#because I'm the worldbuilding nerd in this house

[constanthinople]

🅷🅴🅻🅻🆃🅾🆆🅽

Sometimes I think it's pretty funny that our roleplay group decided that the story we were making was going to be located in Ohio of all places, just because there's a specific abandoned town with rumors of demonic apparitions and we thought it was cool. The story is not even about paranormal activity lmao.

[treesandwords]

For anyone who's into LOTR I am rereading (again) and took notes on the weirdest/most interesting bits this time:

There are/were other magic rings beside the main ones, which is part of what makes it so hard for other characters to believe that Bilbo's ring is actually The ring

At one point Tolkien jumps into the POV of a random fox walking by our protagonists' camp and then never brings it up again, no big deal

The ever-controversial Tom Bombadil has several other names we just never talk about? And the elves (at least in Rivendell) know about him and have known about him for many years now

They also consider giving him the ring but ultimately decide it would be a bad idea because "he'd probably just lose it"

A lot of what happens to Frodo after he's been stabbed by the Nazgul is less symptomatic of dark magic and more of just...having a severe shoulder injury?? Like "oh no my hand is numb and I'm weak and can't move it, must be the evils of Mordor" bro you probably just have nerve damage and blood loss

Bilbo straight up writes and sings a song about Elrond's dad in front of him and a bunch of other elves in Rivendell like. The audacity.

There's a river called "Wetwang" (yes it's called Nindalf in Elvish, but that's not important here)

Aragorn never tells anyone else that Boromir admitted to trying to take the ring, it's implied he even keeps it secret from Gandalf once he reappears

The "Two Towers" actually refers to Orthanc and Minas Morgal, not Orthanc and Barad-Dur as the films suggest

Eomer has met and possibly was friendly with Boromir

Also Aragorn, who doesn't look that old, straight up tells Eomer he'd met both his father and Theoden when they were younger and he just...has zero reaction?? Like if a guy who looked not much older than me wisely said "ah yes, I met your father and uncle long ago" in a way that implied they'd worked together as somewhat equals I'd be. A little uncertain to say the least.

Oh and he also hung out with Denethor back in the day

Eomer and Gimli have a running disagreement on whether or not Galadriel is real, and if so, how hot she is

This is common ish knowledge but there are elements of actual Old English embedded into Rohan's worldbuilding (esp. the names/ "Rohrric" language) and the whole location is genuinely just Tolkien's fantasy version of Anglo-Saxon Britain. He is very not subtle about it.

Saruman was FULLY RUNNING DRUGS BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE SHIRE AND ISENGARD

And this actually ends up contributing to a main plot in the third book

Instead of the Palantir falling out of Saruman's pocket when he dies like in the movie, Gandalf shoots a spell at Saruman and makes him run back inside Orthanc and Wormtongue chucks the Palantir down at him from the window in retaliation

I know the potato scene is *iconic* but let's be real the fact that Sam risks a fire and takes the time to make a full rabbit stew plus seasoning while they're on a dangerous secret mission to sneak into the Darkest Of Dark Lords' fortress is kind of hilarious

Minas Morgul is some serious eldritch horror cryptid shit

Denethor is honestly such drama queen. Like I know he's supposed to be a threatening and tragic character but holy shit.

Also the entire houses of healing segment is unintentionally comedic

Like between the old lady who runs the house giving absolutely zero fucks, and the herb master and Aragorn having a mini nerd off about what Athelas/Kingsfoil is called in different languages, and also Aragorn and Pippin roasting Merry - who has JUST woken up from an Evil Coma by the way - about not being able to find his weed

"This weed is better than I thought" -- actual quote by Ioreth re: kingsfoil

This is something I noticed that a lot of people don't mention - the "Evenstar" that Arwen gives Aragorn in the movies that's tied to her lifeforce/immortality isn't really a thing in the books. The closest to it is this green brooch that she gives him via Galadriel in FOTR - but the only necklace she gives to anyone is actually to Frodo, as a token that basically means if he ever wants to go to the Grey Havens (as he ultimately does) he'd essentially be taking her place because she isn't going

Ok the scouring of the Shire is pretty common knowledge but are we going to talk about Lotho Sackville-Baggins became Saruman's dealer and helped smuggle drugs pipeweed into Isengard (see I told you it would come back)

Also!! Lotho was possibly EATEN by Grima Wormtongue, or at the very least Saruman believes he was, yes this is an actual canon thing

Legit quote from ROTK: "Worm killed your Chief, poor little fellow, your nice little Boss. Didn't you, Worm? Stabbed him in his sleep, I believe. Buried him, I hope; though Worm has been very hungry lately[]"

Seriously what the fuck

Saruman is killed by Wormtongue (who is then shot by a bunch of Hobbit archers) and promptly....disintegrates?

Anyway if you're a casual fan who's only seen the movies, or if you haven't read the books in a while, I'd highly recommend.

[ddarker-dreams]

yooo lock from one gamer to another, any recs for the steam summer sale? i've got most horror jrpgs down like misao, ib, and witch's house

ANON FORGIVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE i was thinking about this ask for a few days and. ahem. in that time, the steam summer sale ended. 😦 just keep this in mind for the next sale perhaps?? alas. here are some of my favorite games on steam .

disco elysium

one of my favorite games of all time. i replayed it recently and have a newfound appreciation for every element of it. the extensive worldbuilding can be overwhelming at first, but i personally enjoyed how fleshed out the world is. the writing is sublime and i've never experienced anything like it across any medium. also it's the only game to have kim kitsuragi so that automatically makes it a 10/10

divinity original sin 2

this game is another favorite of mine. there were multiple times when i was playing it where i went 'huh, i wonder if i can do so and so' and i could. i killed a giant ogre with like 10k HP by sneaking an invisible character into its vicinity and teleporting it into lava. before leaving an area i killed a character who i bought tons of equipment from and got all my money back. it's just a really entertaining game. you can also play it with friends so that's fun. the game can be as dynamic as you want it to be. i like spending hours researching the most optimal builds but you don't have to be a nerd to make it through the content. or you can be like me and spend thirty minutes setting up explosives and perfectly placing each party member before every combat encounter because i've never felt the touch of a woman

hades

fast paced, fluid combat, greek mythology, killer soundtrack, pretty graphics, and bisexuality. what more can i say. i got such an adrenaline rush after beating the final boss that i almost collapsed onto the ground and rolled around like a pill bug. very very fun and addicting

hyper light drifter

HNGNNGN PRTTY and the soundtrack also slaps here too. the color palette is so gorgeous. once you get into the rhythm of the combat you feel like a god among men. zooming all over the place. nyooooooom.

