#(that happened to me in the dragon age fandom years and years ago and it was a legitimately triggering experience)

[v-arbellanaris]

u know what actually im gonna make one last srs post abt this whole thing and then im doneeeee i swear lmfao, so all of the anons in my inbox can finally shut up and fuck off and i'll put it under a cut so i dont ~ruin your da4 hype~ the way youve fucking ruined mine i guess.

watsonian justification for this: "decisions you made 10+ years ago in another part of the country simply will not affect the current story". hey isnt the entire story behind veilguard that a guy has been working for the last 10 years to rip down the veil. like. is the whole thing not a story that started 10 years ago. do you not have access to the eluvian network now because solas stole it 10 years ago from briala. is the blight not around because of the evanuris in some way. isnt the entire magisterium something that's been in place for thousands and thousands of years. like even within the context of da, the entire story revolves around things that happened thousands of years ago that have shaped the world that our characters exist in today. we, ourselves, as real people, don't live in a world where things happening on one side of the planet do not affect anything else. and that's not even touching on the fact that we have companions from the first game showing up. at the very least decisions that affect them directly should have been factored in????

doylist justification(s) for this: #1 "we only wanted to include worldstate decisions we could develop reactivity to" so the only decisions were.... whether or not solas is romanced? for me, it's the way that when you're playing dai, the entire justification for NOT being able to romance him as anyone other than lavellan is that you can have a deep and important and complex relationship with him even if you dont romance him, the fandom is always going on & on about how important friendship!solas is and how it shouldnt be underrated but the moment his ENTIRE CHARACTER (and ours?!) gets boiled down to whether or not you had a romantic relationship with him, we're going to celebrate it??? really??? REALLY??? what in the fucking amatonormativity is this, and how is this a step BACKWARDS from dai for solas???

#2 "the world was too complicated so they wanted to simplify it for new players" that's literally the problem we're discussing. the problem we're discussing is the complexity of the world, and the solution bioware came up with for it is to simply scrap it all, and surprise surprise! not everyone is happy about it??? you are just describing the problem that the solution fails to address???

i think the most annoying part of this whole thing is the fan response to it. literallyyyy am seeing things like "no one ever complained about the worldstates not mattering in the next games before da4" which is NOT TRUE. ever since i JOINED this fandom, i've heard so many things about people complaining about leliana defaulting back to a hardened state in dai, about alistair's characterisation in dai, about cullen's repeat appearances, about your boons/decisions in dao not carrying forward in the next games. people HAVE been complaining about it, for ages, especially in dai. it is explicitly a problem in dragon age, and has been for a long, long time, and the problem has only grown the more complex the worldstate becomes. that's why they tried to address the problem here by simply scrapping it all. i've also seen things like "well if youre only interested in callback references, this dragon age game not for YOU" which not only minimises and dismisses the issues and feelings at hand here, but also reeks of self-righteous, smug superiority of I Am The Sole Correct Enjoyer. who is this game for, if not for people who love dragon age?

i'm not here for rook's story - i'm here to save the world that i've built with my own two hands over three games. i am doing that through rook as a character, yes, but i have no cause or reason to care about rook at all going into this game except for the basic fact of this is my character that i am playing - rook is a character that i expect playing the game will make me invested in and care about them. but you know what i already cared about before going into veilguard? you know what i've saved three times over already, potentially even at the cost of my own life? thedas. MY thedas. OF COURSE I WANT TO KNOW THAT IT MATTERS. in world, solas himself wants to know what changes his actions wrought. THOUSANDS OF YEARS AFTER THE FACT. why is everyone acting like fans are insane for this????

i, for one, have not complained about the game "ruining" origins or da2 or even dai. i was excited about the changes, because changes were evidently necessary. i have been fully prepared for the differences, even if i've been apprehensive or cautious about it. do you think i'm disappointed now because i hate dragon age??? where do you fucking get off saying this game is not meant for me? because i dont agree with how bioware has chosen to resolve this issue, suddenly these games are Not For Me anymore?

and you know what, i already know they're not for me. the way this series, and this fandom, treats people of colour, and characters of colour, i am made aware every single day that dragon age is not for me. these games are for the liberal white girlies and white queers living in the west. i know damn well these games have never been for me, and any insistence that it should consider me will be met with vitriol and viciousness. and guess what? i am still here.

i was sooo ready to let this go until the fandom just kept acting like ppl are idiots for being unhappy about things AT ALL in da4. its so fucking annoying to me. i'm NOT going to complain about every single little thing in da4 possible, but i'm also not going to act like bioware is going to do and is doing everything right. what is WITH this fandom and extremes of thought and behaviour. is it because you're all american??? like. i'm actually so sorry that you live in a black-and-white world with no complexities or nuances because it must be so boring and sad.

in my opinion, i would not have minded slimming down the narrative choices to a select few that they could really hone in and focus on. i feel like the dragon age keep decisions can be a bit arbitrary, and i would've loved to see like 5-6 key decisions per game, ORRRR even for your worldstate to boil down to something like whether or not you generally supported positive change or upheld the status quo per game, and then specific character decisions regarding the inquisitor to be brought in, since they're the pc that actually shows up. i do think there's likely a lot of chaff that can be cut off or simplified as a sort of "lost to the times" kind of narrative telling. but boiling down these games to three fucking choices that are ultimately just 'did u romance and like solas or nah' is fucking INSANE. why is the answer to the issue of the quantum - which has been an issue for a long time!!!!!! - to just... scrap it entirely???

edit: adding this here since i said i wouldnt make any more posts abt this topic but i rly find it laughableeeee when fans eagerly parrot bioware insisting that just because those choices dont matter in THIS game doesnt mean they'll never matter in a FUTURE game (i guess we can expect the next one in 2034?). if they already scrapped those choices for this game, and you're all still buying it (some of you??? PREORDERED it???? i thought we agreed not to do that???), why would they bother. do you think the next dragon age game wont have the same line of logic for 'we need to make it accessible for new players!!!!!' that they had for this one and for dai? how willfully stupid are you that you think I'M the stupid one here?

im happy for you guys tho! i hope the new dragon age game where theyve removed all of those complexities instead of making ANY effort to address ANY of the existing dissatisfaction around feeling like any of your game decisions mattered supports your existing brainrot so you can continue believing in a black-and-white reality. really glad theyve simplified it for you guys just like you wanted into 3 choices all about sola/vellan.

i'm going back to my own sandbox, as epler has instructed me to, so i can ~imagine~ my own thedas lmfao

[thatswhatsushesaid]

to be honest I am actually rather surprised I don't receive more messages of that nature given, uh, the way I am on this blog

but I am not complaining!!

[nipuni]

Hello! Time for another blog post! I think my last one was two months ago and a lot has happened since 😊

We have been attending a ton of historical recreation events so I still have many photos to share, hope you don't hate those! It's been really fun! We are exhausted and all out of social battery however so we are taking it easy this month. Another thing that's been happening a lot is that even when we are not dressed in historical clothing we keep getting stopped by strangers on the street because of our everyday outfits, it's been like that for a couple of years now so we are no longer startled or nervous about it but it's happening more and more often now and it's so nice! we always end up chatting about the events we go to and our jobs and hobbies and exchanging contacts or they ask for photos and stuff! people are really kind and excited about it and I still find it so surprising in the best way. We grew up in a very hostile city and environment and that makes you paranoid and cynical so these interactions and response has been healing really. I know their words will stick with us for years to come 😭 Sadly the unbearable heat is starting though so that means our outings for the next three months will be limited to the crack of dawn and after sunset 😞 but at least the summer brings a lot of fruit with it so we can sit at home and eat pineapples and strawberries while we wait for autumn.

My family came to visit a few months ago too and we made them watch most of Doctor Who's season one to four and some of our favourite episodes from all the other seasons lmao. And much to our delight they really enjoyed it!! They both loved Ten the most and my step dad is now in love with Martha 🥰

We have also been watching the current season and it's been so fun keeping up with fandom theories in real time and talking about it and speculating with friends in person, it's the first time we get a chance to do it since we got into the series and we are enjoying it a lot!

