#so this one popping up and making me unfollow a recent mutual and then having to refollow just fkn Irked me

[izzy-b-hands]

tumblr stop flashing random messages while im trying to search a tag on a mutuals blog challenge

bc when u do it's always RIGHT by the spyglass and follow/unfollow buttons and in my rush to make the message go away i end up fucking. unfollowing and having to refollow ppl and just. the lil for sale things are cute but let me make the choice to go look at them, just let me navigate a damn blog without that worry

[tallulah477]

Below the cut contains my thoughts and feelings about certain issues that I've seen recently that I feel like need to be addressed including hate/bullying, the new Neteyam & Lo'ak rp blogs, and the general fandom as a whole.

CW:// Mentions of pedophilia, predators, racism, and homophobia

Over the past several months, and especially over these past several days, it's come to my attention that we as a fandom need to make some things abundantly clear.

I was a silent reader for a long time. I love Avatar and this fandom with my entire heart and I wanted nothing more than to be an active part of it and member of the community, but the thing that stopped me for a long time was seeing how hateful people can be and I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Obviously, I decided that my happiness and sharing my love for Avatar and the characters with other people who love it as much as I do is more important than any nasty messages I might get and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I think I can safely say that most of us here in the fandom can say the same (although I'm sure the feeling of happiness comes with endless ebbs and flows for all of us).

That being said, the amount of sheer bullshit that I've been seeing on here is ridiculous.

The amount of hate messages that I've had to witness my mutuals receive is unacceptable. The amount of hounding as to why someone unfollowed this person, why aren't they interacting with this person anymore, why would someone write something like this, why won't you write this, is crazy to see. I've seen racist comments, I've seen homophobic comments, and I've seen people being called a pedophile wayyyy to often now.

This is Tumblr. We are responsible for our own media consumption. We cultivate our own media experience.

That means authors write what they enjoy regardless of content as long as they are responsible and tag the work correctly. You as the reader are responsible for heeding those warnings.

This means that if two people who used to interact or follow each other all of a sudden don't or someone gets blocked, it is no one's business as to why it happened. They don't owe you an explanation and there's no need to publicize drama. Do not go into their inboxes asking for details because all that does is feed the flames.

This is supposed to be people's happy place. Our safe space. And instead it seems like there's something new happening every single day.

At this point, we've all seen the rp blogs that have popped up. I'm not generally someone who enjoys rp so I didn't interact, but I saw a ton of my mutuals and others having a great time with them. Despite me not liking rp, it was exciting to see at first. A live persona of one of my most beloved characters interacting with fics that I love? Yes, it's definitely exciting to see!

But then it got not so exciting to see. The responses seemed solely sexual and out of character for Neteyam, a lot of them were really dark and borderline violent. I like dark fics, and I love dark Neteyam. But there are warnings to every dark fic and you go into them knowing what to expect. For a blog that's rp-ing a character that's not canonically like that, it was concerning to see.

We've had issues in this fandom in the past with predators. And despite us all being adults here (at least we should all be), you can never be too careful when it comes to the internet. I am NOT saying that the people running these blogs are predators, but certain things I've seen have raised some flags to me. Rp can be really dangerous when people don't know who's behind the character, especially if things are sexual. Since then, both blogs have created 'About Me' sections which I think is good. So that's something I appreciate.

However, we've also had the opposite problem in which minors interact with us and our content. It's a huge problem that we are constantly trying to battle because while seeing/reading sexual content can be harmful for those who are underage, it's can also get us into a lot of trouble for interacting with minors even if we don't know they're underage. When the accusation that the rp accounts were minors came out, they were sent asks to confirm. One responded respectfully and one, in my opinion, responded not so respectfully. If you are ever asked if you are a minor, don't get pissed about it. It's an important question and you should understand and respect its importance. Just clarify.

I'm saying all this not because I don't think people should interact with these blogs if you want to. It's 100% up to you and I know a lot of people were having fun with it. You're all adults, do what you think is best. And I do think it would be really nice to have more guys in the community, whether they rp or not. My issue with them is more about safety than anything else.

Now back to the hate comments. For any issues I might have had with the Neteyam blog (again, no hate, just my own thoughts), I only ever saw the Lo'ak blog being respectful. Yet, I still saw someone on their actual blog, not under anon, telling him "can't you just leave?". Under no circumstances is it okay to say this to another person. Any one who is an active member of this community who posts fics or the like KNOWS what its like to receive hateful comments like this and you think its okay to say something like this to someone else? No way. I'm sure you know what it feels like to get comments like that and you decided to be nasty to another person anyway. You should know better. Anyone who can say something mean to or about another person should be ashamed of themselves.

For as much as I love this fandom, this is insane that I actually have to say this.

Be kind. Be respectful.

And if you can't?

It's called the block button, people. Use it.

[bloodyvain]

❝    ―    𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐃𝐘  𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐊𝐄𝐒  !      seven  out  of  eight  members  of  co-ed  k-pop  group  LUN∀R  die  in  tragic  nightclub  fire.  the  only  survivors  of  said  group  were  group's  manager,  gim  eun  ji  and  group's  maknae,  yun  jae  seong   .   .   .  

a  year  after  tragedy, seok  ji  woon  (  formerly  known  as  yun  jae  seong  )  debuts  as  the  solo  star   𝙽𝙴𝙱𝚄𝙻𝙾𝚄𝚂.    an  artist  that  rose  from  the  flames  of  tragedy  !

𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒅𝒚𝒗𝒂𝒊𝒏 ―  independent  primarily fandomless  /  dead  by  daylight  killer  oc.  praised  by  astral!   triggering  material  ahead

⛧   .   *   .   –   listen  to  songs  sung  about:  the  best  type  of  ʀᴇᴠᴇɴɢᴇ  is  a  knife,  a  man  ᵃˢᶜᵉⁿᵈᶦⁿᵍ  to  𝐆𝐎𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃,  the  road  paved  in  gold  is  also  drenched  in  blood,  the  hidden  U̵N̵D̵E̵R̵B̵E̵L̵L̵Y̵  of  fame,  picking  up  ᴜ  ɴ  ʜ  ᴇ  ᴀ  ʟ  ᴛ  ʜ  ʏ  coping  mechanism  to  loss.  

¹ doc. ² interest tracker.

𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩:  𝙺𝙾𝙽𝙺𝚄𝚄𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙾.

𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 : hemat1c , sh4pechange , ofcr4nes , etern4lsun , s1ngedwings

RULES  BENEATH  THE  CUT

ONE.   THIS  BLOG  IS  18+  AND  THIS  IS  YOUR  WARNING.  Jiwoon is SERIAL KILLER.  Murder,  torture,  mutilation,  blood,  gore,  and  the  like  will  be  present  on  this  blog.  I  will  tag  anything  visually  that  includes  things  like  that,  but  with  writing  it  depends  on  how  graphic  it  is.  Triggers  are  tagged  as __  //.  I  don't  have  any  specific  triggers,  but  if  you  do,  please  let  me  know. Lastly,  on  the  topic  of  smut.  It  won't  be  under  readmore  unless  my  partner  does  it  first.  Also  I  won't  hold  off  my  smut  stuff  for  Sunday  and  will  post  stuff  like  that  on  main.  Whenever  I'm  in  the  mood  for  it,  it'll  happen.

TWO.   Honestly,  I'm  all  kinds  of  shipping  trash.  If  there's  a  chance  you  ship,  I  probably  ship  it  too!  I'm  a  fan  of  all  kind  of  ships  as  well.  Romantic,  platonic,  antagonistic,  and  everything  else  in  between. But  do  keep  in  mind  that  some  ships  can  be  quite  unhealthy. Jiwoon is obsessive and possessive and ready to be violent if needed. Not to mention he's very manipulative. Yeah, unhealthy all around.

THREE.   I  am  mutuals  only  and  that's  how  I'll  stick  for  my  own  comfort.  I  follow  whoever  I  want  and  I  wish  for  that  to  be  respected.  Don't  ask  me  why  I  didn't  follow  you  back.  Don't  follow,  unfollow,  follow  again  in  order  for  me  to  follow  you  back.  If  I  didn't  follow  you  back,  that's  that.  Don't  make  me  have  to  block  you,  and  I  hate  having  to  block  people.  Mutuals  are  free  to  send  in  inbox  memes  that  focus  on  interactions  between  muses  and  continue  them  from  that  ask  post!  Non-mutuals  are  free  to  send  in  ooc  questions  and  headcanon  things.  Mutuals  are  also  free  to  ask  for  my  discord  and  talk  to  me  in  the  IMs.  Mutuals  are  also  free  to  reblog  musings  posts  and  graphics  things  I  may  post!

FOUR.   I  make  every  single  graphic  on  this  blog.  The  icon  borders,  the  PSD,  and  everything  else.  Don't  steal  my  stuff,  thanks. I've  recently  been  experimenting  with  formatting.  I've  been  having  fun  bolding,  italicizing,  underlining,  and  using  colored  font.  I  also  double  space  and  haven't  been  using  small  font.  So  if  none  of  that  sounds  interesting  to  you,  I  would  recommend  not  following.

