#it feels genuinely comical to tag this by like fandom and stuff because i mean one i dont really care

[palukoo]

hey gay people! it's my sacred duty to write increasingly niche fanfic about messy women at a devastatingly slow pace! so, here's that! the cats that walk alone - the women (1939), crystal allen/sylvia fowler

Absently, instead of paying attention to the boring old vows, she wonders if it’s still considered slumming if the girl has gone and married rich. - or, an exploration of how Sylvia Fowler went from interrogating Crystal and storming away to washing Crystal’s back in a bathtub, told through a small collection of scenes

[icarusredwings]

Getting deep into the x men fandom means seeing ships I don't agree with, so I don't interact, seeing posts that mischaraterizes one of the deepest charaters possible, so I don't interact, Seeing people actively say things that are blatantly wrong, so I don't interact.

Getting a large following is also kind of frustrating (Im not complaining I love you guys!) But I've had to block 2 people already today because they keep leaving rude replies to my comments on OTHER peoples posts or purposly come to my blog to tell me that how I view a charater is wrong. Had someone tell me that the stuff that happens in MY au is dumb because "that would never happen" like yeah bud. The writers at Marvel are too much of cowards for it to happen, hence why i'm here.

So my thing is... if im chosing not to interact with all of this- why is it still on my feed?

I feel like the more I ignore it the more I see and I do not wish to be the type to block someone simply because they make one post about a ship that personally isn't my cup of tea.

Also- I think Im starting to see the different sides of extremes, especially when it comes to one specifc charater.

Logan.

I have seen dozens of lovely stories, lovely rants, lovely head canons about this man-

But something that feels weird (to me at least) is people who are 45+ yelling at people who aren't even 18 that their story/headcanons are trash because they've "been enjoying Logan for 40+ years" as if this gives them any right to tell a 17 year old that they shouldnt write a charater how they see them.

It's also weird to me that there seems to be two sides.

Logan IS an animal and that's perfectly okay.

Or

Logan ISN'T an animal, and everyone who headcanons him as animalistic is fetishizing his mutation and are insulting him.

I get not liking a certain trope, but sir, that person is young enough to be your child. You have to accept that we all grew up with different versions of each charater. I Personally didn't grow up with any and get the luxury of indulging in all sorts of media all at once- therefore getting to see him from multiple sides and pictures.

I completely understand if you grew up with the original series and are upset to see that kids are headcanoning your stone cold angst biker man as wearing bow clips and 'making biscuits' on a pillow while watching gilmore girl with his boyfriend, and wearing pink fluffy hello kitty pants and a tight shirt that says "Milk"

I completely understand if you grew up with the movies and see him as a sexy gruff hot buff man and you love to write lots and lots of steamy x reader about him.

I completely understand if you LIKE logan wearing hello kitty pants and don't agree with the idea of him being a dark edgelord, lone wolf charater.

Do you know what I don't understand? Fighting over a charater when different timelines have been canon since the 80s. The Time Variance Authority (TVA) first appeared in Thor #372 (October 1986) which means ALL of your logans are the correct logan. Just not all the same.

Do I think Wolverine Orgins Logan would wear pink hello kitty pants? Nah.

Do I know that Deadpool and wolverine Logan is a whole different universe then Orgins Logan? Yes.

That's why people tag different logans and different aus. So what is all the fuss about?? What happened to the more the merrier?

Theres so many different versions of comic book logan, too, so don't even go there.

Feel free to ask my personal opinions but as far as I stand I could never be foolish enough to seriously go into someone elses post and genuinely be upset at them for how they perceive a charater. I get second hand embaressment when ever I see ANYONE doing it.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk. I don't care if I lose followers for this. Let the door hit you on the way out. There aint no reason to be harrassing folks.

[factual-fantasy]

24 asksss :}}} ⭐⭐⭐

@ardent-38

You are my favorite person

@wolfie-777

Cassie does not exist in my AU. But hypothetically-

If Roxanne found this lost child she would report it to Vanessa and have her help Cassie. As is the protocol for children that are found on the premises after hours.

If Roxy found her while she had the "bug" in her system? She would have attacked and maybe even killed Cassie :x

Had to google what that was, <XD It looks beautiful! And I image that he has seen it before yeah :)

As for their favorite songs, I'm not sure :0

That's.. actually a really good idea.

For a long time I never went back to the comic because the writing I did was awful. Everyone was acting out of character, it was SUPER dramatic. I wrote Peso's character all wrong. Uhg, awful awful awful.

And then I was kept away from going back because people would not stop asking me to finish it. "Why did you abandon this comic?" "Are you gonna finish it?" "Why did you stop drawing it" "Go back and finish the crab comic" Like, it was so frustrating.

...Buuuuutt,, rewriting it? Hmmm... I'm way too wrapped up with projects to start this anytime soon. But I wont lie this ask really got me thinking about it-

Also thank you so much! I'm glad you like my art!! :DDD

@smilegirl64 (Post in question)

Thank you! I'm so glad you noticed! That was my favorite detail to add XDDDD

@elegysonnet

I dug into the series a bit and took a look around the fanbase. And I decided that it just wasn't really my thing.

Although I did love the character designs and I think they'd be really fun to draw, I didn't think I'd get along with the fandom. I can see myself huddled in my own little corner with all my headcannons and stuff, and I wouldn't really want to interact with anyone else. :/

Also my favorite character is probably Julie or Howdy XDD

I use an XPPen Artist 13.3 Pro. Its a tablet with a screen! :))

As for my drawing program I use FireAlpaca. Its free and really good for beginners and pros! Highly recommend if you're just getting into digital art. Also thank you!! :D

@baokim80

@burningmusicfunnygiant

I disagree actually. The "bug" aside, they are in no way programed to hurt anyone. They are programmed to have full obedience to staff and Managers.

They could try to stop them, and they could physically stand in their way. But you wouldn't see Freddy straight up punching an employee to keep him away from Bonnie.

Now with the bug in their systems? mmm.. Okay yeah they would. BUT ONLY WHEN THEY'RE NOT IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS-

@cudlycorncornsworthcoberson

XDD Offended Bibi noises can be heard in the background

@curiousskelekitty

<XD I'll do my best!

I feel that my responsibility as an artist on this platform is to tag my art appropriately. Tag it for blood, gore, injuries, things like that. So that people who are disturbed by those subjects don't have to stumble upon it and have their day ruined. :(

What is NOT my responsibly is to prevent little kids from seeing my bloody Octonauts artwork. That's the parents job. XD THEY should be keeping an eye on their kids and making sure they're not browsing sites like Tumblr XDD

Tangle and Lolbit are not a part of my AU actually.

But Mangle? Just because she hasn't made an appearance of any kind yet, doesn't mean she wont in the future.. 👀

Thank you! :DD

Thank you! I'll try to not rush through my projects so much <XD

Thank you for respecting that! :D

Also uhg. I hate pinterest. I would rather people just never found out about me then find me through a pinterest post with my stolen artwork.

