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pttucker · 11 months ago

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Aaaand we're done! \o/

Well... "done" in one sense of the word since I just did a very quick search and apparently there's like another 140 chapters of side stories and counting. Possibly post-epilogue stuff??? Didn't look too closely since I don't want too many spoilers if I can avoid it. I already saw one vague spoiler relating to 49% Dokja's side story. 😢😢😢

Though at least now with the main novel+epilogues finished all of the mysteries have been wrapped up (as far as I can remember).

I guess I'm still curious about the Library, but even if that's never touched upon in any side story chapters, I think I kinda get it with my theories and how he broke up into many, many different Dokjas and/or was two different Oldest Dreams?

Oh, and the stuff with Dokja & 1863's Sooyoung's blurry faces, I would have liked to have seen that resolved. There were mentions of Dokja slowly getting less blurry that were kinda glossed over but nothing concrete ever popped up for why his face was blurry or if/when it fully stopped being blurry? Unless I just missed some subtle thing?? Like I guess the epilogue did mention that Sooyoung had fun writing in stuff about him being the Ugly King but I don't think she made him ugly, that was just her memories of him?? Either way, poor Dokja. 😭

idk maybe I'm the only one obsessed with things like that. (I literally eventually started a separate section in my ORV Scrivener notes just for all the times Dokja's looks are mentioned in any way.) So maybe it just wasn't deemed important to "resolve"? Or, again, it was but I totally missed it.

Or maybe there's still something about the Library and his looks (and other mysteries I may not be currently remembering) in the additional 140+ chapters out there?

Unfortunately, English translations of Chapters 552+ don't all seem to be in one place, or at least I wasn't able to quickly find them in my first search. I'll keep looking, though. Might just have to cobble together the chapters one by one from various sources. If anyone happens to know where I could possibly find them...

Though I'm honestly not certain if I want to immediately jump into them or if I want to give it a moment to breathe. I actually am a little bit disappointed that I jumped right into the 40+ chapter epilogues right after finishing the main story since I feel like it stole some of the impact from him finding his two separate ■■.

Even if I was really happy to see how they continued living on in the system-less world and how Dokja felt after losing all of his companions to be Oldest Dream. Seriously you never get to see those sort of things after the "happy" ending.

And I did love seeing how it all tied back together with Sooyoung being the author and ORV itself being Dokja's story (which Sooyoung also wrote!) which in turn is our story and getting to see Secretive Plotter and the 999ths again and poor Joonghyuk just not knowing what to do with himself after losing his purpose as a protagonist and him and Sooyoung wanting to save their precious Dokja more than anything and both of them coming to understand Dokja better and so on and so forth.

But if nothing else, I do really want to finally read some fanfiction and otherwise engage with fandom now that the big mysteries are solved. And if I can make one final prediction it's going to be that the top fanfic is some kind of modern, no powers gamer AU or something. Because that's just how these fandoms seem to go. 😂

Anyway, I think it should be obvious from my many, many ORV posts but I really enjoyed the novel! I am very happy that so many things were so well foreshadowed, so much was so carefully planned, so many loose ends were tied up in a very satisfying manner, etc. It's very impressive for such a long, looooong story. I mean, just the fact that you could get inklings that something was up with Secretive Plotter before we even hit Chapter 100 yet not have the reveal come until much later is impressive just on its own.

I guess if I had one complaint it'd be that I didn't quite vibe with the whole "multiple walls to open the Final Wall" thing. Like, I totally was into the idea of Dokja's Fourth Wall being the largest fragment, and I actually thought that Jang Hayoung's wall was pretty clever since it's all about commenting/texting others when Jan Hayoung was created due to Dokja's comments.

But I'm not quite so into the Wall of Samsara and Wall That Divides Good and Evil. Like, I do get how they relate to the story, what with Dokja literally reincarnating into multiple worlds himself and the fact that a lot of Dokja's main theme was that he didn't nicely fit into a box of good or evil. I mean, his literal Modifiers are Demon King of Salvation and Watcher of Light and Darkness. Not to mention, Dokja went through a ton of the novel saying that just because they were evil in one turn doesn't mean they're evil in the next and vice versa, as well as the fact that the had companions on both sides of the spectrum.

So I'm not saying that they just came out of nowhere, but personally I find something to be a little off with them when compared to the other two walls? idk these are just my initial thoughts and I might feel completely different once I re-read the novel and can better appreciate things.

Which, speaking of, I'm debating with myself if I want to do the truly ridiculous thing and start this entire novel over right from the beginning in true Dokja fashion or if I want to be good and maybe give some other universe some love. I was looking at The World After The Fall but...uh...

Not to say that things with tiny fandoms aren't also good!!!

But it does make me kinda side-eye it a little and wonder if I shouldn't just read Solo Leveling...

...or read whatever side stories I can find, aaaaaalllllll the fanfic, and then read ORV all over again. 😂

We'll see.

FYI when I do start reacting to the side stories I think I'll use the tag "orv side story" if anyone wants to block it preemptively to avoid spoilers.

#thanks for everyone that came along with me on my journey!#I'll have to find my own ORV liveblogger to follow now 😊#orv #orv spoilers #orv novel chapter 551 #orv epilogue spoilers #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv liveblog

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july13th2004 · 1 month ago

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Fictober 2024 Day 16 (Late)

Category: Fanfiction

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia

Characters/Relationships: Lloyd Irving, Anna Irving, Dirk, Kratos Aurion (mentioned), Lloyd Irving & Anna Irving, Dirk & Lloyd Irving

Genre: Angst/Family/Fluff

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1651

Prompt: “No, I'm not okay.”

Author's Note: So, I’ve decided to write for this event for the first time in three years. I planned on continuing to write for this event in 2022 and 2023, but two years ago I was going through a mental block/had low confidence in my ability to write anything at the time, so I decided not to participate. Then last year I simply wasn't interested in any of the prompts so that's why I didn't participate then as well. Anyway, I'll only be writing for three of the prompts this year (which is much more manageable for me than the last time I participated in this event), and they should hopefully be around 1k words, more or less. This one is rated G, while the next two will be rated T due to a little bit of spice that will be in those ones. The next two will be posted on the 26th and 31st.

Also, lastly, this one is set in my Anna Lives AU, and the last prompt I'll be writing for this event this year will be set in that AU as well.

(Sorry this one is so late… I kinda struggled with the direction of it. The next two should be posted on time.)

For as far back as he could remember, Lloyd had always thought of his mom as a positive and cheerful person. She always persevered through hard times, and her optimism through those trying times was greatly inspiring to him. So it came as a sudden and disappointing surprise to him, when that cheerful and positive demeanor of hers had all but completely disappeared over the past couple of years. He wasn't sure what to do to help his mom become that optimistic and determined person that he admired so greatly once again; but as a now thirteen year old boy, he was certain he'd do almost anything to help her.

So that's why one night, after hearing his mother quietly crying just outside of her closed bedroom door, he decided to finally ask Dirk, the dwarf who had become a dear father figure to him in the past decade since rescuing both him and his mother, about his mom's declining emotional state. The dwarf was currently in his workshop working on a project for someone far away when the young teen arrived to ask him for his advice and wisdom on the matter.

“Hey dad…” Lloyd started, hesitating a little as he entered the workshop. “Can I ask you a question about something?”

Dirk turned around to face his adopted son after setting his tools down on his work table, and flashed him a bright grin before happily replying with, “Sure, my boy! What is it?”

The young teen looked solemnly at the floor, “It's about mom… Why has she been so sad lately? And is there anything I can do to help her? Because I don't know what to do… I miss her being happy no matter what happens, and I just want her to be happy again.”

The dwarf’s grin dropped to a knowing, yet melancholic smile. “Ah, Lloyd, it's really simple… Why ya mother is so sad right now. Ya mother misses ya father terribly.”

Lloyd looked up at the dwarf and frowned, “If that's why, then I don't understand. I don't think he's coming back to us. He could be dead for all I know.”

