#i was always much more of a lurker then an active participant in fandoms

[otomes-and-tears]

Are you looking for a community to meet fellow otome and visual novel enthusiasts? Well, look no further then Otome’s little corner ♡

We’re a small discord server dedicated to otome games, with special channels dedicated to books, writing, art and game recommendations! 

♡  Our community has individual channels for the following games: ♡

♛My Candy Love

♛Eldarya

♛Moonlight Lovers 

♛Mystic Messenger

♛ Sweet Elite

♛ Nix Hydra (RIP)

♛ Blooming Panic

♛ Our Life

...As well as chats for french, spanish and portuguese speakers and a dedicated chats for NSFW content!

Join us today!

https://discord.com/invite/xCjCGVXSQH 

[mixelation]

more rotating on this post: kakashi dating a civilian OC who has no idea he's a ninja

original proposed concept is they "meet" via icha icha fanzine. i bothered @tozettastone and they suggested that OC be a cosplayer. what does icha icha cosplay even look like? you ever seen IRL naruto coplay that's like "naruko but she wears a miniskirt and fishnets and a lot of makeup." or like fanart of kakashi where he's wearing a bellyshirt for no reason other than to show off his abs. like that, plus some very over-the-top traditional clothing for undercover work and civilian characters. everyone has off the shoulder kimono that show off cleavage and magically stay up, etc

anyway, i can't really see young!kakashi (like 18-19-20?) actively participating in fandom. but maybe he finds a zine somewhere and starts collecting them, like a pre-internet lurker. it's his coping mechanism, okay. he likes fanart. he likes bad fics. and then our lovely OC who's also 19 and fresh to being allowed in the porn section is like: I MADE THE BEETLE WING HAORI HERE'S A PHOTO. there's a note about her sorting through thousands of beetle wings to get the right colors, and also what a nightmare they are to sew, and also what should she try next, mail me here??? and Kakashi is like: oh wow, this person is insane. i have just the challenge. <3

(OC's additional notes on the haori: no one should ever do this again. just don't. you'll regret it)

kakashi is not the only person to write her suggestions, but he IS the only one to suggest something that's actually technically difficult to make, which is what she wanted. so they start swapping letters where she sends him progress updates on this insane thing she is making. he finds this mildly amusing until about a month out from the next con when her letters abruptly turn insane. she WILL premier this cosplay there even if it kills her-- listen if her wig guy isn't up to snuff she'll just LEARN HERSELF--

and listen kakashi isn't going to FALL IN LOVE but this level of commitment is something he can appreciate.

OC sends him a letter about the con (her very first one!!) and going to a con is not something he has any interest in, but like. he is curious to know what they're like, and it's nice to like? have? a friend??

they trade letters for years without actually talking about their personal life much. kakashi is not creative (no writing fic, no fanart, no cosplay, etc) but he IS really good at analysis. you need every detail on naoki's civilian outfit in paradise? he's got you. you don't understand wtf the text is talking about when it describes a weapon? he'll draw you a diagram (and not mention he knows what jiraiya is talking about because it's based on a real thing that was popular for like a month during the third war).

this goes on for years. oc lives in a small town in a little border country with no ninja, and her family runs a clothes shop, and she's deeply bored of making and altering shirts. she has a frustrating life in a very mundane way-- she dates a few guys and doesn't marry any of them and her family gives her grief. she moves to a slightly bigger city and can't get a job doing what she wants (making high-end luxury clothes and/or just insane fashion) and ends up working at a general store and doing minor alterations as a side gig to fund her hobby. she doesn't get to travel around and do cool things as much as she dreamed as a kid. she skips some cons because she doesn't always have the money and also there's a weird guy who'd been low-key stalking her. she tries selling little pre-made costume pieces at a con and doesn't even break even. only a handful of these details make it into her very serious discussion with kakashi about how the many details the icha icha miniseries got wrong

kakashi is.... being kakashi. obviously he doesn't write to her about all the assassinations he's been doing or whatever. but he doesn't mind when OC hints at her own boring problems. it's kind of nice, actually, to know there's people out there having boring problems? anyway one day she complains her landlord won't let her get a dog and he mails her a polaroid of a random dog he met in a park.

i'm thinking around the time of just before canon starts is about when kakashi is at a place where he's like..... okay with sharing some personal details? like he doesn't say a LOT but he realizes it actually feels really nice to write to someone that he's annoyed the store stopped selling his favorite pre-rolled sushi. the letters get sent more frequently and the conversation escalates at a slow, tedious pace. kakashi sends more dog pics. he tells her that he was so exhausted after work that he considered eating dog treats instead of cooking, and this feels like a very big deal to him

her: PLEASE tell me it was at least the fancy kind that look like cookies

him: obviously i would only buy the highest quality treats for my dogs

her: dogS?

kakashi: (ignores this question in the next letter)

kakashi checks his mail everyday now and he's like. oh no my feelings. but also she's in a whole other country and only exists to him in letters and that feels.... safe, somehow.

they met via a club for porn books so they don't "get together" so much as one of their very academic discussions of kink in icha icha violence suddenly turns into deeply sexual letters that have nothing to do with icha icha. there's still their normal conversation but then it's also like "if you were here now, this is what i would do to you--"

OC has been pretty good at not prying into Kakashi's life and she's very understanding of team seven making kakashi's life insane (she's under the impression her got an apprentice for whatever his job is) but she starts bugging him for a photo. kakashi is very against this at first, but then sasuke leaves and naruto leaves and sakura runs off with tsunade and suddenly he has a lot of free time and a big gaping hole in his social life. and like. he DOES really like her. they MIGHT be dating? definitely they have a thing going. so instead he asks if she wants to meet in person

OC agrees but she goes into it VERY nervous. she figures he didn't want to give a photo because he's embarrassed about his appearance, and she doesn't care what he looks like, but what if he lied about other things? what if she walks a whole day to this resort town and he's a weirdo or gross or stood her up?? but she puts on her big girl pants and also her push-up bra and goes

she wasn't actually going to sleep with him for their first meeting but it turns out he is like. hot. and talks just like his letters. and also it's way cheaper to just share one hotel room-- kakashi are you SURE you won't couple cosplay--

[just-antithings]

Wanted to add on to/rant about fic authors threatening to block people not reblogging their creations, just because as a creator, that whole entitlement gets on my last nerve and has been making me want to be in fandom communities less and less. So many creators are treating fandom as a side hustle or step-stones to becoming a full-time artist/writer.

So many times, I see creators lament "I have X number of followers, but so many of you only lurk! If even Y fraction reblogged my posts/commissioned me--"

Now for commissions, more than once I've had to remind artists (usually US artists) that many of their followers may be from countries with currency that makes even a $15US headshot commission too expensive for them. Beyond that, especially with so many artists saying they start doing commissions due to needing money for rent/food/bills/etc, I'd have assumed they of anyone would know that not everyone can afford a commission of their blorbos or OCs! And even for those who *can* afford one or two commissions, that's still only commissioning one or two artists out of however many they follow. How are you (the hypothetical artist) expecting people to choose? I've chosen to commission mutuals and friends who needed help, but otherwise, I'm going to choose an artist whose style I like best or fits the character I like best.

