#they’re like. my flagship oc. I put her in everything I can put her in

[puyondraws]

Made myself a new wallpaper for my phone :3

[ardentlythieving]

HEWWO EVERYBODY IT’S END OF YEAR RECAP TIME WITH ME: UR PAL ARDO

First of all if ur reading this, merry christmas if u celebrate it and happy holidays if u don’t!!! Y’all are amazing people and I hope this time of year is a good one for you, and if it’s not I hope you find the time to do smth nice for urself!!

Dam this year has been crazy tho. I mean if ur dash is anything like mine you’ve prob seen all those posts talking about how long this year has felt re: the sheer amount of stuff happening. But on a more individual level there’s some stuff I wanna say I guess so in no particular order here is my Thoughts™ coz there’s been some good, some bad, and some weird this year. 

So, this year has been a kind of wild one for me in terms of things changing. The big one being that I started university and kinda lost contact with most of my pals from high school. All goods tho, coz I met some amazing new people thru tabletop gaming who idk if I’m at the friends point with yet, but I defo wanna try and get there coz they’re cool as heck. It’s true what people say that starting university is a big change coz DAM things have been wild and hopefully are gonna keep being wild next year espc coz one of my online friends is moving down to start at my university and I’m super excited to meet her in person!! Speaking of meeting people in person I finally got to hang out with @chipmunkwithwings at her place and that was one of the highlights of my year for sure! She’s a super cool person and that week was just utterly brilliant.

Anyways while we’re on the topic of friends this year sure has been exciting for that as well. I’ve made some amazing new ones, gotten closer with some older ones, had some drift apart and thru it all I’ve learnt something important. Namely that, there’s nothing wrong with the friends I had before, but I’ve felt so much better and it’s just been so much healthier for me now I’ve also started pursuing and focusing on friendships with people around my age. It sounds weird to say, but despite having a good collection of close friends there was a part of me that was lonely, and that part has kinda stopped being so much now not all my friends are 10ish years older than me. 

That’s one thing I’ve discovered, but this year has been a big one for discovery for me. I tried a bunch of different papers and found out that I hate international relations and love philosophy. I’ve started learning Swedish!! And probably the biggest and most important discovery: thanks to my friends telling me “dude you really need to do this” I’ve gotten on anti-depressants!!! Which have really been helping me so much. That’s probably.... my biggest regret is that I didn’t get on them a few years ago. Still, I’m on them now and my head is just working so much better. Also, and I’ve talked about this in an earlier post so if you wanna kno deets you can go read it, I properly I guess remembered? stopped repressing? how a friend abused me a few years ago and started working thru the issues I have because of that.  

At this point I’m gonna put things under a cut coz this is where shit is gonna get long. 

Some letters, to the people I’ve known this year. I know a LOT of people so I’m prob gonna not mention anyone so if I don’t mention you: I love y’all. Ur so so fucking brilliant all of u and I’m honored to know you and to have had this chance to be in contact with y’all. I’m deeply sorry for any way I might have wronged you over this year, and if any of you wronged ME I forgive you entirely. If any of you haven’t really talked to me, but want to; or if we’ve drifted outta contact and you wanna pick things back up or ANYTHING at all feel free to msg me anytime. My discord is ardentlyThieving#4893 and this is an open invitation to anyone reading this coz there’s a ton of cool ppl on here who I haven’t talked to as much as I’d like. Anyways onto the individual stuff.

To the afternoon gang. You guys all mean so so fucking much to me, more than probably anyone else. Ur my best support network, my greatest pals. Being friends with you all is a fucking delight. I know I’m not always active in our server, but trust me that it’s nothing on you. I’ve enjoyed every moment hanging out with you guys. Or well, most of them at least :P. We have the wildest conversations and trust me, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I know some of you guys have had a hard time this year and I’m so sorry that you guys are going thru that shit coz y’all deserve so much better. It’s my deepest hope that next year is a good one for all of you and if there’s every anything I can do you guys know where to find me. I love you so so so so so much and I hope these last few days of 2018 are as good for you as they can possibly be.

