#kotlc fandom history

[bookwyrminspiration]

I'm confused

Why do you hate Watson so much

What did that dog do to you

Let me take you back to the summer of 2023.

It's lovely, peaceful, @camelspit's just started the first best keeper character bracket. We're starting with rounds of five, and June 16th, we've got a rather odd bracket: Alina, Oralie, Ella, Gisela, and Mr. Snuggles.

Roisin asks in the tags for the stuffies not to win, so I go haha, I don't really care about any of these guys except Snuggles. I have my own Mr. Snuggles and a fondness for dragons, so I vote for him. Don't even think of it. I don't even think I reblogged it. Mr. Snuggles wins

He has another round, a 1v1. I vote for him again, don't think much of it. his opponents are piddling. He wins

Then we get to round three. He's against Verdi, and at this point i've gotten attached--I love this lil dragon. But Verdi poses a real threat, because when I vote he's losing. I start campaigning. Cath becomes my enemy. It starts escalating.

But Mr. Snuggles pulls through, victorious. And I have now very publicly pronounced and committed myself to this bit.

We carry him through round 4 and round 5, but then we face round 6: Fitzroy vs Mr. Snuggles. It's cruel, it's twisted, it's exactly what Roisin would do.

BUT! We miraculously manage to tie the round so they both proceed.

Finally, in round 7, the very last round before finals, he loses to Sophie. i'm sad, but honestly the fact he made it to the last four is super impressive and unexpected? i'm proud

You'd think this'd be the end of it.

But Catherine, @everliving-everblaze, started a Best Fitz Duo Poll while the best character poll was running.

And one of the duos is Fitz & Mr. Snuggles.

He sweeps his first round, but that's not noteworthy.

What splintered the fandom was round two: Fitz & Mr. Snuggles vs Fitz & Alvar.

At this point in time Snuggles is still in the best character running, energy is high--I'm committed to this bit. And I don't think he stands a chance, so I don't feel bad pushing for him.

I was wrong.

It escalates.

Fitz and Snuggles stand a real chance of beating Fitz and Alvar, the fucked up sibling duo of the series. The origin of wiityispb. The blueprint.

I start trying to backpedal.

It doesn't work.

They win.

All because I decided in round three of the best character poll to throw myself behind snuggles and work the fandom up. I'm in too deep now; I can't back out--Summer (@when-wax-wings-melt) will never look at me the same. People are outraged.

I've tied myself to this stuffed dragon.

Who knows what could've been, but due to some funky tagging, I don't see the next round and it distributes oddly, and Fitz and Snuggles lose in silence to Fitz and Sophie.

A quiet end. At this point Snuggles is both out of the best character and fitz duo poll. The fandom calms and moves on, but I've set a precedent for myself. I'm The Snuggles Guy

And a few months ago, a year later, Roisin decided to have another best character poll.

To make it more manageable, there's a preliminary round to determine who will be in the poll for real. Roisin, who I can only assume was salty, ensured Snuggles would be out from the get go. It was a remarkably close fight, though. Watson, The Foster Family dog, also lost his poll. But who gives a shit about him

I'm sad, but hey, there's the comeback round! Any characters eliminated have a chance to be voted back into the running if they get enough support--there are 9 spots available.

I reblog asking for support for Mr. Snuggles, and, because I'm not a dog person, I decide to throw in a fuck Watson for fun. Who cares about some random dog we haven't even met in this fantasy series. There's some banter

The comeback round ends. Mr. Snuggles does not make it. Watson does.

I threw everything behind this dragon through two polls, tested the limits of my friendships, tied myself to him soul to soul. He was nearly a finalist, he nearly beat Sophie in the preliminaries.

And he lost to some fucking dog???

Mr. Snuggles didn't even make it to round one?

Unacceptable. Not on my fucking watch.

I will see that dog in the dirt if it's the last thing I do.

Thank you for your time.

[the-way-astray]

Biblically accurate Keefe

you and catherine everliving-everblaze would've been best friends a few years ago. i will not elaborate. the ones who know, you know

[sunset-telepath]

Oh my god does anyone else remember the kotlc movie meltdown this fandom had three years ago oh my god it was like it was the end of the world

[fitzvackertheritzcracker]

Fitz Vacker search history:

[hhhyperbole]

so i have too much free time but id love to let you know this makes me so incredibly happy. Like the moment i saw this i just died (undeniable tone of pure joy is associated with my death) edit: it is now the night after i got this notif, and i am still very very happy people find it cool <333

so harmiony this basically boils down to you making a boy’s night more worthwhile than it already was!!! :D

BUT. I am reblogging my own post for a reason: THE OTHER GIRL THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE DRAWING IS NOW DRAWN !!!!!!!!!! and you guys get to see her now >:) meet the elf who’s been stranded in the forbidden cities for over 60 years and has contributed to human history enough to be a permanently recognizable icon (for all the concerningly mysterious reasons), Ouroboros Monochroma!

more info about ouroboros under the cut :)

Ouroboros is the daughter of Beau and Silk Monochroma, who are apart of the nobility. She first became stranded sometime in 1945 as a 15-year-old elf, and has been discovered and retrieved a year before Sophie was, during 2011!

