#and also just go follow more fanartists guys

[unfortunate--moth]

Are we ever gonna get a username drop for your super-duper top secret art blog?

👀

its like my fucked up evil top secret laboratory /j

no but im not sure yet? i dont really have a big reason for keeping it a secret anymore. like at first it was just because i was embarrassed about my friends knowing (<- professional overthinker) but they know now and literally dont care.

ive been using the excuse that i wanna keep my art and writing separate but that doesnt really matter that much to me anymore either.

i feel like im living like Hannah Montana though because sometimes i see followers from this blog like my drawings on my art blog and it's like an exclamation mark appears over my head its like "WOAH! youre not usually in these notifications buddy!"

actually one of my milgram drawings has like... 500 notes i think? its a meme drawing.

but yeah maaaaybe i'll reveal it at some point!! i dont really have a reason not to but again im a professional overthinker and have weird anxiety. but i havent been posting all that much on it except for like aggie doodles. if you guys wanna try sleuthing it out you can. my most recent posts have been project sekai and milgram. good luck detectives o7

[angel---eater]

very much related to my text post from earlier today- and my general tone and feelings abt this while writing is just like, neutral thoughtful retrospectiveness bc im an oldhead in fandom and ive seen a lot of shifts in online culture. so this is basically me doing a pseudo-anthropology amateur hour thing about what ive seen and also partook in when i was a tween/teenager. but i do actually think i know why so many ppl get really fuckin nasty and petty about ships and headcanons beyond, yknow, the bullshit fake morality dischorse thats just ship wars with extra excuses to enact cruelty- which is that everyone in fandom, but particularly fanartists on tumblr/twitter with a big following who have had a big following for years, are

1) extremely attached to their headcanons and how they view a text/canon (reasonable and human, thats how fandoms work), and

2) because theyre so extremely attached to their headcanons and personal lens they think they're the only one in the fandom whos 100% correct, who has all the answers, who has the ultimate understanding of xyz. in this case homestuck.

and i think its particularly bad in the homestuck fandom because theres so much to analyze. homestuck is a CHUNKY piece of media. its been going for ages, its had so much time to mature and breath as a piece of art. its not for casual fannish folks. even if you go into it expecting a chill and mild time you usually come out the other end with ur hair smoking and with a thousand yard stare. and like, i dont think this is a bad thing necessarily, but it becomes a bad thing when

3) bc the fandom is old, there are a considerable amount of fanartists with large followings who all think theyre the only one whos 100% correct and that their ideas are 'closest to god', meaning closest to the creators ideas

and finally- 4) their following gives these popular fans a constant stream of yes-manning which then leads to dogpiling on anyone who dares to disagree with the popular fanartist's headcanon, or even when anyone just has a different one, a disagreement isnt rlly needed. the headcanon can be anything up to and including smth like height btw, i have seen this happen

and theres also the core of this, which is that way too many fandoms seems to have forgotten what the term headcanon even MEANS. theres too much emphasis on the '-canon', which actually doesnt mean a fuckin thing when it comes to headcanons. its playing imaginary on top of something already imaginary. i dont think dirk strider being intersex is anywhere close to canon for example. honestly i dont even think dirk strider was intended to be written as anything but a cis perisex boy. but its my headcanon, which is a bubbled thing relative to me that i like messing around with in AUs

the thing about art is that no one in the audience is or will ever be ''100% correct''. no one in the audience will ever know what the creator of a piece was actually thinking of when they made it. the only one who has total and complete understanding of any work is the creator of said work, and even then thats not a given if the creator doesnt actually want to think abt everything theyve created. and i think thats okay and normal!

i really really really want to see less ppl in fandom wanting to be Correct and wanting their headcanons to be Hard Unignorable Confirmed Canon so they can be smug abt 'guessing correctly' and more ppl just wanting to have fun and explore a work from multiple angles. together. like thats actually what a fandom does, historically. we're at an arts and crafts table. ive never considered transmasc jade before for example. shes usually a trans girl in my stuff. but transmasc jade is a concept that fuckin rocks and that i now love a lot bc i saw it pop up and be explored within fandom! esp bc trans guy jade is really adorable alongside june. they swapped!

it reminds me of the fuckin 'blue curtains' thing, disregarding bad faith anti-intellectual bs nonanswers. the curtains are blue bc blue represents sadness, loneliness, want, comfort, the sky, the ocean. theyre blue bc blue is the character's favourite colour and the author wanted them to want it in their living space. theyre blue bc its the AUTHORS favourite colour and they just like using it to paint pictures either visually or with words. all of these are correct analysis of why a character's curtains could be blue. theres no wrong answer there when it comes to us as the audience thinking about art. the actual wrong answer is attacking anyone who thinks the blue curtains are blue for a different reason than you do, or that they hold any meaning at all

[literallyjusttoa]

Hi! I started reading toa and I love it so far, I found your blog and I really like it! but I've been having a hard time finding a lot of fandom content, could you recommend me some toa blogs that you know please?

Ok so number 1: @ukelele-boy. Guys ukeleleboy is so cool. If you want some incredible art and really cool hc you should definitely follow them. 

@sierice is another blog I would definitely recommend. I swear she manages to find every post related to ToA on the site lol. She’s also the accidental creator of Polldona!

Speaking of collections of ToA stuff on tumblr, @the-toarchives is collecting all the ToA content on tumblr, so definitely check it out!

I adore @heresronnie21 ‘s art, and all of their headcanons about Apollo. Seriously one of my favorite artists in the ToA space. 

@flzzypop is also such a good ToA fanartist!!! They’ve said they’re taking a bit of a break from ToA related stuff, but you should still absolutely give them a follow bc their art is just so cozy and wonderful.

I just love @trials-of-apunllo. Like it’s so good.

@txny-dragon has such adorable art, I smile everytime I see it. Also they're running the apollo ship tournament right now and I am so hyped for that.

@ferodactyl Is, as stated in their blog description, the CEO of Sunflower Sibs. Fero's art is amazing, their writing is stellar, and they've organized a whole bunch of events for the ToA fandom over the years. Honestly I don't think the ToA fandom would be what it is today without Fero.

@choconoru does art of the riordanverse in general, and all of it is beautiful and I love it. Their most recent piece of Lester is literal gold!

Another great fanartist is @moodyseal !!! She's been around for a while and her art is always sucha treat. I love her AoD design it's beautiful

Another og is @flightfoot . As she's said, she's more posting about Miraculous Ladybug now, but I followed flightfoot when I first started looking into the ToA fandom which was years ago. To me, Flightfoot is a fandom pillar, and definetly a blog you should check out.

I'm not going to lie I know there are many more blogs to recommend but I feel like I just haven't reached out enough to know them all ahhh. If any of my fellow ToA blogs want to reblog this with their own recommendations I would be thankful!!

[kori-senpai]

Hi friend,

So I think you were one of the fence fanartists I have known for quite a while but we never get to introduce ourselves properly. Also can I just say how gorgeous your art is like whenever you post fence styff I am so so happy. However I also have some questions in mind like: When did you start drawing and writing fanfics, do you have a pet, what is your fav food, your fav music artist and also movies.

