#but personally i dont have many of those.

[strwbrryeyes]

☼ intro (end of the world) ☼ (kageyama tobio x reader)

⟡ cw: she/her pronouns used but not much, lmk if i miss anything else

⟡ a/n: i have been wanting to write for this album since the day it came out so im gonna do little drabbles for the songs as a way to make up for my lack of writings/requests that i actually need to upload so i hope you all enjoy it :3

⟡ eternal sunshine masterlist

You had been dating Kageyama Tobio for a little over a year at this point. Everything was always moving so fast…for him. While Kageyama was constantly playing volleyball and traveling the country for official matches, you were in college working towards your dream career.

Although you and kageyama have made so many efforts to keep in contact regularly by video calling and texting constantly or even travelling to see each other when possible, it has been difficult to come to terms with the fact that you do not spend as much time as you want to with each other. It has gotten to the point where you don’t know if keeping this relationship going is even worth it anymore. Both you and Kageyama want to get through it, you have had countless talks about wanting it to work out and you both always come to the agreement that neither of you wouldn’t trade anything for the world.

You think you’re meant for each other but you keep thinking to yourself ‘why dont i know that he is the one for me? Why do I only think it?’ but of course, you shake it off and continue on with the relationship. Even with all of these thoughts of figuring out if you are supposed to be with him for life or not, there are moments where the tough times make the good times worth it…and that is what keeps the both of you going. One of those moments was on your birthday a few weeks ago when Kageyama decided to surprise you with a visit.

~~~

After a long day of classes and your job at a doggy daycare, all you wanted to do was lay down in your bed with some comfy pajamas, eating chips without regard for the crumbs that would land on your bed sheets all while watching your favorite reality show. It was a pretty solid plan but it all went down the drain the minute you stepped foot into the hallway that had your apartment and saw that your door was opened. Your whole body filled with dread as you walked closer, worried that you had just been robbed but as you got closer you saw a small trail of silver confetti leading you through the doorway and as soon as you stepped foot infront of the entrance of your apartment, you stopped all of you belonging onto the ground and ran to the one thing that could be better than a lazy night. Your boyfriend.

“Tobio! What are you doing here?” you ask Kageyama as you jump into his arms while you become a giggling mess (who is also crying).

“I couldn’t have my angel be all alone on her birthday!” Kageyama chuckles as he embraces you in his arms but is quickly confused when you fall silent right after he finishes speaking. “[name]? You good there?” he questions you as he puts you down to be greeted with the blank expression on your face.

“My birthday..?” cocking your head to the side, you look behind Kageyama to see decorations all over your living area, eyes landing on the big ‘happy birthday’ sign. You had completely forgotten today was your birthday. 

“Babe, don’t tell me you forgot your birthday?” Kageyama laughs out before pulling you in for another hug “and you say i’m the dense one.” he flicks your forehead before kissing it and all you can do is laugh along with him.

The rest of the night was pure bliss as you layed in bed with your loved one, eating your favorite type of sweet from your favortie bakery down the stree, while watching your reality tv show.

~~~

Thinking about this small but memorable event, you can’t help but smile as it helps you become certain that you and Kageyama are meant to be. You now knew that Kageyama Tobio would be the first and last person you run to if the world were to ever end and honestly, as your pulled out of your thoughts by your ringing phone that is signaling you that your boyfriend is calling you, you wouldn’t have it any other day.

[kamisama1kiss]

First off LOVE THE PAGE AND THE WRITING and as a fellow reader I’d like to request maybe possibly a Lloyd Dating headcanons? Pretty pleasssssssssse with a cherry on top 🫶🏻🥺

AHHH Thank youuu!! 😭😭 this is so cuteee. I am giggling to myself writing these headcanons!! Suprised, I hadn't thought of this yet!! Might even have gotten a bit overboard with writing for him🤭🤭

