#and i was totally immersed in this fandom from early 2016 until the end

[authenticcadence18]

For the ask game... Star vs 2, 3, & 8?

YEAAAAAAH i am always here to ramble about Star!

2. Favorite memory associated with this show?

GOSH this is hard. I have so many!

In general, just the anticipation and hype of new episodes, getting to chat about them with friends, making theories....I have so many good memories🥺.

I remember a lot about when and where I watched new episodes for the first time 😂. One of my favorite memories is watching “Booth Buddies” for the first time!! I remember I was just like, sitting on the floor in my room next to a pile of laundry, heart beating super fast, ABSOLUTELY freaking out😂. And then later that night, I had a performance at school, and I remember just walking around backstage with the biggest, goofiest grin on my face because STAR AND MARCO KISSED AND FINALLY TALKED THROUGH THEIR FEELINGS!!!!!!

I also have super fond memories of the Marco live chats, anyone else remember those? They were a little weird but SO FUN to listen to! I wonder why Disney doesn’t do those these days (maybe because of covid, maybe because they were wonky).

The hype leading up to The Battle For Mewni and the aftermath was also fantastic!!! And OMG, does anyone else remember when they released the Silver Bell Ball clip at comic con and we were all convinced it was a flashback? GOOD TIMES, goooood times😂.

OH ALSO, ONE MORE!!! The day I watched “Cleaved,” I was just....so sad. Star vs ending affected me pretty deeply (as much as Phineas and Ferb ending did) because I loved the show so much...and because the ending left some things to be desired 😅. I remember going to work that day and just kind of, like, being in a daze (Game of Thrones ended around the same time and everyone was talking about that; i thought it was funny that we were both dealing with our shows having subpar endings😂). Anyway, that night, I was still kind of in a funk, and my dad noticed and was like “hey are you okay?” I told him I was sad because Star ended, and he gave me a hug🥺. My parents knew I was into Star but I wasn’t quite as vocal about that show as I was (and am🤣) with Phineas and Ferb, so it was sweet that my dad noticed I was sad and took it seriously!!!

3. Favorite Character?

Star for SURE. I love her!!! She’s a wonderful protagonist. I love her enthusiasm and her character growth! And her entire vibe is just so good, I love all her outfits and just like, the way she talks. I quote her a LOT. And she’s really fun to draw, definitely a comfort character for me!! (I also love Marco and Eclipsa, but Star is definitely my favorite.)

8. Favorite Song?

Oooooooh. My favorite actual song from the show is either “Just Friends” or “The Ballade of Star Butterfly.” They’re totally different but both SO good. My favorite OST from the show is definitely Star and Marco’s theme, specifically the version from “Booth Buddies”! The music that plays while they talk through their feelings is sO SO SO SO SO GOOD. And in general, the OSTs are FANTASTIC in that show. 10/10 would recommend listening to them, there are tons of great character themes/motifs that add to the viewing experience if you know to listen for them!!

[violetiris-ak]

I got tagged by @weirdnproudofit​. Guess you all get to learn a little bit more about me than my obsession with Dragon Age, Reylo, Realm of the Elderlings and writing.

Rules: Tag 9 people you want to get to know better and answer the questions. I’ll probably won’t tag as many though cause I don’t wanna spam half my followers. 

Relationship status: Single.

Favorite Color: Purple usually, though I can be swayed by pretty shade of just about anything. 

Top 3 ships: Oh, now this is going to be hard. Like, super, super hard. So I’m gonna cheat again.

I guess I’ll start with one of the easiest: Ereri/Riren, Eren/Levi from Attack on Titan. I know canonically it’ll never be thing and I’m totally fine with that. Romance of any kind isn’t really much of a thing in the anime and manga, besides the sort of hinted at relationship between Ymir and Christa which I also ship, but the fanfic, fan art, and just fandom related content around this ship has just been incredible.  I came to it during the early days of the anime’s airing in 2013 and never left. I am so blown away and moved by it to this day. So much laughter and smiles and delicious angst and swoon worthy content. Seriously, some of the fanfics for this pairing were so addictive and impressive and also just warm and comforting. And from some of them, I even learned about myself like in the way the best of books do. I’m not as immersed in the community as I used to, but I still follow it and was only reading a fanfic for this pairing a month ago and it was like coming home.

