#i just wanted to contribute to the fandom

[silvermoon424]

I'm watching a video on ancient Fanfiction.net drama and the creator is going over all the dumb rules FF.net has that I forgot about (no 2nd person perspective writing, no interactive stories, no explicit 18+ stories, no incorporating song lyrics into your fic, etc, not to mention the systemic problems like the lack of an archival system).

We are so fucking lucky to have AO3 nowadays, you guys.

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.

[sunnyyflowerrs]

i wish more people watched link click (shiguang daili ren) bc it’s genuinely so peak in every single way.

art style? beautiful, so many soft colors and pastels and the design is so nice.

animation? so clear and beautiful (it’s bilibili)

soundtrack? absolutely fire. i would listen to it in my free time even if it wasn’t an OST, its all lofi beats type and the theme songs are actually so beautiful and bangers

concept? so intriguing - deals with the ramifications of time travel, and the time travel world fits so nicely into our own.

plot? exquisite. i won’t say more.

strong female characters? ✅✅✅

well written? so well written that i cried multiple times.

fanservice or weird stuff? NONE

homoerotic friendship between the two protagonists that would do anything for each other and have a grumpy x sunshine dynamic? ✅✅✅(x10000) they may not have invented it, but lu guang and cheng xiaoshi have perfected it. (dynamic wise they remind me of high school satosugu)

i would give ANYTHING to watch this show for the first time again, and this is my manifesto as to why you NEED to watch link click if you haven’t yet, this show deserves all the love and more

[summoningspark]

so i may or may not have printed out the entirety of @anonymousalchemist's amazing fic like a bird, like a stone onto three Very Large pieces of paper.

you might be asking, why, fay? why did you print out an entire 53k fic for a video game you've never played? well you see, if you read it, you would understand.

[cassieroo]

As someone who heavily relates to Quinni and is a little bit in love with Harper and her fucked-up bad-bitch mystique, I think they should have an incredibly intense and fucked up gay relationship that leaves them both irreversibly wrecked as people. They could make each other worse and better in equal measure and I want it sooo bad

[eldritchgoats]

pray forgive the discourtesy of staring at the defense's thighs during the summation examination

[bowtiestash]

sleeping amongst the poppies

[hobbitunderthemountain]

sharing a pipe in rivendell on one of their many trips between the shire and erebor >:3c

[shootingstarpilot]

I see a lot of posts expressing frustration with the fanon idea that certain highly competent characters (yes, this post is about Obi-Wan, but I've seen others) can't take care of themselves and need others to bully them into eating, sleeping, etc.. While I totally get that frustration, I personally very much enjoy that trope. I've been trying to dissect why I enjoyed it since I saw those critiques, and I think I finally managed to put it to words.

(Disclaimer: I live in the United States, so my discussion about healthcare is operating in the framework of the man-eating trash fire that is the American healthcare system.)

I am a busy person outside of fandom. I recently completed a cross-country move. I'm damn good at my job and I love what I do, but it's hard work and a lot of it is on call. I have bills to pay. I have paperwork to fill out. I have messages to send and more messages to reply to. I have a life that is full of things I don't want to do. We all do. It's part of existing in society.

I am also chronically ill.

We live in a system that is actively hostile to putting your own health first. The healthcare system is impossible to navigate even if you are feeling the very pinnacle of health and wellbeing, and good fucking luck trying to do so when you're sick. Good luck trying to go to work and pay your bills and fill your tank. Good luck trying to do your paperwork and cook your meals and clean your apartment. Good luck trying to muster up the energy to respond to the well-meaning communications of friends and family.

But here's the thing- you still have to.

The rest of the world doesn't stop when you're sick. The rest of your life doesn't pause when you need it to. Sometimes you have to sacrifice sleep to make it to a doctor's appointment, or skip breakfast to make it to work on time. Every one of us, to some extent or another, has had to sacrifice what would be best for our health in order to stay functional in this fucked-up, capitalistic, carnivorous society.

So I think my preference for reading and writing fics like the ones I mentioned at the beginning has a certain level of wish fulfillment to it. Someone who is competent and good at their job and has an extraordinary level of responsibility on their shoulders sacrifices their own well-being to keep the rest of the world going-

And someone else makes sure they eat. Someone else makes sure their health gets tended to. Someone else makes sure they sleep, and that the world doesn't fall apart while they do so.

A lot of times, we don't get to make those decisions, or we feel guilty when we do. In reading fics like these, I feel like I get to outsource those decisions- outsourcing self-care, if you will. You don't have to feel guilty about putting your own health first, because you're not making the choice to do so. Someone else is.