Dirk sighed and stepped toward the young teen, “Ya might be right, my boy. Yet, I really think ya mother believes your father is somewhere out there, and that he'll return to ya both someday.”

Lloyd’s expression softened slightly and turned thoughtful, “I really hope she's right then, even if I don't care if he returns to us or not… But still, what can I do to help her be happy again? That's all I want…”

The dwarf placed a large, gloved hand on the young teen’s shoulder, and gave him a soft smile, “The answer to that is also really simple, Lloyd. Ya let ya mother know that you're there for her, as ya would with a friend. Let her know that she has the two of us by her side. Most importantly though, ya let her know that everything's gonna be okay.”

“I guess that makes sense…” The teen nodded and his smile widened, “Thanks dad! Then I'll try to talk to her about that tomorrow night.”

“Now remember, Lloyd, be patient.” Dirk stated after taking his hand off the teen’s shoulder, “She’s not going to be all happy and like herself again right away. That's gonna take some time.”

“Okay, I'll try to be patient about it then, dad.” Lloyd said as he turned to leave the workshop.

“Oh, before you go, my boy!” Dirk called out just as Lloyd was about to leave the room, “I've one last thing to say. Talk to ya mother tonight, right away. I wouldn't hesitate and wait until tomorrow.”

The young teen turned around and nodded before giving the dwarf a grin, “All right then, I’ll go talk to her now. Thanks again, dad!”

_________

Lloyd immediately headed back upstairs the moment he left the workshop, with a new resolve after talking with his adoptive father. When he reached his mother's bedroom door, her room being directly across from his own, he couldn't hear the sound of her crying anymore. He hesitated a moment before knocking on the door as the sudden thought of her possibly already being asleep crossed his mind. But the thought left his mind as he considered that she wouldn't go to bed without wishing him good night and to sleep well, first.

“Hey mom, are you still up?” Lloyd asked after gently knocking on the door, “Can I come in?”

“Yes, Lloyd, I'm still awake.” He heard his mother's response from the other side of the door. “You may come in…”

The young teen quietly opened the door and entered his mother's bedroom. She was sitting on the side of her bed and holding a handkerchief in her right hand. Her eyes were puffy from crying, and that was all he needed to see to know that he needed to talk to her right now. He closed the door behind him and stepped toward her.

“Hey mom, are you okay?” Lloyd gently inquired.

He already knew what her answer would be, but he wanted to actually hear her voice her response.

Anna let out a short, sorrowful laugh, before giving her son a knowing and despondent smile, then answered, “No, Lloyd, I'm not okay.”

The young teen glanced from her to the floor, then back at her, and his expression turned sad again as he commented, “I know mom, I could hear you crying earlier.”

She blinked and gave him a mild look of chagrin, a little taken aback that her son would eavesdrop on her.

Lloyd continued, his tone now somewhat nervous, “I-I know you probably didn't want me to hear you crying, and I'm really sorry about that, but I've also noticed that you haven't been your usual self lately. So I-I wanted to talk to you about that tonight… B-Because I-I just want you to be happy again…”

His mother's expression softened, and she gave her son a gentle smile after letting out a sigh. “Oh, Lloyd, I should apologize to you… I wasn't aware of how my current mood has been affecting you, and for that I sincerely apologize. …So yes, I suppose we should, no, need to talk about this. It might help me feel better, and maybe it will help you fully understand why I've been feeling so down lately.”

All Lloyd could do was simply nod and give her a small smile in agreement with her statement. She gestured for her son to sit down next to her on her bed, which he immediately did without hesitation. The two then talked for close to an hour about how she was feeling and why. Anna had to take a couple moments throughout their conversation to let herself cry, and Lloyd would wait patiently for her to continue.

_________

“I'm just so tired of waiting for him to come home, Lloyd.” Anna concluded as she wiped away the last of her tears with her handkerchief.

“Yeah, mom, I kinda want him to come home to us, too…” Lloyd commented in agreement, his expression somewhat downcast.

Silence fell between the two for a moment.

The young teen then continued, his voice filled with a renewed determination, “But I want you to know, mom, that even if he doesn't, that you'll always have us, dad-I mean Dirk and I! We'll always be there for you! No matter what happens, it's going to be okay!”

Anna's eyes began to water, but she forced herself not to cry again. She gently wrapped her arms around her son and hugged him. “Oh thank you, Lloyd! I'm so glad we had this conversation tonight.”

Lloyd was all too happy to hug his mother in return. “No problem, mom! Do you feel any better, though?”

She released him and nodded in affirmation. “Yeah, I feel a little bit better. I think I just needed to talk with you and hear from you that everything's going to be all right.” Then she glanced at the clock on the wall near her bedroom door. “Oh, look at how late it is! You should go to bed now, Lloyd. You have school in the morning, don't you?”

The young teen let out a nervous laugh, then replied, “Ah, yeah, I do… Good night then, mom!”

He quickly hugged his mother again, then hurriedly left the room. Anna figured her son would probably go downstairs and say good night to Dirk before he headed to bed. She got ready for bed a short time later, wearing a small smile on her face, yet her thoughts were still focused on her husband once she crawled into her bed.

Oh Kratos, I know you're out there somewhere, and I hope someday you'll finally come home. I suppose all I can do is wait until that day arrives, despite being tired of waiting and losing hope that that day will ever arrive…

…Though you should know, our son put something in perspective for me tonight. I haven't been my usual self lately and I didn't realize how much that's been affecting him. He helped me realize tonight that even if you never return to me, to us, that I will always have him by my side. And that I also have Dirk, the gruff but kind dwarf who rescued us around a decade ago, by my side. Together, I think we've raised Lloyd into the nice, empathetic young man I always hoped he'd be.

…I still miss you, and love you so much, Kratos, and after tonight, my hope that you'll return to me and Lloyd one day has been somewhat restored. …And I'm now determined again to wait however long it takes for that day to arrive…

Anna then drifted off to sleep, and for the first time in months, she would sleep peacefully through the night.

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #kratos aurion #anna irving #fictober24 #dirk #my fanfiction

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pythagoras180 · 4 months ago

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Canon is Better than Scarlet Lady

I while ago I read a post where someone said that they don't like fanfiction because "Why would you take someone else's story and butcher it?" When I read that, I thought "Isn't that harsh? Most fanfics are made out of people's love for the source material." Well, I think the Scarlet Lady AU by Zoe-Oneesama is exactly the kind of fic this person was imagining when they said that. "Scarlet Lady" is a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic/saltfic/fixfic that fundamentally misses the point of pretty much every character and major plot point in it. And since it recently ended, it's time for my comprehensive review of it.

Just a few things before we begin. I'm going to assume that everyone reading this has read "Scarlet Lady", so I'm not going to recap the story. I was originally planning to write this on the day of the last page, but the final page was honestly such a nothing burger that I thought it wasn't the final page initially.

Some people may have a problem with the very concept of this review, saying its not fair for me to criticize a non-professional fanfic with this much scrutiny. I think that's an opinion Zoe herself holds. First, I think nothing is above criticism, especially not something that is claiming to be better than the professional product. People didn't hold back against "Spiderman: Lotus", did they? Even within this fanbase, people had some pretty harsh words for "Karma of Lies". Second, I think any discussion of non-professionalism went out the window the moment Zoe stated her intention to sell hardcopies of "Scarlet Lady". This arguably is professional. Third, I wouldn't be making this review if I this was a fanfic made out of genuine love and passion, and simply missed the mark. No, "Scarlet Lady" is in fact created out of nothing but spite and contempt, and I feel that makes it pretty fair game for criticism. So, without further ado, let's begin.

Why is Canon Better than Scarlet Lady?

