#fanfics i usually read don't go into it either so i never learnt there

[preciouslittletoonette]

Felt like saying this so: Going through the Battinson/The Batman 2022 tag and reading about the possibility/the desire of Robin appearing in the next film and all the different essays has made my love and appreciation for Dick Grayson increase tenfold.

[plantwithoutplot]

2, 6, 17, and 19 for the fanfic asks?

Oooooh thank you for the ask!! You've picked super interesting ones 👀✨

2. Do you read/reread your own fics?

Rarely! The thing is, I do minimum 2 rounds of editing for each chapter, but it often ends up being 4 or 5 rounds. . . ( ˊᵕˋ； ) So after all that, I usually don't wanna see my writing ever again lol

B u t ! I do reread it once in a while, either to remember elements I wrote (and forgot wince then), or to remember why I enjoyed writing a story in the first place! (*´▽`*)❀

6. Are there any fics from others you reread all the time?

Y E S !!

I don't have any with which I have been obsessed with yet in the One Piece fandom, but I have a two, from Voltron and BNHA, that I could reread forever!!

Aka be ready for heavy angst becquse that shit is my comfort content ( ´•̥̥̥ω•̥̥̥` )🤧💛

Thirty Days by Storytime23 (Voltron)

The Way You Used To Do by edemah_ruh (Boku No Hero Academia)

17. What's something you've learned about while doing research for a fic?

SO MANY THINGS Σ٩(๑º ﾛ º๑)۶✨

A short list of things I learnt about are: story structures, facts about Otters, bits and pieces of various mythologies, weapons, assassination attempts, more weapons, poisonous gases, sharks, limits of the human body (in terms of survival). . .

Listen. Be it topics I have researched (and then followed through the hellish rabbit hole that is wikipedia 🐌), writing, or what I actually enjoy writing/reading, it has helped SO MUCH!!

Do not look down on the joys of researching a subject for it only to be dropped or abandoned. It may spark new ideas or be a turning point for your writing, even if researching something can look tedious at first 🐟🐟🐟

19. Give us a small teaser from one of your WIPs.

Eheheh greedy much? 👀 or also it is the fact I haven't posted in two months oops my own hubris is the root of the problem again

I don't have anything edited yet to share BUT here is a snippet of the next chapter of Speak Up, Boys!

٩(๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)۶🌊🩷🩵

"See―" The blue-haired one cackled, pointing at the brothers. "Told you it was true!"

"So the Cain Instinct is real..."

Oh, how thankful Rayleigh was not to have kids.

Yes, he did raise the Cabin Boys with Roger and they were like sons to him.

But he was not a father.

He was not a Dad.

Nooooope. No no no. He mentally chanted as he downed the rest of the his rum. Not going there. Not a dad. Never a dad. Nu uh.

[liyuesbian]

hahsddsf the headcanons are only in my head for now. I do write for another fandom but i wanna read more character backstories and lore before writing anything here (although I will eventually muster up the energy to actually write down a hand study for liyue). hopefully one day I will post things! so many characters are underrated and have nothing about them written except in ships 😔 (side note: does genshin fandom like headcanons lol? most of the writing I see in the character tags are either full fledged fics or x reader, since I think a lot of the char backstories are fleshed out enough that there isn't that much room for headcanons)

update on twitter: I think I fixed it lmao but yeah, the "x liked ___" really bothers me hsdjfsd I don't follow a lot of people because of it rip. going on twitter made me realize how customizable tumblr actually is shdfsd

!! two days until kokomi; the suspense is strong... imagine her and idk gorou playing chess in resistance downtime, and all the sangonomiya soldiers expect gorou's dog instincts would make him more competitive, but really gorou is the one doing it for fun; kokomi is the pretty grandmaster who plans her strategy to the T and is fiercely competitive (you are getting me on morally gray kokomi hype train and i'm here for it. she gives me the uwu pretty girl vibes but can and will kill you. there's nothing that a college au kokomi won't do to be top of her class, but that doesn't mean she can't look good while doing it)

manifesting ei and kokomi parallels, they really feel like two sides of the same coin huh

ahhh a hand study of liyue would be so so cool to read! will be awaiting any other hcs you create too :p

