#i'm the number one oracle fan

[4rtificialangel]

if(me.getSensesIndex("vibration")){

me.addFeeling("complete");

}

world.unlock(you);

world.removeThing(you);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

me.lookFor(you, world);

if(me.getMemory().isErasable()){

me.removeFeeling("disheartened");

}

try{

me.setOpinion(me.getOpinionIndex ("you are here"), false);

}

catch(IllegalArgumentException e) {

world.announce("God is always true.");

}

OH MY GODDDD IT'S HERE IT'S FINALLY HERE AFTER 11 HOURS

the world.execute(me); oracle art is REALLLLL IM GONNA EXPLODE AAA

background and black and white ver under the cut

[ivaalo]

Introduction

This is a fan analysis about the results of 24 polls posted on Tumblr by the user @zeldatourney. Huge thanks to them to have organized this tourney.

(Keep in mind my first language isn't English, so I might make some minor mistakes)

This is a long post with multiple graphs, so I'm putting a "Read more" button here!

For each game, the question asked was "How high does [game] rank?" with 7 answers possible to choose:

S tier (One of the greatest)

A tier (A favorite)

B tier (I like it)

C tier (Meh)

D tier (I'd rather play something else)

F tier (AWFUL)

I haven't played this game

The poll started on the 2nd of December 2024 and ended the 9th of December 2024.

Disclaimer: This is not a representation of the Zelda community as a whole, but a result of people who saw and voted for the polls between those previously quoted dates.

For the rest of this post, I will simplify each game's name by its abbreviations. For example, "A Link To The Past" will be named "ALTTP". The polls didn't specify if it contains the original games or both the original games and the remakes. They will be named as such:

[TLOZ] The Legend of Zelda

[AOL] Adventure of Link

[ALTTP] A Link to the Past

[LA] Link's Awakening (DX) (+ the unnamed 2019 remake)

[OOT] Ocarina of Time (3D)

[MM] Majora's Mask (3D)

[OOS] Oracle of Seasons

[OOA] Oracle of Ages

[FS] Four Swords (Anniversary Edition)

[TWW] The Wind Waker (HD)

[FSA] Four Swords Adventures

[TMC] The Minish Cap

[TP] Twilight Princess (HD)

[PH] Phantom Hourglass

[ST] Spirit Tracks

[SS] Skyward Sword (HD)

[ALBW] A Link Between Worlds

[HW] Hyrule Warriors (Legend / Definitive Edition)

[TFH] Tri Force Heroes

[BOTW] Breath of the Wild

[COH] Cadence of Hyrule

[AOC] Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

[TOTK] Tears of the Kingdom

[EOW] Echoes of Wisdom

Collected data

Each poll being independent from each other, the number of votes varies from one poll to another.

For each games, I added the percentage (as picked up from the HTML for a better precision). The result is either 99.999, 100 or 100.001, so I sometimes cheated to add or remove 0.001 somewhere. Tumblr doesn't give you access to the exact numbers of vote per option.

So before ranking the games, I have to show you first what games are the most played. Adding all answers and doing:

Played (%) = 100 - "I haven't played this game" (%)

I'll use colours to differentiate 2D games (in terms of gameplay) to 3D games. I'll also highlight spin-off games and multiplayer games.

Here are the games played by more than 75% of players:

We can already see a huge pattern. All the 3D games are there. And the only 2D Zelda game to be played by 75% of players is ALBW. BOTW and OOT are the most played games of the sample, as those were huge turning points and both cultural and commercial success.

We can also notice the difference of 5% between the least played 3D game (MM) and the most played 2D game (ALBW).

Let's continue to look at the other played games:

EOW is most likely low as it's the most recent game, at this time, but also because it's not a 3D game. And the hype train was low compared to TOTK. (3 months of anticipation compared to 4 years)

And finally, the multiplayer games are the least played games, excluding COH. Also worth noting that all the spin-off games cited can also be played with another player, but it wasn't the main focus of the communication. COH being a musical tactical rogue-lite only appealed to a specific part of Zelda fans.

If these polls contained the CD-i Zelda games, Link's Crossbow Training and Tingle games, the score would probably be under COH, but we never know!

I'll keep these colours as labels, to recognize them better in the next images.

Alright. Time to share the ranking. Here is the global result, sorted by release date in North America:

It's kind of a lot to see! Overall, the games are pretty liked. So first, let's take a look at the disliked games:

Please note that the X-axis was zoomed, so we can see the result better.

We can already notice that AOL makes a huge contrast. As this game is considered as the black sheep of the franchise because of how different it is, its reputation mostly came from the difficulty of that game.

Almost a factor of 0.5 divides the first disliked game to the second. TFH the second disliked and the original TLOZ follows.

ALBW is the least disliked, with under 1%, counting D tier and F tier.

But notice the F-tier (red) line. It varies a lot, so let's take a look at the most hated games:

Yep, TOTK is third, this time. As I don't personally think it's awful, it definitively disappointed many by being too close to BOTW and having a lot of issues BOTW didn't have.

Nobody voted "F tier" for ALTTP nor OOT. Same for OOS but keep in mind this game was the least voted one too!

Alright, enough for the hate! Let's look at the most appreciated Zelda games.

Yep, the majority of Zelda fans like 22.5 out of 24 of the games! (TFH being exactly 50, I half-counted it!)

TWW is being almost unanimously appreciated, with almost 97%, and the second one to get this score is TMC, a 2D game, with more than 96%!

You can notice some gaps, like between ST and COH, and then between the Oracle games and TOTK.

Now let's look at the most loved games:

5 3D games are in the top 5, except for SS and TOTK. TMC is very close to beat BOTW and remains the most loved 2D Zelda game. Notice how SS and TOTK make a huge gap between the game before and the game after, like voters use them as references. The two Hyrule Warriors games are, in a funny way, between the Oracle ones.

Let's add a step forward and look at the S tier only:

Nothing changes for the top 9 games. However, EOW seems more nuanced and is less considered as best than TOTK.

Final results

And finally, let's rank them using the Majority Judgment:

The Majority Judgment was created to propose a more democratic way to vote. Each candidate has multiple mentions, and you (the elector) must attribute one mention to each candidate. Since this poll uses this exact method of vote, I decided to rank them all using the Majority Judgment. To count using the Majority Judgment, you must focus on the 50% axis, and look at the category that crosses it (more than 50%). That gives you the tier, and the best tier wins.

When two or more candidates get the same tier, there are multiple ways to rank:

The first way is to put a line at the middle and see which line has the higher percentage. (Less precise but more simple)

The second way is to divide it into multiple tiers by doing the first method again and again until each candidates has a unique tier. (More precise but less simple)

But since I didn't want to compare B++++ to B+++-, I used the first method. It's my democracy and I do whatever I want!