We also watched season one of Jessica Jones and we loved David's performance as Kilgrave!! He stole the show for real. Kilgrave is such an incredible villain, one of the best I've seen and DT does such an amazing job portraying every aspect of him. He's detestable and volatile and frighteningly powerful and has such an intimidating terrifying presence in the narrative while also being pathetic and vulnerable and ridiculous and childish and so human with all it's worrying implications. It was just so gripping and I wish he had stayed for the rest of the show honestly!! Now we have to pick our next David Tennant series to watch! 😊

Also!! Dragon Age is back!! AHHH I wanted to thank everyone that commented on my last DA pieces, it has made my month to read the comments, I didn't expect so many people to remember my art or my character after so many years and it's so touching and flattering you have no idea 😭💘 I look forward to making more and sharing them with you all, I'm truly grateful for the kindness you've shown me both back then and now I hope you know.

I feel so spoiled lately with all these franchises that I love releasing new content!! I've never been in these many fandoms at once!! I have so many ideas to draw and keep jumping back and forth between drawings from different shows and games AAAAA it's a good and welcome change honestly, keeps me busy and inspired!

Anyway that's all for now I think! I hope you are doing well and this summer/winter is kind to you all ❤️

[fenrins]

im gonna be a hater tonight but idc! its a lomg one but i rlly wanted to rant 😔😔

im just gonna go right in and say it: some house of the dragon characters are unoriginal and lazy, and it pisses me tf off. im sick and tired of seeing the same oc regurgitated in this fandom bc istg half of these hotd ocs are literally just daenerys targaryen thrown back in time under a different name.

i usually dont care abt fanfic because its fanfic. nothing i can do, its probably some child having fun, but like i said im just TIRED of looking through hotd fanfics and seeing daenerys pop up as a faceclaim, and then going on to see that half (or all) of dany’s entire character is put into an oc with little to no actual originality if this makes sense.

before i get into this, what the fuck happened to the originality in original character? like genuinely? this is mainly abt one oc i legit just saw like an hour ago off of tiktok bc but still this applies to the daenerys knockoffs i (regularly) see and cry abt like my grown ass should not care but i do!!!!

starting off, the oc’s name is daenera. cool! fine! she’s not a daughter of rhaenyra which is a slay, but is a daughter of alicent and viserys which eh, good enough. we go on to find out that for some reason vizzy t and ali hate her, and at age 16 they decide to ship her off to pentos so she can marry a dothraki warlord. im not even joking. aside from that, she’s in pentos for a year, and comes back with an army of 550k and three dragons. okay hello daenerys! anyways she apparently fights for rhaenyra, but also bangs aemond, daemon, and cregan in the two year timeframe that the dance takes place in.

no one is gonna read this but my ass is mad and idgaf! i need to complain!! but anyways, i am sick and tired of the ocs that are just cheap copies of daenerys because at what point is this an original character? if youre using a faceclaim of daenerys for your character and essentially adding her entire plotline onto your oc, is it even an oc anymore? like i get being inspired to base a character off of her because dany is literally the blueprint, but copy and pasting her entire character and then going off and ignoring grrm’s established lore (yes, its a fanfic, but ive seen too many oc’s claim both cannibal AND vermithor at the same time and i am TIRED) is just lazy and boring.

i wish people did more with their hotd ocs honestly. like theres hundreds of houses and shit and actual ORIGINAL ideas one could use instead of just taking dany’s whole character and just making it their own. i dont even want to start an argument with this but i NEED to see more original characters. like im writing my own two on wattpad rn (one’s a dragonseed whos like schizophrenic idk and the other’s a mormont who slays the day away) but even then i just need more than aemond x his sister or niece or smth idk yk??

im just reiterating points ive made but man its just ughhhh

[ariaste]

hheeyy I am probably gonna buy your pirate book regardless, because it does sound wonderful, but just so I know what I'm getting my little ace brain into: the gizmodo article you linked described Brother Julian as having "a frankly inconvenient vow of celibacy" and i had terrible flashbacks of the way the dragon age 2 fandom talked about Sebastian so like. Does Julian *also* think his vow is inconvenient, or am I going to have to go in accepting that funny queer pirates who resolve things with polyamory is worth wincing through a few conversations where his suitors just Cannot Believe someone so hot doesn't want to fuck oh my we must save him from himself or. whatever the fuck. Again, i loved A Touch Of Gold And Iron so I do trust you, but I've had authors i trust suddenly and unthinkingly have their characters spout aphobic talking points before, so i just want a warning, i guess. Thank you and I promise this isn't intended as a judgement of any kind, just me making sure I'm taking care of myself

No worries! I have not seen any of the Dragon Age 2 discourse and I don't know who Sebastian is, but I think I can sort of glean from context what you mean.

The answer about Julian is a little spoilery for mostly worldbuilding and a bit of his character arc, but not plot. I'm gonna try to put it under a cut, but tumblr is broken sometimes, so if the cut does not work, I apologize to the general public.

Julian is a monk of the Vintish church, which is sort of "what if the Catholic church but make it The Enlightenment" -- their religion teaches that the pursuit of knowledge and Understanding is deeply holy and that the Emperor of Heaven filled the world with mysteries specifically because he wanted humanity to figure out his little puzzles. Monks of this church take vows not to give up all "sinful" things, but to give up the one thing that occupies their mind above all else and causes them to be distracted from the pursuit of knowledge. For some people that might be alcohol, or gambling, or an addiction, or wearing pretty clothes, or anger/resentment, or whatever. For Julian, that thing was sex. He is the most allosexual man who has ever lived. He LOVED sex. It was a source of pure joy and delight and fulfillment for him -- he's one of those people who can find something wonderful and attractive in pretty much everyone he meets.

There were some Urgent Circumstances fifteen years ago in his past where taking that vow was preferable to the alternative that would have happened if he hadn't taken it, so in that sense it was a tool that served a purpose -- it was at one point a deeply convenient way of saving his own ass. I also think it was an important lesson for Young Julian to realize that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and that sacrifices HURT.

However, whether he would say in hindsight now that it was inconvenient... I think he has mixed feelings. He's very good at nuance, Julian is, and so he recognizes that all his experiences have made him into the person who he is and that he has Learned and Grown and Gained Knowledge Of Himself, which he does sincerely believe is a holy and righteous thing -- he deeply values the journey that he has been on. But at the same time.... at his heart he's just a fun guy and secretly an absolute gremlin in his own ways, you know? And tools that were once useful and relevant do not always remain so. Hope that helps!! I am on the ace/demi spectrum myself, so I've got some irritating experiences of the ways that people write about ace characters and try to "fix" them -- this is definitely not that situation.

Also, just cause you mentioned you're ace -- FYI there isn't any on-page sex in the book, just lots of dumb sex jokes and flirting. :)

[necromeowncy]

I'm gonna get mushy for a bit! 😊

Dragon Age news means I must share my Mabari warhound puppy! I got him at a convention probably 10 years ago and he's moved with me to all my homes since.

I think one of my favorite times in any fandom was when Inquisition won Game of the Year in 2015 and the news happened to coincide with NY Comic Con. There was a huge DA cosplay/fan meetup there and I got to meet so many of my Tumblr mutuals! It was probably the best time I've ever had at a convention, and such an incredible feeling of meeting cool folks in person. My friend and I cosplayed Hawke and Isabela, and there are still photos of that day floating around on my blog here somewhere. It was so cool to be able to exchange Tumblr handles with folks at the meetup. One of the best days of my entire life, if I'm being honest.

[galadrieljones]

Gala! I need to hear all your thoughts about seeing Solas again!! (When and if you’re willing to share ofc) ☺️

Omg. Honestly, I don't know. It's been so long, and in so many ways, I've moved on completely, but also, like, no. I will never move on lol. It seems I will probably need to go back and replay DA:I this summer, which is perfect, because I'm just about done with Death Stranding, and this will be a great way to pass the time between now and the Fall (at which point Daryl Dixon season 2 also starts so idk how I shall survive the inundation with characters I love--I will just have to find some sort of balance LOL). I really do need to brush up on the lore and try to even remember what was happening, and also get back into Sene's POV, because I do believe the Inquisitor is going to make an appearance in this story, and I am very excited for that but also very anxious. I do actually trust Patrick Weekes to give closure to the DAI fans and Solavellan shippers, particularly knowing how hard he worked to give us that notorious "COLE GREATLY APPROVES" moment in Trespasser 😭 Tbh though, I'm just not sure entirely what that will look like. I'm nervous!

