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mark_asphodelRosa Aquafire's extant work for the Jugdral-verse spans a couple of years-- '04 and '05, to be exact. This makes her one of the more prolific Jugdral-writers out there in the English-writing fandom (first prize in terms of number of stories would likely go to Sara Jaye).
Fandom was already changing; when I first started "researching" FE fandom out of boredom some years back, there were still lingering Internet traces of some kind of fandom wank that broke up the early Jugdral writers, and Rosa Aquafire's name came up a lot. I get the impression that Rosa was known for having very strong opinions about pairings and such; she was a very vocal advocate of Levin/Sylvia, to the point where there is still a trail of 'net references to her dislike of both Fury/Levin and of Sety in particular. IIRC at least one Beowulf/Lachesis story, "White Gloves" (not archived anywhere mainstream) was apparently written with the intent of being a 'fic-format rebuttal to Rosa's contentions on who'd be good for Lachesis and why. And so on.
As to the actual work, archived at both ffnet and her old writing journal:
A Dime a Dozen, a little 'fic intended to argue the validity of Levin/Sylvia.
A Reason to Smile, an Aless/Leen piece I admit I never read all the way through because I wasn't buying into its central conceit.
Carrying Destiny, in which Lana and Mana exist in the same continuity and interact. Kinda interesting.
Possession, in which Eltoshan is all over Cuan at the Academy. Points given for being Elto/Cuan, points deducted for Elto not feeling in-character to me. The author admits that Cuan is sort of OOC too. Hell, everyone's OOC.
Doubts, in which Rosa gets into a Lex/Tiltyu/Azel OT3 kind of groove that arguably produced more meaty and interesting stuff than what preceded it. This was followed by "Certain Sureties" and "Warmth," which are thematically if not chronologically of a kind.
Passion and Madness, an M-rated piece featuring Alvis grappling with his... feelings... for Dierdre (and his non-feelings for Aida). Interesting in that it presents a case for why Alvis would develop such intense feelings for Amnesia Chick. It doesn't suit my own headcanon but seeing a sharply different perspective was refreshing.
Loved and Lost, regarding Sigurd, Ethlin, their dead mom, their own deaths, and a Fleetwood Mac song. Nice try, but it doesn't work for me.
I can't say I really loved any of these stories. While many of them are intended to advocate for the author's preferences, there's something opaque about them that doesn't suit 'fic evangelism; if you're not already on-board with the biases, I don't see anyone being converted. The Lex/Azel/Tiltyu pieces and "Passion and Madness" present their cases better than the rest, IMO, but I didn't feel that I took away some lasting nugget of insight or something that would change my own opinions on the characters. Aside from Dierdre smiling at trees. That part worked for me. The prose is good in some places and wobbly in others, and spelling mistakes often distract and detract from the reader's immersion. In fact, I never really got immersed into any of these; I kind of skimmed along, nodding or shaking my head here and there. IDK.
ETA: Not much more into her Elibe or Magvel stuff. She's an early advocate of Innes/Ephraim, and y'all know how I feel about that.
Fandom was already changing; when I first started "researching" FE fandom out of boredom some years back, there were still lingering Internet traces of some kind of fandom wank that broke up the early Jugdral writers, and Rosa Aquafire's name came up a lot. I get the impression that Rosa was known for having very strong opinions about pairings and such; she was a very vocal advocate of Levin/Sylvia, to the point where there is still a trail of 'net references to her dislike of both Fury/Levin and of Sety in particular. IIRC at least one Beowulf/Lachesis story, "White Gloves" (not archived anywhere mainstream) was apparently written with the intent of being a 'fic-format rebuttal to Rosa's contentions on who'd be good for Lachesis and why. And so on.
As to the actual work, archived at both ffnet and her old writing journal:
A Dime a Dozen, a little 'fic intended to argue the validity of Levin/Sylvia.
A Reason to Smile, an Aless/Leen piece I admit I never read all the way through because I wasn't buying into its central conceit.
Carrying Destiny, in which Lana and Mana exist in the same continuity and interact. Kinda interesting.
Possession, in which Eltoshan is all over Cuan at the Academy. Points given for being Elto/Cuan, points deducted for Elto not feeling in-character to me. The author admits that Cuan is sort of OOC too. Hell, everyone's OOC.
Doubts, in which Rosa gets into a Lex/Tiltyu/Azel OT3 kind of groove that arguably produced more meaty and interesting stuff than what preceded it. This was followed by "Certain Sureties" and "Warmth," which are thematically if not chronologically of a kind.
