#everyone is an amateur writer at some point. doesn't mean you can't write it!!

[salty-an-disco]

I scourge through the main tag like a hungry raccoom and the bare mention of contrahero is a sure-fire way to get my 100% attention lol

so chances are… if you talk about contrahero in the stp tags, I WILL find you >:3 /lh /silly

an unspeakable tragedy has befallen me. i played slay the princess (really great amazing game everyone should play it immediately) and my favourite ship is contrarian x hero. and theres literallyyyyy 19 fics of them. i might have to just do it myself. i might have to write for this obscure weird rarepair. i know what has to be done but idk if im strong enough to do it

[stobotnikworld]

Sonic 3 - Wtf was that absolute shitshow ??

I'm sorry, but I'm sticking with what I said originally. This film was fucking awful. It was like a slightly better version of a Knuckles episode, but it felt like it had been written by some garbage fanfiction writer who had never heard of Sonic before, and directed by some amateur teenage art student who'd never read a book in their life, or learned how to film.

This is why I like writing my own fanfiction, and reading other people's, because once a franchise becomes cocky and turns on its head it's all the way down from there. Like WAY fucking down. Knuckles was just the beginning...

However fanfiction is exactly that. It's fanfiction, it stays within the fandom so it doesn't look like it's taking a shit on a franchise.

-

I'm putting this massive rant under the cut so that people can skip it if they want, but there is no way I'd see Sonic 3 again and I'm definitely not buying it when it comes out on Blu-Ray.

Sonic 4 is not going to be on my cinema views list after this. The way this franchise is going at the moment, it may not even be on my fanfiction writing list.

I am super glad that Sonic 3 smashed the box office though, the ammount of work Jim Carrey and Lee Majdoub put into the franchise. They deserve it, and the first two films were definitely worth any extra pay that will come from this film. They're wonderful people, wonderful actors, they deserve all the praise they get.

So I'm not trying to be a dick, and they have entertained us wonderfully, which I'm extremely grateful for and I know a lot of other people are too.

They are the only reasons why I still paid to see the film, even after thinking that it looked awful initially. The ammount of work and effort and time they put in, it's not asking a lot for me to support them by taking time out of my day to see their work.

In fact their work wasn't the problem. At any point.

-

I also respect that we all have our own opinions, and I don't want to keep talking about this from this point forth, so I'm not going to go out of my way to try and ruin it for others like a troll on social media etc.

But there are things that need to be said, and this is my Tumblr and my post to say it on, and that way if people want to skip it they can.

Then after this post, I won't get into conversation about it again because I don't want there to be negativity in the fandom, and tbh I really can't be arsed.

I just want to focus on enjoying what is left of Stobotnik, and salvaging what is left of my enjoyment of this fandom before I completely go off it. I feel like my brain has been sandblasted, and it's time I can't get back, and I'm dumber than before I saw the film.

From myself and the other fans who feels this way, fuck you to whoever designed this shitshow.

Whatever you did with this film, don't ever do it again.

EVER.

You are not invincible - you can fall overnight, just like any franchise can. Don't let that happen if you are actually serious about carrying on with this franchise.

The film opens with Shadow waking up in the tank and attacking all of GUN. After this point, 99% of the film had been shown (or misrepresented) in the trailers and clips to make it look a lot better than it actually was.

That was the first thing I noticed, and I mean LITERALLY 99% of the film had been shown throughout the year, almost as though it was a home-made fan film that people were funding out of their own pocket. Where the directors had never made a film before, and needed constant validation from the public that they were writing, filming and animating properly.

There was a whole different feel to this film because of that, and it was fucking weird - and not in a good way.

Everyone felt out of character (more on that later) and literally every tweet about everything Sonic related (fan suggestions and all etc) since the second film were probably staff members asking 'wtf do we do? We have no idea how to script.'

The development between Stone and Robotnik literally never happened. There were a couple of scenes (and I mean like, a couple) that had been shown in the trailers and spoiled through clips online, but literally everything you saw in the film had been put into the trailers and clips. So, watching it in the cinema felt like watching a pirated copy online because there was nothing left to see.

Every second, every scrap of film had been jammed into the trailers and clips to try and get the numbers in. It actually felt like massive scene cuts had been made, like 40 minutes had been cut PER SCENE.

It reminded me of The Last Of Us 2 where most of the game got cut because the staff weren't paid and went on strikes, so they replaced all the good content and jammed in all this budget crap instead from scraps on the cutting room floor.

