#but it doesn’t specifically require that crossover

[stars-obsession-pit]

Right Actions, Wrong Target

So i just had an idea…

What if the GIW’s course of action was actually right?

Or, well, more accurately: what if it was mostly right for the situation they started in, and their main failures were in where they took it from there.

Expanding on my ideas/thought process here:

So in this idea, the GIW was founded in response to a specific discovery by the government:

An underground pool of a strange substance that didn’t resemble any known chemical. It glowed a toxic green, perpetually churned as if boiling, could be lethal to the touch for living things, and could cause things to spontaneously animate in the area around it.

Stagnant, corrupted ectoplasm (not that they had any idea what ectoplasm even was at the time).

Those original researchers encountered ectoplasmic entities around the pit, but not ones like those in Amity Park.

Inhuman things.

Shades whose memories of life had all but faded except for the strongest emotions (usually negative emotions like anger, pain, or fear). Animals driven mad by the pit’s influence. Reanimated food and other organic material.

Things that objectively were dangerous to normal people and that couldn’t be meaningfully communicated with.

So, lacking any better option to respond (or even the knowledge of if such a path was possible at all), they set protocols to contain (and, potentially, dispose of) the entities.

And this is perhaps a bit of a tangent but their ridiculous uniform cleanliness standards could also have a justification too.

The unknown substance would eat through or change just about any material they tested it on. Considering the dangers they had already witnessed it pose to living things (never mind the possibility of other long-term side effects), they decided they had to be extraordinarily careful with their safety precautions.

Thus, incredibly thorough decontamination protocols were set up and strictly adhered to.

White clothes were the best option to allow easy identification of any stains. For agents in the field without proper equipment to run a full scan, it was safer to treat all dirt like a potential hazard.

And so on.

Their policies may not have been perfect, but were created with actual logic behind them in response to their situation at the time.

But then when they expanded outwards to research other similar phenomena, that’s where they truly failed, both as scientists and as basic moral people.

They didn’t adapt to new data. Rules that had been created with scientific reasoning behind them became instead a form of gospel and a means of exerting control over others.

They declared that all ghosts were unfeeling monsters to be locked up, studied, and disposed of (despite all evidence to the contrary). Cleanliness changed from a precaution to a ritual to be practiced unfailingly in all circumstances as a sign of loyalty (thus the “cleanliness breach” thing the agents comment on in the show in a few places).

[howtofightwrite]

What is the difference between fencing and actual sword fighting, exactly? If I were to throw an olympic fencer against a master swordsperson, what would the most likely outcome of such a fight be?

The first and most obvious answer is that only one of these individuals is trained for combat.

The second answer is that only one of them uses (and trains with intent to use) a real weapon.

I’m going to assume this question revolves around an Olympic fencer dueling with a master swordsman with a live weapon and not in accordance with Olympic fencing rules. An Olympic fencer’s best chance at winning is a bout with a modern epee/saber under Olympic fencing rules and it’s also the case where (probably) no one dies or is gravely injured.

Olympic fencing is a sport. As a result of its evolution, it’s pretty much unrecognizable as even a martial form today and, in pursuit of the new requirements for winning, has divested itself of the weapon aspect. While much of the terminology remains the same, the key difference to grasp about Olympic fencers is that they’re not trained to fence around the idea that the sword in their hand is a dangerous weapon (because it isn’t.) In fact, the ultimate goal of winning in their sport (score points) is hindered by that mentality. To the Olympic fencer, it doesn’t matter if they get hit so long as they score first and have right of way when they do. If those at the top of the sport were handed a real historical epee, told to fence, and changed nothing in their approach, the end result would be a double suicide. (Which is ironic because that’s one of the reasons why the epee was restricted historically. When it came to dueling, it was a little too efficient.)

There is no caution here because there doesn’t need to be. Tactics and techniques which will cause a fencer to commit suicide against an opponent with a live blade work exceptionally well once the risk of death is off the table.

This isn’t just restricted to Olympic fencing. If you take any martial art that has transitioned to a sport and put the practitioner up against someone who kills people for a living, even if they are one of the best in their field, they will be at an inherent disadvantage. The requirements for winning according to the sport’s rules are vastly different from the requirements for winning in a life or death situation.

And that’s just the first hurdle.

The next hurdle is the weapon itself.

Duels are specifically between weapons of the same type. This rule is meant to level the playing field and ensure the duel is decided on “skill” rather than weapon advantage. Depending on their point of origin (for the purpose of this question, I’m assuming European) a master swordsman would have been familiar with and likely trained in several different sword styles, depending on era would be a master of their own school or in the employ of a noble house. If you need a comparable profession for a master duelist, think of them like lawyers. Except, the victory was decided by skill with a blade rather than a compelling argument. (We could say that skill with a blade is a compelling argument, but I digress.) One doesn’t get to be a master swordsman until after many years of study with the blade and victories under their belt. Depending on the era of history, the duel requirements of the duel could be anywhere between armored or unarmored, to first blood or to the death, and cover a variety of different swords, each with their own developed styles (and that is styles plural.)

Our Olympic fencer will be fucked by varying degrees depending on the live blade in question but, make no mistake, they’ll be pretty much fucked by any option picked. Running counter to their ubiquitous nature in popular culture, swords are not one size fits all. Outside of common principles there’s almost no training crossover. Every sword handles differently. These variations include length of the blade, length of the hilt, location of the crossguard, the weapon’s weight, the weapon’s weight distribution, the location of its balance point, whether it is primarily used with one hand or two, whether it is primarily a weapon for thrusting (the rapier) or cutting (the saber,) etc. Their grip would be off, and  probably wouldn’t be able to hold the sword properly.

The modern version of a fencing “sword” is not equivalent to any of these. Their closest stylistic match up in terms of inherited movement is the 19th century epee, but we’re still miles apart.

Then there’s the mentality issue.

The Olympic fencer hasn’t trained around the idea that death or major injury are accidental. Possible, yes, a risk, yes, but in the same way they are for any other sport. These are surprise, tragic occurrences and not part of regular bouts. For reference, in terms of the dangers of physical contact, a modern fencer faces less risk than a football player. For the master swordsman, the opposite is true. There is no variant of historical dueling which doesn’t risk death in some capacity, whether that’s a confirmed death on the dueling field itself or from an injury or infection later. Those historical circumstances where you see individuals dueling topless is (ironically) for practical reasons and not titillation. Many duelists, victorious or not, died from infection after cloth or other detritus got into their wounds. In this way, our modern Olympic fencer is less prepared than a duelist of average skill, much less a master.

Is the Olympic fencer ready to put their life and body on the line? To risk death, permanent injury, a potential blinding in one eye, in a bout that, at best, involves zero physical protection? I’m not sure. Probably not off the cuff. It requires a different mindset.

Are they ready to inflict damage on another person? Are they ready to kill another person? And even if they’re ready, are they willing to? Are they resolved to? Are they ready to risk their own life in pursuit of it?

The Olympic fencer is on the starting line with these questions.

The Master Swordsman has already answered them.

One of the difficult aspects about writing violence and characters who practice martial disciplines with intent to exercise those skills is internalizing the risks involved and ensuring their a natural part of your character’s mindset and their approach to combat.

Fiction is an illusion. Your narrative’s world is as real as you, the author, choose to make it. Characters are immortal, have infinite stamina, possess skill with every weapon, are unbeatable unless you choose otherwise. Regardless of reality, if you choose to make an Olympic fencer and a Master Swordsman fight exactly the same way with the same skill set, that’s how it is.

I’ve seen plenty of published authors treat swords as universal and modern Olympic fencing like it lends their character any real martial skills. (I mean, beyond excellent conditioning.) You can do it and get away with it if that’s what you want. Personally, I find it less interesting because it cheats the character out of their growth. Also, you don’t need to lean into that approach for “Girls Can Fight” or as a way for a female character to gain combat skills because there were female fencers who trained on the blade.

Ways for the Olympic fencer to win:

Dumb luck.

Yeah. That’s it.

The Master Swordsman should knock the blade out of their hand, take the Olympic fencer under their wing as their apprentice, and wander the world together solving crimes.

10/10.

-Michi

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[threewaysdivided]

compared to the other hero's in YJ how do you think Phantom stands up power wise. like Future Danny ripped the world apart and i know in some fanfiction that it is used as an indicator that he is high up there, but i'm interested in your thoughts.

This is an interesting question nonnie!

I generally agree with the idea that Phantom is in the upper-tier of crossover superhero powers, but I do have more specific thoughts so let’s break it down:

Danny’s power level

Just looking at the variety and strength of ghost-powers that Phantom displays in his show, I would put him in the higher rankings of most heroes when it comes to raw ability.  I alluded to this in my main DP x YJ Deathly Weapons fanfic, but to me Phantom shows signs of a pretty common power-scaling differential that happens when a solo-protagonist hero gets transplanted into an ensemble setting.  Within his own setting, Phantom had to be (or become) powerful enough to solve most problems/ fights all by himself – and some of those ghosts he ended up facing towards the end of his canon were impressively strong.  By comparison ensemble heroes are generally less-powerful because working as a collective means they don’t have the same need for aggressive self-sufficiency and also so that no one character upstages or outmodes the rest of the group from a writing perspective.

There’s also the nature of ghost powers.  Phantom needed to develop the raw strength to fill the role of solo combat heavy-hitter, but his base powers are versatile to the point of unsettling.  He has to physically fight against other ghosts because they have (and to some extent are immune to) the same abilities as him, but in a fight against other species he could potentially avoid, manipulate or exhaust an opponent with strategic use of invisibility/ intangibility/ overshadowing.

The back of Dinah’s neck prickled.  With flight to mask footsteps and intangibility rendering them undetectable by touch…  Nonthreatening as Phantom generally appeared, she was starting to understand why his kind had developed such an unsettling reputation.  The idea that a ghost could be present at any time - eavesdropping, spying, interfering - without any of them being the wiser was… disquieting to say the least. - Deathly Weapons, Chapter 17: Assessment

On top of that, he seems to be in a similar boat to Superman when it comes to physical weaknesses – he doesn’t have that many, and they’re often quite specific or hard-to-find.   The most easily-exploitable one is that Danny can run out of power, be slowly starved of ectoplasm or be knocked unconscious; all of which would forcibly revert him back to his weaker human state.  After that, he’s vulnerable to certain magics and ghostly-artefacts, which are more likely to be accessible to various DC/ Marvel heroes (although they might not know exactly which spells/items will be most effective or why).  Beyond those two, most of his weaknesses need to be specifically known about and actively sought out – anti-ecto-technology is obtainable but not mainstream, blood blossoms naturally repel/hurt ghosts but they seem to be rare in nature (or even extinct in the modern day) and then assuming you acknowledge Phantom Planet there’s ectoranium which is basically ghost-Kryptonite in rarity (and possibly even the same mineral in DP x DC settings depending on the crossover).  Much like with Superman, the most reliable ways to take down Phantom require actively knowing what he is and having prepared accordingly.

