#I'm kinda passionate about this

[jackofacetrades]

I've had a similar thing happening to me. Either a really long and detailed analysis on a show I love on tumblr, or a fic with an unlikely crossover and even unlikelier pairing. I don't write much either, so each piece I write is sort of special, so it being ignored kinda sting.

But I could avoid feeling bad about it in two ways:

like @murieltheawful said, i remember why I wrote them: for myself. I loved these ideas, I wanted to put them into something, out there, even if it's just for me. Now I can come back to it whenever I want and re-read it.

the second one is direct reassurance from friends! if my friends (irl or from fandom) read it and liked it, then it was also worth it and my need for community is mostly fulfilled.

(I lied there is a third way) finally, i take a step back and think about why it didn't reach its audience: on tumblr or ao3, it's mostly a matter of 1) timing (during the day, or even how much longer after the finale aired?), 2) how much that ship/fandom is popular (either it's a rare pair and no one will read it, or it's a way too famous pair in an overflowing fandom, and it'll be swallowed immediately by the rest). There can also be the matter of tags: did I tag correctly (enough, but not too much?) for the targetted audience to find my post/fic?

I want to talk more about the second point, because it resonates with a lot of ao3cotd posts about community. What we want is connection and interaction, but especially community. Even if just one friend read and like what we wrote, it feels enough.

I shared that super long ass analysis post with a friend of mine, with whom I've watched that show. They loved it and told me I could be proud of it. They don't have tumblr. This post has a grand total of 0 notes. But I wrote it, and they read it and agreed with it, was moved by it, and therefore it was all worth the 3-4h I spent writing it. We talked about it some more, and I was happy. It doesn't sting that much (I admit it stings a bit still) that absolutely no one else read it or found it or agreed with it. Because my friend did. It's the same for that rarepair crossover fic. I shared it with a fandom friend (from one of the fandom crossover), they didn't even knew the other fandom, they read it, liked it a lot, kudoed it, commented on it. They can't wait for the next chapter (that I want to write but can't find the time nor energy, it's another problem). This fic has 3 kudos: my fandom friend, my irl friend and a stranger.

One friend is worth so much more than a hundred strangers.

I understand though it can be difficult to share fics with irl friends, and difficult to make friends in fandom. If you can and there is, try and find a fandom community (there are lots on Discord). I tried it a bit, enjoyed it a bit, but I'm not available enough and it's too much for me, I can't really interact. I stay on the outskirts and barely participate. Instead, I made friends the "old" way, I'd say? (and in the last few years, so it still works!)

The way I found to make friends in fandom is by commenting on fics I love. I tend to comment overenthusiastically, especially on long and totally finished old fics. I comment on nearly every chapter, while I binge read it, or when I take my time over it, saying I can't wait to read the next chap the next day. Like for a show, I like to talk about and comment on what I consume. I often got bewildered answers, saying I totally made their day, even made them re-read that fic they'd written so long ago. How much they loved it. I shout theories, all I think about what's happening, etc. They follow my journey through their fic. I make call backs to the canon, I catch the references when I can, talk about them. I had long discussions in the comment section about some things that had nothing to do with the fic at some point. I ask questions. Where did they find this idea, it's so good? Have you seen this or that? This scene made me think about it! At that point, I want to read all their stories, and usually do so and we keep chatting in the comment section. Until we finally exchange contact info or our tumblr to keep chatting for real. I even asked one of them to beta my work (my english was a bit rusty at the beginning), if they can/want? etc

I've made two long lasting friends like that. I've lost contact with others. One of them I befriended two times without knowing it, because they were under two different accounts, one of them incognito (they used to be a BNF and didn't want that associated with their new fic which was really different, iirc). It was all very fun and extraordinary.

This kind of interaction is what I look for in fandom. It can be very lonely otherwise, and I don't think I would have stayed long here if I hadn't meet people with whom to talk and gush and share all these wonders with.

So one advice: do not necessarily wait for others to come to you. Go to others. Be the reader you'd like to have in your comments section (if that's you ofc, it doesn't work if it doesn't come from the heart and is genuine). Connect to others and then you'll have others come to you too. Even if it's one person, it'll be enough.

