#i think most of what i post for a while might be various fanart of wc

[hey-melissa]

here’s a quick drawing of princess as i’ve been rereading warriors lately and trying to practice drawing cats!!

[stardust-falling]

Hi! I keep seeing ppl debating if SQQ's eyes are canonically green or black. What do you think? Somebody said SQQ's eyes are green in the cover, but if you think otherwise, why? If you've discussed about this before in your page, may I see the link?

Hey! I posted this one on my meta blog (this might be what actually stirred up the discussion), but I still need to update the post there to include the timeline and all relevant information provided by various commenters.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and give a little summary here.

SQQ has black eyes in the novel, and they're explicitly described that way (黑， 乌黑 specifically, color words meaning black and crow-black (like jet black)).

This means that a depiction of SQQ with green eyes is contrary to novel canon.

At some point, people on the wiki said his eyes were described as 青 (qing）which is turquoise green/blue. I'm not exactly sure where this came from, but one very, very loose potential for this could be a misreading of the following description: 眉清目秀 which is used to describe the appearance of a young SJ. It's possible, perhaps, that the character 清 (clear) here was accidentally misread as 青 （green/blue) but i don't think that's a particularly easy misreading, especially since in that phrase the 清 is linked to 眉 （brows) instead of 目（eyes). But anything is possible, and this is the only place in the novel I could find reference to "clear eyes" in regards to SQQ, and the only potential way this misreading could have basis in the novel. Either way, his eyes are never described as 青, so that's an incorrect assumption.

So, the only thing I really consider canon proper is the novel itself, but that's my own stance. A wider stance would be considering the novel as primary canon, while the donghua/manhua are secondary canon, and things like official art could be tertiary canon. In this framework, details included in the donghua that aren't in the novel but aren't contradicted by it would also be considered wider canon and fill in those gaps, while things that contradict the novel would be canon as well, but specifically alternate, donghua canon. The same would apply to official art-- if it doesn't contradict the donghua or novel, it fills the gap, otherwise it's another kind of alternate canon.

Under this wider system, then Shen Qingqiu's canon eye color would go this way:

Primary canon - Black eyes Secondary Canon - Grey Eyes Tertiary Canon - Black, Grey, or Green Eyes

So depending on what you consider canon, then the answer can change-- but in my opinion, the novel overrides other sources.

Okay, so let's go into the secondary and tertiary canons, then. On the post on my meta blog that I linked earlier, in the replies and reblogs, there are some references about the evolution of SQQ's character design in donghua and fanart, so I'll leave those explanations to speak for themselves.

Let me talk a bit about the official art, then.

Though the English edition has the most vivid green eyes in character design, it is NOT the only cover art with green-eyed SQQ!

Across translations, he is depicted with varying black, grey, or green eyes, as follows (using purple color for grey since tumblr doesn't have a grey color):

Taiwanese (OG) - Black Taiwanese (Revamped) - Darker green, occasionally darker grey (some variety here) Thai - Lighter grey Vietnamese - Black Burmese - Medium grey or dull green (again, some variety) Korean - Black, but may vary to grey or very dull green (resolution not high enough to tell)

And then of course the vivid green of the English edition.

So when it comes to official art, it's basically evenly split, with three black, three grey, three green (counting the ones that vary).

Green-eyed SQQ is not exclusively a western fandom thing. I mean, on some levels, it makes sense for character design-- matching his eyes to his clothing color.

Personally, I wouldn't call it canon. And I think if anyone does want to claim it's canon (via the tiered system), that it would be a good idea to preface that you're going off of alternate canon instead of novel canon, so that it's not used as an argument when the discussion is specifically centered on novel canon.

There is a level of canonicity to either green-eyed or grey-eyed SQQ, but such depictions still contradict the novel, even if supported by other mediums, since his eyes are specifically described as black there.

I guess, it depends on how you want to define canon at the end of the day. I'm not here to tell other people how to play in their own sandboxes, I just personally like to play in novel canon only so that's my stance on it.

Hope this is the sort of info you wanted!

[margridarnauds]

writers truth or dare: 🎱🕯️🔪🎨

🎱 ⇢ post your AO3 total stats 

User Subscriptions: 27

Kudos: 2,587

Comment Threads: 279

Bookmarks: 597

Subscriptions: 410

Word Count: 348,060

Hits: 32,507

🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?

6, probably. It isn't my favorite bit, because it's harder to tell when IT'S done VS when the overall plot is done, it's much harder to constantly reread what you've written and go "did I do what I set out to do?" I think that with my last thing, I spent more time editing than writing; there was one part that required the whole scene to be rewritten about three times. And it's never fun to have a part that you really liked and then have to cut (there was one line in my most recent one that KILLED me to cut -- it's safe in another document so I can use it down the line, but still). On the plus side, it's also where I get to fill out parts, add things to suit the mood, build atmosphere when I feel like I need to do that.

🔪 ⇢ what's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

...oh. God. WEIRD, hm. I guess that depends on how you define "weird" -- for some people, authentic Old Irish is weird, but for me, that's just bringing my job into my fanfic. But I suppose for things that are far away from what I would usually do...

For anything set in the Toho RetJ world, I actually did look at pictures of, say, Chernobyl now, to give myself a template for how the world would look like. I looked up different predictions for how the world would look after a certain number of years, including weather patterns, natural disasters, etc., looked at videos like "Life After People" from the History Channel (which is...the History Channel, but gave me some inspiration), looked up photos of crumbling apartment buildings and how they look and the kind of natural decay that settles in, while also hunting down articles on the Shakespeare so that that could inform some of my characterizations.

Likewise, for my Terra Nova fanfic, I often found myself looking up fossils from the Cretaceous period, both plant and animal, trying to integrate them into the world of Terra Nova, looking through pictures of the sets so I could try to do some worldbuilding for how the world of the show works.

For my BG3 things, I have, like, 4-5 lore books on my computer, and I've looked up everything from, say, how to kill Lolth to drider transformation to Drow foods in the Underdark to Drow burial rites to coming of age rituals to necromancy to whether Devils in the world of DND eat mortals (...undecided) to Cambion biology (answer: they'd have to be able to decide on what a Cambion IS first) to what body temperature a Drow VS an Elf would have. I've looked up the ingredients to various potions for the sake of Kitrye's alchemy, common traits among albinos IRL VS the Szarkai in DND for Malla (Malla's eyesight is too good, but it's essential to her character, so sure), and real-world contracts and the language involved to write Raphael's deals. For a non-DND player, I've had to dive as deeply into the lore as possible (and often, esp. with regards to the Drow, going "that's stupid, I'm doing something better".)

For weirdest research OVERALL, definitely probably walking up and down a ~16th-17th century fortress so I could get a feel for how the Bastille might have felt.

...actual 18th century smut and how gay men in the 18th century usually conceived of sex. Opera schedules from the 18th-19th centuries, so that, when an opera's mentioned, it's usually something that was either playing at the time or plausible.

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

God, I've gotten to see a lot of really good fanart, and, especially, now that I'm doing BG3 things, I am really routinely being spoiled. I'm going to give a list, just because I think that there are worse things to spill a lot of ink on than giving people their proper due.

First of all, propping my friends, @hotelfgirl did a piece of Kitrye that lives rent free in my head. She has that specific sad girlfailure vibe that I love to see.

@drewsaturday did some Morléans fanart for my birthday that also lives eternally rent-free in my head; it really captured part of the appeal of the ship (besides the tragic ending), which is the level of trust involved, the intimacy of it.

For Irish Myth stuff, even if it's always slightly awkward to call it "fanart" in the same way that, say, BG3 things are fanart or things for my musicals are fanart, anything by @amylouioc, absolutely wonderful interpretations of medieval Irish figures by a modern Irish artist, my favorite is probably Nuada over here. I love the lighting, I love the color scheme, I love the detailing around the arm, especially the little blue tatoos...and, admittedly, I also love that Nuada's a KILF (King I'd Like To--terrorize the Fomoiri with) because I am, at the end of the day, a simple woman. (You all thought it was going to be Bres, didn't you?)

@aodhan-art - WONDERFUL pieces from medieval Irish lit; the first piece of his I was aware of was this one which...well. He knows the context, but it was a very memorable part of a very memorable trip for me. There's this real...sassiness Áed in particular has that I love, this real sense of personality. I also have to talk about this; it isn't often that we get Bres/Sreng fanart (or anything about Bres at ALL), so I love seeing him memed; I'm glad someone put up the money to do the commission and I'm even more glad he did it, it's perfect for both of them. Lest anyone think I'm forgetting Bres' better half, though, I love the work done on Bríg here; I love all the little detailing, all the textures, the little freckles on her skin, the clothing ITSELF looking like something from medieval Ireland.

Speaking of which, @violetcancerian's drawing of Bres and Sreng here, like. Look at them. It's Christmas. They're happy.

For BG3 fanart...