I hope you have a good day

As always I promise to keep supporting your art

Danke

Atom :)

First off, thank you very much. This is probably one of the nicest strings of words that were ever thrown my way 💚

I started drawing when I was very little. Both my parents were artists (a tattoo and graffiti artist for one, and a classical painter the other) and I grew up drawing every chance I got. I am more skilled with classical painting than digital since I only started that fairly recently. But I admire all the digital art out there so I wanted to start learning it too. Fence was actually the first digital art I've ever drawn so it has a special place in my heart ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧₊˚

Writing fanfic comes down to a similar vein. I liked reading a lot when I was little, had my first job at a bookshop and combined with my love for video games, all that creative input had to go out somewhere. So I turned to fanfic. And I've been doing it ever since, mostly in English nowadays.

I do not have one currently. I had multiple cats in my life though; I'm a big cat person. Their independence fascinates me ✨

My favorite food would be lasagna, shortly followed by rice pudding. Both in practice and in theory lol.

Favorite music artist is Noah Kahan, next to Em Beihold and Jagwar Twin. Hozier also, but I feel like every non-straight person adores that guy, so it barely counts lmao. For bands I'm a big fan of Set It Off, Blame My Youth and NOTD. I'm a big indie and alternative fan as you can see :')

My favorite movie is Night in the museum ever since I saw it first when I was small. Something about it gets me every time, I don't know hah :D

Anyway a big 'Danke' back to you since you managed to light up my evening with that ask. Have a quick Bobby sketch I made in like thirty minutes last night

[badaziraphaletakes]

Hi!! (Im so sorry if im annoying u guys, I just like this blog sm ok😭)

I just wanted to say that I have been relatively new to this fandom, since season 1 came out, and it was great! It felt like a space for asexual amd neurodivergent ppl, and I loved all the fanartists and theorists (still do) but after season 2, and I have a confession to make here, I too was on the "anti aziraphale" bus, properly boarded, seated and all. I know I didnt indicate that in the post I made, but I didnt self identify as one, I just "agreed" with what many of the crowd holding those setiments said. Why? My dear fellow, it was simply because of poor self esteem! I related alot to aziraphale, and so seeing those posts, where ppl talked abt traits( he and I share), like his love for his interests, his exaggerated movements, his anxieties, and seeing ppl dismiss them, or make fun of them, or call him "an emotional idiot" as that one lovely person said, well it felt like looking in a mirror, because those were the exact same things I said to myself! I told myself all those things, that I didnt deserve forgiveness from ppl I loved, when I made mistakes, I told myself that I should "tone down" my excitement for my interests, and the rest. I found myself mentally taking notes, and altering my behaviour, after reading those posts, bc hey, I hate myself for having those traits, and it looks like other ppl hate this one character for having those traits too, better "shape up" and "do better" yknow?

I stopped following thise blogs, but I still seeked the posts out. Why? Bc it felt "good". It felt like my negative self talk was being validated. It felt like I "finally" found posts that wouldnt "mince words" and be as mean, and rude as they possibly could be to him, because that was "what he, and anyone else like him deserved." (Im not saying that the ppl who made those posts said that, im saying that I made myself believe that I deserved that)

Maybe I shouldnt have internalized what the posts said. Maybe I shouldnt even care all that much abt a single character, I mean obviously the ppl who made those posts werent thinking about me were they? They werent targetting me, so why did I feel all that much. It didnt matter how much I rationalized it, at the end if the day I was making myself miserable, but it felt familiar, so I kept at it

I found this blog, and it felt.. so surreal. Like ppl were defending aziraphale? Ppl were giving him, grace? What? And then I read the analysis and responses that u guys gave, and realized that I also had biases, and I found myself giving more empathy to aziraphale, and then I found myself extending that same empathy to myself. I also started going to therapy also, and I realzied that no, I made mistakes, but I am human, forgivable, that my interests arent things to hide, but rather things that make me happy, and that I shouldnt be harsh to myself bc of that. It all progressed slowly, but I could feel myself becoming, happier. I didnt hide my excitement, I didnt tone down my "exaggerated" movements. I started treating aziraphale's character with love and lo and behold, I found myself loving myself too.

I have bad days, I still do. But they are lesser in number now. Whats the point of this long ass ask? Well, I want u to know that u guys are essentially teaching ppl to be more empathetic towards others and sometimes towards themselves, by being being empathetic towards aziraphale. U are telling people like me, indirectly ofc, to love who we are, and to give ourselves grace. And that while aziraphale (and ppl like him) maybe flawed, that shouldnt warrant hate, but rather understanding. U guys are wonderful, and I promise u, u guys are helping❤️

Im sorry to whoever that person was that left, im sorry that they were harassed as I am sure, those werent ur intentions. But what I am trying to say is that u are not making this fandom more toxic. U are helping people. U guys are a breath of relief in the fandom. Pls remember that.

(Sorry if this is too long to read, or too emotional, ive been in a bit of a mood I suppose, and being vulnerable like this is terrifying but agsjsgkahsbs what can one do, have a great day!🤗)

My dear, I'm so humbled to read this. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. As an autistic person, watching Aziraphale ever since 2019 has helped me unmask a lot, so I totally understand how the bad criticism towards him may have pushed you into masking yourself. It does hurt 🫂

I'm so happy that we've helped you on your journey and that we even helped you seek therapy (everyone should and every time a friend tells me I helped them get there I feel like I won in life). This is what we aim for here in this space, this is what makes it all worth it.

Thank you for the reassurance, it is very much needed sometimes. We want to fight toxicity, not contribute to it, and feedback like yours is very much needed to know we're on the right path. We hope to bring comfort for those who are feeling harmed by the situation.

And of course thank you SO MUCH for sharing your feelings with us, this is the juice we need to keep going 🩶

And finally: remember that you are and will always be good enough and that you deserve better. And no matter what, be yourself! Good luck and we're glad to have you on our train 🥰

[artsylizzy82]

Genshin art dump 💖👯‍♂️

first off I just wanna say Happy New Year!! I only just joined last month but I am so overwhelmed and grateful for all the support I have received so far 🥲💞

I am so sorry that i keep dropping art and disappearing every other week this app does not work on my phone so I avoid it like the plague and also I get really anxious whenever I leave a post tgat I know a ton of random strangers r going to see I know it's not that big a deal and I do like sharing art but I also do not wish to be perceived 🙈💕

Genshin fans ignore me on every other social media I have so let's see what happens here I haven't played this game either I just think the characters r pretty and fun to draw sometimes I love seeing ppl come up with headcanons and interactions for them but unfortunately I am Not That Cool,,

I will never be a genshin fanartist account on Instagram with 125k followers but that's okay at least I can admire them from afar 💖 I will just be in the corner doing my own thing and if u wanna come over too that's awesome I love sharing my little bits of serotonin :))

Thanks for being here I hope to make lots more art to share with u guys in the next year 🫂💝 I didn't post anything for Christmas here but i hope u all had happy holidays no matter what u celebrate 💖 stay safe and happy and warm ily guys!!

