#The Small Ponds

[madamemiz]

saw a post recently about the sun and moon fandom and how non-selfship content is rare, and how that's frustrating, and it struck me, like... how rare that is. genuinely in all my 20ish years in online spaces, i've never seen a fandom that not only welcomed selfship but actively encourages it, when usually the rule of thumb is that it's tolerated at best and despised at worst

so why is this fandom so selfship centric?

the answer is a combination of factors, of course, but I think it was mostly just a perfect storm of the right character with the right traits at the right time. many people between about 23 and 33 were and still are experiencing intense childhood nostalgia that's being perpetuated by online culture and various media, often through a distorted or slightly unsettled lense. the daycare attendant is fun! they're childish, but decidedly not children. they're not human, unattainable in reality, but plausible enough in the age of ai that they make you ponder. they make you long to nap and play and color and do all the whimsical things you wish you could take a week off from your dull job and do! but there's something... off about them. an element of danger that's intriguing. they're dangerous, but what if they aren't to you specifically? or, if they are, what if they overcame that, just for you? what if you were worth it?

people our age are lonely, and if not, often working through issues they didn't have time to contemplate in their teens and early 20s because they were still living throigh the issues. younger people too, of course, but it's especially rampant in the aforementioned age group. past college and college friends, too caught up in work to make new ones. if the dca really clicked with you as a character, it's kind of fun to imagine what it would be like to hang out with them. what if they were your friend? what if they were more?

which leads to my last point--cringe is dead and we stomped on its corpse

maybe it started with a few people drawing a y/n with the dca, and wow the art is cute! who's the cute jester character? ... is that a self-insert? huh. and then more people join in. is that allowed? yes! and the crowd cheers for it too! the right people drawing the right character dynamics at the right moment, drawing others like a moths to a strange robotic flame

ultimately, the fandom attracts so much selfship because that's the bedrock, the foundation the rest of the fandom built its home on. almost all of the common tropes and characterization have roots in selfship fic and art. the dca's popularity very much kicked off from that, and seeing other people using them as an outlet for their loneliness, friendship, romantic or sexual desires, or even just for creative character and plot setups that are only tangentially related to canon actively encouraged others to join in, in a way that could only happen while riding the funerary coattails of cringe culture

it's very much a lightning in a bottle fandom, the likes of which i doubt we'll see again for a while

[lakejosie]

Retention Pond

[xxv-winter-vxx]

Glub glub new fish 🐟🐟 requested by: @the-lonelyshepherd

I wanted to try mixing colors more and go completely out of my comfort zone with this one!

[little-pondhead]

On the supervillain Danny au, can about Jazz and Dan? I would love to see the JL think they finally have the trio pinned down before a strange amazon and a god-damned demon storm in and start throwing people through walls.

Well, I just made this post about Jazz to answer another question, but I didn't think about Dan! However, I was going through my sketches, and I think this old one would be perfect for him. Dan's still a demon; he's just a little man now :) The JL Dark is terrified of him.

[fluffle-writes]

It will never not be funny to me that Riddle is only older than Ace by 1 month AND he was house warden a week into his first year at NRC

FR imagine the third years telling their peers about it like "You're not gonna believe this shit but the tiniest first year throttled the dorm leader in a duel. He's ordering everyone around like a bloody dictator but he somehow manages to be terrifying enough about it that we just. Listen to him. He's literally the tiniest pipsqueak but he wipes the floor with any challengers - what the hell even is this school"

I HC that he got a growth spurt a while into his first year at NRC so he was just. Even tinier than he is now.

[mammomlette]

People don’t talk about MC needing to wear a magical ring to not accidentally yk cause NATURAL DISASTERS with their powers??? Not only accidentally but without realising???

Diavolo or smthn is asking too much of MC or being a bit too annoying and their other hand slowly drifts towards the ring and they hold onto it while maintaining dead eye contact. Like continue to piss me off hoe I’ll blink and blow a hole in your castle idk

Obv they never do it (or do they?) but the threat is there and it’s a risk dia (or whoever but I’m using dia) can’t take

[captainjonnitkessler]

Three very important things:

There is a bunch of milkweed growing in my backyard. This is perplexing because it's growing right where I planted a bunch of milkweed, but I planted it like four years ago and the seedlings were immediately mowed down by rabbits. So I'm confused but very pleased that it all somehow worked out.

The bees. LOVE. the milkweed. There are dozens and dozens of them just going absolutely ham on every flower.

There is one other animal that loves the milkweed and it is. inexplicably. frogs. There's a half dozen tiny green frogs hanging out on the massive leaves of these six-foot-tall flowers.

Look. Look at my bad blurry pictures of tiny frogs. I could not be happier.

[amybugz]

behold! my shop launch

✨ amybugs.bigcartel.com ✨

ever wanted a wii play fish of your own? preorders for my latest vinyl stickers are up right now!

to celebrate my new shop opening, you can get 10% off your order by using the code LAUNCH10

(uk only)

[kinokoshoujoart]

the coolest kids in forgotten valley!!☆

(…it seems there may have been a stretch of time where rock and lumina were the only kids in forgotten valley…🥲)

poseref

[jenesaisquacke]

lily pad(dler)

look at him float

[ofdirtandbones]

Another self promo post sorry not sorry,,, if you want to drink pond water and slurp frog spawn like boba then I designed this for you lol 🪷🐸🌷🍃 because me too buddy

[optimusxmello]

My lack of self control means I just keep adding WIPs to my ao3 account because I keep getting ideas and there's no one to stop me.

[kurevniik]

“welcome home!!”

“yeah….”

imagine tho…. what a warm welcome!!

[averlym]

but you are not made for saltwater; it is getting harder to breathe (金鱼/鲸鱼/晶鱼/惊鱼）

[braceletofteeth]

You have quite a good memory.

[artbyky]

I got lost and came across this pond. I think I almost got spirited away.

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