Other ideas I had: crosspost your fic (ao3, tumblr, other), maybe at different times, make sure you tag correctly so that it can be find, ask for advices and opinions on forums/discords (there's always someone willing to help, in general). Don't be too afraid. And i'll finish with a Neil Gaiman: don't dwell too much on it and start writing the next bit/story. Keep writing, focus on what's next and never on what's over.

any advice about how to deal with posting a fic and getting radio silence? I know ppl aren’t owed engagement ofc, but I feel embarrassed at having spent so long on something no one cares about, and although I liked thinking about the characters and fandom before (and was considering writing more about them), now I can’t think about it without feeling that overpowering embarrassment 😭 part of me wants to delete the fic, but that would mean having to open ao3 and look at it again LMAO

sorry for the venting, I know this is probably a me problem, but has anyone else felt this, and if so, is there any way to make this pervasive shame go away??

*hugs* This is a very painful thing to experience and there isn't really any way to make it just go away, unfortunately. However, you can reflect on it a bit, when you're ready to.

Writing and posting are separate activities. If you've enjoyed writing the story but you haven't enjoyed posting it to the Archive, you can always continue writing just for yourself. This may or may not be something you'd enjoy - you know better than I do whether some of your enjoyment came from the anticipation of a reaction to your work.

Try to analyze where your embarrassment is coming from. Is it worrying that your story was poorly written? A lack of a reaction doesn't mean that the story is bad. Being unpopular doesn't mean it's bad, either. If your story is good to you, then it's a good story.

Is your embarrassment from feeling like you were "caught trying." Is it a cringe at the idea that you put effort into something that someone else doesn't (appear to) find valuable?

Is it actually embarrassment at all? Are you feeling a different kind of hurt instead? Did you hope that someone in particular would read your story and now you feel ignored? Did you hope to be embraced by your community and now you feel shunned?

These are difficult questions that I'm asking and you might not want to think about them right now. That's okay. You don't need to if you don't want to. You can definitely delete the fic and pretend it never happened. Or you can log out of that AO3 account and create a new one and never look back. Maybe you just need to take a week or a month off for a hiatus of sorts and when the ache isn't as bad, you'll be able to face it all again.

When I felt this way, it was because I felt like I'd put something into my community and that I'd been ignored. But since that time, I've found one person who gives me all of the community support I used to get from an entire fandom, and now when I post something on AO3 I don't actually need a response anymore. I get all of the fun and excitement and validation etc from my conversations and RP threads with my best friend.

Once you've got a little distance from the pain of this moment, try to figure out what it is that you were hoping to get and then figure out how you can get it. Maybe it's through posting fic to AO3, but maybe it's not.

Let's see what others can suggest. This is not something you're experiencing alone, anon. So very many of your fellow fan writers have experienced this too ❤️

[bonefall]

Hey, what makes a character a 'plot device but not a character'? And how do you not do that? I'm trying to do it on purpose but also I need to still make them interesting because it's on purpose, yknow?

A good skill to pick up is to learn to criticise criticism itself. A "plot device" is simply a thing that moves the plot along, it's a neutral literary analysis term! Usually, when people are angry that "a character has been used as a plot device," it doesn't mean they hate plot devices. It means they're gesturing at something deeper.

Runningwind and Bumble are equally plot devices in their deaths. They are both killed by the antagonist to escalate political tension. Runningwind is rarely "accused" of just being a plot device, and yet, we're talking about Bumble for the same thing.

So, why?

Well, Runningwind is just a background character, but in life, he was a part of the community. He was characterized as impatient but responsible. Yet, he wasn't SO important that he died with a bunch of unresolved plot threads.

He is mostly an extension of the entity of ThunderClan. His killing by Tigerstar, and the fear and paranoia that settles on the group after this, feel like a progression of the story insteas of something forced.

Bumble, on the other hand...