[actualbird]

okay now that the pretty pictures of the artem cupsleeve event are all posted, it's time to show you the less pretty procedure of Sawing Open The Artem Can so i can recycle and repurpose it into a penholder

for those who have been following me for a while, u guys will know i did the same thing with the 2022 artem bday collab can, and it sits beautifully on my desk right behind where one of our cats likes to nap

and i needed to do the same for this plastic can because 1) the art is by one of my fave fanartists and 2) idk what glues these plastic can tea places are using but it is STRONG and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to just pry the metal top off

so it's knife or nothing

after a solid 40 minutes of sawing (im not a very strong person okay) THE TOP FINALLY CAME OFF!!! took a little break then before going outside to melt the edges with a lighter until the sharp edges stopped hurting my fingers when i touched them

and voila! success!!!

i'll probably try to melt the edges more tomorrow and also sand it with sandpaper but...that is for Tomorrow. tonight...i am very tired HAHVSDJHFVJSH

[bippityboppityouch]

(i hope i'm doing this right)

VERY queer (fandom headcanons at least), people getting excited about a volleyball being smashed into the floor, community among us fandomers

asahi and nishinoya are gay for each other (at first i was a little hesitant but have come to wholeheartedly ship it)

tsukishima

oh gosh there's a lot of ships i don't ship - let's just say sugahina, though i will admit mom-friend suga goes well with hyperactive-friend hinata

EVERYONE'S GAY (also huge family with each other)

EVERYONE'S GAY (also huge family with each other)

not sure what it's asking so let's go...depressed/angst to lovers to the depressed one still dies and the lover barely doesn't make it in time

people please appreciate yachi more i feel like she's forgotten 0-,0

well i mean my otp's are bokuaaka and kuroken and daisuga, but not quite otp's are probably asanoya and kagehina

i don't have a haikyuu blog that i follow yet sorry i'm new

i haven't finished a fic for haikyuu (yet!) but i'm currently working on a fun one where hinata gets injured and some crap goes down

you guys are all so great and good at analyzing, also FANARTISTS??? PLS GIVE ME SOME TALENT

idk what most of those are sry

DAISUGA

SUGAAAAAAAAAAA

ukai slowly becomes a father figure to the characters - it's canon enough

how chaotic nishinoya, tanaka, and hinata are together

incorrecthaikyuuquotes

haikyuu, percy jackson, keeper of the lost cities (less than the others but oh well)

harry potter i literally read every single book sixteen times in eight months i was OBSESSED

once again harry potter

a close friend, she was obsessed with haikyuu in sixth grade, i finally read and watch this year (three years later lol) and reawoke her obsession

demon slayer and my hero academia (i started the manga before but haven't finished), also genshin because all of my friends play it religiously

it got me back into volleyball, which i had previously quit because i was the only one in my grade on my school's team, but i was able to remember how much i loved it and it made the depression recede a little. in short, haikyuu has saved my life

idk....accept that just because someone says something that you might not agree with in headcanon don't respond or whatever...usually it ends up bad for you mentally (for me at least)

sorry if i did this wrong but it was fun

✨ love your fandom asks ✨ 

Saw the opposite of this floating around and thought the reverse might be fun.

list 3 positive things about your current fandom(s)

a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

say something nice about a ship you don't ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual's OTP, etc)

something you see in fics a lot and love

something you see in art a lot and love

your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

you hope more people will come to appreciate ___ (a ship, a trope, an episode, etc)

a ship that isn't your OTP but that you enjoy

a blog (mutual or one you follow) that has made your fandom experience brighter

if you're a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

compliment someone else in your fandom

your favorite type of fandom event (gift exchange, ship week, secret santa, prompt meme, etc)

the ship that always makes you smile

the character that always makes you smile

a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

the thing in canon that everyone loves and that you also love

a fandom tag that you track

your current fandom(s)

your very first fandom!

a fandom you're not active in anymore but that you still really like

the fandom friend you've known the longest

the fandom you're curious about because of a mutual

how has fandom positively impacted your life?

a piece of advice for taking care of yourself in fandom spaces

[piosplayhouse]

oooooo 15, 22, 30 for the ask game 👁

15. Favorite fanart for SVSSS? Show us the amazing artist~! Feel free to plug~!

Kyle you know it's literally a hate crime for you to ask me this right . Ok so since there's no way I can pick a favorite SV fanart of all time I'm just going to showcase a favorite piece from some of my favorite artists, starting with YOU you little bastard

Kyle's genderbend sqh art fuels me please look at it it's so so so so sos so AGHGHH (cw a bit suggestive ig)

Kaya's in their unhinged era rn everyone just smile and wave (and also look at how adorable their art style is come on like everyone looks so so

BONES!!!! bones art my absolute beloved what can I even say that I havent screamed before in tags about their lineart and how funny they are. God. Cumplane for my soul

I can't pick a Goat art just look at their entire page please it's all incredible . I'll link another cumplane post just to stay on brand though and also because i love it so so SO much

Teazart's shen yuan design hits all the right spots AGH hes such a nerd I'm going to kiss him

every sharpie art instantly becomes a lourve candidate as soon as its posted but I do have to give special attention to this bingy which makes him look (deserved) SO happy and bright and content LOVE HIMM

of course I have to put another cumplane from my beloved Lace who isn't really a mainly svsss fanartist but who I will put in here anyway because I have 1000 fans that can possibly be converted to yuwu

this moose art I think about all the time because it's so incredibly tender and loving adn the colors and the posing and the ghhhhhhh makes me so soft

BERRY'S RAMHE the absolute adorablest sheep . I want to pet him more than anything in the world

festeringrian's bingyuan GRR BARK BARK BARK once again in my favorite category of "shen yuan's cringefail nerd charm has captivated me " AND sexy bingy...

SHATOU'S MOSHANG COMIC GOD shoving this in your face look at this and cry

late night cumplane the first sloane art i ever encountered and which got me HOOKED on this artstyle GODDD absolutely gorgeous art and hilarious ideas

Munchy's art is SO cute in general but I'm shouting out this one in particular because. binghe tits. yeah

Every sel au and art is a national treasure of course but I have to give special attention to this one because demon sqh is critically underrated and also SO cute

this Binghe piece by toffee-arts is simply beautiful, like a perfect renaissance painting its just so ..!! THE SKILL

I own quite literally every piece of sv merch phee sells on their site and I would buy them all over again . So so SO good. Bonus points for Shen Yuan with a body pillow and Bingy puppy eyes in this post though

THIS pxychta piece which I am buying asap when inprnt does free shipping friday again!!!!