(!Gender neutral!)

~~~

Lloyd Garmadon Headcanons { Dating The Green Ninja }

- As in start, he would make sure NO ONE knew you were together when he was the green ninja since he was scared for you to get hurt in any way (expect the other ninjas)

- But when outside of being the green Ninja and in public, he didn't mind having small affection of PDA as in hand holding, cheek kisses, and ect

- It was definitely a rookie start with his past feelings going horribly, which meant he would need a handful of reassurance, understanding, and patient

- His favourite pass time is reading comics with you in his arms, reading with him. Leaning your head on his shoulder would definitely make him a bit shy no matter how many times you've done it

- Couple goals since day one!

- Everybody knew about his crush for you before he even knew it himself. He had refused for a little while, Kai eventually pushed him enough to ask you out

- He is 100% a communication kind of guy, even with the smallest subjects. All he wants to make sure of is that fact that you and him can rest easy without worrying about anything.

- The kind of guy who would admire you when doing absolutely anything, as simple as reading, his gaze filled with nothing but admiration for you

- If you cought him looking, the tips of his ears would turn bright pink. Looking away and acting as if he didn't just admire you for like 20 minutes

- Expect in private back hugs, surprise kisses, long comforting hugs, and cuddles for days, but you'd only achieve this after a few months since in the start he was scared to even hold your hand

- Checks up on you to make sure you eat and take care of yourself, but make sure to do the same. This poor guy forgets himself all the time, and the burden of being the green ninja weights on his shoulders

- Date nights wouldn't be regularly since his duty, but he always tried his best to at least do it on your anniversary every month. If not that day, then the day before or after

- Knowing if you were upset, broke his heart completely, would do anything in his power to make you smile and feel better.. maybe even a small snack that he knows you enjoy.

- Stargazing is a must!! It's a way to rewind and hangout, the world is finally quiet. He feels as if he can breathe and just enjoy his time with you, no worries in the back of his mind when holding you under the stary nights

- Would get teased by the others the both of you all the time, but nonetheless, they were happy he found someone who wasn't a evil person in disguise

- You'd join their family nights at one point. He'd silently be thankful over the fact you all get along and took you over many more get togethers

- At some point, being introduced to Misako was nervracking for the both of you. It went very well since she was very open and talked to you the whole time, over all after you left, she told him to bring you over for dinner next week.

- You'd bandage him up after fighting the bad guy this time around. He knew you were reliable if he ever did need help, but he felt guilty every time after you did help.

"You don't have to help me every time if you dont want to.. you do know that?"

"I want to help you, I care about you."

"..I appreciate it. Thank you, love.."

- Golden retriever boyfriend!!

- Playing with his hair is a must, it's very soft and well taken care of since he dose not use those 3 in 1 kind of bottles.

- His favourite kinds of dates would be being alone with you, most likely taking you away from everything and everyone. Picnic dates are 100% the onse you go on the most.

-Finding it easier to sleep with you in his arms at night, having not experienced it before he felt pride but also a sort of comfort to know you'd be there when he wakes up.

-Meeting Garmadon would be just a tiny bit different. Dont get me wrong he is happy for Lloyd but he's definitely a bit more difficult to get liked by, just know he'd eventually grow a soft spot for you (This is when he isn't like killingly evil, yk)

- Overall being with Lloyd as in Dating will be a adventuris and a exciting experience! The most green flag in a man you could ever meet

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Did they ever tackle how the other dorm leaders reacted to the whole anemone issue during the Octavinelle arc? Like i know Riddle wasn't happy when he found out that ADeuce got into a contract with Azul and have to serve him since they failed to complete their deal but I dont think we got Leona's reaction to what happened to his dormmates since Im pretty sure I saw Savanaclaw npcs among the anemones. Like were they unaware or did they decide "let them face the consequences"?

Nope, we pretty much only have Riddle and Leona’s perspectives on the anemone incident of book 3. I’m pretty sure the other dorm leaders were not ignorant about what had happened; Azul had 225 students out of a school of 800ish under his thumb, which would significantly impact the school’s ecosystem and would be hard to ignore. Besides, what dorm leader would ignore anemones suddenly sprouting on their students’ heads and NOT get to the bottom of things?