@whereismycupofcoffee

YEESSS!!! I always love it when people decide to give Octonauts a try :))) Its a really neat show!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DDDD

XD My first thought was Peso or Shellington for some reason. They're just too polite to make a fuss XDDD

@kymbird

Wanna know a good place to start if you genuinely struggle with that? Make 1 character that is based off of you. And then make a second character that is based off of someone in your life that you have 0 romantic interest in what so ever. Like your Mom, or your Dad, siblings, Uncle, dog literally anyone. It should be impossible to twist those 2 characters together because they are modeled after you and ur mom. You should look at them and say "thats me and my mom" or "thats me and my brother" Those 2 should then be characters that are 100% protected from becoming a ship. :0

This actually reminded me of my transformer ocs. I modeled the characters after the drivers/owners. And people wanted to ship them together and I was like "for 1 they are my OCs so thats kind'a odd but 2 those two characters are based off of siblings. They absolutely should not- in ANY universe, be paired together"

Personally not a huge fan of the bright blue color he has. Seeing his Bonnie Bowl artwork everywhere I expected him to be his usual purple..

As for my Bonnie I think he'd get along pretty well with his Glamrock counterpart! But when it comes to the Bowling ally they'd be rivals. >:)

Also thank you! :DD

@trains-of-thought

aaaa thank you so much!! :DD I'm so glad to hear that you've liked my Mario artwork!! And that you read the info aaaa!! I spent a lot of time writing all that so I'm glad to hear that you read it! As for your questions,

1: Yes! My Peach, Daisy, Wario and Waluigi are all the same species, which is not human. They are this incredibly tall elf like species that closely resembles humans and has many biological similarities.. but ultimately they are very different species.

2: Its hard to say.. I've been known to change my mind a lot so maybe? Honestly I hope that someday these feelings towards fanart will vanish and I will be able to engage with my fans more. But for now,, noooo fanworks :(

OH MY GOSH I LOVE THAT FNAF VIDEO XDD Very well animated and funny! Here's the link in case anyone is interested!

I drew it myself! :)

[no-brain-just-akutagawa]

heya i'm getting into bsd again and realized that you're the only bsd blog i follow 😭 would it be possible for you to recommend some good blogs? i assume you'd know a few, but sorry if this comes off as pushy or weird

Hiii! Thank you for the ask, I’m genuinely sorry for taking like a million years to answer it. It’s a really awesome ask, so don’t worry, it wasn’t pushy or weird! I know it may have seem as though I didn’t like it since it took me good 2 months to get to it, but I really appreciate it and I was simply busy with real life stuff. Feel free to always ask me about cool blogs to follow, I’m more than happy to give my mutuals and other creators a shout out!

I listed some of my personal favourite blogs alphabetically to make it a bit more organized haha

For the tagged creators: I provided little descriptions for some of the creators listed here, but if I accidentally messed something up, just let me know and I’ll change it. Also don’t worry if you’re on the list without a description, it just means I didn’t know how to put my appreciation into words.

@akutagawah – edits

@awkwardbsd – general bsd posting

@bapplebeess – fanart

@bemysillygoose – fanart

@canetteto – fanart

@carrotkicks – fanart. Has an analog horror series and different storylines, so if you’re interested in exploring different stories through fanart, this is your person

@choccatto – fanart

@creantzy – fanart. The creator of a really cool fan comic called The Path to Freedom and the Bernadette 2023 animatic (as a member of the fyolai nation, I absolutely adore their content)

@credensjustitiam – fanart

@dailynakaharachuuya – fanart

@dazaistabletop – general bsd posting

@deadmitochondria – memes. The only inactive blog on this list, but it’s worth it

@death-in-a-handbasket – fanart

@destructive-delight – fanart. If you like angst and horror vibes, you’ll absolutely LOVE it here

@dsskkrt-jpeg – fanart. The creator of the Nowhere to Run animatic (and overall a fyolai icon)

@emilylovescookies – fanart

@featherphoenixart – fanart

@flower-of-darkness – THE analysis queen

@fyodors-fancy-teacup – fanart

@greendy2l – fanart

@hant-huyant – fanart (though not really active on tumblr I think)

@hoshiumiumi – fanart

@imsofrancey – fanart

@inkantigen – fanart

@itotypes – fanart and fics. The creator of Mors Omni Vincit on ao3 (the pirate!au)

@iwritenarrativesandstuff – analyses

@kaus-quietis – my jojo sis. She did an incredible analysis of Fedya that’s a must read!!! She used to post fanart, but is now focusing on her studies (let’s gooooo)

@koiblossom5 – hilarious incorrect quotes.

@kokoasci – fanart

@kyouka-supremacy – general bsd posting. The president of sskk nation (not officially, but c’mon she deserves this title)

@marshukitty – fanart

@miammey – fanart and fics on ao3. One of the only people I’ve seen who does art of the Hunting Dogs, so if you’re interested in THD, Miam is a must follow

@mochimochips – fanart. One of the only artists who consistently make fanarts of Verlaine and Rimbaud (and that’s very rare in the fandom!)

@mr-vanhellis – fanart

@nnakahara – moodboards. Our favourite historian ♡

@nixnephilii – fanart. The creator of Fyo!Atsushi au, which nevel fails to make me gasp, because it’s incredible

@originalartblog – fanart. The creator of Goosamu (who is Dazai as a goose and is VERY dear to my heart), and a few other AUs

@phonyrams – fanart

@platykool – fanart. Some of my absolute favourite fanarts of Sigma! (and doa and bsd overall, but I really wanted to highlight Sigma)

@pleucas – fanart

@pompompurin1028 – fics. Some of the best, most in-character fics I’ve ever read. If you like Dazai, you’ll ADORE her fics.

@popopretty – an absolute MVP of this fandom. Translations, summaries and trivia

@rampopurin – analysis and general bsd posting. The science side of bsd fandom (if you wanna learn about space and science through bsd go follow!)

@rinqueraa – fanart

@sandyy-boo – fanart

@sensitiveheartless – fanart and fics. So many awesome AUs and comics (they’re listed in Senhart’s pinned post, so they’re really easy to find)

@slothfail – fanart

@tatooou-art – fanart

@tecchous-thicc-buttocks – incorrect quotes

@tunamayuuu – fanarts. The creator of kny!au

uwu-m1lk – fanart

wrenkos – fanart

PS. if any of you guys want to add more creators to the list, feel free to do so in the reblogs!

[eightyuh]

That Penn art is so good! ❤️ It's a great fic, too. @ratcatcher0325 does fantastic character arcs.

So... have you transitioned from 'I just found out what G/t is' to 'Okay, I might have accidentally joined this community.' ?

I'm curious to hear your thoughts because G/t has so many potential settings, concepts and vibes, that I think tons more people could get into the 'fandom' (actually more of a trope).

But one of the major things driving people away is the mixed association with NSFW/kink stuff. Even the most wholesome G/t fluff feels like something weird I have to hide from friends/family. 😞

Feel free not to answer: but what were your initial impressions about the G/t fandom? How did they change as you learned more?

(first of all, this is like a really good ask-- I appreciate your insight on the matter haha ... what with me accidentally creating Wick's End as a G/T comic and coming into all this as an outsider)

Thank you!! It was a nice read; they did a good job writing. Unfortunately for me, I can't just enjoy media without analyzing it. It was interesting to see how another author wrote a story intentionally as G/T - setting up scenarios ;) and indulging in the element of physical contact as a love language.