I will say that I am really very happy to see how Solas is portrayed in this scene with Varric. He's actually nowhere near as cold as he seems at the end of Trespasser. He seems much more reluctant than he did back then, like he legitimately doesn't believe there's a better way. He doesn't seem evil or beyond repair. I wonder if that's because he's spent so many years alone, plotting, and it has actually served to soften him. In those first two years, after Corypheus, it's clear he was able to scrub his experience with the Inquisition from his heart, but most likely what he's learned is that it was merely a cosmetic fix. The connections he made back then are still with him, and seeing Varric again bubbled them up to the surface, even if only briefly.

I won't lie when I say that I actually really did not like the reveal trailer at ALL, which came out a couple days ago. It gave me like, Fortnite vibes and I was really concerned, because I've been out of the loop and not paying attention to the development of the game at all. Like this came completely out of left field for me, and then the name change...yikes. BUT the gameplay trailer fixed all of that. The game looks dark, gritty, and EXTREMELY fun. I love that they will start us out with Varric and Harding. I love them both so much, like old friends I haven't seen in such a long time. It filled me with warmth when Varric tried to reason with Solas, because that is EXACTLY what Varric would do, and even just hearing his voice, and Harding's voice, and of course Solas's voice, it made me tear up. I cannot wait. I am SO excited!!!!!!!!

I'm also really excited to reconnect with some of our old crew on here. I know lots of us are still around to various degrees even as we've all dispersed to different fandoms and real life circumstances for years. But Solavellan was my first real ship and Dragon Age was my first true fandom, and in my heart, we and our Lavellans will always be the GOAT. 💫

HOW are you feeling about all of this @bearlytolerant??????

[fisherpon]

Tumblrpon Retrospective: 1-16/16 “The Shared History”

First and foremost, let me get this out of the way: I’m not leaving. This is not a goodbye message, this is marking the end of the Great Draft Dump with a look back upon my time in Tumblrpon. This will be a very long post, hence the pagebreak.

Comic sprites commissioned from @darkfiretaimatsu Final art commissioned from @askmovieslate Background vectors by BonesWolbach Editing by me

Credits for each drawblog are after the page cut.

A long time ago, I had a saying. “Ten days online is like a year IRL.” What I meant by that is that so much stuff happens online and so quickly that if you go away for a couple weeks and come back, things may look completely different. Just think of the addition of ‘blorbo’ to Tumblr vocabulary, for instance. My point is, on that measure, I’ve been a part of Tumblrpon for 408 Fyears (Fandom years). Considering the oldest trace of Tumblrpon we could find is 415 Fyears old and the show itself is 438 Fyears old, it’s safe to say I’ve been around for a while. And, like any old dragon, I've lived through a lot and got some stories to tell.

The Beginning

When I started, Tumblrpon was small, but vibrant. There were drawblogs, indeed; the First, Applebloom; the Drunkard, Berry Pnuch; the Musician; Octavia, and surely others I have forgotten. In these very early days, Tumblrpon was mostly roleplayers. Among them, the Second Queens, the Lawlicorn Diarchy. This was the age of magic anons, of KA-THINGY spells and the invention of the word ‘ponification’. Aside from the drawblogs, here I have remembered some of the more prominent roleplayers of the era, many of whom were, and are, my dear friends. Many of them are still roleplaying in the depths of Tumblrpon, long since overshadowed by drawblogs. I still think they’re the core of Tumblrpon, though; more on that later.

Eventually, however, one drawblog would appear that would change everything. Easily the most influential Tumblrpon drawblog of all time, and perhaps the most deserving of the title Queen of Tumblrpon. The Third Queen, Pinkamena. Before her entry, grimdark elements like Cupcakes and Scootabuse were frowned upon, even hated. Pinkamena rose up and destroyed that barrier. She was by far the best-drawn drawblog up to that point, and pulled no punches when it came to blood and gore. And in doing this, she became famous outside of Tumblrpon. Her art spread to Ponibooru and other pony outlets online, and seeing what she was doing here brought many, many, many other artists to Tumblrpon. She arrived 3 days before me, and within a year of her arrival there would be hundreds of drawblogs. Her presence was brief, but her influence ever-lasting. This was the beginning of our finest era.

The Golden Age

Over the next few years, Tumblrpon thrived. This was also the golden era of the fandom as a whole, the period from Season 2 to roughly 6 or 7. With every new episode, drawblogs would pop up out of the woodwork. With each new character, multiple drawblogs would appear, often with variants. Tumblrpon-wide memes happened; Misty’s Hoodie, Rainbow Chubbie, Yellow vs Blue Pegasi, Ghost Trixie’s Memorial and the Somboom were but a few of them. Collab drawblogs appeared that were simply ‘put all the drawblogs of this one character in the same house’. I went to my first Bronycon (thanks to a charity drive by my Tumblrpon artist friends) and was part of the first of many Tumblrpon panels, through which we brought even more artists into our community. In the midst of all this, I jokingly called Raikissu the Queen of Tumblrpon, and it ended up turning into a massive injoke among our group of friends (which, because it included a lot of influential drawblogs, turned it into a Tumblrpon-wide injoke). They're the only one who really got to experience that title, making them the Fourth Queen. They were also the last, since eventually people didn’t realize it was a joke and started getting uptight at them about it.

As for me, running Fisherpon was a lot of work. I had separate categories of tags that I would search through, some daily, some weekly, some monthly and some yearly, and I would fully tag and put everything into the queue. I had to make a second Tumblr account and move Fisherpon to a secondary blog so I could bypass the 300/day post limit to handle all the content! But it was too much, and eventually I burnt out. I don’t remember exactly when it happened, but I think it was sometime in 2016. After that point, I stopped trawling the tags as much. I was following most of Tumblrpon (often running into the following limit of 5000 blogs), and through them I often saw new drawblogs (which I reblogged) and good pony art (which I tossed into the drafts, for when I’d eventually get around to processing it). Most of my blog’s activity turned into liveblogging new episodes, and Tumblrpon itself left its growth phase and plateaued.

Bit of a side note: In early 2017, a very dear member of the community passed away. He’d been there since the beginning, had one of the most unique ‘draw’ blogs, and was a close friend to a lot of us. Despite not liking alcohol myself, I still raise a toast in his honor on every anniversary of his passing. I still miss you, Rusty. You wise old bastard.

Anyhow, on to the most prominent event in Tumblr’s history:

The Purge

When the news dropped, I was travelling abroad in Korea so I wasn’t watching Tumblrpon closely. However, when all my Discord groups exploded, it was pretty hard to ignore. I feared that it would be the end of Tumblrpon as a whole, and wrote a dissertation about Tumblrpon’s history and my memories from the site. That goes into more detail on my origin story, if you’re interested in that.

And, as I expected, it did a lot of damage. Many drawblogs that were already on hiatus used it to justify finally ending their blogs, and a lot of ones that were active found themselves struck out of the sky by a stupid bot that couldn’t recognize boobs if it motorboated them. Tumblr gained a reputation as being unfriendly to artists, especially for those grimdark and risque artists Pinkamena had attracted to Tumblrpon in the first place. I’ve heard that roughly 30% of the site’s users left entirely, and in no place was it more obvious than my dashboard. Despite following thousands of accounts, there were and are days where I catch up on my dashboard to where I was the previous day and have to wait for new posts to appear. That would never have happened back in the Golden Age. Tumblrpon had already been slowly declining, but watching Tumblr shoot its foot off and strangle Tumblrpon (among other fandoms) was very depressing and radicalizing.

However, despite the purge, Tumblrpon lived on. There was talk of migrating to Pillowfort, NewTumbl or Mastodon, but they never caught on well enough to seriously shift the userbase. Despite everything, some new drawblogs popped up, and some of the old drawblogs that survived the purge kept on ticking and gained new prominence (or were simply no longer overshadowed) among the ruins. Things clearly would never be the same, and yet not everything had been lost. It was reassuring, in a way.

Meanwhile, outside of Tumblr, another great star was nearing the end of its life. The show itself, our source of fuel. It whose whims had given birth to thousands of drawblogs during the Golden Age, and whose fancies had caused no end of trouble for drawblogs whose canon counterparts went through big changes (cough Twilicorn cough). Nothing can last forever, and Season 9 would be the last season. Generation 5 was still at least a couple years away, so I decided to finally lower my standards and bring myself to post pony art without proper tags. I know, it sounds silly now, but I took great pride in my post organization and it took a lot of willpower to override that. I made a post telling people about my plans for the Great Draft Dump and started posting again, dripfeeding Tumblrpon with a post (almost) every hour from my reserves.

