#lots of pointless posting. why not. it's my blog

[andthebubbles]

tfw you're deliberately making yourself so attached to your fictional characters to combat loneliness

anyway i miss them. i was just writing them yesterday lmao

[blaiddraws]

if you ship ingo and emmet please don't follow me

[kiwisandpearls]

you know shits starting to get bad here when you start to stop interacting with posts because your paranoid your going to incur op’s wrath because your on their dni you didn’t know existed

[loderlied]

sharing some thoughts about deactivating here because it’s been difficult pondering idk.

[komashkathesilly]

maybe it would legit be easier to make a side blog for archive n communication purposes n leave this one for reblogs i guess

[wip]

Tips to build an audience.

Hey folks. We recently received this submitted as feedback:

It is extremely hard to get any sort of attention to your posts/ page I don’t know if I’m not putting enough tags or what but it just turned me off the the app because it felt pointless. I want people to see my art, to make friends, and to see something besides the same 5 post over and over again.

This felt like a good chance to start a conversation with you all. How do you build your audiences? What are your tips for tagging, blog settings, themes, and paid options? How do you get attention to your posts and pages? How do you get people to see your content, make friends, and see more posts?

But first, we can say that building an audience can be challenging—it’s also a lot of fun, and very rewarding! Using tags, for example, can help reach users who might be interested in your art (if any of your posts has content that is not suitable for minors, please remember to apply Content Labels to your posts). Why not check these pointers below from our old tips blog? But please consider that some features mentioned in that blog are no longer available:

Tag it up.

Some tags are better than others.

Run a Q&A.

Using the queue.

In addition, you can Blaze your posts to promote your content even further and help you build an audience.

There's a poll coming. Stay tuned, and keep submitting your feedback!

[dragonsarecool1213]

How To Actually Keep People You Don't Like Away From Your Blog

and why DNI's don't work and are kinda... weird?

I see a lot of folks on tumblr (and sometimes other sites) so desperately try to keep racists or bigots or whatever off of their blog. But it's almost always in the form of a "DNI" (or "Do Not Interact") a small or sometimes huge list of descriptors of the kind of people the user doesn't want interacting with that blog.

But the issue is... 99% of the labels of people listed aren't concepts people self identify with.

People who are racist, xenophobic or commit crimes DON'T SELF IDENTIFY AS RACISTS, BIGOTS OR CRIMINALS!!!

Which then completely and utterly makes the concepts of DNIs pointless.

They will read that DNI go "oh! this doesn't apply to to me" and ignore it. Boom completely useless piece of text taking up precious space on your blog for no reason. And even on the tiiiiniest chance you list a label that someone might identify with... they can just.. ignore it if they like ur content..

so in short.. DNI's do nothing.. except they DO do one thing... They fill your blog, bio or intro post (or god forbid every post) with a bunch of potentially triggering words and tons of negative energy. For literally no reason. Nothing makes me assume a blogger is annoying or unfun to be around like seeing a DNI. And not to mention all the times i've had my day ruined by trying to enjoy scrolling thru a tag only to be constantly blasted with "HEY REMEMBER THAT [insert horrible thing] EXISTS???". It sucks. And it's driving me mad.

But I'm not just here to rant about it, about how awful they are and that noone should use them. I understand that people want to enjoy their time on their internet and curate your space, so i'm going to show you the SUPER easy SUPER effective way to actually do that. And it can go RIGHT where your DNI is!

HOW TO ACTUALLY KEEP PEOPLE YOU DON'T LIKE OFF YOUR BLOG IN ONE EASY STEP:

List the things you DO support.

That's it.

Take your DNI and invert it. List all the groups you support. Wanna keep terfs off your blog? say I LOVE TRANS PEOPLE!!! TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN! want to keep racists off your blog? I SUPPORT BIPOC RIGHTS. etc etc.

How does this work? Well lets go back to that hypothetical racist on the internet: They come strolling upon ur blog dum dee dum and now they see ur intro and bio. They see that you support bipoc rights, landback movements and insert other movements that support marginalized groups. Said hypothetical racists will see that, go 'ew' and then leave. Probably.

is it 100% effective? no. many ppl don't even read bios or intro posts and some folks follow ppl they disagree with. But for the most aggressive of these types? 10-20% of them going ew and leaving is better than 0% doing anything after reading a DNI they don't believe applies to them.

But that's not the only thing this method does. Because here's the thing.. I don't really believe people have DNI's to keep people off their blog. Shocking.. i know. For most ppl it's a list of their morals so they can show off how 'morally good' they are. Which is a whole can of nasty worms I'll go into in another post. But for now I'll take it at face value and go with it. And tell you that if you want to broadcast your morals, why do it with hate?? Because all that does is spread that hate and negativity, all it does is remind all the marginalized folks who you DO want around, of all the people who suck and hate them and making feeling like shit. But a support list? a list of groups you support? well now you just have a paragraph dedicated to love, the folks you actually want interacting with you will be like 'oh damn, they like and support my people. awesome :)'

and to me that is far faaaar more important than just listing down all the people you hate.

That's it for my ramble on this topic- "oh but mr throwawayblog what about [x, y, z] or people who disagree with me on [x stupid internet discourse topic]?" that is once again another nasty can of worms that I will be saving for future posts, either on this blog or another. But it's a lot harder pill to swallow then this. And I want this post to be shareable enough to spread at least somewhat and reduce the amount of DNI's im forced to look at. by idk, at least 10%?? at least?? please?????

thanks and good night.

*This does not apply to minor's DNI requests on 18+ accounts. While also not.. super useful.. it at least makes sense and has a precedent. This post is not talking abt that.

[vee-the-ghostie]

I don't necessarily enjoy posting this stuff on my blog, but I'm hoping it will have a lighter tone than it initially seems.

So I saw a Facebook friend of mine share a post saying that Texas is introducing a bill that criminalizes all gender affirming care, including for adults. Now this is bad and we can all agree this is bad, for reasons both directly and indirectly related to this prohibition.

