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ohwhatagloomyshow · 10 months

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Scarlet Hollow ask game

tagged by @morgloom. I am tagging: whoever wants to do this! It’s a free for all! I am also mostly a lurker in the fandom so I was delighted to be tagged in the first place :)

TRAITS:

Your "canon" trait combination? booksmart/keen eye! i play as my idealized self, which is just an introverted nancy drew

What third trait would you add for hardcore mode? i love talk to animals a lot, i love the additional characterization you get from it! i also love friend dustin.

What trait are you least drawn to? this is an unpopular opinion but street smarts? i don't think i've given it enough individual time and attention because whenever i think about it i'm just like, that's just keen eye and i already have keen eye. i know it's not keen eye but my brain is broken in that mode of thinking!

Coolest trait? i like keen eye a lot! i like the idea of just being a really observant stranger in this new-to-you town. you just show up and have an instant read on everybody and their problems.

ROMANCE:

Who are you romancing? canon run is nobody! i am here for tabitha!!! but i think i like avery the most, generally. or dr. kelly >:)

What romance are you least interested in? another unpopular opinion, stella! i appreciate that she's Best Girl but it's really a tribute to the writing and her character work that i find her kinda annoying!

Who would you romance if every single character was eligible? it's tabitha and i'm only a little bit sorry about it.

MISCELLANEOUS:

What character would hurt you the most if something bad happened to them? TABITHA. as booksmart i get to avoid her making the sacrifice (i've only gotten that ending ONCE and i've done so, so many playthroughs lol) but i'm certain more terrible things are coming for my girlfailure. i just want to take her to the beach!!!

Would you stay in Scarlet Hollow when the week is over? i think so, yeah! someone mentioned in a post a while ago how much it works that our character has no contacts in the town we've just left, and i like to think about my oc's life improving by being in her mother's hometown surrounded by brand new and really strong friendships. (assuming there's a Nobody Dies ending.) i think there would be something beautiful about really honoring the victims of your ancestors - and tbh your cousin - by committing yourself to righting those wrongs in town. but maybe that means the estate collapses and the mine goes out of business! i don't know! i am rambling! but the answer is yes i'd stay in scarlet hollow, more importantly i'd say with my new friends and cousin.

Who would you vote for dog mayor? i really need to revisit ep 4 with talks to animals because i nearly missed the dog mayor convos and definitely didn't take proper advantage of the info learned there! i have to default to gretchen because i can't remember the other dogs :(

#scarlet hollow #black tabby games

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beck-a-leck · 8 months

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🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

For the writing ask meme. I'm always fascinated by people's definitions of "success" etc when it comes to fanfic (since mine is "I finished writing it")

Okay time to finally get around to answering this after working all weekend!

🧿what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn't do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn't going how you'd like it to?

Okay this is a really complicated answer and I'm not sure if i quite have the words to put this the way I want, so a lot of things about this might sound contradictory and I'm definitely going to ramble. But considering feelings are complex and often contradictory, I suppose that's to be expected.

The tl;dr is: I write for myself. I know I can't control other people. I don't let other people dictate my happiness. Share with low to no expectations, always be pleasantly surprised.

I think first and foremost, to not take things personally, I have learned over the years and through much experience, to divorce my sense of self-worth and accomplishment and overall happiness with Other People's Opinions. It's long been a mantra of mine to not let other people dictate my happiness, and that most certainly includes sharing creative projects in online spaces.

It has been a long learning process, and something I still regularly have to remind myself of, to separate my joy/fun/accomplishment/pride/enthusiasm and all of the other wonderfully positive feelings of creating something from how Other People respond to it. That's not to say I never feel disappointment and even sadness when something I thought might do better doesn't get the response and reactions I want. When I catch myself thinking that way, I acknowledge the disappointment, but then I remind myself of what I personally got from working on whatever it was.

Things like: I had fun making it. I got to learn something new. I tried out a new ship or trope, or perhaps revisited a favorite. I set a goal and accomplished it. I got to get the ideas in my head out onto paper and shared with the world.

Most simply put: I wrote for myself, and I like the end product, and that is Good Enough. Everything that comes after (comments, kudos, hits, chatting with people about it, etc) is just bonus.

(With obvious exceptions for requests/gift exchanges) For me, writing, or any creative hobby, can be a very selfish endeavor, because I'm writing the stories I want to read. I'm writing stories for my own entertainment. And yes, as contradictory as it may seem, I'm sharing stories because I also want to see how other people respond to them. I'm sharing because I want to feel good, and engage in a fandom community, and get that every so lovely hit of dopamine every time I see someone has interacted with my thing. But I do so always with the awareness that I am my first and most important audience. Again, everyone else is just Bonus.

And when it comes to the actual sharing process of writing, I try to keep in mind that I cannot control anybody else. I can't make people read my fics, I can't make them give me kudos, I can't make them leave a comment, or bookmark my fic, or come to my tumblr and say nice things. And everybody has so many different ways of expressing their opinions for something, that I can't even guarantee something as simple as a Kudos means the same to me as it does to them.