The Present

And now, here we are. A year past my original ending estimation and a couple weeks short of 3 years since it began. I could have pushed it to 3 years, but today is also the 12th anniversary of the very first episode that started it all so I figured this would be a better ending point.

Tumblrpon is still recovering from the Purge. They’ve dialed back the bot, and that combined with Twitter imploding (or something?) has helped bring artists back to some degree (or perhaps it’s due to COVID stuffing everyone inside), but there’s still a long way to go. We have new horse content again, and while it doesn’t seem to have the same spark G4 had it has breathed some new life into the fandom which is nice to see. There’s even been a handful of G5 drawblogs that have appeared, even though we still don’t seem to have any for Zipp or Hitch which is weird (especially in comparison to the dozens of drawblogs each Mane 6 member had back in the day). And yet, I’m still reminded of times long past. With most of the drawblogs gone, a lot of the activity on my dash is made of roleplayers once again. They’re not the same roleplayers as back in Oldest Tumblrpon, of course, but I feel as long as they continue roleplaying and interacting with each other Tumblrpon will never truly die.

And that is my history lesson. They may not be aware of it, but the new generation of drawblogs and roleplayers carry on a 415-Fyear-old legacy, part of which I’ve included in this comic. Just as we were Tumblrpon, so are you. To every blogger who ever drew a pony answering a question, and to every roleplayer who by interacting with others helped knit Tumblrpon together, I am deeply grateful. Undoubtedly, in the making of this comic I’ve forgotten ponies who should have been included, and to those I deeply apologize as well.

As for me? I’ll still be here. Ever-watching, ever-promoting, though perhaps not as much as I used to. The tanks are dry now, and everything I post will be from the present rather than the past. I’ll probably just toss it all into the queue and have it post whatever it gets a few times a day. Thanks to Tumblrpon, I gained a lot of horse friends, and it’s always great fun meeting up with them at conventions or hanging out with them in my personal Discord server (the Tumblrpon Block Party). If you made it all the way to the end of my tale and you want an invite to it, or if you have a new drawblog you want me to promote, or if you just want to chat, feel free to message me. After all, like I said at the beginning:

I’m not leaving.

Blogs featured in the comic (Queens bolded): Again, if I forgot you, my apologies. My memory’s far from perfect and there’s only so much space on the billboard.

Beginning (Panel 2): @askapplebloom-blog (archive of the original one) @vindicarthehippogriff @faithful-student @rainbowdash-answers @askberrypnuch @askrustynail (RIP. Survived by @techmomma) @askoctavia @ask-reginald-dragon @asklyra @queenfrau @draggity @ask-nightmaremoon @mythic-swirl @trollestiaanswers-blog-blog @stilllunaanswers

Early Golden Age (Panel 3): @askpinkaminadianepie @askmlcblobs @ask-doctorcolgate @ask-sadistic-rarity @ask-dr-adorable @thetalesofwildcard @askterry @asklittlepip @askhotbloodedpinkie @ask-misty-wonderbolt-blog-blog @raindropsanswers @ask-sapphire-eye-rarity @askprincessmolestia @askcharliefoxtrot @junes-pony @askfluttershyandpinkiepie @spittfire @asksirlintalot @ask-glittershell @ponyhawkesho @askdeadrainbowdash @askpiratedash @askvelvet @askstonedtrixie @asksurprisearchive (archive of the original one) @ask-jappleack @askspirit @sweetiebotreplies @askthenightguards @ask-grimdark-bigmac @askpalette-swap @just-flutterguy-replies @susie-queen-of-the-vampireponies @seaponyluna @askbadbloom @askmeaniebelle @ask-scootabot (sequel to the original)

Late Golden Age (Panel 5-7): @raikissu @vocationaldeathcruise (Somehow, this is still up) @askstalkerloo @asklaura-and-naki @outofworkderpy @ask-dinky-dawberry-doo @ask-doctor-dimension @ask-cyberpunkspitfire @ask-thaumaturge-pony @luna-afterdark @ask-dolly @askmovieslate @cmcnext @thehorsewife @askflufflepuff @questionpinkamena @lilmissrarity @fiddlesticks-archives-blog @darkfiretaimatsu @askfirestarterspitfire @fristart @under-renewal (Ask the CMC) @ask-acepony @pinkiepiesolutions @askshinytheslime @reversal-mushroom @askpun @askloona @ask-de-writer @askresearchertwilight @ask-king-sombra (Somboom reflected in window) @ask-fillytwilight (has since been taken over by a russian pornbot) @ask-ikea-pony @askbananapie @askseriousrainbow @motherlyscootaloo @butters-the-alicorn @thecoopontlc (the first collab drawblog) @ask-canterlot-musicians

Post-Purge (Panel 11): @rainbowdashsmailbagthings @thelunararmy @aerialaim @whirlwindflux @ask-louvely @unlocktheaskblog @adorkabletwilightandfriends @askburningstream @glimglamandpals

Now (Panel 13): @askalbinopie (Fellow Keeper of the Past, except that they also have the art skills to do it justice. If Rai hadn’t abdicated and killed off the Queen system, I’d prolly make Alby the 5th for their art skills and their understanding of our history.) @askjetstream @questionthedoctor @twila-bloggin @ask-izzy-moonbow @askquartzandcord @askdrunktwilight @darkreplies @sunny-and-sparkle @ask-narratordoe @ask-pippamena (What did I say earlier? Pinkamena’s legacy lives on.) @asklostcelestia @a-spoonful-o-generosity @askcharmingshadow @ask-shutter-ghost Here’s a funky fact for those of you who came alllllll the way down here. In late 2011/early 2012, right when Tumblrpon started expanding, there was a lot of Homestuck on my dash as it was still updating at the time. Because of that, I have approximate knowledge of many parts of the mid-to-late part of Homestuck, and also because of it I considered opening up a second Fisher blog for Homestuck material. Fisherstuck. Who knows how things would be today had I done that? Who knows....

[alicentflorent]

That’s the exact flavor that a lot of Rhaenicents like. Alicent is nothing if she is not begging at Rhaenyra’s feet her being her biggest cheerleader. They don’t actually care about our the character otherwise. They’ve been waiting for Rhaenyra to take Kings landing just they can see Alicent actually on her knees begging her for mercy.

Ultimately most of the blame goes to the writers who turned Alicent into a punching bag and their sole device to project lessons of karma, misogyny and hypocrisy on and not any of the more deserving characters. As proven by the new write up of viserys’s character this season. How do you intentionally show us that he is not only an awful father, but husband and king as well. Have multiple characters think this and completely rewrite history the next season about a man who said “Look me in the eyes” to his 10 year old that literally fucking lost his eye minutes ago. How do you say Alicent had a loving marriage when she dreaded visiting this man at night, went catatonic underneath him and he knows she doesn’t like it, knows she’s absent mentally and he still forces her to look at him while he rapes her?

The writers constant need to put Alicent into her place and then knock her down a few more pegs still. At this point it’s gratuitous and heavy handed. We get it, Alicent is not the right kind of woman. She can’t right a dragon, fight with a sword or shoot a bow. She doesn’t secretly wish she were a knight or a man. She’s not a guys girl. Therefore we shouldn’t root for her. We get it, we got it season 1 pre time skip that saw a completely innocent girl aged 14-18 whose worst crime at the time was gossip, be pimped out by her own father. Married to an old and ailing king who would never love or respect her. Endure his nightly rapes and become a mother at 15 and would spend most of the next 5 years pregnant who would never love his children. Show her support to her ex best friend who has ignored and treated her with hostility for 3 years and be laughed at and treated like an outsider by her husband and his gross child grooming brother who deserves nothing but the worse.

Daemon gets a redemption arc which will only fuel the Stans baby girlification of him while not only will team black hate Alicent, now a lot of team green hate her too. Opening her AND Olivia up for more misogyny and hate.

Those “take all of their misery and give it to______” memes are popular in this fandom but the writers really took that to heart. They take everyone’s misery and gives it to Alicent. Take an absolutely horrible character, take the horrible shit that they do and pay it back to Alicent 10 fold.

