rodo's journal

Welcome To My DW!

This is where you’ll find a list of my fanfics. First the ones written in English, then the ones written in German. Many but not all were written as part of exchanges. You can also browse my tags, especially if you’re interested in my meta. And if you want to adapt or translate any of my fics, please read my statement on transformative works. You can also find all of my fics on the AO3 and my non-fic work in addition to that on my personal website (both are linked in the sidebar).

Additionally, if you’re open to being a beta reader for me, please check out this post detailing stories that I am currently looking to get betaed.


( My Works (In English) )

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Willkommen in meinem DW

Hier findet ihr eine Liste meiner Geschichten (Fanfiction wie Originale). Oben die englischen, und unten die deutschen. Ihr könnt auch außerdem meine Tags durchstöbern, besonders wenn ihr Interesse an Meta habt. Und falls ihr eine meiner Geschichten adaptieren oder übersetzen möchtet, lest euch bitte mein Statement dazu durch. Meine Fanfics könnt ihr auch alle auf dem AO3 finden, und mehr von mir auf meiner Website (beide sind an der Seite verlinkt).

Und für den Fall, dass ihr bereit seit für mich beta zu lesen, bitte ich euch, diesen Post anzuschauen.


( Meine Geschichten (in Deutsch) )

Challenge #3: In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

A little late because CMD is a bitch, but here it is:

So, by and large, AUs – excepting canon-divergence AUs – aren’t my thing. It’s no secret, since there’s a reason they go in my exchange DNWs. That’s not to say that I never read them at all, or that I think they have to suck, just that they’re one of the hardest fanfic genres to get right. So, I thought I’d write about my rules for judging what makes an AU or a fusion good. If a think a fic might meet all of these, I’ll click on it. If it doesn’t, well, you do you, but I’m not going to read it.

1. A good fusion isn’t a complete fusion.

A good fusion, my opinion doesn’t just take characters from Canon A and puts them into the plot from Canon B. The plot needs to be adapted for the characters, because otherwise, not only does it get kind of predictable for everyone who knows both canons, it’s also highly likely that at some point, the characters act OOC.

2. Choose your AU wisely.

There are canons where a Regency AU works, and there’s canons where it doesn’t. Putting Harry Potter into a mundane school AU is far easier than putting Harry Dresden into one. It all depends on what makes sense for what we know of the characters and the canon setting and plot. A WWII AU doesn’t work for me for most canons, the exception being Rogue One, since the plot there too is about fighting something that can be described as space nazis.

3. Don’t change the characters’ nationalities, unless that’s the point of the AU

Yes, I know, it’s easier to set everything in America, because that’s what most authors know. But it’s one thing to make a modern AU, and another to make a modern AU that removes the cultural context of the original as well. It annoyed me most with The Musketeers, a British production set in France, and I can’t tell you how many AUs I’ve noped out of because they were inexplicably set in the US for no discernable reason.

4. Translate the relationships

If you’re removing the original canon context, you have to be very careful to keep the characters intact, otherwise you’re might as well write an original fic, in my opinion. Sure, write a Jonsa Regency AU, but for the love of GRRM, have them still be cousins who have known each other for ages. Relationships – especially familial and long-lasting ones existing pre-plot – are an important part of what makes a character who they are, and if you’re removing that, you have to think very carefully how else they could have become who they are, but people rarely put in the effort.


So, fewer rules than you possibly anticipated. I’d also like to add that I’d love to see more modern AUs that aren’t set in the real world. Show me Middle Earth with cars and Westeros as a united kingdom that’s still recognizably Westeros, not the United Kingdom. I know it’s work, but I promise it’s worth it for the reader.

Zombies have been everywhere this past decade, or at least it sometimes feels that way. There’s relatively classic takes on the topic, like The Walking Dead, as well as subversions, like In The Flesh. In all of those cases, zombies are used to say something about humanity as a whole, but what they are used to say is something different every time, ever since George Romero used them as a metaphor for mindless consumerism.