before i say my thoughts, i just wanna say that i am by no means a popular blog so not sure if i have the grounds to do an analysis on the genshin tumblr community from my small pool of posts haha. anyways, my musician!au (not a hc but ig they're similar enough ? since they're also not x reader ?) did pretty well for non x reader content imo, especially since i hadn't posted a lot before them and they were part of my first few written works. the inazuma one got quite a few notes but only bc it was posted during the big inazuma update. and yeah... most genshin headcanons on here are x reader stuff.. hmm your reasoning about the characters alr having so much detail to them makes sense but ig visibility of the post will depend on the kind of headcanons, how you write them, and your no. of followers as well? (also, presentation. i've learnt that presentation on tumblr does a world of good lol) i'm trying to think of my other fandoms in comparison to genshin's with hcs but i think they're abt the same tho i can't rly rmbr.. i haven't been invested in the general fanfic/writing space in so long until this blog so it might be a bit wack to compare it to stuff from 2016/17

yay! that's good to hear :))

!!! ahh ik !!! i can't wait! (will u be rolling for her?) AAH YES YES THAT SCENE IS PERFECT OMFG! HAHAH i am rooting for evil mastermind kokomi 🧠🧠 i don't usually do character story quests right off the bat but for our pink-haired war strategist, i might do it as soon as it drops

..........mystic... i think u're a genius. college!au kokomi?? i'm thinking of an x reader for this rn and it may follow smth along the lines of this manhwa - not sure if you've read/know it - called cheese in the trap! kokomi as the male lead who gave off a bad impression at the start etc. and secretly plans things to help his crush out (lowkey kinda creepy) AHHH BRAINROT. i haven't read it in years tho so i never finished reading it but this could be a thing 🤔

[rp-sephiroth]

Is the FF7 remake now making the Compilation non-canon?? My friend gave me these news and I don't know if it's genuine information.

(continues:) My friend hates this possibility. She loves Crisis Core, and having that become non-canon brings several concerns.

Thank you for your question! 

A quick google search earned me no confirmation of this statement. But as a writer of FF7 fanfic writer/Sephiroth-roleplayer/Leiden university student of literature, I shall do my best to give you and educated and conclusive answer instead.

TL;DR: It’s unavoidable, and will have far-reaching implications for fandom community, but it will be OK and below’s why.

What is canon?This definition of canon from here is what I will be using in this post: 

Canon - a term borrowed from the Catholic Church, meaning ‘established truth’.  The definition of ‘canon’ is a bit vague, but is usually understood to mean the body of works upon which a fandom is based, and any information contained therein.  This is sometimes extended to include information in guidebooks, interviews, and other such sources.  Also used to refer to information from different versions of a story: for example, the school uniforms in Harry Potter ‘book-canon’ are different from those in ‘movie-canon’. 

It is a way for the creators to indicate “this is the set of in-game truths and rules we are working with.” It’s a way to keep the rules that govern the world consistent. In Final Fantasy VII, one can either regard just the OG (original game) as canon, or the entire compilation as canon.

What happens if canon is made invalid?   This happened to the StarWars fandom. Around the first 6 films were novels, lego, books, fanarts, and fanfictions. This franchise is incredibly interesting because it does not make canon top-down (from the creators to the plebs), but also accepts work from fans (bottom-up). 

An example: anyone could write a StarWars book, as long as they stuck so guidelines set by the official creators and had it checked for approval. Anyone could be a stormtrooper, as long as you used the exact right plastic moulds and sent pictures of the finished product to the official people who approved it. (My first boyfriend did this for his cosplay.)

Anyway, the novels continued the storyline after film six (I believe all the main characters had children). But when LucasFilms and Disney embarked on making the 7th film, they decided to throw all that worldbuilding (universe-building) away. Why did they throw it away? Because for legal reasons authors cannot read fan-fictions and this post explains why (link).     In short: if the script writers of film 7 were to base film 7 on an any canon work, a fan could claim “I wrote a fanfic about exactly this” and face huge legal charges. Even/Especially a franchise that has a very agreeable bottom-up treatment of canon and fandom culture, has to watch out. Rey from film 7 is a completely new character, with her own timeline.

THUS THERE IS A BIG CHANCE THE CANON OF THE COMPILATION OF FINAL FANTASY 7 WILL BE DECLARED INVALID.

In the past, how has FF7 fandom dealt with canon vs new canon? A long time ago, the Original Game (OG) was the 'mothership’. Sephiroth was portrayed as evil. To give him any sign of niceness in fanfiction was considered out-of-character and greatly discouraged.Then FFVII Cisis Core came out, and certain fans rioted against the game’s portrayal of a kind, awkward Sephiroth.

