#trolls gender bent

[misscinnamonroll16]

I would very much like those gender bent headcannons for brozone if they're still on the table...

They're absolutely still on the table. First off, names. John Dory is Jena Dory I like it better than the regular Jane Doe. Spruce is a lil harder bc of the name change but I feel like Stella would be a good choice bc it can change to Bella. I like Claudia for Clay. Flora is a soft sweet name for the sensitive one, Floyd. Branch I feel like would be named Bambi with those big ol eyes. Now onto the actual headcanons, these are mostly just period stuff.

JD was super embarrassed about her body changing, not sure how to explain it to her little sisters

Stella scared the crap out of Claudia when she got her period once. She didn't realize she got it and bleed through her underwear. She asked Claudia to get her a new pair and to get JD. Claudia peeks into the bathroom to see her blood soaked panties and immediately thinks she is dying and freaks out. Claudia goes running to Jena crying about how Stella is dying. Jena Dory is confused and goes to see what's wrong, seeing that she just bleed through her underwear. JD has to explain periods to Claudia so she doesn't think Stella is dying (this actually happened to me 😂)

Jena definitely hated going bra shopping, whether it was for her or her sisters. She just felt embarrassed by it.

Claudia got training bras for her birthday once. She pulled them out of the bag, excitedly showing them off. It would have been kind of cute if they weren't having the party in a restaurant

Flora becomes a mega bitch when on her period. She's super cranky and hates everything

Jena (just like John) holds in all her emotions, especially when on her period. She gets killer cramps tho

The sisters just think Jena is just sick when she cancels rehearsals bc she's cramping but she doesn't tell them that.

Claudia makes herself cry constantly when reading her sad books, it gets worse when she's on her period

Bambi thought she was dying when she got her first period

Stella gets bad acne the days before her period

Jena Dory had to explain periods and puberty to her sisters, she tried to make it a wonderful experience becoming a woman but periods suck

Flora didn't realize she got her first period and bleed through her skirt. She was so embarrassed she cried

Claudia tracks her period so she's never surprised

Bella uses tampons and pads after having kids

Jena uses a menstrual cup

Claudia uses tampons

Flora uses pads

Claudia craves sweets premenstrual and during

Bella doesn't eat much when she's on her period bc she's often super nauseous

Jena Dory gets migraines (poor girl can't catch a break 😔)

Flora wears the heaviest makeup, only bc it's so dark

Claudia and Jena Dory love bubble baths

Jena Dory is a c-cup, Bella was a c-cup but became a d-cup after having kids, Claudia is a b-cup, Flora is an a-cup, and Bambi is a b-cup

Jena, Claudia, and Bambi can't walk in heels

Claudia has bad back pain when on her period

[quepasa25]

funky and angelic twins

[somedudenamedanthony]

Quick doodles <3

[meadow-hearthfire]

Dear Trolls Fandom

Don't go making callout posts on people based on potential misinformation. I've seen that happen in the Welcome Home fandom that I've since left, and I didn't come into the Trolls fandom to see it happen again.

First of all, you can't "own" a concept. And don't go around saying "don't get inspired by my work", no one can control being inspired. There's a difference between plagiarism and making an already-existing idea your own. Ponder Sprocket/Empty Brooke made a video elaborating on this issue among other things.

Second of all, don't get on someone's case for shipping a canonically gay character with a character of their opposite sex or gender. Those are FICTIONAL CHARACTERS; unless it's incestuous, pedophilic or zoophilic (sapient X nonsapient), don't get bent outta shape over it. Here's a post I made on this issue. If you don't like it, the block button is your friend.

Thirdly, don't go pointing fingers at someone and accusing them of being a creep or a pr0shitter based on surface-level information. Are they shipping a canonically thirty-something character with a canonically underage character? Before you make a reactionary post name-dropping them, please verify whether or not the person aged the younger character up for the ship. Look into and verify shit before spreading shit, and even if it turns out you're right, you still shouldn't name-drop the person because all you're doing is inciting harassment. I don't care if you're doing this to "spread awareness", you're still doing more harm than good and effectively promoting them. If the person shipping the characters doesn't bother to age up the younger character for their ship, it should be obvious. Even then, you still need to verify if that's the case.

