#sorry to those who like the original version more but this is what fanart is

[milsae]

butch princess peach (+daisy)

[factual-fantasy]

24 ASKS!! AAA THANK YALL SO MUCH THIS ONE WAS VERY FUN :}} ✨💖✨

Ah no worries about not understanding! I would prefer no fanart was drawn of my cookie ocs.. thank you for asking to double check though! :}}

(Post this ask is referencing)

I explain it all in this post! :00

:DD Thank you so much!! And yeah, I just didn't have the heart to keep Papyrus suffering 😭😭 as much as it really seems like I don't-- I do love Papyrus as a character. And I felt like he really deserved some kind of salvation after everything I put him through.. Also it'll make for some interesting dynamics in the group! Looking at Seam and Jevil.. 👀👀

Oh yeah, and poor Coconut. If I hadn't drawn angst of Octo already she wouldn't have been the subject this time! <XDD And thank you!! :DD I'm glad to hear that she's your favorite!! :}}

And yes! I always saw the other koopa kids- especially Ludwig- to be older than JR. Maybe its the bib-- and who knows! I tend to loop back around to old fandoms from time to time so I can see myself drawing the koopa kids again XDD

As for the Mario Movie,, shockingly enough I still haven't seen it. What can I say? I have some kind of problem upstairs I'm sure of it--

Though its interesting to hear that the movie blue shells are similar to mine! :0 And I'm honored to hear that you like my version more than the movies! :DD 💖💖

XD Its been a while since I've seen those movies. So I cant really remember much of Jack Sparrow.. but I trust that you are right! XD

@foxythefox11

XD If I do that Jangles will probably super bounce her into the sun-

And thank you! And hey, I'm sorry that you're not very confident in your artwork right now.. Just keep in mind, all it took for me was time. Your art will improve with time. Try your best to cut yourself some slack. Understand that you're still learning. We all are! Remember that your art will continue to improve if you just keep drawing!

I don't play it or know anything about it either <XDD but I'm glad you like them!! :}} ✨💖✨

(Post in question)

AWW! THAT SOUNDS ADORABLE!! 😭😭🥺💖

@solst1ce-sketches

@komikudikentalendo

Its actually the 3rd option. Usually when I'm in some kind of fandom I prefer my own AUs as opposed to others AUs or even canon. :00

That's probably becuase most of my AUs consist of removing things from canon I don't like and adding in random things that I do like-

@abaroo (Post in question)

AWWW THAT WOULD'A WORKED TOO THOUGH :(

I guess I was thinking that Frisk fully trusted Papyrus instantly. And so did not hesitate to give her cape to him 🥺💖

@natewithacake

ASKSAKSFDJ THANK YOU!! :DD MEGA HIGH FIVE VIBES FRFR!!

@skulls-and-cypresses (Post in question)

WHW- WAHG??? THAK YOU?? THANK YOU SO MUCH!! THAT'S SO KIND!! PROBABLY THE KINDEST THING ANYONE HAS EVER SAID ABOUT THE WAY I DRAW PAPYRUS!! ME?? REPRESENT HIM PERFECTLY??? WAAAA THANK OU!!! 😭😭💖😭💖💖

THANK YOU!! THANK THANK THANK YOU!! FOR EVERYTHING!! 😭😭💖💙😭😭😭

@dementia27

Aww! How cute! That might work! :000 Why do I want one now- XDD

@khoiazo

Aw, I'm sorry! <XDD I don't mean to make you sad :(((

AND YOOO!!! Its Friday when I'm answering this but the Wednesday dude is welcome any day of the week! :DD

Yeah, both canon Jevil and Spamton would be pretty dangerous to have around XDD But out of the two I think original Spamton would be interesting.. 👀

Not really for the personality, because my Spamton's personality is actually a bit similar.. but more for the visual aspect. I headcannon that canon Spamton's body shrunk when he fell into an acid pool. My Spamton fell into an acid pool as well, but it didn't shrink him. It destroyed the structure of his body and elongated him. Making him much taller and extremely deformed..

Imagine the two of them standing side by side. Original Spam would be up to my Spams knee! <XD

@minnesotamedic186

Evil voice: ehhehghehe... noted... hehehghehee

@pythecyberguy

Me when someone compliments me on the characters design that I was least confident about:

(fr tho THANK YOU!! THAT MEANS A LOT TO MEEEE😭😭💖💖😭💖 )

@nunyabusiness459 (Post in question)

Whoopsies! <XDD (jk jk light hearted--)

SHE WOULD THO XDD

I wouldn't say near-death.. Spade King didn't want to kill Jevil. So any injuries he inflicted upon him were injuries he could recover from..

@beryl-shade

Yeah :( their value to him was that of a grain of sand..

@neo-metalscottic

AAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE THEM!! :DDD

As for what kind of monsters they'd face,, I'm actually unsure- I haven't played either game and I don't know any of the lore or characters.. so I'm not sure what kinds of dangers the real cookie run pirates face.. :( But what I DO know is that Blue Beauty is their main form of protection.

She's not exactly threatening to a lot of creatures I'd imagine.. She is just a Mer-whale. No teeth or stingers to make her more intimidating.. But what she is, is huge. And incredibly strong. She's a real power house and uses tools and weapons the crew taught her how to use to defend herself. And I imagine with her thick blubber, it takes a really deep wound to actually hurt her. So she doesn't fear getting a couple scratches here and there.

When it comes to the other cookies, most everyone stands up and fights. Only a select few retreat to the lower decks to protect their goods or hide. Those likely being Ellie, she's too old for this crap- and Coco and Red, though don't be fooled! Coco can fight! She's just retreating with Red in order to protect him. Everyone else though is up there duking it out with who ever dares cross their ship! ⚔⚔

@lildiaperboyjake

Ah! Sorry for the late reply, this ask got buried--

I'd like to think Funtime Freddy would have a really hard time deciding on a favorite song. California girls, call me maybe,, wannabe?? But after a loooot of careful thinking, he'd pick all star by smash mouth XD

Hello hi yes this ask was sent weeks ago but then it got lost and buried but then revived in a way that I cant explain but my intended response was--

Awwww.. imagine her in tears after drawing a picture of a little girl she remembers. She holds the drawing up to the night sky, trembling.

"S-She dreamed of seeing the stars one day.." 💔

[nerumii0]

I have no words to express my happiness towards this nice reblogs ❤️❤️

I'm still on the challenge, I left it postponed due to the strong storms that cause blackouts in my city and affect my follow-up, but I promise to continue with. I have the ideas and I hope to finish then as soon as possible T T

Thank you for supporting this fanart :'3

And I'm sorry if I didn't reply, I don't know how to do it directly, at this point I feel like a noob old lady on Tumblr XD

But anyway, answering to @phdbabygirlism, yes, I chose the cover idea, thank you very much for the nice suggestion :>

And lastly for @pure-penguin-gold , ah, nice questions my pal, to be honest I didn't think about the whole backstory very well, since at first I planned to draw them as I usually do, like human versions, but I don't know, I thought the concept wouldn't have hit as much as it's currently doing.

But let's begin, answering your questions and to create a interesting background, which by the way I hope will satisfy your curiosity, if not, any idea and suggestion you have in mind is welcome ^^

I was considering maybe a rich human got them, I mean having a boa like Savio is already a complex issue, because he managed to break his enclosure system easily from the two zoos where he had already been. So, he wouldn't even strive to break a common terrarium without so many safety protocols from a regular guy and wouldn't make sense at all why he's stuck in that terrarium alongside Clemson's annoying company :P

Given how expensive the materials are for reinforcing a good terrarium and subsequently preventing his escape, among some possible candidates as his owner, a rich human is perfect, he could cover those expenses.

He did not necessarily take them just like that at the same time in the same place, but rather he obtained them separately.

Starting with Clemson, considering the original plot we know very little of his origin, more than he's a multi-talented lemur giving the impression of being a servile subject who sought the crown and the power to reign unsuccessfully. Then, we've got nothing. Applying a different dynamic where he have never been in the Central Park zoo, and he never met Julien, instead of being a king, he seeks something similar to Blue Hen, a sort of wealth that will make him powerful and rich using his impressive wit and pretending to be servile for the humans in order to get what he wants.

I'm not sure yet what scenario would be accurate for the backstory of how the rich human did find him, but I'm up with these possibilities, such as in a private zoo, maybe an auction or an exclusive collectors club,

Surely it goes hand in hand with illegality, but not so close to animal abuse or exploitation, like I mentioned, Clemson used his charms winning over the staff of one of these places, and therefore the staff realized the amount of money they could earn thanks to him, to which Clemson didn't really mind temporarily, we know he's also a greedy guy, and he aimed to achieve being in hands of an influent human to be on top later.

The human attended in one of the possibilities and he got impressed by his skills and charming, so he decided to buy him, although Clemson doesn't see himself like a pet, instead considered the human his personal slave rather than his owner, and so since he earned a comfortable life, he didn't find the point to escape, in other words the owner's home it's a huge paradise for him. He has jewels, books, cozzy cushions to sleep and so on.

And of course, he has more liberties than Savio, he is able to go wherever he wants and where he shouldn't be without his owner noticing.

On the other hand, Savio's backstory wouldn't change much. Given his dangerous nature, I imagined that perhaps as Savio earned his bad reputation, through the news it reaches this human, I already mentioned the human is an animal fan, especially with reptiles, so Savio quickly caught all his attention, but unlike Clemson, the human had a more complicated time getting Savio, since at first animal control took it upon themselves to catch this untamable snake, basically saving him the dirty work. Maybe with bribes and through various dirty illegal paperwork processes he got him, In addition, Savio was at a disadvantage considering that the zoos where he had been no longer wanted to accept such an aggressive boa.

Savio is unaware of what awaits him, believing that he would be transferred to another zoo until he ends up in this human's mansion and that is where he meets Clemson. Savio arrives the same way he arrived at the Central Park Zoo and obviously attracts Clemson's attention, seeing a new animal around the mansion, at first makes him feel threatened to lose his chance to be on top, suspecting that Savio could be a rival, but after getting to know him he sees that he hasn't the slightest interest in human possessions, other than taking his revenge against the penguins and King Julien.

[chiconisroc]

Questions and Answers for Was Not The Hero Part 9

Quick Announcement: I will be writing the next chapter soon , sorry for the super long wait v.v

Now for questions and answers:

How powerful is the Catholic Church in your story

Answer: They are pretty powerful. I don't want to spoil too much but let's say they have many peeps around the world who can use magic by different means : ). Usually though, they don't use such peeps unless they have to like fighting against other magical beings or magical users who are a threat to the world.

2. How would Philip react to his og death and his dragon form in the original series

Answer: He would be shocked that Luz's friends killed him in such a merciless way and would be shocked at himself that he allowed himself to turn himself into a dragon and probably ashamed too.

