#i don't have a name for this concept

[razzle-zazzle]

what abt that au we talked abt where branch gets snatched up by that massive eye creature? 👁️👁️

Okay, that one's hard to explain because currently it's more a collection of cool concepts, ideas, and some scenes with a loose thread of semi-coherent plot connecting it all. But it's a fun collection of cool concepts, ideas, and some scenes with a loose thread of semi-coherent plot connecting it all!

Story starts with Branch pulling Poppy aside so they can talk later, as he has something important to tell her. But Queenly duties leave her running a little late to their little meetup, and when she gets there, Branch is gone. But when she and a few others do manage to track him down...

He doesn't recognize her. He's gray, but it's different from before—lighter, paler, low contrast, almost as though he's been washed out. He doesn't recognize any of them. He's armed, too, and all he sees before him are threats.

It only gets more wild from there >:]]]

#ask zaz #ninja-go-to-therapy #i don't have a name for this concept #but some notable things about it include: #mechanical spiders #jd getting trapped in a crystal mirror maze #clay going feral #giant magical maze with its own physics and unnatural geometries #creek being helpful (it makes sense in context i prommy. and he's not exactly nice about it) #poppy refusing to give up on branch #eye-themed villain using trolls as treasure hunters #broppy egg as a plot point #viva & floyd's arcs still undecided #and so on! #trolls maze concept #<- placeholder tag for now

[sygneth]

"The Fall of the Starmaker"

#I have been painting this for way too long #fuckin. rocks #anyway i was thinking whether i want to name this “the fall” or “the death” because y'know #the angel you knew is not me #but i decided to stick to the original idea #also the other title could be “the birth of crowley” #also i'm a very big fan of the concept that angels' wings burn during the fall and then grow back black #yall seem to like renaissance-like paintings don't ya? #i hope you will like this one #good omens #good omens fanart #fanart #good omens crowley #crowley #anthony j crowley #the starmaker #ineffable husbands #my art #snek blorbo

[gloriousmonsters]

love when you can ask the Narrator why the Princess is a Princess and he's like 'well i uhhhh YOU did that. maybe it's because uh... something something about her being above you... but still approachable... look i don't want to analyze or anthropomorphize your--' my guy. i am a primal being of Order and Eternity and Shaping. You're the one who convinced me I was some dude and were quite willing to take credit for shaping my view on the world through narration five seconds ago. Are you gonna look me in the eye and tell me the desire to interpret something worthy of adoration and more powerful than me as a dommy princess is written in the very nature of the universe or are you going to show me your browser history like a man

#this is a joke but the 'so where did i get the Idea of a princess from??' still stands #since we remember nothing and don't seem to have many ideas about like. what the world looks like #but when given the conception of 'we're a hero' from the narrator's Quest #we immediately go to 'so the thing you're telling us to kill is a Princess' -> i.e something I'm not SUPPOSED to kill #and in fact am supposed to respect and cherish #and/or pledge eternal loyalty to #(and then on a deeper level we KNOW that we're the dragon #we're the biggest threat to her we're what has the power to trap her and keep her here #we're a monster just like her) #but my point remains. as a god-entity stripped of memory where did we get the idea of a (human/like) Princess. do we still have like... #the threads of common narratives sort of built into our structure b/c we're the god-half concerned with Shaping and Naming and Order? #that would kind of slap #anyway uh. dragging myself offstage now #slay the princess #slay the princess spoilers #stp spoilers

[canisalbus]

Imagine if Machete was Muslim instead of Catholic. His name would be something like Saif سيف, and Vasco would probably be something like Dhahabi ذَهَبِيّ

.

#I don't know Arabic so I can't weigh in that much but if you say so! #it seems like these mean “sword” and “golden” respectively that's neat #Machete wouldn't be able to cling to his Catholic guilt in that case #I don't think Islam has the same concept of original sin that Christianity does #I'm simplifying but it's a belief that humans are born with an innate tendency for evil sinning is part of our nature #and staying on the positive and in God's good graces requires a lot of repentance which can lead to excess guilt and shame #I could be wrong but I'm under the impression that this idea of a manufacturing error is a very Christian thing #sorry I know you didn't sign up to hear me try to talk about big theology things and I don't want to make it weird #but I find this stuff really interesting I unironically like to read and think about how religions work #and how they shape things they come in contact with #in Machete's case in particular his troubled relationship with God and his career choice are big parts of his character #and why he turned the way he did and thinks the way he does you know #answered #kachavashka #Dhahabi is such a regal sounding name #I'd steal that in a heartbeat if I didn't already have one extremely gold-coded character

