#but every other one i've seen drawn in fandom was much more interesting

[ssaalexblake]

I think we should ban patterned tweed doctor or master costumes just to see if the costuming department can actually style a man without relying on stripes (or an outfit repeat) to make the outfit visually interesting. 

I’m legitimately actually just curious at this point. 

They’ve afraid of men looking *gasp* silly like the characters aren’t the biggest clowns in the universe and will look silly no matter What they wear. 

Is the person who costumed Colin Baker still alive? I want to send them fan mail. It is terrible as an outfit. Hideous in every way. Why would Anybody???? Think??? about???? it??? I don’t want to look at it. But... Damn bold. Brave. The person who costumed this man was Not a coward. I respect that. 

Classic who had better game dressing men than all of nu!who has ever had because they never tried to make the doctor look cool. 

#dw shit #it's not a bad outfit #but every other one i've seen drawn in fandom was much more interesting #i'm actually just mad there's Another suit like outfit with fucking Stripes as a fanartist #they're a bitch. #but as an orange STAN (it's the best colour) the colour Pop is glorious #(tone on the interwebs is hard. i am in no way annoyed just. Kind of bored of nu!who being boring costuming men #nobody used to be scared to make the doctor look weird #gonna assume jodie only got away with her outfit bc Girl tbh #and jo martin's patterned blouse with the shaped coat was a simple but effective interesting choice. shape and colour. Beautiful. #i just don't think men's fashion should be boring #it doesn't Have to be #it's just people are cowards when dressing men #when men should have fashion options too??? #dhawan's first outfit was going middle ground? the rolled up pants gave character but in itself it wasn't That imaginative #it was two pieces of a suit and a normal coat

[comicalfont]

Undertale is for Everyone

Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday marked five years since the day I first started playing Undertale. It's led me to dwell on what exactly I would say the game has meant to me, with how loaded a question that is. There's so much I owe to Undertale, and the joy it's brought me is something everyone is as deserving to be a part of. Despite some recent fandom events, all members of the fandom need to know that the game celebrates and welcomes them with open arms, which I'll get to more in a bit.

I first played Undertale at a period in my life with a lot of unanswered questions, both for present me and future me. I'd managed to not give it a try in the first few years it was around, but after running into enough Deltarune fan content in the wild when it came out, I played Chapter 1 and loved every bit of the atmosphere and characters, and I wanted to play Undertale right after. After accidentally killing Toriel and starting over, I was immediately drawn into the story it told and the friendships I was making. My appreciation of Sans was there from the start, and here I am, many reader fics with him later, and the rest of the main gang felt like buds I'd been hoping to meet some day. Even the minor characters meant so much to the journey, and by the time it was done and I'd seen what Frisk/the player's kindness and want for peace can do, I was completely hooked and the game rented a free condo in my brain.

What I wasn't expecting was the other ways Undertale's touched my life. I'm trans, and before I'd played, it had only really been associated with discomfort and a wish for things to be better, without much of a light at the end of the tunnel to look at. Undertale's queer-friendly themes and the characters' insistence on being themselves opened me up to thinking about a future where my own kindness and, well, determination can lead me to being the true me. While my trans story was far from done, it helped me see the future as something I can smile about, rather than needing to be afraid. The fics that I've written about Undertale, and especially the bone-friend, since I played have also led me to meet the people I consider my closest friends, as well as being a gateway to other fandoms that have captured my interest. These connections I've made through the game are ones I'll carry with me for the rest of my life.

So, where am I going with all this? Undertale has invited me into a better path than the one I'd been taking, and that's an opportunity I'll forever be grateful for. Unfortunately, there are some in the fandom space who have shared hateful views about people simply for who they are, and everyone should know how far those views are from the truth. Undertale is a game about love and growth, and it is the responsibility of those who participate in its community to follow its footsteps and celebrate everyone for their traits; not just tolerate, but celebrate. For fellow trans people in particular, I've been thinking about this the most; you are real men, real women, and real non-binary identities, and all of those things are represented in Undertale itself. Celebrating trans lives isn't just the right thing to do, it's a part of this wonderful game we're all enjoying together.

Maybe this reaches just two people, or twenty, or more if I'm lucky, but whoever does read this far, thank you for taking the time to see how much Undertale has meant to me over these five years, and I hope you know how much you mean to the community. We're all making it a better place by being ourselves, and I hope the game keeps lifting people up for many years to come. Now, go read that new volume of the Undertale/Deltarune Newsletter!

#undertale #deltarune #undertale fandom #sans #ao3 #sans x reader #trans positivity #trans rights #trans pride #ut characters are canon trans supporters #calcium cat #calcium-cat #iykyk

[fruity-pontmercy]

Les Mis adaptations and apolitical appropriation

I think it's no secret on this blog that I love the original Les Mis 1980 concept album in French, and that I also love comparing different versions of the stage musical. I've noticed that Les Mis seems to get progressively more vaguely apolitical as time goes on, not only in the way it's viewed in our culture, but in the actual text as well.

It's natural for specifics to be lost in adaptation. It's easier to get people to care about 'the people vs. the king' in a relatively short musical rather than actually facing the audience with the absolute mess that were 19th century french politics (monarchist orleanists vs monarchist legitimists vs imperialist vs bonapartist democrats vs every flavour of republican imaginable). Still, I feel that as time goes on, as more revivals and adaptations of the stage musical come out, the more watered down its politics become. Like, Les Mis at it's core is just meant to be a fancily written, drawn out political essay, right?

In a way I feel that the 1980 concept album almost tried to modernise it with its symbols of progress. Yes, through Enjolras' infamous disco segment (and other similar allusions to the ideals of social change), but perhaps most interestingly to me, through one short line that threw me off when I first heard it, because it seems so insignificant, but might actually be the most explicitly leftist line of all of Les Mis.

"Son coeur vibrait à gauche et il le proclama" (roughly "His heart beat to the left and he proclaimed it" i.e: he was a leftist) Feuilly says, while speaking of the now dead général Lamarque in Les Amis de L'ABC.

What's that? An actual mention of leftism??? in MY vaguely progressive yet apolitical musical??? More seriously, this mention of leftism, clashing with the rest of the musical due to it's seeming anachronism, is interesting not because it's actually more political than anything else in Les Mis, rather, because it's not scared to explicitly name what it's trying to do.

But we've come a long way from the Concept Album days, it's been 43 years, and Les Misérables is now one of the most famous and beloved musicals in the entire world. It's been revived and reimagined and adapted in a million ways, in different mediums, in different languages and countries, and it's clear that it's changed along with it's audience.

On top of pointing out a cool line in my favourite version of the musical, I wanted to write this post to reflect on the perception of the political message of this work. We as a Les Mis fandom on Tumblr are very political, I don't need to tell you that, however, I feel that because this very left leaning space has sprung out of a work we all love so much, we oftentimes forget to revisit it from a more objective point of view.