And as for creators complaining about lurkers, lurking is just a common thing. Typically, there's going to be more lurkers than people actively participating in fandom. That's just how it tends to work. And they don't always stay lurkers for long! I lurked for years, learning how people interacted in fandoms I was in and what the conventions were, so that I wouldn't put my foot in my mouth too much like I do irl! And if during that time, if I'd seen fan creators I like complaining about lurkers/people not "pulling their weight in fandom", I would not want to interact with that creator, and I definitely would not feel welcome in the fandom.

Tdlr For a "community", a lot of creators sure like to treat fandom more like a business.

.

[not-poignant]

Had a question. I've been in the Fae Tales Discord server for several months now, but a lot gets sent in it, and I don't have the time or energy to keep up with it. I end up basically lurking and reading what gets said without replying much beyond sticker replies. I feel bad about it, but I get really anxious whenever I try to be more active in the discord. It seems like you're all quite tight-knit and full of knowledge and wit. Is it bad if I just read along and don't say much? I can try more if that's better

Hi anon!

There's actually a ton of lurkers in the Fae Tales Discord and it's perfectly fine! I only know some of them when they emoji react to stuff and I love that. (Seriously we have some regular 'emoji react' lurkers and I get so excited when I see them reacting to stuff).

Fae Tales and my writing in general has always drawn in quite a few people with high anxiety and social anxiety, so it's only natural that the server itself would be totally fine with people who have to lurk. That's normal!

In fact, it even says in the rules:

"You can expect spoilery content if you haven't read everything (even outside of post-update-spoiler-chat), people talking too much about media, fae, politics, fandom, general silliness, a lot of lurking (you are also welcome to lurk), and a queer-friendly atmosphere."

Lurkers being welcome is codified into the rules and has been since the very beginning. Trust me anon, the only reason you don't realise you aren't alone in your social anxiety is because the other lurkers aren't talking ;)

(Also, it's perfectly fine to just chat once a month, or once every few months too. This happens! Though the chat might seem tight-knit, and some of us do turn up daily, there are folks who only chat once or twice a week, or once or twice a month, but have just been in the chat for so long that they're familiar.

Some folks turn up like 6 times a year. Some turn up once. Some just emoji react when it suits them. Some only visit one or two channels and have the rest muted. There's absolutely zero judgement no matter if / how often / when etc. you decide you want to participate. Folks can test out de-lurking and then lurk again, folks who have never lurked can try lurking for a while, and so on. It's literally there to work for you, in that sense. I'm sure you have way more knowledge and wit than you realise, but I can understand having social anxiety in group situations absolutely.

Imho, if you have high social anxiety, you can just mute it and then check occasionally for excerpts and fanart, because a lot of fanart gets posted there that never gets posted on Tumblr or even Instagram - and same with excerpts, so it can just be a good way to intermittently access things you wouldn't normally see otherwise)

(Also for folks who didn't realise there was a Fae Tales Discord / Discord for my writing, it's here!)

[midnightfreeway]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you meme!

tagged by @dudeyuri , meme created by @fiercynn -- thank you both, this was fun!

note: i consider "fanworks" to pretty much everything people create related to a fandom, including but not limited to meta/analysis/discussion, gifs, fanvids/edits/fancams, filk, fanart, fanfic, fan food, fan crafts, etc. please include this note with the meme unless you have a different definition!

name and whatever you want to share about yourself

i'm em. i'm a lurker and a fic writer. i've been in many fandoms over the years, and my main hobby is consuming and creating queer love stories.

when did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

i watched the first two or three episodes in late 2022 and the rest in early january 2023. i binged episodes 9-12 in a single night and was a complete mess afterwards. i was just completely overcome with emotion because i loved it so much and no other show had made me feel like that in years.

at first, i didn't participate in the fandom that much, only reblogging a gifset here and there and gushing about it in the tags. i became more active when the our skyy 2 episodes came out. it was so much fun to watch them in real time with the rest of the fandom!

favorite ship(s)

patpran!

favorite character(s)

i'm fond of pran because i see quite a lot of myself in him, so if i could only pick one, i would pick him. i love pat too, they both are some of my favorite fictional characters.

favorite episode(s)

my favorite episode is episode 11. i also really like episodes 7, 5 and 3.

favorite scene(s)

my favorite scene is from episode 11. it's the one where pran brings pat the shirt and pat tells pran how much he appreciates him. i find that scene so sweet and touching. the first time i watched it, i was literally wiping away tears at the exact same time as pran.

other than that... there are so many of them that i don't even know where to begin. every single episode contains at least one scene i love. i really like the late-night conversation on the beach in episode 11. some others i am particularly fond of are the sleepover scene in episode 4 and the fight and the rooftop kiss in episode 5.

one thing you would change about the show if you could

like many others, i didn't like how wai outing pat and pran was handled. other than that, i would probably make episodes 1 and 2 a little less about antagonistic friend groups and spend more time establishing pat and pran individually as characters. i found it a little difficult to get into the story at first because we are introduced to so many characters right off the bat. it didn't help that bad buddy was my first gmmtv show and i didn't know any of the actors and hadn't seen the trailers etc.

what are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people? 

i don't have any specific fanworks in mind, but i have really enjoyed reading the meta other fans have posted here on tumblr. many people have pointed out things i didn't even notice at first--my mind has been blown so many times and then i fall in love with the show even more. i really appreciate all the meta!

(if you create fanworks) what are your favorite fanworks that you’ve made?

i haven't made any fanworks yet but i'm working on a patpran fic right now and hope to post it on ao3 at some point in the fall.

idk anything else you want us to know?

i'm so glad i found this show. i love bad buddy and i'm always happy to talk about it with others.

i tag anyone who sees this and wants to do it!

[davyjoneslockr]

📡🎈 for the writing ask game!!

Super interested especially in the style one because it’s always fun to hear how people see their own writing!

(For this ask game)

📡: Why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

I've been involved in fandom spaces for most of my life, and it's always been something I've been really passionate about, but a lot of that time was spent as sort of a passive lurker. I engaged with other people's content online and went to local cons every now and again, but I always wanted to actually create something myself and feel more involved with fandoms, I guess. I actually had a bit of a run with this in the Danganronpa fandom (I was a voice actor in an unfortunately never released and now defunct Fangan podcast), and that got me thinking about what I could do to engage with fandom more. I've always written fanfic, but it took until a short time after I left the DR fandom and got stuck in JoJo Hell, which was my first year of college, to work up the courage to actually post it.

All this to say, writing and sharing fics makes me feel like an active part of a community. I've made a lot of friends through it, had opportunities to work on some incredible fan projects, and, honestly, the past four years in the JJBA fandom have been the most fun I've had in any fandom. Plus, I think of it as sort of paying homage to this series that I love so dearly. Idk. My work probably isn't all that important to fandom as a whole, but I'm definitely having a good time participating :]

🎈 Describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? Does it change?