It's okay. Get some rest.

[fromtheseventhhell]

One major factor missing from most debates on Arya and Lyanna's beauty is that they're being judged by their society's extremely patriarchal values. In both looks and personality, that context is essential to understanding how others perceive them. George explores the misogyny experienced by non-conforming women, especially with Arya, and it's interesting how he plays with that regarding their physical beauty.

Her mother used to say she could be pretty if she would just wash and brush her hair and take more care with her dress, the way her sister did. (The Blind Girl, ADWD) "You never knew Lyanna as I did, Robert," Ned told him. "You saw her beauty, but not the iron underneath. She would have told you that you have no business in the melee." (Eddard VII, AGOT)

These two quotes offer a nice summation of this idea. With Arya, her supposed lack of beauty is defined by her being a non-conforming wild child. Her hair is messy, her face is dirty, and she's often in "lower class" clothing while engaging in unladylike activities. None of this says anything about her physical beauty but it tells us everything about how she's perceived. Arya could be pretty...If she conforms to society's standards for a highborn Lady. With Lyanna, however, we get the opposite. Where Arya is judged based on her personality, Robert's romanticization of Lyanna is rooted solely in her looks. He doesn't know anything about the person she really was. There is an assumption that, because she looked a certain way, her personality must fit and Robert imagines her much softer and more passive than she actually was.

That Arya isn't pretty or Lyanna wasn't wild are two perceptions that George specifically pushes back against. This is where people miss the brilliance of them being linked as literary mirrors; it is largely about us learning more about Lyanna, but it touches on more than that. The significance of them being written as wild, willful, and with their own beauty is that George isn't writing his female characters around patriarchal expectations. When people debate their beauty, that's often the trapping they fall into. Beauty and non-conformity are treated as mutually exclusive factors when the story itself never makes that point; this is also the logic that leads people to the (incorrect) conclusion that Lyanna and Arya aren't meant to be similar. Arya's self-esteem issues around her looks and being a Lady make this a topic certain to be addressed in the future; George has made it a part of the story. The conclusion shouldn't be that "looks don't matter", but that looks aren't indicative of a character's value, personality, or morality.

[sophaee]

Ok but imagine spending 6 months trying to get the yuumori timeline organized even after ending up back in square one EVERY SINGLE TIME cause the timeline just gets so messy after volume 2, like, the same 2-3 moon phases just keep being reused and it feels like years have passed but volume 2-14 is actually supposed to happen in less than a year lol. To keep going for this long, that requires some serious dedication I could never pfttttt... *proceeds to cry in front of the board with all the notes*

[catonthemountain]

Xiao Xingchen is one of my favourite Untamed characters and I've been meaning to actually make and post some fanart so here you go ??

(This is definitely a bit rough but I'm still figuring out how I want to draw him)

[robin-with-a-pen]

Okay I’m having ideas I need someone to stop me-

Anyways, so we all know that Chilchuck probably doesn’t have the healthiest relationship with food? Right?

I don’t think he has an eating disorder but more so disordered eating- that hellish middle space, right? I mean “maintaining his body weight at an acceptable level” really sticks out to me

So picture this- my man retires, he doesn’t need to control his weight anymore, no worry about setting off or anything, but he realizes that the unhealthy habits he’s developed over he past ten years are harder to break than he thought

[afrotunada]

incomplete list of fun and interesting things I've learned about Jason Todd through my scattered readings and late night googling

One time, he was sooo desperate for affection and validation, he was willing to risk it all after an accidental, spur of the moment kiss with Barbara Gordon in Three Jokers Issue #2. Alas, he was thwarted by a janitor, the poor bastard...(much to everyone's relief I'm sure) (Batman: Three Jokers)

Batman: Three Jokers Issue #3

In addition to statuesque amazons (Artemis), blonde bombshells (Isabel Ardila), white-haired beauties (Essence and Rose Wilson), and Dick's ex-girlfriends, Jason also likes smart, curvy ladies ;) selfshippers rejoice! (although I myself am not so curvy, his love of normal girls is a positive in my book<3) (Red Hood: The Hill)

Jason hooking up with Dana's friend and employee Carmen Ortega while Dana herself (as Strike) gets her shit rocked by her other (former) friend and employee Omar (as Slayer) on the other side of town - as one does. Red Hood: The Hill Issue #2

One of Jason's first overtures at rejoining the Batfam was made in the New 52 relaunch of the 2011 comic Batman Incorporated, where he takes on the persona of Wingman at the behest of Bruce. He even teams up with Damian Wayne (going by Redbird at the time), forming their own very brief Batman & Robin-esque pair! Also, they both looked kind of ridiculous... [apparently, takes place sometime during Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1 (2011-2015), around issues 17 and 18 and Death of A Family, but before Damian's death and his own Joker-induced gas coma. weird ass timeline!] (Batman Incorporated (2012))

Yes, that is, in fact, Jason in that getup. It's giving Cybercop Owlman. Peak fashion, actually. Batman Incorporated (2012) Issue #4

(as an additional aside, post New 52 and into the Rebirth era, Jay and Bruce start patching things up (kinda) and enter a truce of sorts starting in the Red Hood and the Outlaws: Rebirth one-shot from 2016. Yay!)