In "Scarlet Lady", Emilie Agreste was woken up with no consequences, no buildup, no emotion, and no meaningful consequences. In canon, Emilie's loss was accepted by the characters and she died. I'm pretty sure that automatically makes canon better than "Scarlet Lady", so you don't even need to read the rest of this review! In all seriousness, this is genuinely some of the worst writing I have ever seen, and it is what made me decide that "Scarlet Lady" was a bad story, so I decided to just mention it on its own.

To be clear, I think Miraculous Ladybug is a poorly written show. "Scarlet Lady" is just worse. And since I used to enjoy Miraculous Ladybug, I'm in a good position to compare the two. When I read the ending of Scarlet Lady, what I though about canon was

I think that writing the middle part of a story is relatively easy. The audience is already hooked from the beginning, and they are intrigued for what might happen, so they'll keep reading even if not everything is great. I think the beginning and ending is the hard part. "Scarlet Lady" didn't have to worry about the beginning and getting people interested because it's piggybacking off of an already successful show. And since the ending of "Scarlet Lady" was so awful, it's clear to me that it was always badly written.

I'll now be analyzing "Scarlet Lady" in terms of its tone, its various characters, and more.

Tone

Every single potentially powerful moment in "Scarlet Lady" is played off as a joke. This may be in part because of the format, with it being released 8 panels at a time, so the audience has to be given something to be entertained by in every page. The thing is, I don't think that's true. I have seen plenty of webcomics where a situation is spread across multiple pages, and the audience doesn't instantly lose interest when one page is for setup purposes.

The consequence of this unserious tone is that the entire story is an emotional flatline. There's no moments that make you sad, no moments that make you happy, nothing that makes you scared or invested. Nothing feels like anything, because everything is a joke.

The season 2 finale of canon is actually really good, it feels like a real challenge with both sides giving it their all. In SL however, the same battle feels about as challenging as a stroll through the park.

I've seen a lot of comedies, and most of them still have a strong emotional core that isn't made into a joke at every turn. So arguing that SL is a comedy doesn't really help.

The problems with this unserious tone run deep, and you will see that as I explore the various characters.

Characters

I don't even like most of the characters in ML, but I could see the absolute downgrade they are in SL.

In general, I just wanted to say this: almost every character in this story is a sarcastic smartass. This makes them rather monotonous and uninteresting. Also very generic considering how common this archetype is these days.

Wait a second. Every serious moment is undermined by a joke, and all the characters are sarcastic smartasses. Was Zoe secretly an MCU writer this entire time?!

Chloé

I figure we should start with the titular Scarlet Lady. I actually think that the idea of a superhero duo where one of them is extremely lazy and unhelpful, but still necessary, is an extremely interesting idea for a dynamic. The problem is, there is no dynamic. Scarlet Lady and Chat Noir have no relationship, they just talk at each other constantly. And the result of this is that basically every interaction is the same: Scar does something selfish, Chat gets mad, rinse and repeat. It could have been interesting to explore different scenarios and ideas with these two, but no they just do the same thing over and over.

There is a pretty big plot hole here once Marigold is introduced. Why don't the heroes just take the Ladybug Miraculous back? It would be rather easy. Well, the explanation is that since Scar is still popular with the public, its best to keep her around for public cooperation and morale. Okay, I can accept that. Except, only a few episodes after this explanation we get "Zombizou", an episode where Scar straight up attacks Marinette in the middle of a battle, which causes Chat to get infected and them to very nearly lose. After that, there is no excuse anymore. Scar is clearly too dangerous to keep around, take her Miraculous now. But no, they actually don't even talk about what happened at all.

One particular episode where I have a problem with how Chloé is treated by the writer is "Silencer". In this episode, Chloé helps Bob Roth and XY with their plagiarism scheme. In canon, she had nothing to do with that. Now, yes, this is a different story and the writer can do whatever she wants. And this also gets Chloé more involved in the story. However, doing this just gives me a feeling that Zoe is blaming Chloé for something she didn't do. I don't know, it's just a vibe.

Anyway, throughout the story Chloé gets worse and worse until it culminates in her working with Hawk Moth and betraying everyone. And what are her consequences for this?

I mean, except for her father making her apologize (offscreen). So ultimately this plot feels like such a letdown. Chloé is the titular character that this fic's whole concept was started by, and yet it ends with her character just fading away with a whimper. What a letdown.

Marinette

This one will be quick. Zoe says that Marinette is her favorite character in ML, but I don't think she understands her at all. Remember what I said about every character being a sarcastic smartass? Well that is most prevalent with Marinette, and that is just fundamentally not who she is as a character. Marinette is someone whose is unabashed in her kindness and compassion. That's why plenty of people like her. If Marinette was in canon like she was in SL, she would be an extremely generic protagonist with almost no fans at all. The only reason anyone likes her in SL is because they relate her to the canon version.

I will say, I do like the idea of her being such a hero at heart that she'll run into danger even without powers. But this is completely diminished by her basically being invincible and having plot armor in her civilian form.

Adrien

Adrien in canon is one of my least favorite characters of all time. And yet, Adrien in SL is even worse. I'd go as far to say he's an anti-character. He has no growth, no arc, and no real personality.

The reason people like Adrien in canon is because they perceive him as someone who is treated very badly by his father and by others, but is still a kind person regardless. Well, in SL it's hard to perceive any poor treatment considering how he's only ever seen disobeying his father. And he's really never done anything kind throughout the entire comic.

Do you know the only reason people like Adrien in SL? Because they see him as who they wanted canon Adrien to become. Someone who can stand up to his father, who is useful in battle, and who doesn't put up with Chloé. But since SL Adrien was that way the entire time, there is no growth at all. Again he piggybacks off of his canon counterpart. If canon Adrien didn't exist, nobody would give a single crap about SL Adrien. None of the traits people liked about him in canon are present, and there is nothing new added to replace it. He is nothing.

Speaking of Adrien and Chloé, isn't it kind of weird that Adrien ended his friendship with her twice? In "Despair Bear" he ends his friendship with her and this is played as a big moment, even though he already basically ended their friendship all the way back in the pilot. There is not a single moment in the entire comic where Adrien treats Chloé like a friend.

As I mentioned earlier, Adrien has no emotional reaction to his mother coming back. In fact, I think it's fair to say that Adrien never loved his parents. And the reason for this is because Zoe hates his parents and she just imposed her feelings onto him, just like most bad fanfic writers do.

In terms of Adrien having no arc, there is one moment I wanted to talk about. During the final battle, he gets a power upgrade when he's talking about how he doesn't understand Hawk Moth's perspective, and he doesn't want to because Hawk Moth is so awful. This moment is played as if it's character growth for Adrien, but I want to ask, in what way? Well, I guess it does make sense because Adrien always gave his father the benefit of the doubt, stuck by Chloé even though she's cruel, and defended Lila. All those things could be considered him trying to understand a bad person. Too bad that none of that happened in SL. Adrien always hated his father, he ended his friendship with Chloé day 1, and he never defended Lila. Zoe was so focused on removing all of Adrien's flaws that she left him with no starting point for this supposed arc. In general, flawed characters are more interesting than perfect ones. Again, the only reason people liked this scene was because they subconsciously associated SL Adrien with canon.

Also, Zoé adds in her headcanon that Emilie was a bad parent. This headcanon only exists because people are incapable of imagining Adrien being anything other than a victim. I call it my "Perpetual Victim Theory". Anyway Zoé just makes up a bunch of random crap that has no basis in canon just to make Adrien more of a victim.

Gabriel

At first, "Scarlet Lady" looks like a Chloé saltfic. Well, that's only partially true. It's actually mainly a Gabriel saltfic. It honestly seems like Zoe hates Gabriel so much that she can barely think when he's involved. Gabriel is always portrayed as a complete moron with absolutely no humanity at all. He honestly seems more like a caricature in a political cartoon rather than an actual character. I actually find it hard to believe that his motivation is to bring back his wife considering how devoid of human emotion he is. Because the main villain of the series is a buffoon who can't be taken seriously, there is never any actual threat or tension. People criticize canon Gabriel for all his bad decisions, which is absolutely fair, but there are at least a few moments where he is genuinely menacing, and some moments where he is human. But writing him that way would require Zoe to let go of her hatred for a few minutes, so that's clearly not an option.