While I hesitate to claim membership to any fandom as an identity, yes, I would say I am a G/T enjoyer among you. :) I appreciate how flexible it can be used to express themes like emotions, protection, vulnerability, disability, etc.

I'll admit, I was initially cautious because I did suspect it was a kink-oriented. As time went on, I came to see that G/T makes efforts to separate itself from the perverted sect off in another corner. The genuine feelings of earnestness, wholesomeness, and shared sense of vulnerability is what won me over. I love that understanding and taking care of one another is a foundation within the G/T community. Really, I can't think of the last internet community I came across and thought positively of-- if that means anything haha. That doesn't mean it doesn't have total weirdos too lol. I even lurk in the GTCon Discord VC occasionally while I work on Wick's End as a sort of parallel-play motivator >/////<

. . .

The reason I still don't tag Wick's End as G/T is because I don't want people reading this story thinking that was my intention. YES it is G/T, tropes and all, but I did not write it with the intention to indulge in that sort of fantasy. It's meant to be a storytelling aid that illustrates chronic burnout... which otherwise would be an invisible condition. I don't want outsiders to mistake this as written for a kink / community they don't belong to -- and at the same time -- I also don't want G/T community members to misinterpret it as fiction written specifically to entertain the trope.

I hope breaking this up in paragraphs + adding a pic made it less of an eye-sore haha. Thank you for asking such a personalized question!

[shinesurge]

in a fit of minor despair i blazed TWO (2) comic posts, and by chance a very kind reader ALSO blazed a completely different post the next day. Some insights from the new dashboard (assuming they're accurate lmfao), in case it helps anybody:

The major takeaway here is, as much as we all hate booktok ads and despite what people insist, nobody actually wants a real synopsis of your thing, they want zero-context clickbait.

All three of these were for 2500 views, mine were both targeted towards identical tag audiences and the Kind Follower's was ALSO for 2500 but they chose some different (still applicable) tags.

The pinned post, with some actual comic pages, the elevator pitch, and some basic info about the comic gained around 37 engagements, including 6 reblogs. Worth noting that I formatted this post specifically to be clear and painlessly sharable, it doesn't stretch the page or have clickable links and has all the info about the thing right out front, the sort of thing I respond to.

The softer world edit I originally made because I like making them, with no intention of using it for advertising and which includes zero context for the characters, also no links, got 80 engagements, 6 reblogs and one new follower.

And finally, the follower's blazed post was an actual comic update that differed from the usual for Reasons; instead of a real comic panel it ALSO had a softer world edit attached. None of the text was formatted well for an ad at all, just being the usual links to the comic's website. It gained 36 engagements overall, with 4 reblogs.

And no matter WHAT the post looks like: nobody clicks links.

I'll also mention that pinned post has been there since February, and before I blazed it it had gained around 175 notes in five months. A lot of my static character posts will get 70 or 80 notes without me tagging or trying or really doing anything to promote them, because. They're not meant to be used like that lol

Granted: tumblr as a website is a mess, these numbers could be wildly inaccurate, this is not a super scientific study, but Man.

Personally, I do not respond to this sort of clickbaity booktok shit very well when it's INTENDED for advertising, specifically because I feel like it disrespects the audience and, worse, imitates genuine art to exploit peoples' genuine feelings. It feels VERY close to those covert influencer ads, it honestly makes me kinda sick. But I have talked about this phenomenon before, and the numbers here do back it up. I do think there's some nuance here, but it would take a whole other post to get into it I think.

And I mean, when I make stuff about my own comic it IS always genuine. The audience for "fanwork" I make of my own stuff is extremely small (mostly Me) so it's not like it would be lucrative to crank out a ton of random fake fandom posts; they're not any less earnest if I use them for ads now and then. So I dunno, I guess it's not EXACTLY the same as those gross publisher ads pretending to be teen girls, but it's irritating to be here. I know what I'm looking for wrt ads and getting into new things and I try to treat others the same way. It would be cool to get some traction while treating my audience like Real People, but clearly that route doesn't work seeing as my comic career now has a very real expiration date lmfao. Get out there and make some memes I guess?

[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

Hello, I hope this is okay for me to send. I'm one of the blogs you blocked. (First off, this is your good right, and I completely understand and I hope this isn't a breach or invasion of privacy to send this from a different blog)

I always made sure to only tag content of Nolanverse Crane when it's really him and not any other Cillian role because I understand the frustration. And like I said, I absolutely understand that he's not a proper Scarecrow in your eyes. But it kind of hurts to get lumped into a group where I don't feel like I belong (if that makes sense)

Scarecrow in general is my favorite character in any comic related media. Arkhamverse Crane and Audio Adventures are at the top for me, and I also have a deep love for Fear State and little fan interpretations where he's just a funky little freak. My blog is Nolanverse centric atm because I just haven't gotten around to writing fics for the others. (And I'm worried I won't write them well tbh)

But all of that aside, my reason for actually sending this was because I was genuinely missing your posts and opinions on my dash. I was honestly a little worried that I didn't see anything from you before I realized what happened.

This isn't me being angry or petty and please don't think I feel entitled to seeing your posts (I don't want to be THAT person)

I guess this is just me saying goodbye to a pillar of the Scarecrow fandom, and it makes me a little sad

From the bottom of my heart, I hope your mom's recovery goes well and you have a great rest of the day/week/month. And a happy early birthday, Moffy

(ALSO SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY OMG)

A couple of things </3

I THINK I knew who this is. I blocked one person after I made that post. Looking back, that was probably a stupid mistake. I'mma unblock to check when I post this, and you let me know? (I was thinking....oh god I'm gonna get hate from the fangirls and taht legit clouded my judgement. I still fear anon hate)

See, that post was mainly about people I blocked weeks/months ago. I often only block the fangirls, for lack of a better word. I actually made the Cillian post on a whim. I needed some content for the day. (you probably know I upload daily) And sometimes, a little anger is okay. it's a valid emotion. Again, the people I block are more fans of the actor than the character. My main complaint was seeing Cillian stuff, which was not from the movies, in the tag. It just sorta....clogs it up?

Anyway, I can clearly see you're not one of them. If some reason , within the next ten minutes, you're still blocked. Send me the url. I am human. I understand. Mistakes and stupid shit happens. (especially with all I am dealing with irl) (I've been so stressed I think it clouds my brain)

You clearly love the character behind the actor, and I respect that. I think you may have been following me, cus my count went down after I blocked ya. So yeah, I did think that was WEIRD.

I'm sorry if you felt lumped it, it was just an error on my part. I hope you can forgive that.

and ya know, just because I'm not a fan of nolancrane, doesn't mean it's bad. I should reiterate, it brought so many into the fandom. That's great! I still reblog fan content of him. I suppose, the truth of the matter is my autistic brain doesn't do "live action" -- I can't think of one human who could play Jonathan Crane to my expectations. Voice actors yes, Dino Andrade forever lmao

But I just...live of art/comic/animation/games

and anything else feels uncanny. Like now. I dont imagine Crane as a real person. I have no image inside my head unless it's a comic illustration or game render. I Hoooope that makes sense

[lord-squiggletits]

I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?

