#since it’s a post canon au but I figured he wouldn’t be as recognizable

[iszapizza]

knives and livio as kitties

[janetbrown711]

The Warners and Angelina the First

sooooooo- somebody asked me how i thought Angelina the First (my version) and the Warners would get along in my little au of Wakko’s Wish. However, I do have her dead before Angelina the Second and William are even married (her death is the reason why they’re allowed to get married, after all), but it did get me thinking about an AU of sorts- an AU in an AU if you will. 

For the moment I’ll just be referring it as the “Angelina the First Lives AU” (not to be confused with @madelynartz ‘s Angelina Lives AU). If anyone comes up with a better idea, I’ll update the post with a better title, but for now the hour is late and my brain is very full of angsty and over the top dramatic ideas I must release onto the public. 

For simplicities sake, I’ll be reffering to them as Angelina 1, Lena, and Dot

Before I start though, I must thank @madelynartz and @imbeccablee bc they helped bounce off ideas and stuff so yeah ^^

Trigger warning for a lot, a lot of abuse

So the way this would work is if Angelina 1 never got ill, and as the likelihood of Lena being forced to marry a suitor was growing stronger and stronger, her and William decided to elope so that wouldn’t happen. 

The conversation went something like “boom, divorce is forbidden for royals, I’m no longer ‘pure’ by your and societies stupid standards, and I’m already with child- suck it mom”

As you can imagine, Angelina 1 didn’t take that well, and was outraged, abuses the frick out of her, and locks Lena away for at least a month (William joins her later)

Lena and William did genuinely consider running away several times, but Lena knew she was too recognizable, and a bounty would be placed for her safe return, but not William’s and he’d be more likely to be killed if they escaped than if they stayed- plus, being pregnant and running away is hard

Eventually Yakko was born, and Angelina 1 made it clear that she would be an influence and figure in his life, and that Lena and William had no say in the matter, or else.

So William and Lena did their best to teach him morals and how to be a decent person and never leave him alone, before Angelina 1 would swoop in and teach him what she thought made a good king

“A good isn’t so emotional” “A good king puts his people above all else” “A good king listens to and respects his elders”

For awhile, he didn’t know whether or not all of her advice and wisdom was good or bad, as it didn’t sound wrong to his impressionable ears

Yakko didn’t exactly like Angelina 1 per se, but since she was family, and he was taught to at least show common decency to people- even those he disliked- he did listen and never got mad at her 

“Good- at least you’re a little bit smarter than your mother already”

Angelina 1 couldn’t have cared less when Wakko was born- however his “feral”ness and his clinginess to Yakko often got in the way of her “lessons”

One time, when Wakko was four, he got upset and raised his voice a little bit to talk over her, and she smacked him across the room

Yakko was furious, and bit Angelina 1 in anger and protectiveness over his little brother

This also forced Yakko to realize how awful his grandmother was, and how he was becoming a bad person, and after that he never gave her advice a chance ever again

Lena nearly went feral and full on attacked her mother when she heard that she hit Wakko, and William had to physically restrain her from going to kill her mother (not because he didn’t also want to kill her, but because he knew it was treason, and that Lena would have to be killed too)

Howevere, despite the fact that he fricken bit her, Angelina 1 doesn’t stop trying to shape Yakko into what she wants, and she just got crueler and more forceful with her lessons (however, they’re much less effective bc Yakko knows how much she sucks and refuses to listen and instead just sasses and “smart asses” her (like with Ms. Flamiel in canon)

She does try isolating him away from the rest of his family, but that never works, as he always found a way to escape and William would then protect him and make sure he made it out of his lessons alright (he is a knight after all)

Again, Angelina 1 didn’t really care when Dot was born, focusing her energy on trying to make Yakko listen to her by any means possible

Though she would refuse to call her Dot and would only call her Angelina 3, which Dot and Lena would loathe

I’m not quite sure what Angelina 1 would think of Dot outside of that, but I do imagine her trying to make her a proper lady, but Dot is very similar to her mother and has her infamous wit, and so she wouldn’t get far

