#(or—at the very least—the 2016-early 2017 fanon version of him)

[localfanbaselurker]

someone take picsart away from me

[inkblot-skyz]

mARTch, Week 1: Meet the Artist, Day 3: Inspirations

Okay, today's gonna be a text-post because I'm not sure how to format it in an art piece.

If you hadn't noticed, I'm very much into both Undertale and Your Boyfriend (I've said it before and I'll say it again, Minors DNI with the fandom and/or game, it's strictly 18+ with its NSFW and horror themes. Don't care if you "can handle it," just. Don't, thanks, for your own good).

Like, a lot. Undertale's been my ultimate hyperfixation since I was 13; about a year after it was released, in fact, so I've seen a lot of the fandom's growth, decline, then growth again when Deltarune was released. Your Boyfriend is understandably newer (I only turned 18 last October, and couldn't interact with the fandom when I first found it because I was a month early, but I miraculously remembered when the time came), and, heck, it could fade at any point. But both media have helped with my artstyle a ton.

I'll talk about Undertale's influences on my art first, since it came first.

I first found Undertale through Aphmau back in the Summer of 2016 (yawn, Aphmau, I know, I was that kid), but it wasn't until the end of the year where it properly kicked off. I watched a couple lets plays after remembering it in passing, and I was hooked. Undertale's the reason I wanted to draw digitally, mostly for the spriting aspect. It also affected my art in a non-visual way; its writing and plot has honestly encouraged me to pick up a pen or pencil and just write the most out of anything. I wanted to make a game because of Undertale, a project that I admittedly made no progress on, but I often find myself blowing the cobwebs off of it and updating with new lore and the like every so often.

Then, I found the fandom, which is admittedly the biggest part of why I've stayed so long.

I was a sans fangirl. I'll hold my hands up and say it without a lick of shame, because I was a dumb obsessive kid (who admittedly turned into a dumb obsessive adult, but at least I'm now self aware lmao). I will say I wasn't as bad as a large majority of the others at the time (I didn't understand the infighting because, cmon, guys, it's a fictional character, you can't claim ownership over him...I wonder if this was an early sign of my polyamory but probably not lmao), but it was...Something that happened.

That honestly didn't last long because after that I found the AUs and, yeah, I simped over Ink and Error for a while (albeit a very fanon version of them but it was 2017, everyone wrote them like that), realised they were cute together and voila, Sans x Sans shipping happened. I mention this not because it's a curse I can't rid of myself (which it is, don't get me wrong, but it's an enjoyable one), but it's crucial because:

As soon as I found Errink, almost immediately after I found TheGreatRogue. Yeah, that Rogue.

Their artstyle, and I hate to say it, completely shaped my own, even if it was Very Bad in comparison. This was before NaJ AU was a thing and a lot of their problematic content was a thing, but it was around the time Vampverse was being conceptualised iirc??

Basically, I slowly amalgamated Rogue's art style into my own.

Then it evolved into other creators' art styles being mimicked in my own. Tiny_Inky_Sans on Instagram and Comyet come to mind, the latter being especially influential when Ink's redesign came about. And I guess over time it's evolved into my own thing?

And, ok, it's important to note that I'm a huge anime fan (this is important!), because that used to influence my style a lot. Heck, it probably still does, hair wise. But I used to draw human characters with HUGE anime/manga eyes. Hell, have an example from last year!

It's not terrible, but it's not the best either. There's worse of mine out there.

But here's where Your Boyfriend comes into play.

So, here's the scene. It's August. I'd just finished Yoosung's route on Mystic Messenger earlier in the week and, because I don't have enough of the in game currency to do his post-game story, I feel kinda empty inside. I'd play Pokemon but I'd just end up beating the League again and feeling worse, because I hate when I finish a piece of media I enjoy. So, I go onto YouTube, hopefully to watch some old Vine compilation.

That's when I stumble upon ManlyBadassHero's latest upload: a playthrough of the first Day of some dating game, which probably has horror elements because that's MBH's thing idk. Bored, with nothing else to do, I decide to check it out, because the name of the game rings a bell (I accidentally reblogged a piece of art to Mul71v3r53 earlier in the year without knowing what it was).

And oh boy.

I was hooked again.

I checked some stuff out online after the video was over, and to my dismay it's strictly 18+. That was understandable, it's obvious from the get go that the antagonist is creepy. So I waited a couple months, hoping my memory would be ok, and surprisingly it was for once.

And so, I did more digging into the fandom and the rest is history.

As I said yesterday, it did inadvertently remove ears from all my drawings, but ears are overrated (floating earrings are funny to draw lmao)

And uh, yeah, I think I've mentioned everything?