@lemmeurs Raphael fanart here is great; I love anything that captures the duality of Raphael's character, I love the use of lighting and shadow in it, the single strand of hair hanging over his face in both the Cambion and Human forms, the sharp edges of his cheekbones, the overall color scheme. Legitimately have not stopped thinking about it for days.

@shahs1221 ANYTHING by her is great, I really love this one here. For obvious professional reasons, I can't engage with any Professor/Student Raphael content on here (nothing personal, but if I don't engage with it, I have nothing to hide if anyone decides to link my fandom life to my academic life...which has happened before, regrettably), BUT her Professor Raphael art, both this and the follow-up, live rent-free in my brain (I will also note, if any colleagues, mentors, undergrads, potential peer reviewers, etc. should FIND this, they will note that it is based on a wonderful fic series where Raphael is dating someone who is NOT a student). LOVE the cozy academia vibe, especially the one in the follow-up where he's sleeping in a nice, incredibly comfortable looking sweater. (The real question in life: Do I want Raphael in this art or do I want to BE Raphael in this art?) Also...the baby cow eyes paired with sharp cheekbones are in full effect, causing me to briefly have my IQ drop into the single digits.

@adarlingmess WONDERFUL Raphael content in general, but I think I lean towards Dadbod!Raphael in the bath . I love it for the...plot? ("The plot" in this case being "Those cheekbones + a soft stomach"). I love the atmosphere, the kind of haze created by a combination of the steam + candles, Raphael looking relaxed for once in his immortal life, the way the candlelight plays on his face, the railing in the background (...not...that kind of railing...the railing from the game. The metal railing that is in the game.) Overall, it just really captures the feeling of that area of the Boudoir very well, it brings in a lot of small details, AND Raphael looks very good.

@potatocrisp Absolutely LOVE the dynamic that their Tav has with Raphael, the kind of push/pull dynamic on both ends, the way the two of them are both compromised for one another but are extremely stubborn about it (favorite Tavphael dynamic, ngl), the way that her Tav very clearly has the upper hand over this immortal, ancient being. I love her character design, I love the detailing on his doublet, especially the little shine of metal at his wrists, the little lace edging at her stockings.

@infernaldaydreams Hahaha, BG3 fanart that is NOT Raphael. I love everything I've seen of hers, but this one is probably my favorite, not the least because it was the first one I saw. I love how bittersweet it is, I love the tenderness, the focus on hands, the way that Gortash's face gets overshadowed and then lightens up for her, I just...God, these two rotten people have me in a chokehold, I love them. (But also, in the nicest possible way, fuck you for making me feel THINGS, knowing how Durgetash ends in canon.)

[holo-squad]

Announcing: Holoween 2023

As October progresses and autumn has firmly arrived in these parts of the world, Halloweeen is fast approaching. It is the perfect opportuninty to celebrate La Sirena's intrepid quintet of Emergency Holograms with a wonderful pun -- and a last-minute mini-event to match!

Do you have a spooky tale set on La Sirena that features the holograms somehow? Maybe some meta about their preferred costumes or fanart of the same? A story where the EH's need to dress up to save the day?

Then this is your opportunity! On the 31st of October and the week following (until 6th November), post your story, art, meta, or whatever else you might come up with and tag them as #holoween2023 or tag this blog so I can find them and reblog them here!

If you already made some art in years prior or have a fic you wrote a while ago that would fit the brief, feel free to reblog or repost it and tag this blog! What better time than Holoween to practice some resurrection?

Since we're all probably busy with the various -tobers we're participating in and Halloween is only two weeks away (most of which I will be too busy with school to coordinate an Official Fest™), there are no sign-ups or minimum requirements.

Wrote a spooky hologram drabble? Post it on the 31st! Got a post that simply has a list of the holos and the costumes you imagine they'd wear? Tag it as #holoween2023! 8k fic you wrote three years ago? We'd love to give that a read!

Any work you think would fit and you'd like to share, simply get it ready to post/reblog between the 31st October and 6th November, tag this blog, and I'll reblog them all here!

If you have any questions or you do want to "sign up" so that I can remind you about posting closer to the time, just shoot me a message!

I will create a collection on AO3 and edit this post to share the link as soon as I have it. The AO3 collection can be found here! It's open to new and older works alike, and if you don't want to add your fanwork to the collection but would still like me to reblog it as part of Holoween2023, that's absolutely fine, too! Just tag me in the post so I can find it.

Let's get ready for a Happy (and spooky) Holoween!

[fennecthunderfox]

Figured I should probably life update.

It's been a looooong time since I've posted here. Various factors got in the way of art in general and I figure I need to at least post a text update if nothing else.

Where have you been?

I have been mostly gaming in my free time and lurking on the internet. I didn't realize it, but I guess social media had been chipping away at my mental health without me realizing it. Namely Twitter (it's gonna stay twitter forever to me, I don't care what it's actually called now). I wanna try to get active on tumblr again, but they changed the layout in such a visually suffocating way, I can't do that site right now either.

So I just lurk.

What about your art?

Art has been hard. As I've complained about a lot in the past, I have a full time job and this job has had me on mandatory overtime for 3 years at this point. I also have chronic pain episodes that- while they have improved- still occur on occasion.

So you haven't drawn at all?

I've drawn very little UNDERTALE/DELTARUNE art recently, but I actually HAVE drawn some Zelda-centric art. I just haven't shown it because it's extremely self-indulgent and I am aware that the one canon character I draw the most is one people tend to hate. (Revali. It's Revali. He's a jerk, but I love him and I love inventing Rito characters that both admire and acknowledge his skill- but also knock him down a peg.)

The future of your Undertale/Deltarune comics?!

There should still be a future, yeah. Problem is, it's been so long since the beginning of the comic, I've kinda... gotta figure out what the heck the story even is anymore. Cause I don't really like WD Gaster being a villain? And that's sorta how we framed him to be in the comic, but I don't like that anymore.

"Fenn, Gaster made Ralsei disappear. Or SOMETHING, we still don't know what happened to Ralsei."

Yeah, sorry 'bout that. I've said from the beginning that Ralsei isn't dead, and that's still true. Also if I do change Gaster's motives, the Flowey/Ralsei thing (Flowsei?) will remain the same. So basically what I'm saying is Gaster was framed kinda like a villain in the comic, but he may shift to just a very, VERY morally grey guy, and you'll understand WHY in time.

Aaaaaaaand Vesseltale?

Vesseltale's a weird one cause it's the secondary plot comic and it's still stuck on-hold in the best possible place to be on hold. I might have to write that comic to a point where the biggest twist of the AU is revealed and then just be like: "Okay, here's some bullet points about this AU cause I don't actually think I can make this a full comic."

And then have like... highlight comic series where I just draw out major scenes. Like how Frisk interacts with the altered versions of the characters in this time.

Final thoughts?

I wish I had more time to do art. I really do. It's just difficult to set time aside to do it because of work. It's easier to pick up the Switch to decompress while listening to Let's Plays on Youtube at the moment.

Once the Holidays pass, I think I'm gonna try to carve out time on the weekends specifically for doing art. I'd love to finish Defnodel Chapter 3 before Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 release.

Also be prepared, I might start posting Rito fanart on DA because I love the Rito. You have no idea how many headcanons I've created for these dumb birds. I love them so much.

[damoselcastel]

Author's Notes 2023

A yearly-sum-up of my personal thoughts for my written works in 2022 (ones with chapters updates count too), my own personal tradition. All of the fic I listed can be found on my AO3.

JANUARY

Storms at Phinora - FE4 Lewyn/Tiltyu fic

Written for Nagamas 2022, set mid-chapter 5, basically an excuse to explore the angst of various fav ships as they grapple with the events and overwhleming odds.

MARCH

Druid Jaehee's Nursery - TA Jaehee/Elderflower fic

A very silly NSFW take on the world of Terrrium Adventure (manhua), speculating on breeding being used to dupe rare pulls. Even the ship Jaehee/Elderflower, has to be the most casual (bickering) friends-with-benefits ship I've ever written. Although considering how fast and loose I play with worldbuilding references, yeah can understand why NOBODY read it, lol. (I actually had a spinoff featuring Sydling and his Dryads written but sadly lost it cause like a ninny I wrote it in Notepad)

JUNE

Quartet’s Common Time - a FE3H Annie/Mercie/Dedue/Dimitri fic

This is the fic that got the most investment/writing time this year. Big polyam smutfic (f/f, m/m, multi) with nods to Faerghus politics. Very happy with the love we gave the Dimitri/Annette rarepair, along with the various flavors of Dedue/Mercedes (the domestic fluff was a persona fav). Finished, it ended up at a hefty 26,908 words (I do wish we had some more comments for that end chapter... no idea what readers thought of it) Cowritten with the wonderful @mrmissmrsrandom and we'll continue to post for this verse.

