#and it often feels easier to just not try bc most ppl will still see me as a background character

[yooniesim]

any suggestions for becoming a sims based blog? I used to do it back in the hayday of sims 3 but it's been YEARS and I still absolutely love making sims, but I'm too shy and nervous to interact with the community ;;;

hi nonny! this is a complicated question that I'm not sure I'm the best person to ask lol but let me try it out. I think I'm gonna separate it into two parts for ease of reading. And sorry if it's a bit more cynical than you probably expected. I've just learned a lot i wish I had done from the start, lol. So here we go.

Sims content

Post whatever tf you feel like. If you love making sims, post the hell outta them and don't worry about what anyone thinks. There's no one perfect type of content to appeal to everyone; the community is made up of a million smaller niche ones. Editors, sim makers, gameplayers, storytellers, cc makers, etc. If you're passionate about it, you'll find people that love your posts. So don't worry too much.

Don't get too hung up on editing, if you want your pics to look "better" then use gshade/reshade and/or simple psd actions to your liking. Don't let it get stressful cos it ain't worth it. If you don't enjoy editing, don't do it at all. (I wrote more about how I edit & make it easier in this post)

Try your very best not to worry about notes. I know it's hard. Everyone wants their stuff to be seen, but when it comes to engagement on here, you're aiming for quality over quantity. A few awesome mutuals commenting on your stuff is way better than 600 silent likes. Also, having more attention sucks bc it brings the vile swamp rats out of their holes to see what shit they can stir up. The brief serotonins aint worth it. Just aim to find a few cool ppl to talk about your sims with cos thats all that matters.

If you want, find bachelor/ette or similar challenges ppl are doing and submit sims for them. And once you get some mutuals/followers, open sim requests so you can make sims for people. It's super fun and awesome to see your sims in other people's games! And you don't have to talk too much if you don't feel like it, but it's an easy way to get involved with others.

Social stuff & safety

Comment on peoples posts often if you like them. Engage with ppl. Reblog posts you see you like but don't really have any reblogs. I know you said you're shy but, this is most of the way to actual have mutuals that enjoy talking to you and comment on your stuff as well. You can just not talk if you want but it'll make it harder to have any engagement unless you're really good at edits or cc making.

Don't get involved with drama/discourse, it means nothing and amounts to nothing. If you're going to boost someone else's post, look into it first and look for evidence that it's even true before you reblog. If people hate on you in your inbox, block the anon and don't respond even to laugh at them. Block anyone that gives you bad vibes. They look at you funny, breathe wrong, use a color you don't like. Block. If anyone tries to start shit with you, block & completely ignore them & don't comment on it. It hurts, but there's nothing you can do about it, and people will move on if you ignore them.

Don't reveal any personal info about yourself on here or to anyone in DMs. Don't use your real name. Don't have anything connected to your other socials. Don't trust anyone on here with your vulnerable emotions, past trauma, etc. And don't say anything in DM you wouldn't feel comfortable with everyone else on the internet potentially seeing.

If you pledge to people on patreon, be aware that your email will show up on their end when you do. Dont use your real name as your patreon username.

If simblr is causing you stress, you feel like your mental health is suffering, take breaks. Log off or delete the app for a while.

And... I think that's all I can think of for now. If there's anything else detailed you wanna ask about feel free. But these are just my general thoughts. Good luck, nonny :)

[transvicquemare]

walks in here talk to me about system harry <- system who believes so strongly in system harry

anon we r shaking hands 🤝🤝 system harry makes me have so many feelings he reminds me of how my system works so much.. (aka i am sitting here as the host while the peanut gallery in my mind has a Lot of commentary sdfds)

i dont tend to use system roles for myself but like a LOT of his parts function as protectors (or ‘persecutors’ i guess but i feel like most persecutors are misled protectors YAKNOW), they usually try to protect him in pretty maladaptive ways but they are TRYING .. like electrochemistry trying to ‘help’ harry cope by using substances and sex. half light reads like a trauma holding protector, constantly in fight or flight, desperately trying to protect in his twisted way as well. volition is also pretty clearly reads as a protector, who is often pretty important to keeping the whole system in check (usually.. sometimes they overdo it)

AND LIKE yeah a lot of the parts kind of act as fragments who are mostly fufill one kind of job, like hand eye coordination comes to mind. BUT some of the parts to me read as like deeply complex ppl. like physical instrument is often called coach like he has a name and everything!!!! to me he reads as like a bit of a memory holder of harrys time as a gym teacher.

and ANOTHER note on the complexity is the actual interactions the parts have with each other (the compromised scene around klaasje, and the ‘mr evrart is helping me find my gun’ thing come to mind) they talk and kinda bully each other. suggestion calls volition ‘crownhead’, they can see each other in the headspace mayhap.... 

I DUNNO I DUNNO i could make a whole post talking abt every skill and their role within the system honestly its so interesting to me!! but man the way the system actually presents itself is relatable to me bc like Yeah there is differentiated parts but it is just more convenient to just act like one being, like we dont like to make it clear to other ppl who is talking or acting. i love systems who are very clear about that stuff!! i just dont see a lot of fictional systems who just prefer to act as like one person still, like me! and are really only open abt different parts and their names to a few people. 

i think harry does open up to kim about whos who eventually and while plurality is Not well understood in elysium, kim tries his best to keep up. he takes notes :D he learns to recognize when some parts r speaking !! some of them are easier for him to recognize than others.. the system can relax around kim which probably makes it a bit easier to tell them apart bc they arent actively hiding anything .. auagah i need to keep writing my system harry fic..

ANYWAYS yea sorry that was all over the place im sick and procrastinating my coursework LOL thank u anon for giving me an excuse to start info dumping abt system harry 

[perplexingluciddreams]

can I ask a question if ur ok with it? I i rlly want semiverbam and nonverbal ppls thoughts and information on this over anyone else. can semiverbal mean u struggle with speech bc u often do not know what to say if it’s not a topic on your special interest? or otherwise your scripts which consist of like “that’s nice” or other short phrases.

like I can try to have conversation but my brain will go blank and I literarily cannot think of what to say therefore I cannot keep talking. or if I do talk I must repeat the same two word phrases over and over. i have struggled to make friendships bc of my issues with talking. we try to talk and get to know each other but even after YEARS they get barely anything out of me. I can say words it’s not a physical struggle but my brain can’t know what to say to say words often. so all of my life I’ve been known as a very very quiet barely speaks shy kid. I even often have trouble talking about my special interests if it’s not done over text rather than talking.

I have a very strong inner monologue lots of words but when it comes to actually talking I struggle. there are times I do talk fast and more though. And times around certain people I feel it is easier. but often it’s not. and even if I’m comfortable around a person I can still struggle.

but I’m not sure if this is a semiverbal thing or if I would still be verbal. i don’t want to wrongly use a term. any help on what semiverbal means and If any of this sounds relatable?

Hi, anon, I will do my best to answer your question. I can only speak from personal experience, as someone who grew up semiverbal and is now permanently fully nonverbal due to late regression.

Firstly, semiverbal is a community term (as in, not have medical definition, not used by doctors or professionals). It means someone who struggles with speech and/or verbal communication all the time. If this is a constant struggle for you (as in, not completely verbal sometimes and have “episodes” other times), I think you can use the word semiverbal to describe that experience.

It sounds like you struggle more with the language/word side, and less with the physical speech side. And social issues like struggling with back and forth conversation, cannot speak about any topic other than special interests, etc. can all overlap.

What you have written here sounds relatable to me in some parts, for how I was when I was younger, when I was semiverbal. I also had difficulty with my mouth blurting out things I didn’t mean and didn’t want to say, things that didn’t match my thoughts. But that was only partly due to the physical lack of control. It was also because I didn’t understand what I was saying/repeating. I didn’t have the ability to match my thoughts with words, or words/phrases with meanings. If I could see that I was “supposed” to say something, then if the physical ability was available to me at that moment, I would just say something I had heard someone else say, that had some kind of link. I could identify when something had a link or was on the same/similar topic, because of how my brain finds patterns. But I never understood what the majority of it meant - only understand for the most simple sentences and phrases.

I was rarely rarely able to use unique words or sentences to say my thoughts and feelings and experiences. My brain was blank or “quiet” a lot (still is). I mostly didn’t know when I should tell something, even important or dangerous or emergency things. I only grasped that I was supposed to say something when someone else talked then there is a silence and they look at me 🤷🏻‍♂️. Then I have to sift through the noises they just made, find a recognisable word, make a link with a script I remember hearing, and send it out my mouth. This is an example of how another aspect of my autism (low awareness, low social understanding) affects communication abilities/opportunities.