Les Misérables has a history of being misrepresented, this has been true since it's publication, since american confederate soldiers became entranced with their censored translation Lee's Miserables. However, with it's musical adaptation, this misinterpretation has been made not only more accessible but also easier. As much as I love musical theatre and I think it is at it's best an incredible art form able to communicate complex themes visulally by the masses for the masses, I think it'd be idealistic to ignore the fact that the people who can afford to go see musicals regularly are, usually, not the common folk. Broadway and the West End are industries which, like most, need money to keep them afloat, and are loved people of all political backgrounds (and unfortunately, often older conservatives) not just communists on tumblr. We've seen the way Les Miz UK's social media team constantly misses the mark regarding different social issues, and the way Cameron Makintosh has used the musical to propagate his transphobia, and most of us can agree that these actions are in complete antithesis with the message of Les Misérables as a novel.

But I must ask, how does Les Mis ,as a West End musical in it's current form, actually drive a leftist message, and how are we as a community helping if every time someone relating to the musical messes up if we just claim they "don't get it"?

I'm thinking in particular of incidents like last october, where Just Stop Oil crashed Les Mis at the West End. Whether you think it's good activism or not is not the question I think, this instance is interesting particularly because it shows that, outside of Les Misérables analysis circles and fandom spaces, it is not recognised as an inherently leftist, political or activist work, and instead of just saying they completely missed the point of the musical, I think it'd be interesting to take a step back and look at what the musical as it stands actually represents in our culture today.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, so I won't try to give one, but I do hope we can reflect on this a bit.

#this is my first time making a well thought out les Mis post in possibly like 2 years PLEASSEEE BE NICE #wrote this instead of listening to my Marxist Philosophy lecture so i hope it technically counts as productive procrastination #Btw in this i use Les Mis when reffering to the musical and Les Misérables when talking about the book (and Les Miz talking about the #west end musical so) #les mis #les miserables #les miz #les amis de l'abc #the brick #musical theatre #enjolras #litblr #meta analysis #media analysis

[sir-lunar]

Hello! I love your art, and in general your presence in the fandom! I've seen your art for a while but I'm mostly a lurker tbh.

If you can and want to of course, could you tell us some of your headcanons for villainous characters and some drawings on your them?

Have a good day!

1. I’m sad to say I had to sit here for awhile desperately trying to scrounge around for any memories of me possibly having any Villainous headcanons-

The thing is, I never really have/develop any headcanons when I’m into a fandom??? But uh, here are some possible ones I suppose:

Flug makes Black Hat’s coffee every now and then. He knows how he likes his coffee by heart now (probably after lots of practice).

Actually, chances are it wouldn’t even be coffee because knowing Black Hat it’s probably acid or something… hold on, that would be kinda nice. The idea of Flug making a specific acid for Black Hat’s drink :)

(Also, yes I’ve seen the official Villainous Comic similar to this idea, but I imagine Flug would most likely change the acid to Black Hat’s taste. Probably make it “less sweet” haha)

Maybe, deep down, I mean REALLY deep down, Black Hat does (or could learn to) care about the crew. And, perhaps, if it really came down to it, the crew are the only ones who really care about Black Hat. They’re a family, albeit not a healthy one, but one nonetheless. Call me an optimist-

Flug and Demencia view each other as siblings. To me, they very much treat each other like siblings, and I love that they have that dynamic 🥲💕

I know most of these probably/definitely aren’t canon but hey, it can be nice to think about ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Also that they’re not very interesting sorry

2. I’m guessing you mean if I have any drawings of my headcanons? I haven’t drawn any before since I never really think of headcanons…But honestly, I really liked the idea of Flug making acid for Black Hat, which I literally just made up while writing the reply to this ask so I made a little drawing for it:

Also thank you so much!! I’m extremely flattered 💕 I feel incredibly grateful to be able to contribute to the Villainous fandom! I remember seeing amazing fanart from skillful artists on Tumblr that just made me fall more in love when this show years ago. Of course, there’s still amazing Villainous artists today, but it does make me feel nostalgic thinking about it :,)

#fanart #my art #art #villainous #villainous fanart #dr flug #black hat #black hat fanart #villainous black hat #villainous dr flug #headcanon #headcanons #asks #anon asks #anonymous asks #oh my goodness this is so long #apologies for the ramble and long post- #also flug’s handwriting would be much more messy but I wanted to make it legible

[kyouka-supremacy]

Dazai?

Eheh Dazai

Favorite thing about them: I really like how as a character he was able to deeply touch so many people!! Seeing so many people finding relief in being able to relate to and emphasize with the character makes me happy.

Least favorite thing about them: I mean, his personality? I don't like how his many flaws are written to be interpreted as strong points / good traits for his character to the point no flaw is actually a flaw, it makes the reading experience very frustrating for me.

Favorite line:

brOTP: Mmmmhh, I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Dazai. Soukoku, probably. The Buraiha trio makes me emotional a little. Souheki, but in a very passive-aggressive, over-competitive, one-sided rivality, can't-stand-each-other way. Dazai and Kyouka. Dazai and Atsushi too I suppose, though I prefer them romantically. I think he makes for a lot of interesting dynamics with virtually all the characters, but none compells me in particular tbh.

OTP: Odazai is plain canon to me, idk what to tell you. I think they make for a beautiful, tragic love story. Get you a man who is willing to change the path of his whole life for another man just like that, nobody does it like them (actually, wait, I can think of another man... ). Although I always distantly liked them, dazatsu has grown on me like, an INSANE amount in the last few months. I'm not sure what happened. I think it was an unfortunate (lol) coincidence of growing a little fonder of Dazai and just wanting to give more space and agenda to Atsushi. Like to me a lot of what dazatsu is really is about giving Atsushi more agency and autonomy and independence and overall just respecting him as a complex, full fleshed out character. I don't see ANY kind of power imbalance in it I keep finding people talk about. Dazai pushes Atsushi to be better every day, and Atsushi does exactly the same for Dazai. Atsushi admires and respects Dazai, and Dazai admires and respects Atsushi equally. I really don't know why the ship isn't more popular and instead just gets discarded most of the time tbh. I feel like everyone should sit down a second and actually give Atsushi the dignity to choose for himself. And fyozai!!! The investment in this ship mostly goes on waves for me but despite that I firmly believe that they really make for an engaging and interesting dynamic to be interpreted romantically. The epitome of “You're both just enabling each other's mental illnesses. You're both perfect for each other. Never change. Just never involve anybody else in what you've got going on.”

nOTP: Nothing comes to my mind.

Random headcanon: Not canon related, but in modern aus I feel like he'd be one to always end up working at ceo roles and he would HATE it. He fires himself and starts working at some cheap frozen yogurt place and one month later he'll find himself as the ceo of the most important oil company of the country AGAIN without him even realizing it / despite his active efforts to avoid that. And he HATES IT. He fires himself again but the loop only repeats forever. He's just that kind of person for whom all doors open automatically.

