Latest Posts by penelopes-poppies - Page 9

SO

‘Fin(-dë, -ë)’ means hair in Quenya right? And I’ve often thought that was a little silly, like Tolkien straight up named the most important family in the Silm after ‘Hairy Guy’, and the names just got weirder when translated out after that. Why did the man do this? He knew what ‘Fin’ meant, it wasn’t an accident, and he was so meticulous and purposeful in his naming.

I always assumed it had something to do with the Elves and their hair thing, BUT- I was going through some old Latin textbooks and guess what vocab word I’d forgotten?

‘Caesaries’, which means ‘hair’. As in the likely root for the family name ‘Caesar’, of Julius, Augustus, etc. fame. As in ‘Caesar’, the word historically translated and used to mean ‘king’ all across Eurasia for thousands of years.

Tolkien named the House of Finwë after the House of Caesar.

Every family gathering and you're with your favorite cousins.

Also,

the Dads. ❤

{older bro only irritated by the spilled drink.}

So my friends and i came up with a sort of AU where people sprout flowers in their hair when they feel any sort of love. So anyways, ahklut crew teases Zuko about how many blue family flowers have been growing in his hair the longer he stays on the ship.

This puts his Season One hair into a whole new perspective.

---

Uncle's hair has dried flowers: his wife's panda lily, Lu Ten's dragon ivy. Everyone knows that dead flowers aren't as fragile as they seem, but he has the crewmen carry an umbrella over him when it rains, anyway. Carefully, he combs around them every morning. Leaves from the vine, Zuko hears him crooning sometimes, even though Lu Ten won't ever lose his leaves. He won't grow any new ones, either.

(Tucked away under his greying strands, still too close to the scalp to be easily seen, a bud has been growing for years. Iroh does not pressure it to bloom, but he does look forward to the occasion.)

(And then a storm, and the Dragon of the West realizes there is no way to tell a dead bloom from a live one without prying its petals open, and this he cannot do. A dead bloom can never heal.)

The Akhlut's crew find the Fire Prince's shaved head profane. When he's caught stealing razors, they crack down. Stubble grows around the black ponytail. Flowers don't.

(At thirteen, the Fire Lord set a hand on Zuko's face, and burned Ursa's sheltering rose bramble away. It would have grown back if she was alive.)

("It would have grown back if she still loved you," Azula corrects him, and he's never sure it if was a fever dream that placed her next to his sick bed, or if she really was there, her precise flames as good as any garden shears as she burned his fire lily from above her ear.)

"Whose is that?" Toklo asks, delighted and too loud, when he catches sight of the little sprig of blue flowers that are only visible when the Fire Prince lets his hair down to wash.

"No one," Zuko says, loudly. "My little sister," he says, more quietly.

Uncle's white jade flower is too large, too showy, it sticks out as it curls above his head. He snips it off between his fingers each morning, but it never stops trying to come back.

The crewmen, their own heads in ruckus and unashamed bloom, watch his daily pruning with distaste. No one ever catches what the Fire Lord's flower looks like; they can never catch him pruning it.

(They assume it's there to be pruned.)

(Zuko would like to know what his father's love looks like, too.)

His outrage at Toklo's snowdrops peaking their way through his black fuzz is as hilarious as it is worrying.

("Don't get attached, Toklo," they warn.

"But warm water," says their younger crewmen, who has never seen a reason to be stingy with his love.)

The Fire Prince shouts and steams. The snowdrops shake quite merrily in his rage. He doesn't pluck them.

He doesn't pluck Kustaa's grudging little cloudberry flowers, either.

"Are you loving me to spite me?" the Fire Prince accuses.

"Yes," says Kustaa, who parted his hair specifically to show off the new little bud trying so hard to hide.

They don't give the boy to the Earth Kingdom. They forget to scowl while they teach him how to do new things. They stop threatening him, mostly. That shouldn't be all it takes for those little buds to start spreading among the crew.

(The Wani's crew had them, too. Back when the prince was a shouty little thirteen year old monster, they'd taken it as a sign that things would soon get better. Things did not get better. Most of them forgot about those under-developed buds, except on the odd occasion when their combs would jar against them.)

Then they fight a Fire Navy ship, and find the prince curled up as far as he can get from the man he's killed. Kustaa holds him as he shakes, a fire lily in full bloom on his head. It would look ridiculous, if it didn't look so much like blood.