omori

this game took my heart, ripped it out of my chest, stomped on it, slapped it back into place, then closed my open ribcage with a hello kitty bandaid. i cannot praise it enough. it's charming, the psychological horror is one of a kind; it's a game that seeps under your skin and stays there. if you haven't played it yet and you're comfortable with the dark themes it explores i'd recommend it 100%. go on without any spoilers.

pillars of eternity

i uh. i like CRPGs. pillars of eternity has a special place in my heart because it went onto influence how i do worldbuilding. the game has one of my favorite stories from a CRPG, it's overflowing with creativity that's explored to the fullest. it's also made by the folks who created fallout new vegas so that's a bonus. the combat isn't my absolute favorite when compared to something like divinity original sin 2, but i still found it enjoyable overall. interacting with the characters and the fleshed out world was what i had the most fun with.

planescape torment

this game's combat is scuffed but the story is one of the best across any medium. play on easy i'm not joking the combat does not matter. but the world, the characters, the factions, how it dabbles into philosophy, the story that leaves you with more questions than answers as you progress,, it's just so good. when it's on sale it's ridiculously cheap and so worth the price of admission. there's lots of reading but if you're into the type of stuff you'll love this game. also there's a floating talking skull

va-11 hall-a: cyberpunk bartender action

ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAVS THE VIBES ARE IMMACULATE THE WRITING IS IMMACULATE THE ART IS IMMACULATE THE SOUNDTRACK WOULD MAKE BEEHTOVEN JEALOUS and there's also bisexuality here too. this game is an example of the writing i wanted to aspire towards after i played it for the first time. it influenced me heavily.

[notsoblackandwhite101]

I love your fic. So glad to read new chapter. I also love your worldbuilding. Especially family trees. Honestly, I'm dying to know more about Demelza and David. How did she became kinda snotty yet caring, and whether Dylan knew his grandpa, if I remember correctly Dylan might have taken after him when it comes to scifi

I'm glad your enjoying the story!

I can't quiet remember if the boys were born before David passed. If any were, I'd say he likely passed away when Dylan (And possibly Dawkins) were very young. Too young to understand death or its ramifications. However everything he has left behind has had a huge effect on them to this day! His study is full of science and history books. As well as his telescope and some nerd memorabilia here and there! Even if he was gone before they were born his memory has had a lasting impact!

As for Demelza, its a sort of Nature and Nurture situation. A lot of it has to do with who raised her and how. Her parents were a big influences, but so were her Uncle Radcliff and Aunt Dot.

Her mum, Orie (Oreo), is really instrumental. Orie grew up in a poor family and had, what I like to call, terminal eldest daughter syndrome. Not terminal in that it will kill you, but in that it will kill your relationships. Orie's parents were the lowest rung on the social ladder. Both working hard at menial jobs for long hours and very little pay. Her parents were happy though, loving each other and their children. It was just that Orie (Oreo) was the eldest, so when her parents were at work, she was raising her siblings. Unlike Dolly and Dylan years later, she had NO time off because her parents took NO time off. She also started caring for them when she was very young. She was basically parenthesized against her will with zero ability to punish them. Her siblings always acted up when she was caring for them, but became angels when her parents were home, with her parents downplaying the misbehavior they didn't see when Orie complained about it. Orie always had issues with her parents because of this and a few other things. (Including her birth name Oreo, which got her picked on a lot.) So as soon as she turned 18 she left, and hardly talk to any of her family again.

However that childhood made Orie dream of a Cinderella life. Where she'd marry well and never have to cook or clean. Never have to care for a flock of screaming children, with a nice big house. Not to say she'd marry for money alone. She just knew what she wanted. Patch certainly didn't match many of these prerequisites. He wasn't rich, just well off. He didn't have a huge house, he lived in a nice one with his sick parents. He had to do some cooking and cleaning, but it wasn't alot. However he did save her life and was very kind to her. (They met during an air raid and had to take shelter in a doorway together.) At first Orie just volunteered to help him with his block captain work, but they got to now each other, fell in love and married.

It wasn't a fairytale marriage, but it worked very well! Patch was passive and indecisive, but kind. Orie knew what she wanted and wasn't afraid to get it, even if she was a little rough around the edges. They worked together very well, even if it was Patch saying 'Yes dear.' most of the time. When the subject of children came up however, Orie was not interested... at first. She spent her childhood and teenage years raising her siblings, she didn't want to do it all over again as an adult. She was finally enjoying life for dogs sake! However as time went on, Patch's siblings had children.

Orie supposed Little Dipper and Domino were cute... Plus now that she was an adult they actually listen to her. Not to mention Patch was so good with them... hmmm...

Eventually she pulled Patch aside and agreed to have ONE child. Patch was over the moon, he just wanted one anyway! They ended up have Demelza and Patch loved her to bits! Orie went through a weird phase after Demelza was born where she didn't really ... love her baby? Not that she hated Demelza, it was just she didn't feel this instant love that she expected? (This is called the baby blues and its actually really common for many mothers!) After a week though the feelings came and Orie started to bond with Demelza!

Orie was content to let Patch do most of the emotional rearing for Demelza. She took over schooling, manners and other things. She had a pretty good life... but Demelza's could be even better. She was the one who pushed her daughter to climb the social ladder. Not wanting her to be stuck with tons of kids and house work when Demelza grew up. That mixed well with Uncle Radcliff, who had just moved back into the house after a stress stroke. Uncle Radlciff owned a factory and mingled with the upper crust a lot. (He and Orie got along swimmingly, both being a bit cold and grumpy, if well meaning.) Demelza looked up to Uncle Radcliff, whatever he and mum said was gospel just about. This also coincided with Aunt Dot moving in after her husband died suddenly. She was a bit like Patch, a push over and soft spoken. However unlike her three siblings she didn't work. So she took over cooking and cleaning, much to Orie's delight. (Orie got along best with Dot and Radcliff of all of Patch's siblings. Not that she argued with any of them much.) Dot wanted children but never had any, so she enjoyed helping to raise Demelza, which did help soften her demeanor greatly.

So yeah, it was a HUGE mix of four parental figures in her life that caused this. Her friends also play a part in how snooty and uptight she can be. David used to be able to settle her, but he's no longer around...

