#I got the Infos from Wikipedia and the fandom wiki

[cruddyart]

Because it's a thing that pops up multiple times and I'm pedantic.

White Wolf publishing doesn't exist anymore and hasn't for a good while. V5 is made by Paradox.

For context: In 2006 White Wolf publishing has been merged with CCP. WW would handle traditional publishing while CCP would deal with some mmo stuff they wanted to do.

At one point in 2011 a shit ton of employees were laid off and the creative director then went off to create onyx path publishing which published White Wolf stuff on CCP's (and now Paradox) behalf.

In 2014 more staff was laid off and the mmo was canceled. Then Paradox bought White Wolf. Since 2018 White Wolf has been restructured directly into Paradox and hence doesn't exist.

[kaythefloppa]

The Current Timeline of Wild Kratts:

Remember 3 years ago during the hiatus when I made that detailed post explaining the chronological lore of Wild Kratts and analyzed its timeline of a decade's worth of episode with a dash of my own HC involved in it and posted it onto the Wild Kratts fandom subreddit?

Yeah, I promised updates to it when the new episodes arrived, and here I am almost a damn year later with four episodes already released, and four more on their way (with two of them already having been leaked!) Not to mention there were people who messaged me about legitimate errors I made that I accepted humbly, but didn't actually fix. Not to mention the crossovers that I completely ignored.

Well, much like in 2021, I had wayy too much free time on my hands and decided to go back and finally update that timeline. Unfortunately, Reddit's character limit prevented me from getting the edited version posted so I grit my teeth and decided to bring this fucker to Tumblr via copy and paste. Yeah, I'm not even kidding. So if you've ALSO got enough free time on your hands or are someone who read the original post who was desperately searching for an update, you've got it.

Full post underneath the cut: Warning, shit gets crazy down there.

The PBS Kids original animated show “Wild Kratts” has turned a decade old in the 2020's. Within that time, an autobiography, a 200 episode milestone, and a theatrical film based on the series is confirmed to be in development.

With new episodes of the show coming out, I figured that I’d analyze the show by making an analysis for its timeline. Like many shows, it does have continuity, but Wild Kratts is one of those shows which apparently has an extremely open universe where events happen within that universe, but they don’t seem to have a coherent timeline or any serialization. Many episodes are aired out of order and it’s hard to find a passage of time in a show which doesn’t rely on over-serialization in order to tell its own story.

I partly blame this on production errors as well as strict scheduling as well as the network focusing on releasing episodes in order of when they were produced as opposed to the intended date.

I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt that it doesn’t just rehash its timeline over and over again (unlike some other shows I know cough cough Arthur & Family Guy cough cough). Continuity does exist. It’s just figuring out how it falls in line that is the hard part.

I’ll update this post every time a new episode comes out. My plan is to analyze every single episode until the series finale so that we can determine how much time passes in the show. The way I'll order the timeline is by chronological order first. If there exists an episode or a group of episodes that do not contradict the order, but is not stated to go within this order, I will place them by original air-date and not production order.

I had found a website that lists every Wild Kratts episode (minus the hour-long specials) in order by air-date, unlike the Wild Kratts wiki & Wikipedia. Now, I did find some errors, as it claims that the first 2 episode aired on December 31st and not January 3rd, however I can forgive that as that has been a misconception for years and it got only the date wrong and not the order of episodes. So I was able to use that as a reliable source, more so than the fandom wiki. I am also running off of vivid memory based on my viewing experience as a kid, since I grew up with the show and have come to realize how much info I've retained from the universe of my hyperfixation and how I can use that to this post's advantage. Let's get into it.

Activate Analysis Powers!

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SEASON 1:

Let’s start with the very first 2 episodes to be released: Mom of a Croc and Whale of a Squid.

In that episode, we see that the Kratt Brothers are already familiar with what’s around them. They’re familiar with the Minaturizer, their Creature Power Suits and Disks, and adventuring with the coolest creatures from oceans to trees (sorry, had to squeeze that reference in).

We see that some animals and inventions are introduced into this episode like the Hippo Sub, Crocodilla, and her daughters. However, let’s focus on things which aren’t introduced in this episode.

Most notably, the Gharial Power Disks and the Miniaturizer. Let’s focus on the disks first.

Near the climax of the episode, the Kratt Brothers use the Gharial Power Disks to substitute for Crocodile Powers since they did not have a disk. Gharials and Nile Crocodiles are both in the order Crocodillia, but were not in the same species nor family. That, along with different designs, makes gharials and crocodiles in general very different animals, which is why the activation didn’t hold up (I hope to god they actually make an episode around gharials in the next season).

Many people assume that this episode only takes place after Kerhonk since Chris uses Gharial Crocodile Power, but this is actually false. Listen closely to what Chris is saying.

“Ha! Crocodile. And a gharial is a type of crocodile!”

Now we’ve already established that a gharial is NOT a crocodile despite being a crocodillian, but let’s get to the important part. Chris is saying that as he pulls out his Crocodile Disk for the Creature Power Suit. Now here is the thing. He doesn’t pull out a Gharial Disk. He uses the Croc Disk to activate Gharial Power, but he doesn’t use a gharial disk to activate the corresponding power suit.

So if Aviva did invent Gharial Power by the events of Kerhonk, Chris would’ve used that instead of using the Crocodile Disk as a substitute. And assuming that episode predates Mom of a Croc, the Kratt Brothers would’ve obviously used the Crocodile Disk since they have used it before.

So that means there was some off-screen adventure where Aviva made Gharial Powers which took place before Kerhonk.

...But that would mean Chris would already have a Gharial Power Disk by the events of Kerhonk and Mom of a Croc. One of 2 things is likely the case. Either Chris didn’t have access to the disk and used Crocodile Power as a last resort (as we see, the disk holder doesn’t exist until Season 2, so he probably stuffs them in his pockets), or that episode exists in an alternate timeline, which we know isn’t the case since that episode’s continuity is brought up later (we will see soon).

So we’ve established that Kerhonk takes place after Mom of a Croc, which takes place after an unseen series of events that predate the series itself as we know it.

Now onto the Miniaturizer. We see it in this episode, but 4 episodes later in Mystery of the Squirmy Wormy, the miniaturizer is invented. That leads me to believe that the episode takes place before Mom of a Croc. However, if you look in the background, you can see that the Walrus Power Suit is in the background with a harness and strap over it. This debunks my original theory of this episode predating the invention of the Creature Power Disks.

With the Walrus Power Suit in mind, it has a harness and strap over it, which brings up the question of why?

My answer would be that the harness and strap was meant for the Walrus Suit after it was damaged in Polar Bears Don’t Dance.

So now we’re at the original pilot episode, the first piece of Wild Kratts media produced by PBS Kids (excluding the Flash games that came out a month prior and were removed 9 years later, *sobs*). Here, the operation of the suits is different. Here, Aviva modified the suits for arctic survival and all it takes is for them to touch the animals with the gloves and then press the button. In many episodes, the modification occurs with the existence of a Creature Power Disc, or the disk is seen off-screen.

But the more I see into it, the more it makes sense. Ever wonder why we don’t see some creature power disks of creature powers in the earlier episodes? Maybe it could be the same reason why we don’t see the Polar Bear and Walrus Disk for the Creature Power Suit.

Aviva pre-programs the Creature Power Suits into the animal that the user can activate into not because she prefers this over making discs, or because the discs are already inserted into the suit, but because this was before she began making Creature Power Discs. This explains why in many Season 1 episodes, we don’t see the disc itself because the power is preprogrammed into the suit.

So at what point does this end and Aviva starts making discs? Any could be. All we know is that this would soon become the norm over preprogramming the power into the suits.

Polar Bears Don’t Dance could possibly chronologically take place around the earliest in the Wild Kratts timeline.

In Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus, Aviva talks about upgrading features into the Walrus Power Suit. Maybe she isn’t talking about inventing the suits, but modifying the suits, which is fitting considering the walrus suit somehow malfunctioned and got jammed (which was presumably due to the cold arctic ice).

In the same episode, Zach and Donita’s interactions appear to be as if they had met recently, with Donita referring to Zach as the one who “vomitted from clams under the table.” So already we’re forming a coherent timeline with these episodes and we’re not even half-way through Season 1.

There would be one inconsistency. In this episode, Aviva says Jimmy’s controller is waterproof (along with food-proof) but in Seasquatch, 16 episodes later, Jimmy’s controller is protected by a shrink-wrap, indicating that it isn’t safe from the environment. Well, here’s the thing.

That episode shows a second appearance of the Squid Power Suit and Bumper the Sperm Whale from the episode Whale of a Squid which aired alongside Mom of a Croc on the premiere date of the series.

There’s no reason not to believe that the whale episode takes place after Mom of a Croc, which we have already established, takes place long after Polar Bears Don’t Dance. With that, my only explanation is that Jimmy’s controller wasn’t 100% waterproof since salty water can actually be very damaging to technology.

In Octopus WildKratticus Koki lists down many Creature Powers shown. This includes Honey Badgers, Polar Bears, and Octopi. This indeed indicates that these episodes where these powers debut are placed before this episode (some say it’s a retcon, but I disagree since Martin could’ve activated Honey Badger Power after the events of Honey Seekers).

Now let’s address the continuity in the series.

In Season 1, the Kratt Brothers have 2 adventures in the Australian Outback: Ones with kangaroos and koalas. In the koala episode, Chris mentions Aviva inventing Thorny Devil Disks for the Creature Power Suits the last time they were there. Considering that the kangaroo episode was 2 episodes prior to this one, I’m making it count.

Mimic is a sequel to Cheetah Racer, which takes place after Falcon City. In Mimic, the Cheetah Power Disk is invented, which is later used in Caracal Minton.

A Huge Orange Problem takes place after Kerhonk since Schnozzle (I think that is his name appears and Chris and Martin refer to him by that name.) This means that Kerhonk is in the official timeline of WK, meaning the only explanation as to why the Kratt Brothers had little access to either the Gharial and Crocodile Power Disc is that they physically had no access to it due to misorganization.