Unpopular opinion: ............ I could be here forever. I regretfully fail to relate to a lot of characterization / readings of the character I've seen the fandom give him. I really don't want to dwell on this so I'll just mention something mostly unrelated to his characterization: I wholly can't share the take of him being physically built like??? At all??? Which got REALLY popular a few months ago. Dude feels like he never lifted a finger his whole life, I really don't know where the idea comes from???? And I personally don't take his manga visual portrayal as a telling factor for this; pretty much all the characters have the same body type, it's impossible for me to base the buff Dazai assumption on how he's drawn in the manga. Just one thing about his chracter though stop making him matchmaker for ss/kk he really isn't stop don't do it please

Song i associate with them: HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE associating him with my favourite vocaloid song ever but. Meltdown by iroha is a very Dazai song. So many other songs though... Parade of Liars by ryo. Abstract Nonsense by Neru. God-ish by Pinocchio-P. So on and so forth.

Favorite picture of them:

Favourite panel from the manga:

Favourite illustration:

Favourite illustration in the anime art style:

Favourite Mayoi card:

Send me a character?

#Thank you for asking!! <33 #osamu dazai #bsd #mine #people asks me stuff #I hate how for all the other characters so far I had to go over all their panels/lines while with Dazai I already knew exactly what to pick

[arthurtaylorlester]

whispers into your inbox "jmart was the worst thing that could have happened in tma; it wrecked Jon's character and is the most transparent 'how do we not have our mc become suicidal?' I have ever seen. TMA then falls into the hole of the only important or good enough relationships being romantic, discarding previous character development to throw everything into romance solves all ~ ♡ I hate it and I hate how much Jon is woobified and infantilized in the fandom to drool over Martin and I hate how everyone acts like their relationship is good, when I think either of them with 5 years of a normal life would realize how awful the relationship was for both of them." Anyway lol I expect no response or post of this I am just being spicey on anon

oh anon you thought i was gonna see a take like this and not post it?

i need you to out yourself to me because goddamn this is an interesting take!

look, i love jmart, but even with 5 seasons of development they still somehow managed to feel rushed?

i disagree in that their relationship being unhealthy is a bad thing for them, because like the appeal of podcasts for me is the fucked up relationships. fucked up characters = fucked up relationships, yknow? like john and arthur from malevolent, normally, they'd hate each other without much of a second thought, but that's not the point, they love each other despite that, and that kind of extends to jmart for me.

i also totally agree with the fandom criticism, woobifying jon is like the only tma content i see on twt and it is soooooo annoying.

my personal qualms with tma however is in part the lore decisions and how the fandom treats the lore (and also the whole podcast).

s1 is easily the best season, mostly because you have no fucking idea what's going on, but after s2 things really start feeling like they're being drawn out, at least to me? like i think season 3-4 couldve been one thing, and um. season 5 is fun if you like jmart and the eye ig. i know most of this is a gross oversimplification (not forgetting yall basira&daisy fans) but after the core cast of season 1-2 i could not really get the other characters being fundamental in the story (not georgie. i love georgie)

don't get me wrong, the not-sasha arc was amazing! but after tim died, and martin fucked off for most of a season being sad, i was a bit bored. the buried isnt interesting to me sorry.

and also they under-utilize basically every fear, including the eye, and the one that upsets me the most is the stranger. oh what is it? circus and clowns ig. LIKE OPEN UP YOUR EYES THE WORLD IS OPEN TO YOU THE UNCANNY VALLEY AS SO MANY NICHES PLEASE

and by the end of the show, it just feels like they keep rotating the same 3 fears, and the others just kind fade into the bg

and then there's the fandom. i'm sorry but some of you guys act like tma is the end-all-be-all of fiction horror podcasts. when it's just not. sorry, but the magnus archives, after s1, just isnt scary. you know what's going on, the fears! which are neatly tied into these categories of oddities!

and the show explicitly states that the 14 fears categorization is arbitrary and that they all bleed into one another, but the fandom just. ignores that? like i've heard so many people go to other podcasts and say ''oh x is so eye avatar-coded!!'' and then x just has some vague eye symbolism that isnt even the point (this is about arthur lester)

and like i don't understand how tma manages to be the most mainstream fiction podcast nowadays, when welcome to night vale is right there ! and yes, i am implying that wtnv is objectively better than tma, because wtnv despite running for 12 goddamn years has never bored me with an episode, and it has roughly the same amounts of episodes! they both have similar formats that could repetitive quick (radio show vs statements) and even though i'd say statements have more creative freedom, wtnv still manages to not be boring. this might also just be a fact of better and more varied authors but hey, this is just my opinion

i want it to be clear that i'm not trying to start discourse, i still like tma! the fanartists are some of the most talented artists i've seen, and the fics are just aughhhhhhhhhhhh /pos

#podcasts fandoms have next to no discourse but that also doesnt leave room for criticism #tma critical #<- just in case #2 magnus 2 arch-ives #!! red !! #anon #red replies #sorry to anon if you didnt want this to be public i needed to rant about the tma-glorification #i did listen to all of tma in 2 weeks but um that may have something to do with it #fandom critical #discourse #<- not really tho this is just my opinion

[silly-chiroptera]

GOD your view on dave n jack is such a breath of fresh air, im much more inclined to view them as rivals than anything romantic, although I am personally more of a fan of the good ending rather than the neutral ending (in fairness ive only played the good ending so might be a bit biased), but even in the good ending, i think jack's moreso forced to cooperate and understand how dave was manipulated so terribly by henry, and in the end dave isnt fully redeemed but hes not really a villain anymore. I dont mind davesport, but im tired of how its so prevalent! give me more of jack and dave lowkey hating eachother!!!

omfg first off i wanna apologize for the late reply i've been taking a break for some time off of here... and second, i'm so glad to see that i'm bringing forth more people who think in a similar way to me!! hello!!

i hesitate to say that the neutral ending is my absolute favorite because my interest in the three main ones alternates and shifts around quite frequently, but for the moment i am very drawn to the neutral ending :) you should consider playing it if you haven't already seen bits and pieces of it already through videos of some sort if you want a good laugh because i swear it had me laughing my ASS off it's very funny also, straying from that topic; you are so based and i agree it feels like it's less talked about how dave and jack *do* have tension and even some kind of loathing towards eachother, mainly if you're counting the instances where jack ends up refusing dave's offer to perform another killing spree the fact that davesport is so prevalent is a part, but not the biggest part of why i hate the pairing so much. like honestly i do not care for shipping whatsoever but i would definitely rather have a less common ship like one involving the phone guys shoved in my face instead of being forced to see a pairing i despise almost every time i scroll through the dsaf tag

shipping in general is just one of many things that bother me but there's nothing i can really do about that since...fandoms just do that and they've done that since forever. i just kind of wish people could look at character dynamics in any other way except romantically "but even in the good ending, i think jack's moreso forced to cooperate and understand how dave was manipulated so terribly by henry, and in the end dave isnt fully redeemed but hes not really a villain anymore." <- yes. i have nothing to add to this except that you are right. imo you just described literal canon to me and i feel like you get it fr and that's cool as fuck

