#because of their old-fashioned art feel it made me think of old fandom stuff

[mars-gallavanger]

@decafbat fanart

[potatoofdefiance]

My two cents and a rant on the allegations and Good Omens

(I will probably regret this later)

This has been eating at me for a while now, ever since the news broke that Neil Gaiman was a sex pest (see infamous TERF-adjacent podcast by Tortoise media) and I have been consciously and unconsciously ruminating over it for weeks now, so here goes.

I think the news of Neil Gaiman hit me harder than I was expecting, and certainly harder than I would have liked.

I didn’t (and certainly do not now) consider myself a “true fan”. I was never a hard-core fan, one that goes to signings or book fairs or cons to meet my favourite author. Partly because I never latched that much on any of the authors of the books or movies I loved, and partly (maybe for the best now that I think about it) because I never had the money, or wasn’t located in a geographically favored area. Meaning I never lived anywhere near wherever events with Neil Gaiman were happening.

So, with all this in mind, how is it that the news managed to hit me so hard?

I thought (read: ruminated) about it, and I think it is because of Good Omens. And the latest times. In my life, and I think a good chunk of other people’s lives too, these last few years have been a roller-coaster. You choose which particular scenario the roller-coaster is set into; mine is on fire, running through a sea of shit and we are being slapped by gooey flaming eels hard in the face.

Maybe someone might enjoy this. That someone isn’t me.

But the point is: I have been struggling. With my life, with a mental health condition, with the world and my place in it.

Enter Good Omens. In an effort to actively expose myself to “nice” stuff, stuff that would, if not make me feel better, at least make me laugh, I started tapping more into the fandom.

I’m not a fandom person. Again, never latched onto anything that had a fandom big enough (where are the Ann Halam fans? No one is making cosplays of Sloe from Siberia, are they?).

But with Good Omens, it seemed perfect for me. I wasn’t invested so much, it didn’t make me feel like I was “lacking” something in order to be part of it. I just felt like I didn’t care enough to really be vulnerable to it, I felt like it could have been a nice innocuous hobby.

But that’s the point. Thinking it was innocuous made me let down my guard enough to actually fall in love with the fandom. Fall in love with those two weirdos of characters (which by the way, I’ll say this now: I think Aziraphale and Crowley as portrayed in the series are more a product of fans and Tennant and Sheen than they are a product of Gaiman and Pratchett. And this is not a bad thing per se, I think, but let’s give credit where credit is due).

And let me be clear: I gained so so much from joining the fandom. It has positively affected so many seemingly unrelated parts of my life, and I’m so grateful to so many kind strangers on the internet who have shared such wholesome art with me, and have gifted me so much, that even putting it into words is simply not enough to explain all of it.

And one of the results of this “wave of wholesomeness” is I also started following Gaiman more closely.

Like so many, I loved Coraline. Gaiman seemed a genuinely nice person. An old guy who had wisdom to share, and who seemed to be fascinatingly non-stereotypical? If that makes sense. What I mean is that he was everything my father warned me against. A goth, weird, a writer therefore an artist (and in my family we know artists are fools who end up on the street jobless and homeless). And yet, to me now he seemed such a normal guy. Yes maybe someone who enjoyed that fashion style, but otherwise very far away from the usual excess of a rockstar. Of course I was too young when he was at the peak of his rockstar years. English is not my first language, and when he was 40 I was in elementary school and just learning about him, and you know, they do not write about his fans passing out at signings or his groupies on the back cover of children’s books.

What I mean is that I didn’t have access to all the media and information about him.

So I start seemingly connecting to this writer, whose works I have enjoyed for the most part, and who seems such a nice guy in how he interacts with his fans and people in general. Such an inoffensive, kind person. And kind seemingly to everyone.

I started liking him. To the point where I remember telling my partner: you know, Neil Gaiman is someone I’d take a coffee with (which in Italian culture is one of the greatest honors one can give you. Having a coffee while sitting at a café and chat for hours is what good friends do).

So, in my mind he had a special place now. He was someone I started to admire and look up to.

And this is, I think, where it hurts. It hurts because even if I wasn’t personally victimized, I never met him, he never acted creepy with me, he doesn’t even know me, it still felt like I, as part of the fandom, had been used for his clout. And also, it hurts to feel like someone you trusted because of how they presented themselves has lied to you.

And on top of that: it is so fucking disrespectful. The fact he thought he could get away with it. With hurting so many people (one is one too many by the way), and causing so much pain, while also enjoying crowds of adoring fans, both online and in person.

I find it personally difficult to reconcile my love of the GO fandom with all of this right now. And I think it’s for a number of reasons.

Firstly because the silence of institutions and people around these facts has opened some old wounds and made me angry again towards a system that I perceive as hostile towards me and people like me who might be vulnerable.

What I mean is: I know that Gaiman is a powerful person, and a lot of people need to bring money home and are tied to contracts and what not (yeah I’m looking at our favorite two male presenting british actors here) and I understand it. I do. And this is exactly why this stuff makes me angry again. Angry at the whole shitty system we live in, where if you happen to be in some kind of power imbalance you might end up having to eat shit and shut up while witnessing violence against you or others and not being able to utter a word about it. This sucks. It makes me angry. It makes me angry that Michael Sheen, someone I like to believe would be among the first to shout “I BELIEVE THE VICTIMS” if he was talking to friends at a bar, likely has to shut up and play nicely because Darth Amazon has some fucking clause written in Braille somewhere that says he has to sacrifice his firstborn if he ever dares to suggest he doesn’t like anyone related to the franchise.

It makes me soooo angry that we stay in the dark, and we only know from those people who are brave, and powerful enough to speak up about something that (allegedly) has been known for fucking years in the writing community. That this person was a creep. That he was treating people, mainly women and non-binary folks, if not bad, at least poorly.

And you know, this makes me even more angry because I have been in such shitty situations too! I was a victim of a system where exploitation and borderline abuse were normalized in a work setting.

And it wakes something deep in me to read that “it was an open secret bla bla bla” and again: I understand why people set up whisper networks instead of taking these giants down. I understand it. It still makes me angry because I simply do not want to live in such systems. Systems where I’m either the sacrificial lamb or I’m the one tying it on the table, or handing the axe over to the butcher, or a witness who has no power to stop the suffering.

I don’t want to live in such a system. But I have to. In my real life. I have to put up with so much shit sometimes, shit that makes me feel like I cannot stand up for my values because hey, I need to pay the bills too. And Good Omens was one of those few things where I could escape a bit into an alternative reality, where everything could be a bit better.

And I’m sure the fandom is still like this for most of the fans. I have witnessed first-hand how supportive and cheerful this fandom can be.

For me though, it still makes me think of all this...tsunami of shit.

I want to be able to enjoy the silly fanart, the memes, the wait for season 3 again. But I can’t. I can’t because my brain does not work like that. Good Omens still means Neil Gaiman too much to me. And I cannot go around talking cheerfully about Good Omens while feeling like I’m feeding into the clout of someone who used their power to coerce vulnerable people. Because (and I might be wrong) it feels like the message I’m sending is: my comfort show/book is more important than your pain or your life. And I can’t. This is not the truth.

I feel for the victims. Probably I feel even more than it would be healthy for me, or normal. But I don’t know, I feel like I connect to them. Maybe because I’ve been a victim of abuse perpetrated in clear power-imbalanced relationships, or because I felt like nobody cared about me and my wellbeing for so long, that eventually I stopped caring too.

And it is bad. It’s dehumanizing to a point where you really start believing you don’t matter. Your wellbeing doesn’t matter. There are more important things.

Ok so, I don’t want the victims, the survivors, to feel like this. They matter. They matter to me because if there’s one thing that is going to re-ignate the sacred fire of defiance in me is being able to stop this self-feeding cycle of self-loathing and misery. You matter. We matter. Vulnerable people who have been hurt matter to me. If there is one thing we can do to resist these systems of oppression and these people who abuse their power, that thing is believing that the people they hurt matter. If not more, at least as much as them.

And the way I show myself and others that the victims and their lives matter to me is by distancing myself from Neil Gaiman and his works, at least for now.

I feel bad for people who might have found themselves unwillingly tied to all of this. I feel bad for Sheen and Tennant, for all the wonderful artists and craft-people who have put so much of their work and love in Good Omens and I don’t want to let them down.

My two cents are that season 3 will not be canceled if they see there’s enough traction, and definitely won’t be canceled unless fans start a crusade against it, which won’t happen most likely.

The fandom loves Tennant and Sheen too much, and these are too much nice people to really hold a grudge against them, so I don’t think it will be canceled.

I’m afraid we (I say “we” meaning everyone who loves Good Omens) will be “held hostage” by Gaiman in the sense that he knows season 3 is not going to happen without him, so it’s either “we” or the majority of “we” behave, or it’s not going to happen. Which again, I don’t think he would lose the opportunity to make some money, and he also has contract duties to fulfill, but it still is worth it for him to try to leverage his power.

I wanted to end this rant on a positive note, somehow. But I don't know exactly what to say. Recently one of the things that has brought me laughs and joy has been the Channel 4 series “We are Lady Parts”.

In one of the episodes they quote a very beautiful poem, which came back to mind when I was listening to Claire (the latest woman who has come forward with allegations) on the “Am I Broken” podcast.

The poem is Speak by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, I will paste the version from the show, because I think it’s very powerful and beautiful.

Speak, for your two lips are free Speak, for your tongue is still your own This straight body still is yours. Speak, your life is still your own.

See how in the blacksmith’s forge flames leap high and steel glows red, padlocks opening wide their jaws. Every chain’s embrace outspread.

Time enough is this brief hour Until body and tongue lie dead. Speak, for truth is living yet. Speak, whatever must be said.

[stanfordpines-enbyhusband]

Introductory Post!

Hello everyone here's an introductory Post I decided to do because why not

Some Basic Stuff about Me

My name is VinylAlex (or just Alex or Vinyl)

I'm Bisexual and TransMasc Non-Binary

My Birthday is April 14th and I'm 19 years old

I use They/He/She Pronouns

I'm Autistic

I'm an Beginner Artist and I try to write sometimes

Some Random Info

My Art Tag is 'VinylAlex Art Tag🖌️'

I swear quite a bit but I have toned it down a bit recently

I ramble a lot and I made a lot sometimes it's (or at least it feels) incoherent or sometimes it's not

My blog is mostly self-shipping with some fandom stuff and other shit in there too

I mostly just reblog stuff with an actual post every once in awhile

I like to collect stuff (fashion dolls, plushies, Furbys, physical media, figures and more)

I can get confused really easily and I'm honestly kinda dumb

I use ibispaint for digital art

My hyperfixations can change quite quick so that's fun

Blue and Purple are My Favorite Colors

English is my first (and at the moment only) language but I absolutely suck at it

I'm really awkward and kind of bad at talking and conversations so sorry about that

Cows Bears Tigers and Opossums are My Favorite Animals

I really don't care if people think I'm cringe I'm just trying to vibe and do what makes me happy

Ask Box: Open

Art Request: Closed

Art Trades: Closed

Commissions: Closed

Just DM me for commission & Art Trades and send me an ask for requests also my ask box is normally always open so ask away!