Is hated immediately by Gray Wing, when she's established as Turtle Tail's friend. Bumble's abuse at Tom the Wifebeater's hands invites even MORE investment. The rejection is shocking and upsetting. There's a story there about our main characters being imperfect; jealous, bigoted, and judgemental.

But, she is simply killed off. Everything they set up for this character is gone with little personalized fanfare. It's not a tragedy with a lesson about cruelty, or something anyone regrets.

It's just... plot. Gray Wing whinging that no one will like his shitty brother now that his body count is 2.

More than that, in the discussion of women in particular, "Fridging" was coined to give a name to the way women characters often don't get their stories told at all. There is a CULTURAL trend of female characters facing disproportionate violence, for the sake of advancing male plots.

Bumble has a lot going for her. Petal had a lot going for her. Turtle Tail had a lot going for her. Bright Stream had a lot going for her. When they died, they took their potential with them.

It's not always wrong to kill off a character of high potential, mind you. In Gurren Lagann, Kamina's death is sudden and shocking, leaving a massive hole in the hearts of the cast that never heals. Grappling with that loss, but also letting his memory fuel them, is a major theme of that story.

All that to say... there's no formula for avoiding it. You've gotta identify what the deeper issue is, in your specific narrative.

I can't say for certain what that will look like for your story, but here's some things I keep in mind;

When you make characters who exist to die, make sure they're people before you axe them.

Ask yourself; what about them does the cast miss?

If they just miss them because they were (pre-existing relationship), go back to the drawing board.

Fluttering Bird as an example. Who was she? Dead sister. Why do they miss her? Dead sister. No traits until after her death.

Runningwind was short-tempered and helpful. Kamina was a valuable leader who made people believe in a brighter future. Swiftpaw was fiesty and desperate to prove himself. The better characterized, the more profound the loss usually is.

If this is a female character who is dying just to serve the plot, be aware of cultural bias and tropes. How is the gender ratio looking in your cast? Is this happening disproportionately with your girls?

Note how Quiet Rain's litter had both a boy and a girl, but the girl was chosen to be "weaker" and wither away.

And how most of the time in DOTC, whenever a man had to be upset, a girl would get killed for it.

If you ever feel like the character on the chopping block is NOT a full character, ask yourself why it needs to be a character at all. You don't need to spend narrative time building out someone when a literal object of high value might suffice.

"My sister died when I swore to protect her and I can't face my family" = Old. Tired. Ive seen this.

"I lost my heirloom sword when I swore to protect it and I can't face my family." = Fascinating. Why was the sword so valuable? Will they really not take you back? How did you lose it?

When you do kill off "high value" characters, try to make sure you're not leaving too many plot threads hanging. Or at least make a point of how they will never get closure.

[theeoriginals]

Thoughts on how Elijah would snap under sexual tension? I know that man is feral I feel it in my soul 😩

you're so right let me get into it

18+ below the cut

elijah is known as the most level headed but we all know that's not really true. the man has so many feelings and even if he does appear calm on the outside, he is always battling something internally

including sexual tension

he's a total martyr so he'd have some sort of "you can't touch her, you'll ruin her" thing going on in his head, and the whole time you're sitting there like "does he even want me?" and it turns into a whole "will they won't they" ordeal with so much mutual pining

he wants you so bad... like so bad it consumes him

and he's abstained from this you for so long that of course there will be a breaking point. it could be him seeing you with another man, it could be a random tuesday that he sees you and the sun happens to hit you just right and all of a sudden he finally, finally, knows what your lips taste like

he knows the sounds you make when someone kisses the breath out of your lungs. he knows what you look like with his hands on you finally, and now he is never, ever, going to give it up

elijah i think is an addict in that way. he can withhold so many things and he can keep a straight, level mind, but the second he lets himself indulge in one thing, he's diving head first into the deep end and doesn't care if he never comes back up for air

so once he finally indulges himself in you, he knows that he can't ever go back to his life before

and even though it was an explosion at first, all of that tension finally boiling over, it doesn't stay like that

when he finally gets you into bed, elijah is devastatingly gentle. he treats you like you're glass, and he knows he is more than capable of breaking you. though he isn't showing hesitance anymore, he treats you with care and it kind of breaks your heart to think that he was ever depriving himself of this

this, of course, being love. let's call it what it is.