(I don't think Empathy is the right word I'm looking for, but it's the only one coming to mind, so...) but I always try to engage any disappoint I might have with Empathy and Logic for whatever idea of a Reader who might come across my story I have in my head. I'm fully aware that my story (and literally every story ever told) is not going to be for everybody, and therefore, not every person who sees it is going to have a positive (or any) reaction to it. For any number of reasons, they looked at my story and said 'no this isn't for me' and I cannot be mad or disappointed about that because I do the exact same thing. They might even click onto the story, read a good portion of it or all of it, get to the end and say 'actually, I didn't like this' and move on. Or hell, maybe they did like the story, maybe they loved it, but they didn't have the time/internet connection/mental or emotional energy/courage to leave a comment or hit the kudos or make a bookmark and that's okay too. Again, I cannot say I have not done the same thing. (and I have a much longer, more rambling rant about Obligations in Fandom, but we won't get into that here)

I always try to keep in mind that no matter what, any interaction is still one real life human being who saw something I did, and I try to put that into perspective. A fic only having a dozen hits can be disappointing, but at the same time, that's twelve whole people I can imagine standing in front of me and reading something I wrote. Which is actually a lot of people!

And because you brought up the measure of success, which is what this question is sort of getting at without saying the word... I don't know, I guess I don't tend to apply ideas of Success to my hobbies. At least not in the way of "Either it is a Success or it's a Failure." Writing is my hobby, and my hobby is supposed to be fun, not something I do for a grade or in competition. So I don't really think of it in that way.

I think in some way it circles back to Writing for Myself.

There's a part of me that is very at peace with the knowledge that if I never shared any of my stories from this day onward, I would still be happy writing. My writing folder is chock full of half-written stories that I likely won't finish, or ideas I had that only got to being a few hundred words of disconnected scenes and bits of dialogue, and even some stories that are 90% done, but I lost interest in the project and never finished it. But I don't look at those incomplete stories as failures, or even just on a very slow road to success. They served whatever purpose I needed them for, when I had an idea buzzing around my head, someday I might go back and finish them up and share them, but it's just as likely that they'll stay as they are, with only me to look at them.

I try to remove any pressures for myself when it comes to writing, because that is how it works best for me. When things become too pressing and guilt-laden, they stop being fun, I begin to feel burnt out, and when I don't have fun writing, I just don't write. It's my hobby, it's supposed to be fun, and when it stops being fun, then I know it's time to take a break. And, for me personally, setting arbitrary rules or deadlines, and adding unnecessary pressure is one of the fastest ways to kill the fun.

#replies #jake-marshall #ask box games #god this got really long and rambly

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theredhairedmonkey · 3 years

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A Farewell (for now)

As some of you have probably heard or surmised, I am reducing my presence within the Dragon Prince and will be stepping back from the fandom.

Now, I should clarify that by saying: I’m not going to be completely gone. I’ll still like and reblog content, even make short little posts here or there, but my time writing meta, one shots, and fics, or even just short analysis and answering asks, is now behind me. So while I’m not leaving the platform permanently, I won’t be an active member of this fandom.

This has nothing to do with with the fandom or the fans, who have been nothing but wonderful to me! So, let me take a moment to explain the reasoning behind my decision--recently (roughly two months ago), I had passed the bar, which allows me to practice as an attorney. Shortly after, I joined a privacy law firm. This is a “plaintiff-side” law firm, so our clients are all individuals and organizations who have had their privacy violated, either by the government (law enforcement, most of the time) or corporations selling their data.

I’m beyond grateful to be joining this firm: my opinion is that privacy is one of the foremost issues of the 21st century, and one that disproportionately affects people of color who have either had their civil liberties violated by police or have been unfairly excluded from economic opportunities through targeted advertising. This is one of the key battles of our time, and I’m glad to do what I can to fight it, and to leave the world in a slightly better shape than I found it.

But this job has taken quite a lot out of me, and between answering asks and writing metas on the one hand, and filing amicus briefs and drafting legal memos on the other, I realized that I barely have two minutes of free time to my name. Additionally, there was even a bit of a decline in the quality of my writing. While I was writing my most recent meta on Aaravos, I realized how much harder it feels to write even a short piece without having to re-edit for a growing number of typos and incoherent ramblings. It’s become harder for me to balance all these obligations with actually spending time with the people I love.

And so, for my own mental health, I’ve decided that stepping away from this fandom is very much overdue.

I loved being a part of this community, and I am truly grateful to be let into this home that the TDP fans have built together. From the first posts I wrote, I realized how open and amiable all of you are. Everyone was so encouraging, and caring, and kind.

Additionally, I enjoyed discovering the depths of the show itself during my time here. In particular, I found a pretty interesting niche in writing about Callum’s character, but certainly felt no shortage of brilliance or inspiration from the other characters as well. And though not everyone agreed with me on everything, I enjoyed the fact that everyone who read what I wrote thought about the characters and issues a little bit differently than they did before.

I’ll certainly pop in and out of the fandom as new canon materials are created. I’m anxiously awaiting for Tales of Xadia to be released, doubly excited about revisiting season two in Book: Sky, and eager to explore Xadia through new graphic novels and--one should hope--the release of Season 4.

Artwork by @nakoruko

#tdp #the dragon prince #callum #rayla #claudia #ezran #soren

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maos2013 · 3 years

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So @aosrecweek is doing this Best of 2020 challenge and I wanted to join in! Basically, you post however many works of your own that you are proud of this year, and then recommend the same amount of works done by others! (Click here for more info on the @aosrecweek blog).

It’s worth noting that there are SO many more amazing works out there by my friends that I know I’m forgetting. These few are ones that have stuck with me for various reasons, and just know if you didn’t make this short rec list, I love you so much and appreciate your contributions to the fandom! <3

So without further ado, let me tell you what works I enjoyed in 2020!