That's a hard one, actually. It definitely changes depending on the mood I'm going for, and it's obviously changed over the years (it's actually funny reading back older fics sometimes, because I can tell when certain writing workshops or creative breakthroughs in my academic life bled over into my hobby writing). I'd say my writing is heavily character-driven; while that comes with the medium in fanfiction, my original fiction and creative nonfiction tend to be like that, too. What details I focus on while narrating a scene, and which ones I overlook, should say something about the POV character. Stylistically, I love playing with sentence length. Sentence fragments and run-on sentences are my best friends, and I love you polysyndeton <3 (I notice I used to be really into asyndeton, too, but not so much anymore). The character-driven-ness carries over into the style, too; I tend to get a bit more purple prose-y with Giorno than I do Mista, for example. And I use almost exclusively present tense in my writing now, because I want everything to feel more immediate and immersive - more like watching a scene unfold in real time than recalling a memory, if that makes sense. I actually wanted to be a screenwriter at one point in my life; I guess I could describe my style with regard to that, in a way? Trying to write a film onto a page? Something like that.

[quillyfied]

🌿💝📡🧿🤲

🌿: how does creating make you feel?

It makes me feel like I’m extending the positive experience of the source material; I like a lot of things that I don’t make stuff for, but when something hits my brain just right and tingles my creative passions? Bottomless well of happiness. I miss creating being more about passion and less about caution for me.

💝: what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

Oh man. For starters, I’m still surprised whenever people find and read my stuff, simply because I’m no longer all that prolific and I’m more of a lurker than an active online participant these days. And there have been many fics that I didn’t expect to get such a large response, or fics I thought would do well but just…don’t, in terms of audience feedback volume. But I’m still so surprised that my illegal fishing au for OFMD resonated with people. Maybe also because I wasn’t expecting it to resonate so much with me, either.

📡: why is writing and sharing your writing important for fandom?

Because that’s how I contribute. I can fangirl and scream and keymash with the best of them, and that has its place, but tbh, I don’t feel like I’m in a fandom unless I’m making something for it. Sometimes it’s just a meta post. Sometimes it’s epic length fics. Sometimes it’s just a doodle. That act of creation is my echo back into the universe to prove that something touched my heart, and I want to amplify my own good feelings back out to people who will appreciate it. Also it’s a hella good source of external validation. Like walking around a con and getting compliments on your cosplay and complimenting others on theirs and passing the good vibes around. Powerful feeling.

🧿: what steps do you take to not take things personally if a fic doesn’t do well, or if your writing/posting/sharing experience isn’t going how you’d like it to?

Well. That does depend on the fic. My Good Omens Homestuck AU fic…very much underperformed, in comparison to both my Good Omens and my Homestuck fics. Not as much crossover there as I expected. But it’s a fic I’m still proud of, even if I couldn’t finish it, and there have been a lot of little stories out there that just disappeared in the crowd. I recently got a comment on one from years ago that I’ve always been a little salty about it not doing as well, and that person got it! They loved it! But before that, it was just learning to let go and realize that a lack of engagement doesn’t mean a lack of meaning. Omenstuck has some of the most thoughtful comments I’ve ever received, and the stats on it kinda don’t matter so long as I know at least one or two people really, really liked it. And it was fun to make, regardless of audience!

🤲: what do YOU get out of writing?

I get to live in the source material for a little while longer. I get to learn how to write new characters, flex my character voice skills. I get to write some of the weirdest, most unhinged plots I can conceive of, within reason. I get to contribute to that feel good fandom experience. It’s something I can control, in a life and world where I feel that so infrequently.

Thanks so much for sending the ask!!

[ao3commentoftheday]

I’m a minor, and I’m going to be for a couple more years. I know some people don’t really like interacting with minors as much, but I want to make fandom friends. I haven’t told anyone but I can’t meet up with people or buy as much merch, and I don’t want to wait to be an adult to participate in fandom. Do I just not tell anybody or should I make friends who don’t care?

I grew up in the generation where every adult in our lives made it excessively clear that revealing the fact that we were young online was dangerous behaviour. I'm regularly horrified to see teenagers post their ages where anyone can see them. My initial, gut reaction to this question is dear god don't tell anyone you're a minor.

I'll leave the actual decision around whether to reveal your age up to you, but I recommend talking to your parents or another trusted adult before you do. If you're not comfortable doing that, then please read up on some privacy tips for teens to help you stay safe online.

You don't need to meet people in order to participate in fandom. You don't need to buy anything to participate in fandom. All that you have to do is join the online community of people who are nerding out, squeeing, creating, celebrating, and talking about your favourite characters and stories.

This might mean that you're a silent lurker, looking at art and reading fic without commenting or reblogging at all. It might mean that you become a fanartist or a fic writer or a podficcer or fanvidder or a cosplayer or a fan crafter or any of the myriad other types of creators that exist in fan spaces.

It will probably also mean that you'll be somewhere on the spectrum between the two, and that your involvement will change in type and degree as you move from one fandom to another. There are some fandoms where I'm a lurker, some where I'm a commenter/reblogger, some where I'm a writer or an artist.

Try lurking in a community first and picking up the vibe. What are the people like here? What are the rules? Do these people have the kind of community I want to be more active in? You can always reveal your age later if you feel like you want to.

People are online are going to assume you're an adult until you tell them you're not. Lurking will also give you a chance to see if you're comfortable with the kinds of conversations those communities are having. If you're not, then it's okay to back out. You can come back some other time if you want to give it another go. In the meantime, there's always another group of fans for you to meet.

Take care of yourself and stay safe. ❤

[sn33z3s]

stan and kyle vs. the concept of “deserving”

or, stan and kyle as their trope: what’s the appeal if stan seems more invested than kyle in their friendship, and if friends-to-lovers is a stale, plain dynamic?

just as a fair warning, this time around it’s not so much a piece of media analysis; this is more honestly my purest form of “recollected tweets stuffed into a tumblr post” thus far (rly, it’s a love letter - again)

many shippers of south park community past have written extensively, whether through fanfiction or meta, about the reasons for stan and kyle’s slash prevalence. south park fandom has been around since the late 90’s, stan/kyle shippers since about the same era; my words are never the first of their kind. this is something i’ve wanted to revisit because of how Post-COVID and Return of COVID re-contextualized stan and kyle’s friendship.

in returning to the south park fandom scene, and most specifically as an active participator rather than a lurker, i have noticed one perspective gaining popularity: the assertion that kyle is “undeserving” of stan’s friendship. of course, any fan can feel as they wish about any aspect of south park and its characters. i do want to answer that question: what is the appeal of stan and kyle’s relationship?

stan/kyle is potential friends-to-lovers, yes. however, they are the intense version of that: prickly, magnetic; not necessarily a relationship of “deserving” each other, rather wanting and needing. both each other’s weaknesses and strengths. for stan and kyle, it’s not that “they do or don’t deserve each other because xyz” it’s more like: they simply want each other. just because. deserving doesn’t matter to them - they need to be close.

i’ve talked briefly before about how in the eyes of some fans, early south park stan-kyle seems too stagnant, repetitive, bland, or even “cliche.” after the era of south park which focused on fleshing out stan and kyle (both individually and together) the light on their relationship dissipated to make way for other dynamics, such as stan-randy and kyle-cartman; i would say this occurred post-season 18. in more recent years, as matt and trey shifted their approach to stan and kyle - now using them to suggest the question “what if two people liked each other so much that it hurt them?” - some fans have seen this as the death of the relationship, and frequently the death of kyle reciprocating stan’s friendship.