Oh and fun fact! Demelza was named by her mother. Orie, as I said, was bullied a lot as a child because she was named after a ridiculous, American snack cookie. (Oreo) She insisted that her daughter have a refined, dignified name! So Demelza it was.

(God I love exploring generational trauma with characters!)

[alwaysthecleric]

I started playing D&D with a friend a little over a year ago, and one of the things that we wanted to do with the campaign was to be able to see both our cultures and other cultures represented in the fantasy world that we would be playing in, because, frankly, a lot of the fantasy media we grew up with was pretty dang white. I’ve ended up pulling parts of Vietnamese culture, because I’m Vietnamese, he’s pulled from his culture, and that’s been really fun to see.

Anyway, my character, Keri, is a dwarf, and is a character I had previously played in a campaign with mostly white friends, where we weren’t thinking about including our cultures in this way. And as I was doing some prep and thinking about aspects of dwarven culture for this current campaign, I decided that instead of basing the dwarven writing system on runes, which is what Tolkien's and D&D's dwarven writing system is based on, dwarves in this setting would have a writing system inspired by cuneiform, which is a writing system from ancient Mesopotamia.

[image description: A chart which shows 30 Anglo-Saxon "futhorc" runes. It shows their names, transliteration characters, and the meanings of their names.]

[image description: a Sumero-Akkadian cuneiform syllabary, used by early Akkadian rulers. It is a grid that has English letters on the top and left axis and shows the corresponding cuneiform characters]

I liked the visual similarities—both runes and cuneiform have very geometric, angular characters; both are written on materials that have been preserved really well—but then I wanted to make a reference sheet for myself, so I didn't have to keep on going to D&D Beyond to look up information. So I went on Canva and looked for a sufficiently angular and blocky font until I found a font called Obra Letra and made my reference sheet.

[image description: The first page of my reference sheet. It has brown angular text on a parchment background. The text has information from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything about the Artficer D&D class]

And then I got annoyed with Canva, switched to the Affinity suite of design programs, and Googled Obra Letra to see if I would be able to buy the font. And then I found out that it was inspired by vintage Filipino typography! Which is super cool!

[image description: Text over an image of a bay in the Philippines. The text reads "Obra Letra Display Typeface by Lorenzo Martinez; a modern take on filipino vintage typography"]

And I currently have this document of of spells that my character can pick from, but I've been debating whether or not I use Obra Letra as the only font for all of it, or if I should find a different one for the body text and just use Obra Letra as like the font for like the spell names and stuff.

[image description: The first page of my spell description document. There is brown angular text over a parchment background. The text includes the spell information for the spells "Prestidigitation" and "Mage Hand"]

So I Googled Filipino inspired fonts, just going off of the description of Obra Letra, and found an article from Canva of Filipino inspired fonts! And then I was like, “Well, these are all like, display fonts and not quite what I'm looking for…What if I google Vietnamese inspired fonts!” And I found a website called vietnamesetypography.com that lists recommendations for fonts that can accommodate all of the tonal markings that Vietnamese has as well as resources for designing fonts with those markings in mind and a brief history of writing in Vietnam! Which is so cool!!

There’s probably a deeper conversation about Asian diaspora and being a second gen immigrant engaging with my family’s culture to be had here, but I’m just so dang excited that:

1. There’s no “right”way to worldbuild. Tolkien was a language nerd, so he built Middle Earth and all the cultures within to house the conlangs he was making. If you happen to be stuck with worldbuilding, start from the place that makes you excited to go down Wikipedia rabbit holes. I love calligraphy and typography, so that’s where I started.

2. That what you, or I create, or anyone creates will always have a part of them in it. And that when you’re able to bring all of yourself—your culture, your experience, your interests—what you create becomes even richer

[chronomaza]

heya! I’m new to your blog!

Tell me everything about your original characters or I will spontaneously combust like a spoon in a double microwave.

it's a LOT of worldbuilding since Kaivasita IS majorly a worldbuilding project, so it's a bit too much for me to fully summarize but basically:

Everything takes place in another multiverse in the very far future, and the main protagonists (Ryan, Ellie and Albin) are all members of a heavily convergently evolved human like species (minus Albin since he's a nephil, (human angel hybrid)) and everything's going swell until an angel breaks into their house late at night and threatens to kill Albin and takes their dad. This forces everyone to leave the house and unknowingly become tied into a massive cataclysmic event going on across the entire multiverse (even if you don't see much of it yet), and the rest of the narrative sorta focuses on the horrific consequences such a massive event has on individual people. Oh and when things couldn't get any worse, they end up accidentally unleashing a soul eating shapeshifter into their universe called Neowise- who is a personal favourite of mine. He's a little eldritch bastard who destroys universes and cheats at videogames. I love him :3

I'd ramble more but a lot of the stuff with my characters in particular is already written down in my book and I'd rather people read it and discover a lot of it themselves- or it's a spoiler for a future book in the series and I can't say anything about it yet. There's unfortunately not a ton I can talk about openly; Kaivasita is big project with a lot of incredibly complex plot twists set up :')

I WILL say though it's very heavy on the horror side of things, so be warned. It also has a lot of spec bio elements with it's world building since I'm an absolute nerd, if that's your thing anyways. If you have any specific things you'd like to ask about literally any of my characters I'd be happy to tell you more it's just that "tell me about your ocs!" doesn't narrow it down because I have literally over 200 of them, half of which I could write two pages of info dump about LMAO. Thank you for asking it means a lot!! ^^

[vt-scribbles]

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

🌿how does creating make you feel?

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

💞what’s the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn’t think it would take you?

🍭why did you start writing?

💎why is writing important to you?

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you’ve finished a fic?

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Kept it to the questions that were positivity-oriented because, well, asking you to think about the rougher aspects of fandom writing doesn't feel like a nice thing to do, but if there are any other questions you wanted to answer, feel free to do so!

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

Another one of my fave comment types is people who just... liveblog their reactions. Nothing fancy. They just write reactions or thoughts as they read along. I love these so much because they let me watch a reader's thought process, and it lets me know where I'm tripping up or where I'm conveying things exactly how I want. Plus, I just LOVE seeing people experience the story blindly, because, well, it's the one thing that I as the author cannot do. I'll never get to experience my writing as a reader. I know all the secrets.

🌿how does creating make you feel?

It's the closest to 'magic' I can get. Creating something from nothing but the thoughts in your head. And sometimes these thoughts connect with other people? I'm weaving words or images from NOTHING, and it's doing SOMETHING? that's incredible.

