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batshape · 3 years ago

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fic writing asks

Thank you @samarqqand for the tag!

how many works do you have on AO3?

fourteen!

what’s your total AO3 word count?

66,098 words so far

how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

only tolkien here! i dabbled in some other fantasy and science fiction when i was much younger—i wrote some inheritance cycle fanfiction at eleven that is lost to time, thank god.

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. how foolish your deeds (3.3k words): my second ever silm fic, published last year. it’s a celebrimbor reembodiment fic, featuring nerdanel and the development of a gardening hobby.

2. on gold and the wearing of red (3.8k words): caranthir on maedhros, specifically maedhros’ impact on noldorin fashions since coming to beleriand. i wrote this one while taking a prehistoric european archaeology class in my final semester of undergrad—i really liked grave hoards.

3. letter 97 (9.4k words): the elf eschatology (elfschatology) one! fingon and maedhros, questions of the elven soul, and one orc prisoner/librarian at himring.

4. on survival (3.4k words): tagged “the thankless enduring existence of eldest sibling(s).” maedhros and maglor at each other’s throats, post-third kinslaying and deaths of their last brothers.

5. to my father’s house (12.6k, in progress): caranthir and finrod to their deaths, in which i transparently project all of my fiber art hobbies onto caranthir, he is generally miserable company, and he engages in some unsafe textile-dyeing practices. i was (finally) working on the final part of this fic this morning.

do you respond to comments, why or why not?

sometimes. to be honest, responding to comments makes me a bit nervous—i always feel as if i’m coming off as a bit too excited to talk about my own writing. i definitely answer questions, and i try to respond to the best of my ability when i’m not consumed by self-doubt about the whole affair.

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

ha, i guess it depends what you mean by angst? canon character death seems like a non-answer here, especially since the source material already has so much of it—but maybe to tell how this will end? considering each character’s endings, i suppose. that’s galadriel and aredhel in valinor, in which aredhel wants to have (but never gets) her future told.

do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

nope!

have you ever received hate on a fic?

nope! received some weird direct messages before, but nothing outright.

do you write smut? if so what kind?

not really. but i wrote some trans and gnc nerdanel/feanor recently (little tenderness), so i guess the subgenre there is lesbian divorce sex.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge.

have you ever had a fic translated?

nope!

have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope!

what’s your all time favorite ship?

im a sucker for celebrimbor/annatar, though i don’t write them very much. whatever that tumblr post is that’s like ‘the ideal nemeses dynamic is character A being like “you complete me, nobody understands me like you do, we were made to oppose one another” and character B is like “literally please die”’—love that dynamic.

what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

ive got this really long early-era kidnap fam fic that i feel is just. going nowhere. i’ll probably never finish it, but i liked where i was going with it once.

what are your writing strengths?

character relationships, i hope! though i also think i’m guilty of trying to pack so much subtext and foreshadowing and unspoken communication into every exchange that perhaps this isn’t a strength, and just me being heavy-handed.

what are your writing weaknesses?

i’m obsessed with dialogue. if i can’t get it to flow right i’ll throw the whole damn piece away.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

hm. a line or two, sure! whole dialogues though...i am personally not fond of it. i think there are other ways to convey character confusion or secrecy or the like without chunks of text in another language, if that’s your intent.

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

redwall! i have vague memories of making my parents critique some redwall fic when i was pretty young, probably before i even knew what fanfiction was.

what’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

on gold and the wearing of red is dear to me, mostly because i do love caranthir, and i love thinking about the potential relationship he had with his eldest brother. also, scary-but-still-hot-and-charming post-thangorodrim maedhros is so, so fun to write—he was fun in letter 97 too, so maybe it’s a tie between the two.

i definitely procrastinated answering this one, so to avoid double-tagging anyone: if you want to answer this, consider yourself tagged!

#thank you for the tag!!#it takes me forever to answer a tag meme: in my defense i just moved and got a new job and adopted a cat #tag meme #favorite ship might actually be caranthir/unsafe fiber dyeing practices. ive written it more than silvergifting #c: personal

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fantastic-rambles · 4 years ago

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This whole ask is gonna be RLY random but i wanna let this out lol

Holy FUCK i would literally sell my soul for an Adam-centric movie. I heard someone say in a vid that they might as well have made the whole anime about him and it wouldve been just as(if not even more) entertaining, and bro SAME. And frankly the younger characters aren't remotely as fun to watch as the adults.

Also the young!🌹🌸 ship has so much angst potential, it's probably my fav Adam ship(im regularly entertaining the thought of adult!🌹🌸 being together in an alternate universe lol). Also a concept:🌹 going to 🍵s restaurant to drink wine with the bois and complain about his work and bitchy aunts(do u see how desperate i am for them to fix their relationship even tho it's pretty much impossible after all that's happened OTL)

One thing that sends me is how japanese fans(and the va's themselves) are so understanding of Adam's character and are able to fully enjoy the story. There's so much Adam content coming from them compared to the western fandom(which is understandable tho, considering how it's overflowed with whiny fancops).

And the last thing. I don't think ppl that think Tadashi has done nothing wrong truly understand how much he fucked up when they were young. Tadashi was literally the one and only person Adam was sure he could rely on and thought was never gonna betray him(im sure Adam loved 🌸🍵 but there was no transparency in their relationship compared to what he had w/ Tadashi). Tadashi not backing him up in that one moment is something far worse than Adam's dad burning his skateboard. He was literally the only person that truly knew Adam, and losing him left him completely alone, which what i believe actually triggered him into becoming desperate about finding his Eve(thus finding an equal AND someone who could potentially support him). Ofc that doesn't mean that the way he now treats Tadashi is ok.

Ok I'm done sry (￣▽￣)

No apologies! Always happy to find more non-Adam-haters!

100% agree. I would love more Adam content. Especially young Adam-Cherry-Joe. I would miss the Langa, but I wouldn’t mind not having everyone else. xD

My headcanons for them are different though. Although Loveblossom is my favorite Adam ship, I think that it’s an unrequited love from Cherry to Adam, because even when they were younger, Adam is too fucked up to have an actual relationship/understand love, and he wouldn’t consider it because his family wouldn’t approve of it. I also think that Cherry and Joe only ever saw Adam, but never Ainosuke: yes, he lets them see his face, but I don’t think he let them into that side of his life. And Ainosuke keeps everything he feels close to his chest to keep up his perfect image, so he wouldn’t vent it, even privately (other than maybe to Tadashi). But I also think he doesn’t mind his work and while he may not like his aunts, he does appreciate them, since they’ve warped his thinking. (I do want them to fix their relationship too, though. And Adam just showing up at Joe’s restaurant one day would be hilarious.)

