#marti rants about her blorbos

[shirefantasies]

Thank you for the follower acknowledgment! I just followed you in the past few days and had looked through your work more than anything else and when you thanked us I felt kinda bad because I thought it was so so so nice of you to do but I hadn’t put much thought in the person behind it. I was so wrapped up in learning about a new character from a universe I loved that I’ve never noticed before and I took an effing Tolkien humanities collage class. 😅😂

But yeah I had never heard of the elf Feren before you or at least paid attention to him in the hobbit movies I went back and rewatched them to find him 🤣 so thanks a lot man, smh, now I have a new hot elf mans to simp over (I’m joking it actually renewed my interest and I started looking at more backgroundish characters I hadn’t noticed before which is normally my forte being an Infp. I’ve been slacking man.)

Also hello fellow Libra ♎️ I also enjoy dnd I’ve never played but have read a few of the older books, read the Drizzt comics, and haven’t played but watched the play through a of Baldurs gate 3 (Astarion and Sorn Orlith omg 😳) Also have you heard of chuckles the clown? 😂 my favorite race from dnd is half-elves (I was a gifted adhd kid so I can relate to the being picked on and not fitting in) and Drow they fascinate me.

Also Star Wars (there’s a comic from like the 1970’s with a character called Taikotelai who was a one and one like feral so I’m writing a fic to fix that I love him he didn’t deserve to die. Harry Potter too (Ravenclaw is my house, my collage professor also did a Harry Potter humanities class and sorted us into houses and kept score. It was awesome especially since he dressed as snape one time since he’s the same personality type and a Slytherin. (Ravenclaw won, Hufflepuff in second, Slytherin, and Gryphandor had negative points 😂 they kept saying the name Voldemort and he penalized for that.)

Star Trek (depending on the series), transformers especially tfp and tfa prowl (he loves organic nature and quiet which I get). Bluey don’t judge me I’m 20-25 (not comfortable with publicly sharing true age) I’m allowed to like children’s shows and books with some adult themes occasionally, life doesn’t give us a happy ending why should fiction. 😂 marvel, some dc, A-team. MASH klinger is the original Disney Princess 🤣 change my mind if you don’t know who that is you must google him.

*sorry for the ramble 😅 I was just shocked at the amount we had in common the rest is me seeing if there’s anything else 😂 but yeah always up for discussions. And really thanks again for all the hard work and creativity you put into your writing! I know it’s a lot of times thankless but discovering your writing really brightened up my week. Especially getting back into the hobbit like that it was almost like seeing it anew because I made it my mission to notice things and characters I hadn’t paid attention to before. Also I can tell you put a lot of thought and care into the characterization of the different characters in each one shot, story, headcanons, you do and that’s awesome! I hope you have a great rest of your week!

(I’m doing anonymous cause I’m shy 😓 and some social anxiety sorry if this was weird. I can message you later if you want to know. Or you can ignore me, like I said I went on a rambling tangent it was cool to find out we had so much in common and I’m like ‘that’s why I’ve liked SO much of her writing and not a select few!’ that’s so cool!)

OMG IF YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE 🅱️LS 🅱️LS 🅱️LS MESSAGE MEEEEE!!! Among so much other cool stuff you mentioned one of my favorite fictional characters EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR one Mr. Maxwell Q Klinger and my eyes just saw MASH Klinger and hyperzoomed and I got so excited that someone else loves this amazing guy I could talk about for hours!!! M*A*S*H is my favorite show E V E R!!! I don't have to google him, but maybe I will anyway just cuz I like lookin at him 😌 fun fact: My dad and I both share a birthday with a M*A*S*H and LoTR cast member! Dad's January 28th which is Alan Alda and Elijah Wood, while I (October 20th) have William Christopher and Viggo Mortensen! My dad also gets John Banner AKA Schultz from Hogan's Heroes! Have you seen HH too?

Don't worry you can clearly see I go on tangents too 😂 I totally get feeling shy and stuff, so up to you! Background characters are the BESSSST though I too have an obscure Star Wars blorbo who popped up in a handful of expanded universe novels (and the comic rendition) and I just love him even though he's nowhere near major. I am not familiar with Taikotelai yet but I wanna read that fic! SW is the best fandom for the coolest small time blorbos I swear! I'm the opposite of you because I've played D&D but never BG3 even though I post about it on my personal a lot 😅 (it's @spacemanxpaninis if you wanna chat there too! That's where you can see all my fandoms and insanity hehe) I just don't have anything that can run it so I have to live vicariously through the playthroughs too 💔

do NOT be worried about me judging you for anything that seems cringe to you, cartoons/animation is a big special interest for me and I love most things animated! I am almost 25 and have been wanting to watch Bluey myself! Comfort content FTW! I hate things that have no happy ending BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 🍅🍅🍅 I don't pay to feel bad! Real life gives me enough negative emotions!!! 🍅🍅🍅 To help relieve any feelings of cringe: lemme let you in on a little secret: you know what I watch after the most heartrending draining breakdowns? Family Guy. I fucking watch Family Guy because it's the best turn your brain off mindless entertainment simple amusement with no big emotional stakes 9 times out of 10. If you ever feel bad about Bluey you can picture good ol shirefantasies sitting there post-breakdown tear-streaked watching Peter Griffin dance to Surfin Bird.