Take the worst man you know- a murderer, a child groomer, a proud misogynist, a woman beater. Have this man be directly responsible for Alicent’s 4 year old Grandson’s murder but make it Alicent’s fault for having sex with the man she’s had feelings for since she was 14 years old. She has this consensual, pleasurable sexual relationship- her first consensual relationship with this man who is devoted to her. A sexual abuse victim of 2 men finally feels comfortable enough with a man that she has sex with him with no clothes on, in the daylight and at night- sometimes in the same day. Shes not going away in her head during. She’s not being blackmailed. It’s not without religious guilt but it’s something she wants, she even initiates and takes lead.

They take this relationship, these consensual encounters with the man who she considers her “Lover” and they flip it on them, on her. They completely change the scene from its book counterpart and make it her fault because she was being a “whore” and a “hypocrite”. She was having sex while her Grandson was being murdered- an event she had no idea that was going to happen. It’s framed in a way that it’s her fault. Not Daemon’s, not B & C’s, not Aemond’s, not Viserys for planting the seeds for 2 decades- longer than that when you consider all the times we welcomed Daemon back at court after doing things like grooming his daughter and murdering his wife (and people say Alicent covered up for Aegon? What would they expect to happen when Daemon gets away with everything including murder? When Ironrod is the master of laws and can barely muster up respect for Alicent, wtf do TB think he would’ve done with Aegon? Castrated? The wall? Lmao, Alicent’s slapping, yelling at him and attempted disowning is more of a punishment than those men would give to Prince Aegon Targaryen who they were all planning a usurpation for)

It’s something Alicent needs to feel guilty for while the responsible parties are either unaffected or given scenes to make them sympathetic or a redemption journey. They keep showing that damn dog but Jaehaerys has become he who shan’t be mentioned.

Helaena has to forgive her mother who apparently nicked one of those glass candles from the Hightower as a small child, taught herself how to use it with that Hightower sorcery, used it to look into the future and saw when, where and how blood and cheese would take place but just decided not to stop it because she had a dick appointment.

Yet she’s coming to Daemon in his 3 eyed Raven dreams to tell him that he knows the role he has to play in saving the world- when he said a few episodes that he would walk away from his family if they loss. He also sent the Blackwoods to rape and pillage the Brackens and other Riverland families. Apparently he is deserving of redemption, for the fans to go “See, he never wanted to rule! He just wanted his family’s love and approval!” “He is in full support of Rhaenyra”

You know who else wanted her family’s love and approval- anybody’s love that she didn’t have to give parts of herself away for? This mildly bitchy woman who is actually one of the softest characters in the series, Alicent fucking Hightower. After her life ended at 14 years old, she’s spent the last 20 years in misery, she’s given all of herself to everyone else. Surely she has redeemed herself for the crime of not being the one to have Aemma sliced open and marrying her daughter’s 14 year old friend. She is the reason that Rhaenyra wasn’t caught off guard and murdered at the order of her father and council. Surely after losing for so long, she’ll get a win and the love she never had but nope, she is never going to get it.

Instead she gives up on her family aside from her daughter and granddaughter (and honestly, I can’t entirely blame her.) instead of just leaving, finding the son she saved and telling him to bow out. She goes to Rhaenyra for no logical reason at all, hands Rhaenyra the castle AND most of the people she loves on a silver platter and gets nothing in return but more humiliation, called a whore again, no guarantee of safety for her daughter, granddaughter or innocent youngest son and a clown nose.

Alicent is smarter than this! Or she was.

The people in the writer’s room hate her so much and that’s why they could never make me hate her.

You’ve summed everything up perfectly! Great point about daemon being given a redemption arc while Alicent is punished by the narrative for not fitting Condal and Hess’ idea of an ideal woman which is super problematic. Good comparison on Alicent covering up Diana’s rape vs Viserys and to a lesser extent, adult Rhaenyra covering up all of daemon’s crimes including Rhea Royce’s murder (and sitting at the table with viserys as he mocked rhea’s family and threatened to take their claim) and Rhaenyra presumably won’t hold him accountable or acknowledge the raping and pillaging daemon arranged in her name and forgive him for also murdering a 4 year old in her name. Alicent was definitely wrong for keeping dyana quiet and not doing more to help her but none of those men on the council including Otto would have done anything to Aegon over the rape. Otto might’ve yelled at him in I’m mad that your choice of victim is speaking out not that you’ve done this terrible thing kind of way. The only time daemon was held accountable was when the riverlords demanded justice for the war crimes and Oscar Tully, a child, ordered daemon to execute the Blackwood who committed those crimes on daemons orders (there’s also a reason we didn’t see the children being killed and women being raped, it’s because it would be harder to view daemon as redeemable just like seeing Aegon’s traumatised, named victim has much more of an impact than if we just heard Erryk say that Aegon sexually assaults serving girls)

Back to Alicent, they can never make me hate her.. if they think a woman needs to be humbled and revert back to her teenage self after a season of what felt like one long humiliation ritual, sex scenes that didn’t make the Final Cut and made Olivia feel uncomfortable and instead of ending all of this in some kind of catharsis for Alicent they have beg for forgiveness and mercy from the other female lead who will call her a whore and a hypocrite to appease fans who have been saying Alicent is a hypocritical judgmental whore who needs to be put in her placefor day one. This meeting with Rhaenyra will lead to the deaths of every single person Alicent loves (her sons, including innocent daeron, her daughter who she spent the season trying to protect, her father, her lover, her brother who is also innocent as in he hasn’t been involved in any of the usurper politics and only seemed to join this war out of duty) and I’m sure they’ll constantly remind the audience that Alicent took down team green and Rhaenyra’s hands will conviently stay relatively clean.

[wolfofansbach]

Personal thoughts and meditations upon the occasion of the Riverdale series finale. 

Probably like four people are going to read this but I feel compelled to write it out anyway. This show has genuinely been a massive part of my life. I watched the first episode because some high school friends encouraged me to (IRONICALLY, BRO). I was in high school when I started this show. Those friends of course long ago fell away, unable to continue, unable to wacth anymore, but I have kept the faith. All seven seasons. Every. Single. Episode.

I’m not even entirely sure what captivated me so much about the show. I loved the atmosphere of season 1. I genuinely wanted to find out who killed Jason Blossom. Was genuinely fucked up by episode 1 x 12 and the first season finale.

I have such fond memories of watching the first season. I distinctly remember a road-trip I Tok with my friends the summer of 2017, and joking about  maple syrup drug empires and the “weirdo” line back when that was the wildest scene on the show. Joking about how sick of the song ‘Believer’ by Imagine Dragons (2017) we were. 

And then I decided to get involved in a fandom for the first time in a couple of years, and so I revived my old Tumblr, and I began Posting. And reading posts.  

That was my last summer after high school and I was so nervous about college but this show and this fandom helped me get through it. My freshman year I lived in a dorm, and if you wanted to watch TV you had to go down to this common room, so every Thursday I would go down there like an hour ahead of time and occupy the place to make sure the remote was in my hands by 7 PM. A few times I failed, and I missed an episode because of it. But rarely! 

I remember that slowly dawning feeling as season 2 progressed. Scrolling my Tumblr feed and slowly seeing people come to the realization: “wait…is it just me or does this show actually suck.” Was kind of frustrating at the time, realizing that the writers just like…were bad, but in retrospect? Beautiful. Incredible. Legendary. 

And you could even say that’s where the fun really began. Yes, there’s plenty to hate, but also Riverdale is brilliant. The show of all time. For real. No other show has done it like Riverdale. They just haven't, and they never will. The age of the cable television teen drama is ending, and what a hell of a last hurrah Riverdale has been.

The Red Circle. Jingle Jangle. The Gargoyle King. Edgar Evernever and his fantastic rocket. Bret Weston Wallis and Donna Sweett (genuinely cannot say their names without giggling). Jughead getting hit in the head with a rock and faking his death for like…some reason? I genuinely can’t remember, something to do with the Hardy Brothers idk. Tabitha sprinkling the devil with the tears of the Virgin Mary. The normies can laugh all they want about “epic highs and lows” but do they remember the even funnier lines like “if there’s no wedding, that means the gargoyle king has won” or “word of my exploits serving Nick his comeuppance…” THEY NEVER WILL. ONLY THE TRUE FAITHFUL UNDERSTAND. 

And is silly as it all was, I have genuine affection for these characters. Like Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Archie, Cheryl, Toni, actually mean a lot to me. YES they’re fake but I want the best for them (and for Beronica to be canon but you know we can’t win them all). I’m genuinely grateful that this show has existed and been a part of my life for the past six years. 