Yeah. I wish I knew Japanese. DD:

And Tadashi definitely played a huge role in screwing up Adam. Yeah, it’s not entirely his fault/he also has some clear problems that contributed to it like his inferiority complex, but he really fucked things up. Absolutely agree with everything you said. I think that something happened when Adam was in America that caused him to start desperately looking for Eve, but Tadashi not standing up for him in the one moment that it mattered the most was probably the most painful/significant moment in Adam’s life and strongly shaped his character. Though it is possible that that moment was the trigger for his search for Eve, if it happened immediately prior to Adam going to America (which isn’t unlikely); I’m not sure exactly where it falls in the timeline.

Rather than the snake, I feel like Tadashi is more of a God (though he would never claim that title for himself, or even believe it): he brought Adam into the world of skating (the Garden of Eden) and is now trying to cast him out of it. And that hurts Adam so much, to be betrayed (repeatedly) by his best friend and teacher, someone he once respected. To have God turn his face from him and try to take away Paradise. >~~~<

So yeah, Tadashi is really multi-faceted and intriguing to me, since I think he was something like an Eve, but also a God, and now a Snake (though again, I think “God” is more appropriate than “Snake,” at least with what we’ve seen so far).

Something I’ve mentioned in other posts is that I believe Adam is still in a “state of innocence” and basically still a child inside due to all the abuse he suffered from his family stunting his emotional/mental growth. As Ainosuke, he doesn’t seem to have any personal initiative: he just obediently obeys his aunts and tries to please them by meeting their expectations. As Adam, he’s a lonely child who just wants to have fun doing what he loves and is trying to find a friend who shares his passion for skating. I believe that he has not yet developed a sense of morality, so he doesn’t realize that what he’s doing in both areas is wrong: he’s like a kid stomping on a line of ants. It’s wrong/harmful/spiteful, but he just doesn’t know any better.

#sk8 #sk8 the infinity #skate the infinity #sk8 adam #shindo ainosuke #ainosuke shindo #sk8 cherry blossom #sakurayashiki kaoru #kaoru sakurayashiki #sk8 joe #nanjo kojiro #kojiro nanjo #sk8 snake #kikuchi tadashi #tadashi kikuchi #analysis #long post #mine

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akechicrimes · 5 years ago

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it does matter, actually, that goro akechi is a minor. not because this somehow exonerates him morally, or because this somehow makes him not responsible for his actions, but because persona 5 is invested in children as a source of hope for a better future.

once i saw someone complain that people will defend akechi’s murders on the grounds that he’s a child/minor and how they felt that this doesnt excuse multiple counts of murder. and i was like, ok, well, im not sure anyone was excusing him, but alright, sure. and i’ve seen a few rebuttals to that, one of which is that shido and the other adults in akechi’s life had a responsibility to support akechi in such a way that it didn’t come to murder, and of course it’s on shido to just not be a massive dick who endorses fascism and murders in the first place. and i was like ok, well, this seems a little patronizing and dismissive of akechi’s agency and autonomy, but alright, sure.

in a very roundabout way of explaining my first two sentences, there’s one thing that bothers me lately, and it’s selim bradley from fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood.

for those of us not familiar with fma:b, selim, or pride, is the oldest homunculus/artificial human in the show and the second-oldest villain, despite the fact that he looks about eight years old. of the seven homunculus named after deadly sins, selim/pride is the only one to survive the show--with an asterisk, which is that selim gets the “homunculus” part of him erased by the end of the show. with the “pride” aspect of him gone, selim is mortal, without any special powers, without memories of any of his amoral acts, and is generally just a happy, normal child.

which is a weird exception to fma:b’s general rule in which every other homunculus dies. even fan favorites like greed and envy don’t live, despite the fact that greed and envy are far more sympathetic as characters. selim kills multiple people on-screen, shows zero remorse whatsoever, and is an active helper in all the other mass-murders that the homunculi engineer. selim’s not an innocent in any way. also, he’s like, 200 years old? 300? he’s very old. biologically, mentally, emotionally, selim is not a child.

but fma:b goes out of its way to make sure that selim gets a second chance at a future, just because his body looks like a child’s. cut another way, he gets an exception from a large number of terrible crimes, up to an including participation in genocide, just because he looks like a child.

fma:b reminded me that, outside of tumblr’s purity politics over children, and especially so in japan, children are socially constructed in a very specific way, beyond biological age and legal majority cutoffs.

yes, biological age is a thing. yes, legal majority is a thing. i’m not saying that being a child isn’t a biological thing--it is, obviously. but what i’m saying is that there’s a difference between, say, the sex assigned to you at birth and your gender presentation, to use an analogy. there is a such thing as biological age, but the societal status of being a child of a related but separate thing. and this status of being considered a child is a societal construct.

the social construction goes like this, insofar as i’m aware: children should be good and silent and dutiful and work hard and go to school and listen to their elders, and their elders in turn should do everything they can to guide the children to the right path and build a good society for these children to inherit. (if we want more details on this, please see the entire history of filial piety in asia.)

so that’s a social contract right there baked into the social construct of childhood: children don’t have power, but adults have an obligation to make sure they don’t need power, and to make sure that the future and their children’s futures look bright.

children represent the future, essentially. they’re the next generation. they’re simultaneously without legal rights as adults and in a very vulnerable position, for sure, but they’re also simultaneously considered the country’s most precious capital: quite literally the people who will inherit and lead the country next.

which, personally, i think puts a whole new spin on the phantom thieves in general. they’re not just kids who’re being rowdy or kids telling abusive shitty adults theyre being abusive and shitty--or, they’re kids doing those things, but they’re not just kids doing those things. they’re kids who’ve been specifically let down by adults who did not fulfill their social obligation to them. they’re kids who’ve been abandoned and neglected by the very adults who should have been paving the way forward for them, as society has asked those adults to do, because those adults have instead chosen to line their own pockets and cover their own asses.

so the kids said: alright, well, then i’ll take power for myself, and i’ll make my own future. (which is where we get a lot of those promo slogans of “steal back your future” and junk like that.)

sae’s comments about how adults should do their part to fix the world for the kids is just a resolidifying of the way the world “should” work, and we could talk about her comments on the matter, but actually i wanna talk about yoshida.

i especially want to talk about yoshida because yoshida and shido are the two politicians we see the most of, and both of them spend a lot of time reciting political rhetoric to speak to the hearts of the general japanese populace. we all know the way that shido thinks of japan: a large vehicle that one person is in control of, and the masses just compose the throne upon which the ruler sits.

we also already know that yoshida’s a Real G, but it’s worth really close-reading some of his lines. he speaks a lot about apathy, the lack of caring for each other in society--a general willingness to disregard your fellow man, to not uphold one’s social obligation to each other. but he also talks a lot about the “youth”--which is not really uncommon for a politician, obviously, since politicians are always talking about “the children” and “the kids” and “the next generation” and “those damn millennials” and all that shit.

yoshida instead gives us these fun lines:

A world where the young exist only to be exploited... is a world that must be changed!