It’s not too hard to imagine that the other dorm leaders were none too pleased to find out the news but also didn’t intervene for whatever reason (be it “they deserve to face these consequences”, knowing that they can’t do anything about it, etc.). In all likelihood, it was probably done out of convenience for the writers and/or to keep the story centered on the initial characters. At this point in the main story, we haven’t met characters relevant to other dorms (like Epel in Pomefiore), so we’d really feel little attachment seeing generic mob students suffering as Vil chides them or whatever. We can still get emotionally invested because our personal friends, Adeuce and Grim, are in dire straits.

Of course, Riddle was NOT happy with the circumstances (how dumb do you have to be to make a contract with Azul?). According to Deuce in 3-7, he was scolded and made to write a paper to reflect.

Leona’s opinion, meanwhile, is moreso implied. In 3-16, he says that anyone that would willingly and repeatedly make contracts with Azul are stupid. Leona has also made deals with Azul, but it always came at a steep cost to himself so he tries to do so sparingly. However, Leona also continuously characterizes those who get suckered as “dumb” and “dim-witted”, implying he does not think highly of those who fall for Azul’s schemes. This leads me to think that Leona’s feelings err on “you made your bed, now go lie in it”.

But!! I think it’s possible that Leona’s motivation to dust Azul’s contracts threefold: eliminate his own contract with Azul, help Yuu and co. out (because they’re annoying him, lol), AND to free his (idiot) dorm members from Azul’s clutches. We’ve seen Leona act very similarly “selfless” (while operating to achieve his own goals) in book 2, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he continued this plotting in other books.

One thing I noticed while reviewing book 3; there are only anemone’d students from FOUR of the dorms: Heartslabyul, Savanaclaw, Scarabia, and Pomefiore. Octavinelle, Ignihyde, and Diasomnia students were not reaped.

Now, it’s possible that this occurred due to limited game assets, as a similar issue occurred with the game showing beastmen mobs only in Savanclaw and in no other dorm. However, the manga debunked this quickly by showing beastmen in Heartslabyul and humans in Savanavlaw. I therefore decided to consult the manga to see if I could find Octavinelle, Ignihyde, or Diasomnia mobs among Azul’s anemones.

The Episode of Octavinelle manga depicts many mob students also indebted to Azul. It wasn’t that helpful since the pages are in black and white, making it difficult to know which dorms they belong to. However, we do see that Ignihyde students were anemone'd:

Do you think Azul didn’t bother with his own dorm members to maintain the image of being a trustworthy and kind dorm leader/senpai? Maybe the Diasomnia kids were too strong-willed to fall for his schemes? Or perhaps they really are among the count of anemones, but just not shown clearly in the game/manga. (I can’t see Azul passing up the opportunity to get more clients indebted to him, regardless of dorm affiliation, since getting enough students of one dorm under him could grant him leverage with the dorm leader to get them back www)

[basil-does-arttt]

been thinking about Trish a lot lately, and her connection to Eva

(Big ranty thing with some analysis into her character + my own headcanons about trish below)

She was created to be a carbon copy of Eva, right down to the most unimportant details. So much so that Dante recognized her immediately he didnt even do a double-take, as soon as those glasses were off he saw Eva standing infront of him instead of Trish. (I mean, blonde haired+blue eyed women arent uncommon and its not like Dante has never been into a public space before. Hes probably seen similar women to Eva many times throughout his life, but only Trish was so perfectly like Eva that he couldnt see anything else but his mother in her that first moment they met.)

But thats just physical features. It'd be too easy, too simple for Mundus to just create a look-alike to Eva. And i dont think that alone would've been enough to trick Dante either, Dante isnt an idiot no matter how dumb he acts sometimes. So, how deep into this "recreate Eva" thing did Mundus actually go?

Does Trish experience the same motherly instincts Eva had toward Dante (and Vergil)? Does she feel the need to protect them and cherish them like Eva did? Does she get urges to hold them, kiss and hug them and give them praise as Eva once did in their childhood? If so, does she ignore these feelings, pushing them down untill they're buried so deep within her mind that she's forgotten them entirely, or does she let them be and let them pass on their own, wether she acts on them or not. She's quite sassy with Dante in dmc4 and seems quite aloof in dmc5, so maybe thats how she copes with it instead - acting the total opposite to what Eva ever would.

Going even deeper into that, does Trish have any of Eva's memories? Even just vague snippets or imaginings of Eva's life, considering how well Mundus made Trish then that might not be an impossibility. If so, how much would she have the ability to recall? Could she even recall the fire, maybe? If she can, how would she feel about it. Would she grieve? Feel anger, regret, or nothing at all?