Just keep in mind that depending on the way to count these games may be swapped:

ALTTP and LA

OOA and PH

AOC and HW

SO, for the data. Top 5 is TWW, MM, TP, OOT and BOTW. To be honest, I imagined MM to be a more nuanced game, or at least more controversial, since it has a unique concept.

The A tier only contains 2D games, except SS. TMC, ST and ALBW are the favourite 2D games. ALTTP and LA are always very close. The last one of the tier is EOW.

Only mainline games are in the S and A tier.

The first game of the B tier is a spin-off game, followed by TOTK.

TFH was one vote away from being in the B tier. And no surprise, AOL is the last one.

To sum up, according to the participants who voted for these polls:

S tier

🥇 The Wind Waker

🥈 Majora's Mask

🥉 Twilight Princess

⭐ Ocarina of Time

⭐ Breath of the Wild

A+ tier

The Minish Cap

Spirit Tracks

A- tier

A Link Between Worlds

Skyward Sword

A Link to the Past

Link's Awakening

Echoes of Wisdom

B+ tier

Cadence of Hyrule

Tears of the Kingdom

Oracle of Seasons

Oracle of Ages

Phantom Hourglass

B- tier

Age of Calamity

Hyrule Warriors

Four Swords Adventures

Four Swords

The Legend of Zelda

C+ tier

Tri Force Heroes

C- tier

Adventure of Link

Thank you for reading! ~

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

i love thinking about apollos anatolian origins 😵‍💫

It stews in the back of my head too :3

There was this really good podcast on Spotify I found about Ancient Greece, and I listened to his Apollo episode first (because I honestly can't stomach the ones who paint him as 'terrible assaulter'/'epitome of the patriarchy'. Can't stand it. Seriously, there was this so-called 'feminist' mythology podcast i found and I Noped out of there as fast as I could - she didn't even mention Eros's involvement in the Daphne myth! She immediately went 'Apollo: the man who doesn't know the meaning of No' and I was like I'M OUTTA HERE.)

(It's very hard to find good Apollo content out there when you have educated yourself on what he's actually like :( )

(At least you immediately know those people didn't do their research shrug)

Thankfully, this one had a really good, really in-depth discussion about Apollo; his origins, his domains, his myths, ect!

COMPLETELY FREE OF BIAS TOO! HE JUST GIVES YOU THE FACTS, THE SYMBOLISM OF THE MYTHS, HOW THE CULTURE INFLUENCED THEM, ECT!

On my first (and only rn) listen I was like "damn i need to take notes on this sometime" that's how in-depth it is!

Here's the episode link if anybody is interested, btw!

What's cool is that he said that before Apollo came along, oracles and the like weren't as common in Greece - they existed, because Gaea was a thing - however, when he was imported in (possibly also with Leto! She has Anatolian origins too!), oracles became more of a thing as Apollo's popularity skyrocketed!

If you look at the number of Oracles Apollo had, you'd also notice that a lot of them are in Anatolia (Turkey today)!. Didyma, Miletus, Claros, ect ect! I think this just adds to the theory that Apollo's main origins come from Anatolia! When he moved to Greece, oracles came with him!

Which is so cool because in my drafts I currently have a picture of a webchart I made of Apollo's (many) domains, and I narrowed down the ones I think are his Big Ones - and Prophecy is one of them.

Very cool that Prophecy has always been part of him <3

Also, Apollo has many cities he is the patron of in Anatolia - Troy is obvious, but the island of Tenedos was his too (his son Tenes founded the city there), and he was the patron of Miletus (the city where he met Branchus btw for my Branchus fans out there)!

And going to Leto real quick, her migration from Anatolia religion to Greece's is probably represented in the Hymn to Apollo! Sometimes myths about wandering from place to place were meant to symbolize the importation of a god (Aphrodite floating ashore of Cythera, for example), and Leto...well, she was doing a lot more than the typical wandering in the hymn, but it still fits!

Some versions say she was guided to Delos by wolves from Hyperborea, others say Boreas helped her escape Python, still others claim a rooster was present when she finally was able to give birth and thus became her sacred animal (also she apparently gave birth to Apollo as a wolf? I don't quite remember which version says that but it's something I've heard XD).

Also Delos was very self-conscious about Apollo being born on it because it was afraid he would judge it for not being up to typical island standards XD

Moving to Apaliunas now! He's a Hittite god, but I haven't been able to find out of what :( The main piece of evidence we have of his relation with Apollo is Troy - Apaliunas was the god of Wilusa, who has been found out to be another name for Troy! There was a treaty signed between Wilusa and another city, and the representative of Wilusa's name was commonly translated to "Of Ilios" - and Ilios was another name for Illium, aka Troy.

(Fun fact: The son Apollo had with Ourea was named Ileus, after Troy! They are but a footnote in mythology but I made them Important in my Troy fic XD)

Plus, Apaliunas's name was connected to the Hittite reflex of Apeljōn, which scholars have theorized to be an early form of Apollo's name - remember Apollon? :D

Apollo also has connections to various other deities - the Italian Etruscan god Apulu (Aplu), the Celtic god Grannus, his Egyptian equivalent is Horus and his Phoenician one is Resheph! He's also been identified with Baldur from Norse mythology.

Apollo be wearing that trenchcoat, and he is wearing it well XD

[canmom]

Where do you read and find web comics?

that's a great question!

these days the scene is kinda dominated by platforms like webtoon and tapas, which heavily favour vertical-scrolling infinite canvas formats. these environments are aggressively competitive, and getting to the top of the popularity pile requires a pace of work that makes even the manga industry look downright reasonable. I wrote a little about one such comic back in 2022. the 'portal' format applies similar pressures as webnovel sites - somehow that's come down to favouring high-concept premises which can be spelled out in a title, and a fairly homogeneous art style. in general you'll see a lot of romance and isekai.

that said, traditional page-formatted webcomics are absolutely still around. usually I read them on their websites - you can use an RSS reader to keep up with updates for most comics, but I fell out of the habit of that years ago.

as far as finding them, there's not really any centralised place to find them, but often webcomics will promote other authors, and there's organisations like hiveworks which serve to cross-promote members of their network. most webcomics have a 'links' page. it's rhizomatic or some shit.

if you are coming back to webcomics, 'I used to read this comic, is it still going' can also lead to a lot of pleasant surprises - you wouldn't believe the number of webcomic authors who turn out to have transed their gender when you come back a few years later (or maybe you would). 'spend years writing a comic instead of transitioning' is a strangely common pitfall [edit: though I'm not sure 'spend years transitioning instead of making a big creative project' is like. a better strategy lmao. they're both big expressions of agency, it doesn't really matter what order you do em.]