i already have articulated, to some degree, how i feel that kyle plenty reciprocates stan’s love for him. still, even so: the flaws of stan and kyle’s dynamic are what make it attractive. it is primarily is a best friendship, but it’s an amplified and subverted version. stan and kyle are pair of super best friends, just trying to always remain in sync, and staying together, but the obstacles of growing up get in their way. 

south park tells us: they only have each other, ultimately. stan and kyle’s mistreatment of each other can and does go both ways. i love how stan is devoted to kyle’s neuroses, and how kyle puts stan up on a pedestal.

again: these aren't original observations, by any means. it's just that now and then i remember how it is a massive disservice to say stan and kyle are "only" friends-to-lovers. i mean, that was perhaps the case, back in the day. 2008 style (when i got into it) mainly was (keyword: mainly) about the appeal of two inseparable “guys being dudes” and falling in love, but, for a while now, it's also been about dependency, nostalgia, melancholy, closure, romanticizing your past, learning to let some parts of your childhood go while welcoming back others. 

i always hesitate to call stan and kyle “soulmates” because i feel some apathy towards that label, but i do believe a red string ties them together. it’s just that the string has been through so much; stan and kyle love each other so much it can break that string - and them - apart at any moment. they're super best friends, but they're enemies at times, and they're divorced (quite literally, “divorce-coded” in the canon - thanks, kenny) but they love each other, yet they suck at apologizing to each other, so they make up without using words.

stan/kyle is the experience of only having your best friend during some of the most formative years of your life, in an insane atmosphere overall, being each other’s constant escape, and needing your best friend through an imperfect and stormy relationship. no matter how much time these two spend apart, it's second nature for them to immediately get back on the same page, quickly after finding each other again.

remember Post-COVID stan’s reaction when kyle called him? his shock at that, his immediate swivel? the timid, awkward way that they spoke to each other? this is 40 years worth of not moving on, of an intensity that never died out, because to them, there is only one stan and there is only one kyle. kyle stubbornly dragged an equally-stubborn stan back to south park, for stan’s own sake, above all (with the both of them feeling the need to spectacle their relationship at kenny’s funeral, and in front of kenny’s dead body).

quoting my girlfriend on this: when stan said “there is nothing in south park for me, kyle,” it’s because his friendship with kyle was no longer in south park: from that point on, there was nothing there for him.

and when stan said “you regret this day for the rest of your life,” and kyle said “you lose everything when you lose this friendship,” you can tell that selfishly, they were referring to one another, above all else.

[infinity-sansa]

I'm posting this on my blog because I don't want to bother someone else’s blog. It’s about the latest discourses in the starker tag, feel free to ignore it if you don’t want to continue.

I was really excited to participate in @starkerfest, it's technically my first fanfic challenge since I came back in fandom a little more than a year ago so I was super hyped. I'll try to binge-write today for my other challenge so tomorrow I'll have a free day to hopefully binge-read all the fics and post a comment, even if it's only a "It's a cute story!" because let's be honest, sometimes you have nothing better to say.

I'm also sort of a lurker in the starker fandom, mainly because I'm a passionate but not outgoing sort of person, and I also noticed my tastes don't really align with what's posted on the tag. I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of the "wimpy omega/bottomy twink Peter" type of characterization I often see, with Tony being sort of a predator/controlling sugar daddy or some variation. I met too many of those men in the past to be too comfortable with the idea, but I can understand the appeal, especially to younger people I guess? Again, it's only an opinion on a very specific topic, you do you. It's not a bad thing per se, just not my thing. Don’t yell at me for that, you have every right to like what you like and ignore my condescending ass.

I also follow @starker-secrets because I like the concept and the positivity, but oh boy, is the negativity something else. So you want my own story as a writer? Let's go.

I'm not a novice in writing, some of you may have noticed that, but I only started to write in English when I opened my ao3 account. My first stories were... hum... not so good? Even now, I think I’m doing stupid mistakes a native speaker wouldn’t do, but people are too polite to tell me.

I write in different fandoms, less than what I want because I don’t always have the ideas or the desire to write for fandoms I love, but it’s cool, it’s only for fun. I love writing, it soothes me, and I love when people read and like what I write. Again, I’m not a novice so I have something to say about reviews and kudos.

I’m old. I wrote for old fandoms at a time when ao3 didn’t exist, heck, I even knew mailing lists and had a blog on livejournal, so you can see how old I am. At the time, reviews were scarse and somehow a miracle, because it meant you found someone who read and liked your fanfic about a very specific pairing in the very specific piece of media you consumed. And not in English, mind you, so it was somehow worse?

At the risk of presenting as an old person, let me say this: “You youngsters have it easy with your streaming platforms and your large fandoms and your ao3 and blogs with kudos and what-not.” Sounds conceited and senile enough? (Please don’t believe I’m being serious with my bad joke)

I’m happy this fandom exists, because I found it late and I sort of thought no one would read my fanfics. With Tony dead in canon, it’s normal that it’s not so thriving anymore, I mean, there will be no more official content about him in the future. Less fresh content, less activity, that’s a fact.

And for the lack of review? Well, it’s also how fandom works. I’m writing for a more recent and ongoing manga/anime, My Hero Academia, where you have plenty of people reading and adding more fanworks every minute. Heck, I’m even writing right now about the most popular pairing in the fandom. I see some of the oneshots I wrote in one or two hours get tons of kudos and relatively good reviews, when long and detailed fanfictions I spent days on every single chapter get ignored, especially in smaller or almost dead fandoms. Popular (but often boring for me) tropes get all the reviews while the cherished long-ass fics get none or so few, that’s frustrating but normal, in a sense? I also don’t interact much with other people, that adds to the low amount of reviews I receive (relatively speaking). The more you build your fanbase, the more you’ll have people wanting to talk to you. That’s how it works.

I’m sorry people feel ostracized. I’m sorry they’re hurt because they don’t have the reviews and recognition they think they deserve, but I’m afraid no one is entitled to that, even me. We’re just trying to have fun as a collective group of people with the same interests.

That’s just my two cents. Now I feel like I’ll have people coming at my throat soon, but well, at least I voiced what I thought. Please note that I don’t want to offend anyone, just offer my personal experience to make people feel better? Is that even possible?

TL;DR: I love this fandom, I hate discourse and I’m old.

[tickle-bugs]

I had two people ask for some advice on starting up/running a blog, so I thought I’d make a little post for anyone else looking for advice! There’s no one right way to run a blog and I am by no means an expert. This is just a compilation of some of the things I’ve learned :) 

Feel free to add advice to this!

- The first thing is something I cannot stress enough. Write for yourself first. You will be absolutely miserable if you’re only writing for attention. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s so incredibly important. If you don’t like a prompt, fandom, or scenario? You don’t have to write for it! A personal example: I’m a theatre kid and total musical nerd. I could probably write some compelling Dear Evan Hansen or Hamilton headcanons if I wanted to, but I don’t. That’s fine! I’m allowed to say I won’t write for it and deny prompts/requests for those fandoms. 

- Set boundaries. This is a very mixed community with all sorts of creators and participants with hands in different baskets. Don’t want minors to interact? Put minors DNI in your bio. SFW only? Put it in the bio. No RP? Bio. This goes for private conversations/askbox/other interactions as well. If someone comes into your askbox/dms and says something that makes you uncomfy, shut it down. 