For the Final Fantasy VII Remake to be identical to the Original Game with updated graphics would be impossible. Such a game would not sell. There will be changes in the game mechanics, dynamics, aesthetics, and narrative to make the game contemporary. I feel two ways about those changes: frightened and joyous.

How does it relate to online FF7 fandom communities?Now our 'canon’ 'mothership’ is the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII. Our current fandom community is built around what we have learnt of the compilation. Because FF7 is so big, it’s impossible to know everything about the story and characters and mechanics. People specialise, and draw on each other’s experience. 

My area of specialisation is Sephiroth, with in-depth knowledge of his scenes in Advent Children Complete, Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Kingdom Hearts, and Original Game. I’m still learning about his Dissidia, Ehrgeitz, and other versions. This knowledge of this character and interpretation of this character gives me social merit in roleplay communities. It’s said if you put 1000 hours of work into learning something, you are an expert. I’ve been writing Sephiroth on and off since I was 14. I’m 26 now. In my niche, I am an expert. Fans ask me questions about Sephiroth because they trust me to provide a plausible answer that conflicts least with canon.

But if/when the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII will be declared invalid, social status based on the no-longer-canon Compilation will be rendered useless. This means that when I make a statement on Remake-Sephiroth, all my arguments based on experience of (years!) of development of my Sephiroth will be useless. Scary.

This will upset the social structures of the communities. Experts are no longer expert. With the release of the first episode/chapter of the Remake, new fans and old fans start learning at the same time about the 'new’ canon. They will have the same chance to become expert. The one fan who will put in enough hours, will get most social status, will be crowned expert. 

Old groups of friends may stick together. New groups will form. New sub-communities rise. Some fans will riot against new information, as they did insisting that Crisis Core Sephiroth couldn’t be kind/awkward/friendly. More about attitudes and a ‘desired attitude’ later.

How can FF7 fans and roleplayers negotiate with old canon and new canon to find a position which they are comfortable with?The use of the word headcanon will go through a shift. 'Headcanon’ will no longer be a combination of traits/habits one puts on the character like a sticker (my trademark headcanon is that my Sephiroth puts his hair in a braid/my belief that Sephiroth follows the Jenova Omega Theory). Instead, the word 'headcanon’ will return to its old meaning: “In my head, this set of rules is canon.” The word 'headcanon’ will then refer to a set of metaphysical choices on how the FF7 world and characters function as a framework.

My friend @askcrv2 solved this question ingeniously. I’m taking a detour into the Vocaloid fandom: she writes a singing android robot. With robots, there are new versions every few years. The voice bank is updated. New songs. New merchandise… - and thus new canons. Nowadays version 4 is common. She writes version 2. She had her robot hide in a warehouse to avoid the garbage pile. This way, she can both stick to her old canons, but also in the new versions, her old version is still valid. Her robot complements new canon. Compliments to the writer!

The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is fun, and I love it.It is not perfect. There are glaring inconsistencies. These plot holes could be changed in the Remake. But it’s not wrong to love the Final Fantasy VII from 1997 and style your preferences to that version.

IF/WHEN it’s made invalid… How do we as fans continue?When the Original Game and/or the Compilation as a whole be declared invalid, it will hurt. I will have to renegotiate my attitude towards Sephiroth as a character, and to the story as a whole, and find back my position in a new community. 

This game has kept me captivated for many years, so I have high hopes for the future product. I expect that the managers/teams/designers of the company have improved with 20 years more of experience. The Remake is being re-made from scratch. I have respect for the game team’s hard work and sacrifices. I imagine that every change in the  ’new canon’ will be a thoroughly-debated decision. The promotional video (link) of the Remake reveals the attitude the game-makers would like to see in the fans:

The reunion at hand may bring joy, it may bring fear, but let us embrace whatever it brings. For they are coming back. 

And that’s best of all. After 20 years, FF7 will be coming back. It’s not the fandom’s job anymore to re-create the world. The original creators will tell our favourite story back to us, and we can sit back… until we start making new fanworks!

Let’s embrace whatever it brings. 

Let’s make fantastic fanworks, and build warm communities.

The canon of the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7 will never be a forgotten memory. The Compilation will live on, inside us. I hope this post sufficiently answers your question. Tell your friend not to worry.

– rp-Sephiroth.