then (and both of them had the version with the corrected-but-still-present SKETCH BUG, hence the dorky tags, lolle) - and they were active in gaming fandom, so I heard about all the character resurrection theories from them. I forget totally how one was supposed to bring back Aerith, it had to do with getting the White Materia back somehow but apart from that I got nothin'.

I do, however, remember how one was supposed to get General Leo back. Well, this was the way I heard, there are other theories.

Shadow has five dreams, right? Well, according to the theory I heard, he actually has SEVEN. You must get all five dreams before shooting for six and seven or it won't work. You also have to have done the Phoenix/Rachel subplot. Basically, when you get the seventh dream, Shadow will remember something about that half-submerged house in Mobliz, the one you can't get into. There was something here about getting a key from some old lady too, I forget where she was said to be. But after that, if you go to the house, somehow Shadow will get into the house and bring out a book/a relic/it depends obviously. You trade this to the kooky old man in Kohlingen, who gives you a Resurrection Potion he made from something the Phoenix esper left. You pour this on Leo's grave and VOILA HE JOIN YOUR PAR-TAY.

It's total nonsense of course, but it was plausible enough to drive my friend C nuts off his gourd trying to get those elusive two more dreams.

SO! Anyone else remember a rumour like that? XD If so, post 'em in ye comments, I'm in a nerdy nostalgic mood and I love urban legends like that.