[p-redux]

Noticed that HJ hasn’t posted anything in real time in almost 2 weeks. Not even a current puppy pic which usually means she’s traveling without puppy. Her latest pic is an old one and she even said that in her caption. The last time she did this, she traveled to Scotland and London. It was right after S returned home from Hawaii. She told on herself when she posted a pic of the Glasgow street art in her stories and then quickly deleted it. She popped up a few days later in London. I’ve also noticed that SS and Marina have been commenting on her posts again. She also started following the new William (Charles V) on IG. Some are talking about HJ and S unfollowing each other and that they must have fallen out. It actually makes me even more suspicious. S doesn’t follow everyone he has dated. Doesn’t follow AM or MC. He also rarely unfollows people even his exes. So why unfollow now? Again makes me suspicious. DB recently unfollowed half the cast of OL including C and SS. I don’t think they have fallen out either. Just communicating another way probably by phone and tex. Also HJ didn’t seem to have a problem running back after his month long vacay with Bunny. So why would she care now? I noticed that she posted an old pic the other day taken in 2019 at the builders arms pub in London. The pic with the Cartier box and double Dutch with 2 glasses. Some of the fans rumored that she was with S that night. Why would she post THAT pic? Just curious to hear your thoughts on it. It seems that no one else wants to touch on it.

Anon, Hannah posted this pic 2 days ago, seems like in real time. 👇

As for the pic you're referring to from London 2019 👇

Hannah tagged her good friend @lynerenee don't think it has anything to do with Sam.

I really think Samnah aka Sam + Hannah ran its course. They DID date (I have CONFIRMATION of this), but it's been over.

As for why they stopped following each other on Instagram...this is what I answered a previous Anon 👇

"And why don't they follow anymore? The short answer is: it happened after the Monika Clarke pics came out publicly. My guess is Hannah blocked Sam. Sam has never unfollowed an ex. They've unfollowed him. But there's never been a time where an ex followed Sam but he didn't follow them. So, to me Sam also not following Hannah, isn't because he unfollowed her, it's because SHE blocked him, which automatically takes him off her followers list."

"Some speculate that Sam will no longer mutually follow any women he dates, so as to not bring attention to them e.g. that was the case with Anna Modler and Monika Clarke. BUT, he was already following Hannah James, and had to know about the previous speculation. So, there's no reason for them to mutually unfollow. Again, I think she blocked him, had enough after she saw the public pics that went viral of Sam and Monika kissing in NY."

People have DMed me asking why Hannah didn't block Sam after Gia in Hawaii or after Anna Modler. My opinion is that the news about those women was talked about only on fandom blogs, the news didn't get posted in celeb online articles or go viral. Whereas, the pics of Sam and Monika Clarke DID go public, got picked up by celeb outlets, and went viral. Hannah saw those for sure. The mutual unfollow or rather--my take that Hannah BLOCKED Sam, happened right after the Monika pics. I could be wrong, but that's what I think happened. 🤷‍♀️

Hope that answers your question, Anon. Thanks for stopping by!

[lehhoh7822]

Whereinwhich I talk about my 16 followers in vague, non-judgemental terms.

  (also if you’re uncomfortable with being on this list, shoot me a DM or an ask and I’ll take you off, okay?) So firstly we have my two friends, Karubari and Cyphxia, (Hi guys.) (Also, these guys are also my mutuals, but it’s a different vibe, because I do know them outside of tumblr.) Then next we have my mutuals- which is really funny to me, because it’s like... this blog is half dead? I’ll be reblogging your content, and the content of other people who I’m pretty sure you’re following, but pop off, like, welcome to my blog and thank you- proudfreakmetarusonniku and ember-da-toon. (Also I think the first time I attempted to make this post, I realised I had two sideblogs of big blogs following me and I was like :surprised-pikachu-face: This time I can’t figure out who the second side blog of a big blog is/was, but like, damn, that was cool when I saw it.) Then to sort the remainder by why they followed me (from what I can tell) Also, this might be inaccurate, considering people grow and also my content did shift, considering I had a bit of a thing with the SaSi fandom and then moved onto other thing, and recently, I stopped being anxious that no one wanted to put up with my interests because like... hey you can always unfollow me.

People who probably followed me for SaSi content:

fried-lemons has a SaSi blog but also I just reblogged whatever I wanted, with the occasional SaSi related post- so maybe maybe not?

rozbucknell... I scroll through his blog and there was a bunch of content, with the occasional SaSi thing. So maybe I said something and also had Sasi content??

pixxlstixx66 has addicted to SaSi in their bio/top bit, so- I mean.... thoughtsofasnekboi so snekboi is Janus conotations, but I might be entirely wrong.

Then we have overlap: ranboo-but-booran has both SaSi and DSMP content and says such in their bio

rain-is-numb (I don’t know why, but you have the most soothing vibe to your blog, good job) has a SaSi heading, and currently their most recently done post is about DSMP member dialogue  so?

Then leaf-meadowrose as our DSMP blog (that isn’t a mutual/otherwise mentioned)

We have purpleexportsportssalad which is. just. empty.

Then we have the two porn blogs/not porn per se, but their blogs that post pictures of women with links to more photos.

This was fun. Now I’m exhausted, thanks for being my followers. 

[umbral-stigmata-unbound]

About Mun

Hello and welcome!! Here like any other reasonable roleplayer; to have fun and delve into interesting depths by taking on characters as a muse, and that muse happens to be primarily Sephiroth (with a few additional ones fluctuating in and out, making this a Multimuse blog). While I do not profess to be attempting to be some amazingly perfect or accurate and praise worthy version of a muse Sephiroth, I do hold a lot of passion for all that he was, is, and his complexities and am excited to take my spin on him. And I have deep passion for the likes of Kadaj and Vincent as well, and yearn to explore them, and others as they catch my interest. Here, I’ll share some basic info about myself, for anyone who want to know, but you’re also free to pop by my Asks if you’re curious about anything else.

NAME: Jordan, or Ashton (DarkPrinceInc on Discord)

AGE: 26 (born 1995, in case I don’t keep up with updating age)

GENDER: Genderfluid (She/Her + He/Him pronouns, no preference)

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN ROLEPLAYING?: Both started around age 13, more or less. My writing has been growing since that age, but my more in-depth roleplaying (IE my more passionate efforts in playing canon characters and studying them) started in 2012 when I was 16/17, and has been growing as well since.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN A FAN OF FINAL FANTASY 7?: I can’t really pinpoint the YEAR I was introduced to it XD 2008, or 2009. I’ll admit, original interest was in the content but then also a VA I was big on at the time drawing my interest to one of the characters (Vincent), and so that influenced my interest but it was in equal measure for that character and for the amazing story and other amazing characters. My love for Cloud and Sephiroth, Zack and Aerith, all the others (even Kadaj) has developed slowly but surely over the years, and only recently (as of 2020) have I returned to a Kadaj and Vincent muse and got over my lack of confidence to play Sephiroth to which I let him possess a bit of muse now haha.

ARE YOU OPEN TO AUs?: Always. I might have to turn some down if they don’t catch my interest, but I am open to trying out things, and have a few of my own that can be found in my character profiles! I simply just want to play these character, in all their complexity and depth of emotion. So for any scenarios that allow that, I am on board!!

AM I OPEN TO SHARING HEADCANONS?: Yes, for specific aus, and some I might apply to my version of characters if I like them. But my headcanons are also adaptive, they might apply to one RP, and not the other. Feel free to send me an ask, as I will not, as of yet, be making any list.

AM I OPEN TO OCs?: Yes, though I will say that if I feel the story or muse interest is low, I may have to turn down the originally proposed roleplay, and I do hope you do not take offense. But I am certainly not apposed to OCs interacting with my muses, and I have an OC of my own as well.

AM I OPEN TO NSFW CONTNET?: Yes, certainly. It can be on here, so long as it’s tagged, or in Discord (just DM me for my info). I like to get to know the roleplayer first however, so don’t DM for smut without even interacting first, and generally I go with development to such scenarios, but hey, sometimes mutual muses hit, so it’s cool. But generally, I tend to demand chemistry or else, no smut or even shipping. NSFW also count’s for violence and such, though, so as long as it’s discussed so it can be executed comfortably, I’m find with it.Am I open to asks/memes? Hell yes, hit me up, just make it clear who you’re addressing!

DO I DO THE MAIN ‘THING’?: As in, do I choose select roleplayers for muses and interact with them only–no. Granted, I may develop greater interaction, and therefor preference, of certain peoples interpretations but thus far, I’ve never practiced that and likely won’t. So if you see me interacting with a Cloud, Zack, Aerith, etc, and that is your muse? I am still more than open to interacting with you! DO NOT TOLERATE :: Anon Hate, Ship war crap/ship judgment (so long as you aint pe/do or aren’t encouraging real life practice of toxic relationships, I don’t care, ship what makes you happy and let me do the same), racism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia/any form of queerphobia, as well as queer/ablism/ageism/etc. Just, don’t come near my blog with that shit. I’m rarely political here, but if I ever share anything you don’t agree with, feel free to unfollow, better and healthier for everyone involved.

If there’s any other info you’re like me to update here for you, please let me know!!

[thelastofcorina]

Got tagged in this ask game by @sapphic-zoe

(like a week ago omg sorry this is late but thank you so much for tagging me <3)

~Why did you choose your url?~

Corina is my screen name. I wanted to make a TLOU dedicated blog so it just made sense.

~Any side blogs? if you have them: name them and why you have them~

Not currently. This is actually a fresh account that I made bc I wanted a TLOU main blog. I had many on my old account. but I haven’t used them in ages

~How long have you been on tumblr?~

oof a very long time. Probably like since 2014/15 i cant really remember. I left for a while but recently made this blog bc i missed having an active account. I've already interacted with so many lovely people.

~Do you have a queue tag?~

I don't but I probably should.

~Why did you start your blog in the first place?~

I wanted community. I love that aspect about tumblr. I haven't actively been a participating member of a fandom in so long I really missed it. Plus I think there are a higher number of Abby appreciators on this website over anywhere else on the internet. I really thought the general consensus was that she was hated. Boy was I wrong, at least when it comes to this website. Its all about finding your people ;)

~Why did you choose your icon?~

I love Abby.

~Why did you choose your header?~

I love a smiling Abby.