And while our society appears to be prosperous, many of our young people are quietly suffering. They lack jobs, security, savings... The next generation will lead us into the future and yet they have no plan for how to arrive there.

Passing on the societal ills we have created to the next generation... is not right!

...the current administration refuses to discuss their plans for the future... Can we really accept such an utter lack of transparency?!

If you make a promise, you must keep it. If you make a mistake, you must atone for it. These are basic human principles that we have all learned from the youngest of ages...

yoshida’s entire thing about how the adults have let the children down isn’t just him saying shit--he’s commenting directly on the fact that the social contract has been broken, and he’s putting the blame on the administration for not upholding their responsibility to secure a future for the children, especially since the children are the future of the country.

this is partly why he doesn’t blame the phantom thieves for acting the way that they do; rather, he seems them as a logical reaction to the injustice that’s occurred as a result of the society that the adults have left for them:

I bet [the Phantom Thieves] are a group of young people. Young people who have experienced cruelty and injustice... They bravely face the societal ills that plague our world without thinking of the consequences.

(i think also in part he admires the fact that they’re anonymous and don’t benefit personally from their actions, which is exactly the opposite of what he did as a young politician. he also doesn’t throw the real embezzlement culprit under the bus to exonerate himself presumably for the same principle of desiring selfless public service instead of personal gain.)

in both the early parts of the s link and later on when yoshida starts talking with matsushita more extensively, akira’s important because he’s young--he represents the young demographic that yoshida and matsushita are discussing the future of. akira demonstrating support for yoshida in a public way means a lot because he’s a minor. matsushita asks akira for his opinions on the phantom thieves and other issues because akira is a minor. akira’s opinion is supposed to be heard and valued by adults, who should take his opinions into consideration and do their best to not let him down.

this is tied into the general thread of yoshida being a person who was self-admittedly just as corrupt as everyone else, who was blinded by glamor and fame and money, who got caught up in political scandal. yoshida’s general acceptance of his mistakes as a human being and politician ties over to his general belief that it’s not that the youth are rebellious no-good teens, but that the youth have been let down by politicians like who he used to be. he blames himself, and because he is not too different from the rest of the older generation and politicians in general, he implicates a lot of the older generation and politicians as also blame-worthy.

his quest for redemption and atonement dovetails neatly with his views on the broken societal contract. taken together, yoshida’s s link implies to us the idea that the entire general older generation in japan more or less owes the children of japan a formal apology, and the older generation better get on their redemption arc and start being the vanguard of the change for children:

The reason [the Phantom Thieves are] causing a stir is because they are addressing the world’s problems. Setting aside whether their actions are right or wrong... there is one thing I can safely say about the Phantom Thieves. A belief with conviction... has the ability to move a person’s heart.

I’m sure you are all aware that I am “No-Good Tora,” the one accused of embezzlement. However, because I was accused like that, I was able to understand the suffering of the weak. Why am I in politics? In the past, it was merely for personal gain. But why do the Phantom Thieves continue to change hearts? I believe they do it for the world and its people. And in choosing to do justice for others, they had no choice but to disguise themselves. No matter what the world says, I fully support them.

I’m just an average citizen. However, I will continue to voice my beliefs. I may not be able to become a Diet member this election... and I may not be able to effect change during my lifetime... but I’ve made my peace with that. I will be happy as long as I can be a meaningful stepping stone for the future of our youth!

okay. so that was a lot of close reading about yoshida. why did we do this exercise, tumblr user akechicrimes.

there’s two takeaways from this. the first is the one that yoshida has already talked about extensively, which is that the phantom thieves are just but not because Fuck Cops and Fuck Capitalism and Fuck Anime Jeff Bezos. the phantom thieves are just because the people who are supposed to be upholding society aren’t doing their fucking jobs. the phantom thieves are specifically saying: we’ve been let down by society, so apparently we have to do everything our goddamn selves around here.

(which also ties in neatly to the general “fuck cops” vibe of persona 5 which, i would like to say, is very specifically “the cops are not doing their jobs.” the TV station scene where akira speaks back to akechi is, if i’m remembering this right, maybe the ONLY time we really hear “akira’s” opinion on the morality of his own activities, which is fascinating because he just does these things without ever justifying himself to the player--anyway, his three options are: (1) They’re justice itself, (2) They’re necessary, and (3) They do more than the cops. so akira can’t ever at any point say that the phantom thieves are bad, but his most interesting and detailed answer is to point out that the cops aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, so who can really blame the phantom thieves for doing what the cops aren’t?)

the second takeaway is that yes, goro akechi does get more leniency because he’s a minor.

yes. seriously. this isn’t a matter of excusing what he did, or downplaying the fact that he committing murder. i’m not saying that he wasn’t old enough to make decisions (although i would never say that he was old enough to make decisions, because he was 14/15 when he got wrapped up in shido’s conspiracy). i’m also not saying that akechi, somehow for some reason, didn’t volunteer himself willingly, because all the evidence points to the fact that he did (although of course “free will” is also highly circumspect considering his living conditions at the time and the fact that shido makes it clear that he was able to manipulate akechi without ever infringing on akechi’s sense of autonomy). i’m not even saying that akechi was driven to the point of murder and had no other choice (although i think that might also be true as well).

what i am saying is that under the construction of childhood as japan’s future and japan’s hope, akechi is considered a valuable member of society, and is therefore worth saving.

or at least he should be.

akechi says that he’s an unwanted child, but “unwanted child,” according to yoshida’s rhetoric (and a lot of japan’s general rhetoric of children as hope for the future) is an oxymoron. (or at least it would be an oxymoron if japan weren’t so fucking hypocritical.) you can’t not want the future of the country. you can’t not want hope for a good future. the very idea that a child could be not wanted or not valuable doesn’t make any sense, because children are the future--in some ways, whether you like it or not, that child is going to inherit the earth when you’re dead.