3. What are the ages for sister Lilian,Luna, and Father Francis?

Answer: Father Francis is about 40, Lilian is 33, Luna is 56

4. Tim I wish you were born a girl fits Philip and Silas relationship

Answer: hahaha, yah :'c

5. Would the Collector and Philip be buddies later on

Answer: They would yeah. in my version, the collector isn't such an innocent child.

6. is Silas and Elizabeth biologically immortal?

Answer: Oh, I can't answer this, spoilers : 3. Some of the answer will be provided in the next chapter though : D

More questions and Answers:

7. Is your Catholic Church similar to the Hellsing organization but more moral

Answer: i never seen Hellsing, but from the little description I found " It's created for the sole purpose of keeping the country save from Supernatural threats" I guess so?

8. Philip will fear the term BDSM if he heard or saw it

Answer: he would be hahaha

9. Can your Philip have the drive to be a Model? I mean he handsome and looks good in dresses and suits.

Answer: He wouldn't honestly, but he for sure would look good in such clothes : )

10. Philip technically slept with a man

Answer: hahaha, he did : D

11. Can Philip swim? If not I could see Silas or Luz trying to teach him to float in water and preventing him from drowning in deep waters

Answer: Philip can't : o, and hahaha, now, a scene of either of those teaching him would be funny : 3

12. Silas would feel bad for Hunter and how Philip used to treat him

Answer: Oh, Silas's reaction will be a scene I'm excited to write , won't say much about it : )

13. Would the Hexsquad and Philip like the song “Red Fraction” by Mell

Answer: I say so, very intense : o

14. I want a Virgin vs Chad meme depicting Philip and Silas with Philip being the Virgin and Silas as the Chad describing how better he is

Answer: LOL, I mean, I would love something like that too hahaha

15. Does your Philip dislike romance?

Answer: He never thinks about it honestly : o, so he has no opinions on it

16. I want some Alexander Baxter and Samuel Hale Yaoi fanart

Answer: Hahaha, even though I don't ship them if peeps want to draw it i say go for it, lolol

[celerydays]

What program do you use to make your fanart? Is it on just an average ipad or is there special ones just for art? Your work looks so good! I’m wanting to try digital art but unsure where to start :)

I use the Procreate app for all of my digital art! ✨

It should be available on any iPad 💗 I personally invested for my birthday this past year and I have the 12.9" M2 iPad Pro, but I'll even occasionally use my fiancé's iPad Mini and the Procreate app on there in a pinch since it's so small and portable~

The only real difference is that performance might suffer a bit, the larger an art piece is or how many layers your work has, depending on the iPad. But if you're just starting out, I probably wouldn't find that to be much of an issue!

(More rambling about digital art origins under cut ✨)

There's definitely a learning curve, especially if you're more used to drawing traditionally! It can help to still sketch traditionally (if that's what you're used to) and then upload a photo of your drawing to your tablet to work over digitally (this is personally how I started out and I used to just make little digital doodles by tracing and coloring over my traditional sketches.)

A small doodle from my sketchbook that I traced and colored digitally, from around 2011-2012, I think? Uh, happy Doctor Who day today!

My very first digital art set up was actually a tiny Wacom Bamboo tablet where the drawing space probably wasn't even bigger than my hand, and a super old bootleg version of Photoshop CS2 which was already a version that was 7 years too old for the time (CS5/CS6 was the most updated version by the time I had started on digital art).

Everyone else in my class had the bigger/fancier/professional-grade Wacom Intuos and I remember my professor taking one look at my baby tablet and just going like "how tf are you drawing on that" lmao.

But still! Experimenting and doing little exercises can get you a long way – I would say to approach it with similar exercises you would do as if you were learning to draw traditionally for the first time.

Shade in circles/nail down basic lighting. Gesture drawings. Random scribbles. Just things that help you get used to the feel of digital art!

Test out different textures you can achieve with one brush, then expand it to see how other different types of brushes can behave and add to the experience.

For proof that even just one brush and not the best/most updated tools can work: these are two of my first more "serious" digital art projects I did in college (with my tiny tablet and mega outdated version of Photoshop) and 99% of the rendering was just done with the "soft airbrush" brush.

But even then, we were taught to create our base sketches traditionally and upload them to the program to work over.

Then one day I decided I wanted to just be able to also do all my sketches digitally and just worked on getting used to sketching straight on my digital program. It was then that besides the all-powerful undo-redo buttons, I started to really make use of the transform/canvas flip/liquify features which I don't think I can live without now lol. (Caveat: I'm now a little too dependent on those features so I keep a traditional sketchbook to do silly doodles in occasionally to exercise my hand because sketching traditionally without the buffer of those digital tools is pretty difficult for me now lol.)

That was a little long-winded, I'm so sorry hahaha. I hope something in this rambling could be taken as somewhat helpful for starting out on digital art!! 💗

[blazehedgehog]

Okay so you've apologized for choosing the wrong words over the SAGE 2024 showcase trailer, but doesn't that mean that somewhere inside you still think parts of what you said are true? You still came to those conclusions one way or another.

Yes and no.

I would like to open this saying I used to be known as a pretty harsh critic when I started writing about SAGE for TSSZ News. I hurt a lot of feelings but I always had a logic behind what I was saying. Ultimately I figured I was judging people by standards they didn't deserve, and I kind of softened my view.

By that I mean I was judging fangames against more professional standards, and then I realized these were just hobbyists having fun and didn't deserve to be raked over the coals like that. After all, a game you pay for and a game you download for free create two very different expectations.

So I'm going to single someone out here and I'm sorry in advance for doing this, but I saw Sonic Test Labs in the SAGE 2024 showcase video. They've removed Sonic and replaced it with an original character -- a furry wolf wearing jeans, I believe. (It's a rat)

Now, I'm not out here to insult somebody's OC or even their fursona. Something I've been trying to remind people in slamming on the brakes of all of this SAGE hot water over on Twitter is that I think anybody should make anything and be proud of that. I literally just put out a Shadow Generations video 2-3 months ago where I have a long montage of fanart I drew of my Sonic OC, as I talk at length about not running from your past and embracing who you used to be, even if it was cringe. I am not here to tell anyone to stop making things.

But, like, the 90's were full of "mascots with attitude" and really only one or two stuck around, and the most prominent example is Sonic the Hedgehog. Most of these furries were lucky to get a single sequel and then they disappeared off the face of the planet, some only resurfacing ironically.

Sonic the Hedgehog, just as a character design, is kind of a one-in-a-million shot. To be so simple and so iconic and so appealing to so many people... the epitome of lightning in a bottle.

And the indie game space is a very different place than it was when a lot of people were pitching Sabrina to ditch "Lilac the Hedgehog" and make Freedom Planet into an original game she could sell, you know?

So when I see Sonic Test Labs and it's got a new name, it's dropping the Sonic connection and it's starring a fursona it's like, good for you, all the power in the world to you, I hope you succeed, but also, at this point... is this going to be worth the change? I guess I'm not the developer of what is now "Wick3r: Tricks, Keys & Speed", so I can't answer that. They have a lot of talent, though, and Sonic Test Labs was a standout game for me last year, so we'll see.

I am coming at this from my own perspective as a game developer, and I've hit a pretty big streak of bad luck as of late, I feel. I have no more time for the sort of game development I really want to do and I haven't released anything meaningful in years. The last few things I did release, I'm not really proud of anymore.

Let's take OverBite. I genuinely wanted to make OverBite into a real game. I was making steps towards that. Then my whole life got turned upside down, I lost my motivation, and I got caught up in the Youtube game.

The further I get from OverBite, the more I see its flaws. It was a Game Jam game. Most of its levels were constructed in about five hours. I have a fat design document full of too many ideas for the final game that need to be re-thought, paired down and streamlined.

I can't do any of that. I have absolutely no faith that a current version of OverBite would sell anything even remotely meaningfully for me to be worth the time I'd put into expanding (or even outright rewriting) its code, polishing up its visuals, implementing new mechanics, new levels, bosses, etc. That means spending years effectively wasting time I could be spending on my Youtube channel, where my hard work is more directly rewarded.

And it kills me. It makes me want to cry. But there's a cold part of me that says, "Get over it. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't do everything. Pick a lane and build that up, you can't be so scattershot anymore."

But I have so many game ideas, and more keep piling up. And even if I tell myself I can't be so scattershot anymore, I still end up working on some of them anyway. Because my heart wants to make video games and my brain says it's not worth it anymore. The market is too crowded, the investment is too large, the gains are too small.

If I put my full weight behind my Youtube channel, I make thousands of dollars a year. Not even five figure numbers, but a non-trivial amount. For Overbite, I made just over a hundred bucks, and most of that was begging for people to help cover the Steam Greenlight fee.

Or, let's say, "Better Bubsy." That Bubsy joke game that stopped being ironic and started being earnest. I work on it for a few weeks every April for the last four or five years. It got to the point where some respected people I know were saying I should pitch it to whoever owned the Bubsy IP. Which at the time was UFO Entertainment. Eventually that changes hands when Atari buys the Bubsy IP from UFO, and the CEO of Atari is out there making an open call for indie devs to submit a Bubsy pitch. This is my chance. Better Bubsy could be a real thing!

I even speak to someone who works directly at Atari! I don't even have to drop it in their pitch inbox! It's getting personally sent up the chain!!!

...

Atari and Limited Run announce a Bubsy remaster pack where they are making their own "select improvements" to the old games. That is effectively confirmation that they did not care about what I was selling. More time wasted.

Forgive me if I'm not very warm to certain ideas right now and I have a cynical, bitter heart towards certain aspects of game development. I am personally in a very conflicted place right now, and it came out in the wrong ways towards people who did not deserve it.

(For those of you who don't know what this is about, this, this, and this twitter thread should clear things up.)

[bagel-boy-sama]

Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Isn't A TumblrSexyMan™, He's Just A SexyMan™

I've seen a large number of people, most of whom are in the Astarion Disliker/"I don't get it" camp most who are not on this particular hell site, cite Astarion as Tumblr's latest sexyman. Today, I will be explaining why I do not believe that to be the case. That instead, as the title states, he's just a sexyman.

No real knowledge of the hell site is required, I'll explain things for the new people.

Setting The Definitions

First, definitions because this is now Intro to Writing and Rhetoric. A sexyman would be anyone, usually masc or a man, who is concidered sexy by a wide range of people. Fascinating.

A Tumblr Sexyman, on the other hand, is a thing - usually fictional entity - that is incredibly popular on Tumblr.com to the degree it escapes it's fandom sometimes, in the most extreme of cases, becoming far more popular than it's original fandom. It is characterized by a few major characteristics. Ranging from Twinkism* (be it the character or fan interpretation), generally unconventionally/perceived to be unconventionally attractive in a non physical sense (character traits that wouldn't otherwise be desirable, like absurd behavior or generally evilness), to impeccable drip (either in the original media/design, or done by fans in fanart).