- My advice is more geared towards writing than art or video, but I suppose you could apply this advice as well. Make what makes you happy! If you’re only in one fandom, feel free to stay there and make content for it. Multi-fandom? Excellent! Completely non-fandom? Epic! Make the content that you want to see and the content that makes you happy to create, especially if you’re in a more niche fandom/area. 

- Organization. ...I’ll admit this one is more of a personal pet peeve than something urgent, but it is something that people positively respond to. If you have some sort of consistency/organization to your blog, it’ll make it easier and more enjoyable for people to navigate. Make a fandom list/indicate your fandoms somehow (mostly for prompt purposes. people can’t read your mind, so it’s important to tell them what you will write for and what you won’t, however you want to do that)! 

Make a masterpost/link your fic tag! Use a fic tag of some kind. Give your fics summaries and leave a little bit of the fic above the ‘read more’ to intrigue folks (look at #my fics and my masterpost for basic examples of how I do this, if you need!). Use read mores. Please use read mores (if you can, idk if they’re on mobile. regardless no one wants to encounter a three thousand word block of text on their dash). (No seriously though, organize your blog, even if it’s super simple. literally just a ‘mine’ or ‘my fics’ or ‘[pseud] writes’ and a fandom tag. It’ll make it easier for people to find your stuff and support you)

- Practice general internetiquette. Please remember that the people in this community are real people with feelings, boundaries, and lives outside of the blog that they run. Be genuine and people will respond to you! Don’t manipulate people into likes/reblogs/attention. No one wants to be on the other end of that. Being in this community isn’t a transaction or a mosh pit, it’s an experience.  

- Be ever-so-liberal with the block button. Someone’s user makes you uncomfortable? They give you bad vibes? They’re a minor/older than you and you don’t want them interacting with your content? You don’t wanna see their blog for some reason? Block em. This goes for anons too. That’s what the button is for. Don’t feel guilty for using it. Use it. 

- How you write is 100% a personal choice and not really something that I can give advice on, but embrace your style! take prompts if you want, or don’t. Write oneshots, series, drabbles, or novels. Write romantic, or don’t. Etc. Change things up if you feel like it. Do what you want. Your blog, your style, your rules. 

- Numbers matter. Don’t let them define you. This is a bit of a harder one to explain, but I will try. I often say that I don’t care about numbers, and I really don’t, but that’s not to say that I don’t see them and they have zero effect on me. I absolutely notice and am bummed if a fic doesn’t get notes, or at least the notes that I was expecting. That is entirely normal and okay to experience. What isn’t okay, though, is creating for the sake of getting notes/numbers/attention (re: write for yourself first, internetiquette). If you find yourself relying on tumblr for gratification and a reward, I implore you to take a break. I’m not your therapist or your parent, I’m not gonna tell you what to do, but when you make things only for the sake of notes, people notice. Celebrate your milestones. Know that it’s okay to be bummed about low notes/celebrate getting plenty. Just make sure that you don’t depend on the numbers for your happiness, or you will be miserable.

- You’re (probably) doing this for free. You are providing people content: a service. Produce as much or as little as you’re comfy with, but always remember that. No one is entitled to what you make. If someone asks you for headcanons, sends a prompt when prompts are closed, etc, and you don’t feel like fulfilling it? You have no obligation to do that. Getting commissioned is another story entirely, but as long as you’re making free content, you have zero obligation to do anything for anyone and certainly no time constraints. It can take me months to finish prompts, and that’s okay. I do them when I do them and I fill them how I want to. If my prompts are closed, I deny new ones until I’m ready to accept them. Make yourself happy first.

- How you interact with others is up to you! It’s generally considered good practice to like/reblog your mutuals fics/art, but this is not necessarily a hard and fast rule. I veeeeeery rarely reblog fics for fandoms that I’m not in, even from my mutuals. What you can do to show your support (and you should try and show support somehow. No one is in competition. Everyone’s in your boat, whether they have no followers or 1k) is send an ask/reply to the post/leave tags to let the author know you liked it. Like the fic and don’t reblog it, if you don’t want to. Just make sure you show your mutuals (and others in general!) roughly the same support they show you, however you decide to do that. Treat others how you want to be treated, as cheesy as it sounds :)

- Don’t repost content that isn’t yours without express permission from the original creator, and credit them appropriately. If you see a cute piece of tickle art and the artist doesn’t want it reposted? Don’t repost it. Don’t post fics/videos/gifs that aren’t yours (obviously if it’s like a scene from a movie/a clip on youtube that’s different, but don’t take credit for things you didn’t make, including ideas). Can’t tell you how frustrating it is to have work stolen from you. Don’t be that person. ‘Credit to original artist’ and ‘credit unknown’ is total bullshit btw. Link/tag the creator in the original post and make it clear you don’t own the content. Best practice is to ask the original creator if they’re okay with reposting, work inspired by or connected to theirs, etc. This goes doubly for saving/downloading someone’s fics. 

- It is not illegal for a minor to have normal, nonsexual, healthy friendships with people older than them. There’s a weird attitude that minors have nothing of value to offer adults besides a relationship/sex, which is...not true? Minors are thinking, living human beings with feelings, thoughts, and opinions. You can talk to them like normal people, because they are. Just obviously don’t talk about/introduce sex or endanger them. Minors don’t bring up sex/activities you’re underage for with an adult. IDK this isn’t a seminar just...don’t be weird. Adults can offer great life experience, support systems, and the basic joys and needs of human connection. Minors can too. Mind your business unless someone’s actually in danger. The next point is a caveat, though: 

- If you’re a minor, don’t interact with NSFW blogs/blogs with ‘Minors DNI’, NSFW blogs don’t interact with minors, etc etc. Not your parent or whatever but this is pretty common sense and it’s for everyone’s safety, but especially the NSFW person. internettiquette!

- If you use your TK blog as a side blog (meaning you have another blog as your main blog, not two separate accounts) and don’t want your main exposed, that is up to you. I recommend not liking posts. Also, follow people that you trust. These actions route through your main blog and your main will show up in the notes. You can reblog from a sideblog. If you want to send an ask “as your tk blog”, send an anon and sign it somehow, like ‘hey :) // @/tickle-bugs’. It should tag you in the post so you get a notification when it’s answered!

- Find your people! As an anxious person this one has been hard for me, so I know it’s hard for a lot of people. Fandom is literally a community of shared interest. Peachy and I have an iron bond almost two years later and we met talking over shared interests. You can absolutely find your people here. If someone makes you happy, strike up a conversation! Send an ask! You never know what doors it might open or whose day you might improve :)

- If you were an anon/lurker on someone’s blog and they inspired you to write/submit/start your own, sign your messages!! the common form that I see is either an emoji or [noun/context of the ask]!anon (prodigal!anon (i miss u every day), butterfly!anon, etc.) Let us know how to find and support you!! Those messages produce good brain juice. 