Not to mention, it's always an addicting feeling when characters start to come to life on their own. Or, when pieces of your plot start to click together. It's as satisfying as making progress on a puzzle, except you know the puzzle is going to look absolutely incredible at the end and you can't wait to show it to people.

🎀give yourself a compliment about your own writing

My writing can be very 'cartoonish' at points, and I adore that. I love writing my stories so that an animated film/show plays in the reader's head.

💞what’s the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

Definitely the characters. Plot and worldbuilding are a very close second. It depends on what type of story I'm following. If it's a fairly simple story, the characters need to shine. If it's a complex world with lore and twists and turns, the worldbuilding needs to be tighter. But I mostly care about our characters being at least interesting to watch. You could have a great setting and such but if the characters are boring, I'm not going to watch/read.

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Honestly, The Harvester! We didn't expect so many people to connect with it, or to be able to look past its rougher edges as a "copy-pasted roleplay between two nerds".

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn’t think it would take you?

I'll instead talk about a chapter of The Harvester that was hard to write. There's a future episode where Hema reflects on some of the bad things he's done, in a very down-to-earth conversation with someone. I think about this chapter a lot because it was written right after my car accident in 2017, which was my first near-death experience. I was in a bad place mentally, and the breakdown Hema ends up having is very similar to a real-life breakdown I had while visiting a friend's house. Reliving that very raw and upsetting feeling was hard on me, but it made the scene hit harder and it felt more honest, which wound up improving it, in the end.

🍭why did you start writing?

I'm not really sure! I had ideas, and I wanted to get those ideas down. I started writing after finishing Fullmetal Alchemist, and I wanted to have my own animated show some day. Now that I'm older, I understand that a book series would be way more affordable haha. I actually almost stopped writing because my highschool english teacher told me to 'give it up, you'll never go anywhere with this,' and to this day that spite has mixed with love and passion for the craft and drives me forward.

💎why is writing important to you?

Because it's the closest thing I have to magic. Like a fish has to swim, I have to take people on journeys. To make their existences easier. To make life a little more fun or creative for them, for a time. I want my stories to be an escape for those who need out, and shelter for those who need to hide.

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you’ve finished a fic?

So this is an odd one for me to answer because I do chapter-by-chapter releases and haven't finished a whole story yet. But my after-chapter-posting routine is usually 'go to sleep, get snacks, and keep Gmail open on the side in case of comments.' Sometimes I go back and re-read it, or I doodle something for the chapter.~ But tbh at this point, it's a pretty casual thing for me.

🤲what do YOU get out of writing?

It helps me feel like I'm part of the world. Like my stories make me more real, because it's one of the few modes of human connection that I have. I can reach out and connect to people that I may never even speak to, but a tiny part of me lives on in their story because they read something I wrote. Or maybe something stuck with them, or they got new friends because of it. The world is one big story and I'm just looking to have a few cameos in it.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

How abouuut... the first draft of Find Your Wings' prologue? ;3

[danpuff-ao3]

ten books to get to know me

Thanks for the tag @wolfpants!! And @consistentsquash!! :D

Tagging: @perverse-idyll, @writcraft, @lizzy0305, @arrisha-ao3, @liladiurne, @bluesundaycake, @cindle-writes, @ripeteeth, @givereadersahug, @broomsticks, @charlotterhea, @ashesandhackles, @teacup-tai, @sugareey-makes-stuff, @mrviran, @yletylyf ....no pressure! Apologies if you've already been tagged or done this! And if you've not been tagged and want to play along, go ahead and consider yourself tagged!

Under the cut cuz LONG. (Y'all know I like to talk.)

The Harry Potter series

....I'm in the HP fandom, so that's probably 0 surprise. Also feels icky due to being written by Terf McTerfington. Buuuuuut. Well. The universe needs balance and HP's power was so great it could only be stopped by Great Evil, or so I like to tell myself.

The series was published in the U.S. when I was 7. I was already a big reader. I was a big reader from the moment I could read at all. But HP was the first series I fell well and truly in love with. I discovered fanfiction at 11, and started writing it at 13. The story and this fandom were there through the worst moments of my life. I'm not sure it will ever not be important to me.

The Percy Jackson series (Rick Riordan)

Honestly, I can't lie, I'm a big sucker for kids' books. They're just fun, dang it. Great literature? No. But I don't read to impress, I read to have a good time, and Percy Jackson is a good time. Also all the related series. Magnus Chase? Trials of Apollo? The Kane Chronicles? Yes yes yes BRING THEM TO ME.

There's a Potter-esque feel to the PJO series. Dark haired green eyed hero who didn't know he had magical abilities? Also the Cabins make me think of the Houses, even though it's more parentage than traits. It's a vibe, okay? And on top of that...mythology???? I'm a big ole mythology nerd, especially for Greek mythology. And let me tell you, I inhaled those books. And I still love them a lot, actually.

The Twilight series (Stephenie Meyer)

To round out the list of "stories Little Danni loved" is Twilight. Yes, I was a Twi-hard in junior high and high school. What's funny is all the modern "this is problematic because Edward is stalking Bella, and also he's a vampire and immortal and there's an age gap!" jabbering is probably what sold me on the story to begin with. Listen: I like what I like, okay? Also: vampire + human? Does that count as monsterfucking? Idk but it's at least different species which ticks some boxes, okay?

Honestly everyone talking about how effed up Twilight is was just a lightbulb moment for me of like "oh. No wonder I was so into it."

Twilight also played a role in my writing journey! In high school I joined a Twilight themed RPG site on proboards. I created a mega evil vampire named Danna Deville, whose face cast was Hayden Panettierre. This weirdly made me super popular because no one else was creating/playing villainous characters. Let me tell you, it did loads for my self esteem. Also it's funny to think about all those old friendships born of "hey let's RP together. I really want your character to torture my character."

Mistborn (Brandon Sanderson)

This one I have big opinions on. On the one hand, I really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's stories. On the other hand, while his magic systems are often highly praised, I hate them. Hate, loathe, and despise them. I'll not say more than that. I don't like to hate on things. And my partner really loves Brandon Sanderson and his magic systems. (I'm just over here muttering about "they eat metal" and have to actively not think about it.) It's just not my jam. I much prefer softer magic systems. Hard magic systems tend to throw me a bit. But Brandon Sanderson sure knows how to tell a story, dang it. He's super creative and smart and has these big sweeping ideas, with all these twists and turns! His worldbuilding is also insanely good.