This is probably a mess, blame my brain,

and yayyyy Day 3 is done byebye see you tomorrow

[bionicallywriting]

The Three Phases of Dramione

When I read these works, I feel like the fanon itself is evolving. The very early works, in the 2006-2011 range were mostly comprised of very young writers. As someone noted, there was a dearth of material after Goblet of Fire, which spawned fanfic like crazy. Most were unfinished.

The ones that were finished seemed to be mostly comprised of angst and most depicted a vulnerable, weak Hermione set against a ruthless, even cruel Draco. Most speculated about the coming war, so were endlessly tragic. A classic example is The Fallout, which, though well-written, could have done with some major editing to cut out perhaps five hundred pages of the everyday descriptions that failed to add to the plot. Hermione, in this version, is cut out from the Golden Trio to fight and she fails miserably at this. Even though this technically has a “happy ending,” it feels like ash because it. Is. So. Tragic.*

*Don't get me wrong. This writer is very talented, but this work was needlessly verbose. I say this from the standpoint of someone who regularly DNFs books, so the fact that I even skipped to the end to find out what happened already means something.

The second period is 2011-2016, give or take a year or two. This is the period after all the canon came out and happy endings started to fill the fandom. Draco saw a revival of his snarkiness. Hermione often got one over on him. Draco is often depicted as having been in love with Hermione all along. The biggest indicator of this high point of fanon is the depiction of Ron Weasley in their relationship--he is almost always a cheater and seen as an emasculated and sore loser.

(Since fanfics take a few years to finish, when I note the years, this is supposed to be when the fic is started.) The most classic example is one that falls before this time period, but the writing style most depicts this period--the Politician's Wife. Now, this work is really ahead of its time, because it was written in 2006, before the series ended, but the author guessed correctly on a majority of points--so close to the actual ending that you really have to give her major kudos. Key points of this fic that reflect the period--first person narrative, written by an author who's clearly older, plot takes place post-Hogwarts, Ron is a cheater, snarky Draco + humorous tone, and very realistic depictions of relationships, although this one does slightly reside on the greyish morality boundary. Whereas the Draco of the earliest period would have cheated on Hermione purposefully just because he could, in this one, he's slightly more vulnerable.

This period makes me sad because when I go back to see the roster of authors, so many are gone from the fandom. They graduated college or graduate school and started working and moved on. You know these writers as well as I do: worksofstone, riptey, drcjsnider, to name but a few. If they haven't left, they've joined a few fests and lurk a bit but are no longer working on long fics. Very sad.

Alright. The third period. The current period of 2017+. How exciting. The biggest, biggest trend I see for this period is the gradual demonization of Dumbledore (or has this been happening for a while?) and the backlash of the emasculated Ron. In recent years, Ron has regained some much needed favor and is no longer Wizarding Britain's most hated individual.

I don't know if it seems that the smut has been increasingly on the rise as well. Where some earlier works could gain favor just by being finished or by being there, now there's an increasing demand for smut-based Dramione. Now, I don't think I'm a prude, but just as someone who's been reading romance novels since the second grade (yeah I was wandering in the wrong section at the library), I've just read too much literary porn to be invested in just another sex scene. I think porn scenes are less well-written than when they first came into popularity in the mainstream fiction world (circa 80s) when they were then still seen as very, very risque. Because they were seen that way, the sex scenes of books of that era seem to be better than any of the ones now, and I mean just in published books. I read a Harlequin Presents book the other day by a writer who's been going at it for maybe thirty years now, and her recent stuff is filled to the brim with really unnecessary pwp. In fact, in an unprecedented move, a Harlequin Presents romance was split into two books, where one would have sufficed, since the second book was only 150 pages (most HPs clock in at 195) and had three bedroom scenes, each of which lasted some fifteen pages. Basically, the two books could have been condensed into one by cutting out completely unmemorable sex scenes.

I guess what I'm saying is just that the porn content seems to be on the rise. That or, over time, the ones containing smut garnered more readership than those without, so by comparison, it seems as if those rated M+ are more popular. The term lemon has even been replaced with smut, just because, I guess. If you like that sort of thing, it's cool. I mean, it's at least a bit educational, isn't it? I mean, that's really how you went about learning of such things before there was internet.

Only, just as a long-time reader, I can maybe detail like three scenes I've remembered in the course of my entire life of reading romance just because the dynamics and character development leading up to the first scene was so well done, either between the two people or the tension between them. What I mean is, sure, there are readers combing content for smut. But can you honestly tell me that every single smut scene you've read have been essential for the characters? Have they been so meaningful that you remember that scene as essential to their development?

That, to me, is what defines a good sex scene. Not just the requisite action movie bedroom kiss/take off shirt in the dark scene that's so generic that I can't help but roll my eyes EVERY time I see it.

I would probably say this to directors as well as writers: make your sex scenes count. If done well, even a handshake can feel just as earthshattering. I think you all know what I mean.