- The big finale: Have fun. If you’re not having fun here, maybe you could tweak something to make things enjoyable. Running a blog is like driving a car. Keep your hands on the wheel, respectfully indicate your intentions (flashing lights optional), and be safe. Poebody’s nerfect, y’know. If you make a mistake, course correct. I’m by no means perfect. Your favs aren’t either. Just do your best and have a good time :)

@rosytickles and the anon in my inbox, I hope this helps! Thank you for asking me, I’m very honored that you value my opinon/experience/advice. I apologize if I come off as preachy or aggressive, I envisioned grabbing my younger self by the lapels and shaking me vigorously while I wrote this. Probably a bad idea. 

Anywho, hope it helps. Anyone with questions, additions, or comments, my askbox is open! Just be constructive, is all I ask. 

[radialarch]

every once in a while on the internet we have another round of “is it good or bad for writers to want kudos” and i’m reminded that one time i answered this question for someone in way more depth than anyone wanted, and perhaps “after a months-long tumblr hiatus” is the best time to amnesty this into the void, who knows

------

Q: I think because of social media, the Internet, the masses (or their reaction rather) become so easily available, their power is also amplified. Maintaining diversity can become a real problem (or is it the contrary?). What are your thoughts and response to this? for people who are just starting to write, kudos and comments could be addictive. When should one follow or change?.. or you should stick to what you believe in?

Okay, so this is an issue I think about a lot, and I should probably preface this by saying that all of what I'm gonna say can be really difficult to do, and, depending on the reasons you are in fandom, it might not be the "right" approach for someone to take anyway.

I said earlier that fanfiction feels to me like a fairly homogeneous genre, and I think this is at least in part because of the existence of very popular, very widely known fics that many people read, and then, either consciously or unconsciously, go on to imitate in their own works. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for individual writers -- I also said that a lot of my first attempts at writing were imitative, it's a process everyone will go through in the path to becoming better writers -- but collectively, it contributes to this communal pool of works that ends up having the same sort of... textual flavor, if you will.

This is a phenomenon that troubles me because I firmly believe that diversity of works and ideas in a fandom are a good thing. Fandom, to me, works best when anything seems possible, when many different ideas can be examined without constraint. I won't always like some of the avenues that are explored -- there are tropes and ideas that I dislike, and I might pass a fic by without clicking if I see it contains those things -- but the proliferation of ideas means that there's much more of a chance that fandom will kick up an idea I love but might never have thought of otherwise.

The thing is, fandom -- the audience that's reading, leaving kudos or comments, bookmarking and reccing -- does not always reward the efforts of writers who are trying to experiment with different things, and I think when you run into that situation you have to take a step back and think about what it is that you want to achieve by participating in fandom via fic writing.

Praise feels really good. Most people like praise. Look, I love getting comments on fic that tell me readers enjoyed it. I'm not gonna lie and say that you should just train yourself into a state where feedback doesn't matter. So if that's what you're in fandom for -- to be social, to connect with other people, to have a fun time where your works will be well-received -- then I think that's a valid approach. Like, if that's what you want out of this experience, then you should feel totally free to do that, that's not a "wrong" way to do fandom.

But if what you want from writing fic is to become a better writer, then first you have to be very honest with yourself. Becoming a better writer involves taking a lot of (textual) risks. Sometimes, you try something and fail; sometimes, you try something and succeed, but what you end up with isn't what people in fandom want to read. And this isn't rewarding in a way that a ton of fannish feedback might feel rewarding, but the process should be rewarding in its own right. For me, writing a story that stretches at the limits of my technical ability and succeeding in it feels fantastic. Comparing a story I wrote a while ago with something current and noting ways in which I might've gotten better is a great feeling. And conversely, I don't like feeling like I've stagnated, that I've settled too much into a comfort zone and stopped trying to do something more ambitious. It makes me miserable. And if that's the case for you, then you have to accept that sometimes, you won't get comments and praise on what you write, and that will make you feel terrible -- but maybe not writing that would have made you feel worse, as a writer.

So I think that's a calculation everyone has to make for themselves. And it's really hard! It stings to see something you've put a lot of effort and time and, sometimes, personal experience into be ignored by other people. I don't know whether that will ever go away. It can help to have friends you can discuss writing with, who will be supportive of what you're doing even if this big thing called "fandom" isn't. You can try to be realistic about what kind of feedback you can expect (writing in a very small fandom, or even nonexistent fandom, can be an interesting way to calibrate your expectations). And some days it will still feel terrible, and you just have to keep asking yourself if it's worth it. And hopefully it is.

On a different note, if you want to do anything to encourage the diversity of ideas in fandom, there are things people can do from the consumer/reader side! For one, I'm not particularly sold on this idea of kudos/comments/bookmarks as a metric of quality. I know a lot of people will like, go to AO3 after they've watched a movie or a show or read a book and sort by kudos and read from the top down; and this is certainly an easy way to choose fics to read, but there are fics that are brilliant and gorgeous and wonderful that will never make it there. I know a lot of people think that, you know, if a fic is good then it will of course get "discovered" and you'll find out about it, but like. Sometimes the person who discovers it has to be you. Be an active participant in the process of choosing what you read (something that applies both inside & outside fandom!) and look, you'll wade through a lot of terrible fic but there are also some great fics buried out there that you might never see otherwise.

And then, when you find something you love, engage with it! Kudos, comment, rec it to your friends. I used to be a terrible lurker until I started writing fic; I still don't leave like, the best comments, but I do it a lot more because it really does mean a lot. Encourage other people in fandom who might be going through the same process you are, trying to decide if this writing thing is worth it, and hopefully, you know, someone else will do it for you.

[star-wars-multishippers]

Get to Know Me(me) - The Members of SW Multishippers!

This was an event hosted on the Discord server to do a sort of re-introduction of both old and new joiners to the server. Everyone who wanted to participate filled out the survey below to share a little about themselves and about their faves in fandom.

Survey (for anyone who wants to join in below in the comments):

Who Am I? - Name, username on other sites, mini bio if you'd like Where do I fit into the SW fandom? - Prequels, Sequels, EU, etc. What do you do? Fic, art, lurking and reblogging? My Top Faves - 2 or 3 max please! My Own Stuff - 1 or 2 max please!

MBlair

Who am I?

MBlair both on Discord and on AO3, maggzblair on Tumblr (MBlair, maggzblair)

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

Mostly lurker/reblogger/occasional writer, mostly Original Trilogy and Sequel trilogy.

Fics I Love to Rec

Of Queens, Knights, and Pawns (and associated fics) by chancecraz

Hand of Fate by sweetestcondition

My Fics I Love to Rec

Reyuxmas 2019

A Wonderful Winter on Hoth

I’ll Love You ‘Til the Suns Burn Out

feckyeslife

Who Am I?

Feckyeslife#2003 on Discord, firelord65 on AO3

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

I'm pretty solidly a Sequels fan, but I have a special place in my heart for the Prequels. I'm a fic writer who dabbles mostly in canon universe AUs, what ifs, that sort of stuff. Primarily my fics have Rey with a tendency to focus on the First Order characters and plots.

My Top Faves

A classic Reylo fic from an old friend - Beneath the Facade. It technically has a prologue fic before it in the series, but this piece was the one that I really enjoyed way back in the EARLY days of Reylo.