The Food Chain Game introduces new Creature Powers treated as familiar powers, which indicates that they were already invented off-screen. No episodes introduce these Creature Powers so that means the episode can't be out of order.

In Masked Bandits, Chris and Martin originally intend to use Wolf Power as costumes for their Halloween party, but instead Raccoon Powers are activated and Wolf Power is instead invented in Little Howler.

Ok so let’s go over the established time-line so far. When listing down the time-line, I’ll first do the episodes that chronologically fit together, then I’ll list episodes through air-date if there’s no connection or contradiction between them, then I will go back to chronology if I need to.

Polar Bears Don’t Dance → The Mystery of the Squirmy Wormy → The Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus→ Unnamed Gharial Crocodile Adventure Episode → Mom of a Croc → Whale of a Squid → Aardvark Town → Flight of the Draco → Platypus Cafe → Bass Class → Build it Beaver → Voyage of the Butterflier XT → Honey Seekers → Fireflies → Tazzy Chris → Octopus Wildkratticus → Walk on the Wetside → Elephant in the Room → Let the Rhinos Roll → Kickin’ it with the Roos → Koala Balloon → The Blue and the Grey → Falcon City → Cheetah Racer → Mimic → Kerhonk → A Huge Orange Problem → Caracal Minton → Zig-Zagged → Seasquatch → The Food Chain Game → Masked Bandits → Little Howler → The Gecko Effect → Flight of the Pollinators → Birds of a Feather → Googly Eye: The Night Guru → Stuck on Sharks → A Bat in the Brownies → Raptor Roundup → Quillbur's Birthday Present

And that’s the end of the S1 timeline

Season 2:

Now already, we can see that Season 2 is a continuation of Season 1. The Tortuga HQ has an upgraded design, most likely from Aviva, which foreshadows the events of “Tortuga Tune Up.”

For the sake of things, I will put Speaking Dolphinese and Blowfish Blowout at the start of the S2 timeline because we don’t see the Tortuga so there’s a high possibility of it retaining its original design from S1 (I’m not including Lost at Sea because that was a terrible special that did nothing but combine 2 unrelated episodes into a movie).

The Seahorse Rodeo takes place afterwards since in Tortuga Tune Up, we see Blimpy (who is now an adult) and Ocean Pony.

Next we have Tortuga Tune Up, which shows Aviva modifying the Tortuga for swimming mode. Obviously I like to think the Tortuga’s redesign was an attempt to fix it, until Aviva had realized something was amiss.

Rocket Jaw: Rescuer of the Reef is a part of the Coral Reef saga of episodes so I count it at the beginning of S2.

Then we have Bad Hair Day, Race for the Hippo Disc, Creature Power Challenge, and Termites Versus Tongues, all of which are the first 4 ep. of S2 and take place in Africa. I consider those 3 chronologically connected. Plus, Zach recalls stealing the Creature Power Disc in one episode.

Happy Turkey Day is a Thanksgiving-related episode but I can easily consider it to be in the timeline.

Bugs or Monkeys serves as the first installment of the Central American Rainforest/Coral Reef saga. Followed by Shadow: The Black Jaguar, Rainforest Stew, Secrets of the Spider's Web, and To Touch a Hummingbird.

Then we get a bunch of episodes taking place in the Sonoran Desert. First we have Rattlesnake Crystal, which introduces the Sonoran Desert. I include this directly after the hummingbird episode because here, Aviva modifies Eyelash Viper Power for Rattlesnake Powers.

In the episode “Roadrunner” Chris and Martin say they have only JUST arrived at the Sonoran Desert. That episode’s plot is focused around the Tortuga getting a resupply, which is fitting considering they just recently crashed.

I would put “Skunked” after Roadrunner since it appears that they have enough resources by now. Then we’d get “Gila Monster Under My House,” then “Desert Elves”

Aqua Frog would come next I assume, I see no reason not to.

Groundhog Wakeup Call and Journey to the Subnivian zone have little ties to other episodes so I can place them in order of air-date. Since Attack of the Tree Eating Aliens takes place in the spring, we can have them come after those episodes.

So the Season 2 timeline goes like this:

Speaking Dolphinese → Blowfish Blowout → Rocket Jaw: Rescuer of the Reef → Seahorse Rodeo → Tortuga Tune Up → Bad Hair Day → Race for the Hippo Disc → Creature Power Challenge → Termites V. Tongues → Neck and Neck → Happy Turkey Day → Bugs or Monkeys → Shadow: The Black Jaguar → Rainforest Stew → Secret of the Spider's Web → To Touch a Hummingbird → Rattlesnake Crystal → Roadrunner → Skunked → Gila Monster Under My House → Desert Elves → Unnamed Burrowing Owl Disc Creation Episode → Aqua Frog → Journey to the Subnivian Zone → Snow Runners! → Groundhog Wakeup Call → Attack of the Tree Eating Aliens

Season 3:

Now, a lot of misconceptions have been made around Season 3 in terms of both continuity and air-date. My stance? Don’t believe a goddamn word that Google, Wikipedia, or the Wild Kratts wiki says. They have been getting the episode air-dates wrong since the very beginning, which is the reason I have to organize them.

As a longtime fan of the show who has been there since the beginning, I pretty much know the air-dates of the episodes by heart and the order.

The first episode is Hermit Crab Shell Exchange, second is Where the Bison Roam, third is Bandito: The Black Footed Ferret, fourth is When Fish Fly, fifth is Osprey. All 7 of these episodes premiered from April 7th to April 11th, 2014 as a part of PBS Kids' Wild Kratts Week, celebrating the show returning for its 3rd season.

The episode to air after that is the double-length episode, Back in Creature Time, which despite popular belief is NOT the Season 3 finale. The last episodes of Season 3 were centered around Madagascar. But before that, we see some adventures in the cypress swamp and the prairie.

Now that we’ve cleared up the misconceptions that people have had about Season 3’s episode order for the past 7 years (yeah a BIG fuck you to Wikipedia for that shit) let’s address the order continuity wise.

The first 7 episodes aired from April 7-11th as part of PBS Kids’ Wild Kratts Week! Celebrating the show’s renewal of S3. All but one would likely remain at their place. All except for Where the Bison Roam and Bandito since it introduces the prairie arc.

Back in Creature Time was after a LONG hiatus. Just to give you a good idea as to how long it was, the first 7 episodes of S3 aired in April when I was still in school, then the Back in Creature Time special aired months later long after I had moved into a different house during summer vacation.

The first episode to air after Back in Creature Time was Mosquito Dragon and Crocogator Contest (they were aired together as part of a special called “Swamp Things” but that special sucked for the same reasons why Lost at Sea did).

Now, this is something I noticed. Mosquito Bots were already invented by the time of Back in Creature Time, meaning that episode takes place after Mosquito Dragon.

And if we’re to include the cypress swamp saga, that means that Back in Creature Time comes in around the middle of the S3 timeline chronologically. That’s not even including the prairie episodes.

There were also Madagascar episodes. I consider Lemur Legs is chronologically the first of the order since the Kratts enter Madagascar here, and the finale of this arc is Golden Bamboo Lemur

This will be hard to crack, but I might be able to do it.

A thing that I noticed was that the Dragonfly Power Suits got redesigns frequently in S3. In Osprey and Mosquito Dragon, it has basket legs, resembling its S1 counterpart, but in Florida Panther and Back in Creature Time, they look completely different. In-universe, this can be credited to Aviva redesigning the suit, so I tried to arrange the episodes in a way that would make the suit's metamorphosis (pun not intended) feel less jarring than if you were watching the episodes in production order or viewing order.

So the S3 timeline is

Hermit Crab Shell Exchange → When Fish Fly → Osprey → Crocogator Contest → Mosquito Dragon → The Search for the Florida Panther → Opossum in My Pocket → Slider: The Otter → Back in Creature Time → Where the Bison Roam → Bandito: The Black Footed Ferret → The Amazing Creature Race → Prairie Who → Mystery on the Prarie → Under Frozen Pond → Capture the Fishmobiles → Praying Mantis → Lemur Legs → Chameleons on Target → Aye-Aye → Lemur Stink Fight → Tenrec Treasure Hunt → Fossa Palooza → Mini Madagascar → Golden Bamboo Lemur

Season 4:

Once again, this season was distributed out of order and the years that have passed since its release, however, as someone who, once again, watched every episode the day they aired, I can correct the misconceptions.

Firstly, the first episode of S4 was The Last Largest Lobster, and the last episode was Musk Ox Mania. The 3rd episode was A Creature Christmas, followed by 5 additional episodes, one of which introduced Paisley Paver and Rex into the show.

Now the confusion is that A Creatire Christmas aired as the 3rd episode of S4, yet animals and Creature Powers in that episode wouldn’t be introduced until later. So I’ll list down all of the episodes that come before the Christmas special.

The Last Largest Lobster comes before Stars of the Tide (they literally aired back-to-back).

Panda Power Up comes first in the China-located episodes. Next up comes Golden Snub Nosed Monkey Man. Red Panda Rescue features both Giant Panda and Snub Nosed Monkey Power, so I imagine it comes next. At the end of that episode, Aviva alludes to Red Panda Power, which is present in “The Colors of China”

Pangolin Rescue follows that (remember, all of these take place before A Creature Christmas). Along with the Two-Tusked Narwhal Adventure, the Snowy Owl Invasion, the Puffin adventure, the Other Martins, and This Orca Likes Sharks.

At this point, we’ve covered all of the pre-Christmas episodes. Now let’s do the ones we have left.

Liturgusa Krattorum, Eel-lectric!, Sea Otter Swim, Box Turtled In!, Animals Who Live to be 100 years old, Archerfish School, and many others.