I personally don’t have a strong inner monologue, and I did have physical struggles with speech so not only language problems, but I can relate to what you’re saying in some ways. I was also a “very very quiet barely speaks shy kid”.

The language/word side is very important to communication. It is not only about the physical speech.

The main reason for the difficulties I have with communicating overall, is the language issues. And the language issues is the same, when I had physical speech before, and when I don’t have that ability anymore now. That is the main underlying struggle for communication.

I hope this answer was helpful for you. Anyone else who wants to add on, please do! And if I left anything out, or miscommunicated something, please correct me. This is my final disclaimer - I am only one person with one experience and this is all I know.

[replicasoul]

1, 2, 8, 9, 13, 14, 18, 19!!! :3333 wuf. wuf

pale trying to kill me as per usual ok lemme see

1. who was the first alter? who was the most recently formed? im not sure how much we like.. Work, like that? like for a huge portion of our life we didnt realize that a LOT of us were switching around really Really often without realizing it. we have definitely Noticed some ppl more recently than others, but that doesnt mean they werent already there and doing things but just hadnt realized 'oh im a different person than [x]' if we're talking earliest that we can remember? probably Carina or X0. latest would probably be Fetch 2. what do you all have in common? is there something you like to do together? a good chunk of us all like to write, which helps when thats also an activity we end up doing together a lot. we all have our preferences for characters, settings, etc. but its usually something thats more fun Together than separate 8. are there certain alters who excel at certain things? who, and at what? althea is rly good (as in Not As Terrible as anyone else whos tried) at Hollow Knight and nobody knows why; usually we're terrible at 2D stuff. TV tends to be good at planning out creative projects as well as like, doing repetitive tasks (like at work and such). im (X0) pretty decent at keeping up w/ more involved conversations w/ strangers/coworkers/acquaintances/etc. carina is usually super polite in convos so is usually better at talking to like... older folks or ppl in public who are upset about something; its also pretty good at analyzing things idk, i could go on but thats plenty 9. do you have any awkward stories about cofronting? ooh,,, share cofronting is Always weird with conversations, bc the way we talk can switch just, constantly as different ppl are talking. its not usually noticeable over text if ppl dont know us, but it can make things Awkward in person, especially if we're too exhausted to keep up appearances at that time 13. what makes each alter laugh? tbh i feel like this and some of the other questions require a better awareness of which of us is fronting (at any given time) than we actually have. like i Know theres Differences, i know its easier to get a laugh out of me than it is with Althea, for instance. but as far as knowing what Content does it for which system member? idfk 14. storytime! share your favorite memories of the system see this kinda stuff is mostly like. Private. but uh. trying to figure out althea's potential fursona species was a Time (its still kinda up in the air but it landing on shiba inu was VERY unexpected) us singing along to Classic J Dies And Goes To Hell Part 1 in the care w/ seth is one that comes to mind rn and i think just. Writing Together makes up a big portion of the best experiences we have together 18. what shows do you watch? are there any that you all love? what about some you hate? oh god too many. when youre collectively laid the fuck up bc of nerve pain and All you can do like 60% of the time is watch shows n movies, we end up doin that way Way more often than we'd like. i know Beef and Scavengers Reign have been recent favs for us. Carina's been watchin the new pokemon show (its ok), and i think Althea + TV were the ones who watched Severance first?? idr tho we dont tend to differentiate System Member-Specific Activities a lot of the time, we just kinda do w/e with whoever happens to be fronting there are definitely exceptions but its usually like. Games, or writing. like Althea playing hollow knight. someone else was also doing Killer7 but i forget who 19. is there anything or anyone you all share equal distaste for? salt + vinegar potato chips?? i dont know, im sure theres Plenty of things we dislike if youre counting like... All Things That Exist

[tea-and-secrets]

currently high rn so i have finally loosened up enough to send smthn here, apologies for the Length</3

my secret is that i (a trans man) find trans women absolutely breathtaking and i want a trans gf So Badly but a) i don't even know where to meet other trans ppl in my state nor others online that are into the same thing i'm hyperfixated on rn, b) i call myself aro/arospec bc its easier than trying to figure out if i genuinely am or if i just can't see myself in a romantic relationship bc of past bad experiences. either way even if i AM aro i wld still like to have a partner and often when i'm around my friends who All Have Partners i get. sad/jealous? and tend to go quiet bc i feel like i'm intruding on things and i am reminded that i am nobody's most important person</3

but uh. back to the original point trans women are gorgeous and lovely and when i see a pic of one i usually end up just staring respectfully for a few moments and. hough. i would do Anything to have a trans gf/partner

.

[magnoliamyrrh]

Can you drop the face wrinkle exercies routine? You said it did wonders to your face

sure! I know i wrote this on here before cuz someone asked me but i cant find it so here we go again lol

ive started using some new skincare products bc of the rash thing ive gotten on my face and those help too ive come to see. ive been using azelaic acid cream 10% morning sometimes night too, it helps increse skin overturn (like retinol does) and increse the collagen in the skin, but has been pretty gentle on my skin, and made it more smooth than it has been in yrs. it also dries out the face tho and i have a naturally very oily face without the acid, so ive been using A+D ointment (vaseline + lanolin (sheep grease)) which has been working great (vaseline cant clog up pores). having moisturized skin rly helps! also, ive v rarely used sunscreen throughout my life, and i know ppl say this helps prevent as well

other stuff, sometimes when i wake up i will take a icecube and rub it on my face. great way to wake up lol, but it also tightens the skin and helps reduce inflation. everyonce in awhile i will freeze an eggwhite and use this instead. also, being well hydrated helps, and Maybe taking collagen supplements or eating a diet heavy in collagen (soups w bones, bone marrow, skin, chicken feet etc, taking gelatin or collagen supplements) may help (i do this anyway bc of my lack of collagen bc genetic disorder).

as for the exercises, i follow the ones of this lady. you can also find her on tiktok where she has more content

the one at 2:38 (first link) is the one i do most often and i feel like its rly helped! it rly is a big difference compared to how it used to b before i started all this (and i can also tell a difference bc ive stopped doing it regularly for some weeks and its still better than it used to b, but not as good). i feel like i look less like a chronic smoker 30 year old exhausted mom lol, like i rly look moreso my age, most times i dont even have actual wrinkle dents in my laugh lines anymore where before there used to be!

this is for laugh line wrinkles tho, she has many others too for other parts of the face: ive done her eye exercises before and her forehead massage exercises and feel like those helped too! ive also done her exercises for jowels, and felt like they were sagging less. make sure your face is moisturized before you do this tho! ,,, ive also been at times doing a version of the lymph notes face massages you see online (but w my hands, not that stone thing), cant tell you if they help w anything but it does feel nice and help release tension in the face (tension being one of the things which leads to wrinkles)

i really did notice a difference after awhile of doing these every day! how much i did a day varied, sometimes just 10 min sometimes more as i was sitting around doing other things. i know at some point my cheeks hurt the day after, like i had muscle fatigue like when you exercise other muscles lol. i also noticed that after a few days it became a lot easier to do the movements and my face muscles were definetely getting stronger. be consistent and have patience and i really do think you will see some results!!! ive also seen a scientific study on this sort of exercises done on elderly women (50/60+) where they did 30 min of exercises every day for months, showing before and after photos, and i was rly shocked by the results; its why i decided to try to do this! best of luck :)

[softranswolves]

In the Teen Wolf fandom, it seems like peeps only love the big-names, the ones who regularly return to post content versus people who joined in the last few years.

As someone who has been here a while, what's your take on this? Should new people stop trying? Because that's what I'm feeling.

Hey friend!

I just wanna say, before I really get to my answer, I'm kind of touched that you see me having been around for a while!! I'm definitely not what I'd consider a big-name and I know my blog is mostly just my little corner full of stuff I curate with my own creations or reblogs of other people's but you see me 😊 I'm also for sure not tapped into the fandom itself like some folks I follow. I just doot my snoot in my little archive of teen wolf shenanigans and try to maintain friendships with anyone who wants to interact with me (via asks, messages, or tags, good golly I wanna hug anyone who interacts in tags lol and I for sure recognize when ppl come back).

I typed a way longer response that you may not have wanted, all to just say I would hate to see new people stop trying!! I adore that teen wolf is still pulling people despite it being off air and potentially not getting more movies (whether or not that's what most people want). I think fandoms need fresh air continually too. No two people will experience the show or content 100% the same way and have every single response be the same. Just with the two cakes mindset of creation, there are multiple cakes for how we all digest the show and they're all delicious. I carved out my own little corner here because I wanted organization for myself, and I create largely for myself. Any interaction I get, I fucking adore, I cannot impress that enough lol. I just never really expect it bc I know I do my own thing here with stuff like Multiamory May moodboards. Rarepairs and polyamory and trans headcanons just aren't everyone's cup of tea and I stopped trying to be recognized for what I "target" when I know my quality isn't 100% and I'm just vibing to my own weirdness instead of being super put together about it. I've definitely flickered in and out of the fandom when it comes to engagement too - like how last year (or year before? idk, time is confusing) I was running regular events but currently I just don't have the energy/passion in the same way.