#bat insane ramblings #AGHHH SORRY I TRY TO KEEP THIS STUFF SHORT WHEN I ANSWER BUT THEN I JUST. i cant. its impossible and i am so sorry for the wall of text #i cant stop fucking YAPPING... #sobbing #dsaf jack #dsaf dave

[sableu]

Ah… I just wanted to say that I resonate with so many of your sabo takes… My eyes are all watery because I feel like you really understand Sabo’s character in a way that I feel like most other people dont take the time to properly investigate and appreciate. I feel like I’m always a little bit angry with how split the fandom is on Sabo, how trapped people are in Ace’s visage that they can’t even acknowledge how amazingly stunning Sabo is! I just want to say, thank you so so much for all your posts over the years rambling on and on about this one character, I’m so pleased to find such an eloquently well spoken sabo appreciator- reading through many of your Sabo discussions both gave me needed validations towards my feelings and emotions about him as well as deeper insights that I never would have uncovered on my own ; - ;

Ahhhhh seriously thank you so much for loving him for so long with so much heart, it seriously warms my soul to see so much love poured out for this character that I also love!!! I pray that we keep getting more and more sabo appearances in the future to fuel our sabo agendas 🎉🎊

ahhhh man, thank you so much!!!! i've drawn art, written fics and made gifs for this fandom many times over the past ten years (...holy shit, has it really been ten years?) but when i think about it, the meta posts i've written about sabo are still some of my favorite things i've created for OP.

i've been here in the trenches since sabo was first re-introduced to the series in 2013, and it pains me to this day when i see people try to water him down to just a pretty boy or fanservice or ace 2.0, all while devaluing what an interesting and unique character he is in his own right with a very important role in the story completely separate to his brothers.

i know i haven't been that active on here recently (i now live alone in a big ole city and have a full time job and a girlfriend :3 so real life has gotten in the way) but rest assured i have felt so vindicated and validated by everything we've seen from sabo in recent chapters.

he's a revolutionary. he's a freedom fighter. he's willing to be branded a murderer if it helps his cause. he faced off against the highest power in the entire one piece world and he survived.

he's so, so interesting and powerful and intelligent and i'm so happy to have a character like him in a manga like one piece, where the corruption goes to the very top--someone whose goal, unlike almost every other character in the series, is to intentionally and systemically burn the whole corrupt government to the ground.

the world government and the gorosei and the celestial dragons are the true villains of one piece, and sabo has been defying them from the very beginning. he's not a D. he's not predestined to anything. he's going to change the world not because it's his birthright, but because it's the right thing to do to protect innocent civilians and give them their freedom.

and that's why i love him ❤️

#asks #loopeyfluff #this reminds me that i've always intended to get a sabo/rev army tattoo #but now that i have three tattoos that reality actually feels realistic and achievable #...someone give me ideas for a sabo tattoo #i might just get the rev army flag symbol on my ankle #but that seems boring idk

[broke-on-books]

☕️ + the Scooby Doo fandom in general

Hmm okay so this is a very broad question to me and that really means it's going to recieve a broad answer, especially to me as "Scooby fandom" really has differing levels in my heart etc.

For example with my friends and the smallish community of fellow Scooby fans I've found here on tumblr (the Scooby Dootuals!!!) I really love and like! Everybody is so nice and it's cool that people have various levels of knowledge about different series and iterations. Like I really enjoy that on here Scooby fans (as in, like my friends and people who regularly post scooby) have such differing levels of experience with this huge huge franchise as it makes it so much more interesting. Like we have people out there who have seen almost every episode (or feels like it) and can seemingly remember the smallest of things from them, and then we have people who weren't into Scooby as a child but are exploring it now, and then we've got people (like me) who did like it as a child and kind of know a bit of everything, with huge areas of weakness in Scooby they haven't seen, (for me APNSD, anything more than the premise of 13 Ghosts, the 80s trio minus Boo Brothers, anything past s1 of bcsd, much of the 70s era movies, SD & SD, Guess Who, SDMI details, like the list goes on, people!!! I've only seen a Scooby series in order in its entirety one time in my life and that was SDMI age like 12) while also having a few areas with greater knowledge or familiarity and a few spots where they just know a ton/are constantly rewatching. (Me with Goes Hollywood for sure) anyways I don't really remember where I was going with this but uhhh I like that my buddies and whatnot all know different amounts with many being chill or knowing a little bit of everything so we can still like each others posts and talk about Scooby with there still always being so much more to discover <3. So like basically thoughts on the besties are that besties are cool

However I know anon that by sending this you likely mean "Scooby fandom" as in people outside of this insular little bubble so let's talk about that. I think I'm reluctant to really label this group "Scooby fandom" as for ME PERSONALLY fandom really means a kind of engagement with the work beyond what most general Scooby fans do. Like what I'm trying to say is that this group of "wider Scooby fandom" liked Scooby and watched it as a child and consider themselves a fan of Scooby but they aren't rotating Scooby characters like blorbos in their mind too much. Or if they are, it's generally in the creation of like dark!Scooby aus or the live action Scooby show pitches that blow up on here every time Scooby is a topic of general coversation. I guess for me personally the line between this "Scooby fandom" and my own little bubble of people I'm chill with gets drawn based on what fans want out of Scooby. Like do they love Scooby as it is, or do they want to change the audience to create a new Scooby for themselves. Hm, I'm not really phrasing this right. What I mean is like we're all Scooby fans. If you've ever liked Scooby, at any age, however long ago, you're a Scooby fan, I'm not trying to like, gatekeep Scooby fandom or whatever. I just think that differing groups of fans have different pictures in their head of both what Scooby Doo IS and what they want from it based on their familiarity with it and how long it's been since said fan has watched Scooby.

And that's kind of wherein my frustration with "wider scooby fandom" lies. It's really in the fact that there's thousands upon thousands of these "sleeper fans" (which in my mind is really a better term for it) who awake when I or the popular culture mention Scooby, to share their opinions. And these opinions just frankly drive me up the wall. This is because when confronted with a real life Scooby fan (me) there's generally 3 things they want to talk about: 1) SDMI and how it's the greatest thing since sliced bread 2) Doesn't HBO Velma suck 3) (once they learn I like Scrappy) Scrappy hatred and copious references to his portrayal in the Gunn Movies. Plus MAYBE a bonus 4 of other miscellaneous takes that get on my nerves (stuff like Shaggy always smoking weed, Fred and Daphne splitting up together to have sex, just all sorts of things I do not for the life of me want to talk about).