To the people of Eff’s servers. You guys are super duper cool. Being salty with y’all is so much fun and also so deeply annoying that people keep pulling this shit that we gotta be salty about. I love the fact that we can go from shitty meme posting (usually my fault) to having in depth n thoughtful conversations about just about anything (hopefully usually not my fault). Y’all are amazing people and it feels like you’ve all found urselves a bit more this year, which I’m so happy for you about.

To Sakshi. That’s right, u get an individual one. Ur like, my hero. Srsly dude the fact that ur so fucking patient with the utter dumbasses msging you and that u started this whole deep conversation that ur not backing down from? I’m so proud of you, I admire you so much, and you have my utmost support. Hmu if you ever need me to drag someone for you. Also i’m sorry to out you as a gamer to the fine people of tumblr dot com (actually I’m not that sorry) but it’s been so much fun playing swtor with you. And salt watching things with you. I love how fun our friendship is and also how we can have proper deep conversations like 10/10 A+ content. 

To Hammi. Dude you are awesomesauce. My fave lesbian pal. I love memeing with you and gaming with you and chatting with you. Here’s to another great year broski!

To Clare. We’ve only just met at the very end of this year and I’m so glad we did. Ur super cool and funny and I love ur art n posts.

To my swtor guild. Another group of wonderful people who I’ve only just met. i’m so fucking excited to get to know all of you better coz y’all have such great swtor opinions and are so much fun to play with. Sorry about what I did to the Gizka flagship bridge lmao.

To Sofa. DUDE HI! becoming friends with you this year has been one of the highlights. Thank you for all the support you’ve given me and for all the fun times we’ve had. I adore playing video games with you and I fucking love ur swtor ocs. You’ve been there for me so much, and I hope I’ve been there for you as well. Thank you for everything.

To Marie. Yet another person I met later on this year and haven’t had the chance to get so close with. Defo my bad there I need to msg you more often. Thanks for being there for me, even though I was kind of a shitty friend to you at one point. I didn’t deserve ur patience but you gave it to me anyway and I’m so fuckin grateful for that. I hope to make that up to you in the coming year. <3

To Jason. We were tight at the start of the year and kinda drifted apart which I regret. Msg me anytime dude and if you ever reinstall swtor you should totally hmu coz playing it with you was a ton of fun!! 

To Traya. I know we’ve only talked on and off this year, but I’m so excited for you to be at my university and to hang out in person!! Hang in there dude, coz there’s so many cool people for you to meet and take it from me that university really is so much better than college.

Ok this is where the happy positivity ends!! Again I love y’all so much and I hope that next year is better for all of you then this one was!!! Thanks for being pals with me, I appreciate it so much even when I’m not great at showing it.

Coz there’s one more letter I gotta write coz after however many years I want closure. This is where it ends.

To Teri. Wow. I never thought I’d be saying ur name again. Well typing, but w/e. That first year we were friends was so fucking good and I’m glad we had that, coz you were a pretty cool person. I dunno why you decided to change all that and start hurting me and I’m probably never gonna understand but you know what? That’s ok. I don’t need to. You hurt me, I got out. I’m not sure, but I think you were being hurt by people as well and I hope you got out like I did. No matter how badly you treated me you still don’t deserve to be abused urself. Nobody deserves that. I don’t know if I forgive you, and I don’t know if I ever will, but I hope things are better for you now. I’m sorry for the times I wronged you while we were friends. This isn’t me saying I deserved to be abused by you, because I sure as hell didn’t, but well. Two wrongs don’t make a right and ur abuse doesn’t magically erase the times I wasn’t the greatest friend. I thought ignoring the things you did to me would make things better, but instead I let it all fester inside me and change my behaviour without realizing that’s what happened. So this is me letting go of it all. Coz you don’t get to fuckin take anything else away from me. I’m better now than I was then despite everything you did to me. This is me, making a conscious choice to heal and move on and grow. It’s not gonna be easy, but imma do it and it’s gonna be so fucking wonderful. This is Arden signing out because you don’t GET to have any control over my life anymore. Never ever again.