elijah falls in love so poetically and despite all of his flaws, and his ability to turn into that brutal original vampire that they tell stories about, he loves you softly.

so the first time you have sex, it's hot and passionate and it's sticky, and he never stops touching you and he never stops kissing you because he never wants to forget what it feels like. and you think he's one of the most selfless lovers ever, but he feels so, so selfish because every bit of pleasure he's inflicting upon you is for him. it's so that one day, when he thinks he won't have this anymore, he remembers what it was like

he's nothing if not a fatalist

so even though you guys go the distance, he loves you every time like it'll be his last. he's lost too much to do anything else, and he thinks you deserve the world so he'll whatever it takes to hopefully measure up to that

[somegrumpynerd]

Do you guys wanna see a thing I tried writing? It's pretty unfinished and I don't think I will finish it but it was fun to play with and it might be okay as a lil snippet! I also have like no energy for drawing right now but I wanna post something lol

(The context is Cross and Killer are alone on a mission in some unspecified au when Killer goes stage 3)

“Killer?”

Cross looked over when he got no response, half expecting Killer to have wandered off in some direction as he did on these longer jobs. His loyalty to Nightmare was often at war with his attention span in the field, and you could expect a job to take longer if it was anywhere a cat was liable to appear.

What he didn’t expect was to catch sight of Killer’s wildly fluctuating soul glinting in the reflection of the knife that was coming right for him.

Cross managed to lunge back just in time for the knife to arc downwards into the snow in his place. Its wielder slowly turned his head, tracking the path to where Cross was now. His empty eye sockets gushed with more ooze than usual, stare somehow colder than the ice he was now shaking from his blade.

“Killer…” Cross began, trying to keep his tone steady and authoritative like a warning. He was ever hopeful that this was some stupid game Killer was playing out of boredom, but that hope died as he watched some of the black goop begin to drip out of the corner of the other’s mouth.

That only happened when he went stage 3.

Shit.

Cross felt his soul drop. He’d never dealt with Killer like this alone, usually they handled him as a team if Nightmare wasn’t there to take over. In the time it would take him to look down at his phone to call for help there would probably be a knife in his head.

This was fine. He could handle it. He always had more training and stamina than Killer anyway, he just had to play keepaway with his life long enough to go home with it.

Killer teleported in front of him, something that caught Cross off guard. In his right mind, Killer almost never seemed to use his magic in fights unless he wanted to fuck around with the other. 

[Put the fight part here idk pretend there was a really cool fight, it was so cool, you loved it]

Cross felt his soul drop again, but this time the rest of his body followed. Killer was using his gravity magic to hold him to the ground, and was shambling towards him ready to finish things. Cross struggled for a moment to see if he could fight his way out of the magic’s hold, but to no avail. He was pinned as his assailant now stood threateningly over him, knife raised. In a flash of desperation, he reached out both hands and grabbed Killer’s ankles, quickly moving his head to one side as a bone attack pierced up out of the snow and struck the other in the jaw.

It wasn’t his strongest attack, but it was enough to knock Killer backwards and stun him. As Cross felt his soul being released from the other’s magic, he quickly scrambled forward and sat on Killer’s chest as he lay sprawled out in the snow, pinning his arms down on either side of his head as he began to come back around. His face was leaking so much determination from every crevice that at that point it was hard to make out an expression under it all, but Cross could tell he was frustrated as he felt the rumble of bone attacks beginning to rise up out of the snow around them.

He followed suit, carefully forming a line of his own bone attacks closely around them to act as a barrier. He could feel Killer’s attacks bouncing off of his, each hit more desperate and frantic than the last like an animal clawing at the sides of its cage. He felt some magic encircling his soul again, but this time trying to raise him up rather than push him down. It was weaker than before, whether because Killer’s attention was split with still launching bone attacks or because he was beginning to tire out, but Cross managed to fight against it and stay put.

“Killer!” he barked, leaning over the other’s face. “That’s enough. You’re not going anywhere until you pull yourself together!”