the kind of person who’d not want those things is--well, shido. (this is why i used yoshida; yoshida and shido are two polar opposite politicians.) shido quite literally does not want a good future for anyone in the country and quite literally does not want akechi and quite literally does not see akechi, one of the very young-person citizens that shido is supposed to be serving, as useful or valuable in any way unless akechi is directly promoting shido’s fame and popularity. shido being akechi’s father is just a very neat and nice way of literalizing the ways that shido, as an adult, has let down akechi as a child--the ways that shido quite literally owed akechi something to make akechi’s life and future better, and instead did everything awful.

there should not ever be a thing like “unwanted child.” that in and of itself, from the start of akechi’s life, was nonsensical. and to the extent that shido being akechi’s father is allegorical of the ways that shido is a terrible patriarch for japan, i would say that akechi, as an unwanted foster child, is just another allegory for the ways that children nowadays are treated as misbehaving, lazy good-for-nothings who have to work themselves into the dirt to be given half the salary and half the praise. akechi, as an unwanted child, is just the personification and representative of an apparently unwanted generation.

what i’m getting at is that akechi’s status as a minor (and yes he’s a minor even if he’s eighteen; age of majority in japan is twenty)--akechi’s status as a minor is a critical part of why akechi gets a shot at a redemption arc. so yes, actually, the other villains or palace-rulers don’t get redemption arcs because they are adults, who had a societal obligation to do better by their peers and by the children of japan. yes, actually, akechi’s informal “trial” in the hands of fandom is to be tried as a minor and not as an adult. yes, i know kamoshida didn’t kill anyone and akechi’s literal crimes are more morally repugnant, but yes, unfortunately, being a minor does actually exonerate him on the morality spectrum to a degree.

being a child matters in the larger scheme of persona 5′s logic of who owes who, who’s responsible for who, and why we should not be apathetic. adults owe children a better future. adults have been letting children down. adults owe every single phantom thief, including��akechi, an apology, a better future, and health and happiness; and they owe that to japan’s future not as a matter of exchange or morals, but simple social obligation. adults are supposed to take care of the kids--full stop.

”okay but @ tumblr user akechicrimes?? akechi KILLED people.”

yeah, i know. i said “being a minor does actually exonerate him on the morality spectrum to a degree.”

what degree? no idea. that’s up to you to decide. if you want to play in the black-grey-white morality scale that only goes two ways, you’re welcome to continue to ask “what degree.” we can argue that being a minor somehow reels akechi back from the “black” end of the spectrum into the “grey” or “white” parts.

but (if i may be permitted to go completely off the shits into things that might make people pissed off at me for saying) i implore you to consider that this two-way scale of morality is not the line of thought that persona 5 is pursuing.

this, again, ties back into the social construction of a child. i’ve said “a child is representative of the country’s future” so many times i think it’s lost meaning, so let me dice it a different way: a child is socially constructed as representative of potential and hope. a child is socially constructed as the capacity for things to get better. in persona terms, a child is the fool at the start of their journey, all futures contained in one present, a vast multitude of could-be’s.

for a game very concerned with japan’s general societal ruin, children are not just in the position of having been let down by adults, but are--as the phantom thieves demonstrate--representative of better futures regardless of how terrible circumstances look in the current day. they are a source of believing one day this sad, depressing story might actually end with “and then they lived happily ever after.”

if i may go even more completely off the shits, take a look at this heckler from yoshida’s s link, which is the one that akira speaks back to in the middle of yoshida’s speech:

...I’ve been wrong this whole time. Even though someone has failed in the past, it doesn’t mean that person can’t try again.

this is to say, redemption arcs insofar as persona 5 (and also persona 5 royal, i think) is concerned is not a question of necessarily addressing the wrongs that have occurred. yoshida sets the bar pretty high in that yoshida does not ask for forgiveness for what he’s done, and instead simply accepts his actions and their consequences without attempting to lessen the blow. he embraces what he’s done in all its awfulness.

but because akechi is a a minor, and because akechi as a minor is getting wrapped up in persona 5′s train of thought about kids as the hopeful futures of japan, akechi is at the very least owed a chance to do better. as a minor, japan is societally contracte to give him the space to have the potential to be better and do better. nobody is obligated to forgive him, and indeed neither royal nor akechi ever seem to entertain this as a valid possibility. forgive, forget, reconciliation, retribution, and resolution seem to be all off the table, as if the very idea would minimize haru or futaba’s losses. the very conceit of the dreamworld in P5R wants to shoot down the very idea that the past can ever, to any degree, be fixed, remedied, or even emotionally resolved. akechi will have always killed wakaba and okumura and this fact will always be awful--full stop.

nevertheless, despite the fact that the past cannot be changed, akechi is still a minor. rather than attempting to resolve the issues of the past, akechi is still owed the space to become a beacon of potential change for the better in the future--which is also known as hope.

i’ve said this in other posts elsewhere, but persona games are like, obsessed with hope. they fucking adore that shit. why not? even in difficult times, even when things are terrible and you’re going through misery, if you at least have hope that one day things will be better, that life will change, that the new generation will step up to the plate and make the story have a happy ending, pain becomes easier to bear. and why not? persona games cover a breadth of difficult topics.

especially in a game like P5, which talks at length about modern day japan’s ailments, what good is it if the player walks away with a defeatist attitude that the future will be terrible?

if reality is malleable like morgana says, isn’t the first step to have hope that this is true?

this post has gone on a lot longer than i thought it would. but in any event. that’s why it is valid to say that akechi being a minor “exonerates” him to a degree.

also selim bradley lives because fma:b concurs that children are a hope for a better future and fma:b is particularly invested in this line of thought because it’s a story about edward transitioning from a child to a young adult who is learning about the ways that the world works and is also still just childlike enough to propose that the world shouldn’t have to work in the bloody, awful way that it does. selim is representative that all children should be given as many chances as possible to do and be better because they are representative of potential. if that wasn’t clear. lmao.

#meta #mine

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arkus-rhapsode · 5 years ago

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Ok. So what do you think of the latest chapters of fairy tail 100 years quests? What what's happening to characters? I think you're so possed that you even stopped reading more

Hoo boy... *Cracks knuckles* We may be here for a while.

So before I start, let me make clear that I actually keep up with 100YQ, though not for any actual interest anymore. I now stay with it for ironic enjoyment. Because I could say EZ has dumb stuff, but at this point, if you’re Hiro Mashima’s main audience, its fine. No, 100YQ is unique in that it has WTF moments that transcend just the FT fandom sensibilities.

Before I dig in, I’m gonna lay out some formatting rules because we’re cover A LOT. Im gonna be fair and split this up into positive and negative aspects of the series. Because I at least try to be intellectually in what I do.