If you really want to be seen more, esp if you make your own posts/content, utilize tags, even if you're hella lazy with it like me. I try to always use #twedit no matter what, in addition to #twfemslash and #twrarepair when applicable. Those go on the radar of people who fill the queues of some "big" blogs that do a bunch of reblogging just to have continual content out there. I also feel like I got a foot in via a couple of my discord servers, mainly Teen Wolf Legacy, and making a couple too (one for Scott shipping, one for teen wolf femslash; others i know of included pecific Derek-positive ones, a Stiles shipping one). That absolutely increased my reach, because I could share my stuff with people who specifically wanted to get pinged for, say Allison/Stiles content as an example. Idk that my following blew up or anything, I'm still a relatively small teen wolf blog. But it did make it easier to grow into my niche here. It also made me realize how big the fandom is. Some might only watch for or engage with a particular ship or character, while others like me do so for pretty much anyone.

This was still lengthy, I'm sorry. You caught me after work when my brain is like solely focused on decompression via fixation and tumblr is often a source for that. Please don't be discouraged from trying, and if you feel comfortable coming directly to me I could possibly point you in the direction of some other teen wolf blogs with similar interests! Big-names are hella daunting and it still blows my mind some of the ones I always sort of looked up to also just have some nerd behind them that I can talk to (even if I feel like im annoying them lmao). Feel free to talk with me more either on or off anon too, I'm pretty much always here to some extent. I love new people so fucking much, I'm just not engaged enough to always see you 💜💜💜💜

[redxblueihateloveyou]

not only she's a 2nd lead, but bithc is fuking dead. who ship them?

lol don't be mean, well, idk ppl have different tastes. I honestly try not to judge too much, bc even tho our ship is canon and got their happy ending, it's still twisted af you know lmao

But what I do NOT like is when people don't see the clear creator's narrative, that's what I'm talking about. bc for example when I ship smth that's uncanon or even some bromance when there's a romance too, I still see clearly who is the main couple, whether I like it or not. I mean, I'm not gonna sit in denial.

So dead or not (even if she stayed alive) the plot structure would've stayed the same. The whole point was that Gaon couldn't be himself with her, and she couldn't except the real him. Well, and about how everything is not black and white and how you shouldn't be a hypocrite.

I just do not get when it comes to BL ships especially why ppl suddenly lose the ability to catch the basic plot structure. I mean, when you watch classic romcoms or smth no one wants Sandra Bullock's character to end up with the guy in a coma instead of his brother, right? Have anyone seen "Enchanted" and rooted for her to stay with prince charming? Or again "Light on Me" if you wanna talk BL, have anyone shipped the main lead with a president? It doesn't always have to be some completely bad 2nd character on the other side, just a classic situation often used when the main character realizes at the end that he originally picked a wrong one. Or realized that it wasn't love. Or that they could only be themselves with another one. Most times it turns out that the right one is the one who pissed them off from the very beginning haha

Like it's a VERY very classical romantic storyline that is hard not to get. YET here some ppl are. Not getting it. Bc they switched genders. Like it's just very weird to me that creators had to explain such basic stuff.

And I mean I constantly see ppl saying stuff like "you have a BL in your eye". I personally don't. I can split very well my ships into bromances and gay romances truly no matter how hard I ship some bromances. I DO tho think that some ppl have hetero in their eye. I mean it's seriosuly like "Free!" situation. Kyaoni have several shows with hetero couples who share SAME romantic scenes, same posters, same everything as rinharu, bc its their signature romantic moves, for ppl one is canon, the other isn't… bc they're both boys.

I do not get why some while watching bl stuff suddenly lose their usual braincells. Or does it nowdays apply to everything? Bc I do not get how can you not get such simple plots. Like just cause its bxb and not gxb doesn't cancel basic human things. We can all be dumb in love, we can all be confused about love, we can all be scared when it comes to love. Rules of love don't apply to one gender. It's just general romantic tropes, not heteroromantic tropes.

So even if she wouldn't die, Gaon wouldn't stay with her. He already while leaving Yohan's house and telling him all that nasty and how "she's his everything" and watching him cry, knew that he was lying to himself, he knew that something was off, he just couldn't admit to himself why it felt so wrong. But it was just easier to take that road, than deal with the fact that someone not only accepted him for he was but also made him feel so many things. So either way it would've ended the same way.

So like that's why I didn't bring up that argument even until the very end, and usually don't bring it up at all when it comes to such arguments, bc I really truly don't see how it even matters, if she died or not. It doesn't change the whole point in the plot about her NOT being the one for him. Whether someone likes it or not.

Do I think ppl can ship whatever? Yes. Ship ppl with fucking ghosts if you wanna for real, Idc. I personally hate dead ppl in ships, I want my ships alive and happy, but to each their own. Just don't be in denial of the narration. You can say you didn't like how it ended/went bc you shipped smth else, but being like "it was like this, not like creators created" in all seriousness and being blind is already another thing.

[elithilanor]

Silm fluff~

We know how at this point it can be considered canon that maedhros raised all his brothers (and probably was designated babysitter for most of the cousins as well) but i like to go a bit further and think that he didn't only help watch them but actively taught and supported each one of them....

We know that he isn't really known for having a single great talent like Curvo or Maglor, so i like to imagine he just went and learned a bit of everything in order to indulge his baby brothers.

Listening to all of Maglors first attempts at songwriting and harmonizing with him, even tho he sometimes doesn't quite hit the notes perfectly and maglor will chew him out for it.

Showing how to make the best arrows and fishing hooks to Tyelco and probably also treating all the little scrapes the kid got while running around in the woods all day. Up to the point where the only thing he can still keep up is fishing bc when did this boy get so fast?!

At first still helping Carantir with equations until the poor boy has to explain every single step to maedhros. Mae gave in after that and just started to sneak out trade contracts for Moryo to look through as long as the kid wants. He's also there and let's Moryo throw a tantrum every time his baby bro gets overwhelmed by his emotions again or was called weird for not playing with other kids.

Curufin gets a lot of support from their dad already but we know how immersed Feanor can get in his projects and how much of a perfectionist he is. So Mae makes sure they regularly eat and hydrate. He keeps every single trinket Curvo ever made (for him) and tries to help when he is in a creative low by asking for the the most incredulous things, starting with a set of jewelry that looks so hideous Curvo straight out refuses to work on it and ending with little inventions to make everyday life easier (thats how the handheld mixer was invented).

We don't really have a lot of info about the twins, but as far as i remember they were the only of their kind until Elrued and Elruin, so i head canon them to be some kind of novelty that ppl sometimes stared at and noone really understood. When they get overwhelmed they take a page out of Carantirs book and come to their oldest brother, who showers them with love and reassurances until they stop being insecure about relying on each other so much. There is a time while they grow up where they try to distance a bit bc they think that they should become more independent but Mae kind of hunts them down with a giant plate of soufflé pancakes and they just.... Come out and tell him about their problems again (from then on there is always something sweet for the deep talks). Mae gets really invested in researching osanwe for a time bc of them and helps them create a mindspace of their own as well.

(the knowledge about his first twins helps a lot with raising elros and elrond later, even though it takes some time until he can share his experiences or even look at his second set of twins without his throat getting too tight to talk)

I hope that helped a little bit and that your day gets better~

For the life of me I'm not sure why this didn't show up until I logged in on my desktop, but I'm so glad I did because I never would have seen this otherwise.

Genuinely thank you so much for these <3 <3 Words cannot express how happy and warm these made me feel (and I'm terrible at commentary anyway, so I hope you'll forgive me). Also, soufflé pancakes!!

These are absolutely wonderful hcs and I, too, see Maedhros as the very caring and over-protective older brother/mother hen/often father figure to his siblings. I like to imagine that while Nerdanel is a wonderful mother, Feänor is...complicated (much like him and everything else) so Mae kind of ends up stepping in sometimes.

Thank you <3

[mugenloopdalove]

This is the problem with social media. No amount of notes will ever be satisfying. You will always wish for more, it's part of the addictive cycle. At first you were begging for a couple notes on it. You got 10, that's awesome! People even left kind tags and everything.

Then you see someone who got 50 notes and suddenly you are dissatisfied again. This happens even with really big accounts. As they get more followers the new expectation for the base amount of notes goes up. The 'this got no attention' goal post gets moved from 5 notes to 100 notes to 1000 notes and so on.