The finished Sonic 3 film was super, super rushed, far too much crammed in with no depth, development or character exploration, and you could barely tell what was going on from one minute to the next. You know how long each scene was in the trailer? That is literally how long those scenes were in the film.

This film could have been split into a further three films if directed and written properly, with tons and tons of material and deleted scenes left over for the Blu-rays.

Literally 99.5% of the film had been uploaded onto YouTube through trailers, clips and 'theories' throughout the year, almost as though they were constantly checking to see what fans thought. Every tweet, every 'what if', every supposed character design right down to the last pixel, it was confirmation of what the film was going to be about...

If you took all the clips that are on YouTube and put them back to back, you have the entire film. Literally the entire film, I cannot emphasise that enough. Just.. why??? WHY?? What junior twat was responsible for this??

Even Carrey seemed wooden in many parts, and he's an amazing actor.

Everyone was super out of character, it felt like budget cuts had been made everywhere - even on the scrap toilet-newspaper the script had been written.

Tom and Maddy were complete strangers to Sonic, their lives had been cut from each others, the whole thing felt really fucking weird... It's like they had both abandoned Sonic as their child, and the look Maddie gave him in the hospital van was like serial killer eyes.

Like she had never met him before, didn't want the law to protect him, had no feeling towards him. She was cold, she had been so ready to dump Sonic at military school right there and then, just to see him be killed. Not even in a 'huge character mother/son tough-love development arc' kind of way. No, just.. fucking weird.

And WTF was with all the 2min scenes with different characters as though to go 'they're here in the film, but we're not paying them, they're purely appearing for SEO online.' I feel so bad for all the other actors who got shit on. I mean royally fucking shit on, especially the guy playing Commander Walters.

He was such a big character, his death was absolutely meaningless, was over in 2 seconds, no context, no respect, nothing. It almost felt like the other actors were volunteering unpaid. Or else they had been created from CGI and the offer of payment had never been available in the first place.

Was this a result from losing that much money from the Knuckles show because it was complete garbage that nobody wanted and didn't feel invested in?? Or was something else going on in the background? Because it felt like the only real acting going on here was to promote the film and behind the scenes to get people into the cinema to see it.

I mean.. this literally felt like the transition from beautiful watercolour handrawn Lilo & Stitch 1 to the garbage TV cartoon that destroyed the whole franchise.

Or from the fantastic Topcat 1950s show to whatever home-wrecking bullshit we have today. I cannot emphasise enough just how bad this script was, and everything in it.

I was left with more questions than answers after watching the film, and not good ones like 'hey I've got to write something or explore this situation, and I'm going to enjoy it in the process.' Just literally - WTF.

This film was so depressing and not for the supposedly emotional storyline - that it wasn't even, because the main storyline didn't exist.

Shadow had a few nice moments, but for a film that was supposed to be all about him and Maria he was barely in the film at all. They had 'Knuckled' him - which is what I'm calling it now when they take a shit on a character, like they have done all his life. For some really weird fucking reason, that's never been explained.

I mean.. I am so lucky that I watched a bit of the old Sonic cartoons before this film came out, otherwise I would have been like 'who tf is Shadow' and 'who tf is Maria' that's how little info there was.

We literally have no idea what happened to Sonic between films 2 and 3, and there were so many story errors... like with Sonic's cave. Like Tom had never seen it before - yet he and Maddy found all Sonic's shit from his cave in the first place and brought it home.

Tom and Maddy also didn't seem to give two shits whether he lived or died, and what chaos it could bring to their lives. Sonic is their KID, it's their job to protect him.

It's actually completely put me off the Sonic Live franchise now. I'm glad it kicked Disney's butt, they deserve it with all their paedophiles and rapists and nazi bullshit, but the Sonic film in itself? Completely weird, very uncomfortable, super rushed garbage.

Like a long TV episode that's been made up of 7 seasons, and then shoved together quickly so that there is no backstory and no room to explain, explore or feel. Every single thing the fans said throughout the last year or so, appeared in the film in almost exactly the words they said it. Zero creativity.

Zero, zero creativity. This is a film I would happily pay not to have to watch again. A definite straight to Blu-Ray, home film kind of thing. For £3.

The 2 seconds worth of Stobotnik (and I do say 2 seconds, because literally every tiny scene you see in the film is in the goddamn trailer or clips), was the only saving point - and I'm not saying that because I'm a Stobotnik fan. That was literally the only saving point...

That and Shadow and Maria's story that was like 2mins long, and had an ending that made no sense whatsoever...