*note: Twinkism (which I did just throw in on the spot this is entirely bullshit for my own amusement) is the phenomenon of skinny, young looking, pretty/feminine white boys who are within media. This is different from twinks, who are understood to be young and skinny - being pretty, popular, or white is not connected. All those who participate in Twinkism are Twinks, but not all Twinks participate in Twinkism.

Does Astarion Baldurs Gate 3 Fit The Definition?

First rule: must be at least a twink. Is he?

No. Yes. Kinda. In a way. Many people would describe Astarion as someone who's gone through "Twink Death". No this is not because he's literally undead. Twink Death, in it's simplest form, is when a twink no longer looks young and/or feminine. Astarion has aged. His crows feet and laugh lines, while beautiful, do not make him look 18. For some this would disqualify him from being a Twink. So perhaps he has failed at the first step.

I, however, am not satisfied with that. Moving on, is Astarion - or would Astarion - actually be considered conventionally unattractive in any way that is disconnected from his appearance? I argue no. Vampires are considered very well, normal to lust after. They're right below succubus on the "This isn't considered weird to find attractive" scale. You aren't romancing The Emperor here. Outside of that he's well groomed, shown to be muscular in game (headcanon does often disagree and while I wish it was true we are working with facts for this specific discussion), and an elf. In personality, while not for everyone, he's the pretty standard fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish. We all know a fruity sarcastic gay who's a bit selfish, and they get laid. So it can't be considered that bad. Probably.

I feel important to note here that I am aroace and have no idea what I'm talking about right now. This is an educated guess.

Astarion has lost now, two for two. He's barely a twink, even going off of his model he's more a twunk. He definitely doesn't fit the Twinkism phenomenon. He's not weird to find attractive, I assume, so what else is there? His drip? I'm sorry, but his base outfit is a bit well Goofy to say the least. Much fanart leaves him in this outfit or a simpler version because drawing ruffles is enough to make anyone want to willingly jump headfirst into the underdark, so he fails the drip test as well.

His final hurtle: is his popularity Tumblr™. In this context Tumblr™ is different from Tumblr. Tumblr™ is the fandom side, where a sexyman would flourish and find their own fandom. Importantly, this fandom needs to be very insular to the site. It's a *Tumblr* sexyman after all. So that begs the question, is Astarion highly liked by mostly or purely Tumblr people/those who have the vibes of a Tumblr user? No.

Astarion is well loved by many people of various vibes. He has affected (previously) straight men on Reddit. Few can escape him and his 10 charisma.

Conclusion

Astarion is just a sexyman. He's just a fictional character that many think is neat and attractive for a variety of reasons. He's the Ryan Reynolds of crpgs. He's some dude, who's generally considered attractive by a lot of people who you both would and wouldn't expect to find him attractive.

[c0smic-coral]

Here’s my story about growing up on MLP

The show started when I was 6 years old, but i didn’t get pulled in until I was 7. I remember it was a McDonald’s Happy Meal Fluttershy toy that did it (I still have it today and it sits on my dresser like a trophy). She had a brushable tail but no comb and a whole bunch of stickers. I looked at the box and my mom, who’d known about the show and remembered the original 80s version from her childhood, but she said she never really watched it or owned any of the toys, but I guess really wanted me to get into it. I still remember the first episode I watched was Read It and Weep (the one where Rainbow Dash gets into Daring Do) which today I find hilariously ironic.

This started a full-blown OBSESSION with the show. Soon I was collecting the blind bags, Beanie Babies, Happy Meal toys, I had FatHeads of all of the ponies on my bedroom wall, I had a My Little Pony lunchbox, a My Little Pony backpack, I wore My Little Pony underwear, I had My Little pony pajamas, I made a Twilight Sparkle Halloween costume one year, I had a My Little Pony birthday party one year. My mom compared me to Pinkie Pie but Twilight Sparkle was my favorite. I was an extroverted kid (the pandemic is what turned me into an introverted adult) and I started hoping I’d meet five friends I’d spend my whole life with just like her. I was a silly kid. I actually got bullied for being obsessed with the show unfortunately… this led to the loss of my first My Little Pony lunchbox.

And I wrote fanfiction! And I drew cringeworthy fanart because I was like that (my fanart improved over the years). When Equestria Girls came out, I started wondering if high school would be like that.

No, I never got to dance on cafeteria tables in school spirit wear. Sad.

As an adult, I think the show has definitely shaped me as a person who believes friendship, while not magic, is one of the most important things in the world. As for G5, it’s okay in my opinion. I haven’t watched any of the episodes after the Netflix movie, but I like the characters and I’m happy to see the next generation of kids gets to grow up on it too.

I did not hate Season 9. The later seasons I agree were not as good, but I never hated the School of Friendship or Cozy Glow (I actually love the idea of adorable child villains). The introduction of Scootaloo’s lesbian aunts warmed my heart, along with LyraBon getting married and implied AppleDash (though I think RariJack would have been better, just saying). I don’t hate The Last Problem either. Once again, a bit upset Rarity didn’t end up with anyone though because she deserved to have a happily ever after (and Gallus and Silverstream ending up in different places. I think those two should have gotten together)

Pony Life is bad. The introduction of Pinkie Pie’s brother makes no sense and opens up a lot of plot holes, even more than Maud never having been in The Cutie Mark Chronicles flashback. I never got behind Sparity. Rarity is too old for Spike and to be honest I think Spike and Sweetie Belle should’ve.

One thing I never understood was the hate on Flash Sentry and Timber Spruce. I think they’re both charming and both good for their respective Twilights. No no no. I ship Sunset Shimmer with EG’s Rainbow Dash, not Sci-Twi. No hate on Twiset, though!

My favorite episode of MLP, or episodes I suppose, are still A Canterlot Wedding, Parts 1 and 2. Queen Chrysalis will always be my fav villain. I love two-parters. Twilight’s Kingdom and To Where and Back Again are my others. I HATED The Mean Six btw. I found it a pathetic return for Queen Chrysalis and extremely anticlimactic. It’s the only episode I genuinely hate. There are some I dislike a bit but that’s the only one I hate.

A large inspiration to how Poisoned Lipgloss sounds is PrinceWhateverer. I love his music and I admire him greatly.

Sorry for the long post!! You guys can ask me anything on my opinions on the show!! Just a reminder, my blog is NOT suitable for minors, so please keep out!

[motionjames]

Wake up girlies, it's time to return to the frontline!

Guess who has insomniaaaa! 🤗💕💕

A month of cramps, nausea, increasingly worse insomnia (but a strangely good mood) has lead me down the path once again. I caught wind of some strange "gfl2" thing and after being struck with nostalgia, I grabbed bluestacks and fell into hell once more. I'd deleted gfl off my phone simply because it took too much space but now that it's on my computer, it's become DANGEROUS...! Github and clip studio up front with logistics running forever in the background. Yes, the ideal working experience.

Anyhow, everyone say hello to Contender.

I've been making more progress in these past two days than I had in the entire two months I spent with my new account because I realized how to (partially) Not Be An Idiot. Turns out there's a thing called "anchored construction" and you can get some pretty nice units (eventually) if you realize it exists! Wow! I got the girly and now I'm working on grabbing Carcano because she is pretty but also insane skillz.

Also, there's a discounted gatcha running right now and that means I can finally get over my mental block and spend tokens... I was surprised at how easy it's been to acquire them, so I've just been shilling em out. My dorm was totally bare until now. I'm sorry, everynyan...

As for actual gameplay, I finally made it past 2-6. It might seem like a simple thing to most but I was yet again, being an idiot. I was under the impression that I HAD to have dupes of the girls to dummy link them when I actually was swimming in dummy cores 🤦🏽‍♂️ What's wrong with me... Well, I jumped over that hurdle, blasted through the emergency missions, and am finishing chapter 3. The first parts arent so bad when you learn how to read! 😃😃😃

First eschalon is good, it's the standard one that everyone seems to use to clear the early game. This second one is a WIP mess that I'm readying for night missions. You see, I'm really hurting for half-decent SMGs and rifles, the second one there is kinda lacking in defense/fire power... I wanna create a decent second eschalon and night mission groupie but I gotta figure out what units to invest in. I hope for Carcano soon. She is cute. Also, feel free to berate me for my bad decisions and suggest decent compositions. I am so lacking in SMGs that dont immediately explode (mpk you are so cute but so stupid). I'm currently looking at friend's compositions to figure out what formations work...

In completely different news and only further proving how dense I am, I only recently learned that Girl of the Bakehouse was related to GFL. I've had my eye on Reverse Collapse for a while now since it's a remake (of a remake?! I didnt play the previous one) of a visual novel I played in 2012 or so. The original vn was made in 2009 in like Kirikiri script and I was a young lad very fixated on all things with girls and guns (Gunslinger Girl was and still is a favorite of mine, I would've read it one summer at my Uncle's out on the front porch). There's an english patch now, but back then it was only in Chinese so I had to use text extracting and image translators, looking up the characters as I went. I got a cup of coco and opened up a patched version last night for old times sake. It's clearly a doujin work with those rough edges but it's so damn confident in its presentation you can't not get swept up in the presentation. The sound work make it very immersive. I highly reccomend reading it if you want a solid, emotional war story. Looking at the sepia soaked sketches, down-to-earth narrative, dense wordbuilding and general war otaku sentimentality... It really predicted a lot of my tastes, huh... 😅

Behold, teh wolfguy...

Back to work. Logistics still running. I can and WILL continue being stupid. The nostalgia is really strong, I'm tempted to draw fanart despite the sour memories of the past. Again, please berate me and tell me of your team compositions. I think my ID is 772030 but I promise you, I won't be any good on teh battlefield 😇 this machine runs off hopes and dreams, not realities!