OCTOBER-DECEMBER

Daemoni - FE14 Marx/Hinoka demon!AU

A fic that burst into being from a combination this year's spoopy month having a true Friday 13th + this great piece of fanart. While I did initially have a different ending planned, I pivoted to the current one and its frankly been a stress-free write. I'm just going loosey goosey with my monster/myth interpretations and largely making up things as I've gone, but I'm quite enjoying this verse- and I think readers have too? At least, two of them have. …I might still post my OG ending idea, but as a oneshot (it'd be spicy).

My free time activities shifted quite a bit half way through the year, and admittedly I've still not finished a FE17 run- for various reasons. However, it feels like I never hit burnout this year, and boy, most years that's the case at one time or another. Feels like my writing interests have gotten even more niche- likely cause the games involved are getting even older/I remain a rarepair captain. Let's all stay sane in 2024!

[icarianarts]

More about me under the cut! ;P

Icarian • he/they/she (no preference) • transsexual • 21 y/o

I'm a Graphic Design Major ^_^

A running joke about me is a lot of my points of interest reflect that of a cishet boy but I promise I am normal about everything I get into. I may talk about some things more than others because I get embarrassed with what I like easily, but here's a general list!

General Movies + TV Shows

• Seinfeld

• The Birdcage

• The Yellow Submarine

• The Muppets

• The Shrek series (Unironically, whenever I talk about Shrek it is never for the meme, but for my love of the movies and characters.)

Various Adam Sandler movies + things that are so bad they're good, if that makes any sense. I love regularly watching tacky things that were poorly produced and/or written. Pretty much anything I can commentate on easily with my friends and complain about lightly LOL

Anime + Manga

• Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (Parts 1 + 3 + 6 are usually my areas of focus, but I have read all of it up to 9, which I've yet to really dive into.)

• Dragon Ball (Childhood interest of mine, I haven't watched the series regularly or have drawn fanart regularly since I was 14 or so. Hilariously, I still find myself to this day getting into conversations surrounding it so I might as well include it!)

• Berserk (I LOVE PUCK ^_^)

• Devilman (Obligatory post-Berserk catch up read so I could see the elements Miura was inspired by.)

Video Games

• Pretty much most Nintendo games, I have a baseline knowledge of everything under that company's label. (Focus on Pokémon + Mario + Kid Icarus + etc. it'll be glaringly obvious what my favorites are just by checking my old smash bros ultimate tags...)

• Mega Man Classic

• Second Life + VR Chat (If you ever consider wanting to play any of these games, feel free to shoot me an ask or DM if you'd like an insider's explanation on what the scene is like on them! I can go into great detail the amount of stories I have accumulated from my excursions, all the good and the bad LMAO)

• Genshin Impact (I do not engage with the fanbase, and find a lot of the fans genuinely exhausting to be around. While it is no worse than The Legend of Zelda with its issues, the fans remarkably make it so much more agonizing to talk about.)

• Ball Gay 3

Miscellaneous

• I love the Abrahamic Faiths and sometimes post about my experiences struggling in queer spaces predominantly ran by culturally christian white atheists who choose to say all organized faith is inherently bad and perpetuate the "queer vs. religion" issue.

• I went to a Japanese immersion school from the ages 5 through 11 and have been casually keeping up with the language since!

• I love classic country and folk rock. When I say I like country, I specifically mean the genre and general scene behind country that predates the 9/11 shift in music. I also (embarrassingly) know a shit ton of Beatles trivia. John Denver is my favorite music artist.

...and much more I am probably forgetting to list out! I am critical of all my interests, so please do not be presumptuous. Ultimately, I consider a lot of "Fandom DNI" things to be hypocritical and performative in the sense that it eliminates any nuance.

Simply put, I will just block you if you are someone who refuses to have any critical thinking skills...that being said, given how tumblrinas seem to be incapable of figuring out what that means, here is a brief rundown of what I that tends to encapsulate. LMAOOOOOO

No stupid discourse No creeps No "it's just fictional!" No whatever I deem to be genuinely sickening I know "DNI" pages are performative and areas for people to flaunt their basic morality but lately I have had to block so many people I feel as though I need to put a typical warning up so. You Know. Gestures Vaguely. For Genshin Fans specifically coming to my blog know I do not put up with any ship remotely creepy. I see a good portion of the "short" character model characters as children, and genuinely cannot "unsee" it. This is not something to argue in my asks about. Just leave me alone, I do not participate in the fandom for a reason.

[bbygirl-aemond]

Hello! Just found you but already love your style of meta— you always have interesting, thoughtful takes that catch things I haven’t realized myself or seen from others. The lack of drama here is a fucking godsend.

Would you mind recommending some of your favorite asoiaf/hotd blogs? And (perhaps a silly question) what kind of Posts are you looking for people to submit? Have a nice weekend.

Aww thank you so much! Just me trying to use my liberal arts degree for some good old media analysis and to promote civil discussion. :) And of course I'm very firm in being a supporter of the characters from both teams, and maintain empathy for most (except certain old misogynistic men on both sides haha) even when discussing flaws they might have. I'm glad you've been enjoying my content!

Sooooo I actually don't follow very many HotD blogs at all haha, and while I'd love to find more meta-type content (especially more Team Black biased, since Team Green biased analysis is more prevalent in my experience), most of the blogs I do check are art blogs, and very few of them are solely HotD blogs. That being said, here are some that I enjoy:

@alicentlesbianhightowerntlesbianhightower is 10/10 for rhaenicent content, fanart and meta, both book and show based, equally friendly for members of team black or green @alicentsgf has a lot of cool takes about alicent in particular, but they do like to bully daemon (they're funny ab it tho) @lucife56 isn't a hotd-only blog, but has really amazing, show-accurate daemyra art @loserys isn't an art-only blog, but their aged up lucemond art is sick and they have a few funny related art memes @bluecoffeebeanz also makes excellent art of various ewan mitchell characters, including aemond, though they aren't a hotd-only blog @mothdoly does art of the various greens and especially aegon that is beautiful, memey, or both simultaneously

If anyone has recs for blogs with more analysis/takes that favor Team Black, please send them to me! Echo chambers are the death of critical thinking and I like to make sure any content that is biased towards one team is balanced out by other content biased towards another. As a writer it's also just useful to me to help further flesh out my characterizations of everyone in Stormbreak. So that's one type of content that would be great for submissions, but I'm also happy for any related show/book analysis or art that anyone thinks I or my followers might like or find useful! Truly the world is your oyster here. :)

Have a great weekend!

[blacksuccubusboots]

For the writing meme

F, I, N, V ✨

omg cenn! 😭😭😭 I’m still gagged that you read my mess

F. What stories are you planning for the future?

I have a folder in my notes app dedicated to rough outlines and right now I have *maybe* 7 WIPs in there. One of them is is called 'BB's Delivery Service' which is a semicrack fic about Balor as a maid and — yeah I know, I know. Classic Maid gacha a did number on me.

Also Loiscneach!!!!!!!

YES I have Talvmillet WIPs, BUT those are gonna have to marinate for a while until I know what I want out of them. That dynamic is more involved than Vaynemillet which is always a combination of 1.) arguing 2.) fighting and 3.) fucking to me

I. What’s your favorite work you did this year? Why?

It would have to be Pleasure in the Glare. Believe it or not, I was initially disinterested in Vayne because G22 came on the heels of G21 especially considering how long the wait was between G20 -> G21. I took the finale personally 😭 I knew Vayne was no good from the jump so I spent my first play through of G22 + 23 wondering what the hell he wanted. Then I got to G24 and that was where I was pushed over into BeimHive territory. Finally realized the guy just wanted some ass then die; that earned my respect. IDC how many times I say this but Dissonance in the Void is Vaynemillet gospel. Writing about fighting and fucking is so much fun!

N. Anything you were planning to write that never got written?

I feel like anything I really wanna write will come out in its own time, but this is never gonna see the light of day.

V. Which story was the most viscerally pleasing to write? Tell us your narrative kinks. 

Okay right now it's a tie between Pleasure in the Glare and Sweet Honey Sin. I like porn with plot; I could never dish it out raw like that. I have an entire Twitter circles (RIP) thread dedicated to the making of Sweet Honey Sin. For my followers - if you're nosey and not weird I've moved to a private Twitter for quote-tweeting nasty mabi fanart and talking about whatever I'm currently working on + snippets. Anyone can DM if interested.

As for narrative kinks per se, the only one I can think of is that I will always mention or reference “honey” or “gold” at least once in a fic in relation to my millet or something she’s doing. One day I might talk about her in depth, but honestly, I’m not the type to sit down and say “oh Adah likes such and such and only does this and that”. I’m her PR manager, not her biographer, if that makes sense. I’m learning more about my own OC with every story 🌸

On a broader level, if you've been following me for all these years (sorry), then you might have seen my various 'The Signs As' posts for whatever hot new characters are around. Towards the end of 2022 when I started writing, I began thinking seriously about character sun signs and now that I have more free time for other hobbies, I've gotten *really* into drafting natal charts for whatever characters I'm writing about. It helps SO much with characterization. It gives me a framework for their personalities from which I can cook up whatever behavioral nuances I want without making them feel OOC to the reader.

