#but this does seem to be a pattern

[dragonageruinedmylife]

The phenomenon of how the dragon age fandom (and to some extent, Bioware fandom as a whole) views its content is honestly one of the most interesting things I've seen in fandom spaces.

I was introduced to dragon age in 2011-2012, Played Origins and then II, enjoyed them both enough that when I learned about Inquisition, I got really excited. The consensus back then, by most people I talked to fandom wise seemed to be: Origins is great, II is good but struggles because of its short development. When Inquisition came out, the reception seemed to be super positive. It won GOTY after all!

Cut to now. In the last few years as things led up to Veilguard, it seemed that there were these little camps of fandom that had cropped up. Groups like "Origins is the best and everything has been trash since" or the shift that seems to have taken over where II is looked back on as a favorite for a lot of people. As well as pop-ups about people saying they didn't enjoy Inquisition that much for whatever reason, but don't think its a bad game.

Veilguard has been out for less than a month, and while I do think it's fine and healthy to critique the media we enjoy and consume, it feels like people are quick to try and compare it to the previous games and make it fall short. And the irony of that is, that nearly any critique I see about Veilguard could be applied to its predecessors.

While I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with this cycle, people are going to enjoy or not enjoy what they will, I hope that Veilguard does not suffer Mass Effect: Andromeda's fate. Where any critique about it drowns out what was good (and there were great things in Andromeda) to the point that it ruins the chance for another dive back into that world.

[elodieunderglass]

And one amang, an Iyrysch man,

Uppone his hoby swyftly ran…

WAIT HANG ON - slamming the brakes on drawing this stupid picture - do you nerds even KNOW the etymology of the word “hobby”? The thing you do for pleasure? The thing you have too many of? The thing you spend too much money on and share with your friends? The thing tumblr probably is to you? Those hobbies?

It comes from a now-kind-of-extinct breed of Irish pony-horse. It was called the Irish Hobby. Supposedly the hobby got its name from the Gaelic word obann, or swift. They definitely were. They’d obann your pants clean off.

Fast tough little bastards, built for rough terrain and renowned for their speed and stamina, hobby horses belonged to the Celts, and their highly annoying style of mounted warfare. but their conquerors liked hobby horses a lot, kept them, used them for themselves, and found them useful enough, despite the fact that they also had famously useful things like mounted knights or horse archers. A lightweight Irish warrior, mounted on a hobby horse, was called a hobelar.

Reportedly and in depictions, hobelars rode without stirrups. Or saddles. Or bridles. Or - well - this is all sounding very improbable, because the hobelars COULDNT have just been charging around basically bare-assed on naked ponies, screaming, and somehow in the process undoing the composure of actual mounted armoured knights. Knights who, I remind you, had stirrups. Stirrups are useful! It’s quite likely the hobelars had some gear. And clothes. and weapons. And the ponies probably had some tack - I am picturing a bellyband that you could at least hang a saddlebag on, and a neck rope for catching the bloody thing, even if not a saddle. But the overall impression, somehow created by people on darling little ponies, was apparently quite striking and fearful.

I mean. God Forbid People Have Hobbies.

Anyway after a while, whatever people became the British had eventually conquered all of the rough terrain that hobbies were best at, and horse archers just got sexier, and mounted knights became aristos, and all the bog and forest people had been subdued, so it was time to sunset the hobelars. but WAIT! Hobby horses are still tremendously fun and appealing! They’re so fast! and you can ride them without a saddle! Sure, they’re not up to the weight of a mounted knight, or indeed a lot of guys… but surely we can still find a use for a hobby or two? In the back garden? Somewhere?

At which point an English king decided to keep hobby horses just for fun. No military application. No further development of the technology. Not for fun. Just as expensive, pleasurable, pets. Just for the joy of the thing.

And that is how hobby (activity done purely for pleasure) comes from hobby horse (small horse) possibly from obann (swift.) they’re very interesting and you should look all this up for yourself! because it sure sounds like Elodie doing a bit, doesn’t it?

Today, Irish Hobbies are functionally nonexistent. References for drawing include the Kerry Bog Pony, the Connemara, and (I personally think) Dartmoors and Exmoors. They’re said to have lent their speed to the Irish Hunter/Sport Horse and from there to the Thoroughbred, but every damn horse in the world claims relation to the Thoroughbred, and they can’t be THAT thoroughly bred.

