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n0rmandysr1 · 6 months

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20 Questions For Fic Writers

Tagged by @natsora cheers!

Tagging @swaps55 @mallaidhsomo @gardensystemtv no pressure!

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

2. what’s your total ao3 word count?

903,419

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Baldur's Gate, Critical Role

4. what are your top five fics by kudos?

wipe me clean with dirty hands (Baldur's Gate)

Encroachment (Mass Effect)

Fianchetto (Mass Effect)

Vendetta (Mass Effect)

Offside (Critical Role)

5. do you respond to comments?

Always, but it sometimes takes me a while

6. what’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

don't you know (i dream of you): Perfect Machine is probably angstier but I haven't quite finished the last chapter, so of my finished fics, this one is it, given the character death and it all being about grief post Baldur's Gate 3.

7. what’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Honestly my fics with happy endings aren't finished yet and they're more...bittersweet with explorations of trauma than straight up happy lmaoo.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten some weird comments before but honestly not really a lot of hate. Juust a few that crack me up like the person who thought i hate men because Emilia saves Kaidan in Encroachment...which canonically happens.......

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?

BG3 has made me write much more smut than I used to. Used to be an occasionally thing but more often now. All wlw pretty much.

10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not really, no.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep. One of my DA fics got translated into russian

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, I co-write with a couple of buddies.

14. what’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hard question. Used to be Ash/femshep easily, but now probably a tie between Tav/Karlach and Ash/Shep

15. what’s a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Hmm, I think I have intention and capability to ifnish the majority of my WIPs. The only onee that might fit ismy post war ME fic, mostly cause I'm not entirely sure what I really want to do with it outside of some ideas I want to explore.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Characters and combat

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Description sometimes of like, surroundings and that stuff. I find character stuff more interesting so can sometimes be a bit too bare bones with that.

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Nah. II do one off words sometimes but if a character is speaking in another lanmguage I'll usually write it in english with mention that they;re talking in another language.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Eragon llmao. That was my mediocre book series I loved as a teenager what can I say.

20. favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I have a big soft spot for Encroachment. it was the first big fic I finished, it was born out of me wanting to see the ash/shep milscifii fic I wanted in the world. I've gotten some very loyal readers over the last six years I appreciate immensely.

#tag meme

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mdhwrites · 6 months

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I've once seen a TOH critical post that said the show has too many characters and that some of them should've been combined into fewer characters from the get go:

Amity + Hunter = lesbian/wlw Golden Guard, sassy teen with abusive background who is eventually redeemed

Willow + Gus = Luz's first friend on TBI, very magically powerful for their age

Edric + Emira = trickster illusionist (I don't remember other details besides this-)

And while they haven't been mentioned in the original post I assume Alador and Darius would have to be combined too (as Amity/Hunter's flawed father figure who is proficient at abomination magic) and Odalia would be removed entirely since Belos already serves as the abusive parental figure

I guess other combinations that could work are Boscha + Bria (most antagonistic bully against Willow/Gus) and Skara + Matt (less mean/redeemed bully who later befriends Willow/Gus) though op haven't mentioned them either

What do you think? Personally I have mixed feelings on this idea tbh

So you are taking this too far. The original poster picked their first three pairings for a reason. Those three couples all serve similar narrative functions and pairing the two down to one wouldn't necessarily change a lot, though I think the Hunter one is inaccurate for who to combine and I'll get to that. First let's talk about you taking this too far.

Darius is NOT a father figure for Amity (though if you did combine her and Hunter, he would make sense to be one but now we're rewriting the entire show) and his mastery over abominations is more meant to mean that he is the eventual obstacle who uses abomination magic like all of the Coven Heads were theoretically presented as to begin with. Bria is a one off antagonist who's specific background and the fact that she's unknown to Gus play into the episode and the role she must play. Matt and Skara shouldn't have been combined due to narrative similarities but more to make it so when Skara randomly is now Willow's friend, it feels natural AT ALL which is more a problem of TOH reusing Skara without realizing who they're reusing in that episode besides her being a character people liking the design of.

And that last part also can often justify a one off character. Vee overall serves effectively no purpose to the overall story but she's good for her one episode and inspired a lot of people. A charismatic rando can be good for your fandom. It allows more variety in who they can use, be attached to and what stories by the community can be made. MLP did this too with the BILLION BACKGROUND PONIES.

BUT.