[simphogforyourdom]

Attention I want to let people know there’s going to be a new update on this blog after I had this conversation with a Tumblr user named T4Tsurge

“Okay the first account got blocked because after I told you I was 20, you tried to bring up age of consent and "sometimes 20 year olds date teenagers and I'm a teen and I don't mind", which was inappropriate and made me uncomfortable because me saying "hey, I'm not attracted to teenagers" should not invite counter arguments. Me saying I'm 20 should've been the end of the argument ”

She said the second reason she blocked in this account was because I posted NSFW art of Silver whom to which They believe is 14 .This isn’t really true as The Characters ages where removed it Sonic Frontiers which leads me to believe Mobias Evolve like Pokemon and Made me Realize this person thought I was some kind of WeirdoCreep (not the type that’s attracted to Teenagers in Perverted Way as I’m 16 years old) and That There could supposedly be Those kinds of Creeps looking to this blog so they could see NSFW art OFFF underaged characters

So this now a blog where Tweens and teens are cab see Art of Characters Our age whom we simp for I didn’t like how this Blog wasn’t anything original so it’s JUST made for “ adolescent folk and Characters” now .Silver the Hedgehog will still be seen on this blog if you still interpret him as a teen but I’m more convinced Modians don’t age like humans do 👑👁️🫦👁️

https://www.tumblr.com/shadow-thecutie-ailenhog 💖

Also The shadow Blog is being changed to being about Shadow and Black Arms as a Family Ship

and the Toris Blog to a Sl8tCore Lesbian Blog since I started to think my original concept for it was too creepy 🫥🫡🫢🤐😶🙂‍↔️

https://www.tumblr.com/toristhejacka-is-at-cutiehut So to be changed into a SFW version of the Sl8tcore aesthetic (Don’t mind that and what was written on this banner be Editing it I was trying to cope lots NSFW artists I saw on twitter and thought it was really cool and try for myself I won’t do that cause it’s dangerous for me and other people my age Sorry 😞

RULES:

1. Only fan art The characters or Art of Y/N(Your Name AKA you)ship with the characters 👑 👑

🪐☠️

2. Only Simps:people whom simp for the

👁️🫦👁️characters

3. Crushers,(people who have a crush on Them)🐸🌺🌸🥭

4. CharaTSexyies, (Art of the characters in various Aesthetics and communities, such as Thriens depending on the species and story)🫶🏽🤌🏽👩🏿‍🦰🧔🏽‍♀️

5. PET-res , (If your crush is anthropmal/ anthropomorphic animal , Art of Y/N is petting them on the head ) 🦅🦉🐺🐺🐗🐤🦋🪲🪰🐛🐞🪱🐝🐍🦗🐢🐡🐋🐬🐠🦬

6. Wholesome Fantasy fulfillment Art (SFW cause this blog is for Tweens and Teens)based around or involving the characters 🥸💋💄👄🧛🏿🧝🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♂️

NO GROOMERS OR PREDATORS ALOUD!!!!! 🤕😵‍💫🤧🤮🤢😡

7. This blog is 11-17+ (teenagers only 💖💩👾🤖👁️🫦👁️)

8. We’re just here giving this characters ALL the LOVE they need🥰🤘🏽

9. I accept fanart requests 🎭🎨👾🕹️🦔

10. Do be shy to share whom your crush is 🥰

[eggoatt]

Hi! I know I left a comment on my reblog, but I felt the need to send something a little more heartfelt. I'm going to try to be normal about this lol

That picture you drew was the first thing I saw this morning, and it has been sitting on one of my monitors ever since, just so I can glance at it any time I want—which quite honestly has been incredibly frequent.

It might seem like I'm a little too excited about this, but it's a huge deal to me. Before I started putting fics out (just south of a year ago now) I hadn't written anything in nearly a decade, so I didn't really have any expectations for what I put out. Of course, I thought about how cool it'd be if someone drew something directly inspired by something I wrote, but I always considered that a kind of a lofty thing? Would be nice if it happened, but I wasn't expecting it. And if it did happen, it'd probably happen much later on when I'm a little better at writing.

All of that to say this is the first time I've inspired anyone to make art from my material. That means so much to me and I am unbelievably grateful to you for that. Also, WOW, it's from someone who has also drawn one of my absolute most favorite SciSet pics ever too?? I adore the way you draw Sunset, so when I saw this was from you I actually gasped so loud my wife heard me from the other room lol.

I mentioned this briefly in my reblog, but I really love the way this picture is composed. When I write scenes, they tend to play out in my mind in full motion with great detail, so what I envision can be incredibly specific, yet I really feel like you managed to capture details I hadn't really put words to. The color scheme in particular—lots of blues and purples, but with just the right amount of saturation to match the pink. Visual arts are not my forte, so I apologize if that doesn't make the most sense.

Lastly, I would like to ask just a couple things:

Would you be alright with me posting a blog about this on fimfic? This might seem like kind of a weird question, but I always like to make sure I clear this kind of thing with someone first. Naturally your username and links to everything would be prominently featured.

May I put this in the author's note of Chapter 8(b)? Just like before, your username and links will be prominently featured alongside it (also, if you'd like to send me a watermarked version, I'd be alright with putting that up too). I just really love this picture and would love it to be the way people visualize that part of the chapter, but I want to make sure that's alright with you first, and I also want to make sure you get the credit you deserve.

Anyway, I won't ramble any longer than necessary. Sorry for throwing a book in your inbox, but thank you for the picture, and for ensuring that no matter what else happens today, I have something to be happy about 🥰

hi!!

we've actually been mutuals for a little while (you reblogged something of mine, and i liked your taste in horse content) but back in april by complete coincidence i stumbled across your fimfic account as well and kind of fell in love with your work. the way you write sunset, your inner voice for her, speaks to me on an insane level to the point where it's informed some of my personal projects (ocs) a bit. i also really enjoyed seeing how rapidly and drastically your writing had improved over the works you had up at the time-- it made me really excited to see what you would do in the future! i even made a new account and started using the site again just so i could keep up :3 if nothing else, you've touched this creature's heart very deeply

like i said in the original tags, i've been meaning to make fanart of this scene for MONTHS and finally releasing those brainworms felt a bit like an exorcism, lol. i'm so happy i hit the mark and brought you as much joy as you've brought me !!!!

to answer your questions!:

sure!! it is fanart For You after all

same as above, go for it :3 (it is actually watermarked already! i prefer making it difficult to see so it's not distracting. take a closer look at sunset's elbow)

silly bonus trivia about the drawing: i needed a visual reference to help me with the poses, and the best ref i found just so happened to be a picture with obama in it. it's not my fault they look so tender

[wispcherry]

second time around on the same url baby! I swear I am NOT a bot

hi okay so this is, at the moment, a fanpage. probably for fanart and mumblings and what have you. really been consumed by good omens (+ related Europeans) lately but i also get silly with poetry, geology, linguistics, art, Scooby Doo for some reason, dungeons and dragons, Zelda. I cannot stress it enough that I'm into Mitski, and everything queer under the sun. and out of it. we here at wispcherry stay goofy.

tag guides for your favoritest weird guy:

Good Omens (Good Fucking Grief Neil)

#past my ear = good omens reblogs! not my own thing

#the plume of my imaginary tante = my own ramblings about good omens.

Still working on a fanart tag because. I haven't posted fanart yet.

Supernatural (I haven't finished it so I can only post + look at so much. Grief)

#big super naturals = my own original spn posts. you're a tumblite you know what spn is

Scooby Doo

#ruh roh. reblog = this franchise consumed me at a young age

ZELDAAAAA

#skyward shitposting = im too tired for separate game tagging. love link and zelda though

Staged

#six characters in search of one single braincell = our boys.

Unhhh/Trixie Mattel/Katya Zamolodchikova

#i got a sunburn and im fucked now = definitely unhhh, until I post more this might just be an umbrella tag

gritted teeth. dungeons and dragons / dropout

#two hundred and twenty five adult blog posts = fantasy high reblogs and posts...

#hairy baby spam = the unsleeping city... oh god..

Castlevania. Drops to my Knees.

#my immortal netflix adaptation = feral about this but the hyperfixaton hasn't kicked into full swing yet

ohhhhgod. Doctor Who

#just a few days ago i was this really brilliant secondary blog = im on series 2 baby

ATLA (all versions. we don't talk about the old live action)

#the newly refurbished blog tag

ace attorney trilogy

#gay japanese and european. triple homocide

the other ones :]

#beanfreaking = just me carping around on this account. bein a little guy. reblogs and original bits

#wispy bits = it's a staged reference. it's men. it's. i like men. men related thing. women and others too. just folks i like :]. reblogs and original bits

#queue idiot. we could have been us = IM SORRY LMAO. queued bits.

if you want to get to know a brief bit about me:

Hi, my name is Monty, I'm a trans. Something. and I use he/they pronouns. 17 going on 18. Filipino-Japanese-German-Irish. It's a mouthful. Unfortunately a boykisser, luckily a ladyliker, always an appreciation for those in between. Friendly to most. Most. I think roleplaying is kind of sick (positive connotation) and that being in fandoms is positively delightful. AI is shit. Free Palestine. TERFs, MAPs, MRAs, fascists, you know the like, can fuck off. ACAB. Unless it's Inspector Constable. (Can't say much about inspectors and constables, I'm from the states.) I'm a silly guy but please be decent on the page. And off of it.

[hunt3r-dot-me]

Hi OP, sorry to use your (very very good) artwork as a means to vent, but this is something I've been wanting to get off my chest for a good while.

For those who either need a reminder, don't know, or have genuinely forgotten, here's what Sally's redesign looked like:

A character design featuring the most generic mullet ever, smooth as the brain of the executive that greenlighted this. (Assuming (s)he was even available when the brains were being handed out, of course.) And it's not like "oh, it's just a promo render, the art department probably had more leeway—"

…nah fam, they kept that traincar going to the very end of the run. Which if you're going for a basic, prim and proper, regal-type princess for the hero to go "well, excuuUUuuse me" to, that's fine, I suppose, if a bit insulting, even to the very thing I'm referencing, but for tomboy bisexual disaster Sally Acorn? One of the main characters, no less, originally made to basically outsnark Sonic "I'm so sorry you have nothing better to do in your life" the Hedgehog?

NO. nnNO.

nnnnnnNO!

She looks like a background incidental character that got promoted to the main cast, and even then, that is an outright slur to the formerly incidental characters this franchise gave us. Lemme remind ya'll: Lanolin started out as an incidental character. LANOLIN.

Unironically, post-SGW Sally just feels like what you get off Wish or Temu than the character I remember from the cartoons and comics, and it really does just boil down to that fricking 60s-ahh hairdo. Again, if you wanna do that vibe elsewhere? Cool! Great! Awesome! Amazing! Spectacular! Go for it! But for a main character in a Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off, it makes her feel more like a yet-to-be-revealed twist villain to me than when she was an actual villain.

AND EVEN. THEN.

HOW DOES THIS FEEL MORE FAITHFUL THAN THE ACTUAL NON-ROBOTICIZED VILLAIN VERSION OF HER THAT CAME AFTER THIS?!?!

Tbh, that's why I believe fanart like OP's above has done a much better job presenting post-SGW Sally than the actual comics did. Comics which, mind you at the time, were made largely by passionate fans of the franchise. The writer made a two-dozen chapter fancomic in the early 2000s. One artist did another, arguably more well-known and beloved, fancomic. One artist did artwork for the first mentioned fancomic at one point.

I'm not gonna pretend like this inconsequential thing that happened well over a decade ago in response to a lawsuit is actionable to the creative team behind it (or the heads behind them at the time) in Anno Domini Current Year. I'm stupid, stubborn, emotionally broken, and prone to rants like the one you're reading, but I'm not petty. And that's why I'm honestly glad most of the fandom retroactively decided to make Sally's redesign more in line with her original look, keeping the distinctness that made that original work as well as it did.

But yeah, this rant's been almost a decade in the making. Maybe I am petty. Or maybe I don't want to be anymore.

Up to you. And by a lesser extent, to me.