I post drawings which admittedly makes it easier to get notes but is still never a guarantee. I never have any expectations for posts because it's a slippery slope that's bound to make you dissatisfied with what you made rather than happy that someone else besides you enjoyed your work at all. Ive had art that got 5 notes and I've had art that got thousands of notes. Often times the 5 note is the more fun and self indulgent art that I really love to create.

If the goal is just pure engagement something like an astarion x reader fic is obviously gonna garner more attention because that has a much broader audience than a niche au. I don't know the f/o fic that got 50 notes but I'd be willing to bet it's something less niche than your fic and/or they got lucky!

It's not bad to want attention on the things you make , everyone would love a billion notes and nice things said but it's just not realistic. The only way to be happy with what you get is to lower expectations and stop constantly comparing yourself because there's always going to be someone who's better or has more notes than you .

I'm going to be addressing this bit by bit so if it feels weird and like I'm addressing stuff you say later in ask that's why. I'm just a bit high in an attempt to see if being under the influence would help me pack hsjdjd

Yeah the tags. Helped a lot. I just wish I knew how ppl got 50 notes in self ship fic ya know. I wish I knew what it took. Bc I do all the stuff people say you need to do and it's like none of it works despite it working for everyone else

It's rlly hard for me to write Astarion x reader breathe than Theil bc I'm REALLY weird about sharing Astarion in particular and dint trust most Astarion fans. I feel like most would turn up their nose at me hcing them as trans fem considering they can hardly respect their trauma. And I don't think Karlach/reader and ESPECIALLY Jaheira/reader would hit it off as well. And even then, other self shippers don't gotta do that ya know? They write about their own self inserts and get 20-50 notes. I appreciate the notes I got and the tags but I have to wonder why other self ship fic gets way more. Makes me feel like the problem is Theil, this AU I have a lot of dedication towards, and my writing, esp after that one anon.

The fic I saw was just. A normal self insert fic I guess? I feel like I explain the au well enough in the post to make it... Not so niche. No more niche than a fic about a self insert that someone doesnt explain anything about in their fic post.

I try not to compare myself at all but when I haven't seen any self ship fic get less than 20 notes it's really really hard Not To. Like when I haven't seen any do it it makes me feel like there's something wrong w me personally especially when I get anons telling me it's me.

[colorisbyshe]

istg this isn’t related to the supernatural dude’s thing (I only find out about supernatural drama bc of tumblr lmao) but I feel so meh now when a celebrity comes out as bisexual (or “fluid” or “don’t see genitals pansexual 🤪”) and idk is that internalized biphobia? bc it’s also “sure thing jan” bc coming out as bisexual has been done b4 for clout and then they’re str8 again and we’re supposed to forget that they used us. I just don’t believe 99% of famous ppl coming out as bisexual tbh :/

Could be biphobia, could just be a detachment from celebrity life. Like... celebs being bi or whatever has very little material value to any of their fans besides them maybe (MAYBE!) creating some art that reflects their experiences but a lot of celebs just.. don't really do that. They just drop a hint or maybe even a definitive statement and it's nevre relevant again.

Some celebs absolutely have taken advantage of ambiguity to imply they might be when they definitely aren't (this like... was undeniably the cse with Ariana Grande, like you can split hairs about many other celebs but ariana... absolutely did this) and some have come out ONLY to deflect criticism (See: Rita Ora). And it's just like... it makes you weary. I get it. Is that weariness saturated with biphobia? Maybe. Yes. Perhaps. No.

It's a defensiveness.

Like, if your argument is solely "I've never seen you date a same gender partner, you're lying, you're a fake," towards a bi or "bi" celeb, yeah, that's just straight up biphobia and ignores why someone might only date one gender (it's just their strong preference, there's less stigma in m/f relationship EVEN THOUGH m/f relationships have their own hardships as a bi partner, it's just easier to find a partner of the other gender than it is to find another gay/bi person in certain circls).

But if it's "I'm aware of how LGBT issues and status can be exploited for attention, impled progressiveness, or even profit by celebrities and that bisexuality is the easiest one to bring up for as long as its useful and then never again and it is also the label with the most leeway in terms of like... a cishet person trying to pull it off, like they don't even have to even pretend to have a same gender partner and lmaooo god they would never even try to pretend to be trans," then like... I get it.

Maybe it's not fair to them. But you expressing skepticism to yourself or to your friends or even on your small blog has no capacity to actually affect them but them playing a game of "I'll hint that I'm bi but never ever say it" has a lot of ability to affect you.

Because... none celebrities can't play this game. We can't half come out to our bosses and then act offended when they get frustrated or curious. We can't make money off of being bi the way celebs can either. No pride merch, no fan base, none of that shit.

So... we're allowed to have uneven, wouldn't-be-fair-if-they-weren't-famous standards for them.

But... beyond that... I think a more valuable response to this weird era of "Bi for just one song, just one interview, just one promo period... just for one IMPLIED moment" era of celebrity isn't to harp on it or the celebrity too much.

But rather to just disengage from celebrities as representation in general. Harry Styles sucking cock doesn't liberate the rest of us. IT doesn't gain or lose us rights. Especially if he doesn't wnt to forthrightly talk about it (and he doesn't, technically, owe anyone that conversation, so, that's fair on his end but like it IS weird to spend years implying it and then saying it's unfair for the public to speculate, like, again, non-celebrities can't fucking do that).

A famous LGBT pereson more often than not just a class traitor who values their wealth more than they do the wellbeing of other LGBT people so like... who cares!

Some celebrities make their gayness or whatever fun and DO make the mot of it but even then... it's still best to treat them as like... court jesters and not our allies in arms. Not unless they truly, actively commit to the bit and take ALL the consequences on the chin and engage in actually radical dialogue and not just "IT's okay to be gay :)"

[gerrydelano]

i wish i had a character like daisy who was not daisy. does that make any sense at all??? just a character who has always been around something like the hunt in some way and who has been shaped by it and who embraced it but also through something that puts her on the other end of that kind of experience decides to try and escape only to ultimately return but in a way that can try to help someone instead of hurting for the sake of hurting. because i just. thats a compelling journey. but see it doesnt WORK to look at daisy like that bc it isnt her!! it isnt how she fits in the story and it doesnt do justice to what she was (that being. cop and murderer.) or any of what her context is. but see its like that journey at least kind of has details pulled right from her story!! but it doesnt fit to try and read her in that kind of "perhaps getting better" light!! idk. this might be a nonsense message but i just want to know ur thoughts on like. the idea of some character that is daisy but not daisy. or even other "x-but-not-x" ideas you may have, actually, i rly like ur character thoughts for everything

hi! first of all, thank you for this, i had fun answering it! it’s not a nonsense message at all, don’t worry. you make sense & i’m right there with you. it’s nice to get the chance to talk about the more obscure stuff especially, which! is exactly what i have for you today.

when you sent this last night, i kicked it around my server (as per Often) and honestly they came up with a pretty rad solution: julia! 

under a cut! you know the drill.

we don’t get a whole lot of her story between what happened with her father, how she met trevor, and then what she ended up doing to gerry & the institute and frankly even with that end result, you could totally explore how much of that was really her versus how much came From years of involvement with the hunt. 

she’s got a lot of actually genuinely sympathetic backstory that may never serve as an excuse for where she ended up, but certainly explains a Big Chunk Of It, and it’s inherently just a lot more compelling than most of daisy’s deal just right off the bat while still giving that kind of potential trajectory. if anything, her getting so lost to it is tragic on its own.

max @femmedionysus said: 

still easier to imagine a redemption/healing/etc arc for her than for daisy just by virtue of like. Julia didn’t have the same institutional power to abuse for her shit that daisy did.