My works from the year that I loved (in no particular order):

Farewell for a While - Rated G - Daisy revisits her loss of Coulson, her loss of May, and the events that lead them both back to her in the end. I’m proud of this one because I wrote it on my phone in about an hour at midnight one night after a random stroke of inspiration. That may not be a big deal to some of you, but it is for me. :)

I Took You for Granted - Rated G - May is supposedly an unfeeling kill bot. Daisy and Sousa don’t buy it. This one makes me happy because Mama May and Daisy feels while Daisy is in the healing chamber. 🥺

It’s Only a Matter of Time - Rated G - Major Character Death - The team is split up through the decades in my alternate take on season 7. (Ok, this might be my favorite thing I’ve written. Ever.) Do you like Mama May and Daisy feels? Would you like to sob for several minutes as you read a fic? Then look no further! I’m proud of this one because it was literally my worst fear for how the show could’ve ended that I wrote into a fic to make myself sad. And y’all, I succeeded. I sobbed for at least two hours writing this(and still cry if I read it again).

Stay Alive, That Would be Enough - Rated T - Major Character Death - What if swayed Daisy accidentally killed a member of her team? Written for the AoS Angst War. I’m proud of my fight scenes in this one. :)

Little Black Dress - Rated G - Melinda has a date with Phil, and her 11 year-old daughter, Daisy, has opinions on what she should wear. This one was something new for me. I hadn’t previously written anything with a young version of Daisy. So I’m proud of the cuteness that ensued. And also @justanalto‘s comment on this one made me so happy!

Blame it on the Alcohol - Rated T - Phil is drunk at a bar with the guys. Like. Really drunk. So May goes to pick him up. Drunk hilarity follows. Also, Hunter and Fitz arguing at the bar is comedy gold even if I do say so myself. (Also this title took me all the way back to those awkward high school dances where they occasionally played music that was way too inappropriate for 15 year-olds.)

Works by my friends (also in no particular order):

Teach Me How to Say Goodbye - Rated T - by @aleksandrachaev (Sanctuaria on AO3). Ok, look. Do I whine when people kill May? Yes. Do I also still continue to read those fics and cry like a baby when people kill May? Also yes. So that said, if you love May, or Daisy, or the relationship between them, read this. You will probably cry, and probably still end up thanking Kat for stabbing you directly in the heart with this fic. (Really, read it. It’s GREAT!)

I love you (back) - Rated T - by @elbirbi (danixjamie on AO3). Remember how I said, I keep reading fic where May dies? Well add this to the list. I cried just thinking about this fic when I got ready to pick which one of El’s fics to rec on this post (they literally have too many amazing ones, and I could do a whole rec post just on their works). But anyway, this fic is literally a masterclass on how to make me cry, and overall just a gorgeous fic! I mean, the choice of words, I could hear it in Daisy’s voice in my head. I- oof. I could ramble to you all day about this fic, but I won’t take up too much of your dash. Just know there are MayDaisy feels everywhere in this, and you’ll love it!

This headcanon post from @herosofmarvelanddc. Did I prompt Lauren for this? Yes. But did she surprise me with amazing headcanons that were 1000 times better than anything I could’ve dreamed up? YES. Mama May helping Daisy shop for a wedding dress. HELP. I’m feeling too many feelings!

This Philinda Stargazing post on Zi’s @agentsofcuteanimals blog. I yelled at Zi for like 2 days over the line “I know there isn’t a universe where I won’t love you.” I’m still not over it honestly. *sobs*

This Philinda appreciation gif post by @marvelsaos. I have entirely too many Philinda feels from seeing this post. (and the many, many, many others) *sobs again* Also, can we all take a moment to say thank you so, so, so much to @marvelsaos? I mean. Spending so much time, taking gif requests and giving SO much to the fandom? I love them for it!

And last, but certainly not least is my friend @browneyedgenius with her Angst War fic We made all the wrong choices. I still periodically think back to this, M. It really was so good. I knew when I beta read this it was likely going to be the winner because it was... whew. It was amazing! Tugged all the heartstrings and made me feel all the feelings!

#aos best of 2020 #philinda fics #philindaisy fic #aos headcanons #aos appreciation #marvelsaos #browneyedgenius #agentsofcuteanimals #herosofmarvelanddc #elbirbi #aleksandrachaev #Phil Coulson #melinda may #aos #agents of shield #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.#daisy johnson

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dabistits · 4 years

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while reading your posts, i always feel that you’re really well rounded and good at character analysis and just articulating your feelings and opinions towards stories in general. it’s something that i’m trying to get better at, and something that i admire you for, so i was wondering if you had any pointers or tips regarding developing analysis skills? thank you!

first of all, thank you so much!!😭😭 i’m so glad you enjoy my stuff and it gives me a lot of joy to know that this, like, inspires people or w/e fkdkgkf

i’m putting everything below a cut bcs it’s long as fuck and kind of disorganized. i wrote some parts half-asleep, so they might be rambly or stating the obvious or whatever, but you know, pick and choose what’s helpful to you! this probably isn’t exhaustive (and i kinda focused in on the ‘character analysis’ part, bcs otherwise there’s… so much), and if anything’s unclear or if you want more elaboration on sth just let me know!