And how would she feel about all of this overall? Being a clone of Eva right down to the gritty details even Dante wouldn't know. Trish is so strongly contrasted to Eva in personality, style and tastes that i'd like to imagine she isnt that much of a fan, put simply. She's her own person, she wants to be her own person and she hates the person she represents. She hates how her existence causes pain to somebody she's wired to care so deeply for - sometimes against her will - and she hates seeing him cry or drink himself to death over that dusty old picture thats been sitting on his desk for decades, knowing that she'll only ever make it worse for him in the end, that his grief extends so far into the core of his being that nothing in existence will ever truly fix it.

She's conflicted.

She's Trish. But is she really? Or is that just who she says she is in an effort to push back and ignore the reality of her existence? Nothing more than a fake, a husk of a person who's time was cut short prematurely then taken advantage of by the very being that killed her in the first place.

She's Trish. Not Eva. She can't be Eva, and she never will be Eva. Nothing will change that. Not a dusty old picture, not an old man's delusions, not some dead demon king who breathed life into her form in the first place.

She's Trish. But who even is Trish? Her entire being has always been about Eva. She doesnt know anything else. So she overcompensates with acting sarcastic and sassy, looking hot and sexy and playing with guns and swords because those are things Eva wouldn't ever do herself. Eva. Again, it all comes back to Eva.

She's Trish. Devil hunter and the most 2000s representation of "hot blonde" one could get. Thats who she is. Or at least, that's who she's trying so desperately to be.

Trish needs more love from the developers, her character is so interesting. I have other analysis' of the other characters too if anybody would be interested in that but for now, ill leave you with my take on the iconic blonde from this wonderful series.<3

[vriskaserketdaily]

i see u like vrisjade .. would you be willing to explain what u think their dynamic would be . i want to like it but ive never been able to wrap my head around what they would be like

theyre not my otp i just draw them for clout

my understanding is that the appeal lies in a bit of wishful thinking. "what if vriska learned to be nicer?" and "what if jade went a little apeshit?" i do think they would work well as kismeses (or, more likely, one-sided blackrom crushes because jade has other things going on and can't be bothered to spend her whole life obsessing over the girl who gave her narcolepsy as a kid), but pretty much all the stuff you'll find for them is redrom vriska rehabilitation fluff (which is CUTE and WHOLESOME and FUN, and i ENJOY DRAWING IT, but . . . i like it when vriska is kinda balls to the wall insane instead of all niceys).

SO! that being said, i do think their dynamic would be really interesting even in a non-shipping context because they DO definitely need to clear the air re: the whole narcolepsy and viciously insulting your teen grandpa within 5 minutes of officially meeting him thing. i stand by what i said in this post about their dynamic, noting furthermore that vriska does mention and talk about jade a lot in the comic despite never having a canonical conversation with her (it's implied; she is in jade's trollslum on pesterchum after all), so . . . vriska definitely thinks about jade more than jade thinks about vriska, and probably projects a whole lot onto jade as a sort of kanaya-aradia amalgamation proxy. she totally fumbled those two, but SURELY she can stick the landing on this smart and silly genius who CLEARLY needs a good blackrom bucketing to loosen up. right???????? human romance isn't that complicated and it's not like her dating pool is super wide what with the rest of the humans either locked in monogamous relationships (with trolls, narrowing vriska's competition further) or being "in families" with jade.

it would be really funny for them to end up in a quasi-auspisticeship (likely candidates for the third wheel being karkat, john, and regrettably kanaya im so sorry bbg) or for vriska to have an aneurysm upon finding out about human polyamory and the simple fact that jade has more positive and developed dynamics with Many other characters before she even thinks of vriska.

tl;dr i'm the wrong person to ask if you want to be sold on vrisjade i just think they're neat individually and dont mind drawing them together

[swissy]

Short bio for each of them below: (characters respectively from left to right)

I've been cooking up some oc stuff behind the scene so i present you: the gang (i dont actually have a title yet please bare with me)

雨宮春子 - Amemiya Haruko

Star Celestial - 8 mil years old

Our protagonist. She's a majokko (later gets a transformation as she wished one yippeee) who found a wand in a task to collect the star orb. Happy go lucky and awfully blissful. Rejects all negative emotions and isnt able to identify them deep down. Close to both tsukio and takeshi. likes akira and da lian too. And well, almost everyone she meets. Very naive so some of the secrets she exposes are eye opening.