Thank you for the ask!

[kaeyachi]

do you know about lord Krishna (a deity) of the Hindu mythology? I'm not much of a religious person but i know ab him a lot bcz of coming from a religious household and somethings ab him and kaeya just clicks so much

I actually thought ab it bcz kaeya's constellation is a peacock and Krishna is often symbolized with peacock feathers, so i looked into it . I think there might be some links connecting the both but I can't say for sure everything is connected but somethings might be telling us what might happen in the future lore.

And if i really post it rather than keep it in my mind can I tag you?

Thank you for asking, anon! I do know a bit about Krishna (my mom had a Bollywood phase and Krishna was frequently mentioned) but I have a feeling you know better than me. I wish I knew more than just the basics, but there are a lot of similarities between them other than just the peacock symbolism!

I also realized while seeing some Desi!Kaeya fanart that he gives the same energy as to when I see images of Krishna (the fanarts are so good. Probably one of my favorite types of Kaeya art)

I will be using some texts from wiki to better explain my MAIN points because my mind is a mess and I need to learn to control my blabbering!! If i didn't do this, who knows how long this post will get...

Feel free to use this as a basis as well! I'd be happy to get tagged when you post about his possible future for in-game lore. For people knowledgable in Hindu, please feel free to expand on this as well!

"He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love"

-Kaeya has been portrayed as a protective force of Mondstat along with the rest of the knights.

-Noteworthy moments are him being said to protect a nun's family and his roundabout way in protecting Diluc's identity as the darknight hero

-"Specializes in awakening knightly virtues in others." - Text in TCG card

-he is the guy who planned a birthday party for a friend in secret and passed the praise to someone else.

-several instances of Klee mentioning him being like a big brother to her (him making her a survival handbook and teaching her tcg)

- he has a cryo vision. Love has always been a main topic when it concerns them, especially since their archon representative is the Goddess of Love

"They portray him in various perspectives: as a god-child, a prankster, a model lover, a divine hero, and the universal supreme being."

-his father has dubbed him as their last hope, already putting him on a (very bad for a child) pedestal. He is clearly seen as a possible hero for them and the entirety of Khaenri'ah

-seemingly the only curseless Khaenri'ahn thus far (hope we learn more in 3.5), and perhaps even "blessed" to have a vision

-known to prank and tease people enough that most descriptions of him are exactly about that

-was said to be the elderly's top choice for grandson-in-law

-crack idea but the game has this habit of inserting anecdotes or comments about Kaeya as much as possible to make sure to remind you of him. Suspicious, but so far its mostly funny things. He also seems to be a universal representative in-game oddly enough (frequently the face of tutorials or is part of the character trials).

Kaeya having Desi themes is definitely the biggest indicator to this. Were he not designed and named in such a way, many of us would have probably brushed this off (probably wouldnt have even connected the dots)

I hope this inspires further discussion. This topic is genuinely interesting in my opinion :)

[masterofrecords]

Storytelling for shits and giggles

Figured with all the stuff that's been going on I should probably make a proper pinned post for those of my new followers who are not, miraculously, bots.

So yeah, hi, Master of Records here, and I love storytelling in various forms, from running Pathfinder and other TTRPG games to translation and to writing. You can find most of my non-fandom work on my website (it's a work in progress, but it finally exists!)

Translations:

I currently translate the White Cat Legend manhua (and sometimes donghua) over at @whitecatlegend. A story of political intrigue and Tang dynasty court drama inspired by the real historical events of Wu Zetian's reign - come check it out, it's a good (if more than occasionally bloody) time.

I'm also slowly making my way through the end-cards of The Ravages of Time donghua and the related historical notes on the episodes. Here's a masterlist for that, there is plenty of fun stuff about the Late Han and the Three Kingdoms period even unrelated to the donghua!

I also sometimes complain about translation work on this blog, under the #masterofrecords translates tag

Original fiction:

I don't have as much time for it these days, but I occasionally write some stuff based on the big Pathfinder campaign I ran for over two years for my friends. Check out my Angstober 2022, Angstober 2023 and Angstober 2024 masterlists for that!

Games:

I've had the pleasure of writing the script for a wonderful gay vampire visual novel Once upon a Stormy Night as a part of Weird Birds Studio. Check it out - the character art is gorgeous, and even if I didn't have the time to write the scene of the cat familiar cheating at cards, I did write the polyamorous ending.

Fanfiction:

You can find my AO3 here.

Currently I only have posted works for Twisted Wonderland

Any wips and updates are usually posted under #masterofrecords writes tag

Aquarium (Ashenviper, T, 100k words and growing slowburn, updates regularly every 1-2 weeks well not anymore I guess)

Jamil had always found Azul's attention annoying, but after the overblotting incident the merman became downright insufferable.

That's when Professor Crewel gives them a group assignment. How much can change in two weeks? A lot, apparently, and what was supposed to be a simple alchemy project turns into something more complicated, involving a heist, personal drama, good food and surprising revelations, not necessarily in that order.

One caring gesture at a time, feelings grow.

Aquarium fanart masterlist

Covered Faces, Bared Souls (Ashenviper, T, only 1st chapter of 3 is currently posted, will update at an uncertain date)

Azul had never had many chances to dance, especially on two legs. In preparation for the masquerade ball he employs Jamil's help - whether it was a good idea or not, remains to be seen.

When things get particularly bad, I sometimes draw shitty stick figure comics about everything wrong with my life tagged as #mor's silly penguin comics. If you think I haven't posted anything of worth for a while, check them out, they might have answers on whatever mental health malady had befallen me this time.

Feel free to drop an ask if you have questions about any of my writing/other work!

[generalherasyndulla]

for the ask meme, the five numbers you like the least. not the questions. the literal numbers.

"the five numbers you like the least" bruh I'm still not sure why I'd be expected to have strong number opinions but here we are I guess.

Also you didn't specify a fandom so I'm just gonna jump around here for funsies

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Alright listen aitsf/aini fandom. I get why a lot of y'all don't like Lien. His interactions with Kizuna early on aren't great and there's a valid critque to be said about that dynamic perpetuating creepy stalkerish tendencies "wearing a woman down until she accepts a relationship". BUT there's a lot more to him than that which is super compelling. Lien at the chronological start of the game is a former criminal trying to better himself and feeling bummed out because he got fired from a legitimate job he had because of his criminal history. Ultimately his relationship with Kizuna motivates Lien to better himself and not give up and find a job that suits his skill set. I think the exploration of classism and the struggles of trying to better yourself in a society that believes "once a criminal always a criminal" in Lien is compelling plus he's just a big dumb guy that loves his girlfriend. YES their first meeting was bad but dammit Lien being Kizuna's legs for her so they can dance is so fucking cute and it fucking got me. Sorry haters in this house I love Lien Twining.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

I think there should be Sam and Max fic that actually fits closer to Steve Purcell's style. I've seen some really great fanart/fan comics that I think feel very Sam and Max and fit the style of its various incarnations but fic is kind of a different story. I've definitely read some INCREDIBLE sam and max fics but overall most of them are kinda mediocre and I think it's because a lot of sam and max writers are young and aren't quite equipped to tell a story that fits sam and max, mostly by treating them too seriously. Sam and Max is first and foremost a comedy and even canon at its darkest still manages to have plenty of genuinely funny moments. There's nothing wrong with trying to explore a more serious side to the characters mind you but a lot of it in my opinion takes it too far to the point where Sam and Max don't feel like Sam and Max.

18. it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

Okay buffy fandom, maybe I am looking in the wrong place by why is there Robin Wood fandom. I know season 7 sucks but Robin is a highlight of that season for me. I think he's a very compelling character, the son of a slayer who lost his mom at a young age and takes up the fight himself. I don't think the show really used his character to the fullest potential but that's what fandom is supposed to be for. At least it is when the character with untapped potential is white but ALAS here we are. Anyway I love Robin a lot I don't talk about him much but I think he's neat and I wish there was more appreciation for him out there.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

Nothing tbh. CRINGE CULTURE IS DEAD BABY IN THIS HOUSE WE'RE BEING GENUINE ABOUT WHAT WE LIKE!!!!! THAT'S WHAT THE REAL COOL KIDS (TM) ARE DOING

23. ship you've unwillingly come around to

Probably franmaya. Like I used to really like not like it when I was younger (mostly because Maya is my favourite character while I didn't care much for Franziska. Like I didn't hate franziska per se I just didn't like her as much as other. idk what to tell you somehow I didn't get the crush on franziska gene that every other sapphic woman has) but due to it being a common background ship in narumitsu fics and one really good analysis post tumblr breaking down maya and franziska's similarities in a way that actually made it click I've softened on the ship. I still won't actively seek it out but I might reblog a cute fanart here or there if I come across it.