To avoid from going on tangents and jumping around, I’m gonna be going in chronological order of events. Now this will not be an overview of the series up to this point because that’s stuff I’ve already talked about. Instead I’m gonna start from the point this went from genuine interest to ironic interest. That begin the Whited Out FT Guild.

Positives:

The concept of the wood dragon god having a kingdom on his back is really cool world building. Its actually something that I really liked about the Sea Dragon God as well. Having a realm reliant on the dragon as well as a reason to revere them. What with the water dragon god controlling the tides while wood dragon god is the supporting the city on his back actually makes them seem like god figures and adds to the lore of the world of Earthland in a way that Ishgar and Alvarez sorely failed at.

Laxus punching out Kyria. Petty yes, as Kyria is my least favorite dragon slayer. However a lot of Whited out FT mages were getting jobbered like crazy or just given unceremonious defeats. So Laxus actually seeming like an obstacle was good.

The cat twist with Touka is actually a funny bit of trolling and was one of the few times there was effective foreshadowing with Touka having a tail. (Too bad it was suck in the meandering Gajeel plot.)

The Dragon Eater guild is a much better final villain army than Spriggan 12. The 12 had little structure as to who was the stronger members, resulting in multiple Spriggans feeling like such major disappointments.

Most Mashima Villain organizations tend to broken up like this: Boss->Special Units (I.E Spriggan 12, Nine Demon Gates, Element 4)->Fodder Units.

No one cares when the fodder of a villain group is beaten as they’re just faceless minions. However, when you get to the special unit, that’s wheen there are actual obstacles and the villains start becoming more like characters. However, Hiro has been bad at this when he’s dealing with bigger organizations.

He never had to worry about telling you which member of the villain group’s special unit were more powerful than the others. Due to working with units composed of low amounts of characters, such as Team Lyon, Element 4, and Death’s Head.

You could say that all were roughly around the same power threshold. However, where the spriggan 12 royally failed was there were 12 of them in that unit and they were all just given the blanket term of being on the same level of the number 1 wizard saint. Yeah... that’s a check so large that Hiro could not cash it.

Hiro even seemed to retroactively acknowledge this by stating that August, Irene, and Larcarde were the three best to cover his ass for the fact that all the spriggans seemed to be jobbered far easier than ones supposedly equal to the number 1 saint.

However, the Dragon Eaters are opponents we’re gradually introduced to over the storyline and we actually see a demonstration of what a group of them can do, instead of 1 just trying take on all of team Natsu at once. We see that Skullion’s team is roughly equal to Team Natsu, giving us a gauge for the Dragon Eater strength, but then we get both Wraith and Nebal, underlings not part of Skullion’s thre man team, implying that are of a weaker variety and thus serving as a stepping stone to fight Skullion. But also introducing us to the Black Dragon Slayer Cavalry. Members above Skullion’s team that give us an idea if when they show up what the audience should expect of their strength level.

There’s a reason why in One Piece why Yonkou opperations have so many categories. You’re not gonna care about the minor thugs, but by making a distinction between the Headliners and the Disasters in Kaidou’s crew, you’ve made it so that we the audience will not feel disappointed if a Headliner is beat by a weaker character like say Usopp but still know that they are more than a foot soldier so this win meant something.

Now time for the negatives:

The concept of White Out is not awful, and is actually a fairly interesting concept for a villain motivation in FT. However, the White Witch is one of the most transparently evil characters in the series, thus you know that she’s doing this morally ambiguous action because she’s evil. Imagine if this were about humans or royals who feared the growing power of mages. Or a disillusioned mage with the concept of people like Zeref or the GMG, where is seems like magic is endless and how that’s a threat to the world. No, White Witch really seems like she wants to be this grand manipulator and actively enjoys calling heer whited out people, puppets.

However, there’s also the fact the whiting out doesn’t make too much sense. Some characters seem like mind controlled puppets like Juvia, while others are basically the same except their evil now like Gajeel, Mira, Elfman, Laxus. And some are dumb jokes like Jellal.

So there’s no consistency to this brainwashing. Only other time I’ve seen a mind control plot like that in media before is Yugioh GX. Sometimes people act like they’ve been brainwashed into something different like Alexis. But then people like Bastion and a lot of the gag members of the society like Rose and Bob act as if they’re not affected by anything.

Yeah, this white witch plot feels distractedly ripped off from the society of Light from Yugioh GX.

The concept of Team Natsu vs FT in the vain of the fighting festival arc is dumb narratively from two standpoints. First from a story standpoint in the idea that why the battle of FT arc was opportunity, due to the fact they were all willing to fight to free the frozen girls. Which allowed for others to show shades to their motivations Like Alzack willing to mow through his other comrades for Bisca or Thunder God Tribe assisting in protecting Laxus so he’s the last man standing. There’s a tangible reward on th line that motivates the characters to act as do.

Here, the characters are clearly fighting against their will because of an intangible force. This white magic makes them slaves and are fighting because “white doctrine.” Something they only believeebecause brainwashing. As such, you want to see Natsu and gang beat them up to stop the white witch and free them. There’s no force or intrigue that makes the audience care about both sides like seeing Alzack vs Jet and Droy because you know they both want to save their partners but only one can. Instead people only care because a surface level of “friend turned evil” device. It takes the B and C list cast of the FT guild and makes them props.

And from a meta standpoint, there is no tension, due to the fact this is a post final battle with acnologia Team Natsu. The team is bounds ahead of so many guild members like Macao, Reedus, Max etc. that the only real threat is the S class mages. So that makes that big page spread of evil FT in cult robes dull as only like 3 of them are gonna actually matter.

Then there’s Wraith. Nebal was a boring an generic crazy guy is unimpressive, Wriath was actually really interesting at first. Is ghost magic allowed for an interesting fight and his possession actually having limitations on how effective it was made for a cool skill.

But then the reveal about him and Makarov. I eye-rolled at that point, but then I saw the previews and was like, maybe this’ll be the best thing to come out of this series. Everyone wants to know more about past FT around team Makarov’s time.

But all the potential of young Makarov and young Porylusica and the rest of their team is put on fast forward as they’re all suddenly thinking about leaving. But maybe the reveal with Wraith could be interesting. I saw a lot of good theories like Wraith was Makarov’s half brother or Wraith was the son of Makarov and Porylusica who was killed by Ivan.

Well... Any theory would’ve been better than Wraith was some random ass mage and when they say he a Makarov are related its because the bonds of FT that is real family and transcends death itself.

...Gag me...

And and Wraith just fucks off into the afterlife. Because we can’t actually end a fight because of the protagonist’s ingenuity. No, the villain just kills themselves because feels. Isn’t that right August and Irene?