He's not the prince for long after that.

His hair isn't so barren of flowers for long after that, either. Eventually, he even lets his real uncle's bloom find its place among the rest. It doesn't look so overbearing, when it's not so alone.

"I miss him," The boy admits, as they sit on the main mast (as one does).

Somewhere far, but not too far, a tired old man passes his mirror, and catches the impossible flash of something new. A red fire lily, finally unfurled into bloom.

"Zuko," he says.

This neatly accelerates his plans for active treason.

I’ll just let the piece speak for itself.

Mood.

kidnap dads pillow/blanket forts !!! 🥺

48. Pillow/Blanket Forts

Maedhros halted abruptly as soon as he crossed the threshold of the boys’ room. “What are you doing?”

Elrond and Elros froze guiltily. Elrond looked down at the ground, while Elros scrunched up his nose.

“Building a blanket fort?” he said.

A blanket fort? Maedhros blinked, re-examining the mass of pillows shoved beneath chairs, blankets draped over them, the cozy little cavern the twins had created for themselves. He’d done similar things as a child, he recalled, though there had been no concept of “forts” in Aman. It stung his heart to think that they had never known peace, had been born and raised in a land where even forts did not stand for long...

But this would would, this blanket fort within a fortress. Maedhros would defend Amon Ereb, so the children could defend their quilted creation.

“A fort should have defenses,” Maedhros said, crouching down to inspect it. “It should be strong enough to withstand enemy attack. I would know—I held Himring for centuries, and hold Amon Ereb even now.”

Elrond looked up, eyes wide. “Will you help us, Atya?” he blurted out. “So if Atar comes we can—defend it from him?”

Maedhros laughed, ruffling his son’s hair. “Of course,” he said. “First—let’s spread these chairs out, and find some poles and books to build with, so we can expand our fort and I can fit inside...”

~

“What are you doing?” Maglor asked, baffled, as his brother and their sons marched past him with arms full of blankets, books, and...stilts?

The twins scampered on ahead, completely oblivious, but Maedhros paused, a cheery sparkle in his eyes that Maglor hadn’t seen there since...before Fingon died.

“I’m instructing them in siege warfare,” he pronounced. “Keep out of their room for an hour or two, alright? You’ll be playing the enemy, eventually. Just like our drills back in the day!”

“Atya!” Elros called. “C’mon!”

Maedhros grinned—grinned!—and all but pranced away, more excited than Maglor could remember him being in a very long time. A little morbid that it was battle tactics that put such a spring in his step, but, well, that was Maedhros...and Maglor saw the truth. His brother was happy to feel useful, instructing the twins on something important, something he knew well, and able to spend time with his sons as well.

He shook his head with a smile, already turning over ideas of how to play the game along with them. If Maedhros had a hand—hah—in the fort they were building, it would take a little more than knocking over a chair to take it down...not that he’d really do that. He’d let the boys take him hostage.

After all, of the four of them that comprised this strange little family, he was the only one who’d never been kidnapped before!

LOTR character Hogwarts houses?

oooooo good question. 

Gandalf- Ravenclaw (Values knowledge and wisdom foremost. Literally named the wisest of the maiar.)

Galadriel- Slytherin (Very wise, but she was also willing to follow Feanor to fulfill her ambitions of ruling a kingdom and she was tempted by the ring. Protects the people of Middle Earth and put aside her ambition to help them. Awesome, healthy Slytherin.)

Sam- Hufflepuff (This character is, in my opinion, the PRIME example of a Hufflepuff. Loyalty? Desire to protect his friends? Nurturing? Yes, very yes.)

Boromir- Gryffindor (I mean, he’s incredibly brave, protective of his friends, and a bit reckless. Excellent Gryffindor.)

Frodo- Hufflepuff or Gryffindor (Honestly can’t decide because he fits both pretty well.)

Faramir- Ravenclaw (Ultimate Nerdboy McGee. Preferred to hang out with an old wizard professor than go do boy stuff with the homies. Love him.)

Pippin- Gryffindor (While his loyalty to his friends is evident, his impulsiveness and his bravery in the face of the most terrifying danger ever makes him a Gryffindor. I mean, he literally stood up to the Steward of Gondor when he was in the throes of madness and was trying to burn himself, his son, and anyone who got in his way. You go Pippin, you funky little hobbit.)

