#tbh 2-3 blogs may be too many for me but i'm trying my best ><

[iloveyou-writers]

How do I get people to care about me personally as a writer and my work? I only got three likes on a piece of work while this another writer literally got 6 likes on a post with someone asking if they were okay and 7 likes on another post congratulating them on her fic count while literally my fic count post congratulating myself only received 1 like and my other only received 2. It just shows me that my followers don't care about my works at all because I'm not good enough and I think I suck at canon character portrayal. It makes me think that the person who was over critical about my work was right I suck as a writer and as a human being.

I have been trying to think of the best way to word my response to this and it's been a struggle, honestly. It's not that I don't have an answer, it's that the answer may be a bit discouraging because the unfortunate truth is that there isn't a simple answer for how to get people to love your writing.

It's a lot of hard work. It often takes a long time, especially with today's writeblr. Back when I first joined writeblr, there was a lot more interaction. It was much easier to get your work in front of people because people were actually reblogging works and sharing them with others. Now-a-days, most people will just like it and move on, essentially cutting out a VAST majority of the readership you otherwise might get.

So, today, people getting enthusiastic about your writing not only takes a whole lot more work but it also takes a whole lot of luck. Getting your writing in front of the right person and HOPING they'll get into it enough to get their readers to get enthusiastic about it.

On top of that, a lot of writers now have "reblog blogs" which also cuts down the amount of people that will views your works because if their followers don't care for what they reblog usually, they won't follow that blog even though they're following the writing blog, so that cuts out another chunk of people that might be into your writing.

Then you also have to worry about timezones and the right people being online. There may be people that follow you and love your writing but if you're not posting it or reblogging it when they're online, they might not see it. A lot of people don't do what used to be much more common (me included, tbh) and scroll all the way down their dashes til they catch up to where they last were. So they could be missing your writing even if they love it. People often follow an impossible amount of blogs to keep up with fully, so they often miss things, even if they'd love it.

Basically, it boils down to you have to work hard to get your works in front of the right people at the right time. It's hard work, it's a lot of work, but if you're lucky and a great writer, you might be able to get the views. But even if you get the views, that doesn't mean that you'll get the notes because these days, people feel discouraged to actually interact with works.

So it's just a whole lot of mess that is causing writers and artists (especially writers, though, since it's a lot more work to read than it is to view art and a lot of people don't have the energy to read long stories these days) to not get the interaction or views they would have in the past.

Ugh, I know this is probably a really discouraging reply, but to be honest, these days I even struggle to get many notes on my actual writing. This blog gets lots of interaction, but that's because I'm GIVING something to people. Not many people are willing to react to a post that isn't giving them something (such as the encouragement from this blog)... so it's been hard for me too. I don't get nearly the interaction on my main that I do on this blog, so I'm not sure that I could give any specific advice on how to better get the interaction you're craving.

Maybe if you'd asked me 2-3 years ago, but tumblrites (especially on the creative side of tumblr) have changed a lot since then, so it's more of a struggle for everyone to get views, yes, even the popular ones. We're all feeling the changes.

I hope you get the interaction you're craving, my friend. I'm hoping to start a blog soon that'll help with writers create more of a community and interaction with one another, but we'll see if it works.

Sorry for all the depressing responses. I hope that you still push forward and that you find a way to get those interactions you're craving.

Good luck and happy writing, my friend. 💖

[monstrouslyobsessed]

been a minute since i've answered yall asks, sorry about that. been having health issues again. sighs.

tw / tags: monster fucking, snake anatomy, breeding mentions

Do you have any thoughts about slime-like monsters? I personally find monsters with… unstable??? body structure quite interesting cuz of their potential lol. Like, even of they're slow and trembling like jittery jelly, once they have grip on you – you gone, whoops. Struggling r useless, u will only get urself deeper and you can't even do a lot to escape. And bonus points if they're kinda dumb, so by acting silly and goofy they're practically gaslighting lmao —anonymous

i actually have a musing in the work about that one!! its...been in my draft forever...whoops....i'll work on that in just a bit then.

but yes!! theyre also super versatile too! imagine if you have one as a pet...its going to make a pet out of you, oho rip darling.

I wonder how the 6 arms snake god eat. Does he just shallow his prey whole? chew them? Tear them apart then eat them piece by piece? I wonder what is his favorite part of his prey, and his less favorite. I imagine that some times, he eat messy, so reader clean the blood around his mouth with a clean napkin. —anonymous

i actually kinda imagine him opening his mouth like a snake would since he's no longer a human (w a pic below). but in the beginning, when he's still merging with the snake god, he'd probably start tearing his, ah, meals apart, yeah. i actually don't think his transformation was actually completed by the time he started his initial rampage + he wouldn't have any arm when he first started out too.

oh geez i can see him being super clumsy and floppy trying to learn how to move his new body. poor thing.

his mouth would be like this, maybe with bigger fangs tho. that said, i cant find the original source now :( so if any of you know who this may be by, lmk so i can link the artist!!

Hey-hey! Have you read Mieruko-chan by any chance? Maybe it's only me, but i find designs for ghosts from here rlly cool and some chapters can give some pretty cool concepts/ideas.

Gl on ur day! ✨ —anonymous

i actually have been keeping up with it! poor mc, she's trying her best...I'm crushing on the yandere tentacled head lady atm lol

☆ Put this star into the inbox of your favourite blogs. It's time to spread positivity! 💖 — @berrychan03

dawwww <3 thank you!!! i'll be sure to spread them around~!

Your Jaguar Trube story is really good! I like it. Are you going to make the part 2 for it? —anonymous

im actually kinda stumped on how to continue this one mainly because of the breeding kink being the primary focus and the reader initially being gn. i feel iffy doing this to my fellow gn readers as well, as i don't wish to exclude them and i don't think im that good of a writer to pull off a gn smut.

i could just do two versions tbh because its a little different between if the reader is afab and if they're amab.

if afab, theyre actually kinda in for some bad time because there's so many males around, possibly around 30 to even 50, and there's a lot of dp to go around because they're sharing them.

if amab, there's not many females around at all, maybe around 4 young adult ones (with the rest being old ladies), though that's not to say the males wouldn't touch them because they def would though lol but i kinda imagined that being amab they wouldn't be in too high of demand and would be given breaks. plus, they don't have to worry about getting pregnant.

i'll take feedback regarding this matter though, so lmk your thoughts on how i should proceed!

anyhoo, gonna try and work on couple overdue commissions i got, but in the meanwhile, feel free to send in whatever (that is currently open lol) love ya bunches!

[prsk-krow]

TEMPORARY PINNED!!

INTRODUCTION...

Heyaheya!! Name's Krow (Crow if autocorrect's a bother), 17 yrs old, AMAB (any pronouns, though accustomed to he/him), INFP! Trying my best to not be socially awkward and insecure, so please bear with me >.<

Also english isn't my first language, so bear with me on that as well ;-;

BLOG INFO...

Just like many others, It's gonna be a Project Sekai headcanon writing blog! For now, only headcanons for N25 will be written, since I feel most comfortable doing those!

However, don't be afraid to send stuff that aren't requests! While I don't enjoy pure gibberish and shit posting, asking me questions, inbox checks, opinions are all a-ok, as long as they're related to the blog!