Thanks for the asks dude, even if u asked them in the weirdest fucking way

send me some more "choose violence" fandom asks

[herrscherofmagic]

I think I might take a break from making fanart for some time; or at least, I'll try and make it less of a priority.

This thought came to me just now, and while I don't really have a concrete plan or process in mind I figured I might as well share it anyways

Of course, I do intend to still make fanart soon, and I still have an insane amount of ideas on future projects. Just take a quick glance at that project overview thingy I posted a while back, and you'd see just how much I still have to do!

But honestly, art has been really stressful for me recently. Not because of art itself, not because drawing is difficult. It's just that I'm dealing with a lot of anxiety, exhaustion, and stress from other life stuff, and I already have really low self-esteem when it comes to my art, so trying to force myself to work on these various fanart WIPs hasn't been helping at all.

So I think I want to experiment a bit and start posting more of my practice work. Gesture drawings, studies, anatomy notes, scribbles, and whatever else comes to mind. I want to try and do more with drawing from life both with pen and with pencil, too.

One of my biggest issues is that it's incredibly difficult for me to focus and commit on anything. This isn't an art issue, this is an issue I have with nearly everything in my life. So I can't really "solve" it, I just have to mitigate it to the best of my ability.

Recently, I think what's been giving me the most trouble with art is that I struggle with line quality and mark-making. I'm starting to understand anatomy more, I've gotten decent at gesture, I'm even taking a live drawing class as part of my college studies; but none of these things matter if I can't even move the pen(cil) across the paper or screen to make the mark I need to convey form, shape, value, and so on.

I'm also not just talking about lineart in the sense you usually think of, like in manga as one example. This is about all sorts of marks, whether it's using a brush to show value on the side of an object, or making lines to show the position & orientation of a limb.

I tend to draw really quickly and roughly, basically drawing at the same speed that I think- which is way too fast. Sometimes it's good to draw quickly like that, but I'm running into an issue where I'm spending upwards of one hour on rough sketching and "planning" when I should be taking less than 30 minutes on that, and using the rest of the time to actually draw the damn thing T_T

And because I rarely get to that later stage in the drawing, I've constantly hit roadblocks with my more complex works because I have so little experience there. That disconnect between my ideas and execution is really demoralizing, but I don't think I realized what the exact issue was until these past few weeks...

Instead of trying to worry about these large illustrations or comics and whatnot, I think I want to try and focus on some drawings that will help me really figure out my mark-making. Things like drawing a scene from life, such as plants or buildings or people on the street. Drawing more studies of clothed people instead of only doing anatomy. Drawing 3D forms in simple perspective, and then repeatedly adding more onto these forms to try and add complexity without muddying up the drawing with inconsistent and shoddy linework.

I've always wanted to add those kinds of drawings to my social media, but my ideas for fanart fill my mind 24/7 and I've been trying so hard to realize these ideas- and failing miserably. At the rate that I'm going, we're gonna experience the heat death of the universe before I reach a level of artistic skill that would actually let me make a living and survive off of my work. So I need to seriously address these concepts, and I need to (mostly) detach it from my fanwork so I don't get too emotionally attached to the countless shitty drawings I'll be making >.>

So I'll try and worry less about making all these cool fanarts and instead pick a single or handful of simpler fanarts to seriously work on, and surround those few works with lots of other practice that will help me build the skills I need to execute these ideas.

I also think I'm going to go back to writing more fan fiction in the meantime, since my writing skills are pretty well developed; far more than my drawing, at least. So I can try to present more of my fan ideas through writing instead of only through art, that way I can still share these thoughts with the world.

Plus I have some ideas that can help combine my fanfics with simple fanart in the form of illustrations- like one or two drawings per chapter of a fic, for example. Not full scenes with lots of detail- rather they'd be simple drawings with more rough linework and simple shading, which focus on conveying a key idea of the text instead of trying to convey all the meaning within the artwork itself. Like if a chapter introduces a new character, then having an illustration of said character in a simple scene. That kind of thing!

No clue where this'll take me, but hopefully it'll at least let me continue to improve my art skills without feeling miserable, while also giving me time to catch up on other work that I've been neglecting, including some huge life stuff I need to sort out if I want any chance of surviving on my own once I graduate.

I'll still have a lot of stress and anxiety from other places, but I want to at least take art and transform it into something I can do for fun and to relax, instead of being stressed by my art because of the pressure to make things "look good" instead of building up the skills I need to do that in the first place. If I can learn to enjoy making art, that'll go a long way in helping me get to a better frame of mind ^.^

[douglasanondr]

Of the Standard ARS + Boss storylines, there is 1 character in each group that doesn’t have to be included.

As the name of this post states, among the various ARS + Boss storylines (Satan wanting Arle, the Crimson Demon, Ecolo, SpaceTime) there is “probably” 1 character among those groups that for all intents and purposes, doesn’t have to be there for the plot to move on. Is that a bad thing? No, and sure all those character’s can have their own stories, 20th and Quest are great examples but in talking about those stories in particular, if you got rid of those characters listed below very little would actually change narrative wise. 

Here are the characters I’m talking about:

Schezo Wegey (Satan/Arle storyline)

The Satan/Arle storyline is a plot point all of us should know at this point, it’s a reason half of these games even exist, but there is one thing in this story that I don’t see people talk about and that’s how important Schezo’s role in it is. Now his role is obvious, it’s to be a secondary opposition Satan in pursuing Arle, the reason being for his own means, he wants Arle’s power that one’s obvious, but people often overlook/not talk about one thing, it doesn’t have to be Arle. It’s been well established that he goes for other people other than Arle, in PPT Ch.9, 15th, TotM he goes after more than just Arle in those stories, and with the exception of Madou 2 how many times has he actively shown tailing Arle for her power instead of doing it cause the opportunity had risen. And while yes, Rulue also has a case for not needing to be part of the story, I ask you this. How many times has Rulue been against being a part of Satan’s shenanigans, and how many times has Schezo wanted to be involved in those same shenanigans, to be made fun of by everyone involved. If it was up to him, he’d probably choose not to be there.

Raffina (Crimson Demon Storyline)

This one’s the most obvious. Even if you don’t believe me, look at most fanart, fanfic and official media on this storyline, and tell me how much Raffina shows up in a prominent role in any of those. Even in Sig’s Secret, the most well known Crimson Demon story, she’s only there in the beginning and it’s because of school work. It’s kinda F*cked up when you think about it, she’s shown to be insecure when it comes to her own image and abilities, and she now dosen’t even fit in most sought after story about her own friends. What the f*ck SEGA.

Risukuma (Ecolo/Ringo Storyline)

This one was a toss up between him and Maguro, though I can make up a case for Maguro staying as oppose to Ris. Let’s be real here this entire storyline is a love story between an Ecolo who’s just happy to have someone remember him, and a Ringo who’s just wants to be friends. With this in mind, you could probably see where I’m going with this, Maguro is meant to be the rival character, the one meant to be the other interest in this weird love story. And from a symbolism stand point, Maguro is Ringo’s realism to Ecolo’s Curiosity. Ecolo’s there to intrigue her, entice her curiosity while Maguro's there to keep her grounded and going overboard. With that in mind, What’s Risukumas role in all this? Sure with his fascination with love, you could say he could play the role of an observer or mediator reocording oall his findings on this, but that’s not all that important to the story now is it.

Seo (Detectives Storyline)

This one might be the one that will change the most with the more games they appear in, along with the Risukuma take. With what I’ve seen so far (Because I don’t know Japanese, and the translation isn’t completed as far as I’m aware) Of the group involved in this storyline, Seo’s the one that plays the most passive role, with Zero and Eight being the bosses and Atari and Roquier playing the more active role. Makes sense, she’s the Boss of Atari and Roquier, she tells them where to go and what to do when needed, that’s great but not all that necessary to stick around for. Heck, in the beginning of the story she talked thru Puubot, and came to Pwurp cause the connection was finnicky, How more not needed can you get from that. Not hating though I love her interactions with Accord and Ecolo.

Now with all this being said, am I saying this is a bad thing. No, far from it. I just wanted to point out a pattern I saw among these groups that is probably just a coincidence. Sure, every character in each group can and has done a story on their own, 15th, 20th and Quest wouldn’t exist if they couldn’t. I just like that their are characters that are part of the main group but aren’t tied to the main plots and can do their own thing. Hell these 4 are some of my favorite characters because of it. 

All I’m saying is Schezo, Raffina, Risukuma and Seo should interact more, they can clearly do other things, it would be funny, they should be Friends.

[doom-nerdo-666]

Doom fanbase related takes and prespectives

This is just a collection of various observations and some even clash like different perspectives, but there’s a chance that some are unique or unpopular so they’re "hot takes", i guess.