some authors tend to stay on a single perpetual epic that will likely last until they die, but others like to write multiple projects, and usually if you enjoy one thing by a person you'll enjoy the others. for example, @bigbigtruck wrote the excellent The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal back in the day, and is presently writing a story about stormchasers with a very similar vibe. Evan Dahm of Rice Boy went on to write some rather cool comics like Vattu.

webcomics review blogs can also be a good place to pick up recs. yes homo, now defunct, put a few things on my radar (I disagree with many of their opinions but that's part of the fun of it lol), as has thewebcomicsreview.

along similar lines, forums can be a good place to look - back in the old old days, I used to be a big fan of a D&D comic called The Order of the Stick and hang out on its forums a lot, and they had a pretty active board for talking about other webcomics (a large part of which was devoted to literally hundreds of threads for the club of posters making fun of a really mid comic called Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire - don't ask me to explain that...) these days I bet there are webcomics discords that function similarly, though I couldn't tell you which ones off the top of my head.

if you're willing to part with a little bit of money, events like the Shortbox Comics Fair are a good way to gather a huge stack of one-shots. I picked up a bunch in the last one of those, I should really write about them.

honestly I should really just draw up a list of comics I've liked, catch up on the ones that I fell off the update schedule on, and put that list on my website somewhere. writing full reviews is fun but time-consuming and I don't want to make promises with how incredibly ADHD I am (the 'comics comints' series lasted a mighty three posts, and of all the writing-about-stuff projects, the main ones I'm trying to get going again are the tftbn and umineko liveblogs), but it is happy-making to spread the word about good shit I've read. I used to liveblog webcomics quite a bit, you can see some of them over here. (I never got around to migrating the Homestuck sideblog.)

ultimately, word of mouth is queen here. all these suggestions are just different flavours of "find people who like the sorts of things you like and read the stuff they like" in the end!

[androxys]

2024 Writing Review

I was tagged in this by @vechter!

number of stories posted to ao3: I posted 2 works this year, which was a marked decrease from 2023's 7 fics. I guess I needed a break! The two were Hello World, It's Me Again (the first chapter) and I'd Teach My Feet to Fly (a one-shot).

word counted posted for last year: 17,163 words!

fandoms i wrote for: Oh, it was Batman. Because I'm dabbling in a few continuities for Barbara and playing it a little looser, HWIMA got an AMT tag. ITMFTF is very strictly comics-informed, though, so it got some (comics) tags for Batman, Checkmate, and Outsiders.

pairings: No ships this year! Just Sasha Bordeaux & Bruce Wayne; Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne; Sasha Bordeaux & Dick Grayson. All three were from ITMFTF.

stories with the most kudos, bookmarks and comment threads: That's Hello World. It's a bigger fic, with more for people to bite into, and with the benefit of not having been posted in the last week!

work i’m most proud of (and why): Agh, picking children! Nah. I'm more proud of Hello World. It's a bigger project, drawing on a lot of different threads and trying to be my personal love letter to one of my favorite characters of all time.

work i’m least proud of (and why): I'd Teach is one of those fics where nothing happens, and I'm like 95% okay with how it landed... but that 5% is still missing. But, part of the process is making slightly misshapen things to keep working the writing muscle.

share or describe a favorite review you received: I feel like I hold every comment I've ever received dear to my heart, but this one by @scintillyyy really touched me.

A lot of the comments addressed my central goal of this fic--working on giving Oracle's Year One a modern lift and giving Barbara space to experience more messy ups and downs of recovery--and reassured that yes, I was hitting what I wanted to. But I was fully ready for the SCI research I did to kind of slip away unnoticed, so I really appreciated having that called out too.

a time when writing was really, really hard: Most of the year lmao. 2024 was the year of higher education, which left less fic time than I would have liked. But as soon as this degree is in hand and I can go back to full time work, I've got a backlog of writing to jump on.

a scene or character you wrote that surprised you: I talked about this a little with vechter in the comments of I'd Teach, but the Bludhaven scene in I'd Teach My Feet to Fly came about kind of unexpectedly. Everything about that fic kind of took the reins from me.

a favourite excerpt of your writing:

“Details are still coming out,” Barbara says, lying like an artist. That’s all this job ever was, lying in the service of what you hope is higher meaning. “But it was overseas. Ethiopia. The funeral will be tomorrow. Mr. Wayne… Bruce… wanted to let me know. Invite me to come, since I knew him.” “That’s… God, Babs. That’s awful.” He shakes his head, unsure what to say. His hand brushes back his ever-greying hair, his other reaching for his pipe. He gets it lit and takes a few puffs, his head tilting back as the soothing smoke drifts from his mouth. “God,” he repeats. “He was young.” “Yeah.” “Are you going to go?” She doesn’t want to. She knows she will. She owes it to him.

I like this sequence because it illustrates the fic's general premise: take a canon moment, expand it a little, and then focus in a little harder on Babs.

how did you grow as a writer last year: I don't know how much I grew this year, honestly. All writing is growth, and doing it is the hardest part. I think HWIMA is some of my best prose, and it's certainly shaping up to be my longest work yet. I think I'm continuously getting more comfortable with larger projects, but I'm also trying to develop more comfort with fics that just compare scenes and have some commentary around them. One of my favorite things to do as a fan is to just hold two different moments in time together, and I have to remind myself that the literary equivalent of that is still a worthwhile fan activity.

how do you hope to grow this year: I want to keep working on different types and formats of fic! I have two fics that I've been meaning to podfic forever, and the majority of a longfic that I started podficcing and then fell way off track with. (@ididloveyou I promise I have not forgotten about you! One of these days I promise I'm going to get back 😭). Otherwise, I'm working on my Wonder Woman fic that's going to end up as a poem, which is a new frontier for me. But largely, I just want to finish some WIPs. I owe a certain dear fandom friend a certain sequel 😉

who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): Oh lord, all of y'all. Can I just say that? It takes a village, and I feel like so many folks in my ecosystem help influence me and my writing for the better. In no particular order, @havendance and @mintchocochipsposts and @zahri-melitor and @tevya-fandom, you've all been in my comments or my DMs or on discord, and are my subsequent MVPs of 2024. Jinx, I'm not sure where to find you but you're getting a shout-out too. Thank you for all your help and kind words over the year.

anything from your real life show up in your writing last year: Someone in the process of getting their MLS, writing about someone getting their MLS? It's more likely than you think!

any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Never be afraid to put something in a bracket and come back later! I bullet point my fics and write them from there, and sometimes I skip a bullet or describe the action (something like [Barbara looks at the mirror, isn't happy, fixes it]) and just write the next thing. Don't let something break your momentum. The other best writing wisdom I've ever received is that if you feel absolutely stuck when writing, go back about six sentences and see if the problem actually started there. I write myself into corners all the time, and have to retrace myself to solve clunky dialogue or a bad movement rather than trying to brute force my way out.

any projects you’re looking to starting (or finishing) this year: Definitely HWIMA. Ken and Barbie. The Wonder Woman poem. Those are the big three. After that, I want to get back into podfic and do that for a bit. And then we'll see where we go!