Merry- Gryffindor of Hufflepuff (Loyalty to Pippin and Theoden and his intense study of hobbit history and culture gives strong Hufflepuff vibes, but facing off against the Witch-King of Angmar and his giant fellbeast in a terrifying battle gives off big Gryffindor vibes.)

Eowyn- Gryffindor (I don’t feel like I need to explain this one. She was literally dying to go do brave stuff. She faced off against the Witch-King. She snuck into the army. Superb.)

Elrond- Ravenclaw (Please let this dude read his books in peace. He didn’t ask to be pulled into everyone else’s drama.)

Aragorn- Ravenclaw (A hot take, but I feel like you have to be a Ravenclaw to know the history of Middle Earth to that degree and also to be able to compose amazing ballads on the spot like that. I mean, he’s brave and loyal and stuff too, but he’s also just a big nerd about a variety of topics and he’s very wise.)

Arwen- Gryffindor (“Arwen, babe, we can’t be together because you’re immortal and I’m human and also your dad wants you to go to the Grey Havens with him.” “Nah, Imma stay here with you and defy the world by becoming mortal and facing the uncertainty of a human death because I’m a badass.”)

Legolas- Hufflepuff (Totally willing to throw down for his friends. Decided to befriend a dwarf despite the fact that elves and dwarves hate each other. “Dwarves don’t go to the Grey Havens, it’s just for elves and ring bearers.” “Yeah, screw that this is my emotional support dwarf so he is coming with me.”)

Gimli- Gryffindor (I mean, he’s a big ole history nerd but he literally insults everyone the fellowship meets and tries to fight everyone so…. Also he literally flirts with Galadriel in front of her husband which is a totally baller move.)

Denethor- Ravenclaw (He’s actually really smart, he’s just a dick who went mad. Master strategist. Great example of an unhealthy Ravenclaw.)

Sauron- Slytherin (Climbs his way to the top. Manipulates Numenor to destruction to gain power. Veeeerrrrry sneaky.)

Bilbo- Hufflepuff (Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders.)

a librarian’s hoard

[ID: Digital illustration of a red dragon surrounded by their colorful hoard of books. A worn, blue scarf wraps around their neck, and a pair of gold glasses sits on their snout, held in place by a gold chain. The dragon’s lair resembles a huge, airy library with multiple levels of bookcases, tall mountains of books, and floor-to-ceiling windows revealing open sky. Decorative gold chains drape across the space. The dragon smiles as it holds a small book in its mouth, stretching to offer it to a distant human standing atop a book tower. End ID.]

People can be so quiet about their pain, that you forget they are hurting. That is why it is so important to always be kind.

— Nikita Gill

female characters not conforming to gender roles is great, but if they have to sneer at women who do fit into those roles in order to do it, it’s just misogynist.

i notice this in fantasy media and it’s fandoms quite a bit that what a ‘strong woman character’ means is often a woman who rejects things historically associated (in western culture) with women. she doesn’t like clothes or pretty things, she doesn’t want to fall in love, she doesn’t care for how she looks, she doesn’t like or want children, she rejects the domestic sphere entirely, etc.

and, of course, any woman should be allowed to do that, those are all valid things and she shouldn’t be constrained to any role, - but when we write these characters such that what makes them strong and valuable is that the people around them (and they themselves) consider them unlike the other women - all we do is reinforce that what those other women are is weak and without value.

so, of course, let’s write our swashbuckling, cursing, warrior women at home among soldiers ... but let us also write housewives and mothers and ladies in bejeweled gowns whom we respect as characters.

empowering a single kind of woman while putting down all the rest is of use to no one!

Absolutely ALL text written and edited for Li's Friends, and the process for getting it on Amazon started (gotta get that sweet sweet ISBN before I finalize the copyright page). Feelin' real good and productive over here.

Final book title is "Li's Friends: Horrible Pets to Protect You From the Horrible World". (Keeping the "Book of Friends" part out because I did not go to such efforts to not get sued by the Avatar copyright holders only the get the Natsume's Book of Friends lawyers side-eyeing this project.)

Overall, the flavor text ended up being a running dialogue between Li and Other One, which works well in a short text format, and allows for small references Avatar fans will pick up on without putting in so many that Lawyers Will Care. ...Hopefully.