Something to note is that Aviva narrates how the villains have never before teamed-up. Ignoring the fact that it is not true, that episode would have to come before Krattorum.

Here’s the timeline of S4:

The Last Largest Lobster → Stars of the Tides → Box Turtled In → The Other Martins → Sea Otter Swim → Animals who Live to be 100 Years Old → Spirit Bear → Panda Power Up → Snowy Owl Invasion → Golden Snub Nosed Monkey Man → Red Panda Rescue → The Colors of China → Pangolin Rescue → Archerfish School → Musk Ox Mania → Baby Tooth & Kid Musky → Puffin Rescue→ Mystery of the Two Horned Narwhal → This Orca Likes Sharks → A Creature Christmas → Cheetah Adopted → Eel-lectric → Liturgusa Krattorum → Creatures of the Deep Sea

Season 5:

I’m gonna throw in my personal opinion… This is my least favorite season of the show. The premiere episode, Alaska: Hero’s Journey was pretty cool and in my opinion, jumped the shark for Wild Kratts as we know it. Not only did it establish continuity with previous adventures and use it as a key-factor for the episode’s story, but it introduced a Creature Power Suit for Koki and had a very mature theme and an awesome message.

And then it went downhill from there. A lot of episodes, whilst enjoyable, felt pretty weak. Some were forgettable, and it felt like it talked down to its audience more, and there were just a lot of things that I felt didn’t work. This is where I think the show began a heavy seasonal rot and I know I'm not alone in this.

Ok, opinions aside, the time-line of this season is a lot easier to decipher than the earlier ones because there were less episodes.

Even though Alaska: Hero’s Journey was the first episode of S5 to be aired, the Bald Eagle Power Suit was shown, yet it wouldn’t be invented until The Fourth Bald Eagle.

Many listings show Mystery of the North Pole Penguins as the S5 premiere. And given that there are no continuity errors in that episode, I can see it being the start of Season 5’s storyline.

In the next episode, Temple of the Tigers, Martin and Chris head to India to adventure with tigers. A majority of S5 takes place in India, including the episode where Paisley Paver and Rex return, so I view the tiger episode as the start of the “India” arc.

There are also several episodes centered in Europe, as part of what I like to call, the “Europe” arc.

Creepy Creatures would go near the end of this timeline, as we see many S5 Creature Powers and animals by then.

So here’s the timeline for S5

Mystery of the North Pole Penguins? → Temple of the Tigers → The Dhole Duplicator → The Cobra King → Sloth Bear Suction → Elephant Brains → Cheeks the Hamster → Fire Salamander → Komodo Dragon → Wild Ponies ---> City Hoppers! → Blue Heron → Choose your Swordfish → The Erminator → Hercules: The Giant Beetle → Creepy Creatures! → The Fourth Bald Eagle → Alaska: Hero’s Journey

Season 6:

This season in my opinion, was a slight step up from the 5th season, since we get to see more interesting animals, and the writing feels a lot more breathable. The color palette, I specifically would go without, because it just looks weird. What I do like is how they recasted Koki, a character of color, to be voiced by a woman of color, and I'm glad this change is permanent.

Instantly, we get an instance of a continuity error: Martin is shown to have a Jackrabbit Power Disc in the 2nd episode of S6, yet he doesn’t get it until the Easter special, In Search of the Easter Bunny. There’s actually a reason behind this. The original title for the episode focusing on bunnies was titled “Spring Bunnies” and was listed as the Season 6 premiere, however this was cut and the bunny episode was released almost a year later. My working theory is that because of tight schedules, “Spots in the Desert” was released before the introduction of the Jackrabbit Power Disc.

We return to the Amazon once again with the double-length episode, Amazin’ Amazon Adventure and we get some newer amazon episodes after that.

In a promotional video for Hero’s Journey, the Kratt Brothers said that Season 5 would have at least 23 episodes. My guess is that they had to cut down the last 5 episodes because of COVID or something.

There are two things that stand out the most to me in this season's timeline. For starters, in the Hammerheads episodes, we see that the brothers have an Antelope Disc for the Creature Power Suit despite there being no episode centered around those creatures or introducing a Power Disc. Much like the Burrowing Owl and Gharial Discs, we're to assume that there was an adventure focusing around that animal/an invention of that Creature Power Disc that was not televised, and thus is part of this season's lineup.

The second was how in one of the first episodes of Season 7, Chris expresses a desire to adventure with wolverines, despite that happening in the previous season. So in a rare case, this has to go in a different season's timeline to remain consistent.

Anyways, let’s go onto the timeline of the most recent season. I’ll be going off of habitat here just to be consistent.

In Search of the Easter Bunny → Mystery of the Flamingo’s Pink → Spots in the Desrt → Wolf Hawks → Deer Buckaroo → Unnamed Antelope Adventure Episode → Hammerheads → The Vanishing Stingray → The Real Ant Farm → Mystery of the Mini Monkey Models → Amazin’ Amazon Adventure → The Great Froggyback Ride → Parrot Power → The Race to Goat Mountain → Iron Wolverine → Adapto the Coyote → Tartigrade Xtreme → Uh Oh-Ostrich! → The Great Creature Tail Fail → Cats and Dogs →

Season 7:

The long-awaited Season 7 has arrived as of 2023, marking the return of the show to PBS Kids after two years of a hiatus. With eight episodes having been released, 13 more confirmed on the way, and the 200th episode milestone airing in S7, fans have a lot to hope for. And thankfully it means new fodder for my timeline list.

As I've said before, The Race to Goat Mountain cannot be a part of Season 7's timeline since it has to take place before their actual wolverine adventure.

This in of itself is purely subjective but I like to imagine that Clever the Raven would be the first episode of S7. For a few reasons. One, it was the first episode of the season to be confirmed (in an interview with Jane Goodall). Secondly, compared to Outfoxed, it felt more like a season premiere. With the fanservice-callbacks, the villains returning, the simple-structure of the plot with no rising or falling action and the episode's overall writing, it basically marks off a check-list of everything in the show that you were missing out on for 2 years and everything that you're coming back to after such a long break. Plus it's my favorite out of all of the S7 premiere episodes. Call me biased, but this one's going first.

Our Blue and Green World was the first of the episode batch in 2024. Personally, I am putting it as the most recent spot in the S7 timeline, after the other 3 episodes. The reason being is because with Paisley Paver's redemption, this episode feels like a huge game-changer, one that the writers hint will affect the rest of the series. I think this special should've been the last to air in the batch just to get viewers hyped for what's next. It's basically like a mid-season finale of some sorts:

Timeline of Season 7:

Clever the Raven → Outfoxed → Owl Odyssey → No Name Dream → Backpack the Camel → Fish Out of Water → Our Blue and Green World

CROSSOVERS:

There are three shows that Wild Kratts has crossed over with. One of which came out after I made this post, two of which before, but I decided to add them here just for the fun of it and to commit to the lore-dump of the timeline. Whether or not I'll extrapolate that into forming a huge novel about the expanded universe of PBS Kids, only time will tell.

Night Shift: (Odd Squad)

This was the first crossover the brothers had done with another show, Odd Squad, a live action math-based cartoon that is set to air its fourth season in 2024. The Kratt Brothers have their traditional live-action opening that is interrupted by Otis and Olympia solving their 'odd problem' a running gag with various different characters throughout the series as a 'cold opener.' The reason there is such a massive overlap between the two fandoms is because of that scene in the episode.

How to fit it into the canon? Well, since this is shot similarly to a Wild Kratts live action opener segment, then we can equate it with the "what if!?" element of the show. It should be noted that the Kratts are following a white-tail-deer, an animal they would later adventure with in Season 6. So you could have this episode take place directly before the "what-if?!" section of that episode that transitions into the animated story.

Wild Batts: (Nature Cat)

In 2015, PBS Kids launched a new nature based show known as "Nature Cat" featuring the titular cat and his gang of animals exploring nature. This special aired directly after Wild Kratts: A Creature Christmas, so PBS Kids often marketed both the WK Christmas special and the Nature Cat premiere, so much so that at the end of the Christmas episode, the Kratt Brothers themselves promoted the new Nature Cat special. It only made sense that these nature brothers from another mother teamed up! And thus we had Wild Batts! In this episode, Chris and Martin "Batt" have to find a new home, after their old one is destroyed, challening Nature Cat and Ronald's fear of bats in the process and learning more all about them. Several references to the Kratt's show are made, such as the classic "Living free and in the wild!"

How to fit it into the canon? In the episode's context they are literally bats, but in the context of the show itself, they would probably be in Creature Power Suits. And one thing interesting is that Chris and Martin are said to be Indiana bats, an endangered species of North American bats. We know that there is no singular Creature Power Suit for a generalized species as we've seen with the crocodillian, owl, and snake-based Power Suits. So it's possible that Aviva modified the Little Brown Bat/Vampire Bat programing with Indiana Bat Power. So this would probably take place post-Season 1. I have it take place in Season 6 since Wild Batts aired around the same time that Season 6 just started airing, ironic ain't it?

Oh, and the episode also makes bat references to other PBS Kids characters, such as Peg + Bat (Peg + Cat), George the Curious Bat (Curious George) Daniel Bat (Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood) and the Bat/Cat in the Hat. Now, the logical man within me says that these are easy puns to laugh at and not look into. However, the sick twisted fuck that is me says, connect that shit together. Since we've already established Odd Squad, we can probably say that there was an 'odd problem' turning these random PBS Kids characters into bats (probably including the Kratt Brothers if you don't buy the idea that they're in very convincing Creature Power Suits) and that the Odd Squad is able to save them with a reverse-bat-inator and they all go their separate ways, never to meet each other again until their grand return in PBS: Endgame (ok maybe I'm going too far into it but just a funny thought, also yes that is the one MCU reference I decided to cash in).