In the Elseworld of Batman: White Knight (also known as the Murphyverse for it's creator - Sean Murphy), Jason Todd is the eldest son instead of Dick Grayson, meaning that he was actually both the first Robin, and Bruce's first adopted son! He was still captured and tortured by the Joker tho....he escaped alive, but was presumed dead and given a burial and tombstone - as in the main universe - and Dick was taken on as Robin in his "absence." Poor guy! He can't catch a break even in AUs! BUT!! He does gets his own Robin sidekick in this universe - Gan! (also known as Robin IV, a young woman of Mongolian descent who took up the mantel herself with a homemade costume (similar to Stephanie Brown)). In fact, she's the one who encourages him to become Red Hood in the first place! (Batman: White Knight)

Harley Quinn is a primary protagonist of this universe, btw, and pretty much saves Jason from being killed Batman: White Knight Issue #2

Gan is my adorable daughter and Jason (the messy bitch as she calls him) deserves his own chaos gremlin apprentice<3 Panel 1 - Batman: White Knight Presents: Red Hood Issue #1 Panels 2 & 3 - Batman: White Knight Presents: Red Hood Issue #2

Speaking of AUs and elseworlds, in 2002's World Without Young Justice, Jason Todd was a circus acrobat, as per his original pre-crisis origin (minus the red hair). In this AU, he's dating fellow circus member Anita Fite (normally Empress, but here known as Voodoo Princess), but she ends up assassinating him at the behest of his step-mom, Catherine Todd, because he discovered his parents dirty business dealings with Killer Croc. What the hell Catherine? (Young Justice Vol. 1 - World Without Young Justice, Part 1: The World What Once We Knew)

Young Justice (1998) Issue #44 - World Without Young Justice, Part 1: The world What Once We Knew

Anyway! This isn't comprehensive or anything, just a post made in fun to put together some things about Jason that I think were funny/interesting that the fandom doesn't know/talk about much. Might add more later if I come across other stuff during my readings (maybe not for a while tho; I am currently consumed by World's Finest and following the Absolute Power event).

But yeah! Feel free to add on if you like! :)

[fereldanwench]

I'm not really sure why this is being brought up after almost three years, doubly so given that I haven't had any interaction with PinkyDude in probably just as long, but since he saw fit to vague about me, I'm going to address this:

I feel this is a misrepresentation of my actions and motivations during this entire situation.

I never made a call-out post specifically against Pawel. In fact, I didn't even mention him by name. I made this post because I saw history repeating itself:

As I said in the notes here, this was also largely informed my experience with the Dragon Age fandom: I witnessed how David Gaider's interactions, including responding to headcanons in a way that could be read as confirming them, contributed to a lot of fanwank. I think Pawel started the streams with good intentions, but he was clearly not trained in public relations (at least when he started), and I did have concerns with how things like the "meme review" were contributing to parasocial relationships.

I also had concerns because Pawel contributed to some misinformation that other writers had to later correct, like saying Goro had never been considered for a romance, which also caused a huge outcry in the community and necessitated another dev to come forward to set the record straight. He was straddling a fine line between being an expert/professional and being a buddy, and that can be problematic when you're interacting with 100s of people hanging on to your every word.

I have no problem with devs doing streams and interacting with the community when they have the tools and information to do it in a way that fosters healthy community interaction, which requires training. I never believed he shouldn't do them at all, and as PinkyDude noted, I enjoyed some of them when he had guests on that I was interested in. However, I did believe that he needed to be far more cautious about how he was interacting with the community, and I did express those concerns.

Mentioning this also seems to be framed in a way to insinuate that I had anything to do with any sort of spite reporting or flagging of any of his posts, and that's just false. I will admit to getting caught up in the throes of some of the drama during 2022, and I regret that and I have made a point to not repeat those mistakes, but I'd never falsely report anyone just because I didn't like them.

[mmm-eta]

if it makes you happy, then it will make happy someone else.

A strip about my latest toxic thoughts. Maybe somebody also needed to hear it.