I had been promising this for months, so here it is. Amy Raine's list of excellent essays on writing, media and fandom.

This is an ongoing compilation; as I discover more good essays I will add more links.

Writing Advice

Epithets: Fandom's Designated Hitters - how overusing epithets makes for crappy, juvenile writing. Classic but still relevant.
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Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Rating: G or K
Words: 445
Genre: Gen
Characters/Pairings: OCs
Warnings: Children being medicated. It's not forced but some people feel strongly about it so I'm putting up a warning.
Summary: Modern medicine has a solution for everything. Set about fifty years post LoK
AN: Written for Prompt 58: Silence, for avatar_500

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Capslock Atla brought the awesome. And here I thought they had been losing their touch.

I saw the original and I fell in hardcore infatuation with the singer. Even thought I'm not familiar with the Kpop scene, I still laughed myself to tears. Poetry might be hard to translate, but acting silly is universal :)

(that kid in the beginning! The cute, it ( Read more... )

In which overlithe and I discuss how Bane and Amon are eerily similar, not just in their actions and certain traits but in how the narrative treats them:  http://overlithe.livejournal.com/187247.html?thread=981615&#t981615

Because I didn't hate everything about it, I was just painfully disappointed over its message and the way it contrasted with AtLA's message on a fundamental level.

So here's what I thought was good:

1. A protagonist who was a) female, b) muscular, and c) of color. I have some feelings about how the narrative treated her; it seemed to reward her most ( Read more... )

I finally put my own feeling on the Legend of Korra together in an essay and posted it here: http://thecakewasalie.livejournal.com/31249.html

It's a lot of the same criticism you may have already seen elsewhere, which is why I posted it there and not here. I do try to be considerate.

Once again overlithe and kith_koby sum up my thoughts about Korra better than I can.

Yeah, I feel angry that these messages are in a show aimed at children. But mostly I feel let down. A year of active participation in the fandom only to have this beautifully drawn and fairly well-acted steaming pile of shit handed to me. It might look nice, but now everything is ( Read more... )

Read this. Including the comments.

Yes it's long, but it's worth your time. And not because of me vomiting my brain all over it.

I've been altering my viewpoint. I don't so much support Amon himself anymore because I still think his actions are a naked power grab, but I do sympathize with the people who joined him more than I do any bender, including ( Read more... )

Mike and Bryan tend to get all the credit for the magic (not the kung fu magic, the emotional resonance with the audience magic) of Avatar: the Last Airbender, and it's not completely deserved.

Not to say that they suck, quite the opposite. I admire them a great deal because they are particularly strong in what I find most difficult when I'm ( Read more... )

...Amon, of course. But we all guessed that going in, yeah?

I cheered when the Equalist flags descended over the arena. What? I'm not ashamed.

But I also got irrationally happy over the Korra/Lin badass team action. Ship all the ships!

Fandom was right about Tenzin/Lin; I'm not quite satisfied with the few fics I've read detailing how Pema won him ( Read more... )