Cry Wolf: Molly of Denali

The 3rd of the Wild Kratts crossovers, airing in summer of 2022. This was a massive thing in the WK fandom, mainly because around that time, news had come out that the show would not air any new episodes until 2023, which was a massive low blow. This crossover between Wild Kratts and Molly of Denali, while not enough... at least damaged this blow and is an okay entry point to Molly of Denali, another pretty damn good PBS Kids show.

The Kratt Brothers help Molly and her dad track a missing pack of endangered wolves, learning more about them on the way. In the episode it's established that Molly is a huge fan of Wild Kratts, referencing their show a lot, implying that the Kratts we see here are 2D representations of their IRL selves rather than their 2D-in-universe selves. Still, I came here to overanalyze, and overanalyze I shall! Since the Kratts did their whole "what-if!?" skit in Odd Squad, then I could see the same happening here, just not being necessary for the episode's plot. I'll suspend my disbelief again because what the hell.

How to fit it into the canon? I'd have it come between Season 6 and 7. It aired around that time, and again, it was almost certainly done so as compensation for making fans wait 2 years for the new season to drop. Plus it lines up with my headcanon of Clever the Raven being the first in S7's timeline, since the brothers would still be in the mood to adventure with wolves.

So to conclude, all of these crossovers I see as very recent in the show, you could cut them out and lose nothing, but add them in and get more of something, which is what I'm doing. In terms of timeline to the crossovers specifically, here it goes.

Wild Batts → Night-Shift → Cry Wolf

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CONCLUSION: THE CURRENT TIMELINE OF WILD KRATTS

Polar Bears Don’t Dance → The Mystery of the Squirmy Wormy → The Mystery of the Weird Looking Walrus→ Unnamed Gharial Crocodile Adventure Episode → Mom of a Croc → Whale of a Squid → Aardvark Town → Flight of the Draco → Platypus Cafe → Bass Class → Build it Beaver → Voyage of the Butterflier XT → Honey Seekers → Fireflies → Tazzy Chris → Octopus Wildkratticus → Walk on the Wetside → Elephant in the Room → Let the Rhinos Roll → Kickin’ it with the Roos → Koala Balloon → The Blue and the Grey → Falcon City → Cheetah Racer → Mimic → Kerhonk → A Huge Orange Problem → Caracal Minton → Zig-Zagged → Seasquatch → The Food Chain Game → Masked Bandits → Little Howler → The Gecko Effect → Flight of the Pollinators → Birds of a Feather → Googly Eye: The Night Guru → Stuck on Sharks → A Bat in the Brownies → Raptor Roundup → Quillbur's Birthday Present → Speaking Dolphinese → Blowfish Blowout → Rocket Jaw: Rescuer of the Reef → Seahorse Rodeo → Tortuga Tune Up → Bad Hair Day → Race for the Hippo Disc → Creature Power Challenge → Termites V. Tongues → Neck and Neck → Happy Turkey Day → Bugs or Monkeys → Shadow: The Black Jaguar → Rainforest Stew → Secret of the Spider's Web → To Touch a Hummingbird → Rattlesnake Crystal → Roadrunner → Skunked → Gila Monster Under My House → Desert Elves → Unnamed Burrowing Owl Disc Creation Episode → Aqua Frog → Journey to the Subnivian Zone → Snow Runners! → Groundhog Wakeup Call → Attack of the Tree Eating Aliens → Hermit Crab Shell Exchange → When Fish Fly → Osprey → Crocogator Contest → Mosquito Dragon → The Search for the Florida Panther → Opossum in My Pocket → Slider: The Otter → Back in Creature Time → Where the Bison Roam → Bandito: The Black Footed Ferret → The Amazing Creature Race → Prairie Who → Mystery on the Prarie → Under Frozen Pond → Capture the Fishmobiles → Praying Mantis → Lemur Legs → Chameleons on Target → Aye-Aye → Lemur Stink Fight → Tenrec Treasure Hunt → Fossa Palooza → Mini Madagascar → Golden Bamboo Lemur → The Last Largest Lobster → Stars of the Tides → Box Turtled In → The Other Martins → Sea Otter Swim → Animals who Live to be 100 Years Old → Spirit Bear → Panda Power Up → Snowy Owl Invasion → Golden Snub Nosed Monkey Man → Red Panda Rescue → The Colors of China → Pangolin Rescue → Archerfish School → Musk Ox Mania → Baby Tooth & Kid Musky → Puffin Rescue→ Mystery of the Two Horned Narwhal → This Orca Likes Sharks → A Creature Christmas → Cheetah Adopted → Eel-lectric → Liturgusa Krattorum → Creatures of the Deep Sea → Mystery of the North Pole Penguins? → Temple of the Tigers → The Dhole Duplicator → The Cobra King → Sloth Bear Suction → Elephant Brains → Cheeks the Hamster → Fire Salamadner → Komodo Dragon → Wild Ponies ---> City Hoppers! → Blue Heron → Choose your Swordfish → The Erminator → Hercules: The Giant Beetle → Creepy Creatures! → The Fourth Bald Eagle → Alaska: Hero’s Journey → In Search of the Easter Bunny → Mystery of the Flamingo’s Pink → Wild Batts → Spots in the Desrt → Wolf Hawks → Night-Shift → Deer Buckaroo → Unnamed Antelope Adventure Episode → Hammerheads → The Vanishing Stingray → The Real Ant Farm → Mystery of the Mini Monkey Models → Amazin’ Amazon Adventure → The Great Froggyback Ride → Parrot Power → The Race to Goat Mountain → Iron Wolverine → Adapto the Coyote → Tartigrade Xtreme → Uh Oh-Ostrich! → The Great Creature Tail Fail → Cats and Dogs → Cry Wolf → Clever the Raven → Outfoxed → Owl Odyssey → No Name Dream → Backpack the Camel → Fish Out of Water → Our Blue and Green World

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And there you have it so far folks. Thirteen years, seven seasons, 159 televised episodes, plus four crossover episodes amounting to 163 canon episodes in the current Wild Kratts timeline. More are on their way and more of this grand Creature Adventure is beyond the horizon. Keep on Creature Adventuring, see ya on the Creature Trail!

Am I a genius, or am I a genius?

[recentadultburnout]

Info for writer in Thai series fandom : Chapter 19 Mythical creatures

As the title says, this chapter will be about mythical creatures, specifically Himmaphan's creatures. There are a lot of himmaphan's creatures, some more popular than others. In this chapter, I won't list all of them here, just some, and I will just do a quick introduction and some random points I can think of, not their full myth.

The link below is to the Wikipedia page for Himmaphan. In there, there are also links to some of the himmaphan's creatures too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himavanta

This mythology is pretty famous and known across many regions, so there are a lot of resources in English already. So I think, just after a short introduction, anyone who is interested will be able to get more information quite easily.

There may be some differences between each region's version of it, but from what I saw, the differences are not that great. Especially if we look at only the character characteristics and not the entire epic.😆👍

นาค  naga

Naga is, in short, a big fantasy snake. There are quite a few types or ranks of them. They have four ways that they can be born. Opapātika, born and grows up immediately. Sansetcha, born from ashes and accumulated matter. Chalapucha, born from the womb. And āṇṭhāca, born from an egg. Water is their element.

Personally, I suspect that some of Nega's tales are of different origins from Himmaphan's tale but got mixed up when cultures merged. And that is the reason why there are so many more tales about them than about other mythical beings. But right now, I'm too lazy to actually drive in and try to verify that theory.

ordain บวชนาค When a man wants to ordain, there will be a short period during the ordain ceremony when the will gets called naga. The story involved is that back then, when Gotama Buddha was still alive, there was a naga that wanted to be a monk, but, in the end, as one of its requirements was to be human, he couldn't. So we incorporated this into the ceremony to honor him. There is a step in the ceremony where the person who is ordain has to confirm that he is, in fact, a human, too.

Water amount There is a belief that rain and water come from nagas, and the amount of water we get each year is determined by how many nagas are in charge of giving it. The more naga, the less water, because when there are more nagas, they start to be unwilling to do the work and want to push the burden on others. The maximum number of naga is seven per year.

Nakee is a pretty iconic drama about Naga. I never fully watched it, but if you are interested in Naga, this drama might be a good choice.

ครุฑ  Garuda

Garuda's appearance is part bird, part human, with a human's torso and arms and a bird's head, wings, and legs.

Garuda is a sibling of a different mother of Naga and an enemy. Their mothers are also siblings and enemies. In fact, the reason why Garuda and Naga are enemies is because their mothers made it that way. There is a lot of family conflict in this story. Garuda also eats Naga.

Garuda is one of the king's symbols. Culturally, the king is an avatar of Narayana, and Garuda is Narayana's vehicle.

(I tried to translate the word for this concept, สมมุติเทพ, but it seems like there isn't any word in English that fits.)

Queen Kakati กากี

Garuda Is one of the important characters in a famous tale about Queen Kakati. The story is that Garuda disguises himself as a man and goes to play a game with a king, and when he sees the king's wife, Queen Kakati, he wants her. So then he kidnaps her and brings her to his Chimplee Palace.

He slept with her there, and then one other guy also slept with her there. So the name Chimplee occasionally got used to hint at sexual things.

The name of the heroine also gets used for slut-shaming.

Just a warning if you want to read the whole thing. The story is heavily victim-blaming. All the guys in this story are trash, at least in the Thai version.

กินนร kinnon

Kinnon is described as a half-bird, half-human creature, or a creature with a human-like body but with detachable wings and tail.

Kinnari and kinnara are words that are also used to refer to the same mythical creatures.

We have a lot of variant words for each Himmaphan's creatures, actually. I think it's for poetry.

Suthon and Manora

Suthon and Manora is one of the stories that features Kinnon. Manora, the female protagonist, is a kinnari. She got captured one day when she removed her wings and tail during her bath with her sisters. After that, she met and fell in love with Prince Suthon. But later, Prince Suthon's family wronged her, making her flee back home. This tale is linked to the other tale. It says that Suthon and Manora's past lives are Phra Rod and Meree.