Moreover, I credit this show for seriously getting into writing. I’ve actually written almost a million words of Riverdale fanfiction. Much of it will never see the light of day, but it exists. Maybe I even have one or two left in me, I don’t know. At the very least I’d like to finish a few uncompleted fics. But I’ve also branched out. Since I started seriously writing in 2017, I’ve also finished several original manuscripts, and who knows, maybe one day I’ll get one published. Stranger things have happened. 

So, thanks Roberto.

And thanks to all of the very cool people I’ve run into in this fandom. I honestly wish I’d gotten to know most of you better, but them’s the breaks. Hopefully this isn’t weird but I’m going to tag a few people in particular. 

@village-skeptic. I know you’re not in the fandom anymore (lucky you), but thank you for, once upon a time, reading every one of the 200,000+ words of a 17-year-old kid’s turgid, indulgent, Riverdale Spanish Civil War fan fiction. I never, ever would have finished that story without you, and I credit it with giving me the confidence to keep writing, and in fact to write everything I’ve written since then. You’re brilliant and awesome. 

@satelliteinasupernova. Thank you for also reading Interbellum (are we noticing a pattern), and more importantly for all of your wonderful drawings. INCLUDING fanart of some of my fics. You have no idea how happy that Strange Death of Elizabeth Cooper piece made me. You rule. 

@sullypants. You were a perennial presence on my feed. Always wonderful to see. I love your taste in art, and I love those ‘penguin classics’ covers you made for a few of my fics. Thank you also for beta reading a few fics for me back in the glory days. And thank you for chatting with me a couple times over the years, including a few times when I was in quite unhappy places. 

@stillhidden. I’m not sure if we’ve ever actually talked, but you like or reblog everything I post and it makes me feel like I’m not just shouting into the void. Same goes for @frauleinfunf Thank God for dutiful mutuals. 

@sonyascomet. I can’t remember when I started following you but you have a really good sense of humor. And I’ll always remember when you kept posting about “Greg” for Succession and I, not knowing anything about Succession, kept imagining Greg Heffley. 

@stillhidden thank you for your world-weary Riverdale posts. You truly understand fandom like few others.

@halcooper. Your devotion to the neglected parents of Riverdale is truly admirable. Every time I see Lochlyn Munro in some weird low budget horror movie I’ll think of you.

I hope I didn’t forget anyone who would be offended by my forgetting, but I doubt it. 

All this to say this show has been a genuinely huge part of my life for six years. SIX YEARS. I graduated college, my God. I wish I could say I became a millionaire or a successful author in that time, but nah. Maybe one day, but for now I’m just kind of vibing. And unfortunately, I’ll have to vibe without Riverdale from now on. 

But as I sit myself down to watch the very last episode of this show, I remind myself that we’ll always have the memories. And I’ll always be an unapologetic Riverdale enjoyer. As a great man once said, snakes don’t shed their skins so easily. 

[crushermyheart]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thank you to @fandomsbyladymelodrama for the tag! This should be fun...

How many works do you have on AO3? Presently, 24. (I joined AO3 3 years after joining fanfiction.net so there are a few more on there of questionable quality)

What's your total AO3 word count? 135,060

What fandoms do you write for? It varies greatly depending on what I'm watching, but mostly All Creatures Great and Small (2020) and Star Trek Voyager/Next Gen.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? My Dearest Lizzy (a Pride & Prejudice/Death Comes to Pemberley fanfic from AGES ago), Right Here (Mission Impossible, Ilsa/Ethan), Frozen Harmonies (hilariously, an overly dramatic Star Trek Next Gen fanfic, Picard/Crusher), For a Time Innumerable (Wheel of Time, series 1 aftermath, wrote this last year and kinda proud of it), Milk & Honey (All Creatures Great and Small 2020, in which Mr Farnon and Mrs Hall converse in the kitchen in the small hours of the morning, one of my personal faves)

Do you respond to comments? Yes! I love responding to comments and discussing my fics as well as commenting on other people's works.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? That is a good question... There are a great many. Potentially Some Shred of Goodness (The Crucible) which reflects on John and Elizabeth Proctor's relationship and if you know what happens in the play then the end of this fic, whilst sounding happy, is SUPER angsty.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Ooooh, um, either Little Ordinary Things or Knights and Dragons, both fluffy Siegfried & Audrey, All Creatures Great & Small fics.

Do you get hate on fics? I had one comment on a fic last year that was weird/not nice/super critical/generally confusing and it kinda freaked me out so I deleted the fic - until some lovely person came and found me on Tumblr asking where the rest was and to not give up writing it.

Do you write smut? Nope.

Do you write crossovers? I don't think I've ever written one? I do have a potential crossover in mind (added to the very long list of unwritten fic ideas)

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No idea?

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Not yet.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Good grief I can only have one? Most of my ships have not sailed, lol. RIP. Or have yet to set sail *cough* Siegfried/Audrey from All Creatures Great and Small, and then Picard/Crusher and Janeway/Chakotay from Star Trek. Also platonic ship: Moiraine & Lan, Wheel of Time. My original OTPs will forever be Aragorn/Arwen and Han/Leia.

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? The Star Trek Next Gen fic I started writing 10 years ago which has 5 different versions and is over 40k words in note form *cries*

What are your writing strengths? I have not been asked this before... I like writing descriptively, describing locations but also emotions. If you've read my fics I'd like to know what you think my strengths are?

What are your writing weaknesses? Coming up with titles. I have a tendency to edit to death. And then ending up in the cycle of I kinda hate this/this is the best thing I've ever written and trying to find an end. Also, not planning everything out and getting lost in my chapters.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If it's called for, go for it! I'm currently working on a Witcher fic and have done a stupid amount of research into the Elder speech and Skellige jargon.

First fandom you wrote for? Technically Scott & Bailey on fanfiction.net, When it Rains it Pours. It is terrible, the punctuation is everywhere, it's hilariously dramatic, and still my longest fic to date.

Favorite fic you've written? Oh no, I don't know! I really don't. Possibly Milk & Honey?

Tagging: @fuel-prices, @phoenixflames12, @shelbyxhughes, @beanabouttown, @itsmeagain00O , or tag yourself ;)

[uhuraisgay]

fic writer meme

ty lore @megafaunatic for tagging meee :3c

How many works do you have on Ao3?

fifty three as of today. tomorrow? who knows.... (probably still fifty three)

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

518,435 words .... wrow.....

3. What fandoms do you write for?

historically its been all over the place but theres so much stuff rotting and dying in my gdrive that has never been posted so i feel like i have a broader actual ouvre than is represented on ao3. which is mdzs heavy at least in the past couple years

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

5. beyond all limit (wangxian i wrote for lore right after i first read the book) 4. if the story's over (moshang post-divorce get-together fic) 3. someone as good for me as you (written in 2016 for holster and ransom when i was reading check, please. LMAO) 2. at least as deep as the pacific ocean (written in 2015 in the clearest example of 'person distraught by the tragic ending of a tragedy misses the fucking point and writes a coffee shop au of achilles and patroclus after she read tsoa' ever, even bigger LMAO) 1. your name safe in their mouth (lsz gets his dad back, and other emotional adventures)

5. Do you respond to comments?

i used to try to reply to every comment i got but i stopped doing that around the same time i went to college and got more depressed. but i love reading comments and i sometimes reply if someone says something that moves me or like. asks me a question about the fic that i want to elaborate on? because i love to yap

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

i'm not really good at writing straight angst i feel like it's normally like. angst with catharsis. but i wrote some explorations on grief in the past couple years that i feel like have the angst factor (what i have of you about nhs after nmj dies, and then when your beard fell out about my sweetie pie kageyama tobio in middle school after his grandpa dies)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i have a lot of silly fluffy fics... idk i try to toe the line mostly of like. the joys and sadnesses of human experience but sometimes you just gotta fluff it up. i'll set the table, you can make the fire, which is book verse aziraphale/crowley living in a cottage and being in love, comes to mind....i love that one

8. Do you get hate on fics?

i don't think i've ever really gotten hate on a fic? i have been extremely lucky in that regard. especially since my whole ouvre from like 2014 onward is on that damn site and much of it is very cringeworthy.

9. Do you write smut?

not well!