Next steps are finalizing the layout, which we're estimating will take until mid-October, then ordering a physical proof copy. Once I'm happy with the proof copy quality I'll pick an actual publication date and set up the preorder.

Sales will be through Amazon, barring anything exceptionally wrong with the proof copy. I'll set it up for extended distribution, which means you should theoretically be able to order through local bookstores and such as well as just online.

Physical book will be $15 USD. PDF copies are free either with the purchase of the physical book or a $10 USD donation to WIRES, the Australian wildlife rescue the community voted on. All participating artists will get the PDF for free on release day, as well.

Thank you to everyone who donated their time and talent to this project! This book is literally dedicated to you, because you deserve nice things like book dedications and pets of questionable repute. <3

I like to believe that in the same way Glorfindel was sent to Middle Earth, Finrod could have been a messenger in Númenor and change the fate of Dúnedain.

Hi! I like your collages :) I wonder how long does it take to make them?

Hello! Many thanks for your kind words and your thoughtful question! I am so happy that you like my collages, and I am so delighted to reply! :)

In general, it takes me several days to make a collage. It took me a total of eleven days to make both collages of Zuko (Fire Is Life and Zuko in Water Tribe war paint), so I think that these specific collages took about five or six days each.

I had a lot of fun making these collages! When I completed them and cleared my collage-making stuff off my desk, I felt a bit sad to be putting that stuff away. Then I received your ask, and it motivated me to put that stuff back on my desk, together with the completed collages, and to take the following photo to accompany this reply.

[Image description: A photo of the surface of a desk.

On the desk are two completed collages. Both collages are portraits of Zuko. In one, he is wearing Water Tribe war paint.

Also on the desk are some items that were involved in making the collages. These items include an X-Acto knife and cutting mat, two adhesive applicators, a ruler, a pen, a mechanical pencil, and various kinds of paper.

One piece of paper has a pen sketch on it. Other pieces of paper have shapes cut out of them. Some pieces of paper have smaller pieces of paper pasted onto them, and one also has pencil notations on it. End image description.]

For these collages, I made a pen sketch and chose color palettes based upon character design elements from the Avatar: The Last Airbender animated series and comics.

For the Water Tribe war paint collage, I also consulted descriptions from the fanworks that inspired it, which are Salvage by @muffinlance​ and war paint by @agentcalliope​ — two beautiful fanfics in which Zuko is essentially adopted as an honorary member of the Southern Water Tribe.

I selected paper for Zuko’s skin and scar, and for the war paint, by pasting various pieces of paper onto other pieces and testing the effects of layering them.

When I had selected all the paper for both collages, I made a chart containing a column of paper swatches and a corresponding list of planned locations, such as “hair highlights” (russet origami paper), “irises, border” (metallic gold origami paper), and “background” (colorful and sparkly momi paper).

To assemble the collages, I cut the paper into shapes with an X-Acto blade, sometimes with the help of a ruler, and then pasted the shapes into place with one adhesive or another, depending upon the weight of the paper, which ranged from art tissue to card stock.

After completing the collages, I tried scanning them, but the scans didn’t show the reflective quality of the metallic gold origami paper.

I wanted Zuko’s gold eyes to shine, as though from his inner fire. So I brought the collages to a window, angled them so that Zuko’s eyes reflected the sunshine, and took photos to post on Tumblr.

Just as I enjoyed making these collages, I am enjoying reading and replying to people’s comments and questions, such as this lovely ask! Thank you again! :)

First age family reunions be like:

You can't go back and change the beginning but you can start where you are and change the ending.

— C.S. Lewis

Elrond: Why do you look so happy?

Thranduil: Because it's autumn.

Elrond: Yes, and?

Thranduil: Spooktober, Peredhel, Spooktober.

Thranduil: And you know what that means? The wild giant spiders finally have a use! Free decorations!

Thranduil: *shakes Elrond violently*

It's when Elrond shouted profanities in Quenya that Aragorn and the twins knew they were in deep shit.

—The Book of Very Lost Tales, pt. III

Top 5 Best Funny Hobbit Lines

1) “This is what it is, Mr Baggins,” said the leader of the Shirriffs, a two-feather hobbit. “You’re arrested for Gate-breaking, and Tearing up of Rules, and Assaulting Gatekeepers, and Trespassing, and Sleeping in Shire-buildings without Leave, and Bribing Guards with Food.”