Pre Eren/Levi the last big ship of mine was Dramione aka Draco/Hermione from Harry Potter. I never expected them to get together canonically. I actually came to the series after it was finished, and it wasn’t until after I was finished when I browsing the internet that I came across my first Dramione fic. Intrigued I gave it a go and was hooked. It was like an innocent, PG rated one where Draco and Hermione have a spell go wrong and must stick close together until the spell wears off, and in the meantime, learn to first tolerate each other and then eventually like each other. I was done for and consume such an incredible amount of fanfic it was unreal. 

One of the things that actually made 2016 bearable was my discovering the Dragon Age series and then mass playing them 2x through (still slowly working on my third). By the end of my first playthrough, I just wasn’t ready to leave the world. I couldn’t let go. So I Googled the top fanfics for it and read Zute’s “A Californian in King Cailan’s Court” and sequel “Post Blight Management for Dummies,” which is hysterical by the way. And I binge read so much DA fanfic after that. Seriously, some of my fellow DA fanfic writers are amazing. And as I was looking through one fic where Zevran tries to broker a truce between Fenris and Anders, I became curious about Fenders. And so I looked to see what was out there and got hooked. Now this is another ship that isn’t canon, but these fics showed something I longed for in the game: for these two to realize that despite all their arguments and differences that they both long for the same thing: freedom and justice for those like them that are oppressed. Both have had their freedom denied, both traumatized by their past, Anders by the Chantry and the Templars and the Circle and Fenris by the slavers and magisters of Tevinter. What so many of the fics handled so gracefully was having these two broken people find healing and understanding through one another to a beautiful effect. I recommend giving @nikki-66​ fics a go for great examples of this.

And I said I was gonna cheat, right? Okay, so here are two other ships I’m fully sailing on that I didn’t put in my top three. The first being Reylo because anyone who follows my blog will have probably noticed that I totally ship this. I shipped it from The Force Awakens and was ecstatic when The Last Jedi came out. I went on such a fanfic reading binge for this in late 2017/early to mid 2018. It was the only thing that toned down DA fanfic reading to reasonable levels. All I can is if Ben Solo dies in the next movie and/or if Reylo doesn’t happen in some way I’m going to be so pissed lol

Finally, to one of the most complicated and moving and hard to define relationships I’ve ever read in fantasy fiction: Fitz and the Fool from Robin Hobb’s the Realm of the Elderlings. Fitz is the bastard of the crown prince of the Six Duchies turned assassin for the king and the Fool is the court jester and also someone he refers to as the White Prophet. Their relationship in the books spans a lifetime, and it grows and evolves. Are they friends? Or are they more? But they’re not lovers, not in the way most of us would think of them but also something more. All I knew was that in some way the two of them needed to end up together in some way, and I just couldn’t bear the thought that they wouldn’t be. I put off reading the last trilogy for months because of it. And when I did... I won’t say because you really need to read these books. All sixteen of them and in order. Please. 

lipstick or chapstick: I always have a chapstick in my pocket. Always. I can’t stand having dry lips. And while I do love lipstick for all the pretty colors and also the way it brightens my face, I hate when a lipstick can just settle on your lips and look super bad. But in recent years there’s been more lip butters and other hydrating formulas that I can regularly use, so that’s nice.

Last song: Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. I’ve been on a Queen kick after watching Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Last movie: I was hanging out with my mom post her knee surgery and got her to finally watch Mulan. Before that it was Outlaw King on Netflix (with a friend) and then Bohemian Rhapsody (with a sister). I don’t watch a whole lot of movies. And if we’re talking TV shows then Outlander (with a friend). I’m more likely to be found reading, writing or gaming than I am to be watching something. 

currently reading: Ummmmm where do I begin? Ha. Like I just read a Reylo oneshot this morning. The other day I just finished Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas (which was so good!) and because I was in such a Maas kick I decided to make my 100th book read of the year her Catwoman Soulstealer one (good so far!). Also, I just started reading the novella Neutral by Jane Washington and Jaymin Eve which is part of the Curse of the Gods series (the protagonist Willa is the funniest main character I’ve read in years; the most recent one being the Warden in Zute’s Dragon Age fanfic). 

And yes, I did say 100 books. I am counting novel lengths fanfics, books of poetry and plays along with any novels and books of nonfiction. In 2017, I wanted to see how much I was actually reading and challenged myself to get to at 50 (I ended up somewhere in the 80s) and write them all down in a notebook. I gave myself the 50 challenge again this year at the bare minimum with the ultimate goal of 100 books read. So unless I lose all access to the written word for the rest of the year, I’ll be meeting my goal in the next day or so, which is super exciting. 