The gravity magic seemed to cease at his shout, so Cross continued in the fervent hope that he was getting through to him.

“We’ll stay here all night if that’s what it takes, but I’m reporting back to Nightmare when this is over and I’m not leaving without you! Do you hear me?! I don’t care if I have to bring you back hogtied over my shoulder, I’m not gonna hurt you and I’m not gonna let you kill me!”

He didn’t realise he’d been shouting until the clinking and scraping of bone attacks had slowed and stopped altogether, and it was just the sound of his promise echoing off the bones and snow surrounding them.

And the strange gurgling sound coming from below him.

He opened his eyes again in confusion and stared down at the skeleton weakly fighting against his grasp, determination pooling and soaking into the snow from every gap in his skull. It took a second longer than he’d like to admit for Cross to realise that sound was Killer choking on it.

His bone attacks shrunk back into the ground and he shot backwards, landing ungracefully on his backside with a little curse. He hurried to pull Killer up and help him lean forward, swatting his back as he retched and spat the toxic goop up onto the ground where they’d just fought.

It was never an elegant dismount from these things, they’d found there was just no dignified way to get out a ribcage worth of black ooze. After a minute of heaving and gasping, Killer finally got a hold of himself and started glancing frantically around.

“Where’s Dust??” he managed to choke out with the urgency of a parent who’d lost their child. It always seemed to be the first thing on his mind when he came to from one of these episodes, Cross was never really sure why since any other time it seemed like they hated each other.

“He’s at home,” Cross assured, pressing one hand to Killer’s spine for support. “It’s just us, we were on a mission.”

He could see now that Killer’s soul had calmed down from the pulsating mass of spikes it was a few minutes ago and become somewhat soul shaped, still twitching nervously but a far calmer sight than before. That was a good sign that the attack was over. He wondered how much control Killer had over it, since he’d definitely seen it turn that way without having to go through a fight to the death first, but it was rare.

Cross flinched as he felt Killer grab him again, though this time instead of kicking him in the ribs he simply held on for dear life. That was another clear sign, after he was done puking up whatever goop had built up he usually cried for a while.

It was odd, especially the first few times, to see someone who always seemed so disconnected and unphased have a sobbing breakdown after trying to kill you.

“Hey,” Cross said, voice hushed as he wrapped his arms around the skeleton trembling in his lap. “It’s okay… you’re okay…”

Cross had never been the best at comforting words, but he knew Killer just needed someone to cling to while he got a hold of himself, and he was content to be that for a little while. Especially after being thrown around so much, his aching bones were more than happy for an excuse to sit in the snow for a bit. He could feel Killer’s soul being pressed against his chest as he wept silently into Cross’s shoulder, the fear and regret seemed to be radiating from it like smoke from a smothered flame.

He wondered idly if this was what Nightmare could feel all the time.

...

He also wondered just how hard it was going to be to get these black stains out of his jacket again once he pried Killer's face off of it.

[angerinc]

Have some Kieran doodles cuz this little guy is literally rotting my brain away. Ft my Sc/Vi Sona because I WOULD listen to him ramble on and on about literally anything. I love him.

Also the last image was inspired by a line up of all Kiki's battle models I saw on Bulbapedia (a pic under cut)

The change in his eyes man,,,,, he's going through it,,,,,

[fahr-rose-mike]

I had a whole class on herbacides, and while glyphosate does affect part of the phosphates that are also part of RNA, its less bad than many many many many other herbicides.  its still bad. but it overlooks the real issue, which is that herbicides are a losing proposition in the long run no matter what, because that “accidental” resistance that was developed is almost a guaranteed event - plants and weed plants in particular (cause a weed is a biologically SUCCESSFUL plant) are incredibly prolific at reproduction... really really prolific... like 3-5 MILLION seeds per plant - and each one of those seeds has a tiny chance individually of having a useful mutation, but if you have even 50 weeds per acre, you’re talking a quarter of a billion chances per generation.  eventually, they’ll find a metabolic pathway around your herbicide, even if its less efficient than the normal metabolic pathway, you are literally Rouging (technical breeding term for killing all the plants without your selection trait) the weeds to select FOR herbicide resistance. anyway, non-monoculture practices like what was practiced before ww1 are much better at long term production. because we didn’t get our huge production increases because of herbicides OR pesticides OR fertilizer. we got those gains through breeding better adapted plants. which genetic tools make a much much faster process than ever before.