However, I propose that this present and amazing opportunity for us in The Trans Community as a whole.

See my mind can't help but wander back to my school days and learning US History. The Prohibition of the 1920s specifically comes to mind. Now this may be a false equivalency, but there are some similarities in these two situations: it's a pointless law that targets a significant number of American people. (There's probably more similarities but my brain doesn't want to function fully right now.)

Now when you think Prohibition your first thought might be bootlegs or bootleggers. This could be a problem in the face of what we're dealing with today considering this is a prohibition of medical treatment instead of drinks for recreational use. For instance, the easiest option for those who want to continue their medical transition would be to order their medications online, which is an option that can and will be taken advantage of by people who wish to harm the trans community in any way they can.

But there's another key word that comes to mind when thinking of the Prohibition of the 1920s:

Speakeasy.

That's right. I think this is an opportunity for the trans community to band together and form "speakeasy"-esque gender care clinics. These will be trustworthy businesses who can reliably source quality HRT medications for people in states with gender care prohibitions. Ideally, they will be run by trans people who practice medicine, but failing that we can bring in allied doctors and/or nurses who can prescribe medications for their trans patients. Failing that, we can have them run by trans people who have been on these prescriptions and know a lot about them.

Now there is a chance that if news gets out about these, there will be new laws put in place to crack down on such practices. But perhaps we could use this to our advantage. If there are clinics that give out unreliable and dangerous prescriptions and generally not taking care of their patients, they can be ratted out and shut down.

Is this a ridiculous and stupid idea? Perhaps. Am I the first person who's thought of this? Probably not. Are there numerous issues that I've glossed over that will complicate the implementation of such a stupid idea? Most definitely. But if our country is being led by stupid people who put stupid laws in place to fight our beautiful existence, then why can't we use stupid ideas to fight back. Besides, if we can get the right people involved, then those numerous issues may become much less numerous.

-V

Tagging people I think could blow this up

@catboybiologist @sharkgirldick @i-am-a-fish @punkitt-is-here @nyancrimew @bisexual-engineer-guy

[wolfertinger]

(keep anon if it isn't on, please)

genuine question. should we all start paying attention to artists that salem reblogs on his tumblr? or only the ones in which they mutually reblog from each other? i've noticed he's reblogged a couple of artists i looked up to either currently or in the past.

i like willow's/fourleafisland's art a lot, i have for a couple of years now but i saw something a while back saying that they reblogged something from salem, or vice versa but it was also mentioned that willow may not have known. does anyone know if this is still true?

i'm not as petty as to disengage with someone's blog just from a one off encounter, but as an artist that posts my own stuff i really don't want to fall into salem's circle.

some other artists i'm somewhat concerned about:

sout999 (i've seen salem reblog from him a couple of times but i've never seen him interact with salem back unless if i missed something.)

(forgot their username but they had a dark brown deer/reindeer? fursona with super saturated red and blue swirly/hypno eyes) i guess this one kinda answers itself since i have seen that person reblog from salem before, but i have seen them involved in circles in the past where i knew the other person would be triggered by propara stuff... i'll list some of the artists below that i've seen in the same circles.

bupzbie (i used to follow him a couple of years ago but i was in the same-ish circles, mutuals with some of his friends and whatnot. i'm pretty sure he was good friends with that deer fursona person, i've seen him interact with them a handful of times before)

2bruza

faunbuns (i've never seen them reblog from salem before but they were mutuals/friends with bupzbie)

kurofai/bibiken/wizardcap/igaueno (looks like they drew pawberri's tumblr icon)

sorrysap/battleguitar/badsyndrome/feliburn (friends with bibiken)

if anyone knows or can think of anymore plz let me know bc i know how furry circles operate and maybe i was a bit naive not to realize it before, but after seeing the hehymn situation unfold right after the nas situation happened, literally the exact same thing, i will never not be suspicious of certain furries that seem clique-y like that. jpegdisco, mothsprout, etc.

srry if any of the artists mentioned above see this i don't want to drag someone into all of this but as someone with trauma like cocsa and being taken advantage of throughout my entire childhood and teenage years i'm tired of finding an artist whose art i really resonate with only to find out they're openly pro-para. it makes me feel so betrayed and gross and we should honestly be shaming these people more.

i don't care if a stranger fantasizes or copes with their own trauma privately, but why make a blog about it? why talk about it? why violently fetishize real life scenarios so openly with so little regard to who sees it? you people love to abuse the rhetoric of 'you're only a perfect victim unless if you act a certain way' but don't realize it goes both ways. i've seen the way that people who hold these attractions and beliefs shame people who simply don't want to see this stuff, or even so little as question it.

also am i the only one that kinda notices the propara shtick sometimes seems like a last resort for some people? fr34kpet or however you spell their username used to be peaceskiies, comfortpuppies, etc and had multiple callouts on their back. radio silence for years until they rebrand under a new alias posting feral porn. same with salem, called out multiple times, ran off the internet multiple times, comes back under a new alias with propara views. i've seen this happen with some other artists as well in the past but i can't remember who they were.

this is pointless to mention but i did also think it was interesting how pawberri also goes by ramiel and has a bunny fursona just like how deadbunny does. what's next? another ramiel? salemiel? lol

honestly. it is impossible, to keep track, of furry circles.

a long time ago, i came to live with the hard truth, that being in furry circles, inevitably, means you will have 5 degrees of separation, from people you hate. i do not just mean, people you personally dislike, or people you have beef, with. but ACTIVE, zoophiles. pedophiles. abusers.

furry, has long had an issue where popufurs, will shelter and protect their friends. no matter what. to the degree, i have seen furries that raped irl, and were accepted back with open arms, while their victim was chased off the platform. i have seen ACTIVE ZOOPHILES- not art. not fantasies. people who SEXUALLY ABUSED DOGS, IRL- be accepted right back into furry, with open arms.

