askoutofmalice

[askoutofmalice]

“Hey uh, can I have my soul back? Turns out I need it haha-“

( @yigabalali - in uniform for once lol)

Uh... I'm... sorry. I fear that you either have me mistaken for someone else, or the circumstances under which your soul was taken are... much different than the current ones.

[askoutofmalice]

FOR THE PERSON BEHIND THIS ACCOUNT:

how'd you get started doing this account? also do you have any advice for someone who's thinking of doing a similar account? /genq

As someone who has run many an ask blog in different fandoms over the years, people asking me for advice in starting their own is something that happens pretty frequently.

Making an ask blog for your favourite character is a great way to explore that character in more depth without needing the narrative of writing a fanfiction, not to mention a super fun way to interact with the fandom community!

Ther's no right or wrong way to run an ask blog; but I'm happy to share some of the things I've learned over the years from trial and error for those just dipping their talon into this creative format for the first time.

There's two different ways you can start your ask blog; by creating a side-blog off of your main blog, or by creating a whole new blog. Either works fine, but I personally favour having a full blog - you can make a gmail in two minutes then bash out a full blog just like that. The drawback is that sometimes I forget to log back onto my main blog; but a side blog cannot send asks to other blogs and you have to remember to set everything you post to the correct blog, which can get confusing at times.

While decorating your new blog; make a rules page and write out a list of things you're not okay with people asking. Maybe you're uncomfortable with rude or violent asks - with topics of sexual harassment or racism or homophobia. Maybe you don't want to roleplay, or you only want to interact with people that follow your specific ship. You can put whatever you want on your rules page - but pin that post so that newcomers can read it and know what is and isn't okay to send in.

When you first start your blog, it can be a little tricky to get the ball rolling. I recomend following other ask blogs and active blogs in the fandom and interacting with their posts to connect with other people. Even then however, you might need to either get a friend to send you a couple of asks or send a few anonymous asks to yourself to get started.

Don't be discouraged if it takes a few days or weeks for people to starts sending in asks. It takes a long time to foster people's interest and engagement no matter how popular or interesting the character is.

A big question people often have is; should I post art with my asks?

From my experience, you could be the greatest writer in the world - but posts you make which have a visual aspect will always grab more attention on a social media platform designed for scrolling than just normal text posts. People have short attention spans. Keep text responses short, and add something sparkly to grab peoples attention.

Not everyone is an artist or has time to draw, but that doesn't mean you can't still make your posts visually interesting. You could use gifs or screenshots of your character, you could handwrite your replies to make them look like letters or diary entries (although if you ever do illustrated text, make sure to include it as a caption below for screenreaders to still be able to access), or even just make your reply fonts colourful or large or play around with different fonts to make them stand out from other posts.

If you do want to draw replies I encourage it because it's a great way to improve your drawing skills fast. If you're worried about your skill level, you can always make it part of the theme and say it's the character drawing their own responses.

I'd recomend if you're planning on sketching replies to draw out several different pictures of your character with different expressions and poses and to re-use them. However if you want to be a crazy person like me and try to draw unique responses most of the time; I'd highly recomend choosing a very simplified style of drawing.

Response pieces should take you less than fifteen minutes or you'll burn yourself out pretty fast. I sketch Revali in a simplified way and just do a flood-fill wash of tone so that my drawings are as fast and simple as possible to do - no colour or shading. If I was spending an hour on every response piece, I'd run out of spoons for this by the end of the week.

If you want to run a popular or highly interacted with blog, the most important thing is posting frequently. If you post a few times a day - or even just a few times a week, people will seek out your blog because it will keep appearing at the top of the tags. The key is churning out a lot of asks all the time.

Get into a habit of doin' your posts fast and rough, and don't worry too much about perfecting things. Nobody will notice if your art or writing is a little unfinished or sketchy. On social media, especially in this style of creating, people only look at your posts for a few seconds - so especially when you're first starting out and trying to get noticed, it's okay to choose quantity over quality.

Something I know a lot of people worry about when they first start out is lore and storytelling in their ask responses.