~How many mutuals do you have?~

I honestly don't know omgg at least like 10, probably. All the peeps who like and comment on my stoopid little posts simping over abby. I see you and I love you.

~How many followers do you have?~ 113 :D (Ive had this blog less than a month and it feels like thats a lot. Like what are ya'll doing here. I love you. Thank you for putting up with my Abby obsession) ~How many people do you follow?~

only 59 :( I need to follow more people, I'm working on it.

~Have you ever made a shit post?~

Yes of course. Sometimes I just post the first Abby related thing that pops into my brain.

~How often do you use tumblr each day?~

Too much, and yet somehow not enough.

~Did you have a fight/argument with another blog once?who won?~

Ages and I mean AGES ago on my old blog. It was a themed blog for Death Note the anime. It was around the time Yuri on Ice was coming out (so like late 2016) and I was really excited about it and was reblogging some gifsets. I didn't tag spoilers which was absolutely my bad. Someone got upset that I had spoiled that weeks episode for them in an Ask, which I apologized for, but they went on to say that I shouldn't have been posting ANY YOI content at all bc I was a Death Note blog and that I was "deceiving my followers" and wasn't delivering on what they followed me for. I kindly told them that it was MY blog and that I was sorry but if I wasn't a good enough DN blog for them then they should unfollow me. They said they would but they sent all these asks anonymously so I never really knew who it was.

~How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?~

If I'm being quite honest they really spike my anxiety sometimes and I always feel guilty scrolling past.

~Do you like tag games?~

I haven't really done a lot of them in the past but I do like them! When this was going around my mutuals last week I really enjoyed reading them too :)

~Do you like ask games?~

I do! but I'm always too nervous to send one in lol

~Which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

I won't tag them here bc we're very recently mutuals but I think a couple of my mutuals actually are (at least in the tlou fandom) and I'm very honored that they would follow me back at all

~Do you have a crush on a mutual?~ Not currently but i absolutely ADORE all of my mutuals.

(If u haven't done this one yet, and only if u want to <3) tagging@sapphic-cupid @yungtano @alex-lest-writes

AND anyone of my followers/mutuals that hasn't done this yet! I love reading them so pls tag me :)

[astarlightmonbebe]

~DMing the Wrong Person; Stray Kids Hyung Line~

Bang Chan

So, Chan is a music producer and he has around 300k followers on Instagram

You honestly only followed him because he was good looking (yeah that’s a bit shallow but you actually bothered to listen to some of his beats and now you stan his music, too)

You’re just a chill fan of his, only have his post and story notifs on because you like to keep up but you’re not obsessive

Anyways so you found this really funny post with some screenshots of his recent live (which was at like midnight...and Chan was pretty tired...you love memes, you had to take advantage of him)

Chan’s insta is @prod_cb97 and you’re just scrolling through your contacts to ‘p’ to send to your friend, but it’s late and you accidentally click Chan’s name and send it before realizing your mistake

Of course you’re like ‘omg, I have to unsend that now’, but by the time you’ve exited over to it, it already says ‘seen’???

Cue: major freakout because what the heck is happening, why is he looking at your messages

AND THEN IT SHOWS HE’S TYPING?

911 is this a drill it’s 2 a.m. in the morning

He finally sends a message, ‘ik i’m a meme why do you guys bully me like this’

And you’re like; ‘jkdahfds I’M SO SORRY I’LL ESCORT MYSELF OUT’

But he’s all ‘noo, I was kidding’

Then he also adds; ‘those are high quality memes, I saved them’

Like, please, Chan, those memes were so ugly and you both knew it

You don’t know what else to say so you end up being all; ‘it’s two a.m., you should be sleeping !!  us fans want you to be well rested :)’ and it sounds so weird???  

You’re not that big of the fan...

It takes him a couple minutes, but he responds; ‘music doesn’t sleep :), but thank you for the concern!’

How is he so cute and cool at the same time...you’re a little bit starstruck because you’re follower account waves at 502 and his has a big ‘k’ on the end

You decide it’s time to get sleep, but then he sends you !! another !! message !!

‘Well...you know all about me, can I know a little bit about you?  Anyone who creates such wholesome memes is worth getting to know’

Hmm, it almost sounds like a pickup line, but you’re not crazy

(okay, maybe a little, because you respond back with probably a little too much information than he had wanted and/or expected)

‘hi, I’m y/n and I’m just a uni student who likes way too many groups and people, I’m an art major at my college...’

He probably didn’t need to know that, you should stop, definitely

He replies back with three laughing emojis

Laughing emojis????  WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??

You panic and say; ‘why are you laughing at me???!!!!’

‘oh...I’m sorry if that offended you, I just wasn’t expecting your present life story’.

Oh.  You feel bad now.  He was just being a nice person :(((.

‘No...I’m the one who is sorry.’

There is silence

It says ‘seen’ but he’s not typing?

Oh gosh you messed up for real this time

Ahhhhhh who let you be on Instagram at two a.m. again?????

Then, out of the darkness of that ‘seen’, there comes the sweetest words you’ve ever seen.

‘Tbh I actually was really touched at those memes because I sometimes really feel like I’m only appreciated for being handsome and not for my music...but you really made me feel like a real music person who even has memes made for them, and it made me happy  💗’

You’re over here in a puddle of tears because literally you feel like a fake fan since you don’t really keep up with him and you were so shallow in the beginning.

What comes out of your fingers is; ‘haha wow.  that’s so sad because honestly you’re amazing and I have mega respect for you for being so young and doing all this stuff, also living off two hours of sleep (don’t do that).  So my tbh is that you’re awesome and I’m not and like...2 a.m. feels???’

Someone stop you before you fully word vomit all over this conversation

Yet, he replies with a ‘:)’

After five minutes, the ‘typing’ icon pops up again, and he sends; ‘i hope we can talk more, y/n’

Uhhhh heck yeah you would love that, Chan would probably regret it when he learns you’re a mess all the time, but anyways!!!

‘me too’ you opt to say, and then; ‘but first, we should both sleep’

Chan likes your message; ‘we have an agreement’ he says, and then his online flag disappears, leaving you smiling at your phone.

Kim Woojin

Woojin actually goes to the same college as you

You have a few mutual friends and at a meet up one day you all exchanged numbers and instagram handles

Though you unfollowed a lot of those people, you personally found Woojin very cute and he posted song covers with his guitar too! and as you know, you’re a big music fan :) so you kept on following him

And he kept following you! You guys even comment on each other’s posts sometimes and join lives, as well as say hello to each other on campus

So maybe you started having an interest in him...but who’s to say?

Anyways one day you’re just bored and looking through insta stories instead of working on that big assignment that requires way to much work

Woojin’s posted a clip of a coming up cover on his story and you’re all like ‘oh that’s super cool’

Yet you have no courage to tell him that, so you’re just swiping past again when you’re sweaty fingers are all like ‘oh we would rather slide up instead of go right’ and suddenly you’ve sent a 100 sticker to him?

You’ve done what now?

You’re blessing instagram for being able to unsend things, but he has, once again, already seen it

It’s just your luck, really

‘thx so much’ he replies after liking your story response

‘ahaha...np’ you say, then add tentatively, ‘you’re so good at music, like you’re voice is so beautiful??’

‘aww, thank you~’ he says, and you let out a breath because you think the crisis has been averted, but suddenly...

‘you’re actually so good yourself! I really love your art, you’re super talented!’

(you personally think you SUCK at art but like,,,if Woojin thinks you’re good you must be a little, right?)

‘thanks but I’m not that good’ you reply with a laughing emoji

He sends you angry emojis next! and you’re like ??? what did I do wrong??

You wait anxiously as he’s typing

‘y/n, believe me when I say you and you’re art is so breathtaking’

It’s so short but...so good...you’re heart...is fluttering

Unsure of what to say, you like his message and send some soft heart emojis, unable to convey the emotion you feel right now

He sends a heart emoji right back, along with a blushy face

(what does that mean???)

You send one more heart and then the conversation is over, but you have a feeling that maybe something new has started as well

Maybe

Lee Minho

Minho is a famous model under JYP entertainment, and his handle is @youknow_itsminho 

Firstly, you’re in love with his aesthetic, because every model picture he posts is like looking at an angel without wings.

Secondly, he always goes live all the time and it’s with his cats

People who respect and love their pets??? Yes.

Lives is how it happens, actually

You’re clicking around on Instagram, watching his live, and a notification from your friend comes in.  You click on it, but your phone shorts out suddenly.

When it turns back on, it opens back up to your messages, so you quickly type out a response ‘lol’ and hit send.

It sends...but, ummm...that was not the convo you were having with your friend.

In fact, it’s to someone you’ve never even had a convo with

You quickly check the handle and, omg, it’s Minho’s account djshjkad!

When you clicked on the notification, you’re finger must have accidentally hit his account name instead.

‘At least he’s live still, so he probably won’t notice and doesn’t bother to check...’ you thought to yourself, because you were sure many people tried to talk to him since he had almost one million followers.

Haha...right?

So you go to sleep, turn off your phone and put it face down

But you forgot to turn off your ringer

At three in the morning it goes off right in your ear, really loudly

You’re already pissed at being awake and still half asleep, so when you see it’s an Instagram notification, you automatically assume it’s your friends and reply as you would to them without bothering to read the message.

‘WHY ARE YOU GUYS UP AT THREE A.M., LET ME SLEEP FOR GOODNESS SAKE I’M GOING TO BEAT YOU UP TOMORROW’

Not your finest moment,...but please, you need your beauty sleep

With that, you roll over and go back to sleep

In the morning, you wake up and go check Instagram, like you do every morning

You check your pms, but the top one shocks you so much you have to blink several times to make sure you’re not dreaming.