Note: normally it takes me awhile to answer an ask as I need to gather my thoughts and stuff to answer and also sometimes I might forget about it or get distracted with something else so sorry about that

My Special Interests/HyperFixations

Thomas and Friends

Star Trek

TUGS

Pixar Cars

Marvel/X-Men

Bluey

Bob's Burgers

Cookie Run

Moomin

SMG4

Mario

Sonic The Hedgehog

Monster High

Octonauts

littleBIGPlanet

Transformers

Godzilla

Ghostbusters

Stripes

View Askewniverse

Five Nights at Freddy's

Borderlands

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Lupin III

Journey to The West/LEGO Monkie Kid

And a Lot More

agere blog: @littleopossumkitty

My F/o List

Do Not Interact: basic criteria, Pro.shippers/com.shippers, if you sexualize age regression

[munkiey]

First of all, hello lmao. I just found your blog because I love lmk stuff even though I'm not very active on this social network, I've seen your amazing art on other social networks, and I wanted to ask you kindly if you could help giving me some tips to be able to promote my art or my blog in a better way or how to get people to see my content more, because I have seen that you have been very popular here in such a short time and I have been here trying for more than a year and I have achieved almost nothing, when I share my art on various sites there are no comments and I don't know what to do anymore, I am a bit desperate because I really want to work on this because I love it, it is my passion and also I will want to have some income with commissions because I need it, so yes I would like to make money doing what I am passionate about, but sometimes I wonder if my art is really good or what am I doing wrong because nobody responds to me when I post something. It was long, sorry if this has bothered you, I hope you can answer me, I feel that it would help me.

Okay so what you’re asking about is marketing. Now in the grand scheme of things bud, I’m actually pretty small. Maybe in correlation to a small fandom I might have made an impression but as the internet at large I’m a guppy compared to some of the big fish. Honestly, I prefer it that way. 

The bigger you get the easier a target you are, and the less you’re a person to the people you interact with. Don’t forget that.

The old saying, it's lonely at the top, is very true. The bigger you get the more likely people are to put expectations on you for how you should behave or what they expect. You’ll always be vulnerable to criticism and unable to reach out to your ‘fans’ in a fashion that isn’t either going to leave you exposed or looked at with scrutiny. When it comes to breaking into a fandom though, choosing what your focus is and making sure you have in mind what branding you’re going for. People like consistency and they like predictability. Think about some of the most famous Youtubers today, they’re always updating and they have a ‘theme’ to what they do. I’m a comic artist and wannabe animator, that’s what my content is. I post occasional illustrations between larger projects but as a whole people who follow me can generally expect I have something in the works. 

Looking at your message as a whole though I’m gonna give you a little bit of a hard pill. Don’t base your worth off what other people say. Yes, not getting any responses s u c k s. We’ve all been there and we all want to know how we did. In the grand scheme of things artists are a line of lil dogs wagging their tails and waiting for a pat on the head. You gotta find joy in just chasing that passion though. I see a lot of artists chasing clout and not chasing their artistic passion. They base every decision off what people want, or what they think will get them noticed. It’s very hollow. You can make a living in the comic book, illustration, animation, industry and never be noticed by the online sphere as a whole. Trust me on that, the amount of people I see that I know are published and recognized artists in the industry and have almost no following is a pretty regular thing. Again though, that comes down to your focus and what you want. If you want to have an online presence and gain a following, choose your lane, market yourself and keep your social media oriented towards that. Make a character for yourself and how you want to be perceived by people. I’m not always as cheeky in person, or horrific, but I like the humor of it and it builds a persona for me online.  If you want a career and you want to chase that dream, focus on improving yourself first. If you keep posting it online, trust me, the rest will follow.

There is no magic pill to making a social media following overnight. There are tricks, things to do to help grow it over time. Marketing classes are a thing and can help. But all and all, I’m also a believer in the fact that, if you love what you do, the rest will gradually follow.

[bougiebutchbitch]

Congratulations, you made me start reading White Knight! I'm not a fan so far, but I believe you said it gets better?

lmao, I am shaking hands with you and pretty much every other Batjokes fan!

It does get better. By a lot. I would encourage you to keep going!

The whys & wherefores are below the cut - but I have to give the obligatory disclaimer that this is all personal opinion. I know this is a bit of a contentious comic in the fandom, for reasons I fully understand! I'm not looking to get into a debate - just to ramble a little and share my love for this series with folks who, hopefully, will appreciate that x

The most egregious issue I had with White Knight was that Jack seemed to be an entirely different character from Joker. So... why should I even care about him?

Like. He started wearing a suit? And working out to get the Stereotypical Superhero Bod rather than rocking that classic scrawny Joker look? And he became a freaking politician? Bullshit.

Add to that the shoddy mental health depictions (that's... really not how DID works, DC) and the blatant homophobia of "We will literally say ON THE PAGE that Joker is in love with Batman, but only when he's evil - when he's good, he's in love with Harley and hates Batman".... Yeah, the initial comic has issues, to say the least.

BUT. I do think that in the later chapters, after Jack's 'death' - so, in the Beyond the White Knight era! - Jack's characterisation gets wayyyy more believable. He reads like a good incarnation of Joker! He's annoying - purposefully, irrepressably so! He's a dork! He's hyper-intelligent but also just plain ol' hyper! He does his own sound effects! He goofs about because he thinks he's hilarious (and Bruce kinda indulges him and it's very cute)! He's A MASSIVE Batman fanboy, and hooooo boy does it show!

There's a gigantic Queer Undertone to his relationship with Batman - even more so than is the norm, for Batjokes. One need only look at the little heart emoticon when he talked to Bruce in the Valentine's Day issue. Or the whole 'Harley gets to call you Bats but I don't? :pout:' part. Or the 'those two bicker like an old married couple' bit, or the part where Jack asks Batman if he can ride on the back of his motorcycle ("You won't even feel my arms around you ;)" - holographic flirting at its finest!), or even Bruce's relationship with Harley!

I'm serious. You do NOT need to be wearing the Queer Viewing Goggles in order to interpret Jack wholeheartedly supporting Bruce and Harley getting together and being happy together, with or without his involvement, in a very OT3-sorta-fashion.

Buuuuuut if you're after explicit statements that Jack is still in love with Batman as Jack, rather than Joker, you won't find them in this comic. I would argue that there's enough implicit stuff there to see Jack as 100% bisexual, in love with Bruce and Harley, but, as usual.... that reading remains implicit. Instead, there is enough ambiguity for Comic Dudebros to argue that The Magic Brain Pills 'cured' Joker both of his mental illness and his love for Batman. Which... sigh. :/

In other news, I genuinely like the depiction of Bruce in this comic! So driven, so stoic... But he's also learning slowly how to be vulnerable with the people who love him, how to accept and live with his panic disorder, and how to impart affection to his sons! He's learning that he's allowed family, happiness, and peace! Those are arcs I will never tire of.

Harley is also a delight - a take-no-shit, smart yet fun interpretation of the character. She doesn't really read like the Harley I know and love, but regardless, I'm invested in her and her story!

So, yeah. Awesome art, decent storyline (not exceptional, but far from the worst out there!), fascinating Elseworlds look at the entire Batfam, and strong, strong implications of an m/m/f OT3... There's a lot not to love. But there's a lot to love, too!

I hope you enjoy!

[rebelwhodoesntknow]

Tbh it sucks because Friends is so special to me but it tanked, actually got canceled unlike the other gens, the arcade game and merch sales weren't doing it so they tried to rework the series for the next gen

Aikatsu on Parade and all it's merchandise was partly an attempt to scrape up more money for Planet's release but??? I don't think it worked??? the first couple episodes mention all these really cool ideas about their idol world and then nothing came of it, it was a cute concept but I really think they just fell reaaally under budget and tried to skate by hoping nobody noticed

ever since Stars things have just been kind of mismanaged 😭 like why is the majority of their merch acrylic character stands?? you are a trading card rhythm game for 8 year olds 😭

I LOVE how diverse the music is!!!!! all the "standard idol stuff" really stands out too imo. Signalize was one of my favorites from the start, it just hits so different, most idol anime start with that extra sparkly guitar happy type of song but the instrumental for signalize was so unique, I always thought it was a bold choice for a show like that their rock music is so good. like so so gooddddd

I swear out of the like 700 songs of this series there are maybe 6 I don't enjoy?? ALSO WOW THATS A LOT

Same about the animation, OG s2-onward & Friends was great!!! I also love in the movie when Ichigo performs Kagayaki no Etude, there's a slow spinning scene when she's talking on stage about what the song means to her and every couple seconds it switches from 2d to cg angles and it's so seamless, I love it 😭💗

I think Planet's cg was also beautiful, I don't have much of an attatchment to the season but the character designs look really nice, good fluffy hair physics, and they've TOTALLY perfected the in-the-dark glowy look by then!!

another thing most of the fandom agreed on, Stars feeling kind of uncanny.. and the auras kept covering idols art certain parts so that's why they changed all the arches early on, they ACTUALLY got written complaints from kids 😭😂

I always wanted to see an idol with no type or a couple!!! Before Kaguya was introduced there was a huge theory going around that she was actually a Sexy/Cool type and since pairs were the point of Friends, we thought we were finally getting double type girls

I also wished the concept of my coords was used in more than that one ichigo gen ep, where you mix up brandless pieces, one of my favorite things to do is mix and match outfits in the ds games so I was hoping to see like idk maybe soleil could split their PR coords together one time or something??? idk would have been cool though!!

Ugh I do agree with you on the merchandise. Like I can’t play any of the card-based games because America so the cards would basically be glorified trading cards. This might be my doll collector brain talking, but why didn’t they make fashion dolls? I know they did for Friends but they didn’t expand on the concept at all, they just made two dolls. I want to see the girls in their basic coords and then fashion packs for each brand, like a set of multiple Futuring Girl rares or just one PR. I would have gone absolutely apeshit for that. It would also allow for mixing and matching, so maybe it could have tied into the show a lot more like with the concept of PR mixing you brought up! I feel like most PRs in units work pretty well together so I’d like to see the mix ups.

Yeah, I really do not care for planet. I think it really didn’t work, and was an awful lot like PriPara when it didn’t need to be! While the cg is admittedly gorgeous, I also feel like it tried to be so ✨aesthetic✨ all of a sudden instead of being bright and colorful like it’s always been! But maybe I just hate change.

I’ve heard that a lot of people find Raki to be a Mary Sue and hate the way she copied the designs of others. I don’t know enough about her to form an opinion, really, but what do you think?

I love the fact that the kids complained during Stars. They may be kids, but they have standards!!