In conclusion

That’s my thoughts as briefly and coherent as I could make them. So if you wanna know my feelings on 100YQ, it can basically be summed in FT being FT. If you expected more, you’re gonna be disappointed. But if you genuinely love the world and character regardless of Hiro’s writing, you’ll probably still enjoy it regardless of what I’m saying

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zzariyo · 5 years ago

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sidon (ask meme)

O boy

favorite thing about him:

the fact that he’s been doing that same smile thing since he was little is so wonderful im big fan

least favorite thing about them:

the fact that whenever i go to a con hoping to finally get rito or just any botw merchandise im fucking drowning in sidon

favorite line:

it’s pretty sad but i do like that moment where you catch him talking to Mipha’s statue,,,

"I wish you were here to guide me... I miss you terribly..."

HHHOUUGGHHHHH

brOTP:

the idea of Kass and him being bros makes me. : )

OTP:

its not an otp as much as a funny little silly thought but the concept of Sidon and Meelo being together is absolutely lovely and delightful. in another world they would b a really good couple. dont fucking @ MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

NOTP:

OKAY I WAS GONNA ZIP MY LIPS BUT I OUGHTA BE TRANSPARENT

it’s fuckingnghg s!dl!nk but HOnestly at the end of the day i have 0 issue with it its only out of spite and its fucking fun to be petty as shit about something

like literally i’ll see a really cute or pretty s!dl!nk thing and b like “o hoho how delightful i will reblog this” and i’ll stop myself like

“wait a SECOND. I HATE THAT!!!!! that’s RIGHT!!!!!!!” and then i dont.

you can @ me about this i deserve it

random headcanon/ unpopular opinion:

most of my opinions on sidon are very very incredibly unpopular

for instance, a lot of people think of him as a kind, excitable, sweet, responsible boy to the very core that looks out for his loved ones case closed...considering that’s really all that was shown in canon

but really i feel like there would be a really dark, realistic dark, part of him that doesn’t come out very often. not anything like YANDERE or CRAZY KILLER SEXY FISH MONSTER or whatever. and not anything that makes him a fundamentally bad person. just that there’s a really horrible side to him that can easily be triggered and without being careful and aware of it he can go down the wrong path and make really bad, rash decisions if he doesn’t have any proper guidance.

i mean, he was raised as royalty so he was probably given everything he wanted, and I would like to think that because of the death of Mipha (and whatever the story is about their mother), Dorephan wasn’t always emotionally there to raise him right. Like, his father loves him more than anything, but he lost so much so it was easier to give him whatever he wanted and make him happy. And so then with his sister gone and with no mother to speak of, there is no one to properly raise him and guide him.

so, with that and with literally being a prince, Sidon isn’t used to not getting what he wants. He will keep his composure for a while, but only for so long. And since he was never told ‘no’ as he grew up, he acts out/has a tantrum/gets pissed off beyond belief. And this only gets worse and scarier as he gets older.

But really, in all honesty, there is absolutely nothing wrong with thinking of him as a genuinely pure-hearted guy that loves everyone. i’m just. like this and love to break down characters and add some depth, especially if it’s dark, and i felt like it would interestly to do that with Sidon since there is certainly room for it. and so that’s what i try to do in ehc; show his composure slowly breaking away to show this ugly, (but not evil!!!) side of him.

song i associate with them:

Shark Serenade by Vermillion Lies. Mostly cuz of what i talked about ^^^ and also cuz he. a shark

youtube

favorite picture of them:

LITERALLY-

#plz dont slit my throat #also the 2nd gif isnt working whats happening im so pisesdsdssd

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excommune-a · 7 years ago

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shipping info // answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog. repost. don’t reblog.

what’s your otp for your muse? i don’t... really have one. the otps i do have are because they’ve been built up genuinely through rp. i don’t have anything i’m Looking to roleplay, is what i mean!

what are you willing to rp when it comes to shipping? i will not write noncon, dubcon, anything involving underage characters, or anything involving a possessed person. i won’t write an abusive relationship either, although to an extent i’d write a generally unhealthy relationship, esp with a writer i know well and trust. i’m pretty heavily against using angsty situations as some kind of shipping tool - dark and heavy emotions can come out as part of a relationship, but i’m not all... ~omg luv that angst if that makes sense.

how large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable? not gonna happen if they’re underage. but overall i don’t have an issue with writing age gap relationships, as long as it’s approached in the right way. if they’re under 35, though, marcus is very unlikely to be interested anyway - he has a broad range of interest, probably 20 years either side of his own age (he’s 53). but he does have his limits, and although marcus is always extremely flattered when someone shows interest in him ... if you’re too young for him, you’re too young.

are you selective when shipping? i can be... sometimes i’ve been sent an ask by someone asking to ship and i’ll check out their blog and it becomes transparent they’re only interested in f*cking marcus, and i’ll outright ignore those sorts of messages.

how far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered nsfw? i think it’s more about intent than anything; the second there’s intent it’s nsfw. it doesn’t become nsfw when the boobs or dicks show up in the writing - if marcus is turned on or heading that way it’s nsfw.

who are other muses you ship your muse with? as long as there’s chemistry i’m super into it... and the chemistry doesn’t have to be based off much. like i can usually tell from going through a blog if i think marcus will be into the character. he’s pretty noisy the way

does one have to ask to ship with you? not really! just chuck stuff in my ask and if i think the characters will mesh i’m usually into it. i also would actually love for characters to just outright flirt with marcus, whether it leads to a ship or not...? like flirting isn’t forcing a ship so PLEASE just flirt with marcus n see if he responds

how often do you like to ship? uhhh i like marcus being covered in girls n boys n others, so...as often as i can get it, as long as theres ... yknow ... the good stuff

are you multiship? oh ya.

are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less? i’d say more or less? idk i want marcus covered in romance but also its definitely not Everything to me

what is your favorite ship in your current fandom? marcus/bennett is the og but marcus/mouse and marcus/tomas are really testing my soul i would die for EVERY marcus ship

finally, how does one ship with you? yell at me. send me a meme. rattle acorns in the night. i’ll hear you. i’ll find you

tagged by: actually stole it from @demonbitch to pinch the idea of putting it on my rules page? nice

tagging: no one im lazy

#ooc.#psa.#i may have done this before but idk???#my answers on this have def changed over time if i have so

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nora-reads-homestuck · 8 years ago

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Late Submission for fanworks fest

(SkaiaMechanic) Another fanfest post! This person named Marco actually used their email to send these in, rather than a screen name. I’m attempting to remove it in the editable areas to deter spam but it might just attach to the top anyways. Sorry if that’s the case! Anyways this was just a few images, many from the same sets, but I passed on the ones she hadn’t seen. Original sources as well as Nora’s response under the cut, as usual!