[earlgreyhui]

hi! i just want to let you know that your writings inspire me to scribble down some of my thoughts, even though I'm not much of a writer myself... i like how it's written in a sense that the words bring so much color and depth to life!! i have been meaning to ask if you have any advice for someone like me who would like to try writing...do you have any recommended books about writing? thank you so much for reading, and i hope you are having a nice day! 💌

hey! thank you so much for your message, i'm so excited for you to write!!!

when it comes to writing, i'm an amateur myself, so i can only tell you about my personal experience. i'll tell you about my starting point, which is probably the same as pretty much everyone here. basically, it's this: if you like reading, you will be able to write. i read a lot of novels, i also used to read an equal if not greater amount of fanfiction, and for around ten years i wrote short and unoriginal things (almost 100% fanfic lol) that went nowhere, all under a thousand words, with very few exceptions.

so, writing at the earliest stage should be light and without pressure. be as cringe as you want. there's no secret to writing, and there is zero prerequisite knowledge aside from a basic communication ability in the language. by basic, i mean if you can carry on a conversation, you're fine. i don't believe in formulae or classes. i believe in tackling it in the most personal way you can. even now, unlike other skills like drawing and playing a musical instrument, i don't know about any basic skills or advanced techniques for writing, i just know about what i've seen before.

but if you wanted something implementable, not this wishy washy 'anyone can do it' stuff, the thing that i put into practice right now is that i read as much as possible and highlight passages that stand out to me. then read it slowly, read it out loud, pick it apart to the word level, keep what you need. it's a practice that only really has meaning once you can relate it to other writers' work, and remember it when you want to draw on a similar feeling. reading is like refuelling! art doesn't exist in a vacuum. you almost always need other people's ideas to stimulate your own. all together, human art is a fabulously elaborate network of interactions, a chain of responses that the people responded to may never see, which is surprising and moving. but don't get stuck doing this, always reading and preparing. please write at least one sentence ASAP. this is a psa to myself as well...

finally, books about writing. i've only read one, which i wouldn't necessarily recommend since it didn't do much for me, but it was Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. i shouldn't rec stuff i haven't personally read but you could try The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. it's a set of essays about writing which are beautifully done, of course, Annie Dillard is a maestro, though i can't speak to how helpful the essays might or might not actually be. Ursula K. Le Guin also has one or two books on writing—a very famous speculative/science fiction writer whom i am ashamed to admit i have not read... if anyone else has recommendations re: books about writing feel free to leave them under the post.

best of luck anon! if you ever feel comfortable, it would be my honour to read a piece of your writing, however near or far in the future :)

[mastrrt]

The Tigress Dilemma *fanfiction*

Usually, fanfic writers (such as I) have a hard time depicting complex characters such as Tigress, ergo this lack of this understanding about our characters can lead us to defile their original personalities and characteristics. I'm pretty sure most, if not, all of us are victims to the Tigress Dilemma, and this problem can only be resolved once Dreamworks has finished Tigress's arc. The Tigress Dilemma is basically what I mentioned above. We misinterpret Tigress and that could lead us to writing imposters instead. Now I have seen many fanfics, and all of them vary in the extent of how terrible their Tigress imposter is. I would say that for my fanfics, my Tigress imposter is pretty far off from the original character, but I feel I am getting there... it's a very slow progress, but every increment of time is making me better as a writer. Anywho, I'll be addressing some Tigress Imposter stereotypes. These stereotypes are the ones we want to avoid as much as possible. And if we do so, we can get closer to the original Tigress. Now, disclaimer, I am not here to tarnish the pride of any of you fanfic writers. I'm just here to point out my opinions and hopefully my opinions can do more good than harm. Also, to bring this blog a more positive vibe, I will be writing some Tigress stereotypes that we should all follow. But that'll be on the next post. 1. The 'Punk Girl School Bully' Type of Tigress. (LoA Tigress) Sleeves are for wimps... fat muscles... I got huge front teeth... i'll put your head on the toilet... pig anatomy on the facial region... you punk!... ILLL BEAT YOUUU UP!... girl that looks like a man... Those lines are all inside the ambit of any typical Buff School Girl Bully. And yeah, these types of people aren't the most likeable. Mainly because of their terrible ego and pride, their unmanaged temper, their constant screaming, and the fact that they bully. And these types of characters usually act upon their anger, and these types of characters are usually defeated by their own caprices. Now a lot of times, people usually confuse 'Punk Girl School Bully' as Tigress's characteristics.