I think double type idols would be super cool and really flesh out the world. Tbh I think there could be a few idols that could be double typed with only a few minor tweaks (I always thought Mikuru was a pop/sexy idol tbh). One thing I think would be interesting is to see how brands would react to it. Brands appreciate dedication, so would dual type idols have a hard time getting PRs because the pure-type brands would worry about being thrown aside? Cool conflict imo.

Now I have to ask, are the ds games any good? Are they able to be played as someone who speaks absolutely no Japanese? I’ve never really thought about getting one of the games before because I have no clue how they work

[castle-dominion]

bonus features

martha's master class

lmao I love the way this is made martha my beloved he IS astute! & the son of an actress! "presence & enthusiasm as they undress each other. Oh! There goes the hat!" of course you did, with the hat as a character bomb went off, shoving her lover under the bed to save his life believe you me MARTHA ah yes the timing. I think he was a personal trainer! I'd be proud of him too! Listening & thinking than line count I like Martha is great. *whispers* very hitchcock she is just talking them thru lol. But they totally look like they are filming it from the loft. Maybe during his physio appointments. why wipe it off? I was right! They DID need to be watching him to make sure he was awake & watching! They did this for him... they were up in the middle of the night doing this to give castle the best birthday gift ever for a mystery writer. Tho an escape room would have been fun too. just walking on the phone as people do "should he decide to break in" why didn't he shred it tho? the soda from the cabinet <3 coordinating it with the beckett fridge hint was sooo good they had rehearsals on the day-of!? She has lied before, she IS a good actress sometimes! I want to look in your fridge! I feel like I am being attacked! Oh no! I have a particular talent for telling people what to do & how to do it! I love her sm & am so glad they made that

your home is your castle

desirable real estate? really? it is a thousand dollars biweekly for a closet in someone's bathroom & you only get to sleep there nights because your roommate sleeps there during the day. at least it is not as bad as toronto They are getting an interiot designer to tour the loft. love it.

Alfred. I like this fellow. & vern ofc. get the script first, determine what we will build & what we will not. tracing paper 3d model digitally thankfully materials Building a set is honestly great robbing peter to pay paul, renting vs building vs buying oOH WE GET TO SEE THE MILL

HEY I RECOGNIZE THAT, THEY ARE BUILDING THE SPACESHIP I THINK Damon my man Ah, time constraints. My dad is a carpenter, he has done work for museums & churches, I wonder what it would be like if he made commissions for film. Like that one person in the murdoch mysteries fandom (I think @ha-bloody-ha is the one?) who does some kind of fiber art commissions for the costume department. "build me a sign" in the middle of shooting like bro you just... didn't have that already? ok lol wet paint still on camera lol

Experts in tribeca lol two sisters & a mom in the heart of tribeca near beckett's loft & their cute umbrellas & their very new york accents privacy, eateries, family, celebrity, sounds perfect for kate.

Lol I love their fake skyline Oooh a full tour of her apartment dustjackets fan wiki does not have a map for beckett's apartment so I'll grab a clip I like her art & stuff Alfred understands characters so well MY FATHER & I WOULD TAG TEAM THIS GUY & GIVE HIM A LICKING BECAUSE AS A CHEF & A KITCHEN DESIGNER WE ARE SO MAD. fancy plastic from home depot lol I like her stairs & the books on them Ooh a rooftop garden! She canonically likes to read I like how stana & alfred sat down & chatted. oh, johanna pic... open it up physically ooh so good! the lighting is indeed nice. Ah yes, set ceilings are able to be removed. Nice. She has a dining room? Wow lol. Ah her bedroom is a swing set. They take it down & store it & then if they need it they set it back up. Audio sounds a bit like the portal radio that is her bedroom? No I don't think so I think this is the workshop where they are setting up her bedroom...

Soho new york these pretty ladies! artists, writers, Bachelor & playboy & walking distance to restaurants really pretty tbh. Old fashioned. walking distance 5-10m from where kate lives according to the new york fellows faster on foot than in a taxi, obviously

Love the skylight NF: What I learned about richard castle when I walked in here was that he is incredibly wealthy. Old spectacles, swords, typewriters, weird alphabet golfballs they just hide their lines around the sets lmao open shelves are great for me as an adhder with a lack of object permanence, out of sight out of mind. But that is One Heavy Door considering the shelves are acting as the wall between the office & rest of the house. The kitchen certainly is interesting. Too clean imo just have a cambro under there lol NF: "we've all lived like that" smells like dust lol sfx, perry! My man! Ah, fire issues. Wourder. Jersey lol. it IS a nice staircase! Vern: Is there anything actually up there? Me: well they joked about seamus dever sleeping in castle's bed & jon huertas putting a cot up there to nap between takes... The stairs: *nothing* I too would love to see martha's room! His office is bigger than I thought... is that a door to a balcony? Yeah that picture really messed me up at first, I thought maybe it was a mirror... of course all the walls need to be able to be removed Ooh hoo hoo his bedroom! Oh his fave is the photograph of the subway on the landing Want a hug? Aw so cute!

NF: Idk AM: Well there are several bedrooms... MQ: 15 million SK: Millions for sure. SS: Location location location AM: 3.5, 4 mil? NF: My apartment in new york was smaller than these two rooms combined & I was paying a little over 2k a month in rent... at least 6 million to buy SK: A detective from a family of academics would be able to afford a place like this so whatever those people make MQ: Gosh & I've never lived in new york I'm totally just acting like I know what I'm talking about NF: Becktt's apartment would be... AM: Maybe a million? a little more than that SS: a million three nine five ($1 395 000?) NF: 4.2 million SK: 200k Vern: Interesting guesses

3bed 3bath 5k sq feet in soho for 6mil with all that outdoorspace I'd buy one for myself & for each of my daughters 12mil 200k would get you a storage bin, maybe two, for your coats 2bed home office 1.8k sq feet fabulous details open kitchen exposed brick in the heart of tribeca, closer to 4mil. If there is outdoor space closer to 5mil.

Make your home your castle uwu *steals a book*

Lot Cops Oh no this one. Jon Huertas & Seamus Dever going for "tactical training" but I've seen this one & idk how much of it was scripted but it is insane they are insane I am insane I went insane over this not to mention how insanely funny it is. A recert for tactical effectiveness they say. I am trying SO HARD not to tell the entirety of tumblr how silly & stupid this is like How Much of this was scripted, how much did they say "just play around" how much did they tell the training team? how much were they acting? this feels like an unus annus episode r for restraint that's the only one I'm saying in this liveblog.

Deleted scene singular Are we dating? A couple weeks? Isn't that like,, all the vacation north americans get? Dating, being with, semi-cohabitating, I'll tell you what we're not doing: sleeping she TRIED to have that talk, twice even!

Someone posted these bloopers right? I love all the gibberish but "nine-- ten blocks away" could have stayed too much sex shut thup NO for a sec I thought he was speaking cree lmao "we never swear on this show" *shows a bunch of swearing* Who'd make a movie after a failed scifi series? That guy's gotta but fckn nuts! *serenity* Ok I'll clip the uh, the thing. Not the entire thing even tho it is very funny, just the, you know, the things I always grab from the bloopers.

[lady-starbind]

So the Your Boyfriend Fandom seems to be resurfacing?

...or maybe not, but I still wanna say my lil piece before going on with my day: As little to zero of you guys know, I used to be interested in Your Boyfriend. (A Christian, into a EROTIC horror dating sim?! ...Look, Fuboo was promising a SFW version of the game, I was looking forward to that)

Sometimes, a deranged, creepy yandere guy wanting you and only you can be very enticing... BUT that enticement turned into rage when a good Samaritan on this very website pointed out the true nature of Fuboo and her hubby.

But just being told “X person is a groomer and her husband is a rapist” is not enough to get me to fully believe you... but it wasn’t just HEARSAY either, there were like what... a couple of docs? With some very compelling evidence. Reading those docs was enough for me to be like “Screw this crap, I’m not supporting a groomer and her rapist hubby!” ...I went from wanting Peter on my wall, to wanting to burn the pictures of him that I had printed out. That being said, I don’t believe one should support the creator and her crew that works on “Your Boyfriend”. If you want to enjoy Peter and crew, that’s fine I guess... Just remember to separate Artist from art. And since Fuboo isn’t as big time as other gaming companies such as Nintendo, Sega or Cheritz, I highly recommend that you keep your YB stuff more private among yourselves, as displaying your amazing art talent may get other people into the fandom... And honestly? That’s not really a good thing. I have my own fanon version of Peter known as “Seater”, he’s going to be used for a private RP between me and a couple of my friends. (Our Ingening RP to be exact, he’s one of the antagonists!) ...The point is, I’m not going to draw my fanon Peter and post him to my blog here or anything like that, because I don’t want Fuboo to get more exposure and therefore more support. My art talent is NOT for supporting groomers and rapists. ...And please, do not donate to the Patreon of Your Boyfriend or Black Shepherd Games. These shady people do NOT deserve any support whatsoever. Was thinking about posting this potential small tweet on my Twitter, but refrained bc I have baby minors who follow me and I don’t want them to get an interest in the game. By the way, if you’re a minor and you’re reading this PLEASE DO NOT GET INTO YOUR BOYFRIEND. Firstly, it’s highly NSFW. Secondly, the people who make the game are highly shady and dangerous. You’re far better off playing Pokemon, Zelda, Splatoon or heck even Fall Guys! ...Can’t go wrong with good old fashioned Among us either~

(I have made retweets and mentions on my Twitter not to support YB and to spread awareness though.)

Which now I’ll state my second point: I find it very disgusting how there are people who are blindly supporting Fuboo bc they “Want the game to release so they can leap into Peter senpai’s pants UwU” ...There’s actually a whole doc explaining how the Black Shepherd Games server was like this cult, and they were encouraging folks on the server to talk crap about the victim and anyone who dared to stand up for someone speaking out against their rapist. If they did that. they’d get server perks or something to that effect. Now with me just telling you all this, I don’t expect you to blindly believe me. Good on you, BUT: I have a link to a thread on Twitter as to why I believe Melissa and her hubby Jake are such awful people and why they and Black Shepherd Games as a whole should NEVER be trusted. >>> Proof that backs up the claims made in this post. Now... If you still believe that Fuboo and them are innocent after going through all of this proof, please do me a favor and block me. My blog, Ingo Simping and my silly antics are not for your enjoyment. We do NOT allow Fuboo Apologists here!

But: If you just enjoy the content, separating art from artist and adamant about not supporting Fuboo and Black Shepherd Games whatsoever, then your cool. Please feel free to interact with me if you want, as long as you don’t fall into and of my other DNI criteria.

God bless and have a lovely day, and Fuboo and BSG if any of y’all are reading this, just know one thing: You may escape the law, and you may escape punishment for your actions for now... BUT MARK MY WORD, Karma has your name and when she comes to your doorstep with a piping hot plate of justice, y’all WILL NOT ESCAPE.

You guys don’t fool me, I hope you guys rot in prison!

