bloomeng - Tumblr blog

[bloomeng]

I'm a little nervous to talk about this because the internet is truly the place where nuance goes to die but fuck it I'm going to do it anyway.

So misogyny in fan spaces. There's so much that can be said here, but I want to focus on a trend I've seen in fanfiction for years. This isn't a call out to anyone in particular or a fic that I read recently, it's just something I want to talk about.

There's a range in which I see misogyny displayed in fanfiction. The most subtle version is when a fic has a large cast, but despite this, the female characters just float in the background as accessories. Writing big casts is difficult and I understand that (it's part of the reason I tend not to like big casts) but despite this all the female characters will remain less developed than their male counterparts. The other version is they will exist only to advise or prop up a male character, which isn't to say that a female character can't play that role in a story. On an individual level, it's not an issue, but when it's the only role over and over it becomes an issue. My solution to handling big casts is to break them off at times into pairs/smaller groups and allow everyone to have their moment. It doesn't need to be perfectly balanced but even small moments could go a long way.

The next step up is literally ignoring them altogether. I understand not every character is going to feature in every story. Time and place and all that jazz. But it's telling when they're so clearly written out of a story for the sake of not addressing them. If we can cram in all these male character cameos we can do the same for the women. Personally I feel writing is stronger if you only include characters for a purpose beyond them just being there (and it would be two birds with one stone bc that would automatically allows for more depth), but this is fanfic that I'm discussing, where fan service rules everything.

The third trend and arguably the most egregious I refer to as the “Sakura Effect.” The Sakura Effect is when an author will include either a pre-existing female character or an original female character for the sole person of villainizing her to extreme proportions. It’s scary to me because as much as media can be misogynistic

This is a fairly ranty non-nuance, doesn’t even touch on intersectionality, look at misogyny in fanfiction but that’s all I have there capacity to discuss today.

[bloomeng]

How do you think things would've gone if Timmy Boy was actually single and dated Secret during his Young Justice tenure?

I’m still in the process of reading YJ ‘98 for the first time so I can’t say for certain

I will say I like Secret (and Tim ofc) but it feels very one sided and I don’t love jealousy plot lines and I don’t love when there’s a bunch of dating amongst team members (I prefer more platonic relationships in canon).

As to how it would’ve gone…. I’m probably not the best person to ask but imo looking at Tim’s dating track record…. I’d assume they’d date for awhile and eventually break up which tbh I think could be a really interesting plot for her bc she defends Tim’s actions a lot. So I’d imagine it would be hard for her, but would be a moment of growth.

[bloomeng]

Out of all the Batboys who is your favorite to draw?

P.s. I love your art!

Thank you!

Of the batboys….. hmmm probably Dick, but in the batfam Steph

[bloomeng]

I'm an absolute SIMP for how you draw Tim!

Keep up the amazing work!

Thank you! He’s such a cutie patootie :)

[bloomeng]

Oi! Não é bem uma pergunta. Eu não sei bem o que dizer, eu nem falo inglês como você pode ver, mas eu vi que as pessoas tem te importunado e você parece chateada recentemente, acabei de ler sua resposta a pessoa reclamando sobre Cass e me senti mal por você.

Só queria dizer que sua Au é incrível, linda e fofa! Você claramente pensa muito sobre cada design e coloca dedicação e carinho, sua arte é realmente muito linda e brilhante!

Eu sei que tem muitas pessoas rudes, nem consigo imaginar quantas mensagens ridículas você não deve receber, mas posso dizer com certeza que há muitas pessoas que realmente amam o que você faz. Mas sério, não foca nas pessoas chatas e negativas, sua arte é sua, a criação é sua, e o divertimento é seu. Mesmo se você quisesse fazer todos eles vestidos de pinguim você poderia, porque é seu, é sua Au, e você realmente não é paga nem nada. Eu sei que você sabe disso, e espero não estar incomodando. Mas eu realmente queria te mandar uma mensagem positiva já que você parece estressada, você é só alguns anos mais velha que eu e as pessoas da internet podem ser muito sem noção.

Em resumo, você é incrível, sua arte é linda, continue se divertindo porque esse é o ponto da questão e apenas mande um dedo do meio pros haters :P

E beba água. É importante se hidratar :P

Wow I’m really genuinely touched by your thoughtfulness. It’s been a bit of a week outside of this. I know I sound a bit like a broken record but I really am glad that people enjoy my work so much.

It just gets very overwhelming because it feels like everyone wants something from me. I’ve had sorta a bad run in this fandom but it’s nice to know not everyone is so antagonistic.

As for the water: I’ll get right on it 🫡

Thank you for your kindness and don’t worry about not responding in english. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to be nice.