My best friend and fellow IDW Optimus lover made a post compiling all the comics with major story beats involving Optimus. Her list has a lot of the same things mine does, but also a lot more specific issues because she actually knows which specific issues of which series you can read specifically for ones focused on IDW Optimus. We don't agree on everything (I love some comics she dislikes and vice versa), but I would recommend her list simply because it's the most well-documented and thorough. Link I also have a lot of far less coherent but still genuine posts about IDW OP on my #idw op love tag.

As for specific parts I would recommend... since you don't want to read through all of IDW1, I'll go ahead and recommend you things based on in-universe chronological order rather than story release order, but if anything here interests you then I would recommend reading IDW1 in release order so that you get a better grasp of the story's context and how new lore was given out over time:

Chaos Theory and Police Action by James Roberts (The Transformers 2009 issues 22-23): I love love LOVE the way JRO writes Optimus talking to Megatron during the present day, it's very IDW-Optimus flavored because of how blunt, abrasive, and snappy Optimus is. There's a part in the comic where Megatron claims that he "knows [Optimus] better than anyone else," and he's right, but it's also true that Optimus knows Megatron well enough to see that he's bullshitting and it's very entertaining watching Optimus slowly lose his patience with him. I love the dialogue especially, no one (canon or fandom) has ever quite written the same IDW OP who's in this set of comics. It's also the most MegOP comic of all time because the sexual tension and the subliminal imagery of them doing BDSM together is unreal, plus it really captures their dynamic of two old soldiers who snap together with chemistry despite (or perhaps because of) being such long-time enemies. They just UNDERSTAND each other so well. Also, as a bonus point, Chaos Theory is where the pre-war lore for IDW1 began being published, so if you read Chaos Theory then the context for future pre-war lore makes a little more sense.

Shadowplay by James Roberts (More Than Meets the Eye issues 10-11): More pre-war lore that picks up where Chaos Theory/Police action left off. Important because it establishes a lot of IDW OP's character relationships, especially with "the Senator," Roller, and to a degree Ratchet and some minor side characters. I don't really know what to say about this besides it's just really fucking fun to read and features IDW OP getting to do cool shit like fight bad guys, investigate conspiracies, and do heists while also establishing one of his key character traits: being disastrously gay for suspicious men that he places entirely too much trust in to tell him what the right thing to do is.

Spotlight: Orion Pax by James Roberts: Okay, I'm really sorry for recommending JRO's stuff because it feels like favoritism and I don't even think JRO does the best version of IDW OP, it's just going in in-universe chronological order means that a lot of JRO stuff ends up first on the list. This one doesn't really have much of consequence in it and is honestly one of the weaker Spotlight issues, but like Shadowplay, it involves Orion Pax doing fun action shit and having way too much trust in a suspicious man (a new one from the suspicious man in Shadowplay).

The Autocracy Trilogy (Autocracy, Monstrosity, Primacy) by Chris Metzen: Oh my fucking god this is THE IDW Optimus to me, this trilogy is literally what made my ears perk up to even start liking IDW OP because it's what took me from "Optimus Prime, that's the guy who's the super awesome leader that everyone likes and is a paragron to everyone, yeah I know him" to "Oh.... holy shit this is such a good plot/worldbuilding, Optimus has so much CONFLICT and DRAMA with other people." It covers one of my favorite periods of the general Transformers formula, namely pre-war and early war plot events as conflicts come to a boiling point, there's political conflicts and personal conflicts, the planet is falling to shit and everyone is trying to escape and things are as depressing and scary as you would expect for a war that's literally about to consume a whole planet. I found the general plotlines to be gripping and intense (Autocracy is the weakest in this regard, but the writing gets better with each book) and I really like seeing how Optimus grapples with leadership. Especially the negative parts where people hate/fear him because of his association with Zeta's regime (the previous Prime, who Orion worked for), call his judgment into question, refuse his calls to action or waver in their faith in him, and so forth. I found it to be a really nuanced yet sympathetic view of IDW Optimus that made me fall in love with him. Because really, the thing that humanizes a character the most is making them flawed, and Autocracy trilogy Optimus is so incredibly flawed and conflicted. And also it shows him being shit on by other characters in a way that's well written in a plot that makes sense and doesn't feel like the entire plot is conspiring to shit all over him.

The Death of Optimus Prime by James Roberts and John Barber: This comic is basically the transition from phase 1 to phase 2, it establishes the branching plotlines of MTMTE and exRID, so this is another one of those comics that will help you understand IDW1 better if you want to read for more than just Optimus. Anyways, DoOP is great because it has a similar vibe to the Autocracy trilogy in that society is chaos and full of people who fucking hate Optimus' guts for the role he played in the war. You can also compare/contrast the way OP was before the war and early in the war versus the way he is after the war and see how much the war changed him (Chaos Theory also kind of is like this but it more shows bitchy Optimus specifically in his dynamic with Megatron). It also features a fair amount of Optimus Heroic Moments, Optimus Brooding, and Optimus being so fucking depressed he's literally sad when he wakes up and realizes he's not dead dude get some fucking therapy please I'm begging you--

Punishment by John Barber: This skips ahead quite a bit in the story but I think stands decently well on its own without having to understand the wider context. It's one of Barber's best-written stories and one of the only ones I've come back to reread for its own sake. It features Optimus trying to solve the murder-mystery of a bunch of Decepticons, featuring really cool plot conflicts like Optimus trying to navigate post-war society and the tensions that still linger from the Autobot-Decepticon war. I really like this one because it has that whole "not everyone loves OP and a lot of people hate him for justified reasons" thing that makes IDW OP a much more 3D character, PLUS it has some politics with the way Decepticons are treated post war. And I think it does really interesting things with Optimus in terms of showing how he DOES have this idealistic, merciful side that wants people to choose peace and letting go of vengeance, but of course it's not so easy to expect that of people after a 4 million year war. So when people inevitably choose violence, Optimus gets frustrated and angry and lashes out in a way that feels very real and understandable. It's a really good example of a comic that shows IDW OP in a nuanced way, showcasing both his virtues and flaws in a complicated situation that shows that there's no easy solution to these problems and no way for Optimus to escape without getting his hands dirty. Unlike future comics which involve OP being in complicated situations but instead the plot is super contrived and seems to overwhelmingly shit on OP without ever mentioning the very obvious ways that he could be defended, creating a story that's conceptually fascinating but incredibly mediocre in execution.

If I had to recommend any single one of these to read, I would recommend the Autocracy trilogy the most because it's literally the story that made me love IDW Optimus and made me realize "whoa, this guy is super nuanced and not what I expected of him." That's not to say that no other Optimi have depth and nuance, but I think the Autocracy trilogy was great for me personally as one of the first IDW1 comics I read. It struck a really good balance between "uh Optimus was part of some bad things that warrant being shit on" and "Optimus is struggling to overcome those bad associations he did, succeeding with some people and failing with others" and "Optimus is an optimist who has faith in others even when they don't have faith in themselves." Also, as a bonus, the Autocracy trilogy also features cunty murder-husband Megatron, an interesting character arc for Hot Rod, and the Dinobots as really interesting supporting characters (including their leader, Grimlock, having a cute veteran-rookie dynamic with Hot Rod that I wish we got more of).