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you have written?

i often will do like kind of a quasi-crossover kind of thing rather than a True Crossover wherein i take characters i like from one medium and plop them into the roles and places of characters i like from another medium. i did a dragon age wangxian fic where lwj was the inquisitor from da:i called we held together the fragile sky that kind of exemplifies this dynamic

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of or that anyone has ever notified me of, but i also don't look that hard. if this has ever happened, it would hurt my feelings, so please don't do it ? lol

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!!!! and i was honored

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

not as such but i have one not-intended-for-posting fic which is basically just a transcription of jokes i have with my roommate about haikyuu characters LOL which i think counts as co-writing. she's my co-writer in spirit even if i'm the one at the keyboard

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

my answer to this changes with every new fixation i have. like right now it's kagehina. if you asked me four years ago i would have said wangxian. You Know?

15. What is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

SO MANY...i think probably my fullmetal alchemist nie brothers au....i try not to post things until they are done and fully edited now, but that one was a whim-based fic that i lost all strength for as soon as i started thinking too hard about kagehina. i also had a fem nielan sci fi au that was vaguely based off beauty and the beast but nmj was like stuck in a ship and she thought she was its computer and that she was a program but she was actually a person....which i never posted any of except snippets on twitter and i think it was just too sprawling for my current skill level...i just was never able to wrangle it. but i am fond of it nonetheless

16. What are your writing strengths?

based on what other people have told me i would say the way i write sibling / family relationships, and while my prose is not always pretty i do think it can be pretty at times ...

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i feel like it's often too self-indulgent even if that's what fic is for lol, and i tend to look back on fics and think, i wrote that because i had feelings about it and wanted to say it, but i'm not necessarily sure that This Character would say/do that at this point in time....idk like i fear that when i don't think about it hard enough my characterization can be weak or guided by what eye personally would do vs. what The Character would do. but some of that is because the majority of my fics on ao3 are from years and years ago and i (hopefully) have continued to improve

18. Thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

i'm picky about it but when it's done well i think it's really fun and builds so much of the world/character. i think when it's bad it's really bad. when i go about it i try to think about like, a) do i know this language myself/do i know someone who does. if the answer is no i try to keep it really minimal. b) how do people who know multiple languages approach speaking those multiple languages naturally in real life. like (IN MY EXPERIENCE) ppl don't tend to switch languages for random words mid-sentence unless those words are like, mom, dad, uncle, aunt, ect...maybe swearing if they're less familiar with one of the languages and don't know slang/swearing in it...but again when it's done well it's really good and i'm not an expert. i just can kinda tell when it feels off when i read it, if that makes sense...(it's the same way i feel about grammar lol. sometimes i can just tell it's a little Off)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

probably either fma or soul eater or the sister's grimm book series when i was in middle school. or maybe doctor who? idk i had a lot of fanfic notebooks that i have since destroyed and then regretted destroying

20. Favorite fic you have written?

at the present moment it's in these coming years my kagehina love letter but again i feel like it changes constantly. like the more i write the better i get and the more the newest/most polished thing i've written sort of Becomes my favorite just by default of my satisfaction level with it. sorry if that's a bad answer

tagging @yuebings @dcyiyou @burins @cairoscene @cafecliche @perilously sorry if you've been tagged already also if you want to do this and i didn't tag you just say i did. I'll shut up now

[thessalian]

Thess vs Gender-Locking

Apparently, the vocal minority of neckbeard assholes in the gaming community is grumping over Star Wars: Outlaws. Sure, some of it is "it looks bland", and a lot of it is because of Denuvo, but ... that's the normal people. The neckbeard assholes are giving us the following:

"I don't want to be stuck playing a woman; I should be able to decide!"

Now. Does that sound familiar to anyone else?

I remember when every time a new game came out, and someone so much as asked if there was a character creation menu, these jackasses came out of the woodwork yelling, "If you want that, go play Sims and stop pretending to be a REAL GAMER!!!" I remember ten years ago when they rebooted Tomb Raider, and the fucking devs were talking about, "Well, it's a hard sell to get people to play a female character, so we dealt with it as the players aren't identifying with her, but trying to protect her from all the awful things that will happen to her in this game". Most of all, I remember every single Yagwood (YAGWD - Yet Another Grizzled White Dude) game that has come out since games stopped being about, like, Pac-Man.

I also remember my first experience with Mass Effect. I was a latecomer to Mass Effect, for some very relevant reasons. Y'see, I got into Dragon Age around about when Origins first came out, and I got interested in seeing what other games might be out there for me. I did look at Mass Effect, but at that point, I had no idea that you could customise your Shepard. Because I was very hesitant to get into the fandom space (I had some ... unfortunate issues in a previous fandom space, y'see), all I saw was the marketing stuff, and the marketing stuff all said Sheploo, so I just ... took one look at the box art and went, "...Nah." And when I did get into the Dragon Age fandom, and I saw and read all the stuff about Mass Effect because of the Bioware-Overlap thing, I went, "Wait, you can have a woman Shepard?!?" and basically pounced on the thing.

It just pisses me off that these neckbeard assholes are sitting there going, "Ugh; I don't want to play as a guuuuuuuuuurl! Why can't I play what gender I want?!?" when they've spent literal decades yelling at everyone else for ... wanting to play what gender they want? Hell, it was only last fucking year that they were yelling about TEH PRONOUNZ OMG or whatever, and now? Pfft.

Though I will say one thing - I'm glad of their narcissism, in a way. They've skipped straight to, "It's not catering to me so I won't buy it" - partly because they're so self-absorbed that they think that their few quid will DESTROY THE COMPANY FOR THEIR WOKENESS or whatever the fuck ... but I think also partly because they know they're going to have to face the rest of us meeting their, "Why can't I play as my own gender?!?" with the same shit we've been getting from them for decades now. They've been getting a whole lot of their own medicine lately. I guess they don't like the taste.

Then again, they're in the Black Wukong space right now anyway, crowing about how the developers refused to use Sweet Baby Inc and such. I swear, these guys need to do way more than touch grass.

[mathlann]

10 characters | 10 fandoms | 10 a negotiable number of tags

Tagged by @poetikat! Thank you!

1. Selina Kyle/Catwoman- DC. One of my oldest faves, even if I don't talk about her much on here. Something is happening in Gotham City? Is Catwoman going to be there? If not, then I don't care! It's rare that a Batman writer can be normal about her but I'd rather suffer through badly written Selina than no Selina (and God have I suffered).

2. Matilda- The Monk: A Romance. One of the best villains I've read this year, I adored every page she was on! The scheming! The seduction! The audacity! She worked hard for her place in Hell and I hope Satan gave her a promotion!

3. Yennefer of Vengerberg- The Witcher 3. Ever since Geralt showed up Skellige and she gave him those party outfits knowing damn well she wasn't going to like either one of them... I loved her. I immediately got back on the boat to find the right merchant to buy the correct outfit so we could coordinate. Never made the same mistake again.

4. Arthur Morgan- Red Dead Redemption 2. My sweet cowboy! He was awful at crime and riding horses but I kept him clean, fed, and dressed in the finest Cowboy Gucci 1899 money could buy. He rode his white mare off to the Big Train Job in the Sky years ago and I still can't finish the epilogue because I miss him too much.

5. Daeran Arendae- Wrath of the Righteous. Every blessing in his life has turned out to be a curse and he deals with that by being just ....the pettiest asshole. He actively makes my KC a worse person by association but he is never allowed to leave my party. To avoid a dissertation level essay....I just think he's neat!

6. Aloth Corfiser- Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2. My favorite Team Nerd. This elf has never met a crack in the ground too small to dramatically hurt himself on, but also is regularly one of the last ones standing during boss fights. He hates me in Deadfire as of now but his general wizardly wimpiness is so endearing I can't be mad about it.

7. Alicent Hightower- House of the Dragon. Owner of the biggest, saddest eyes in Westeros. She should have been allowed to kill that old man. I wanted her to kill that old man so badly.

8. Maeve Millay- Westworld. Her and Hector altered my brain chemistry for a straight month back in 2021 (their intro! The tent scene!). That show did not do her right because Maeve should've been the special main character android rather than Dolores. The whole narrative ~bullshit~ just makes more sense if it was Maeve. I said it then, I say it now, and I'll be saying it again on my deathbed.

9. Johnny Gat- Saint's Row II. Johnny, my best friend Johnny! He never stops criticizing my Boss's driving but I take him everywhere all the same. Accidentally launched him out the front of a car so bad he didn't come back for what felt like a week. I thought I'd killed him for real and was devastated! Saints Row III is so boring without him.