Name (marco[EMAIL REDACTED FOR PRIVACY WHEN POSTING] submitted to nora-reads-homestuck:

Late Submission for fanworks fest

I hope this okay with the lateness and all?

Well without further ado…

http://imgur.com/a/CbbPf (13 Images)

Okay hopefully I didn’t screw that up. Enjoy!

Name (marco[ATTEMPTED EMAIL REMOVAL FOR PRIVACY, MIGHT SHOW UP ANYWAYS] submitted to nora-reads-homestuck:

I hope this okay with the lateness and all?

Well without further ado…

http://blushmallet.tumblr.com/post/144522768742/can-you-draw-jade-harley-from-homestuck

http://technicolordame.tumblr.com/post/119385244142

http://industrialrage.tumblr.com/post/131562715055/10-fave-guardian-dad

http://fairyfun099.tumblr.com/post/145576590401/figured-id-post-these-too (these ones are transparent so I recommend clicking on them so that the blog’s theme doesn’t get in the way)

http://ethereal-owl.tumblr.com/post/136382209746/they-were-supposed-to-originally-be-transparent (ditto)

http://mspabooru.com/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=29796 (the source deleted their blog or something?)

http://aoicocare.tumblr.com/post/37117627846/subtly-saying-im-not-yet-dead-im-sorry-john

Okay hopefully I didn’t screw that up. Enjoy!

Oh my goooosh these are all so super cute!! This Jade in particular just makes my heart go all squidgy. Just look at that face! The confused!Dad has got to be one of my all-time favorites so far. Dad as a character is just SO DAMN HILARIOUS to me for some reason, and nothing about him delights me more than his dadly consternated question marks. All these sketches of John are so great!! They’ve got a really 2D animated quality feel to them, with the care taken with his expressions. They also do a wonderful job portraying that awkward gangliness most boys that age have. Thanks!

#NRHS #Marco #Not sure how else to tag it!#submission

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pinnkblooded-blog · 8 years ago

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SHIPPING INFO // Answer the following for your muse(s) so people know how shipping works on your blog.

REPOST. Don’t reblog.

What’s your OTP for your Muse?: Carmine and Alvis, no doubt. Their stories are so entertwined and they are such a duo. Are they also the worst: yes but that makes it better. Honestly my OTP is Car x equally complex person who doesn’t deal with her shit

What are you willing to RP when it comes to shipping?: Anything honestly as long as it’s not beastiality or just no chemistry. Car and Al maybe endgame but Car is a lowkey romantic and gosh i love shipping her with others just for the dynamics and how it affects her character.

How large does the age gap have to be to make it uncomfortable?: I can’t imagine Car dating some one drastically younger than her but she’s got a thing for older, mature folks. She’s 10/10 into ppl her age with less maturity but you’ve got her giving you heart eyes no doubt if you fit the mature not good for your mental health role.

Are you selective when shipping?: Yeah because I base things on active participation in a ship (like if you wanna ship but then act like it’s just a cool tag to play with, then nah fam) and if i can forsee Car still being Car with that muse. Like I’m very adamant that no matter what Car stays a bad guy and Car stays mentally ill because love isn’t gonna just cure that. If I have concerns about out of characterness then it’s gonna be a no from me. However i’m open to dialouge about this thing so don’t be scared to hit me up about my own concerns ya know.

How far do steamy moments have to go before they’re considered NSFW?: Car is a gold star member of Kinky Hut Jr’s and as her mun I gotta give the child full NSFW reign. I’m 100% for smut and will only go as far as the other mun wishes.

Who are other muses you ship your muse with?: Tulip is the only other muse Car is currently shipped with tbh! I get unrequited mostly flirtatious vibes from Nikki in the teslaverse, maybe a casual relationship with Harley, and those are the only ones I can name rn!

Does one have to ask to ship with you?: I really like this thing called communicating so I would appericate a mun to mun convo first! I do my best to be transparent and I ask over and over again to make sure everyone is having a good time. However I’m also very shy and tend to internalize things so if I don’t reach out I’m most likely in my head and too nervous to ask! Has nothing to do with the other mun tho!

How often do you like to ship?: A L O T. I want to ship a hella lot more in the future tbh. Car is fun in all relationships; with men, women, platonic, romantic, sexual, etc.

Are you multiship?: Yep

Are you ship obsessed or ship more-or-less?: I’m a bit in the middle, i ship when it’s comfy, it’s a disservice to myself to throw myself into a ship im not really into just for the sake of shipping.

What is your favorite ship in your current fandom?: Harley x Joker because I like complexity and as much as I adore Harlivy, the hardcore shippers deter me from making it #1. don’t@me.

Finally, how does one ship with you?:

TAGGED BY: mi amor and the reason I watch any televison at all: @gxnsandtxlips

TAGGING: @pb82 and I’m blanking on whoever else didn’t so ALL OF Y’ALL (tag me bc I’m a trash who love to read stuff like this)

#not today lay!#info hub #this was fun ty for the tagging!!

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sirnighteye · 8 years ago

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a meem

Rules: Answer the 20 questions and tag 20 amazing followers you’d like to get to know better

Tagged by darling @creepycollector

Name: Bojack Horseman's memoirist/Dale Cooper's secretary/tape recorder

Nicknames: Donut, which has, by far, eclipsed my name-name.

Zodiac Sign: ♊️ Gemini ♊️

Height: Fivey fours (fourteen year old donut arrives via a time machine, screams "JUST LIKE SETH GREEN LOL XD", and leaves)

Orientation: Generally I like dudes.

Ethnicity: Generic mishmash of whiteness

Favorite Fruit: 🍒 Cherries!!! 🍒

Favorite Season: Fall: Summer heat makes me crumple up like a sad sadbaby, I am painfully and humiliatingly afraid of slipping on ice, and I am used-to-need-prescription-antihistamines allergic to every single springtime-y pollen. FALL IS MY ONLY CHOICE.

Favorite Book: Sharp Teeth, by Toby Barlow. Free verse poetry-novel about Werewolves and crime in Los Angeles.

Favorite Flower: nasturtiums and snapdragons. My grandma grew both largely for my amusement when I was little :') i ate nasturtiums while just chilling out in the garden!! (at this age i also used green onions as a straw which.........okay, kid donut.)

Favorite Scent: Lime, earl grey, non-cigarette smoke.