[comphetkoncass]

i think the biggest divide in fanon enjoyers and canon enjoyers is that there's a lot of hearsay and exaggeration on the fanon side, and it's frequently used to put down characters that canon enjoyers like.

certain headcanons and hurt/comfort bait are fan-favorites in fanon because they're tropey and easily digestible without thinking about it. they take popular character tropes from media at large (the hacker guy, the sensitive one, the sexy one) and reshape canon characters to fit into that trope more easily. but when canon enjoyers see these hcs pop up in our favorite character's tag, we're sort of left scratching our heads, because... well, that's not them. it's especially baffling when they take canon-adjacent scenes (sometimes even extremely compelling ones!) and reshape them to suit these fanon tropes. these often either didn't happen at all, or it didn't happen like that. all the context that makes the compelling scenes interesting to people that read it has been taken away and stripped of meaning, to repackage it as meaningful to people who haven't read it.

some of this also happens in the comics themselves, though. characters can be written as wildly ooc depending on the writer. sometimes they're made spicier and create needless drama, and other times they're made extremely bland and brand-friendly, taking away most of what made them compelling.

there's definitely some nuance here considering fanon and canon writers frequently do the same thing. and i'd hate to be more mad at fans who engage with this content for free, than the people who get paid to write some of the newer garbage.

at the same time though, fandom is clearly influencing canon. and for those of us who like certain characters who have gotten more and more bland and fandom-y... it kind of feels like the end of the road for us. because we can point to older, more consistent, more compelling characterization from older eras, 2 reboots ago. we can talk about how impactful and cool and moving our favorites were, back then. but they aren't like that anymore -- not in canon, and not in fan content. and myths get spread about them, or they're used as bland accessories that are a faint echo of relationships that used to matter but haven't in over a decade due to reboot shenanigans.

and that sucks.

and we frequently get painted as nags and killjoys for pointing out this stuff in fandom. when we say, "hey, that never happened. she literally never did that" or "hey, you might not know this, but due to weird canon shenanigans, that wasn't really them who did that awful thing, it was this other person pretending to be them" or "hey, X shouldn't be mad at Y for not being there, because Y was literally dead during this time" or "hey, if he's his love interest here, why doesn't he know anything about him?" it's seen as policing fandom.

we're really not trying to be killjoys. but it's pretty frustrating having these myths and misinformation and major mischaracterization spread when it's not true. especially when some of the myths and misinformation that get spread frequently overlap with sexist, racist, and ableist tropes.

even attempts at fixing dc's genuine issues with xenophobia tend to fall flat. and that's because because they frequently do this by giving more credence to the fanon interpretation of the character than how they were actually written.

gonna end this essay here, because i think i've said all i really feel about the issue.

but i truly don't hate all of fanon. i can enjoy a nice batfam hurt/comfort romp here and there. i know that every au is legitimately its own alternate universe and that's totally cool. it just gets to be pretty off-putting when these aus include characters that just... wouldn't do that shit. and people start believing that that's actually how these characters act.

[pocket-lin]

hii <3

4, 11, 16 and 19 for the fandom asks??

(almost just wrote a plea for you to answer all of them but managed to restrain myself😅)

hi hi hi!! thank you for asking me these, this is so much fun!! reading back on these answers after I've written them is shocking because I really can just go on and on about stuff, huh? I really don't talk that much irl so I didn't know I had all this in me hahaha I'm so sorry!! I'm actually so embarrassed 😅 I'm gonna put the answer to 11 in a separate post so I can actually attach the picture I'm proud of!

4. say something nice about a ship you don't ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual's OTP, etc)

the one ship that's jumping out to me is dramione. I am a huge hater of this ship (sorry sorry sorry if you're reading this and it's your thing I love you and support you!!!) but you guys make some really cool shit and I'm happy you have a community you can share it with!! I've poked around in the ao3 and tumblr tags and its absolutely not for me, but there's some really beautiful and horny stuff out there for this ship and I so genuinely love that for all of you!

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

if I'm being totally honest with you, I haven't interfaced with the harry potter canon in a very long time. i already own all the movies and books and stuff, so I wouldn't even be giving jk money by rewatching/reading them, but it just kind of makes my stomach hurt when I think about supporting her in some way. I've had to work through a lot of complicated feelings in regards to jk and harry potter in general, as I'm sure many people have had to do! her words and actions and how I feel about it are not complicated at all, but what to do in the aftermath of it was something I had to figure out. I mean, I have a hp tattoo on my ankle!! my pinned post is about this specifically, but where I've ultimately landed on it all is this: I don't want to let her steal any more joy from me than she already has. there are so many queer and trans people in this fandom creating such incredible stuff, and I just don't want to lose that! I got off on a whole tangent here and definitely have a lot more I could say on the topic, BUT all this to say, I can't really think of tiny hp details anymore!! and in this specific fandom, I'm totally okay with that!

19. your current fandom(s)

the fandom that I interact with the most is definitely harry potter, but I have a bunch of other stuff I'm super into!!

the whole reason I got back into any fandom–and the entire reason I logged back into Tumblr for the first time since 2018–was because of our flag means death!! I've loved rhys darby since flight of the conchords and was so pumped that he was a lead in an hbo show! I was totally shocked when ofmd turned out to not be queerbait!! something about that first season just flipped a switch in me and I looked for fan fiction for the first time in like, 10 years!! I actually didn't even know about ao3 and tried to go to ff.net and it was a whole thing. getting back into fandom was very intimidating, I'm not gonna lie. (wow I really could just talk forever huh?)

my other fandoms are: the sandman, the witcher, good omens (I was so late to that show but jumped on right before the second season completely on accident), check please!, disco elysium, red dead redemption (especial rdr2), the x files, the walking dead, the rivers of london series, and d&d: honor among thieves.

and then there's some stuff that I don't even know how I got into!! like, the spideypool ship. gang, I've barely seen any marvel movies, I haven't read very many marvel comic books. and I honestly don't plan it because I just don't like marvel (once again, could go on about this forever, I was a manager at my local comic shop and have many opinions). but someone I follow posted about a fic (and I am not immune to beautiful fan art) and then I fell down the rabbit hole!! def have recs if anyone is interested!

another one is the ted lasso fandom. I genuinely don't remember why we never finished watching the second season but then the reviews for the third season was kinda mixed so I never went back to it. and then I saw a writer I'm head over heels for had a ted lasso fic (other lives by @andthepeople) and WHOOPS I fell down another rabbit hole!! i also have ted lasso recs!

essentially, if ya boy's read/watched/listened to something, you know he's gonna go look at what the freaks (affectionate) are posting on ao3.

[mumms-the-word]

THINGS THAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT MY FELLOW WRITERS

I can’t remember who tagged me with this or if I stole it 😭

Tagging: @elspethdekarios @sorceresssundries @fantasyfictionfables @lewdisescariot and anyone else??

No pressure friends as always and sorry for double tagging, this has sat in drafts for like days

Last book I read: For fun? I honestly can't remember. For my dissertation, Phantasmion by Sara Coleridge (and I haven't recovered, it was an acid trip of a fantasy novel)

Greatest literary inspirations: Bram Stoker (fave classic writer), Marissa Meyer (influenced my love of YA fairy tales), Ursula K. Le Guin (her style is SO GOOD)

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write: I skim/read a lot of smut for someone who will never write it. I don't even read it that much, but occasionally something catches my eye (I appreciate you smutty, smutty people). What I'd want to read but not write is slice-of-life style shenanigans between characters, the kind that comic artists like @a2zillustration do really well. Send me recs if you know other BG3 comic artists!