Minho???  He saw your ‘lol’?

Ahh...as it turns out he saw much more than just ‘lol’.

Remind you to never respond to notifications at three a.m. x.x

Then-this dude- sends you a selfie he took from snapchat or whatever with the caption ‘woken up at three a.m. from my fans’

Yes???  That’s you???  You’re sorry???

‘I’m sorry about that but dang man, no need to be so salty...’; you send

Also, you realize as you’re looking through instagram, he posted the snapshots of your message to him on his story with all these laughing emojis...THIS BOY NOW YOU’RE MAD

I mean he crossed out the handle and profile picture but you know that’s you and, really, that’s what matters right now

So you dm him again; ‘hey did you really need to post that I DIDN’T THINK I WAS THAT FUNNY’

More laughing emojis

You’re about ready to snap, but he sends you another picture with ‘i’m sorry’ scrawled over his beautiful face

You can’t help but smile at that, especially when he adds ‘i’ll talk to you tomorrow?’

‘to clear up this misunderstanding of course :)’ he is quick to add

‘of course’; you say, smiling as you log off

Seo Changbin

Changbin is your best friend’s scary older brother

He followed you first so you followed him back for courtesy’s sake

Plus you like to laugh at his bucket hat posts...

The bucket hat posts is how it all starts

He posts another one and you’re sending it to your friend to laugh about how he looks so soulless, but...ahah...their contacts are right next to each other and maybe you accidentally clicked his?

You’re really not sure how it happened, except the message is sent to Changbin and definitely not your friend

And wow, reading it back, that sounds so mean, especially considering you sent it to the person the message was about

He’s seen it

Oh...wow...you’re really screwed

You immediately try and send an apology that goes something along the lines of ‘I AM SO SO SORRY I SWEAR I DIDN’T MEAN FOR THAT TO COME OFF SO MEAN OR ANYTHING REALLY’

He sees it again

And leaves you like that for a whole hour

Where you just kind of turn your phone off and try and do something else but the anxiety keeps you checking your phone constantly

Finally he says ‘I’m used to people making fun of me and my hat, no big deal’

But that’s actually kind of sad, so you’re all like ‘:(((’

And he’s all ‘is this conversation done’

Which kind of slaps but like it’s all your fault anyways so whatever

You find some hug gif and send it to him, and then you get radio silence before he actually sends a ‘thanks’

Hmm...you can’t read sarcasm online...

‘are you being sarcastic?’ you ask

‘no, that made me smile’ he tells you and wow, you weren’t expecting him to be quite so touched by a random gif you found 

‘i’m glad!’ you send him, and he actually sends a smiley face?

(he uses emojis? in all your years you had never pegged Seo Changbin as the emoji sending type of person. surprises happen, you guess)

‘I really am very sorry though :(’ you send again because you’re REALLY sorry

‘you’re forgiven, so don’t sweat over it haha’ he tells you

You guess that’s that but you still feel really bad about the whole situation, like you never thought you were a mean person, but that was pretty mean of you

You don’t want to bother him by apologizing again

So you just say ‘ah okay, I won’t~I hope you have a good day’

And he’s like ‘you too’

You can’t tell if he’s just using etiquette or if he really means it, but you’ll take what you can get

(you also never make fun of him or anyone ever again, having learned your lesson)

(your friend also finds out about this exchange and mercilessly teases both of you)

[saltine-kakyoin]

OH SHIT!!!! my clown ass never saw that u rb'd those ask posts, i was Looking at my notifs to see if u would so i could send u some but SOMEHOW I MISSED IT??? clown hours.... ANyways for the emoji one have 🤗💙💘🍀😇 and 👍 (tried to not do repeats from your ask 2 me cause they all apply anyways but, Regardless) and for the questions post, maybe 5, 11, 12, 17, 20, 23 and 25? ;__;/ ily so much and i hope u have a rlly lovely night!!! and that this coming week is kinder 2 u!!!! 💖💖💖💖

ahhh, it’s no worries!!! idk about you but for me, tumblr has been having the Time of Its LIFE lately wrt notifications and most disconcertingly, unfollowing people! D: so i completely get it, it’s no worries!!! ;w;/ i already know for a Fact i’m going to write so so much, so i’m gonna put this under a readmore >w< ruth 🤝 sarah respectful lesbian moments

edit: so I finished writing it and it’s Insanely Long- just in case you don’t make it to the bottom, thank you mein broth-er!!!! ; O; i hope you have a wonderful night too!! writing all of this out made me reminisce on some really nice times, and I’m having an a1 night! ^^ ilysm! it’ll probably be daytime when you read this, so i hope you have a great day! <3

🤗 given the chance I would gladly hug you

on god!!!! ;___; i think i would frfr dissolve if a got a Ruth-Certified hug, things have been so overwhelming lately

💙 you are my closest friend

the feeling is mutual!! <3 we don’t always get to talk often, but fhdhshg when we do we talk about like All of the Madness in Sarah’s Mind^tm, and you are so patient + tolerant of my incoherent ramblings which is something i don’t think i’ve ever fully experienced? anyhow, after a year (more than a year?) of having these kinds of convos and going through the general madness of life together, I totally agree ;w;

💘 I love you so much

i love you too!!! so so much!!! 💃🕺 i don’t think words will ever be able to express how much i love and appreciate you! 💜💛

🍀 i’m lucky to have met you

i know we talk about this often, but seriously i feel the same way! it’s a little crazy that we met, technically, because Joseph Joestar tm deserved more than to be a cheater... there is something hilarious about this wild friendship rooting from him!! of all jojos!! 🤢 but i’m so grateful that we met, it’s been such a wonderful ride ;w; <3

😇 you’re a sweet cinnamon bun

🥺🥺🥺🥺 bro i- fhdhghdhgh thank you!!! ;o;

👍 you are fun to be around

ahhh, thank you!!! i am glad you feel this way bc whoo boy, i think some other people would look at the madness i tell you about and go 👁️👁️ that’s a no for me, luvs. remember last year when i was losing it tryna prepare for ren faire + i cut my palm on that one glass bottle? bc a- i barely do and b- i feel like that moment encapsulates the nicki minaj roman holiday-ness of my life XD i’m really grateful you’ve stuck around through it all 🤗💕💖

now buckle in bro!!!! the essays are incoming!!!

5. Name a movie that makes you genuinely laugh.

i swear on my life the Mortal Kombat movie from 1995 is a national treasure, it is SUCH a solid movie and has so many funny moments. Robin Shou makes such a 🥺🥺 Liu Kang, and jesus fuck he can be so savage when the script calls for it!! there’s one part where he takes Johnny Cage’s luggage and straight up fucking chucks it into the ocean + then bullies him about it later! honestly the Ballad of Johnny Cage and His Luggage is one of my favorite parts from the movie <3 if you haven’t seen it + you like cheesy, old school movies, i really recommend it!!!

11. Describe the memory of the last time you felt true happiness.

So I can’t remember the last time I did, bc my memory is horrifically terrible + probably getting worse as time goes on?? but i will tell you about one of the more recent times I remember! :D There is one crucial expository note for this memory- my brother-in-law makes THE best chili in the entire world. my brother and I were trying to recreate it because it’s such a simple but delicious + filling meal- I think this was our first time trying to create it? and it was SO chaotic, the tomato sauce and stuff kept popping and burning me and we weren’t 100% certain that we’d gathered the right ratios for the ingredients and it was just. madness lmao. Chance’s chili is one that you leave alone for multiple hours at a time (I think this is the case for all chili but i don’t cook often enough to know ;__;), and we were kinda 👀👀👀 because we weren’t sure it’d turn out right? But it did!!!! I vividly remember when it was finished and we taste-tested it + went oOOH FUCK! it wasn’t quite the same as chance’s but ohhh my god it was so good 🥰🥰🥰 but yeah!! we ate it all up and I think this was around the time I started my playthrough of Esteban for Dragon Age 2? which was one of my favorite playthroughs for the entire franchise... he’s just a simple ig beard model mage ;w; i wanted to show you what he looked like in this post but the formatting went wonky so ig i’ll just post him separately?? it’s 1000% in-character for him to infiltrate my jojo blog 😔

12. Name a song that makes you feel ethereal.

hm...I’d say it’s between Forget About or Feet of Clay! They’re both such light and tenderhearted songs, and when I listen to them I feel like I’m in an apartment kitchen slow-dancing with a love, and it’s so dark except for the slowly rising sun. I don’t know if that feeling could be described as ethereal? but it’s close enough for me

17. What is something you own that is important to you? What makes it so important?

I have a small collection of scripts from the shows I’ve been in, and two of the most important ones are from the plays my high school put on during my sophomore and junior years, The Nit-Wits and The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, respectively! The Nit-Wits has a ton of sentimental value to me because it was the last show I genuinely acted in, and it was a show we had to pull together in 2 or 3 weeks!! We were originally going to do a murder mystery play for the fall, but none of the cast was feeling it and it just wasn’t going to come to life in time (honestly this speaks volumes for how much we weren’t vibing with it, because all of our shows came together at like.. the final dress rehearsals if not opening night lmao). I vividly remember we took a vote during rehearsals about whether or not to switch the show, and then we did and it was SO fun + chaotic!! My character was one of the only regular characters in the show, but I think everyone else had a lot of fun acting as actors who were hired to be maniacal, and that made acting off of them so fun! I remember there was also a night my friend Adonis almost tore the entire set down because he ran through a door and tripped over a set brace in his haste!! The Nit-Wits is hugely important because it was a really fresh acting experience for me, and again, my last time genuinely on the stage and not behind the scenes!