And lastly, PR0SHIPS/PR0FICS FUCK OFF!! I'm not affiliated with you creeps! 🖕

For the record, I'm midfic/midship, which means I have the common sense to know that you cannot have a kink for incest, underage or nonsapient, be it based in fiction or otherwise. Plus, if you're going to incorporate that shit in a story you're trying to tell, it needs to serve a purpose that isn't gratification and it needs to be handled with care.

And I'm aware of the original meaning of pr0ship, but I'm not taking any chances. Whether or not claims of it meaning someone is a creep stems from misinformation is irrelevant, the creeps who wear that label still adopted that as the definition. If you don't wanna be fingered as one of those creeps, my advice is to not wear the pr0ship/pr0fic labels. Here's a link to a post elaborating on this.

[bohemian-nights]

i feel like people don’t get how insane they sound when they say masali is a gender bent michael? like what? they’re trying so hard to cope with the likelihood that she IS sophie. the fact that they think she’s like related to lady danbury is crazy bc i’m sure her character would’ve been revealed in episodes 1-6 if that was the case and why would they avoid announcing her? or putting her in promos? and believing that she’s playing someone related to the stirlings, like a sister….yea, bc it makes perfect sense that they would fly her from south africa to do that… i just cannot wait for her casting announcement so all of this mess can be over. but best believe i will be going to reddit to rub this in their faces, i have to be petty like that 🤷🏾‍♀️

She hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but the continued denial of the very high probability that she is playing Sophie is getting quite ridiculous.

If she was a debutante, John’s sister, or related to Lady D in light of the recent interviews, and given the fact that people have seen the first six episodes, we would have know by now if her role was that small. And yeah they aren’t flying someone halfway across the world to play such a minor character.

The evidence for her being genderbent!Michael is shaky at best when all you have are some trolls who’ve since deleted their accounts and admitted to not knowing who Masali even was. Her and Victor Ali “looking alike” yet the only commonality they have is being dark and Black. This carriage scene that people claim features “Michaela” yet the woman in that video is clearly not Masali, and people claiming she’s “too visible to be Sophie.”

As to the last part, if she’s too visible to be Sophie then she’s too visible to be Michaela. If she’s too visible to be Sophie then anybody anyone else has found solely using social media is too visible to be Sophie too.

You also have some people claiming she’s too big to play Sophie, but she is far from being an household/international name. She had a blink and you miss it part in The Woman King and was a lead in Noughts + Crosses(which wasn’t that big of a show).

I’m not even going to get into the people thinking Sophie is going to become Solomon cause that’s a joke.

Of course we only have social media follows, a casting call which hasn’t been seen by many(but no one has disputed its validity either so if it was fake you’d think someone would’ve said something by now), and a couple of cryptic posts to go by, but the excuses are overkill.

If Masali has indeed been cast in Bridgerton the most likely bet is that she’s playing Sophie and not whatever alternative(they are not slick with those suggestions) someone is trying to peddle because she just can’t be Sophie Beckett.

I’ll be right there with you on the last part cause those people get on my last damn nerves and they need to be called out.

[derekscorner]

Fated Rantings: Genderbent Silliness

This won't be the same as my well thought Fate posts but I felt the need to make it. One of the things I've learned about Fate is that it's genderbends range from marketing, trolling, and "fuck it" reasons.

So let's go over some of the ones I've learned since I started this journey.

Artoria & Shirou

The iconic duo, the mainstays, and the first ones to be genderbend in the Type-Moon meta franchise.

What drew me to Fate and this duo initially was just how accurate Artoria's backstory is to the actual Arthurian legend in real life. In fact, you'll see that a lot of Fate characters stay remarkably true to their legends even if the gender is altered.

And I'm sure you expect me to give this big breakdown on how this affected Shirou and Artoria but there isn't one. No no. Shirou and Artoria had their genders altered from the initial draft of Fate Stay Night for marketing reasons.

No joke, they swapped their genders to sell the initial release of Fate Stay Night better...which was likely a good call since the original release of FSN had hentai scenes.