Both designs are good and valid

[kristiliqua]

i have been constantly thinking about the damn taz au recently im so ill man

i want to talk about it . so bad . like aaaaaaaa i have some specific bits that i really love but dont wanna spoil at all but RHRHRRRRHHGH FUCK !!!!! i just .,, taz!tallulah . thats it . thats all im saying . i love her :(

also i originally made scott smajor be leon the gachapon guy , but i am now making him be badboyhalo . because Fuck scott smajor ^_^ i am not having a weirdo like him in my au lmao (also bbh is just perf for leon)

also man oh man half the fun for this au for me is simply coming up with chapter titles . ive made it a thing where they have to be srs and rhyme with another bit (thatll go in the ch summary) and boyyy oh boy r they fun to hatch out :D i’ll give u all one just for fun — one that easily comes to mind is “trust or forsake, which will you take? (an eye, an ability, or a life at stake?)” :3 yippee (there are so many chapter titles on god . its a miracle that i actually enjoy coming up with them or else i’d be fucked LMFAO)

also taz!missa is a thing now too . a minor character , but he’s there . bc i said so :)) (taz!deathduo is real btw ur welcome)

man can you tell i really just wanna ramble and gush abt this au . bc i really just wanna ramble and gush abt this au ,,, i love it like it is my baby and i will cherish it forever

frowny face . i want to post Something for this au on ao3 already (i have so many snippets just written bc ,,, i had to let out the energy somehow) but i also dont wanna spoil shit before the actual fic so ????? i guess i’ll suffer . and or just rant abt it on here , el em ay oh

i havent even fully written anything thats for sure gonna be in the main fic (well maybe thats a lie . i have so many snippets that im sure one of them will be usable at some point) . i wrote chapter one (and two ?) a While back , but im def not using that lmfao

jusssst . sigh . i love this au sm and im So sorry to my qsmp followers who followed me for qsmp fanarts and ended up getting a ramble abt some au u dont know or care abt LMAOOO — just ignore this , smile .? or join/spectate my brainrot as i slowly lose my mind , idk

,, also . have i ever said that i made fantasy costco be ‘fantasy tescos’ instead ? bc i did , since in my eyes tescos is just the british version of costco ,,, even though i dont Really know what tescos is , or if its at all similar to costco (im american pls forgive me) but they sound similar so idc (,,, i havent even gone to costco either , actually . im just balling it out here fr)

oh yeah i was thinking abt making a pogtopia wilbur slash vilbur arc thing for taz!wilbur in a particularly long arc in the story (cough cough stolen century cough cough) too ,,,,, so that might be a thing . idk . maybe bro kinda loses it in those hundred years , bc fucking hell how r these mfs still sane after that /hj (its like he becomes apathetic as he sees all of it as meaningless and futile . bc these ppl and this world is gonna die anyway , so what purpose do morals or any kind of care serve ? theyll be gone in a year anyway , it rlly doesnt matter what happens to them before then [later , he Does snap out of it . maybe after a more emotional death hmm who knows] . plus paranoia with the whole impending doom thing el oh el couldnt be me) . methinks i’ll maybe write smth for this idea (smth that u all might never see lmao) . smiley face :))

anyways fuck it this is the end of this long ahh post . beeye

[unforth]

How to Use Tags on Tumblr

I frequently see people tag their works things along the lines of “sorry I don’t know how to tag,” and I also frequently see people tag badly while at least appearing to know what the fuck they’re doing, so it’s been on my mind to write up a post like this for a while, and with the influx of Twit-ugees, now is as good a time as any I suppose.

Advance warning that I’m the most long-winded bitch up in this place and just neurodivergent enough to never know how much to cut/what details don’t matter so apologies that this just goes on and on and I just hope that if you bear with me you’ll learn a thing or four.

Also note that any time I say "A thing will work this specific way" that is always subject to Tumblr's spontaneous habit of breaking and I can never guarantee that things will actually work at any given moment.

(this is fucking 5,000 words about using tagging on this blue webbed site so. Read more it is.)

Tagging 101

Okay, I’m gonna start at absolutely baby, sorry. The first thing you need to know is where tags go. You don’t tag in the “type text here” box where you’re talking about whatever. This isn’t like twitter, where if I start going hey everyone I’m writing a post about how to #tag things on #tumblr, everyone will see it if they go to #tag and #tumblr. Nope, you gotta put your tags in the box thingy at the bottom if you want people to actually see them when they use tag-search-related options.

You can write #whatever in the body of your post til the cows come home and it won’t do jack shit unless you put it in that bottom #add tags box. So. Do that.

Once you know how to tag, the two most important things to know about tags are:

1. Anyone can see your tags. Everyone can see your tags. Not just your followers. Not just OP. Any random stranger who pokes around in a post can see them, AND they’ll appear in the OPs “new activity” notifications, AND they'll be in the "view all reblogs with comments and tags" button that anyone can select, AND, if it’s an original post and you’re the OP, they’ll appear in the searchable tags on Tumblr. Like. Seriously. We can all see you. So always bear in mind that anything you say in a tag is subject to public scrutiny.

2. If you use a tag on an original post, your post will appear in that tag search. Anyone can search by tag in Tumblr. You go to that bar up top…(note that I’m using MDZS as my example for this post, but you can easily substitute your fandom of choice). (Reblogs that use a tag do NOT, EVER, appear in the tag searches.) So yeah, you're searching for a tag...

…and you get three types of search results. The first, with the #, shows the tag-ified version of your search, and clicking that will take you directly to tag search (and therefore show you posts that have that tag, and specifically exactly that tag - if you go to #mdzs, you won’t see #mdzs fanart, because tag search is narrowly defined). The magnifying-glass marked searches are common and related searches, and will show you posts that have those words in their text AND in the tags, so a magnifying-glass search for MDZS will show you things tagged mdzs, and also #mdzs fanart, and any random-ass post that includes mdzs anywhere in the main text or tags. You’ll get a lot (and you’ll have the chance to narrow that search by top posts vs. latest posts, recent vs. ever, type of post - as in picture vs. text vs. video etc., etc., though note that these searches are always busted and always lean heavily toward recent stuff). If you know you want the tag, you can click #mdzs, but even if you go to search instead (for example, if you just hit “enter” it’ll take you to search, not the tag), you can still see related tags:

Now, see how that says 21k followers? On Tumblr, you can follow tags! Anyone can follow tags! Popular tags often have tens-of-thousands, and occasionally hundreds-of-thousands, of followers! What exactly following a tag means depends on how any given individual sets up their feed, but for many people it means that random posts from that tag will appear on their timeline. Which means that if you tag your original posts (NOT reblogs - this applies to posts for which you are the originator) with a given tag, anyone who visits that tags and/or follows that tag can see it and might even have your post appear on their feed even if neither of you knows or follows the other. 

Anyone who visits a given tag will be able to see your post (or, well, almost anyone - a. if you have them blocked or they have you blocked, they won’t see - though if you block a main blog/side blog, and they post from a different side blog, you CAN still see - if you really want to block someone you’ll need to block all their alts too, which is often a challenge since people tend not to be super public about their alts; b. if the tag is in the last 5 allowed tags on a post - more on that later - it won’t show up, uh, basically anywhere, good luck with that; c. if the tag search is broken, which it basically always is at least a little, welcome to our duct-taped hellsite enjoy your stay).

If you want people to see your post, this functionality is fantastic! It gives you a lot of ways to get your content out there. If you don’t want people to see your post…well. It is absolutely critical that you understand that there is absolutely nothing private about tags, and that even though we all frequently clown in tags, you need to be aware of the potential consequences of that clowning, namely that people will see you clowning, including complete strangers, and so you might not want to clown quite that hard. 

Personal Blog Organization

But, I hear you say, I want to organize my own blog! If I don’t tag my mdzs posts #mdzs to avoid everyone seeing them because I Don't Want That, how will I find them when I want them later?

Well, first, don’t expect to ever be able to find things easily on Tumblr, lmao. We do have search and tag organization options (more later!) but in the end always assume things you post might become unfindable; if you really want to be sure you can find something again, find another way to store it (I personally keep “things I don’t want to lose” in drafts; some people also use likes, or private side blogs).

That said, this is one of the main reasons a lot of people use personal tags to denote their own content. For example, if I want to post something but I don’t want it to spread too far, I will avoid using the fandom tags and stick to my personal blog organization tags. I personally use “unforth rambles” for my “whatever the fuck this is” kind of posts, “whine whine whine” if I’m complaining, “unforth writes” for my fiction, etc. Lots of people have a personal tag, and not only do they make it easier for you to find your own stuff, they also make it easier for other people to find your stuff.

Want to post about mdzs, want to be able to find it again, but don’t want it in the tag? Try “yourname’s mdzs thoughts” or something similar.

Do you create a thing, and want people to be able to actually find it if they come to your blog, instead of it getting buried under a billion other reblogs and shitposts? Try “yourname art” or “my yourfandom fic” or whatever. Trust me, as someone who routinely tries to find art on people’s blogs? People who have specific tags make it much, much easier, and believe it or not I guarantee there is SOMEONE out there who’d like to be able to interact with your stuff more easily, and if you make it impossible you’ll never even know they wanted to.

Likewise, of course, a personal tagging system can make things utterly unfindable cause sometimes that’s Goals. Take this knowledge and use it as you will.

Aside to the above: queue tags. If you’re on Tumblr for more than 5 minutes you’ll see that a lot of posts have tags like “my queue” or, more often, ridiculous “queue”-related pun tags (when I used to use one, it was “#q hoo hoo”). Why do people do this? Well, there’s surely a lot of reasons, but as far as I know the main one (my own reason, at least), was pretty simple: Tumblr has a messaging system, and a lot of us use it, and if we post something, people will think we’re online and might message us and then get upset that we don’t answer. Using a queue tag makes it very clear “this posted when I wasn’t actually present.” Then, you can (like me) go back to ignoring your messages for days and pretend you haven’t been on Tumblr until you’ve actually got the whatever to answer them.

ETA: it's been pointed out that, depending on what search settings someone is using, using "my thing tag" may still show up in searches, so if your goal is to keep your posts out of the main tags, you'd be better served to avoid using the same full text as the common tag(s).

Tag Limits

It’s also important to know that you don’t have unlimited tags, and they can’t be of unlimited length. Tags have a character limit (...I never remember how much it is, though, maybe 200-something?) and you can’t have more than thirty tags on a post. Conventional wisdom is that if an important tag (such as a fandom tag or character tag that you WANT people to be able to find) isn’t in the first ten tags, it won’t appear in search, though I’ve definitely seen things in tag search that had the tag farther down than that. That said, if you put anything in between Tag 25 and Tag 30, don’t expect to ever be able to find it again. Trust me. I’ve tried. Tag 25 to Tag 30 are a tag black hole, and anything in that range might as well not exist because it won’t be searchable. (Sometimes - but only sometimes - search will be able to find things in that hole, subject to all the bugs that normally make search nigh unusable). Note that on mobile, at least, Tumblr yells at you if you try to tag more than 30; on desktop I honestly don’t know if it does cause I always use XKit reblog features instead, lmao. (more on that later!)