“And what else?” said Frodo.

“That’ll do to go on with,” said the Shirriff-leader.

“I can add some more, if you’d like it,” said Sam. “Calling your Chief Names, Wishing to punch his Pimply Face, and Thinking you Shirriffs look a lot of Tom-fools.”

I am particularly impressed by Sam’s ability to marshall the power of Verbal Capitalization when called for.

2) “If you turn over a new leaf, and keep it turned, I’ll cook you some taters one of these days. I will: fried fish and chips served by S. Gamgee. You couldn’t say no to that.”

“Yes, yes we could. Spoiling nice fish, scorching it. Give me fish now, and keep nassty chips!”

Poor Gollum, doomed to a world without sashimi.

3) “Mercy!” cried Gandalf. “If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?”

“The names of all the stars, and of all living things, and the whole history of Middle-earth and Over-heaven and of the Sundering Seas,” laughed Pippin. “Of course! What less? But I am not in a hurry tonight.”

What makes it all the funnier is Pippin’s sheer laziness. He spent two months in Rivendell and, going by Merry’s comments, I doubt he so much as opened a single book. But he’ll quiz Gandalf incessantly.

4) Gaffer Gamgee, on his son’s sartorial choices: I don’t hold with wearing ironmongery, whether it wears well or no.

There has never been a more quintessentially Hobbit line.

5) Merry Brandbuck, after assisting in destroying the Lord of the Nazgûl: I am hungry. What is the time?

Okay, so it’s not inherently funny, but it gets major points for context.

i love the silmarillion cause it starts with a group of deities chilling to lo-fi beats and it gets progressively more intense like at one point an elf literally fights off a werewolf with his teeth and it's not even the most dramatic thing that happens

Whenever my day is going bad, I remind myself my name is not Maedhros and I don't have brothers named Celegorm and Curufin. It works very well.

Which of the named maiar are most huggable to the least huggable? Please, include sister Ilmare too. She CAN potentially hug, it is just that her hugs will be diffrent!

A simple quandary on the surface, but more confounding upon inspection!

I note that the question is who is “most huggable”, and not “who gives the best hugs”, or “who would I most like to hug”. BUT you’ve also stated that Imarë’s capacity to initiate a hug makes her eligible for consideration, so I will expand the definition of “huggable” to include “able to hug” as well as “able to receive hugs”. This will affect ranking as well as hug quality.  

1) Olorin.  Here’s my reasoning: He is already in physical form, he is mostly amiable to other living creatures, he is a man of great empathy and insight and would probably know when and why you needed a hug the most, he wears big robes which seem cuddly, he probably smells nice, like sweet tobacco smoke and wool. It’d be like a really good grandpa hug. 10/10, accessible, unambiguously platonic, pleasantly survivable. It might not be the hug you want, but it’s the hug you need. 

2) Uinen. Have you ever hugged someone in the ocean? While you’re both floating, and your body temperature has adjusted to the water so you’re almost not able to perceive that it’s water anymore, and you’re both just weightless and adrift with the hush of waves and gulls the only sound around you, and the sun is setting and sparking off the droplets on her skin, her arms and breasts soft as pillows, buoying you gently up upon the surface of the vast, rocking sea, her hair rolling like a kelp forest with the current, and you are safe, safe and loved and in the embrace of eternity itself and it is so beautiful you no longer remember your own name, or that your skin was ever dry or your body ever cumbersome and grounded, and all that matters is the pink sky and gentle smile and the crook of her neck and shoulder that your head cradles against so perfectly. This hug affects you on a spiritual level, but you do get salt water up your nose and your fingers are pruny.  9.999~/10.   Leaving the hug forces you to return to a disappointing and squelchy reality with sand in your shoes. 

3) Sauron. It doesn’t matter how tall you are or how much you weigh, you will be swept up in this hug; it doesn’t hurt you but it is a powerful hug, you are at no point able to forget that if he wanted he could squeeze you into a cup of grapejuice. He smells like warm leather and some kind of exotic beard oil that probably costs a lot of money and a little bit of sweat but not in a bad way. There’s serious muscles behind this hug but also just enough padding that its like “oh shit this dude lives deliciously”; there’s a lot of well-groomed body hair and perilous intentions. This hug is an acquired taste, but absolutely the finest vintage. Will almost certainly lead to bad decisions. The author’s bias has been noted. 9/10. 