[james-senpai]

On Gency

Okay, because some people have issues with Gency, I thought I’d compile a lil list of arguments that I find against Gency and why I think they’re bullshit. Disclaimer; The ship isn’t canon yet, this is refering to fan complaints, and everything below is my own interpretation of the current lore and character dynamics between the two. This is not a case FOR Gency, rather just debunking some of the toxic shit I’ve seen thrown at it. (long post incoming) TL;DR: if you have another opinion, you’re free to have it. Just try to stay on topic and don’t drag anything into it that doesn’t belong (’homophobia in OW’, current real world issues, that kinda shit) Oh, also I’m going to overlook the “It’s a het ship, so it’s boring” argument, because while I’ve seen it enough to tear y’all a new one over it, I’mma let it slide because that would be too easy to destroy (but I’ll get to that later) 1. Gency is abusive  Nowhere cited or stated. The largest asspull I’ve seen. Don’t have much to say about it since the people I’ve noticed who use this excuse can’t provide any other reason than this simple phrase. 2. Genji didn’t consent to what Mercy did to him This is like getting in a car wreck, going to a doctor, them saving your life, and then turning around and yelling at them for doing their job. Genji was injured, Overwatch picked him up, Mercy as chief medic of OW saved him, as per her job description. Genji probably didn’t want to die there either. He was a playboy at the time, so I imagine that that moment was one of clarity for him, realizing that he never truly lived for anything worthwhile and if being brought back as a part-cyborg would enable him to do so, then he’d do it. 3. OW used Genji to attack his family Again, nowhere stated or implied. It’s stated that Genji used his abilities to dismantle his family’s criminal empire, but never that Genji went on a vendetta against his family. Genji’s no idiot and was probably well aware of the things his family was doing to ensure that he lived the playboy lifestyle he enjoyed for most of his life, but never really cared until they turned against him. After being saved from death, logic would dictate that he’d have some resentment against his family for the criminal shit they were pulling and would’ve gone after them anyway even if working for OW wasn’t a part of the deal. 4. Genji hated his body, and therefore hated Mercy Another asspull and something people try to use to demonize Mercy. Genji’s hatred of himself stems from that: HIMSELF. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anyone who’s disabled to the point of losing a part of themselves, but it really takes a toll on one’s mental state, self-worth, self-image and esteem. The stress of losing his ENTIRE body coupled with the betrayal of his family more than likely left him disillusioned with the world and his place in it. And as common for men, he found peace in something greater than himself. It’s why he’s so willing to write Mercy and keep touch with her through writing. After he has found peace with himself, he realizes how grateful he is to Mercy for saving him and giving him a chance to live for something greater than himself. Even without canon romantics, it’s genuinely touching to see one character grateful for what they once took for granted and were repulsed at. 5. Mercy had no say in saving Genji Mercy’s designation is the chief medical doctor of Overwatch. Last time I checked, a doctor’s JOB is to SAVE LIVES. Angela strikes me as the kind of person who does what she does, not out of obligation, but because she wants to save lives and make the world a better place. Even if you want to go with the excuse that OW MADE her save him, odds are she would’ve done it anyway because that’s who she is. 6. Mercy turned Genji into a killing machine Genji was ALREADY a trained ninja, so also bullshit. While he did indulge in a frivolous lifestyle, he was still able to contend with Hanzo and fight him off to the point where it wasn’t a one-sided slaughter. The fact that Genji lived AT ALL after their fight is proof of his abilities and skill. The cybernetic makeover they gave him had the primary purpose of saving his life, but because they are naturally more efficient than human limbs, they inadvertently BOOSTED his already stupidly skilled body even beyond what he could do before. TL;DR, the cybernetics didn’t suddenly make him a ‘killing machine’, Genji did. also he’s not a ‘machine’, as he still retains morality and free will. 7. Mercy is evil and a white savior The evil part has already been debunked by the creators, but the ‘White Savior’ bit is really confusing to me. She’s a doctor, so her job is to literally SAVE LIVES. LIKE I HATE TO BREAK FLOW HERE, READER, BUT WHERE THE HELL DID THIS EVEN COME FROM? THE BLONDE HAIR AND BLUE EYES?? SHE’S SWEDISH! LIKE ????? Worst asspull and people just resorting to spitting insults at a character. 8. Genji is a self-insert OC so the writer can live out his dreams of fucking Mercy Yeah, because as if implying that an Asian writer wants to plow his character ISN’T racist. ok. Every character that has ever existed is an OC. And honestly, this is one of the most disgusting pulls I have seen to come out of some people’s mouths. Think before you speak, like damn... 9. The writer is homophobic and favors a straight ship over LGBT representation He’s also the guy responsible for making the comic that revealed OW’s flagship character as gay. I’m not surprised that you missed it though because, while everyone else was celebrating this fact, y’all were complaining about Genji and Mercy writing one another. While he might enjoy the ship, he has also gone on record saying that people should enjoy what they love, regardless of canon. 10. Mercy has a savior complex Side note, but I find it funny how people will say stuff like this and then turn around and ship Mercy with anyone else. Like that makes it better... Again, DOCTOR, SAVES LIVES, HELPS PEOPLE. She doesn’t do what she does out of obligation, otherwise she wouldn’t even be active after OW disbanded, but because she genuinely cares about the good of others, even to the point of disagreeing with OW from time to time and helping those afflicted by war.