During this entire stretch from 1945 to 2011, she has been housed by the Sirena (under nara’s special permission as she was the only presenting Tide for the court hearing), and has given significant contributions towards notable human inventions and uprisings across the globe! Her travels mainly consisted of witnessing the East’s development, though her time from the late 70s to the late 80s, she made a detour and traveled to the West, before returning to her final stop (Russia) in the early 2010s.

Her mind has reformed time and time again from the constant slaughter that humans have presented throughout the near-seven decades of her stay, making Ouro quite resistant towards another fracture or complete break of her mind when presented with the weaknesses elves have! This still doesn’t make her completely invulnerable, however. . . .

Since her education was temporarily disrupted from the unexpected stranding, she continues her attendance at Foxfire with the main group as a Level Five in the first book, and becomes an important figure near the end of the same book as well.

her love interests are elwin and physic—COUGH who was that? Must’ve been the windddd….

I’ll be posting about these two in particular again, probably when i hop back online with new content, so stay tuned >:) — tags for every post thats ouro related: —OUROBOROS: History’s Sweetheart !, —OUROWIN: Between the Physician and the Inventor, —LIBOROS: Secrecy mixed with Endearment, —NATOURO: Hidden Rumors and Pearlescent Endeavors . . .

can i introduce you to one of my kotlc ocs since yall seemed to love my last kotlc-related pist so much

you cant say no to this btw, meet nara :)

(mmmmore info wbt her under the cuttttttt :33333)

she’s one of the ocs i decided to import into kotlc because making new ocs can be TIRING and she is a stressed fish regardless of whatever franchise i put her in.

she’s apart of this new fanon race i also made! they’re called the Sirena, and their own cities find solace in sunken islands all over the southeast’s archipelagos. she is the Northern Tide in their equivalent of the elvin council (The Tidal Court), and is the head of the Intelligence Faction (which is basically the sirena equivalent for a whole building of detectives, officers, etc etc) :3

her actual name is Natazha, and her title name is Moryana. nara is a nickname reserved for friends. she and bronte were the people to initiate the sirena-elf treaty, and they’ve been working closely ever since.

…nara is also personally shipped with bronte but we dont talk about that just yet :D (their ship name is brontazha COUGH who said that)

i’ll be pisting more about this stressed girlboss soon, probably with the other girl she’s supposed to be posted with (Ouroboros Monochroma), so uh??? Stay tuned lol — tags used for nara + sirena related posts of all kinds: —Northern Tide; Moryana, —Nara’s Work; Intelligence Faction, —The Tidal Court, —Brontazha; After Hours in the Office . . .

[everliving-everblaze]

KotLC Fandom Gift Exchange: Poll 2

The first poll has decided that the July exchange will focus on a specific AU! (If you're not sure what an exchange is, check out that first post.)

I've selected a variety of AUs that will allow a range of interpretations. I'd be happy for any of these to be the theme!

Character AU Options

These can take place in any setting (e.g. the human world, the Lost Cities, etc.) or time period, but some characters are changed from canon.

Human AU: Characters that aren't canonically human are now human. This encompasses a lot of things!

Species Swap AU: The characters are now a different species (EXCEPT human). They could be something that's not in the series at all, like mermaids or ghosts, or could become a different canon species, like ogres or gnomes.

Ruler AU: Characters that aren't canonically rulers are now rulers. This could be either Lost Cities rulers (councillors, monarchs, etc.) or human rulers (presidents, monarchs, etc.)

Criminal AU: Characters that were previously on the "good" side are now on the "bad" side. They could be in the Neverseen, be supervillains, be assassins, or anything else.

Setting AU Options

The characters can be the same or modified to fit the setting, but the story no longer takes place in the canon world.

Fairy Tale AU: The characters are now in a fairy tale. This could be an existing one or an original one.

Hollywood AU: The characters are now in Hollywood. They could be actors, reality TV stars, singers, dancers, influencers, or whatever else you'd like.