knoxapoppin, the partner of wild---life, a furry that was exposed TWICE , PUBLICLY, for her zoophilic attractions. is still a popular dj, that continues to perform at cons, to this day. he has faced no scrutiny. no backlash. nothing. he is the partner to an animal abuser. but furries love him. and wild---life suits, are still in popular demand. this is the same, with artkour, and their zoophilic partner narmin. who self admitted to fucking IRL ANIMALS. self admitted, to being "addicted", to IRL zoophilic porn. yet artists like nepeteaa, continue to get suits from them.

there was a long time, i did not dare call myself furry. to this day. i still do not like to. but, liking cartoon animals, means you will be within these circles. this, is why i am so adamant, on protecting queer and alternative spaces, from people like this. abusers WILL manipulate situations, to make themselves the victim. they will wax poetic, about "lies" against them. and if you do not bother to research yourself. you will be an enabler, of an abuser.

the best thing to do, is to stay alert, and keep our spaces clear of IRL, ACTING PREDATORS, most of all. you will drive yourself crazy, trying to block out everyone associated, with a bad popufur. protect your peace, most of all.

[sokkastyles]

Hi! I just had a funny interaction and it kinda reminded me of the stuff I see sometimes on your blog.

So I posted something that was certainly Azula critical (and definitely anti-Azula stan, I'm pretty sure I tagged both) and I had three or four people start discourse with me over it, which is fine and all. But the funny part is one of those people was a grown person with a JOB that decided that they were not going to conduct any analysis but instead just make personal attacks at me the whole time, which they freely admitted. Once they started, another joined in and kept going until I stopped contact with both of them.

Now for context, I'm a high school senior in six different APs, captaining a girl's lacrosse team and my Taekwondo demo team, and I'm fairly active in four or five other minor extracurriculars. The point is, I'm a busy person. Tumblr is a simply creative outlet for me to connect with people who share my interests. And yeah, as an 18 year old who just started making analysis posts on a website where I'm surrounded by many more older individuals, I know my posts aren't all that refined. But I still feel like I was able to articulate my thoughts in a decent enough way. However, not only was I not able to convince others of my viewpoints (which I'm ok with tbh), I also received some hurtful comments that's definitely turned me away from having any discourse in this fandom at all.

So this is all basically lead-up to two questions:

Since you have a lot of experience in this sort of writing, do you have any advice for making an argumentative essay/meta on fandom related content (characterization, relationships, etc)?

Are you supposed to respond to or ignore unproductive comments/personal attacks? Am I letting them win if they have the last word?

To be completely honest, even if it's not my number 1 choice, I think Zutara is a fascinating ship that makes a lot of sense (more than Kataang for SURE smh). Reading your posts on them have been incredibly insightful and it's given me a lot of respect for the ship. I just wish I could write something like that, mainly for my own satisfaction. It's frustrating seeing characters like Azula being obliterated in fandom and being put into a little box of either girlboss or victim when she's so much more nuanced than that. That's what I was trying to communicate, and I did say multiple times that I saw her as more than just one or the other, but it definitely came across wrong. This was my first experience writing any sort of meta and it's definitely been a failure.

Hello! As a grown person with a job, let me first say this:

You do not owe anyone a reply, argument, or justification, ever.

Understanding this will help you with avoiding a lot of pointless discourse. And I'm not saying I'm always the best at avoiding it, but I did witness what happened with you and the Azula stans, and you did nothing wrong. Your original post was very well reasoned and fair. The people who were attacking you over it were being overly defensive and are well known for their ridiculous takes and toxic behavior, and twisting the narrative to make Azula seem like she's been unfairly villainized by the narrative, other characters, and fandom.

If anything, you were being nice by apologizing for being "antagonistic," even though you were being no such thing and they attacked you, and that's why they took the opportunity to attack you more. The thing is, though, that they were being manipulative. Which is unsurprising, since all of their arguments defending Azula follow the same rhetorical patterns.

I'm not saying don't be nice and don't apologize, but you don't have to apologize for people taking your arguments in complete bad faith and using that to try and hurt you. They are the ones in the wrong, and they're the ones perpetuating harm. And if they can convince you that it's actually you doing harm, that's one way they can try and harm you. That's why they kept responding to you, because you were nice and they saw an opportunity to harm you. Not because there was anything wrong with your arguments, which were very eloquently put and well-reasoned.

It actually really worries me when I see these kinds of interactions. I joke about Azula stans acting this way because I'm an adult and I know how not to take their bullshit seriously, but what they are doing can perpetuate real harm if they can convince enough people that they need to apologize for imagined harm. I've seen it happen many times in fandom spaces that became abusive because a loud minority is able to convince enough young, impressionable people of the threat of harm. On a meta level, it's just like what Ozai and Azula do to Zuko by convincing him he is to blame and using that as a justification to hurt him.

Anyway, it's perfectly acceptable to block and ignore people who act this way, and probably preferable for your own mental health. Again, I'm not always the best at taking this advice, and I know what it feels like to get sucked into an argument about stupid fandom stuff, but it is always okay to just walk away. Letting someone have the last word doesn't mean you've lost. It means you're not letting yourself be dragged down to their level, which is often what these people are seeking to begin with. There's an African proverb that goes "if a madman steals your clothes and you run after him, you're still the one running naked in the streets."

If somebody wants to run naked in the streets, just let them do it. You don't have to run after them.

(Ironically, I said this to a coworker the other day, too. Being an adult with a job doesn't guarantee you never have to interact with shitty people, unfortunately.)

On that same note, I appreciate the compliment about my zutara posts, but it's okay if you don't like the ship. Shipping is a personal choice and you don't have to have reasons for why you do or don't ship something. If my posts resonate with you, great! But I'm not here to convince anyone of anything.

Anyway, have a nice day and take care of yourself! You seem like you have a solid head on your shoulders, so don't let fandom stuff get you down.

[icantthinkyandere]

Hello! Can I request some Yandere Jeanne D'arc Alter and Okita Souji x Master! Reader, who is really a apathic person, where the Master is receiving a lot of attetion and being persuade by other servants who have romantinc interest on them, like how they would deal with the jealosy and the all the situation?