Nathalie

To put it simply Nathalie is a Mary Sue. She's a "girlboss" that does a bunch of horrible things she's not punished for. She can create a sentimonster to solve all the show's problems, she can decode an ancient book without a reference (Some people have defended this by claiming that the book was decoded IRL. IRL it was written in Engish in a different alphabet. That's not true in-universe). She's so much smarter and cooler than everyone else. Mary Sue, plain and simple. Oh, and she hates Gabriel because of course she does. She's a character written by Zoe after all.

In canon, Nathalie has some complexities. She's not great, but she's certainly better than this.

The Male Classmates

I'm just going to say it. Almost every male classmate was character assassinated in "Party Crasher". In canon, Nino lists his female friends to Gorilla and tells him to not let them in the mansion. This is because he assumes that if they find out that they ditched tree planting, they'll stop the boys from hanging out with Adrien. Is it a jerk move to ditch their plans in order to spend time with Adrien and not tell the girls? Yes, but it's understandable and they have limited time with Adrien. In SL, Nino tells Gorilla to keep all girls out of the house, which instantly imposes a sense of underlying misogyny to the situation. Oh, and they let Marc in even though Marc is nonbinary in this story, which implies that the boys went full Royce Du Pont, which is unintentionally hilarious.

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I have no idea what motivated Zoe to change the boys from regular flakers to misogynists, maybe she just misunderstood the original episode, but it's still bad. Also, the SL episode goes out of its way to say that Adrien isn't at fault. No, he was completely complicit in the blatant sexism as well. So yeah, pretty much all the boys are instantly made worse by this one episode.

Zoé

In these previous cases, I have been making comparisons to and defending canon characters that I don't even like anymore. But Zoé Lee is my absolute favorite character in Miraculous Ladybug, and I was not happy with how SL handled her.

So a pretty important question right off the bat, how does SL Zoé exist? Zoe said that since canon didn't explain Zoé's existence, neither will she. But the thing is, what is there to explain? Chloé's parents have been married 20 years. Chloé's mother lives in New York, away from her family in Paris. Chloé's mother also has a daughter in New York with another man, much younger than 20-years-old. I don't think it takes a genius to figure out what happened there. But I'll spell it out anyway: extramarital affair. In fact, I think the whole reason the writers of canon made Zoé Chloé's half-sister was to hint why she hadn't been mentioned before: because Audrey was ashamed of her, and Chloé didn't know abut her.

On the other hand, "Scarlet Lady" never mentions Zoé's father, has her refer to Andre as her parent, says Zoé lived in New York, and never implies that Audrey is ashamed of her in any way. How does this make sense? Well, maybe Zoé is the older sibling in SL, and Audrey and Andre met and got married after Audrey was already pregnant, and Zoé's biological father isn't involved in her life. It still seems weird that Zoé was living in New York instead of Paris (why not live with her stepdad that she's close enough to call a parent, and how did they form such a strong relationship long distance?), but this does make most of the situation make sense. Except for one little detail: Why on Earth are Chloé and Zoé only now meeting for the first time? It makes absolutely no sense that their parents would not even tell these two about each other. How was Zoé so close to Andre to call him her parent, but didn't meet her sister until she was a teenager? None of this adds up. And honestly, it seems like after a certain period of time Zoe just straight up forgot that Zoé only arrived recently. In the therapy scenes, she acts like they were always one family. When canon gave Chloé a sister, they gave a reason why nobody knew about her until now. When SL gave Chloé a sister, she just suddenly has one who isn't explained and they act like she was always around. In fact, the only part where they acknowledge her showing up suddenly is when Adrien hasn't heard of her, but SL actually just implies that this is because he was never actually close with Chloé.

Putting all that aside, SL also sucks out everything interesting about Zoé. Gone is her cleverness or willingness to lie for the right reason. In fact, the defining characteristic that SL gives Zoé is that she has no personality. I've seen some people claim that SL had Chloé and Zoé having more of a sisterly bond, but I actually don't believe that Zoé actually loves Chloé. During the final battle, Hawk Moth has basically poisoned Chloé, and for all Zoé knows, it could be fatal. If I were in Zoé's shoes in this situation, I would be furious with Gabriel. But is she? No, she just has the same jokey, ironic disgust towards him that all the characters do. Yeah, this is one of the moments when the comic's insistence to turn everything into a joke hit critical mass. Doing that ends up damaging the characters.

One last thing. In canon, Zoé was pretty cool as Vesperia. She helped out a bunch of times, and she was one of the only heroes to demonstrate unique skills in how she taunted Queen Banana into anger. Not in SL though. Vesperia achieves nothing, she could have been cut out entirely and nothing would change. That actually transitions nicely into my next point.

Because Canon Did It Too

Zoe has said that she wants to keep the lore consistent with the show. Even though she didn't like the name "Venom" for that power, she kept it for consistency purposes. I can respect this idea, but there are multiple parts of this story that would have just been better if it diverged.

For one thing, having 19 Miraculouses and as many superpowered characters. I can understand why canon did this: because they clearly want the show to go on forever and they want as many characters as possible to fill that time. SL on the other hand was only planned to last a certain number of episodes, and yet Zoe crammed in as many heroes as the original did. This leads to a lot of time setting up these characters that leads to nothing, because they're all barely in the finale and contribute basically nothing. It would have been so much better to simply limit it to the 7 main Miraculouses, that's so much more manageable.

Another thing is the Rabbit Miraculous and time travel. Zoe acknowledged how OP it is and how it can instantly solve the conflict. She might not want to change its power because of her lore rule, but if she had just ignored its existence entirely, that would have been totally acceptable. But no, the final battle has Master Fu using the Rabbit Miraculous, which instantly makes the stakes even lower than they already were. It wasn't even necessary, Master Fu is shown to be faster than he looks, he could have just delivered the Miraculouses the normal way. Oh, and there's also the fact that Zoe looked at the insanely OP Rabbit Miraculous and said "That's not OP enough." She also gave it the power to teleport to other universes. To be clear, this completely contradicts canon. ML is not the MCU, alternate universes are not alternate timelines. Changes to the timeline just overwrite the old one, and you can use the Rooster Miraculous, not the Rabbit, to visit other universes. So yeah, despite Zoe saying she wants lore consistency, SL actually doesn't fit into the Miraculous multiverse that canon established.

Also, let's talk about the romance. Like canon, there's a love square that doesn't get together until way later. But it seems like Zoe forgot about an important rule of romance: if the characters aren't together yet, why not? In SL Marinette and Chat clearly like each other, and unlike canon's Ladrien, they talk quite a bit. So why don't they get together? Canon actually has a really great episode "Elation" where Adrien decides that he can't date a civilain as a superhero if she doesn't know his identity. But nothing even like this is remotely acknowledged in SL (Sidenote: The writing of "Elation" is better than the entirety of SL). Also, Adrien doesn't confess for most of SL, I assume because Marinette didn't confess in canon, but this is just so out of character for Adrien. He's not the kind of person to hold his feelings back. In canon, he confessed to Marinette only a few episodes after he started liking her. He claims that he doesn't want to date until Hawk Moth is defeated, but then he starts dating her before he's defeated, so this is a BS excuse.

When Chloé snaps away her sentimonster, Zoe copies the line "How could you?!" from "Ladybug" in canon. This is a completely soulless copy though, because that episode made it clear that Sentibug was sentient, and Chat Noir was genuinely angry in this moment. None of that same substance applies to SL, it's just a meaningless copy of a better scene.