雨宮健 - Amemiya Takeshi

Star Celestial - 16 mil years old

Haruko's older brother. He does whatever he wants and is pretty rebellious. Despite this he's very friendly. Loves his little sister and untrusting of tsukio. Rebels towards him in hopes he'll drop his "act". Eventually.

Friends to besties with both Akira and Da Lian. The only person who "truly" knows Akira and is Da Lian's first friend. Has a lotta friends but those two are his closest. Forms a circle as time goes with another classmate thats kinda a spoiler for a two part.

雨宮月雄 - Amemiya Tsukio

Moon Celestial - 34 mil years old

Reformed bastard who just wants a peaceful life. Used to be a comedian/in a manzai group but later become a florist and occasionally a rakugoka. Gentle, well-meaning and reliable but self-conscious with hidden anxieties. Can be a bit temperemental and greedy. Trying to better himself after getting out of jail for his crime. Has a dark past and many regrets of it.

Cares for both of his children, even if Takeshi's rebellious nature, he totally understand him and is forgiving of it. He's atleast relieved that takeshi has friends to look out for him when he cant.

藤山晶 - Fujiyama Akira

Planet Celestial - 16 mil years old

Popular guy who is attractive due to his skills, intelligence and light emiting from his rings, like a halo. Serious person and to the point. Polite asshole. Gets love letter and tears them in the trash secretly asshole. Doesnt befriend anyone easily. He was so unsatisfied with life until he gained a dark power that ramshacked almost half of the galaxy due to his greed. Was punished by the moon rabbit kindom and almost turnt to stone but takeshi defended him. Now has to serve as a superhero while being supervised by Da Lian so he wont do the same evil deeds. "Unwilling" besties with takeshi. Unwilling friends with Da Lian. is familiar with Haruko.

小莲 - Xiǎo lián (original form)

大莲 - Dà lián (tall humanoid form)

Planet celestial - 16 mil years old

Best apprentice of the moon rabbit queen. Initially travelled to haruko's galaxy to stop Akira's rampage (also the dark power was the power intially sealed but stolen in her kingdom/galaxy). Almost killed him but instead gave him a divine punishment. Doesnt actually know whats the punishment he's given but tasked to watch him n make new friends. Pissed off about that but whatever.

Clumsy to a fault and shy, criminally shy. Only friends with takeshi since he's the only one who approaches her occasionally and absolutely, RELUCTANTLY, with the evil known as Akira. Also friends w aliens around her. Once u get to know her, she's clingy and full of excitement.

Asks of them are also welcomed!!

[tubbytarchia]

Please keep drawing traffic/hermit hybrids inaccurately because who cares, they look cool

I say this as an animal nerd, I love to implement biologically/anatomically accurate elements into hybrid designs where applicable, but Im not gonna ususally choose to do that over whatever I think looks visually appealing. I have my gripes and peeves with some popular hybrid design headcanons, but ultimately, please keep drawing them however you want to, because you can (and to piss haters off further, for fun)

Don't care if you headcanon Pearl as transfem, draw her with male moth antennae anyway. Don't care if avian Grian logically needs a second set of pectoral muscles, just slap those wings on there wherever you want. Gem's own skin featured antlers and female deer don't even grow them, aside from reindeers, which I'm willing to wager was not what Gem was thinking or cared about. Keep drawing her with huge antlers

I don't know who needs this reminder but these are fantasy hybrids. Our inspirations in drawing them are based in reality but no fucking avian or hooved or dog people exist. A person with huge moth wings isn't realistic to begin with so who cares if you give her some antennae too. If you do you need to get a hobby

[pierog]

tiny comic about eating toast with friends

[starry-bi-sky]

realizing i have. a lot of untapped trauma potential for clone^2 danny because i just Fully Processed Four Months Late the fact that his parents were capturing and torturing ghosts in the basement before he became Phantom. and the fact that he was on house rest for 2 weeks. during that time period. and he wasn't really leaving the house. he could hear their screaming through the floorboards

*points at clone danny* i can give you suuuuuuch a bad time babe ahaha. i've got two untouched years before you meet damian what fucks you up before then

[forbiddennhoney]