[mumblesplash]

don’t you hate it when your civilization flees deep underground to escape the wither only to find yourselves trapped down there with something even worse. anyway surprise! i can still draw

#my art #minecraft #minecraft fanart #minecraft ancient cities #they named it the warden because they were its prisoners i will die on this hill #see fellas when i said i was brainrotting about ancient cities i meant like advanced stages of decay #Bad Syndrome: instead of a brain there is sculk #i'm still pondering additional designs for like guards/soldiers and redstone specialists etc #also yeah i was like ok time to design generic ancient city residents for outfit concepts #and bc i'm me they immediately became Characters and now it's a whole thing #their names are echo and felix and they hate each other <3 #echo was actually a temple kid like felix growing up but he fled to the outer city due to irreconcilable differences w the sculk worshippers #felix keeps trying to convince him to come back bc he was one of their most talented alchemists #they don't quite have echo's talent for magic but they make up for it in charisma and violent tendencies #neither of which have yet proved effective in convincing echo to come work for them #these days he mostly dedicates his potion skills to making life a bit more bearable for outer city residents #he got the nickname 'echo' due to his knack for inducing realistic auditory hallucinations of dead loved ones #...i TOLD you it turned into a whole thing #i also have a pet theory that ancient cities invented skeleton horses bc they needed horses but also leather and meat #but that's mostly bc i think the phrase 'have your horse and eat it too' is rly funny

[royalarchivist]

Pac: This is my secret base. And this is Pequito!

Fit: Pequito! *Immediately starts cooing over Pequito*

Pac: [Laughs]

Fit: Sorry, sorry.

Pac: No no, that's good! He likes you, you know, he likes you.

#FitMC #Pactw #QSMP #Hideduo #FitPac #I THINK this was October 27 but I don't remember well enough to put that as a tag #I usually am pretty good about adding dates to my file names but sometimes I forget #anyways. Why'd Fit coo over Pequito like he was a dog LMAO #''He likes you'' You don't say Pac #Y'know I wasn't huge on the minimes #However. I do think we as a community really slept on the concept of Islanders taking care of their partners' minimes #(er or I guess. Their roommates' minimes) #Like ''yes this minime is a nefarious Federation thing but it DOES look like a small adorable version of the person I have a crush on. So.' #I'm just saying. This island's greatest strength is love and their greatest weakness is also them being gay idiots sometimes #Q #Fit #Pac

[anghraine]

Okay, breaking my principles hiatus again for another fanfic rant despite my profound frustration w/ Tumblr currently:

I have another post and conversation on DW about this, but while pretty much my entire dash has zero patience with the overtly contemptuous Hot Fanfic Takes, I do pretty often see takes on Fanfiction's Limitations As A Form that are phrased more gently and/or academically but which rely on the same assumptions and make the same mistakes.

IMO even the gentlest, and/or most earnest, and/or most eruditely theorized takes on fanfiction as a form still suffer from one basic problem: the formal argument does not work.

I have never once seen a take on fanfiction as a form that could provide a coherent formal definition of what fanfiction is and what it is not (formal as in "related to its form" not as in "proper" or "stuffy"). Every argument I have ever seen on the strengths/weaknesses of fanfiction as a form vs original fiction relies to some extent on this lack of clarity.

Hence the inevitable "what about Shakespeare/Ovid/Wide Sargasso Sea/modern takes on ancient religious narratives/retold fairy tales/adaptation/expanded universes/etc" responses. The assumptions and assertions about fanfiction as a form in these arguments pretty much always should apply to other things based on the defining formal qualities of fanfic in these arguments ("fanfiction is fundamentally X because it re-purposes pre-existing characters and stories rather than inventing new ones" "fanfiction is fundamentally Y because it's often serialized" etc).

Yet the framing of the argument virtually always makes it clear that the generalizations about fanfic are not being applied to Real Literature. Nor can this argument account for original fics produced within a fandom context such as AO3 that are basically indistinguishable from fanfic in every way apart from lacking a canon source.

At the end of the day, I do not think fanfic is "the way it is" because of any fundamental formal qualities—after all, it shares these qualities with vast swaths of other human literature and art over thousands of years that most people would never consider fanfic. My view is that an argument about fanfic based purely on form must also apply to "non-fanfic" works that share the formal qualities brought up in the argument (these arguments never actually apply their theories to anything other than fanfic, though).

Alternately, the formal argument could provide a definition of fanfic (a formal one, not one based on judgment of merit or morality) that excludes these other kinds of works and genres. In that case, the argument would actually apply only to fanfic (as defined). But I have never seen this happen, either.