MCM is important to me because it was the first play I ever stage managed! I’d stage managed our musical the spring prior, but that was a huge undertaking and involved many different people and moving parts. Stage managing a play, at least at my high school, was a calmer and more intimate experience, and one I really enjoyed! Another huge reason I treasure MCM’s script is because it is one of the last shows I had with my friend I told you about- he was a senior. I have little notes and doodles from the cast and crew scattered throughout my book for this show, and I remember being so irritated by this because it meant I was losing space for stage directions, cues, and notes. Now, I’m super grateful to have these scribbles- it’s one of the only things I have left of him. 

On that note, relating to him, MCM is also the show which birthed my most horrific theater horror story!! During one of the performances, I guess he forgot his line?? idk. But he ended up jumping six pages ahead of where the current scene was (I knew this bc I was following along in my book backstage + was frantically trying to figure out where he’d gone), which threw the entire cast, who were all tragically onstage, way off-track. This resulted in the most frightening game of script ping-pong I’ve ever seen: he’d skipped six pages ahead, so Adonis ended up saying a line from two pages after the six-page skip, and somehow someone else went!! oh I have a response to that line! And then said something like 9 pages back! I think the lead actress tried to ground everyone back to the lines they were supposed to be saying, but she ended up just saying a lot of their lines? And one of those lines that was supposed to be said by someone else was supposed to cue a black-out that someone got murdered in, but my lighting techie was SO fucking lost (we were both huddled over the script next to the breaker trying to figure out WHERE the hell we were! i think i had a flashlight in my mouth so I could flip through the book with both hands and thus faster??), so ofc the lights stayed up! I remember getting through this scene being the most painstaking endeavor of my entire life, but thankfully intermission was right after it! We actually extended intermission because the cast needed a hot second to fuckign RESET for Act 2 bc sweet jesus that was so bizarre...Needless to say, after that show we never messed that scene up again + everyone who acted in the show became super anal about knowing their lines as the years went on. The Six Page Skip became a legendary part of our hs theater Canon (like biblical canon ;w; although I don’t think anyone’s talked about it since my class graduated) alongside the times one of our ensemble dudes had to break through the roof of the girl’s dressing room to retrieve the keys to the theater + i got stuck on stage!

20. What’s the sweetest thing someone has done for you?

I really had to wrack my brain to answer this one, as I’m generally not the person people do things for, you know? This answer goes wayyy back, to 8th grade :O but so! there is mild exposition for this- when I started middle school, I lived in North Carolina, but we moved to Florida right before 7th grade bc my grandma is ill. We lived with my uncle while we were looking for a house, so I went to the local middle school bc why wouldn’t I? but in November, we finally found a house + my mom was like....So... are you going to switch schools or...I’d struck up some really solid friendships in this time, so i was like Mom I’d Rather Die OAO. So, we struck up a deal that I’d get to stay at that school on a zone waiver + that she’d drive me to school everyday. Sometime closer to the end of eighth grade she was like, yeah so.. I can’t do this for high school, it’s too much gas- which was valid! I was really sad about it, but I sucked it up.

Anyhow, fast forward to the last day of eighth grade, which was perhaps the saddest day I’d lived up until that point, mostly bc I knew I was probably never going to see all my friends again. My best friend, who I was like hardcore v close to + the person I shared all my wacky AUs and OC’s and headcanons with, was waiting with me for my mom to come pick me up, and then!!! When my mom pulled into the school she suddenly whipped out this lengthy letter she’d written to me about how much she enjoyed my friendship and how grateful she was that we were able to have lunch together (lunch was.. tragically ;__; the only time we really saw each other that year), and that she would never forget me! And she’d drawn me a ton of fanart from all the things I was obsessed with back then!! it was so much so fast, but then my mom was yelling at me to get in the car and I had to go :(

We kept in touch through email freshman year + fake-dated bc a senior was stalking me? ;J; and then we went to Megacon together! but I became really heavily involved in choir and theater after that, and we just kind of drifted apart :( we do follow each other on ig tho! It’s insane to think about her and that letter because on GOD ruth, that was a thinly veiled love letter and I never like... wrote her anything back that was as worthy as what she wrote me. But, she’s doing really well in uni now, so I guess it’s all okay? idk! ; o ;

23. What’s your zodiac sign? Do you think you fit the general characteristics of that sign?

I’m a Cancer!! and also a metal dragon by the Chinese Zodiac, which I’ve always thought was pretty sick! :3 I am 10000% your stereotypical Cancer, super emotional and introspective + often prone to tears ;u; My mom always said that dragons are steadfast and loyal people, and I think this also applies to me, to a fault. I checked around some websites to see what characteristics were often applied to metal dragons specifically, and it seems they are pretty strong-willed, ambitious, and generous? I don’t know if you could call me strong-willed or ambitious, but it’s all good ig.

25. What’s a song that gives off good vibes anytime you listen to it?

Ohh man, I went in on this question for Shannon, but bc I was digging around my library for Jules, I actually found an old fave! This song is from one of my all-time favorite musicals, Once on This Island- it’s The Human Heart! This song is so sweet, and god between the writing for the orchestra + the writing for the ensemble, this song is a straight masterpiece <3 I love love love the line, “Through your love you’ll live forever”, and although I am Hardcore Terrified of getting a tattoo, I really want that line tattooed on my body. if you have time, I recommend giving Once on This Island a listen!! I’ve never heard a show that uses its instruments and singers the way OoTI does (and holy FUCK it is so breathtaking live!!! I got to see it on Broadway and bro.... 🥺🥺 it was transcendental..)

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

SALTY ASKS uhhh, 4 8 15 16 & 23?

Thank you, Randy! 

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP? 

- Keep any and all romantic BB/Rae away from me. I don’t care what version, what AU, what rationale, I just don’t like their dynamic. I see absolutely NO romantic potential there. (I have seen.... two stories, in the entire history of Me Reading Fanfiction, wherein they were in-character, developed, and actually okay together. And one of those was my very favorite Raven RPer.) But the vast majority of the fanbase? Yuck. One or both are always out-of-character. Things are taken out of context. The foundation for their relationship seems to be whipped up from nothing. Canonically, they... literally mocked each other in the cartoon, barely even spoke to each other in the original comics, only had a relationship in recent comics when the writers had them Very Out of Character (or randomly got smacked back together, esp. in the end of TT v3? why even bother???)... It’s just, a really bad ship all around. I will unfollow people for not tagging it, it’s that bad. Bro-ship between them is on thin fucking ice.

- And then there’s... t/endershipping. (In Yugioh-- Ryou and Yami Bakura.) Oh gods. This one’s worse. Because it is legitimately an abusive dynamic. I mean, bullying, forcing someone to go against his wishes, threatening his friends, twisting selfish actions to say they were selfless, literally injuring him to use his injury as blackmail, not to mention inuring him in the throes of will-battle, and then there’s the literal spiritual possession thing. You know, “forces your will/consciousness to fuck off so I can do whatever I want in disguise as you” kind of dynamic? What the Fuck? There’s no trust, no respect, literally NOTHING to build ANY kind of POSITIVE relationship on, and all the TRAUMA that spirit put Ryou through is absolutely NOT the kind of thing that should make ANYONE fall in love?! I genuinely WORRY for the people who see what the spirit of the ring did to him, and think “they’d be cute together”. Gods. Gods!

(I’m also hugely squicked out by memory/shipping, Ryou+Aigami, because? What? The fuck? Did you not SEE what he DID to him?! FUCKING NO?? But luckily the t|endershippers tend to be the memory/shippers too, so they’re fairly easily blocked.)

- I also have jas|pis blacklisted because Canonical Abusive Relationships are Not Dynamics I Enjoy At All, thank you. Especially not when their conversations sound like something right out of the things I witnessed in my mother’s own life. (I have no idea how popular it is because I’ve been blacklisting and blocking it since the moment I found out it exists.)

- Also: It’s not at all popular and not something I see often, but: I’m just squicked in general by terra\ven, because while I can see how a thing might be developed, I’m not the kind of person who can look at their Canon History and Interactions and think, “How romantic!” Bad communication, festering hatred, picking at each others’ weaknesses, mutual toxicity, and attempted murder don’t make a good backdrop for a relationship. Yikes.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

Kind...of? I’ve gotten asks hating on blog appearances, fandom opinions, and General Negativity, but nothing hating on me as a person.

The headcanon blog I help moderate got an ask once that could’ve started a shipping war (basically like, “How can people possibly ship RobRae?”), but I like to think I handled it well because I redirected that before it could explode.

Honestly, most of my anon hate came from fanfic.net reviews back in the “mary-sue” witch-hunt days. (The funny thing was, at the time I didn’t even know what that accusation meant. 8P )

15.  Unpopular opinion about the manga/show?

I liked the Yugioh manga better in black/white than in color! (The! big! mystery! about! Ryou’s! eyes!! continues!! to stump!!! and frustrate me!!!!! For context: this one character has had his eyes colored brown, green, blue, lavender, gray, black, dark purple, magenta, red, and seafoam green! [x] What the HELL color are his EYES.) 

And for the record, in the advance copy of the “Games” graphic novel my dad gave me, there were Certain Pages still in either ink-work or black/white coloring that I really liked more than the final product. That book is colored GORGEOUSLY, don’t get me wrong! But the pure linework shows a lot more of the “line of motion” and TEXTURE details that my non-visual brain can Grasp And Parse and Feel Things About much moreso than a colored page.

Also: Raven is a big softie deep down inside. Comic, cartoon, you name it. I don’t know why this is so controversial because it’s Genuinely Canon as Hell, but even some canonical writers miss out on this, and it’s like? guys have you READ a Raven comic???