However, Angelina 1 probably continued to try anyway, constantly pulling her away from playing with her brothers and giving her lessons in manners, which would irritate Lena and she and her mother would have long arguments about Dot which wouldn’t end pretty

At the end of the day though, they did have each other, and when Angelina 1 wasn’t around, they’d spend time together as a family, and the kids would often pretend they were over throwing the evil queen (which Angelina and William made sure they weren’t actually going to do- but didn’t discourage them from imagining-)

I’m not sure whether or not the assassination/attack on Warnerstock Castle would happen in this au, or whether or not Angelina 1 would die in that or if William and Lena would be the only ones to die in such attack, so I’m taking suggestions on that

My thoughts on if only their parents die, then the Warner sibs would be placed soley under their grandmother’s care and the protection they had with their parents would evaporate, and Yakko, Wakko and Dot would need to think of an escape plan bc they probs wouldn’t last long (sanely speaking) if they stayed. 

If Angelina 1 also dies, then Wakko’s Wish continues on like normal, with added childhood trauma for fun

So... yeah

I probably left things out, but these are my main thoughts. I might add more, who knows. 

If you’re going to request fics in this seperate universe, I humbly request you specify so in your ask, please and thank you ^^

[evakuality]

Some thoughts on writing and characterization

I’ve seen a lot of discussion in the fandom lately about how to write characters and to what extent it’s okay to change canon characteristics in fic, and I guess in art too.  One comment I saw really stuck with me and I want to explore the ideas behind it a little more.  Now I just want to clarify here that I’m not telling anyone they have to write a certain way or that any idea in any post I happened to see (and which I can’t remember now where I saw it, so I can’t even credit the person with that idea) is wrong.  I just had some ideas which were pinged by that one comment in particular and the whole discussion in general.  This is messy and my own opinion only.  I’m well aware that other people think other ways, I just want to record how I feel about it all.  Also, as usual, this got VERY long so … uh, beware of that.

So, the comment I saw claimed that making Isak smaller and slighter and weaker than he’s shown in the show, or making Even actually taller and stronger is just a preference and that doing so is perfectly fine because who’s to say that in the parallel universe represented by the fic that those things aren’t true.  And okay sure, in some ways that’s fair.  We don’t expect things to be exactly the same in an au.  Different situations will inevitably end up with characters having different outlooks, and I get that.  I write that sort of thing myself, and there’s a real joy in thinking ‘how would changing x thing about y character affect him or her while still keeping them recognizable?’ But for me that’s different to what we’re talking about here.

What’s happening here is our fics taking actual physical traits of the actual actors and changing them.  And unlike personality characteristics, these aren’t things that could believably be changed.  To be clear here, I’m not talking about ‘what if Isak were a fairy?’ (I love that fic!) or ‘what if Isak were trans?’ (I love that idea too), but rather a tendency to write a ‘changed’ character as if he were an actual part of the canon.  The difference is subtle, I know, but the distinction is actually huge.  Again, I reiterate, we can all write what we want etc etc but I think exploring this difference is important in figuring out why we as fandoms write the way we do.

Deliberately changing something to wonder ‘what if’ is quite different to writing a certain set of tropes in a certain way.  Because the thing is, if it really were just people having a preference we would have a much wider variation of these traits presented as if they were canon.  Let’s do a thought experiment.  Let’s say someone writes a fic.  It’s labelled Isak/Even and presented as if what’s inside is just the sort of variation you’d find in a parallel universe.  In it, Even is a small Asian guy with dark hair who is physically unimposing.  Isak is a tall, broad, very muscular body builder.  There’s no ‘what if’ and no hint that this is out of the ordinary.  Indeed, the fic treats this as just how they are in canon.  None of this is tagged because that’s just Isak and Even, no big deal.  How many of us are squinting at that going ‘what? That’s not Isak and Even; how can the writer of that fic not say that’s a deviation from what we know?’ I think we can all agree that this fic would be strange, and we’d instinctively go ‘this isn’t Isak and Even’ because it’s not.  I think those sound like fascinating characters, and I’d love to read about them, but they aren’t Isak and Even.  I’ve also seen people saying ‘don’t like, don’t read’ but in this case that doesn’t apply because it hasn’t been tagged.  There’s no way before going in and reading that fic for us to know that there’s something that’s been changed from canon.  