The scenes were relevant to the Sakura route and the rest was just service. So to appeal to the japan market way back when they made the lead (Shirou) male and his servant (Arthur) female.

The phenomenon that is Saber exploded afterward. Saber's design is so iconic and beloved by the series artists that they actively reuse it whether the reasons be jokes or serious.

This is the trend fans refer to as "saber face".

Proto Merlin & King Arthur

Since we're on the subject of King Arthur allow me to tell you about Fate/Prototype.

You see, even though the final draft became Fate/Stay Night, the initial draft was reused later to become Fate Prototype.

What makes Fate/Prototype unique to me is that many characters who had their genders bent in FSN do not in Prototype. Arthur is as you'd expect him to be, a young man of handsome build. Same for several characters.

Well, except for Merlin. Within the Prototype universe Merlin is female. The dynamic and backstory of both king and mage are the same as they are IRl or even in FSN.

I only point this out because I find Fate/Prototype fascinating (I hope it gets a show one day) but also because the voice actors for Merlin and Arthur swap roles.

The voice for male Merlin in most Fate works voices Arthur in Prototype. While the voice for Saber in FSN voices female Merlin in Prototype.

Even here they have a bit of fun with the concept.

Nero fucking Claudius

Of all the "saberfaces" and overall genderbends in Fate I consider this one the funniest I've discovered.

The true name of Red Saber from Fate Extra is Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. Yes that one emperor, you know the one.

The sole reason Nero is female, let alone a near identical clone of Artoria, is a troll. When making Fate Extra they decided to design Nero like this solely to trick people into thinking the Saber they love was in the game.

There is no grander reason and I personally find it hilarious. I've yet to watch Extra since I'd rather play the remake when it launches but I know Nero has her own following.

I can't help but respect a troll like this.

The Genderless

Next is Enkidu. I'll admit upfront that I do not know what the logic was behind Enkidu however given how he is is written I believe it's done to be within character.

In the IRL epic of gilgamesh Enkidu is a big burly hairy wild man that is of equal strength to king Gilgamesh. He was created by the gods to reign the tyrannical king in.

Within Fate, that backstory is the same, but Enkidu is nowhere near burly nor hairy. I only refer to Enkidu as "he" for writing convenience and because Enkidu doesn't seem to care either way.

You see, Enkidu sees themselves as a tool regardless of how much Gilgamesh or the residents of Uruk say otherwise. Enkidu is also modeled from clay and is not actually human or even god at all.

The appearance Enkidu uses is modeled after the harlot sent to teach him. In the IRL myth she slept with Enkidu but given how Fate Enkidu is made it's more ambiguous.

Their feminine appearance is a way to honor this person though. This bend is neither marketing nor funny, it's more akin to a reflection of Enkidu's character and how they view themselves and thus worth noting.

"Francis Drake"

This is one I learned quite recently. Apparently the servant that presents itself as Francis Drake is actually a play on an old rumor.

See, it was rumored back in the day that Francis Drake would let Queen Elizabeth masquerade as himself and use his ship. The scar on her face is also possibly a hint at the small pox scars that Queen Elizabeth had. Both Elizabeth and this servant also have red hair.

Of course, FGO does throw out there that she was written as male in the history books because her crew could not see her as a woman. I wouldn't even be surprised if that is the answer Nasu would give.

But the parallels to queen Elizabeth and the rumors about Francis Drake letting her sail are just too funny not to bring up.

Saber of Red

I've talked a lot about Mordred before but I'm adding her here because I just find her to be a good complex character. I also won't delve into the whole debate around her since that already took two full posts dedicated to Mordred to do.

The whole reason Mordred has the physique she does is due to Mordred and Merlin's magics at work. Mordred is, in the simplest way I can explain, a homunculus/clone of Artoria and is thus female like Artoria.

BUT I do know there was concepts for a male Mordred at one point:

And a part of me kind of wishes they had stuck to this concept or reused it for one of the Fate timelines.

It would make the whole desire for the throne all the more compounded because, unlike their "father", this version of Mordred would be male and have even less reason to hide behind magics and lies like Artoria did.

It would also be interesting to see how this Mordred justifies themselves or reacts to the truth of their "father".