ปลาอานนท์  Anon fish

A giant fish that can cause an earthquake when it turns over.

นารีผล  Nariphon

Naripon is composed of two words: Nari (woman) and Phon (fruit). It is a fruit that resembles a beautiful girl. They have 7 days before they rot away.

คนธรรพ์  Gandharvas

Heavenly musicians and singers. Servant of a greater deity. They are pretty flirtatious beings and like to take a ripe nariphon for themselves.

I feel like they are always the asshole in every tale they feature.

นกหัสดีลิงค์  Hatsadiling

It looks mostly like a bird, but its beak looks like an elephant's trunk. The Hatsadiling is often used for decoration in cremation ceremonies because it is believed that it can carry the soul of the deceased to heaven.

There is evidence of the use of the Hatsadiling-shaped crematorium in the Lanna and Lan Chang cultures. But in Ubon Ratchathani, there is a specific tradition where they will have a person act as Sita performs the traditional Hatsadiling bird-killing ceremony.

There are a few versions of the tale that influence this tradition, but the highlight is that the woman named Sita kills a hatsadiling that has been causing trouble via arrow.

มอม  mom

The Mom creature looks similar to a mixture of many animals, including dogs, cats, geckos, lizards, monkeys, tigers, etc. It has long arms and a long, stretched body similar to that of a reptile. The color of the body will vary depending on the artist. This creature is prominent in Lanna art.

มกร  Makorn or Makara

It's statue is usually in a state of spitting something out of its mouth. It's look pretty similar to Hera. Often got mixed up with Hera. Some sources say that it IS the same creature as Hera, just an alternative name. 

เหรา   Hera

A mix of naga and (Chinese?) dragon, or a crocodile-like creature. It has four feet, and its face has both fins and a crest. It is sometimes described as a different mix, like with Garuda or a horse.

It's tale is that it tries to eat a naga but fails....

There is a statue of Mom and Hera that went viral awhile ago. It's an amateur DIY cement stair railing by a monk. It came out looking very adorable. they even got fan art and goods.

^Mom

^Hera

^The good in question.

สิงห์  lion

There are four types of lion-like creatures in the Himmaphan universe. (Not included the lion mix with other creatures.)

Kraisorn Rajasribody is white like conch shell. Mouth, belly, and feet are red like it is painted with cinnabar mixed with mercury and sulfur dissolved in lac water. Live in a gold or glass cave. It is faster than sound and has a voice as loud as thunder.

Kala Sriha is black and despises being a lion-like creature. It is an herbivore. Not that it is harmless, though.

Tinna Sriha has a red body like the legs of a pigeon and is as big as a bull. Also an herbivore. Tinna means grass.

Bantu Rajasribody is like the color of a yellow leaf. This one is carnivorous.

We use them in government logos, and some of the universities (4) have them as Faculty of Political Science logos. Each university uses a different one.

I found this website when I searched for the English spelling of Kraisorn Rajasri, and it is amazing. So this chapter ends here, lol.

And this website is for art that was created for the King Rama 9 funeral.

https://phramerumas.finearts.go.th/group-items.php?grpID=15

^ from the Fine Arts Department

^ from the Thailand Foundation

Index

[sapphire-weapon]

i just wanna say thank u so much for that in detail wiki post. legit i feel so much more informed now and thank u!! as someone newly getting into re (slowly working on the first 2 games--both the remakes and the ogs bc i love seeing how different they are !) ur fr doing a favor and its honestly a shame that ppl are just straight up lying. wheres the wiki editor honor? honoring actual fact and citation on wikipedia is usually pretty serious lol

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

The wiki editor honor in survival horror fandom in general died in 2015 with a mental breakdown about circumcision in the Silent Hill wiki, which never stops being weird no matter how many times I say it.

What's frustrating about this whole thing with the RE wiki is that like... a lot of the bad info on there didn't come from nowhere, and it's not something that I necessarily want to hide from new fans. It's fun trivia to learn that, once upon a time, both RE2 and RE4 were completely different games, so there were actually several different character concepts written up for Leon, and here's what they were.

The whole saga behind RE1.5 and then the three different versions of RE4 that resulted in two of them becoming Devil May Cry and Haunting Ground is fascinating -- as is the whole drama about Shinji Mikami begging Capcom to let him develop RE4 on the PS2, and him being told repeatedly that that was never going to happen because Nintendo had an exclusivity deal, and how the betrayal of that ("If RE4 ever comes to the PS2, I'll cut my own head off with a chainsaw.") led to Mikami leaving Capcom all together, and that's why the story of RE got so fucked up starting at RE4.

Like... that's all really interesting stuff that I love sharing with new fans. But the wiki takes those old versions of those games -- those versions that never released -- and just matter-of-factly states that details about them are still canon, regardless of what the final product actually looks like.

The mafia background that people are so adamant these days as being canon for Leon was a joke to early-to-mid-aughts fandom, because it's so ridiculous and was clearly said before RE2's story was actually finalized and has nothing to do with Leon's actual character or arc. I don't hate new fans knowing about it; I love bringing new people in on old jokes.

But... that's not how it's being treated these days, and it's causing confusion and strife in the fandom, and that doesn't sit right with me.

And now, to go a step even further than that and insist that an advertisement for an airsoft gun is more canonically correct than Resident Evil 6?? I can't actually believe that people are doing this to new fans. It's not right.

Part of the fun of old fandom was always cooking up our own backstories for the main cast, because none of them have one canonically -- and now haughty weeaboos who consider themselves judge, jury, and executioner of canon are trying to take that fun away from modern fandom, and that sucks.

My inbox will always be open if you guys have any questions, and I will always be sure to explain where a detail came from and how actually applicable to the games it is. Don't be a stranger!

[hans-garden]

thoughts on Miraheze

from someone who runs a small wiki by themselves (the autistic characters wiki). I figure this kind of info can be useful for other people looking to start a small wiki.

I started out on Fandom, then moved to Miraheze. I wanted to get away from Fandom because I didn't feel good about it being a for-profit company when I was very much not doing for-profit work. I also don't agree with Fandom's ban on nsfw content. There was enough documentation on Miraheze to do the migration by myself. The folks on the Discord server helped me smooth out some things that got borked in the move.

I know there are a lot of negative reviews about the reception wikis but I've never had any problems with that because I just never visited those wikis. It is also my understanding that Miraheze is going to close them.

Since I did most of the basic set-up of my wiki on Fandom, I don't know how the process is on Miraheze. It helps to have some basic knowledge of things like namespaces, how talk pages work, syntax, category structure, and basic template stuff. If I didn't know something, either Miraheze has documentation or I'd look at the guidelines on Wikipedia.

For the more technical stuff like extensions and such, it was tricky at times but I could get by with reading the documentation on MediaWiki.

The volunteers and other folks are more Wikipedia than Fandom vibes. They're very helpful but more reserved, which was a bit of a culture shock since I'm used to the very open and relaxed vibe from wikiHow and Fandom. I feel that there are less children on Miraheze, or at least most people are a bit more mature than on Fandom.

The one thing that Miraheze doesn't really have is support for the "running a wiki" side of things, like how to grow your community, how to attract editors, or how to promote your wiki. I usually refer back to Fandom's guides for that, because it's something they heavily focus on.

[real-total-drama-takes]

https://www.tumblr.com/real-total-drama-takes/725129499260354561/i-saw-this-on-wikipedia-with-0-source-linked-it idk if this is aimed at me since I gave the wiki link but it's funny because I literally recognized it has no backing beyond being on a wiki and didn't even say I believed it. Anon asked where they got the mace info from, I gave a place. Also, shitting on people you don't know anything about's intelligence? Kinda a dick move. Would you be saying that to people with learning disabilities? Younger members of the fandom who aren't familiar with fact checking? Or would you rather be subtly ableist so you can feel that tiny bit better that you're above them because you thought twice about something

.

[somberine]

Do people really vandalize the walten files wiki that often?

Oh all the time I can give you a list of just a few - Felix's wiki being vandalized like every other day - That one time someone edited Sophie and Jenny's pages to say they were friends and NOT dating - A person, and I'm not gonna name names, went through and ruined EVERY SINGLE main character page because they were mad they "Didn't get credit" when the wiki credits everyone On That Page if you've added anything to it. - Jophie p*rn (that might I add, has NOT been removed by any of the wiki owners >:/) - OC v*re - Someone changing any mention of Sophie on her page that called her gay or a lesbian - Felix got divorced from Sans Undertale (just a TNY bit funny) - Wiki article for wiki discord - Said article got changed to spam - Said article then got changed to a wikipedia article about the history of trains - Someone changed Felix's page to a wiki about homophobia And thats not even including some of The Worst Ones you know? The New Walten Files Wiki is a great source of info thanks to like two or three people, one of said people being Doc, but its NOT a great place in terms of the fandom acting like children and not actually taking care of their wiki :/ people might find it funny but really its just frustrating especially when you're someone trying to actually find good information, you know? The discord isn't exactly a Great Place to find anything and no one has time to watch a hour long video just to get a tiny bit of info, thats why the wiki is there. So if people could Stop vandalizing it, that would be cool <3

[wisteria-lodge]

a bird secondary with a *very* unhealthy badger model

i’m pretty sure i’m using both Bird and Badger secondary tools - i just cannot for the life of me figure out which one’s my actual secondary, and which is the model. it doesn’t help that both of them are at least slightly charred. when i was younger, i was surely a Bird secondary, no doubt.

One of the reasons I ask people for childhood stories is I fundamentally don’t believe that sortings ever change. (Maybe that’s the Lion in me talking.) You can build beautiful models that you adore living in, but important aspects of yourself don’t just... fall away. They change, and grow, and level up. 

i’ve always loved collecting knowledge, i store trivia better than many a fandom wiki, i’ve studied things just because they interested me, i’ve once memorised a big portion of the pokedex just for fun… you get the idea.