So why is it okay for us to say ‘parallel universes so they’re just like that’ for one set of characteristics and not the other?  Why do we shrug and accept tiny, weak Isak but we find it difficult to accept tiny, unimposing Even?  Why is it that a particular set of tropes are an acceptable preference that can just be dumped into a fic as if it’s canon but others can’t be?  And why is that particular set of tropes that’s permissible the set that allows for a heteronormative reading of the text and the pairing?  We do a disservice to the characters when we do just shrug and accept this as just the way it is and don’t examine why we like it.

Because the important thing here is that these tropes are not just an Isak/Even thing; they occur in practically every fandom that has a popular m/m pairing.  I’m not in the fandoms for Harry Potter, Merlin, Supernatural, Glee, Marvel etc and yet I have heard similar comments about pairings in all of them.  Some fandoms even come to blows if you put the ‘wrong’ character in the ‘wrong’ role (Supernatural fandom, you are always fascinating to me).  It was never quite that bad in Skam, but there was a long time when people were vilified if they wrote Even as the bottom and people were tagging bottom Even and making author’s notes because they were so worried that they would call down the wrath of the fandom on their heads.  This is ironic since the only canon hint we have about their sex life strongly suggests that Even was the bottom in that case.  And you know, if this was just harmless fun, people writing what they like and posting it for free, I’d probably be okay with it (though I’d beg for it to be tagged so I could avoid this stuff that I don’t particularly want to read).  But the thing is there are two problems here: 1. It’s so ingrained in this fandom now that we now consider this ‘canon’ so it’s never ever tagged and 2. This type of thing can have an actual effect on actual real people.

Again, this wouldn’t be an issue if there was a wider range of stories in the fandom.  I’ve seen people saying that the Scandinavian fics are much better in this way and that they use those tropes much less so there’s no problem with diversity of ideas in the fandom.  And that’s fantastic, it really is.  I’m genuinely happy for the people who can read those (and I really want more translated and/or to learn enough language so I could read them).  Unfortunately, many people are like me and can’t read them so we are all stuck with the English language fics.  Equally unfortunately, a lot of those fics fall into these tropes.  Many of them include just small moments where some small thing is casually dropped in as if it’s ‘just how it is.’  Isak swims in Even’s clothes, Isak is tiny, Isak has to stand on tiptoes to kiss Even etc etc.  None of these, by themselves, is inherently bad.  The problem comes when they are piled on top of each other, fic after fic (and indeed art after art).  When this is 90% of what we see in fic it becomes a pattern, and soon it becomes accepted as truth.  Except that, in the actual show, none of those things is the truth.  