(And after the Brutal Doom post i could also post this)

Once in a while, there’s always someone complaining that "Doom fans have the Same Fucking Jokes" and i always assumed that those complainers were just as "Zoomer" as the ones making the repetitive memes. But more so that the memes themselves (The longer the Icon of Sin, Shooting a hole on the face of Mars, Isabelle, The Demons Are Stuck With You, GIT GUD, When the Doom Music plays, Doot etc) are either very recent or just associated with Eternal/2016. Like, you never see someone say "DOOM MEMES ARE ALL THE FUCKING SAME" and bring up Impse, NEDM, Plutonia jokes, Benellus the God of Shotguns, “Does It Run Doom?”, Dopefish, Repercussions of Evil, IDSPISPOPD, Terry Wads and so on.

DOOMGUYBOT made a video called “Ranking EVERY Doom Joke” and all those jokes were not before Eternal/2016 except maybe Rip and Tear: In a way, they accidentally reveal something about the most popular Doom content/personalities nowadays. The Doom fanbase is now either defined by newcomers or that stuff just gets to be more popular/shared often, almost hiding the actual old blood/guard under the rug (Which makes certain “assertive” behaviors ironic since they’re technically the actual “new kids on the block” and not the other way around)

It’s why i find it ironic when people feared Doomslayer in Fortnite will bring in annoying kids into Doom, because 2016/Eternal were Doom’s return into the mainstream so the main games technically already did that (And the people with this fear in the first place might as well be newcomers themselves).

It explains the discourse around difficulty and Eternal: It’s not just people being bad at their first Doom game; It’s also people being good at their first Doom game and doing that “GIT GUT, GAME JOURNO” attitude that feels like they took it from somewhere. The fact that some of them even go “Boomers can’t beat Eternal because they can’t quicksave” almost enforces this divide of old and new fans. (It's true that older fans have their struggles with Eternal but still; Then there's those that are good because they were good with Quake 3 etc). (Though what if being too good at Quake 3 is why boomers struggle with Eternal? There's a thing called carpal tunnel syndrom and-)

If one were to judge the fanbase by the current content, they’d almost be surprised this series actually existed for almost 30 years, let alone had its fanbase start off as one of the most supportive and diverse modding scenes, making content for a certain engine and even gets to port its games to non-gaming devices. (Probably even before ORIGWAD and DOSDoom). Doom is a series people see as an example of “the one franchise that actually returns to the roots and avoided the sins of other pop culture” but a lot of people into the games may still reveal certain traits/behaviors you could spot elsewhere. You could point out new fans having those "MCU/Consoomer" behaviors or being exposed to "digestable internet content" like basic memes and talentless Youtubers.

The phrase “Doom is Eternal” seems like genius marketing from Slayers Club, but a side effect of making a series “loved by everyone” is that it can easily trample over the “core of the fanbase”; Because otherwise, you’d think the answer to “why is Doom eternal?” would start with something literal like mods and open source code. (And then on r/Doom, the basic memes would have been getting much less upvotes compared to a mod release or a piece of fanart actually being posted by its author or at least noticeably credited/sourced).

Because Doom is a series that, for better or worse, was impacted by the fanbase and there’s aspects about Doom that can be traced back to outside sources. Just consider:

Mods/wads/source ports/etc in general.

Even SnapMap and D3/Eternal mods.

The "speed" association, partially because of Quake or the ALWAYS RUN command (And how boring FPS got during the 7th gen).

Nicknames like Doomguy, Pinky and Unmaker (This one taken from Tom Hall's Doom Bible).

Websites like forums, wad hosting, wikis, documentation.

Fan ports/reverse engineering/PRESERVATION for Doom 64, PS1 and RPG games (The official D64 port has Kaiser from D64EX involved; The one true lost Doom game might be Doom Resurrection, D3 based on-rails shooter for iOS).

FreeDoom and others.

A mobile port by Carmack that used a fork of PrBoom.

SIGIL and unused Doom assets John Romero shared (Until ZeniMax got him to stop).

Final Doom, D2 Master Levels, NRFTL, Unity ports addons and American McGee once making an unofficial map before D2.

Fanmade music remasters and remixes (Even Mick Gordon did some).

Anytime a video/article used fanart or modded screenshots because Doom barely had official art.

Stuff like ripped sprites, assets and models from the games and so on.

Fanart of Doomslayer and Daisy at the Fortress of Doom.

Eternal's official cosplay skin may be based off someone's cosplay that id used as reference and didn't credit.

Doomslayer is not just tied to the RIP AND TEAR comic, but both ironic jokes about Doomguy's power level from 4chan and unironic fanboy meltdowns over Death Battle animating Master Chief defeating Doomguy (And i guess how jealous Doom fans were at Halo).

Memes that are referenced in the games.

Memes and reaction images that are shared, often uncredited.

IDSPISPOPD since it was influenced by a USENET post before the first game was released.

The passage of misinfo/rumors/lies etc like Doomguy not knowing what sex is, Fly Taggart being his "real name, "Doom is keyboard only" but also good/useful shit like how the BFG9000 actually works, how Doomguy and BJ are related, the source of real objects that inspired ingame textures

The kind of mods and assets that explored the original games' setting, as if the fans were interested in "expanding/exploring the Doom universe" before 2016's lore.

The kind of mods with fanservice and crossover stuff like Samsara or MetaDoom (Or even most bloated fan remakes and HD TEXTURES REMASTERED 4K).

Speaking of crossovers, besides mods there's fanart.

Mods based off cut concepts like Doom Delta.

Cacowards i guess.

How fans made a SECOND Wiki to ditch the former, that was under Wikia/Fandom.

Feedback that affected the games, which is also why Eternal has that style of ingame pickups and UI design.

Hissy mascot.

Maybe whether or not id copied Brutal Doom or that fanmade fire Baron to create a similar design in Eternal.

Doom as a series mainly existed for its impact alone and wasn't meant to be a "franchise" like Mario or Final Fantasy. That's another reason to attach fans to such a small series. When even Sakurai himself mentions "Doomguy" as a nickname and makes a joke about ports, that's 2 things that come from somewhere.

It can make discovering the potential outsider origin of the Doomslayer more difficult if nobody ever looks back at fans already doing Chuck Norris-like/copypasta jokes or getting mad over Master Chief and Death Battle; Hell, we’re even past the point people used to think id copied Brutal Doom.

People once were upset over Brutal Doom getting a lot of coverage and its fanbase not touching the vanilla games or other mods but when you look at Isabelle crossovers and other recent memes, it almost feels like a whole different universe where Doom fan content never really revolved around wads and any of the sort. Brutal Doom in general was a weird age where a mod's popularity and reception felt so forced, its fans even begged other modders to make their works compatible with BD and Romero had to REclarify his opinion about the mod. But even BD's hate feels so fake/carried by second hand info because people just go "i heard SgtMark is hated in the community", so the only sincere BD hate is like guys on 4chan posting webm's of BD's stupid bugs while talking about how great Hideous Destructor is. Brutal Doom is like if Yandere Simulator never reached what some would call "lolcow status" because the people hating it fucked up so bad.

It explains why Romero being restricted by ZeniMax from sharing assets of his own games did not get a lot of attention (Besides the fact that this was already a thing going back to 2014); Otherwise, Doom fans would consider giving this the same attention/priority as when Mick Gordon got screwed over by Bethesda. (I mean this because both situations are lame and Romero/Gordon deserve better).

Even then, someone’s presence/start into a series doesn’t translate to how deep they’re into it and there’s also stuff like GGGManlives making FPS videos before Decino yet you can also see how the latter can show more knowledge than the former (Though sometimes there’s reasons for this and to be fair, i heard Decino himself may not like Build Engine games but correct me on this one if possible).

But never forget GGGManlives made a review of the Doom Unity ports and people pointed out huge mistakes like treating GZDoom as vanilla Doom.

In general, the louder/more noticeable fans of something aren’t the most “into it”, no matter how vocal or performative they can be: It’s like how MCU fans don’t care about comic books, console warriors don’t care about older/obscure titles of their company and animation/cartoon fans tend to hyperfixate over Disney/Illumination/Dreamworks etc and won’t recognize a name like “Ralph Bakshi”. Or people that complain "ANIME IS ALL FANSERVICE AND SHOUNEN" and ignore other genres or works.

And i guess if most modern Doom fans are unironic Redditors, someone will point out how some older fans were on a site like SomethingAwful lol.

(At least Doom fans that were on SA ended up finding fun stuff to do, unlike how most SA goons turned out)

I mean, if actual “Doom boomers and wise nerds” aren’t pointing this out, they’re either busy better doing cooler things (Unlike me when i wrote this lol) or somehow don’t feel like challenging those that otherwise have a "lower power level". DoomKid did made a video correcting MidNight (Both representing 2 worlds in the Doom fanbase) and i wonder if we could get more culture shock moments like this.