I was thinking recently about making an AO3 account for my stuff, mainly just to archive it if I'm dumb and do something to the blog. But also now because I saw one post about tumblr dying. So, I'm probably going to do that.

Okita has quickly become one of my favorites to write.

{Jeanne D'Arc Alter}

At the start of her stay at Chaldea, she's in hate with the master. Everything about them is annoying and awful to her—especially their apathetic personality.

She could not understand why anyone was actively trying to get into a relationship with them. They are so overwhelmingly unpleasant, and that's why everyone should stay away from them so she can bully them for their awful attitude.

By complete accident, she bullies anyone who even shows a passing like to the master in front of her to death. She states that it's pointless not just because you're talking at a wall but because they're servants. This won't last; it'll end in heartbreak.

Don't try to thank her for stopping any unwanted advances. She'll just insult you for not rejecting them hard enough!

Playing nice is getting them nowhere. They just keep coming, and you have to put your foot down. This is why she will never respect them.

Unlucky for her, when London comes around and Tamamo joins Chaldea, Jalter meets someone just as sassy and confrontational as her.

Now, every insult she throws is reflected at her. Now she's called jealous, insecure, bitter, and she wishes she could find love but can't because of her ugly attitude.

Which isn't true because she's just being realistic about their situation and how undesirable the master is. So, she starts pulling back because she's annoying to argue with, not because she's right or anything.

Once she pulls away and is "forced" to watch Tamamo and now many others who have taken the opportunity to try again without her to bully them.

It stirs something inside her. She chooses to believe it's disgust, but the feeling only starts when someone is getting or shouting their affection for the master. She'll think it's from her and the master both not being interested in romance before she believes it could be a crush.

Jeanne (Ruler) points it out much more kindly than Tamamo's mocking way. Even with a much more serious and nicer sit down to talk about it. She'll only slightly accept it more.

She's so used to being mean and hating everyone that it's weird for her to consider she likes someone so much it makes her want to keep them from everyone else.

She'll keep being mean and a tsundere, but with more and more servants joining Chaldea, she'll explain away her behavior with some poor excuse.

There's a good chance she'll never express her feelings and be her usual self in game. But everyone and the master will believe she has a soft spot for them and only them.

After she finally calms down, much like with Okita, you just get scary dog privileges. She won't keep more aggressively romantic servants forever, but it's much easier to believe she's just bad at being friends than having romantic feelings.

Over time, she'll be able to become your closest friend if you don't look too deeply into her awkward behavior. Just seeing the small kind things she does, along with her being protective on a mission, as her way of making friends.

{Okita Souji}

I would say it depends on the servant who's flirting with the master. But since the most romantic are Tamamo and Kiyohime, along with being the first servants to show romantic interest, she sees them in every other servant with a crush. No matter who they are.

She's not a jealous person, or she believes she isn't. She's not jealous that others realize how excellent the master is. She's just protective of them. She just wants their safety and happiness.

Because of those two, she 100% believes no one cares about the master. At least not like she does.

Unlike the other servants, Okita's love isn't seen as romantic or even close to her courting anyone. She looks like an overly loyal servant, which no one is surprised about. She's one of the Shinsengumi in a dire situation; of course she'll want to be close to the master. No one realizes she feels more than just master-servant loyalty.

Because of the selfish and cruel actions of Tamamo and Kiyohime, every servant who isn't in Okita's personal circle of friends is ruined. They are not kind people and only want to use her master to live out their marriage fantasies. The master deserves to live a happy life doing what they want and having to walk on glass to make sure their ideal is not broken.

If she were the master's wife, she would be more than happy to live the life they wanted. Whether that's her staying home as their housewife or allowing them to stay home and making her the breadwinner.

But that's not what this is about. Love rivals second, enemies who want to take away the master's free will and life first.

She goes to the master first, of course; she must make sure she does what they want first, unlike some servants. She is very much taken aback at being told that it's okay and she shouldn't bother.

Begrudgingly, she agrees not to harm them, but she will closely monitor them. Since they're not the most peaceful servants. She understands they're apathetic about people being interested. It's not like they're encouraging being chased after. They're doing the opposite.

But things get worse; they keep getting bolder, and more servants seek to take advantage of the master under the guise of being in love. Yes, the master is great and loveable. But they are uninterested, so stop bothering them.

Most servants back off because she explains why the master isn't interested in them when, in reality, they're primarily threats, or they become uninterested.

Tamamo or Nero are servants who don't take her seriously, so they don't stop and are the first to find out that her feelings are more than servant loyalty—accusing her of also having feelings for the master, wanting them for herself, and being a hypocrite.

In her frustration, she admits that she is, but she doesn't care. She's putting them first, not her. She knows she'll be rejected and might not ever have a chance. She's happy enough to be allowed to be by their side in the first place. And if they don't start knowing the same, she might take action into her own hands if they ignore the master's options.

[rainbowsky]

Hi- first have to say I love your writing, your organization, you’re just amazing! I’m a middle-age mom of four who has never, ever been in any sort of fandom or “shipped” a couple in 40+ years of consuming tv, movies, music, etc. Got introduced to TU via my teen daughter and very quickly was bjyx before I knew it was a thing, before I even saw any BTS. Googled the actors, saw some BTS, and just thought “of course.” I mean, of course! (TBC)

(Cont) I’ve read just about everything here but if you’ve answered this, pls point me to it. My question is, how do the “antis” or “solos” reconcile the BTS with their POV that DD and GG aren’t gay, hate each other, are using the other, etc? [redacted]

Hi! Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog. 😊

Sorry, I removed some of your ask because I don't like long asks, and you (perhaps unwittingly) included some theories/ideas I don't agree with and don't want on my blog.

As for your question, I have talked about similar topics quite a bit in the past. You can look through my 'solos belong to moling su sect' tag for my posts about solos if you want to dig a little deeper, but I personally don't think there's any point in going down that path. Solos are free to believe (or not believe) whatever they want, and it shouldn't really have anything to do with us.