So ultimately, I think the whole formal argument about fanfic is unsalvageably flawed in practice.

Realistically, fanfiction is not the way it is because of something fundamentally derived from writing characters/settings etc you didn't originate (or serialization as some new-fangled form, lmao). Fanfiction as a category is an intrinsically modern concept resulting largely from similarly modern concepts of intellectual property and auteurship (legally and culturally) that have been so extremely normalized in many English-language media spaces (at the least) that many people do not realize these concepts are context-dependent and not universal truths.

Fanfic does not look like it does (or exist as a discrete category at all) without specifically modern legal practices (and assumptions about law that may or may not be true, like with many authorial & corporate attempts to use the possibility of legal threats to dictate terms of engagement w/ media to fandom, the Marion Zimmer Bradley myth, etc).

Fanfic does not look like it does without the broader fandom cultures and trends around it. It does not look like it does without the massive popularity of various romance genres and some very popular SF/F. It does not look like it does without any number of other social and cultural forces that are also extremely modern in the grand scheme of things.

The formal argument is just so completely ahistorical and obliviously presentist in its assumptions about art and generally incoherent that, sure, it's nicer when people present it politely, but it's still wrong.

#this is probably my most pretentious fanfiction defense squad post but it's difficult to express in other terms #like. people talking about ao3 house style (not always by name but clearly referring to it) as a result of fanfic as a form #and not the social/cultural effect of ao3 as a fandom space #you don't get ao3 house style without ao3 itself and you don't get ao3 without strikethrough and livejournal etc #and you don't get those without authors and corporations trying to exercise control over fic based on law (often us law) & myths about law #and you don't get those without distinctly modern concepts of intellectual property and copyright #none of those things have fuck all to do with form! #anghraine rants #fanfiction #general fanwank #long post #thinking about this partly because the softer & gentler versions of fanfic discourse keep crossing my dash #and partly because i've written like 30 pages about a playwright i adore who was just not very good at 'original fiction' as we'd define it #both his major works are ... glorified rpf in our context but splendid tragedies in his #and the idea of categorizing /anything/ in that era by originality of conception rather than comedy/tragedy/etc would be buckwild #ivory tower blogging #anghraine's meta

[chiscribbs]

Saw your clone Donnie au and I thought of dramatic Donnie a bit and realized that he probably would act a lot like how Leo does when he’s being dramatic.

Leo claims it’s a twin thing

It's definitely a twin thing. Look at these ridiculous dorks.

They're cut from the same cloth. The co-kings of Drama Town, each even comes with their own spotlight, lol. Donnie's just a bit more theatrical with his dramatization than Leo is, saying things like "alas" and quotin' straight Shakespeare sometimes.

Dramatic Donnie probably acts like he's performing at the Globe 24/7.

#It's also an ''our father was an (over)actor back in the day so the theatre kid genes run deep'' thing. #disaster twins #rottmnt au #rottmnt donnie #rottmnt leo #Context: It's that concept I don't have a name for yet with the split personality Donnie clones lol. #asked and answered #glitteringking599 #Also I just noticed this - where did Leo's red stripes go in that second shot??? The goggles made them disappear

[theartofangirling]

#....why #lol noah fence but couldn't be me #hope y'all have a good time though #spn prequel #i hate the concept so much I'm not even gonna tag it by its name (also bc I don't want to actually rain on anyone's parade) #mp

[crystalleoi]

glass

#inanimate insanity #ii mephone4 #my art #i'm very normal (i've been brainstorming a mirrors edgw inspired II AU because i'm unhinged about both) #file name medge edge.png #<-just felt the need to share. i keep calling the game that. medge edge #very fun to say #ANYWAY the AU isn't like. a direct character swap it's moreso very very heavily based off of the setting and the concept of the runners #as you might have guessed at this point it's very meeple centric. as with all of my AUs #listen they're my AUs and i get to choose the characters they're centered on #i don't have a name for it yet but i'll just add a tag for it later if i ever decide on one lol #do i have too many AUs??? ....nah #ii city of glass au

[gojo-stan]

I've decided to finalize my AU idea! :3c

Devil's Reverie focuses on the daily adventures of Amari, Sebastian, and their friends! Stardew Valley is a hotspot for magic and supernatural activity, so the likelihood of something odd happening is always high.

Amari is half demon, but it was never a problem until a demon who knew her father showed up at her farm. And ever since then, he's been a menace to her and Sebastian 😭

Big thanks to @stinkiesdraws for working with me on the AU!!