"fat ppl are so hot and bangable. fat people are sexy. i want to fuck fatties" okok heard but do you actually like us as people? do you know anything abt the fat creators u follow who share things abt their lives? how do you treat fat ppl who are undesirable to you? do you listen to us when we are screaming about the ways that fatphobia is everywhere? no not mindlessly reblog, but listen and internalize. do you take the time to unpack your biases against fat ppl? or even the fatphobia you absolutely were taught growing up? do you hold your thin/not fat friends accountable when they compare themselves to us because they dont like the way they look? do you advocate for us when people make us the butt of jokes? do you actually date fat people? do you befriend fat people? are you kind to fat strangers you don't find attractive? do you feel the need to qualify your love for fat people? do you love any fat people who arent related to you? do you respect fat ppl of all sizes? what do you consider "fat"? is it just someone with bigger than average boobs/butt? do you like fat people with small boobs/butts? does "we love bellies here" include large bellies covered in stretch marks? does it include bellies with multiple rolls and skin discoloration because of those rolls? does it include those things together? when you say fat do you mean actual fat people? do you mean fat people who arent white? who are disabled? who reject the expectations of hyper femininity/hyper masculinity? when the trend of wanting to fuck certain fat ppl wears off yet again will you continue to desire us? to love us? to cherish us? do you see us as people even when we do not give you sexual access to our bodies?

[oifaaa]

What is your preferred explanation for Bruce’s no kill rule?

Personally a combo of Bruce was severely traumatised as a child watching his two parents be murdered in front of him to the point he literally can not watch someone die in front of him without it triggering him and he knows himself well enough to know that if he can justify killing one person then he can justify killing another and he's sure he will not have the self control to stop once he gets started

[starrysharks]

heavenly virtues - medical malpractice, 1st degree murder, and breaking and entering

[birdcatt]

[starmist]

I genuinely believe Naksu haunts the narrative. Her actions and existence as Naksu heavily impact the entire story. Her past, the life she lived and the shadow of it in Mudeok. But we don't actually know any of it because Naksu is not in the story.

Like. What she lost as Cho Yeong is something that we are never allowed to forget, the loss of her body, her powers, her freedom, and her impending death as a soul shifter hangs over Mudeok's head like guillotine.

All the while we don't actually know the Shadow Assassin Naksu, she died in the first episode, as soon as the story began. Other than training and killing (soul shifters) what kind of person was she when she didn't have to rely on another person else or hide or live as someone else? We don't know and we don't ever learn any of that.

Still, her absence is the plot, yet her former existence as Naksu influences everything; Yul's actions and what she was to him, Jang Uk's goal of returning her powers, the revelation of soul shifters to Park Jin, Jang Gang's departure, Jin Mu's accomplishments, the King's Star even.

Everything is about her existence but she doesn't actually exist at all anymore.

[aroaceleovaldez]

i mean it when i say we've gotta bring back askblogs. bring back making character chat posts with poor choice text colors over random backgrounds. bring back blogs dedicated to what outfits you think characters would wear.

fandom is an ecosystem, not a numbers game. these types of blogs/posts/etc still exist in concept, because people still want to make them and they're a great way to get your thoughts of an idea out in a simple format, but most people make them on like tiktok or instagram reels and that's where the problem lies. Those videos don't go anywhere. The format doesn't allow for the discussion to spread through the community and they're less likely to be engaged with in general. And to make them most people have to either show their face or figure out editing software, so the barrier to entry is higher (editing) and/or they have to forfeit an amount of privacy.

those types of posts/blogs are the first rung of the ecosystem. they're the perfect environment for younger members of the fandom to begin safely interacting with the larger community and putting their own thoughts and ideas out there. roleplay is the other major spot for that and those communities are diminishing as well, honestly (if you know of an rp forum board site, cherish it. and if you can make one, make one). they allow younger fans to begin engaging with the source material on a different/deeper level, but still at a very low barrier to entry, and begin conversations with other fans, which also helps them build skills which in turn may encourage them to pursue other avenues within the fandom (fic writing, other formats of askblog - which itself usually leads to art, cosplay, also fic writing, etc). Without those places to build those skills, they might feel discouraged from trying to begin when surrounded by curated people who have built their skills up for years.