This question is inviting me to psychoanalyze, theorize, and speculate about what they think and believe, but in my opinion there's nothing good that can can come out of doing so. I have done some of that in the past, and in my opinion it's totally pointless. If anything, it just helps create the perception that we should be digging into topics like this - something I definitely do not believe.

I have talked to solos about these topics in the past, and the thing that stood out to me about those discussions is that they're just different people who have different views. Might as well ask why anyone has a different view about anything.

If you've ever tried talking to someone who is opposite to you on the political spectrum, surely you've experienced how different and unwavering another person's views can be. Trying to unravel all of that can be a huge mess, and is ultimately just a waste of time.

The reality is, different people have different levels of investment in the type of material we focus on, they have different interests and motivations for being involved in fandom, they have different backgrounds and leanings, and they have different views and interpretations of everything they see. Even different turtles have different views and interpretations.

We don't need to spend a moment thinking about any of it. In fact I urge people to just avoid solos, avoid trying to speculate about them or digging into their perspectives or beliefs. It doesn't matter what they think, and most of their thoughts and feelings about this topic are hateful and homophobic. It is harmful to dig into and spread these ideas.

I have a whole post about that here.

I say this all the time, but we need to stay in our own lane. Focus on GG and DD and their projects. Enjoy being a turtle. We shouldn't waste our time or brain cells worrying about what haters and naysayers think, or why.

This isn't just about avoiding negativity or fan wars, is also about respecting other human beings. They have their own views and their own experience of GG and DD, and they have every right to experience it in the way they want to. It's not our role to try to change their perspective or even to evaluate and judge them. Live and let live. Yes, even when they don't extend us the same courtesy. Perhaps especially then. Be the change you wish to see in the world.

"Why don't people believe BJYXSZD?" should never be asked in a way that implies that anyone who doesn't is stupid or blind. And I'm saying that as someone who's guilty of doing that all the time. No one is obligated to dig into the evidence, and no one is obligated to believe.

There are a LOT of turtles who don't believe, either, and they're still turtles and they still love and support GGDD and still bring a lot of great value to this fandom. If we can accept them, surely we can come to terms with the fact that solos don't believe, either.

PS] Just one thing I wanted to reply to that didn't get posted from your ask - there is definitely no world in which solos believe that they were once a couple and broke up. There may be a rare person out there who fits that description, but the vast majority of solos don't believe that their idol is gay or has had any kind of a romantic relationship with the other one. A huge percentage of them are extremely homophobic or at least heteronomative.

[jonathankai]

Each time I check my activity and see a bunch of likes and hardly any reblogs, I feel so baffled. What prevents you people from reglogging stuff? It's not like your tumblr blog is your portfolio which you're going to show to your potential employer, and if he will see a post he doesn't approve, he's not going to hire you. And I hope that none of you has someone breathing down your neck, peeking behind your shoulder at what's happening on your screen.

Your blog is your maximum fun personal space, so if you enjoy the post you see, why not reblog it? It doesn't have to happen each and every time. but just consider doing it more often? Please? Pretty pleasse with a cherry on top?

"Oh, but I have 0 followers, so reblog is pointless". No! It's never pointless! On tumblr reblogging is a gesture of generosity and appreciation. Whether it's a textpost, art, shitpost, whatever, your reblog will always mean a lot to creator.

"Oh, but I want to keep my blog for X and not for Y". Create a sideblog. Create a secret sideblog and never share a link anywhere if you need.

"Oh, but reblogging is bad". Honey, it's not REPOSTING, it's REBLOGGING. You don't steal content, you use reblog button, original creator is linked properly, all is good.

"Oh, but I use likes to mark posts that I've already seen" (I'm not making this up, btw, I've actually seen someone saying it) Oookay? Why though? Listen, you can like as much as you want, but still, please, consider reblogging more often.

"Oh, but I'm showing my support by liking every post in my fandom" (actually seen this one too) Ooookay-2? It's a good intention, but you will be a mightier supporter and a cooler cat if you reblog stuff, just so you know. You don't have to regblog every post, but consider. doing it. more. often.

"Oh, but--" But what? Did I miss something? Seriously, come share your resaon, start a quarrel in the comments, feel bold and reblog this post, do whatever.

When it's only likes, this site feels so silent, it feels like talking to a wall.

I'm tagging this post with my current fandoms, because the situation is disastrous here, I'm sick and tired of seeing great art getting less love and attention than it deserves. But also with my old fandoms and maybe other tags, because from what I've seen, tumblr is going through some shitty stage all over.

[mrs-gauche]

Hey guys! 🙂 It's the end of 2024 and I realized today I haven't posted on here since finishing Veilguard.

Well, to make it short.. since then, I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, replaying it, watching my friends who are DA casuals and not into fandom play it (which was very enlightening but also hilarious 😂), so now.. I feel like I'm at a point where I know exactly what my issues with this game are and I've made peace with it. I still love Dragon Age! And I love parts of Veilguard and I had a ton of fun playing it (though probably for all the wrong reasons 🥲). When I first finished the game, I cried tears of happiness that after ten years my favorite character actually somehow got a beautiful Happy Ending and closure, but also tears of sorrow that this marks the end of the story that was set up back in 2009.. and tears of mourning that this story had all the potential to be so so SO much more.