I tagged a lot of people in gratitude through this post (and all of y'all should consider this your tag to participate if you want!), but I'm also going to tag @cuephrase, @themyscirah, @sl-walker, and @clearbluewaters for my due diligence. Here's to a lovely 2025, everybody.

[zahri-melitor]

New(ish) Comics:

Birds of Prey #13: That was a clever use of Cass to finish the storyline. Kelly Thompson's generated enough good will from me at this point that yeah, I'd consider her as one of the strongest Birds of Prey writers since Dixon and Simone, though Sean McKeever probably still edges her out (McKeever had a stronger lead in though to work from, and so many people barely distinguish his work from Simone's).

I'm interested to see where Thompson takes them from here. I certainly still have quibbles (I would love to see a commitment to using Barbara as Oracle only appear on page; I do think Thompson is having way too much fun trying to play with ALL the characters and needs to focus a bit more on the ones she has already), but I'm never disappointed by the title? I enjoy myself.

Batman #152: I've got to say, as someone who has also played around with Darkseid powers, I enjoyed that Bruce acknowledged on page that Omega Beams do weird shit on occasion, revolving around what Darkseid wants, and that Bruce would in fact be cautious of them in ways other people are not. I'm not sure as a story it accomplishes a lot as an an Absolute Power tie-in (mostly I think it's just keeping Bruce out of the way while other characters get focus in the main titles), but I did appreciate the use of the Batman #79 callback to the Beach Holiday Of Explicitly Taking Time For Ourselves While The Children Are Dealing With Drama, because Bruce and Selina and holidays at the beach and on cruises is a long running theme together and I never hate seeing it pop up.

Putting the Birds of Prey Absolute Power set up into the back of this made sense in terms of comics pricing and keeping the number of event comics contained, but also probably needed to be better signalled. Read this AFTER BOP #13.

The Boy Wonder #5: and Juni Ba caps his story off.

This was sweet! In the spectrum of non-canonical or dubiously-canonical retellings of origin stories, I think this straddled the line pretty well, particularly in how it was explicitly pitched as a story someone was telling. Some of the resolution in the final issue was a bit pat for me (in terms of we all moved forward and solved things), but the focus stayed where it needed to be (on Damian and Damian's connections), and plenty of the implications were significantly creepier than Smol Damian here realised.

This would sit happily beside the Demon Trilogy as a quasi-canonical Al Ghul story. I think Dennis O'Neil would have appreciated it.

DC's I Know What You Did Last Crisis #1:

Honestly my opening thought on this was 'why did anyone offer Dan DiDio a writing slot'? Because, I've read a bunch of DiDio's work, and part of the situation with him at DC has always been that he's a mediocre writer that wouldn't rate a title if he hadn't already been working in editorial/management. His credits don't actually contain any stories and titles that people are big fans of, and a lot of his work was done collaboratively with stronger writers (if you're writing with Keith Giffen, I suspect Giffen is handling a lot of the actual plotting work and charm).

Okay rant out of the way:

Batgirl-COIE story: I don't mind this, but I feel like if I were going to pitch a Barbara story at this point I'd want it more in communication with Barbara Randall Kesel's work. I'd have Barbara acknowledge the Krypto stuffed dog and maybe bond with the kid over "I had a teddy called Supergirl". Also, this is...very early for 'Waylon likes kids'. Like, decades too early. Croc's characterisation feels far later than when this story is set.

Dr Light-Millennium: It's not bad as a horror piece, but as a few other people have noted, I feel it wastes the aspect of 'the Manhunters are hidden among us' inherent in their portrayal in the event. Nice moment spent with a few characters who don't get much page time though.

Birds of Prey-Final Night: this very much feels like a missing tie in! Which we didn't get, because BOP had the Manhunt mini instead during that period. Ashley Allen has a good grasp on the time frame and events going on for this. My one quibble is having Dinah working in Gotham here, as Barbara still was focusing on world-roaming problems at this point over local ones, but otherwise, it slotted in very nicely.

JSA-Zero Hour: This is fine. I will say the quip about "the number of Bat-people" for Zero Hour feels a bit thin. You mean, Batman, Nightwing, Robin, ... Huntress and Spoiler? Steph has barely had her second ever storyline, the only person in Gotham who trusts Helena is Tim, JPV is busy dealing with having been insane, and Dick's been home for five minutes. They literally just finished a multi-year event about how Bruce didn't have the support he needed.

Nightwing-Infinite Crisis: it's just sad and pathetic that Dan DiDio remains so mad that his staff rebelled and wouldn't let him kill Dick Grayson. It was almost two decades ago. Why are you still having a tantrum about this publicly? It's not even worth addressing the characterisation, as it's just an attempted take-that that makes him look worse.

Scarecrow-Blackest Night: ...if you're going to set something at the Monarch Theatre maybe take 5 seconds to check the wiki about what was happening with the location around the time of the story. It was not a functioning movie theatre, folks, and we're just prior to The Carpenter's Tale. I dunno. This one felt like a waste of the setting.

Lex Luthor-Final Crisis: look I don't enjoy Final Crisis, but this is incredibly set during Final Crisis. This feels like pretty solid Lex characterisation and introspection, and I'm sure he hates that he's hallucinating a Superman to talk down to.

Midnighter-Flashpoint: I dunno, the characterisation feels off for both Pyg and Midnighter. It's fine, but I would have preferred another story that really felt like a missing backup from an event.

My general overarching opinion? Most of the writers could have used a bit closer attention to context for their stories, if you're playing "this is set during". That's something people can check.

The Warlord #66: I just checked and we are so close to halfway through volume 1 of the Warlord! They simply do not commission 133 issue runs plus annuals of random conspiracy titles anymore. Anyway this week in Skartaris Mongo Ironhand remains the worst. Also Mariah and Mikola finally get to talk to each other and Mariah tells her lost werewolf fencing instructor lover that she's actually now got the hots for an ex-gladiator with a spiked mace for a fist. (Oh, Skartaris)

There is tragically very little discussion of communism. Get back to preaching about the benefits of communism, Mariah!