Passion and Madness, an M-rated piece featuring Alvis grappling with his... feelings... for Dierdre (and his non-feelings for Aida). Interesting in that it presents a case for why Alvis would develop such intense feelings for Amnesia Chick. It doesn't suit my own headcanon but seeing a sharply different perspective was refreshing.
Loved and Lost, regarding Sigurd, Ethlin, their dead mom, their own deaths, and a Fleetwood Mac song. Nice try, but it doesn't work for me.
I can't say I really loved any of these stories. While many of them are intended to advocate for the author's preferences, there's something opaque about them that doesn't suit 'fic evangelism; if you're not already on-board with the biases, I don't see anyone being converted. The Lex/Azel/Tiltyu pieces and "Passion and Madness" present their cases better than the rest, IMO, but I didn't feel that I took away some lasting nugget of insight or something that would change my own opinions on the characters. Aside from Dierdre smiling at trees. That part worked for me. The prose is good in some places and wobbly in others, and spelling mistakes often distract and detract from the reader's immersion. In fact, I never really got immersed into any of these; I kind of skimmed along, nodding or shaking my head here and there. IDK.
ETA: Not much more into her Elibe or Magvel stuff. She's an early advocate of Innes/Ephraim, and y'all know how I feel about that.
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Date: 2012-09-15 05:43 pm (UTC)*chuckles* Being Elibean from the get-go left me stuck between two generations of 'ficcers, so I didn't get to see a lot of the drama.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-09 10:42 pm (UTC)It wasn't even that big a "fandom" drama anyway, just some interpersonal business that went down. From a fandom archaeology standpoint it's nothing to write home about. And like I said, reasons of loyalty, so my lips are zipped.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-16 12:13 am (UTC)I'm still a little hurt that Rosa never refriended me after she dropped that LJ account, but I had been always fairly quiet anyways. *shrugs* I suppose if anyone was really interested, I could dig back in my journal and see if I can find anything on the drama. ;P
no subject
Date: 2012-09-16 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-16 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-16 02:54 pm (UTC)I suppose if anyone was really interested, I could dig back in my journal and see if I can find anything on the drama. ;P
If drama was related to actual fandom disagreements-- who "deserves" Levin and such-- then it's kind of interesting as a yardstick for crazy.
/puts fandom archaeologist hat back on.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-11 12:35 am (UTC)What's up, jerks, this is Rosa Aquafire! Don't feel bad I never refriended you, Avi. I always liked you, but after the massive life-changing drama that went down for me, I'm a VERY PRIVATE PERSON now. I don't do fandom anymore at all, I have only 4-5 friends in the world, shit is just very different for me now! I swore off fandom for good after that account drop, and I haven't gone back in seven years. You didn't miss out on anything not getting re-added, haha, unless you really wanted to know about my desk job. And now I don't use lj-based clients at all anymore!
I definitely used to be insanely passionate about ships, but I've mellowed out with age and look back and this entire area of my life with a feeling of hilarious shifty-eyed embarrassment. I seriously really don't give much of a shit about fandom stuff anymore at all and my philosophy for life is now "live and let live!" If something brings somebody joy than they're welcome to it. Life is too short to give yourself an aneurism about which two characters fucking floats your boat more.
These fics are a showcase of my VERY early work and I've matured as a writer a lot since then! Reading them is absolutely cringe-worthy. I might end up deleting them just because I think it's harmful to my ~brand~ to have such old work floating around, but it's sort of cool to see where I've come from. I only write original content now and have finished a novel which I am currently in contact with agents about the future prospects of! I'm not going to give more information than that because I'd prefer to keep my professional life and my e-past separate, I'm sure you understand :)
It's a little weird googling yourself and having people still talk about your hobby work from 8 years ago, that's for sure. As a naive little 19 year old franatically pounding at my keyboard to convince people Levin/Sylvia was canon, I never imagined people would still be talking about it in 2012. So I just thought that I'd stop by and comment on this since, why not? Who could it possibly hurt.
There is sooooo muuuch drama, both "professional" and personal, in my history with the Fire Emblem fandom that I can't even really enjoy the games on their own merits anymore, but I still have fond memories of the more benign side of those days. I was definitely a shit stirrer! Now I am as opposite of a shit stirrer as possible, and try to just go through life disturbing as little shit as I possibly can.
So yes. Greeting from the other side of time, it's so weird you're all still talking about these ancient fics, but I guess that's what the internet does: enshrines your idiot teenage self for all time.