Dragon Age is a very weird franchise in that all the games have been, in many ways, vastly different from each other and to be a fan of the whole series means to recognize all its flaws and changes, but still loving it because of its unique core elements that glue it together and make it so special. I could sit here for hours trying to put into words what I think went wrong with Veilguard, but I know many people have already done so far more eloquently than I ever could. This blog was always meant to be just a positive little corner to share my love for these games and silly VA stuff with other people and I'm sure I will eventually reblog all the two million posts I've liked over the past month, both positive and critical. But for now and the new year, I want to focus my time and energy on just being creative, getting back to drawing and trying to realize ideas about DA I've had for a looong time and that's my way of "emotionally recovering" (that sounds so dramatic 😂). 💜

With that being said... What a crazy decade year it has been for me personally in this fandom... So I want to look back at it, just some rambling under the cut, 'cause I'm a little sentimental now, I guess. 🥲

Before I created this blog, I was mostly just a lurker on here for many years, despite being a fan of BioWare games since.. uh.. forever? lol But I was always waaay too insecure about my English, let alone my own art. I also have social anxiety, so maybe that was part of the reason why I decided to finally create this blog at a time when the fandom was at its most dormant? lol (There is also a whole separate post for another day about how Mass Effect influenced me personally and how it made my biggest dream come true, the enormous honor to voice a few NPCs in (the German version of) Andromeda. Still the craziest thing to ever happen to me. lol)

So, seeing all the crazy excitement and the fandom fully revived this year and all these months leading up to Veilguard was both incredibly overwhelming, but also the most fun I've ever had as being part of a fandom! This year also marked the first time I posted my own art online and I can't even put into words how crazy it was seeing the response to that and I still can't believe that Trick Weekes not only commented on but also reposted it, that is still f*cking insane to me and I'll never forget the morning I woke up to see that. lmao

So yeah.. THAT happened. Followed by what I think has to be one of the weirdest, craziest marketing campaigns I've ever seen. lol Going back to 2022, we truly had it all...

A title announcement on a random Thursday that was probably done so that it would not be confused with the Netflix series announced a few days later. A tie-in comic more than a year before release that was... a little pointless? lol A vinyl collection that spoiled the composers a year before release. A title change literally two days before the first trailer. A reveal trailer that left many in shock because of its tone shift and complete lack of the former title character. A line of Game Informer articles that left us often times with more questions than answers. Every single article being deleted the very next month due to GI shutting down. An actor panel at SDCC happening right as Sag Aftra went on strike. A "fandom" party that had nothing to do with Dragon Age. Jason Derulo. An artbook that accidentally revealed the release date with its pre-order, which was then deleted. Twice. Memes about roadmaps. A second trailer that in hindsight probably should've been the first one. An audio drama by a different writing team with some baffling (but funny) lore mistakes. A combat showcase starting off with a disclaimer that "footage had been edited due to spoilers"... followed by THE biggest spoiler in literally the first ten seconds. The first IGN video with super spoilery dev commentary. A hand-on preview event with 140 people leading to spoilers galore... Did I mention spoilers? lol

That was when I stopped looking at stuff online, so I don't know what happened after that, but WOW, what a crazy ride that was. 🥲 Truly a DA4 Summer to remember and I'm unironically so grateful to have witnessed it in real time with all of you. 😂

Then finally, after ten flippin years of tinfoiling, speculating, reading crazy development stories and clowning around at every gaming live event, Veilguard was finally released and it will probably go down as the most emotionally charged Halloween of my life. lmao

Then it was time to actually play The Veilguard. Which took me about a month.

A month filled with what I can only describe as a crazy rollercoaster of conflicting emotions. Aside from everything having to do with Solas, I'd say my personal highlights of the entire experience was seeing Felassan (I screamed), the PHOTO MODE and even one hilarious "breaking the fourth wall" moment, where I would frantically run around in Elgar'nan's trap in "Blood of Arlathan", to a point where I would yell at the screen "SOLAS, I COULD USE SOME HELP NOW, HELLO???" and hearing his flippin voice literally two seconds later going "Yes, you called?" and I freaked out so hard I dropped the controller. 😂😂😂 Also, as someone who romanced Alistair in my first playthrough of DAO and brought him to the final battle not knowing he would sacrifice himself, you can imagine my flashbacks when I saw Davrin dying at Tearstone.. who I had romanced. 💀 Or the Dark Ritual flashbacks when I saw Morrigan wanting to talk to me right before the final mission. lol Getting the Felassan rune actually made me tear up a little. There are many little moments like that that I loved or that made me emotional, but ultimately.. Veilguard is a game that, for all the amazing graphics and cutscenes and flashy combat.. the more I think about the story and the lore (or lack thereof), the more I end up confused and trying to figure out what it is that's breaking the immersion to me in a way that the previous games didn't.

But anyway... I finished Veilguard, though the DA craziness of 2024 wasn't over just yet and I didn't know that the best was yet to come in December. lol

So.. Years ago, one of the main reasons I created this blog was to make silly "appreciation posts" about Solas' German VA and ramble on about my love for his performance.. I even remember making a post on here like three years ago talking about how I would sadly never EVER get a chance to meet his VA personally, because that man never ever goes to any fan conventions or public events. lol

Well... GUESS WHO I MET AT THE GERMAN COMIC CON EARLIER THIS MONTH!!!

YES GUYS, without sounding like a weirdo (because despite my obsession with voice acting, I don't care for VAs social accounts or anything beyond their work as a VA), but after years of jokingly referring to this blog as the "Ozan Ünal Appreciation Blog", and kinda the reason I made this blog in the first place, I finally met the man himself and it was probably the best friggin fan experience I could've wished for. 🥲🥲🥲

See, I've met a lot of different VAs at Cons before, who were all super nice and awesome to talk to.. but let me tell you, this guy has such an incredibly contagious positive attitude and charm!! lol Me and my friend were literally the last to stand in line at his booth before the event closed, there were TONS of people (there were quite a few VAs at the Con, but his booth had BY FAR the most people in line the whole day lol) and yet he made sure to take the time to talk with every single person, asking questions, was genuinely interested in our opinions, joking around and just generally SO FRIGGIN NICE. And he's just a very chill and funny dude? lol

And it was so funny, because there were SO many people and yet apparently I was the only person that day to talk to him about DA and Solas and he was SO excited about it 😂😂😂 (I bet like 90% of the fans talked to him about his VA work on Vampire Diaries, The Big Bang Theory, Gravity Falls and Nicholas Hoult lol).