For example, a lot of fanfictions tend to write this: Tigress was clouded with anger. How dare this cocky prick make fun of her name like that? She charged at him, trying to land a double fist strike on her belly, but it has seemed that her muscles were so angry that she suddenly turned into an amateur fighter and totally missed the cocky mite's stomache. Now she was even angrier. She gave a frustrated yell and pounced at the prick, driving her feet into a powerful tornado kick, but the man has sidestepped and she was too angry to use that momentum to execute another kick upon landing. Oh she was so so SO angry that everything turned red. Even though the man was merely a stranger, his smart remarks was enough to somehow make Tigress want to tamper him, as if her anger was derived from personal matter. Oh yes, Tigress was so weak that her peace has succumbed so easily to something as superficial as an empty insult. It isn't like she's a warrior who learned integrity, who lived by virtues and proverbs, and learned to swallow her pride the hard way. Nope. She was just the average hot head. "You! You idiot!" She yelled, driving her fist into arbitrary turns and twist with the speed of a toddler's fist in a fit of frenzy. And yet, after delivering such 'efficient' attacks, the man had avoided her punches the Muhammad Ali way. What's next? The rope-a-dope? Is that how weak Tigress became because of her anger? Oh, and since she's sooo angry, she also became majorly stupid! Since she's losing, she might as well become more desperate to win and because of this, she kinda lost 9/10 of her damn brain. It isn't like she had experienced worst before. It isn't like she's been in a tower surrounded by hundreds of adversaries, outmatched, outgunned, out everything, and still managed to escape through a genius idea to catapult her and her Enterprise out the flaming tower THROUGH the toppling flaming tower.

Look, Tigress can be hot head, but she doesn't allow it to manifest in a way that hampers her during battle. She's a warrior who for sure learned patience. Yes, she might have let herself succumb to her anger during the first movie (by trying to fight Tai Lung despite her master's efforts to stop her) but do understand that it was because of that cursed snow leopard that her father was just outright terrible to her, and 20 years of desperation and overwhelming commitment to kung fu led her to think that defeating Tai Lung is the key to Shifu's heart. Watch the Second movie through and through, with the eyes of a scrutenizing critic. If she is angry, it is usually to appear intimidating or lethal. It's a great strategy, escpecially now that her opponents would surely hold back once they hear the low baritone of her growl. But never, never, never, never, I assure you, did she appear angry and let that rage make her a haphazard, stupid, mess.

Also, fanfic writers tend to also write this: Tigress crossed her arms and growled. Po was so annoying! He wouldn't stop babbling about his new dumpling recipe. If he says 'broccoli broth' one more time, she is sure her dormant side would burst. "SHUT UP PO! YOU ARE AN IDIOT! YOU ARE SO CHILDISH! YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE THE DRAGON WARRIOR!" And then, Po cried and ran away from the kitchen. The rest of the five gave her a look that could compare to the menacing glare of a thousand men, and they all left her to find the weeping Po. She sneered, she didn't need them anyways. She didn't have a family. And they were no friends of hers.

Tigress is not like this! She values her friends, and she talks to them like friends. Do no potray her the LoA way, because she's not always grumpy... and she is, by chance, grumpy, it's mostly for a reason. When the other five are irritated or even disgusted of Po, you can see that only Tigress smiles. And when she is in an argument, she usually deliver herself in a calm and threatening. Yeah, calm and threatening can be together. Tigress works as a paradox. I think the problem here is that people mistake seriousness and grumpiness as neigh synonyms. DON'T mistake those two different words with the same definition. Tigress is serious, but rarely grumpy in the way LoA/ fancfictions potrays her (just compare KFP 2 Tigress to LoA Tigress (there's a big difference I tell you that (mostly because she doesn't haphazardly turn into a big bish (is this even grammatically correct?))))

2. The Morally Deficient Tigress. I hate you!... you've always been terrible to me Shifu. So I hate you too!... you guys are not my family!... i have no family!... brat times twenty... your spoon is stupid... everyone is stupid... I don't wanna do this anymore... i'll turn evil in six seconds if you don't assuage my ego... cold hearted... insults everywhere... long sullen silences followed by mean comments followed by even more long sullen silences... angst angst angst for no reason... teenage i-have-20-pounds-of-eyeliner-under-my-eyes prototype. this type of imposter Tigress is probably one of the worst forms of Tigress out there. You cannot just ignore that she has been raised by two kung fu masters, one has morals that are so polished and perfect, and the other one with flaws but regardless still wiser than most. She's also follows a regimented schedule of supreme discipline throughout the course of her twenty-eight years, so surely she has been taught hardwork, patience, determination and other virtues that any average olympian athletes would typically have. Despite being called cold-hearted, stoic, perhaps even mean, do remember that she is also a HERO. With a hero's heart and the strength of a hero's mind. You can not simply ignore that she's a good person who had saved, quite possibly, thousands of lives, expecting nothing in return except the heart of her father and a place to reside. Do not mistake badassery with idiocy. Do not make her morally deficient like she's a little child with the mindset of a brat on a bad day.