Because I'm an insufferable Reylux fan, I have to rec at least one. This piece by @every-day-is-star-wars-day  a oneshot that ever so masterfully crushes my heart every time - Thread

My one Original Trilogy rec, this is a beast of a long fic but so, so good - Dark Times

My Own Stuff

Reylux, medieval AU - La Vita Primus - is the first in a small series of this AU

Reylo, TROS Fix-It - Oh but it's a dark future, my star. Oh but it's a soft morning for us soon.

apple-au

Who Am I?

Call me apple. she/her/hers. I’m gold_pen_leaps on dreamwidth, ao3, and pillowfort. @gold_pen_leaps@tenforward.social on mastodon. I am doing my best to boycott tumblr, but I've been known to use a tumblr link embed on pf from time to time. (gold_pen_leaps (DW), gold_pen_leaps (AO3))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

I’m mainly into the Sequels and the Mandalorian. I joined the server for Hux/Kylo/Rey and all the combinations of the characters in my ot3. I can edit better than I can write. Sometimes I comment on fics.

My Top Faves

A Dance of Titans by @lucidlucy is a really long reylux fic. The delicious slowburn makes all the flavors combine in an amazing way. Love how they battle the main villain!

My Own Stuff

I helped give feedback on the second part of a series. Does that count? This is knight_of_dance's fic. It's really cool to see writers' takes on Modern AU, and this one has influenced my ideas of what sort of kinks those characters have. :smirk: Switch Up

Mizz

Who Am I?

 hi! tho im much more...a lurker around here im mizz (she/they/he). im badarmada on tumblr, badwrong-gimme on pillowfort, gimmemrss on twitter, badwrongprincess on ao3 (i have so many usernames XD, ive got a dreamwidth, wordpress, and art insta too if youre interested lol)

(@badarmada, gimmemrss (twitter), badwrongprincess (AO3))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

i liked the prequels as a kid (still do kinda), rouge one, i do like clone wars tho i havent finished it and the sequels (well tfa and tros tho only one of them is good imo) i reblog stuff mostly and read fanfic, tho i write some stuff too. finn is my fav and pretty much my center character (ie the one i focus on the most) and i like most finn ships (favs being finnhux, finnlo, finnrey)

My Top Faves

the things we do for love by glare is an unfinished finnlohux fanfic that i love a lot

worlds are built for two by synergenic (Losseflame). this is a poefinn fic from finns pov

My Own Stuff

um...im still working on this fic -(Be More Chill, Hux) very slowly this year has been super hard on me writing wise and ive been drawing ocs and for another fandom mostly but I will finish this one day!

Arsanimo - Marion

Who Am I?

Hi, I’m Arsanimo, self taught artist and nerd from Germany that’s mostly lurking. You can find me with this username on tumblr, twitter and instagram. I draw mostly Reylo at the moment. ( @arsanimo, Arsanimo (Twitter), Arsanimo (IG))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

I‘m in my thirties and an OT fan since birth, because my dad was obsessed with Star Wars and we watched it a lot as kids - they are the go to christmas movies in our family. Even as a very small kid I loved Vader. I didn’t like the ST quite as much when it came out in cinemas but still watched them multiple times. I’m much more fond of them now. But my love for Star Wars really got renewed with the ST. I really liked TFA and TLJ a lot. Not a great fan of TROS though, but to each their own. I recently started watching TCW, if you haven’t go watch it! The Mandalorian is also great and feels more like the OT for me, which I love. Oh, and R1 was awesome, I loved that one! Solo also was good. I think I will be a lifelong fan because it’s such a rich universe and everybody can pick a favorite. I’m also good at ignoring the parts I don’t like, lol. But I‘m mostly exhausted about all the drama on social media, so at the moment I take a bit of a break from social media and only post from time to time. And I’m of the firm believe to ship and let ship and if the art and fics are good, you can also find me enjoying ships outside of Reylo (honestly, some Kylux art out there, woah... and Finnrey is always so tender but Stormpilot has two hot guys in it... and don’t get me started about Finnrose! You probably get the gist)

My Top Faves

It’s hard to name so few, there are so many good artists out there. But Winter of Her (Twitter) has some outstanding art in her own style. Than I really like the style of Khallion (Twitter), check her out.

My Own Stuff

And last but not least two pieces of mine that turned out pretty good

https://twitter.com/arsanimo/status/1275789997426311173?s=21

https://twitter.com/arsanimo/status/1258757927910989825?s=21

Knight_Of_Cookies

Who am I?

Allo allo, I go by many names but many know me as cookies here. Lol I'm from the US and I've been a lifelong A+, gold star , nerd my whole life. I love writing among 5 million other hobbies. I am on Tumblr and A03. (@knight-of-cookies, Knight_of_Cookies (AO3))

Where do I fit into the SW fandom?

It all started with the prequels which I fell in love with and even wrote my first fan fic on. (I dragged it from fanfic.net to A03 for my own form of personal torture) I dropped out of star wars until I was in Japan and a close group of friends got me to watch Roque One and play a star wars based table top role playing game, which dumped me back into this fandom hardcore. I fell in love with the sequel trilogy and now I'm stuck forever. Lol

I have been writing on A03 for around 2 years now for star wars and it's been the most productive and progressive work I've ever done thanks to ya'll.

Also, hey, I created this multishippers discord, because multishipping rocks and everyone should do it. :P I know I've never active enough but I love this space and the people in it! My fav part about multishipping is how I'm always discovering yet another ship that is awesome. It never ends. ^^

My top favs - (of things no one should be surprised by)

Beastie by @feckyeswriting. It spawned a written series(multiple actually)

Glutton by Witchoil. Just very good dark and wonderful kinky smut. Always go back to this one.

In the house that skywalker built by @aicosu. This story got me into Reylux in a way I'll never recover from.

My own stuff

Nothing but Themselves - This is my favorite beast of a story I've ever written and it will be beautiful when I finish it. One day. Lol

Tanzaku - One of my most polished pieces thanks to the Reylo Anthology. My best combo of: insert culture nerding here and captive Ben as personal tropes.

[panharmonium]

Not sure if it works that way, but: Ruth Baulding fandom for ask meme?? (Oh, your star-crossed trinity - you, padmerri, dyingsighs. If not for you, I would never find the treasure that is Ruth Baulding, and your content for this corner of SW - and SW in general - always brightens my day! Thank you and your sister and your friend so much!!!)

Oh my gosh, this ask made me smile so much!  The Lineage Squad days live close to my heart always - that was the first time I ever became an active participant in fandom as opposed to a lurker, and the friends I made there changed my life.  I’m glad it could bring you so much enjoyment, too! <333

My favorite parent-child relationship: Since Lineage is so focused on the Jedi, most of the dynamics don’t quite fit neatly into this category - I don’t feel like apprenticeships can be described just as parent-child dynamics; there’s a lot more going on there.  I’ll say that I really love Troon Palo as kind of the den mother for Dragon Clan - love to see him wrangling all those little bundles of chaos. X)

My favorite sibling relationship: Okay, there aren’t a lot of genuine “siblings” in the Lineage-verse, but I love the Phindians (Guerra and Paxxi and all the rest of their family).  I love when Jedi Apprentice side characters show up like that and play larger roles. <333

My favorite family relationship (other): TAHLLLLLLLL.  One of the best things about Lineage for me is how much of a role Tahl plays and how she is very much a part of Obi-Wan’s “family” unit.