A couple other tag limits include:

1. various punctuation breaks tags, though which has varied over time. For example, currently if you try to make a tag with quotes (#I told him “shut up”) you will NOT get a tag that says that, you’ll get two tags: #shut up and #i told him. And, they’ll be in that order - the tag in quotation marks will end up first, before anything else. For a long time, hyphens also just absolutely murdered tags; theoretically they fixed that recently though in practice I’ve noticed it being hit-and-miss, so if you want to be sure things work well don’t use a hyphen. Further, at least on desktop, a comma tells it “this is the end of the tag” so if you enter a comma it won’t put in a comma it’ll just end your tag and take you to the next one. Honestly, if you want to be sure that your tag doesn’t break your best bet is to stick to…not. Forget grammar. Surrender to the void. People will figure out what you mean…or they won’t. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We never said this was a great site but you’re stuck with us now, lmao.

2. you can’t edit tags. They recently teased that they’d introduce tag editing, but at least as far as I’ve been able to tell it’s never actually been unrolled, or maybe it’s only been unrolled to some users (we often only get features for some folks, or only on mobile or only on desktop…). An addendum to this is the simple rule that no matter how careful you are you will inevitably make a typo in your last word, often the last letter, right before you hit enter. I’m sorry. It’s a law of nature. On the plus side everyone knows that tags can’t be edited so no one’s going to care if your spelling is janky. (ETA: just to be clear, since it was pointed out in the notes: you CAN delete a tag and retype it. so, it's up to you if you feel like doing that. I meant you can't go back and edit the text entered as a tag, you can only delete it and make a new tag)

Censoring Tags

Do not censor tags. ESPECIALLY trigger warnings. Sometimes people will censor letters intentionally so things won't turn up in the tag search options (for example, if they're saying something negative), and while I think that's valid I also think there are better ways to handle it (like just use a different fucking tag). But if you censor tags, and especially if you censor warning tags, you make it MUCH HARDER for people to consistently blacklist. Just call things what they are (except n s f w - more later), and tag accurately (so if you want to post anti use "anti thing" tags instead of censoring), and make it possible for people to ACTUALLY avoid things and blacklist. Please. I'm begging you.

Finding the Tag for The Thing You Want

Often, finding a relevant tag can be super easy, especially if what you like is common. If you’ve been in online fandom at all, even on other platforms or forums or wherever, you likely already are familiar with common abbreviations for The Thing, and those are usually a great place to start (for example, #mdzs, #mcu for Marvel movies, #spn for Supernatural, #lotr for Lord of the Rings, etc.). However, since people do often use multiple tags (like, they may tag #mdzs AND #mo dao zu shi, AND #grandmaster of demonic cultivation, AND #gdc) you can always try putting in The Full Name For The Thing, and then seeing what tags are on the posts that pop up. Then, once you see that, you can click through a few and check them out. Every tag’s page will have a box like this:

…and it says right there how often the tag has been used “recently” (no, I have literally NEVER figured out how “recently” is…recently). If you want to find the most popular tags for a given fandom, the easiest way is to just poke around in the tags people are using and see which ones have the biggest number in that “XXX recent posts” box. Those are the ones people love and use, and emulating them will lead you in the right direction (assuming you want people to be able to find your stuff).

On the other hand, what if you like something rare, something obscure, something that doesn’t have a consistent naming structure, etc.?

That can get a little harder, but the challenges can be cut through fairly easily.

1. search for every variation of The Thing that you can think of and look through the results until you find The Thing You Actually Wanted.

2. see how that post is tagged.

3. check those tags for more of The Thing You Actually Wanted.

4. keep doing this until you find the tag where people who are into The Thing You Actually Wanted congregate.

5. winning!

Creating Tags and Space

…okay but what if that last step 5 ended with losing instead? Well, BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.

A lot of people on Tumblr use personal tags for their own blog organization…but many also use tags and tag-tracking to create a personal tag meant for publis use. So, source blogs (blogs that act as “clearing houses” of stuff for a specific fandom, character, ship, etc.) will say “we track #thisisourhashtag, use it so we can see your post!”

You can do that! If you really love something narrow and specific, you can at least try to get the word out. It takes a lot of work though - because you’ll need to get the word out yourself. “Hey, I love This Obscure Thing! Do you also love This Obscure Thing? Come join me, use #thisisyourhashtag!” is a start. But just “building it” won’t be enough - you’ll also need to do the leg work to find more of The Thing, reblog it, interact with the people making it, etc. Often on Tumblr, the difference between a really vibrant small fandom community and a small fandom that’s absolutely dead silent is one person taking the initiative to say “I’m going to do whatever I have to, community-building-wise, to find other people to talk to about this.”

(The best example I know of for this is the Daomu Biji fandom. Like seriously, they’re a fucking case study on how to take a tiny group of people who are Really Into A Thing and turn it into a vibrant, supportive community that is, frankly, a joy to be a part of. If someone wants more info on kinda…how this works…I think it’s outside the purview of this post but I’m willing to babble about it some other time.)

Navigating Tumblr, Your Own Blog, and Other People’s Blogs Using Tags

One of the cool things about tags on Tumblr is that every tag has a static, usable link, which - if your own blog or a blog you’re trying to access has a consistent tagging format - can make it much, MUCH easier to find things. ESPECIALLY because static tag links constant and consistently work about 80 bajillion times better than “search.” Posts that are unfindable using “search” WILL (usually) be findable using the tag’s link. (Exceptions include if the OP has blocked you or you’ve blocked them, and if the tag is in the 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th, or 30th tag slot; ETA: another exception is that in the PAST this wasn't the case; Tumblr has greatly increased the visibility of tags over the years, and may do even more in the future). So, how do you do this?

For all of Tumblr: the link you want is https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/(THE TAG)?sort=recent (or ?sort=top for them in order by most popular. Note that this is one of the cases where what’s after the ? ISN’T A TRACKING LINK ffs it’s not ALWAYS tracking you can’t ALWAYS delete it without consequences sometimes the internet is exhausting).

For your own blog: https://yournamehere.tumblr.com/tagged/thetagyouwant

For someone else’s blog: https://theirnamehere.tumblr.com/tagged/thetagyouwant

A lot of people use this for personal blog organization, and it’s especially common for source blogs to have very structured tag lists to help with navigation. For example, in the art sideblogs I run, anyone can look up any tag using links like this, and it’ll enable them to find every post with that tag. See? https://www.tumblr.com/mdzsartreblogs/tagged/mod%20post

NOTE: Tumblr, in the last few weeks, changed how this feature is set up. As you can see, the link is now structured differently than what I typed, BUT the original link formatting still works, just how it appears has changed. That said, because Tumblr can never change a thing without breaking it, there’s now sometimes a problem where if you type the link in, it’ll replace a space ( ) with a plus (+) instead of with a fake-space (%20 is how browsers classically translate spaces into Internet Speak so that the urls don’t break). If your space gets made into a +, Tumblr will say there are no results, so you’ll have to manually go into the link and change it back to a space and THEN it will work. Yes, really. No, I don’t know why. Also, if you try to get rid of the plus in the search bar instead it will NOT work correctly, because if you remove the plus, put in a space, and then hit “enter” on text written in the search bar, it’ll switch you from “show all posts with this tag” to a standard search (which will have all the bugs that standard searches usually have in Tumblr).

But, basically, once you know the tag that someone uses for a thing, or have established what tag YOU want to use for a thing, navigating your own or other people’s blogs to find Every Post Tagged With The Thing is really easy, and can be a great way to find niche content, a user’s own creations, or That Thing You Posted Two Years Ago That You Need Again For Some Reason.

ETA: Someone mentioned in the tags that if you add /chrono to the end of these links, it'll show you all the same info BUT it'll show the OLDEST posts firsts instead of the newest and I did not know that and that is A.MAY.ZING and thank you to the person who told me and now y'all know too.

Blacklisting Tags

You’ll see me talk a lot in this post about the ways that Tumblr is broken and how that can make it harder to accomplish whatever it is you’re trying to do. There is one notable exception to the brokenness. At least in my experience, and in the experience of basically everyone I’ve ever spoken to about it, Tumblr’s internal/built in blacklist works pretty darn well.

Don’t want to see a tag?

Go to Account Stuff -> Settings. Scroll down to “Content you see,” which is where Filtered Tags and Filtered Post Content are.

Filtered Tags will only filter The Thing if it’s literally #the exact tag you put in filtered tags.

Filtered Post Content will filter any post that mentions the thing.

Note that Tumblr blacklist is actually over assiduous. I personally ONLY use filtered tags, and I’ve found that it will often filter a post even if the current reblog of that post doesn’t HAVE the tag - like, if anyone has EVER tagged The Post with The Thing, it’ll get blacklisted. Also note that while theoretically, filtered posts will still show up as a box you have the option to show, in practice some will just. Not show. I’ve absolutely had blacklisted things just Not Even Appear. Which can be annoying, if it’s actually a post you want to see, but there’s no perfect system.

Also, never EVER let anyone tell you that “blacklisting is only for things you hate.” Look, you curate your own experience. If your bestie is posting about a fandom you’re not in, and it’s clogging up your dash, you’re not obligated to scroll through their 80 posts about that thing. Just blacklist it. It’ll make your experience using this website much happier. (if your bestie doesn’t tag the thing…you can try post content filtering. But yeah that’ll make it harder). I personally blacklist a fuckton of fandoms that I’ve got nothing against, I’m just not IN them, and seeing content for them is of zero interest for me, and if I blacklist them then I have more time to interact with the things I DO want to see.

And yeah I know I prefaced this section by saying blacklist actually works. Take this entire section as what my ten-years-on-this-site ass sees as “functional” on Tumblr.com.

Making Tumblr Actually Vaguely Useable

Do yourself a favor and download XKit. (It’s on Chrome too, but fuck Chrome. Y’all Chrome users can go find the link yourself sorry not sorry). XKit includes a fuckton of REALLY DAMN USEFUL functionality for making tumblr (on desktop, not mobile!) function better…

…and especially, Quick Reblog, Quick Tags, and Tag Replacer can help with tagging and tag management. Quick Reblog gives you the ability to rapidly reblog things without having to click through to the reblog window, and it gives you a box to type in all your tags when you quick reblog. Quick Tags makes all existing posts on your blog and sideblogs have an extra little button that lets you add new tags to it without having to open the edit screen for the post. Tag Replacer lets you swap a tag you no longer want to use for a new tag. Get XKit. It’ll help you. I promise.

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Okay, so now you know something about how tags work, time to learn some tag etiquette.