i'm sick and feel shitty so y'all are getting a bunch of random opinions from me today but

I don't like how Roundup/glyphosate has a reputation as the worst or most dangerous herbicide when it's relatively safe as herbicides go, and a lot of the alternatives are worse

IIRC it all started with a lawsuit where a man was awarded money because he developed cancer after a lot of exposure to glyphosate. Now, a lawsuit is not a scientific study, and to date there aren't any proven health hazards of glyphosate—this doesn't mean it's not hazardous, but some other herbicides DO have proven damaging effects to human health but people view roundup as The Worst

[fgmetanoia]

One of the things I like the most of this show is the way they use colors.

Not only there are colors associated with families, like the Bridgerton blue, the yellowish/greenish for the Featherington etc, but also how, at the same time, they are used to convey emotions.

In S1 the colors Simon wears change according to his feelings for Daphne: red when he is prey of his feelings and black/gray when he fights them or mourns them.

The same thing with Daphne, she wears white when she plays the role of the diamond and light blue when she's in her element with her family. And they get darker the stronger her feelings grow.

Same in S2 with kanthony: the intensity of the colors Kate wears does not only change according to her social role (dark colors to indicate she is too old to marry, to facilitate her sister's wedding), but they also symbolize how strong her feeling for Anthony are.

And Anthony starts wearing the Bridgerton blue only in S2, when he opens up to his feelings. Whereas in S1, when he was completely closed off he only wore black.

And yet. Nobody does it like polin.

Like, I'm sorry. Pen changing her wardrobe was one thing. But buying dresses in EVERY POSSIBLE SHADE OF LIGHT BLUE?!

Colin's room walls/curtains being YELLOW?????

And not only that, because just like Anthony, Colin also starts wearing blue more consistently in S2 when he slowly starts having stronger feelings for Pen, despite being in denial of it.

I can't. I just can't with these two.

[wishuponroses]

I adore how Tatsuya Endo writes his characters, especially the women. They can be warm, soft, cute, cool, tough, scary... all, if not most, of his ladies in Spy x Family are equally wonderful in their own way, both in character design and personality.

[goldensunset]

dude if kh ends ill. probably cry lmaoo. but also. fandoms continue after their thing is finished dont they?? like. 10 years after its done ppl will still talk abt it?? i hope so at least

given that the kh fandom has survived several massive droughts over the years at this point i think it's unkillable. some of my mutuals on here are from like the ice age of kingdom hearts and still alive and blogging the exact way they always did. it won't be a huge fandom but even now with the series still being alive the fandom isn't as big as it once was in its heyday. but those of us here are incredibly loyal. and the nature of any long-running thing is that people carry it with them over the course of many years and it'll become impossible to drop it once it does end. but! it truthfully all depends on How it ends if you ask me. if it's a trainwreck a lot of people might abandon it out of resentment. if it's good or even mediocre as an ending it'll have its fans throughout eternity

[front-facing-pokemon]

[deoidesign]

I bought a very nice at home printer and a very nice at home cutting machine!

Because of this, I'm opening a merch tier on my Patreon for 2024!

And, I can print out your favorite panels for you on my shop now ^^ (I can also print of any of my illustrations! I'll add more paper sizes later as I figure out how to ship them 🧡)

[avanii]

Team Magma's Mightyena!

One of my many plush projects. Been wanting to make some Mightyena plushies, and since they feature so heavily in the Hoenn teams I wanted to play with that! Magma's my favourite, but I'll make an Aqua version too of course :D The bandana is removable. Both the plushies and the bandana are handmade by me.