I'll close requests if I get too many at once, or if I run out of interest, so please check description to see whether it is or not!

BYF (Before you follow), I'll only post content about pjsk, and I won't spend much time here! Know that this isn't a very dedicated blog, only something for fun!

RULES...

About requests...

Only N25 member's headcanons! Includes their Virtual Singer variants, but these will take a bit longer!

Character x reader, character x character, and poly 2characters x reader only for relationship! Non relationship headcanons requests are also allowed!

Please make sure to define if you want platonic or romantic! If you don't, I'll default to platonic! A simple P or R will do, as I'll put it from now on!

Don't be vague, and don't reference other characters when describing reader's personality!

No smut, as they are minors.

Only mental illnesses I'll allow are those canon to them and yandere for characters, and depression, anxiety, and sensory overload stuff for reader.

I'll write romantic and fluff! The former may take a few extra braincell though... (Which means I'll default to fluff if not specified!)

Maximum of 4 characters per request for separate (Reader doesn't count), and 3 for poly asks (Reader counts)! Be aware, however, that with more characters, the detail will lower! Solid for 2, lesser for 3 and simpler for 4!

Please, try to keep the requests and asks short and sweet, with the descriptions of the reader and especially the scenarios! It makes it easier for me to write, giving me more creative liberty and it generally being more fun for me!

If I think a request starts to enter slightly into crack territory, I will slightly alter the descriptions of the scenarios! Sorry, not good at that type of stuff! (I'm mostly good with just fluff tbh...)

DNI (Do Not Interact) if...

Basic criterias, like homophobes, transphobes, racists, pedophiles, ableist, people who sexualize cultures, races, sexualities and the like.

Plagarizers.

You create/influence drama or political debates on social media. I do not wish to have either on my blog.

TAGS...

#/cawcaw, for my own posts, comments, updates, and stuff!

#/cawcanons, for my own headcanons, all of them!

#/cawswers, for my answers to questions!

#/cawtags, for when I reblog stuff that I've been tagged in!

#/cawreblogs, for when I reblog stuff that I like!

#/cawmoots, for when the posts have to do with any of my moots!

#/cawnews, for updates on the Mun and the blog!

#/cawspecial, for special and very, very important posts to me! If you see this tag in your feed, I would be really grateful if you went out of your way to read it, as a simple request...

#()Anon, for special anon asks!

Use these to divide my content equally! If you, as an anon, aren't sure if I answered your request, make sure to check these tags from time to time! Also, feel free to block any of these tags if you dislike the content that are related to them!

LINKS...

Super masterlist here!

PFP and header layout here!

...

That's it for now! I'm happy to have you all here, and I hope you all enjoy yourselves!

Caw.

[ilaiyayaya]

I wrote most of this like, several months ago but didn't feel comfortable posting for a lot of reasons, but most those reasons are kinda irrational tbh and it's Fuck It We Ball Friday so I'm finishing it. I'm probably gonna want to private it at some point but like I refuse to, I will not do it, if I do I'm yelling at myself.

I miss my old friends :'(

I mean I technically can, and sometimes do still talk to a lot of them, I haven't completely lost contact with all of them but like, I still don't talk to them nearly as much as I used to. To be fair a lot of the reason for that is entirely my fault, I'm literally in a Discord server with a majority of my old friends from RFCK but like, I rarely talk there because I (completely irrationally) feel weird trying to reconnect with them again after such a long period of going pretty much completely silent for like 2+ years.

I have WAY too many detailed memories of really specific moments and things from RFCK, like the time when I yelled at Happy for gambling and then got smited by god (Callum) after a nearly 2 hour long standoff. Or the 6.6 Lunchatons which were the biggest, most impactful events to ever happen in the entire server of course of course. Also I'm still the most based judge (I would NEVER be biased) and I would still gladly send any wretched bean enjoyers to prison for eternity (ew gross). Downtown bombing... ngl it was kinda overblown like it was kinda epic and funny. Kevin Race... :)

It's crazy because I don't really remember a lot of my life beyond a few years ago (for several reasons, likely little of which is due to actually having poor memory), so while I do have some memories from my early life, they're pretty sparse and vague. At this point a majority of my older memories that I've actually still retained are from RFCK, so despite it really only being like, a 2 year period of my life, it feels like one of the biggest, most impactful parts of my life.

I don't really have any plans to use my old OC for anything again, I feel like it's too connected with RFCK in my memories to ever use it for anything outside of Endless War, which tbh is kinda a shame because I still really like it, but like, I can just design a new OC :).

Hey guys, DigiGurren MLP here, uhhh I forgot the rest of my own copypasta but hey guys it's me DigiGurren MLP!

I-I-I missed, I missed Cool Duck's Bible Study session, I'm so sorry Cool Duck I'll never make it into Cool Duck heaven now 😢

Slime-Jim my beloved <3

I could probably make like 50 more posts of me just rambling on about random shit from RFCK because it's genuinely some of my best memories of my entire life and I remember way too many random obscure details and moments. But like, I probably won't, I may at some point make another post if I'm feeling particularly nostalgic over something specific from RFCK, but I think in general I'd prefer to keep it relatively separated from this blog, and I also don't want to constantly dwell on my memories of it, I already did that enough a few years ago.

Yea I make a background cameo in an official Chris-Chan comic, yea that fact does make me want to rot in a hole.

Discord based text based mmorpg playable entirely within your discord browser or whatever the marketing line was i kinda forgot it. I didn't forget the server link tho, I don't think mtSRXek will ever leave my head at this point, those letters have just melded with my subconscious.

Honestly if I had been the person I am now when I had joined the server 5 years ago, I probably wouldn't really like it that much, in hindsight there's a lot of stuff that went on that I was not really the biggest fan of, but I think it was overall balanced out by all the fun stuff, and I am 100% certain that I would be a significantly worse person today without it, assuming I would even be alive still had I not had such a great community at that time.

ALSO YOU FUCKERS (partially) MADE ME TRANS IT'S YOUR FAULTS (and also Umineko's fault)!!! FRICK YOU I HATE YOU ALL LICHERALLY DIE! got hit by one too many trans-beams and caught 3 too many trans breams le sigh 😔

[vanillahub]

Name / Alias: Vani Are you over 18? Yes / No Is your muse(s) over 18? Yes / No / Depends on the muse & verse When was your blog established? This blog was created at the end of 2022 and start of 2023. That's when I moved here! REPOST, DON'T REBLOG!

– W R I T I N G –

Are you selective about who you write with? No (anyone) / Semi (most people) / Yes (some people) / Highly (few people) / Private (mutuals only).

Life gets busy for me, I tend to also feel overwhelmed easily so I’d rather keep my circle small so I can provide everyone with a good RPing experience!

Are you selective about who you follow? No (anyone) / Semi (most people) / Yes (some people) / Highly (few people).

If your muse is canon, how much do you adhere to canon? Not at all / A little / Some / Mostly / Strictly / Not Applicable.

Star wars’ lore is MASSIVE... As a result, I try to learn more about it through bits and pieces, I choose what I feel like will work best for my interpretations then fill in the gaps however I feel like. Pokemon's lore is very chill, easy to digest and fun to play around with! Even if there isn't much for many characters, but I still try to stick with the timeline of events that most fans agrees with. Saint Seiya's lore is what I'm currently learning more about! So far, it's kinda of chill like Pokemon's but it is fun to think of, like it is with SW's.