Bo's fluffy sqh lives rent free in my head he is my world and he deserves everythign for being the cutest guy ever

If you're a moshang fan and not already following seiraheron then what are you doing !! It's getting harder and harder to choose favorite pieces but if I had to pick the atmosphere in this is so strong and their expressions are so warm I could stare at the details for HOURS

Like every other artist on this list, every tadpole_art piece is INCREDIBLE, but this one holds a special place in my heart with how vibrant and powerful its color story is <3 also it made me cry

C's tetris sqq art is an eternally loved classic but honestly all of their gouache paintings are so magnificent and deliciously textured that I think you should stare at them all for a million hours

It was hard deciding between this and the dnd au but Kelenia's demon squad designs are some of my all-time favorite in the game just AHH.. look at those cheekbones and the outfits and hair and shl's piercings and how they bitch to each other!!!

and SO many more honestly i couldn't even begin to list all my favorite artists on twitter too!! Sv fandom is filled with so many skilled people with amazing art and it's such a wonderful environment of creation I'm so thankful to share this space with everyone !!!

22. Would you or have you cosplayed as any of the characters of SVSSS?

Unfortunately I'm not super into cosplay in general just because I don't like attracting attention HAHA but if I was I would absolutely cosplay Ning Yingying bc I think I could pull it off so well

30. Who's personality do you think more closely represents yours in the SVSSS universe?

deep sigh

[five-rat-lore]

Hackett’s Quarry Summer Camp Tag!

I’ve been tagged by a few people in this and wanted to give it a go :3

original tag list by @lowonmelatonin

Favourite counsellor and least favourite counsellor. Why?:

My favourite has to be Dylan. I read ATLITW a few weeks before I played the quarry and that already set me off struggling with my gender (again), but the moment I set eyes on Dylan something snapped in me. He’s my gender euphoria <3 I wrote A Guy Like Me literally as soon as we finished the game.

First time I played I liked Laura the least (ironic because she’s my husband’s favourite), but I have a new appreciation for her after replaying. I think maybe Abi is my least favourite, but only because I wish she’d had more to do! Same with Nick tbh.

Favourite chapter and least favourite chapter. Why?:

Chapter 5 is my favourite, hands down! I love the scrapyard, but the radio hut is just superior imo

Me and Chapter 8 have personal beef because when me and my husband picked our characters at the start of the game, I chose Dylan, Abi, Nick and Emma, and he picked Ryan, Laura, Jacob and Kaitlyn. Which means I didn’t get to play for the whole of chapter 8!!!

Favourite ship (you can pick a maximum of 3)?:

Dylan/Ryan (also Dylan/Ryan/Kaitlyn)

Biggest counsellor crush:

Dylan. At first I joked that I didn’t know if I wanted to be him or be with him, turns out it’s both lol

How would you survive The Quarry?:

my toxic trait is thinking I would survive the quarry. I’m scrappy and I’ve been waiting my whole life to go horror movie feral.

Favourite The Quarry fanfic writer and fanartist:

My all time fave is @drylan his work is *chef’s kiss* and then I also love @dylan-lenivy-appreciation-day works too, Better Left Unspoken has me in a vice grip. and I can’t talk about my fave fics without mentioning @cloudycaffeinatedcryptid obviously :)

I need to follow more fanartists, I’m like really bad at using tumblr so I pretty much just live in the radioheads tag. But I do love @divomria art, it’s so good!

Also @needsmorewlw for their fandom content, their headcanons and fandom content are up there with the best fanart and fanfics for me

Shoutout some friends you have made being involved in the fandom!

Okay so heres the thing, I have this constant crushing fear that everyone finds me annoying and does not want to be friends with me. I desperately want fandom friends but I’m such a coward. And I also feel that everyone else is already friends and I’m just... here. I think I make content as a way of reaching out but I never know where to go from there.

but my special shout outs go to @mothamcity @stressedanime and @me-ladie (as well as everyone I’ve already tagged)! Maybe this is me finally taking that next step to actually become friends with people in the fandom.

[its3oe]

Extremely lengthy post ahead. Proceed with caution. It’s just another one of me talking about why I’ve grown tired with social media and am still working very hard to sever its cord wrapped around my neck. And why you could too. If you wanted. This is going to be the last one though I promise

Obviously I like, don't have a problem with people who do create and consume and all of those other potential modes of interaction with Art and Creation in this way I am about to describe so as to word why I personally find myself unable to subscribe to caring about it. But I figure it's wise enough to give my "I completely understand and respect this and think that's great as long as you're having fun" disclaimer as people on-line are prone to touchiness and upset when faced with this discussion, for whatever number of reasons, that I do not want to draw to myself unnecessarily. But I also find it very relieving and like I can find a little bit of a break from my neuroticisms and extremely slow journey from trying to un-train myself from an obsession with being social media optimized and well-liked and whatever other shit, when, people express similarly their thoughts on creation and consumption and the shrink-wrapping of that process around a very specific mold on the Internet. These sentences are way too fucking long here but I cannot find it in me to rephrase more concisely. Sorry. But. ANYWAYS:

It's quite disheartening to me, often, seeing the internet continuously trend towards like. Being a 10,000 follower fandom/OC artist being the ultimate end-goal. And people within these shrink-molded circles and communities Only consuming this kind of art and that being what Art is immediately to them. Like. I don't know there's something a little sad about it to me. I have found myself over the years (Extremely fucked up in the head guy talking here. Not that anybody's entitled to know how I am but like, there are also plenty of other people with similar -oses and -isms so I'm not worried about vaguely mentioning this to blame Myself a bit more for my situation and not Everyone on the internet because that'd be a stupid thing to say) feeling extremely pressured to conform to the standard of like, cutesy clean art or the Voltron & She-Ra Remake style or (and once more no offense intended to those who enjoy these things) Blorbo Garfield Worm on a String Rotating Fanartist or some combination or mutation thereof those and more. And for quite some time I did try my hardest to squeeze in there somehow before completely breaking down and realizing it was like. Melting my brain and that it's not actually what I wanted to do, it was just what I felt like everybody else expected of me and wanted to see of me. So that's what I did for that huge chunk of my life where I was really just initially learning how to draw and it got a bunch of insane habits jammed directly into my grey matter.

And so, after this realization happened 3 or so years ago I have since been trying to shed these ideas and, more recently, within the past year or so, I've started to see more people crop up with ideas of "Wow! This really sucks dick! I don't want to do this anymore either! I do not want to be a Content Creator or Consumed through this venue of Posts that mean little to nothing in the grand scheme of things, and especially to me personally!" and it's given me a little bit more of a drive to work harder at trying to make the weirder shit I actually want to instead of letting my insane insecurities and other worries get to me. That I am now moving towards circles where I actually see people who think similarly to me. I still have an extremely long way to go but. Obviously some people are content with doing that sort of thing forever and the more power to them, but, other people feeding into that as The Standard has, evidently, sort of fucked me and a number of other people up. My point here is not that everybody has to want to make big personal projects to be Le Real artists because that's divisive for no good reason, but that I truly do want to make comics or films or games (Sorry) or otherwise stories in weird ways that may be hard to understand or consume and take more...Effort. To look at and really absorb. Because that is really always what I have wanted to do with myself and is what sits with me at my core about Creation.