Based on those metrics, I want to place Phantom in the same power-band as Superman or the Martian Manhunter.  I’d consider their powers to be equivalent incomparibles – it’s hard to stack their abilities side-by-side and say one is objectively better than the others.  A no-holds-barred, knock-down drag-out fight between those three could get very nasty but it would be hard to confidently call a winner without knowing more about the external factors around them.

That said, I think the thing holding Danny back from being fully at that level is his experience: or rather his lack thereof.   Danny hasn’t had much formal training (except maybe some basic self-defence instruction from Maddie/Jack) and he doesn’t have a proper mentor either.  His personal experience mostly fits the narrow niche of direct open combat with other ghosts, mostly throughout Amity Park and surrounds (although occasionally in the Ghost Zone or further from town). 

Phantom has enough raw power and innate talent as a strategic lateral-thinker to get by, but I think that hyperspecialisation and lack of guidance would leave him with a lot of blind-spots.  His hand-to-hand is self-taught and probably missing a lot of best-practice basic techniques.  He’s also never had an experienced third party to observe him in the field and offer suggestions on alternative approaches to using his powers/ keep him from developing bad habits.  This is something Danny actually comments on in canon; he can take a long time to identify solutions (even obvious ones) that deviate too far from his default throw hands approach to fighting.  His powers could be more effectively deployed as a precision-instrument but a lack of coaching means he tends to falls back on using them as a blunt hammer because that was the pattern that came naturally when he was first starting out, and no-one was around to keep that habit from ingraining.

The place where you can see this lack of experience hurting him the most is in his lack of soft-skills.  Phantom didn’t have anyone to advise him on de-escalation, damage control, comforting civilians, interacting with authorities etc.  Add in the naturally-frightening nature of many ghosts and it was easy for him to fall into a public perception of being “the town menace”.  Danny is pretty decent at rallying both humans and ghosts (even erstwhile enemies) to his side in crisis situations but no-one has taught him how manage public relations outside of that.  He says it himself: he needs a PR agent.

On the other hand, Phantom’s heroics have inadvertently earned him a decent amount of potential political pull in the Ghost Zone.  He has enough positive rapport that some regular rogues will take his side or even actively seek him out for help in the right circumstances, and other more antagonistic ones have at least developed a degree of grudging respect.  There are several powerful ghosts that either have direct debts of gratitude to him/his team (Princess Dorothea, Pandora) or who hold him in high esteem for re-sealing Pariah Dark (The Far Frozen).  It’s possible that defeating Pariah might even have granted him a potential candidature/claim to an official position, and judging by the way the Observants and Clockwork pay attention to him, it seems that Phantom’s slow accumulation of power/influence isn’t going completely unnoticed.  However, again, Danny doesn’t have the awareness, experience or training needed to leverage that effectively – heck, he’s not even doing it on purpose.

With all that taken into account, I think Phantom would rank very highly in terms of overall potential, but at his current level he’d be in the lower ranks of the A-tier.  He could become a much more powerful figure with the right guidance but in his canonical state he’s underutilising or outright overlooking a lot of his most effective tools.

TUE Future/ “Dark Phantom”

The “Dark Phantom” presented in the TUE Bad-Future is interesting to me because while he’s a very powerful figure within that story, I don't think he’s a very good reflection of canon-Danny’s potential to do harm.

Gonna complain about The Ultimate Enemy for a bit: I’ve tag-muttered about this before but I’m one of the Phandom members who finds The Ultimate Enemy to be a frustratingly weak episode.  It has a potentially fascinating core premise (the “evil future/alternate self”) but the execution is so convoluted and driven by improbable contrivances that the whole ends up being far less than the sum of its parts.   

One of the biggest problems is that, rather than being a straight future/alternate version of Danny, “Dark Phantom” is actually a hybrid of Phantom and Plasmius’ worse sides.  He’s a distinct, separate entity which means he can’t work as an effective dark mirror to either of them.  (Compare and contrast the Justice League episode A Better World in which the Justice Lords acted as a dark mirror of what the actual Justice League members could become if they chose to abandon their morals and compassion in favour of seizing control and instating a totalitarian system of draconian crime prevention.)

The episode also tried to graft on a really mismatched moral of “don’t be a cheat”.  Rather than being a lesson on choices/ values/ power/ responsibility, Dark Phantom almost ends up being an offhand biproduct of Danny getting caught cheating on a freshman/sophomore-year career-aptitude test.  Instead of learning a lesson about himself/ his ideals/ his personal faults, Danny comes away from the episode with a cool new superpower after deciding not to cheat on the test after all.  Not exactly satisfying.

That mismatch and the convoluted levels of moon-logic required to make it fit severely undermine the idea that this version of Dark Phantom is “inevitable”.  There are too many steps that are too highly-specific and too easily-avoidable for the threat to feel real: Danny has to care enough about an early-highschool CAT to want to cheat, he has to somehow get the answers which he wasn’t intending to do in the canon timelineand only does as a result of Clockwork’s meddling, making it a self-fulfilling situation, he has to get caught using them, Mister Lancer has to hold the resulting parent-teacher meeting at Nasty Burger rather than a school office for some reason, the Nasty Burger Sauce has to 1. be dangerously explosive and 2. coincidentally explode while not only Danny’s parents but his friends and sister are inside, Danny has to be placed in Vlad’s custody rather than with his Aunt Alicia or closer family-friends, Danny has to ask Vlad to remove his Phantom-half and finally, Vlad himself has to agree to do it.  Take away any of those steps and this version of Dark Phantom doesn’t happen.  That’s not inevitable, it’s contrived.

But anyway, let’s look at Dark Phantom as his own entity:

One of the things that makes Dark Phantom much more potentially dangerous is that he combines Phantom’s raw power with Plasmius’ experience.  Like I was saying before, one of Danny’s biggest handicaps is that he lacks training/guidance and tends to underutilise his most effective abilities.  Vlad meanwhile has had years of relative freedom to practice and finesse a lower raw-power level; he’s much more skilled at advanced techniques like duplication and overshadowing (which he canonically used to force through his fortune-making business deals), as well as ecto-constructs.  Plasmius is also a lot more tactical and manipulative in how he applies their common powers.  Plus, the TUE version of Dark Phantom is a full-ghost, which means he doesn’t have a vulnerable mortal state that can be exploited as a weakness.

This is why I think it would be possible for TUE!Dark Phantom to successfully decimate other heroes in shared-universe crossover situations where ghosts aren’t common knowledge.  He’d be an unexpected, unknown enemy that the heroes have no effective way to fight (outside of a few magic users).  Combine that with many of the most powerful heroes being visible as public figures, and Dark Phantom having inherited Plasmius’ strategic/manipulative traits and it could be very easy for Dark Phantom to basically launch a premeditated paranormal blitzkrieg attack, using Plasmius’ skill with duplicates and overshadowing to subjugate any hero he couldn’t overwhelm with Phantom’s raw power level.  It would also make sense that Amity Park would become one of the remaining bastions in any TUE-style future, since having advanced knowledge of ghostly abilities and access to anti-ecto technology would tilt the balance more evenly and allow them to at least keep the danger out.

Mentally, it’s also worth noting that Dark Phantom is a lot more dangerous than either Phantom or Plasmius.  He’s basically the most toxic traits from both of them, removed from their more moderating/ compassionate instincts.  Based on the canonical explanation given, TUE!Danny had Phantom forcibly removed in attempt to remove the pain/ rage/ grief he was feeling over the death of his family.  This isn’t a model-hero-persona conceptualisation of Phantom a la Splitting Images; the TUE-version of his ghost half is a big ball of churning negative emotion.  And what are some of Danny’s toxic traits when it comes to negative emotions: he lashes out, falls into self-blame and self-destructs.  Then we add in Vlad’s toxic traits: he’s egocentric to the point of narcissism, he projects negative feelings/ blame onto others rather than accept responsibility for his own actions and he has a controlling/ sadistic streak.   

TUE’s Dark Phantom is the worst possible combination of an emotionally devastated teenager and an emotionally immature adult.  He’s a ball of pain and rage that blames the world for that pain, lashes out at it, feels worse for doing so and then blames the world for making him feel worse because he doesn’t have the emotional capacity to accept that he’s the one causing it.  Grief is love persevering but the feelings of love, connection and guilt that contextualise his pain were left in the human shells that remained of Danny and Vlad.  It’s possible that the Dark Phantom presented in TUE might not have the capacity to feel positive emotions or compassion.  He was never meant to exist as his own entity – he was an attempt to destroy Daniel Fenton’s negative emotions which went horribly wrong.  In some ways it seems like his reign of terror could be an angrier version of Dracula’s scheme from Netflix’s Castlevania or Haliax’s goal from the Kingkiller Chronicles – a drawn-out suicide note from an undead being who’s been dead inside for much longer, destroying whatever peace/happiness he encounters in revenge for being denied it himself, until such time as he either attains catharsis or finally ends the pain by destroying reality and himself along with it.  That’s the final thing that makes TUE’s Dark Phantom more dangerous than either Phantom or Plasmius – he has nothing to lose and no “better nature” or personal dreams that other heroes could try to appeal to.

So yeah, the TUE version of Dark Phantom could absolutely rip the world and other heroes apart, but I don’t think he’s a particularly good reflection of Danny’s capabilities in terms of either powers or personality.  There’s too much Vlad in the mix, and even then he represents such a narrow and extreme edge-case for each of their personalities that it’s barely representative at all.  At best he’s a warning for what these kinds of powers could be capable of in the wrong hands.

Meta-question: What is “power” in narrative?

Alright, now that I’ve (hopefully) answered the question, let’s finish with a self-indulgent thought exercise for extra credit.

There’s an anecdote which I’ve heard attributed to the Stan Lee, in which a fan apparently asked him “who would win in a fight between Superman and the Hulk?”  To which Stan apparently replied, “whoever the writer wants.”

While it can be fun to make tier-lists and try to rank how strong different heroes/villains/creatures are based on the rules of their respective universes, I think it can also be helpful to consider that– like all things in storytelling – power is a narrative device.  It’s a tool that the character(s) and storyteller(s) can use to create and solve problems.

A character can be extremely physically strong/ skilled/ knowledgeable/ influential in a specific area but how much narrative power they have depends on how well their abilities allow them to influence or resolve story problems.   And, as the omnipotent god(s) of the narrative, the storyteller(s) can choose whether to confront them with challenges that play to their existing strengths, or that force them to find other solutions.  What’s the best way to kill a vampire?