Favorite Colour: BRIGHT YELLOW

Favorite Animal: rats, foxes, raccoons

Coffee, tea, or cocoa?: "number 18 honey black milk tea with pearls 70% sweet 30% ice" - my mantra, put it on my grave

Average Sleep Hours: i thrive on 9ish, but my job/commute/taking care of LIFE THINGS schedule allows for, like, 7 on weekdays :|

Cat or dog person?: I haven't had the opportunity in life to form a true bond with a cat so I tend to lean towards dogs. I had a really good dog relationship growing up, and have since lived in NO FUN NO PETS apartments.

Favorite Fictional Character: Is this blog not basically “fictional characters donut has considered kissing this week”? (that’s a weird art scrapbook i have considered making, actually) I think you can infer the, uh, donut’s heart hall of fame. like, clearly donut is a gross adachifucker. clearly donut is pining for that dingus maxie. clearly donut grew up on the x-files and idolizes the lone gunmen. donut has a wario shrine. donut is fairly transparent.

Number of blankets you sleep with: one, beside me, that i rarely use as an actual blanket because my TV acts as a space heater and my room is just. too. hot and then my 37 giant plushies end up covering me anyway @w@

Dream Trip: please just let me go back to tokyo 100 times and show all my cool friends all my favourite things ;_;

Blog Created: my earliest e-mail from tumblr is from 2010. IM OLD

Number of Followers: 700

i am bad at the taggy tag but that doesn't mean i don't love you. yeah, you. ❤️️ ❤️️ ❤️️

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nationalpark-rp · 7 years ago

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hello! i've been attempting to make my own group (i had one a while ago, and i've been trying to remake it) and i've been asking a few groups around about some pointers to pick back up. my main wonders and concerns are how we could get good publicity, and what to do in situations where times seem bleak ie periods where you really don't get much activity coming in. thank you so much for your help!

Hello, dearest anon! We’re more than happy to answer your questions, as they are all very valid concerns. Running a group isn’t easy, and it can be difficult to figure out what works and what doesn’t work when you want to keep one going for the long haul.

I have a lot to say on this particular topic, so I’m going to put the rest of my response below the cut. I want to help you out the best that I can, so I hope what I have to say is beneficial for you.

When I first opened the National Park, I had zero experience at modding and running a group. But I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted to accomplish, as well as the steps I would take to achieve those goals. It’s important that you have a resolve and a purpose—without one, it’s possible you might feel helpless or directionless when it comes to your group.

For starters, you’ll have to ask yourself—and have a definitive answer to—a few questions that will be the core of your group, regardless of the fandom it’s in. Some of these questions include what your group will be about, and what guidelines/standards you will put in place in order for the plot/genre to not only make sense, but to work well for RP writing. How will you structure your group? What makes it unique and interesting enough for people to want to join? Do you have the time and energy it takes to commit to running your group without help from other mods?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are tons of other, smaller, things to think about when it comes to running a group. I constantly think of different scenarios and questions for myself and for this group, so please take my advice with a grain of salt. How I mod and what I expect from a mod in any group can and will be different in varying degrees with other groups and their mods.

So to address your concerns about how to keep going when the going gets tough… that’s a tough one. Every group, regardless of popularity, will have periods of slow activity just as they have periods of super quick activity. It’s these slower times (particularly around holidays and exams, for members who attend school) that can really make or break a roleplay group.

For most now-inactive or closed groups, I have found that these groups often fail due to limited activity or interest in the group. The mods of these groups ultimately agree that it would be better to shut down the group than to keep it running at that slower pace. My heart goes out to all of these groups where so much love had gone into them only for the mods to lose hope and give up on it.

My advice to you is to not give up. You need to stay optimistic. As people become busy with their day-to-day lives they will have less time to roleplay—and that’s okay. These things happen! We’re supposed to focus on our real life responsibilities first! But when you have a lot invested in your group, it can be difficult to stay optimistic and to keep trying, especially when activity dwindles.

You have to keep trying as hard as you can, and you need to believe that things will get better and that activity will pick up. If you lose hope or give up on your group, your members will notice. The moment that you start to falter, the group falters. And once the group falters like this, it dies. I am so sorry that your old group failed like it did. But I want to help you. Trust me when I say that things will get better.

One thing that I enjoy doing for the National Park is to think of cool new ideas that I can either incorporate into events, or some other quirky scenario. Our group is unique in the Pokemon fandom for the fact that we have multiple events year-round as well as two additional side blogs to supplement these ideas that I have. I want to create a great experience for our members—these blogs are an extension of that.

So if you feel that your group is stagnating, don’t be afraid to try something new! If you’re invested and excited about an idea, flesh it out! Write a fun little post and get your members involved! Better yet, join in with everyone else for that idea! If you are excited about it and get involved, chances are your members will, too. Your members joined your group because they saw something special in it.

It doesn’t matter how many members your group has. All that matters is the fact that these members, no matter the number, care about your group. They saw something special in it. Hold on to that feeling and don’t give up.

Good publicity, on the other hand, doesn’t come from you. It comes from your actions, both on the group’s blog, on the dash, and in your group chat. It comes from how you and your mods answer questions and how you treat your members—not just your friends, but everyone. Favoritism is not your friend. No one person should get preferential treatment over another; that’s neither professional nor ethical. This includes you, the creator, and your mods.

As mods, it is your job to remain forthright and transparent to your members and anyone else who may be interested in your group. If you or your mods need a hiatus for your character(s), you’ll have to have it answered as if you’re a member of the group—which you are. If you have a second or additional mod(s), it’s important that they (and you) don’t answer your own ask.

Good publicity comes from a ton of factors. A group’s popularity is dependent on the happiness and overall satisfaction of its members. Word of mouth is the single most effective way of gaining interest in your group; promoting and advertising your group can only do so much. And if it is a slow period, and you don’t have a lot of members, promote anyway.

It is so, so important that you and your mods believe 200% in your group. Even when things look bleak, you cannot give up. When things are slow, it’s up to YOU to liven things back up. Your members joined because they like what your group offers—they depend on you to keep it going. Take this to heart and you’ll succeed. I genuinely believe this is the key to success.

I sincerely apologize for the lateness of this response, but I hope that you have found it useful. Running a group is hard work and takes so much effort to maintain. But if you have the resolve and a love for your group, you’ll find it much easier to make it last. Just don’t give up.

If you have any more questions or tips on how to help your group, please don’t hesitate to message us again. You can even IM us if you wish—we’re more than happy to discuss this more in-depth with you. Good luck with everything, my friend, and I hope that your future endeavors are filled with wonderful memories. Take care.

~ Manectric-mod

#natpark answers #anonymous

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