And it's funny, because, like, another huge portion of what's held me back from that is that portions of the internet also insist that you have to have a gorillion followers and 40+ engagement crystals and Patreon money enough to pay rent twice over to have made anything worthwhile. And that's gotten ingrained into me. Like. Fuck when I was a wee 13 years old I was one of those reblogs>likes people before I realized that is also only conducive to people ignoring you even more for devaluing clicking one Acknowledgement button and not the other and also that it doesn't matter anyways. I would still be happier with myself if I were actually able to see one of my tangled up mushy projects spat up into existence and had only 50 followers and one of them decided to check it out and really make an attempt to engage with it over 5000 that only want stuff that looks cute on their blog. I'd be more broke, sure, (Thank you also for 1700 followers and all of my commissioners. I love U.) but. And this really is like, the broke tortured artist corny ultimate thing to say, I would feel more fulfilled as a person. That I did something I wanted to and that That effort was viewed with intent by another.

This is getting really long now So I will leave off with: I have weird shit to make that has things to say and requires a deeper level of engagement than Social Media provides and I am still, really, working incredibly hard to get to a point where I will be able to actually carry it all out. Some of this, at present, is immutable due to circumstances in my life out of my control. But the parts that I actually can change I am choosing to grab with gusto and wring all of the blood out so I can put, um, more blood in. But blood with a sense of purpose and within "blood sweat and tears" as opposed to meaningless hemorrhaging of blood to mean the reasons I create in the first place that have just left me hollow and unsatisfied. And well. If you want to make weird things too and are also sick of social media biting and snapping at anything it can get its teeth in and shaking the life out of it. I less than three you thiiiiiis much. Thumbs up. I'll try to avoid making more posts like this in the future because it really is quite repetitive and I'm aware but I think I'd at least like to have this one up as a summary of why I am so inactive for the past while and what I'm up to. It's the personal demons. And the internet demons. Like from DOOM. My favorite is the Cacodemon.

[trashlord-007]

I'm glad you have a sense of humor or at least realized that the killed a man question was supposed to be funny.

Lemme preface this by saying some of your questions about me I'm happy to answer, but others I'd like to leave until after the reveal if you'd still like them then. Gotta try and make it hard to identify me if you let curiosity get the better you.

Jongdae is a sweet man and deserves the world, I'm so happy for him getting the family he's wanted. Hopefully, we'll get a new album from him eventually. Did you have a favourite of his songs? Or a favourite bit of his from an exo song?

I do game a bit, although I've never played mass effect or far cry, I stick with the final fantasy and legend of Zelda franchises. Though assassin creed did catch my eye during the ff15 crossover event and I briefly contemplated playing it. I get the finding some semblance of peace actually...final fantasy 15 has a fishing option too though I'm more likely to pop that in and follow the storyline as I wander the world rather than fish. Same goes for Zelda really, I'm more of a start the game over and revisit the world and actions through the story line sort of person.

Problems are a valid creation lol. But gif making? That's a labour of love as far as I'm concerned, I've seen what goes into making gifs and gif makers have all of my respect for the work they do. Same goes for fic writers, fanartists, etc theres so much that goes into producing fan content and its amazing what people do for the things they enjoy.

What sort of things do you write? I'm afraid I haven't familiarized myself with your work. Do you have a favourite genre to write for? What about reading while we're talking about it?

Speaking of reading I squealed so loudly when I read the words gunslinger!!! That is one of my most favorite series ever in the history of ever. Please tell me you've read all of them. Lie if you must lol. Really though, "The man in black fled west across the desert and the gunslinger followed" is an epic opening line and it gives me chills even just typing it out. And don't get me started on when Jake told Roland "Go then, there are other worlds than these." And then purposefully fell. One act that sent Roland on his path to further redemption. The whole series is a masterpiece truly.

You said horror and scifi....I'm not much for horror, but some sci-fi I can do. I generally stick with fantasy and comedy and dramas tbh when I consume media. But there are a few notable exceptions namely the three star franchises...Stargate, Star Trek, and Star Wars. Also Doctor Who...not that my brain equates the doctor with sci-fi lol. Though some are more familiar to me than others. What sort of sci-fi are you into?

Uh most watched YouTube? Well my go to channels are nate the hoof guy and north of the border. I tend to stick them on as background noise since they're easy to follow along with without having to actually pay attention. I do listen to music sometimes when I create though when i do its whatever helps me concentrate best at that moment. Sometimes it's something wordless so I can just immerse myself in whatever I'm working on, or it's a certain song on repeat that I can fade into if that makes sense.

Best part of fandom is its people tbh. As for what I like to create....edits, moodboards, fic, eventually I'd like to try my hand at videos and sound mixing there's a few mash-ups on YouTube that are so cool. I also like to create food, and I love to fingerpaint. I absolutely suck at it but it's fun and messy and a great way to relax, I highly recommend it!

Speaking of creating, I'm not sure what I'll have the time for gift creation wise so how about you give me a few suggestions for themes for the edits or the moodboards, ( I can also do icons/headers/lockscreens) and maybe what you'd be looking for in a fic? Au?, type(angst,fluff,slice of life etc)? member?, that sort of thing.

Now for a a few new questions.... do you have any blog recommendations on here? People you enjoy interacting with or content creators whose work you enjoy. How about exo fanarts or artists? Do you enjoy those? Do you have any favorites?

I like to think I have a sense of humour!

hehe, I can respect that. I promise I won't search for you prematurely but feel free to ignore any/all questions you don't wish to answer!

Jongdae does indeed deserve the world! he's so lucky, too, to be blessed with not just one child but two! My favourite song of his is definitely Good Night! So, so beautiful T_T and definitely one of my favourite songs of all time.

oh heck yeah!! FF and LOZ! I have a FF on my shelf to play but haven't gotten around to it (I have many brand new games on my shelf that still need to be unwrapped, I'm so behind >.<). I don't have a Switch so I haven't played BotW but it sure does look fantastic. I think my last LOZ game was... A Link to the Past on GBA... no, nevermind, I just checked and I had Phantom Hourglass too. But my favourite was Wind Waker on GameCube!!

I'm hoping they remaster the first AC! To me, in my personal opinion, not confirmed (I'm just hoping!!) they kinda hinted that maybe they would?? at Ubisoft Connect this year! so I'm really hoping!! because I never actually finished it T_T I got pretty much to the end, too. Le sigh. I'm so close! But I lost my original save files on one of my earlier consoles >.<

I'm hesitant to replay older games because everyone is doing remasters or remakes these days! I bought the DLC for the Mass Effect games a few months before the remaster was announced with all the DLC included lmfao

I started playing FC6 again the other night (never finished it, oops) and my first achievement of the night was for catching fish so I think it's safe to say I'm obsessed with that mechanic haaaa.

I get that! I like to replay games for the story, too. Sometimes I even lower the difficulty if I'm in a mood to experience the story rather than the gameplay. That way I can finish it quicker! And I won't do 100% completion runs (like checking every planet in ME).

Playing through your favourite games is self-care! -- me, who is spending all my time gaming lately instead of being on here and responding to you in a timely manner (sorry!!).

It really is! I always knew it was hard to do but my God, I didn't realise the true extent of it. GIF creators are amazing. And you're so write!! Anyone making fan content is perfect, talented, and lovely. So wonderful, truly.

That's fine and also please DO NOT feel like you have to! You needn't read any of my fics!