What post lengths do you write? One-Liners / Single-Para / Multi-Para / Novella / All of the aforementioned.

One-liners are only for crack/dash shenanigans. Shorter responses work best for Discord RPs. But on tumblr, I have a huge preference for lengthier threads.

Do you use icons and/or GIFS? No / Gifs / Icons / Yes / Sometimes.

I used to love using icons, I had tons of fun with both iconing and making borders for them. BUT I've dropped them in favor of banners. ATP I got too many muses, and it'd drive me MAD to make them for each one of them. My banners are meant to fill in the void left by icons, and this way it challenges me to put more effort on my writing.

Do you write on other platforms? No / Yes

Discord, mutuals are welcomed to ask for it <;3

What level of plots do you write? Unplotted / Open-Ended Plots / Semi-Plotted / Fully Plotted Epics / All of the aforementioned

I have a huge preference for plotted stuff. Knowing the course of events and my partner’s muse makes things a lot easier for me, and overall it is a lot more enjoyable to me.

How quickly do you usually respond to threads? Very Slow (more than a month) / Slow (3-4 weeks) / Average (1-2 weeks) / Fast (less than one week) / Very Fast (less than three days)

It depends on the kind of thread & the size of it TBH. Usually speaking, I'm fast to get to RP responses, but I rely on my queue to deliver them. It helps me to space out RP responses, and manage the numbers of RP threads I have going. I can't stress enough how this method helps me SO MUCH, to prevent any form of burnouts. It may seem like I tend to respond faster to Discord rps, simply because the threads there tend to be shorter in size. But it is mainly due to the fact, there isn’t a queue system.

What types of themes do you like? Adventure / Romance / Fluff / ANGST / Violence / Tragedy / Domestic / Family / All of the aforementioned

WHAT GENRES DO YOU LIKE? ( Feel free to add! ) High Fantasy / Supernatural / Science Fiction / Historical / Horror / Comedy / Romantic / Drama / Action / Smut / Adventure / Espionage / All of the aforementioned

Are there any themes you’re uncomfortable writing on your blog? (Not triggers) No / Yes / Sometimes

Gore can leave me feeling ill, graphic descriptions of injuries/blood/etc can cause me to feel nauseous. Overall it is something, I'd rather avoid reading altogether. I'm also uncomfortable writing adult/minor and incestuous relationships.

Do you have any triggers? How do you request it tagged?

I have no triggers! But I would like that my mutuals tagged anything related to current world events/politics. I get how heated these subjects are to many people. However, I’m not an American, when I’m on my RP blogs I don’t want to see those things. Trust me, if I wanted to know more about it, I'd search for reputable sources of information. And not random blogs, that could be spreading misinformation or fear mongering, uninformed people. No one benefits from these types of situations. I've been in the RPC for many years, and this shit shouldn't be seen an acceptable way to behave online. Spoiler alert: You're not a grand savior, just bc you reblogged a post that had something to do, with whatever may be happening. Not everyone on Tumblr is from the US.

– S H I P P I N G –

What types of relationships are you open to?

Romantic / Platonic / Familial / All of the aforementioned

It all depends on the chemistry, and IC development. I’m extremely picky about platonic/familial relationships, due to having some really awful experiences with it in the past.

What types of pre-established relationships are you open to? Romantic / Platonic / Familial / All of the aforementioned

See the answer above. So long as we have managed to come up with something that works well for both muses, it’s all good for me.

Do you have OTPs? No / Chemistry Only / Yes

I do! My ship bias lists can be found on my muses about docs/pages!

Do you have NOTPS? No / Yes

They can be found on my muses about sections/docs as "ships I refuse to romantically write". These can range either for my own comfort, to me straight up not liking them.

What is your muse’s sexual orientation? Heterosexual / Heteroflexible / Bisexual / Pansexual / Homoflexible / Homosexual / Demisexual / Sapiosexual / Asexual / Still trying to figure it out / Depends on the muse you’re asking

See their infos

What is your muse’s romantic orientation? Heteroromantic / Heteroflexible / Biromantic / Homoflexible / Homoromantic / Panromantic / Demiromantic / Sapioromantic / Aromantic / Still trying to figure it out / Depends on the muse you’re asking

See their infos

Are you comfortable writing smut? No / Selectively / Yes

I have a NSFW side blog just for that, even though I haven’t used it in ages LMAO. I just have been preferring to write NSFW stuff on discord lately. With that said though, not all of my muses are open for it.

How early in a relationship do you ship romantically? Autoship / During plotting / After a couple IC interactions / Several IC interactions / Slow burn / Plot dependent / Never

Man it just happens.

Are you open to toxic ships? No / Selectively / Yes / I am not sure

With that said, I’m selective about who I’d write such subject. I personally, prefer doing this by myself. I’m not opposed to writing it with others, I just want to make sure nothing will be romanticized during the plotting/writing of such relationship. And due to a few bad apples in the past, I’ve become wary of giving others a shot at this.

Are you open to problematic ships?

No / Selectively / Yes / I am not sure

Bruh, anything can be considered problematic in this day & age, let's go grab some juice instead. I have ships where, a good chunk of their respective fandoms have labelled them as "problematic". But then when you look at my writing, I'm not writing the "problematic" things the fandom claims them to be as. In the end of the day, my followers and mutuals are highly encourged to curate their stay. This includes, blacklisting to their hearts' content. I feel like we as online fandoms have devolved so much, to a point you will likely find a mfer claiming how shipping in itself is problematic. As well as how you must be ashamed, to enjoy pairing fictional characters in general. Anyway hit me with whatever you want, and I’ll be the judge of what I want to write or not.

Are you open to polyshipping? No / Selectively / Yes / I am not sure

It depends on the muse you’re asking for. This is something that's more dependent on IC reasons, than OOC ones. Many of my muses wouldn't approve or be open, for a relationship like that.

Are you an exclusive shipper? Never / Sometimes / Yes / I would be open to discuss it

No, absolutely not. I’ve never had any luck with exclusivity, and after many failed attempts. i’ve come to the conclusion, it just isn’t for me.

Does crack shipping ever happen? Nope / Yes / depends / altho they gradually become normal ships

Stares @ all of my ships and sweats.

[goodnightkisseu-main]

as I’m trying to find a happy balance between running all of my blogs, I’ve been spending a bit more time on @goodnightkisseu. So if you’re into wanna one and exo fics, you can find me there for the next month :) I will still occasionally post here and hopefully I can get this blog all queued up soon  ^^

[albonium]

I was tagged by Em @schwarzevulkan and Celine @querencva, thank you !

Ask game under there ↓

1. Why did you choose your URL?

I like Toto (even if i feel like he may end up on the naughty list by Christmas ?) and I love dogs : tadaaaa

2. Any side blogs?

I was going to say no because I'm not used to it but ... I have one : @hornyhorner 😭. It started as a joke but I really want to do more. I don't have any ideas at the moment (and when I do I give up pretty quickly or it ends up being really bad and I don't post it), if anyone has an idea or a request I'm all ear (no s, I only have one functioning ear).