The West, however, isn’t the only place that has been making use of zombies in their media. It’s been a staple in Eastern media as well, and there’s been quite a few recent Korean movies or TV series that deal with zombies, for example #Alive (an unintentionally poignant exploration of two people stuck in their apartments during a zombie apocalypse that came out in 2020), Train to Busan (which I haven’t seen), Zombie Detective (ditto) and Rampant (a movie where zombies attack historical Korea). The last has the most in common with the series I want to talk about here: Kingdom, a Netflix Original which is also a quasi-historical series, and also features a Joseon Korea threatened by a zombie apocalypse. But due to being a series, Kingdom has more room to explore its themes, which I would like to talk about here.

But before I start, I’d like to make it clear that I am not as into zombies as I could be. I am not an expert on the topic. My knowledge on Korea isn’t super in depth either (although I did pick some bits up during uni), and I am not Korean. I am also not saying that my analysis is The Definitive Way The Author Intended Things To Be Read. In fact, I think the author probably just wanted to create a fun zombie story. There’s a very good chance my analysis and interpretation are wrong. I’m just trying to have fun, and criticism is welcome.

( Having gotten that out of the way, I really like the way zombies are used as a story element in Kingdom. )

A/N: A good long while ago, someone on fail_fandomanon mentioned being interested in the parallels between Stannis and Daenerys and I ended up writing this. A recent comment reminded me of it and so I decided to post it.

Two Sides of the Same Dragon – Parallels Between Daenerys Targaryen and Stannis Baratheon



If there is one thing Game of Thrones has in spades, it’s monarchs, especially if you consider the ones we only know of as backstory to the main event. There are good kings, bad kings, drunken kings, lecherous kings, tragic kings and mad kings. There is no kind of king that Westeros and Essos haven’t seen at this point, yet it is quite interesting what an assortment we do see on screen. There is a mad king (Aerys), whose reign leads to the reign of an ineffectual and bad king (Robert). Robert’s reign, on the other hand, leads to a whole gaggle of king and queens fighting over the Seven Kingdoms. We have Renly, who doesn’t have the right but thinks he would be a better king than either of his brothers, who is kind but also shrewd, and an administrator more than a warrior. We have Joffrey, who is as mad and bad a king as Aerys. We have Tommen, who is like Robert, easily manipulated by his family, but kinder than his putative father. And we have Balon Greyjoy and Robb Stark, both of whom fight for independence for their people, and in part for their way of life.

In all these, we have some obvious parallels: Joffrey is Aerys reborn, from the family history of incest to his cruel streak. Tommen on the other hand is more like Robert, if he had been a better person. And Balon and Robb are two sides of the same coin. Renly and Cersei both claim the crown without having a right to it, strictly speaking, but think themselves more suited to the job than anybody else. Which leaves us with Stannis and Daenerys, two people who couldn’t be more different at first glance. Stannis is not charismatic, while Daenerys bewitches the people with her personality as much as her dragons scare them. Daenerys is young and supernaturally attractive. Stannis is balding. Stannis is considered the safe choice by the Iron Bank, since he’s reliable in a way the other monarchs aren’t. Daenerys is a wild card who upsets the status quo. And yet I’m going to argue why those difference only serve to highlight their similarities even more.



( Both Stannis and Daenerys have spent most of their lives in the shadow of their elder siblings and were deeply shaped by that experience. )

I've been working on these longer than it seems, but here all three prompts are, all on one post:

( I. Usage of other languages in your English fic (foreign characters, emphasis) - getting it wrong/right )

( II. What makes THE movie fandom (big, e.g. XMFC, Inception, Avengers) )

( III. Do you ever come across statements in fic that seem wrong to you, but aren't easily verifiable? )

A/N: I read seperis’ “well, yeah, if by geek culture you mean men” and had Opinions on “Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die” as well, and I also have to work on my inkitout word count a bit ...



( Read more... )

This post was brought to you by the meta discussion about the hc_bingo, but it isn’t about that; my position on it is that I prefer hurt without the comfort (otherwise known as whump) for a reason. The problem isn’t really new either.

This post is about Don’t Like, Don’t Read. You’ve all heard it, I’ve already talked about it in passing and this time it looked like this:

“You are ALWAYS free to NOT READ MY FICS. For that matter, if the subject matter bothers you then PLEASE DO NOT READ THEM. You will be happier, I will be happier, everything will be much better. Really. Just don't read them.” darthneko in Oh, is it THAT time again?

( See, there’s just this teeny tiny problem with Don’t Like, Don’t Read: most of the time, it doesn’t actually apply. )