[bloomeng]

It’s so messed up that you have to keep on holding peoples hand to explain YOUR decisions for YOUR au. Like damn if you’re so pressed over an outfit why don’t you just make your own? Thank you for making this au, I love seeing the lore updates and the little idiosyncrasies of all the characters. Have a good day or night!

Thank you! I am truly glad people enjoy the au. It’s deeply frustrating but also it’s the internet so I try to do my best to not take it personally. However I don’t like leaving things unaddressed when accused bc I never want to seem like I’m ignoring things I don’t agree with.

But yah I agree if people are upset about trivial design decisions then make your own version. It’s actually very therapeutic. At the end of the day mischaracterization of your fav sucks but harassing real people sucks so much more.

Also you look childish. Like I mean this so literally when people don’t know the polite way to interact with artists I assume they’re a child automatically. Otherwise you have no excuse for being rude on the internet other than being a selfish.

But on a brighter note, I love making posts about the au and sharing my thoughts. I get nervous that I talk too much so it’s nice to know people like hearing about it.

[bloomeng]

You complain about the mischaracterization of dick yet continue to mischaracterizatize cass. Because if you actually READ or cared about the character you wouldnt have her with 1. No bat symbol and 2. With the orphan design

Hey so this is the exact etiquette I was referring to. I’ve addressed this multiple times already so this will be the last time I address Cass specifically.

Can’t believe I have to say this but mischaracterization is not drawing a character in a canon outfit. Even if you don’t like that canon it doesn’t make it mischaracterization. I talked about this awhile back but one run/ver of a character doesn’t make the others more or less canon (referring to the main tl in DC). Just because I don’t love Nightwing in Year One doesn’t make his actions less canon. We all have our favorite versions of the characters and ignore what we want.

When I was originally designing Cass I actually was referencing her Black Bat design which I think looks super cool. But I was struggling big time with how to translate the stitches around the mouth and after a few days and a conversation with a friend of mine, I scrapped it. I went back to what I knew about her character and I was reminded that she enjoys dance and I thought that was a better jumping off point. I used her Orphan design because it leant better to that idea.

The Orphan design already has boots and metal plating that leans into a magical girl design. Not to mention it has a distinctly different silhouette than everyone else. I personally really like the pants. I went into detail about this when I responded to this comment initially.

Everyone in the au gets one version of their costume that I reference. The Orphan costume has no bat symbol, which is why I didn’t include it. I also wanted to make her distinctly different from Batman, bc in magical girl shows they often try and give each character their own “brand” and I was thinking ahead and I was trying to make her stand out next to Bruce. I understand she’s super loyal to the bat and will probably be the next batman however I personally don’t like that everyone basically boils her character down to “girl Batman but even more badass,” bc she’s her own person, not to mention she’s not like Bruce. Giving her the Orphan outfit isn’t ooc. Leaving out the bat symbol is canon.

I’ve stated several times that I want to go back and draw a Black Bat design for her. I still have intentions to do so.

I’m going to be blunt now. This sort of rude behavior is the exact reason I was complaining. I cared that Dick was being mischaracterized because someone was in my comment section accusing me of not making the design to their taste. I don’t go into the comments of say a fic and tell the author I thought their characterization of Dick is ooc, because they made this for free. I’m doing this au for free. This is my au. You are not paying me. You are accusing me of false things. I have read Batgirl (Cass and Babs) runs, some of them specifically for this design. People demanding free art of me, with intense turn arounds, without even checking my account further to see if I’ve done the character in question, makes this not fun anymore. It makes me not want to draw or talk about her, because quite literally every time I do someone is rude to me. I put a ton of thought into each character especially the ones I’m less familiar with. I actually spent the least amount of time on Dick. Cass got three iterations before I settled and I’m still not happy with it, but this whole project was supposed to be light hearted and quick.

The first time I answered this question right after I posted Steph and Cass I responded in good faith, bc I’m trying not to be mean back, but it makes me wonder where the creator etiquette has gone.

[bloomeng]

Quick! Kiss! Marry! Kill!

Tim, Jason, Dick

Who do you kiss? Who do you marry? Who do you kill?

P.s. I love your art

Ty!!

Hmmmmmmm… so I’m gonna start with my obvious Marry Dick

I’m gonna say Kiss Jason bc even if I killed him I don’t trust him to stay dead and I’ve seen how dangerous his grudges are also he’s giving ace energy to me and I think he’d get me

…. Kill Tim 😔 so sorry Timmy it’s not me it’s product of elimination truthfully I couldn’t kill him if I wanted to

[bloomeng]

my god the degree to which Dick gets mischaracterized in this fandom

I mean I know everyone does to a degree and it’s esp worse for the women and poc characters (which like arguably Dick is a poc character but I digress)

except the major difference is these people are making their ooc perception of Dick my problem smh tapping the sign aggressively

anyway sorry don’t mean to be so negative over trite fandom stuff 

[bloomeng]

Valid reasons for interrupting JLA meetings:

Emergencies

You have cute baby pictures. This is a surefire way to distract everyone.