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: my current masquerade fic I love writing stuff that is incredibly specific to my Tavs because I find it fascinating to explore different character perspectives and voices? But I know the fandom tends to enjoy generalized Tavs or "you" POVs more than specific OC characters, which is fair given the nature of the game, so I don't share as much of my Tav-specific stuff these days

You can recognise my writing by: the lack of smut...and probably an overuse of adverbs. and the fact that every chapter/oneshot is ridiculously long. I'm new to fanfic, okay, I wrote full books as a hobby before this lol

My most controversial take (current fandom): oh boy I have...many, probably...I've already gotten blocked for one hot take (I think it was a misunderstanding??) but it wasn't even my most controversial take. I think my most controversial take is that there is no One Correct Way to interpret a character, and anyone who tells you that "you're reading the game files wrong" or "that isn't what is canon" is ignoring the fact that a) that's not how interpretation works, and b) the branching nature of the game is going to necessarily mean that different people encounter different things in different orders and may not even get the dialogue that you hold so dear to your interpretation of the character, and that is okay. We shouldn't ask everyone to become an expert in every facet of their favorite character's identity because not everybody has the time or energy for that. We should just hope that people are having fun. Like I know this is a complex topic and I don't want to ramble about it here lol but that's the gist

Top three favourite tropes: in no particular order, 1) arranged/convenient marriage that leads to genuine love between characters, 2) super big tall buff scary guy (tortured past optional) is actually a total sweetheart who is a little afraid of his own strength (bonus points if he falls in love with a smol person he must protect and feels slightly unworthy of), and 3) FOUND FAMILY I love it every time

What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): fic writing I'm like....idk a 6? dissertation writing, which I am actually supposed to be writing, is a solid 1.

Share a random frustration: my students keep insisting on using AI to write their assignments and it is BEYOND frustrating how much time it takes up for me to read their assignment, mark where they've used AI, and then forward it to the next tier in our "Guess what you done fucked up" system for this class

[takaraphoenix]

20 Questions Game for Fic Writers

Tagged by @blairwaldcrf ! Thank you, dear! <3

1. How many works do you have on ao3?

As of right now, 1214 works! Damn, I've been busy :D"

2. What’s your total ao3 word count?

Currently at 9,167,371 words, slowly inching toward the 10 million mark!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Oh gosh, the total list is so long at this point, with various one-off kind of deals, or fandoms I've moved on from.

I am currently considering myself an active writer in these fandoms though: Shadowhunters, Percy Jackson, Detective Conan/Magic Kaito, DC Comics.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Sorted by kudos, my top 5 fics are:

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Marvel, Loki/Tony), with 7,945

My College Boyfriend (PJO, Nico/Percy), with 6,353

The Lion's Pride (Voltron, Shiro/Keith/Lance), with 6,163

The Ghost King of Summers High (PJO, Nico/Percy), with 5,600

Percy Jackson, Ambassador of Hades (PJO, Nico/Percy), with 4,985

Which actually looked really fucked up because yeah sure there's four super popular multi-chapter fics of mine. And then there is My College Boyfriend, which isn't just a oneshot, it is a oneshot with under 3k words. What. What.

And the, quite frankly frustrating, part here is that this oneshot only has 24 comments. Not even every 100th reader felt the need to leave a comment. That's just... so sad. Like. Genuinely, I think the kudos system broke commenting because the convenience of pressing a button beat actually expressing yourself genuinely through words and from the bottom of my heart, I find that depressing as fuck.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Always. Every single one of them. Because comments mean something. Someone took the time to tell you, with words, that they liked your work and maybe even what they liked about it.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Ooof, multiple contestants from back in my day when I wrote German fics for the Beyblade fandom and wrote about... darker themes. Not all fics used to have happy endings. I wrote some fics that ended in a suicide, so I guess those.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Impossible to answer, because for as long as I've been active in English writing, all my fics have had happy endings. The guy gets the guy, the girl gets the girl, and they live happily ever after. The world is saved or the evil defeated, maybe there's even an epilogue of a next gen in there. That's my standard, it ends happily. So that makes it impossible to pick one that somehow ends happier than the rest. xD

8. Do you get hate on fics?

loool

Right. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Funnily enough, never on the things you would assume attract hatred - the incest, the explicitly non-con stuff.

Nah, I got death threats and words that were somehow worse than death threats on my Oliver/Felicity fics in the DC fandom... a... straight canon ship... but not the canon ship from the multiverse that these vile assholes liked, so, ya know. Threaten the fans who love a ship you hate.

Also over the years, lotta nasty general homophobia for Nico/Percy in the PJO fandom - I have been writing in this fandom since 2010, and yes, there were really a lot of people especially in the earlier years who just hated the idea of making either Percy or Nico gay.

And the dumbasses who declare Jace/Alec incest and thus hate and threaten this ships fans in the Shadowhunters fandom. But still, inexplicably, like Alec. Even though, in canon, he's the one who was in love with Jace. I don't know, but if you claim the nasty, nasty incest is The Bad Thing, I think you should hate the character with the nasty, nasty incestuous feelings, instead of the fans who write perfectly tagged and filterable fics. But that's just me, I guess.

So yeah, top three of hatred I got over the years - but if you wanna read a highlight reel of bullshit hate mail I got, feel free to go and check out my Dear Anonymous Shitheads tag!

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

All kinds of smut? I don't know how to answer this question, to be honest. xD

I've written oral, anal, vaginal, mlm, wlw, m/m/f, rare m/f ships but usually either she pegs or it's ABOverse and she's an alpha, I generally pepper in some flavors of BDSM into it, I've written dub-con and non-con before, bestiality, double penetrations. I have written a lot.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Oh, that is absolutely going to my first ever crossover. Because my usual crossovers are, ya know, that Big Four animated movie crossover verse (Tangled/Brave/HTTYD/RotG), or "I like these two fandoms, how would A's characters fit into B's world/how would B's characters fit into A's world?" for... essentially all my fandoms, and I wouldn't call any of these crazy - because the Big Four crossover is a beast of an own fandom so it's not really "original" or far out there to write for it, and in all my other crossovers, I do pride myself on making it work, like, not just throwing characters together but fitting their backstories and special powers into how the other world works.

So the craziest one is absolutely A Hundred Times Over, which is a oneshot sequel to my first-ever English-written fic and was written as a celebration because it was my 100th fic back then.

The original fic was already a crossover between Detective Conan and PJO, so for the celebration I thought "okay so what if I throw in my current obsession - Doctor Who - and my first ever ship - Shere Khan/Bagheera?". So, yeah, this crossover between Detective Conan, Percy Jackson, Doctor Who and Jungle Book has to be my craziest so far.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

So often. So, so, so, so often.

If you see my fics on watpad or any other platform that isn't AO3 or Fanfiction.net - and if you see them on those two but posted by an author that ISN'T Takara Phoenix - then please, let me know. Drop me a link wherever you can, I always greatly appreciate being told that my fics have been stolen so I can report that person and have it taken down.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No. All of the stealing of my fics has made me incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of my fics flowing around on other people's accounts or other websites, especially since the first like four or so stolen fics I had were translated.