That class sounds like fun! Teachers bringing themes or fandoms into classes >>>> I need to watch more Star Trek! My dad started watching the original with my brother and I but we stopped because my brother didn't like it and bitched about 'every episode just being something getting on the ship' :( but I've also heard great things about Deep Space Nine and whichever the one with Patrick Stewart is (New Generation?????)! Love me some scifi. Usually I'm more of a Star Wars girlie but A. I don't discriminate B. I know how pretentious I sound specifying pre-2015 and expanded universe only even though it's true 💀

Bro (lmk if you don't like bring called 'bro' or 'girl' or either, I use those pretty indiscriminately of gender unless people don't like it or get confused, also feel free to tell me your pronouns and a name/nickname/even just emoji if you'd rather in your next ask or if you do message 🫶🏻) I will NEVER ignore you 😤 Legit this is the most exciting ask I've ever gotten on here because you're super cool and we have a lot in common and raaahhhh I wasn't that excited to get on here but E N E R G Y S U R G E I hope we can be friends!

[irish-urn]

Hi! So I’ve been reading some LWD fanfics and it’s always weird whenever some stories make Abby as this cruel mom who abandoned her children and is never in their lives. Like if you watch the episode “Adios Derek” it is clearly said that she comes by almost every weekend from Toronto to see her kids (that’s more than Dennis does and he is seen in better lights than Abby). And in that episode you could see how much Derek and Marti loves their mom (We don’t see much of Edwin and Abby though since he has his own plot going), so it’s kind of disheartening to see people write Derek as if he hates or thinks of Abby as a stranger, Nora said it clearly “the kids misses you a lot but they’re even prouder of you”.

ALSO, as a science student, I could tell you first hand HOW DIFFICULT it is doing an undergrad in that field, so I can’t understand the difficulty of a doctorate, I have a professor who told us that with a thesis paper there’s an oral exam where the examiner can literally ask you the wildest question about your subject and YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT BY HEART AT THAT MOMENT and if you don’t the examiner will fail you. So with all that pressure, studying, lab work and seeing her kids every weekend (the back and forth driving), it must take such a toll on her.

I don’t blame her for her absence and neither do the kids (obviously), but some writers seem to hate her guts for following her dream and being a weekend mom. I think it’s admirable that they went this route, usually they either make the divorced mom devoted to her kids or a horrible person who doesn’t like her kids, but here you have a mom doing her studies and being a mom.

And not to mention, the episodes are a snapshot of some days, it doesn’t show everything, so there’s most likely days where Derek, Edwin and Marti spends days with their mom (ex: Fright Night) and we don’t see it because then we’ll be missing key characters on the show. I hate how some writers act like Nora is more their mom than Abby is, like??? It’s such a disrespect to Abby and the kids like the kids NEVER called Nora “mom” and I don’t think they ever will since they clearly see her only as their step-mom and Abby as their mom (ex: Fright Night where Derek and Edwin clearly don’t see her as an authoritarian figure they have to listen to (unless their dad is there) unlike when Derek had to break the news to his mom that he doesn’t want to go to Spain (he was so scared to disappoint her) or when George yelled at him in S1).

Most times I feel like nobody watched Abby’s appearance (she is such a cool character, you can clearly see why George fell in love with her and how Nora and her became friends), they just saw the scenes between Dasey and called it a day. I’m sorry this is such a rant, but I feel like moms are always so discouraged to follow their dreams because they have kids (whereas if the men does it it’s empowering 🙄), my mom also had to sacrifice her dream because of her marriage and kids, so when I saw Abby following her career and still being there for her kids, it was so refreshing and then seeing all the hate she gets for it…really disgusted me.

Hiiii!!! Yay let's talk about Abby and the parents and Derek (because he's my blorbo and therefore everything spirals back to him *anyways*).

First of all: yes. I think you've summed up Abby and how she's actually portrayed in the show MUCH better than I ever could (I tend to ramble, as I think everyone knows). She's a really cool, good mom; and actually, I think you made something spark in me which is going to change how I write her in my kick at the darkness series — I've always been really torn on whether she stayed in Spain/Europe or moved back to Canada, because the show never really says, but now I think I know what I wanna do with her...