#I really wanted to draw more but I just don't have the time with the amount of school work I have 😭 #this whole concept has been in my head for a while #I only recently gave it an official name :3 #stardew valley #stardew valley farmer #stardew valley oc #sdv sebastian #sebastian sdv #sdv wizard #sdv mr qi #gojostan doodles

[sysig]

Time Loops are they/them culture (Patreon)

Bonus of my little guy in ISaT style:

#Doodles #Pixel art #ISaT #Siffrin #Loop #And then I still don't have even a code name for smol and my time loop concept lol #I'm sure you can imagine my excitement upon seeing a time loop RPG <3 #Not to be silly but the thought of either of us picking up the wavelength and running with it is fun to me haha ♪ #I...may or may not have developed brainworms about it it's fine lol #Good characters! Good story! I'm always a sucker for a tragedy with bright spots <3 It's hard to even call the ending bittersweet tho hehe #It's very sweet! Like sugar :) Hehe #Shock of shocks I - person who has done this how many times now - liked the dynamic between Sif and Loop best haha #Is it spoilers if it requires past knowledge of my faves hmmm inconclusive lol #These were just introduction doodles - not even Getting Used To doodles yet a step before that! #Fun designs :D I like Sif's hair a lot <3 The way it's two-tone because he likes black! Adorable! And cowlicks hehehe #And eyepatch hehehe Sif's design is so fun ♪ #What no my time loop shop keep lad having a hat like that has no bearing! I'm completely unbiased! Lol #For the pixel art I did directly just use Siffrin's hat in shape haha I just added the belt and buckle ouò #Man it's been too long since I've played with pixel art it's still so fun <3 #Someday I'll get Aseprite. Someday #In the meanwhile it was fun to make their colour palette :D #I love that ISaT is in black and white canonically as well I think it's really cool ♪ #Me when monochrome red 💕💖😭🤌💗 #It is simply The Best colour palette out there I'm sorry others need not apply #Again my pencils and blood pen surely give away none of my biases because I don't have any lol #Hrmng I want SASASAP too pixel art cool - the glow up in ISaT is only strengthened by looking at the original closely! #Ah well I'll just admire at a distance until then <3

[wildflowercryptid]

messed around some new brushes so here's a bunch of dg doodles, (feat. two of the characters from one of the fancase ideas i've been muddling over.)

— credit to @whisperingrockers for harrow's fantastic design once again!

#i swear i'll draw some more serious hawkspears stuff after this #btw the case j.b. and drew are from revolves around a murder at an esteemed college (think ivy league) #and their names and character concepts are partially inspired by j.b. fletcher (from murder she wrote) and nancy drew respectively #''why does drew kinda look like—'' don't worry about it #they're the only character designs for the fancase i actually have nailed down now i still need to work on the other ones #also pls let me know if any of these are hard to read i'll add cropped versions under a cut if that's the case #anyways love sally love grimoire i gotta start heading to bed now #detective grimoire #tangle tower #harrow hawkshaw #sally speard #private detective grimoire #oc : jb decker #oc : drew decker #🎨 : mj draws

[quinloki]

Canon Characters vs OC vs x Reader

Disclaimer: This is just my two cents, and my perspective on things, and I'm not trying to lay down the law for everyone. I needed to just put this to words though, in order to sleep.

I was thinking about this because of a post I saw, and some, we'll say, kind of useless comments associated with the post. Mean-spirited stuff.

Normally, in one ear and out the other, but the vibes just kicked me off down a rabbit hole of sorts an I wanted to try to put some of my thoughts to words.

First, some style vibes:

Canon x Canon Canon/Canon stories are, to me, like reading an episode of that show. I'm sitting down in front of a TV or whatever, and I'm experiencing the story As A Viewer. I like this style because I don't really have to expend much energy and I just kind of roll with whatever's happening. Generally some sort of 3rd person perspective.

OC x canon OC/Canon stories are like being on a carnival ride. I'm sitting in a car on a roller-coaster, and maybe the OC is sitting next me. I'm experiencing the story more deeply than strictly canon stories, but my connection with the OC is no deeper than say, my connection with Katniss Everdeen when I read The Hunger Games. Sometimes 3rd person, sometimes first person.

Reader x canon Reader/Canon (or Reader x/ OC) is like putting on a VR helmet. I don't get much physical input about the "Reader OC" because I'm experiencing the story through their eyes. I don't expect the reader to be me, but there's a bigger feeling of immersion to be had. Some description might happen cause it's relevant to the story, and it's still a type of ride, I can't jump the rails on the roller coaster, after all. (Even with a VN you still follow the tracks). Sometimes first person, sometimes second person (I'm partial to 2nd person perspective, but that's just me).