[enduracarrotchips]

YouTuber AU

Hello welcome to Dating Scandal but with Twitter Involved (nightmare)

A little exposition here: 

Link, Zelda, Sidon, Revali, and Riju are the most popular group of youtubers on the internet and have a huge fanbase that likes to theorize, draw fanart, and write fanfiction about them. Disclaimer, I don’t actually interact with real-person fandoms myself lol there’s just too much potential for drama and misunderstandings & they’re always bound to end in a dumpster fire but that is sort of what this au is about so.

Impa, Mipha, Daruk, and Urbosa are family friends that appear in a lot of their videos/streams. 

(This is an art blog I swear)

enter vidcon 20XX

Link: 

blows stuff up/sets stuff on fire with a side of cooking vids and gaming

most are filmed outside, he does those challenges where you try to cook stuff with limited ingredients/materials

has the largest fanbase of all of them, but not the most…intimidating.

does a lot of collab videos, mostly with Impa, Daruk, and Riju because they have similar interests/channels, but Zelda appears in his videos and is seen filming and the stans read too far into it

simps. i’m pointing at you.

Most popular videos are “shield surfing on rock!—how I broke my leg” “can Daruk eat Impa’s motorcycle?” and “how to inhale ranch dressing.”

Twitter handle is @ arsonistslullabye because he’s a hozier fan

45m subs

Zelda:

theories, analyses, conspiracies, and the occasional e x p e r i m e n t

she once got link to eat a frog for 50 bucks.

most people argue that she’s better than more popular YouTubers because she actually has quality content to give to the world and she has a lot of defensive supporters

She used to get a lot of hate before Urbosa spoke up about it and scared the bejeezus out of everyone

has an actual posting schedule

“Happy Sunday everyone, it’s Zelda Hyrule and today we will be talking about cryptozoology and why blupees exist, you cowards.”

Twitter handle is @ zeldaofhyrule and she is pan. just so you know. One of those calm extroverts that mystify me to this day.

18m subs

Sidon:

fashion/life hacks. Like gourmet troom troom but if they were real people.

Has the 2nd largest fanbase

most of them are girls

Sidon has a boyfriend though, which he told everyone at VidCon a few years ago

cue the drama and shipping and the entire fandom trying to figure out who the boyfriend is. A well known reddit thread emerged that presented the common guesses being Link, Sidon, and Zelda.

“But it can’t be Zelda, Sidon’s gay.”

“I’m not in the fandom but I thought Zelda was a boy??”

“Did you just say Sidon? Is that a typo? Are you saying that Sidon’s dating himself?”

Sidon x Sidon became a fandom joke.

Don’t look at me I’m just setting up all the worldbuilding. every fandom has their weird dark sides and Sidon x Sidon is the Linkcest of the Sidon YT fandom.

Mystery BF is actually Bazz, a pretty inconspicuous guy who appeared in a few of his videos. This was confirmed a year ago, but everyone still ships him with other YouTubers because they’re convinced he was lying to throw them off his scent. He really can’t catch a break and this is why you should not ship real people.

Twitter handle is @ officialprincesidon

says “beguiling” a lot

21m subs ᕙ( ͡❛ ▿ ͡❛)ᕗ

Mipha:

Sidon’s sister, hasn’t posted a single video but just has the channel for show because she appears in so many of Sidon’s videos as a model for his makeup tutorials and whatnot

has 328k for that. Everyone loves her, she’s great. @ mimipha

Revali:

Link’s sworn rival

Link thinks they’re friends

He kept popping up in link’s Twitter threads and making snarky comments until zelda called him out for not even following link (so why was he stalking his acc) which kept the Twitter drama to a minimum

Revali was the catalyst of a few popular memes and that’s where most of his subs come from.

drags link into a few challenges that always get a ton of views because of how competitive they get

“ITS JUST ASININE” is a running joke that everyone tries to get him to say. His @ is itsjustasinine as well

Urbosa is the only person who can win an argument with him

5m subs and growing rapidly. newer to youtube than everyone else.

Impa:

Doesn’t have a channel she’s just a mutual friend of Mipha, Zelda, and Link

Rides a motorcycle, so she is used in a few of Link’s videos.

@ ihaveamotorcycle because she thinks having a motorcycle is a personality trait. the most unruly on Twitter when it comes to replying to fan’s stuff, leaking upcoming videos and generally causing chaos.

Mipha’s girlfriend. That’s how she met Zelda and Link.

Urbosa:

Is actually a model, but she has a ton of YouTuber friends because she’s known Zelda since birth.

when she entered the youtube community she didn’t realize she would be adopting like 15 children

5m subs. her videos are professional & related to her modelling career. @ urbosasfury

I feel like she would do unboxing vids. I’m not sure what she’s unboxing.

Daruk

Just a friend of Link’s, fun guy. yells a lot. once ate a rock and had no reaction.

people are scared of him for that reason

Riju:

yoga & gymnastics & “ha look at how flexible I am its eAsY” videos

you know the type

she also does reactions and is sponsored by save the sand seals charities which she is very enthusiastic about. She’s also Urbosa’s niece and the only minor in the gang (15). I like to think that the champions YT community is actually not creepy so everyone respects her a ton

doesn’t post frequently, she mostly appears in Link’s videos to jump out of airplanes or whatever. And sometimes Zelda’s if she’s interested in the topic. 500k subs, but she’s always really popular when she appears in Link’s videos.

VidCon:

In the months leading up to VidCon, some fans on the internet made a few discoveries: first of all, that the inside of Link’s house is painted green. This is a big deal because all of his videos are filmed outside either in his backyard or on trips that he and the brosquad go on to do…whatever bros do. explosions. idk. The point is he had some announcement about VidCon and filmed it inside. Only the wall and a potted plant were shown.

However, the colour was similar to the the shade of Zelda’s living room. Fans dug through years and years of old videos and found a clip of Zelda walking through a hallway, where there was an open door and a glimpse of a houseplant.

There were 2 types of responses to the theory:

“They could just be roommates guys calm down”

“and they were ROOMMATES?”

others pointed out that Link could just not have a house and had to crash in Zelda’s

Some guy on reddit claimed he had a botany degree and declared that the houseplants in the clips were not of the same genus. Normal people pointed out that the plant would have grown 4 years between the clips and would look considerably different.

#Zelink trended on twitter for a while and people posted other old clips from both of their channels and the frog video blew up again

Impa retweeted a post tagged as #zelink with “rofl” and later publicly apologized for causing confusion.

Fans noticed that in the “can a motorcycle drive over my arm” (it was clickbait he’s fine) episode 2 years ago, Link was eating out of a paper lunch bag with his name written on it in handwriting that a few people claimed to look like Zelda’s, leading people to believe that she had packed him a lunch.

However, this theory was shot down with the counterargument that Zelda can’t cook. although. i mean how much skill do you need to make a sandwich.

No one knows what tumblr is doing at this time

Zelda wore a scarf in her “Save the Sand Seals” video that matched identically to the scarf Link wore when he travelled to Hebra to film a shield surfing video, but it’s been debated wether it’s actually the same scarf or not.

Neither Zelda nor Link has spoken up about the theories, and besides Impa’s one slip on twitter, neither has any of their friends. Zelda received a lot of backlash for the assumption that she was dating Link because he has a lot of delusional fans that didn’t want her to “steal their man” or whatever the hell that type of fan would get mad about

Oh yea and bolson & karson run a zelink fanpage on twitter sorry I forgot about that

after that whole mess, everyone was even more anticipant of VidCon in the hopes that some of their questions would be answered.

The whole batch went to VidCon this year: Link, Impa, Daruk, and Riju are a gang while Sidon and Mipha go together and Zelda & Revali each go separately. Urbosa is there for supervision moral support

Zelda has always been much better at dodging questions that she doesn’t want to answer than anyone else, so her Q&A went without a hitch. When asked to confirm the rumours she said “which one?” and then moved on to the next question (without actually confirming any rumours).

Link is generally a more awkward person but eventually said that he had filmed the video in Zelda’s house because it was nicer and didn’t realize it would cause such an uproar. Fans were disappointed, but Bolson claimed he saw Link and Zelda exiting the hotel elevator on the same floor after Link’s Q&A session. No one believed him.

Fans went back to theorizing over who Link, Zelda, and Sidon were all dating, because apparently they can’t just be dating unknown people and have to be with other YouTubers

Sidon and Bazz got engaged about a week after VidCon, making at least 4 preteen girls cry

actually try 4 million

Sidon x Sidon made a brief comeback but Sidon spoke up about his fandom for the first time ever on twitter and told everyone that no, he was not dating himself. eventually, everyone settled down and accepted that none of them were in a relationship save for a few loud fans.

Link and Zelda still got the occasional “when will you tell us who you’re dating?” comment but most of them were joking and the people who still hardcore shipped them were generally frowned upon. Zelda’s popularity went up after VidCon and she regained the 200k subscribers she’d lost after the first theory dropped.

Two months after VidCon, Link posted a video titled “Zelda and I’s House Tour!” and gave around 45 million people a heart attack

as revealed in the video, they had actually been dating since they were 16 and everyone’s just a fool.

the potted plant is named Hestu.

[cosplayinamerica]

Kouru from Star Wars Visions : thegirlwithagreatsmile

What initially inspired me about Kouru's character from Star Wars Visions Episode 1, was her skill with the lightsaber umbrella. I've never seen anything like it before! It was both amazing and ridiculous that I immediately sat up on my bed and said to myself, "I have to make that. I have to be her!" I kept watching that first episode and I started seeing the multi-cultural elements in her design. It's primarily Asian like the main pieces are based on Samurai armor, which I started looking up online that night. That armor had a single "kusazuri" in front and the "do" redesigned as a corset type with a little pillow "nishiki" from a traditional kimono. And I always love tough looking female characters in heels. It's definitely not practical for battle and fighting, but it adds that extra wow.

I think it's normal for cosplayers to obsess about cosplay right at the moment of inspiration, so that's what I did. I thought about it a lot that night, what fabric, fastest way to make the outfit, and then the umbrella itself. My process is usually thinking a lot about how to make something, sketching it in my head, usually thinking more about the prop than the clothes or armor. I sketched how to make the umbrella lightsaber different ways, from how to make the mechanics of an umbrella from scratch to using a rice paper umbrella and deciding on repurposing an old large umbrella. I knew it had to be lightweight and I wasn't going to figure out actual lighting. My focus was to get it made and show it at a con. The clothing and armor was easy. I knew the pants had to keep a certain shape so the fabric had to be stiff and the armor parts also have to be light and thin so it'll be easy to wear and I won't overheat. The most difficult thing was making the "lightsabers". It turned out that the best way was the simplest way, which is to use foam board, popsicle sticks, reflective tape and hot glue.