So here I’m going to tag four of my followers! If you’ve already done this or find the whole thing annoying feel free to ignore it.  @orkindofamazing @amervalk @latebuthere @nekoamamori

[shapeshiftersamirah]

Ahh someone else who started on ffn!!!! I've found it's soooo different from tumblr, some of the stuff you see on there....

I… apparently have a lot of thoughts on this (??) which I was not expecting. There’s a mini essay beneath the cut that includes minor culture analysis done by an amateur, how I joined the pjo fandom, and CAPITALS because emphasis, but the short answer is: yeah, tumblr and ffn cultures are continents away from each other, and (kind of surprisingly, especially considering the DISCOURSE on tumblr), tumblr is better.

I cannot for the life of me remember how I found it, but ffn was my first foray into fanfic and wow did I ever learn stuff. Some of it was good and is still useful to me (like how to tell if a fic is well written just from the summary, fandom terminology, good writers aren’t always good people, but they always bookmark good fics, etc) but a lot of other stuff was a little scarring, especially for a kid with no prior fandom experience. Looking back, a lot of stuff on ffn is horrifying. And I’m not just talking about the writing/plots.

I remember skimming author’s notes on fics and the writer would seem so tired and annoyed as they asked readers to stop demanding updates or explaining “so I got hit by a car and was in the hospital for a while which is why this is late sorry about that” (or some other completely legit reason for not posting on schedule). Or even in the description, I saw a lot of “this is my first fic please be gentle!” or just flat out “no flames”. And that’s a little unnerving to think about. These people feel the need to explain their lives and then APOLOGIZE for it to avoid criticism. I feel confident in guessing that the writers putting “my first fic please be gentle!” in the description were mostly pre-teens to early teens. They were kids. They were seeing all of these amazing writers producing amazing content and getting hate for it and they were terrified of the same thing happening to them, so they had to come up with a way to protect themselves. The fact that they even felt the NEED to protect themselves blows my mind and breaks my heart. And some of the people putting “no flames” in their description were likely doing it as a precaution, but it started for a reason: people were getting so many hate filled reviews it was a problem, so they found a solution. (And I know this type of hate and demanding updates still happens, and it still horrifies me, but I feel like it was more frequent back in, like, 2012. Or at least, I heard about it more back then.)

(Friendly reminder that fic writers don’t owe you anything so don’t bother them demanding updates. Tell them how much you love their fic instead, ask questions about it, show that you’re interested and want more and you’ll get it and a much happier author.)

There’s a lot of design features I don’t care for on ffn and the tagging system there is ATROCIOUS I have no idea how I found ANYTHING, but I liked visiting ffn. Until I found tumblr (and later AO3).

My favorite pjo writer linked her tumblr to her ffn profile and mentioned she had more fic posted there, so I immediately went and devoured it. In doing so, I discovered that tumblr was a better website (I cannot believe I just typed that. That shows you how much I hate ffn). I stalked her tumblr every day and through her, I found more pjo writers, some I recognized from ffn and others who were totally new to me. Through those new writers, I found even more. And most of them had FIC REC TAGS which became my favorite thing. During this time, I didn’t visit ffn once. I had everything I wanted and MORE because on tumblr, you could post FANART and GRAPHICS and DISCUSSIONS ABOUT THE SERIES! There was a better communication system on tumblr. I didn’t see hate everywhere. I didn’t have to sift through piles of things I wasn’t interested in or that were written so poorly I couldn’t follow to find a few mediocre fics or that one professional quality fic. I could see evidence of internet friendships! It was just a nicer place to be.

When I finally made my own tumblr account in 2015 and subsequently started this blog in 2016, I really immersed myself in the pjo community and learned all sorts of stuff. Like: there are people here who I swear to god are actual rays of sunshine. Some people have ingenious insight into the series and the characters and holy shit my understanding of everything is so much better now. There are so many talented people, but they’re all human just like you. And more of course, but the bottom line is that for the most part, the fandom was a good place to be. I rarely saw hate being sent. The discourse wasn’t fandom ending, though most people were Done by the time it’d run its course. I saw a lot of nice messages being sent to people and there were a lot of excited, happy responses in return. People respected each other.

For the most part, I really enjoy being a part of the pjo fandom here on tumblr. There are so many incredibly talented people and the vast majority of people are so sweet and nice and good to be around. Almost every day I see something that deepens my understanding of the series. It’s just a nice place to be for the most part. There are things I have really started to hate, but it’s easy enough to avoid them. Tumblr is a pretty shitty website sometimes (in design and fandom), but I would never in a million years trade it for ffn.