My best advice is to not take anything too seriously. On this blog, sometimes Revali is around before the Calamity, sometimes he's around in Totk times. Sometimes I draw him wearing modern clothes and using an ipad and other times he has no idea what a microwave is. Sometimes I answer an ask one way, then forget about it and answer something else with conflicting information a few months later.

Nobody really pays enough attention to everything you post to notice continuousy errors. These blogs are just a bit of fun and a way for you to play around with your character like a barbie doll. You can do whatever you want with them, and change it day by day. You don't have to stick to one timeline or ensure that every single thing you post is lore accurate.

Saying that; let's talk about something I like to call 'arcs'.

Every once in a while when things are feeling a little dry or someone sends in something interesting, I'll throw in an 'arc' for Revali. Maybe he gets turned into a chick or a Hylian or joins the Yiga Clan - and for a few days all of my ask posts will revolve around this.

While it's a lot of fun to play with arcs, I'd recomend keeping them short and sweet - lasting no more than a week at longest before returning back to a comfortable norm. Newcomers are always drifting into fandom, as are more casual fans, and if newbies or people who aren't as deep into this character's life as you stumble upon your posts while you're doing a crazy arc, they're likely not really going to understand what's going on. Returning to a more 'canon typical' version of your character between arcs is important for coaxing in newer fans and keeping people from getting too lost.

Another thing people often wonder about is roleplay.

I don't really make my ask blogs with roleplay in mind, but the format itself is kind of built for it if the concept interests you. Playing as your favourite character and enacting little scenes with other blogs can be super fun - great escapism and an interesting way to tell a narrative.

There are however some unspoken rules to roleplay; things you pick up over time that aren't always obvious.

First off - not every ask blog wants to roleplay. Some people just aren't comfortable with it - and that's okay. Check out someone's rules page or just pop them a DM to ask, and respect their decision if they don't want to.

When you do roleplay with somebody; it's common courtasy to keep your roleplay to under ten posts. While this isn't as big of a deal as it used to be (truely Hylia bless Tumblr's newly enforced read-more feature when a post reaches a certain length), it's still polite not to clog up people's dashes with tons of long replies. If the roleplay starts to get too long, try to wrap it up and start a new one.

Another important unspoken rule is something I like to call the 'ask blog universe'.

Every ask blog is their own little universe bubble, where you come up with your own ideas and headcanons for your character and others. Sometimes you'll roleplay with another ask blog - and those ideas will clash.

You cannnot force your headcanons onto another blogs universe, so try to keep your headcanons out of roleplay and leave them just for asks and posts. If I'm roleplaying as Revali with another blog, I'm not going to mention within that roleplay that he's transgender or that he's infatuated with Link - because that might not be the canon for that other blog's universe, and it would be rude to make them have to bend their established canon to accomodate me.

You should always have fun acting out your favourite ships and headcanons - but just try to be considerate when roleplaying with other blogs that not everyone will share your opinions, and maybe just avoid topics of debate within the play.

Another thing people often ask; Can I start an ask blog for a character if someone else is already running an ask blog for them.

The answer is yes, of course you can. That person does not own the character - if you want to start a Revali blog like me, go for it! You can bring something new to the table that I cannot - we will inevitably play very different versions of this character and explore things the other has not even thought of. The more fun writing and art for our favourite character in the world - the better.

Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Which brings me onto my most important piece of advice.

No matter how you run your blog, inevitably at some point, some sad person with nothing better to do is going to come into your ask box and send something unplesent. Maybe it will be something gross and sexual - maybe it will be a rant about how they disagree with a headcanon you've made and why it's all wrong - maybe they'll just send you vauge death threats because they don't like the character (Revali gets a LOT of those...). This is unfortunatly an inescapable part of being online and creating.

The BEST thing you can do - and I cannot express enough how important this is - block them and delete the asks. Turn off anonymous asks if it starts to really bother you - even if it's just for a little bit.

Do not post them. Do not respond to them. Do not post ABOUT them.

These people are purely here for your attention, they want a reaction from you; and the second you give them that even if it's the most levelheaded response in the world, they will keep harassing you nonstop.