(Photo; EBK )

SDCC and LACC were the perfect place to premiere that cosplay because there were a lot of industry people and Star Wars fans. It was very well received. The fandom recognized it right away and there were literal gasps and some were speechless. I know it's because it's so amazing and different and whimsical that people couldn't help but go "wow". Also, I made the wig using upholstery foam with a technique I learned from another cosplayer. It has a flowing look that suggests how Kouru's hair was bouncing and flowing in the episode but it had a familiar look like that from Dragonball. I did have to tell people taking pictures to use a flash to get the full effect and once they look at the picture they took then the "wow" got louder. It was great to see people's faces light up and their jaws literally drop. The cosplay is unexpected and they loved it.

One of the standout moments happened after SDCC when the executive producer of that episode messaged me and complemented my work. Sometime after the author of the book accompanying that episode shared my cosplay picture on social media.It feels great to bring other peoples art and visions to life.

I didn't know I was already cosplaying when I used to work at nightclubs in West Hollywood and we had to wear different costumes on certain nights, like superheroes and villains. I took some fashion design classes after college and experimented with different garment constructing techniques, learned about fabrics, and bringing ideas to reality. I also made costumes and gowns for pageants that I competed in, so I already knew how to make stuff. Technically, I officially started cosplay in 2016 when I intentionally made and wore costumes for a local comic convention. My niece told me about cosplay in 2014 and realized that I already do that but it wasn't until I went to that convention that I consider myself becoming official.

Costume making has always been a hobby, usually for pageants and halloween. Back then it was mainly for fun, competition and to show off. Cosplay has become my art therapy after my husband passed away in 2017. The process of designing to making to wearing what I make helps me with focus, calms me down, allows me to express myself, and explore other sides of me. The most rewarding thing is when kids see my cosplay in person and they have these great smiles and eyes widen with amazement. It's also always rewarding when the "big kids", the adults who still have their inner child, when their faces light up and go "ooh" and "wow" and just become speechless. 

I think because cosplay has become so popular and mainstream, a lot of cosplayers get caught up with becoming popular especially on social media. I still struggle with it but I always remind myself that cosplay is costume and play. If I don't play, if I don't have fun, then I'm just wearing a costume. That's why conventions are a big part of cosplay, the in person connection people make with others who share the same fandom is incomparable. Social media has been helpful especially these past couple of years. It has kept cosplayers and fandoms connected but it also got to a lot of people's heads. I hope cosplayers always remember to have fun in their costumes regardless if the made the threads themselves or bought the costume already made. Keep the play in cosplay.

https://www.jordanblazaolsen.com/

[roostertuftart]

south park asks for u: 18. Take a moment to talk about your favorite ship.

21. Do you have a favorite adult? If so, who?

23. What was the first piece of content you created for the South Park fandom?

(no pressure to do all 3, feel free to choose any amount!!!)

18. Take a moment to talk about your favorite ship.

My favorite dynamic between two characters is Style!! I've always been a sucker for best friends to lovers and I love how devoted these two are together, as well as how much they've been through and how much they need each other- It's not the healthiest dynamic in that regard, their codependence isn't always the best, but I think that's part of the fun of the ship and I like to think as they get older, they work out a lot of their issues and become a lot healthier with time (Though they're about at the level of your average couple now, no relationship is perfect). I also really like how easy it is to take Stan and Kyle and put them in any number of dynamics or situations or AUs- I always tend to stick with them knowing each other since childhood personally but they work work well as a couple that just met and fell in love as well, and there's loads you can do with both of those as well as the canon material from the show.

My favorite ship of all has to be Stendylenny. It's a super rare poly ship that I actually hadn't seen before my friends and I started shipping it, but I've seen it begin to spread slightly which makes me EXTREMELY happy! It's a poly between Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Wendy. I really love all of them shipped one on one so putting them all together just makes sense for me!! I could talk about this ship a lot but I don't even know where to start, it's just fun imagining the different scenarios that got these four together, and I feel like it could happen pretty easily. I think ships with both Wendy and Kenny are severely underrated in this fandom and I also just really like good old fashion style and stendy ofc. There's just a really good mix of dynamics with the four of them.

21. Do you have a favorite adult? If so, who?

Sheila Broflovski for sure. She is, in my opinion, the best parent in the show besides side character parents who haven't existed long enough to be in a conflict, and is just a generally good person. I can see why characters in the show are annoyed by her actions and how she can be overbearing and pushy, but she's a fantastic mom who listens closely to her sons and really tries to do what's best for them, as well as what's best for others around her. She's also shown to be fairly kind to other people even if she has her moments, and is honest and fair to her friends (She needs better ones). She also doesn't take shit from almost anyone.

A big part of this from me might be projection because my mom is pretty similar to her (Heavy jersey accent and all) but fuck it IDC Sheila best adult.

I also like Mr. Garrison a lot but only bc he's funny af

23. What was the first piece of content you created for the South Park fandom?

So a while back, three or four years ago, my friend Starby was into South Park. I was not. I, in fact, happened to sort of,, judge her for her interests, even if I was playful about it. Anyway, one day I was trying to include them in this one RP that was a cartoon crossover, except all of the characters were cats (It's a bizarre concept but my RPs tend to be a little crazier and more self indulgent than the stuff I post) and they wanted to roleplay as Butters since he's her favorite. So my first actual South Park fan work that I ever created is this really old, ugly design for him as a cat that I completely forgot about until about a week ago:

My art has obviously improved immensely since I made this and, if you're wondering, the RP never even really happened. I've actually made a new design for Butters since then, not even remembering this old one existed at all, that I greatly prefer (though I may still update it)! This is it:

My first intentional South Park fanart was also characters as cats, it's the main four's designs:

[flufffysocks]

let's talk about andi mack's worldbuilding

sorry this took forever to make! i've been pretty busy with school stuff and i kind of lost my inspiration for a bit, but i ultimately really enjoyed writing it! i wish i could've included more pics (tumblr has a max of 10 per post), and it kinda turned from less of a mini analysis to more of an extremely long rant... but i hope it's still a fun read!

i've been rewatching the show over the past few weeks (thanks again to @disneymack for the link!), and i’ve been noticing a lot that i never did the first time around. this is really the first time i’ve watched the show from start to finish since it aired, and it honestly feels so different this time - probably a combination of the fact that i’m not as focused on plot and can appreciate the show as a whole, and also that the fandom is much, much smaller now, so there’s a lot less noise. so the way i’m consuming this show feels super different than it did the first time, but the show itself doesn’t - it’s just as warm and comforting to me as it was the first time around, if not more so.

i think a lot of that can be attributed to andi mack’s “worldbuilding”. i’m not quite sure that this is the right word in this context, to be honest, because i mostly see it used in reference to fantasy and sci-fi universes, but it just sort of feels right to me for andi mack, because you can really tell how much love and care went into constructing this universe. for clarity, worldbuilding is “the process of creating an imaginary world” in its simplest sense. there’s two main types: hard worldbuilding, which involves inventing entire universes, languages, people, cultures, places, foods, etc. from scratch (think “lord of the rings” or “dune”), and soft worldbuilding, in which the creators don’t explicitly state or explain much about the fictional universe, but rather let it’s nature reveal itself as the story progresses (think studio ghibli films). andi mack to me falls in the soft worldbuilding category. even though it takes place in a realistic fiction universe, there’s a lot of aspects to it that are inexplicably novel in really subtle ways.

so watching the show now, i’ve noticed that the worldbuilding comes primarily from two things - setting and props, and oftentimes the both of them in tandem (because a big part of setting in filmmaking does depend on the props placed in it!).

one of the most obvious examples is the spoon. it really is a sort of quintessential, tropic setting in that it's the main gang's "spot", which automatically gives it a warm and homey feel to it. and its set design only amplifies this:

the choice to make it a very traditional 50s-style diner creates a very nostalgic, retro feel to it, which is something that's really consistent throughout the show, as you'll see. from the round stools at the bar, to the booths, to the staff uniforms, this is very obvious. the thing that i found especially interesting about it though is the choice of color. the typical 50s diner is outfitted with metallic surfaces and red accented furnishings, but the spoon is very distinctly not this.

instead, it's dressed in vibrant teal and orange, giving it a very fresh and modern take on a classic look. so it still maintains that feeling of being funky and retro, but that doesn't retract from the fact that the show is set distinctly in modern times.

of course, this could just be a one-off quirky set piece, but this idea of modernizing and novelizing "retro" things is a really common motif throughout the show. take red rooster records. i mean, it's a record shop - need i say more? it's obviously a very prominent store in shadyside, at least for the main characters, but there's no apparent reason why it is (until season 2 when bowie starts working there, and jonah starts performing there). a lot of the time, though, it functions solely as a record shop. vinyl obviously isn't the most practical or convenient way of listening to music, but it's had its resurgence in pop culture even in the real world, mostly due to its aesthetic value, so it's safe to say that it serves the same purpose in the andi mack universe.

the fringe seems to be nostalgic of a different era, specifically the Y2K/early 2000s period (because it's meant to be bex's territory and symbolic of who she used to be, and its later transformation into cloud 10 is representative of her character arc, but that's beside the point). to be honest, exactly what this store was supposed to be always confused me. it was kind of a combination party store/clothing store/makeup store/beauty parlor? i think that's sort of the point of it though, it's supposed to feel very grunge-y and chaotic (within the confines of a relatively mellow-toned show, of course), and it's supposed to act as a sort of treasure chest of little curios that both make the place interesting and allow the characters to interact with it.

and, of course, there's andi shack. this is really the cherry on top of all of andi mack's sets, just because it's so distinctly andi. it serves such amazing narrative purpose for her (ex. the storyline where cece and ham were going to move - i really loved this because it highlights its place in the andi mack universe so well, and i'm a sucker for the paper cranes shot + i'm still salty that sadie's cranes didn't make it into the finale) and it's the perfect reflection of andi's character development because of how dynamic it is (the crafts and art supplies can get moved around or switched out, and there's always new creations visible).

going back to the nostalgia motif though, the "shack" aspect of it always struck me as very treehouse-like. personally, whenever i think of treehouses, there's this very golden sheen of childhood about it, if that makes sense. i've always seen treehouses in media as a sort of shelter for characters' youthful innocence and idealistic memories. for example, the episode "up a tree" from good luck charlie, the episode "treehouse" from modern family, and "to all the boys 2" all use a treehouse setting as a device to explore the character's desire to hold onto their perfect image of their childhood (side note: this exact theme is actually explored in andi mack in the episode "perfect day 2.0"!). andi shack is no exception to this, but it harnesses this childhood idealism in the same way that it captures the nostalgia of the 50s in the spoon, or the early 2000s in the fringe. it's not some image of a distant past being reflected through that setting; it's very present, and very alive, because it reflects andi as she is in the given moment.

some honorable mentions of more one-off settings include the ferris wheel (from "the snorpion"), the alley art gallery (from "a walker to remember"), SAVA, the color factory (from "it's a dilemna"), and my personal favorite, the cake shop (from "that syncing feeling").