Though given the harsh upbringing, their idolization of Arthur, and their short lifespan, this Mordred may have been nearly identical to the one we have regardless.

Nagao Kagetora

I know next to nothing about this character both in Fate or IRL but I am adding them as my final gender bend of notice because it's oddly historical.

From what I've come to learn Nagao Kagetora was suspected to be a woman. Whether that was truth or just rumors to discredit a political rival is unknown but the Fate servant itself takes that rumor and uses it.

It's one of the few servants I know of where the altered gender may very well be a truth IRL. It's made me curious about how many there are in Type-Moon that I just do not know about due to my lacking knowledge of Japanese figures.

It also goes to show that not every servant it changed for a joke, marketing or just the writer/artists whims. Sometimes there's actual historical backing which makes that particular servant all the more interesting to research.

Yes, Francis Drake is technically similar but FGO offers an explanation. The whole Queen Elizabeth thing is just a fun parallel that might be true. Plus, both Elizabeth and Drake exist in Fate as two people.

Where as this servant possibly was a woman. Maybe they weren't, no way to know now and that makes it unique.

Finale

And that's all I got for now. There are plenty of other examples but these are the ones that have stuck out to me the most since I began watching/reading Fate.

Some servants were also just to convoluted for me to squeeze into this one post. Not for the gender swapping but their origins as demi-gods and the like. It kind of goes hand in hand.

Some servants are only a gender thanks to the body they're borrowing. Mash Kyrielight is an example of this because she's a demi-servant possessed by Galahad. Meaning she's a female version of Galahad in a loose sense.

Other servants may be from the "GUDA GUDA" side of Type-Moon which doesn't even bother to explain. If a figure is genderbend in a "GUDA GUDA" world story then that's just how that world's history unfolded.

Sakura Saber and female Nobunaga are two key examples of a "GUDA GUDA" genderbend.

========================

Hopefully you enjoyed this regardless. For my other experiences with Fate go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/fated-rantings

[babblish]

The Aftermath of the Battle of Killahead and the Green Knight for the Wip Ask game please! ♡

Thanks for the ask!

📄 The Aftermath of the Battle of Killahead

At some point in *checks file date* 2021 when I was doing a rewatch of Wizards for note taking purposes, I was possessed with the urge to write what happened to Bellroc after they magicked themself away when the Trollhunter blinded them at the battle of Killahead. If I remember correctly I wrote most of what's there in a single day at a feverish pace, and have been adding drips and drabs ever since, waiting for the rest of everything that comes before it is finished.

I cannot remember if I've shared anything from this here, but here is a tantalising sample:

It had been an unthinking decision. Bellroc clutched at their face, unable to stop the liquid fire that poured down their cheeks. They backed as far as they could into the wall, knocking over tools and ingots in their fury, screaming from the shock and pain of it. They thrashed explosively and without decision, the mortal instincts they had spend aeons trying quash bent and snapped them like a twig. They wrenched the feathered cape from their shoulders, tugging and yanking at the insufferable artifice that made their skin crawl with dread, stripping everything that could be easily removed. In their heart they were still surrounded by trolls who barely seemed to notice the flames that cooked the flesh from their bones. Their arms ached, remembering struggling in their grasp. Bellroc’s breath hitched as they remembered their forge for not just a place of a comfort and pawed shakily over familiar surfaces rendered strange and alien within an instant. They tested edges with the tips of their fingers, nicking themself several times over as they shakily found the exact blade for which they sought.

📄 The Green Knight

I am unsure if you remember our discussions about why ToA decided to depict The Green Knight... like that, and my theory as to why and how they backed themselves into a characterisation corner, by making Nari as they did.

But basically, The Green Knight is my take on what they should've done, or rather, what is more interesting to me based on the source material. So Nari is the Green Knight, and also Gawain is gender as hell.

[wickedwritingchaos]

Gender bent broppy, I don't have issues with the pairing, I just notice some problem's

The show must go on. - Wickedme - Trolls (DreamWorks Movies) [Archive of Our Own]

[cartoonus-maximus]

✏️"what are your current WIPs about?"