Domestic/Mundane AU: The characters are taken out of the action of the story to a more mundane setting. This could be family life, working a human job like retail, going on a road trip, or whatever else.

Science Fiction AU: It's now a science fiction story. Think gadgets and machines, aliens, cyberpunk, and the like.

Time Period AU Options

These are similar to setting AUs, but specifically involve time periods of the human world. You could still set them in the Lost Cities, but show how the Lost Cities are different during these times as well (especially considering that they were formerly more connected to the human world).

Medieval AU: The story takes place in the (typically European) Middle Ages.

Old Britain AU: The story takes place during the Regency or Victorian era of British history (think Jane Austen or Emily Brontë).

Feel free to advocate for the theme you want!

[geneticallymodifiedidiot]

making a new intro/pinned post because i have absolutely nothing better to do

hello! i don't really expect anyone to refer to me by a name that isn't just my handle on this platform, but on the off-chance, i go by Bia (100% stole the name from kotlc) :). uhhhh i think this means it's time to talk about myself.

my pronouns are she/her, and i'm aroace (repulsed) as well as trans. i'm 15, don't be creepy.

interests/hobbies!

there's not all that much i can put here, because i'm kind of just a band kid... well, at any rate, i play euphonium primarily (think of a tuba, but smaller and with a significantly higher note range), but i also branch out to different instruments for other bands, such as sousaphone in marching band (my shoulder has been rapidly deteriorating since September 2023), trombone in jazz band, or trumpet (for the hell of it). i would say i'm a STEM nerd, except i'm really not smart enough to get to say that TwT. i like marine biology, but i don't really post about it that often because again, i'm not as knowledgeable as i'd like to be :/. i also like to cook!

there are a couple things i'd like to learn more about. obv the big one is more marine biology, since the ocean is a fascinating place that we can learn a lot of information from. other things i kinda wanna learn more are about queer history, art, and computer science!

fandoms!

i'm a big fan of riordanverse, my favorite character is alex :). i'm also a big fan of kotlc (sophie is asexual and i will not change my mind until i have further proof) and i also enjoy the hunger games.

music!

my favorite music is tied between three different things: the living tombstone, ajr, and whatever genre young girl a and lost umbrella are considered (choosing a favorite would be more difficult than choosing a favorite child).

dni

all right this is the less fun part of this post

terfs, homophobia, racism, sexism, anything of that nature. pedophiles can stay the width of the pacific ocean from me as well as zionists, genocide is genocide. from the river to the sea palestine will be free.

well, uh, that's all i can really think of right now. if i think of more things or if anything changes, i'll update this post.

hope you enjoy the chaos that is my blog!

[certainchopshopcheesecake]

♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.✰♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.✰♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.✰♫⋆｡ ♪♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊

Into post ! ⸆⸉

Hi, you can call me elle and welcome to my blog!

Pronouns:she/her

Age:teen(no creepy messages pls you will be blocked and reported)

Languages:English

{I READ WAY MORE BOOKS THAN I POST ABOUT BUT MOST DONT HAVE ANTHING ON TUMBLR}

Things I love: taylor swift,football,folklore,rep,1989,Greek and roman mythology, my fandoms,flowers,autumn,indie and pop,jewlery,christmas,rain,reading,raveclaw,quotes,English,geography,history,doodles,giving gifts,warm fires,baking and animals!my favourite colour is sage green

My favourite song is cardigan by taylor swift or the grudge by olivia rodrigo.

My fav music genres are indie and pop.

My main fandoms:(i might not post much abt some)

•Kotlc(ive read all so far so there will be spoilers)

•Pjo(all but magnus chase)(spoilers)🌊

•Cruel Prince(dont talk about often)(spoilers)🗡

•The hunger games(spoilers)🏹

•Harry potter(dont support Jk)(spoilers)🧙‍♂️

•Tsitp(team jelly)(spoilers)🐚

•Stardew valley🎮

•Swifties🧣

•Livies🦋

•Little women(spoilers)✍️

•CONEHEADSSSS🥰

Pls send me asks!

Shoutout to my mutuals i love you all sm!! The list is changing sm I won't do a official list

Safe place for everyone!

Except racists,homophones,sexists,creeps etc...

♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.✰♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.✰♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚♬ ﾟ.✰♫⋆｡ ♪♫⋆｡ ♪ ₊˚

[the-way-astray]

GOODBYE ANON . . . short answer is fakemintie is fin. anon wants to know if you ship fin and fintan

what's your opinion on fakemintan (fintan x fakemintie)? do you think fakemintie would be good for fintan? bad for fintan? make him worse? make him better?

i have no idea who the hell you’re talking about

[bookwyrminspiration]

Idk who’s running the Kotlc heritage blog, but y’all should go through some of the older blogs and search “moonlark” to see if you can find any posts Casey made. Those were on another dimension

Summer, @when-wax-wings-melt, runs it! you're very right though, we should see if we can find some of Casey's old posts.

is the fork man origin on there? i think I remember that being Casey, but I'm not sure. I've also found the moonlark feathersona post, but idk if that one's heritage worthy; it's simply a funny post

it'll be tough to find casey posts, I think, given how many blogs from that time were deleted but we can try!

[the-way-astray]

what does fintan think of strieefe. @fintan-pyren is this a relationship fit for the neverseen's plans for keefe

are we just asking random tumblr users that happen to share url names with characters what their opinion on this god-awful ship is, now. are we. why the heck would fintan care about strieefe

[svtellify]

narcissism (is not) at its finest: stina heks

we return! shoutout to finals for absolutely draining me, and this semester in general for being the worst on record. nevertheless, i’m back with more kotlc psychoanalysis.

stina is a character i’m basically neutral to, so it’ll be a lot easier to stay objective with this one than it was with the fitz analysis. 

with that, i present to you:

stina destry heks.

stina is a character we’re first introduced to in slurps and burps, and admittedly, she doesn’t make a great first impression. her explanation for why she hates sophie doesn’t entirely hold up either, but i’m willing to write that off as teenagers being teenagers bc, well, that’s what we do.

no, what stands out about stina is how her character is what biana could have been and a role fitz would be best suited to at the moment. she’s talented, but not as talented as the main cast. this is intentional, of course, to show the power of sophie and her friends in regards to a reference point, but stina doesn’t just take it at face value. 

she’s a respectable character for how willing she is to stand up for what she believes in, but she tends to miss the point just as often as she makes one. she’s a double edged sword, if the blades were pointing at each other. for the most part, her actions cancel out. 

the only real unforgivable facet to her personality is her attitude and sense of self superiority in regards to dex. for someone whose parents should have been labeled a bad match, she’s all too comfortable mocking him for it and making him uncomfortable with his parents match status. the obvious would be to say, ‘oh, well, she’s projecting her insecurities on dex. she doesn’t want her parents to be a bad match, and she’s running from the truth.’ in which case, as much as i’d want to agree with you, i think it takes a while for her to get to that stage. it’s only in stellarlune, when she’s faced with glimmer and the aria family history, that it starts to dawn on her, exactly what her privilege is.

with regard to the plot, stina’s existence is simple. she makes it personal. 

yeah, the people of the lost cities are apprehensive about the black swan and sophie, but that’s not personal. that’s an abstract notion, and one that we’re told. stina is shannon showing us that it’s not just these random elves that we’ve never met, it’s the people around sophie too. the fandom is quite comfortable in bashing on sophie as a character, but stina is the very manifestation of sophie’s old life⎯being made fun of for being herself. and sure, sophie’s incredibly powerful, but stina manages to get under her skin in a way that no one else can. stina keeps sophie in check in terms of society, not in the interspecies and political way the council and black swan do, nor the familial way grady, edaline, and even alden and elwin do, nor the way her friends do. stina is a reminder that sophie is an outsider and that her presence changes the careful balance the world maintained before it acknowledged her existence.

and in that sense? stina is brilliant. 

sophie plays right into the trap shannon sets with stina⎯she doesn’t understand stina’s family history, not more than she’s heard from rumors. likewise, stina doesn’t understand anything about sophie. and the thing is, neither of them want to. they might tolerate each other as a part of team valiant, but there is an understanding between them that they aren’t friends. this is a line neither of them will cross and it’s the strongest characterization between them.

stina’s skills come from her ability to manipulate a situation⎯which does not necessarily make her manipulative⎯but it’s easier for her (and keefe and oralie) because she’s an empath. 

how else do she and marella go from:

to this:

ignoring sophie’s inflated sense of self importance (that may or may not be correct) in that second moment, stina has this persuasion to her that’s hard to ignore. she’s really a perfect balance, with her father in the black swan, her mother breeding unicorns, and herself as a powerful empath in team valiant. she’s everything sophie could have been, don’t you see? 

what stina really is, and what i assume shannon has created, is sophie’s true foil.

stina heks.