the basics:

write!! it doesn’t matter what you write, it can meta, fanfic, rp, whatever, but as long as you write about this character you’ll be forced to articulate your thoughts; by extension that means you’ll have to gather evidence and make a convincing case for your portrayal. even if you’re writing fic or rp i think you should have a strong reference of where your characterization is coming from - i used to rp at places that required applications, so that would force me to think about my character’s personality and put it into words. i think most people are helped by the actual process of writing itself also, so don’t let lack of confidence stop you if you’re someone who tends to do that: you might wind up happier with your ideas after having written something than before (and you can aaalways edit).

read!! read other people’s analyses, not necessarily just about the character you have in mind, but about other characters, other stories, other genres, etc. what kinds of things do they point out to support their argument? what patterns are they picking up on? do you agree/disagree? what’s a new thought they’ve introduced to you? what are things they do that you particularly like? can you replicate that idea/technique in your own reading? there are so many times when i’ve read another person’s analysis and made a note to be more aware of [a certain thing] in the future, so that’s what helps me change and build and incorporate new stuff into the way i think about stories.

try to keep an ongoing chronicle of your thoughts. this could 100% be a personal thing, but i actually started to think and absorb a lot more (especially about small things) after i started this blog. being here meant that not only was i keeping up with chapter releases bcs of other fans, but i was also regularly writing about my impressions. reading and discussing chapter by chapter forced me to read & process everything in smaller increments, which let me take in more details, and gave more time for my thoughts and feelings to develop. in contrast, when i binge-read, i actually miss a lot of details and a lot of finer points of the storyline because i’m just trying to get from one plot point to the next.

stick close to canon. this is definitely subjective, but since this is also partially about how i approach character interpretation, i’ll toss this in. i personally don’t stray too far from what’s shown to me in-text, and i revisit canon a lot to establish a “baseline” characterization rather than building off of my own headcanons. this has pros and cons: for example, i feel like i don’t overstate things compared to their canon importance, and i feel like i don’t get too carried away with embellishing character traits; however, it also holds me back from theorizing unless there’s a ton of evidence in front of me, and i can be overcautious when it comes to approaching narrative hints. sometimes i do talk about my headcanons, but even then i usually point out whether or not it’s substantiated, because i do think the line between headcanon and canon gets muddled a lot in fandom discussion.

think about a character’s role in the story. so, we know stories have plots, a start and an end, and messages and themes. all characters function within that framework, they advance us from point a to point b, the carry the moral of the story. i think these are aspects that are important to include in your character analysis; while sure, there’s already plenty to analyse about the LOV as self-contained characters, but they also seem more important, more interesting, and more complex when you take them into the context of the larger story (how and why their relationships are built, what they mean as a part of man vs society conflict, etc.). not only does it inform you about the character (what the author is trying to say through them, what direction the author might push them in), it can also tell you a lot about the overall structure and themes of the story itself.

authors include everything for a reason. when you’re creating something from scratch, you have to actively decide what you include. the way someone’s room looks doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but the author decided to design their room that way based off something—most likely a character’s interests, tastes, and preferences. while mina’s dorm room looking a certain way might not mean she has an old-fashioned personality, it can maybe tell you that she has a more retro taste and aesthetic. this can apply to “big” things too, like one of tomura’s severed hands still surviving the chaos. hori chose to have it survive rather than be decayed like everything else, so of course the question is why?

… but they are imperfect. creators also do make choices out of plot convenience, because of their own biases, or sometimes they just forget (as hori has done before, such as twice duplicating himiko in the overhaul arc and then saying he doesn’t know her measurements for the mla arc). so it can sometimes also be assumed that a detail was included/excluded because of something on the creator’s end, rather than because of it necessarily being symbolic or important to the characters (e.g. a character not being able to make it to a fight might be because their skills are too useful and could resolve the plot too easily, not because them getting sidetracked is important in itself; a female character losing a fight she should have won could be an issue of the creator’s misogyny). so these are aspects you can keep in mind as well when you’re evaluating characterization!

tendencies i see people fall into:

don’t take everything characters say at face value. characters can and do lie. they can be sarcastic. they can be manipulative. they can be deluding themselves. they can even be mistaken! there’s a reason why they’re expressing themselves that way, and sometimes you can gain more by actually investigating that contradiction rather than just assuming they mean what they say.

allow characters to change! they will change in canon, so don’t be too beholden to their early characterization if you’re trying to analyze or write them from a later point in the timeline. again, this seems intuitive, but i see a lot of people who still appear to draw on tomura’s early character portrayal by making him irritable towards the LOV, but he’s much more recently allowed himself to be physically pushed around by some of them without really reacting in any way.

embrace subtlety. a lot of people in their fanfic just see one aspect of a character and blow it up to make it their only characterization. like, tomura is irritable, himiko is obsessed with blood, any villain can be written as a sadistic killer hellbent on annihilation, etc. while having a couple personality traits come through strongly can help the character have a unique personality and voice, too much will make them appear one-note. it’s just as important to recognize moments when characters are being calm and focused and articulate, as much as their most dramatic moments. for example, a lot of writers don’t seem to notice that tomura doesn’t snap at his allies, tends to answer their questions evenly, and never lashes out at them; that’s because these moments are very understated in the manga. hori doesn’t point a huge arrow at them, and he shouldn’t have to! it’s one of those very subtle ways to show a character’s growth. so, pay attention to those moments, and pay attention to what’s not being done as much as what is.