[argonapricot]

People accusing Shin of having no personality/characterization to dunk on her is so annoying... First of all, it's totally fine and normal to like a Star Wars character who hasn't gotten a canon personality yet (i.e. Darth Maul in Phantom Menace) based on their design / story / performance / vibes. It's normal for mysterious characters to exist, and it's normal for people to like those characters. But we do actually already know some cool stuff about Shin; she does have A Characterization and A Story even when the show is holding back with her.

I agree that for now there are many unknowns about her, and fans are having to speculate about her while we wait for the show to fill in the gaps and give us canon answers. (I agree that it would be nice to know more of what the showrunners undoubtably know but have kept hidden so far, like any information about her backstory at all. I am sure they are planning to explore more backstory in the next season, but it's a huge shame just bc Ray Stevenson can no longer be part of that exploration :( )

However, the information we do have about her is totally sufficient to make her cool and interesting. Imo.

"Baylan Skoll's feral, ruthless apprentice, who has a padawan braid, who is dark side-y enough that she seems eager for violence but still asks 'like me?' when Baylan is talking about Ezra being a Jedi." like yeah sorry that's all I need I'm sold! Sorry!

Seeing her make this facial expression before her first duel/encounter ever with another padawan:

Is enough for me! That's already something really interesting to work with! Or the dynamic between her and Baylan in this specific moment

For one moment he just suddenly beams fondness/pride at her and she seems so intense and excited when she bows back, as she goes off to try to murder some people. Then she gets so visibly upset later when Sabine tells Ahsoka to go get the map, thwarting the assignment she was given here of holding off the both of them.

That's an exciting and interesting master-padawan dynamic! I am going to be interested in Baylan Skoll's padawan who has this dynamic with Baylan Skoll as a foil to Ahsoka's relationship with Anakin and u Cannot Stop Me.

Sometimes I like to look at an actor's performance and observe what they seem to be feeling. Sometimes I like to wonder about things that have not yet been revealed to the audience, I find that an interesting experience... I am sorry that u cannot appreciate her Sublime & Unique Vibes....

The way she acts when she fights is part of her characterization! As with everyone in this show, her fighting style is designed and choreographed to be expressive of her character. The way she moves is expressive. She's so aggressive and excited and alive when she fights. That's information about who she is! It's fun information!

Look at this. Look at how she reacts when Baylan tells her to go up against Ahsoka Tano's ex-apprentice.

I admit I cannot tell u with 100% certainty what she is canonically feeling in this moment, but whatever it is she is feeling it SO INTENSELY. The fact that she reacts like this is interesting information about her character, bc every single conceivable explanation for why she is emoting this way is interesting and cool!

She seems kinda excited. She seems to find it significant and momentous. That's fun. We don't know why she feels this way, but it's too late she is already interesting sorry

Sorry for observing the facial expressions that a character makes and learning things about them that way

It's annoying that the show hasn't taken the time to reveal more things about her yet I agree but why are you being mean 2 her... Having mysterious characters is normal Star Wars procedure :/

Like yes we all know this is not Andor, the writing is not always brimming with deft characterization, that's a shame, but that doesn't mean the show hasn't given us a lot of interesting canon building blocks to work with.

tl:dr this is a skill issue and I love her very much

It's honestly kind of funny coming from the silmarillion fandom... some people simply know how to appreciate cool and unique characters based on limited information.

[kamomie]

Hot take:

No egg is the most misunderstood egg.

All the eggs have sides to their personality and trauma that are only seen by their closest family and friends.

I get grey hairs every time I see Leo and Tallulah being described as the most misunderstood eggs.

Let me ask, how many on the island truly know Ramon? Chayanne? Dapper? Pomme? Richarlyson?

Answer: Their parents and ~2-3 of their aunts/uncles. Exactly like Leo and Tallulah.