So I guess my take on the wider scooby fandom is as follows: there are positives like some genuinely funny SD posts once a blue moon, or people to share things like concept art and leaks to much of the content canceled by HBO Max, but the vast vast majority of the time it kind of gets on my nerves because people always want to talk about the same few things (which I feel have been talked to death already or I highly disagree with OR BOTH) and it's just really tiring to deal with. Idk I don't think I'm going to go into it to much more here because this post isn't too coherent to begin with (I'm blaming it on like 70% of this being written before work this morning) but there's so many people out there who think so similarly about Scooby (and SO differently from how I think about it) that it feels like I'm getting talked over constantly whenever I have a discussion about Scooby with someone from this group. And that's just like not fun for me? It's just like for me, Scooby Doo is my number one thing. Like I'll be in different fandoms concurrently or whatever and I don't really read fic for scooby but I will for other stuff etc. But like scooby is always there for me like MY MAIN turned into a scooby doo blog like honestly while that's just not the case for some other people. It's very much a difference in the value and time put into the franchise, (which like you can just like things casually that's not a bad thing) it's just that it's frustrating for me talking to sleeper fans about Scooby because I get trapped (literally, like irl) in the exact same conversation that I don't even want to be having(!!!!!) pretty much all the time.

#this is very disjointed and not cohesive AT ALL but thats fine #basically my brutally honest opinion: talking to the typical scooby fan gets on my nerves bc they only want to talk about the same 3 things #and i disagree with them on all of them #blah #scooby doo #answered #anonymous #actually this is kind of negative so i should probably tag that #vent #negativity #also feel free to keep sending me these asks like youve been doing (and also the ship ones too with scooby stuff bc ill talk about that as #well) i just may or may not answer some of the more negative prompts because im a very optimistic happy person and ive already met my quota #of negativity for the day and am tired now but like if you really wanna know anyways ask and i may get to it

[wistfulwatcher]

Hi! I haven't been able to emotionally prepare to watch the Yellowjackets s2 finale, but even without having seen it I'm having so many thoughts.

I struggle to articulate how I feel about Natalie dying. I can feel in my heart though a way I've felt before when I start to fall out of love with a story. When I have this idea of what this story is about but then it turns out it wasn't what I thought it was.

I'm not sure whether I personally can say with any kind of confidence the decision to kill Natalie is a bad writing choice because I think what's a bad choice depends on what you think the story is about.

I think where they've lost me is that I thought this was an ensemble character study of these surviving women and the question of whether they can every integrate back into society now that their wildness has been set free. They're maenads forced to come back to their domestic lives.

I may have had a more I guess feminist view on this show than maybe it ever intended to go there. I thought this was a show about these fierce, complicated women who were able to escape the social confines in the wilderness and while now they are physically safe, feel alienated and numb. And the challenge isn't so much a survival question as it is on where they fit into the world now. In the wilderness, they probably would've eaten each other until there was nothing left. In society, they feel purposeless, alienated and disconnected. So the challenge for the adults is how to reconcile these two points. How to not devolve into mad self-destruction but also how to give their wildness room to run.

Want to know what my ideal ending was? I was hoping for a bittersweet conclusion where the women resign themselves to never being able to fit into society again and they return to the wilderness BUT this time instead of Lottie leading them, it's Natalie. That's what I thought the white moose meant, an omen that was only shown to Natalie but one that was ignored in the teen timeline as Lottie took power. And as a Mistynat person as well what would be interesting about this is that it would mean Misty was the first true believer in Natalie as queen. Someone called Misty the personification of the wilderness so that would explain why, despite Lottie being queen, it is Nat who has Misty's ultimate devotion. So in the adult timeline their fates would be unknown but at least in a way they're free now and they've chosen their trauma bond with each other over 'safer', 'healthier' options that don't feel as real and meaningful. (Also would love if Callie joined them because they bring more maenads with them)

I'm sharing this with you because I've appreciated your thoughts because they've helped me process some of my feelings over this story that I love so much, but now I'm not sure how to feel about. And also I wondered if my take on this show resonates with you because the biggest thing this is doing my head in is that I feel like I've read this story completely wrong?? And it breaks my heart to think that I did.

Anyway I love your writing and your thoughts and sorry it was so long but just wanted to say I appreciate you in this fandom <3

Thank you so much for this message, and I completely agree with 100% of what you've said here. It absolutely resonates with me, and you've identified what my biggest problem is: where season two ended up is not the show I felt I was watching in season one. I had the exact same read on it that you did, and while we could both be projecting/overestimating how feminist it truly was, I felt like the building blocks were so firmly there. I guess I was drawn to both the potential of what it could be, and the fact that it truly seemed like it was going in that direction.

I love your ideal ending for the show, and I think - even if it wasn't what we would have gotten - based on season one, it was a believable direction for the show to go. After season two, it's impossible. And I feel the same way, wondering how I could have read this show so wrong. I really don't think we did, based on the first season. But I guess if we did, it's at least the two of us in this together!

I'm so so glad that what I've written about the episode has helped you process. Screaming about it was one of the only things that helped me, and I'm still upset days later, to be honest.

I think it just hurts to have to mourn both a great character and a great show; both the show and Natalie sparked something in me that I hadn't had for a long time, and I just feel defeated about it. I know what you mean about the feeling of falling out of love with a story. That's so what this is, and that Karyn Kusama interview really put the nail in the coffin for me that this is not the show I thought we were getting. And that I have no interest in watching women suffer until they die, without offering any kind of depth beyond that. I wanted dark and complex, but I didn't want completely hopeless.

Thank you for this message, and I appreciate you being in this fandom, too! I'm so glad we can at least feel this way together ❤️

#reply #ask #mollrat101 #if/when you watch the finale feel free to message me if you need to vent or discuss - i'm glad you can prepare a little going into it #but i'm sure it will still be rough #❤️ #yellowjackets spoilers

[maximumspider]

[The King of Fighters Series] : Athena

I haven’t checked, but I’m pretty sure Athena Asamiya has set the record for most default designs in a fighting game franchise. In nearly every King of Fighters game (there’s twenty-four!), Athena receives a brand new design. Excluding re-releases/revisions and games with 3D graphics, there’s 15 entries in the franchises that utilize hand drawn graphics.

From 1994 to 2003, SNK released a new King of Fighters game each year. And while Athena appears to wear the same wardrobe for The King of Fighters ‘94 and The King of Fighters ‘95, her outfit was slightly altered and she uses two different sets of sprites for each game.

After KOF 95’, she received a new costume in every mainline entry. As you can imagine, this is no small feat for a yearly series that uses hand drawn graphics.

In addition to the yearly releases from 94’ to 03’, SNK was also releasing spin-off KOF titles, and when Athena appeared in those, she typically re-used a design from the series' most recent release.

After The King of Fighters 2003, the franchise stopped doing yearly releases, but the series continued to use hand drawn graphics until 2010. The last two entries to use such graphics, The King of Fighters XII and The King of Fighters XIII, featured some of the largest and most smoothly animated sprites you’ll ever see in a fighting game. Each character took over a year to design. It's highly highly unlikely you'll ever see another project like these.

To reference her arcade origins in Psycho Solider, Athena's outfit in XI is a traditional Japanese school uniform.

In the next two sequels, she would continue to wear her school outfit and for the first time, Athena would utilize the same base sprites for two mainline games in a row. In XII, Athena's uniform has a dark palette, while XIII's uniform has a lighter palette.