I mainly write... well, I was going to say smut and yandere but my fluff masterlist is the longest so I definitely sneak those in quite often. My favourite genres to write for are the same as the ones I read! I know some people don't like to mix business with pleasure, but I love writing horror and sci-fi! Though I will admit I haven't written space-based sci-fi yet. And if a book or fic is sci-fi or horror, I will try it out. If it's a sci-fi horror or just based in space?? I WILL read it there and then!

OH HELL YES!! Another Dark Tower fan!! Dude, it's freaking PERFECT! You even quoted my favourite line T_T While it does have one of the best opening lines in the history of ever, Jake's "Go then, there are other worlds than these" really just punches me in the gut every time I think about it!! King really outdid himself with that series, my God. The Gunslinger will probably always be my favourite but I'm enjoying every book so far!

But, ahem, I'm still on the fourth book! I miss Blaine the Train T_T he was so much fun! I'm currently finishing Paolini's To Sleep In A Sea of Stars and then I will be go back to listening to Wizard and Glass!

Yes, I love me so good horror! I used to be, hmm, opposed to horror films because every year my birthday was overshadowed with Halloween (lol, don't judge me, I'm opening up here), but now I love them (and Halloween) so much!! And sci-fi... to vaguely quote Markiplier, "I'd sign up on a mission to space even if I knew 100% I would die".

I also don't really think of Doctor Who as sci-fi even though it is! haha, funny. I love the original 6 Star Wars films! I named my kitty cat after Anakin! I haven't watched the new ones yet tho. And, haha, I watched the original Star Trek series after watching the new films. So great, so classic!! I named a kitty cat after Cumberbatch's Khan, too. I never watched much Stargate aside from the original film.

I enjoy any sci-fi that is based in space! Interstellar is my favourite film right now~ and it used to be Avatar which is getting its second film soon!! I told myself I don't even like Avatar that much anymore and then watched the trailer and BOOM obsessed once more haha!

I don't know Nate the Hoof Guy or North of the Border. What type of content do they make? If I had to pick individual channels I like then I would go with Slogo and Markiplier (gaming) and Nick Crowley and Watcher (horror/paranormal investigations/stories etc).

What kind of music do you listen to when you create? Do you have any specific songs/playlists rn? and yes, that makes perfect sense! I like to repeat / loop music when I write, too.

Wow! You're a jack of all trades! that's so cool T_T edits and moodboards require such skill and talent and an eye for design. I also want to try out audio mixing. I make youtube videos occasionally so it would be fun to learn! You cook?? omg, you really are so !!! you know??? I can't cook, like, at all. Finger painting...? I think I'd be too OCD to do it T_T I freak out a little when my hands get dirty haha. I've been better about it lately but I had an episode the other day--- why am I talking about this? lol, I always ramble T_T

No worries at all~ don't stress yourself out over the gift. It's not a big deal! For edits and moodboards, my go-to request is always Jongdae and thunderstorms! For fics... I don't read for Jongdae but if it's platonic then I would! or a Baekhyun fic~ Anything genre wise except angst and MCD.

Honestly, anything you come up with will be perfect! <3

Blog recommendations... I'm assuming EXO-Ls?

@merinaart does the most amazing artwork ever! my favourite artist on the site tbh! @mel-loves-all is one of the sweetest people ever and she used to host this event! @myeoning-call makes some really amazing content, too! and she was my first giftee <3 and @your-sophie18 is my new friend, oml, love her + she tags me in cool things about EXO <3 such a real one. Then I can't forget my lovely @achenlove who made me the cutest little Chen drawing last year T_T I still cherish it!

oh,.. I kinda included the CCs I like to interact with ^ up there. I don't really interact with people that aren't moots very often, and when I do it's just to reblog and leave feedback on fics. I'm not very outgoing like that! hmm... how about you tell me some CCs you like and I'll check them out? or blog recs in general!

Hope you're well and sorry again for the delay! sometimes I just... eh, it doesn't matter. Always have some kind of excuse.

Sending you love and wishing you the best! <3

[azulaang-chakras]

Would love to see you go off about Zukka mah guy 👀 (and then idk Zukaang 👀)

Oh, you want me to go off on tumblr, comrade? ON TUMBLR!?

Okay.

First, let me start by saying to my followers that I'm a very mellow kind of guy. If I dislike something you like or even love, there's nothing wrong with that. Live and let live, whatever floats your boat. So long as no one goes out of their way to be a dick to people, no one should be getting hate or harassment for what they enjoy. Just because I'm not in your lane doesn't mean I'm going to throw a molotov cocktail over to see if someone crashes. My parents raised me better than that. Plus, if I find posts I don't like, I block them. If I find people who annoy me, I block them. These are good pieces of advice, my friends.

That all being said, I'm not going to hold back when I decide to speak my mind, and zukka is fucking terrible. If it was a rarepair with only a small audience, I wouldn't care. It wouldn't rustle any of my jimmies, it wouldn't grind more than a single nerve if at all. But because it's so fucking popular I have to see that shit so frequently. I see talented fanartists use their talents on that ship and I frown cus that energy should be spent on better outlets.

Zuko and Sokka ain't got nothing to build a romance on from canon. The deepest their conversation goes is, "I love my girlfriend." "My girlfriend is awesome too." "Sucks that yours turned into the moon, my dude." Zukka is only as popular as it is because they're both almost 18 and they're conventionally attractive and masculine. The funny (and infuriating) thing on that last part is that a lot of zukka shippers want to feminize the ship by putting them in soft colors, softening their features, and/or putting them more in touch with their emotions and feminine side. This is bad because they will flat out ignore their canon personalities/aesthetics and also badmouth Aang, a man who is canonically in touch with his feelings and feminine side and is super confident in his softer side. This boy will wear a flower crown with a smile. Your fave will canonically never.

(I don't have time to get into why fandoms will feminize masculine men instead of thoughtfully engaging with men who are canonically in touch with their fem side, but the point is there. I will also say that a lot of zukka content is clearly not created by actual MLM. No disrespect to real MLM zukkas, but your club is full of straight girls and also your ship is terrible)

Zukka content, from what I've seen and heard of, is full of bad characterizations that ignore the show and flat out make shit up, and shippers will also make shit up to badmouth other characters. Zukka is so bad that it harms both of them and everyone around them. Just for an example on the two boys themselves:

.Zuko is not an uwu soft boi, this man used to terrorize villages on a weekly basis. If you ignore or try to minimize the parts of a redemption arc where the character was a fucking villain/antagonist, you are doing the character a disservice.

.Sokka is intelligent and it's great that he put in the work to unlearn sexism, but he's not Stephen Hawking and he was pretty sexist. He GREW over the course of the series, but stans and zukka shippers (which is a venn diagram with a huge middle) try to pretend that he was actually perfect from the very beginning. Also, if you honestly think that scenes of Sokka being the butt of a joke (which are 9/10 hilarious) are abusive on the writer or the other characters' part, do yourself a favor: never hang out with Irish people. Google may describe slagging each other as abusive, but it's really not. Slagging is a treasured past time of our people between family and friends.

