#BRING A STONE

[tossawary]

This is petty fandom salt, BUT... I've been chewing on this phenomenon that I've been calling "Fandom's Darling". It is related to things like "Author's Darling" and "Mary Sue / Gary Stu" and "Protagonist Halo" and all that jazz, where one character gains a peculiar narrative weight in a story.

"Author's Darling" is when a writer has a favorite character, and the world and all other characters sort of get... warped to put the Darling in the spotlight. It's most noticeable in TV shows with multiple writers, when a character you personally like suddenly has their previous characterization destroyed to make another character look good somehow. Every other character might become weirdly incompetent. The Darling's feelings are treated as The Most Important Feelings in any given situation. The logic of the fictional world seems broken past suspension of disbelief in order to validate this one character's beliefs or skillset or some other fantasy. And so on.

"Fandom's Darling" is what I've been calling the pattern where a fandom essentially crowns a New Protagonist for their fanfiction stories (it's often a side character rather than the original protagonist, but it can also happen to protagonists). This character becomes the self-insert for all sorts of indulgent fantasies, gaining special powers or backstories, and/or becoming the focus of extreme whump, and/or hooking up with all the various hotties, starring in all sorts of tropey AUs, and so on. They're not always an obvious Mary Sue version of themselves, but the character's original personality and interpersonal relationships tend to get warped or dropped completely, and other characters tend to become a little flat around them. I call it "Fandom's Darling" because it's not just one self-indulgent fantasy fic (you do you! Have fun!) with characterization choices that I don't vibe with (I have neither the time nor the desire nor the authority to police anything, I am just venting), but rather a prolific mini-fandom of sorts revolving around this empty doll / fanon version of the chosen vessel character, so it becomes a little unavoidable.

I am salty about this (mildly frustrated) (imagine a soft sigh of disappointment before I just go do something else) because you are FUCKED if you actually liked the canonical version of this character and their interpersonal relationships. It's almost worse than liking an obscure character that no one cares about. There's about a thousand fics starring your fave, but maybe only about a dozen of them are actually rooted in any kind of recognisable canon.

[iwasbored777]

Agent Stone with Doctor Robotnik be like

[danikatze]

[ID in alt text]

I listened to the new ep twice today

[corneredcopia]

Hate Gerald. none of this would’ve happened without him.

[yourangle-yuordevil]

Frightened and stressed out by the overwhelming love they feel for each other because they are even cuter up close 😔❤️💛

[Birds of a feather AU] - [Previous part]

[kaijugroupy]

ok but hear me out. how fun and crazy would it actually be if we talked about asexuality as a spectrum more?

consider this? aces who like sex but don't like being touched themselves? aces liking and getting off on pain stimulation but not pleasure stimulation? Aces who don't like getting off but like sex? Aces who use a one to ten scale to gauge sexual ability but never fully make it to ten. Aces who are happy at a level seven, or four, or two. Aces who like some aspects of sex but not all. Aces who get bored in the middle of sex and stop. Aces who are super into over the clothes stimulation. Aces with boundaries.

[wtfforged]

zoros my farmer on sdv. i drew his current outfit with my mouse

[tallykale]

a bit of my postcanon vision

i heart people arguing

[chloesimaginationthings]

⭐️JOJOLANDS CHARMS RESTOCKED⭐️

[criiitter]

updated fursona moment :3

[sodapopprincess]

cant be normal about anything i fear. once i like something im hopelessly devoted to it

[iwasbored777]

The fact that he doesn't turn off the camera until Eclipse Cannon exploded makes me think that he was so nervous about the fact that he's dying and, even though he couldn't see Stone, he wanted to feel like someone is with him. In those last moments people are scared and they don't want to be alone, so he wanted to feel like the person he loved was there with him right now because he was always there.

[ebenelephant]

all i'm saying

[vigilskept]

i know it would've been difficult for them to tackle, but it absolutely kills me thinking about the missed opportunities of getting into religious angle of everything that's going on in veilguard.

because it's insane, right? that there are gods in this game. and the game will tell you over and over that they aren't gods, that they're Just Mages, but that's actually not precisely true. they're something very different from what a tevinter magister is, at least, and not only on a power-scale.

powerful spirits are gods in this setting. that was the religion ascribed to by most of humanity, before andraste. the avvar and chasind still ascribe to that belief.

a lot has been said already about how the game fails to engage with belief for dalish characters, and i agree. i think the game also really fails its andrastian characters here though because this is actually huge.

it's not just whether the golden/black city is/was the seat of the maker. it's the very meaning of what god is that's at stake here.

the maker has abandoned humanity. only through the pleas of his prophet andraste is he willing to consider the idea of offering a second chance to his creation. he will not respond to your prayers, and he will not give you answers. his will is inscrutable, to be interpreted only through the words of his prophet which have been changed over the centuries.

and if you are a mage, you are taught that this maker has cursed you. your very being is a curse.

and then you meet elgar'nan. and then you meet ghilan'nain.

they are not your maker. not really. not even if you're an elf.

but these gods are knowable. they will speak to you, personally. they may even do so with kindness. they will tell you what you could do to please them, and even offer you something in return.

and what they ask is terrible. maybe even unfathomable. but in a world where exalted marches have been called in the name of the maker and entire circles annulled, isn't that enough to give you a little pause?

[screechingfromthevoid]

I don't think Orym is a jealous man. I don't think Braius flirting with Dorian is really doing anything. Besides making him insecure.

Orym will definitely convince himself that Dorian would prefer Braius. He's more on Dorian's level both physically and class wise. Hes only 3 inches taller than Dorian and they can bond over art. To Orym it'd the obvious choice, to choose Braius. It'd make sense that the tall beautiful bards would fall for each other. He doesn't see Braius' flirting as a threat because he doesn't even know he's in the running.

And because he's not a jealous man, if he truly saw Dorian show genuine interest in Braius, Orym would accept it. He'd understand. He'd swallow his feelings and keep them to himself. Because he doesn't think he should have these feelings in the first place. BECAUSE he doesn't want to get in the way or impose or ruin what they already have.

DORIAN HOWEVER is super jealous. As a younger sibling to a golden child I know how possessive someone can get over attention. That's why it was all shy smiles and biting pencils when Braius was flirting with him. But the moment Braius flirted with Orym he was immediately at attention. Because that's his little warrior. If anyone is going to flirt with Orym it will be him.

I think if Brauis (Sam) changed up his technique and started flirting with Orym more, we'd have Dorym love confession in like two weeks. I don't think Dorian can handle competition. Not about this. Not with Orym's heart on the line.

[sticks-stones-sonic-insanity]

Ok. Sonic 4. Metal Sonic and Amy. Sonic CD. Time Stones. Good and Bad futures. Time manipulation. All of that stuff. An idea, a concept if u will...

Agent Stone becomes the main antagonist of Sonic Movie 4 not out of a desire to take over the world, but in an attempt to use the Time Stones to save Robotnik from the explosion of the Ark.

"I already lost you once! I-! ...I can't lose you again." Half of that dialogue was the last words Stone got to speak to Robotnik.

If he knew there was a way how, he would make sure they never had to be.