A note specifically on Leo:

If your proof of Leo being misunderstood is q!aypierre and q!bad saying she would enjoy being away from q!foolish, I have news for you; they weren't being serious. Q!bad knows perfectly well how close Leo and q!foosh are, and seeing people constantly downplaying q!bad's relationship with Leo in specific is honestly sad. Yes, Leo now prefers to be taken care of by q!roier because that's her brother, and he speaks Spanish. But way before he was there? Q!bad was her babysitter. Q!max babysat her twice, I think? But other than that? For months, if Leo needed a babysitter, it was q!bad. He knows her. She knows him. She used to help q!bad troll q!foolish. When q!forever came clean about what he did to Leo, q!bad drew his weapon, getting ready to kill. She used to wake up for him as well. And she still occasionally does. Q!bad sang his most precious lullaby to her, "You are my sunshine," with personalised lyrics:

“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are grey. You’ll never know dear how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away. The other night dear, when that whale hurt you, I was very, very upset. But thankfully dear, you are still here, so i’m not as upset as I was. Oh don't worry Leonarda, your papa Foolish and I will keep you safe. So will Vegetta and everyone else, we won’t let anything happen to you.”

Don't sit there and tell me q!bad doesn't know Leo.

[shikai-the-storyteller]

I truly, from the bottom of my heart, hate angst without catharsis.

[totem-but-shark]

let's break down what made foolishs fruit mountain technique so effective because there's actually quite a lot to unpack here. -From a doozer who's been following his fruit mountain escapades from first playing the game to developing his strategy to winning this tournament.

The diagrams two best strengths are it's simplicity and speed. It's a very repetitive technique, there's a pattern to it that when followed everything else falls into place. It being so simple cuts down significantly on time needed to assess the plate, deciding where to place and throwing your fruit as though obviously theres manual input and adjustments needed for poor placements or unlucky fruit spawns, most time and energy can be dedicated to following the systems rhythm. Foolish has become confidently fluent with this pattern and seemingly gets faster every time he plays it through, he doesn't need to spend ages judging exactly what placement would be most efficient when he knows if he continues to follow his system the fruit will continue to build and combine. This of course only feeds into his speed, which beyond being able to rack up high scores in such a short period of time and quickly catching up to opponents even after resets also has a hidden bonus, combo multipliers.

The way his system functions incorporates a lot of chain combinations, the fruit are laid out in such a way where Foolish places each fruit beside its next combined stage so that when one combines they all chain together to create one huge fruit which by itself already creates a high combo multiplier. However following the pattern of his strategy foolish doesn't need to wait to reassess the plate even after such significant reshuffling, he can immediately continue to keep placing left to right and combining, further boosting the combo multiplier with quick combines. Using this technique i've seen him reach almost a 2x point multiplier on several occasions, this would mean that even if he and an opponent were placing the exact same fruit in the exact same spots making identical combinations he would still have a higher score using his speed.

It may seem random or like pure luck that he always seems to be getting the exact fruit he needs but that's simply another trick of the diagram. Whilst there is certainly luck involved, placing left to right it allows him to quickly sort through the fruit spawns to get the specific one needed whilst also allowing room for multiple options and improvisation if it's just not working out by accommodating for this random chance element. This gives his technique a strong consistency to it that isn't present in many other play styles for fruit mountain that are often more dependant on lucky fruit drops. He makes decisions that may appear illogical, ignoring opportunities to combine or shoving a lone fruit to some back isolated corner of the plate but this is because he's following his system and prioritising creating a fruit chain that'll lead to a cleaner board and higher points from larger combines. You can put an isolated apple in a corner when you know you can simply continue to sort through the fruit for another three for an easy combine whilst the smaller fruit build up their own larger foundations on the left without needing to worry about being wedged between any bigger fruit needing to combine.

^ my recreation of the diagram

It's all in the layout, how you're able to structure the plate and getting into the flow of placing small fruit on the left and large on the right without getting too caught up in it and slipping up by missing opportunities or misplacement. Progression is clear and linear keeping the plate as clean as possible combining from one fruit to the next with a clear goal and structure for each step towards a watermelon. As consistent as this system is it isn't flawless and significant player input is required, you have to think quick and adapt on the fly. Beyond this technique Foolish is a skilled player on his own and I have to give him credit where credit is due, especially for coming up with this system entirely independently. The tournament was a blast to watch and he's more than deserving of the win.

o7 KOF (king of fruit)