In canon "Reflekdoll", Adrien and Marinette are modeling her designs, and they take their Miraculouses off in order to wear the earrings and ring she made. When Reflekdoll attacks, they try to get their Miraculouses back but end up switching them. In SL "Reflekdoll", Marinette and Adrien are wearing each other's Miraculouses during the photoshoot for no discernable reason. Both versions have a Miraculous swap, but the original earned it and SL absolutely did not.

Zoe and Thomas Astruc are on the Same Wavelength

Zoe has made it clear that she's not a fan of ML's creator, Thomas Astruc. And yet many of her ideas ended up being the same as his.

In both Canon and SL, Chloé publicly commits a bunch of serious crimes, but faces no legal consequences. Instead, she is taken to another country where she can resume her life as a rich brat because she's learned absolutely nothing. Yeah, Chloé's ending in both is basically the same.

In the season 5 finale of canon, there's this huge fight between the side characters and an evil army. This fight has absolutely nothing to do with the actual important fight between Bug Noire and Monarch, so the side characters are completely wasted. In the final battle of SL, the other superheroes contribute nothing and are completely wasted. Chat Noir basically took care of Hawk Moth all by himself. So both finales involve wasted side characters that should have just stayed home. Less time would have been wasted.

Zoe actually says that she added Marinette calling out Gabriel in response to the canon finale. This is absolutely hilarious considering it's still Marinette calling out Gabriel, which basically did happen in the canon finale. Adrien still just stood there and didn't say a word!

Conclusion

"Scarlet Lady" is absolutely worse than canon Miraculous Ladybug. And I think there are a lot of lessons to learn here.

First, don't be so angry and hateful. Zoe basically ruined any possibility of a decent ending simply because her hatred of Gabriel made it impossible to write him like an actual person or a good villain.

Second, any story written in bitterness or spite will be bad. That might not be totally true, I haven't read every story. But I feel that every fanfic I read where the author clearly hates a character has everyone behaving OOC and the story being meanspirited and bad.

Third, don't be arrogant. Just because you can recognize flaws in a story doesn't mean you can do better. Maybe just make some posts calling out those flaws.

Fourth, the way to fix a bad character is not to simply remove all their flaws. Acknowledge those flaws and do something with them.

Fifth, while fanfics do often build off of the original, they can't depend on elements from the original when they contradict those elements. Again, the only reason people like SL Marinette and Adrien is because they associate them with the originals, even though their personalities do no match up.

All in all, I think the world and characters of "Scarlet Lady" will be forgotten only a week after its over. There is no actual substance to them. The only purpose of this fic was to bash somebody else's story, and yet it ended up being so much worse than canon in almost every way.

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ml sugar #scarlet lady #scarlet lady au #fanfic #salt fic #fix fic #fan fic #fan fic writing #fan fic author #Youtube

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911buddieweek · 9 months ago

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Buddie Week Q&A

You might have some questions, hopefully you'll find answers here :)

Is using AI allowed?

No! It has been proven that using AI is stealing from original creators' works. To me (and lots of other people) this is unethical. If I find out something is made with AI, it will be removed from the AO3 collection and the account will be blocked by this account.

I'm aware I can't do much to prevent people from using it anyway. I will try my absolute best to prevent it from happening. All I can do now is give you a tip I've seen going around: posting your works for registered users seems to protect against AI programs from finding it.

Which brings us to the next question

Can I post works on AO3 for registered users only?

Yes you can. Especially with AI going around so much, it is completely understandable that you want to keep it away from people without accounts. I myself also only post for registered users. There's no rule against it. Same with the comments, you can choose whatever option you want

Do I have to post on AO3?

No, you can post wherever you want. However, there is only an account for this event here on Tumblr and a collection on AO3. Posts on Twitter, Instagram or other places won't be shared by me.

But this is for everyone, so you can still create for it! You don't even need to tag me for it.

Will you reblog my work?

This is my first time hosting an event so I don't know what to expect. I want to reblog everything I find! I'll keep an eye on the Buddie Week 2024 tag and my mentions and will do my best to reblog everything.

With AO3 I want to share links on this blog too, but I don't know if everyone feels comfortable with that, so I don't know yet. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable or feel exposed to an audience they don't want.

Depending on how many works will be submitted, it might take some time. I'm currently experiencing a burnout and am still working, so I don't always have the energy. However, I will try my damn best. So even if it's five weeks too late, I'm planning on reblogging everything I'm tagged in!

Can I write graphic/dark topics?

You can write whatever you want, BUT!!!! Tag accordingly. Buddie Week is for everyone - including writers and readers under 18. Be aware not everyone is comfortable with some topics, make sure it's obvious these are in your work so that it doesn't trigger someone. Tag it on AO3, Tumblr, or wherever you post so that people who have blocked/muted those tags won't come across it. Lets keep this a safe space for everyone!

What do I do if someone harrases me?

Tell me!

I want to make clear: NO HATEFUL COMMENTS. Even if you don't like someone's work. Move on. Click away. I'm sure people will write things I personally hate, like bashing fics, but I'll decide not to read it and move on.

If someone is hating on you, contact me. If they are (I will ask the opinions of other people - keeping you anonymous) then the person will get warning. If they do it again, they'll be disqualified - which means their work will be removed from the event and their account blocked by this account.

Please, don't hate on each other and let this be a fun and exciting week!

Can I combine this with other events or challenges?

Of course! If they allow it too.

Is there something else I can't write?

I think it's obvious to say that discriminating isn't okay. There's a difference by showing the reality of it (a character going through it) and writing it from a discriminating view. Thankfully I haven't rum into anyone who does write discriminating fanfiction, but I've heard about racism against 911 characters or homophobia.

If you notice this, don't be afraid to contact me!

When does the collection open?

A few days before the event starts. I will post something about it on here. However, works won't be shared by me until the event starts in my timezone (Central European Time)

My question wasn't answered by this

Send me an ask! I'll try my best to answer ASAP. I might need time to think about how to answer something, so don't worry about me ignoring you if you see me posting on my regular blog after you've sent something. (Though sometimes Tumblr doesn't immediately send me the notification)

#buddie week 2024 #buddie #911 #911 buddie #911 on abc #eddie diaz #evan buck buckely #evan buckley #911 abc #911 edit

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totally-not-your-babe · 9 months ago

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Rant on Star Wars/Clone Wars/Bad Batch, fanfiction and about writing in general

WARNING: mention of clonecest BUT just me telling my opinion on it and that is all

I may not be very popular with my opinions but here I go...

Okay so a TikTok video started the whole train of though because it pissed me off a little, but maybe I over reacted I will leave you all to it to decide. So the video was made by a girl/woman (I try to be as respectful as I can and not throw shade at anyone in this post I promise), who was reading a Hunter x Reader and it turned out to be X reader with multiple member of the Batch (I can't remember if it included clonecest or not sorry) and she was pissed about it. I mean partially I can understand it is a bit frustrating when fics are not properly tagged (I too try my best to add everything) and she was expecting something else, that I can totally understand. But it happens, you leave the fic and find another.

Then I started to read the comments and it was kind of (again for me) a diseaster. They started to list fanfic and trops they didn't like (which is okay, everyone has their preferences), there were one who really felt "insulted", or I don't know how to put it, by a fic / oneshot that had an OC or reader that have been involved with multiple members of the Batch (I don't know if clonecest was involved or it was just x reader/x OC). And maybe I am the problem but I don't understand. One of the comments was "Why can't they write separated fics for the characters?" or something like that. BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T WANT TO! Because that's the way they planned their fic/oneshot, that's how they wrote it, that's how they want it to be. They wanted a reader/OC x multiple characters. This is what they wanted to write, people don't need to write differently, different things just because you don't like what they write. Find someone, who writes the things you like, you are comfortable with, it's that easy. I am not comfortable with Haunting Adeline so I don't read it, but I am not throwing rocks to people who do. (My problem with it is that in my country, I can't speak for the other countries, really young girls read it like 14-15 years olds. In my opinion is waaaay too young for that book. But I don't hate on the writer or things like that.)