Also we fight a demon (who transformed from the Gollum creature like...30 issues earlier), Mariah tricks him into stabbing himself in the eyesocket with a trick sword, Jennifer defeats him with magic, they throw the magic book the demon was using into a volcano vent to destroy it, and the men are largely all useless.

Thank you, that has been our back in pre-history LOTR rip off of the week.

[havendance]

Okay, I'm finally returning to the AU where Jason and Barbara are swapped so that she dies in a Killing Joker and Jason is paralyzed in A death in the family.

The simplest way to set up this AU (and why over-complicate things yet?) is to have it so that when Barbara Gordon opens the door, the Joker shoots to kill. However long later, when Jason is beaten half to death by the Joker, he survives the bomb, but he’s left paralyzed from the waist down. The Doctors say he’ll never walk again.

For now, Barbara Gordon is dead and we shall leave her there. She doesn’t haunt the narrative in the same way that Jason did. She was an adult when she died, removed from her former mantle. She wasn’t Bruce’s daughter. Her death weighs on Gordon, but then Sarah Essen returns to his life and his dead daughter fades into the background. Bruce, Dick, and Jason remember her, but there is no Batgirl memorial in the cave. She is just another symbol of the dangers they face. She comes up in vague aborted references and heavy silences.

(Now that I think about it, in a world where Barbara Gordon’s dead, I bet Helena ends up as Dick’s second primary love interest��)

Meanwhile, with Jason, we have a fairly standard Jason Lives!AU with the slight caveat that he’s in a wheelchair and can never become Robin again.

We’re not going to spend long on that because it could go any number of ways and I don’t want to be here all day, but to his some major points:

A Lonely Place of Dying doesn’t get triggered. Batman without Robin when Jason is paralyzed is worse, but not bad enough for Tim to feel the need to interfere. His parents probably still die in Rites of Passage because Batman is highly unlikely to leave Gotham to chase after some random kidnapping for ransom when he’s being overprotective of his recently paralyzed son. Or just have the Drakes die in a plane crash and skip the racism.

Jason as Robin is a character who doesn’t have many ties outside of Batman. Stuck in a wheelchair, he struggles even more with dilation. Barbara’s dead. Dick’s around more, but he still spends most of his time with the titans. He can’t be Robin and that means that he feels like he can’t be part of that community, losing the few connections he had there. On the civilian front, his injuries lead him to being held back a year. He doesn’t know any of his classmates, and stuck in the hormonal battleground of high school, he acutely feels the way that being stuck in a wheelchair makes him different.

I still need to read Oracle: Year One, but Jason is initially attracted to computers because of the anonymity the internet offers. On it, he can pretend to be normal; people don’t see the chair before they see him. From there, it expands into a way he can still help Bruce and be involved in the mission. Bruce says he doesn’t need to do anything, but with so much of their relationship tied up in being Batman and Robin, Jason wants to.

There is another Robin eventually. Dealer’s choice as to who. You can make an argument for Tim (the classic option), Steph (Girl power + Steph & Jason friendship) or, I don’t know, Lonnie ( I know he has fans, though, in full disclosure, I am ambivalent towards him). Whoever the choice, it’s alternatively important that they have the approval of both Dick, who originated the mantle, and Jason, who left it vacant.

But that’s enough about Jason. You want to know who I really want to talk about in this AU? You guessed it! Helena Bertinelli and Cassandra Cain.

It’s time for No Man’s Land baby~ (absolutely no one is surprised.)

Bruce leaves on an international guilt trip and brings his son with him, much to Jason’s annoyance. It’s over three months before he’s able to convince Bruce to return, and even then it’s only on the condition that Jason enrolls in a boarding school where it’s safe. (Jason is so looking forward to turning 18 when he can finally prove to Bruce that he can take care of himself.)

Meanwhile, Huntress is the sole vigilante presence in No Man's Land. It isn’t long before she recognizes the limits of her own mantle and takes on the mantle of the Bat. In this universe, she is called Batwoman.

It is as Batwoman that she runs into Cassandra, who has been living on the streets of Gotham.

No wait, better idea. Headcanon time: In between acting as two separate vigilantes, Helena also somehow finds the time to run a makeshift classroom for some of the kids stranded in No Man's Land. She recruits them to do odd jobs and in exchange,, she shares some of the food she has stashed wavy and tries to make sure they have at least some education. 

Cassandra is curious and comes first for the food and then for the stories and the reading/writing lessons she doesn’t understand. When she sees Batwoman for the first time and makes the connection, she becomes even more intrigued.

When Batman enters and starts working with Helena, Cassandra saves them both in a handmade costume and ends up as the new Batgirl.

Helena remains as Batwoman after the end of No Man’s Land in this AU. She misses being the Huntress, at the end, but she has Cass to look after now. They grew close in the chaos of No Man’s Land and now the girl’s moved in with her. Helena needs to be better for Cass. She can’t go back to killing because, on one level, Cass wouldn’t let her. On another, she doesn’t want to betray her trust. So she holds the line. She stops her more self-destructive tendencies and tries to do the best for Cass despite the fact that she doesn’t understand her on a fundamental level.

This all leads to her being a more integrated part of the batfam. She's featured in more Bat comics and plays a major supporting role in Batgirl.

Post-No Man’s Land, Jason turns 18, moves off to college, and starts his own Birds of Prey type team. Bruce stalks him, Jason yells at him for it, etc etc.

And now, we’ve arrived at the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Red Hood!Barbara Gordon!

Barbara Gordon’s Under the Red Hood arc is a narrative commentary on fridging and is ideally written by a female author. In this universe, Barbara Gordon was a character who was killed off and vanishes from the narrative. She was a thing pre-crisis but never really a presence post. She is a tombstone next to Sarah Essen. A name mentioned when arguing about the Joker, quickly forgotten to focus on his paralyzing of Jason.

She comes back loud and angry, insisting on being remembered. Look at me, she shouts. Look at my pain. My story should be about me. She sets up a series of circumstances and clues all point to her. To the terrible things that happened to her. Bruce and Gordon have made her death about them, she’s taking it back. Reclaiming it for herself.

She also torments and antagonizes Helena and Cass. They replaced her, they took her place. They don't even know what they've done. They are the first to see her face and they don’t even recognize her. They don’t know the legacy they have claimed. Barbara Gordon rages.

And then, of course, future writers ruin that shining star of an arc by making her ~evil~ and ~crazy~. It’s probably all because coming back from the dead made her infertile and she can’t ever be a mother. Women, am I right? (eyeroll)

Anyway, I want a Red Hood!Barbara Gordon arc now.