This is actually part of what makes Lex Luthor such an effective Superman villain.  Objectively most versions of Lex are just A Guy™ – on a physical level he doesn’t have anything close to Kal El’s Kryptonian strength or superpowers.  But he feels like a serious threat because he often comes after Superman in ways that Clark can’t easily steamroll with that brute strength.  Lex uses manipulation, money, influence, connections, politics, public opinion; Superman can’t physically fight him without playing into Luthor’s plans, and trying to face him in those other fields requires tools that Clark wasn’t handed as part of his Kryptonian heritage.  An invading alien army is objectively a bigger physical threat to Earth, but a competent Lex Luthor scheme feels more dangerous because – while we feel confident that Superman can beat down a legion of monsters – when it comes to the question of whether he can outwit Luthor, the outcome is a lot less certain.

Situational disempowerment is another of the ways a narrative can reign in an otherwise “overpowered” character: placing them in circumstances where they either aren’t given many opportunities to showcase their best strengths, or are kept from using them because the drawbacks/ risks/ consequences of using their abilities makes their power(s) a liability.  I’ve mentioned it before, but this is actually one of the tricks I’m personally using to keep Phantom’s massive powerset balanced against the other proteges in Deathly Weapons.  It’s also something I’ve been struggling with when it comes to Conner’s place in that story since the stealth-mission plot structure doesn’t allow as much room to highlight his core powers and personal strengths.   

Stories can create additional stakes for powerful characters by giving them emotional arcs which their powers can’t resolve.   For a published example, consider the series One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100.  Despite how high-ranked Saitama and Mob are within the power-scaling of their respective stories, those powers don’t kill the emotional stakes because the things they actually want/ need can only be gained through self-improvement or making connections in ways separate from their powers (and in some regards their power level actively gets in the way of that).  This is also something I’m doing with Danny’s main grief arc in DW.   

Final Conclusion time

In terms of physical strength and range of abilities, I think Phantom would be pretty near the top of the power-scale in most superhero crossovers.  While the Dark Phantom presented in TUE might not be a particularly good reflection of Danny’s specific potential, a crossover version of the TUE timeline offers a pretty good litmus-test for how dangerous a strong ghost could be in a given universe: the combination of power level, ability range and highly-specific/ inaccessible weak-points poses a strong strategic threat.

On the other hand, physical strength isn’t the only strength.  Phantom has a decent level of potential political sway as well, but he also lacks a lot of the soft skills and experience needed to make use of his toolset to its full ability.

Stepping back further, the answer to how powerful Danny is in a narrative sense is really just “however much the writer wants”.  Phantom’s narrative power depends on the kind of story he’s in and the challenges placed around him – there are as many ways to situationally nerf our ghost-boy as make him OP, all without needing to alter his on-paper powers.

[jedijune]

Jedi June 2023

A creative fandom event dedicated to appreciating the Jedi, taking place during the entire month of June! Each week will feature two prompts, around which people can create fanwork (of any kind – fic, art, cosplay, edits, anything you can think of) or meta focusing on the Jedi and the Jedi Order. All eras and continuities are welcome; OCs, established characters, doesn’t matter – it just needs to be about appreciating the Jedi!

Rules:

If you are participating, please tag your work/meta with #jedi june and/or @ this blog so that I will see it and reblog it here. All work must be your own. Feel free to crosspost it off-site.

This is an appreciation event, focusing on what we love and enjoy about the Jedi – not what we don’t. This is not the place to air your grievances with the Code, take potshots at the Council, prop certain Jedi/certain eras of Jedi up at the expense of others, or disparage the Jedi Order or their philosophy (including the concept of non-attachment) and way of life in any way. You are free to do that on your own time if that’s your thing, but it has no place within this event.

AUs and crossovers are allowed, with caveats: again, the purpose of this event is to appreciate the Jedi as Jedi, so sticking your favorite Jedi characters in something like a modern AU or making them all Sith or Mandalorian is not really within the spirit of this event. However, AUs such as making a non-Jedi character a Jedi, having a character survive their canon death, giving a character a different teacher or padawan, or killing Palpatine off-screen in an unspecified yet embarrassing and painful manner, would all be perfectly fine. Use your best judgement to determine whether an AU fits the spirit of the event or not.

Ships are allowed as long as they’re not between a child and adult, and following the above rules.

Following the prompts is encouraged, but not required. Any sort of pro-Jedi content is encouraged all year month long, and if tagged (and following the rules), will be reblogged. Note that there is a change in the event this year - previously, prompts were associated with Saturday and Sunday of each week. Going forward, the prompts will be associated with the week in general, rather than the weekend specifically. As a result, we have a total of 10 prompts this year, instead of 8!

As another change, we have an AO3 collection this year!

Prompts:

Week 1 (June 1 - 4):

Prompt 1: Guidance

Prompt 2: Knighting

Week 2 (June 5 - 11):

Prompt 1: Diplomacy

Prompt 2: The Force

Week 3 (June 12 - 18):

Prompt 1: Visions

Prompt 2: Confronting Fear

Week 4 (June 19 - 25):

Prompt 1: Focus

Prompt 2: Gathering

Week 5 (June 26 - 30):

Prompt 1: Friendship

Prompt 2: Tragedy Averted

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask! I hope you will have fun participating!

Static banner credit @independence1776​​

gif banner credit @trickytricky1​​

[fishing-lesbian-catgirl]

I have no idea what Arkknights is

And at this point im afraid to ask

Girls be called shit like Asbestos, Gravel, Mud and Debris

They eat rocks???

Gatorpeople???

Working in difficult terrain? I dunno

But i know the lesbians go crazy over it

I can clarify this (well, clarify again, I get this question occasionally).

Arknights people aren’t actually named asbestos, gravel, mudrock, cement, rockrock or any of that other stuff. Those are operator code names. A lot of the characters we don’t know their actual names, and since they go by their code names in the game anyway that’s just how people refer to them. All of them choose their code names (except arguably Pudding) so they frequently choose things significant or symbolic of who they are. Asbestos is a fireproof salamander who is a toxic jerk and has cancer so it was a very fitting name. Cement is a construction worker. Rockrock’s name is Rochelle Rockwell. There’s a lot of different reasons but ultimately those aren’t their actual names, but they are effectively their names.

They don’t actually eat rocks. As a gameplay mechanic, characters require resources in order to be promoted and become more powerful in game. However the resources they require for upgrades are kind of strange things like weird metals, cubes of rock, devices, a non alcoholic chemical that apparently gets you effectively drunk if you ingest it, and a bunch of other stuff. Tomimi, the alligator girl who is known for having an extremely fat tail despite her being a fairly short and small person, requires concentrated orirocks that require well over 100 orirock cubes to craft in order for her promotion. So I make dumb jokes that she was eating the cubes and that’s why her tail is fat

Gatorpeople? Yep! Almost all the characters in Arknights are like the type of catgirls that are human but have cat ears and a tail, but for a bunch of different types of animals. There are a few that are anthropomorphic animals and then there’s the people who are demons, vampires, elves (very rare. There’s only one), and characters based on mythical creatures like manticores, nues, all kinds of dragons, etc. there’s also some robots, not robot girls, just robots, they’re mostly rectangular and on wheels. And then there’s weird crossover characters like a stack of the cats from monster hunter, but those aren’t really canon anyway.

I don’t actually know what you’re specifically referencing by the difficult terrain thing but the world of Arknights is full of large scale catastrophes that require most cities to be on enormous moving platforms so they can avoid catastrophes. The world is also full of many hazards. I don’t know what else you might mean so I can’t help more with that

Yes the lesbians go crazy for it. ~80% of the characters are women who are often written to be competent and powerful and actually the focus of the stories. A lot of them are at implied ranging from slight hints to extremely blunt and obvious by their behavior to be lesbians. The story and setting are interesting, the characters have cool designs and interesting personalities and narratives, and a lot of them are gay women, and especially with the kenomimi-style animal girls, it’s not particularly surprising that other people like me get so obsessed with them.

Funnily enough, I think there’s still only 2 “canonical” lesbian operators if you take the extremely blunt stance of ignoring everything that doesn’t outright explicitly involve them professing their love or being in an explicit relationship with a woman. But you’d have to be intentionally obtuse to actually think those are the only ones given how a lot of the women act

[spiritsession-arch]

Independent DnD oc

Google Doc Spotify Pinterest

Bio and Rules under cut

Sideblog, follows back from @murderreign!

**Icon border by sibylsource

-

Name: Alasdair Greives

Age: 30

Height: 6'4"

Gender: Nonbinary (They/He) (AFAB, but please don’t have your muse know this by default)

Personality: A very animated person with a macabre sense of humor. Can be rather quick to anger and highly defensive when certain nerves are pressed. Doesn’t react well to flirting.

Class: College of Spirits Bard

Species: Dhampir/Satyr

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 18

Constitution: 13

Intelligence: 12

Wisdom: 11

Charisma: 19

**This character has the Dark Gift from the Ravenloft expansion called Gathering Whispers

You are haunted by spiritual beings, whether the souls of the departed or entities from another plane. Their voices endlessly whisper, taunt, or cajole, sometimes rising to unearthly howls. Only you can perceive the spirits, unless you allow them to speak through you. The spirits are intangible and invisible; anyone who can see invisible creatures sees only fleeting glimpses of these spirits as they haunt you.

Spirit Whispers. You learn the Message cantrip if you don’t already know it, and require no components to cast it. When you cast the spell, the messages are delivered by one of your whispering spirits rather than you or the target’s voice. Your spellcasting ability for this spell is Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma (your choice when you gain this Dark Gift).Sudden Cacophony. When you are hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to channel your haunting spirits, letting their voices howl through you. If the attacker isn’t deafened, add your proficiency bonus to your AC against that attack, potentially causing it to miss. Once this trait causes an attack to miss, you can’t use the trait again until you finish a long rest.Voices from Beyond. Immediately after you make an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw and roll a 1 on the d20, the haunting voices grow too loud to ignore. Roll on the Voices from Beyond table to determine the effect of these voices. Once one of these effects occurs, none of these haunting voices manifest again until you finish a short or long rest.

-

This character will involve themes of child neglect, transphobia, sexual assault mentions, fantasy racism (toward dhampirs), references to mental illness in a derogatory manner (only mentioned due to backstory reasons)

The scorned child of a small forest village, their early years were plagued with heartache and emotional neglect. After disappearing into the woods under mysterious circumstances, only to return completely unharmed two weeks later… with claims of being able to speak with the dead the child was promptly outcasted by the rest of the village.

For the remainder of their youth, they were the subject of isolation, bullying and worse from local villagers young and old.

No matter how many times they pleaded with their mother for protection, help, advice, anything, all she would tell them is that ‘if they wanted it to stop then they just needed to shut up and act normal for once’.