#ask #writing reference

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quarterfromcanon · 4 years

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1-4. For the asks

Thank you so much for sending these! <3

Once I started to answer them, I realized there were comparatively few recent television shows appearing on the list. I seemed to keep gravitating toward older ones I remembered from years ago. I took a handful of days to mull it over in case I was forgetting something, but nothing else comes to mind. Maybe my ongoing list of Shows to Watch During Quarantine will turn up some fresh results but, for now, it looks like I’ll be taking a little trip down memory lane. :)

This turned out to be a pretty long and rambly post, so I’ll stow it under the cut!

Top 5 TV Shows

1. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I can’t imagine this surprises anyone who has been following this blog for the past two years or so. It brought fellow fans into my life, got me back into writing fic, and prompted countless tags of meta. It’s the show my mind drifts to on a weekly basis (if not daily) even a full year after the finale. Just when it seemed I’d reached an age where that level of intense fandom involvement and character attachment might be fading, it proved that quite the opposite was true. I’m very thankful to the series for that, and for the people whose paths have crossed mine as a result.

2. Schitt’s Creek - This is my #1 Feel Good show and, though I’ve been dodging spoilers for the final season until it gets uploaded to Netflix, I get the impression that it will remain in that top spot. The world feels softer and more hopeful there. It’s healing for my soul. I’m going to have a dreadfully difficult time saying goodbye, but I’m glad there are six season to revisit whenever I want.

3. Stranger Things - The theme song alone sends such a rush of excitement through me. I love the aesthetic and the atmosphere. I sometimes have mixed feelings about the romances but the FRIENDSHIPS sure do have a direct line to my heartstrings. I think the way they’ve combined media influences into their own story is really neat. You get something that’s new and engaging, but you can also go back and enjoy the sources of inspiration with fresh appreciation.

4. Joan of Arcadia - I can’t help it. The snark, the jackets, the early 2000s songs, the performances -- the nostalgia for this show is so strong. It’s not without its problems, but it did have some really good things to offer as well. I remember an episode that was one of my earliest introductions to the concept of a trigger, and the effect it could have on a person if exposed to one of theirs. The series dealt a lot with grief and the many forms it can take (I STILL can’t hear Fiona Apple’s cover of “Across the Universe” without getting misty-eyed). I’m also surprised, looking back, at the somewhat positive way I recall them discussing homosexuality on the several occasions that it came up in the show. Not to give too much credit since I don’t think there were recurring canonically LGBTQIA+ characters but, for a kid who spent most days around closed-minded people of a certain religious leaning, it was meaningful along my individual journey. I’d like to provide the several examples that are most vivid in my memory:

A. A girl with short hair, short nails, little to no makeup, and a bulky leather jacket is generally assumed to be a lesbian by the bullies at school. The show directly confronts the fact that “gay” should not be used an insult, that identity should not be assumed without the person telling you so, AND makes sure that the character in question never pushes back by saying harmful things about lesbians despite not actually being one herself.

B. A boy who is questioning is able to confide in his big brother and have a fairly calm conversation about it; the awkwardness mostly comes from neither of them being accustomed to openly discussing emotions, not from the possibility of a negative response regarding the subject matter.

C. Another character is accidentally discovered to be gay (he only appears in the one episode, if my memory serves), and some of the leads have the opportunity to share that for personal gain. However, even though he is a popular jock who is a bit of a jerk in the hallways, the show makes it clear that the right choice is still to leave the telling of that information up to him and him alone.

Like I mentioned, it can’t be said that representation was in abundance here - for instance, I don’t believe anything other than straight or gay was presented as a possibility - but any accepting acknowledgement in a faith-centric series was something for me to hold on to in my still-deeply-closeted days. As a final Very Important personal side note, this show brought Judith Montgomery into my life (pictured below on the left), and that feels like it merits a shoutout for being what I consider a rather significant marker in my awakening.

THE OVERWHELMING CRUSH I HAD - and still have - is one for the books.

5. Pushing Daisies - This is another show with an aesthetic I adore. The series has such a fun, whimsical energy. The crime-solving! The clothes! The cast! There's a lot to love. It’s the kind of world I wish I could visit... well, minus the evidently rampant murder rate.

Top 5 Overrated TV Shows

1. Once Upon A Time - *deep sigh* I tried to stick with it for so long. I think I’ve seen five out of the seven seasons in their entirety. It just felt like everything got mired down by excessive (and increasingly convoluted) subplots, often for the purpose of tossing in as many fairytale and/or Disney characters as possible. Plus, quite honestly, there was too much emphasis on romantic love. For a show whose first season involved a curse being broken by [potential spoiler, I suppose] a mother kissing her son’s forehead, I ultimately found myself up to my ears in romantic ships. It reached such a stifling extent that, if you were not particularly attached to those pairings, there wasn’t a whole lot else to entice further viewing.

2. Under the Dome - I don’t know for certain what the general public opinion of this series was, but it felt like the commercials always featured alleged rave reviews, so I figured I could include it here. I was vaguely interested in Season 1, mainly as a fan of Rachelle Lefevre’s work. Season 2 pulled me in with the introduction of a new townsperson and I threw WAY too much of my heart into that attachment, which backfired when that character was killed. I made quite the spectacle of my heartbreak, so much so that my family doesn’t let me mention this show around them anymore. :P Season 3 was, to phrase it delicately, not a great time. The series did introduce me to a few new-to-me actors, though, so that was cool.

