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Snowflake Day 10
Day 10
In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (Or a few!) Tell us what makes it work for you, and why it appeals to you so much. Talk about what you like to see in fanworks featuring that theme most. Feel free to include recs and examples!
Okay, with both Thor: Ragnarok and Agents of Shield using this well worn plot device in these past couple months, I kind of HAVE to talk about why prophecies are something I lovelovelove.
First things first: it's only a prophecy if it comes true in the end. Otherwise it's just a bunch of mystical BS you shouldn't have believed. (See also: the "Prophecy" of Durin's Folk, and delightfully, the Curse of the Sun and Moon in The Vampire Diaries, which was a deliberate fake.).
See, prophecies should be about as motivating to characters as communism: if you're going to end up with xyz anyway, why bother acting at all? BUT if your fate looks like it's going to be of the Terrible Doom variety, well, any being with an ounce of self preservation is going to want to change that. Similarly, if it looks like you're going to be The BIggest Damn Hero after foretold Dramatic Events, you are probably going to go fearlessly charging towards your Bigger, Better Future because you already think it's guaranteed.
What I love about prophecies is how their cryptic wording (or not! Agents of Shield is using a prophecy put forth in pictures this season!) can often be misinterpreted, and should therefore be followed with caution. An ominous sounding fate is actually salvation for a race (Thor: Ragnarok), Star Wars' Chosen One plunged the galaxy into ruin instead of peace, bringing the prophesied Balance well after he had totally f*cked it up first. And that makes such a compelling story to me: not that we can't fight our fate, but that sometimes we bring it on ourselves by trying to prevent it, or find that it's really not so horrible after all, and usually discover that despite "knowing" the future, the actual unfolding of events defied expectation.
Besides AoS, the one I'm most interested in watching play out is Cersei's on Game of Thrones because she freaking Won The Game (for now) and she triumphed in part because she made the most of her prophesied tragedy, like just look at her claim the throne upon the ashes of both her enemies and her beloved children!!!
I also like playing with prophecy in fic, because double meanings are my jaaam. So I reinterpreted the Death Myth of Maui in Smitten (Moana, Moana/Maui), made The Prophecy of Durin's Folk into an actual prophecy in To Catch a Falling Star (The Hobbit, Kili/Tauriel), and I'm in the process of reinterpreting the Chosen One prophecy in A Third Path (Star Wars, Anakin/Padme). TBH, I don't see this come up a lot in fic, but I'd adore any recs!
In your own space, share your love for a trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme. (Or a few!) Tell us what makes it work for you, and why it appeals to you so much. Talk about what you like to see in fanworks featuring that theme most. Feel free to include recs and examples!
Okay, with both Thor: Ragnarok and Agents of Shield using this well worn plot device in these past couple months, I kind of HAVE to talk about why prophecies are something I lovelovelove.
First things first: it's only a prophecy if it comes true in the end. Otherwise it's just a bunch of mystical BS you shouldn't have believed. (See also: the "Prophecy" of Durin's Folk, and delightfully, the Curse of the Sun and Moon in The Vampire Diaries, which was a deliberate fake.).
See, prophecies should be about as motivating to characters as communism: if you're going to end up with xyz anyway, why bother acting at all? BUT if your fate looks like it's going to be of the Terrible Doom variety, well, any being with an ounce of self preservation is going to want to change that. Similarly, if it looks like you're going to be The BIggest Damn Hero after foretold Dramatic Events, you are probably going to go fearlessly charging towards your Bigger, Better Future because you already think it's guaranteed.
What I love about prophecies is how their cryptic wording (or not! Agents of Shield is using a prophecy put forth in pictures this season!) can often be misinterpreted, and should therefore be followed with caution. An ominous sounding fate is actually salvation for a race (Thor: Ragnarok), Star Wars' Chosen One plunged the galaxy into ruin instead of peace, bringing the prophesied Balance well after he had totally f*cked it up first. And that makes such a compelling story to me: not that we can't fight our fate, but that sometimes we bring it on ourselves by trying to prevent it, or find that it's really not so horrible after all, and usually discover that despite "knowing" the future, the actual unfolding of events defied expectation.
Besides AoS, the one I'm most interested in watching play out is Cersei's on Game of Thrones because she freaking Won The Game (for now) and she triumphed in part because she made the most of her prophesied tragedy, like just look at her claim the throne upon the ashes of both her enemies and her beloved children!!!
I also like playing with prophecy in fic, because double meanings are my jaaam. So I reinterpreted the Death Myth of Maui in Smitten (Moana, Moana/Maui), made The Prophecy of Durin's Folk into an actual prophecy in To Catch a Falling Star (The Hobbit, Kili/Tauriel), and I'm in the process of reinterpreting the Chosen One prophecy in A Third Path (Star Wars, Anakin/Padme). TBH, I don't see this come up a lot in fic, but I'd adore any recs!
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(as retold by W. Somerset Maugham [1933])
Death speaks: There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling and said, Master, just now when I was in the market-place I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture; now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me. The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the market-place and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning? That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.
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It's really not huge in fanfic- mostly original fic. And yes, the Oracle at Delphi was always messing up those poor Greeks, huh? LOL
Seeing as how you're here via snowflake, can I add you as a friend? :D
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Yes, I love new friends!