3. How long have you been on Tumblr?

I just checked on my old blog and I've been here since July 29th 2012 and apparently my first post was about Depeche Mode. I've been looking at the f1blr side of things since Spa last year and started posting after Abu Dhabi (not logical to start when the season ends I know)

4. Do you have a queue tag?

Nope

5. Why did you start your blog on the first place?

I kept rambling about F1 to my friends, they love me (or at least I hope so) but there's only so much they can take. I first went on reddit but .... reddit is reddit and even if I like some aspects of it it's not the same as here. (I'm still out there btw, I'm enjoying the best of both)

6. Why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I have a dog pun as my url, I wanted to keep it related to dogs and F1

7. Why did you choose your header ?

I like McLaren and it was a pretty picture that went well with my winter related theme on desktop... It'll soon be summer in the northern hemisphere and snowy McLaren sign is still here, oops.

8. What’s your post with the most notes ?

I don't care about notes but :

this one about a formulino press conference but it really took off thanks to the amazing fanart that was added

I have a post on my old blog that has a little over 1k and it's something really dumb (basically it's a I'm sad post and people were like bitch me too!!!! low effort but apparently very relatable)

9. How many mutuals do you have ?

I have no idea, I don't really keep track of this (or care lol)

10. How many followers do you have ?

195 (same thing, I don't care)

11. How many people do you follow ?

136

12. Have you ever made a shit post?

Never heard of it (all of my posts are shit posts)

13. How often do you use tumblr a day?

It depends, I don't really know. Tbh I've been home because of COVID for over a year now so A Lot. I try to limit my screen time (if I'm succeeding or not is another problem) and I still have a lot of things to do (I take care of my grandparents)

14. Did you ever have a fight/argument with another blog ?

I've only said something under a post once. I see a lot of things that make me angry but I contain myself. I'm here to have fun, so I unfollow and block people and that's it.

15. How do you feel about the “you need to reblog” posts ?

It depends what kind of posts we're talking about but the short answer is I don't do it. I do whatever I want with my blog.

I'm not superstitious so I won't share posts that are like "rb this or you'll fail all your exams. Regarding the more serious side of things, I've said it before but when I'm here it's to unplug my brain and think about anything else than real day to day life and its Big Sad Problems.

16. Do you like tag games ?

Yes but I'm always writing too much or being a bit awkward and I never know who to tag because I'm shy.

17. Do you like ask games ?

See above 😭. Also I'm not really a big fan of the "put a star in your mutual's ask box" etc things. It's just not something I like doing and find a bit weird.

18. Which of your mutuals do you think is mutual famous?

Who cares about being famous we're on Tumblr in 2021

19. Do you have a mutual crush?

I don't know any of you IRL so no

As I said like 7 lines ago, I never know who to tag and I've seen that a lot of people have already done this.

I'll ask @formulol and @slaveofimagination and not step out of my comfort zone sorry sorry, you're my go to "victims".

[falconarr0w]

Tagged by @galarianmewtwo Thanks my dude! ☺

1. What do you prefer to be called?

Well I don't really go by anything else but my name, which is John btw! 😊

2. When's your birthday?

August 31st

3. Where do you live?

Sydney, Australia

4. 3 things you're doing right now?

Having coffee, watching YouTube videos and answering these questions 😊

5. 4 fandoms that've piqued your interest?

I can't say I'm really active in too many fandoms but I really like my favorite bands (my main 3 being nine inch nails, the 1975 and brockhampton) and Mortal Kombat ☺

6. How's the pandemic been treating you?

It's been alright, it was scary at first when lockdown started and I didn't know when I'd get to see my friends again, but with restrictions lifting it seems like things are getting better.

7. A song you can't stop listening to?

There's a few but I've definitely had this on repeat a lot recently (Darcy Baylis is so underrated)

8. Reccomend a movie?

Both The Raid and The Raid 2, if you're a fan of action and martial arts films I highly reccomend them both, two of the best films I've ever seen.

9. How old are you?

22

10. School, university, employment?

Currently working a job I've been at for about 5+ years, need to look for different work and/or a TAFE course.

11. Do you prefer to be hot or cold?

Cold, hands down :)

12. A fact others may not know about you?

Ummm, I can count to 10 in German!

13. Are you shy?

Kinda! I try to be as open and approachable as possible I'm terrible around new people, but once I've warmed up to you I'm quite talkative 😊

14. Pronouns?

He/Him

15. Biggest pet peeve

Rude people and slow walkers are the only two that come to mind

16. Rate your life from 1-10?

Hmm, honestly I'd say about a 7 or 8, it could be better but I'm quite happy at the moment (plus after I see the new Mortal Kombat movie that'll probably jump up to a 10 tbh)

17. What's your main blog?

This one ☺

18. List all your side blogs?

I have two! There's @m00d-b0r3d (mostly just filled with random posts I like, I treat it like a moodboard, hence the name "moodbored" 😋) and @curiouslover (this one's my porn blog and quite NSFW, not a fan of the name but it's all I could come up with 😂)

19. Is there anything people should know about you before becoming friends with you?

I'm a bit shy (in person) but once I'm comfortable around you I'm quite talkative and I've been told that I'm nice and approachable! Also if we're friends I'll definitely hype you up as much as possible ☺💖☺

Tagging

Anyone who sees this and would like to join in!! 😊😊😊

[just-like-playing-tag]

A totally self indulgent compilation of my favorite works on this blog of the year June 13, 2019 - June 13, 2020

I wanted to do this for the blog's first anniversary but then completely forgot about it lol.

The following lists are all in chronological order according to the date each post was first published.

Top 10 panel edits:

#1: Don and Gilda - Chapter 138: Demon serch (1)

Date: Jun 14th, 2019

Time: ~ 1:30 h

My very first redraw from my very first edit posted here, so it deserves an honorable mention. Back then I was young and inexperienced, I didn't even apply a gray filter (lmao I was so unskilled I even unintentionally scratched the picture, I hadn't realized until today). I'm actually very happy my first redraw was of Don, boy deserves all the love.

#2: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 28th, 2019

Time: ~ 1 h

Back then this looked like so much work to me!!! And to this day, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm particularly proud of how the bow turned out. This is one I was really proud of right after having finished it; it gave me the confidence to try redrawing bigger areas. Also, the edit were I first applied the opacity of layer / opacity of brush for the gray filter that would have stuck with me.

#3: Krone's birthday edit

Date: Jul 15th, 2019

Time: 15 mins

I don't know I just really like how Krone's hair vanish to a more sketch-like style here– and consequently, how I managed to replicate such effect. I think Krone's beautiful.

#4: Emma, Norman and Ray - Chapter 153: Coward

Date: Oct 4th, 2019

Time: 4:07 h (and 67 layers lmao)

Probably the single panel redraw I'm the most proud of. That Norman panel was beautiful and very poignant at the end of a chapter I adored, so I believe it deserved all the time I've spent working on it. It's far from being perfect - the back of his head is too plain, and the difference between my brushes and the original brushes is pretty visible - but I still like it very much and am extremely attached to it. The horn looks kinda big but I honestly believe it to be more of an issue with the original than with what I had redrawn lol. Funny enough, the whole picture didn't make it to the final edit and had to be trimmed.