The most important thing to remember when trying to figure out how to tag an original post is that people follow tags because they want to see The Things About That Tag. This has some obvious consequences, namely:

1. They won’t want to see things that Aren’t About The Thing.

2. They won’t want to see someone Hating The Thing.

So that leads to…

Tagging for Fandoms

DO: tag fandoms that are relevant to your post. Feel free to tag variations on that fandom - you can tag #mdzs and #modao zushi and #mo dao zu shi, or #spn and #supernatural. No one will mind.

DON’T: tag fandoms that aren’t relevant to your post. Yes, even if it’s a fandom by the same author (looking at you, people who tag #mdzs, #tgcf, and #svsss on every mxtx post you make, I see you and I seethe). Yes, even if it’s a different version/adaptation of your work. If you create a sub-fandom-specific work (for example, to stick with MDZS for now, if you create a work for The Untamed that includes the Yin Iron, don’t tag it MDZS; there’s no Yin Iron in MDZS, and while yes some people who follow the MDZS tag will want to see it, there will also be plenty who don’t. This is especially true when there’s a popular adaptation that a lot of fans of the original don’t like. People who adore the BOOK of the Hobbit? May be pretty reticent about seeing things about the MOVIE if they didn’t enjoy it!) Try to maintain awareness of this; it’s courtesy not to just tag Every Vaguely Relevant Fandom. You won’t make people happy they’re seeing your stuff. You’ll make them annoyed that you spammed irrelevant tags.

Tagging for Ships and Characters

DO: tag the characters ships that feature in your work. Doing variations of their name is fine as long as those variations are relevant. So, if you make a piece of “wei wuxian” for example, you can absolutely tag that “wei wuxian” and “weiwuxian” and “wei ying” and “weiying” and “mdzs wei wuxian” etc. But.

DON’T: tag every single iteration of a character. If someone is following a tag for a specific variation of a character (to stick with MDZS, maybe they follow the “yiling laozu” tag) then they want to see that variation, not…NOT that variation. So don’t post your, idk, fluffy Lotus Pier Wei Ying pre-canon thing to the “yiling laozu” tag. And I know this sounds like gibberish to people not in this fandom, but like. Just extend it to your own fandom. Lots of characters have different fandom nicknames or self-presentations for themselves at different points in canon. People who specifically follow the "pre-serum steve" tag isn't going to want to see "post-serum steve." That's the entire point of following a specific tag instead of an over-arching tag. So, when you tag your original stuff, stick to the ones that actually have something to do with your piece. 

DO: tag the ship in your piece in multiple ways. Like, to use a non-MDZS example, does your piece have Destiel? Go ahead and tag Destiel and CasDean and DeanCas. It’s okay. WITH THE ADDENDUM THAT: in some fandoms and in some parts of the world, it is common that writing Character A x Character B is actually NOT the same as writing Character B x Character A. Especially for East Asian and Southeast Asian fans, people often list them in a power-dynamic related order. Whether you think that’s a good thing or not (I personally think it’s a silly but whatever, they can do them, it doesn't effect me) is irrelevant; you need to understand that if you tag every order of a ship, you might have people ??? you over it. (Yes, really. It’s happened to me.) And that doesn’t mean don’t do it! Just. You should know. Knowledge is power. Or something.

DON’T: tag ships that aren’t in your piece. I don’t care if Wangxian is the most popular ship in the fandom; if your piece doesn’t show Wangxian, people who like Wangxian don’t need to see it in the tags. You’re doing no one any favors. Often people will say “if your piece doesn’t feature a ship PROMINENTLY don’t include it,” but that one imo is a bit more flexible. It depends on what your work is “doing” with that ship. Which leads to…

Sharing Your Negative Opinions

Please. For the love of fucking god. Do NOT post hate in the main tags. Yes, it’s just your opinion. Yes, you are absolutely entitled to your opinion. But it’s fucking rude. People go to tags because they enjoy the thing being tagged. You’re just being a dick if you therefore use that tag to shit all over that thing.

Now, this is NOT to say “don’t post negative shit,” but rather more importantly: if you want to tag negative shit, find the tag that people use to tag that specific negative shit and use that tag instead. Like. if you hate Jiang Cheng from MDZS (you’re wrong and I will block you) you do you! But don’t tag your hate #jiang cheng. People follow #jiang cheng because they LOVE the angry grape. Instead, do a little tag research (see above on how to find tags for That Thing You Like, and yes it applies even if it’s “That Thing You Like to Hate”) and find out what tags people who Hate The Thing use. Often just “anti (thing)” is a good start, though commonly the biggest groups of haters/"popular" anti opinions will have a tag they favor that’s different (for example, “canon jiang cheng” and "grape hate" are the common anti-Jiang Cheng tags; “destiew” is a commonly used anti-Destiel tag, I’m sure there are loads more but those are the ones that spring to my mind after a decade on this hellsite).

Using an anti tag is a MUCH better way to handle your hate, anti-ness, negative opinions, etc. You can find other haters to wallow with, and everyone else (like me) who just want to enjoy our shit in peace can do so. And like, I’m personally very against antis, but I also absolutely respect the right of people to have negative opinions AND to share those negative opinions, which is why I’m explaining this. It really does help like-minded people come together, and also enables people who want to avoid the vitriol protect themselves. It’s a win-win.

Tagging Trigger Warnings and Other Warnings

Tagging triggers and other potentially challenging material (such as flashing images) is a courtesy. It’s not required, but it’s certainly polite. There are some standard rules (for example, don’t use “tw epilepsy” because it’ll show up on epilepsy-related searches which is the exact opposite of the point of tagging it; tag “tw flashing” or something similar) but there’s generally NOT a “one size fits all” tag system. Instead, most people just establish their own system and make it clear somewhere “this is the system I use” so people can blacklist. Alternatively, you can see what tags your mutuals are using, and use those. Alternatively, alternatively, people will sometimes put “please tag X tw” in their pinned posts or bios - though always remember that there are risks involved in publicly advertising what someone with bad intentions can do to hurt you!!!!

Standard trigger warning formats on Tumblr include: “tw thing,” “thing tw,” “thing,” “thing for ts,” “cw thing,” “thing cw.” 

Note that tw - “trigger warning” - is usually used for things that are likely to be triggering (such as blood, gore, etc.) whereas cw - “content warning” - is often used more for things that some people may want to be aware of (such as flashing or depictions of food) but that isn’t necessarily a common “trigger” per se, especially in cases like food where even calling food a trigger can often itself be triggering for people who have are recovering from ED-related challenges.

Also as an aside, the “ts” is generally a sign that someone is a Tumblr Old, as it stands for “Tumblr Savior,” which is a blacklisting extension a lot of us used before Tumblr had built-in blacklisting features. So if you see “long post for ts” (which is when I see it most) it’s like seeing a fossil, a tag that’s become so standard for a type of post that a lot of people still use it even though the use of Tumblr Savior isn’t very common anymore (at least…I don’t think it is???)

When in doubt, if you want to respect people, listen to them - see how people are tagging The Thing you’re worried about, and follow those tagging conventions. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to - someone who triggers to something will already have the most commonly used tags for it blacklisted (and may not follow you if you aren’t willing to also tag for it) - so you make the site more usable for everyone if you use “tw eye trauma” instead of “this is my personal eye trauma tw tag”.

Also also as another aside, don’t use n s f w. Don’t even type it in your posts. They’ll get buried. They’ll go where tumblr posts go to die, and none of us even know where that is, because they're that gone. They won’t appear in regular searches. They won’t be in tag searches. They won’t even be discoverable on your own blog. Yes it’s fucking annoying. Yes it makes it harder to avoid explicit material. But. Find another tag. “lemon” is a common one, as is “nsft” (not safe for tumblr).

Tagging Systems and Spoilers

For the most part, if anything has been out for a month or so, you should assume that no one will tag spoilers. Don’t get me wrong - a minority of people still will, definitely! - but if, for example, you’re in the first chapter of MDZS, and you don’t want MDZS spoilers…don’t go into the MDZS tags. Just don’t. You’ll see everything you don't want to see. (Unless like me you WANT to see spoilers, in which case HAVE AT.)

For fandoms that still have new content being released, spoiler tags are often determined by community consensus, and a lot of people will put up posts saying “this blog isn’t spoiler-free for Thing. Blacklist #spoilersforthething to avoid spoilers.” It’s generally fairly standard to have a spoiler tag be “#thing spoilers” or “#episodenumber spoilers.” When in doubt, yet again, look at what everyone else is doing and emulate that.

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hoookay. 2.5 hours after I started writing this, I am finally done. I hope folks find it helpful, and hopefully I didn't miss anything obvious. Feel free to hmu with asks if you want to know more!

[estellamiraiauthor]

And the results are in! So it looks like my initial hypothesis was PARTLY right. Based on what I’ve seen on online fandom (both the POTO fandom and others) in recent years, I expected “No, never” to be the top answer, and it was. BUT, I did not expect the TOTAL number of responses to all of the “Yes” and “Depends on” options to be greater than the “No”s…. So I guess the answer really is “There’s about a 50/50 chance it depends on SOMETHING”?

I think there’s a lot more to be done with this, if someone were to really do a proper survey and analyze the data. I’m not sure I have the time or energy to do it, but I would be very curious about how the answers differ by age (I’d hypothesize that younger fans who grew up with high-quality images a Google search away might be more likely to choose “No, never,” and older fans might be more likely to be “Depends,” but it would be interesting to test) or by what version/s of the story you really consider yourself a fan of (Less sure how I’d expect this to go, except maybe that people who are primarily interested in one specific well-known version (ALW or Lon Cheney, for example) might be less likely to consider it a “spoiler”?). But even with the limited information we have here (and the fabulous tags—thanks to everyone who chimed in!), I think there’s a lot to ponder.

So, first of all I want to address the tags that either A) said that the FACT that he was disfigured (as opposed to SPECIFICALLY WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE, which is what I was trying to ask but I’m sorry it wasn’t clear!) was not a spoiler or B) his specific physical appearance is not a plot point and therefore not a spoiler. Both of those were aspects I wasn’t thinking of when I wrote the question, but are definitely good points, and worth considering.

So how do we define “spoiler”? A quick Google search gives this definition:

a description of an important plot development in a television show, film, or book which if previously known may reduce surprise or suspense for a first-time viewer or reader.

In the strictest sense of the word, then, maybe the Phantom’s specific appearance in most iterations of the story I can think of is NOT really a spoiler as it doesn’t check that “plot development” box. It’s been awhile since I read Leroux, but if I recall correctly I do think there is a point at which a true first-time reader in 1911 would learn for the first time that Erik was a mortal man at all, which may have made THAT a spoiler. But because the story has grown so far beyond one individual serial novel into a kind of fairy tale, and everyone now KNOWS he’s a man, I don’t think we can call that a spoiler any more than  “Red Riding Hood’s grandma is really the wolf in disguise!”