TOH does have a primary cast problem and a redundancy problem within it. The problem isn't combining characters though, it's that some just had to be straight up cut. It just has WAY too many that are cued as important as one could argue the primary cast, who we're told is important, ranges from 7 (the Hexside Squad/Eda/King) to 9 (including Lilith and Belos). Even a full 3 seasons of 20 episodes would only have allowed an average of almost 7 episodes per character and Amity gets that many episodes in Season ONE. Anyways, onto the three pairings:

I've already argued in the past that Hunter is redundant to literally THREE characters in the show and does each of their jobs WORSE. The parental issues and redemption of Amity, the connection to the EC and having power that Lilith did in S1 (which means S2's 'main plot' with Hunter does come across as a copy of S1 as a note but less personal) and then the fear of exile of Kikimora but not nearly as over the top since we're supposed to at least slightly respect Hunter. Hunter's existence is part of why Lilith has to infantilized and mocked as much as she is because otherwise, she'd be gunning for Belos by her S1 characterization but that would get in the way of Hunter being the main connection against the enemy. All of his scenes with Belos are just "Be a good pawn." "Okay but what if I'm not?" "Be a good pawn" repeated like three times. It's such a basic and shallow relationship that when Belos isn't around for Sport in a Storm, Darius can easily just replace Belos in getting Hunter to do something by effectively the same means that Belos would have.

I've also talked about how Gus and Willow need one of them replaced. Not fully cut like Hunter who I think was just a mistake to add in S2 but that one of them needed to be Viney. This is more because Viney at least practices multiple magics and so could show a different side of how the coven system effects young witches, like she does in her one main episode, while Gus/Willow could have been the evangelist. Admittedly, you could also have cut both Gus and Willow for Viney and made Amity the evangelist for the coven system due to inherent skill in only one magic. It fits into the theoretical thematics, worldbuilding and story of the show. As it stands, Willow, Gus and Amity as the three kids Luz befriends is awkward because they imply Belos is right. Willow effectively CAN'T cast other types of magic from what we've seen but can rival a coven head WITHOUT TRAINING OR PRACTICE so long as she's using plant magic. That's bad. That's just bad, unless Belos is right and Willow is a chosen one to be the next plant Coven Head.

On the flipside... There's no reason to cut Emira or Edric. They're effectively one character and practically one offs. They get one more B plot after their introduction and are good comedy in Adventure in the Elements but otherwise they barely exist. Not only that but they always exist as a pair. Edric gets his own thing to do in Reaching Out but that's the closest we come to individual character development besides the differences in their personality which make them fun for fandom. Otherwise... They most exist to give Amity support and to give Amity someone to talk to which is the purpose of a supporting cast to a supporting member. Fusing them wouldn't do anything but make them less unique honestly since we don't see many twins in media.

Then again, they also might be twins because of Fred and George because the show mocks Harry Potter while obviously taking PLENTY of inspiration from it.

But Harry Potter had FOUR primary characters. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Voldemort and Voldemort, like Belos, was an absentee villain. We were only ever supposed to expect those three characters to be important and get development though with only MAYBE two exceptions in Snape and Dumbledore. That focus benefited it from book one to book seven, loathe as I am to praise Rowling's writing.

It is a page TOH should have considered taking from because its twin pair of main casts (Hexide Squad and The Owl House) only joined by one character did it no favors, before or after the shortening.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #hunter toh #gus porter #willow park

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tantawans · 4 years

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can I ask for some of your unpopular opinions about bl & lakorns. you seem to have the best take on things and explain yourself so eloquently 💛

oh this is so sweet! i wouldn't say i'm eloquent at all but i appreciate that you think that! i have a lot of opinions so i'll put them under a read more for people who don't want to hear them lmao. these are some general opinions but if there's something specific you would like my opinion on let me know!

i feel like bls can be very misogynistic. this is personally why i don't watch many bls any more. they often villainize the female characters and make them this obstacle that's always trying to come between the main couple and try to make us hate them when they're the ones being cheated on and lied to by their partner or they're an obsessed fangirl who's only personality trait is shipping men together and writing fanfiction. or they just don't have female characters in general and if they do then they aren't written well or developed at all.

lakorns are underrated. bls are obviously extremely popular within the thai drama community but that same popularity isn't extended to lakorns. i feel like this is because people are only interested in watching their ships which i believe is rooted in the fetishisation of mlm. but a lot of my favourite dramas are lakorns and i think they have a lot to offer so i wish more people would give them a chance.

i'll be the first to say there is a severe lack of wlw content in comparison to mlm BUT it definitely exists if you actively search for it. but i feel like most people only say they want more wlw content but don't actually care to look for it or post about and only say it so they don't seem like they're fetishising mlm who just watches bl dramas. also while there's more mlm content in general it's usually always made with girls as the target audience rather than men so it’s still not amazing representation.

and finally the opinion i always make known... the normalisation of rape, abuse, cheating etc within dramas (but especially bl because it reinforces a lot of already existing stereotypes about gay men) is extremely problematic but will sadly never stop because we keep giving those shows a platform. if those types of shows are constantly becoming popular and doing well then they will keep being made. it’s our job as fans to be more critical and not just blindly watch any show just because our favourite ship/actor etc is in it.

#these are the opinions that first came to mind but if theres anything else you can think that i didnt mention #then u can send something more specific and i'll answer i love talking about my opinions lmao #anonymous #💌

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