And of course, because DA4 happened so recently, it was still fresh in his memory. He told us that he even watched some Let's Plays and asked what we thought of the game and I'm still laughing so hard, because he was literally like "Oh yeah, the lore is MASSIVE and it was so overwhelming and I could barely keep up with it, the whole time I had no idea what I was talking about.. like, what exactly IS Mythal??" LMAOOO His performance for Solas was so good and so convincing and now I'll always have to picture him standing in the recording booth, no flippin clue what he's actually talking about. lmaoo And then my friend was pointing at me like "She's actually a walking lore encyclopedia" and then he was like "Oh, you should've been in the booth then!" lol

And I'm actually quite upset on his behalf now, because he also told us how, when the English VAs were officially announced, he had actually made a post on social media about how he was returning for Solas in DA4 and how he got in so much trouble for that because EA told him they were going to make an official announcement.... AND THEN THEY NEVER DID??? Like, I was desperately waiting for an announcement about the German voice cast and they simply never made one, we literally had to wait for the credits to be published? (Also, the German and French version have only one female and one male voice for Rook and no one knows what happened there, we tried to contact them about it, but no response so far?? It's like they don't even care.) That's EA for you...

Anyway, we then chatted a bit more about his other work and stuff and he recorded an audio for me (I actually got him to say the "Vir shiral malasa, bellanaris" GUYS AND IT SOUNDS SO GOOD, like I was so nervous, asking "Could you do elven..?" and he was like "Sure, it's been a year, might be a bit rusty" and then he just knocked it out of the park?? lmao So I have both Lavellan's AND Solas' WEDDING VOWS NOW. 😭😭😭❤❤❤❤❤)

So yeah, that was my meeting with Ozan flippin Ünal and what an awesome guy and amazing VA and what an "epic conclusion" of this year of the Dragon (Age) 2024. lol And the timing feels so strange now, because, in a way, it feels kinda like coming full circle?

Like I said in the beginning, for years I was always mainly a lurker in the fandom and the reason why I created this blog was to join in on the hype/speculation train for DA4 and to talk about Solas' German and French voices and share my silly edits and gifs. And now I've played Veilguard AND I've met Ozan Ünal.. both things that, at some point, I wasn't sure were ever going to happen.....

So.. In terms of my fandom experience, this year was crazy and whatever 2025 brings and whatever happens with this blog or DA in general... I love this fandom (especially my little Solasmancer bubble <3) and I love Dragon Age and whoever's reading this, here's to 2025 and I hope you have a Happy New Year!! 💜💜💜💜💜

[waxingrunes]

I’m seeing too much of this across all channels and I need to write a little something on my humble blog with my humble amount of followers, because how else am I going to get this off my chest.

Some of you need to remember that this whole world we created is pure, fiction. It’s based off fiction and we are building off fiction, forking off in different directions with characters we love.

The canon vs fanon debate is ongoing and quite honestly, mind numbingly pointless and you all consistently contradict and overlap one another with whatever discourse you’re riding that week. You lot wanna argue a point by saying, “these are my hc’s and I can do what I like with them stop taking everything so seriously teeheehehehe” then uno reverse that the next minute by screaming, “that would never happen *insert name* is this or is that” but fuck canon right? Fuck JKR? Or is it more, fuck the parts of canon I don’t like and I’ll take the parts I do so I can shove them down the throats of creators who represent these characters in an opposing light. The amount of posts I’ve seen floating around these sites that are people preaching to their audiences about how dumb they are (unless it’s meant to be satire, I’m not a brainless sensitive lump with no humour bone) for liking certain things, or enjoying certain things, or preferring certain aspects in a character is astounding. Take pause before jumping on your high horse over a fictional character and shaming people for moulding them into what they enjoy. Is this not the beauty of fiction, imagination; the ability to twist and turn over different traits and appearances within our palms and make them into our own little dress up dolls?

Here’s my two cents as a WOLFSTAR artist, not a Marauders— if I want to make Sirius into a teacup and Remus into a sea slug and have him curl up to sleep every night in his bowl, then I’ll do that with fine china detail. If I want to make Sirius someone who refuses to wear nothing but a specific shade of tangerine and Velcro strapped trainers, I will. One day I might throw Moony into a boxing ring and have him be a middleweight champion, stained by the blood of his opponent whilst his wolf is chomping at the bit to come out just before the full moon threatens to take centre stage. If I want to make Sirius 6ft tall and Remus 5ft1, I will. Why not draw an AU of them as the rocks from Everything, Everywhere All At Once? Maybe, they can be something as simple as a boy and a boy who look the way you want them to look, fuck the way you want them to fuck and fall in love and fight, and scream, and cry, and make up a million different ways.

Let’s get more specific as the seal’s broken. Why not make Remus plus sized and give him a beard or a dad’s bod at age 23. Or maybe because he’s lighter haired he doesn’t have dark hair like that and only has a smattering of it across the ugliest of his scars. Consider this— moony with softer hips but fuller sturdy shoulders. Or long, slender limbs with a deceptively hidden strength owing to his wolf, stronger than James though he doesn’t look it. Onto Sirius, try to tell me I’m not going to put him in thigh highs and fem the shit out of him whilst he holds a bat in one hand covered in the blood of someone who tried to disrespect his Moons. Alert the press when someone erases every single one of his tattoos only to replace them with hyperpigmentation. What about giving him a beater’s build and a long thick trail of naval hair that he likes to call his ‘seeker’s delight’. What about a hairless Sirius who has a soft life and likes to make herself pretty for her 6ft 4 boyfriend every weekend when he gets on the train to visit.

How about, I stick with my personal holy take on the boys and present you with a harmless middle ground where Moony is whatever the fuck I want him to be physically, emotionally, or characteristically but always a wet fucking cloth for Sirius. A grape, under a thumb, you could say. And a Sirius, who is too whatever I want him to be physically, emotionally, or characteristically but will always be Moony’s biggest cheerleader.