#5: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 11th, 2019

Time: 29 mins

I don't have a particular reason for this I just think Emma's hair turned out amazing. It took just half an hour and I didn't even use references like. Wow. @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back

#6: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 17th, 2019

Time: 2:09 h

Sis I love this so freaking much. The shift from redrawing almost exclusively people and clothes to redrawing this mess was so fun and refreshing. Even though it's a mess I think it turned out very clean and overall it looks beautiful? I remember after finishing this I felt so powerful, like now that I had redrawn this thing I would have been able to redraw anything I set my mind on lol.

#7: Emma - Chapter 161: Never Be Alone

Date: Dec 13th, 2019

Time: 57 mins

Again no particular reason except this is a very cute Emma and I think the redraw turned out pretty well. There's this big lock on the left that doesn't make a lot of sense but overall I really like it. Cute Emma is cute, and I love her determination.

#8: Emma - Chapter 166: Going Back Home

Date: Mar 9th, 2020

Time: 3:45 h

I'M SO FREAKING PROUD OF THAT RIFFLE I have not the slightlest idea why this took so damn long BUT I'M SO PROUD OF IT

#9: Norman's birthday edit

Date: Mar 21st, 2020

Time: 1:04 h

This is cool! I didn't know I could manage to draw this, but I did it! The feathers were particularly hard to clean but I think they turned out fine.

#10: Full Score Trio - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 6th, 2020

Time: 2:11 h

I just think they're very pretty? I can't understand if I like Ray's face a lot, or not at all, but I think overall there was a lot to redraw and it turned out pretty cute! Sorry Gillian.

(Also insert pretty much every panel from the chapter 177 Isabella edit– I've spent so many hours on basically every panel there's no way I could choose only one).

Top 5 edits as whole:

#1: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 29th, 2019

Complessive time: 2:57+ h

The very first edit I'm actually proud of; I'm really attached to it. It's the first edit I had put all of my effort into, and I remember feeling anxious people would have left it without notes. It kinda feels weird to think about it now, because I really don't care about notes anymore; yet, it somehow makes me happy to think that past-me wasn't let down. Thank you @neverlandstrio for your support, you may not remember but it really meant a lot to me back then! And it still makes me smile. You're the best!!!!!!

#2: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 20th, 2019

Complessive time: 7:12+ hours

This whole edit was an hella wild ride. It's midnight before a school day, when I think: "Mh, it's been a while since I last made an edit, why not make one about Musica and the queen from the last chapter?" And seven hours after this was born. I'm particularly proud of the queen's redraws on the 3rd, 7th and 9th picture (ofc), the areas which have been redrawn are pretty huge yet I think the difference with the original is almost impossible to notice?? @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back (part 2)

#3: Emma - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 12th, 2020

Complessive time: 6:53+ h

I think the panels that were selected work very well together, especially considering the close-up / full body alternation. I love Emma, and I've always been kinda sad noticing that edits that focus one her take the less notes... She deserves all the love. Also, fun fact: for the last but one panel, I had redrawn Emma's whole left ear before remembering she doesn't have one, so I had to redraw the panel from the start. Besides from the error with the ear, the reason why this (and all the others after) took so long is because official panel take way longer to clean.

#4: Isabella and her children - Chapter 177: Mother

Date: May 22nd, 2020

Complessive time: 13:41+ h (ahah.)

Lmao tbh I can't understand how this has so few notes it's like. Technically speaking, probably the best edit I've ever done. I don't even like Isabella that much, I haven't got the slightlest idea why I decided to spend so many hours on this. Anyway, I find the composition (full body on the left / headshots on the right) really good looking in this as well! And I think the redraws turned out fine, especially Isabella's.

#5: The Promised Neverland manga ending countdown→ 1/7 chapters: chapter 1 - Grace Field House

Date: Jun 9th, 2020

Complessive time: 1:59+ h

I don't know how I came up with that idea for the composition but I find it really beautiful??? I think it does a pretty good job conveying the sudden, terrific shift of atmosphere from the first chapter, and I think that sharp bridge is very nice. I'm very, very proud of this.

Honorable mention #1: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 13th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:44+ h (+ 1:13 h of working on a panel that ultimately didn't make it to the final edit)

A very good chapter, and the edit turned out surprisingly amazing??? All the redraws look great and make it almost impossible to distinguish them from the original; honestly I feel like I'll never be able to redraw so neatly again lol.

Honorable mention #2: Don and Gilda (+ Norman) - Chapter 160: Shackles

Date: Dec 11th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:14+ h

That one is really one of my favorite scenes; I'm telling you peoples, Gilda and Don are a blessing to the earth. I think I've never mentioned it, but Gilda's hair is a nightmare to redraw??? More specifically, it takes me h o u r s to fill the texture without making it look too weird, it's the worst.

Honorable mention #3: Norman and Ray - Chapter 179: Compensation

Date: Jun 6th, 2020

Complessive time: 4:16+ h

I was so glad to finally be able to make a Norman / Ray edit, and it turned out it was just in time before the series' finale. I like how it turned out and I'm pretty satisfied with the redraws (even though my sister helped me with the lineart of some panels - it was exams time and I really couldn't afford to spend more time on it), too bad we didn't have more chapters that focused on the boys. Ray sweetie one day I'll fix your ear it's just today's not that day.

Btw, I justed realized I have never done an Emma / Norman centered edit? I'll have to make one eventually. I remember considering focusing on them alone for the chapter 154 one, but then I thought "even if the manga is gonna ignore Ray, I will chose to do not" lol.

Top 5 long posts:

#1: Reconstruction of how the Grace Field children were settled in the three bedrooms

Date: Aug 28th, 2019

I just had really a lot of fun doing it. I love putting all the little things to their own place, it's so calming to do and that's why I love making this kind of things. Also, loved how @temporoom contributed to the post! It was so nice of them to add what they had noticed to come up with more exact conclusions, that's one of the things I love the most about the internet.

#2: A study of how many times the characters of The Promised Neverland call each other through the first season of the anime

Date: Sep 10th, 2019

I REALLY LOVE IT! I mean it *was* kinda stressing to note everything, but it was very also very satisfying to see everything methodically divided and organized! And it's not just that– it's also the fact that it looks good. That's one post I have fun rereading because it's actually pretty! Also, even though it can be very stressing to learn to use new programs and sites, it's always very satisfying to look at the final result. Again, I really adore compiling these tiny little details! I would love to make more posts of that kind if i had the time.

#3: The Promised Neverland musicals headcanons

Date: Oct 27th, 2019

I mean it's literally. Putting my two favorite fandoms together how could I not love it. This is another one I really enjoy rereading, I find all the musical / character associations so fitting! I really want to make a second part, I hope to find some time to do it.

#4: Considerations on the reward / eventual series' finales (and Emma's sacrifice)

Date: May 7th, 2020

It's always nice to put down all your thoughts regarding a particular matter. It can take a lot of time (at least for me it does because... I need time to think about things), but it's so satisfying to see all of them there once you're done. Bonus points when, like in this case, it was something asked by someone else because “Wow! Somebody wants to hear my opinion on this subject! I'm flattered (◍•ᴗ•◍)”

#5: Some other considerations on the series' finale and Emma sacrificing herself

Date: Jun 13th, 2020

Pretty much the same as above. It's like some kind of clarity when the post is done and signed. Another fun fact, I had to censore the post a lot; the first version was extremely sharp and harsh, but I believe it's right to express your opinions calmly and politely.