Mistborn (Era 1) is probably my favorite of his works. One as an overall story (Vin, my love!) But also the connection to my Eddie.

You see, when my partner and I first met, it was in the book section of an entertainment store. Where we stood in the aisles and talked for hours. My very first impression was "who is this goofy man?" and I left the interaction fully smitten. And anxious, awkward lady that I am, my grand plan was to read the books he'd been raving about to have something to talk about. Idle chit chat? No can do. Book talk? That I can do! So I read Mistborn, for a start. Then worked my way through other book recommendations. And now that goofy nerd is mine. All's well that ends well!

The Wheel of Time series (Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson)

Once I worked my way through Brandon Sanderson's books, I moved onto The Wheel of Time, which was much more up my alley! I could not put those books down. (At least until I hit The Slog, at which point I still couldn't put them down, but I was mostly charging through waiting for it to get good again.) This was also the first time I tried to not look up spoilers before reading a book. (Blasphemy, I know, blah blah. Look: I have anxiety. Spoilers make my life easier and happier, okay?) Eddie is very staunchly anti-spoiler, so I did my best to try a spoiler-free experience. I made it most of the way through. Towards the end I accidentally spoiled myself on a big event. It was a bit foolishly done but I'd consulted google to refresh my memory on an event from an earlier book, and my Google excursions warned me of a few deaths ahead of time. Whoops. On the whole, though, me making it 10+ books with no spoilers was pretty dang impressive.

Also the book series is great. And I'm side-eying the show a bit. Just a little bit.

(Bonus: the band Blind Guardian has a song called "Wheel of Time" about the books and it's 10/10. At least if you like symphonic metal, which I do.) (Oh, "Ride Into Obsession" from the same album is also WoT inspired.)

Flowers in the Attic series (V. C. Andrews)

The fact that I read this series as a child might explain a lot. Also you should know my mother gave me these books to read. Child abuse, forced imprisonment, murder, and incest? Sign me up! It's all sortsa messed up and dark and to this day it's still my # 1 guilty pleasure series. I like...just don't care. You can tell me how badly written it is or how problematic it is, I don't care. This is the book equivalent to eating a whole bag of Flamin' Hot Cheetos while watching true crime videos. This is indulgence, my friends. I'm having a great time, please leave me in peace.

Till We Have Faces (C. S. Lewis)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Idk what to say other than this book is perfect, I will hear no slander against it, and I really need to reread it, like, ASAP. Another link to Greek mythology this one. Also: I really love Orual.

(Does anyone wanna read/reread it with me? Lmk.)

The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller)

Gorgeous, amazing, perfect, wonderful. Patroclus/Achilles forever. Ouch my heart. God it's beautiful. MORE GREEK MYTHOLOGY OF COURSE. Also all of Madeline Miller's stuff is stellar. (Circe and Galatea!!!! Read those, too!!!!) I have every feeling on planet earth about this one.

Widecare trilogy (Phillippa Gregory)

Beatrice Lacey is wonderful and amazing and also really messed up in the head. Historical fiction. Little Beatrice is in love with her family's land, Wideacre. And is HORRIFIED and OFFENDED when she realizes that, as a girl, she will not only not inherit, but will have to leave one day???? Cuz as a lady it is her purpose in life to get married and pop out babies???? But Beatrice is ambitious, clever, manipulative, and passionate and she doesn't let lady parts or the patriarchy keep her down!! And by that, she goes to rather dark and taboo extremes. Which I admire and respect. (I grew up watching horror films and reading darkfic. Trust me, I was having a great time with this story.)

Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)

I stg this book gets no respect. Is this a really toxic, dysfunctional romance? Absolutely. What else do you want in a story???? Oh OBSESSIVE, PASSIONATE, UNDYING LOVE??? GOT THAT, TOO. This book lives in my heart and soul. I can fully quote Heathcliff's speech to Catherine ("I cannot life without my life, I cannot live without my soul") on demand. I have read this book to death, through resurrection, and back to death.

...also it's hella Snarry, isn't it? That explains a lot.

(Also shoutout to other teenage obsessions: The Hunger Games and Divergent. Also the Three Dark Crowns series???? Loved that. Hannibal???? Yes please. Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series??? MORE! Oh and R.L. Stein's The Nightmare Room were the books of my childhood. Oh! Oh oh! And another thing! The Wonder by Emma Donoghue????? Incredible. Blow my mind. Oh and She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb is another case of "this is a very dark messed up story that a family member gave me that I inhaled because I really liked messed up stuff, actually.") (Is this cheating? Probably. But I've been a major bookworm since words even made sense to me, please cut a gal some slack.) (Please don't judge me.)

[avocado-frog]

Happy WBW! For Spooky Season, what's something creepy about your world? (Creepy up for interpretation. 🙃)

Hi happy spooky season!!!!! I love halloween so much. I was assigned planner of this month's activities in my friend group. We might be going to spirit halloween + we're seeing the five nights at freddy's movie because my friend alyssa is a nerd about em

I'm using this as an excuse to talk about the dahlia dream world thing because even though it's the biggest part of it and I spent like three weeks doing worldbuilding for, I never talk about it

What I consider the creepiest parts: 1. Chapter 12 of dahlia. Forests in general sorta freak me out as a given and it was based on this one haunted house i went to where the fog machine was on and the only thing i could see were fake bodies in trees wrapped up in bags. And then at the end with fake jaxon dying. and then the part with lily crunching a frozen corpse skull with her foot. 2. Demon Leo. Verryyy based on hellmari from omori and the other mother from coraline. Cracked grey skin + sewn up wide mouth + blacked out eyes just Chasing the kids around. I could write an essay on Leo being Elliot's favorite and still being the only hostile one

The OTHER thing that I have is that Elliot can sorta just. possess people. canonically that's a thing he CAN and HAS done. I like to joke and say it was Dylan who got everyone possessed, but that's because I like to be mean to them (the character I made and chose for them to do what they did) but it was actually Elliot. The 12-year-old child who really likes space and sleeps in the washing machine can possess you.