Whereas if you never acknowledge them; they will vanish so fast it will make your head spin.

Now, it's HARD not to post the scary, mean, or ranty asks that people send you for the validation of your kind followers telling you how wrong their harassment is. I get that. What I would recomend is befriending other ask blogs and sharing the woes with them instead. We even have a Legend of Zelda ask blogs discord group that anyone making an ask blog can join - go in there and screenshot post the garbage people send so we can all rant about it and validate you together.

Just never post it publically - it only feeds the wee beasts.

Ask blogs can be really fun to run!

They can also be hard work sometimes - whether it's because you're stuck on difficult asks, overwhelmed or underwhelmed with the amount of people interacting with you, getting mean anons, or burning out from trying to draw every response.

If you ever need a listening ear or a little advice or support, ol' Rahlin is always happy to share what I know. Don't be nervous to shoot over any questions or worries you have and we can talk them out.

I'm no expert in this genre by any means, but I have had a lot of experience with a lot of different issues over the years, and I'm always here to help anyone who is new to the scene and wants to join in the fun!

[askoutofmalice]

Dear whomever it may concern, current leader of Rito Village,

It occured to me that in her machinations, the Princess may or may not have mentioned my sudden and spontaneous appearance in Hyrule Field some time ago. If she has, it would likely still be good manners to introduce myself, and if she hasn't, I should inform you that I exist so I'm not shot on sight.

I am... Ganon, of sorts. The princess has done her best to make certain of that, but I suppose one can never be perfectly certain. Apparently, a spontaneous mixing of Malice and Gloom seems to have created me, as far as she hypothesizes, but do not fear, I lack either, and accordingly, mean you no harm.

Please ask your archers not to shoot me, or if they must, please be polite about it. Regular arrowheads are fine, bomb arrows hurt, and elemental arrows are distinctly uncomfortable and I'd like to avoid them if at all possible.

-@askoutofmalice

Having a hard time wrapping my head around this. You seem harmless from what others have said I guess. I’ll inform the village guards but I can’t guarantee they won’t attack you. Best of luck.

[askoutofmalice]

Stare

*. . . You look cool 👍

Well, isn't that kind. Thank you, messenger.

That said, I'm rather warm right now. I suppose I should have saved my cold weather clothes for when I got through Hyrule Ridge.

[askoutofmalice]

How do you feel about the Yiga.

...I don't know who or what those are.

...Come to think of it, Link did mention a 'Yiga creep' named Kogha. Not sure who that is, but if Link of all people doesn't like him, I can assume he's not a good sort of individual.

[askoutofmalice]

...What is this burning sensation on my ears...

Did you hear that Ganon's back?

Again?

Heh. Of course that useless knight failed to seal the Calamity a third time. Of course he did.

I supose this is my fated second chance to prove my superiority as Hyrule's greatest Warrior by defeting that beast once and for all! This must be why Hylia granted me a second chance at life, to fulfil my true purpose of defeting the darkness where that fool couldn't handle it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have very important Champion tasks to attend to.

...

[askoutofmalice]

Strange Rito. You smell like sky magic and death. Do you have any idea on protecting from this region's extensive thunderstorms? Faron is beautiful, but I'm getting rather tired of near misses with skyfire.

- @askoutofmalice

You...smell it, do you? Sky magic and death. Interesting... Perhaps you have a sharper nose than you let on. Let's just say the winds have carried me through more than just pleasant breezes. I suppose in that regard I am indeed a strange Rito.

It would appear you've come to understand Faron's beauty comes with a price. Those storms… they can be quite relentless when they want to be. For protection? You need to understand the rhythm of the storm. Watch the clouds, feel the air. Find places the wind doesn't rush through – deep recesses in the rock, sheltered valleys. Avoid the peaks, obviously. And… perhaps, if you can, learn to listen to the silence before the lightning strikes. Sometimes, the sky whispers warnings before it acts.