I will tell you, I am not confortable with clonecest, I don't read it, I don't write it, and that is all I'm going to say on the topic. It's your thing than it is, I don't say I understand (for me our copy paste boys are brothers and that's it, I just can't see clonecest happening), I won't encourage it but I won't start a witch hunt either. I scroll.

YOU DON'T LIKE IT SCROLL PLEASE!!!

Soooooo all in all just let people read, write and draw the things they like and want.

I hope I didn't offend anyone with this whole thing, I tried to be as respectful as I could. If I did, I'm sorry that is my opinion.

IF THE GIRL/WOMAN WHO MADE THE TIKTOK SEES THIS: PLEASE DON'T TAKE IT AS AN ATTACK OR OFFENSE, IT WASN'T AGAINST YOU I SWEAR!

AGAIN I hope I didn't offend anyone.

#star wars #the bad batch #clone wars #clones #the clone wars #fanfic writing #writing in general

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allthesmutl0vers · 3 months ago

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It's officially been 7 years.

Trigger Warning: Suicide Attempt Mention

7 years ago today, I slit my wrists. Both of the main veins in my wrists were exposed for over 14 hours, and somehow I didn't hit them or cut 1mm deeper to puncture them.

Today always feels weird to me, I'm glad I'm here. If I wasn't, I would've never started writing fanfiction or watched Supernatural. (Could you imagine that?)

In all seriousness though, it feels weird. Everyone in my family has moved on, which they should, but I feel like I'm stuck here. I want to celebrate being here still, but I don't want to drag them down memory lane and make them feel some type of way, or worse, think I'm throwing myself a pity party.

So, here I am. Posting about it to strangers on the internet who probably skipped over this post. And that's okay, too; I just needed to get it off of my chest.

Fanfiction has become my outlet, the worlds I write about have become more and more like home. I don't plan on leaving this world anytime soon, but I wish someone besides me remembered that day and told me they're happy I'm here. Is that narcissistic? The thought makes me feel like shit.

Anyway, if you read this far, thank you. You don't need to say anything if you don't want to. I just thank you for taking the time to read it, and just know you're not alone. My DMs are always open, and I'm always happy to lend an ear if you need to talk.

The world is better with you in it. I love you.

#spnfandom #wincest #weirdcest #weirdcore #suicideprevention #the world is beautiful #please stay

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foreverjustaplace · 5 months ago

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It's a partnership, you'll seee

We are almost to Season 3! Less than 1.5 hours!!!!! I can't even believe it. I started watching right before Season 2 dropped because I saw just a few clips (and really, they were stills mostly) and I knew I had to watch this show. I wasn't expecting to fall in love with this show the way I did. This goes beyond Sydcarmy. All the elements, but the characterization and storyline, just touch my soul in a way a TV show never has. Thank you to everyone in the SydCarmy community for giving me so much to look forward to every day with the Tumblr posts (I hadn't been on Tumblr in 10 years!), hilarious tweets, and definitely for all the amazing fanfiction! I started reading when there were around 100 Sydcarmy fics, and now there are 776! And, dude, I've read at least 700 of those! I even started writing fanfiction again!

Okay, I would be remiss if I didn't say this:

Before Season 2 aired, Chris Storer did an interview and was asked if Carmy and Sydney could ever pursue a romantic relationship? To which he replied:

"It's a partnership. You'll see."

Yes, this was said last summer but I believe this certainly applies to Season 3. Storer has created two dynamic characters who have always meant to go beyond the traditional romantic relationship arc. Storer is too good for the stereotypical romance storyline. So many couples forgo the genuine partnership aspect. Not Syd and Carmy. They are business partners, friends, and will be life and romantic partners.

Storer may not have always planned for a relationship like this to take place, but I'm confident that Sydney and Carmy are going to end up together. There will be trials and tribulations and so much damn angst, but I ultimately believe that even if we don't see them kissing at the end of this season, we will see this come to fruition before the series is over.

So. Even if it seems like Storer is against Syd and Carmy getting together, and we're all seeing the vague "No" everywhere when they're asked if it happens, I'm not too worried. Chris told us we just have to wait and see. I have faith and trust in Storer to keep the integrity of his storytelling. There's no way all of those scenes, all of those moments, the dialogue, the buildup, the connection happens like it has without this relationship in mind. You'll see.

(I honestly can't remember if I mentioned this particular partnership idea in my Season 3 Predictions yesterday, but I definitely meant to add it if I didn't!)

#sydcarmy #sydney x carmy #the bear season 3 #the bear

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curryfury13 · 9 months ago

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Hello!

Welcome to my first retrospective post. This one should be fun, huh? We're going to go through the first chapter of my very first fan-fiction. Not word for word, mind you, but as commentary. I'll provide the link if you're interested in reading the chapter itself, but otherwise I'll be talking about where I was at as a creator when I wrote it.

Think of this as the special features! Ever wonder what the heck that creator was thinking when they made that dumb decision? Well now's your chance to find out! Or something like that.

Storytelling in general was a new concept for me.

Something I've only recently opened up about publicly is that growing up, I struggled with reading books. I'd reread the same paragraph over and over again, never really absorbing anything I actually read. I could do some audio-books occasionally—which helped immensely when it came to schooling—but proper grammar, pacing, actual writing, I hadn't a clue. Turns out it was due to a fun load of disassociation. Well, I mean as much fun as swallowing a tortilla chip the wrong way at a party, which really isn't much fun at all.

This is all to say, I went into writing this story not knowing how to write a story. And you might be asking yourself, then why, oh why, did I write this story? The answer to that is because I wanted to. Go swallow a tortilla chip!

All I really knew was that I loved Kingdom Hearts and it brought me a lot of comfort when I wasn't feeling great. Those were roughly my words when my husband asked me what I wanted to write about and it's still true to this day. He also asked me what I would want to add to the story, because while I could simply novelize the games, that's already been done. What did I want to add?

That's when Hinata was born.

And I mean born. She was genuinely, just barely made up when I started True Friends. I believe I decided her name as I was in the process of writing. No pre-planning, no outline, just opened the laptop and typed away. For better or worse.

Seeing the person she is now compared to how she started is mind boggling to me. She isn't the same girl Riku pulled out of the water.

I kid, I kid. This was the humble beginning. I can still feel my giddy excitement when I reread this chapter.

I also like to refer to this chapter as, Not Interesting At All Really

There was so much I wanted to get to, so many rampant ideas that I needed to thread together without the slightest idea of how I'd do it. My first goal was, let's make sure everyone knows the characters. Mention Riku's yearning for the outside world, Kairi being from another world, and Sora's general, Sora-ness. It was quick, vague, and all a bit awkward, especially since a majority of my readers would be Kingdom Hearts fans in the first place. They didn't need those needless explanations!

Reading it now, you can still feel that awkward tension. The feeling of, I just need to get this out of the way and get to the good stuff.

One detail I tried to get into on Destiny Islands was diving into Kairi's emotions about her fall and loss of memories. It's never really explored in the games, spare for Memory of Melodies, I suppose, and it was something I wanted to try and explore more.

While I do think it's an interesting concept, if I ever try and rewrite this story, I don't think this thread will carry over. It doesn't really go anywhere in the end, and I feel like it drives Kairi to act out of character in True Friends. It may be something that does eat at her, but it's not something she would act out about. She's content with her life on Destiny Islands.

Overall, it's not a horrible start! It's something that still makes me smile when I read it. A lot of heart and love went into it. And I still have to give myself a small pat on the back that Hinata did show up rather quickly. Something happened right off the bat and the story didn't drag its feet.

In the first chapter anyway... Later on. That's a different story.

#Kingdom Hearts #True Friends

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rainisawriter · 1 year ago

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Ikuzo Temera!

Well, I wasn't planning on taking requests on this account because it was supposed to be just for original fiction, but High&Low runs my life so here we are (ॢ˃͈ 𖥦 ˂͈ ೀ)

All information listed here is subject to change at any time, so please give it a once over before each request, thank you!