He probably does it to Sam just because he's the only one who didn't have something bad happen to him in dahlia. That's because Sam doesn't deserve anything bad ever. Leo on the other hand deserved that fall. Let Jaxon out of jail he was allowed to push her. i told him so myself

[hotguysfugue]

in a big worldbuilding mood rn, so we'll do the protagonist of the book i'm drafting as inspiration hits (milo, a fledgling wielder of the metaphysical arcana and overall nerd)

His go-to bar drink is an amaretto sour, as it's definitely on the sweeter side and it isn't exactly outlandish. He doesn't want to stand out in public for ordering something too over the top or boring (unless it's a tavern that doesn't carry spirits, Milo doesn't drink ale as it makes his stomach act up).

Milo is clean - almost obsessively so - and takes great pride in making sure the physical features at least somewhat within his control (hair, beard, skin) are taken care of. The Moreau family garden is full of plants - such as Azurian arum, juniper, and Amaranthine bean - that when processed correctly, works wonders for maintaining the skin. This is also partially because Milo underwent a severe bout of acne during his middle teenage years that permanently scarred the skin on his cheeks, nose, back, and forehead - and he will do anything in his power to prevent it from reoccurring.

His disposable income almost entirely goes towards the purchase and acquisitions of new Grimoire esoterica - books discussing and teaching the intricacies of the Metaphysical Arcana. However, due to his current socioeconomic/geographic status, he's unable to do more than place one order with Hubert (owner of the town's sole bookshop, and the only person beyond his family in Boisseaux that he still interacts with) in a given calendar year.

As of the beginning of the written narrative, the only scars Milo possesses are acne scars across his face and body. However, this is very much subject to change : )

Milo last cried about a week prior to the beginning of the narrative, out of sheer frustration. There was a minute detail he missed in his translation of the book he found deep in the Moreau family basement, and it fucked up the valid interpretation of that entire chapter. It took him five days to fully repair all issues that were created by that misinterpretation.

He is an only child. Milo supposedly has cousins, but they all skipped town before he was even born out of sheer disdain for the locale.

He is clad in a pair of rather tattered boots of dark brown leather that have seen nearly fifty years of wear and tear, as they were his father's before him. Milo currently doesn't see a reason to send them to the cobbler's, as he doesn't leave the house enough to need functional boots.

In opposition to the cleanliness of his self, Milo's bedroom at the Moreau home is incredibly scattered and disorganized. It's covered with open books, papers, even ink spatters here and there from where his clumsiness got the best of him.

His favorite holiday is easily that of Meditatio, the major holiday of Astaphaios (the Knowing Watcher, She Who Sees, the Goddess of Knowledge and Sight). It marks the midpoint of the first month, where the moon shines brightest amidst the early days of spring. It is considered a day of thoughtful introspection, reflecting upon what brought you to your current state in life.

An object he always carries with him is the antique wooden staff that has been passed through the Moreau family for generations (or, at least, since they settled in the lakeside village of Boisseaux). It's quite weathered, and inscribed with a fascinating pattern that Milo has never been quite able to decipher.

So my problem with most ‘get to know your character’ questioneers is that they’re full of questions that just aren’t that important (what color eyes do they have) too hard to answer right away (what is their greatest fear) or are just impossible to answer (what is their favorite movie.)  Like no one has one single favorite movie. And even if they do the answer changes.

If I’m doing this exercise, I want 7-10 questions to get the character feeling real in my head. So I thought I’d share the ones that get me (and my students) good results: 

What is the character’s go-to drink order? (this one gets into how do they like to be publicly perceived, because there is always some level of theatricality to ordering drinks at a bar/resturant)

What is their grooming routine? (how do they treat themselves in private)

What was their most expensive purchase/where does their disposable income go? (Gets you thinking about socio-economic class, values, and how they spend their leisure time)

Do they have any scars or tattoos? (good way to get into literal backstory) 

What was the last time they cried, and under what circumstances? (Good way to get some *emotional* backstory in.) 

Are they an oldest, middle, youngest or only child? (This one might be a me thing, because I LOVE writing/reading about family dynamics, but knowing what kinds of things were ‘normal’ for them growing up is important.)

Describe the shoes they’re wearing. (This is a big catch all, gets into money, taste, practicality, level of wear, level of repair, literally what kind of shoes they require to live their life.)

Describe the place where they sleep. (ie what does their safe space look like. How much (or how little) care / decoration / personal touch goes into it.)

What is their favorite holiday? (How do they relate to their culture/outside world. Also fun is least favorite holiday.) 

What objects do they always carry around with them? (What do they need for their normal, day-to-day routine? What does ‘normal’ even look like for them.) 

[dizzyrobinsims]

Sim world building ramble

Ok so gonna be a NERD about my simworld worldbuilding ok? Ok.

SO THE DEMON LORDS.

Basically my "hell" world is more like... psuedo various-abrahamic-religions-inspired plane, where I take deep cuts from what I like about Ye Olden Lore, and chucking out the rest and all the icky absolute cosmic good vs evil stuff.

(btw I found a playlist on Spotify called Religious Trauma Bangers, highly recommend, great to blast on the way home from therapy)

ANYWAY

On the Demonic Plane in my sims world there are 4 lords, loosely based on the four horsemen. All have the "surname" Daemonium because LATIN BABY, And Demon lord of Power is Daemonium Virtutis which translates to "Demonic Power" but also Virtutis means virtue~.

Lord of Power = Conquest, Lord of Transition = War, Lord of Wanting = Famine, Lord of Stillness = Death. Because based on the horsemen I'm also doing a thing which based on the order they "ride in" in the OG lore, they go from most human (Power) to least human (Stillness).

Basically the reason I say loosely based is also because like. IDK man I find the whole "always evil people who can never change" thing weird and gross? So I wanted to give them titles that reflected those aesthetics but also had more flexibility. Power can be wielded for good or ill. Transition is by virtue neutral, it can be for better or worse. Wanting inspires great actions and horrible ones. Stillness can give us rest or rend us stagnant, for only the dead are truly still and never changing.

Basically in my world state the demonfolk are basically originally spawned from the desires and wants of mortals, though many are now multi-generation born by more basic means nowadays. Power actually is 2nd gen born on his dad's side and 17th on his mom's, but per his namesake took the throne from his predecessor a couple hundred years back. This was actually the first time the Power throne turned over in written memory.

Transition is a constantly revolving door of leaders, you can just walk in one day and find a new one. On *average* it's every 200 years or so changeover, but consistency isn't a thing with the house of Transition. The current leader has been on the throne for 5 years and she is the youngest of the lords.

Wanting and Stillness, however, have always had their thrones. Wanting has started his fair share of conflict with the others, and his kingdom swings from being a bastion of the arts of luxury for all to being raked thin and on the verge of collapse with vast disparities between the wealthy and poor depending on where wantings' desires lie.

