[ SECRET POST #2874 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2874 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 074 secrets from Secret Submission Post #411.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 4 - random images ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. http://i.imgur.com/UsmXWZv.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, a Havemercy secret! I haven't seen one of these in a while

[diet_poison]

...I really like that art. Wow.

Is that a book series? I might have to check it out.

[(Anonymous)]

The art was one of the things that first drew me in too :) The first book is called Havemercy, by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett. It's a steampunky fantasy about, amongst other things, a group of men who fly mechanical dragons as weapons. They're a fun read!

[diet_poison]

Thanks! I may just have to check them out.

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, one of the things I like about the later books is that the authors took on board the criticism about the absolute lack of women in the earlier books and created just as diverse a cast as the male characters. Characterisation was far and away their strength with those books.

Also, I heard that they married each other recently? Which is AWESOME.

[(Anonymous)]

Also, I heard that they married each other recently

Whoa, really? That's pretty neat. I didn't even know they were romantically involved (I'm sure that must have been common knowledge but I'm really out of touch)

[sabotabby]

Without knowing any context (the receptionist at my physiotherapist recognized me as a fellow nerd and recommended the books to me) and just from reading the books, I guessed that the authors met through LJ fandom and were romantically involved. That's cool that I'm actually right.

[(Anonymous)]

OP

I thought the intention behind those characters was good, but it wasn't very well executed. They fell into the old "only really stereotypically masculine/not-typically feminine women can be awesome" trap, at least with the female POV characters. I was really rolling my eyes when, after we had Madoka, who was over and over again described decidedly non-feminine, Laure was "raised by her father as a son". And I think the trans character (not to spoil it, people who know them will know who I mean) was ... kind of awkwardly explained.

Oh yes, apparently they did! I thought that was kind of surprising because all I heard about them was that they lived really far apart and only communicated via email. I only read it in an answered ask on their tumblr but yeah, I'm happy for them!

[feotakahari]

Wait . . . A book series with Western-style dragons has a character named Madoka? I might actually have to check this out. (I've seen Japanese characters in steampunk before, but only in webcomics, not in published books. Not that I've seen a lot of published books use steampunk . . .)

[(Anonymous)]

Basic plot of the main book: Faux!Russia/England is at war with faux!Asia (basically a mixup of Japan, Korea and a little bit of China). Faux!Russia has the sentient (female identifiying) metal dragons.
Madoka is one of the POV character in the third book, and she is from faux!Asia. The second book also has two POV character from Faux!Asia.

[(Anonymous)]

not Japan. A pretend!Asia where all the stereotypes one might come up with from watching a lot of anime and travel programs about East Asian countries are mashed together, so that the writers don't have to do actual research about history but also don't have to create anything new.

[(Anonymous)]

The sad thing about this: At least one of the authors studied it at college and wrote her thesis about Japanese monsters. Which is why I was kind of irritated that the two princes from the same family had such different names - one Japanese and one clearly Korean-coded. That was weird.

[(Anonymous)]

That's actually a very valid point that I hadn't noticed before, and I can imagine how frustrating it must be to have fandom mostly ignore your favoured characters. I'm not really that involved in it on tumblr, but a couple of people I follow post about it and one of them is very big on Hal/Royston so there's still a little bit about (... unless you are that person *side eyes*). But small fandoms changing and slowing is always sad.

[(Anonymous)]

I think one of the reasons I'm so sad is because, let's face it, I was spoiled rotten with love for the characters (Ivory and Raphael, to be exact - haha, irony of ironies, a new Ivory/Raphael was posted just very recently - today, or yesterday, I think. Need to read it soon!). And that kind of developed from a complete crack ship because there really wasn't much known about the characters except for the few lines they had. And I guess that most of the people who weren't there when it first developed go "WTF" when they see it, just like I do when I see Clint/Coulson fanwork haha!
So I can't really complain, but it's still sad.

So... yeah, not that person. I'm not really very active anymore myself, I have to admit.

If only the kink-meme could be revived...

[dinogrrl]

I didn't realize this book had a fandom. I can see it, though.

Personally I found it one of the worst books I've read recently, but (according to comments I'm seeing here and elsewhere now) I'm glad to hear some things improved with the later books. And yeah it does suck when your favorite characters just fall to the wayside, I feel for ya.

[(Anonymous)]

The funny thing is: I am aware that it's really not a good book. But I love it anway haha!

And...well, to be fair, the characters in question litterally fell to the wayside. Or rather, off the dragons. So... yeah, can't blame'em.

[dinogrrl]

lol I know how that is. One of my favorite fandoms is a game that is awesome in some ways (obviously u_u) and really not so much in others, but dangit if I don't love it.

Hmm...well...yeah, I could see how it'd be hard to come back after that.

[(Anonymous)]

I did not realize these books still had a fandom. I remember the little LJ fandom, and I only lurked, but it was great. I never really connected to the later (post-Shadow Magic) characters either.

On a completely unrelated note, after not rereading these books in years, I recently realized that Royston probably started as a Roy Mustang expy.

[(Anonymous)]

The name and general nature of his magic sounds a lot like it, doesn't it?

[(Anonymous)]

Random note: I thought this was about Percy Jackson and the Olympians and that the robot dragon was Festus! Just sayin' for no apparent reason

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, Havemercy, haven't read that in forever. Didn't even know there was a fandom for it.

Read the first one & liked it. Never bothered with the rest because I wished heartily for the return of The Shoebox Project instead of more novels.

[shahrizai]

My flagship in this fandom is Roy/Hal, but I'm very disappointed in the lack of Adamo/Laure. I'm not sure if I want to call it a slash-positive fandom or a het-phobic fandom. I definitely get the vibe that icky girls should stay out of their harem of airmen. For a fandom that's supposed to be so queer-positive, most of the attention is on slashing the guys and not the awesome lesbian metal dragons.

(I also love the person who did the Josette/Temur fills on the kinkmeme.)

[(Anonymous)]

I hated Adamo/Laure because it was just Hal/Royston 2.0 in het with less delicate flower-ness. And it was even lampshaded in the book. So... nah. Not for me.