Julia as a character feels more like someone who definitely did bad things and caused real harm, but there is an element of like...I won’t say her heart was in the right place or make excuses for it or anything, but I do think her backstory explains how she got started on that trajectory without excusing the harm she caused. her mom got eaten by a monster, and her dad was caught up in that shit and she ended up losing him too, and there’s something very tragic about her becoming a monster while trying to hunt down monsters.

versus, y’know. Alice Daisy Tonner Is A Cop And A Bastard

and jaya @tolbyccian summed it up REALLY perfectly with: 

it’s just a lot easier to have understanding for how a haunted orphan and a homeless man would end up skewed this way than it is to feel bad for the lady who saw cruelty younger than she should have and decided her answer was to become a cop and add to the worlds cruelty under any capacity

and i couldn’t agree more, yeah.

aster @ofdreamsanddoodles​​ also pointed out that:

julia was a security guard, but it was a job she took specifically bc she was being encouraged to confront her fear of the dark & like... kind of ended up immediately leaving that position bc it Killed her. she never went to the position to hurt ppl, but as a way of trying to strengthen herself, and when she found out she couldnt do that, she left

one more bit from jaya in response:

yaaa and much like basira, she acknowledged that it wasn’t a structure designed to protect ultimately, she had to eventually confront that the same system encouraged what happened to her father, if I remember her first statement right

and, yeah. robert lied to her everytime she came to visit because he didn’t want her to know how badly he was being hurt by the guards. that’s something she didn’t know when she was 18 and just started visiting him. also honestly working nighttime security in an office building is, like. not quite in the same ballpark as active state-sanctioned violence. she listened to podcasts in the dark. dkjfdnj.

some people do go into those jobs without an understanding or consideration of the bigger picture (cough dark influence in her case cough.) that doesn’t mean sympathize with the decision or ignorance! it isn’t an excuse. it just means the next thing to do is judge by what they choose to do once it clicks: stick with it and get worse, or leave and oppose it. julia left!

the other thing about julia, is like... she lived her entire life under the stain of her father’s shadow and his name and his history. no matter how much he loved her and she loved him, no matter how much he had been cornered into it and how he only did what he did to protect her, no matter how he tried to rebel against the people who put him in that position in the first place, no matter how much she might have learned about him later that made it all make sense — it ruined her life. it torched her chances of sincere individuality because people would never see her as anything but the daughter of robert montauk. the assumptions people made, the way they would look at her, the complete lack of privacy.

aster also pointed out: 

while daisy was busy planting evidence and placing blame on her victims by going like "oh, this guy had prior offenses, he was doing this... obviously he attacked me" julia was like. dealing w the reprocussions of the ways society views felons & the ppl adjacent to them. basically daisy was the kinda person who made julias life a living hell.

it’s no fucking wonder she withdrew and lashed out! this isn’t even a case of that shitty trope where “abused person becomes an abuser” like! she was isolated from people from the start and not for lack of trying, she DID try. and she still thought that what she ended up doing with trevor was “the right thing” in her own twisted way, because what example of “the right thing” was she ever given in the first place? her father? all that love between them or not, he still secured her fate either directly or indirectly, and if there are times she resents him for that, it makes sense. we can love and resent someone at the same time.

and the amount of conflict that this girl was put through, the violence and abandonment and loss and people putting words in her mouth and actions in her hands before she even went and did it herself? no wonder she eventually went “fine. if that’s what you want from me, fine.”

i think what julia and trevor did to gerry in particular was cruel and unforgivable the way that gertrude putting him in the book to begin with was, but at the end of the day, comparing them to their counterparts? you can better understand how they got to this point, you can even offer them potential routes to changing their tune in the right circumstance that WOULDN’T come off as copaganda and woobification of an inherently oppressive institution, and also like.

someone who did something fucking terrible like that eventually changing doesn’t mean the people they hurt have to forgive them, or be present for that change? sometimes you just plain Fuck Up Bigtime and have to live with that and just move on. what they did was wretched and still they have a better shot than daisy.

even basira does! basira STILL has a better shot than daisy in this sense when it comes to “leaned into this thing, hurt people and did wrong, made a change but still struggles with undoing the thought process learned through the time spent doing something so harmful.”

jaya also said:

it’s in the same grounds that for as fucked up as basira is it’s easier to respect that she tried to quit as soon as she realized the system she was in did more harm than good, and had a penchant for bigotry specifically, she just stayed too susceptible to the habits she’d picked up and took a little too long to call herself out for it, than Daisy who effectively only experienced remorse the moment the fear she caused people was turned on her, and then still never stopped idealizing the habits she’d lived so long

to which ren said: “and lord knows understanding that youre the Sole Tether To Humanity for this serial killer would corner you Just A Touch”

so, jaya responded: 

that is a pretty big part of it with basira, yeah. like... she knows she’s a shield between Daisy and the others whether she wants to be or not but the thing about abusive codependency is that that sort of dynamic will still inflict you with a sense of importance and value even if it’s a terrible place to be, and when you’re out of your career, taken hostage, and handling the weight of several lives depending on you sticking with this person? s3 basira especially makes a world of sense, and s4 basira sucking as a result of basically losing her last tether of value, it makes sense that she overcompensated so desperately. shits bad for her and its all policy mentality’s fault lmfao

all of this IS worth exploring. you can and should still say ACAB because it doesn’t change the underlying issue but if you’re juxtaposing between daisy and anyone else, there’s still. so much more depth and conflict and Being Genuinely Cornered applied to basira’s story than there really was for daisy.

basira is sort of like elias and gertrude in the written sense where, like. they’re all absolutely FASCINATING, have extremely tight characterization, cohesive storylines, understandable (even if not relatable) sources of thought process and expressions of values, Genuinely So Fucking Cool As Characters Within The Narrative — without ever needing to say they’re good people.

you don’t need to try and argue that someone’s a good person to justify enjoying how they’re written! just like you don’t need to scramble to pretend you hate them more than you do because you think you’ll get in trouble for thinking their place in the story at large is useful and interesting. 

there’s honestly plenty to like about basira as a person, too, without for a second validating the terrible shit she let go on and excused, etc. even daisy is really interestingly written for what she is intended to be. she’s cool as a character because she is Fucking Awful and realistically represents a lot of real life shit we recognize. it’s when we try to soften that that it becomes Fucking Weird and it demonstrates a Loss Of The Point. a lot of people fall for it! unfall for it.

daisy and elias are, like... the ones that exploring the inner workings of in fic to try and apply sympathetic nuance is not actually super useful because they’re operating from a particular position that? like? they’re MEANT to Represent privilege and abuse of power.

basira is a bit closer to gertrude in the sense that they both have done fucking awful shit and by all accounts are not good people, but the complexities afforded to them within the narrative already open up doors for exploration without demanding that you make them gentle or secretly benevolent.

and then there’s julia who, again, is my actual first choice for “i wish we had a character like this” and, like. i don’t spend a lot of time thinking about her! but i won’t deny she’s interesting and has so much potential for this kind of story if it’s what you want to tell. i love robert montauk please. he was my first one-off favorite, julia’s first statement was the first one to Get Me and Stick with me, just like the statement from phillip brown talking about how they brutalized him in prison is still my least favorite because it makes me fucking sick.

what happened to this family was devastating! and i’d be way more interested in seeing exploration of THAT and of julia’s aftermath and how she might or might not come back from what she became, than anything to do with daisy anymore.

and consider this bizarrely tragic sidenote because i am who i am:

julia and gerry? could have actually Gotten Each Other a lot more than most anybody might have, frankly, and the really painful of what happened there is that the circumstance by which they even came upon each other had been so brutal on both sides that they were no longer the sort of people who could ever connect, and it just made them both worse. it put gerry in his own personal hell which really continuously sapped Who He Was when he was alive, and the more julia kept up with keeping him there, the worse she got sucked into what made her amenable to doing it in the first place, which led directly to her going too far and not being able to come back from it.

talk about a missed connection! there’s plenty to be said about him probably finding her annoying but that really does depend on WHEN they met, in some other world. if it was before she got too sucked into the hunt, who knows! maybe there’d have been a chance. and we’ll never know, because she was someone else when he was no one and it hurt absolutely everyone involved.

ANYWAY! honestly the first response to your message in the server was “i wholeheartedly encourage anon to make a hunt OC” which i ALSO agree with! you clearly have an attachment to this part of the story and i think you’d have a lot of fun making your own wholesale, so i hope you already have one honestly! making OCs for this is so much fun and it definitely allows us to explore different facets of the entities we don’t see in canon but wish we did.

[rainbowsky]

More on the Fan Fic issue

I have a few more asks about the issue raised the other day, some of which are long and go into detail on the 'wars' that have been happening on Twitter and AO3.

Sorry for grouping these but I wanted to put it all under a cut because these are long, and also in case people don't want to dig into these issues (which would be understandable).

Anonymous 1 asked:

"I am very strongly of the opinion that the BJYX term is still a fandom umbrella term" I agree. Mainly because Bjyx is the most popular. Many antis always say bjyx, and have no idea the others. So sometimes it's easier just to say bjyx instead of explaining all three. I myself more like "who cares as long as they happy." So I enjoy Yizhan in all contexts. Many bxgs I know also like that, mostly ibxgs. I think deep down all bxgs (no matter which position they prefer) just want Yizhan to be happy

Not sure we can be so certain about that last part, Anon (I think for a lot of people GG and DD are just characters in a smutty story they have in their heads), but I agree about the term being popular regardless of the type of fans people are.