If you want to see a list of all my current WIPs and ideas, please click here. If the link doesn't work, PLEASE let me know!

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The following characters can be requested for romance or friendship!

From Sannoh Rengokai: Cobra.

From White Rascals: Lassie, Heidi, Koo.

From Oya Koukou: Nakaoka, Nakagoshi, Tsukasa, Fujio, Murayama, Yasushi, Shibaman, Tsuji.

From Rude Boys: Smoky, P, Takeshi.

From Daruma Ikka: Futa, Agyo, Kato.

From Mighty Warriors: Bernie.

From Senomon: Suzaki.

From Ebara: Shoji.

From Housen: Yuken, Sachio.

From Suzuran: Rao, Itou.

Everyone else can only be requested for friendship or family fics as I don't feel comfortable enough to write them with romance.

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Below is a list of things you cannot request from me:

Religion.

Death of a main character/reader.

Character x Character.

NSFW (if you're looking for some great 18+ fics for H&L, @star2fishmeg and @straysugzhpe has you covered!)

Attempted suicide (I might consider self-harm if it's not too graphic.)

Politics

Rape/Attempted sexual assault (mentioning it as a past event is okay.)

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To get the best possible result, please include the following in your request:

The character you want.

The overall theme/genre.

A general plot point (just saying something fluffy with x is not enough. I need something to build off of, please!)

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I write reader insert or first-person fics while trying to avoid using names or Y/N. Though I try to keep them gender-neutral, there will be mentions of her, she, etc.

These will also be posted on my fanfiction blog and eventually on my old Tumblr blog.

I reserve the right to deny any request that makes me feel uncomfortable or if I feel like I can’t properly capture what’s being asked of me. Thank you for your understanding!

~ Rain

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#high&low #request info #high & low #high & low the worst x #high&low the worst x #writing #writeblr #fanfiction #requests #h&l #h&l has ruined my life #send me shibaman requests and I'll love you

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batwynn · 2 years ago

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are people still into drarry at this point? as far as i know the entire hp fandom basically died when a certain someone spoke her political opinions. anyone still talking about hp gets harassed to oblivion and so many callout posts pop up saying that if you still like the franchise you're supporting terfs. i honestly don't know how to feel, i'd simply deleted all my hp content on my blog because seeing them just makes me uncomfortable in hindsight :/

So, I wasn't planning on replying to this because I didn't want to hurt anyone by sharing it, or by my reply. It's something that calls for some nuance that I worry I won't be able to explore properly. But I had a thought and I wanted to share it. Trigger warning: Mentions of transphobia, JKR, and suicidal thoughts. Note: This has been tagged for black lists so people can avoid it. Apologies for those in the fandom tags.

So, I'm trans. That's something I'm always pretty open about online, especially as I haven't had much safe space to be open about it in real life. My transition process has been somewhat public, even if I've been pretty quiet about things in the past few years. If you search my blog, you can probably find the posts where I started exploring my gender around 2016-2017ish. They're posted along side Drarry posts, among other fandoms I was in. You will also find that I stopped posting as much Drarry a few years later, with little correlation to what the author was saying or doing at the time because I wasn't on Twitter and hadn't heard the news yet. I drifted fandoms a bit, then I went on Twitter and... yeah.

Now here's where it gets a bit complicated, and personal. A Drarry fanfiction saved my life because it helped convince me that I could transition. That I could be trans and it was okay. A Drarry fanfic told me I wasn't too old, I wasn't wrong, it's not too late, and it's okay to do the things that make you happy even if you spent half your life doing the things that people told you were right but were wrong for you. I'm not dramatizing this in any way. I read this fanfic when I was in a really bad place, when I was figuring out I was trans and in a horrible relationship with a shitty person and I was scared to death. All I could think was that there was no way out for me. I'm not saying this to guilt anyone for not liking Drarry/Harry Potter. I'm not saying it to defend JKR or any of the things she's made, said, or done. I'm not saying it because I'm a traitor to the trans community or that Harry Potter is even that important to me. I'm saying it because a writer out there wrote a Drarry fanfiction with no intention of it being life saving, and yet they did save my life. They just wanted to create something fun, and meaningful, with two characters from some books. Did it have to be Harry Potter? For them, yes. They read those books and saw more to the characters than JKR ever could, and they gave us a story that is so meaningful and transformative that I literally did the thing JKR hates with her entire bitter, little heart. Because of a person in the fandom. Now, I personally feel a disconnect from those books these days. She's really, truly ruined those memories for me in ways I can't even put into words. Worse even, was seeing that there were bigotries in those books that I was ignorant to, as a child. Things I didn't see because I didn't know. And knowing now that it was always there, the hatred and ugliness, makes the original material poison to me. And god, don't get me started on messy fandom spaces. Don't look towards the Interview With a Vampire fandom at all. It's, unfortunately, a large part of being in a group space with people who like a thing. There will be hateful people, there will be Bad people. But there are also NOT those people. There are queer people who still love their fandoms. There are people writing trans Harry Potter fics. There are people cosplaying Draco in a skirt and fuck gender rolls we're vibing here. There's also a massive difference between enjoying a community built by fans, and directly supporting JKR with money and attention. What you do in response to her cruelty is totally valid, however you decide. Deleting the content is completely understandable. Not wanting to see anything Harry Potter related is also valid, especially when so many of us have been seriously hurt by her. Not supporting JKR in views or money is important to supporting trans people. But I can't tell people how to respond, how to behave, or how to experience the fandom. Trauma responses vary by person. Being angry and yet completely embracing the fandom to the point where it belongs to the fans is also a super valid reaction. People are a complex system of experiences and reactions. There is no one set way to respond. There is always room to learn, there is always room to listen. The unfortunate truth, however, is this has happened before with creators who we learn are complete assholes, and will happen again. The best we can do is support one another and regularly tell the people who are out to hurt us to fuck right off.

#Harry Potter #Drarry #JKR #jk rowling #Tw: Transphobia #Tw: Suicidal thoughts #Batwynn Talks #TERFS DO NOT FUCKING INTERACT

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alexjcrowley · 5 months ago

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I NEED ADVICE FROM AO3 USERS PLEASE

So I have this fanfiction I am working on and it's about a two white guys (it's an important detail for later) getting together, let's call them A and B. I don't want to reveal who they are, but suffice to say they're a moderately popular ship that has existed for a long time (my fanfiction is about one of many adaptations of a beloved source material).

A and B are a fanon ship: in the specific adaptation I am interested in, the love interest of character A is a girl and a person of colour (this will be relevant later), let's call her C. C is of mixed race in the source material, and in various adaptations she has been cast both as a white person or a person of colour.

I want to say, though, that A, being an extremely popular character, has been shipped with many, many other people before, so it's not really a matter of AxB vs AxC ship wars, I could present a list of I think at least 10 very popular ships in which A in involved.

In my fic, that I am still writing and it's still at its "beginning", I have mentioned C only once. I didn't say anything bad about her, I simply namedropped her: I am planning for her to be a positive character. She will later have a more important role, but that's bedside the point.

I haven't uploaded this fic in a good while, but today in my email I find that I have received a comment in my inbox, saying that it's unbelievable the commitment of people to write fanfictions about AxB, even when the adaptation I am writing about went "faaar out of the way" to make B unfuckable and gave A a love interest, C. The comment also accused everyone who has ever written about this ship of having of a fetish for "white men in their porn" (my fic doesn't have any sex or sexual scene at the moment) and not allow "girls or people of color" (I have not specified the ethnicity of any original character in my fic, and at the moment the most developed of them is a woman).

The comment does not even address me directly, it's a rant that could have easily been Tumblr post, and apparently it's frozen? I don't understand, but I can't reply.