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

RYOU BAKURA WOULD BE MORE THAN A GODDAMN PLOT DEVICE. As mentioned in the Other Answered Ask, this drives me to absolute annoyance and disappointment and disdain. (This is specifically directed at the “show”, of course. The manga [and even season 0!] did a much better job of, you know... remembering that he is also a human being and not just a shell that has a conveniently-possessed antagonist necklace.) 

It’s just the treatment of certain characters for me, I guess. I’m really bad at looking at a canon and going “This Event Would Be Different” otherwise. Especially when I’m emotionally attached to the Canon Events...

Except “Titans”. That fucking stunt they pulled with Arella, one of the most strong-willed, independent, perseverant, traumatized female characters to ever rise fully above her past and find her own way in the worlds-- in MULTIPLE worlds!-- and they made her the lackey of the monster she has always defied. It STILL pisses me off. (There are other things I’d change about Titans-- many others. But that AU is so far off the mark that it would take a collegiate-length essay to “change” it just right.)

23.  Unpopular character you love?

Jericho! Arella! Malachite! Rorek! 

Joey is such a sweetheart and has such a unique and versatile power. Arella is such an inspiration and proves time and time again that she’s stronger than her trauma. Malachite just had so much POTENTIAL as her own character and I wish we had seen more of her as an individual. And Rorek of course? God those eyes and that hair trigger the demigray. (And I headcanon hardcore that Malchior used Rorek as a template for how he looked, sounded, and acted, and of course Rorek wrote the book, and I fell as hard for Malchior as Raven did. So like.... kind of a scapegoat to redirect that love, but it makes me happy, okay.)

And Mismagius, which I don’t understand because surely I’m NOT the only strategically-minded lover of the Ghost type? And I’m certainly not the only witch who practices pop culture magic with Pokemon (and Mismagius is literally based on a witch and called “the magical pokemon”)? But hey, loving the underdog has been my lifelong specialty. 8F

[sebastiianstan]

Tumblr content school: why you don’t always get notes and how to (potentially) get a bit more

So in recent weeks, I’ve seen quite a few posts floating around that centre around the same subject: content creators, mainly gifmakers, not gaining followers as quickly as they would like to and/or not getting as many notes on their original content as they would like to. Most recently I’ve seen people share their like-to-reblog ratio, with a call to users to also reblog content instead of just liking it, which would result in more exposure and recognition for the creator.

Now, while all of those feelings are perfectly valid and you’re obviously allowed to post whatever you like on your blog, the conversation around this is quite unnuanced and, at times, a bit uninformed. I’m not claiming to be some kind of expert, but having been a content creator (gifmaker) on this platform for quite a few years, with my own small share of popular gifsets floating around and having built both my own blog an two fansites/group blogs to at least moderate success, I do think I have a certain degree of insight re: getting notes, so I thought I’d put in my two cents. Please note that I’m not making this post to be condescending in any way, or even to tell you what to do/how to create content, but I thought I’d help as much as I can, based on my own experience.

Below the cut are 1. reasons why I think gifsets don’t always get the number of notes you wanted/expected them to, and 2. tips on creating and posting content in a way that will potentially get you more notes.

Why you might not be getting (a lot) of notes

So let’s start with some general trends re: gifsets not getting as many notes as you’d like/expect, and not as many as they would have maybe a few years ago.

1. Tumblr is past its peak

Based on experience, I’d say fandom Tumblr reached its peak in 2015-2016, and was riding that out in 2017. I’ve mainly been a Marvel blog in recent years, so I can’t speak for other fandoms, but Tumblr was... wild in the lead-up to and aftermath of Captain America: Civil War (2016). Wonder Woman (2017) was a similar situation on the DC side of things. 

New Marvel releases (like Ant-Man & The Wasp, Avengers: Infinity War and probably most notably, Black Panther) still get a lot of traction and fandom definitely isn’t dead on Tumblr, but I feel like 2015-2016 were definitely peak years. I only recently returned from a year-long hiatus; I stopped being active in late 2017 and even then my dashboard wasn’t quite as active as it was a year before that. Upon returning here about a month ago, most of my mutuals from back in the day had also become inactive and a lot of gifmakers I used to follow were not creating content anymore.

So it boils down to this: I think it’s very likely that the amount of active users within your fandom has diminished significantly as compared to two years ago. A set that may have gotten 10k notes within a few days in 2016 might now only get half of that.

2. The URL thing

This is a sad truth, but it does seem that having a semi-canon or canon url does at least help with getting a larger amount of notes on your content. I have no tips on getting a canon url (I got very, very lucky with this one), but this is a simple observation I have from over the years. Url trading/selling has basically become a genuine business due to this - canon urls are in high demand.

More importantly, what I can say is that it’s smart not to change your url too often. Becoming a popular content creator on this platform is basically the same as building a brand - and a brand has an easily recognized name. Once you have a url you are happy with, try to stick to it for a while. When you change your url, links break on reblogs of your old gifsets, by the way.

3. The like-to-reblog ratio has always been unbalanced

For as long as I can remember, posts have gotten more likes than reblogs. If your ratio is 2-to-1 or 3-to-1, trust me, you are doing perfectly well for yourself! Again, as with my first point, this might have gotten a bit more extreme since 2016, but it’s not a new thing.

4. Popular users support each other

Obviously there’s nothing wrong with this (in fact, I love that we all support each other), but yes, in general big/popular blogs are friends with each other and tend to reblog each other’s content, which can be discouraging for smaller or aspiring content creators on the platform.

However, please be aware that these big blogs built up the following they have by posting content for years and it just takes time. Also, know that most users on here actually really enjoy being tagged in your posts - so if you gif a movie or tv show you know a popular user (that you follow) likes, tag them in it and if it’s high quality content (I’ll touch on this later), they’ll probably reblog it.

Tips on getting more notes

Alright, on to part two: my personal tips on getting more notes. These are strictly based on my own experience, and as a repeat of my disclaimer earlier: I am genuinely trying to share my knowledge; none of this is with the intent of being a condescending know-it-all.

1. Don’t look like you’re complaining

No matter what the intent behind your post about your lack of notes and/or followers is, it’s very likely you’re going to come off entitled or ungrateful. I’ve personally unfollowed multiple users who post consistently about reaching their next thousand, who make angry/frustrated posts when their followers don’t increase as quickly as they’d like to, when they lose followers, etc. I understand that the hustle is frustrating, but posts like these are really quite annoying for your followers; you’re complaining about followers you don’t have to followers you do have, who are then more likely to unfollow you because it looks like you’re complaining. Your mutuals might understand why you’re posting this, but others probably don’t.

When it comes to posts about like-to-reblog ratios, which I’ve seen a fair few of recently, please consider a couple of things. 

When you ask people to reblog your post instead of liking it, you are essentially telling them what to put on their own blogs.

A lot of users on here have carefully curated content; while some users simply blog about everything they like, others stick to a certain set of subjects/movies/tv shows. If they see a post they like that doesn’t fall into those categories, they’ll give it a like to keep track of it and show their appreciation, but won’t put it on their blogs. You can’t tell people to reblog something they don’t want to.

You’re essentially asking people that you do not really personally care about to do something for you. Most of the likes you get on your post are likely from people that you do not follow yourself. I’m not saying that you hate your followers or don’t care for them, but you can’t really ask anything of a user that you don’t even follow yourself.

Look at it this way: Tumblr is basically a mini society, with its own market in the form of content creation. The ones who have a few thousand followers, and who get a few hundred or a few thousand notes on their posts are already the lucky ones. If you’re a user who gets hundreds/thousands of notes on their posts (even if it’s not as many as you like or deserve), you should keep in mind that the vast majority of users on here are small blogs that don’t have the traction that you have. If you post a screenshot of the like-to-reblog ratio on a post that has 2k notes, they’re going to think, “what on earth are you complaining about?”

Posts like these can really only backfire. I don’t think it’s likely that a lot of users will suddenly start reblogging instead of liking because of them. I know those posts are getting traction, because your mutuals and fellow content creators understand your frustration (believe me, I do too!), so they reblog/like/comment on it, but you’re essentially in an echo chamber of content creators. Anyone outside of that circle will not understand it and might unfollow you because of it.

2. Quality

Another disclaimer: I’m not implying that the people who have made posts about notes/followers don’t make HQ gifs. This is simply the “tips on getting notes” section of this particular post, so that’s what I’m doing. Veteran gifmakers can skip this section because I won’t be presenting anything new here.

Here’s the thing: high quality gifsets get notes. I know that what constitutes a HQ gif is subjective, but there is a consensus on this amongst big blogs, so I will summarize it below.

Make gifs from high-quality video sources. If 1080p is available, use that. Don’t gif from videos below 720p. Also, the larger the t*rr*nt file, the higher the quality. If a 1080p t*rr*nt from a movie is under 2GB in size, it’s probably not decent enough to gif from.

Use the new dimensions. Tumblr changed from 500px to 540px over 3 years ago now I believe, and all the big blogs use these dimensions. I rarely see sets like this anymore, but some users do still hold on to the old dimensions. Obviously, you should do what you like, but know that you’ll get more notes if you make the switch.

Do not skip frames. If you use screencaps, extract 25 frames per second. If you are an ‘Import video frames to layers’ kinda gal, like me, import all frames.

Sharpen your gifs! It makes an insane difference. My faq section links to a sharpening action.

Your frame delay should be 0.05. If you have a low amount of frames, you can get away with 0.06, but do not make your gif any slower than that. It will look unsmooth.

Go for natural coloring, where you simply brighten up the gif and enhance the colors (beware of whitewashing tho). I know that using PSD’s from resource blogs is tempting, but it’s very likely they will not work for the particular scene you’re giffing. It’s best if you learn to color yourself and adapt your coloring for every set. Also, it’s up to you what you think is pretty, but extremely vibrant and extremely pale coloring isn’t very popular anymore. Natural is the way to go. (This is with the exception of those gorgeous color edits people have been making recently. Y’all are queens & that shit is hard to make yo!)