[emelinstriker]

I'm back, did you miss me?? 🥺

Anyway, I've been thinking about how I could befriend the Oracle and hear me out, a good conversation. He seems like he'd enjoy that.

Now, can he tell me about what he likes please?

-Oracles number one fan

I mean.. That's not untrue- That is one of his jobs he enjoys doing-

[luckykingdelusion]

You're awesome Lexi 😃 you make me laugh and cheer me up when I'm sad, you back me up when I get myself into shit and you hold me up when I'm falling into the void, you share your world with me without asking anything in return, you've been patient with me when I kept making the same mistakes and knocked sense into me when I strayed from the right path, you're caring and fun and bring out a softer side of me, you talk nonstop when I can't find words and you listen intently when I can, you've been my cheerleader when I needed confidence and my oracle when I don't know what to do, you're my number one fan and you've done so much for me over the past year that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to repay you.

But I'll never stop trying too! I love you forever and always my goddess 😘

[flower1622]

Ranking Female Characters of PJO:

1. Sally

It's Sally. She is totally a survivor. She has to worry many times about her demigod son, who doesn't live for a long time. Despite being a human, she is not afraid to face a god or monster to protect or save her son.

2. Rachel

If People hate her, so I like. She is really amazing on her way. She is nice and kind to everyone else, especially to Percy. She is so much better than another girl that doesn't care to be rude to other people, even her boyfriend. Rachel is a special human since she is an oracle. Despite not being a demigod, she is not afraid to face monsters or gods either. She is really a person that has to deal with many visisons and possible nightmares in her head. For me, she is still the best option for Percy. The most healthy one.

3. Clarisse

Totally a badass. Even though she is a bully, I guess she got a little better over the years. Except maybe for her dad, Clarisse is also not afraid to face any god or monster, even without her weapons. If she has to fight using only her hands, she will. Annabeth is not the only smart girl in pjo, Clarisse is still smart and strong. I guess she can understand about battle strategies since her father is the god of war. Clarisse is a survivor too. She survived with zombies (I don't remember what they were) and went to rescue Chris all by herself (If I'm not mistaken).

4. Hazel

I don't know much about Hazel since I didn't read HOO (I can't even remember much from PJO either), but from I saw people commenting, she seems a nice and kind girl that may have suffered a lot in the past. Just like Nico, I think she is also stuck in time?

5. Silena

She seems really kind and nice. Unfortunately, the girl was manipulated...but in the end became a heroine. Her mother Aphrodite also looks pretty awesome!Like mother, like daughter!

6. Thalia

She is not one of my favourite characters, but she seems the kind of person that would save the world at any costs even if she had to sacrifice her own family and friends. She wouldn't let emotions take control over her. Not only her, but also Artemis and the other hunters.

7. Meg:

She seems pretty smart and cool! I like that she was the only one (from what I could see) that chose stay by Apollo's side even with his arrogance. I think she always saw that he wasn't so bad after all.

8. Persephone

So sweet and kind. I guess she would be Solangelo number 1 fan. She likes them. I think she may see Nico as her own son. She always tries to be friendly to others, which is good because she can kind teach Hades to be more gentle with others. She is really a good influence for him.

9. Demeter

This goddess can be a little scary sometimes, but I understand that she worries about her daughter in the underwold. It's so nice to see Demeter tolerating Hades because of Persephone.

10. Juniper

I don't remember about this character (I'm not reading the books anymore), but from I can see she is the romantic partner for Grover if I'm not mistaken. She seems nice and sweet. I think they would make a cute pair.

[d3zydration]

Digital Sketchbook (06.20.2024)

I'm about to make a big update post for my main website, but I didn't feel like using up storage on some preview shots. At the top, we've got progress on my 2d model for my YouTube channel, along with the many outfits I've made for her. Once I'm done with all the shading, I can break down the pieces and start the rigging process. I've probably got more outfits than I need, and there are some side characters I may make that I've had bouncing around in my head and on my channel for a long time that I'll probably also make, but once the bulk of it is done, I can focus on rigging while that happens.

On the bottom left, we've got a new Hesiodos (Hesiod) piece I'm working on. I wasn't happy with how the first one turned out, and honestly, I need to get back into the flow of more realistic works. Painting pieces directly from photo reference is easy enough, but it's a bit more difficult using a marble statue, as I did with my first piece, and more difficult still drawing from the mind while trying to translate those references as accurately as possible. I'm also using a more gouache-inspired brush set for this one. I've been super fascinated with acrylic gouache lately and am planning to start doing traditional pieces again in marker, watercolor, and acrylic gouache. I've been really into the work of Amina Illustration and I'm A Wonder.

My YCH (Your Character Here) commission piece "Little Witch" still has 5 available slots left on my Etsy shop (which is discounted from what you would pay for a custom commission with those specifications) - but I had also started on a number of other ones back in autumn of last year: A little graveyard chibi pin-up, a chibi girl holding a pumpkin spice latte, a woman kissing the cheek of a scarecrow, and a vampiric take on Klimt's The Kiss. I also started on a few general ones: one inspired by the style of Bratz, one inspired by the style of Monster High, and one inspired by the lo-fi girl. I'll still be wrapping them up and making them available whenever they're complete, but they aren't at the forefront of my workload at the moment - especially since I'm planning on moving away from Etsy.

Along that line, I also have plans to work on a couple of emote, clip art, and marketing packs, some stickers (including sticker sheets for my planners), a magickally-accurate Sailor Moon chibi series, and a couple of fan oracle decks. First on my to-do list, however, is a ton of website graphics for my new websites, the next batch of designs and styles for the Luxe Gothique Boutique, and a rework of my Khthonic Wiccan art series, as it's something else I just wasn't satisfied with.

And that's just artwork! I have a lot of writing in the works now, as well. I've got two books, my Mythos Reimagined series, and my webcomic, A Little Town Called Lorauvial, in the works, as well. This is a lot, I know, but I'm making progress each day. I just want to make so many things. I can't possibly keep it all locked away forever. 👻💚

Anyway, stay tuned for my update article. I'm going to be getting on that shortly with info on my other goings-on. Be there or be square.

[4rtificialangel]

am i the only one thinking how the song world.execute(me); fits oracle in a way..???

i really should make a playlist of all the songs i link with oracle

also im making art based off this song because i can, thats it

[callisteios]

I ended up with "god of longing for connection", which is funny given my current situation (housing/attempting to get comics into animation etc) and I'm noticing that some others are getting deep sea god (when they're actually studying the deep ocean as their major) etc... so my q is, are you somehow an ancient greek oracle pointing things out using modern technology to see what the mortals do with this knowledge? (Also thanks for a fun quiz)

you're going to get a long answer for no other reason than I'm at work and I hate my job. sorry

like way to long. i am so sorry.