[every time i watch this episode i want to eat those cakes so bad]

these settings have less of a distinctly nostalgic feel (especially the color factory, which is a very late 2010s, instagram era setting), but they all definitely have an aura of perfection about them. andi mack is all about bright, colorful visuals, and these settings really play to that, making the andi mack universe seem really fun and inviting, and frankly very instagrammable (literally so, when it comes to the color factory!).

props, on the other hand, are probably a much less obvious tool of worldbuilding. they definitely take up less space in the frame and are generally not as noticeable (i'm sure i'll have missed a bunch that will be great examples, but i'm kind of coming up with all of this off the top of my head), but they really tie everything together.

for example, bex's box, bex's polaroid, and the old tv at the mack apartment (the tv is usually only visible in the periphery of some shots, so you might not catch it at first glance) all complement that very retro aesthetic established through the settings (especially the polaroid and the tv, because there's really no good reason that the characters would otherwise be using these).

besides this, andi's artistic nature provides the perfect excuse for plenty of colorful, crafty props to amplify the visuals and the tone. obviously, as i discussed before, andi shack is the best example of this because it's filled with interesting props. but you also see bits of andi's (and other people's) crafts popping up throughout the show (ex. the tape on the fridge in the mack apartment, andi's and libby's headbands in "the new girls", walker's shoes, andi's phone case, and of course, the bracelet). not only does doing this really solidify this talent as an essential tenet of andi's character, but it also just makes the entirety of shadyside feel like an extension of andi shack. the whole town is a canvas for her crafts (or art, depending on how you want to look at it. i say it's both), and it immensely adds to shadyside's idealism. because who wouldn't want to live in a world made of andi mack's creations?

and, while it's not exactly a prop, the characters' wardrobe is undoubtedly a major influence on the show's worldbuilding. true to it's nature as a disney channel show, all of the characters are always dressed in exceptionally curated outfits of whatever the current trends are, making the show that much more visually appealing. i won't elaborate too much on this, because i could honestly write a whole other analysis on andi mack's fashion (my favorites are andi's and bex's outfits! and kudos to the costume designer(s) for creating such wonderful and in-character wardrobes!). but, i think it's a really really important aspect of how the show's universe is perceived, so it had to be touched upon.

[^ some of my favorite outfits from the show! i am so obsessed with andi's jacket in the finale, and i aspire to be at bex's level of being a leather jacket bisexual]

and lastly, phones. this is a bit of an interesting case (pun intended), because the way they're used fluctuates a bit throughout the show, but i definitely noticed that at least in the first season terri minsky tried to avoid using them altogether. these efforts at distancing from modern tech really grounds the show in it's idealist, nostalgia-heavy roots, so even when the characters start using their phones more later in the show, they don't alter the viewer's impression of the andi mack universe very much.

so, what does all of this have to do with worldbuilding? in andi mack's case, because it's set in a realistic universe and not a fantasy one, a lot of what sets it apart from the real world comes down to tone. because, as much as this world is based on our own, it really does feel separate from it, like an alternate reality that's just slightly more perfect than ours, which makes all the difference. it's the idealism in color and composition in andi mack's settings that makes it so unmistakably andi mack. even the weather is always sunny and perfect (which is incredibly ironic because the town is called shadyside - yes, i am very proud of that observation).

the andi mack universe resides somewhere in this perfect medium that makes it feel like a small town in the middle of nowhere (almost like hill valley in 1955 from "back to the future"), but at the same time like an enclave within a big city (because of its proximity to so many modern, unique, and honestly very classy looking establishments). it is, essentially, an unattainable dream land that tricks you into believing it is attainable because it's just real enough.

all this to say, andi mack does an amazing job of creating of polished, perfect world for its characters. this is pretty common among disney channel and nickelodeon shows, but because most other shows tend to be filmed in a studio with three-wall sets, andi mack is really set apart from them in that it automatically feels more real and tangible. it has its quintessential recurring locations, but it has far more of them (most disney/nick shows usually only have 3-4 recurring settings), and it has a lot more one-off locations. it's also a lot more considerate when it comes to its props, so rather than the show just looking garish and aggressively trendy, it has a distinctive style that's actually appropriate to the characters and the story. overall this creates the effect of expanding the universe, making shadyside feel like it really is a part of a wider world, rather than an artificial bubble. it's idealism is, first and foremost, grounded in reality, and that provides a basis for its brilliant, creative, and relatable storytelling.

tl;dr: andi mack's sets and props give it a very retro and nostalgic tone which makes its whole universe seem super perfect and i want to live there so bad!!

[franeridart]

Anon said: Would you draw SukuFushi? (Sukuna x Fushiguro)

maybe? *thinking face* if I ever got an idea for it, why not. I find sukuna’s obsession with fushiguro entertaining so I don’t count fanarts for it as impossible haha

Anon said: I looked and I couldn't find if you've answered this already, so apologies if you did, but how do you draw your faces? I always struggle with face shape and yours are always super good with really expressive features! Anyway, thanks so much I love your art <3

HMMMMMMMM how do I do that indeed, the basics are honestly what you’d find on any basic tutorial about drawing a face (circle, cross in the middle of it, build the face around that - I really still can’t avoid that step and probably never will). As for the expressions, to be honest with you my way of going about them is thinking them up in emoji/kaomoji form first and then go from there. Emojis and kaomojis have to simplify expressions to the max since it’s such a simple format, right? But they’re still super expressive and convey exactly what they’re trying to say with one single glance, so using them as some kind of reference sheet has helped me a lot in figuring out what’s essential to express what I’m trying to say - still working on it though! I’m rarely satisfied with my expressions, they really do make or break a drawing don’t they............ you never stop learning, I guess!

Anon said:  Ahhhhhhh I just spent like hrs scrolling thru ur oc tag and they’re all amazing I love them so much but I keep confusing the everloving SHIT out of myself cuz I too have a child who is Leo and he’s literally so different from ur Leo lol. Anyway tho ur art is amazing and it honestly just makes me so happy so ty and hope have a good day!!

OHHHHHHHHHHHH MY LEO! It’d been forever since I’ve last drawn him, I kind of miss him............... glad you like my stuff, by the way! Especially about you liking my ocs, that means the world to me!

Anon said: hi there !!! i was wondering if i had ur permission to ur ur itafushi art in one of my edits ! i wanted to be sure before using it <3 total respect if its a no !! thankyouuuu

Sorry but I’d prefer if you didn’t do that!

Anon said:THERES A OCTOPATH TRAVELER LIGHT NOVEL AND ITS SO COOL BUT ITS ONLY IN JAPANEESE ! ;^;There's four stories with centered around pairs of characters and alfion is one of them !Idk if itll be transleted but i hope itll be cuz it sound awesome

OH I KNOW!!!!!!! I saw the art for the alfion one a while back, it looks so soft!!!! ;;;;; 8path is kinda niche as a game though, so who knows.............. let’s cross our fingers!!

Anon said:  hello, i am here to recc Skeletons by New Years Day because i think it might fit a few of your ships<3

Thanks anon now I’m emo ;;;;;

Anon said: bakubro gives the best hugs. kirishima is the only one who knows this. everyone is absolutely incredulous when the question "who gives the best hugs" goes around and kirishima answers bakugo. (bakugo thinks kirishima is the best but he benefits from kirishima bodily hugging him and he's biased)

Definitely!! He’s strong and warm after all, bet hugging him would feel the best.... the only one who shall ever know is kiri though, as I bet his hugs are only that nice when he really likes the person he’s hugging hahaha

Anon said: Hi! Just wanted to say that I absolutely love your JJK art! The colors and style are absolutely stunning.

Thank you so much!!!!!!! I feel like I’m mostly drawing for myself lately ngl hahaha so knowing you like it means a lot!!

Anon said: Hi!! This isn't a request I just really like your art! I found you from Pinterest on a kiribaku thing you drew! Your art is so cool! I wish I could draw like that!!! I'll keep looking for new art you've made :D

Aw pinterest.......................... glad you could find your way back here though!! And thank you!!

Anon said: This happened a while ago, but i wanted to say it anyway. I remember when I started watching jujutsu kaisen and I was looking for content arter finishing the first 10 episodes in less than a day and I found your first jujutsu kaisen post (it was posted that dame day) and i was like ???? One of my favorite artists got into jk at the same time than me!!! I just thought it was a neat coincedence to share! I really love your art too, you're amazing!! Happy New Year!!

It’s!!!!!!!!!!!! a pretty dang neat coincidence for me too, since it’s always nice to know at least some of my followers are still into the stuff I make hahahaha

Anon said: i think a lot abt ur art and how ive been seeing u since middle school and now im graduating highschool and we're still in the same fandoms, i hope this doesnt make u feel old but rather VERY cherished qwq

No anon this makes me feel amazing you’ve been around so long!!!!!!! I can’t believe you’re still here with my thank you so much for that!!!!!! I think I’m gonna cry a little here.......... ;;;

Anon said: Hi! I love your art so much!! 🥰 Have you read a KiriBaku fic called The Pit??

Probably not, haven’t been reading krbk fics in a while by now! I’ll add it to my for-later list, thank you so much for the rec!!

Anon said: can u believe that (sans sero) the entire bakusquad can be put into some form of punk/goth fashion? the realization was a galaxy brain moment for me. also realizing that tokoyami, kirishima, and tamaki are all varying levels of goth/emo (some more concerning than others)

Sero’s the hippie friend every punk friend group needs, he balances things out and that’s why he’s very cherished and necessary!!!!

Anon said: your bakugo drawings convinced me to finally start stretching my ears and tbh i'm extremely excited (i've had off and on thoughts of stretching my ears (again) before this so it's not as impulsive as it sounds haha)

Anon that’s so cool!!!!!!! I love gauges so much.....................glad I could give you the last push for it!!

Anon said: uhhhh, i love the style of that top left goge drawing dude!!

THANK YOU I LOVE DRAWING IN THAT STYLE THIS ASK MEANS THE UNIVERSE TO ME

Anon said: i sent the dragon!kiri and bakugo tug-of-waring over a piece of meat and honestly your response is exactly what i thought

Great minds!!!!!!! hahaha

[ohnothewheatisonfire]

ok J&H Fandom, let’s talk:

“Popular” blog @thatsmyhyde​ is a prominent creator in the J&H Fandom. But here’s where the problem shows up: 

the content they make is concerning at least, and full of red flags at worst. 

DISCLAIMER: This is all information I have gathered through their tumblr blog - I am not aware of what other things they may be posting on other social medias or their written work.  ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: Please be polite, I am a minor, and am just creating this post to ward off / warn other minors from following this person. If you are an adult interacting with this post and blog, be mindful of your actions and be responsible

Trigger warnings for: discussions of homophobia, discussions of p//phillia, fat-shaming, fat-phobia (?), etc. Just be on general edge for this post, we’re talking about a lot of weird stuff

I will be linking their posts as I am not going to take screenshots of their art.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the things they’ve done - these are the ones I could think of and was able to adress. If you have anything additional you want to add to this post (such as concerning things they may do on other social media), feel free to reblog and add on the things you need to say, just please don’t be dumb. 