If your gif is larger than the 3mb limit, NEVER sacrifice colors in the ‘Save for web’ window. Always delete frames to lower the size of your gif.

Just saying, but Photoshop CS5 has been known to make the best gifs.

For beginners out there, please don’t be discouraged. I’ve been making gifs for years, and they were absolute shit in the beginning. It just takes time to learn, but if you stick to it, you’ll get there.

3. Concept over quantity

Allow me to draw a comparison with YouTubers here - I think we all prefer YouTubers who post one well fleshed out video a week (for example, Safiya Nygaard) over YouTubers who post an okay video every day.

I think a lot of users think the way to get notes and followers is to post a gifset every day. This probably does work to an extent, but I personally think it’s better to come up with original concepts that you post every few days.

When you watch a movie, you can make five gifsets out of scenes from that movie, or you can come up with a concept. For example, parallels between scenes, parallels with other movies, the best lines of a certain character, etc. This takes more work, but sets like these are highly appreciated because they’re original, and they tend to get more notes.

This doesn’t apply to new releases, as you are probably among the first to gif a particular scene, but if you’re giffing a scene from a movie that’s been out for a while, you’re very likely not the first to do it. People will see it, realize they’ve already reblogged something very similar, and keep scrolling. But if you come up with a new idea, that’s what’ll get you more traction.

To give you a personal example; I recently rewatched all of the cap films. Now, I could have giffed popular scenes like “I could do this all day” or “I’m with you ‘til the end of the line”, but that’s been done before... a lot. Instead, I came up with this, and got 6.5k notes. I haven’t posted that many new sets on my blog recently, but posting content like that has gained me some followers and new mutuals.

4. Timing

All this requires is keeping an eye on your dashboard and taking note of when most of the people you follow are online. I sometimes see European content creators posting their sets smack dab in the middle of the day. Lemme tell y’all something: the Americans are sleeping.

I’m in timezone GMT+1. My dash wakes up around 5pm. I never post before 6pm - I’ll post anywhere between then and midnight, so feel free to convert that to your own timezone. The scheduling feature on posts comes in handy if you’ll be asleep or at school/work around that time.

If you post when Tumblr isn’t active, your set will drown in all of the other content, so be smart about timing.

5. Strategic tagging

It seems that a lot of users still don’t know this: only the first five tags on your post show up in tags on Tumblr. Anything past the first five will only be useful for your own tagging/archiving system, but will not show up in any tracked tags.

So first point: always use the most prominent edit tag for the fandom you’re posting in. Examples are #marveledit, #hpedit, #filmedit. These are frequently used, and often tracked by big blogs.

Second point: figure out who the big fansites/group blogs are, and if they track a tag, tag them. Make sure you follow them, obviously. If your post is funny, you might wanna tag bob-belcher (#bbelcher) as well - this blog is popular across fandoms and posts content from all over!

Third: tag users who you think will like your post. Don’t be thirsty with this. Again, only do this if you follow them. Tagging 2-3 users is ok, but don’t be out there tagging 8 to 10 blogs on your post. Not only is that a little pointless (because only the first five tags will show up), it also makes you look thirsty. Users might not appreciate this, and ultimately might not reblog your post because of that. Also, try not to tag the same users on every single one of your posts.

6. Popular content

If your fandom is niche, so is your content. That’s perfectly fine; don’t feel pressured to post about anything that isn’t your passion.

But if your goal really is to get more notes and followers, create content from fandoms that are big on the platform. Examples are Marvel, Harry Potter, Star Wars, film blogs, etc.

7. Join a fansite/group blog

Every big fandom on Tumblr has one or multiple fansites/group blogs. I recommend you figure out who they are for your fandom, and apply to one that’s accepting new members. You’ll likely get in if your gifs are HQ.

I know this sounds a bit counterintuitive, as you’ll be posting content on another blog that will be getting the notes and followers from it, but it actually is a good way to gain more exposure. These blogs have large amounts of followers, and they usually allow you to reblog your own content to them, as long as you’re active. I think it’s a great way to get your content out there.

Alright, time to wrap up this post. I’m not personally calling out anyone who has made posts about followers, notes, like-to-reblog ratios, etc. I’ve seen at least 15 of those posts in recent weeks so I’m just reacting to a trend I’m seeing, by presenting a potential solution to a problem people seem to be having. 

My last tip is this: if notes and followers on Tumblr are making you feel down or frustrated, maybe it’s time for a little hiatus or a step back. In the end, you are not getting paid for this and your popularity on the platform has no bearing on your real life. This is supposed to be a fun outlet for your passions and interests, not a source of frustration and anger. Don’t take it too seriously! You’re doing amazing sweetie.

[sassyhazelowl]

The Problem with Tags

So I saw a post about how you are responsible for curating your tumblr experience. And I do agree with this sentiment - there are very simple, basic precautions I frequently see users not employing. However, I think it very blase to gloss over the difficulties in curating this website efficiently, especially if you use mobile and don’t have access to extensions like Xkit or tumblr Saviors (the fact that 3rd party software is required to make this website useable is already a red flag on functionality).

From the user’s pov, here’s common tag failures:

1. there are no universal tags or acronyms - a single subject can have over half a dozen+ tags 2. people use personalized tags instead of common ones ie. “food” or “spider” 3. not tagging at all 4. abbreviating or alternating words like “queer” or “vegan” to include *’s 5. is it cw or tw or something else - these are used interchangeably 6. do you tag everything pertinent to the subject under the same tag or should it be used only for positive discussion 7. cross tagging 8. purposeful or malicious mistagging

There are no moderators or neatly labelled links to click on with this website. It solely relies on people tagging appropriately and efficiently, which is impossible. Additionally, you follow individuals, not groups or threads. You can’t control how they run their blog. You can always unfollow obviously, but you started following them for a reason, not to mention unfollowing mutuals comes with social consequences.

Personal examples below the cut:

One time I had my computer over at my uncle’s house and some rather explicit m/m fanart popped up on my dash while I was working on his computer problem with him. I keep a SFW dash, so it was toss up who was more surprised, me or my uncle LOL. This mutual had never posted anything like that before and they did not tag it. There was no real way to anticipate this would happen or “be more responsible.” I’d just idly refreshed my dash while waiting for his computer to boot up expecting cute photos of rats and some writing advice.

Many, many times I have had to ask mutuals to tag “food.” I have medical conditions that cause constant and violent nausea, and sometimes when I am very ill, just the sight of food will make me start heaving/vomit. I don’t follow food blogs, I don’t go into food tags, I don’t go seeking out food posts. Yet every so often I get an unpleasant surprise because someone forgot to tag or didn’t tag the term I blacklisted.

When I first joined tumblr, I assumed the tags were for subjects. I made a post that was controversial (about a popular ship) and tagged it in a way that made sense to me. The post was entirely subjective, it was just my opinion, it had positive and negative points in it, it was labelled with don’t like, don’t read and under a read more. I thought I’d been very considerate. In return for my effort, I received a slew of nasty fanmails about how I shouldn’t tag it the way I did and “I’m so sick of this rudeass shit” from shippers who didn’t like my opinion in “their” tag. Incidentally this earned me a lot of followers LOL and was one of my most popular posts because I’d stupidly said what everyone else had been beaten into silence about

More recently, regarding the same ship, there have been a lot of gifsets circulating. I have gifs blacklisted because it causes, you guessed it, nausea (quick moving things trigger motion sickness when you’re sensitive I guess). I also have the ship blacklisted because I don’t like the fanbase. There must be several versions of this gifset because I keep blocking posts and new ones keep popping up. If they were tagged, this wouldn’t be an issue.

[chasing-rabbits]

Hey idk if ur aware but ms-hells-bells and sailor-moon-rage are radfem terfs. Idk if u just like stumbled upon that one post in the for you or a tag or something. Just wanted to make sure ur aware and let u know it might be better to make ur own post about that custody case if u dont want to have their names on ur blog. ✌🏽

Oh I had no idea thanks for letting me know. I haven't been too active on Tumblr lately but recently did go through my follower list and start following some people back I think that's how I ended up following sailor moon rage. I never noticed any terf stuff on their blog at that time but I've not been very active so I guess I missed their posts on my dash but I just went to unfollow them now and like a couple posts in I already saw some yikes BS so thanks for letting me know.

I've found an increase fairly recently with terf shit popping up on my dash like but from blogs I was following for a long time that had never posted any terf bs or I hadn't seen them post terf bs on my dash before and then out of no where I am seeing a lot of radfem terf rhetoric and I'm like where did that come from. Idk if I'd missed it before but I dont think so because some of these were blogs I know I'd been following awhile idk if they over time went from feminist to radfem and I just missed that transition but it really sucked seeing what used to be good mutuals turn into such shitty human beings. One of them I know did transition from feminist to radfem because I saw an ask they'd gotten about it and then saw a post on their blog about going radfem and trying to justify it and that's when I was like yeaaah unfollowed.

I'll go back when I'm not on mobile and delete that post and see if there is another version I can reblog that doesn't originate from OP since they're also a terf.

[shy-peacock]

RULES: tag ten followers you want to know better!

Tagged by @illeaslockedbluebox

TAGGING: I’m gonna cheat and say...everyone who scrolls past this post! That’s right, I MEAN YOU!!!

NAME: Jessy

STAR SIGN: Sagittarius 

HEIGHT: 5′10

PUT YOUR ITUNES/SPOTIFY ON SHUFFLE. WHAT ARE THE FIRST 4 SONGS THAT POPPED UP?

Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey

Pretty Fly (For a White Guy) - The Offspring

Over You - Daughtry

Incomplete - Backstreet Boys

GRAB THE BOOK NEAREST YOU AND TURN TO PAGE 23. WHAT’S LINE 17?

“This is an amazing place,” Violet said finally, breaking the long silence.

EVER HAD A POEM OR SONG WRITTEN ABOUT YOU?

I think a poem?? Idk, past love stuff...not sure if I remember that correctly.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU PLAYED AIR GUITAR?

Literally this morning.

WHO IS YOUR CELEBRITY CRUSH?

Ah...hmm..I always say things like Jim Sturgess or Kate Mckinnon but I’m really not crushing on any celebrity really. I used to be infatuated with Naya Rivera though. (Glee days)

WHAT’S A SOUND YOU HATE + SOUND YOU LOVE?

HATE: I’ve begun hating thunder recently (which is not how I used to be) because it makes me think giants are running towards my house and idk, suddenly I’m scared of giants??? but long term wise, I really hate when people cough or clear their throats annoyingly. (Like I get coughing, but like a deep crunchy growling couch is a bit much!)

LOVE: I really love the sound of my spinners, clickers and switches that come from my fidgets. I love sad sounding/soft piano music that makes me feel like I’m walking downtown on a late thursday evening after work, stopping by a coffee shop and staring out at the rain and contemplating my current fixation with life. I love the sound of fans that lull me to sleep on a hot summers night. I love music with no words that can be fast paced techno sounds or classical opera vibes. I love the sounds of my neighborhood, birds chirping and cars driving by. I love the noise of the heat rumbling the house and the soft sigh my dog makes when he’s content and loved. (I realize this is getting long, but there are so many sounds I love! hahaha XD)

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS?

Yes, I do!

HOW ABOUT ALIENS?

I just can’t believe we are the only people in the entire world that exist, so yes!

DO YOU DRIVE?

Yes

IF SO, HAVE YOU EVER CRASHED?

Nope! Someone did back their car up and hit my car while I was in a store.

WHAT WAS THE LAST BOOK YOU READ?

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Book 1)

DO YOU LIKE THE SMELL OF GASOLINE?

I actually do XD

WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU SAW?

The Darkest Minds

WHAT’S THE WORST INJURY YOU’VE EVER HAD?

My sister, cousin and I went out one winter morning and thought it would be fun to go on the trampoline while there was fresh ice on it that made it slippery. We all jumped up and when we came down, they landed on my leg. It broke, clearly, but my aunt and uncle didn’t believe me and made me walk on it for the weekend. I hurt it again in high school and, even as an adult, it still gives me trouble from time to time. That, along with several injuries to the head throughout my life that required stitches and ‘butterflies’ or whatever they call ‘em.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OBSESSIONS RIGHT NOW?

Hevelyn most recently and BOTW game.

DO YOU TEND TO HOLD GRUDGES AGAINST PEOPLE WHO HAVE DONE YOU WRONG?

If I’m going to be honest, both yes and no. Getting older and having the effects of...well..life!..has had me more empathetic to people and their lives and opinions than it did when I first started going on this website. If people are mean to me, I say my words and then let it go. (hahah Elsa) But there is still a handful of tumblr folk I am still angry at for things they did years ago. I won’t even reblog things mutuals or friends have reblogged from them, I even unfollowed some good quality blogs just because they were friends with them. Which is stupid..I KNOW...but I can’t get over people’s mean actions and their bullshittery.

 In conclusion, I guess a TLDR, I don’t hold grudges with anyone entering my life now, but the people who have wronged me or my friends in the past are still on my bad list.

IN A RELATIONSHIP?

Married! 3 years bitches!!

[probably-enjolras]

hey unrelated to les mis but you reblogged that post recently and i have a small question for you. do you like supernatural? if so, very cursed of you, well done, if not, congratulations ig?

very loaded question tbh. i started watching spn in 2015, and watched all the new episodes every day they came out until the end of season 13. i genuinely enjoyed the show, especially seasons 4-6, and if you go far enough back in my blog you can find the posts from when i would liveblog new episodes. i got really frustrated with the show because it just felt like we were going through the same plot points to the point it was getting ridiculous. i was mostly only watching because i liked cas. when season 13 ended i just… didn’t watch the next season when it came out? i didn’t really follow any spn blogs besides one destiel blog that has a really good tagging system (i still follow her), and i was much more interested in les mis by this point, so i just stopped putting spn content on my blog. i kept up to date on plot points through the grapevine that is the internet. then november 5th 2020 happened and i honestly felt emotions i had never felt before. just everything that happened at once that day was incredible and i was in a bad place so it made me feel a bit better. i still desperately wanted the show to end and lay to rest because good lord it went on far too long. now a bunch of my mutuals have gotten into the show and i love them too much to unfollow so now i have a solid amount of destiel on my dash.

so to answer your question: sorta? everything i have learned about supernatural since 2017 has been against my will and i’ve never wanted a show to end more than i have with supernatural, but i’m not getting rid of my castiel funko pop i got when i was 12 so make of that what you will

[sparatus]

can u do shenko, shakarian, shiara and shrios? :eyes:

give me a ship and i’ll give my (brutally) honest opinion of it

i actually did shiara last night!! [link]

ok as for those other 3. let’s start with a broad statement then get into the deets: VERY sweet, love all three of them, truly #blessed

(ship-specific takes under the cut, also sometimes lately mobile has been fucking up for me and readmores don’t work so if ur on mobile and get a long post instead of a short answer with a readmore i’m so sorry)

shenko

ok full disclosure, i used to. ABHOR. shenko. and a huge part of it is on the fans. like, yeah, part of it was on how the romance happens in me1, we’ve all heard that complaint. i had no idea i was romancing kaidan, i thought i was just being a good friend, but OH SURPRISE YOU’RE IN LOVE NOW. and yeah, that was pretty off-putting! it felt kinda “nice guy”-ish to me, to be perfectly honest. but hey, that shit’s on the writers, and it’s an issue with ALL the me1 romances. i could still see how it COULD be really sweet, it just wasn’t for me.

and then the fans.

the fans were what really drove me away from the ship, honestly. it’s the same situation as i’ve been having with shakarian. the majority of the fans, or at least a very vocal minority, are goddamn insane. they were pushing me away from kaidan himself as a character, too. they were so obsessive over him and how his relationship with shepard is CLEARLY the BEST one and the one the writers WANTED to be canon and blah blah blah, i couldn’t stand it. it made me hate it.

and they had (and still have) no self-awareness! i used to have a mutual (i unfollowed and softblocked them over them being passive-aggressive over something stupid) who once said they were afraid to admit they ship shenko because they thought nobody else shipped it. i was so annoyed i put together an entire excel spreadsheet, using ao3 statistics, of the top 10 ships in the fandom by fanfic counts to prove no, you goddamn buffoon, you are very much in the majority here.

but as of late i’ve been taking more of a step back from fandom nonsense, trying to ignore the vocal idiots in the fandom so i can sit down and really think about things and come up with ideas and perspectives and opinions free of the taint of what the fans made me feel. and y’know what?? i decided i do actually like shenko!! it’s cute!! when you get past the clunky writing in me1, it’s a genuinely sweet ship!! kaidan’s a great guy!! i’m sorry i didn’t give you a chance, kaidan, i love you, i really do. i’m actually kind of excited to continue my kaidanmance shepard now (once i retrieve more dlc stuff from my brother’s old xbox, that is...), so i can form a proper opinion using the content from ALL the games instead of an me1 romance and weird fandom bullshit. i also want to make an mshep who romances him, because both fshenko and mshenko are equally cute and i love them both.

shakarian

ok. Ok. we’ve all seen my #onions on the shakarian fandom. (if ur new and reading this, there’s some fairly recent ones, or u could just search shakarian on my blog, it’ll pop up.) i’m not a fan of them. i do not like the shakarian fans. they’re making me despise something i love because none of them know how to act fucking normal.

that said. holy SHIT do i ever have a soft spot for shakarian.

like ok, i’ll admit, lately my fondness for them has been waning. niazmina shep, my first garrusmancer, is now an oc-mancer for reasons i outlined in this post [link]. in both my “official” canons garrus ends up with the citadel dlc turian woman. but yknow what?? garrus is still my personal favorite romance. i have plans to make a new garrusmance, because i can’t NOT have one. every now and then i get the itch to play through his romance again, because it’s just so sweet i love it so much.

garrus was my very first romance that i got into, and romancing him will always feel like home. i love him the most. he’s my space boyfriend. i might go to other ships, but part of me will always prefer smoochin’ that big handsome nerdy dorky cricket bird boy.

shrios

honestly?? i actually tend to. prefer a more fleshed-out version than what’s presented in-game.

in-game it feels very..... unpolished, i guess. playing through it, there were a lot of points where i was like, “well that was abrupt???” like, i think either the lock-in cutscene or the one before it has thane admitting how much he loved irikah and how much he misses her, and shep basically goes, “cool, btw i’m mad in love with you.” and then his pre-endgame scene, he literally starts crying about not wanting to die, and 5 seconds later you go have sex. like...... um??

like, i can see what they’re going for, and i LOVE that!! the whole concept is, grieving widower finds solace and comfort in a new friend, friend lends a sympathetic ear, the two of them gradually fall in love. that’s really sweet!! i love it!! but the execution..... leaves something to be desired.

and then we all know how Uhhhhh, the me3 romance content is, lol. i do think it’s sweet, but to me it feels like they just kinda. forgot he’s a romance option. it’s just so bare-bones.

so yeah, i tend to build the narrative and flesh it out more in my head, and THAT’S what i really dig. it’s a really sweet, touching thing, but bioware prooooobably should’ve done a little more work on it to make it a little less clunky.