4) Huan. Gets top marks for being huggable, despite not being able to hug back in the traditional sense. Loses half a mark for knocking you over and licking your whole face even though you asked him not to several times, but it’s still cute. 8.5/10, a good boy, you’re a good boy yes you are. 

5) Tillion aka “Tillybun”. Hard to catch! Gets squirmy if you try and pick him up and cuddle him, but is more amendable to hugs if you come down to his level. Even more amenable if there are treats. Cannot hug back, but is VERY soft, and has tickly whiskers, and that’s wonderful. 8/10  Difficult to obtain, but worth the effort. 

6) Melian. This is a, hmmm, regal hug. It’s good! But a little reserved? It always feels a bit like a photo-op? But she’s wearing these really long silk sleeves and has little jingly ornaments that sound really pretty and she smells like cedar wood and amber and lotuses, so the whole procedure is an Experience. 7/10 Could use some more emotional availability, but the catering is exquisite. 

7) Ossë. Aside from the potential drowning risk, it’s really awkward and forced, like you can tell he’s not really into it and doesn’t understand the appeal. Also, unlike Uinen he’s kind of taut and sharp and spiny and slippery? Smells STRONGLY of iodine. MIGHT be poisonous. COULD forget you can’t breathe underwater. Aside from those concerns though, he’s got big Shape of Water energy and it’s kinda hot if you’re into that. 6/10. 

8) Eonwë. The likelihood of obtaining a hug from this uptight piece of work is slim to none, but if you ever do get one, it will be with your face smooshed into hard, unforgiving plate armor, jabbed by pointy metal flanges, for exactly 2.5 seconds before you are released with some kind of stern appraisal, like “good work citizen” or “so it pleases heaven”. You will not know what is happening and it will be cold and scary but afterwards you’ll feel strangely elated? You did it champ, you won approval from Constable Tightass. You hate it, but a part of you loves it, don’t you bootlicker? Yeah you love being praised by authority you thirsty regime doormat. 4/10 

9) Curunir. This hug lasts too long. You notice that he is uncomfortably bony and smells like wetwipes. He keeps saying embarrassing platitudes the whole time that make it seem like he’s doing you a big favor for gracing you with attention, and it comes with a little pat on the head! This is the most patronizing thing you have ever endured. You need to take a long shower. He seems pleased with himself. 2/10

10) Arien, Gothmog, Durin’s Bane, Ilmarë: Too spicy to hug. And look, it’s not their fault their hugs aren’t survivable! Other folks who are Ainur might find their hugs very rewarding and pleasant! But for the rest of us, a hug from them means being incinerated, or freezing asphyxiation in space. Simply. too. spicy. 0/10 

reblog and describe your favorite tolkien character in the tags

Speaking of linguistics fics, an idea I’ve played with but never put into practice is using maximal Latin-rooted words when characters are speaking Quenya and Germanic-rooted words when they’re speaking Sindarin.

The effect being to make the language shift more meaningful than just a dialogue tag, (maybe even to the point where I don’t always have to say it outright) and it would work by playing on associations of Latinate words as more highbrow and polysyllabic and Germanic words as more common. (Think regal/kingly, dine/eat, or educate/teach.)

It might backfire, it might be impossible (sometimes the connotations run the other way!) but I think it’d be fun to try.

my therapist: ancient greek man-faced crab drachma isn't real, it can't hurt you

ancient greek man-faced crab drachma:

finally got around to paint my favorite golden haired boy

Saw this on Instagram and I couldn’t agree more.

This Is How You Actually Take Notes In College, Bitches

it’s occurred to me that nobody fuckin knows how to take notes in classes and most advice about it is bad. What the fuck are “key words?”

So anyway here’s how I’ve gotten a’s in all my classes in college so far

I’m not gonna bother too much with telling you to take notes in class. Everyone knows that shit. But most people’s note taking skills suck ass and there are two main types of sucking ass I have observed

The first is the one where your notes look like a list of key terms and words. Sometimes they are underlined or there are dashes that connect them to other words. So if your prof was talking about Henry VIII you’d write down something like

Henry VIII

Church of England—divorce

DON’T DO THAT. Those words are gonna show up on the test, sure, but writing them down isn’t gonna help you with the test. What the fuck does any of that mean? High school is shit and your “key words” can’t help you now.