I’m going with Bird secondary as a hypothesis, but this doesn’t necessarily say bird secondary to me. Bird of some kind, sure. But it could still be a model. 

when academia kicked my butt (hello, undiagnosed adhd), and i realised my natural talents and good memory won’t help me, i think i burnt my Bird. it really hit me very hard.

That can happen. And it’s brutal. But when a secondary burns from over-use, it’s not gone it’s just... tired. 

i’ve started appreciating kindness and hard work, and i wanted to be a person who - wasn’t necessarily the smartest in the room (because i felt that this ship has already sailed.)

There’s a fun word for someone who thinks they’re the smartest person in the room. And that word is “asshole.” :) Seriously, ‘being the smartest person in the room’ isn’t a real thing, and definitely not something to aspire to.

didn’t help that i’ve also acquired a nemesis who was just as smart as me, but an asshole, lmaoo. 

Like I was saying...

But I thought perhaps I could be the kind one. the patient one. the steady one. of course, that didn’t work for me with my adhd at all, lol. i am physically and mentally unable to reach that ideal of stable, patient, consistent, reliable. and it hit my self esteem real hard again. 

There is some sort of POWERFUL Badger secondary influence in your life, making you believe that you need to be that way too. And you don’t. That’s the entire premise of this system. That there are many ways to solve problems, all equally effective and valid. 

after all, not everyone can be smart, and that’s alright - but everyone can be a hard worker, right? it’s not a matter of any innate abilities.

You think the chip that allows you to settle down and focus on doing a non-preferred task in increments over long periods of time is not an innate ability? This is why I hate standardized tests. They test your ability to take a test much more than they test the material. Not everyone *can* sit at a desk in a silent, windowless room and do math problems for four hours. And why on earth should that be that a desirable, rewarded ability? The end goal is not to graduate and start working in a factory like its 1905. 

my bachelor degree’s taken me a year longer than it should have, because i’ve started just… not doing my work. didn’t come to class, didn’t hand in my homework, didn’t contact my professors. did everything at the very last minute, if at all. and i didn’t know why.

It’s because you struggle with executive dysfunction. Because you’re neurodivergent.

i’ve felt terrible about it, because i wanted to be a good student, you know? i wanted to feel like i earned that degree. i passed, because i’m bright and i can extrapolate based on the knowledge i already have, and i have a lot of knowledge in this wonky brain of mine - but it doesn’t feel like i… deserved that pass. 

for instance, we had this class - literature masterpieces of XX century. we were supposed to read one book each week. obviously i didn’t manage, bc despite reading as if my life depended on it in my early years, i lost that ability sometime during my high school years (when depression hit). so the night before, i’ve sat down, read the wikipedia article on every book and every author on the list, read goodreads’ reviews, sparknotes, whatever i could find. sometimes even fragments of the original text. and i passed that (oral) exam, even with this extremely strict professor. and i felt horrible about it, because i didn’t feel i deserved to pass that. i didn’t read those books! i’ve lied to you! i’ve cheated! 

Listen. I’m a teacher, and I am telling you, you deserved that degree. You got the info, you thought about it, you understood. You didn’t trick your strict professor. Your professor did a good job, and allowed you to think and learn and demonstrate your knowledge in a way that worked for you. (Which is what they’re supposed to do.) I love students with ADHD, their brains are fast and non-linear, and yes they skim the reading, but they make connections and take things to new levels and process things in such cool way, and it just makes me feel alive you know? 

I actually have more trouble with the opposite type, the student who obviously did the reading, but didn’t play with it or connect it to anything else they know, so it just kind of sits in their head like a lump, not doing them any good. But they are really good test-takers.

then again - doing things the right way was (and still is) sometimes just simply unaccesible to me.

There is no right way to do things. The right way to do thing is whatever makes you happy and gets the job done. But that’s a hard one to internalize. I still have trouble truly internalizing that one. But I’m getting better. 

the badger secondary, therefore, is not anything that’s actually… useful to me, most of the time, lol. 

You are crushing yourself under the weight of a Badger secondary model.

unless it’s the ~vibes~ of the badger that make professors like me, most of the time - and because of that liking, they’d often turn a blind eye to just how badly i’d fuck up.

I bet your professors like you because you’re an interested, interesting student who brightens up their day. And if they’re turning a blind eye, it’s because they know that people with ADHD struggle with deadlines sometime. And that’s /fine/

i often seem trustworthy and reliable in the beginning, before my executive dysfunction trips me up, and makes me beat myself up for not actually being that.

My thoughts on secondaries and executive dysfunction. 

it’s the bird that helps me still achieve anything these days - the knowledge i still have, and the things i pick up along the way, from friends or twitter or online articles. i can bullshit my way through many things, because i know quite a bit about a wide range of topics.

It is so easy to pick up on true bullshit as a teacher. We *know* when you don’t know what you’re talking about. When you put together interesting statements and arguments on the fly - when you pull something out of your ass - it’s still coming from you. That’s just an alternate way of thinking. Also, everything you have written is SO BIRD.

but actually applying myself - which i feel is both necessary to succeed 

It’s not.

and the right way to do things

There’s no such thing.

 - is just… out of my reach. sorry for the rant, but i’m just so super confused, lmao. if you have any thoughts on this mess, i’d be very grateful. apologies for any mistakes, too - english is not my first language.

English isn’t your first language??? Your English is amazing. You’re a bird secondary, and a pretty brilliant one by the sound of it. And you are torturing yourself because you aren’t living up to an entirely arbitrary Badger secondary ideal.

[g30citiesexe]

The Story Of Darwin's Yearbook, A Content-Starved Fanbase, and how it all connects to the DHMIS "Titles"

Introduction

So. Yesterday the news came out, that, according to IMDB (movie wiki basically, a site that is able to be completely edited regardless if the info is fake or not, like Wikipedia is (hint hint) ), the upcoming DHMIS tv show's...interesting, and a tad bit suspicious titles had been revealed. Naturally, everyone freaked out. Including myself. But as I stepped back from my own dopamine-induced rush, I realized this was eerily similar to another incident involving a show i was fixated on.

The Context

So TAWOG. I'm a big fan of the show. And there was a period in my life where me, and the rest of the fandom were all waiting for something. Something...very important. And that something was confirmation of a Gumball Movie. Not the movie coming out, mind you, but the Announcement That It Would Be Happening. Now why were we so...desperate for this movie? Simple. The cartoon had ended on a Cliffhanger. And one of the best ways to resolve it, to give it a proper finale...? A movie. Now, the creator had stated several times before that there were ideas for a movie. But there was no definite confirmation. A few years passed...and nothing.

Enter Darwin's Yearbook. In 2019-ish, it was announced that there would be More Gumball. Holy Shit. Some believed it was a hoax. But as time went on, it was revealed that yeah, it was Real. And then began..

The Utterly Insane Theories I Somehow Believed.

Ok, so the fandom was kiiiinda grasping at straws at this point. Understandable. You give us something and We Would Find a Way to connect it to our Movie Hopes. And that came in the form of the Darwin's Yearbook (DY) Is Connected to/Is a cover-up for the Movie Theories.

Now this was a minority of people, of course. Most believed it was a cash-grab by CN to keep the show on oxygen.

But it must've been a very Vocal One.

Because I believed these theories.

They started out simple.

"What if DY ends with a movie tease?"

And somehow, snowballed into the crazy theory I ended up believing.

"It's Actually Going to Be the Full Movie In Disguise and it's just a cool marketing trick."

....I have no clue where that came from. Most likely my own head.

Now most people were skeptical. They didn't have much hope for this.

And they were right. DY turned out to be a clipshow. This left all of disappointed. Especially me, and the group of people who ended up falling for the Crazy Ass Theories. It was just simple clipshow fun. Nothing else. No movie hints. I will admit, DY was...okay. Especially as the clipshow events went on.

Now does this story have a bummer ending?

Well. No.

A while later, the "Person posts fake movie logo to reddit, Show creator comments on it and the fandom is sent into a craze" thing happened.

And the biggest part...

After years of waiting, in February 2021, we Got It. The Movie Was Happening CN had confirmed it on their twitter let's fuuucking gooooo!

So how does this connect to the DHMIS IMDB Thing?

Let's do some Comparing and Contrasting.

Both the DHMIS Titles and DY started off as, well...a highly likely lie.

DY had no signs of being a movie tease. However, mine and other's content starved-ness had led us to believe it.

The DHMIS IMDB titles are...very odd, to say the least. However, our content-starved-ness had led us to believe it as well.

Now the DHMIS IMDB title incident, if it is fake like I believe, is definitely more questionable than a theory that snowballed out of control.

Because for DY, the theories were just that. Theories.

IMDB is, despite being crowdsourced, a source most easily believe. Making a prank like that would be...pretty darn bad, even if it doesn't hurt anyone.

I'm not trying to rain on y'all's parade. Believe me. I want the TV show too.

But we have to admit the IMDB titles are likely fake.

After all, we are a very desperate fanbase, and some prankster is most likely taking advantage of us.

Now I do believe the show may be airing this year. There's more than one source I saw stating that.

But I don't believe the titles are bonafide real titles. They just don't make sense.

But like with DY, there's still hope. I'm not saying to Give Up all Hope Now. Just be cautious, don't believe crowdsourced sites, and don't get your hopes up.

After all, we know the show is still in production. It's still happening. I mean, the show just got licensed for merch a few months ago.

Hell, just a few days ago the creators confirmed they were still going. It's no release date, but it's Something at least.

What i'm saying is you Shouldn't give up hope.

But also, don't believe things too easily. It will only disappoint you in the long run. Trust me. I know.

But there's hope. All we can do for now is (and it's cliche, I know) is to stay patient. Best case-scenario, we do get it this year.