I love Fan Fiction, I love it. All of it, and man even more than anything, what I love is that I'm going to dislike 80% of it. Because that 80% was written for someone who is not me. (Hell, that number's probably closer to 99% if we're looking at ALL fandoms, but I digress).

Second - The VENT:

What got me the most in the post that prompted this, was someone saying "Bring back the Mary Sue OCs!" and then they went on to describe something more detailed, and I just -

Look, respectfully, fuck you.

The point is, you're not going to be happy no matter what. Whether it's "mary sue" OCs, or x readers, or alternative universes, or a ship you don't like, you're going to find something to be unhappy about.

Cause people have been bitching about all styles of fan fiction since the first "You've Got Mail" chimed in 1991. And until 1998 and ff.net you really had to hunt for it, and until 2007 and Ao3 the idea of tagging a fic for any reason wasn't really a thing. Every click was a surprise! \o/

I just have seen the same song and dance a dozen times. It's exhausting. People become okay with OCs and decide x readers are the enemy, and before that OCs were *all* Mary Sues and cringe and people who made OCs were the enemy, and before OCs people who wrote even a little OOC were the enemy, and people who wrote AUs were the enemy, and you can write fan fic but it HAS to be Canon Compliant, and everyone MUST be in-character at all times - "They would not fucking say that" was the enemy.

Look, just please - please - in any capacity, stop it with the "All X style of story telling is crap" mindset. There's over a dozen different ways to do x readers alone. I know 20 x reader writers and I don't think any of us have the same style, preferences, or vibes.

I've had a lot of comments along the lines of "I thought I hated x readers, but I really loved this." on a few different fics I've written. Sometimes it's not the style of the fic, sometimes it's the style of the writer, and my Brother In Christ - you're going to have to read some awful shit to shuffle through the thousands of writers out there to find the vibes that resonate with you.

Ostracizing entire swathes of fan fic because you need something to be "The Enemy" so you can lift up something else, and then bitching you can't find anything new to read seems like a personal problem.

And I know y'all are scrolling by TONS of posts that don't interest you, every day, as a matter of course. So don't give me that "clogging up the tag" BS, because we deserve to be here same as anyone else in the fandom.

#quin grumbles #I'm so aggravated I don't even really know how to tag this #like almost 30 years of it I'm just so done #I just wonder what amazing stories we're not getting #cause of some fucker using Mary Sue to belittle someone #or someone beating someone else over the head with plot armor because their protag survived something terrible? #How many “Oh.” moments have been missed because someone criticized the very concept of reader insert? #I'm way past my usual bedtime so I'm just rambling at this point #and I am being meaner than I'd like #but JFC #I'm not going to let people's bullshit opinions stop me or anyone else from writing if I can avoid it. #Write what you want #gush about it #talk about it #TELL ME ABOUT IT #IDGAF if it's cringe or overpowered or broken or flawless or an OC or a reader with a name or WHATEVER #If it brings you joy #then do it #and if people are too mean to scroll by it when it's not their thing #and then complain like they're entitled to do so #block 'em. #and tell me who they are so I can block them too #then write more #cause I promise it'll bring someone else joy too

[rauchendesgnu]

So apparently I'm going to make a tma sona. someone send help...

#the magnus archives #tma #magpod #tma sona #he's a little eye man #I don't have a name yet but there is something of a concept based on me so #tma oc

[fidgetspringer-art]

The Shimmer Shields - Uniform design

#digital art #illustration #artists on tumblr #art #dungeons and dragons #dnd #ttrpg #homebrew #concept art #original characters #ocs #my ocs #Fen tag #Alowin tag #Setting: Heim #I was gonna do this rendered all pretty and stuff #but i've already spent too much time fiddling with this so flats will have to do #i really wanted to get the Shields uniform down on paper #as well as two of my silly little guys #Fen is wearing the standard officer uniform that people would commonly see on the streets of Novo-Mellior #Alowin is wearing the private hire uniform since he gets assigned to Tethry after a failed attempt on his life #The private hire uniform comes with a cape meant to cover the sword at their hip during formal events. #also anyone who ends up on private hire is ribbed pretty heavily by the rest of the soldiers since #that often means they get assigned either to some arrogant noble or an important caster (like an archmage) #and with the way that Shields and casters don't get along very well you'll get bullied for babysitting one. #The Shields value their uniforms and gear very highly since to a lot of them it's the only thing of significance that they own. #Their bracers and shields (not pictured cause idk what i want to do for them yet) are tiled with flail snail shell #which allows them to both block and reflect any spells cast at them back on the caster #it's also where the name of their order comes from cause shiny #I had big plans for this piece but at the end of the day it's just a design sheet