On a technical level, these sprites are quite impressive, but I’m not the biggest fan of them. Athena and many other KoF characters end up losing so much personality in their sprites.

It’s interesting to note that Athena and some of the other playable characters looked quite a bit different at one point in the XII’s development. Personally, I prefer these concepts compared to the final designs.

One interesting note about The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle, Athena's "Psychic 9" technique has her showcasing her previous looks and some new ones as well. This technique is seen in many of KOF 2002's sequels too.

Finally, I should probably acknowledge that Athena Asamiya is the modern reincarnation of Princess Athena who also appears in some SNK fighting games as a non-playable helper character and as a playable character. Sorry, but I’m not covering Princess Athena here!

And that's that. Well I've certainly written more about school girl uniforms than I would've ever liked. All kidding aside, this is likely one of the most fun entries I'll ever get to write. The only other fighting game character with this many designs would have to be Tekken's Yoshimitsu and he's almost exclusively in games with 3D graphics.

---

All GIFs ripped, arranged and/or framed by me. Feel free to use without any necessary credit.

Additional Media Sources:

Athena (arcade) screenshots (website: Killer List of Video Games) (section: Athena - Videogame by SNK)

The King of Fighters XII (arcade) Sprite concept artwork (website: reddit.com/r/kof) (thread: Thoughts on XII's original sprite designs and scrapped characters? by MetAigis)

The King of Fighters '94 (Neo Geo) Athena concept artwork uploaded by Saxophone Blessings (website: SNK Fandom) (section: Athena, gallery)

Psycho Solider (arcade) screenshots (website: Killer List of Video Games) (section: Psycho Solider - Video Game by SNK)

#kof #king of fighters #the king of fighters #athena asamiya #athena #princess athena #goddess athena #psycho solider #snk #neo geo #pixel art #pixel animation #sprite comparisons #pixel gif #90s aesthetic #90s anime #90s fashion #00s #early 2000s #2000s aesthetic #2000s fashion #2000s #arcade games #fighting games #kof 98 #kof 2002 #kof 2003 #kof xii #kof xiii #kof xiv

[indiaalphawhiskey]

Hi! I have kind of a random question, but it's something I've always wondered. Why do you think the majority of Larry stories are AUs? I feel like it's so many more AUs than other fandoms. I'm not complaining, I love them (especially yours!). But I was just thinking it's interesting and I wondered if you had any thoughts on it!

Hi, love!

Thank you for the compliment. It makes me so happy that you like my Larry AUs, and it’s so sweet of you to come tell me! So, thank you!

Your question is an interesting one, especially because I didn’t actually know that Larry is more AU-centric than other fandoms! That said, I feel like (as with almost anything) I can really only answer it from my own personal perspective, and for me, it boils down to a few things:

Since I’m a Larrie (meaning I believe Larry is real and currently in a relationship, as opposed to shipping them), my idea of canon is what I saw happened — I watched them fall in love. I have the stories, the interviews, the videos, the proof. There’s no love story to invent or gaps to fill, really, because it’s already happened, and in the same way, there isn’t anything I could do to improve upon their story. (Although mhibftmit somehow, magically managed.)

I’ve recently learned I’m very much a plot driven writer/reader. For some reason, I’m really not drawn to character growth driven fics, which I find are more common in canon because the “plot” (ie. what’s happening externally to the characters) is something we’ve already seen, and the real draw of canon fic would be exploring the internal turmoils or growth of the character. I think there are beautifully written canon fics, but my taste just doesn’t tend to lean that way.

Similarly, I also love writing/reading the process of them falling in love, and tinkering with the different ways that would happen. I’m not much for established relationships, and thinking of new and different ways they would have met and fallen in love is where the fun is at for me which is aided much more by AU fics than canon fics.

If you think about Larry canon in the strictest sense, there’s always going to be an undercurrent of tragedy and hardship in those stories - even the lightest iterations. I think a lot of the people who write and read Larry lean towards giving them stories that are much less weighed down by the complexities they went through when they first fell in love, and are still going through now. AUs provide a much more escapist landscape to set their love story, and I think, knowing all we know about their lives, sometimes we really need that.

And last, I’m just so in love with the thought that Louis and Harry are really twin souls, who would manage to find each other in every universe, and I love that AUs give us a taste of what those routes would’ve been if not for 1D.

Again, these are just my thoughts. Actually, when I first fell down the rabbit hole, I thought I would only read canon fic. Boy, was I wrong. 🐺🌻👨‍🍳👩🏼‍🎤📚

#iaw ask #iaw anonymous #Larry fanfic discussion #Larry AU discussion

[lola-andheruniverse]

hi hi, have a rec possibly for WIP saturday or our turn sunday! i re-read coffee & pies after you rec'd it last week and realized that one part of it (the daryl/merle subplot) kind of reminds me of rough & tumble by iliveatlast on ao3/9 lives. it's an au where daryl meets carol when she's working the night shift at an urgent care after merle breaks his arm, and from there we see them slowly building a relationship (btw the two of them and also sophia!!) and grappling with the legacies/cycles of abuse. i feel like i've read a ton of non-zombie aus where carol is still with ed and daryl saves her from the abusive relationship, but i've never actually seen it handled the opposite way before - even in stories like coffee & pies, merle is very much the b or c plot, and i love seeing carol be the one who has clawed her way out already and is pulling daryl with her - she's not a damsel in distress, canon has made that clear. it's updated decently regularly and currently at almost 100k so even though it's not complete i think it's def worth a read!! i also have to say, i'm a sucker for sophia - more time for our girl, gone too soon!! - and the relationship btw her and daryl in this fic is so beautifully drawn and delicate. and her and carol - breaks my heart, so loving and caring and makes the loss of her in the show hurt 10x as much. the author has a couple other aus that are ZA aus where sophia lives and i love that version of her sophia too - slingshot wielding badass in training! so just some recs for you if you want/need them. thanks for doing these lists, i'm really enjoying being reintroduced to fics i haven't read in a while and digging into some fics that are brand new to me!!!

Hi, giveusthesun! Thank you so much for taking time to rec a caryl fic to us all. First, let me say that I agree with your reflection about how fic writers can get a same plot/prompt and, working with the same characters, create very different, but equally excellent, stories. I'm currently reading Rough and Tumble too and I'm very happy to see it recommended by you. Writen by @iliveatlast, you can find it on both 9Lives and AO3. Summary: "How are people gonna sign your cast?" the girl asks. "If it's all black?" "Um. Dunno. S’okay,” Daryl says awkwardly when it becomes clear she’s waiting for some kind of response. “Ain’t like - don’t really think nobody’ll wanna sign it anyway. So." Instead of getting the kid to let up, this statement seems to somehow capture her interest. She uncurls in the chair a little, looking at him with a wide-open face. “Why not?" But he’s saved from having to answer that by Carol the desk lady, who breaks into a little half-run when she sees Daryl waiting. “Sorry, sorry - just had to step away for a moment, sorry about that, Daryl.” “S’fine,” Daryl mumbles. She doesn’t have to apologize to him for taking a piss or whatever, good Lord.