During the years since their disappearance, they’d made no attempt to hide their newfound ‘gift’, finding the idea of being able to gain wisdom or even help those who have passed fascinating. The other villagers… clearly didn’t feel the same.

As time moved on Alasdair grew resentful of the villagers, as well as their mother. They began to cling onto their gift, doubling down and convincing themself that they’d been given this gift for a reason. They were chosen for a specific duty, to record and preserve the stories of the dead.

They left the village, and began a journey as a traveling poet, writing down the stories that spirits would tell them and turning them into poetry to share with the world.

-

▍ ❝   RULE ONE. Crossover friendly; I prefer rping with fandoms i’m familiar with, but i’m open to those i’m not as well. You’ll just have to excuse me for any mistakes since I won’t be too familiar with your muse or their world.

▍ ❝   RULE TWO. Multiverse/Multiship; All relationships will take place in different verses.

▍ ❝   RULE THREE. Do not force ship; Do not try to force your muse on mine and do not get upset if I happen to say no to your ship. Not every ship is going to work, that’s just how it is.

▍ ❝   RULE FOUR. Mun is 25+; Due to the nature of this character, I will ONLY interact with those that are also 18+.

▍ ❝   RULE FIVE. No godmodding; I control my character, you control yours. Do not have your muse auto-hit mine, or narrate anything happening to my character without discussing it with me first. It’s really quite infuriating and can leading to a lot of things happening to my character that my character should have reasonably been able to get out of or would be generally ooc.

▍ ❝   RULE SIX. I am generally pretty quick with replies. I usually respond within 3 days, a week at most. If I take longer then that it means i’m probably busy with other blogs and haven’t checked in. Feel free to send in message if i’ve gone a week without replying and you see me still being active. I might have missed your reply or ask somehow.

▍ ❝   RULE SEVEN. Triggers; Due to the nature of Alasdair's backstory there will be prominent themes of Death, Ghosts, Violence, mentions of SA, PTSD, Mentions of Transphobia, Suicidal Ideology, and more.

[irrealisms]

my dsmp fic recs masterpost

this one's long so i'm putting it under a cut! includes a lot of fandom favorites/ones you probably already know, but i tried to include some more niche ones as well. check the reblogs for more, i couldn't fit them all in one post without tumblr getting mad at me

Author recommendations (not my friends; go read everything they wrote):

Goldenrayofsunshine

shrugofgod

odaigahara

penink

hoorayy

Zannolin

the_g_m

chrysalizzm

Author recommendations (me and people I know):

sesquidpedalian @erstwhilesparrow

WheelCoveredInEyes @blocksgame

short_tandem_repeats

consumptive_sphinx @regicidal-optimism

monsterloot @aliveburs

cryptofhoney (korethekiller) @honeyblockm

nocturne_csharpm @qwilbur

75hearts (ME! YOU ARE HERE!)

Fangame recommendations:

Good Luck, Minutes Man! by @andhyssops : visual novel about NLM-era c!ranboo. has multiple endings, great art, soundtrack, characterization, etc.

Good Morning, Gogy by @andhyssops : visual novel about c!george. again, gorgeous art, great characterization. i almost don't want to say too much about this one because so much of it is a spoiler!

Doomsday Sim by @bwobgames : doomsday platformer, tommy is the player character, buggy but pretty.

Virtual Ghostbur by @bwobgames : ghostbur tamagotchi!

Character Pattern by @bwobgames : bullet hell with various mcyts (c and cc), tommy is the player character, stupid hard but very pretty

Tommygotchi by @bwobgames : tommy tamagotchi!

Silver Dollar by @honeyblockm : president schlatt is dead. murder mystery twine game

Fic recs (people I don't know well):

devil town by hoorayy : haven’t read this one but i’ve had it recommended too many times to not include. small town horror au. 100k

aftermath by sparxwrites : dream is recovering from the prison. tommy visits him. they have a conversation. neither torture apologist nor abuse apologist! 2k

what i love and what i've lost by Treis : dream & sapnap, dream recovery/redemption/post-prison. 20k

in memoriam by hoorayy : wilbur and sapnap have a conversation. 2k

little women by chrysalizzm : women on the dsmp character study. 1k

dissonance by shrugofgod : tubbo character study!!!!! one of the best tubbo fics imo. snowchester-era. 16k

six foot deep bottom line by shrugofgod : tubbo & q conversation, cookie outpost era. 2k

How to Sex Vol. 4-58 by Goldenrayofsunshine : epistolary fic, tommy pov, canon divergent from the disc finale (punz doesn’t arrive). probably my favorite fic in the fandom. 1k

Chicken Strategy by Goldenrayofsunshine : sam-centric, lots of q also, au where q set off the prison TNT. 20k

The Roman Archives by Goldenrayofsunshine : “Tubbo dies during the disc war finale and uses his time in purgatory to unlock all the secrets of the universe.” 4.5k

Make It Right by Goldenrayofsunshine : Captain Sparklez is tubbo’s dad, crashes the disc finale. my #1 clingyduo fluffy h/c Comfort Food. 2k

Raccooniverse (zombie crossover) series by Goldenrayofsunshine : crossover with the walking dead; doesn’t require any knowledge of the walking dead. tommy-centric, follows canon very approximately for the first two seasons and a bit beyond. 162k and still going, although you can just read the completed parts.

Neon Sunrise by Goldenrayofsunshine : wilbur & quackity, LN-era. 14k

draw up your sword (leave your days ashore) by Odaigahara : puffy joins the server by coming ashore at logstedshire, defends tommy. another comfort food fluffy h/c. 11k

snapshots by sparxwrites : schlatt/q relationship study. very good but mind the content warnings. 6k

the dead don’t dream by penink : what if dream killed tommy and then revived him again and then killed him and then revived him again— (crimeboys whump w a happy ending) 226k

Mafia AU by penink : mafia AU; based on Vibes rather than a specific time period but has Lots Content and Good Characterization. 219k and still going, although you can just read the completed parts.

Fairweather and Foxhole Friends by penink : manburg q & tubbo. 2k

Jubilee Line Satisfaction Survey by penink : wilbur centric, some crimeboys. wilbur in the afterlife! very very good. does fun things with the format--it's a uquiz, not an ao3 fic. another competitor for my favorite fanwork from this fandom.

call this world home by Sixteenthdays, stygiomedusa (grainjew) : another dream post-prison recovery/redemption; in this one, he’s metaphysically trapped in the arctic commune. 43k

l’esprit de l’escalier by eldritchIdeologist : revivebur oneshot. 3k

cause most of us are bitter over someone by honeyblock : niki & wilbur confrontation and reconciliation. (tommy’s there too.) 19k

orphan’s path (series) by aenor_llelo, Alderous, Anarchy-Schmanarchy (Murder_Schmurder), BattleBlaze, ConcoctionsFromHell, Falrisesi, fluxphage, izziel_galaxy, Otakuforlife19, Rocket999 : starts out as a phil&techno backstory. becomes a retelling of the entire server. massively multi-pov, very good characterization, very long. has many Takes i disagree with but also a lot of good stuff. get a text replacer “Lagos” -> “Dream”. 700K and still going, although you can just read the completed parts.

tune by small_lizard : karlnapity relationships study. 4k

applaud, my friends, the comedy is over! by small_lizard : oneshot focused on niki’s birthday party. <1k

it only gets much worse by hoorayy : another q & wilbur, LN-era. 2k

good reasons to freeze to death by hoorayy : tubbo-centric, post-s3 finale (mourning ranboo). 3k

pay it forward by comradeboyhalo : the l’sandburg fic. foolish centric; badlands post-egg healing arc in which they all move onto his house. very canon-typical tone; silly and crack-y but with genuine feeling. 5k

treatise on sin and vice by the_g_m : quackity and tommy and their relationship w religion (scriptfic). 7k

plate of primes by chrysalizzm : poem about tommy. <1k

hunger by Anonymous : probably the only E-rated fic i’m including. wilbur/quackity, LN-era, wilbur provokes quackity into hurting him by pretending to be dream, it’s . fic of all time. 11k

i'm not calling you a liar by Anonymous : jk i lied. also E-rated, wilbur/quackity, LN-era. by the same author as the previous rec, similarly dead dove. lives in my brain forever. 13k

the ckarl mpreg fic by the_g_m : karl doesn’t actually get pregnant in this one. they just want him to. karlnapity, script format, crack treated seriously. 2k

sink secluded by angeloncewas : niki and wilbur, pogtopia. <1k

best laid plans by zannolin : some gentle h/c for revivebur with ranboo and tommy. a bit of a comfort food but in a good way, at least for me. 5k

said the rabbit to the badger by zannolin : crimeboys talk about exile. inconsolable differences fixit. 3k

i can’t stand your taste in my mouth by orphan_account : a really intense but also very good pogtopia-era wilbur character/relationship study. 5k

where to find a silver lining (as the mercury keeps rising) by angelsdemonsducks : cwilbur eggpocalypse fic! 10k

the sea is rising by chrysalizzm : desolation avatar purpled. <1k but the series is longer

Blood Games by ghostdrinkssoda : q centric hurt-no-comfort that has some karlnapity but also engages with q as a bad person. 7k

where lies the strangling fruit by katsidhe : prison arc angst/whump. pretty heavy; mind the tags. sam & q & dream. 34k, unfinished

agatha by headlikeahole : wilbur's suicide note. collage/digital art. <1k

Tier X̅ by Pegasister60 : purpled's limbo is an empty bedwars map. 2k

one last lie for old times' sake by curseworm, VenetaPsi : wilbur tries to apologize to quackity before killing himself. quackity isn't having it. 18k

[tropetember]

[Image description. Image reads “Tropetember”, in the background, a picture of a mug placed on an open book in front of a blanket invokes a cozy feel. End id] Thanks to @supericelight​ for the image description!

We’ve tried to answer as many common questions as possible below, but if there’s anything else you want to know, our ask box is open.

How do I post my work to the Tropetember AO3 Collection?

When you go to post a new work in AO3, there will be a section that says ‘Post to Collections / Challenges’. In the field next to it, type ‘Tropetember 2024’.

Do I have to post my work to AO3, or can I just post it to Tumblr, or a different site?

You can post your work wherever you like! As long as you make a submission through our Submissions form, or mention us @tropetember in your own post including either the link to wherever the fanwork is hosted, OR the text of the fic, we will post it.

You can also post only to the AO3 collection if you don’t want your work on Tumblr.

How do I tag/format my submission to the blog?

The most important thing is to check the box for #R-tropetember if your fic is NS/ FW (AO3 rating of M or E).