the more you think about it, the more it makes sense, i promise. initially, it seems to just be an opposite situation, but looking at the two “sides”:

dex is the child of a bad match → stina’s parents evaded being a bad match marella used to be sophie’s friend → marella is quite close with stina linh used to be closer to sophie → stina calls linh her friend often in stellarlune grady and edaline rehabilitate animals → so do vika and timkin sophie led her friends into the black swan → timkin kept his family out of it sophie’s biological mom is an empath → so is vika

they’re set up not to complement each other, but to show readers what sophie could have been, had she not been different. 

the only thing that really bothers me is how quick linh is to side with her, after the compassion she shows towards sophie. i get that she’s protective of her twin, and this could very well be me projecting how much i wanted to like linh to how disappointed i was with her, but considering linh has been ostracized in society for her powerful ability and previous inability to control it, it seems weird that she’d be so quick to befriend stina, knowing that tam and linh called sophie different (in a positive light) in neverseen. 

i can’t say it’s some enemies to lovers type beat between the two of them, because it’s never insinuated between any of the characters barring the love square, but it is an anomaly that kind of just. shows up in stellarlune? 

anyway.

i think an analogy for stina and sophie is, a possibility. to borrow from everything everywhere all at once, it’s quite like stina is someone sophie could have been, if she fit into the society she was supposed to be a part of. and sophie could have been stina, if she’d let the power get to her head and the privilege shine through instead.

in other words, the black swan were very smart for giving her a human upbringing. we’re mean enough to humble each other, on occasion. 

overall, stina is a plot device, and she’s a character that the story could live without, especially considering the greater focus on her in more recent books leading to the plot being spread thin between so many characters. what she isn’t however, is something the story doesn’t benefit from. the story⎯and sophie⎯are grounded by sophie’s existence, and make things much more personal.

[bookwyrminspiration]

Here's a direct link, in case anyone wants to read it :)

tw: noticable weight loss (mention of ribs), injury/blood, grief

I wonder what the first keeper fic posted on ao3 was? A sokeefe or sophitz fic? A different ship? A gen fic? A crack fic??? I wanna know

[moonlarked]

here’s a kotlc hot take:

although a lot of focus in the fandom goes towards the discrimination towards the middle class (the talentless) the series has been going more and more toward the human elf relationship and the historical revisionism via the council and other atrocities committed by the elves.

And I think that’s okay? Sure, the Elvin world does have systemic issues, but the elves AS A PEOPLE take all of the resources and order around the species and get to tell history from their point of view. Even elves from the lower classes see humans and other species as lower creatures.

Yes, the talentless issue needs to be fixed. But.. those people still get crystal palaces. They still get more money than they could ever use.

If we want to talk about elves, it’s completely banished people like the Exillium members and Trix and Umber, or the people who were thrown away like Rayni that are the main concern.

Listen, I am here for taking down the systems of discrimination against Talentless and others. I am here for tackling the faux perfection that allows child abuse like what was done to Keefe to be hidden away. But this series is headed in a direction that doesn’t just do that but gives us a chance to see this world in a way that isn’t elf-centric. That isn’t completely engulfed by glittering palaces and capes and gowns.

[just-a-honey-badger]

Yeah, the pro-lifer thing is unfortunate. People seemed concerned when people were first talking about there being a pro-lifer here, but then someone posted screenshots revealing that the pro-lifer was a relatively popular blogger who's friends with a lot of the most popular bloggers here, and a lot of those bloggers started backtracking and saying that it didn't matter what the person believed since they weren't sharing their opinions publicly (they followed some pro-life blogs but did not post pro-life things on their Keeper account).

I am a little frustrated with this because this isn't the first time we've had a problem like this on kotlc tumblr. A while ago, there was someone (fairly popular blogger) posting explicit content about and talking about being sexually attracted to characters significantly younger than them (~4 years I think). The same thing happened. People just ignored it and defended them.

I get the viewpoint that you can just choose whether or not to interact with people and block someone if you don't like their opinions, but it's honestly difficult to do that given that people seem to be doing their utmost best to hide the fact that their friends have dubious opinions. Which was especially a problem in the second case, since a lot of younger fans didn't even know they were posting explicit stuff about younger characters until they came across it themselves.

Ooh, that's unfortunate. I luckily haven't heard too much about the pro-lifers, but I'll definitely stay wary of it. I think that blocking people and just steering clear of it is the best way to go.

I do think the explicit content is frustrating and a bit sad, though, because it's such a small fandom and there are a lot of younger people. I hate how history always seems to repeat because people just don't care.

[chocolate-mallowmelt]

i’m off to read it en 👀👀👀

I’m writing up a rant about why I dislike the Kotlc sub reddit but I’m sacred to actually post it when I’m done 😭