I'll be honest, I don't know what the fuck I am supposed to do in this situation. Do I understanding the sentiment behind the rant? Yes. Do I think she has a point in how ship between a white guy and another white guy are more popular than any other kind of ships in fandom? Sure.

But my fic is pretty much just one amongst the hundreds about this ship. What am I supposed to do about it? It's not like she specified anything specific I said in my fic was racist or sexist, it's just the inherent concept of that ship, I guess. It's not even addressed to me, in a way, it's like the person was talking in general.

Am I a bitch if I decide to delete the comment? I am conflicted. It's not like I disagree with the sentiment of the speech, but it's an upsetting comment to see. I am definitely not one of the main creators or promoters for this ship, this is the first and only public fanfiction I have ever written. I hardly speak of this fic on here.

I haven't updated it in months, many months, so it's not like it could have popped on the general ao3 fandom page for the adaptation it is about. Whoever wrote this comment had to look specifically for my fic and then left that. What do I do about it? Block and delete? Is it acceptable? I have read on ao3 for a long time, but I am new to writing for ao3 and I don't know the etiquette.

I have always been of the idea of "don't like don't read". If you find yourself reading my fic and I say something that's racist/sexist/ableist/discriminatory, please tell me! I will correct it. But looking specifically for something you hate to tell me that you hate it in general, like I was personally responsible and could do something about it, leaves me confused.

Oh and the comment was left under the first chapter. The fic currently has six, and C wasn't mentioned in the first chapter.

EDIT:

Thinking about it, it was pretty fucking weird, because I clicked on the account who sent the comment and they had only written one fanfiction. And it was about a ship with A. But it wasn't with C!!! It was with another white man! So. What the hell. Why are you preaching if even you don't follow through your own principles.

#ao3 #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #help #mlm

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hyunsvngs · 1 year ago

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First you guys are amazing I love your work and it makes my mouth water stg this is not a request but I’m curious how did you get into writing and posting it. I’ve been writing this fanfic and I want to post it but I’m afraid it won’t do well

HELLO THANK U !! okay so i have had a very long journey with fanfiction

when i was younger (i'm talking A CHILD) i wrote a tvd fanfiction on quotev that got quite popular. NOT as popular as i am now lol but it literally only had a few chapters and then i deleted it. after that i continued writing for different fandoms (kpop, marvel) but i never really posted anything UNTIL i wrote my mafia skz fic. i've spoken about it on here a lot but it's just my little project i enjoy writing and i do not have any plans to share it right now (it's on 35k words atm so you'd probably all die trying to read it)

anyways my online friends rly rly liked it and then i wrote fairy flowers. my online friends ATE IT UP and it made me think like hey. why don't i just start a skz blog? like i've been writing fanfics privately for so long, why don't i just post it? i wasn't too bothered about ff doing well but it was my absolute baby so i hoped the people that did read it liked it

BUT before i started the blog i mentioned it to billy who is my best friend of 6 whole years and he said that he would co run it with me. then one day in june we stayed up super late making this blog and in july i dropped ff and went to bed immediately because i was scared. and now here we are.

so YEAH that's my journey. i think the main thing to remember is that as long as you like writing and enjoy sharing your stories, the amount of likes/rbs you get don't matter. i always reassure myself of this!!

i'm looking forward to reading ur fic if u end up posting it <3

#juno’s asks ♡#user: brimarie0512

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ancha-aus · 1 year ago

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The Skeleton House

Related to my story/fanfiction.

When I first started working on the chapter (chapter 64) where Sans and Frisk explored their new house. I had no idea what to write and no view for it myself. So like the nerd that I am. I decided to first make one on the Sims. Then use that as a blueprint to write with.

It worked perfectly and I got through the chapter no issue.

Then someone asked if they could see what the house looked like and I figured 'Sure. I can just make a tiny post and like upload the picture in the sidenotes.'

TURNS OUT! The Sims did in matter of fact NOT save the house that I made, anywhere. So that plan was a bust.

So obviously. I figured it would a great plan to REMAKE the house.

Turns out. Making it from text -> house is a lot harder than the other way around.

I was just going to show the finished results but I guess you all can see my struggle:

Try 1. I ended up deleting it as I could not make the layout work as I wanted and I decided I wanted more space to work with. Just in case.

So I went to look through the houses that were there to figure out which family I could evict and house I could bulldoze (Gotta love the Sims)

I ended up going for a house in Windenburg:

I picked it because there were no direct neighbors and no direct roads which worked for my emergence and so my overall idea.

So I bulldozed the lot and I got to work with the basic layout on the groundfloor.

At some point I was happy with the overall layout. You will see the upper left change a bit.

Once I was happy with the groundfloor I added the overall layout for the first and second floors as well. I also decided to struggle on the staircase for about 20 minutes to get a hole around the top part of the stairs.

This is the only picture I got where it is obvious but damnit I am proud of it and it deserves the spotlight. But I spend 20 minutes on it so it deserves the mention. No I did not do the same with the second staircase. I don't enjoy suffering.

After that I made a bit of a sandy path to the front of the house and I added some windows and lights, mostly to make it light inside to enable myself to see what I was doing. I have eben making small edits to the overall layout and shape but it remained mostly the same.

The next view updates go fast because I got in the decorating zone and I just kinda went.

Tada! The groundfloor! Some of you will notice it is slightly different than the house in the story. Mostly this is how I imagine it will eventually look. After the guys also made it a bit more there own: Blue circle: The first guestroom. I made all the guest rooms generic. mostly because I don't hate myself and was not in the mood to make them all different. Green circle: Groundfloor bathroom Purple arrow: The area that is different from the story. In my head the guys will end up renovating the house a little which means they will sacrifices one of the guest rooms for another staircase to the library that does not yet exist. White arrow: the dining room. I wanted to use a bigger table but the Sims does not HAVE bigger tables thant 3X1 and I couldn't find a good one that should look like a big one if you place them next to one another and I wasn't in the mood to try and make it work with moveobjects on cheat. At elast the number of chairs is enough Red circle: The pantry. Obviously in the center by the staircase you see the living room. Top right is the kitchen. and bottom right is the hallway and enterance to the house.

That was the rundown of the groundfloor!

First floor lets go!

Okay here we go!

Purple circle: The library that was added later by the guys, before that part of the house did not exist. Green circle: General bathroom Blue circles: five guestrooms Pink circle: Frisk's room and they bathroom, bathroom has a door both to the hallway and to their room. I want to add that I added the non-binary flag above their bed but you can't see it clearly but I want everyone to know it is there I swear. Yellow circle: Sans' room with bathroom, bathroom does not have a door to the hallway.

The top floor is honestly boring but to be complete I will show you

I did not decorate all the rooms because I didn't know what to make them all yet. The center room is just the bedroom for Horror, Killer, Dust and Cross. It is honestly just a room with a giant bed in it because all they do there is sleep and otherwise they are either on the bottom floor or in the garden.

Now. The garden.

As you saw with the tour of the house, the garden is still very empty. Not for long!

Here is the front garden and the roof. Fun fact. the roof is actually rather easy and If you are struggling with adding one because of the windows. If you use a slightly smaller window and put it as high as possible you get a little bit of wall under the window. Then, when you add the roof you can make the tip of the roof lower. Then it is a matter of making it smaller until it fits under the window. No cheats required, just some patience.

Anyway, that were the roofs. The garden was just me adding the sand path with the terrain editor. Digging a river type thing with the dig tool and add water tool. I made a tiny pit where I added a volcanic pit, just for flavour to serve as a firepit. Then I just added a buttload of trees and plants and waterstuff.

Some of it even lit up which made me very happy.

But that is it! the Skeleton Estate!

Final overview shot:

For those curious it took me about 5 hours to remake it (Not counting the 2 hours with the failed attempt at the start)

I will probably never use the house in the Sims but it is there and I actually saved it this time so hopefully if I even need the reference again I don't have to rebuild it again.

#AncientsAU #AncientsAndChampions

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