Looking at the second part of that definition, “which if previously known may reduce surprise or suspense for a first-time viewer or reader”, though, the clear intent of the creator in many of these cases WAS for the audience to go in blind, and to be shocked at how horrible, or how human and pitiable (or both), the character’s appearance was. The original audiences of the Lon Cheney film were NOT expected to know what he looked like going in… the film is clearly set up to shock the audience along with Christine. As someone mentioned in the tags (and I personally remember), the ALW musical also initially protected the Phantom’s appearance. I suppose there were probably backstage Polaroids and things if you knew the right people, but no official promo shots of the full makeup, and any fanart would be based on what someone could remember from the 10 minutes or so when the deformity is visible during the show or on grainy VHS bootlegs. I didn’t know what the Phantom looked like unmasked before I saw the show live, and had such horrible nosebleed seats my first time that I didn’t REALLY get a good look until a couple years later when the internet got better! The flow of the show is also clearly set up to make it a reveal… Christine gets a good look in act 1 but the audience does not. Phantom of the Paradise is similar… you get glimpses before the very end (and Swan and Phoenix get a closer look), but if you’re assuming an audience watching a film reel in 1974 with no pause button, that final scene is supposed to be a reveal (and an earlier shot was edited out to make it so).

NOW. Intent of the creator, of course, does not necessarily matter. I’m honestly surprised that ANYONE voted “Yes, always,” because to me, Lon Cheney is the one very, very clear exception, at least today. Regardless of what was intended almost a hundred years ago, people who have ZERO interest in POTO, who have never Googled “Lon Cheney Phantom” PERIOD, much less “Lon Cheney Phantom unmasked” know what he looks like. That version of the character is better known without his mask than with it. So it seems hard to call it a spoiler, although it definitely was once upon a time, because it’s just so well known.

That said, as a Star Wars fan I also think it’s unfortunate—unavoidable at this point, but unfortunate—that certain things that worked beautifully as twists cease to be so over time. So maybe those “Yes, always” answerers simply WISH that it was still possible to watch the Cheney film as originally intended?

Still, even assuming death of the author, does it make a Phantom film, stage show, book, comic, whatever MORE or LESS enjoyable to have the Phantom’s face be a mystery until the reveal? I can only really speak for myself here, but for me, at least, it really depends on the version. I knew what Cheney!Erik looked like before I saw that one for the first time, but I remember being curious to see Claude Raines and Herbert Lom unmasked, and waiting to see what Charles Dance’s Phantom looked like only to NOT get that reveal (which was initially disappointing to teenage me, but it quickly sunk in that that was actually a really cool way to handle it, because it didn’t really matter what he looked like, so much as how it affected him and the other characters). None of those films are my absolute favorite or anything, but waiting for the reveal was definitely a part of the enjoyment (at the time, in the 90s, when I was was a tween or maybe teen).

The ALW stage unmasking has never really been SHOCKING to me… again, because I had very, very bad seats the first time I saw it live and then had nothing but VHS bootlegs for years, it wasn’t as much about the visuals as about what was HAPPENING in that scene. When I finally got a good look at the makeup… honestly it still seems a little corny to me up close and in detail (i just can’t get over the exposed skull thing… how would you not get an infection and die?) but understanding that they needed to both make it visible from stage and make sure the actor’s real face was still visible and mobile enough to sing and show emotion… it does the job, you know? My favorite ALW phantoms are the ones that kind of CRUMBLE when unmasked, if you know what I mean? They go instantly from sex god to broken old man. It’s more about body language and character interaction than anything.

Now, the 2004 movie… I actually kind of wish I’d known what Gerik was going to look like going in, because my reaction wasn’t “OMG how terrible!” or “Oh you poor thing” but more of a “OMFG THATS IT???” It was… disappointing. Obviously YMMV, but they’d already taken away most of the backstory that made the character sympathetic, had him watching over Christine as a child… and then he didn’t even look that bad. It made him very unsympathetic (TO ME! Gerik fans, you do you and have a blast doing it ❤️), and so I do think I might have been able to enjoy that movie more if I’d known what to expect going into it, to manage my expectations i guess?

Finally, Phantom of the Paradise… this is definitely just a “me” thing, but I’m glad I hadn’t seen Winslow unmasked before I saw it (at 16, please give past me a break), because I don’t think I would’ve watched it in the first place. I… have a thing about eye trauma and even though the makeup/prosthetics are not SUPER realistic (shout out to the reblogger who said Winslow looks like papier mache LOL), if that unmasking hadn’t been presented exactly as it was—at the end of a movie I had absolutely loved every minute of, and shot the way it was so that we (and Phoenix) get to see him as “Winslow” again and mourn him immediately after… it honestly might have put me off the movie entirely. (Just a note here to say YES, I’m aware that it’s problematic and ableist to be put off by injuries/disabilities that real people actually live with… as an adult I have worked on desensitizing myself to eye stuff and am MUCH better about it now, but at 16, kinda fake-looking or not, I definitely had a strong and unpleasant reaction. It’s also possibly tied to actual childhood trauma so please don’t judge.)

So. That’s just me. I think other people are going to feel differently both about specific versions and about the issue as a whole… but I think the important thing here is that SOME people are going to have a better experience NOT being “spoiled,” some people’s experience is not going to be better or worse either way, and some people might actually enjoy some versions MORE knowing what they’re going to get into in advance.

Let’s talk for a tiny bit here about the other option I didn’t really think would get any votes: “Depends on how butthurt they would be about having their face on the internet.” OK, so this was SORTA a joke answer, and also could be read as another way of saying “Yes, always,” because what self-respecting Phantom would want their face on the internet? (Okay, I’ll give you Robert Englund, he probably wouldn’t mind.) But again, some very good tags here that give some very good food for thought… does it matter if we’re invading the privacy of a fictitious character?

Well, putting it like that makes it seem a little ridiculous. A fictitious character by their very definition doesn’t HAVE any privacy to invade. But I do think there’s a connection between how we treat characters and how we treat real people, and that there are probably some positives and negatives to exploring disfigurement (and broader disability) through art

Tiny aside here: I have quite a few friends who are wheelchair users (I am not), and one of them recommended a manga to me that has a couple of characters who are also wheelchair users. I read it, and when we were talking about it later, the same friend said to me that he liked being able to recommend that story to people because it portrays some of the less glamorous aspects of life with a disability realistically so it lets non-disabled people see what certain things are like “behind closed doors” without ACTUAL disabled people needing to share intensely personal details about their own lives. So, on the one hand I think fiction (if well researched and ya know, not inspiration porn or whatever) has the opportunity to sort of spread understanding and empathy by delving deeper into a character’s mindset than would be appropriate to do with a friend or acquaintance. But I also wonder if something like that, a manga where we DO get to learn how each of the major characters came to be disabled, might not also sort of encourage that idea that we are entitled to the “backstories” of real people?

Taking that back to Phantom and to facial disfigurement in particular, I admit that I do really like the idea of a Phantom character becoming comfortable enough around Christine, or an OC, or Raoul or the Persian or whoever we’re shipping him with, or with Mme. Giry as a mother figure or Ayesha the cat or WHOEVER to not feel the need to wear a mask all the time, and IF I’m going to seek out unmasked art specifically it’s probably going to be of that “comfortable” variety. I’m also self-aware enough to realize that I’m drawn to things like that because I have a very hard time opening up completely to people about certain things and it’s really kind of a nice fantasy to be comfortable sharing something that used to make you THAT uncomfortable. But really, even if it’s not in a comfortable, willingly unmasked setting, I think fiction is essentially a safe space to explore pleasant fantasies, yes, but also things that might make us uncomfortable. It’s pretty deeply uncool for Mary Philbin!Christine or ALW!Christine to rip Erik’s mask off without permission. I think we all know that. But I think we can also identify with both Christine’s curiosity and Erik’s fear and anger there. We may not ACT on those emotions in the same way in real life, but fiction (and art) are safe ways to explore things like “What if I fucked up by way overstepping a boundary and immediately regretted it” or “What if something I don’t want anyone to see were exposed to the person I MOST wanted to hide it from.”

Thinking back to my eye issue as well, I also think engaging in an empathetic way with fictitious characters can help to desensitize us to things that we may initially have a negative reaction to, and lead to greater empathy in the real world.

That said… I do think we need to handle things sensitively, even in art, because we don’t know who is in our audience. Bottom line, I don’t think we should refrain from drawing unmasked Phantoms because the fictitious Phantoms wouldn’t like it, but that we should keep in mind that our audience may include people with facial differences and… IDK not be too fetishy or awful?

I haven’t really touched on “Depends on how old” or “Depends on how early in canon they’re unmasked” but I think those are both somewhat self-explanatory. I see people set certain boundaries there regarding spoilers all the time… “if it’s more than a year old it’s not a spoiler” “anything that happens in the first ten percent by length isn’t a spoiler” etc. I personally think it can be hard to set one numerical target that applies to EVERY WORK OF ART EVER, but both are factors that definitely play into it. “How old” and “how well known” SORT OF interact with one another too, but especially with things like foreign language versions and indie books/films/etc, something can be OLD without necessarily being Chaney-level famous, so it’s interesting to see how the votes for “old” and “well-known” were split almost equally. I wonder how many of those responders were torn between the two, or whether one was the obvious choice?

Finally, I have made it ALL THIS WAY without talking about my own Phantom retelling (gratuitous link here), but please let me touch a little on one of the reasons I asked. So, I think I kind of assumed when it was published that at first, the unmasking would be a bit of a spoiler (not THAT it happens of course; it is a Phantom retelling after all, but specifically what Rei, my “phantom”, looks like)… but then, over time, it would cease to be a spoiler because the book would already have found its audience.

But… maybe this is just my vanity as an author talking, but almost five years later, I still think a lot of the people who WOULD enjoy my book haven’t discovered it yet. So I have continued to hold off on commissioning and sharing “unmasked” art… while also wondering if people wouldn’t really care either way.

As far as the way the narrative is set up, it’s definitely meant to be a reveal… but Rei hides LOTS of things about himself that are revealed little by little over time, and most of those “reveals” are not things I consider spoilers, even if the *character* hides them as long as he can, and have definitely posted art that shows them. I’m honestly not sure why Ive hung on to the unmasking for so long, except maybe that I was hoping a reader would do it first.

This poll… did not actually answer my question! I was kind of hoping for an overwhelming “No, never” response as a blessing to go ahead and do it… under “depends on how well-known” and “depends on how early in canon”, it would be a no-go. And Rei definitely wouldn’t want his face on the Internet. So I guess I look to the “how old” responses and say… this book still hasn’t found all the readers i think would enjoy it, but without a marketing budget or a celebrity endorsement or anything, it’s not really likely to find them at this point.

The verdict? I’m seriously considering it.

And in the end, while a “not-so-bad” or “laughably horrible makeup” deformity CAN take some of the emotion out of what should be an important scene, the most important thing is usually how it’s delivered—how it’s written, acted, sung. The very best media holds up to repeat viewings… so maybe the best answer is that if it’s any good, spoilers don’t matter so much after all?

(A big THANK YOU to everyone who answered the poll, added tags, and read this far!)