At any rate - you can never have enough hobbies. Just be glad that yours aren’t expensive beasts with minds of their own, eating their heads off in the pasture! …Unless they are. In which case, you’re part of a proud tradition.

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

I'm coming more and more to think that there simply are people for whom housework is not a big deal and people for whom it is always daunting and miserable, and never the twain shall meet

[impossiblesublimelight]

Owl Courting Rituals

Food Offerings (particularly of prey)

Aerial Displays - Courtship Flights/Dances

Vocalization - Special Calls (Singing)

[vaguely-concerned]

sometimes I think of all the on-the-surface warm, well-meaning but deeply ineffectual advice and attention john gives harrow through harrow the ninth (make some soup and get some sleep! get a hobby! don't be so hard on yourself! self care harrow! as long as I need take no actual responsibility in this relationship whatsoever I would have loved to be your dad!) set up against the stark truth that with his other hand he has been staging her attempted horrific murder again and again and again like a living nightmare on the logic that it will 'put her down or fix her'. and then I find that I wish there is a hell. a special hell where twitch streamers turned necromantic death emperors go

[justwantswafflefries]

"Doctor, I'm going insane. I've got a bad mind. Give me a new brain."

It's Ragatha but now she's Skye Riley from Smile 2! Idk i feel like they'd get along. i feel like Ragatha would like her music lol. Just look at that lovely smile! Y'all remember to smile too! women with rapidly deteriorating mental states 🥰 >>>>>>>>>>

[littencloud9]

you post a fic in a rarepair tag and it’s like throwing food into a fish tank and watching all the fish swim up to eat but you post a fic in a popular ship tag and it’s like trying to feed an ungrateful goat. and the goat kicks you also

[tiredandoptimistic]

I'm choosing to believe that Matthew got his fondness for waistcoats from Henry.

[mumblesplash]

ok so obviously food tracking isn’t for everybody but man the combination of outsourcing the working memory aspect and lightly gamifying macronutrient targets has done wonders. like for instance did you know you can eat varied and nutritious foods throughout the day instead of forgetting to eat for 8 hours and wondering why you always feel like shit at 6pm. has anyone heard of this. crazy stuff

[biblicalhorror]

Aroace Riz real but also Fabian is SO clearly in love with him and Riz has no idea

[ingihasextra]

toby fox and co youve done it again

[rottmnt-residuum]

Helloo!! I wanna ask about something from Arc 1 Part 18 to 20, what does the chip do? Is it a tracking device?? (The chip that they are putting in Donnie's brain). sorry if this had already been asked

but, to be clear... the tag and the chip are very different

[victoriousscarf]

Alright up next on the clone commander shawl project is dearly beloved Commander Ponds!

One of my main goals with this project was to mostly use up stash yarn, which I succeeded with in both Cody and Fox! (However very quickly I ran out of white, so most shawls from here on out will be stash+white bought specifically for it lol). But with Ponds... I could not for the life of me find a brown that matched him, and then when I did it was only in Sport weight, so he's the exception to the rule: his yarn was bought entirely specially for this project!

Commander Cody * Commander Fox * Commander Ponds

Also I sent a quick shot of this shawl right after I got it off my needles to @hastalavistabyebye before I even got it blocked or its beauty pics and they immediately got back to me with a fanart of cosy Ponds wearing it so please go tell them they're amazing for that too.

Pattern: Doo Wop

[vaguely-concerned]

for various rl and depression reasons I haven't actually gotten to play da:tv for quite a few days now, and I cannot adequately convey to you the sheer hilarity of the effect hearing lucanis' voice again just had on me. I was fully in the deepest trough of a depressive slump, still breathing but by no means what I would describe as 'alive', heard him Say Something (as he does), and immediately something in my soul went 'oh yeah no this changes everything actually I just forgot for a moment there sorry for the inconvenience'. like my depression is not healed or anything (it never is :') ) but it did lift its crushing weight from my entire being by a significant amount and let discernible light in where there had been pitch dark unshifting misery before. this is so funny. no real life human contact or warmth, no high ideals, no wise words encouraging hope, no awe nor curiosity over the infinite complexity and wonder of the universe has managed to do what lucanis dellamorte breezily coming to terms with the grand necropolis by grasping its role in nevarra's financial system just did in an instant, 'what like it's hard' style. no one is more baffled than me to find that it's not even a bit he just does that to me. that literally just happened. mary kirby I unironically kind of owe you my life

[thirrith]

草（中日雙語）

should i make this hat that just reads a string of expletives against a serene green background or

[kindahoping4forever]

Do you think this fandom is dying?