You can also choose from the other checkboxes to tag your work, but please make sure to use these responsibly and correctly! For example, don’t check all of the different types of media unless your work genuinely falls under these categories. Each submission needs to be individually checked and posted by the mods, so please don’t make our job harder - we’re already putting in many hours of work!

Incorrectly tagged works will have all nonessential tags removed and will therefore not show up in the search results.

Please make sure to include your fic’s TITLE, TROPE & SHIP (if applicable). For ship fics, the commonly accepted ship name (main ship only) should be included in brackets after the title, if you know it, and also the main trope/prompt(s) you used in the fic.  Any further courtesy or content warnings are appreciated, but not required.

What do I do if my submission isn’t posted?

Give us 24 hrs to post your submission - both of us work, so we aren’t always online. If it’s been longer than that, it’s either Tumblr screwiness or human error, so please do send us a message or ask so we can check we received it. We want to post all your submissions!

What kinds of fanworks are allowed?

Anything and everything! You can post fic, art, craft, fanvids, playlists, original music, audio, or whatever you like, as long as it fits a trope.

Can I skip some days?

Absolutely. You can do as many or as few days as you wish.

Why are there multiple prompts listed for each day? Do I have to combine them, or can I just pick a single one?

We listed various prompts for each day to give everyone as much choice as possible. You definitely aren’t expected to combine them (but you can if you want!).

Is Tropetember open to any fandom, character or ship?

Yes, it is! Feel free to create content for whichever fandom you want, including crossovers.

What if I miss the day for the prompt I want to do? Can I do the prompts out of order?

It doesn’t matter if you miss the specific day - please go ahead and write the prompt that caught your eye! Feel free to do any of the prompts on any day of September.

What if I’m late and don’t finish before the end of September?

We’ll be allowing late entries for one week after September 30th. If you miss that deadline, the AO3 collection will remain open until the one for next year is up and you can still post your works there.

Can the fills for the prompts be a new chapter of an existing fic, or part of an existing series?

Yes, that’s fine with us. Go ahead!

Can I combine the prompts with another event or bingo?

Absolutely!

Will you reblog NS/FW or controversial material?

Yes, in general we will. However, anything NS/FW or particularly controversial will be tagged with 'R-tropetember’ at the mods’ discretion. Please make sure to block this tag if you don’t want to see NS/FW content.

We will also attempt to tag works with any other relevant tags for blocking, including the ship name if possible. However, we won’t necessarily read all works ourselves, so we won’t be able to tag for all work content. Please heed the AO3 tags.

Remember the first rule of fandom: ship and let ship. :)

Why do you post and reply at strange times?

We don’t live in the USA, so our time zones are different. :) One of us is European and the other is Australian.

What’s with #27, “gay panic”? Isn’t that a discriminatory legal defence that allows for hate crimes against LGBTQIA+ people?

We (the mods) are both members of the LGBT+ community and we are very much aware of our gay history and the way this term has been used against people like ourselves. However, this phrase has a history of being thoroughly reclaimed by fanfic authors, with use dating back well prior to our own entry into fandom (and we’re old enough to remember the days of Livejournal, Wordpress and Fanfiction.net!) Feeling an initial sense of panic over one’s sexuality is something that is highly relatable to most people in the LGBTQIA+ community and that most of us have experienced, and the use of the phrase “Gay Panic” to describe a crisis of sexuality is part of our intertwined communities’ history.

~

Welcome to Tropetember!

Tropetember Prompt List

Tropetember Hard Mode Prompt List

[tornrose24]

You mentioned that the “daughters” serve as representatives and do other tasks in the re x Disney crossover.

What kinds of responsibilities do they do? Do they wear fancy dresses or outfits for special occasions?

The responsibilities vary, depending on what their houses specialize in (I haven’t finalized this yet).

Vanessa–since her dad is in charge of the technical stuff in the village (when he’s not building his ‘inators’) she’s in charge of observing and reporting stuff back to him, and–since I caught that she apparently has some technical knowledge–she can do some jobs if it’s within her ability. Since she lives with her mom in the village half the time, it’s a pretty easy gig. As stated before, nearly everyone likes her more than her dad and will listen to her word. She’s as well respected as her ‘Aunt’ Eclipsa–the most favored of the lords.

Luz–Is tasked with delivering tonics that Eda made (Eda’s actual role in the village is kept top secret) or just telling Eda what she observed for the day. Unbeknownst to most villagers, Eda will gleefully scam anyone who is deemed a jerk (or too subservient to Belos) and have Luz give out fake tonics instead. Otherwise, she will have Luz appear in her place in a lot of public appearances partly because she can’t at the time due to her mutation going out of control, and other times due to sheer laziness.

Molly–Scratch just lets her leave and do her own thing, which is help the community out however she can, as long as it doesn’t do anything that could get her in serious danger. Plus it’s one of the few ways he can ensure that she can see her true family more often. (Scratch’s actual role in the village is also kept a top secret, but I haven’t figured out what his ‘day job’ is yet). Speaking of which, much like Eda, Scratch will get lazy and just have Molly appear in his place for public events if it’s for something he doesn’t care for. Which is a lot.

Meteora–I think if Eclipsa is seen by some as the true ruler of the village, she’d be in charge of tax collecting and hearing people out, as well as throwing parties. If Meteora was of age, she would be helping out, but now she’s just a baby.

In general– The girls are expected to show up for festivities and any holiday events or parties thrown at Eclipsa’s castle. If there’s an incident that requires all four lords, they can stand in for their family and report back to them. 

-The only exceptions is if Belos needs to directly speak to all four lords, or if there’s a trial involving a serious crime in the village. They also are not allowed to carry out sentences–that’s up to the lords themselves.

-You have a chance of earning a boon or favor with a lord if any of the daughters take a liking to you. The likelihood varies depending on which daughter.

-If the daughters are by themselves, no harm is allowed to come to them. Otherwise the lords will gladly retaliate with their own favored brands of punishment, regardless of which domain the crime is committed. (If you commit a crime in a specific territory that belongs to a lord, they have the right to punish you however they deem fit. Hurt their children ANYWHERE in the village and they get automatic dibs. Pray for mercy that you are only humiliated at best.)

-Unfortunately, Belos had that above rule set in place because he only sees the girls as valueable test subjects who can birth more children and less as actual individuals.

-As for special outfits, they are just expected to dress nicely for a lot of events. If it’s for one of Eclipa’s parties, then formal wear is required.

- However, Vanessa and Meteora wore special outfits when they were ‘baptized’ in Belos’ church for their baptism ceremonies when they were born. Same with Molly and Luz when their ‘adoptions’ were turn into ceremonies at the church. In all four cases, the outfits were white– White baptism gowns, and white adoption robes. (Considering Belos’ backstory in TOH, I could see him obsessed with using white as ‘proof of purity.’ It’s something that might seem innocent on a surface level, but is kind of messed up if you think about it.)

-And yes, those ceremonies are a HUGE deal in the village, given how important the four houses are–it’s probably not as grandiose as a royal family’s, but it’s pretty damn close.

-Side note about those ‘adoption ceremonies:’ Most of the villagers assumed the girls were getting a high honor in being adopted into families that would give them wealth and prestige as well as titles. Their actual families were–understandably–pissed about the whole thing because they knew that there was a reason they were having to basically give up their daughters and they couldn’t even be told why.

-All four ceremonies were mandatory–you couldn’t make it a private affair. Belos made sure of it. (And the only lord who was entirely happy about his daughter's ceremony was Doof.)

[kbirbpods]

Voiceteam 2024 has brought about the need for a new pinned Dear Podficcer Letter! This is kind of a year-round one of sorts for ease of access. This are the fandoms/tropes/etc that I always love, not just what I am hyperfixated on! For events I tend to focus on hyperfixations + always have the section about what I will make outside of my wants ~

So, please look below the cut for my general letter.

Recent-ish letters: Purimgifts '24 | ITPE '23 | Summer Swap '23

Things I Like, Regardless of Fandom:

THEMES: trans/nonbinary characters (extra points for neopronouns); gender exploration in general; found family (genfic or otherwise); angst with a happy ending; polyamory; good asexual or aromantic representation; genfic

TROPES: fix-it fics!! extra points for time travel or time loops in fix its; fake dating/marriage; mutual pining; soulmates (AU or just clearly soulmates); crack treated seriously; rivals-to-friends/lovers; oops only one bed; secret identities

CROSSOVERS!

AUs: soulmates soulmates soulmates; regency era (or any different era); modern AU; crossovers, provided i know the other fandom or the fic doesn’t require knowledge of the other fandom!; college/sport AU; fantasy/fae AUs

Star Wars AUs/Tropes (yes they need their own categories): no Order-66/Order-66 happens differently; force sensitive clones; Jon Antilles lives; [insert clone here] lives; Anakin doesn’t fall; Palpatine dies; Domino Squad Lives; force sensitive Leia; modern AUs; trans clones

PODFIC SPECIFIC: anything epistolary (texting/chat fics especially but letters and such are also fun to explore); including music / SFX if you’re comfortable; including bloopers if you have them/are comfortable exposing them

RATINGS: Contrary to popular belief I do not hate explicit fics so really any rating but I generally prefer G-M because I can be picky about what explicit content I’m absorbing.

Do Not Wants (triggers, squicks, please no):

major archive warnings (major character death is okay so long as it’s temporary and resolved); unhappy endings; I really don’t like pregnancy, which includes MPREG (I like omegaverse dynamics minus that aspect) - kidfic is cool I just don’t want pregnancy as a theme & especially not graphic depictions of it; suicide/self-harm “on screen” (mentions of past suicidal ideation/self harm are fine if not a flashback/graphic); non-/dub-con or any depictions of rape (once again, recovery is okay if done well); adult/minor relationships or relationships with unaddressed/starkly imbalanced power dynamics; any sort of poorly depicted mental health tropes (no BPD or other personality disorder bashing, no institutionalization, no “split personality” as a trope) - i really like explorations of PTSD/trauma but it has to be handled with fidelity and gentleness; and I have a random trigger about cockroaches

as a note: I do not like slave!fic but acknowledge that the situation of the clones is, at it’s core, a form of slavery. so while i ask for slave!fic AUs to be fully avoided, I do appreciate fics that tackle that aspect of the Clone Wars series with tact, fidelity, and honesty.

Fandoms & Characters I Would Love to Receive:

Star Wars: I love so much Star Wars that to split them like I did on AO3 would make this post too long. I think it’s easiest to say this: I prefer Clone Wars, Rebels, Rogue One/Andor, anything about Jon Antilles, anything about Hevy & the Domino Squad, anything Ahsoka Tano, Mandalorian culture (including Din & Grogu content!), and Mandoa as a language.