Bonus: A thread of what the tpn characters would wear at the Oscars

Date: Feb 9th, 2020

Imagining all the children in those pretty dresses makes me so incredibly happy (╥﹏╥) I go back to look at that post a lot. I really love red carpets, I love looking at pretty dresses!!!!!

Lmao it's so funny how the post of mine I like the most are also the ones with the less notes

Anyway this was just a personal report! You don't have to read it all (or any of it actually). But it was indeed fun making it! Here's to many more months in the fandom!!!

[zukoshotleafjuice]

The funniest thing about june teasing katara and zuko about being a couple is that she just sees a pretty girl and an attractive guy, both looking almost the same age which immediately makes her go "you two must be a couple" and it just reminds me of zvtara shippers, you know what i mean? I'm convinced one of the reasons a lot of ppl ship them is bc of their looks. katara being the female protagonist and also a pretty, smart and powerful girl & zuko, despite not being the male protagonist, being the most attractive guy in the gaang. Boom, a "bomb ass ship". It is worth to recall that "people ship zutara bc they projected onto katara and had a crush on zuko". And if they say they don't ship them for that reason, then it's bc they read too much between the lines in every interaction they have. So, back to june, she didn't even care if they had chemistry or if they were friends or anything, she just straight up teased them about being a couple lmao. Because in all honesty zvtara can be an appealing ship in anyone's eyes but THAT'S IT, it doesn't go further than that. I can be testimony of that😅Before even watching the show i was like june, one day i saw a zk fanart and was like "wow aren't those zuko and katara from atla? They look so good, she's gorgeous and he's hot" i already knew kataang was endgame and that mai was zuko's love interest but seeing zuko and katara together was pleasing to my eyes. However once i watched the show for the first time (2 months ago i think) i realized there was really no romantic chemistry between them, nothing, literally nothing, i mean, i wasn't even waiting for the zvtara content in the show that made ppl ship them so much, i was actually very neutral about ships, i couldn't care less about them, but i still realized nothing was happenig between them and that it was obvious since book 1 ep 1 that kataang was endgame. Zuko and katara were two teenagers from opposite sides of a war that tried to kill each other multiple times and when zuko changed sides they developed a completely platonic relationship. As i said, people either ship them because it's an appealing and aesthetically pleasing ship (water/fire, enemies to lovers, opposites attract, the common red & blue ship) or they just love reading too much between the lines, OR BOTH, because they were so thirsty about it they ended up convincing themselves there was romantic tension between them, that they liked each other and that zvtara was scrapped when it was never planned in the first place. Not to mention the reasons why they claim zvtara should've been endgame are based only on symbolism and things they have in common that are just so ??? Random. e.g. (i saw these on a post on facebook and the comment section was hilarious, it was full of ppl being sarcastic about it & making fun of it) saying they should've been canon bc:

1. "They both lost their mothers at a young age" (?)

2. "katara was good but had rage in her heart and zuko was bad but had good in his heart so it was like yin and yang, and that was the main purpose/topic of the show" (?)

3. "they both had alter egos (painted lady and blue spirit)" (???) this one sounds like saying maiko was canon bc zuko worked in a tea shop and mai worked in a flower shop😂

4. "Zuko was the only one who supported katara in taking revenge on her mom's assassin" (?) if you ask me, that just proves zuko is not right for katara, he led her to do something she was gonna regret later (not trying to hate on zuko, i love him, and since i love him i acknowledge his flaws. I understand why he thought it was the best thing to do, he's an impulsive and resentful boy (he would've done the same if it was his mom) and he noticed how thirsty katara was for revenge, ofc he wanted to help her + he wanted her to accept him and thought it was the right thing to do in order to gain her trust, but it wasn't) unlike zuko, aang tried to make katara come to her senses and do the thing that was best for her: forgive and let go, and it was basically what she did at the end. She didn't do what zuko expected her to do. She did what aang expected her to do. She didn't forgive her mom's assassin, but she forgave zuko, and she didn't do THAT thing she (and aang) knew would regret later. Aang knew katara and what was the best thing for her to do.

5. and the most ridiculous one, "they both saved each other's lives in the final agni kai"(???????) and the funniest part is that it was followed by "WHAT MORE PROOFS DO YOU WANT???". Honestly wtf did ppl expect? Did they expect zuko to stand there and watch katara die? Did they expect katara to just stand there and watch zuko lay on the floor & die? And this has been said a million times and i am going to join and say it once again: zuko would've done that for ANYONE from the gaang, he would've done the same for toph, sokka, suki and aang. Because he learned to care about them. As for katara, she would've done that for anyone too wtf she healed aang once too and even brought him back to life. (I wouldn't be surprised if zk shippers used that as a parallel for romantic zvtara proof bc they're just like that💀)

There were more "reasons" but they're just so stupid and taken out of context like "they care for each other" & "katara was the one who encouraged him to talk to his uncle" like yeah that's what friends do. Basically all zvtara shippers do is REACH.

Also, i just can't see it happening. I like the enemies to lovers trope, maybe if the writers really intended to make it canon, i would have been down for the ship, it would've been interesting to see how it developed, but,, they didn't, and later i came to the realization that if it would've really happened, it would've been so... weird. Time to bring up the "colonized and colonizer ship" and how some ppl feel uncomfortable about it. Besides the fact that a relationship between zuko and katara wouldn't have worked (they're incompatible af, katara is a girl with a strong character and zuko is a guy with anger issues that takes everything personal, they'd be at each other's throats 99% of the time) it's just weird to think that katara would choose to marry a man from the fire nation, the nation that caused a big war that traumatized her, the nation that took her mother away from her. Imagine katara ruling along with zuko a nation she despised for years. Fire lady katara doesn't sit right with me, and i'm sure it doesn't sit right with a lot of ppl as well. I don't see katara doing that, and yes, i know she forgave zuko, but still, she would've never done that 🤦🏽‍♀️ i think it would've been so OOC tbh.

Another thing i laugh my ass off at is when they say "zuko should've chosen katara instead of mai" as if they were ever in a relationship for zuko to say "ok imma choose katara i wanna be with her". As if katara was EVER an option for him. They never showed interest in each other, what's not clicking?????? And zuko only had eyes for mai, not to mention that despite zuko and mai had a rough relationship, no girl would've dealed with zuko's bs better than mai. Can you imagine katara dealing with zuko blowing up over everything? Because i can't. Also people saying things like "zuko deserves someone who is always there for him and listens to him" (and ofc they're talking about katara) like, ok, you hate that katara is aang's "therapist" but you want her to be zuko's therapist. Logic? Where? And I do remember mai being a supportive gf and trying to cheer him up multiple times. Did they watch the same show as me?

Zvtarians try to play the victims about how they were "robbed" bc some voice actors shipped them and from what i've read people who worked for the show suggested to go for zk, but that's stupid, it doesn't count as "they planned it but scrapped it, we were robbed". The only word that counts are the creators' voice and they have stated they were always rooting for kataang, so no, you were not robbed.