I’ve said it before, but many of these accepted things are not correct: In canon, Isak and Even share clothes and they fit both of them fine, Isak is shorter than Even but he’s not so tiny that tiptoes are necessary for kissing.  And the major issue with such revisions as if they were canon is that they all play into a certain set of stereotypes.  And those stereotypes all serve to put our m/m pairing in a very heteronormative position.  They trap Isak in the ‘weak, submissive, spoiled, nagging bottom’ role and Even is forced into the ‘dominant, aggressive, controlling, forceful top’ role.  And none of those things is either inherent in the physical attributes of the characters (even if physical attributes reflected stereotypical personality traits, which they don’t) or a true reflection of the characters’ personalities.  Even isn’t aggressive or domineering.  He’s not controlling.  He runs away from his issues rather than facing them, and he hates being controlled.  He’s unlikely to enjoy doing to others what he hates having done to him.  Isak, on the other hand, can be an aggressive little asshole who would punch someone if they looked at him or his boyfriend in the wrong way.  In terms of personality (again, if personality truly reflected these stereotypes, which it doesn’t), it would make much more sense for those roles to be reversed.  Canon Isak acts much more like the ‘top’ in these tropes, and canon Even (gentle, kind, avoidant Even) is closer to the ‘bottom’ stereotype.  (For the record, I’m not advocating for merely turning the tropes on their heads and just having Isak be the strong, dominant one and Even the weak, submissive one; they may be closer to those stereotypes but they still don’t fit into these sets of personality traits.  They’re both strong and confident in some ways and very vulnerable in others.  This is just saying that even if we were sticking to the stereotypes, the way each role is usually ascribed makes little sense with our canon characters). These are such complex, layered, rounded, human characters that reducing them to these ideas seems so limiting; by doing so, we lose so much of what makes them such interesting and powerful characters.  There’s also the fact that, as shown in this meta I wrote, Isak hates the feminized stereotype of gay people and would not thank us for putting him in that role.  And while that might make for a fascinating character study, that’s not what tends to happen in fic.  What tends to happen is that this dynamic is just accepted as true and assumed to be the way things are.  I’d actually love to see a fic where a deeply internally homophobic Isak comes to terms with actually enjoying being a ‘feminine’ gay man (If anyone knows one, please feel free to let me know about it).  But it’s not canon and it’s not what the bulk of fics with this type of Isak are doing.

Now I’m being a little facetious here because, of course, Isak is fictional and his wishes and preferences don’t mean anything except to add a layer of irony to this now-accepted and common idea (unless we’re trying to write a canon Isak in which case we should really pay attention to what he thinks and feels).  But there is a group of people who are affected by this stuff -- lgbt+ people in fandom.  This group is exposed to these ideas over and over and over again.  This group will be taking on these ideas little by little.  No one fic or artwork by itself is an issue, of course.  No one person is ‘the problem’ just like none of us is perfect (I’m here to say I’m sure I’ve fallen, and will fall, into some of this stereotyped stuff myself despite trying not to, and I know I’m horrible at tagging in particular and am trying to get better).  But the problem is that when this is the message, over and over again, it’s very hard to think outside or see outside it.  No matter what fandom we lgbt+ people fetch up in, this message is always there.  And much like Isak in the show, we lgbt+ people in fandom are exposed mostly to this certain set of tropes, this idea that there is an actual defined and acceptable role for gay or other lgbt+ people to take on.  That one character is, and always will be, smaller, weaker, often younger, and therefore more submissive and that the other is, and always will be, larger, stronger, often older, and therefore more dominant.  This is not inherently true, not in real life; people don’t fit into sets of stereotypes and lgbt+ couples don’t inherently have one who is always top and one who is always bottom.  Again, this wouldn’t be an issue except that when we do this, we imply that those actual real life lgbt+ relationships also have a dichotomy which feminizes one half of the pairing in a way that can be harmful when it’s all that’s presented.

In itself, this idea is an issue because it says all relationships fit into the same narrow set of dichotomies.  This isn’t actually a good message for anyone in any relationship (and many heterosexual texts shoehorn similar roles into many romances too), but it’s worse when the relationship portrayed is lgbt+ because it implies rigid gender roles where, by definition, they don’t exist.  It’s also true that even while we see these tropes in heterosexual romances as well, straight people have a much wider diversity in the way their relationships are portrayed.  However, there are far more limited representations for lgbt+ people, particularly in traditionally published, or broadcast, media.  That means that when they turn to fanfiction and the bulk of what they see is this very narrow set of tropes, it’s hard not to take on board those messages.  Isak himself is a good example of why this is bad as I said in that internalized homophobia meta I linked earlier.  He stays in the closet much longer than he might otherwise have done because he had such a narrow set of models of what it means to be gay.