Here's some examples of this nightmare: "Why do you keep these stuff? You're so childish, you don't deserve to be the Dragon Warrior!" Tigress looked around his loft, threatened by the action figures and the posters of the masters that adorned it.

Po frowned, "But... but... items like these have very big value to me Tigress. Especially my action figures, I cherish them because it's a large fragment of my childhood memories!"

Tigress did not understand. Of course she did not, not only is she whimsy, grumpy, angry and stupid, she also lacks understanding and lessons that can usually be self-taught at the age of twenty. She acts like a little child and that's all her morality is limited to. "No! They're wooden things with no value whatsoever. Stop being a fanboy. Stop being yourself! I can't support you! You idiot."

And she left the room with grandeur ---Sharpei Style with the hint of swagger. Five days later... "It's all your fault why we're here Po! All your fault. It isn't like you made a wonderful plan and I kinda destroyed it after this cocky douche made me angry and I decided to fight him and ditch your plan. And since my dignity got the best of me, it isn't like I'm blaming you 100% on our unfortunate demise when I know 200% that i'm to blame." Po tried to speak, but Tigress continued, "Ya'll should have listened to me! Me me me me! Me me me me!" The end!

Okay okay, it's a little too exaggerated, but you get the point right? Tigress doesn't act like this. She is kind and nice, she's truly supportive even with her doubts, and she loves and values her friends, albeit these traits are not exposed because it's overshadowed by her stoic demeanor. Whatever... sometimes light filters through her facade and you can see her vulnerabilities.

3. The Profesional Becomes the Biggest Amateur. Gets defeated by a few alligators who could barely fight... can't get unstuck from a rope THAT ISNT EVEN KNOTTED NOR THICK ENOUGH TO CARRY TWO POUNDS... can't get out a sticky situation even though she has been through worse... pathetic tiger... no longer has super strength that she has been gifted with. Now I'm just a thread's breadth away before typing a full fledge rant. Yes! I get it. She has been defeated by people who Po can defeat. She has been defeated by Tai lung and Po was able to defeat Tai Lung. But that was because Po was in a special situation, and it was truly only Po who could defeat Tai Lung (I'll adress this in a new post.) Have ya'll ever of this rule, in both film making and book writing, that authors must refrain from degrading everyone's intelligence so that a single character can appear in the caliber of a genius? Basically, what I'm saying is that you cannot make the five (escape Tigress) leagues weaker than their original selves just for the sake of making Po or your main OCs appear stronger. One, that's a terrible illusion that even a blind man can see through. And two, that's just disrespectful for a The Five. Not only are the five overshadowed, but ya'll also heavily disregarded the fact that they are warriors that did a lot. You're forgetting that Tigress can do this

Do not forget that she is the person who can do so much more. If you want a story where Tigress becomes a damsel in distress, and Po is the one to save her, DO NOT get her kidnapped by five wolves. Or ten. Or even twenty. Because this tiger can handle of them easy. Make sure she is defeated by a whole fudging army, or a bunch of hooded warriors who are thousands of years old and are as good as Shifu in kung fu. Make sure her defeat is reasonable and respects what she can do. KNOW what she can do, so that you learn her limits. Give her a challenge, give her a run for her money. Don't make her pathetic just because you want someone else to seem not pathetic. Us fan fic writers say that Tigress is hardcore. Awesome. Badarse. So maybe we should write her that way. Some fan fics I read write that Tigress got defeated because she was hungry or tired and couldn't fight against a few adversaries. I roll me eyes. Bro! You cannot make hunger the reason why she's defeated😂 have you seen what she ate during the first KFP movie? Her meals consists of tea and a small, chewy block of tofu. Please. She had trained her body and mind to resist pain in a way that wouldn't affect her during battle. And don't go destroying her stamina either. If she can go the whole night just battling a bunch of wolves, without even so much as passing out then pulease, don't make tiredness as an excuse. But there are some exceptions though. Like maybe she got tired because she drained her chi. Then that's understandable. So much work.