And those conversations they foster also in turn help the community, by offering ideas to artists or fic writers to extrapolate on or building community jokes. And that text/blog format specifically is extremely beneficial, because it allows younger members of the fandom to remain anonymous and keep their privacy without concerning themselves with having any platform or having anything attached to them (very important for young fans figuring themselves out and navigating online community spaces for the first time, since they can remove themselves from spaces easily if they decide they don't like it and they're protected, rather than PUTTING THEIR FACE ON THE INTERNET). And those posts they make will spread a lot more into the community since they're in a significantly easier format to be reposted (few people are gonna be reposting tons of random short-form videos versus spamming their instagrams with reposts of 10 random fandom images yoinked from tumblr, or reposting to pinterest or something). Like, don't repost art, at the VERY least don't repost without credit, but also I am not ignorant to the fact that my art is not just the first google image result for "pjo pride" and related searches, but also the 4th, the 6th, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, etc etc., and pops up in the search results before the official ReadRiordan does simply because people reposted my work more (most with credit, thankfully).

For fandom to be a community, it needs to perpetuate itself. There needs to be engagement with one another and conversation. If that bottom rung is cut off, then new fans won't be able to grow into the other niches of the fandom, and the fandom will be solely reliant on the source material and die out extremely quickly, and there won't be a community. There's no conversation! There's no reason to stay beyond the original material! But if you don't have points of entry for new fans, they won't have any way to build the skills needed to move into those niches, or engage with the community in a healthy way.

tl;dr: Bring back askblogs and character-based text post blogs. They are vital to fandom ecosystem.

[northern-passage]

i've been thinking a lot about the word "representation" and what it means and how it's changed over the last few years, particularly when it comes to the writing/publishing landscape but also in movies and tv shows… and i really don't like it anymore. to be clear, of course i think it's important to have diversity in your work, i'm not saying i hate the concept of representation. but i do really dislike the way it's used now, and i really just hate the word itself

in a broader sense it's just become a marketing tool. i'm not impressed by any publisher or author who just describes their book by listing all of the minorities/identities the characters represent as if that should be enough. it feels very gross, very exploitative and disingenuous. it also really bothers me because it's always marginalized identities- which i understand Why, but it feels very othering to me (and again. Very exploitative as an advertisement). you would never list out "cishet able-bodied white man" as a character description to pat yourself on the back over. so why do it to everyone else? why insinuate that one is the "default" and the other one is "special"? (and when i say this i'm mainly talking about advertisements/marketing. i understand why people would specify about characters in descriptions with the plot, but i don't like to see an ad that's just "this book has gay people!" with nothing else)

which then leads me to my other point, which is that a lot of people treat "representation" as if it's "too hard." like "oh i don't know enough to write about that, i don't have that experience, etc" which is a fair way to feel! however… it's weird that people only say this about writing trans characters or characters of color. i'm writing a story right now with a character who is really into motorcycles. i personally do not know that much about motorcycles, so i researched what parts are what & what different kinds of models there are & what basic bike care looks like. i guarantee Most people will have to google something at some point in their writing process. so what's the problem? it also, again, feels very othering when authors treat certain groups of people as "impossible" to write, "too hard" to understand. they are just.. people. you write them as a person. and then you figure out the rest later.

and i think part of the refusal or fear to write something outside of your experience is because of the way representation is treated as So Special. these characters are So Special that they aren't allowed to be anything other than "representation." they're Not allowed to be characters with complex emotions and interesting motivations, they have to just be Trans or Gay or Disabled or whatever. they're not allowed to be people. which means, at the end of the day, we loop right back around to where we were at the start….

there is bad representation. there are depictions of certain marginalized people that are harmful and that are damaging, i'm not trying to minimize that or argue against it at all, in fact we should all be mindful of that while writing and reading. but i also think it's possible to swing too far in the opposite direction as well and put certain groups of people on a pedestal and not allow them to do anything at all but be Perfect Representation, if that makes sense.