DoomKid was even polite and calm, so he didn't even sounded mad when he made that video.

Even ignoring the old blood and past history, there’s also a lot more to Eternal fan content than just memes, like people making cool fanmade demons or mods or cool animations in SFM.

And on the subject of people making "anime is temporary, Doom is Eternal": Anime fans in the Doom fanbase are usually the ones behind the best fanart or mods, while those that hate anime tend to only make basic, digestible memes; Plus how John Romero’s favorite game is Chrono Trigger and i’m sure even the new id themselves were inspired by Japanese media when it comes to making the new Doom games.

Even lore kinda applies here because getting into "Doom lore" may not start with stuff about Sentinels or Maykrs; Rather, you'd get info from the old games' instruction manuals, official strategy guides, ingame intermission texts, obscure media like level packs and phone games etc which is how some get to know about the "Blazkowicz family tree" in the first place and even know stuff like "Hell created their own cyberdemons" is retconned in 2016 (And maybe also that the in-universe date of 2022 is from the SNES port manual and stuff like the fake screenshot implying Doomguy is a turbo virgin).

Speaking of LORE: I think Doom's staying power is related to the setting's limited/weird presentation because of how people still argue over what "Doom should be", have their personal interpretations and the amount of fan content that shows a fanmade universe. Same reason why "story doesn't matter" doesn't really reflect on the fanbase as much (Specially because it feels like people only got that from a DidYouKnowGaming video where they brought a quote that even Carmack disagrees a bit with). I also love seeing fanmade redesigns of demons and Doomguy, specially because it's partially to do with how Doom 3 changed Doom's identity and how it pushed that "reinterpretable series" aspect. The idea of how "experimental" Doom can be is also why i tend to have mixed feelings on Doom having an interconnected universe/lore (Specially in hypothetical "IF" situations where the series could get another reboot and it could reinterpretate certain characters or ideas, even if this is because of how many people didn't like TAG2's conclusion). When you really think about it: The problem with Doom movies isn't just replacing the demons with aliens or Doomguy with whatshername but the fact that the settings and visuals don't mimick certain wall textures and barely capture the attention to detail of someone like, i dunno, MarphyBlack?

Something interesting about Doom 64 and it being "the real Doom 3" is how most fans knew the game from fan ports and most people outside the fanbase didn't know about the game, but i honestly think it's because generic/mainstream gaming channel/sites (Dorkly, Watchmojo, DYKG etc) somehow refused to acknowledge the game at all. Yes, the game was obscure in the 90's (Partially because of the FPS genre getting into real 3D and the game being seen as "another Doom port") but it feels like the kind of game that people made it slightly more obscure than it was. D64 being "the real Doom 3" is an interesting thing to think about because, for being a once somewhat unpopular game at the time, you have to wonder whether or not some fans would care if not for the lore aspect of the game (Since it was not made by id themselves and more people were worried over the game lacking an official modern release and not story stuff).

Also weird when people think of Daisy's death as a tragic thing but honestly? Doom being one of the revolutionary violent games in the 90's makes me think that Daisy exists for a dark humor factor. I mean, we're talking about the guys behind Commander Keen, who then made a violent easter egg about that character in the second Wolfenstein map in Doom 2. To id, it probably felt no different from South Park killing off Kenny.

The idea of "all wads are canon" is also weird to me because:

This concept is barely sourced by people saying it, i think it was from some codex in 2016 about Doomguy traveling through time and dimensions but it was vague.

The audience of modern Doom lore is different from that of the people super invested into wads.

There's also the way how people only know about wads/mods as stuff like "SIMPSONS IN DOOM!?" when most Doom fans think of stuff related to the Cacowards or wads/mods as something more sincere and developed.

In general, Doom modding in a way can feel like fanfiction, it contrasts how people want an official crossover of Doom and Halo, because it's something that could be possible in modding and even done in ways that may never happen officially.

I think a reason why nerd hobbies/media have that "brand loyalty/defense" behavior is because it's technically easier than learning more about the subject, because for all the guys defending Disney Star Wars, not many want to be the wiki nerd that writes articles about the canonicity of "water". If modern Doom fans are in that "loud loyal nerd" area, then of course the boomers will fit in that "computer geek" zone because of wads and all.

I guess the thing Youtubers and Twitter "personalities" have over someone like modders is the spread of information and influence, so it makes sense why personalities get in the way of content.

You don't need to ever have made/played a wad to be a Doom fan, of course. At the same time, nobody wants to see a weirdo harass an artist that once drew Doomguy and Isabelle together because they're not interested in wads. I guess the "venn diagram" connecting these 2 sides of the fanbase exists but it also depends on how close the "circles" are to each other (And if other circles exist). (Also, people got tired of Isabelle crossovers but the Pixar Lightyear crossovers felt more forced, like a Disney marketing scheme infiltrating a different series).

Most Doom fans play the main games, with 3 having a “maybe” spot to most people (And consider the differences between the original release and later versions too).

Even then, older fans can also be considered responsible for occasional misinfo or misremembered stuff about Doom. Or literal meme opinions like "Doom is SP, Quake is MP" despite Doom's history with deathmatch and how the Quake arena MP scene is not as alive as Quake singleplayer mapsets. (There's also weird boomer nostalgia favoring stuff like autoaim and limited color palette than stuff like how armor worked). (I guess if Decino ever makes a video explaining how movement in classic Doom actually worked, there will be older fans acting like they never made Doom to be that fast and that "ALWAYS_RUN is more of a zoomer thing").

Depends on how you feel about "anglicized canon" in fanbases.

I also think that modern Doom games are both standouts but they do have a few trends here and there (Even if you don't have to be an annoying nerd about it). This can come to mind when people compare Doom to either SMT, Devil May Cry, Berserk, Warhammer, DarkSiders or MCU when discussing the gameplay, story, aesthetic, setting, tone etc. Some people even go "gameplay is amazing but the story is Reddit". Eternal did have some stupid criticisms against the game, but because of the flow of information and how it works online, i assume the stupidest shit was seen more than some good arguements that were presented better.

Modern Doom was received well enough that even people that tend to be cynical liked it (Even CrowbCat made a positive video about D2016). Whether or not that also means "erm, they have the same opinions as people they'd called Redditors" but again, that's some melvin-ism showing up. The notion that most/new Doom fans can, in fact, be associated with Reddit or Twitter may lead to some statements about the games or audience, like "maybe id really is marketing stuff towards Redditors".

I also think a reason why SOME Doom memes/jokes are lame is because they’re copypasted from other fanbases but it’s more than that: I think people assume "fanbases" are a "template", which is also why you had various Portugal themed Twitter accounts for some franchises (SMT and Xenoblade) and how any series can have a "No context" or "struggle" Twitter; Similar to Tumblr having confession blogs to any series there; The end result is making fanbases less unique and too formulaic. Same thing with "fandom" being Tumblr people with ships, coffee shops AU's and "comfort characters"; Which almost erases shit like lore nerds and "WHO WOULD WIN IN A FIGHT, GOKU OR SUPERMAN?".

What else? I've seen people say Doom fans can be cultist over mild criticism and shit like that (Specially with how Eternal lost against TLOU2 at the VGA's). I wonder if the people that think Doom fans are too loyal are even aware of the older fans: Because otherwise, "you don't even know what a wad is" may or may not be a way to shut some of them up. The thing with this kind of "brand loyalty" behavior is that it feels like a result of corporate nerd culture and feels out of place in Doom because of certain fan activities.

It's the same reason why i think it's dumb when people imply "Doom has an anti-corporate message" because of shit like: How Doom is owned by Zenimax, the existence of Mighty Doom, how content in Eternal like skins is handled, the Denuvo anti-cheat thing, maybe even the lore or merchandise, how older and newer fans behave and their activities, the reason why Carmack even released the original source code, when id made an unofficial Super Mario 3 port, the music and DND plagiarism, the Satanic Panic during the games' release, how Romero is still screwed by ZeniMax, how Mick Gordon was treated, some concept artist doing NFT's and so on.

(It's also really easy to write "corporations bad" stories in media, so they don't really mean an anti-capitalism message when the product itself is still part of that environment)

Meanwhile, the fact that source ports and mods exist is proof that old Doom is not perfect and fans "fixed the games" one way or another. So for all the purists that don't even touch vanilla fan wads, there's people that interpret Doom to their ideal ways, even if some end up liking a modded version of Doom way more than the original.

The quality of Doom fan projects makes me surprised they don't get a lot of "HIRE THIS MAN" reactions like Sonic projects do but i can see why:

Sonic had a lot of "struggling" moments (Even if people exaggerated them) while Doom at the very least had dormancy moments and Doom 4 taking years to be made before it was turned into 2016.

Because Doom was almost defined by its mods and fan culture, people associated fanmade content with Doom as if it was official/canon (Even if it lead to confusion and false information).