3. Bates Motel - Even the incentive of learning that the two characters I liked most share a lot of screen time later in the series hasn’t been enough to call me back to this one. I don’t know if it was the pacing that put me off or what, but the prospect of finishing the remaining seasons feels so daunting. There are evidently five seasons in total and I believe I’ve only seen two of them thus far. I will probably muddle through it someday just to see how it goes, but the fact that I am so disinclined to prioritize it made this feel like a fair addition to the list.

4. Lost - My interest in this series unfortunately waned right before fervent fandom spiked. I don’t have any specific complaints that come to mind about what I saw; I just sort of drifted and then stayed away. Teachers I liked and peers I spent time with were starting to latch on to the show and I couldn’t find even the slightest inclination to give it a second try. However, did I still dutifully read all the latest installments in my friend’s Sawyer Ford and Kate Austen fanfiction when she passed me handwritten copies at lunch? Sure. I was glad it made her happy, even if I was no longer a viewer.

5. Hemlock Grove - I say this as someone who still mourns the fates of some characters in this show, so I wouldn’t go so far as to claim that the series stopped being able to make me feel anything. I’m just of the opinion that, in some ways, it might’ve been better off stopping at one season. That’s where the book it was based on ends, and things just didn’t feel as cohesive after that. Season 3 especially was - borrowing from my above review of Under the Dome - not a great time. That being said, there are also certain elements from the book that I could’ve done without in the Season 1 adaptation but... well... here we are.

Top 5 Underrated TV Shows

1. Picnic at Hanging Rock - Another one that won’t surprise followers of this blog. I have rhapsodized about it quite frequently since I found it a little over a month ago. It’s a period piece mystery miniseries with LGBTQIA+ representation, gorgeous costumes, and Samara Weaving. This felt specifically designed to wedge its way into my heart, and I’m quite content with the space it now occupies.

2. Dark - I’m so intrigued by the overlapping timelines with all of the morally gray characters. It’s possible to like one of these people in the timeline where they’re young but dislike them as adults, or vice versa. It also makes me think of Rant by Chuck Palahniuk a little tiny bit with the idea that time travel, specifically tampering with your own timeline, might make you physically and behaviorally unrecognizable to yourself. And the SONG CHOICES! I have gotten some solid new music selections from this series.

3. Sense8 - I still need to watch the finale. I really do. But I knew it would make me sad so I’ve avoided it for... two years now? Pretty close, I think. The concept is fascinating and the cast is so strong. Plus the cinematography! They came up with some of the coolest ways to depict the link these characters share and what it’s like when they connect over distance. The planning and careful editing it all must’ve taken... I remain in awe.

4. Penny Dreadful - There were definitely some story/writing choices I didn’t particularly like along the way, but I did get engrossed in the creepy goodness and the performances -- Eva Green’s Vanessa Ives most of all. It left me wishing for more period piece “monster mash” stories, because having all those classic characters in one place was a blast. It also helped me understand why Helen McCrory was once slated to play Bellatrix Lestrange because she can be terrifying. Oh and Sarah Greene in her Wild West outfits? Perdita Weeks with short red hair in fencing garb, and later in all leather with boots and a long jacket? I WAS NOT PREPARED AND I HAVE STILL NOT RECOVERED. I NEVER WILL.

5. Wonderfalls - There’s some cringe-inducing handling of certain representation in the series, but I have such a weak spot for quippy outcasts who become reluctant chosen ones (Joan Girardi in Joan of Arcadia, Wynonna Earp, Jaye Tyler in this series, et cetera). I also really love the sibling dynamics here. They bicker, tease one another, help each other out of trouble, and have rare but genuine heart-to-hearts. Caroline, Lee, and Katie all did such a great job blending their characters’ adult personalities with certain childhood attributes that rise to the surface in the presence of family.

Top 5 Movies

1. Addams Family Values - I’ve rewatched this movie at least once annually since I found it in Media Play at age 13. Usually, I’ll play it around Halloween or, at the latest, Thanksgiving. It’s mouth-along-with-every-line level ingrained in my memory. I find myself leaning forward in my seat before favorite parts because I’m still that excited to relive them. Why this movie, and why this devotion to such a degree? It’s hard to explain, even to myself. I can tell you, however, that I hold up every other portrayal of the Addams characters to the versions found in this. Everybody in the cast just feels that perfect for their part.

2. Clue - I was already pretty fond of this movie to begin with, but then my sister got older and claimed it as a favorite of her own, so now she just supplies me with further excuses to watch it repeatedly. It’s also been a bonding piece of media with a couple of close friends and such through the years. It’s incredible to think not everyone in it was the first choice for their roles; what everybody brings to the table is so top-notch that I wouldn’t have it any other way. I also LOVE knowing that it originally went to theaters with different endings depending on which showing you attended. I gather people weren’t terribly thrilled with the stunt back then, but I kinda think some moviegoers would be into that approach these days? Then again, one hit that tried something different tends to start a fad, so maybe I’d end up regretting the suggestion after a while. :P

3. The Craft - This. Movie. Yes, Act III is a major bummer even though I know it’s coming, and I’ll always wish it ended differently. Even so. This. Movie. I tend to headcanon mostly for shows and sometimes books, but The Craft is a beloved exception. I love so much about it: the magic, the music, the clothes, the settings, the dynamics within the friend group, the performances. I had no idea when I first got the DVD at 17 that it would become such a part of my life, but I’m so glad it found its way to me.

4. Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion - The soundtrack is a glorious ’80s and ’90s treat for my ears. The colorful costumes are perfectly suited to the main characters’ version of the world. There are so many great lines and it feels like everyone is having a lot of fun in their roles. I LOVE HEATHER MOONEY SO MUCH. She’s my awful, scathingly sarcastic, little grungy grump and she fills my heart with joy.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - I was pretty sure at least one of the three had to appear on here. I think, if I were to tally them all up, The Return of the King features most of my favorite moments, so it wins the spot. “I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”, ‘Edge of Night,’ Éowyn in battle, The Army of the Dead, ‘Into the West’... I end up crying during the end credits every time. So, yeah, ultimately, I would choose the third part of the trilogy if I could only watch one.

Phew, that’s it! All the questions answered, all the shows and movies listed! Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read it all, and thanks again to @monaiargancoconutsoy for sending in the prompts! <3

#About Me #Answered Asks

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blazetwin88 · 4 years

Text

Just me rambling about useless stuff, don't have to read. Long post without any importance.

Okay, so I suddenly got pulled back inte the fnaf fandom (I kinda never left but like, other stuff than just revisiting fnaf theories and watching people play the of games and fan games) and I just now, while looking through Tumblr on the tag for my (probably) favourite character (So far, gonna dig deeper and see where it gets me), fnaf 1 night guard, aka, Michael/Mike Schmidt (can't pronounce that last name for s**t, and don't remember if his name is cannon to be Michael and Mike being a nickname, or if Mike is the cannon name and Michael was a creation of the fans). But anyway, what I realized was that I have two favourite versions of him in fanart and fanfics (and a slight third one).

The first one is the, "no more fucks to give, done with everyone's shit, pun loving, sassy, no bullshit taking, secretly cares even if he has a hard time showing it/takes a while to warm to people but can be a big softie when he does" version. (I also like similar versions of this one on Jeremy Fitzgerald. Often like similar personalities to this on a lot of characters in other fandoms I'm in)

The second one is the, "scared but not a coward, cares almost too much, determined, sensitive, will kill for the people he cares about, has his badass moments" version. Although this one I can be served without the red and a decrease in the orange.

And then there's the (maybe) third one. It's a lot similar to the second one but I'll ramble it up anyway. "The depressed (does not matter how much), very sensitive, cares a lot, easily scared, needs protection (most of the time), paranoid or high anxiety, just wants the best for others but doesn't always care about himself" version.

(The second and third version together with a friend/parental figure/co worker that has a personality similar to the first version is a big plus for me too)

(Also, a plot where Mike/Michael from fnaf 1 is the same person as Michael Afton, its another plus for me)

So yeah, those are the types of Mike/Michael Schmidt that I love, of course I need to enjoy the plot itself as well in order to like a fanfic/fancomic, but including one of those two versions would surely get me to have a high chance of liking the content.

Anyway, there's my rant of my useless opinion. If you came this far, why not maybe recommend me fanfics or comics that kinda fit in with any part of my opinion.

#fnaf #five nights at freddy's #mike schmidt #michael schmidt #my opinion

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lunamanar · 6 years

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Another random question: Do you think Rinoa and Cloud would get along?

(OR: In which I write a three-page disclaimer and spend half as much time actually answering the question.)

So this question caught me by surprise, and I had to take some time to think about it. Because a lot of SquarEnix main protags get pegged as being same-y, not just facially but in their general dispositions, and “The Weather Team” of 7-8-13 fame in particular is often held up as a prime example of this. Quiet, surface-level misanthropy covering up a mountain of sensitivities is admittedly a tired teenage/early 20s trope, and especially when it comes to Cloud and Squall, I think it’s easy to paint their personalities in broad strokes, and assume they’re basically all the same person with just enough details altered to pretend they’re different.

But I really don’t think that’s a fair assessment, and in order to answer a question like this I felt I had to really get into why it’s not. So, sorry for the delay in answering, because I had to take some time to organize my thoughts about it.

OK, so, story/ramble time:

Part of my need for that time is that, while I really like FFVII, it’s far from my favorite Final Fantasy. FFV and FFVI vie for the number 2 slot, FFXIII and XIII-2 as a unit occupy number 4, and FF Type-0 number 5…FFVII is a somewhat distant 6 or 7, depending on my mood switching out with FFX. I think that when I take FFVII on its own terms, I like it better than most other FFs, but all the additions–Crisis Core, Before Crisis, Advent Children, Dirge of Cerberus, even Kingdom Hearts if you count that–have kind of muddied my appreciation for the original. So VII and its characters, as a whole, are a very complicated box of other self-contained boxes that my brain interprets differently depending on whether I take them as their own standalone set of stuff or consider them as part of a larger whole.

I admit to a bit of pearl-clutching in this regard; when FFVII came out, I was dazzled by it. I loved the post-apocalyptic vibe of Midgar, and the empty, lonely feeling of the low-poly overworld. I think my enjoyment of that world was actually helped by the sheer lack of knowledge I had about it. At the time I first played it, I knew nothing about its conception or what had been lost in translation. I knew nothing about the Japanese fandom, the huge shifts that were happening within then-Squaresoft as a company, or the reject-characters (Edea, Fujin, Raijin, and Irvine) who would one day star in FFVIII and what their role would have originally been in FFVII (Edea had something to do with JENOVA, Fujin and Raijin were going to be Turks, and Irvine was replaced by Vincent). I had no idea that literally half of FFVII’s story was missing from the game itself, and that half again that amount would later be added and ret-conned into the original.