[askoutofmalice]

(Ooc post, but I'm almost glad I haven't gotten any asks in a while, because not only do I have no idea how to draw Rito Village, not only do I not know if I want him to just show up there or if I want there to be intermediary posts of him getting there...

Both of those require me understanding how the hell Ganon actually gets asks, something I genuinely forgot to put thought into)

[askoutofmalice]

Horse obtained and sufficiently familiarized with me, cold weather clothing obtained, as courtesy of Miss Purah, Teba has recieved advanced word of my arrival...

...I wonder if he remembered to inform the soldiers...

Did you hear that Ganon's back?

Again?

Heh. Of course that useless knight failed to seal the Calamity a third time. Of course he did.

I supose this is my fated second chance to prove my superiority as Hyrule's greatest Warrior by defeting that beast once and for all! This must be why Hylia granted me a second chance at life, to fulfil my true purpose of defeting the darkness where that fool couldn't handle it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have very important Champion tasks to attend to.

...

[askoutofmalice]

You look similar to

But from what I'm aware the triforce of power that causes this form is with Dinraal

So how?

You act as if I understand how two puddles of angry goop mixing together cultivates a giant pig man.

[askoutofmalice]

Do you have a favourite book, sir? Do you find philosophical literature to be interesting?

You'd be surprised how many books Purah keeps. There's a few pieces of proper literature, but honestly, I think my favorite won't surprise anyone.

...Come to think of it, it's stuff like this that makes people think I'm still evil, isn't it?

[askoutofmalice]

What is your favorite kind of weather?

I suppose it can be said of me that I haven't yet seen enough of the world to concretely decide on a favorite.

The princess has asked me to remain at Lookout Landing while she and Link continue rebuilding in the wake of the Upheval and the Calamity. Between two Ganon-related disasters, I'm not exactly a welcome sight in most places. Currently, Rito Village is the only area that seems fully willing to have me for an extended period of time, but I've yet to travel there due to... well, I don't fit on any horses they currently have. @askthehylianchampion has made mention of a gigantic horse that might support me, but it escaped at some point. He's still looking.

That said, returning to the question at hand, I'd say I love a slightly cloudy, windy day. I enjoy overcast days because they're not too hot for my fur or too bright for my eyes, and not too cold that I have to get more clothes. You'd be surprised how horrendous the common fabrics of hyrule feel on my fur.

[askoutofmalice]

(HI HELLO I AM SO SORRY!!! I saw your ask but I never got to answering it 😭😭 love your art, especially the way you draw form!!!)

Oh, well this is absolutely delightful! I'm guessing this is one of the goron sized boxes, yes? It's nice to be thought of.

A very happy valentines day to you as well!

(It's no trouble at all! Thank you so much, the gap in things to reply to has made me a bit rusty, ough)

[askoutofmalice]

Who are you and why do you look so familiar?

Uh-! What did you all do?!??

( @ladycremecaramel )

[askoutofmalice]

...I'm bored

I've exhausted my current clay supply, and made nothing of particular note, and I have no other creative pursuits that will fit my hands. I guess it's finally time. I should go find a sword.

This'll do.

...I get the feeling this was also made for someone smaller than me.

[askoutofmalice]

I mean I enjoyed it... but I haven't done the greatest job, I think. I'll... keep trying. Thank you for the recommendation.

Dear Link,

Having little to do with the Princess in Zora's Domain for the current while and you trapped in Rito Village due to the onset of disease there, I'm stuck with little to do. I've decided to learn a skill I seem to have forgotten.

Do you know where my sword is?

Thanks

-@askoutofmalice

no, actually I don’t. might I suggest weaving instead of swordplay? it’s a bit more readily available

[askoutofmalice]

Er....

Unfortunately I think the average hand loom is made for someone half my size. Any other recommendations?

Dear Link,

Having little to do with the Princess in Zora's Domain for the current while and you trapped in Rito Village due to the onset of disease there, I'm stuck with little to do. I've decided to learn a skill I seem to have forgotten.

Do you know where my sword is?

Thanks

-@askoutofmalice

no, actually I don’t. might I suggest weaving instead of swordplay? it’s a bit more readily available