My main ships are: Cody/Obi-Wan, Kallus/Zeb, Hevy/anyone (consensual), Finn/Poe or Finn/Poe/Rey, blackkat rarepairs (mainly Jon Antilles/anyone), Jon Antilles & Fay (platonic), Waxer/Boil, Fives/Echo, Kanan/Hera, Quinlan/Fox(/Jon), Quinlan/Obi-Wan(/Cody), & Fox/Bail/Breha [also Clone OC ships!!] My favorite characters are: Hevy, Fox, Cody, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, Leia, Poe, Fives, Luke, Jon Antilles, Fay (Legends)

Ted Lasso: My favorite ships are Roy/Keeley/Jamie, Ted/Trent, Roy/Keeley, and Jamie/Dani. Ted & Rebecca as platonic soulmates/besties in general. I love explorations of how much Dr. Jacob sucks and fix-its for the ending!

Batfam/DC: I can be picky and yet not? Basically, I just prefer no inner-Batfam fics of the boys because I truly view them as brothers. Jason is my boy forever & always. My favorite ships are Jason Todd/Roy Harper(/Kori), Dick Grayson/Wally West, Harley/Ivy, Tim Drake/Kon, Tim/Bernard, Tim/Kon/Bernard, and Wally/Artemis from Young Justice. This is the fandom that I specifically am obsessed with found family in. – I love exploring Alfred being the boys’ Grandpa and Bruce’s complex dadhood!

The Locked Tomb: I’m definitely Gideon/Harrow on main; I really like fics where one or both of them are trans/nonbinary. Nona is my favorite character so explorations of her found family (the household or the friends or all of them) are important to me. Cam/Pal is important to me. I love modern AUs a lot.

Our Flag Means Death: Obviously Blackbeard/Stede is a big deal and I ship it forever. But my heart belongs to Jim/Olu and any explorations of Jim’s gender identity! Pining Izzy Hands makes me weak, as long as he’s not being abusive towards Edward or Stede, so Izzy/Ed or Izzy/Ed/Stede is always choice.

ATLA: Always and forever a Zuko/Sokka shipper, specifically obsessed with found family in this, gen fic exploring the universe at all is super important to me!!!

All for the Game: Jean/Jeremy forever and always. I will always always eat up Jerejean fics. Of course Andrew/Neil. Renee/Allison. Andrew/Neil/Kevin is perfection. And really just... Gen fics around the Foxes or Trojans will always bring me so much joy.

A RARE ASK: I am super into both Dragon Age & Mass Effect. The former is much easier to find fandom for and there are a lot of fics with blanket permission statements. For Dragon Age, DA:O is my favorite (especially Alistair) or any sort of Hawke!centric fics. But in April 2024 I became re-obsessed with Mass Effect & anticipate it lasting a while. My rare ask is for Mass Effect fics - specifically Shep/Garrus or Shep/Liara (or them as a triad). Or gen fic!! But I feel like I am on an island here lol

MISC OTHERS: The Old Guard; First Kill; The Adventure Zone (Balance & Amnesty); Red, White and Royal Blue; Good Omens; The Tarot Sequence; Teen Wolf; Fallout (New Vegas, Fo4, & the show); Legend of Zelda; and Buffy (especially genfic & crossovers).

Authors with BP that I love, as a starting point:

Flowerparrish, trixree, wanderingjedihistorian, hoebiwan, blackkat, cac0daemonia, elismor_aswell, SunsetsOverLA, friendoftheJabberwock

[guardianbingo]

Announcing Guardian Bingo 2023!

Announcing Guardian Bingo 2023!!

Due to popular demand, the fest is continuing into 2023, though with a few minor changes.

Much of the fest will remain the same. Guardian Bingo will continue to be a low-stress fest with an emphasis on fun and enjoyable creation.

Whether you are new or returning from 2022, we would love to have you join us. (Returning participants have the option to keep working on their 2022 card.)

Full info about signups and other things to know are below the cut.

Cards/Signups

Participants from 2022 will have the option to sign up for a new card or choose to continue with the card they are already using. If you like your card and want to keep working toward a blackout on it, then you don’t have to lose the progress you’ve made. If the old card isn’t very inspiring or you want a fresh start, we’ll be happy to provide a new one.

New participants will obviously get a new card.

Badges

Remain the same as in 2022. The majority of participants did not claim all badges during 2022, so we’re keeping them as-is to allow more people can earn them.

Social Media Presence

In 2023, Guardian Bingo will only operate a fest account on Tumblr.

In 2022, the fest had both Tumblr and Twitter accounts, but due to Twitter’s recent chaos and tehfanglyfish’s need to have one less login to keep up with, the fest is going Tumblr-only. That’s where we’ll post announcements, reblog creations, etc.

If you are mostly active on another site, we’ll have submissions open so you can submit links to your creations on our Tumblr account and everyone is welcome to participate regardless of whether or not you’re active on social media.

Tagging

Please use #guardianbingofest as your tag on Tumblr. Or better yet, just @ us at @guardianbingo. Sometimes Tumblr tagging works in search results and sometimes it doesn’t. We don’t want to miss your creations!

Bonus Prompts

Will also continue, although there will not be a new prompt for January. Instead, that month will still serve as a time to submit missed prompts from 2022. Then a new prompt will go out in February.

Creations For Fills

The rules remain unchanged from 2022. While some information is posted below, our About/FAQ and carrd both have full details.

What Works Are Accepted?

Pretty much any new creations, including:

Fanfic

Fanart

Edits/Gifsets

Vids

 Moodboards

 Playlists

Rec Lists

FanARTifacts (tangible creations)

Podfics (with original author’s permission and a link back)

Translations (with original author’s permission and a link back)

Meta Analysis

If you have another idea, check in with the mods, but it very likely works.

What Are The Length Requirements?

None! This is meant to be fun, not stressful. Want to write a 100k multi-chapter epic? Sounds great! Is this the year you master the drabble? Also wonderful! The point is to make stuff, not worry over min/max requirements.

Is This Fest Novelverse or Drama?

Either or both! It’s totally up to you, though some of the prompts are more closely tied to one or the other. (If you get a card with a drama or novel specific prompt that you are unfamiliar with, let a mod know when you receive the card.)

Crossovers, Derivatives, And RPF?

All three are allowed, but please be aware that some prompts will be Guardian-specific.

What About Ships And Ratings?

All ratings and any ships (or no ships) are allowed, though works should be appropriately tagged.

Questions

Please direct questions to guardianbingofest@gmail.com or our Tumblr account. Replies may be a little faster with email.

Mods

Coordinator and Logistics – tehfanglyfish

Badges and Graphics – highlynerdy

Prompt Coordinator - sasamelons

[autistic-katara]

ok so tags, tags r so confusing and idk why

ok so the tags do seem confusing but they’re actually pretty simple (i’m gonna talk abt this through the lens of searching for fics btw)

so when u click on a tag and click filter (which is normally how i look for fics) the filters are split into 3 sections

include, exclude, and more options. and if u look at them they have subsections, the subsections for include and exclude being the same, and i’ll explain what the subsections are below

so this is ratings. all of the filter tags thingys are sorted by how many fics there are tagged/rated like this in this tag, in this case i clicked on the Stranger Things fandom tag and that’s the results (don’t think i rlly need to explain what the ratings mean or anything). when including stuff u can only select one (obviously) but u can filter out multiple

next is the warnings, all fics r required to have at least one but u can add multiple. think these r all pretty self explanatory except underage which either means underage sex or underage SA (or possibly smthn more broad but i’m pretty sure it’s one of those, more certain that it’s underage sex in general) also no warnings and creator chose not to use warnings are 2 different things, if something is tagged creator chose not to use warnings then it could mean it has major character death or violence or whatever but the author didn’t wanna add a warning for some reason so be sure to check the tags.

next is categories, this is about the different kinds of relationships in it. for f/f, f/m, and m/m f stands for female and m stands for male so they’re about sapphic, straight, and achillean relationships respectively. gen means no romantic/sexual relationships and multi means there r multiple kinds of relationships (e.g a fic where one of the relationships in the fic is lesbian while another is straight). other i think is just for stuff that doesn’t rlly fit in any of the other categories, like for example if it was [character]/gn reader (put a pin in the / we’ll come back to it later)

up next is fandoms. now from here on all the things that show up in the filters aren’t the only options, they’re just the top 10. i don’t rlly have anything to say on this bit so i’ll just move on.

next is characters, if u want a character to be in the fic ur reading u can filter in their tags. don’t rlly know what else to say on this other than again these r only the top 10 and i’ll talk abt a way u can search for others in a minute.

next, relationships. if u want/don’t want a certain relationship to be in the fic u can filter them here. also remember how i told u to put a pin in that /? well yeah this is very important to remember: a / between 2 characters is a romantic or sexual relationship and an & is a platonic/familial/etc. relationship. srsly u don’t wanna mix them up.

and last in the include/exclude section is additional tags. this is for just everything that would be tagged that isn’t any of the other stuff. like any AUs, if it’s got smut/angst/fluff/whatever, any extra warnings that weren’t in the big warnings section (e.g a suicide attempt or homophobic language), if it’s a smut the specifics about what kinda stuff they’re doing, etc.

but we aren’t completely finished in this section because we still have:

this thing is just what u would use if a tag u wanted to read/block wasn’t in the top 10 of their category of this tag. u can just type it in here and it’ll probably come up but if it doesn’t u can just press enter and it’ll still work.

and that’s all for include/exclude but there’s still more options so i’ll get into that

first is crossovers. pretty self explanatory, exclude crossovers means all fics that come up will only have one fandom, show only crossovers will include only fics that have multiple fandoms, and include crossovers shows both.

completion status. completion status is (obviously) about whether a fic is complete or not. if a fic’s chapter count is like this: 7/7 it’s complete, if it’s like this: 7/16 or 7/? it’s not, and the filtering is pretty self explanatory.

word count. if u want to read something idk shorter with a quicker payoff or longer with more content or whatever reason u can filter the word count. how it works is for example if u put 7000 in the “from” area and 20,000 in the “to” area all the fics would have 7000-20,000 words.

date updated. if u don’t wanna read fics from before/after a certain date u can put the date into this and filter it (e.g i recently watches itsv and wanted to read abt my boy Miles but haven’t yet watched atsv so i put atsv’s release date into the “to” section so none of the fics would have spoilers).

and finally there’s this thing which i honestly have no idea how to use so yk.

there’s also a way to filter only one language in incase u don’t wanna be scrolling and find a rlly good fic only to find out it’s another russian fic or whatever and a way to change what order fics come in (latest updated first, latest posted, most kudos, etc.)

anyways yeah hope this was helpful and made sense and if ur confused by anything just ask and srry if u meant how to tag ur fics not how to use the tagging system to search if u meant that just tell me and i could explain that too if u want and yeah happy writing :)

[gryffindorhealer]

WIP tag

Thanks for the tag @takearisk-ao3 Y'all gotta keep tagging me in this kind of stuff cause it really lights a fire under my butt to write.