Let’s start with the premise: Henry Jekyll creates an alter ego, Edward Hyde. They begin a relationship - an emotional and physical one. Their AU features Jekyde (A popular ship in the fandom, the name stands for Jekyll x Hyde), people have various views on this ship. 

So far so fine, right? Here are the problems:

1. Their Henry Jekyll is an awful person. Now, let’s start by saying that of course you can have bad people in your works, those are, after-all: villains. The problem is,Henry Jekyll is a harmful walking gay sterotype, and an outlet for Biscuit’s obvious fat fetish. But their relationship isn’t just toxic it’s romanticised in how toxic it is.

a. The harmful stereotype - Their Henry Jekyll has a “thing” for younger men, even though he is in his middle-ages, and Hyde looks like a young child. (Age gap relationships are their own thing - they come with their own burdens, and this is not the post to discuss them. This topic will lead into the Edward  Hyde section of this post.) But, it was a known homophobic scare-mongering tactic of straight parents to accuse everyone who is gay that they are ‘out to prey on your youths’. This is a stereotype that stigmatized the LGBT community, and still harmfully affects them to this day. 

b. The fat fetish: Jekyll is frequently seen with cake (as seen here, here, and here)  or being self-loathing, to the point of suicide. (click the link here to acess a list of suicide and other crisis hotlines! you matter to me!). Now, the self-loathing could be a symptom of depression or other mental illness, so I am not going to talk about it, as a person with mental illnesses.  But the self-loathing in addition to him being fat is not good. Media is drowning in the “self-loathing fat person” and as someone who isn’t thin i’m tired of seeing this. 

- The fetish aspect comes in him constantly being referred to “Chonky”, a term usually used for overweight/obese cats and being drawn obsessed with cake. It fetishises his weight and dehumanises him into something people call their animals. Also, here’s more of Jekyll eating food and being embarassed by it, though this time because it’s seen as “servant’s food”. 

- Biscuit admits to liking them “Big and chunky” in posts like this. 

[Photo id: A string of texts that says: tantok, frankenstein, twink lore, dorian slipped through the cracks and got himself sketched by yours truly the other day because he brought lord henry along, he and the slime didn’t have to fight to the death because they’ve both got their own chonky old toxic henries to focus on, but this blog still ain’t big enough for the two of ‘em. end id]

- They also talk about how they ‘prefer’ to draw fat (chonky) people. Image attatched above. the thing that should be noticed is that they say ‘chonky old toxic henries’ . they, once again, are making fat people a fetish. 

[Photo id: Anonymous asks: are you gonna make a victor design tho biscuit responds: Oh, man, anon, I hate to disappoint but.....probably not. Aside from my non-humanoids and hellspwans (slime gremlins, corpse creatures, and etcetera), I’m extremely uninterested in drawing young thin men. I really need middle-aged chonk to hold my attention. If poor Victor Frankenstein had only been 40-something and round when he made his great creation, then he’d definitely get a design from yours truly. As it is though, he’s not holding my attention enough to want to. end id] 

Biscuit once again talks about how he doesn’t want to draw ‘thin men’, because he is only interested in older ‘round’ people. He, is, once again, bringing to light his fetish for fat people. 

2. Edward Hyde is basically a child - Edward Hyde is drawn in boy’s school clothes, is taken in and raised like a child after Jekyll’s death, and is constantly cooed over by the creator, even earning a nickname of ‘slime’ from them. In addition, he also has ‘family photos’ taken with Utterson, has his toenails kept, is the height of a child, and teeths. This, paired with the fact that he is in a toxic, abusive, relationship with a man in his middle ages is concerning and should not be romanticised. 

[Photo id: the text reads: In his first year of existence, Hyde lost teeth and regrew them in a mildly similar fashion to a kid losing baby teeth - except it wasn’t all of his teeth (Just the canines and some random molars) and they weren’t replaced with a larger set, just with teeth exactly the same as the ones that had been lost. No one knows what was up with this. the teeth are still in Jekyll’s study in a little jar. end id]

a. Hyde is treated like a child after Jekyll’s death. Hyde teething is concerning because that’s something infants do. He also clings to utterson like a child. The idea that he gets taken in by Utterson, whisked away to an estate out in the country, despite both of them having romantic feelings for Jekyll is. how do I put this: WEIRD. (seriously, imagine your father/father-figure dating ur significant other / having a crush on them before you two got together and after). 

b. Hyde dresses like a child, whilst being sexually active and wearing lingerie. Now, on their own, these traits aren’t a problem - but together? They are very much a problem.  

- Hyde dressing as a child is concerning because he is also treated like a child at certain points in their “lore”. After Jekyll’s death, Hyde becomes a singular entity, and is taken away by Utterson. To care for, like a child. This post sums it up well: he wears both children’s clothes and lingerie. 

- Hyde has a very strange appearance - if you compare it to his early design (which was less cartoony and looked more like a man in his twenties), Hyde’s current design is concerning. Why does he have the height of a child? Why does he have eyes that take up a grand part of his face? Now, one could argue that ‘he is not human’ - but if he is treated like a human, whilst wearing children’s/youthful clothes, teeths, and his general enchanment with the world - he appears as human (and looks eerily similar to a child), which is why him being sexually active, wearing lingerie, and being friendly with prostitutes (one that gave him underwear and other articles of clothing)  is concerning. 

- That said, Utterson is directly talked about being ‘adopted into gremlin fatherhood’ (paraphrasing). 

[Photo id: the text reads: 59. Jekyll is irresitibly attracted to everything about Hyde, but if he could somehow be forced to list hte most attractive physical attributes of Edward Hyde in his opinion, aside from Hyde’s youthful appearance in general it would be his eyes, his overbite (Jekyll perceived the way Hyde’s-) the screenshot cuts of the rest of the paragraph. end id] 

- Jekyll has a ‘thing’ for younger men. This is to the point that the most attractive part about Hyde is that he is young. (or looks like it), Hyde looking very young is concerning because that would make their verison of Doctor Jekyll a p*dophille . This is something the artist has either not recognized, realised, or simply does not acknowledge. 

3. The toxic relationship (and how it’s romanticised) - The relationship in this ‘AU’ is: love comes first, toxic nature comes second. If you scroll through the blog you may see some reference of ‘Henry Jekyll is such a toxic person teehee’ and a lot of them kissing, being together, smiling, or enjoying life. Now, obviously, an artist - if they do not want to - should not draw characters being toxic to each other. But it is concerning when the above points come into a factor, that the toxic nature of their relationship comes second to the highs of their relationship, at least on their blog. 

Here is one of the only examples I’ve seen of Biscuit talk about the relationship in a detailed negative light. 

4. The fandom - Whilst Biscuit says it’s ok for minors to interact with his blog (in that blog he says that he tags nsfw - which is true.) he does not regularly mention that his jekyde is toxic - not in a concerete way. He romanticises it (despite acknowledging it’s flaws), and the only way it may or may not be (i would not know) acknowledged is his fic: which is mature and not meant for minors. He does not tag his posts with regular triggers for things like: alcohol, drugs, mental illnesses, or abuse (any variants). They’re not even in his blog’s description! If Biscuit had acknowledged it in his blog, something along the lines of: “Hey! This blog has <content warnings> be warned when interacting! But no, he does not. 

- A lot of the people who draw things, or generally interact with Biscuit are minors. Being exposed to such a thing may be harmful to my peers, and I am worried. To minors who are fans of Biscuit: if you’ve made it this far, thank you, I know you’re mature and responsible, but being exposed to content creators like Biscuit could lead you down a dangerous path of having this kind of thing normalised to you. Be careful with the content you consume, please! And thank you for making it this far, I’m sure you’re a lovely person :)!

Thank you for taking the time to read this! Stay safe, tell the people you love that you love them. 

[demonslayedher]

Kimetsu no Yaiba and its ties with traditional Japanese culture

Just a ramble and a little dive into what makes the Kimetsu fandom so engaging for someone who, as I like to say, “broke the weeb scale a long time ago.” 

From the perspective of the craft of writing, Gotouge is clearly a novice. While Kimetsu is not a debut work, it’s nearly that, which is why Gotouge only got so big of a deal on anime rights due to (previous) lack of name recognition. It commits all kinds of writing sins; the flashbacks were never hinted to until they become relevant, contrived conveniences move the plot, and I’ve never seen more egregious use of telling instead of showing.  But despite all that, it’s told with a lot of heart. The core bonds between people and character motivations drive the story beyond all those execution flaws. The premise is straightforward and hits on core classic themes found throughout human history of fiction. It’s that lack of nuance sometimes, as well as the pure love put into these characters, that sometimes makes me feel like I’m watching a little alligator child play with action figures and light up as they pause the pretend dialogue to tell you all kinds of exciting things about the world they are having the toys fly through whilst also making ‘bang, pow’ sound effects as they resume play.  (The art likewise commits so many sins but that is so freaking endearing, let’s move on.) A large part of what attracted me to Kimetsu in the first place was the aesthetic. Samurai style warfare never gets old, element-based powers never get old, and when it comes to character designs, the motifs used throughout the series are merchandise gold for how recognizable they are. There’s a certain lack of mainstream Taisho Era manga, despite that being a very exciting and fashionable era made all the more nostalgic for its brevity and relative pre-Showa peacefulness.  You know what, I’m just going to skip the preamble and get straight to it: the more deep diving you do, the more you realize, oh hell, this alligator had a ship-ton of detail and background in this. 