People are just so in love with the idea of zuko and katara together they really convinced themselves it was likely to happen. Honestly zvtara it's a fine ship as fanon but ppl ruined it for me and what i hate the most is when they ship it and hate on aang and mai at the same time and make them look SO bad to invalidate kataang and maiko. Saying aang is abusive and mai is toxic is complete ✨bullshit✨ and lastly, it's ridiculous when they say the creators were cowards for not making it canon. They're cowards for not fulfilling your greatest childhood wish? Something they never planned? It is THEIR show. If you hate sm how things turned out then quit atla once and for all and go find another show that you know is gonna give you what you expect,,, it's tiring that they've been crying about it for 15 yrs , like, i joined the fandom recently but i can imagine how tired old atla fans must be of this.

OK so I have a lot of thoughts about this and firstly,,,anon I appreciate the dedication that it took for you to write  this, and I agree with many of your points. However, the attitude I have on this blog towards Avatar ships is far more neutral than what you’re saying.

Ultimately, romance is not and never was the focus of Avatar. Romantic development was always secondary or tertiary plot, and the entire show was far more focused on platonic relationship development. My attitude towards shippers on here - including Zutara shippers - is that people can ship what they want, as long as they’re respectful of each other and of the other characters that “interfere” with their ship. End of the day, shipping is irrelevant to the core of the show. 

People shipping something because they find it aesthetically appealing is honestly,,,fine. Personally, I think it’s reductionist, but I don’t care if you do because everyone has the right to enjoy media however they want to. 

That being said, we absolutely should call out racist or problematic tropes that we see, including ‘fire lady katara”. I also agree that it’s upsetting when people bash other characters in order to further their ship, as much of the bashing is also pretty racist and/or misogynistic. Calling that out, however, is separate from calling out every single person who happens to enjoy certain ships. 

“She didn't do what zuko expected her to do. She did what aang expected her to do. She didn't forgive her mom's assassin, but she forgave zuko, and she didn't do THAT thing she (and aang) knew would regret later. Aang knew katara and what was the best thing for her to do.”

I understand where you’re coming from, but I honestly disagree with this take. Both Aang and Zuko were approaching the situations from their own life experiences, but Katara didn’t do what either of the boys wanted. She chose her own path, by both sparing Yon Rha’s life but also refusing to forgive him. The episode is about Katara and her personal trauma and its focus should not be on her relationships with either Zuko or Aang. 

When I make posts such as this, it’s less about hating Z*tara and more about how this fandom focuses all its attention on romance and shipping, to the point where if you acknowledge a relationship’s importance it’s assumed you pair the two romantically. I don’t read Zuko and Katara’s relationship as romantic (for reasons that it would take too long to explain here), but their relationship development is extremely important, the two of them share tons of parallels and the final Agni Kai marks the culmination of both of their character arcs. Yes, Zuko would have taken the lightning for any of the characters, but it’s thematically important that it was Katara. None of this inherently means it’s romantic, but refusing to acknowledge the significance of the relationship between them is equally reductionist. 

This isn’t an attack on you, anon, and you’re 100% allowed to have negative feelings about a ship. But at the end of the day, it’s not worth getting this worked up over. If I were you I’d focus more on creating/consuming content for a ship you like than bashing ships you don’t!

[spockandawe]

HEY THERE, you have me interested in The Untamed but I'm a little lost as to where to start, there's both a 50 episode normal version and a 20 episode special edition, which should I watch/start with? Also WHAT does your svsss tag stand for? I'm seeing "The Untamed" and "Chén Qíng Lìng" and "Mo Dao Zu Shi" and "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" thrown around as synonyms or related pieces of media, but nothing with svsss!

Sure thing!!

Okay, to start with, I’d definitely go with the 50-episode version. It’s a Lot, and there is some padding added to the story compared to the original book, but twenty episodes seems really, really short to do justice to the central plot 

(a quick skim of google tells me that the special edition leans harder into the original novel’s gayness, which the show has to be coy about, because china. i think there are expanded scenes featuring the two leads, which is awesome, because their acting is AMAZING, but that just means the plot scenes are even more compressed. I saw at least one person recommend that you not do the special edition unless you’ve consumed the story in at least one other more standard format already)

Also! Iirc, the show is available on youtube and netflix, among other platforms, though those two are wonderfully accessible. However, comma, I do hear from people fluent in chinese that the subtitles sometimes are inaccurate in unnecessary/unfortunate ways. From what I hear, viki has the best complete set of subtitles (I think there may be fansub projects in progress, but I am not at all in touch with those. I still haven’t watched the show myself).

And the general summary of my current webnovel fixation! There’s this webnovel author who goes by mxtx, who currently has three complete books out, which have all been translated into english. Then after I finished those, I started branching out into other authors and webnovels, though I’m not too deep into that end of the pool yet. I’ll break each book into a separate paragraph for clarity. 

Oh, and. Each of these books is explicitly gay, and set in ancient fantasy china, in a wuxia/xianxia setting, which I’m not too familiar with myself, but I believe it functions a lot like how authors will use ‘ancient fantasy europe’ as a playground where they don’t necessarily need to match up to established countries/cities/etc, but they expect readers to recognize certain conventions, like I’d be able to recognize a western author writing a basic feudal setting, or recognize witches and wizards, without them explaining the whole thing from the bottom up. Since I’m not familiar, it raised the difficulty level a little for me to get into the genre, but the webnovel translators tend to use footnotes and I picked up a lot as I went on.

(if you are interested in any of these, novelupdates.com is a good central resource collecting links to various fan translation projects)

So! Mxtx. Her earliest book is The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (SVSSS), which is also the shortest and most linear of her books. The general premise is that a guy who’s been hate-reading this (straight) stallion harem webnovel with a dark protagonist. He goes to bed, and wakes up in the novel, as the protagonist’s dickbag teacher, who is doomed to eventually die horribly. He wants to not die, and is also a decent human being, so the book follows the “original” novel derailing from its intended path, and accidentally getting super duper gay. This one is about to come out in donghua form, but I think that may be its first non-book adaption.

Her second book, which was adapted into The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling (CQL), is also known as The Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation/Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS), which really manages to be the hardest of her books to summarize. Wei Wuxian, the grandmaster of demonic cultivation, dies. Thirteen years later, he wakes up in someone else’s body. Most of the world would like him to stay dead, tbh, but he’s a good egg, and he and his old friend(????) go forth and solve a necromantic mystery together, and also there is romance-romance and ten million family feelings. This one gets nonlinear, with several extended flashback sequences, and the story STARTS at about the midway point of the plot. This has been adapted into an audio drama at least once, a manhua, a donghua, and now a live action show, so it goes by a million different names in its various formats.

Her third book, and the LONGEST, is Heaven Official’s Blessing/Tian Guan Ci Fu (TGCF), and oh my god, it’s so long, and I love it so, so much. This gets into high fantasy much  more than the other two, including the idea that as people develop their cultivation and powers, they may eventually achieve immortality and ascend to the heavens. The story follows Xie Lian who achieved immortality and ascended to heaven! And then fell. And then ascended! And fell again. Eight hundred years later, he ascends for the third time. He meets Hua Cheng, the ridiculously powerful ghost king, who most of the other immortals are terrified of. But Hua Cheng seems to like Xie Lian! And Xie Lian thinks Hua Cheng is a sweet boy! (hua cheng is a sweet boy, but only for xie lian). This also has extended flashback sequences, but is a more linear story than MDZS, I think. Also it made me cry, which, wow, rude. I love it so incredibly much. This also exists as a manhua, but I think it’s still being published? I haven’t read it yet.