From what I can see the BJYX term seems to be used 80-90% umbrella, 10-20% dynamic in both international and c-social media (for every 10 times you see the term used, only one or two of those usages - probably less - are referring to a dynamic). This is my totally unscientific estimation, but I think even 10-20% dynamic is being generous. The number of people who are fixated on a sexual dynamic aren't nearly as large as they'd like to believe.

Anonymous 2 asked:

about the promptfests - i’ve been on twitter since early 2020 and what i’ve noticed is that this influx bjyx-only promptfests started gaining speed once lots of rational voices started leaving the fandom recently either because a) new interests have caught their attention or b) the toxicity of the popular bxg circles on twitter have become too much to handle.

gdgdbaby was usually the organizer of dynamic-inclusive events, and she’s received lots, and lots, and lots of backlash by bxg, sometimes even by accounts with thousands followers, for using bjyx as a catch-all term. and as her interest in yizhan has since waned—hopefully for reasons unrelated to fandom toxicity—many of the people who were attracted to the welcoming environment she created distanced themselves as well.

zsww/lsfy fans have become an outnumbered circle who try their best to create exclusive events to avoid the “is bjyx a catch-all term” discourse, but never seem to gain as much traction as gdgdbaby (who has a sizeable following) or those who host bjyx-only events (who also have sizeable followings).

meanwhile the dynamic war has only become more and more hostile and bjyx is clearly the more populated group… ao3 is simply a battlegrounds, if i may dramatize the situation a little for the sake of humor, and the promptfests are a reaction to this irritating t/b discourse that has made bxg twitter completely inhospitable for me…and lots of other fans too.

(i’ve also noticed a huge reinforcement as of recently where ppl will call gg laopo, a milf, an omega, etc even outside of rpf (i.e. posting pictures of him at events and saying he looks pregnant or he’s going into heat) and it’s just… uncomfortable.)

(also please note i have a biased account of all of this drama bc many of my friends were harassed over it, and anyone who disagrees with my take may feel free to interject.)

I took the liberty of adding paragraph breaks because they are pretty important for some readers, particularly ND readers like me.

It's sad to hear how fucked up everything has become, but I'm not even remotely surprised. Toxicity leads to toxicity, and the whole idea of dividing up a RP fandom by sex position was misguided from the outset - no matter why it was done or how good the intentions might have been.

And yes, like I said, these people aren't just framing things this way for fan fic. This is how they talk about IRL GGDD.

I had written a lengthy essay here about homophobia in the fandom but deleted it all. Perhaps I'll post it separately at some later point. Suffice it to say that this stuff creates a climate that's often hostile for queer people. So much of it is deeply homophobic, whether people are aware of it or not.

It's really sad to hear about gdgdbaby being mistreated in any way. Anyone who steps up and sticks their neck out to help organize and coordinate activities that benefit a broader group of people should be celebrated and supported, not run out of town by an angry mob.

I've read some of her stories and even have one or two on my rec list. And here's someone who is not only writing good works, but also supporting others to write more good works. Such a shame.

Anonymous 3 asked:

Hello Mr. RBS! I think I can chime in a bit about the fanfic topic as I’ve watched this all unravel on twitter (where a majority of authors/readers are). I apologize if this gets long but it’s been something that’s also been on my mind.

I want to preface this by saying that I’m not a fan of the distinctions of dynamics as, like you said, the supposed line between real life and fanfic is long gone, so I’m not trying to be biased against one group over another.

Short answer to the question of, “is this retaliation?” : I do believe it is. (From here onwards I’ll be using bjyx as the dynamic term just for the ease of simplicity.) To understand why, I’ll have to explain with a bit of background info. On twitter, I’d say that there’s a quite large divide between bjyx and zsww/lsfy. That itself isn’t really a problem because people are free to like what they like and associate with whoever.

However there is a big problem where bjyx people are not just bjyx but also anti-zsww/lsfy. To the point where I’ve seen people say that they feel physically ill when they accidentally read zsww. I don’t think this type of behavior should exist in any dynamic bc in the end GGDD are real people with a real relationship behind this content and it’s just a gross fetishization at that point.

With all this happening, zsww/lsfy people have gotten more outspoken on how GG is often portrayed in those types of scenarios, mainly the over-feminization of him, bc it’s not just done in the context of fanfic but regular discussion of GGDD at this point. This tension between the dynamics kind of boiled over when the pregnant xz fest was announced, as you can take a guess at how that went over with zsww/lsfy people. lol.

But around that same time, another zsww/lsfy event was announced (I’m not sure if it’s the one anon was talking about) but the creator of the event suddenly got a ton of backlash for excluding bjyx, with the reasoning that bjyx is technically a part of lsfy. But the event was done to highlight zsww/lsfy (as all specific events are) bc the community and content for these dynamics are much less than bjyx.

Which is how we come back to the starting point of, is all this recent bjyx stuff retaliatory. I believe so bc the events (preg fest, dark event) are very specific prompts that target exactly what zsww/lsfy people have been outspoken against.

As to the point anon made about trying to drown out the tags, keep in mind that zsww/lsfy content is very minimal compared to bjyx and has only just recently started to gain more traction. I think most people would love to just peacefully exist in their own circles but I don’t see this problem between dynamics disappearing anytime soon.

Like I said with the above Anon, I've added paragraph breaks for ND readers.

What a mess.

I have absolutely nothing useful to say here about the fandom on AO3 and how it's managed by community members, but I do think it's unfortunate that people choose to be war-like rather than make space for diverse voices, and I think it's a real shame that some people have been essentially run out of the fandom because of this garbage.

Thanks for giving some context for how/why the major shift in tone of fan fic lately. I had no idea any of this was going on.

I urge people to work hard to give space for all voices and perspectives, and not just the ones they favor. I'd also urge people to reflect on how their thoughts, behavior and actions in the fandom might affect queer people in the fandom.

As always, we have no control over what other people do, say or think. All we have any control over is how we respond to what other people do, say or think. Hopefully we'll chose the path of peace and try to avoid fan wars or fights that only ruin the experience for everyone.

I guess one thing I'd ask any of the Anons who have written me about this issue - or anyone who has thoughts about it - is, what can we as readers/fans who care about diversity of voices and perspectives do to support that here and on AO3, without getting involved in any kind of war?

[aclosetfan]

the pet peeve/pettiest opinion i have abt this fandom is how sometimes ppl portray the blues w/o any substance and/or any sort of depth like they do the greens and reds🤝

I don’t even think this is petty, it’s just true 🤷‍♀️ it seriously irks me to no end. I’m so glad you brought this up!!! lmaooo short response is I 100% agree with you.  unfortunately, I agree with you so much I wrote a whole freaking essay, which can be found under the cut. I could rant about this all day long. I don’t even care. The blues are such a disappointing couple :( I wish fic writers would cut out the cutesy pure bs that you find so often with these two.