User N3kodoodles out. Thank you for listening.+

[curious-menace]

Rogues age headcanons?

so  i was scrolling the riddler headcanons tag and a post by @canadian-riddler inspired me to make this.  i cant find my bradly games guide with the info in it but i did go and get the arkham timeline from the wiki for reference

https://arkhamcity.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline

i also remembered that batman is stated to be 32 in one of the games. but i cant for the life of me remember which one. i have a suspicion that its Origins which would make him roughly 44 by arkham knight, so im going to try and use that as a measuring post for the other rogues. if i can find the source ill link it in the replies

Also before y'all yell at me for ruining your Headcanons, none of this is confirmed. I just worked them out based on the in game evidence but that doesn't make it canon. It's up to interpretation.

Also also this is just for the Arkham series. Idk about the rest of the canons out there. Gotham Riddler is much older than batman, Gotham scarecrow starts the show as a child. It's confusing.

Penguin

He’s obviously the oldest of the rogues currently active. He has a terrible grudge against the wayne family, bruce and thomas included. im going to say hes in his 50-60s because that would put him just a bit older than Thomas wayne, giving them time to be active and at eachothers throats before batman was a thing. its difficult to tell with him because hes a smoker in canon, obviously that ages people. he also seemed to get much older overnight between city and knight which are only 9 months apart. the voice modulator he has also doesnt help, so i dont feel confident saying more than 50-60 by the time of AK. i guess you could look back and say he appears to be in his late 40′s in origins. slap on 10-12 years and it would be something like this: AO= 46-49  AA=55-58 AC= 56-59 and AK=57-60

Two-face 

He’s a little bit easier.  we know he and bruce were friends (ignoring his connection with batman )at one point so they have to be roughly the same age. i cant find any concrete evidence  for when  harvey became twoface, only that it happened after arkham origins and before assult on arkham. ive also been informed by wikipedia that to be elected DA you generally have to be around 30. because of that, i think two face’s age plays out like this : AO=30-32 AA=39-41 AC=40-42 and AK= 41-43 

Poison ivy 

another slightly easier one. although ill admit there isnt much evidence, what we have is pretty solid. In the cold cold heart dlc its possible her visitors badge in the lobby reading “pamela isley- visitor ”  this tells us shes not yet a doctor, because we know she goes on to work for gothcorp under Dr woodrue. why would she only have a visitors pass if she worked there in origins? presumably she has already graduated from university, otherwise she couldnt be an intern. so that would make her timeline something like this : AO=22-24 AA=31-33 AC=32-34 and AK 33-35

Riddler

Riddler and scarecrow were probably the hardest ones for me to do. when i replied on indys riddler post  is said he had a degree in criminology but now i cant find the evidence for that. i know he has some sort of degree , he’s the head of the GCPD’s cyber crimes unit they wouldn't give that out to anyone ( although the possibility does exist that he faked the qualification to get the job but im not using that as a factor in my sums) 

Given that he is a genius, we could maybe put his graduation age at 18-22 rather than the normal 22-24. Im going to assume that he’s been working for the GCPD for a few years so that he could build up his network to the size we see in ao. that would leave us with a timeline like this : AO=20-26 AA=29-35 AC=30-36 and AK=31-37. 

im aware much of the fandom thinks he is much older than this, putting him in his 40s but i think his lack of selfcare, obvious heavy smoking habit (given the cigarettes in his hideout in ak) and overall poor health both mental and physical have made him age beyond his years. for me, personally, i canon him to be 22-24 in AO and 32-35 in AK 

Scarecrow

honestly given how little we see of him physically and due to the fact we cant eve see his face, scarecrow was the hardest to place. An easter egg in Origins :Blackgate referes to him as Dr crane , revealing he is already a doctor so he’s got to be at least mid 30s by then (given the average age for a doctorate and professorship is 33-37) Ive scoured the internet looking for answers but this is the best i can come up with: AO=33-37 AA=42-48 AC=43-49 and AK 44-50 

Harley Quinn

Simlarly with Ivy, shes working towards her doctorate in the time of Origins. given that she was in blackgate its likelys he knew Dr Crane before he became scarecrow, perhaps even worked under him. she appears young in origins but shes not a teenager. id have to put her at 20-24 given shes already got some sort of degree. We know she goes on to become a doctor by the doctorate certificate in the steel mill in arkham city so she must have achieved it before becoming harley quin in roughly year 6 of the time line ( origins being year 2 and knight being year 11-12)  with all this in mind i think her timeline must look a little like this: AO= 20-24 AA=29-33 AC= 30-34 and AK=31-35 

Well that's all my thoughts for now. If you have any other ideas, questions or want to add to my post feel free to HMU 💜💙💚💛🧡❤️

[autizta]

U can always encourage your favourite wikis to consider migrating to hosting a mediawiki! You can host through Miraheze for free ^^

I just realized I didn't answer a few asks I got for a while now! So sorry.

Thank you so much for this information! Hm, for others unaware this is about Fandom, the thing responsible for all the -wikis, Warriors Wiki, Animal Crossing Wiki, everything with a .fandom.com. They're israel supporters apparently but lord I can't find the information on it anymore, and looking it up just sends me to wiki pages explaining what Israel is :'D I'll definitely need that if I want to convince the big wikis I enjoy to migrate to somewhere else.

From what I've understood, Miraheze is a "website hoster" and you can use them to create mediawikis, mediawiki is a software to create wikis and part of the Wikimedia Foundation which is behind Wikipedia. So uh you could create a -wiki from it.

I uh, have never hosted a wiki before I joined with some brazillian friends to try and work on the Wiki Gatos Guerreiros, which is a brazillian version of the Warriors Wiki. None of us have done this before and have very scattered HTML knowledge and I'm like just now learning CSS, I have no idea how migrating to mediawiki would work! So uh if anyone out there has any clue of how and any tips in general that'd be great! I imagine the people with the wikis going on for a while maybe would know how?? But it's a big decision, I'll need to go after information to convince them supporting fandom is a bad call :'o I am having some busy weeks right now but eventually when working on stuff for the Brazillian Warriors Wiki (I'm making pixels!) I'll try researching more again, hopefully migrating will be easy and possible!! :D

Thank you again and uh wiki people share this around it's not that much info but it could help some already and maybe others could add more? :P idk!

[wrathion]

I’m pretty new to wow. My friend convinced me to try it and I’m a bit hooked. Where would you recommend I start if I want to learn the lore?

welcome to the wow community, anon! 

there’s a lot of entry-points for lore, so i’ll split this post into different sections so you can pick what you think works best for you. if you want access to (most) of the books and whatnot, i made a post a while ago with links to all of them. i’ll get to updating it...one day.

1. wow chronicles

the easiest and most reliable way to catch up on all the lore and important universal concepts you need to know is the world of warcraft chronicles series. it has three volumes detailing everything from the universes’ creation all the way to cataclysm.

you should start this way if you:

like looking at gorgeous art

want something somewhat concise and to the point

just want a general overview of what’s going on

you should NOT start this way if you:

find it difficult to focus on reading

especially don’t like textbook-style reading

want to get into one, specific part of lore

2. the novels

this was one of the ways i originally got into the lore! the novels, while they have their faults, are generally very fun reads. there’s a lot of them but i highly recommend war crimes (christie golden) for a general recap of important novels and events pre-warlords of draenor. and if you want to get into one specific thing there’s tons of focused novels (such as arthas, rise of the lich king for arthas/lich king + scourge lore).

if you know of one character in specific you want to follow, check out this page, it shows every character as well as every possible bit of prose you can find them in.

you should start this way if you: 

enjoy reading fiction

would rather get to know the characters instead of just the history

want a versatile starting point, where you can focus on smaller events or bigger overviews

you should NOT start this way if you:

don’t have a lot of time to spare

find it difficult to focus on reading

just want to know the basics quickly

3. fandom wikipedias

if you want everything in its most up-to-date form, as well as little community fun facts and speculation, i highly recommend checking out wowpedia! the timeline is a good general starting point, but there’s other good starting points listed here.

wowwiki is also a good fandom wiki, but it’s a bit out of date in areas. wowpedia overall is more consistently managed.

you should start this way if you:

specifically enjoy going down wiki rabbitholes

love learning weird and obscure bits of lore

want to learn all the most up to date information

want a very versatile starting point, whether it be a general overview or specific details about characters or events

you should NOT start this way if you:

hate reading big blocks of text

don’t want 20 multiplying tabs open at once

get overwhelmed by information easily

want an official source

4. lore videos

i feel like this is how most of us get into the lore, it’s easy, straight to the point, and perfect to play in the background while you’re doing other things. nobbel87 is by far the best source of these. if you want absolutely everything, check out his lore of warcraft in chronological order series (parts one, two, three and four). for a more quick start, absolutely check out this video. otherwise, you can search practically any character, expansion, event, etc. on his channel and there will be a video describing it in detail.

i’ve also heard good things about the lost codex, though i haven’t personally delved into their stuff too much.

you should start this way if you: 

don’t like/want to read

want the information in an organized and concise form

want something to just play in the background (though there’s videos if you feel like watching too!)

you should NOT start this way if you

don’t have a lot of time to spare

want to get the info quickly

want an official source

5. playing/watching a play-through of warcraft 3

i admit, i did not get into the lore this way, but i know plenty of people who have! warcraft 3 introduces all the core concepts you need to know about azeroth’s life and history. it has two installments, reign of chaos and the frozen throne, as well as nine campaigns combined in both. the storyline follows the orcs, humans, undead and night elves. 

you should start this way if you:

want an interactive way of getting into the lore

would like to get to know both the characters and relevant events

have a lot of time to spare

you should NOT start this way if you:

don’t want to buy/watch a play-through of a game

specifically hate RTS games

do not have much time to spare

6. conclusion

wow lore is pretty complicated, but it’s honestly so worth it to get invested. i really hope you enjoy your time here in the fandom though :D!! 

i would like to specifically note that reading quest text while leveling is not a good idea for starting out, at least not until shadowlands comes out. the zones all take place at different points and time through the game’s history that it all muddles together. 

don’t worry about the three separate war chiefs in orgrimmar, or how the human starting narration mentions the “missing king varian” when varian’s most definitely dead and not missing. it all makes sense most of the time i swear

finally though, if you have absolutely any specific lore questions feel free to shoot me an ask! whether it be about a specific book or comic, or a complicated character timeline, i’m more than happy to help out.