10. Morrigan- Dragon Age Origins. Still one of my favorite video game character arcs. Platonically. Romantically. To me, she can do no wrong.

If y'all are up to it! Tagging @babeoffrontiers @neocores @feluka @bhaelspawn @gojuo or anyone who wants to!

[spectralsleuth]

Favorite fics? Doesn't have to be rise or even turtle related

Oh man I got very excited for this ask. I have been in a lot of different fandoms for a very long time- but lets start with some of my all timers.

Now What I'm Going To Say May Sound Indelicate (Rated E)

A Reddie fic for It CH2, which I've probably reread about fifty times. It's unfinished, and probably never will be finished, but it's absolutely worth a read. The writing is incredible, and it's my singular favorite fic of all time. A lot of medical procedures and recovery, since (spoiler) someone gets impaled at the end of the movie and this is exploring how they might live through that.

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Blue Sky (Rated T (from what I remember))

PDF VERSION

I hope this link works- the first link is fanfiction dot net, which is hard to use after so many years, and the other is a pdf I found of someone who downloaded a version to share. This fic is from 2011, and is actually pretty famous. Based off of Portal 2, what happens when Wheatley gets a body? I've actually been meaning to reread it because I barely remember it at this point, but this fic came out about a year before I graduated high school and opened my eyes to the fact that fanfiction can be actual published novel quality.

Also friendly reminder that if you love a fic, download it. Not to repost obviously, but websites disappear and works get deleted for any number of reasons and you may in fact be helping an author out.

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Wow. This is fucking wild-

From Out the Ocean Risen (Rated T)

A Pacific Rim fic that started publishing in 2013- last time I reread this, YEARS AGO, the series was as of yet unfinished. It's a fantastic body-horror-esque story of the implications of aliens and hiveminds and what makes a monster. It's Newton Giezler-centric and FANTASTICALLY written-

and it JUST updated this month in 2023. I had no idea, but searching through my fic list made me notice. I thought, surely it's just an update to apologize for abandoning the fic- but no! It's an actual new chapter.

If you guys ever wanted to show support for a fic that's been abandoned, this one deserves it immensely. Show it some love, it's never too late to hop on board and enjoy a fic and you never know what someone will return to.

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Pirate King Laurence (Rated T)

'His Majesties Dragon' is a super good age of sail book series, sometimes called 'Temeraire', that's as if a Pride and Prejudice character was captain of a dragon crew. This is a little bit of an AU to that, and is one of my all time favorite Temeraire fic series.

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the run and go (Rated M)

Post Homestuck fic. 560k words. Still being updated- enough said, it's fantastic. This is probably the longest fic on my list. Involves a lot of unpacking about Dave and Bro and not just what it's like recovering from an abusive childhood, but reconciling with the person you love who abused you. Also everyone lives. Everyone.

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>Dave: survive three years on this rock (Rated T)

One more Homestuck fic for the road- there was a period of time where the Homestuck tag was nothing BUT meteor fic. If you were in the fandom, iykyk. This one was probably the most in character Dave and great portrayal of what it would be like actually living within a universe made up of date game mechanics.

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The Other Hawke (Rated E)

If anyone's gone through the rest of my fic besides TMNT stuff, they've seen my SECOND largest fandom I've written for, which was Dragon Age. More specifically, I fixated on most peoples least favorite character on the whole series- Carver Hawke. Hahaha. I just really fixate on the oddest characters, huh?

This is a fic about what his life outside of his brother is like, and giving him a lot of depth that you don't get in the video game series. Also he is getting dicked down by Fenris, which is a fantastic pairing I didn't know I needed. It's hilarious, and romantic, and very tense.

Man. I gotta reread a lot of these. Thanks so much for the ask! Sorry if it got a little out of hand haha.

[dreamerinsilico]

Fic writing questions

tagged by @yuniemaki - thank you for thinking of me!

how many works do you have on ao3?

67

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

344,183

Kind of wild to me, but the VAST majority of those words happened more than five years ago.

3. what fandoms do you write for?

Mostly The Sandman right now, although I'm still a Hannibal person and I think I feel some BG3 coming on eventually. I've meandered my way through various video game fandoms over the years and am likely to return to Pillars of Eternity. Rather less likely for the Bioware stuff, but maybe the upcoming DA game will, in a stunning subversion of my expectations, make me care about Dragon Age again.

I really enjoy the Yuletide fic exchange, so I write for whatever small fandom I get assigned that year (so far I've done Wayward Children, Left Hand of Darkness, and Goncharov), and I'm hoping to get more into exchanges.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Constellations of the Things We Left Unsaid - multichapter Reaper76 thing I actually finished and was writing when Overwatch was popular

His Pale Steed - early Hannibal fic, I think it was my second

Best of Cruel Intentions - also earlyish Hannibal fic, and the start of my very excellent mutual betaing relationshihp with @tiggymalvern

Let's Try Another Kind of Peace - T_T WIP crawling out of the well to shame authorkind (also Hannibal. Yes, I still do have intent to get back to it.)

Solstice - Actually tickled and delighted this made the list; it's the second fic I ever posted to AO3, and it is Aela/F!Dovahkiin smut from the Skyrim kinkmeme back in the day

5. do you respond to comments?

A majority of the time, yes. Especially if I get a meaty one to actually talk about!

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

....yeah, not really any competition there, it's I Recall, which I wrote for a Pillars of Eternity minibang about my Watcher, Acantha's past-life doomed romance with Iovara.

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

I'm not sure how to answer this one! I'm kinda all over the map in terms of the tone of the fics I write, and I don't know how to really differentiate between different happy endings.

But let's shout out You Sang Me of Some Distant Past (Dragon Age, F!Hawke/Morrigan, which canoe I will paddle until the end times) - this was my first ever big bang entry, and I'm still happy with it a decade later.

8. do you get hate on fics?

I think the closest thing to hate I've ever gotten was someone saying my Labyrinth fic had Sarah using too many big words in her head.

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

My AO3's linked all over this post, you can just go look.

But uh, lot of D/s, lot of knifeplay, I think are the two big themes.

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

I have written one (1) crossover! There's Someone Scratching Softly is a Hannibal/Wayward Children crossover where Jack Wolcott is in therapy with Hannibal. It's the leviathan shadow of a much larger AU Hannibal fic I've done a lot of brainstorming on, and I posted it on a whim one day (I hadn't originally intended to, when I wrote it) and was very pleased with that decision, because a few fans who know both canons came out of the woodwork to gush at me about it.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

No idea, but probably not; I don't write enough plotty epics to make it likely.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of. (A couple of delightful people have podficced some of my short Hannibal fics, though! I was very excited.)

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

Nope. Wouldn't completely rule it out as a possibility, but not something I've done date.

14. what's your all time favourite ship?

I don't really do all-time favorites? I do whatever I've got the most brainrot about currently. I don't have a good way of ranking favorite ships relative to one another!

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

Relentless Splinters I Recall is the parent fic, sort of, to I Recall, which I mentioned above. It was a very ambitious idea and I love what's there, but I will be very surprised and impressed with myself if I manage to pick that thread back up at some point. I don't think I'm really cut out to do game novelization fic.

16. what are your writing strengths?

Economy's probably the biggest one; I know very well that I can get a lot done in a relatively small number of words. I also really enjoy writing dialogue and like to think I'm good at it.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

I'm not the kind of person who can spawn wild AUs or plotlines easily, and I often wish that I was. (I don't think I'm bad at plot, but if I'm writing something plotty there is a lot of very deliberate brainstorming and probably workshopping with a friend or two, and it takes a ton of effort.)

Also just, you know, getting words on the page. (It's hard! It's hard! It's really really haaaaard! ~*)

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

I think anything from a curse word to a short phrase can have a place, but usually find it obnoxious when writers put in whole exchanges in (usually google translated) Other Language.

There was a post going around at some point discussing how bi/multilingual people do and don't mix languages that was very good and valid.

19. first fandom you wrote for?

Labyrinth (1986)

20. favorite fic you've written?

Oof, that's hard. Something, something, can't pick a favorite child.

However, with the caveat that I have a lot of favorites for a lot of reasons, the Goncharov fic I wrote for Yuletide 2023 still pleases me to an outsize degree. Sometimes I think I'm funny.

Tagging @tiggymalvern @stylishanachronism @firebatvillain @xenosimp @pragnificent @softdedue @the-bees-patella @dsudis and anyone else so inclined <3