So.

personality stuff

I'm going to say that first and foremost I am a massive skeptic when it comes to stuff like personality types, astrology etc. I think a lot of these things are people making very broad statements which many people identify with and become more convinced of their reality. a messy rabbit hole. I'm hardly the first to say this so lets move on

I also am a massive fan of personality quizzes (done well) and things like tarot ( i literally love doing tarot readings does anyone want a tarot reading). so not super well meshing opinions you may say?

yes.

however. i make them fit like this. I don't think all people can be split into 12 or 16 or whatever number of groups. I do think there are many shared human experiences and emotions. I know that most people taking my quiz are of a smiliar age and mostly western. This means we have even more shared experiences in this very global world.

I also know that from a lifetime of studying people and trying to understand their motivations (thank you autism (in case you couldn't tell)) I have got reasonably good at understanding various types of feelings and states people experience. and yes i suppose 'types' of people.

From this observation I have understood that (on top of us living in a very similar/global environment) we all (not all but basically all) go through the same emotions at some point during our lives.

From this experience and my understanding of our shared reality and feelings it is not exceptionally hard for me to then craft a quiz and retroactively apply the answers.

Example:

I'm going to give an example here because I feel my explanation has got incredibly rambly. Uh spoilers for my god quiz

Let's look at this result: the sky and the earth (because it's one of my favourites)

the first thing i'd say about this is that it's literally based on one of my favourite songs of all time. written while the author was in a mental instition no less (stream dory previn). so i am hardly the first to identify this 'type'.

When i look at this result and am assigning answers for it, several things about it stick out to me. Its main focus is the in between feeling, the longing for more spirtuality but also a desire for the physical and real. while at the same time feeling as if those are very confliced desires. there's obviously more to it but i can only hold so much info in my brain.

i think this is a state many in modern society will experience as we live in such a new and confusing and separate world. i am exposed to more of the world every day, and yet i feel as if i understand it less. the opportunities for me to truly experience the natrual are few and far between. i want to crawl around upon the earth. i want to see the stars and be enlightened.

knowing this i will say

does someone who is sky and earth want to be a god?

(this was the hardest question for literally every type btw.) here i'd say yes. because only something divine can be two opposing concepts surely. surely to know the sky and earth is an impossible goal for a mortal.

ok moving on (im not doing this for every quesion, don't worry, just a couple more to hammer home the point)

this one was harder. i was torn between fruit, dedicated to one issue, and drowning. I think all fit but went for dedicated in the end

for this one i knew i was using a picture of an iguana and i thought iguanas come from deserts so i chose desert. they're not all hits

this one was so easy. to me the confluence of rivers, bringing together something that's normally apart. that felt like the duality of sky and earth to me.

basically the exact same thing as above with mutilation.

i chose the painting of the building surrounded by people. i felt like this building crushed between the sky and the earth, looked upon by passers by, felt like a monument to the dichotomy. when i am feeling sky and earth i feel like the building, i cannot move or touch or really experience. i am just stationary watching it all move around me

So you see. I have identified here an emotion which i felt, which i have witnessed others feeling. i have identified the likely responses i believe a person in this state would give and i hope for the best.

Tarot

OKay you definitely get the point bt now. but i am nowhere near done, i mentioned tarot earlier. there was a reason for this beyond me wanting to do more tarot readings.

I think even though im good, i am really not that good. one thing i have noted over doing many tarot readings is that often the subject needs incredibly little input from the reader. oh, they may need your help guiding them towards the symbolism on the card, but once they've got that they launch into an explanation of how this answers their question.

Because I Always make sure they ask a clear question. this to me is the most important part of any kind of reading or quiz. you want the person to think about this themselves and then perhaps help them to the conclusion. once they're at the results screen/have a card they already have some idea in mind. it doesn't matter if they were expecting something a bit different, this is just a vehicle for their own self truth anyway.

ok im done.

i am a god

woah woah woah. im not done though. you're talking to a classicist so ive GOT to address the oracle comment. my favourite oracle of delphi theory is that the oracle's chamber sat above some kind of natural gas deposit, this gas was possibly hallucinatory. The oracles would get high and then deliver prophesies. I believe that if you combined my observation with powerful drugs I could come up with prophesies like "if your empire goes to war with another empire a great empire will fall ;)". Therefore, yes i am. and i'm taking requests ;)

tldr? uh. i take very universal feelings, use some skill to present those to people most likely to identify with them, they do a bunch of the work

/tldr i am a divine prophet and would like my place at a nice temple and access to good drugs asap

[maiji]

Asking on behalf of Sydney: What does she fear about the road ahead of her and what she might experience returning to her old life? Two numbers: 3 and 15!

Oh!! What an honour to get to do a reading for Sydney!

Sydney is one of the protagonists from the awesome webcomic Sombulus, and her journey in it has been a tremendous one of hard-earned growth! As you probably guessed, I shuffled the deck and counted using the two numbers provided to pick the cards. Knowing the trajectory of Sydney's story to date, the resulting combination gave me a good chuckle.

#3 turned up The Man, and #15 was The House.

The Man is a special card in Lenormand. Like its counterpart The Woman, it always represents the most important person of that gender to the question being asked. This is either the querent themselves, or someone who has a big role in the situation. The House is a card often associated with things you think of when you think of "home" - like stability, comfort, and people you consider family.

In this basic spread, what we're looking for is a relationship between the two cards. My immediate thought was Sydney's relationship with Astyr. I am trying not to spoil Sombulus!! but Sydney meeting Astyr kickstarted a whole bunch of things that really shook her worldview, and their relationship evolved a great deal over the course of the series. They've just come to/passed a major juncture. They're both going separate ways big time but at the same time are probably closer than they've ever been… Fears for the road ahead - I'm sure Sydney's worried about Astyr a great deal in so many ways. What might Sydney experience returning to her old life - well, the changes to her outlook as a result of her meeting Astyr have definitely made it a challenge to just slide back into the world she used to fit in. I imagine it's hard to look at anything the same way anymore, to take anything for granted, not with what she knows and what she can do now.

This is a tool for reflection, so that's just one relatively high level interpretation. We can find patterns and make connections in a lot of ways. Also Delphina Probably Knows Things!!! that a mere mortal fan like myself cannot even begin to speculate! If we assume the Man doesn't represent Astyr, who else might we imagine it to be…? If the House is not specifying "family", what other things associated with home might it conjure up…? Real estate? Domestic matters? You can also read it more literally if you want. Maybe what lies in store in the future is that Astyr is gonna find a roomba and help Sydney clean house!! (Maybe "clean house" is more figurative than literal. I have confidence Super Cool Butt-Kicking Times lie in their future.)