I really think that the biggest problem with the blues (and Boomer) is all rooted in Bubbles’ characterization. I think she’s the most difficult for people to write because she’s the least “problematic.” And a lot of people don’t know what to do with her because no one can relate to unproblematic. She’s written as (excuse the annoying early 2010s expression, but it fits) the perfect cinnamon bun and there’s no conflict if a character doesn’t have some kind of internal conflict, they’re boring! They get tossed to the side!! Blossom is often written struggling with leadership and perfectionism. Buttercup is often written struggling with impulsiveness and aggression. People relate to them because they’ve “gone through things” most people have experienced themselves. Fic writers like writing Bloss and BC for the same reason because you can only write what you know! But shoot, writers still got to place Bubbles in somehow! So she’s either an airhead, or a crybaby, or too innocent/naïve, or the uwu character, which is good for a few laughs but 🤷‍♀️ it gets pretty 2D and old real quick. Her biggest issue in the show was people babying her, but usually, that conflict is written off in fics with one simple “OH so she’s actually a badass” scene and that’s like it?? It’s never visited again?? (Even though all her solo episodes focus on her accepting who she is despite what others think so idk if badass scenes actually do her justice. She’s a lover not a fighter at the end of the day tbh.) It’s understandable though. I struggle with Bubbles because I’m not as optimistic as her character, and I certainly don’t relate to being “the joy and laughter.” It’s hard writing someone whose fanon character is interpreted as practically flawless. In ppg fics you’re also juggling a big group of characters, so it’s advantageous to rely on the simpler archetype tropes. So, I think it’s easier for people to set Bubbles up in a relationship than explore her more thoroughly since she’s the sensitive one who would be into the lovey-dovey stuff. Further, if you want to give readers a break from the heavier themes of your main plot, having a cute side pairing is a good safe escape. Not a lot of thought is needed to make those relationships work. And since Boomer’s just there and also underdeveloped, they get paired together. And because people (rightly) want to stray from the predator/prey trope because Bubbles is just so Pure(tm) and the trope feels assault-y, writers make Boomer inherently good. But now you’re just stuck with two good, cute characters. That’s it. And because their plot in the story revolves around their romantic relationship, it's their relationship that is the only thing that aids in their character development. The blues make up the lighthearted B-plot (but probably more like C-plot because the greens are usually B-plot material) The blues seem to follow two tropes: 1. Pure childhood crushes—Boomer was always good and wants to do good by Bubbles and she wants to “protect” him from his “mean” brothers 2. Bubbles “fixes” Boomer, but he really doesn’t need any fixing in the first place because he was good all along, he just needed encouragement. (Weird side note, have you noticed how Bubbles is always like “Boomie you’re NOT stupid” and then all the sudden it’s like the boy has a PhD) And I'm not faulting anyone for having a b-plot relationship with the blues. If it’s done right, being in a relationship does wonders for people! But relationships are work and without the blues having their personalities developed OUTSIDE the relationship, there’s no “work” to be done. They’re just the Perfect Couple and it’s boring. Don’t get me wrong, I like the pairing (it’s v cute), but what’s nice about the greens and the reds is that each individual character has usually been personalized (Butch not so much, in my opinion, his character generally revolves around BC, but bear with me for argument's sake), which makes their relationships with other characters fun to read. The greens and the reds are flushed out because their most basic archetypes are the most relatable and easiest to write. The Blues, though, just seem to get together. Bubbles is a hard character to write, so by default, so is Boomer. They have no conflict outside each other that would trigger character development. They flirt, sometimes Bubbles resists, then they’re together. She’s the cutest thing ever and he’s a simp for it. Easy, fluffy, they fade to the background because now that they’re together what happens to them next?? Irl people either get married or they break up. Most of these fics are high school AUs, so they can’t get married, and no one wants the cute ones to break up, so they just start to enter and exit the story as convenient segues. And that’s disappointing because individually they could be so interesting. Bubbles has to struggle with the fact that people infantize her. Her ideas are often dismissed, people treat her like a ditz, and her ability to be a hero is often called into question because she’s the one who seeks peaceful alternatives, and when she DOESNT seek those alternatives, people in the show freak out and become scared. Like I said before, most bubbles centric episodes focus on her accepting her sensitive side and using it to overcome a conflict. Also, HIM’s like her main villain in all her episodes. and, shit, one of her nicknames is literally Chubbles. She’s been called fat a few times. There’s so much a writer can do with her conflict-wise. Optimism and sensitivity don’t equal naivety, we don’t have to make her Pure. In fact, it’d be way more fun to see her trying to show everyone that she’s no longer a child but a young woman. And Boomer has like 3 episodes, right? Maybe 4? Literally in all of them, he’s a bratty little boy. He carries slugs in his pockets. He’s bad at trash talking. Easily distracted. Fights with his brothers. Dumb and chaotic. Good at spitting. He doesn’t put Bubbles on a pedestal. He wants to beat her up. He’s not a good guy. Bubbles thinks he’s cute. That’s literally all we know about him lmao. He wouldn’t be soft so why would what we know translate into a boring unproblematic underdeveloped boy?? You can write him unfulfilled. You could write him stuck in his brothers’ shadows. You could write him as a weirdo who’s obsessed with bugs (to match bubbles animal obsession). In my head, if Brick’s the smart one and Butch is the strong one, I make Boomer the charming one. And charming boys are dangerous boys 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️he probably had to charm his way out of plenty of dumb situations. I also make him unluckily lucky since he gets captured by the girls in one episode, but he still makes it out just fine. Everything bad that could happen happens to him but Boomer’s like “eh 🤷‍♀️ It’ll blow over. Lol already died once. What can ya do?” So you've got a girl who is never taken seriously and a boy who takes nothing seriously and yall really think their relationship would be unproblematic??? Individually, these two characters could be fun to write if the fic author plans it out correctly! Idk why their relationship wouldn't be either. If you want a compelling romance, you’ve got to make compelling characters. 

[saudade-mayari]

I don’t blame people who says Aizawa is a bad teacher or a hypocrite, but you’re an account that I am comfortable sharing this because you also love eraser head. (It’s okay if you don’t want to post it)

Even Aizawa admitted to himself that he is a terrible teacher and mostly forced to teach as based on the vigilantes manga where Nemuri recommended Shota to be a teacher, but what he did to DEKU is somehow relevant for me.

Yes it is true that during the first part he hated Izuku’s guts and regarded him as having no potential but Aizawa was also testing the kid because whichever way watchers should know, Aizawa is right on the fact that Izuku just can’t attack recklessly and impulsively after having such destructive quirk. He did not disregard Izuku’s quirk, he is merely testing the kid to find his other resolve. As for Bakugo’s case Aizawa truly had a hard time disciplining him but he is watching him closely like what Mitsuki (Bakugo’s mom) said, so when All Might took tutelage of Midoriya (and Bakugo) he had no objections because as a HOMEROOM teacher, All Might is the best training for Izuku’s quirk (which is relatively passed onto him)

He is never a hypocrite for teaching Shinso. I don’t see anything wrong about that because I really understand that some training teachers have their own prodigy and he’s a homeroom teacher all he is accountable off is the overlooking at the their hero training which he did well because he focused on the student individual’s strength in the summer camp.

Aizawa also mentioned in a chapter in manga (254) why he expelled students in the past. He knew his capability as a homeroom teacher and he himself knows that he is a terrible teacher hence, re-enrolled them to other school where they would work with a new homeroom teacher. Some may see it as escaping of “escaping duties” but I really think during that time, Aizawa was just thinking what he thinks is best for the students. Afterall, he had proven himself good in manga as someone who really cares for ALL THE STUDENTS.

Blaming Aizawa for the events in 1A is practically uncalled and irrelevant, might as well just say the entire UA should be held accountable. He just had a poor decision making most especially when the truth about Kurogiri is revealed. However, even though he is not the best teacher, I can safely say that Aizawa is a decent and good teacher.

v v v long post ahead

yes anon!!!!. not my biased self speaking... he is not as great as other teachers, but saying shouta is a terrible teacher is uncalled for. he is a decent prof for me. made some mistakes, helps his students. it’s decent.

i firmly believe aizawa and all might are better example as a pro hero than teachers.

(Gonna point some of his mistakes in my perspective as a former teacher under the cut)

he was strict for a reason but he showed his care for all the students during the fight in manga (not gonna say since its spoiler) even aizawa himself knows he is terrible at teaching but at least he is trying😂

i also heard fans saying that because momo, tenya and todoroki are from rich and well known prohero family aizawa never bothered to scold at them. AGAIN IT IS WRONG TO SAY THAT.

momo, iida and todoroki...yes rich and families are known for being heroes but they practically never did anything to trouble aizawa so why else bother them? during their test, aizawa gave advice for todoroki and momo which considerably helped them.

aizawa’s way of teaching is to give harsh critiques and let the student have their own resolve. but as a former student and teacher speaking, it is both right and wrong to have that approach.

it’s definitely okay to let them figure out their own resolve (HAPPENS A LOT IN MED SCHOOL PROFS ARE HARSH HUHU) but it is important to somehow give them base and foundation before actually figuring out their so-called own resolves. i think it’s what aizawa lacks the most AS A TEACHER. but then again his entire character build up clearly says he’s not for teaching.

he was also called a hypocrite for teaching shinso but they aren’t picking on all might for mostly focusing on deku nor endeavor only wanting to focus on shoto. it’s not wrong to have their own prodigies because at the very least aizawa helped overlook his students like what he did in the summer camp and like what all might did in student practicals.

not just aizawa but all might, endeavor, nighteye and even gran torino have personal decisions on closely training those selected kids

aizawa WAS the only teacher who called the entrance/admission test irrelevant for non-physical quirks. HE KNEW IT WAS A PROBLEM SO HE HELPED SHINSO TO BE ON HERO DEPARTMENT bc he know the kid’s opportunity to be a pro hero in the future. he experienced that himself, although his quirk is powerful it was completely non-physical that is why his and shinso’s ability are less likely to be recognized. coz i agree the quirk admission test was somehow iffy... there should have been psychological quirk test too but i understand the point where fans tell that “it’s a student’s job to take advantage of their quirk rather than complain in the disadvantages of having a non-physical quirk.”

I agree on that statement but as a former student myself, i think reconsiderations should have existed coz there are probably lots of great students in general course department (like shinsou).