Someone took my fics, translated them into Spanish and Russian, and posted them on other platforms, without ever asking my permission.

I don't want thieves to more easily slip through the cracks in between authorized repostings of my stories, so I have the blanket policy to not allow translations.

If you see my fics in other languages, tell me.

(There is one story that has been translated, but I'm not sure how far it counts, because I did the translating myself, and that's Lass Uns Etwas Dummes Tun/Looking For Something Dumb to Do. It is a PJO fic about Nico/Percy that I wrote in celebration for Germany legalizing gay marriage in 2017; I wrote it in German first, due to that, and then decided to translate it into English since I know my core-audience are English-speakers and not German-speakers.)

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yeees!!! With my wonderful, amazing, lovely @kimmycup!!! ^-^

We've written a total of five fics together so far.

Three Shadowhunters fics: Hurting and Healing, a Magnus/Jace oneshot, Three Times the Boys Felt Left Out, a Jordan/Simon/Jace oneshot, A King By Any Other Name, a Alec/Jace oneshot.

A Vampire Academy oneshot about Mason/Christian: The Chance at a Happily Ever After.

And, our pride and joy, our 51k multichapter Shadowhunters/Vampire Academy crossover fic about Mason/Christian and Simon/Jace: Double Puppy Dare.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

That's such a hard question to answer for me as a multishipper.

But to be quite honest, I think I would have to go with Kaito/Shinichi from Detective Conan/Magic Kaito?

It's the ship I've been the most consistently been faithful to and that, whenever I see it, sparks joy. That has proven that even when the fandom's gone dormant for me for months or years, it can reignite into a wildfire, where other fandoms just fizzle out and disappear from my interests then.

These two get me, they've been getting me for one and a half decades now and I doubt they'll stop any time soon.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

All of my unfinished German fics over on Animexx. When the German Beyblade fandom started to die, I tried to cling on, but at one point... when all your favorite writers, all your friends, have moved on? And then I started reading fics in English and soon after, also writing them in English. I feel bad about it, but it's just been far too long now.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Personally, I'd say world building. That's also my passion. I love creating elaborate worlds for my stories to take place in - I mean, damn, for the book series I'm writing, I developed my own language, religion and drew a map of the city it takes place in, among other things. A well-developed world is so important.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh, fight scenes and action and other things that...

When a character is good at a thing that I am not good in or know a lot about?

Like, when a character is super quippy and funny, but I am not really a one-liners-person so now I have to come up with quippy one-liners to capture his personality?

Or fighting or science, when a character is an expert in a field that I know nothing about and would not understand jackshit about even if I tried because it's not my wheelhouse? Those things, I really struggle with.

Also, I hate action and fight scenes. Like. That's the parts when I check my phone usually to avoid that my eyes glaze over from boredom. So, naturally, writing these things? Not fun. Not good at it either, imo. But certain fics - or rather, certain characters too - require action and fight scenes.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Painful if you have to use Google Translate. If you know the language? Yeah, go for it! If you have to resort to Google Translate? Maybe just write it in italics and note that it's in x language. It spares both, the native speakers who will die from second hand embarrassment, and the non-speakers who... won't understand it anyway.

But in the cases that I use foreign languages (and usually when I do, it's just... pet-names. Things you can't really fuck up that much and things that people would say in another language even in English-main-dialogues), I always put the translation right behind the sentence, because it's a special brand of obnoxious when you have to scroll ALL the way to the end of a chapter or fic to see what tf you just read, and then scroll back up again.

Hate doing that, so I won't do that to my readers.

19. First fandom you ever wrote for?

Oh, that's Yu-Gi-Oh!, with a hurt/comfort Kaiba/Joey fic.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Can't answer that, it always depends on my current mood which of my babies I love the most ;P

Tagging @kimmycup and @justonemorechapternicercy and @fallenqueen2 for this fun! And anyone else who wants to do it! <3

[junk-thrillz]

I’ve tried multiple times today to write down Suzy’s name in full, but it’s like a shadow spirit is holding my fingers back every time. My desire to have an easy-to-guess, accurate method of character tagging for Paranatural posts is completely at odds with the fact that tagging ANY post as ‘Suzy Starchman’ feels like unleashing a million devils.

This isn’t a negativity post, like I’ve been genuinely delighted by everything these past few updates have thrown at us, but I’ll admit, it’s fucking WEIRD knowing Suzy’s last name. It’s so weird!! It’s so weeeeeeird!! I archive-binged the comic and joined the fandom right as Chapter 7 was starting, and on top of that I started reading as a teenager (still a teenager), so the couple years it took for Chapter 7 to wrap up felt much, much longer than it actually was. And in those years I’d gone through so many damn fic/au ideas and binged so much fan content and memorized so many fan theories and reread the comic so many times and had had such an eclectic development of my character/shipping/etc. tastes that it all felt like an eternity.

But now we’re out of Chapter 7, and because it’s not a flashback chapter, things are progressing at a normal pace again, and because of that every new reveal feels to me like a punch in the face you know is coming, but that comes way faster than expected. The thing is, Chapter 7 feeling like such a long stretch of time to me got me into the mindset that I’d be waiting for a lot of stuff for forever. Suzy’s name being this big mystery was something I’ve been thinking about since the very beginning of my reading the comic, but any sort of information being revealed about it felt infinitely far-off, like the kind of thing that would never really end up happening. Putting together the puzzle pieces of what happened between Isaac and Dimitri, getting a crapton of information revealed about Paranatural’s fundamental lore, finally getting confirmation that Max’s mom was Agent Summers... all of these things felt that way too. I wasn’t expecting to be knocked out of a fandom-only existence, where fan content remains, on some small level, stagnant*, because we simply weren’t getting a ton of information revealed to us.

My immediate reaction is, “didn’t the Angel’s-identity reveal happen too soon?” “Didn’t the reveal of Suzy’s name happen too soon?” “Didn’t Dimitri’s lie getting thrown out into the open happen too soon?” But this is how it should be. This is normal. Not everything can or should be revealed at the very end of the comic. It’s just hard for me to wrap my head around, is all. On some level, I don’t think I was able to imagine someday waking up to a new page with Violet and Lisa on it. But Chapter 8′s happening, and we’re moving forward in time, and we’re almost back at Mayview Middle...! I just don’t know how to explain to my own brain that information getting revealed is normal.

*When I say stagnant, I mean it in the sense that Paranatural’s only ever going to have so many mysteries. For the longest time, Suzy’s name was THE mystery about her! For the longest time, Suzy and Isabel’s dynamic was stand-out as being completely and utterly incomprehensibly fantastically hilariously weird. And silly. So these things come up again and again, and they never stop being fun. Every fandom’s got its own identity! Bits like the Miss-Suzy theory and Suzabel’s dynamic are wonderfully ingrained in fancontent, and have been for years. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

[s-c-g-s-c-g]

Twenty Fanfic Writer Questions

Tagged by @reconstructwriter! Thank you! I'm going to take the easy route and tag anyone who would like to participate!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

96! We're approaching the triple digits!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

277,273 words!