Secondly: regarding your frustrations about characterization within the fandom — the most interesting thing to me about LWD is that it's marketed as a sitcom, but it's actually far messier than that. Most sitcoms put a lot of stock into tropes, both plot AND character tropes. Just look at FRIENDS or Seinfeld or B99. Although the characters are more than just their tropes, viewers (and writers) do tend to fall back on "character types" when it comes to sitcoms.

Now, what does that mean for the 4 parents: Well, we have to divide them up into pre-determined tropes, right? And if we already have a "devoted good mom" in Nora... That means Abby has to be her foil, right? I think this is a trap that a lot of writers fall into, and it's easy to do.

LWD is cool though, because they do play with these tropes. Because Nora is a devoted mom, but she also compromises for the good of her marriage, parentfies the HELL out of Casey, and has severe self-esteem issues. George is the well-meaning but absent-minded father, but he's also extremely lax and inconsistent with his discipline, a lawyer who seems to coast more on his charm than his debating skills, and the kind of dad who likes all the fun parts about raising a child while being really bad at all of the less-fun (and arguably far more important parts).

Now, we see this because George and Nora are part of the main cast, so we get a chance to see them develop these characters. Abby, unfortunately, gets very little screen time, and most of her character is told us by what other characters say about her. The fun/interesting/dangerous thing about that is characters are extremely biased and Derek is RIPE for biased perspective.

(Here's where I bring in my blorbo; apologies, but you knew what would happen)

Since Derek is our MMC, we see a lot of the world through his eyes; and I think Derek has a lot of mixed feelings about his parents. A good chunk of that is because of the divorce — I don't care how necessary or right a divorce is, it's gonna be traumatic for the kids. And even if Abby and George have a good relationship post-divorce, Derek (and Edwin and Marti) still had to go through watching their parents separate and their lives change forever. Judging by the (incredibly wack) timeline of the show, I think it's safe to say that Derek was probably 11/12 when his parents were divorcing. That's a BIG AGE. He's starting puberty. He has a new baby sister. He has a new school. He's trying to figure out who he is. And on top of all that, his parents are splitting up? The boy has feelings and scars.

Also, we need to keep in mind that Derek is a TEENAGER. They feel first and rationalize later. So if we pick up on any resentment or negative feelings from Derek regarding EITHER Abby or George, that doesn't mean they're bad people. It just means Derek has BIG FEELINGS and he's 16-18 and trying to figure out the world.

For instance, I'm writing the kick at the darkness series (I assume anyone who is on my blog for LWD content knows this series). I have two scenes of Derek&Abby planned for it: one is set in Derek's first year of Queen's, and one is set during his third year. ABBY AND HIS INTERACTIONS ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT IN THESE SCENES and 80% of that is because of Derek and where he is mentally. The difference between Derek at 19 and 21 is VAST. He's also just not in a good mindset in his first year and so he's not nearly as understanding of Abby as he could be; his interaction with his mom in his third year is really good though because his mental health and maturity has grown A LOT.

Both of these scenes and interactions can exist without either of them being OOC because people are complicated. I also suspect that Abby and Derek's relationship would get better over time as Derek matures, because he's gonna get a better appreciation of how difficult her choices were and how she did the best she could.

Slightly off-topic, but in the same vein: some people say that I'm harsh when I write George; but I actually find him hilarious and sweet most of the time. But what I'm playing with is Derek's growing pains and his changing view of his dad (also: the George&Derek relationship is MESSY AS HELL). Writing complicated characters and relationships is really difficult, and I struggle with it all the time. How do you balance all of people's flaws and strengths? Especially when, in fiction, there's almost always a conflict that's pushing the plot forwards that usually doesn't give people the chance to be their best selves (unlike life which is a cycle of peace and conflict). So, that might also be some of the explanation as to why Abby's writing in fandom is usually one-sided: a complicated character is difficult to write well; and if their main focus is Dasey, well... other characters may not be given as much effort to full flesh out. It's unfortunate, but understandable.

I also think that something that people might pick up on but might not recognize the complexities of is Derek's perception of himself. There's a scene in LWD when Derek tells George, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is being your son?" (or very close to it).

(Stay with me, I have a point)

George is a lawyer. Abby is a marine biologist. What do those two things have in common? A lot of education and focus and a clear career goal in mind. What are Derek's biggest weaknesses?

...His schooling, his focus, and a clear life goal.

What are the chances that a lot of Derek's mixed feelings about his parents come from HIS perception that they think he's dumber than they are? Do you think Derek sees his Ds and C-minuses and Fs, and then listens to his dad talk about his law cases, and his mom talk about her marine research, and he feels ashamed and stupid? I bet he does. I bet it makes him feel really small. And I bet it makes him lash out because that's what people do.

So, I know I went off on a bit of a tangent, and my thoughts went more in the realm of Derek's relationship WITH Abby, but I hope it was a good talk anyways? I ALWAYS HC that Derek and Abby have a really good relationship by the time he's, like, 21; and one that just gets stronger over time. I think she's cool.