Rules:

List the titles your top five priorities for WIP updates (link your fics for new readers!) An upcoming scene, event, or detail in each fic that you’re looking forward to writing Bonus: make a poll for your followers to vote on which top 5 WIP they are most excited to see an update on! Then tag 10 writer friends!

Top 5 priorities for WIPs Well. Hmm. This may depend on the way one defines Work in Progress. Partly this is due to me not starting to post a fic (multichapter, specifically) until the first draft is done, and I'm done editing enough chapters to stay ahead of the curve. I made this decision some time back; far too much time for my taste elapsed between Proposals Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

That said, the work I'm currently posting is Mystic Dream. I posted Chapter 15 yesterday (1 March), and this is a bit past the numerical halfway point. It's a crossover: Ginny and Harry Potter are on a quiet bus-man's holiday with the boys off to Hogwarts and their daughter staying with her grandparents. She's interviewing American magical athletes for a book she's working on, he's attending an International Law Enforcement conference (with a magical, secret track). What could go wrong? Obviously, something, and since there's a dead American sailor involved, so is Special Agent In Charge Leroy Jethro Gibbs of NCIS. The question is, post a snippet, or a link, or both? It's a WiP in this sense; it's finished (or mostly, minor edits may or might not be happening), and I'm posting one chapter a week.

Snippet, I think. After all, I linked to the fic in the Posting Friday post. In this chapter, they are at a formal dinner-dancing event, and Harry's just asked Ginny how she likes her dinner selection:

She shrugged, ‘It’s good. Not sure Mum would approve of it, but then she doesn’t cook many Italian dishes.’ She winked at him. ‘Doesn’t match your lasagna.’

‘Mr. Potter cooks?’ Bishop blanched slightly at the surprise in her voice, particularly when Patil, Mags, and Gary all exclaimed.

‘His breakfasts are to die for,’ Mags exclaimed, curved fingers touching her lips in a chef’s kiss.

‘He’s surprisingly good at barbecue as well,’ added Patil. Gary chuckled at the expression on Bishop’s face.

‘I can make a passable meal, but Harry’s the cook in our family. You should hear our children complain when he’s home but I make dinner,’ Ginny laughed. Bishop looked at Harry, who shrugged.

‘Benefit of a misspent youth, I suppose,’ he said, grinning, then attacked his steak and kidney pie.

Now, for other priorities, if you call plotting and researching (plus all the other bits and pieces involved in writing) as Work in Progress, I've got three others I'm working on.

Skyclad: I hinted at this one in a later chapter of Dreaming a Life, when Luna visits the Potters at their home in Wales. Luna and Rolf decided it's finally time (what with twins and all) to formally declare their relationship. And, Luna being Luna, it's happening on actual Midsommer's Day, in a very traditional ceremony, that requires a very specific dress code. Or, would it be more accurate to say, undress code…

It's mostly notes so far. Here's a paragraph that is written:

If someone flying a small, private airplane at no great altitude along the western shoreline of Cymyran Bay, even being attentive to their surroundings so as not to collide with either other airplanes or birds, they might well see a small family step out of their brick cottage. They might see a very pretty woman walking with a toddler, both of them with fiery red hair that rivaled the lowering sun. Behind her might be walking a russet-haired boy, waving some toy (possibly a spaceship?) through the air as he walked. And not far behind them, a handsome man with another, younger boy, both of them with a shock of messy raven-black hair. All of them appeared to be wearing dressing gowns. This might bring the pilot of this airplane to presume the smaller building they walked towards, which resembled some far-eastern house or pavilion, to be a bath house.

A Scene I'm looking forward to writing for this one:

Well, I don't want to spoiler too much. There are two. The scene when Harry discovers exactly what the dress code is. And the scene after the ceremony, when Ginny gets to point out to him that yes, once again, she's right.

The next one is Loving Vigil:

Still quite newlyweds, Ginny's busy with the Harpies and Harry's on limited duty after a run-in on a mission with Kedavra Hornets. So he's charged by both Gawain Robards Head Auror, and Kingsley Shacklebolt Minister of Magic, to oversee the training of a new Corps for the Aurors. Field Healer Corps. He doesn't need to teach the Healing parts, because Minister Shacklebolt arranged for an expert in that to help, Gary Gillies, RCMP (Royal Canadian Magical Police) Field Healer. Here's the start:

In a world known for people accepting some rather outlandish clothing, he stood out like a sore thumb.

He strode out of the floo absolutely unphased by the spinning effects of the travel, the heels of the knee-high brown boots (so highly polished they reflected the aged oak floor of the Ministry Atrium) tapping a drum-like cadence as he marched towards the Security Check-in, silver un-rowled spurs flashing in the morning light. Midnight blue breeches flared wide above those boots, a yellow stripe running up the outside of both legs. His scarlet red serge tunic robe caught a number of eyes, all shiny brass buttons and gold badges at the corners of the high collar. Only a few individuals spotted the badges on both epaulettes; a crown over a caduceus. He nodded a friendly greeting to those that caught his eyes, even with his quite businesslike demeanor.

There are a few scenes in this one I'm looking forward to writing, including when Harry brings his new associate and his partner/wife along to Ginny's first birthday party after they've tied the knot.

Third,

Kreacher: He's one of my favorite characters, one that truly does have a redemption arc in canon. When Harry promises to do what Kreacher could not and complete his beloved Master Regulus' last order to destroy the Evil Locket, when he gifts Kreacher the decoy locket, Kreacher finds he can truly respect this new Master. What Kreacher never expected (since the need never arose in his long lifetime in service to the House of Black), is his Master ordering Kreacher to teach Master about the ins and outs of Magical Society that Hogwarts doesn't teach. It's a difficult assignment, someone has to do it, and Kreacher's been ordered to do so.

I'm still outlining the Professor Kreacher stories, but you can see Kreacher featuring in six of my stories, stipulating that one of those is a crossover AU. This still means in five of them, this lovable curmudgeon plays some part in moving things along. In Eloped - Sort Of I wrote his first appearance, and hinted at much more to come.

Kreacher looked around as the Colours in the walls began to glow a tad brighter. “Seven generations of the House of Black Kreacher served, and now the first of Potter-Black.” Stretching a bit to ease the aches in his joints, brought on no doubt by the day of rain, the thought that with a bit of luck he would see the next generation arrive for him to serve warmed his bones. He resumed his walk to his room, looking at the portraits with which Master Harry had replaced the heads of the previous House Elves of the House of Black. He nodded to himself, pleased that Master found a means to honor the service of Kreacher's predecessors. It seemed odd, perhaps, that Master did not like being called that, but Sir sufficed to show proper respect for the Head of House. “Kreacher has served the Dead long enough. It feels good to serve Life again.”

Scene I'm looking forward to writing? Kreacher's reaction when ordered by Harry to teach him. There's just so much opportunity for a House Elf to dread needing to correct, and therefore offend his Master of the House.

Sorry, no poll. I'm not particularly enamored of them.

Tags: Right, here are some (maybe not the required number) @ginnyw-potter (because you tagged me too), @takearisk-ao3 @whinlatter @johnmchacker @nuninho2000 @rmwb-fanfics

[wtficedance]

hi, i’m a new figure skating fan and i’m unsure of who to ask and this isn’t really ice dance related so i completely get it if you don’t answer. during 4cc this year, there was a lot of talk about the altitude of colorado. how does the altitude affect skaters? i mainly saw it in relation to single skaters so does it affect jumps and such? or is it like a stamina thing, in which case it also affects ice dancers? thank you!

Q #199

Hi anon,

So skating requires a specific combination of cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, and muscular power. Power specifically referring to the ability to generate force as quickly as possible. When your body metabolizes sugars to create ATP for your muscles it can do it through two different pathways:

1. anaerobic

2. aerobic

Anaerobic referring to without oxygen and aerobic with oxygen. Now I’m not going to torture you with the Krebs cycle but the aerobic pathway is 18x more efficient than the anaerobic pathway which is known as glycolysis. However, when say you do a jump, an activity that requires more force and more fuel for your muscles to create that force, your blood isn’t transporting anymore blood (and therefore anymore oxygen) than normal. The cells in the muscles first use their immediate creatine phosphate stores and then undergo glycolysis to get ATP to produce this force.

After about 90-120 seconds, your body’s heart rate rises and the rate at which your circulatory system delivers oxygen to your muscles allows them to switch to aerobic respiration which is more efficient and doesn’t produce lactic acid. However, you then need to breathe more rapidly and more deeply to inhale enough oxygen to saturate your blood to meet that increased muscular demand. At altitude, there is physically less oxygen in the air. So you can inhale the same volume of air, maxing out how your lungs expand, but with less oxygen your body must compensate with increased blood pressure and heart rate and/or glycolysis.

If you’ve ever exercised at altitude or fully gotten altitude sickness, the lack of oxygen distribution to your limbs can make it feel like your legs are wading through jello or they’re literally about to collapse. Prolonged altitude exposure exercise like running a 10k, alpine or nordic skiing, playing a game of soccer, doing a long hike, etc. often leads to headaches, chest pain, lightheadedness, and dizziness. All of which are not great when you’re spinning, twizzling, and/or jumping very quickly. Sometimes, these symptoms can hit harder after finishing exercise and you can have a harder time breathing simply sitting or standing.

Skating has a unique combination of steady state cardio (stroking, crossovers), explosive power (jumps, landings, lift entrances), and high demand muscular endurance (step sequences, one foot sequences, holding spin positions, lifts). Typically, so while the first difficult elements done in those first 90 seconds of programs are relatively unaffected by altitude basic stroking and endurance elements like lifts, step sequences, and difficult spin positions demand a lot more oxygen that’s not there. Elevated heart rate, increased breath rate, and glycolysis in the leg muscles to increase metabolic availability can lead to cramps, dizziness, and general muscle weakness, and explosive elements near the end of programs can simply not have enough oomph to cross the finish line.

I would say the discipline most affected by altitude is pairs because it has by far the most endurance elements as lifts last far longer than ice dance, and the most dangerous if someone gets a cramp or their muscles give out midlift. In singles, a skater might pop if they don’t have enough lift off on a jump landing but generally unless they get very dizzy or disoriented it’s not as much of a safety issue. Ice dance the biggest issues usually appear in lifts and step sequences as skaters get sloppy and don’t have the energy to bend their knees and extend fully. But unless dancers are visibly tripping or wobbly whether that’s reflected by the tech panel is up to politics.

Hope that answers your question!

[yvtro]

So, you brought this up in a recent post "his moral code that focuses on killing off only the worst brand of criminals". I am curious what your stance on this take is then.