Maybe people focused on Sonic fans making "the best fangames" to compensate for the years of cringe culture focusing on the lowest aspects of Sonic fans.

I also think the best parts or most important bits about Doom fans makes drama disappointing, though perhaps what makes the highs of the Doom "community" could even explain stupid shit like when Graf Zahl was pissed at Lilith PK3.

In a way, comparing good content to lame content is like when people compared Vloggers and Lets Players to Newgrounds animators in terms of content quality.

ALSO, Doom may be made to be more "EPIC" than it actually is, specially when it comes to crossovers and power level debates, as if Doom fans don't interact with other media. Because otherwise, the negative reactions to The Ancient Gods part 2 felt like fans realized that "Doom is not as fucking cool as i wanted it to be".

It also reminds me of jokes like "Doom is the most Christian game" because the series is either "90's Heavy Metal Satanic but not really, calm down grandma" or "makes up a bunch of lore to run away from actual references, if anything". With an obscure phone game having a holy water pistol. Otherwise, i think Doom fans should know what Shin Megami Tensei is.

Then again, most new Doom fans used to come from other series (Even if it's slop like Ubisoft open world games or COD) while other fans played enough different games, it explains creativity in some impressive GZDoom mods.

I don't plan to start a war or overly praise specific people, i'm just a messenger who could've been informed better (Feel free to correct me even). I just think Doom boomers should put these Redditors in their fucking pla- i mean educate the new generation, so Doom is in fact Eternal because there's a lot of good things to learn for new fans, let alone other fanbases as well. Doom fans sort of OWNED the series, even if they're not on the same level as Touhou.

If you think these are good opinions and hot takes, feel free to spread them and pretend you made them or not. Just do better research/clarifications than i did, if you're a Youtuber wanting to tackle a topic without Dunning Kruger's syndrom. I should invest in something more interesting like, i don't know, a wad? Spent way too much time on this fucking thing.

Also some stuff i could've added above but felt too lazy to specify where to add:

MyHouse's popularity could lead to another situation where people get into it but barely know about wads, so maybe they could either delve deep into Doom or make up stuff like using "wad" as a filetype name thing like with other creepypastas ("Smile.jpg" etc)

If you ever feel like boycotting Doom over stuff like Mick Gordon's treatment, it's easy because of how impressive and diverse Doom modding is: You can even look at Quake's Slayers Testament mod and pretend a mod is "the real Doom 6" or something.

We could also say nerds are getting less picky/observant over stuff which is why nobody cares if Doomguy ever looks a bit more like Master Chief (And could even explain the reception of the new Mario movie or the RE4 remake, though we still had Demon Souls fans explaining why they disliked the visual changes in the remake).

Speaking of BD hate, i also think Midnight himself will have a similar situation of "hate from uninformed people" where it doesn't come from places like "knowing about the Doom community", "evolution of nerd culture/fanbases", "how internet content works and how it changed" etc. Again why i thought DoomKid was an interesting person to ever interact with him. Otherwise, one could look at other modern Doom e-celebs and make similar judgements.

Anyway as for other posts worth checking:

Brutal Doom focused stuff.

"Things that may've not happen if not for the Doom fanbase".

How "Eternal" is Doom?

[toasts-httyd-hyperfixation]

Book Hiccup and Co potential scars n stuff

Finally getting to this post lol

Ok so like i said the other day i wanted to make a post talking about the various kinds of scars and other permanent damage Hiccup and Co could have gotten

Some of these are stated in the books, some are just whats highly likely, and others arent necessarily likely, or even really possible irl

But since this is a fictional series, adding a lil bit of spice, a lil bit of pizzazz to things ya know

Also not everyone scars the same, not everyones skin reacts to same to stuff

One person might get bitten by a dog and have little to no scarring, while someone else might get a big scar from a papercut

So you can go bigger, smaller, you dont have to include any of this at all

These are just what seem likely (and interesting) to me, for anyone who might want a bit of inspiration lol

Putting this under a cut because it might be long and also theres going to be images of various kinds of scars n stuff, as well as spoilers so

Alright starting with Hiccup

So in book 1 he was bitten on the calf by a dragon, probably not too deep, but definitely could still leave a scar

Likely would look something like these

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Book 2 the Skullion scratched his chest, and it says that the scar stayed his whole life

Probably looked something like these

maybe a bit bigger, more jagged if ya want, but definitely similar

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Nothing really happened in book 3-4

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Book 5 hiccup got a lava burn on his heel, could look like this

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Nothing really books 6-8

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Book 9 it said Excellinor scratched up his arm and hands so he could have a bunch of thinner scratchy scarring from that

Cant really find any good reference images for this kind of scarring:/

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Book 10 there was the whole Amber-Slavelands-Dragon, i talked about this here, also this is very good fanart :P

Honestly the acid scarring might cover up some of the legs scars from book 5, and book 1 depending on if it was shallow enough so

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Book 11 theres the Vampire Spydragon, the thing bit him twice so it definitely left a scar

Probably would look like these, except 2 deeper spots where it left its teeth

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Book 12 theres nothing really specific but Cressida does draw him with some scratches across his face so that could leave some scarring as well

I think these are in book 11 too but

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And those are whats mentioned in the books

He also probably had a bunch of random other smaller scars, whether from dragon scratches, bites, people trying to kill him, getting cut on branches, rocks, etc

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Now as for things other things that also could have caused skin changes, not specifically just scars

Hiccup has at least 1 black eye from before book 10 to book 12

And while black eyes arent permanent, theres something called hemosiderin staining which can be

"Hemosiderin staining can essentially be regarded as a very severe form of bruising. Staining happens in areas where a significant amount of bruising has occurred as a result of severe injuries, hemorrhages or, in certain cases, after a particularly invasive surgery.

When damage occurs, the surrounding tissue is flooded with blood and a bruise forms. The more severe the trauma, the more blood that leaks into surrounding tissues, signifying a greater presence of hemosiderin."

And for the most part this isnt a permanent thing, but if it lasts for long enough, it essentially tattoos the skin, and so it pretty much just stays

"Over time, certain hemosiderin stains will fade naturally as the body slowly uses up the stored iron. This hands-off process can take several months or even years to completely remove all traces of the stain. Generally, stains that last more than 12 months cause permanent marks as the skin has essentially been tattooed."

And normally this happens in the lower legs, or places with poor circulation but

This is fiction and i think it would be interesting if something like that happened due to the repeated black eye Hiccup had

It could look something like this

Technically these are birthmarks but you get the idea

Actual hemosiderin staining can be reddish, brownish, bluish, look like an actual bruise, etc

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On the arm where the Vampire Spydragon bit him, could also consider some discoloration around where the teeth left in would have been, whether just a darker color, or some permanent purple staining

Also could be some purple at the ends of his fingers on his left hand, his left ear, just like some of the extremities on his left side ya know

I dont know if its realistic but I think itd be interesting

Like these

Except this wouldnt be because something wrong with circulation or a disease or something, just staining from the dragon bite

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And general there could be some hyper/hypopigmentation in various spots over his body, there are various causes for that, so its not particularly unlikely

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Thats about all i can think of for Hiccup so now onto

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Fishlegs

We never really ever get told anything that could cause scarring but he has eczema, as well as rashes from allergies, so almost definitely he has scarring and discoloration from that

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Probably there would be hyper/hypopigmintation, Post-inflammatory pigmentation which is just another form of skin darkening, and something called Lichenification which is caused by chronic scratching and rubbing, looks like this

and it can leave pigmentation that looks like this

Heres a page that gives some basic info on all of these

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Also even in general Fishlegs probably has some rash, redness over his face/arms/legs that comes and goes in different areas due to the eczema and allergies

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For scarring there would the the usual eczema scarring, as well as probably those scars that can happen when you scratch at scabs and bug bites constantly and they get open and infected, the circle-ish ones, i cant really find a pic unfortunately but kinda like these

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Then there would probably be scarring from being in danger a lot, dragon scratches, bites, rocks scrapes, stuff like that

(Also because we know that whipping and generally hurting the slaves wasnt exactly frowned upon, theres the potential for some scarring from stuff like that, especially because of the fact that he's Hiccups best friend, people alvinandsnotlout might have been extra mean to him so)

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Thats pretty much it for Fishlegs so now

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Camicazi

Again we never really get told anything that would leave scarring, and she doesnt have any skin conditions that were told

So she probably just has kinda the general scarring from viking life, being in a war, and also being a mischievous lil shit who likes to cause problems lol

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She also could have some hyper/hypopigmentation spots across her body

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And thats pretty much it

This took a lil bit longer than i had intended :p

But i hope yall find this interesting, hopefully i didnt miss anything major but yeah

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Just some general stuff for references

This site has some pretty good pictures of a lot of different skin conditions, and articles about a bunch of stuff as well

This one similar to the last

This has a lot of random different scar pictures

This is a site for various textures and they have a section for human skin

I might add onto this if i find any other good sites but for now thats it