If every cringey incorrect quotes post was a ship, it would be zukka. Zukka is overflowing with jaded klance shippers who took their bullshit from Voltron and fired it upon ATLA en masse like Persian archers at Thermopylae. Zukka is a notp. I will never write for it, I will never willingly seek out content of it, and if any pissbabies want to start shit over this 100% accurate argument, I will laugh at anything you send me.

As for zukaang, that ship do go deep. "If he's your love interest, why is he my narrative foil?" Protagonist/deuteragonist is top tier shipping, as is enemies to lovers. Their relationship, both on a micro scale as individual people and on a macro scale as the avatar and fire prince, is the cornerstone of the plots of some of the best episodes in the series, including The Storm, The Blue Spirit, The Avatar and the Fire Lord, and the Firebending Masters.

I sadly haven't read much of it, and I raise my eyebrow at just how much abo there is of such a relatively small ship, but I think zukaang is a great ship.

I hate that I spent so much time trashing a bad ship and so little praising a good one, but that's how it be sometimes.

[fvriva]

highlight/midlights/lowlights: camp here and there (s1)

summary: a summer camp in ohio in a universe where weird shit happens as part of everyday life, that slowly zooms in on the drama unfolding between the camp nurses, syndey and jedediah. sydney is a disabled trans man whose only support system for much of the season socially, emotionally, and physically centers around jedediah, who is suspiciously absent and seems to be deliberately avoiding him despite their longstanding and sometimes sexually charged friendship. it also has strong themes of lack of respect, lack of control, and necromancy.

highlights:

jedediah's va was my favorite goddamn thing about this. i could listen to him read the phonebook

sydney is EXTREMELY well written, as is the drama between him and jedediah!! oh my god!!! there's a boatload of nuances and themes presented that kept me on edge throughout

we stan cabin dung beetle

sydney, specifically during the lower-toned acting segments, is a really good voice actor. love the performance for him

jedediah's various skyrim rants

setup for possible plot around the clock of meantime in the future! love that fuckin thing

LOVE how sydney's dreams have a blue sky and presumably other "normal" aspects to it

will wood

i managed to call that sydnecromancy was gonna be a topic addressed but i was FUCKED UP GOOD when it was properly revealed OHHHH my god

i'm super looking forward to what they have coming in future episodes

the whole "if you read this YOU MIGHT LITERALLY DROP DEAD" thing also smacked

i really like how they would periodically go from their usual hijinks talk and dive off a cliff into just the worst, most intrusive fucked up horror shit you've ever heard.

i REALLY wanna know what's coming for the centipede and apple/tree themes and how they'll follow up on it

midlights:

it feels like the weirdness of the setting, while it does eventually service the plot and some of the vibes, ends up not being a huge focus throughout the season. i feel like i would've liked it to be more woven in and like, thematic? but particularly at first it felt kind of like the writing process was literally an improv game with the drama elements stapled on top of it. that said, it wasn't that it wasn't fun but i don't have a strong handle on what exactly is up with the world

it's kind of weird how we didn't get any of the kids' names until literally halfway through the season, i hope that they end up taking advantage of some real Characters among the campers themselves in the future

elijah is so mid you guys. just everything about him. except for when he temporarily drops into his accent when he's fucked up a little

all in all it was a little bit loose and all over the place, which is fine and won't deter me from listening in the future because i love these characters, but it makes me hesitate to rec it because my brain is wired so specifically

lowlights:

it was ngl kind of weird and hamfisted to have really specific descriptions of syndey in particular put in where they were. they didn't feel natural, and they came REALLY late in the series when my images of the character had begun to properly solidify. im talking specifically about confirming sydney as male several episodes in, and then confirming that sydney is curvy and has long hair right before the finale. they feel like they were slotted in as a reaction to fanartists drawing him wrong, and particularly the first one was confusing because the scene made me think that sydney and jedediah were in fact married for a solid ten episodes

[intergalactic-padawan]

omg i just read all your wonderful works but i need more. do you know any blog that has ezra content?

Hello there!

omg thank you so much it's really nice to see you guys like what I write (and don't worry, i've got more on the way!)

The reason i started writing my own fics, actually, was because i wanted more but couldn't find that many. I'd recommend looking for and following the tag "ezra bridger x reader" and other similar ones, there are some blogs with beautiful fics and headcannons there!

Now, on to the list:

For starters, @katelynnwrites has about a handful of works on her masterlist that really inspired me when i started my own;

@asterian also shows up when you look for the tag i mentioned before, there were 2 last time i checked;

There's this imagine by @emcon-imagines that i absolutely relate to and love. She has other ghost crew x reader interactions that make me feel like i'm inside the series (really good inspo when trying to shift too);

@givemea-dam-break has Try, very soft and x reader but her only one.

@silentwhispofhope has a 7 part story (the longest fic i've found so far over here), and the prompt of "Empyreal adventures" is one of my favourites. I love stories where the reader is from our universe and finds themselves in their beloved fictional world, so the ezra crush is just a bonus.

Last but not least, I have to give @iliumheightnights a shout out for his male reader's. Also an inspiration when i was starting to figure out my style for the ezra fics, even if I don't identify as a man there's no denying he writes it well.

.

That's about it here on tumblr, but there may be people i've forgotten. If you know any other Ezra works you like, PLEASE let me know!

Anyway, i'm sure there's more and more of a collective effort to give our boy the attention and love he deserves, so you can always send requests to the writers you like (and if i'm included, i'm flattered XD) or even write your own and show us if you want to! We're all fans and we're all learning as we go.

This turned out to be a love letter to everyone else who helps this fandom grow (not only for ezra, but especially for him. We gotta stick together!). Thank you, I know I couldn't have done it without you writers, fanartists, theorists readers, etc <3

[yellowmagicalgirl]

Hey, how do you and other Krexie shippers work around the age gap? I mean, I ship Krexie and have my own headcanons, but I'm curious to see what others have done.

I feel like I answered this before several months ago, but I don’t feel like finding that post so I’ll answer again. The full answer to your question is a short essay (and that’s without including the footnotes) so I’m gonna put it under a cut. This is based upon my own experience in the fandom, and the krexie circles I frequent are the ones on FFN, AO3, and of course, here on tumblr. Abuse and grooming (in the context of real people) will be talked about below the cut.

TL;DR I’ve seen three main ways of dealing with the age gap: ignoring it, aging Krel up, and aging Douxie down.