Then, of course, there is the way that the smaller one in the pair can end up being fetishized.  He is always the one who is made to wear the feminine clothing, he is the one whose body is most often exposed in art, he is the one who then acts in a very stereotyped ‘feminine’ way in fic.  These fetishized moments are deeply uncomfortable to come across as an lgbt+ person and it’s an extra unfortunate byproduct of these ways of lgbt+ people being represented.  So while, yes, everyone has a right to write what they like when they’re putting their work out onto the internet for free, it’s also nice for us to take a step back and look at the wider context.  Because none of this happens in a vacuum, and as individuals and as a fandom it can pay to take that step back and ask why this is our preference.  It may seem like a small thing to write a small physical characteristic change which makes one or the other character seem smaller or weaker (or alternatively bigger or stronger) but as part of a wider pattern it all builds on everything else we put out there and creates a fandom where a lot of what we consume just cements in a set of expectations of what it means to be lgbt+ that is then very hard to see past.  

I’m not saying no-one should ever write these fics, of course.  If we want to write Isak being small and needing to go on tiptoes, then we should go for it, but we should be aware of why we’re writing that way (and maybe find a way to put Even on his tiptoes; everyone deserves a good tiptoe kiss moment!)  If we want to write D/s sex, we should do it, but maybe we need to think a bit about how we’re presenting it.  Is it healthy?  Is it properly negotiated?  Why have we decided which character should be in which role?  Stopping and thinking a little can only help the creative output in the fandom; it can give us a wider range of reading and viewing material to choose from, and it makes us more aware of what we as a fandom are doing.  The Harry/Draco fandom in Harry Potter apparently turned this around, moved away from a rigid idea of who was top and who was bottom (and who was dom and who was sub) and it’s flourishing even now, so many years after its canon is over.  If we want to flourish into the future too, maybe we can diversify a little more and be a little more thoughtful and respectful of the people this fandom is supposed to represent, too.  To the lgbt+ people in fandom, who deserve to see ourselves in as much variety as straight people do and who do not deserve to see ourselves fetishized and reduced to tropes over and over again, this could mean a lot.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Hi! I've read many of your posts and they're awesome! Think of this one! If the Dragon Riders were in a Modern AU what would be their hobbies? What kind of animals will their dragons be?

Thank you so much!

There have been lots of different interesting modern AUs whereby the dragons have become cats, dogs, or even horses. There’s some good appeal to each idea. Personally, I wouldn’t mind making the dragons based upon the creatures they were designed from; so, Toothless would be a cat, Stormfly a bird, Meatlug a dog, and... I guess Barf and Belch would be a snake and Hookfang a lizard or something.

Now for hobbies...

Hiccup

Hiccup is the inventive powerhouse of Berk. In a modern AU, Hiccup would likely be just as revolutionary - and the area where our greatest technological development is currently... is computers. I can easily imagine Hiccup as someone who constantly fiddles around with both computer hardware and software. He’s built his own machines. He knows how to program in multiple languages. I like to imagine modern!Hiccup as a techie who spends a lot of his hobby free time playing around with computers.

If we want, we could also suggest that Hiccup has other hobbies in other areas of invention and creating. Maybe Hiccup is decent at fixing cars, too, or at the very least knows the basics. Maybe he’s taken a woodworking class in high school. His high school physics projects were possibly a little over the top. If Hiccup enters any club at his high school, it’s the robotics club.

Another significant area of hobbies for Hiccup is going to be the arts. Hiccup is canonically a talented artist in the DreamWorks franchise. There’s no reason why Hiccup wouldn’t enjoy sketching and drawing in the modern world, too. His preferred art style is probably realism, with an emphasis of making the image more photorealistic as versus developing a recognizable artistic style. He’s probably drawn a lot on paper, but given as he loves the latest technology, does a bit with digital art, too.

I don’t think Hiccup would have gotten into sports. Stoick might have tried to put his kid into a few sports when he was younger, and maybe Hiccup tried some other sports on his own volition in the desperate attempt to appear “cool.” No success. Hiccup would not be an athlete growing up. The one potential area of exception is equestrian sports. Even if I do like Toothless as a cat best, there’s still something fun to be said about Hiccup having an ability to ride an animal extremely well in a modern AU. Hiccup could be quite talented riding horses, capable of competing in every event from jumping to dressage.

