arielleej

[arielleej]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61938691/chapters/182987101

New chapter day!

[arielleej]

morrigan sketches

[arielleej]

I feel attacked.

Live footage of me trying to dodge Simon's light attack combo

[arielleej]

Shadowheart among Night Orchids :)

[arielleej]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61938691/chapters/177548796

New chapter day!

[arielleej]

Fandom spaces have GOT to stop finding out about concept art & saying they were supposed to have x or y. That’s not how concept art works, there isn’t a secret better show they decided to hide from you for no reason

[arielleej]

Fanfiction is so silly. I am playing with my dolls and people are coming over to watch. Some of them even clap and give me compliments. And when I'm done playing, I can go and watch other people play with their dolls.

[arielleej]

I keep seeing these takes about how Arcane CaitVi is now a dying fandom since it’s been 8 months since the end of the show, and y’all this is wild to me

Like, I saw people saying this to make a fandom creator who isn’t getting tons of interaction with their fanworks feel better, but the truth is that this fandom is soooo active and the reason some fanfics and art won’t get as much attention as others is just because there is SO much, and things get buried

I posted a Caitvi one shot yesterday at about 1pm and 9 hours later at 10pm it was on the 6th page of Caitvi fics on Ao3. (for the record I wasn’t checking, my spouse went to go read it and assumed it would be on the first page still!) That is a HUGE amount of content that got posted/updated in 9 hours!!

And okay I 100% get the feeling of “I worked so hard on this fanwork and it got way less attention than I hoped/thought it would” — but that’s the reality of the internet sometimes. Of course we all see the awesome work that goes viral within fandoms because … it went viral!! There are sooooo many other things we never see simply because there’s SO much content!! If you wish your work was getting more attention, you are one of hundreds if not thousands feeling the same way just in this fandom!!

And it can be tough sometimes as a creator, but it’s a good thing to be in such a prolific fandom and I hope it stays this way for a long time! I think a lot of this fandom is younger or newer to fandom in general, and maybe just don’t have experience with smaller fandoms? For perspective, that same one shot I posted yesterday has about 66 kudos less than 24 hours later. A Shadowzel oneshot I posted in February of this year has 68 kudos. My most popular Shadowzel fic from over a year ago has less than half the number of hits as my most popular Caitvi fic posted 7 months ago! But compared to the most popular Caitvi fics, mine are practically obscure!

It’s just the way things are in a fandom this big, and I really really encourage newer fandom creators to not think so hard about the number of likes, hits, kudos, reposts, or comments that you get on your fanworks. As someone who’s been posting fanfic for coming on 13 years, trust me when I say that I get how valuable that interaction is…

But even if you only have 10 kudos on something. Imagine if you were standing in a room with those 10 strangers who all read your fic and liked it enough to leave a kudos!!!! That’s AMAZING!!!! You wrote that because it made you happy and 10 whole real people also experienced that joy and excitement from what you created!!

“Write/create for yourself” is much easier said than done, but it should be your ultimate goal even if it’s not entirely attainable. I still feel down when I post something that is some of my best work and it doesn’t get much feedback or attention, it feels like people aren’t giving a chance when I think they’d like it… but it’s likely that it just got buried. But even if it is too niche or people didn’t love it… ultimately I am no less proud of that work, it by itself brings me no less joy. Because I wrote it for me. I reread my fics and look back at my art all the time—I made that for me first and I am so happy that I have it to look back at.

Anyway, this was a long ramble, but I just had to get it out after sitting on these thoughts for a couple of days.

Remember that your contributions to fandom, whether it’s art, fics, memes, theories, or literally just hits, likes, and kudos, are sooooo important, and any engagement you get in response is a bonus.

Remember that you should be here to have fun and connect with people. I’ve made some of my best friends through fandoms that, compared to their peaks, are now super dead. But the friends remain, and the joy remains, that’s what matters 💜

[arielleej]

She has my brain in her hands atm

[arielleej]

x10000000

Given the new announcement about vol. 10 I just wanna say something.

I hope the writers get to take their time. I hope the animators are treated well. I hope the show gets the relaunch and hype it deserves.

Even if it takes multiple years from now for it to happen.

We will be like starving, ravaged dogs chomping at the bit for sustenance. And I think that would make a new volume even more enjoyable.

[arielleej]

A walk down memory lane

The Old Guard 2 (2025)

[arielleej]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61938691/chapters/173537149

New chapter day!

[arielleej]

four cheers to the show that just can't be stopped! 💖🤍🖤💛

[arielleej]

Finished my dragon age bunch 2.0 with girls and two imposters who are often mistaken for gurls anyway

[arielleej]

I think people really, really need to learn the difference between "this story was Poorly Written" and "I had extremely specific expectations of what I wanted this story to be and was extremely disappointed that it went in a different direction."

Similarly, people need to learn the difference between "this character was written Out-of-Character" and "I built up so many headcanons for this particular character that I wound up with my own extremely specific interpretation of them and was extremely disappointed when those headcanons were jossed."

You are allowed to experience disappointment when stories don't go in the direction you want them to! But that is not the same thing as those stories being poorly written.

[arielleej]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61938691/chapters/170867440

New chapter day!