Rating: T / Teen and Up Audiences Word count: 92107 (18 chapters of ?) Published: December 02, 2022 - WIP Rough and Tumble is a story reflects on how complex abuse is by shining light on Daryl and Merle's very difficult and violent relationship with great detail. If Daryl's your favorite TWD character, you'll love how iliveatlast writes him - it's just really well done. Despite dealing with heavy themes, this is fic is also very endearing and sweet (Daryl and Sophia's bonding make me smile every single chapter). Dear fellow caryler, go and give this fic a chance if you have the time. As always, leave the author some kind of feedback to let them know that you appreciate their work and creativity. Love and kindness makes all the difference in having a positive fandom experience! Caryling on to our next rec!

#caryl #caryl positivity #caryl fic rec #caryl on #caryl fanfiction #caryl fandom #your turn sunday #my fic recs #our fic recs

[trlvsn]

I want to state I don't hate Kristoph or anything, I think I just get irritated sometimes at the attention the male characters in ace attorney get. I love Kristoph as a character and I've drawn and written about him a lot because he's cool! I just wish more people could give the leniency to female characters that they gave male ones. and Dahlia n Kristoph are good examples of similar characters for me.

why people should try to give Dahlia Hawthorne a chance (imagine this has been presented like a PowerPoint)

- she's so fucking funny first of all. fail girl of all time.

- literally got roasted so hard she went to hell

- so so much potential in her character

- Capcom mishandled her because they hate women but we don't have to hate women as well

- she killed a pedo, and someone who likes Britain (girl win!)

- she technically stopped Godot from his coffee addiction with an.. intervention. and it worked for a few years. to be polite.

- a woman

- a lesbian

- transgender

- her backstory is actually there even if it's a mess. unlike other poison loving gay ass characters.. (THIS IS A JOKE PEOPLE PLS DONT HATE ME I'M BEING SILLY N JESTFUL!)

- since her backstory and character is a mess you can just interpret her however u want and ur right!

- Capcom genuinely wrote her character while hating her and forgot that she was a child when Terry Fawkes "dated her" and that she was even YOUNGER when she apparently manipulated her father into dropping off Iris and abandoning her at a temple?? like you were so right for pointing this one out.

- It really feels like the narrative hates her more than it likes being a good story and smooth ride. It just wants to demonise her over and over again than write an impactful journey of a character becoming filled with hatred and jealousy.

- my femcel queen

- objectively the funniest character and also the most tragic (to me so actually not at all objective but but but)

- really good showing of how even though she was so distant from the Fey family and her bio mother, she still suffered due to their family's generational trauma and baggage.

- cool design!!!!!!!!!!

- incredibly underrated for the final villain of the ace attorney trilogy. Like other villains in ace attorney are cool and all but pls pls pls I know she's not a twink in a homoerotic relationship but she's so cool..

I think Dahlia Hawthorne could be really interesting if people gave her a chance and I really wish they would because as a person or someone who is seen as a girl a lot and demonised a bit due to my uh.. issues.. I find myself relating to parts of her character. Also evil women go fucking crazy, love em. This also kind of goes for Iris as well, she doesn't... really ever get talked about outside of her relationship with Phoenix n that's in part fault of the fandom AND Capcom (my sworn enemies.)

Anyway thanks for listening - or well reading! :3

anon while we have vastly different interpretations of her character you are so incredibly correct in the general message of it all. like..you are correct with every part of this obviously it's just the matter of me having a different approach, but people seeing her as someone only tied to phoenix is so real and true. what capcom did was make dahlia a manic pixie nightmare girl (a female character created solely for the development of the male lead but in an evil way this time) and tbh we need to reject those behaviors and come up with cool shit for her

actually that manic pixie nightmare girl thing was so smart of me to say. i love myself i'm the smartest girlboy alive. you are also a genius anon honestly go off with this?? if i were you i would already be creating art and unhinged essay posts about this whole thing

#love this blog. so many smart people. including me i'm amazing #raysanswers #tw grooming

[veryspecialfungus]

you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but what classpects would you give the interns?

On a scale of one to ten, how humiliating is it that I have actually considered this question before this ask? How much more humiliating is it that I always at least think about it for almost every fandom I've ever been in?

Now, I don't actually remember WHAT I came up with the first time around. It's a fun thought exercise more than anything. My days of actually producing Homestuck crossover content were over before they started. Much like the comic itself, classpects are an elaborate indulgence that's just too fun not to partake in.

Now it's been a hot minute since I actually read Homestuck, and I'm almost certain I missed a lot of the fine details the first time around. Time has only dulled what I do remember, so I'm using the wiki and the extended zodiac to remember how each classpect works. I'm not about to try and read the whole thing over for this so if I get stuff wrong: sorry. Also I'm basing this on what I think would make the best story as much as what I think fits the characters as is.

ANYWAY...

Raz: Seer of Time. Seers primarily coordinate the other and I like the idea that Raz can't run off and do everything himself when he can't get the others to help this time around. Like his personal SBURB journey involves getting the others to respect him for who he is, not just what he can do for them. Also, time would be an interesting challenge for him, considering how many logistics there are to keep track and how Raz can be prone to acting without considering all the consequences. Also the whole "Time players never give up" thing which...yeah, that's Raz.

Adam: Rouge of Light. Void might have also worked here, but Adam seems more like the kind of guy who wants to tell you about the cool history stories he learned WAY more than he wants to work behind the scenes to make it, if that makes sense. Mind would have also been good, but I dunno, I like that this one plays to Adams strengths in that he likes to share his knowledge, but also challenges him through the luck aspect; Adam had the supreme good luck to be assigned the Grand Head of the Psychonauts as a mentor and the supreme bad luck that he was in a coma the whole time, but he tried to play the bad part down to such a degree that it didn't matter. Maybe part of his development is coming to an understanding of what he can and can't control.

Gisu: Maid of Heart. I really tried, I REALLY TRIED, to not be super obvious here, but I think it just fits too well. Gisu is drawn to huge emotions and big expressions of love and I think her journey involves just...maturing into an understanding of her own emotions. Like, honey, your heart is never going to help you win money at the racetracks. Gisu doesn't really seem to be a HUGE jerk to her friends, but she is to people she doesn't know, so maybe she can also learn to be less immediately standoffish? Sorry, we're back to this problem where I don't really understand Gisu as a character too well.

Morris: Knight of Hope. Morris, boy, you gave me such trouble here. I went back and forth between Hope and Breath a few times, but I think there's an intentionality to Morris's actions that Breath doesn't cover. Morris wants to be seen as a rebel, an iconoclast, a freethinking renegade. He's still young enough to rock and not old enough to die, as the saying goes, and his personal quest is all about actually...becoming that instead of a disobedient jerk with a crummy radio station that only has one record.