Stillness' kingdom never changes. It just is. Honestly those from Stillness are strange, and those who go there for pilgrimage often come back... different. If they do come back. Basically it's the demon equivalent of a kingdom of cryptids.

[strelles-universe]

i'm somewhat new here, is it fine if i ask for a rundown/summary of your au(s)? it's just im slightly confused

Sure

Strelles

Humans don't exist, housecats are the Sky Kingdoms, dogs, cats and foxes are all sapient species and also there's magic. Each of the clans is different enough from each other (and growing more different) that trying to combine the four is like announcing you want to combine all the Americas bc name reasons. Fireheart is a former kingdom cat and prince who interested in the clans from his father's stories and joined ThunderClan and has resigned himself to trying to fix them. The Masterlist pinned has the first three books written out but also several other masterlists of worldbuilding, character profiles and the languages of the various groups bc I'm a nerd.

The Farlands

I only made a few posts on that here. My side-blog @myths-of-fantasy is primarily hosting it. It's another "warriors but magic" AU, but this one has the concept of a magical Apocalypse having happened and The Touched are now thriving and evolving. The clans sealed themselves off from the world during The Fall which preceded The Age of Nightmares. They've changed a lot in the 200 years they'ved existed. Also they settled on an old natural reserve before The Fall.

Exodus

Based on a fanfiction by @troutfur, it's an AU of an AU where Fireheart took his family and ran away from the clans when he would've been forced to exile his family and alienate himself from them because of dumb rules from an old dead cat. I gave house-cats a culture, reminded folks that humans don't generally hate animals and currently he's building The Lantern Coalition. Also there's very background BloodClan politics.

All other AUs are me talking with others about their AUs

@femalefirestarau <- Firestar is a girlboss

@spottyistired <- Old Faces, New Dawn (too big to summarize)

@the-anonymous-unikitty <- A Big Cat!Warriors AU

Or me just spitballing ideas - hope this helped!

[raspberry-muffin]

Hi, I'm a nerd (in case that wasn't obvious) I really like animals in general.

Feel free to message me if you want to talk or rant or anything! (you've probably got other people for that tho, huh.)

Please don't follow me just because I followed you. That does nothing. I have a horrible self esteem, and it's really not helped by always wondering if people are following me out of obligation.

Please use tone tags when you think something may be misleading. I'm pretty good at deducing tones via text, but i still can and will spiral if i misinterpret somthing.

I will block you if you use them as a joke.

https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#masterlist For anyone who needs

✨ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ↓ More info below cut ↓ฅ⁠^⁠•⁠ﻌ⁠•⁠^⁠ฅ✨

I'm a huge fan of The Owl House and Miraculous Ladybug fanfics (only the fanfics. The show is fine i guess, but i love the fanfics) I'm also into Gravity Falls and Amphibia.

I'm moderately good at worldbuilding if anyone needs help ironing out their ideas.

I'm genderfae (no, it's not a xenogender stop saying i'm actually just a girl. It hurts.) I use They/She pronouns.

My DNI is

Queerphobes

Exclus

Ableists

Rasicts

Gross people

Dickheads

People chatting me just for porn purposes. I WILL block you.

If you wanna talk for whatever reason, my chat and asks are open, and you can use the ask button for virtually anything, (keyword virtually, if you send me anything gross I will delete it. If you do it again I will block you.)

Do not send me ANYTHING sexual.

I have ADHD.

Anyway I think that's it? Have the best day possible with any assorted mental and physical states.

HEY HAVE A LOOK AT THESE BY THE WAY

THE CALMING CAT

OLDEST FLUTE IN THE WORLD

LETS MAKE A VIDEO GAME

[rmhashauthor]

For this post, I'm going to talk about my current WIP The Dragon Prince's Consort. It's main lesson or theme is the idea that love can be a choice - you can decide to wake up next to the same person every day and choose to love them. You decide every day to be in their corner, to tackle problems together, and to devote yourself to them because I believe this to be true and I was tired of reading too many insta-love stories where it took like 4 seconds to fall in love.

OOOH BOY BUCKLE UP - I LOOOVE worldbuilding and coming up with new alien species with interesting biology, and since this story carries the themes of wealth, privilege and power I gravitated towards dragons/tieflings, Han dynasty China and Mongolia, gold, opulence and unbelievable luxury. The Drassians are an old family of immense wealth and power, and I modeled them off of creatures like tieflings and demons a la Dungeons and Dragons. Their world is cold, rocky and snowy so the environment of the story is based on Mongolia, Siberia and northeastern Russia and they eat a lot of calorie-dense, high-fat foods like dumplings, noodles, meat and rich stews to stay warm. The aesthetic is "prosperity on steroids" with lots of gold, jewels, fine fabrics and opulent clothing, homes, vehicles and furniture. Think elegant robes of fine silk embroidered with gold and silver, furniture carved from rare woods and upholstered with more silk, lavish parties with food and entertainment that would make the House of Windsor faint, all with the absolutely fantastical designs of ancient China, Russia under the Romanovs, the Ancien Regime of France and the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. The Drassian Empire is THE most powerful territory in the universe in my head, with tens of thousands of years of history and FTL tech to boot. There's also a little bit of Klingon influence from Star Trek because I am an old nerd and all of my stories are influenced in some way by Star Trek.

Without spoiling too much, MMC is spreading himself pretty thin between trying to release FMC from her situation while also trying to accomplish a huge political task assigned by his father while ALSO trying to convince literally everyone that he and FMC are in a real relationship while ALSO fighting his growing feelings for her, because if he follows his heart then he can't do what he promised and if he can't do that, then there's going to be a lot of hurt and heartbreak. FMC is trying to come to terms with the fact that she basically lives in a gilded cage, that she's now a celebrity, and she lives with a man who was born into a life of wealth and power she can barely comprehend. She wants to be free as well, but freedom for her could mean going back into poverty while continuing to live in total luxury would mean that she has to live in the spotlight forever. Also there's the matter of MMC, who has been so gentle with her from the start and only gets sweeter, more romantic, and sexier by the day. They're physically involved from the start and it just. Keeps. GETTING. HOTTER. I am simply out to entertain and if you come away from reading anything I've written with some lesson or realization, then good on you because I don't know WHAT the hell I'm doing! I am merely a vessel for the words because these demons can't type I guess.

My books end up being 35+ chapters, and I have no reason to believe THE DRAGON PRINCE'S CONSORT will be any different.