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

At the moment mostly Star Wars, trying to get around to finishing up my ongoing BNHA series. I'm not writing batfam anymore.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

an ill-advised gift (Star Wars), Breaking: Local Man Leaves Apartment for Eggs, Returns With a Child (BNHA), Breaking: Local Child is Straight Up Not Having a Good Time (BNHA), Breaking: Local Man Throws Cats at His Problems (BNHA), Failed Hunts and Little Stowaways (Star Wars).

5. Do you respond to comments? 

Yes! When I first started posting on AO3 I decided to respond to every (non-hate) comment. I've kept that up for over two years now!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? 

Oof, that's actually a bit hard. Actual no comfort angst is probably between the different flavors of And Still The Galaxy Turns, It's A Sad Song, and here and now, if this is it (all Star Wars and major character death with Jedi, Clone, and Alderaan feels respectively).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

Happiest ending is probably... Hey, Look! Free Sibling! (Batfam). I am a hopeful/bittersweet ending person at heart.

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Not much proper hate these days. I did quit writing for Batfam in part over hate comments but for the most part I've been pretty fortunate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

Nope, I tried once just to try but it's not my thing. I'm content writing around it if necessary.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? 

No, I enjoy reading them but I've never actually written one.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Not yet!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 

I haven't!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? 

These things come and go. I'm a casual multi-shipper and have been around for many a beloved ship. Right now I'd say Feemor/Jaster, I loved writing Weddings and Other Methods of Deadly Swamp Access.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 

I will finish them all! I will! However, I'm self-aware enough to know that The Extended Adventures of Bakugou Katsuki and His Horrible Murder Kitten is the least likely to happen. I like Bakugou, I don't love him and that's generally a killer for me with long-running WIPs.

16. What are your writing strengths? 

I'm good about following through on individual fics. I generally focus on one WIP at a time with a random one shot thrown in when I get bored/tired. These days I almost always start posting after most of the fic is written because having eternally incomplete stuff stresses me out.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings, I usually have a general idea but I spend more time and energy on endings than any other part of the writing process. Also, while focusing on one project at a time is great it also means that certain series get left to the wayside for months/years with no progress.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 

Excluding the occasional Japanese word I've only really done conlangs and I've definitely changed over time. I used to use a lot more Mando'a and even some Dai Bendu in fic. I'm much more sparse with it now, primarily for ease of readership and because in my experience the way many people write it isn't how people talk.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically veggie tales but really DC Comics. Back when I was a young teenager! I had a whole crew of OCs with cool powers.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? 

Ah, that's hard. I have so many and they're so different. I still have a lot of affection for all of them, even the ones I wouldn't write today. I genuinely don't think I can pick an all time favourite.

[maaaxx]

23, 25,

23: the fandom you're curious about because of a mutual

Theres a few of them!

Ive been thinking of getting into jjk because its been on my dash a lot but i cannot force myself to get into something unless i already know exactly whats going to happen so i googled spoilers for it, and i dont think im going to bc like,,, i dont like stuff where main people die I cant handle it 💀

I have never read a batman comic or watched a movie or anything like that but people i follow are in the fandom (hi eels!) and i really enjoy all those posts and memes and fanart and whatnot from that fandom i think theyre very funny despite having zero context and ive been tempted to pick it up.

25: a piece of advice for taking care of yourself in fandom spaces

Block people!!!!!!!!!!!!

Learning to not feel rude or mean about blocking people is genuinely one of the best things i've ever done. Popular fandom creator you cant stand? Block them. (iykyk 💀) Someone you follow has god awful headcannons and takes on your favorite character? Block them. Someone doesnt use trigger warnings that you need?? Block them. Dont like the color of someones icon that shows up in your fandoms tags?? Block them. Be very liberal with the block button.

Also one i cannot stress enough is talk to people. Send asks off of anon, send people messages, write in their tags, comment on stuff, join the discord servers, whatever. Fandom is a community and (imo) lurking makes it more lonely. Why wouldnt you want to talk to people about the things you like??? "i feel awkward" who cares??? your all there because you enjoy the same book or movie or whatever so you automaticaaly have something in common. Message your favorite authors, comment on your favorite artists pieces, talk to your mutuals, they all want fandom friends as much as you do :)

Ask game

[2ofswords]

Ooof, the main Pathologic tag is having an interesting time right now! And I feel like giving my two cents (and I absolutely feel NOT like main tagging this, but why not talk here on my blog, where few people can see)

Short story about what is happening (at least from my perspective): Some new person in the fandom drew a comic, that depicted Artemy with a very big body and tiny head next to a teeny-tiny Daniil. Another person, who saw that and found issues with it, talked about it on their own blog (and maybe main tagged it? I'm not sure about that but who cares) and explaned how it plays into bad depictions and stereotypes. That person was pretty clear in the description of it being bad but also very very clearly states, that they dont want other people to be harassed here. They clearly use it as an example for racist behavior in the fandom. Flash foward to the main tag complaining about people policing other creators' art and saying that this one "isnt really that bad."

Like... okay. I have seen the artwork and what I think is the original criticism of it. And I think, my opinion on the general matter is pretty obvious if you look at the way I describe what happened here: In my opinion the original author is pretty spot on. The criticism is also strict but not unkind and explains at length what the problem with the art ist. The artwork is indeed both stylized and relatively tame. However, I think the original point of the criticism is, that even well-meaning and stylized cartoony art (or sometimes even espacially that one) can fall into bad stereotypes. The original post also goes out of its way to explain, that drawing Artemy as a big and tough and/or fat man is completely alright, but that the way the "huge build small head" - stereotype is bad and the unrealistic comparison between Artemy and Daniil in the depiction of an interracial couple is a problem. Which... come on, that is a pretty normal take! And again, this was criticism and not harrassment, even if you would disagree with this! On the other hand, yes, there is no reason to harass the person, who made the comic or even bring it up further. The comic wasn't made to specifically depict a stereotype or be harmfull, even if it sure framed things in a way that is... quite unfortunate. The point was made, the criticism is very vissible. Point taken. Either the person will improve or you have a magnificent reason to blog and move on. No need to bring it up multiple times, at least to this one person specifically. I honestly dont know, if that person received hate afterwards, but I will state loud and clear: If they did, that is both not okay and (in my opinion) thoroughly unnecessary! There is obviously a discussion that people can be had here and that one is about general fandom culture and not this one person making art! It is super disingenuous to take what happend and only frame it as "harrassment", since the original discussion is not about that but about genuine fandom depictions of characters! And one can and should have this discussion without literally harassing anyone! Which - again - is how this started! So please, can we like... not mix these two up? Because that does nothing but muddy the water and make talking about the important stuff really difficult. Most of the time I saw criticisms of the people getting harassed I always saw "this comic isnt even that bad, there were worse ones" and like... that is not better? Dont we want to talk about that?? Like... come on, guys! Criticism =/= Harassment! If you want to say you do not find the picture bad, just do that! I do not agree with you but I am sure that you can make your argument! (And I think a lot of people just got upset because they like that kind of art and felt attacked by the criticism... even if it attacked no one) If you wanna talk against harassement you can do that without being against the original argument! But of course, this is only about which side one is on for the people in the main tag. It is fucking "anti vs proship" all over again. And that frustrates me to no end.