11. The patient/doctor relationship is weird and gross Newsflash! EVERYONE who has actively served in OW has at some point been Mercy’s patient. So if you go by that logic, you can no longer ship her with ANYONE in the game who has ties to OW.

12. It’s a poorly-written ship Of course it’s going to be poorly written when it isn’t even CANON yet. Look, bottom line is all we have right now for them that’s concrete is canon story connections, sweet fluff in game and out of game, and voicelines that tie into those story ties. No canon comic dedicated to them, no animated short. At the end of the day, that’s what people are sending death threats over: canon fluff and connections. 13. It’s a boring ship This one bugs me and it’s probably where I’m going to close with. I’ve seen this the most, even without the ‘het’ label (because bi, pans, demi people TOTALLY don’t exist yeah?) but that it’s ‘boring’. This, at the end of the day, is an opinion, but a very unfair one.  ANY PAIRING CAN BE BORING. ANY RELATIONSHIP CAN BE BORING, EVEN GAY ONES. WHAT MAKES A PAIRING INTERESTING, A RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC, AND CHARACTERS INTERESTING ARE THE WAYS IN WHICH A PAIRING IS HANDLED, A RELATIONSHIP FLESHED OUT, AND CHARACTERS DEFINED, ALL OF WHICH OW’S CAST OF CHARACTERS ARE DESPITE NOT HAVING DEDICATED COMICS AND SHORTS TO EVERYONE. They have likes, dislikes, dynamics and themes, stories and agendas, motivations and convictions, and small bits and pieces in between. All of which makes them engaging and interesting characters that we as the audience WANT to learn more about. We WANT to see Lucio get a short because he’s a great and lovable character with a cause that he’s fighting for. We WANT a McCree short because of his past, his convictions in his time with Blackwatch, and want to see what he’s going to do next. And we LOVED the Reflections comic because, for the first time that I can remember, we saw Tracer get revealed as gay and it DIDN’T remove from her being a bad-ass, wise cracking adventurer who believes that the world could always use more heroes. What I’m getting at is if you think ship X is boring, then it tells me two things about you. Either 1.) You haven’t looked hard enough or 2.) You haven’t seen what someone who’s GOOD can do Because I have loved ships simply because of the heart and soul fans put into them. I love Symetrat because someone wrote a hella good fic that fleshed out their characters, explored the dynamics between their differences, and presented them, for lack of a better word, flawlessly. I’ve loved the sheer amount of sweetness in the art I’ve seen in the Pharmercy tag and loved the dynamic of McHanzo, two roamers looking for peace in their own way. I even loved Widowtracer, two opposing forces and ideologies, melding, clashing, and learning. And I love Gency because it’s different from the ‘guy saves girl trope’, it EMPOWERS Mercy, gives Genji a turning point in his life, and creates a dynamic friendship between the two characters that, even if it never reaches romantic canon, will always be one of my favorite character dynamics in gaming. I’ve seen it in and out of Overwatch and to several fandoms beyond. We as fans can do some pretty amazing shit when we’re not engaging in ship wars and tearing out the throats of our creators, things that can genuinely touch and impact other people’s lives in new and profound ways, add relateability  to already relatable characters, and flesh out stories and dynamics and relationships even after the official story is over, all while offering a new perspective on characters we already know and love. What I’m getting at, and will close on, is that the ship isn’t boring. You are