[greatrunner]

So, I was browsing my old HD and I found a bunch of stories (fanfic) that I was writing and completely lost interest in (obviously, b/c I stopped writing/planning them out). A lot of the ideas I came up with were pretty good, good enough for original stories, which may have been why I stopped writing the fanfics in the first place.

In particular, I came across several HEROES fanfics that I planned out (but didn’t start writing) and, not to toot my own horn, but I was seriously impressed with some the ideas I came up with? Like, most of it was informed by the years of criticisms that the show got and I remember reading about (on bobthehaitian and deadbrowwalking on LiveJournal, racialicious.com), my desire to kill Sylar with a parking meter, and info from the Heroes Wiki, but some of it could’ve actually panned out if I chose to continue pursuing it.

(It’s wild to think just how fast the HEROES fandom died after S2. Like it just buried itself in the grave with a quickness.)

Speaking the name of the devil, I went to see if the Heroes Wiki was still active, and, lmao, the host (NBC???) nuked the website because of deader-than-dead levels of traffic (which is fitting, considering how badly the show FUBAR’ed everything). The Wikipedia article that chronicled its existence pointed me towards an archived version of the site, tho.

[visarcana]

Recent Surprising Discoveries

Case 1: Hitomi’s family lives in Fujisawa (not the neighboring Kamakura) Courtesy of: Japanese Wikipedia I don’t know where the Wikipedia got that info from, as I had not come across it while studying the artbooks. Maybe simply from the way she commutes and such? Nevertheless, it makes a lot of sense, even as I visited the places (I still need to finish the full report on that!) Anyway, I don’t mind and thankfully, it wouldn’t take much to update in the fic, either, if I decided to reflect on this discovery. It actually supports the idea I was working with (I was even wondering why she took the train in the wrong direction... it still looks wrong, btw, but I won’t dwell on it any longer). The idea that the place Hitomi comes home to and the place her mother invites Amano and Yukari to to show them the photoalbum are two different places. This adds the possibility that they may even be in different towns! I already loved the idea of making her live in her grandma’s house, now I love it more because it doesn’t make the whole chapter 1 fall apart. Phew!

The towns are close to each other and quite similar in size and stuff, btw. I had this idea that perhaps Hitomi’s father is from Fujisawa, it would be easy for him and her mom, a girl from a neighboring town, to meet. It is also fine that she would commute like half an hour to a school in the neighboring town, I mean, why not. Yukari and Amano also could be from Kamakura or somewhere else then, I guess? She seems to part ways with Yukari somewhere around the station, and continues the commute alone, including some sights from Fujisawa (this is what they could have based it on on the wiki). So Yukari seems to be from Kamakura.

Case 2: The map of Gaea as we know it is fanon Courtesy of: Escaflowne Slack Group, Escaflowne Fanbook

Yeah, the map that we use so well. Not gonna repost it again. The map itself was created from a rotated and flipped map of ice age Europe, as this Italian fansite discovered. But not by the anime creators, but the original Japanese fandom, who made this fanbook. Namely, a person called Keita Kamikita is credited for the map drawings in this book. A guy of the same name apparently coined the term light novel as the manager of a Japanese fantasy forum in the 90s. I don’t think this is a coincidence. Fascinating!

The map was apparently created from the pointers of the series itself and makes a lot of sense when it comes to Gaean geography (Gaean alps?) and biology, even (ancient forms of animals?). Yes, this is fanon of high level. I should have known, it’s Japanese fandom. I should have known from it being placed in the Fanbook (and nowhere else) itself, but guess I subconsciously didn’t want to admit it to myself and lose this bit of canon. 

Anyway, this gives us creators more freedom I guess, and coming up with your own map is a go! Still haven’t decided what to do in regards to my creation, but it’s of no immediate concern.

To put some picture to this post, I’ll just post this photo that windows 10 uses as one of its welcome screens. It always puts a smile on my face, because yes, in Switzerland Alps, it does kind of look like Fanelia to me (good job, fanon map):

[ussgallifrey]

Oh hey, could i be tagged in Kingfisher? Its so good! And also, bit of a weird question, but could you tell some good sites to research war related stuff, its for a 40s fic I'm planning,if not, its okay!

You got it, dude! I'm happy you're liking the story 😁

As for some resources? It sort of depends on what you want to research, but your friends are going to be Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube.

Wiki can lead you down a rabbit hole of valuable info. And YouTube has awesome documentaries, footage, and old propaganda films for the time.

I would Google really obscure things and find old websites with diary entries or first-person accounts from the era.

On here, even just making an aesthetic blog and finding all your classic 40s fashion and photos can help.

There weren't any specific websites that I found outside of those main ones that really covered a wide range of subjects. But, if you're looking for some things related to the fandom specifically?

A good Tumblr to start with is @steve-rogers-new-york, they have a great collection to browse through that can help shape your story.

And @end-o-the-line made a great Timeline post that I only just discovered and will be using for future reference.

Hope this helps and happy writing! 💚

[tomfooleryprime]

Hello! I just wanted to say how much I love your writing! No Winter Lasts Forever was brilliant! And I’m throughly enjoying your newest OC-centric story. Question: do you fully outline before you begin writing? Do you have any advice on how to do that? Also, do you create character sheets to get to know them better and such? One of my biggest challenges is characterization, and I can’t seem to be able to outline. So, any advice in that department would be much appreciated. Thank you! :)

Thank you so much!

I do outline before writing. It’s the only way to go, as far as I’m concerned. No writer’s block once you have an outline. 

You can outline for plot, setting, characterization or all three, however, outlining still has its drawbacks, especially if your story is super long and full of original details. 

This is the problem I ran into with No Winter Lasts Forever. I had hundreds of characters spread over a colony world I basically designed from scratch and it ended up being more than 300,000 words long and took me two years to write. The amazing thing about an outline is it organizes little details and it reminds you to include certain things in current and foreshadow things for future chapters. I call it “sprinkling details.”

For example, you might casually mention your character has a lot of scars in the first chapter. Then in a later chapter, maybe they’re rubbing their neck and they’re reminded of how they got one scar in particular—say, a crazy sword fight with a pirate where they almost got their throat cut, I dunno? Then later your character is abducted and has a bag over his head, about to be shot execution style when he’s rescued at the last minute by a guy who owes him a favor. Your character asks, “I had a bag over my head so how did you know it was me?” Favor dude points to his neck and replies, “I would recognize that scar anywhere, boy-o.” 

Ugh, so cheesy, but you get the point. If you wait until that very chapter to inform readers, oh, he has a scar on his neck and this is how the other guy will recognize him, it just seems like some weird afterthought. 

Sprinkling details throughout the story gives your readers a chance to get to know your characters and their situation slowly, just like you would get to know anyone in real life. When you sit down next to a coworker for the first time, you don’t get the exhaustive Wikipedia version of their life in the first sitting, you notice little details and ask little questions over time. You see a picture of kids on their desk and think maybe she’s a mom. 

There isn’t some narrator to inform you, “Hey readers, this is Susan. She has three children and their names are Lucy, Bobby, and Asshole. She’s really self-conscious about the mole on her cheek. In her spare time she enjoys pilates and bareknuckle boxing.” If you want to show rather than tell, maybe you mention that you see Susan constantly pulling her hair over her left cheek and eventually realize she has weird bruises on her hands and you resolve to ask her about it later. 

In a normal human relationship, you would discover these things about your new coworker over time. Giving a giant info dump in the beginning is tedious and it’s telling rather than showing. It’s been one of the biggest challenges of bettering myself as a writer: learning to show though dialogue, actions, and details rather than just tell my readers what they need to know to get on with the story. 

Unfortunately, there comes a point at which no matter how detailed your outline is, you will start forgetting details as the months wear on because it makes no sense to have an outline so detailed that you invent a whole life story for a character you barely mention once, unless you’re J.K. Rowling and still milking a wildly successful boy wizard series nearly two decades later. There were many times I had to go to AO3, click “Entire Story” on my own story, and search for tiny details like, what color is Hadrian Moore’s hair or what was Ann Svendsen’s second-oldest kid’s name again?

I would say most stories aren’t as stupidly ambitious as that one though. I don’t think I can stress this enough: if you want to become a fiction writer, fanfiction has to be the best place to dip your toe in the pond. It’s a ready-made template. It’s easy to spread your wings in a world that has already been designed for you so that you don’t have to worry about making everything from scratch and can focus on storytelling, dialogue, and voice instead. Spock has a very well-formed character, so if you start writing him as a guy who drops f-bombs for no reason, you’ve royally screwed your characterization. 

The same goes for outlining. Creating an outline using canon characters who already have fairly established backstories and personalities is so much easier and if you’re just starting out writing, I’d recommend doing that. It’s too easy to just go to Memory Alpha if you can’t remember how old Leonard McCoy is, or if you’re writing for another popular fandom, most have their own wikis. Bless the people who compile such websites: they’re doing the Lord’s work. 

So if you need help with characterization and outlining the plot, that’s my advice: start small. Start with familiar characters in a familiar setting, and write a short fic of 10,000 words or less. Then write a longer story. Then incorporate your first central original character and spend a lot of time fleshing this person out. The more you do it, the more you’ll learn what works for you and what doesn’t. My first outlines were really bare bones, my later outlines were too detailed. I think I finally hit a happy medium with my new OC story. 

If you want, I can email you my outline for my latest chapter of my new story so you can get an idea for how much information I include. Hit my up at jtomfoolery@yahoo.com.