Whether intentional or not, the series has provided a huge wealth of ties to traditional folklore, and when people who know a lot about this stuff start theorizing and pulling in outside research, dang, they can get going.  Some examples I’ve heard:  1. Drawing comparisons to just about every demon legend out there, including spider demons in the mountain, demons that mingle among the courtesans, demons that attain the ability to live among humans by practicing self-restraint, and so on and so on and so on.  2. Tracing the origins of the series to some of the most ancients writings in Japan and showing how many rules and themes of demon slaying have remained consistent throughout centuries of legends. 3. Diving into the local folklore of the places tied with the series (for example, I heard a passing comment about the islands were Iguro is from having men and women live separately, which I have not verified with my own research). 4. Pulling in places not mentioned specifically in canon but bare distinct similarities with canon elements, such as many tourist sites that have recently exploded in popularity around the country (for example, one of my favorite sword-forging sites in Shimane, or a couple shrines that just happen to be called Kamado Shrine with the same somewhat rare kanji, or a garden famous for its extensive use of wisteria.) 5. Diving into the origins of names (such as how the pronunciation of “Agatsuma” has roots in Shinto mythology of a god singing the praises of his wonderful wife) and traditional patterns (the Ichimatsu (checkerboard) patterns having ties to enduring continuity, many other patterns being used to ward off evil, etc.) It’s such a fun rabbit hole (or, swamp demon hole??) which fans go really, really deep in their theories, bringing in uncanny comparisons to historical botanists or insisting that just because something has roots in the Heian period it must be chosen on purpose because you know who else has roots in the Heian period? Kibutsuji Muzan. It’s all connected, Wani-sensei, sugooooooiiiiiiii!!!! And I love to get wrapped up in that too (see here), but then when I consider translating the juicy details, I usually stop for two reasons: 

1. That’s... that a lot of background that would take a really long time to explain. 2. When you get down to it, a lot of it is just fun coincidences, and I think it’s too far of a stretch to make them canon theories.  It’s when I choose not to translate them that I reach two conclusions.  1. Whether consciously or unconsciously, it’s very possible Gotouge did take these sorts of very, very trivial details into account when designing the characters, especially giving the very clear level of research that did go into specifying a lot of the character details. Like, seriously, Wani-sensei, how many yyyyyyyears have you spent soaking all this up? The sheer level of Taisho Era world building is a testament to that.  2. Even without all those layers of ties to centuries and centuries of folklore, at its core, the story remains engaging because of the elements mentioned previously. It’s a classic tale of good versus evil; there are no elemental powers, it’s just people doing the best they can because they have motives that drive them--familial love, revenge, duty, regret, filling in something that’s missing.  But oh, man, oh my demons, how I love, love, love how this series stokes my nerdy side, I love it, I want to climb ALL THOSE MOUNTAINS AROUND TOKYO AS FANDOM PILGRIMAGES AND DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HOW MUCH THIS FANDOM HAS INFILTRATED EVEN MY TEA CEREMONY LESSONS EVER SINCE THAT RIKYU-BAI NATSUME REMINDED ME AND MY CLASSMATE OF UZUI TENGEN, I CANNOT FULLY CONCENTRATE or even BREATHE, SENSEI, I CANNOT PRACTICE THIS ‘OCHA NO KOKYUU’ WHEN YOU KEEP MAKING KIMETSU REFERENCES, AND I AM NOT EVEN THE ONLY ONE WHO MADE THAT INOKO-MOCHI JOKE, STAHP------

[galacticlamps]

Tagged by @the--highlanders​ ! Thanks!

How many works do you have on AO3?

13

What’s your total AO3 word count?

76,200

(oh what a nice even number - I should try to mess that up as soon as possible, shouldn’t I?)

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Aw man is this intentionally worded to be really hard to answer? I get that it says ‘written’ and not ‘posted’ but then what constitutes a ‘fandom?’ I definitely wrote fics for stuff I was interested in long before I even knew the word ‘fic’ - I did it throughout my childhood, and then in high school, and while I didn’t do it as much in college, it still happened from time to time. So a lot of the books/movies/tv shows/plays/musicals I wrote things for aren’t really fandoms, and frankly, I had to check my old folder just now to even remember some of them existed. I’ll just list the ones that I know for sure had fandoms, since that’s more fun (and embarrassing), right?

Obviously Doctor Who, classic and modern, Torchwood, Sherlock Holmes (ironically more of these seem to be about the books, but yes, I will admit, some for that tv show too), Les Mis, a couple different Marvel comics & movies, Good Omens, hell, I even found a Night Vale fic in there just now.

And I know there are other older things not even in that folder, some of which never made it to a computer at all, so if I had to ballpark a number I’d probably say around 25ish but really, who knows?

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Across the Gap

On the Spot

Expectations

Shards of Memories & Fragments of Glass

Itemized

(this was fun, I’d never noticed Ao3 even had a stats page until now lol)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to! Sometimes I take a long time to do so but for the most part, I usually get around to it. The rare exception would be if I first saw the comment when I was super busy/distracted and then felt like way too much time passed before I noticed it again, that it might be awkward if I said something at that point.

I do genuinely enjoy hearing what people think, but I’m also weirdly terrified of making anyone feel like they have to reply to my comments. I know that’s probably a little strange, but it’s actually a large part of why I made this Ao3 account in the first place - my original one, from high school, is followed by some long-time friends of mine who aren’t interested in this fandom, some of whom are involved in art & writing professionally. The thought of anyone like that reading something I wrote out of friendliness or even just curiosity and potentially having to pretend they liked it for the same reasons stressed me tf out, so I like having this virtually anonymous one because I can relax knowing that anyone who reads or interacts with something I wrote has probably done so only because they wanted to, rather than feeling obligated, and there’s no pressure on them to be nice to me about it if anything I write or post annoys them - so I really hope nobody who does just know me as an anonymous blog has ever worried about offending me by not replying to something, trust me, I’m perfectly happy with it!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don’t think I’ve really written any angsty endings? I guess the answer would have to be Reckless just because it involves the characters arguing about sad/weighty things and there isn’t really any solution to those issues - but even then I think I ended it with a kind of acceptance that stops it from really qualifying as angst? I also set it in the the same universe as other fics, so maybe that doesn’t even count as an ending? Am I that bad at ending things on angst? Lol

Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Obviously none of the fics I’ve posted are crossovers but I’m trying to think now if any of my WIP’s are - I’ve definitely poached setting/premise ideas from other media, but in terms of actual crossovers . . . I’ve got a few cross-era or cross-Doctor, a few involving Torchwood, but that’s already the same universe, so the only thing that’d qualify as a true crossover would be some vague pieces of a fic where Jamie, Zoe, and Two end up on the Enterprise, since I think the 60s series of Star Trek and Dr Who feel kind of compatible, don’t they? In fact, aren’t there like officially licensed crossover comics or something? Or did I make that up? Idk, and the ideas are very loose, so it’s not much of a WIP either

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope, never

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I’ve never written smut, but I’m wondering if it’s possible that could change soon. There’s a longish multi-chapter fic I’ve been working on for a frankly embarrassing amount of time, and the plot does call for a sex scene at one point towards the end, but I can’t seem to make up my mind on how - uh, I guess the word is explicit? - it should get. I know I could easily do a fade to black/implication thing, but it’s kind of a source of contention and anxiety for the characters, so to skip over writing the actual scene and just revisit them afterwards rings of “and they slept together and now everything’s fine!” which feels kinda cheap to me - in this context, anyway - and not the right payoff for a long fic that’s otherwise more of an interpersonal drama/slightly a period piece, if I had to place it in a genre. I feel like my aversion to actually writing the scene might just be prudishness I should get over, or maybe just self-doubt, because I know I’d rather have a well-written, funny, character-development-supporting sex scene than nothing at all, but since I’ve never had any interest in writing a scene like that before, I don’t know if I can do it well, and I also don’t want to ruin a fic I’m otherwise proud of by doing it badly... ugh I have to figure this out

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I seriously doubt it

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

What’s your all time favorite ship?

I mean, it’s gotta be Two & Jamie. I’ve shipped things before with varying levels of investment, but I’ve never been able to use the term ‘otp’ in a literal sense until I came across them, and now it’s already basically gone out of fashion, go figure!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I’m not sure if I have one? My WIP doc is huge, but I don’t actually intend to get around to finishing everything in it, so I’d like to think that anything I’ve currently singled out to complete can actually get done.

That said, I do have a few AU’s that I don’t really plan to finish, but it might be cool if I could. Two of them are for all the main + some supporting characters of the Second Doctor’s era - one’s a modern day school teachers AU, and the other is a typical fantasy/fairy tale AU. Another is just Two/Jamie, based on Doctor Faustus (specifically the Marlowe play version) but right now there are two different versions of the ending coexisting in my head. I’ve written parts of scenes & some gen. backstory for all of those ideas, but I don’t know if I’ll ever try to finish them, or what form a finished product would even take - a series of one-shots set in the same universe? one long multi-chapter fic with some kind of overarching plot? And the amount of context/worldbuilding a big AU like these would require might not make them very appealing fics for people to read, so maybe it is better if I just keep them to myself, since in my head I already know what’s going on in those worlds lol.

What are your writing strengths?

I honestly don’t know. I haven’t had a creative writing class since middle school, and since then I’ve only ever shown creative writing to others in a fandom context, so it’s been a while since I’ve discussed it or gotten critical feedback. I suppose when I work in other arts or even academic writing contexts, people usually say I’m kind of insightful or at least detail oriented, which might just be another way of saying I overthink things, but I like to imagine I’m decent at finding little points of interest to expand upon.

What are your writing weaknesses?

If you’ve read this far I feel like you must know what I’m about to say: I do not know how to be concise.

Usually when I’m writing a fic, I put down the dialogue first on its own, leaving out the action of the scene and whatever plot/context led there, even if I’ve already figured all of that out. But then when I go to add those things in, they’re always longer than I wanted them to be. I don’t mind writing something long, but I don’t want my fics to be a slog to get through either, and there can be a point at which the stuff I’ve added for context overwhelms the stuff that I wanted the fic to be about in the first place, so it becomes a structural/proportion issue too. I haven’t completely given up on any fics because of this yet, but there’s one I’ve been struggling with for a couple months now - probably because I’m even second-guessing myself on which scenes need to be written out and which can just be referenced like a recap. Hopefully I figure that one out soon.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

((this is karma isn’t it? i posted a fic last week with two words of gaelic in it and was worried about that and now this is karma))

In general, I don’t want to do it. I feel like you’ve gotta have a really good grasp of a language to write dialogue & speech patterns for someone who’s a native speaker, and since I’m far from fluent in any language the characters I write for are, I wouldn’t feel confident writing any significant amount of dialogue in, say, Gaelic.

As a sidenote, though, I kinda love it when other people do it, particularly for Jamie. Irish (Gaeilge) and Scottish (Gàidhlig) are both languages I’ve wanted to learn for a long time, because my family’s fresh out of living speakers of either & I think that’s a shame, but I started with Irish and at the moment I’m still very much learning it. As different as they are, it still helps me understand parts of lyrics or texts that I come across in Gàidhlig fairly frequently, so when it comes up in a fic I get to feel like I’m being responsible and practicing, and it’s great when I can actually understand what’s being said.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I’m gonna go with Harry Potter even though that’s probably not a perfectly accurate answer - it’s almost certainly the first thing that has a fandom that I ever wrote for, but it was in a notebook when I was a kid and never something that I even typed on a computer, much less posted online or shared with other members of a fandom. But even then, I’m sure it wasn’t the first pre-existing fictional universe I ever set an original story in, because I did that a lot when I was a kid, it’s just hard to remember those clearly or on any kind of timeline.

What’s your favorite fic that you’ve written?

I’m very partial to Across the Gap, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that ranked first on the kudos thing above - but I’ve also got a soft spot for So Merrily We’ll Sing. It’s so self-indulgent it feels silly saying ‘it was so easy to write!’ but I guess having a fic that’s already just 100% headcaonons and fluff tied together by a song you really love does prevent it from being much of a labor (I also managed to refrain from making that one unnecessarily long, so that’s another win there)

tagging @terryfphanatics and anyone else who wants to do it - sorry I’m bad at remembering whose tumblr goes with whose Ao3 account, but I really would be interested to read this if anyone else feels like answering them!