I hope that offered some interesting thoughts, or at the very least amusement!

---

Thanks for requesting a limited time free reading to celebrate the new edition of the Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck!

Want to dive deeper?

Fortune Lenormand oracle/art deck - there's a free downloadable overview of card meanings!

humangray.com/lenormand - more info and resources/links!

(Note: these readings are being done with my old card deck from the original printing. There's not much difference with the new edition available in the link above - the biggest one is that the new edition has a custom box ooh ahh!)

[valeriele3]

Everything I've compiled into my brain so far (Not properly arranged & I might have missed a lot)

All the other au's are connected and there is a space where you can see the different aus with little decorations/knick knacks that matches the world

CH au has a loop

CB's world is basically a self-aware au gone wrong

Noir flowers bloom from noir hearts of hundreds of faes and is a very potent poison to light faes

Purified noir flowers can grant you a wish and the wish doesn't expire a.k.a if you can't think of a wish at the moment you can use it in the future

Normal people/fae cannot enter the forest. The only exceptions are if you have a pure heart or part of both dark and light fae

If you enter a noir will crystalize and the forest will eat you alive and turn you into fertilizer for the flowers

MC and Wataru are very long longgg distanced cousins

MC only exists rn because of the wish of the old faes and it is said that the core fae is the solution to surviving the "catastrophe"

MC's parents didn't want their child to be used as a tool and want to save MC, MC is then put to sleep in a forest(The forest full of noir flowers) made to protect them until the time comes for MC to wake up. (Aira is the one who woke MC up)

When Aira woke MC up MDD Aira was in control/possessed CH Aira

Even though asleep, MC can somewhat interact with the world. MC is the invisible audience that leaves daises or letters for Wataru a.k.a Wataru's first fan is MC

When MC/the invisible audience suddenly disappeared Wataru decided to search for them and found Aira coming out of the forbidden forest with MC

It was here that Wataru decided to "adopt" MC and made MC his cousin

1st and 2nd core fae had a ability of time and space. MC the third core fae has both

Before Kohaku and MC even met, he had a dream of saving someone from falling. We see this happening when MC got sent to the human world and Kohaku catches MC

Wayyy before MC was sent to the human world to collect crystal hearts MC made a ton of candies/sweets for Aira which caused Aira to ask his online friends if they want it. There was so much in fact that his friends started thinking he was selling drugs from how often he asked

Aira then delivered most the candies to Kohaku since Kohaku likes/loves sweets. Over time Kohaku started falling for this mysterious friend(MC) his friend(Aira) had.

Since this is getting too long and all imma cut it off after a few more numbers

The oracles the old fae got is from a dream

In Distorted Party, we see two guys arrive in certain location, admiring an old city, an ancient place. The two guys are Aira and Kohaku and I'm guessing the old city is where the old fae used to live/stay

We see a line "We still have to enter some old fools dreamy-dream". Old fools = Old fae. And the enter some old fools dreamy dream..Could that mean that they'll enter the old faes dream quite literally? Or they could mean the "oracle" since the old faes got the oracle from a dream

If we were to go back near the start (I think chapter 6?) we'll see a static/glitched out post. There are 3 in total and the one talking is most likely Aira

Aira has different nicknames. Ai-Ai for normal Aira and Air-pyon for MDD Aira since MDD Aira would sometimes astral dream(?) into CH au

In Distorted Party Picture/banner there's an alt text. I'm guessing the "Self destruction Left nothing but pain Wish upon a flower Nothing is gain" Is referring to MC trying/wanting to self destruct to save everyone. "Left nothing but pain" might be referring to MC wanting to self destruct again orrr the result of CB's destruction. CB left nothing but pain in his wake. "Wish upon a flower" is referring to when MC made Aira a flower crown made out of purified noir flowers which allows you to make a wish. "nothing is gain" im not that sure about this one

"Shall we form this distorted party and change what is written" Does that mean that they want to rewrite fate? To change the future that has been set for them?

[runemyth0]

Hi! A few questions for the writer ask game (not sure if you’ve answered these already, so I put four, you don’t need to answer them all)

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

🕶️ What helps you focus when you write?

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

Yes! I've actually been planning a number of original stories for a few years. There's two main ones which are...

Commoners Die In One Hit: My take on an isekai story where a class of high schoolers and their teacher are transported to a fantasy world. They have to work together to survive in this hostile world.

I actually based this concept off of me being bored and rolling stats for a bunch of Dungeon Crawl Classics characters. The first part of the story is structured like a DCC funnel, where a bunch of characters go in and only a handful of characters come out.

Guilded Cage: Five assassins, each belonging to a major guild, are sent to a dinner to uphold an ancient treaty between the guilds preventing them from going to war. Unfortunately, the guilds all sent their worst members, because it turns out that one of the attendees has to die to uphold the treaty.

It'll probably be a while till I start on either of these (and the names might change along the way) since I've still got fanfiction I want to write first.

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

You know, I was just thinking I needed to update my fanfic rec list. Honestly, there's way too many I want to recommend, so I'll just pick my top three four.

A Witch in Wartwood (and it's sequel) by Discet (@discet)

This fic! Oh man... This is the fic that got me back into writing! It got me hooked on swap AUs! It is the fic of all time.

The Oracle Bakery by freakxwannaxbe (@freakystrashdump)

I never thought I'd be enjoying an OC fic this much, yet here I am recommending it. Most notable for me for having the best Belos characterization I've read. Also, I really like the worldbuilding of Oracle magic, which doesn't have a huge amount of focus in canon.

Moonshadow by A_E_redacted (@a-e-redacted)

Canon divergence ahoy! A fun story about the Collector getting adopted by Eda. I just like the Collector.

Tag Team AU (@toh-tagteam-au) by YogurtHoops

A comic, not a fanfic, but still one of the most fun swap AUs I've read. I mean, I enjoyed it enough to write a fanfic based on it, so... I really like it.

And what the heck, I'll recommend Fighting the Stars by FruitDragon as well.

🕶️ What helps you focus when you write?

Music! I've got a whole bunch of playlists that I put on in the background while I write. I have one playlist full of the Yuru Camp soundtrack that never fails to put me in the zone for writing really angsty scenes.

I also make sure to keep myself hydrated and fed with snacks (my fav is frozen raspberries).

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

Of course! Whenever I'm writing, I'll usually have the relevant fan wiki open in another tab for quick reference. And if anything comes up that might require specialized knowledge, I'll do my best to search it out.

I mostly work with fics that don't require too much research, but it does come up from time to time.