Namely, I never felt Jason was over focused on a "Kill the worst criminals" ideology, he's not some Punisher analogue or wasn't in UTRH & the GA Crossover.

Instead, while I do think there's certain figures who he thinks crossed too many lines to be worth keeping around. That is ideology was focused on killing as a power move for control.

IE, he didn't kill those eight lieutenants cos they were particularly immoral, he killed them to establish control over their bosses and gangs.

He kills strategically to accomplish his goals and is largely utilitarian about it, at least in UTRH. This doesn't gloss over his claims of a moralistic element.

IE he left several gangs that primarily exploit children and trafficked people out of his recruitment drive and then killed them all with Onyx that one time.

But as a general rule I always took it that when written in UTRH, his stance was less "I am killing you because its moral" and more "I am killing you because it to my goals."

this is such a multi-layered question, i love it.

i think i hinted at it, but i believe that the focus on the worst criminals is a reading that is more of a wishful thinking interpretation rather than what is actually going on in utrh. and i’m actually sympathetic to it, because it aims to reconstruct the canon to make jay’s characterisation closer to his pre-death personality. it might also be in part based on jason’s monologue in the finale, especially on “i’m not talking about scarecrow or penguin. HIM. just him” bit, but if we want to stay faithful to the text (which i actually don’t. but i am willing to play with it for the time) this is jason’s request for bruce rather than what guides his own actions!

in reality, i agree that jason’s killing in utrh seems to be more strategic. having said that, it being strategic and being part of a plan (a plan that also has some more personal aims) doesn’t mean it’s devoid of moral motivations. and in these terms, i think it’s simply utilitarian rather than based on specific evaluations of each person. and utilitarianism is an ethical theory, even if certain versions of it accommodate treating people as means. so jay might have some extensive plans and commit deeds that seem (and imo are) vile, but it’s all for the “greater good” (sorry for a simplistic and bastardised definition of utilitarianism, but i doubt anyone cares about it here.) so, in short: jason’s murders are supposed to lead to maximising “moral” profit and protection of the innocents. (i would joke here that unfortunately he missed lots of his maths education, but let's be real, his maths is excellent; the problem lays within the theory itself and the twisted in-world reality that dc editorial crafted)

having said so, i'd like to still give credence to a headcanon that even with the case of lieutenants he probably did a thorough check to make sure that they actually “deserved” death, even if i doubt he was very merciful in his judgement. and that’s already my own guess and not something that is visible in the text.

at the same time, while jason’s plan seems extremely calculated, i don’t think at the deepest level this is what he’s getting at in utrh. and i’m not even talking about bruce here and his own emotional needs, because that would require an entire essay; his plan is surely tied to his own emotional trauma (but not stemming only from it, as i said, he does care about gotham to a pathological extent), that most people have to agree with. but here i want to address the ethical layer of the problem.

i talk a lot about jason wanting to fix the world, but when it comes to utrh, this is obviously a certain mental shortcut: what jason thinks is that there’s no way to completely fix the world, but that it’s still within his responsibility to attempt to minimise the harm. you can’t eliminate crime, but you can (as you said) control it. or however he worded it. and i don’t reckon control here is just some personal power trip; i think he genuinely believes this is what has to be done to protect people. it’s a nice bridge in between his natural idealism and cynicism; he says: well, there’s lots of evil in the world and i can’t get rid of all of it. but i have to try to purge as much of it as possible. whatever it takes.

while i'm convinced this is the concept that came to life mostly due to winick’s complete disinterest in jason’s inner life and motivations, and because he tried to make him a perfect foil for bruce, it does bring in some intriguing considerations. if we want to reconcile this reasoning with jason’s og personality and sensitivity, i imagine it would take an unimaginable toll on him. it would be much easier for him to kill in rage, retribution etc., but this is a plan that despite coming from a place of delusional care and hope, requires detachment that is very out of character for him. it stands against everything he was as a robin; it requires him to kill a version of himself. (he can't even attain that detachment till the end, as his monologue is as emotional and true to himself as it gets. but at this point he no longer is just killing a part of himself, he's just killing himself, end of sentence)

this thought is very compatible with what i call the no good deed interpretation btw, according to which he sees his past, vulnerable self as weak, and attempts to leave it behind, while creating his new identity to be untouchable. in a similar manner, he also manipulates his own worldview to make it seem like it’s impossible to help people while caring. this is an intensely paradoxical view, especially that his main motivation is still love, and yet in his eyes it's like a parasite.

it’s also tied to something that makes me think that in the end the utilitarian dimension is not actually the main (sole) feature of his moral disposition in utrh. what is the core of it is self-sacrifice, something that i talk about in this post.

btw this is not what i think the best course of jason’s moral development is. i’m not even deadset on this reading. it’s rather a possible interpretation of canon, that implements a patchwork of different moments in the continuity. and canon is free real estate.

[green-with-envy-phandom-event]

In-Depth Rules and Point System

Rules

Line artists:

We now require Discord to participate in this event (It's too hard on the mods otherwise).

Line artists may draw anything they want related to Danny Phantom except for sexual content. Let’s keep this event Teen/PG on that front.

If you want to draw gore, that’s totally acceptable, but it will not be assigned to a group and will only be worth bonus points. Please tag with #gore as well as more specific warnings so people aren’t blindsided.

Short, one-page comics will be allowed for this event.

Crossovers are allowed.

The maximum number of submissions will be 5 per artist.

Line art must be inked and have a transparent background layer. If you are unsure how to accomplish this, just ask. We'll help!

Your canvas size must be a minimum of 900 x 900 pixels and must cover at least 70% of the canvas to prevent things from getting too crunchy. Some people like to go ham with detail when they color, so we want to make sure that's possible for them.

Inked background objects/scenes are not required. If you want to submit just characters, that's fine. If you want to submit characters and a background, that's fine. If you want to only submit a background, also fine.

Even if your line art is complicated or has an optional special effect, you can only submit the file type png to the form. This is because the drive has limited space. There is, however, a spot in the form where you can tell colorists that you have those additional files available for anyone that wants to request them directly from you.

Your line art does not have to be made brand-new for the event, you can use a drawing you made before. This event accepts all line art that follows the rules and has not been previously submitted to Green With Envy (it has not appeared in a prior year’s competition).

If we feel we are receiving too much of a specific kind of entry, we reserve the right to stop accepting submissions following that theme. In the event that this occurs, we will put out a notification on both Tumblr and Discord explaining that line artists have 24 hours to submit anything they've already been working on that falls under the mentioned criteria. After that, we will no longer accept entries of that type.

When submitting artwork to the form, you can only submit one entry at a time.

For additional, specific questions about what you can and can't do with line art, please refer to the FAQ, or ask a mod!

Colorists:

We now require Discord to participate in this event (It's too hard on the mods otherwise).

Traditional coloring is also allowed as long as the artist prints off the line art, colors it by hand and re-scans it into the computer. Just please make sure to either use a dedicated scanner or take clear, well-lit pictures when submitting.

Colorists are not allowed to alter line art. The two exceptions to this rule are that the color of the line art can be changed and certain aspects can be changed to achieve special effects. Acceptable alterations are things like blurring (to show camera focus) or transparency (to show intangibility). If you want to do something specific and want to know if it's okay, let us know!

You can't color in a way that looks lineless. You can make the lines less noticeable through color changes, but we have to be able to see the original lines. We don’t want to make line artists feel like we hid their work, because they’re just as important to the event as the colorists!

You can change the amount of canvas space surrounding a line art as long as it doesn’t delete any of the line art. Making the background space appropriate in relation to the line art and your coloring idea is fine. You can crop or increase the canvas size around a line art as long as you don’t resize, delete or cut into the line art itself. For instance, you are not allowed to chop the line art into chunks and move those chunks around the canvas, but adding canvas so that you can create an elaborate background around a character-centered piece is totally fine.

If the line art you are coloring doesn't have a background scene included, and you have something in mind, feel free to make one.

If a piece seems like the coloring on it is too minimal, the artist will be asked to add more. (Half-baked effort just to score points is a no-go—the line artists put in a lot of work, too!)

****Only work that has gone through the official Colorist Submission Form (link incoming) will be worth points! So please make absolute sure that if you are a competitor your artwork is submitted there!

And when submitting artwork to the form, you can only submit one entry at a time.

Points System

Link to the video tutorial.

Line art that has not been colored before:

Is worth 15 points from the Regular category (if it's your team's assigned line art) and 17 points from the Gore category.

In the event that 2+ colorists gamble on the same, never-before-colored line art, the first to submit to the form will be awarded any bonus points. Everyone else will earn the standard 6 points (unless it is that individual's first time coloring it, in which case 2 bonus points apply, making that particular submission worth 8).

****There is an exception to these rules. See “Poaching” in Special Points/Exceptions.

Line art that has been colored before:

Is worth 6 points. Unless it is your first time coloring it, in which case that specific submission it is worth a bonus 2 points (for a total of 8 points)!

****There is one exception to this. See “Coloring Assigned Line Art” in Special Points/Exceptions.

If you want to submit multiple colorings for the same line art, go for it. Just remember that you only get the bonus 2 points the first time you color that line art, so repeats are worth 6.

Special Points/Exceptions:

Poaching:

Assigned line art can be colored by any team, including teams it was not assigned to. BUT! It is only worth 6 points to opponent teams, whether it’s been colored before or not (unless it is that individual's first time coloring it, in which case the bonus 2 points apply, making that particular submission for them worth 8). 

That is, until the event ends~

If another team fails to finish their assigned line arts by the end of the event AND you submitted the first coloring of that line art, then your submission is now worth 20 points for your own team. Congratulations! Your gamble paid off.

Poaching is allowed at any time, but cannot be counted until the event officially ends. For instance, if a team sees you color their assigned lineart early, they can always color that same line art and make sure you don’t get the poacher points. But on the flip side, if you wait too long to color, another opposing team might come along and whisk the prize right out from under your nose! Be crafty and cunning, dear colorist, or your pilfering will come to naught!

Coloring Assigned Line Art:

The first time a team colors one of their own assigned line arts (whether another team has colored it first or not) it is worth 15 points. Once it's been colored by the assigned team, all subsequent colors of that line art are now worth 6 points (unless it is that individual's first time coloring it, in which case 2 bonus points apply to that particular submission, making it worth 8 points).

A team that colors all their assigned line arts will get a bonus 15 points.

There will also be 5 bonus points awarded to any coloring that mods (not participating in the event) deem over-the-top in details and effort.

We will accept recommendations from participants of the event on additional colorings to include, but only if the rec is about another team's submission. A team cannot recommend its own submissions. (Artworks recommended by line artists have no such requirement.)

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