And frankly, when all that started to happen…I didn’t like it. I lost interest for quite a while. By that time, I already had FFVIII, and I didn’t really care to sink time and money into a game world whose story, and that of its characters, had already been told as far as I was concerned. I didn’t actually revisit VII at all until circa 2013, when a friend of mine convinced me to start writing FFVIII fiction again. She was a big Crisis Core fan who loved Genesis, and she really pulled me back into VII as an entity just because of her enthusiasm about it.

So it’s kinda funny because I really only started exploring FFVII’s “extended universe” with any real vigor at the same time I was re-immersing myself in FFVIII’s comparatively cohesive lore (which is an…odd, way to describe FFVIII, to say the least, but by comparison, it’s true).

All of this is to illustrate that, simply, I am not the most qualified analyst of FFVII-anything, including Cloud, his personally, who he is and how he acts. There are many more intelligent people who have spent far more time and effort picking apart his character, who know more about him than I do and can render a more complete picture of his motivations and likely reactions and interactions with various personalities. My Final Fantasy “home” is FFVIII, and that is the only game (with the possible exception of FFV) that I feel comfortable enough in my knowledge to form complete and detailed opinions about re: any given character. It’s much more likely that my understanding of characters outside of that universe, especially a character with as much backstory as Cloud Strife, is going to be missing a lot of potentially pertinent details and considerations that I would ideally have at my disposal, and I think it’s important to acknowledge that before I answer, if only because there are so many fans out there who feel very passionately about FFVII and everything to do with it. So, I am in no uncertain terms saying it: I am not a Cloud Strife expert and I may at some point make an assumption about him in this answer that is contradicted entirely by canon evidence that happened to escape me at the time of writing.

I’m basically winging it. I’m going off my personal impressions of his character, some of which are 20 years old at this point, plus a little bit of fact-checking I did before posting this. So to my knowledge, no individual facts I’m referencing here are incorrect, but it’s possible some of the conclusions I draw may be inaccurate because I missed some information somewhere due to not being 100% invested in the vast, complex and in some cases contradictory plot that is FFVII. For that I apologize ahead of time.

(This is, actually, the single reason why I have never written any kind of crossover fiction. To do so and feel good about it, I’d have to be equally invested in each and every universe involved. The three games I feel comfortable enough with in my knowledge to actually write for are FFVIII, Secret of Mana, and the R-TYPE series. Uh. Those aren’t exactly the best candidates for overlapping themes/universes, so…)

*breathes*ANYWAY. Okay so I’m going to actually answer your question. And it’s going to be short by comparison. Sorry about that.

The way I understand Cloud, and the reason I felt the need to preface this with all that mess, is that the answer is “yes, sort of, eventually.” But with caveats.

Rinoa is the sort of person to wear her heart on her sleeve, unashamedly. And she actively advocates just that: that emotions are part of who a person is and not something to feel shame over, and expressing them is as much an act of integrity as it is courageous (that’s why, assuming you make certain dialogue choices, she may accuse Squall of being ‘dishonest’ at certain points). I think, assuming Cloud treated her with his oft-wordless, minimalist’s-guide-to-introvert-socialization front right off the bat, she would initially find him to be frustrating and–where Squall emoted at least enough to indicate he had an emotional reaction that contradicted his attitude–Cloud’s more practiced cynicism and “why speak if you can just stare or shrug” philosophy would be a lot less cute to Rinoa. Where Squall deflects with whatevers and various degrees of you’re-doing-it-wrong, which at least indicate discomfort and a degree of genuine interest, Cloud’s unmitigated I-don’t-cares and when-do-I-get-paids would be likely to come off as genuinely dismissive, rather than defensive. This would make her less curious, and in turn less tolerant of Cloud’s apparent misanthropy.

(Though I start with these comparisons for the sake of illustrating Rinoa’s way of filtering information, I don’t think her impression of Cloud is a question of comparing him to Squall; this would all hold true whether she knew Squall already or not.)

So I think, at first, Rinoa wouldn’t really like Cloud that much, and at least for a while, he wouldn’t give her a lot of reasons to think she was wrong about her first impressions of him as arrogant, cynical and maybe even a little greedy. Basically she’d echo a lot of what Barret had to say about him, but with a lot less swearing.

And I think, actually, Barret is a good comparison, because it would take about as long for Rinoa to think much differently of Cloud. Not to wander too far into the land of the hypothetical, but a few dizzy spells and flashbacks in, she’d probably clue in that something wasn’t quite as it seemed with him. The more opportunities Cloud has to abandon the group, and doesn’t, the more she’d begin to suspect, and she wouldn’t be quiet about those suspicions; either Cloud has an ulterior motive, or he’s not as callous as he seems. Either possibility is exactly the sort of thing Rinoa would pick at until it bled, for good or ill.

Without knowing more about the scenario (if there is one), I can’t really say how Rinoa, as I know her, would ultimately stand with Cloud--as a friend, an enemy, or somewhere in between--but I think the more she knows about him, the more she would think he’s actually a pretty okay person with a ton of problems oh my goodness, even if it really seemed at first like he was just an immature jerk. The fog of war is especially thick with Cloud (appropriately, no?), but given time, I think Rinoa would find her way through it. Perhaps, however, not without doing some damage, in the process.

#jadetarsier #ff8 #ff7 #rinoa heartilly #cloud strife #fandom #ff7 people please don't hurt me #asks

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