[ SECRET POST #2693 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2693 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.
















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 058 secrets from Secret Submission Post #385.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ], [ 1 - blank image ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

09. http://i.imgur.com/xJpWUsx.jpg

[iceyred]

No opinion here, but did Bilbo stick his fork in an electrical socket or something?

Completely off-topic

[(Anonymous)]

But you just reminded me that nothing, not one thing, gave me more pleasure in Desolation of Smaug than Nori's spectacular bad hair day following the barrel ride. I have no idea why, but his collapsed star gave me a little tickle every time I saw it in Laketown.

I'm easily pleased, yes?

Re: Completely off-topic

[iceyred]

People who are easy to please are happier than those who aren't. And the dwarves are good examples of truly bad hairstyles.

[souljelly]

My first thought too! Looks like he's well aware of his bad hair day and is moping about it as well.

[(Anonymous)]

I hate when I see a Thorin/Bilbo fic with a promising summary and then I see the girl!Bilbo tag. MAN. Talk about disappoinment.

[(Anonymous)]

MTE! I really wish that more users would use a separate fem!Bilbo tag for their work.

[visp]

Well, yes. Obviously the true pairing is Bilbo/Human!Smaug.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm annoyed by any fic that re-writes anything chapter-by-chapter or scene-by-scene. Want to do an AU that re-tells canon with a twist? Cool, but don't transcribe every line that was uttered in canon. I already watched/read it, I don't need to read it all again and I didn't go looking for fic to read something that just re-hashes canon while expecting me to imagine that one of the characters is trans or a werewolf or something.

[feotakahari]

Do you want a TV Tropes link? Of course you do! http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheStationsOfTheCanon

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I agree with you there. What I want to see is more how the events are changed, than how Y said something X said in canon.

I say that happens in a fair amount of fem!Character fic.

[(Anonymous)]

I think it's a particularly difficult type of fic to get right. You want the characterization to be recognizably that character, but there have to be some changes (as the character would've been treated differently in both large and small ways).

[(Anonymous)]

I did not even know this was a thing.

I was really into the Lotr fandom 10 years ago .... but I've stayed right right out of Hobbit and it's times like this I'm really glad.

[elaminator]

I haven't read Hobbit fic in a long while but that doesn't sound appealing, no. I don't read much genderswap in the first place, but if the character isn't recognizable you can forget it.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh this. So much this. Even the supposedly good ones still leave me feeling confused as to who this "Bilbo" character is meant to be, or what was even the purpose of genderswapping in this story.

[silvereriena]

I haven't actually stumbled upon that many Fem!Bilbo fics, but then again, I haven't read any Hobbit fic in a while. I have seen a few "OFC joins the Company" fics as well, and that gave me flashbacks to all of those "10th Fellowship companion who is a hot lady elf/human/hobbit/not a dwarf because dwarves weren't popular yet" fics back when the LotR movies were still coming out. Good times.

[duaedesigns]

I really hate when they have Fem!Bilbo as this delicate fainting timid flower, especially set post-journey where supposedly everything happened as it did in canon. How was she supposed to have survived all that when she cries every time another hobbit gives her the stinkeye?

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, those people sound like homophobes.

[(Anonymous)]

Have you read any of diemarysues' fics? I think she does some fem-Bilbo... maybe they're okay?

[lunabee34]

But what does fem!Bilbo get named? Bilba?

[(Anonymous)]

Bilba, Billa, or Bella (sometimes short for Belladonna, which was Bilbo's mother's name).

Hell of a lot better off than Harry Potter, I can tell you that.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I would note, "Bilba Labingi" is Bilbo's name in true, untranslated Westron. I like fics that use that.

[(Anonymous)]

I've also seen Bilby or just Bilbo.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

I have made mention before that I dislike fics that genderswap both Bilbo and Thorin, because I am just not interested in femmeslash, but the truth is, while I do occasionally read fem!Bilbo stories (where Thorin is still male), it's still a second-best opinion to straight-up slash stories, because I came to the pairing with the concept of both of them being male already set in my head.

There's also the issue that I wonder just how much like canon!Bilbo a fem!Bilbo would really be. I cannot believe Hobbit society would be easy-going about fem!Bilbo becoming a spinster, and would surely have already started to treat her ill for being 50 and single (and also occupying a house best suited for a family). Fics that do make use of that issue? I do like, but I often feel the issue become irrelevant once fem!Bilbo is on the road with the Company.

OP

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, interestingly, once fem!Bilbo explains why she never married, the Company is always very understanding of her spinsterhood, while among her own people she was basically shunned or at least thought of as very odd and "un-Hobbitish". It's perfect material for the whole "tragic past" trope so many Sue authors use in their fics to make readers feel sorry for the Sue!

Seriously, in Middle-earth a woman of 50 still unwed and not protected by a husband (by her own choice) would have appeared extreme and outrageous. People would be baffled by it, thinking her too free-spirited and unlike a "proper" lady. Rigid gender roles were serious business, man.

But, somehow, dwarves see it differently? Why? While some authors use headcanon to explain, most fic just brushes it off, like you've said. It becomes a non-issue because dwarves are awesome like that or something. They're idolized in this fandom anyway but I've read Thorin/OFC fic that was pretty much racist and viscious against all races except dwarves (who were downright fetishized), even when the OC herself was half Man/half dwarf (of course she was). O_o