My favorite friendship between two people: Love Qui-Gon and Tahl’s friendship.  And Obi-Wan and Tahl’s friendship.  And also Obi-Wan and Bant - I loved her even back in the JA days, and I love her in Lineage, too.

My favorite friendship between a group:  I love when we get to see Obi-Wan hanging out with his own friend group.  I don’t remember which volume it’s in - maybe the beginning of five?  six? - but there’s a part where the kids are on a training exercise all together and it was really fun.  

My favorite mentorship: I mean, since it’s Lineage, I think it would be tough to answer anything but Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. :)  I also really like Ben To - he’s not exactly a mentor, but he certainly does give Obi-Wan enough lectures to count. X)

My favorite rivalry: I mentioned this before in my other Star Wars post, but I really love Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos’s relationship in RB’s work.  It’s not exactly a rivalry, but they also don’t quite get along immediately, so I think it fits :)

My favorite hatred/antipathy: I think Dooku in the Lineage-verse is fascinating.  The vague tension between him and Qui-Gon and also the interest Dooku takes in Obi-Wan are things I just import to my canon understanding of him.  I also really liked how Xanatos and Obi-Wan interacted in Lineage 3...I’m sort of a sucker for when the protagonist starts to feel some compassion for a villain without meaning to (or wanting to, frankly).

My favorite potential relationship between characters who never talk in canon: Well, one of my favorite things about Lineage is that it gives me all the relationships between characters who I wanted to see more of in canon.  Probably my favorite element in that vein is how Lineage makes it clear that Obi-Wan has in fact had a lot of contact with Dooku prior to the prequels - it never made sense to me in AotC how Dooku says that he and Obi-Wan have never met before.  I always kind of ignored that “canon” detail because it seemed silly to me, even before I read Lineage, and I prefer Lineage’s take on things.  

[yupuffin]

This is a shoutout post to @patricia-von-arundel for essentially singlehandedly improving my Tumblr experience with a flow of enjoyable Fire Emblem content of all sorts, consistent positivity, and just about everything that makes you wish you followed a blog sooner as well as realize that your fandom experience is what you make of it. As much as Fire Emblem consumes my life, I was hesitant to get started in online fandom activities based on anecdotal evidence from IRL acquaintances and experiences, but I stumbled across their blog quite on accident in a rather coincidental and convoluted way, and I'm very glad I did. I always feel engaged and inspired, and this has also been an excellent reminder how fun fandom is when you actively participate -- I'm usually a lurker because I'm actually very shy, so I had somewhat forgotten how enjoyable it is to leave comments and swap asks back and forth. I think it's been maybe a couple of months? And I hope for many more months of Fire Emblem merriment in the future 🙏

(psst... if you're looking for more FE3H content in your life... this is your cue to go follow!)

[ofcloudyskies]

hiya! i really, really hope things get better for you soon. if you ever want to talk about it, just know that i'm here ♡ i know what you mean about tumblr being a safe haven. looking back, i think i came back here bc i was going through a really rough patch (existential crisis do that to you) and even after all this time, i still find comfort in the chaos that is this website. it's become some sort of refuge where i can be silly and speak into the void about the things that make me happy. (1/6)

hello marina! <3 thanks to tumblr for the reveal haha :D i'll post this to keep the whole thing in one place

apart from ouat, i used to be really into glee. i stopped watching ouat after s5 and the later seasons of glee were a real roller coaster. but i was so happy in both fandoms. i mostly kept to my tiny bubble but i did meet so many lovely people. and the fact that i'll probably never know what's become of most of them will always hurt a bit. but yeah, life goes on and one can only hope that they're happy, wherever they are. ah, this got sappy haha. what other fandoms were you in before? (2/6)

my mind keeps drifting these days, too, and the fact that summer makes me feel super drained isn't helping at all. but YES, YESSSSS, i'm definitely up for a buddy reading. that may help us beat our reading slump! we can read "if we were villains" or we can choose any other book you may be interested in, of course! speaking of naomi novik, i started reading "spinning silver" a while ago after hearing great things from a friend of mine. (3/6)

i don't think i picked it at the right time, but god, the writing was so atmospheric and raw. i'll definitely go back to it one day, i love retellings. also, i hadn't even thought about the colors of the covers, what a cool coincidence! black and gold will always be one of my favorite combos. there's something so magical and kingly about it, right? the collector's edition for crooked kingdom is black and gold, too, and i couldn't stop staring at it the day it came in the mail hahaha. (4/6)

see, i'm incredibly intrigued about nikolai. i need to know more about him. that's one of the main reasons why i want to read the shadow and bone trilogy, actually. if i manage to get out of this terrible slump, i think i'll jump back into the grishaverse and give the trilogy a go. in the meantime, could netflix please give us a trailer or some promo pics? i need something, anything! (5/6)  

ahh, tumblr won't allow me to send any more questions for at least an hour because i exceeded the ask limit. but i just needed to send one last message, so i'll just come off anon, i guess hahaha. anyway, feel free to write as much as you want!! as you can see, my messages just keep getting longer and longer. aaah, i'm so sorry. but what can i say, i love letters too! (6/6)

~~~~~

ah, thank you for good wishes <3 i don't want to burden you too much with my life problems and tbh it doesn't really get easier no matter how many times i talk about it, i will most certainly end up crying again if i start thinking about it too much again. i’ve been living with this terrible feeling of uncertainty about the future for a year now (because the thing will happen, the question is how soon) and it feels like i’m always at the verge tears, one word, one thought and i break. ugh, now i’m being weirdly vague akfdjhg sorry >< but i hope you managed to get through your rough patch! if you need to vent about anything, you know where to find me!

oh, i'm actually rewatching glee right now! i was so into it in high school but stopped watching at some point. last fall i needed a pick-me-up show to pass a few weeks of alone evenings so i randomly decided to rewatch glee and this time to watch the whole thing till the end. i think i'm at the start of s4 now. i mostly only listen to the episodes while cooking :D

other than ouat i think i only actively participated in doctor who fandom. for other things i was just a lurker/rebloger... then i got into animanga (mostly into this one baseball manga?? i literally didn't know the rules of baseball back then. don't ask why i like it so much, i don't understand it myself haha, i just accept it) and made a sideblog for that which i started using more than the main blog so i made a separate account and came here only from time to time

YAY we can agree on ‘if we were villains’!! i’ve been considering ‘the priory of the orange tree’ from samantha shannon recently but it’s definitely too long for a slump mood. ah, naomi novik has polish roots and i remember uprooted was based on polish folklore, it was nice to see elements of the tales from my country in the story. i wonder if her other books have that as well. and oh my, i envy you the collector's edition of crooked kingdom! i own the duology but in the basic covers, i love them lots anyway. what are your other fav covers on your bookshelf? and i hope i didn't oversell nikolai, would be bad now if you read the books now and were meh about him ahaha, fingers crossed!

if you like writing letters to strangers, there's this cool app called 'slowly'. you’re matched with a stranger from somewhere in the world and you can write each other letters. the letter takes time to arrive to the recipient according to the distance between the countries where both people live. i used it a bit when i was stuck at home and wanted to feel connected to the world c:

idk how we should keep this going :D does fanmail still exist on tumblr? if u have ideas let me know hah. have a good night x