[bloomeng]

[bloomeng]

[bloomeng]

What do the artifacts look like?

These are my very rough preliminary doodles of what each of the artifacts look like in their dormant state

Overview:

Bat Brooch

I wanted a subtle bat wing but I didn’t want it to be too obvious because he wears this everyday in his daily life so I made it look like a vaguely bat wing shaped abstract shape (it also includes a drop pearl from his mother’s necklace). In his day to day life he tells people he wears it in honor of his mother as it was originally her’s.

The Robin Pendant

Dick chose the name Robin after Robin Hood but Bruce told him he couldn’t directly reference it because it had to be subtle so they chose the bird (a robin) which in hindsight ended up being more obvious. Brice made it versatile because Dick was indecisive as a kid.

Dick tended to just copy Bruce and wear it as a brooch but would add a chain.

When Jason received it he just assumed because it was a pendant it was meant to be worn as a necklace and thought that was his only option though he didn’t mind he liked it a lot.

Tim wore them as cufflinks because…. rich kid.

Steph wore it attached to a barrette.

Damian wears it as a brooch exactly like his father.

The Oracle Ring:

Babs made her artifact into a ring, but she made a second one that responds to the original ring, so that she use both hands. It’s connected to her devices.

The Signal Ear Cuff:

I wanted to match the little wings he wears in his transformation so I thought the ear cuffs matched nicely.

The Black Bat Necklace:

Cass’ necklace is a classic.

The Red Hood… Bow… Earrings:

Originally Jason was in a rush and built his artifact out of a preexisting earring he had. Bruce didn’t approve because they’re dangly earrings and can be ripped out easily, and because Bruce didn’t like them he kept them just to be a pain in the ass.

The Nightwing Charm:

Dick when he made is own artifact was still indecisive on how we wanted to wear it (something something plot about finding his own identity), so he made a little pendant so he could move it. But what ended up happening is that he would just carry it around loose on his person, and it stressed everyone out. Finally, Tim went to Damian and made him make a friendship bracelet (“bc you’re the artsy one and the youngest and he’ll never take it off if you give it to him”). So Damian gifted him the bracelet and the pendant ended up becoming a charm.

Spoiler’s Hair Clip:

Steph made her’s into a claw clip with bat wings. Bruce wasn’t happy because it felt it was too obvious, but she threw the Robin pendant in his face.

Red Robin’s Cufflink:

Tim is not creative.

[bloomeng]

HELLO??? have we seen this

[bloomeng]

Woke up to people upset on tiktok (fork spotted in kitchen) because I didn’t make Dick fem/slutty enough in the au. They can argue with the wall but “I think I know more about american girl doll than you do genius.” Anyway, it reminded me that I actually wanted to talk about that.

So first off I think there’s a misconception that Dick is the “fem” brother, same with Tim, that I think stems from people unintentionally projecting femininity onto them in fanon because they’re the most queer/queer-coded of the bunch. But in the text they’re really not that feminine. That’s a whole can of worms that’s far more nuanced than my silly au deserves. Maybe I’ll touch on that in more detail in a dedicated post because I do think it’s worth noting.

But also this has nothing to do with whether or not they can wear skirts. Anyone can wear a skirt imo, it’s just clothing that somewhere along the way we decided was gendered. It didn’t use to be.

I didn’t put Dick in a skirt for several reasons (he’s my fav so yknow I sat around thinking about it)

a) I didn’t think he’d get anything out of wearing one therefore his artifact would respond to that. In general I personally think Dick is neutral about most clothing. I think he is concerned with comfort though he does enjoy novelty. Most of his flashiness comes from him trying to garner a reaction and isn’t wholly indicative of his authentic taste.

b) He’s an acrobat and relies on flipping around. Not that these outfits are practical at all but this is such a large part of his character that I needed to retain. A skirt would just annoy him because of how much it gets in the way.

c) I was trying to match the vibe of the original outfits.

Jason on the other hand I legit think would get something out of a skirt, but it’s also notable that he tends to be a long range fighter (guns and all) and I think if this were a comic or a show the skirt would add some really cool action shots with the recoil of a gun and the swing of his hammer.

Cass got a skirt because she loves dance and I was mimicking ballet outfits. And again I think it would make for some sick action lines while fighting.

[bloomeng]

WE'RE SO BACK

[bloomeng]

outlaw jason hehe