I have several wips that I'm just cycling through right now, adding on a little at a time, so I'm going to pick 5 of them to talk about.

📝 All the Girls With Heads Inside a Dream: a gender-bent wlw spideytorch fic, wherein they are teenage girls when they first meet each other. One of the places I've been shoving all my own sapphic bi feelings.

📝 Family Is What You Make Of It: an original fic about an extended family, with members including trolls, humans, and half-elves. Mainly written from the viewpoints of two half-elf siblings, who married into this family but grew up alone, and are struggling to understand their new roles.

📝 P, B, & J: spideytorch kid fic. Peter is a single dad and Johnny thinks he doesn't have to be.

📝 Bakura's Demon: a ygo role-reversal fic. (Yami) Bakura is a university student who likes creepy things. He goes to an occult store one day after classes, and picks up a strange necklace. Taking the necklace home with him, Bakura begins experiencing strange dreams, being haunted by (Ryou) the spirit of the necklace.

📝 Newton's Cradle: a Johnny/Peter/Mary Jane ship fic, because I think there should be more of those. Takes place during the Hickman run of FF (wherein Johnny dies and returns a few months later) and is appropriately angsty.

[joethetoonfanandoutcast]

What bothers me about the Meena-Alfonso relationship

It's just another teen romance thing that we already have in plenty of other films (Gristle/Bridget from Trolls, Violet Parr/Tony Rydinger from the Incredibles, Anastasia Tremaine/the Baker from Cinderella's sequel, Twilight Sparkle/Flash Sentry (it didn't last but still), etc.)

We're supposed to look at it like "Meena's found someone who loves her because no one else did before". Her mother loved her, her grandparents her, everyone around her neighborhood loved her, MOON AND THE GANG LOVE HER!

It feels more like an excuse to shoehorn Illumination's frequent collaborator, Pharrell

It feels more like she's just dating her gender-bent clone.

The fact that he goes everywhere outside of his job (the movies (even to see Mario), the Majestic) and my spirit animal, Suki, doesn't, spells favoritism.

Are we supposed to take Alfonso's calling her a goddess seriously?

[ratacuss]

It's Halloween and I went as eggs from box trolls

Well anyway here's gender bent ZZS and WKX I made with face app

[dotthings]

Ohhhhh the anti-diversity dc antis on twitter are mad. There's a clickbaity headline about Carrie Kelley "race bent Robin" which, that article in itself deserves all the side-eyeing. So the anti-diversity dc antis on twitter went off how everything is ruined now because Robin is a black girl. And "and gender swapped."

They think Carrie Kelley is gender swapped.

Not that we need any more proof of what nonsense the supposed "fan backlash" against GK is, but another item, I heard that comic stans are complaining because the GK batkids actually form an alliance and will be kind to each other, because I guess, now comic stan twitter has decided team building and team family is bad, after upteen jillion years of DC comics doing TEAM ORIENTED BOOKS WHERE THEY BOND and many years of successful live action and animated tv series featuring TEAM BUILDING.

There is no fan backlash. It's made of trolls.

[incarnateirony]

Also gals I don't know how to break this to you, but "would you say that to a man?" is 100% not the card you should be pulling on trans men.

At any time.

Ever.

That's literally radfem shit too.

I once lived as a woman. We are going to respect you more than any cis man.

No, I wouldn't say it to a man, because I'd call that man a whiny little piss baby and he'd wake up tied to the top of a flag post if he acted like this in a male space. Being told how much I don't fucking care about how oversensitive someone wants to be even after a long apology to keep up this concern trolling about tone does not entitle you to make it into a three stage drama, susan.

Never. Ever.

EVER.

Fucking pull that on a trans male friend of yours ever if you want US to trust YOU. Stop flipping this around. We don't have to trust you. We are the minority here, not you, don't get it fuckin backwards while clutching your pearls. You as a woman are not allowed to harass the shit out of us and troll the hell out of us and put all the emotional responsibility on us then act like we're being misogynists when we say you're acting like fucking whackos.