Astrid

Astrid, unlike Hiccup, is an accomplished athlete. She tried soccer/football at a young age and was pretty good at it. She stuck with it for a number of years until she switched to rugby. On top of that, Astrid has trained as a gymnast since she was very young, and also tried her hand at several martial arts. Even for sports she has not officially competed in, she still manages to perform impressively. She steals the day for informal volley ball matches she has with friends, and everyone wants her on their team for ultimate frisbee. Heck, she’s probably wrestled some of her friends to the ground on random occasions, too.

Astrid spends so much time on her academics and competitive sports that she doesn’t have too many hobbies outside of these. She’s never had the time and attention to develop her cooking skills, though on the rare occasion she tries to make eggnog, everyone in the family runs frantically away.

Snotlout

Snotlout in the DreamWorks franchise seems to be accomplished with the needle. Maybe this translates to a modern world, too; Snotlout actually knows how to cross-stitch and work a sewing machine and knit scarves (which he always claims are made by his aunt, not him).

Snotlout also mentions working out in the first HTTYD movie. I bet Snotlout loves going to the gym to lift weights and tone his hot body several times a week. He’s probably not that talented at actual team sports (despite trying to sign up and show off on a few of the most popular sports), but he can make up for his embarrassing year of football by lifting impressively at the gym. Well, he thinks it’s impressive, anyway. And it’s not bad. Though... Astrid can outlift him.

Fishlegs

DreamWorks’ biggest nerd will be a nerd in the modern world, too. To be honest, Fishlegs’ hobbies are really easy for me to imagine!

Fishlegs plays Magic: The Gathering and has even been to a few local tournaments. He knows all the ins-and-outs of the game, the most expensive cards, the best tactics, you name it. You get him started talking about MTG... and he won’t shut up for another few hours. He’s also a huge video game lover and can be seen on the PC or console several hours a day. Especially, he’s obsessed with League of Legends.

Fishlegs enjoys watching nerd culture movies and knows a decent amount of comic book material. He’ll watch superhero movies and get into debates about which hero would beat who in what sort of competition. You’ll find him at the occasional local comic or sci-fi convention. Star Wars, Star Trek, Firefly, Teen Titans... he’s enjoyed them all.

In high school, Fishlegs enjoyed a few academic competitions, especially in the sciences. I am sure he’s participated in both Science Bowl and Science Olympiad. He’s probably gotten a few medals from Science Olympiad at both the regionals and state level... maybe even making it to the national competition.

It’s also fairly easy for me to see Fishlegs as a band geek and/or orch dork.

Tuffnut

Tuffnut also seems to know a bit about needlework given comments in RTTE. He also seems to like interior decorating and other such things. Perhaps in the modern world Tuffnut has a good eye for fabric and tailorsmanship, too. I’m going to suggest this not so much because it’s in his character but because it’s amusing to consider: but Tuffnut making cosplay. That could be entertaining. Or maybe it’s just unusually elaborate Halloween costumes? It’s a holiday he and Ruffnut get a little too engrossed in.

I don’t imagine Tuffnut being involved in too many activities, especially not formal clubs or extracurriculars. However, there’s one exception: theatre. Tuffnut adores theatre, and I’m sure he’s auditioned for a few roles at his local high school. Even when it’s just English class and the teacher assigns the students into groups to act out a Shakespeare scene, Tuffnut gets... overdramatic and involved.

It’s not exactly a “hobby” but I’m sure that Ruffnut and Tuffnut spent many hours together enacting pranks at school.

If Tuffnut got involved in a sport, it’d be figure skating. He’d go for the figure skating; Ruffnut would go for the hockey.

Ruffnut

Like Astrid, I could also imagine Ruffnut as a rugby player. Ruffnut is fierce, downright fierce, at the sport. There’s no fear. There are times that Ruffnut gets irritated and jealous that her teammate Astrid receives a lot of the credit - Astrid is a bit more popular than Ruffnut - but Ruff’s coach is fully aware of how bold and dedicated a player the Thorston twin is.

When Ruffnut enters college, she finds herself participating in some extreme experiences. She’s gone bungee jumping and skydiving multiple times and has greatly enjoyed both experiences.