Norma: Mage of Mind. Norma was easy. She thinks she already knows everything there is to know about people and how they work and she really really doesn't. She doesn't really know herself either, and learning about both is going to be exactly what she needs to do, even if she doesn't like what she finds.

Lizzie: Witch of Space. I wanted to avoid overlap with canon Homestuck characters, but it just can't be helped here. Witch just fit better than any of the other similar classes. Anyway, there's a theory in fandom where Norma is the golden child in her family and Lizzie is very much not, thus Lizzie's bad attitude and goth punk kind of fashion sense and I like that idea enough to play off it here: Guess what Lizzie, after a life of being ignored in your sister's shadow you are now one of the two most important players in the game. Figure that one out, girl.

Sam: Bard of Life. Somewhere back on my blog is a WIP someone made of Sam as a Bard of Life, and I just can't do better. Sam ruins the lives of every animal she encounters already, so turning it into a method of healing her team enables her to step it the fuck up. I'm picturing her building some kind of animal-run hospital on her planet, the kind of hospital that cuts funding for gauze bandages while building fountains in the entry way and makes all the animals work 12-hour shifts every day.

And just to go ahead and answer the follow up question I suspect is round the corner...

Dion: Page of Blood. I mean, it just makes sense to me. Dion feels his family, his blood ties, are falling apart and the Page class is a character characterized by a lack of something. Also I like the idea that Dion has a lot of potential that he might achieve if he breaks away from his family a bit, gain more trust that they love him rather than trying to cling to the way things have always been, make more friends and expand his world, become more confident in his ability to forge bonds...He could have a really interesting arc.

Frazie: Prince of Doom. I like this bit in the extended zodiac that says "The Doom-bound won't fix you; they aren't healers. They are commiserators, aware that sometimes the only thing you can do for a person is let them know that they are not alone in their suffering." That seems about right: Frazie is NOT going to try to artificially cheer you up if she knows you fucked up, but...maybe she should get a better handle on what needs to change for the people in her circle to achieve their dreams. Some sacrifice is important, and getting a better handle on when to hang on and when it's OK to let go.

Mirtala: Sylph of Breath. Um, I still don't really understand how a Sylph differs from a Witch, and the wiki was really no help. There's an aspect of healing in the Sylph that I think fits Mirtala pretty well, as she could definitely be a healing factor for her family.

Queepie: Heir of Rage. OK...hear me out...I thought it was funny. BUT ALSO as the baby of the family, Queepie is likely well aware of all the dysfunction in his family structure, and it can really wear you down. We saw that Queepie really didn't want to share his music with Raz and he was trying extremely hard to find at least a little time for himself. I think Queepie is having a lot of emotions relating to his family, and they drive his actions more strongly then probably even he realizes. I don't think he'll be going on a Gamzee-esqe killing spree, mind, but I think figuring out his resentment will be a big theme of his growing up.

#Psychonauts #Homestuck #I actually had a really hard time figuring out how to explain my reasoning for some of these? #So if something doesn't make sense I'm sorry it sounded good in my head

[seyaryminamoto]

Matching scars is a soulmate's mark and you demonstrated that on Sokka and Azula's hands, does that mean the soulmates concept exist in Gladiator universe?

Uuuuuh... well, that's not entirely the intent there, since in their case, they inflicted the scars upon themselves in a wedding ritual? XD The idea of the rite they did comes from my age-old research into wedding rites for a different writing project, and I learned about the handfasting-including-palm-cuts ritual, which I thought might be an interesting fit for the story (and I think the general fandom likes it too? I've seen a few people referencing handfasting as a wedding rite in their content here and there...). So, as far as the classic "soulmate AU" concepts are concerned... that wasn't really what I was going for when I wrote their wedding rite, but you're very much free to see it that way if you'd like to.

Worth noting that, if you want to interpret it as "they chose to be each other's soulmate", then I'd say that interpretation is absolutely correct xD

Removed from the idea of the marks, though, I just believe in love in a slightly different way than the classic soulmates/fated lovers sort of ideal that has become very popular in fanfiction. For me, love has to be built and nourished above all else. That's why the story I've written is about a love that doesn't come easily at first, but that becomes stronger as a result of the mutual growth of our main characters. Basically, if you say Sokka and Azula were simply eternally fated to be together in Gladiator... well, that's fine by me, but what I value the most is the journey they undergo in order to become the best partners they can be for each other. They make their own choices, they chose each other, and if in doing so, they've voluntarily become soulmates. That's how I'd put it, personally.

Now, then, if you're curious...

My skepticism about the soulmates trope in media is honestly to be blamed in the misuse of the subject in a certain TV show I'd rather not name, where two "soulmates" were actually a very soulless, uninteresting pairing with very little to offer to the story. The female character in particular had soooo much potential and so many other characters she actually had way more chemistry with... and she got forced into a boring relationship with this boring dude with whom all she ever got was drama, drama, more drama, and then he was dead and then the drama was about him being dead.

After enduring that... I'd much rather not fall into the pits of soulmate writing when it comes to basically assuming that a couple is "perfect" for each other just because someone slapped a "soulmates" label on it. Because without the proper work to build up the romance there, without exploring what makes it a strong relationship... it feels like there's no real purpose to the couple being soulmates. It ends up feeling like an arranged marriage, forced to happen by the writer, and not something based on chemistry or character dynamics being fun and important. Of course, there's a LOT of ways to do soulmate AUs and there have been very good ones... but when I think of the basic, common concepts for those, where there's a mark or a sign, and the characters just have no say upon the matter and just accept it as fact because that's how their world works? That's... not my thing. And after having watched the TV show I mentioned earlier and feeling utterly disappointed by the outcome of that storyline... I'd really rather not end up writing anything that feels like that :'D

Even back when I wrote The Reason, where I threaded in the concept of the red string of fate, it was never something overt and that they could confirm was truly happening: it was something they believed had been drawn between them, even a matter of faith and hope that they would be a good match for each other, I'd say. So even if I reiterated that theme every chapter, ultimately, they chose each other and the story is about how they learn to make that conscious choice rather than just about stating they're fated to be together.

So yeah, I guess this is one of my strange controversial opinions about fanfic tropes, I suppose X'D I don't think the trope in itself is bad and obviously it can be written well, brilliantly even... but while I objectively write Sokkla as soulmates in my stories because I always want them together, I only ship them with each other and I primarily focus on their relationship in the content I create, I think the notion of the classic "soulmate AU" isn't one I'll be likely to explore much, personally. If I ever do, the soulmate situation will likely be much more of a background thing than the primordial core of what I'm doing.

Hope that wasn't too convoluted or confusing to understand x'D

#anon #gladiator #theory? #I suppose? #I mean I definitely can say they're voluntary soulmates #as well as each other's biggest stans #but yeah I don't know if their scars work that way #if anything I'd say the chi attunement concept is more of a soulmate thing #where they're connected soooooo powerfully #so much more powerfully than they've realized yet #:'DDDDD #*rubs hands and walks away* #... also more about my thoughts on the trope under the read more if you really waant to know more