Sexualized Saturdays: Where Are My Butch Queer Heroines?

The epitome of a female hero?

I love female superheroes, I love female heroes with tragic backstories and redemption arcs. Basically, I love female heroes. They’re great because they don’t conform to traditional female character roles of being quiet damsels in distress, and they show women as complex characters with stories and goals. However, while they break the mold of traditional female character narratives, these characters still overwhelmingly conform to heteronormative societal standards of beauty, gender presentation and sexuality.

So, while we should celebrate all awesome female characters, we should also be mindful of the heteronormative ideas that these characters reinforce and what type of character could challenge them even further. To put it bluntly, I want to see butch queer (super)heroines, but they‘re near impossible to find.

Fanfiction Fridays: So Many Vows by MotherofFirkins

MotherofFirkins might not be my favorite fanfiction author, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy her stories. What I really like about this author is her ability to take the world from A Song of Ice and Fire and make it less dark. I already reviewed one story by her, The Treaty, and there were two big things I liked about it: it was a Jaime and Brienne centric story, and everyone got their happy ending. Those same things hold true for So Many Vows, which explores yet another way for Jaime and Brienne to fall in love and be happy.

Return to Westeros: “The House of Black and White” Review

When I was first asked to come along on the review crew for Season 5 of Game of Thrones—and agreed to do so, mind you—I was intrigued to see what audiences would be in for this time around. It wasn’t until I sat down earlier to watch the most recent episode that my largest fear struck my gut like a failing test grade: I was going to get stuck with the Jon Snow episodes. Some cosmic piece of anxiety was preparing me to resign myself to this fate. Luckily, with “The House of Black and White,” I still remain at a cool zero for Jon Snow-centric episodes. Phew!

What am I supposed to do when the best part of me was always you?
(via youknownothingjonsnow-daily @ Tumblr)

Unlike the other two reviewers this season, I haven’t actually read the books. As such, if events are diverging from Martin’s novels, I wouldn’t be able to point them out. While losing the ability to compare and contrast is somewhat aggravating, being able to experience everything for the first time offers an interesting perspective. And as this episode continues with the themes of shifting power dynamics, these perspectives are going to get a work out.

As usual, spoilers beneath the cut.

Fanfiction Fridays: Yet to be Lived by julesoftarth

With Game of Thrones starting up again next month, I figured it was about time to get back into things in Westeros. For some, this would mean marathoning the previous season. For me, it apparently means reading AU fanfic. While I wanted to read a story starring my favorite player of the game, Margaery Tyrell, when you give me an AU where Jamie Lannister is an author and a Brienne who is over him before she knows him and it’s a ship fic, how can I refuse? Plus, look at how Jaime is introduced!

Jaime Lannister has run into some trouble in Tijuana and his manuscript is going to be a few weeks late. Jaime Lannister has broken all of his limbs skydiving in Jamaica, please extend his deadline just a little bit more. Jaime Lannister has contracted malaria on an African safari, but he assures me his manuscript will be ready six weeks from now.

I had to make an exception. I simply had to.

Stares into the camera like she’s on The Office.

Fanfiction Fridays: The Treaty by MotherofFirkins

Have you ever imagined a version of A Song of Ice and Fire where rarely anybody dies? Except for Joffrey? If you have, then look no further than The Treaty by MotherofFirkins. In this fic, when Robb Stark sends his peace terms to King’s Landing for the North to be declared a separate and independent kingdom from the South, the Lannisters agree. Unfortunately for Jaime, the terms also state that he is to remain in the North as a hostage for the rest of his days.

Official banner for The Treaty by Ro Nordmann (via ro-little-shop-of-wonders).

Also in the terms, Robb Stark demands ten additional Southern hostages—two will be returned every year—in order to further cement the peace. So Jaime finds that he will not be in captivity alone. As the years pass, he has to manage his guilt over Bran’s fall, his despair at his sister’s remarriage to another lord, feelings of betrayal due to his family accepting the peace terms, as well as his growing friendship with and desires for Brienne of Tarth, one of his fellow hostages.

Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon): 2014 Edition

This Valentine’s Day, as all Valentine’s Days, will not succeed in bringing our city down. This Valentine’s Day, as all Valentine’s Days, will soon recede into painful memory, fading with time, until another foul Valentine’s Day is upon us again.

—Welcome to Night Vale, “Valentine”

It’s that time of year again, nerd friends. That awful time of year known as Valentine’s Day. Once a year, before Valentine’s Day, our authors nominate and then vote on ships for our Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom (10 Canon/10 Fanon) list. It is during this time that the LGG&F writers go from peaceful coexistence straight into full-blown anarchy as each writer battles for their favorite ships to make the list.

So now, blood-stained and bruised, it is my job as Supreme Overlord of LGG&F to bring you this year’s Top 20 Romantic Couples in Geekdom.