We know better than anyone, from first hand experience, as people that once lived as women, at which points you guys have crossed the boundary into whackos. And if you would embarrassed to do these interactions in person, then you should be embarrassed to do it here, regardless of my fucking gender bent equipment.

jesus christ would i say that to a man. the man would never make it to me because he'd have died from hazings and blanket parties by now with that attitude. I think you can take being told I don't care about your opinion without withering.

Isn't feminism supposed to be about yall being able to be tough and shit. Why do i have to be forced into the world's dryest soy boy to appease yall fuck that. Woman up. Stop acting like children.

I genuinely do not know what the fuck this friend thought they were doing pulling that card. I genuinely do not fucking comprehend the level of headassedness that requires.

But that. Ain't. It.

[shelbeetaylor]

Meet The Author!!!

-> story masterpost

I post chapters every Saturday!

Hi, I'm Shelbee! I started this blog because I have been working on a fantasy story for about two years, and my friends suggested I start a Tumblr to post chapters and start gaining a following! I will also be cross posting to AO3! Here's a little bit about me :)

I'm 20

I'm a Taurus Sun, Leo Moon, Capricorn Rising

I'm an INFP (last time I checked lol)

I'm a full-time college student and a bartender

I identify as a lesbian and use she/her pronouns

My inspiration mostly comes from BBC Merlin (this started as a joke gender-bent merlin fanfic and I decided to make it its own story)

Rules For My Blog :)

TERFS, HOMOPHOBIA, RACISM, SEXISM, AND ANY OTHER FORMS OF INTOLERANCE ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!!! YOU WILL BE BLOCKED!!!

Be kind :)

If you make any fan content about my characters, please tag me!!! I want to see!!!

I would appreciate any criticism or feedback but keep it constructive!

Trolls, bullies, and weirdos will be BLOCKED

[lunamidnight]

November 28th

Fanfiction/Original Fiction

First created: Jan 2015

Last updated: Feb 2019

General Premise: This old post series story with a male Vriska so gender-bent but only them

Other notes: I did intend on it being a ship story but never continued it.

In a very long explanation turned short, within the new universe on a planet very similar to both earth and alternia,was a city that resembled many of earth old cities, such as new york or even brooklyn. In this city lived one certain troll male by the name of, vriska serket. It’s currently late evening time as he walked a familiar sidewalk to his home, clouds darkening in the sky made him frown at the prospect of incoming rain. 

Soon He was almost a block away from his home,no rain had yet to fall, but a loud commotion down a nearby alleyway caught the spider troll’s attention. He went forward into the alley and stepped to the side of an old dumpster to get a better look. 

Within the commotion was another troll, a certain cat girl troll by the name Nepeta Leijon. she was surrounded by a half a dozen, big and buff male humans. Two of which had her held by one arm each, while three others were cheering on their obvious leader.”come on, pretty kitty, why don’t you give daddy another one of those cute little cat puns hmm?”the leader asked the frightened troll in a sickly sweet voice as he went to stroke her face.

Nepeta responded by kicking him in the ribs to get him away from her. he growled when he regained his balance and slapped her across the face.”you’ll learn to never do that again you fucking kitty bitch.”he snarled bringing his hand back to hit her.

Before he could however a brick hit him in the side of the head causing him to hit the ground, knocked out. the remaining five looked around confused and shock until their eyes landed on vriska, who was casually leaning on a wall.”who the hell are you?”one snapped.”did you throw that brick?” another asked stupidly. vriska smiled wickedly showing one of his “spider fangs” as he’d grown to call them.”oh no that was the guy who booked it out of here, didn’t you see him?” vriska asked with a small hint of sarcasm.

Nepeta by now saw that it was vriska and craned her neck to see what was going on better.on of the guys holding her noticed”hey mac,i think the girl knows him, there both troll’s so no doubt”the guy to her left stated making her frown at being noticed.”well then, do you know this girl?, because if you do, i can guarantee that you’ll have trouble.”the first guy asked.

Vriska shrugged nonchalantly. “oh yeah, i know her. i can’t deny that much, i certainly know that she can bite”vriska replied just before a scream of pain sounded out by a “ow she bit me”. nepeta jumped back away from the pair as best she could, before the one she didn’t bite came after her. 