Here’s the other type of bad note taking:

It was necessary for Henry VIII to have a male heir who could succeed him, but his wife was unable to conceive a son. The Catholic Church

I stopped writing there because your professor moved on to something else. But, tbh, even if you can write fast enough to keep up with the content of the lectures (and you can’t for the entire lecture) it’s not helpful to have a solid wall of Everything That Was Covered In The Lecture, in grammatically correct complete sentences. Are you gonna read that shit again? No!

And honestly most people have like, sentences here and there that look important instead of the whole lecture. Which is also bad.

So what’s the not shitty way to take notes? It comes down to these principles:

Shorthand

Show Relationships of Things

These kind of go together

I cannot emphasize enough that you don’t need to write sentences like a normal person. Shorthand everything, and I don’t mean some fucked up studying shorthand you just came up with like “AmR” for American Revolution, I mean like...fuckin text/memespeak. Don’t write complete sentences, completely abandon formality. Abbreviate anything you would in a text message, you know what it means.

HOWEVER: You Must Show How Things Are Related To Things

To understand broad concepts you gotta understand how the things in them are related to other things.

That’s why writing down “Henry VIII” and “Church of England” isn’t gonna help you, because you’re not learning that there is a Church of England.

Did Henry VIII burn the Church of England? Cheat on his wife with it? Who knows? Definitely not you.

This is why you have to connect stuff like

Catholic Church says no divorce

Henry VIII—starts Church of England

But ya know you can make that more memorable AND more clearly show how one thing caused the other

Henry VIII: divorce >:)

Catholic Church: no

Henry VIII: fuk u *church of england*

I’m completely dead serious about this, this kind of slang is very good at indicating exactly how things relate to things in zero time and you know exactly what it means and you’ll remember it

But furthermore

You have to come up with shorthand to quickly indicate how things are related. Say you write down the definitions of two terms for like, opposing theories on government in class. That’s great but you’re leaving it to yourself to work out the opposing part later from what you write, and your brain’s a flaky bitch.

Like part of what you’re doing it giving yourself help with HOW to study your notes later.

So like. Do something like write a jagged line in between the definitions, indicating conflict. Write “OTOH” or “HOWEVER” in between in big fuckin letters. Writing down “Catholic Church” and what that is and “Church of England” and what that is, is fine. But like, if the main theme is the contrast between the two, “Catholic Church HOWEVER Church of England” immediately tells you the basicest basics. It’s like a tiny outline, telling you what to expect. Sure, you can figure it out reading your notes but I’m telling you how to write skimmable notes that you can glean stuff from even when you’re half spaced out and shit, okay?

Same thing for like, dates and sequences and cause-and-effect and stuff. Even if you’ve got the dates down...be sure to put arrows or something so even at a glance you’ve got basically what’s going on.

Also i know it feels like wasting paper but DONT scrunch all your notes together into small space on the paper. That lil dialogue between Henry and the Church of England is spread out over 3 lines which means if you have ADHD like me you can actually fuckin read it. Turn things into bullet lists. Indent things with little arrows to show things leading to things. If there’s a clear move to a new topic, new page. If you’re actually filling up the paper all the way that shits hard to read and it’s even harder to pick out the Big Important Stuff.

Last word of advice: If you end up like writing down two things and can’t tell what they’re for or how they’re related to each other...ASK QUESTIONS. Like “I’m sorry can you explain how the Church of England is related to the Catholic Church? I didn’t quite catch that.” If talking in class makes you feel like you might be percieved badly, you can frame it like a Nerd Question “So, what kind of relationship would you say the Church of England and the Catholic Church had?” or just play it off like you didn’t hear it like “I’m sorry, what was that last thing you said about the Church of England and the Catholic Church?”

Or just make a mark on your notes to remind yourself that you need more info and to go to your prof’s office to ask questions. I would really not be nervous about that, professors normally really like it when students show that they really want to succeed in the class and that they care. Unless they’re like, a complete dickhead, in which case, fuck what they think, right? You’re gonna ask questions and it’s their problem because you’re essentially paying them for your presence in the class.

So...yeah.

i know there are the 5 love languages but what about hate languages