Note: I originally got this ask a while back and didn't get a chance to answer before the Malum stuff started happening and it seemed like this idea might be less of a concern. But recently I've seen similarly themed conversations and thought my answer might still be relevant.

I can definitely understand how one might be tempted to see things that way but I think there's a few important distinctions to consider before any grand statements are made.

When the band is off tour and between albums, fandom activity usually slows and then with the new era, we see a resurgence of fans excited and ready to engage, along with new fans and typically a few from the past checking in. (Solo eras tend to bring in a similar type of resurgent activity but nowhere near the level of when the proper band is releasing a project and the broad interest tends to taper after the initial single release, as we're seeing the dropoff with Malum right now.)

We're also currently in the midst of what may end up being the band's longest period of public inactivity to date. Fans often talk about the "drought" during 2017 while Youngblood was being recorded but in actuality, we were still getting daily content from their socials and they even went on a 13 date tour that year. Even during covid, it felt like forever but between the CALM release and promo, 5SOS5 recording updates via socials and the content we likely wouldn't have gotten outside of the pandemic (ie: the infamous Amazon stream, the Quarantea, a few IG lives and the tier list), we were still getting fed. Contrast that all with where we are now: 5SOS5 is nearly 3 years old, they haven't played a show since October 2023 and we know the next album is actively underway but we really have no idea where they are in the process because they for the most part (understandably) are not sharing much on socials anymore. There's not a ton of fandom discussion going on because there's not a ton to discuss tbqh.

Is the online fandom smaller than it used to be? Absolutely. Do I think this means people are actually changing their ways and renouncing their fandom in droves? No. I've been a fan for 11 years and an active online contributor for 7 and I can honestly say that the 5SOS online fandom is one of the most brutal, emotionally taxing and at times toxic fandoms I have ever engaged with. I'll always be grateful for it, it's changed my life in countless ways and I wouldn't be who I am today without it but I have absolutely paid a price being involved with it as deeply and as long as I have. Tumblr is hands down the chillest branch of the fandom (with that said, I have still had some downright ugly experiences over the years) but it's also the smallest and quietest. We're an island of sorts, vibing somewhere else, and while I've always been a big advocate of curating your own experience online, it's not always practical to completely tune out the happenings on other platforms that see more engagement but also a lot more toxicity. I personally know a handful of people (and have anecdotally seen numerous others) reach a breaking point and decide to protect their peace and cut online engagement out of their fandom diet, save for official channels and their own safe circle. In all transparency, even I have seriously considered that choice more than once and as recently as last year. The band isn't losing fans, a lot of fans feel they've lost a community where they feel comfortable spending their time without judgement or drama (whether the target be the band or the fans themselves) constantly threatening to infiltrate what should be a safe space.

This somewhat goes hand in hand with the previous point but I'd be remiss not to mention another key component of this equation: life is hard and people are tired. It's a sweeping generalization but I think most would agree it's one that's hard to argue with. The past few years have been rough and running this blog, I've seen it take its toll on the way people engage. Posts that would've once been reblogged with fervent tags become silent likes, friendly asks and comments that would've once been sent remain unwritten, fic ideas that would've once been written settle for being unexplored concepts in a friend's DMs. Having an online presence can be taxing especially if you're engaging socially, especially if you're a creative contributor in the community and it takes the kind of energy that a lot of people are in short supply of these days. If this new normal continues to behave the way it has for the past couple years, I'd expect to see a few peaks in engagement when big moments happen (album announcement/release, first music video/performance back, tour beginning/ending, etc) but for the most part, daily interaction is left to a core group.

So all this to say... the answer to your question is somehow both yes and no! In general, I don't find it unusual or concerning for a fandom's activity to fluctuate, especially a fandom as long-running as ours.

If I've learned anything over the years, it's that this fandom is predictable. The fandom at large has a bad habit of getting bored easily and that boredom often leads people to jump ship until things are exciting again. Others may choose to make their own excitement, which almost always results in drama (whether it be about fellow fans or the band itself), which in turn leads to people stepping away and the cycle continues on. It can definitely be frustrating to experience but time after time, once the band returns, so does the enthusiasm, the drifters and the positive vibes. So I'd say, don't count us out yet!