ORIGINAL CONTENT BABYYYYYYYY and you can read it RIGHT HERE ON WATTPAD FOR FREEEEEEE

I can't not write. My first 400+ pager was handwritten in high school when I was supposed to be taking notes or doing homework, and from where I sit I can see the binder stuffed with pages upon pages of some of the cheesiest, cringiest, most deplorably purple teenage escapist fantasy that will NEVER be published. I will be buried with that manuscript, and it will moulder in the dark for eternity with my bones. The second was basically Galaxy Quest and also sits in a binder where it will probably remain until the Sun blows up. STARFISH is what I consider to be my first serious, big-girl grownup novel and you can read the whole damned thing here. Funnily enough, I have a Bachelor's degree in English with a heavy focus on technical, research and critical writing and my day job is technical writing, document management and document control in manufacturing. I decided to go the technical route because I love doing research and would much rather do creative writing for fun instead of turning it into a job. Last time I checked you can't pay bills with word counts and no billionaires are currently hiring a decorative garden hermit.

I am currently active on Wattpad and Instagram, I have never even looked at Twitter and I have no intention of joining Threads. I do have a Ko-fi, but I don't expect much from it and I have a job so I'm not all that worried about it. I'm trying to be better at posting more frequently, but TBH I'm fairly busy working full-time and juggling that with my (frankly amazing and I don't deserve him AT ALL) husband, my extended family, my house/garden and writing, and I have the quirk of not actually knowing when it's okay to call people my friends. I'm not even sure how many followers I have - I mostly followed @alienpeenfiend here from Instagram and I follow a lot of artists like @skelliefranky, @filibusterfrog, @abigaillarson and @ilustrariane. And @neil-gaiman, because no one hates Neil Gaiman.

Writers of Tumblr, I have an ask game for you all!

Please reblog and answer these questions, maybe tag others too! My asks are also open for them.

By the way, please read my snippets of TFLOC!

What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?

What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?

What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?

How many chapters is your story going to have?

Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?

When and why did you start writing?

Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?

[mayhaps-a-blog]

Hi! For the new Star Wars asks.. 7 (because I need fic refs!), 14 and 18 😁

Hi!! Thanks for the ask :) 7 (favorite fan art/work). Oh god I can't possibly pick just one... I love all of ZsforSs's (@confuzing) works, especially the fairy tales, particularly The Lindworm. Failover by 13th_blackbird and anthean is also a favorite with Rebel!Thrawn, and I love the worldbuilding in Path of the Houses by GwendolynGrace. Lilac-vode’s (@lilac-vode) A Bit of a Jam and other works are lovely for some Ascendancy found family!

14 (who would be your best friend?). As much as I love Thrawn, I'd probably connect much more with Eli as a fellow nerd. I might not be a math genius, but I do run analyses for fun!

18 (what's your most unpopular star wars opinion?). So, I only got involved in the fandom recently, so I'm not really sure which of my opinions are unpopular. I think some of my friends don't get why I actually like the Jedi, and I know I've annoyed friends arguing whether Thrawn was in or out of character in Rebels (some of those speeches were weird, but I like to theorize on what could happen behind the scenes to make it in character).

[red-dragon-archfiend]

Okay I'm just gonna put some of the more obvious gripes under a cut because I wanna talk about them

1. Harry is introduced as a meek nerd who instantly becomes this brave jock as soon as he enters Hogwarts. Because his dad was good at Quidditch, Harry is a natural at it as well, for reasons, and exceptions are made for him to get on the team because he's the protagonist. He's also rich, his parents were very wealthy for some reason and left him a lot of money, and he takes this all in stride. If you take a malnourished, abused 11 year old and suddenly turn him into a rich celebrity in a world he doesn't know, he's not going to immediately get used to it and perform well

2. The worldbuilding is nonsensical and utterly stupid if you think about it critically for a moment. Wizard society is structured in a backwards and oppressive fashion for no reason, which would be fine if this was treated as an issue, but it wasn't. The wizarding world is framed throughout the story as this idealistic escape from Harry's home life, so the way these issues are swept under the rug, coupled with the intensive marketing and merchandising that's kept this series afloat for so long, implies that these things are supposed to be ignored, if not accepted 3. Wizard duels are Boring. They introduce three turbo illegal spells that inflict perfect mind control, cause extreme pain as means of torture, and just instantly kill someone. There's no need to be creative or imaginative with the villains' tools. Need someone to do something against their will? Mind control! Need someone to be tortured? There's a spell for that! Want a wizard to kill another? There's a spell that does that, and only that, instantly! The one actually exciting wizard duel in the entire series comes off as needless spectacle since Voldemort decides not to use the killing curse for that one, for no reason other than maybe just to show off. Showing off, in the headquarters of the government who's denial of his rebirth is essential to his plans. 4. There are basically no original monsters or ideas throughout the series. That's FINE, literature is derivative by nature and most people are fine with that. Fantasy fans LIKE dragons, vampires, centaurs, wizards with long beards, and magic castles! But this means that Harry Potter offers basically nothing unique. You could find just about anything you like about it elsewhere, probably executed better as well. You could even write it yourself! You don't need to even do a full story, you can just take your favorite parts of traditional fantasy and throw them all into a pot together with other things you like. Harry Potter's world isn't as detailed or thought-out as you might imagine, it's not hard to have a comparably sized fantasy world without the many failings of Harry Potter.

5. The entire series is more or less designed to be marketed and consumed as easily as possible. Things like Hogwarts houses and patronuses are extremely fandomable, and the narrative themes lean just enough into politics to feel like the story is saying something meaningful, but not enough to actually have to commit to a message or risk being divisive. Harry Potter has political themes, that appeal to people who aren't actually invested in politics. Now I realize that all these things above may come across as harsh or unnecessary. "It's a children's book, it doesn't have to be that deep!" Y'know what? That's fair. I certainly didn't think about those things when I was obsessed with the series and consumed it uncritically as a kid. But we're adults now. Harry Potter is rife with blatant racism and antisemitism, its only message is to support and uphold the status quo, and if you can ignore that, AND the continued damage supporting this series does to the safety of vulnerable people, what you're left with isn't even good or unique in any way. This series is rotten to the core, and nothing's worth salvaging

This isn't really a hot take but speaking as someone who had a huge Harry Potter phase as a teen, even if you try to distance the series from JKR (which is becoming increasingly impossible) it's really not that good