Stay with me whilst I offer you the brain stretching, risky, taboo thought for you to ponder on: stop trying to please people. Stop absorbing all these takes that pressure you into thinking you’ve got to include every fucking thing that shaves you down and boxes you into their squeaky clean little creator! Indulge in what you like. Make it public, make it known and make it as loud as you want. Feels good on this side of freedom.

Lastly, quick (none of this has been quick) circle back to myself being a Wolfstar artist, not a Marauders one. I will not be shamed into drawing the women in this fandom, I will not try to even out my art with equal parts women and men, in fear of being called misogynistic. I came here for Wolfstar and I stay for them; I get 95% of my muse from them and enjoy drawing these idiots nearly every single day when I can. I’ve a busy life, a job, the luxury of a family that love me and a couple friends I’d like to keep too. If and when I draw, it’s going to be what I want to draw and want to indulge in, not to check off your boxes of inclusion. I am not going to defend my choice of indulgence to you. I am not going to refute women or wlw ships and in fact, eat up stories or art where they’re prominent. Will I have muse or will to do a piece on them? Probably not. If I do, I will and if it’s not done to a standard deemed appropriate enough by the council, well shit I hope I get an honourable mention in one of your hate threads on Twitter.

Grow up. I am the type of person who has a more or less rigid taste on these boys and what I, enjoy representing them like and you runts will run your throats hoarse before I turn an ear. I am not the type of person to see someone who doesn’t like what I prefer and start slamming my keyboard and slap them with a red card. I’ll move on but appreciate the take in silence. Some of you really, come across like you’re stomping your feet in a tantrum, some of you sound like you’ve never been told to shut the fuck up a day in your life and some of you, some of you, really think you’re a messiah.

Fuck your canons, fanons and righteous attitudes towards people who are quite literally, not real. You are not a deity of the Marauders, you are a fucking loser offline just like the rest of us.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Some thoughts on Dragon Age Veilguard a couple weeks after playing/reviewing it.

Obligatory disclaimer, feel free to skip to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Note: My reviews for DA and my blog posts about DAV in particular aren't edited. I don't have the time, energy, or heart to edit them properly.

It's been 16 days since I finished DAV.

And sadly, my opinion still hasn't changed. Especially after learning about Joplin from my friend's artbook. (Joplin is the original concept and art concepts for the game. It had so much we were all really desperate to see. It was gorgeous. And they scrapped it.)

I don't know why they scrapped it, it was exactly what so many of us wanted.

Honestly? I don't care why. I'm sick of all the excuses people keep making for BioWare turning out such a shitty game.

Were there reasons and difficulties I don't know and will never know about? There usually are.

But those things are honestly irrelevant when it comes to producing a quality product.

I work my ever loving ass off to make sure my books are good. And I don't have a team to help me and a 250 million dollar budget. I do everything myself because I have to.

Indie studios turn out fantastic games with cool worlds, good fighting systems, and interesting monsters all the time. With some help and some budget, sure. But not likely on the scale of what they had for DAV.

I'm both a creator and an editor. When you're making a product for sale, it's incredibly foolish to change a series title too much from what worked before. Sure, fix problems, streamline stuff, but people generally don't play RPGs for anything past the worldbuilding, writing, story, and characters. There's action RPGs, sure. I'm playing one now and loving it (Greedfall).

It's a solid RPG that feels like an RPG. (DAV did not.) The fighting system works. The companions are actually useful. They kill bad guys all by themselves! It's quite refreshing tbh.

When you're creating something for fun, sure, do what the fuck ever you want as long as it isn't harmful to someone else. (Don’t put words in my mouth. By harmful, I mean specifically things like racism, sexism, ableism etc. Not whether someone dislikes the colour green and thinks the word 'triggered' means unhappy or uncomfortable. It doesn't. It's specifically a needed mental health term.)

When you're creating a product for sale, you make decisions. IE. I chose to write a reverse harem series. That's a choice influenced by the business reality that my queer books hardly sell at all.

I still love the characters and world I built, still love the plot etc. But it was still a decision on my part. Because my work of words is my only income. I'm disabled and recovering from a pulmonary embolism. My partner is recovering from a broken back and has at least one, possibly two more surgeries to go. We don't get very much help from anywhere. Money is so tight it squeaks. I'm hoping with the decision to write m/f reverse harem, my sales will improve (They already have with only two books out. Third before end of year.)

So. No. No more excuses for BioWare. They've always, from rumour, had a lot of control over the games they make, even if EA does pollute the studio by owning it.

Someone made the choices that resulted in such a shitty game. Someone approved the terrible (in some cases, racist, sexist, and ableist) writing. Someone thought the editing was just fine (it really really is not).

Someone (likely Epler given what he's said in interviews) decided that it was a good idea to Disney-fie the most recent addition to an adult, dark fantasy game that has historically delivered a lot of horror elements. While somehow condescending to kids at the same time.

Someone decided to remove so many of those dark fantasy elements. It's especially obvious in the not-fucking-darkspawn. They made them goofy, not scary and vaguely horror inspiring. But it's all throughout the game.

Someone made decisions. Those decisions made an awful game.

Someone decided tying your companions' skill points acquisition to their level of bond with you was a good idea. Maybe it looked good on paper. I don’t honestly care. It made it nigh impossible to get them high enough to be actually useful. Meaning your OP character always has aggro. Fine, I guess, if you're a tank player, but what about the rest of us?

Someone decided to remove blood splatter from a freaking BioWare game.

Someone decided to go with that wretched art style.

Someone decided nerfing the rogue class was a good idea. Why even have them? They're just light skirmishers, not rogues. Without, y'know, the rogue skills that make a rogue.

It was a decision, each and every time.

Someone decided everything about that game.

So miss me with the excuses.

I would like actual reasons, but I highly doubt we'll ever get them.

Someone made unwise and often foolish decisions during development of DAV. The results are clear.

Simply by the fact they aren't releasing sales numbers... that indicates it's probably not doing well. Larian basically called their earnings for BG3 out weekly.

It mostly just makes me sad now. DAV could've been fantastic. Because of decisions human beings in positions of power made, DAV, while having some good parts, just sucks.