—and tbh... aizawa and kakashi are often the teachers who are regarded as ‘terrible ones’ but i don’t think so.

im not gonna point out kakashi’s but im gonna say aizawa’s role as a homeroom teacher. back in highschool, ive homeschooled in japan for 2 yrs due to personal reasons and i can say that based on their culture in japan and asia countries in general have a different approach on homeroom teachers.

homeroom teachers in japan are technically the ones who overlook the students, ppl who argued that aizawa should train them is irrelevant because all might is their combat and hero training teacher. aizawa is not meant to teach, but rather supervise.

which is why aizawa (as the homeroom teacher) and all might (the hero training teacher) are the ones who had council with parents because technically, aizawa is responsible for the students safety. HOWEVER....

manga spoilers on the cut

some anti aizawa fans are totally wrong to blame everything in him for 1A always being in dangerous circumstances because after reading the on going manga, they have no damned idea AT FIRST who the league of villains is responsible of. THE ENTIRE UA SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE, not just aizawa I agree on that anon.

for aizawa and the rest it is still a puzzle in the early, i repeat early chapters of the manga what the league is really after aside from killing all might and changing the system of pro heroes.

yes. I agree he had bad decisions on the victims, mainly Kurogiri because he knew it was his friend. He regarded Kurogiri as a ‘victim’ but somehow disregarded the casualties it caused. It was irrational for aizawa to say it like that coz it was obviously a word out of his feelings in the past. can’t blame him (imo) but it was truly irrational and irrelevant for him to say it like that.

there are times aizawa as a teacher just harshly criticized them and let them have their own resolve which is in fact, pretty harsh for a bunch of 15 year olds. but i think aizawa only wants them to have their own resolve since its what aizawa has been doing since episode 5.

i think it was bad for aizawa to let iida go where his brother was attacked, he should have acted upon it as a homeroom teacher to secure iida’s safety but then again, ITS FOR THE SAKE OF PLOT😂

im going to say this again... as a former teacher speaking, it is bad for aizawa just to give the students harsh critiques and letting them figure their own resolves.

it’s not a bad teaching approach BUT that kind of approach doesn’t work ALL THE TIME. sometimes, aizawa needs to teach the basics, base and foundation so the students would have an easier time to HAVE AN ACTUAL SOLUTION

because as a student for 9 years in pre and med school, it is definitely hard to make critical decisions WITHOUT being taught the foundation and base first.

it’s like aizawa not teaching an intern general surgery but letting them have their own decisions if the intern is gonna decide whether to lead the surgery or not.

his teaching approach is not bad but it doesn’t work all the time. as a teacher, pro hero and adult he needs to imply his own experience as well which where the erasure hero lacks. But then again it’s plot and aizawa’s introvert character build up so we can’t really blame him because they need the plot to keep going.

personally, aizawa’s main mistake is not knowing what to teach for the answers to questions the students are not expected to know from teaching answers to questions the students are expected to know.

if aizawa’s gonna be that perfect teacher and all, the show would have been boring😂

though aizawa did assessed on their quirks during summer training arc but i think it was not enough for the fans.

aizawa is much more better as a pro hero alone. he does his job perfectly as pro hero.

so in conclusion, i think aizawa needs to have seminar with me 🤪 im gonna teach my man the proper and basics of teaching. HAHAHAHA KIDDING 🤪 (lowkey not kidding)

[thoi2020]

u have advanced??????? wow. tips to qualify mains please??? help me with my modules.how do i solve them?????????

hnnng idk bestie here's some short tips n like if u want something more specific u can send another ask or dm me?

pay attention in class. sit in the front. listen out for what things the teacher puts an emphasis on. ask questions. yes, even the stupid ones. especially the stupid ones bc those are fundamentals u cannot miss bc a shaky foundation leads to a shaky building. also pay attention to ur teachers. theyve been doing this since before u even knew about jee they know what theyre doing. most of them want whats best for u, and if not specifically that, whats best for them n their institute which are usually similar things. im not saying blindly trust them without criticism but have some faith. dont dismiss them they prolly know better than u. if id followed my teachers instructions i prolly wouldnt have had to drop (but thats a discussion for another day lol).

revise notes on a regular basis. like. the day u studied it in class. then the next day. then a week later. then 2 weeks later. then a month later. google the curve of forgetting for more accurate time stamps. use flashcards for formulae n stuff that u have to memorise like inorganic chem.

analyse past papers. recognise the most important topics. but also there are some small chapters that are quite easy and some people skip them thinking there wont be any questions from them. ive given 4 papers of mains, and i can confirm that is utter bullshit. 1 question each from units and measurements, mathematical reasoning, stats, chemistry in everyday life, polymers, are guaranteed. u can easily secure at least those marks by spending just a little bit of time on them. esp for jee mains its relatively better to cover a wide range of topics with medium depth instead of just some but with deep understanding (the latter works well for advanced tho).

make a friend or two whos in the same boat as u, preparing for jee n try to keep each other accountable. tell each other everyday what ure going to study that day n then check back the next day. remind each other hlep each other out. also be friendly with the class toppers sometimes they can solve ur doubts better than teachers just bc something they explain clicks better. whenever i get confused about logarithms i think back to what my 9th grade classmate told me when i asked him to explain in 1 sentence n had him repeat it slowly to me multiple times. its burned in my memory and helped me so much. 

practice tests. set the proper 3 hour limit and solve them. be honest w urself ure doing this for u. no point scoring 256/300 to impress ur teacher if u cheated bc on the day of the exam ure going to be screwed. in the beginning try out different strategies, different ones work for different ppl. like for me, math is my favourite and i find it easier than the other 2 so i do it first and it gives me confidence. then i move on to physics and then chem. some people look over the entire paper n solve the easiest from every section first, then the medium ones, then the tough ones. experiment in ur practice tests n figure out whats best for u n ur test taking. after the test, analyse. see what u got wrong, why u got it wrong. clarify doubts. mark problem questions to revise and solve again later. no point in solving more n more questions if theres no retention or learning.

for solving books specifically under the cut bc this is getting too long lol:

stick to 1 or 2 books max per subject. make them ur holy books and swear by them. if ure doing coaching then the modules provided by them are a very good option bc theyre specifically for jee and will cover what u need. coaching teachers will have a lot of experience with them too so u'll have an easy time with doubts clarification. if u choose other books tho, still consult with ur teacher and ask them to tell u what's relevant and what isnt and dont waste ur time on whats not. it might make u look or feel smarter to be solving questions on stuff thats beyond the scope of the exam but u literally dont need it and the syllabus is already very vast so ure just going to waste time and brainspace. like sure if ure interested study it in ur own time but dont make it an Important Must Do thing.

ok now that u have ur book with everything relevant to jee, make sure u devour them. study the theory alongside ur class notes. solve a few questions of corresponding topics the day they are covered so u dont have so many questions lined up at the end of the chapter. like if i studied friction in newton's laws of motion today, i'll solve the questions relevant to friction today itself. or u know this week. like,, keep it current. then while solving, speak out loud and explain the problem to urself like ure teaching someone else (or better yet, find someone to teach them to. stuffed toys, younger siblings, ur classmate, grandparents, online friend, whichever works). mark all the questions that took u longer than 5 mins or u cant solve at all. dog ear the pages. try them again the next day. then again a few days later. take the ones u still cant solve to ur teacher. try n ask for just a hint once and try again. and then if u cant then ask for the solution. DO NOT go on the internet. ur brain doesnt have to work for it then n u think u got it but u dont got it. make ur brain work for the solution so it'll remember. 

now that uve given a good shot to every question and figured out where u stumble. analyse a bit. find a pattern if theres any: like a certain concept that is weak or something ure not understanding. read the theory for it if u have to n ask questions to clarify. then solve these problem questions again and again until u know every question well enough to be able to explain to someone. skip over the easy ones u dont gotta do them again n again, focus on the ones u stumbled on. theyre the weak spots. no use strengthening whats already strong enough.

and uh keep a notebook of the solutions of the questions u solve so that u dont have to go crazy searching for them in an emergency. like ur paper is tomorrow and u cant figure out this question that uve been trying for 1 hour then its a good time to review ur previous solution and refresh ur memory. often if uve practiced enough n its just exam stress etc thats making ur mind go blank then just a hint will be enough to remind u.

also this is more general but just. be consistent. small consistent efforts over multiple days instead of a big one in 1 day. u’ll retain better and ur brain does better with multiple small chunks spread out over an interval than a lot of stuff in a small one. and its ok to to have an off day dont kill urself over academics ur health is more important always. not getting into ur dream college might fuck u up but itll heal but ur health is more precarious and not getting enough sleep or food will def fuck u up and the consequences are a lot harder to deal with. dont think about the big picture or u’ll freak urself out just think about the next small step u can take. getting 99 percentile feels impossible but solving 10 questions for it does not. dont get disheartened by test results if ure working hard n smart u wont fail. even if u dont get into ur dream college u’ll have an excellent work ethic that’ll take u places u never thought of in ur wildest dreams. more than anything, be kind to urself and work n play hard.