Ignore It

This one actually encompasses two different methods. The first of the two is to treat one or both of the boys’ ages as nebulous, with the maturity level of “teenager” and nothing more explicit since Douxie is about nine centuries old and Akiridion royals live for centuries Krel’s exact age is unknown. In this case, the age of one or both of the boys won’t be mentioned aside from being hundereds of years old. In addition, at least on Douxie’s end, this is somewhat canon. Fun fact: Douxie never calls himself a college student, and neither does Archie. Likewise, neither of them call Douxie 19. That was Steve, who deserved far better of a character arc than just to be the idiot that he is in Wizards. However, even though he deserved better Steve is not a reliable source of information on Douxie’s age, but Douxie and Archie are. In Wizards, the only information Douxie and Archie give on Douxie’s age is that he’s about nine centuries old.[1]

The other method of ignoring the ages is to treat Douxie as a 19-year-old (ignoring the immortality) and Krel as a 16-year-old, and to mention one or both of their ages. Their ages are ignored due to one or both of the following reasons: for one, in real life a three year gap between teenagers doesn’t automatically mean the older person is a predator. It’s something to be cautious about, and the younger person really needs to have people they can trust since if the relationship does turn toxic they would have less power and thus be in more danger (usually, though it is possible for the younger person to be more dangerous to the older one), but that doesn’t automatically mean something bad will happen. The other reason to ignore the boys’ ages is because honestly? If someone needs non-canon ships to tell them which relationships are healthy and which ones are dangerous, then their parents/guardians and teachers have failed them. Fanfic authors, fanartists, and other people creating/consuming fanworks on the internet are not responsible for educating random people on the internet. In fact, they and their content are not responsible for if a random person is abused, even if the abuser uses fanworks to groom the victim. It’s the fault of the abuser for being abusive.[2]

Out of these two methods, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more using the former method of ignoring than the age gap than the latter.

Age Krel Up

This, again, has two different methods. The more common method is to have Krel (and the other Arcadia Oaks High students) age naturally, until they’re at an age that the fanwork creator is more comfortable with having krexie at. These types of fanworks take place years after the events of Wizards. The other method is to create an au where Krel (and likely the other Arcadia Oaks High students) were already the age the fanwork creator is more comfortable with when Douxie and Krel first met. I, personally, have created a lot of content for the first method, and I’ve seen other people use this method as well. My fake marriage au utilizes the latter method, and this method would also work for au’s where Douxie and Krel are both adults when they meet but the au does not follow canon.

Age Douxie Down

This one also has a basis in canon, though I haven’t seen any other krexie shipper use this method of dealing with the age gap. I, personally, use this whenever I want to make krexie content that’s compliant with Trollhunters and 3Below but also do not want to deal wit backwards time travel because I hate backwards time travel. However, someone should write an au where Douxie and Krel are human high schoolers whose biggest problem is being gay for the guy attending your rival school.

Now, while Douxie and Archie gave Douxie the vague age of about 900 years old and Steve made the assumption that Douxie was a 19-year-old college student, Trollhunters actually went out of its way to show that Douxie was a high school student.

In season two episode 10, Mary reveals that she was dating a student from Arcadia Oaks Academy, and Eli remarked that that was their rival school. I was in high school when Trollhunters was airing, and let me tell you: high schools do not have rivalries with colleges. Arcadia Oaks Academy would have to be a high school, or maybe a k-12 or 6-12. However, it’s far more likely that Arcadia Oaks Academy is a high school with the same age range of students as Arcadia Oaks High. In season three episode 1, Mary excitedly tells Claire that a student from Arcadia Oaks Academy is at Arcadia Oaks High. This student is Douxie, and unless I’m remembering wrong he also mentions attending the Academy. Unless Mary knew all along that Douxie was a wizard and was trying to give him a cover story for why he was hanging out at Arcadia Oaks High only for this information about Mary to be cut from Wizards due to time constraints, there is absolutely no reason for Mary to lie about Douxie’s age to Claire. The fact that Douxie was considered to be a high schooler by most of the fandom (some people had been on the train of “he’s a centuries old adult” for a long time) is why the krexie fanworks created pre-Wizards are all treating Douxie like a high schooler. (Yes, people shipped krexie (or at least consumed/produced fanworks for the ship) before Wizards came out. I have my fic on AO3/FFN and other people’s comments to prove it, as well as some fanart saved to my blog. Sadly, some of the people are now antis, and one them has now harassed at least one krexie shipper.)

Personally, when I age Douxie down, I age him down to 17. Only 17. Not 17-plus-several-centuries-without-aging. In-universe he may try to call himself 1492 years old, but he’s really just 17. However, as I mentioned before, if I’m aging him down to 17 then I’m also completely ignoring the backwards time travel aspects of Wizards. And, by doing that, I end up really changing the lore of Wizards. If you would like more information for the timeline I use when I age Douxie down, please refer to this ask.

In Conclusion

Thank you for reading this. These footnotes aren’t nearly as on topic and are more of a ramble.

[1] Re: Douxie having a really vague age of nine centuries. If you take enough chemistry and physics (but in my experience especially chemistry) courses, you will have it drilled into your head that 900 years old could really be anywhere from 850 to 949 years old. So, while 919 is definitely possible in the age range given by the age of “about 900″, it’s really a give-or-take number. However, if we truly want to be accurate, then if we choose to have Trollhunters take place in the 2016-2017 school year, choose to have had the moppet been between 16 and 19 years old at the Battle of Killahead Bridge, and we consider that the late 12th century (aka the time period of Wizards... supposedly, considering that it is not historically accurate) to be the latter half of that century, then Douxie would have to be somewhere between 834 and 886 years old. If we want a 16-year-old moppet and for the 900 years to be an accurate case of rounding, then the Battle of Killahead Bridge would have needed to be in 1183 at the earliest, which is accurate for the description of late twelfth century. If Douxie were to really be 919 in 2017, then the Battle of Killahead Bridge would have needed to take place somewhere from 1114 to 1117, aka the early twelfth century.

[2] Re: the argument that fanwork creators are not responsible for if an abuser uses their content to groom a victim. When I was a kid, the big scare was that strangers would lure off innocent children with candy. We were told not to go anywhere with a stranger, even if they had candy (or puppies, kittens, etc.) I don’t know how many kids have been hurt by strangers promising candy, nor do I know if this is something kids are still being warned about, but I do know that there isn’t some campaign against candy companies for daring to sell candy that an abuser would use against kids. This is because, as horrible as children being hurt is, it’s not the fault of the candy companies. It’s the fault of the abuser. And likewise, it’s not the fault of a fanwork creator if someone else uses their content to harm others.

PS: A side note since we’re discussing ages. I’ve been in this fandom for years, specifically on tumblr, AO3, and FFN as well as one of the discords. It wasn’t until the krexie discourse started that I started seeing people start calling Krel 14. I had seen people call him 15-16 in the past, because the fandom wasn’t sure if he and Aja were twins or had a minimum of a 9-month gap (assuming, of course, that Akiridions reproduce like humans do). That being said, before the discourse I never saw anyone treat Krel (or Aja, for that matter) like he had a canonical age. 14, however, seems to be something that stemmed from the wiki. You know, the same fan-run wiki that claims that Nomura’s full name is Zelda Nomura even though nowhere in the shows, books, games, or graphic novels is she ever called by that name. Yeah, the Arcadia Oaks-Pedia is not a reputable source. I’m going to give the wiki editors the benefit of Hanlon’s razor and hope that they were just going “well, since Krel is Aja’s younger brother and we’re assuming she’s 15-16 years old like the rest of the protagonists he must be 14-15 years old” and it was only after that that antis took the idea of Krel being 14 as canon and then ran off with it to be cruel and cause chaos.