However before him or any of the remaining fools could do anything to get her, each one fell to the floor fast asleep. vriska let out a laugh as nepeta surveyed the scene in momentarily confused, before looking up at him.”been awhile since i had to use my powers”vriska mused before looking at her with a smirk.”i didn’t expect to see you”nepeta said a bit surprised.”oh is that a way to thank me for saving your tail?”vriska asked with obvious fake pout. Nepeta let herself smile a bit”nice to see you too vriskers, and thank you fur saving me”she replied just before a raindrop  hit her nose making her squeak in surprise. 

Vriska looked up at the sky and sighed”come here, my house isn’t that far from here”vriska called starting his way out of the alley. nepeta quickly followed him and lifted her familiar green coat over her head as they hurried towards vriska’s home.

[rivvyelf]

Chapter 2 Reflection:

FF.net: link

AO3: link

On this day (July 24th,) last year (2022), I posted the second chapter of my first fanfic, Outlaws of the Inland Sea. Looking back there are things I want to keep in the chapter, stuff that shows my rustiness, references I find cringeworthy, and I plan to revise Chapter 2 after posting "Chapter 1."

Warning: Spoilers Ahead, but eh, nothing that'll break your mind.

The "Qing Court Version" of "Along the River during the Qingming Festival."

Feel free to ask me about my decision-making. I'm leaving a lot of stuff from here.

For the beginning of Chapter 2, I had in mind this painting above. I did a high school paper on this painting. It's a very long painting, encompassing 8 whole scrolls.

Just for the record... I consider this the worst chapter in the entire fic. Might be surprising to some readers. There's a reason why I prefer that people read Chapter 3 onwards. But this chapter wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

Our character (who I later reveal to be Wang Jin) is relaxing here eating the brown bread as a tie-in from the Prelude.

I wanted to change the sex of a bunch of characters from Water Margin. It was part of an ambitious plan to put twists in both themes, motives, and actions of the characters. Wang Jin is one of these gender-bent characters. In the novel, Wang Jin is a rather minor character who only appears in one chapter.

That's Wang Jin in the 1998 Water Margin TV series.

Boy did I have changes for Wang Jin! Starting with gender. I used her POV to describe her origin as a corvee laborer and daughter of an Arms Instructor, going to Dongjing for employment as an Arms Instructor. This was also where I began to build the world of my fanfic. Mixed in angry trees, trolls, spiders, etc. into obstacles corvee laborers had to deal with, and voila, we not only build the world but we built the character too.

Then we get to the second half: Wang Jin beating up Gao's Gang. This was A LOT easier to write. I realized then that for me it was easier to write comedy than anything else. I gender-bent the person that will become Gao Yannei. Kept the same gender for the person that will become Gao Qiu. Wang Jin beating Gao Qiu wasn't a thing in the Water Margin novel (it was Wang Sheng that did that), but I was introduced to Water Margin in the 1998 TV series. I would link the fight here but I'm afraid it'll get copyrighted.

Instead, I'll share the Youtube link to the audio track that played when Wang Jin beat down Gao Qiu's gang:

It's an earworm. I loved it, it hooked me into the TV series and into Water Margin.

In the fight I wrote in the chapter, I made sure that every action Wang Jin took made sense and demonstrated her martial ability while not making her overly superhuman. She is here in Dongjing to instruct, after all, so I needed to make it believable that she could teach people that may not be as athletically or combat-gifted as her.

The hook I made for the next chapter was a constable seeing the destruction. And insert the characteristic Water Margin cliffhanger.

Reflection: It was the second piece of creative writing I wrote after my mom passed away. This was more difficult to write than the Prelude, and there's a bunch of stuff I plan to revise with this chapter (brownies if you can guess which areas!). When I first reread this chapter, what came to mind was the concept of "Culture Shock." This would especially be the case for any Tolkien fan. The East was characterized by tribes, not a centralized Empire where elves, dwarves, and humans cooperated together. Prose would also be a bit of a culture shock too.

Looking back there's a lot of stuff I'm keeping in, but I'll be adding more worldbuilding scenes in the city. Things like a person throwing roof tiles at a house, commentary on how the capital is wasting food and material that was foraged and mined by laborers like Wang Jin. Stuff like that.