[arielleej]

I only come on this app like once every two or three months to reblog fan art of whatever wlw ship I'm currently hyper fixating on and then dip. I'm Old TM by fandom standards and have spent way too much time in the trenches of fandom discourse to have the energy for that again, I've done my time. I'm not here to write a lengthy essay defending Caitlyn and/or CaitVi - no, I'm here simply to share an observation:

Many of you Caitlyn and CaitVi haters are super predictable.

Y'all have been regurgitating the same talking points since fucking 2014. Might not be the same people (god I hope it's not), but it's the same. thing. every. time. Doesn't matter the genre of the show or what happens between the characters, y'all will trot out the same reheated arguments.

"Caitlyn is a fascist dictator and you are a N*zi if you support her"

Is just reheated "Lexa is a fascist dictator" and "Catra is a fascist dictator" and "Edelgard is a fascist dictator." I would argue that Caitlyn is actually the least morally grey of that group, but anyway, it's "curious" how all these properties have equally (or even more) morally grey male characters that get rehabed by the fandom while the wlw are irredeemable fascists that only N*zis would like.

"CaitVi is a toxic relationship, Caitlyn is a domestic abuser that physically beats up Vi all the time and/or manipulates her"

None of these points are supported at all by the text imo, but anyway, it's the same language used to describe Clexa and Catradora and god knows how many other wlw ships in shows with popular non-wlw ships that have very similar dynamics. Even compared to other popular Arcane ships, this accusation is super hypocritical given how TimeBomb beat the shit out of each other in season 1 and Jayce literally blasts a hole in Viktor's chest for plot reasons. I would also like to point out that the super harmful stereotype of lesbians being domestic abusers was born out of wildly misinterpreted statistics of domestic abuse in real life.

"JayVik and/or Timebomb is actually more queer than CaitVi"

Is just badly reheated pasta made from the same ingredients as "Makorra is actually more queer than Korrasami" and "Bellarke is actually more queer than Clexa" and "Hordtrapta is actually more queer than Catradora" and "Dimileth is actually more queer than Edeleth" and "Huntlow is actually more queer than Lumity" , the arguments are always just as nonsensical because there's just flat out no such thing as a same sex ship being "less queer" than any other ship.

CaitVi literally fuck, on screen, in a sex scene that has literally won a god damn award and went on to become the most captured moment in all of godman Netflix. Regardless of your opinion on the ship, that visibility is important. The fact that a whole theater full of people started screaming as loudly as a jet engine with executives from Riot to hear it all is important.

The final scene of the show is literally them snuggling in front of the fire place and promising to always be together. That's gay as fuck. So, stop embarassing yourself with this regurgitated "X canon wlw ship isn't as queer as -" nonsense, which btw, is just an extension of real life same sex relationships between women not being taken seriously because society overall still centers men in romance and can't fathom a romantic relationship not involving a man. Y'all know you can't even debate me on this in fandom spaces because all I have to do is point at the number of mlm and f/m fics on ao3 vs the crumbs that big fandoms give wlw ships.

Now on to the excuses and disclaimers that are trotted out.

"I can't be misogynistic I'm a woman-" Yes, yes you can. If you think that only conservative women can suffer from internalized misogyny, boy do I have years of working in leftist organizing spaces to dispel that notion. If you think that fandom spaces are somehow immune to misogyny- lol. Lmao. See the above point about mlm and f/m fics on ao3.

"I can't be lesbophobic/biphobic I'm literally queer -" Yes, yes you can. Both intersect with misogyny, and see the above point about misogyny. You can be a biphobic lesbian, you can be a lesbophobic bisexual, you can even be a biphobic bisexual and a lesbophobic lesbian. Wild, I know, thank the cis- heteropatriarchy.

"I can't be racist because I'm a POC -" Yes, yes you absolutely fucking can. I also have other news for you - despite how much some of you fuckers want to pretend Caitlyn isn't East Asian because of racist assumptions of what East Asians should look like and/or be depicted like in media, she is, and she's important rep, especially in a time when anti-East Asian (and Asian in general) bigotry has been rising in Western countries. No amount of "ACAB BLM Free Palestine" tags in your profile will make you immune from being racist. This leads me to a related point -

Y'all love to scream about wanting more rep with sapphic woc, but then when that rep comes, you tear it down or center other ships. Korrasami is toxic, CaitVi is toxic, Tanthamore is boring, Lumity is fine but I prefer Huntlow, etc.

Furthermore, the only, and I mean only time that black sapphic characters will be mentioned will be to prop them up as good rep vs whatever wlw you hate, but then when I go to those black sapphic character's/ship's Tumblr and ao3 tags, nothing! It's a ghost town! Those characters get paid dust by both wlw fandoms and the people using them as props to hate on other wlw characters! This is definitely a call out to wlw fandoms too btw, I have yet to see a ship with a black sapphic character explode in popularity, and that's on us too.

So, what is the purpose of this rant? Well, I know that most people that read it will dig in and further entrench themselves in their hatred of Caitlyn and CaitVi, but I'm hoping that at least one person genuinely re-examines that hatred and where it might be coming from. You don't have to like Caitlyn or CaitVi, you can criticize the ship and the characters. But if your criticisms and hatred are almost beat for beat the same accusations that have been thrown at wlw ships in even wildly different shows and contexts, and/or you excuse male characters and non-wlw ships with similar dynamics, then it's time to do some soul searching.

Anyway, this has already been long enough. I'm doing policy advocacy with local LGBTQ organizations and will go back to working on that. Whatever your opinions of Caitlyn and CaitVi are, there are fascists out there in the real world to fight.