NOW. Mxtx is working on a fourth book, but it’s not out in chinese yet, never mind english. But I needed More. I was getting some SVSSS vibes from this one other book, which, *wobbly hand motions*, but I am enjoying the hell out of this book purely for its own sake.

Meatbun is an author with other books that I haven’t read yet, but I am currently in the middle of The Husky And His White Cat Shizun/Er Ha He Ta De Bai Mo Shi Zun (Erha/2ha), which is at this moment being adapted to a live action tv show called Immortality. There are MANY warnings that go with this book, though the google docs translation files do a good job of placing warnings at the front of every document and in front of relevant chapters. The general premise! Mo Ran basically conquered the entire world, put down all resistance by force, and was a super powerful but Kinda Dumb emperor. As part of this, he took his old teacher, who he despised with a burning passion, prisoner, and abused him a Lot. The story starts as rebels try to mount an assault on his palace, and Mo Ran’s cousin gets impatient with how slowly things are moving and runs ahead of the group. He finds that (suicide warning:) Mo Ran has... taken poison, and is in the middle of dying. This doesn’t stick. He wakes up as a teenager, apparently having traveled back in time, and starts living through events again, with the knowledge of his past life. It took me a while to warm up to this story, but ohhhh my goodness, it’s so TASTY. The translation for this one is ongoing, and I am in AGONY waiting for further updates.

So those are the ones I’m currently into and mostly blogging about! I also read Dreamer In The Spring Boudoir, mostly because feynite wrote an SVSSS fic set in the universe of that novel, which was good in some ways, left me cold in others (and the original novel is straight, with a society with rigid gender roles, so making it super gay in the fic made the setting much more interesting to me). Meatbun has other writing, which I haven’t sampled yet, but I am definitely interested in doing that sometime soon. 

Sorry, I know this is a LOT, so if you have any other questions feel free to ask me!! I got into these mostly via being interested in the untamed, so I read them as 1) mdzs, 2) svsss, 3) tgcf, 4) erha, which was an order that worked well for me. But if someone was looking for a general order to read them in, independent of that, I might suggest 1) svsss, 2) mdzs, 3) tgcf, 4) erha. They’re all really good, and scratch different emotional itches, and each of them has at least a few characters who sucker-punch me RIGHT in the goddamn heart. They’ve been a HUGE help for me dealing with the restlessness and/or apathy of quarantine, so I’ve been evangelizing them to pretty much anyone who will listen to me, hahaha

[heroes-never-discourse]

(1)Dunno who else to talk to about this but I don't watch bnha (only saw a handful of eps from s1 and read stuff on wikis) and I don't like bkdk. I mean, I'd probably like it on other circumstances but I guess my actual reasoning is selfish? I wasn't bullied but just teased a lot cause I was easy target. The stuff that happened to me isn't as bad as what Bakugo did to Izuku but I'm still affected by them and so I couldn't forgive the people who did me wrong even years after we all graduated.

(2)Many of them never apologized or was just told to by the teachers and I can tell they didn’t mean it as some continued to make me cry cause it was funny. Unlike Izuku who never asked for an apology nor cared to get one and still likes Bakugo as a friend, I’m the opposite so it just makes me feel uneasy cause he’s different than me and I can’t understand why. And bkdk shippers saying that it’s good and all makes me feel… idk? Bad about myself? Like, my problems aren’t as bad as his yet he

(3)is totally okay with that and everyone just says he’s a precious cinnamon roll and Bakugo should be forgiven and whenever I see pro-bkdk post that talks about this I feel ‘personally attacked’ as others would say. I feel like I’m a bad person for not being able to forgive and not forgetting and I hate Bakugo cause he reminds me of those who made me cry and I feel like I’m a terrible person cause he got better and he did worse than my old classmates but I can’t be like Izuku and I feel guilty.

(4)Also with this reasoning in mind, I can’t help but feel like an anti even though I’m not and I can’t talk to anyone about it cause the only ones who may understand are antis. It’s frustrating and all the more cause I know people would hate me for well, hating it as I’m not even in the fandom and don’t even watched the show or read the manga…

So first off, no one’s going to hate you just for not liking a ship or a character, not anyone around here at least. People have NOTPs, even ones from things they might not have totally consumed and that’s fine, it’s not wrong to dislike ships. What separates a person with a NOTP from an anti is whether you harass the people who like your NOTP for liking it (and you didn’t exactly come spitting into my inbox about how gross I am for shipping bkdk or that I’m an abuse apologist or whatever, so you’re already doing good on that front).

Now, I’m not meaning to sound patronizing or anything so apologies if it comes off that way, but you gotta remember that Deku and Bakugou are just fictional characters. The reason Deku never hates Bakugou or asks for an apology is, at it’s base, because that’s how he’s written. He’s written to be this kind of unattainable ball of pure sunlight, and much as I love best boi for how perpetually sweet and heroic and selfless and full of the best intentions he is, trying to compare yourself to him is a losing game.

You are a person, a human being, not a fictional character. Your emotions and feelings are so much more complicated and varied than any author could ever write. If Deku were real I honestly doubt he’d be as unflinchingly on Bakugou’s side as he’s written to be, even the sweetest people will break if pushed too hard, and there’s probably been dozens of times in the years we don’t see where Bakugou’s pushed way too fucking hard.

You not wanting to like or forgive the people who fucked with you is not a bad thing. It’s normal and it’s so, so very valid. There are people in my life who I’d never want to see again because of how they treated me, and I’m not obligated to forgive just as they are not entitled to my forgiveness. You’re not a bad person for that, not by a long fucking shot.

I know it’s hard not to take positive posts about things you dislike as a personal attack, but you really do have to remember that just because I’m sitting over here in my little “BakuDeku is amazing and I love Bakugou so much!!!” corner doesn’t mean that I’m implicitly saying “and anyone who thinks otherwise is Wrong and a Bad Person!!!” We just get a lot of shit from people who actually harass shippers so it’s nice to send out some positive vibes. We just love our boys and the development we’re watching them go through and sometimes it makes us wanna shout it from the front steps of our blogs :D

BakuDeku took a long time to grow on me. I didn’t even really like Bakugou as a character until halfway through season 3 of the anime. His character in the beginning of the series is pretty weak in my opinion, just another rival character that’s also just super weirdly aggressive, which in general is a huge turn off for me. It was only when his actual character development started happening that I was like “oh this guy is way more interesting than I was giving him credit”. And even then, it wasn’t until one of the last episodes of season 3 that I fully jumped aboard the S.S. BKDK. So if you’ve only watched a handful of S1 and read some wiki stuff then I can totally understand and relate to not liking him (though I admit I don’t have the negative real life associations with that kind of vicious bully character that you do).

I would tentatively recommend giving the series another shot (I mean just in general tbh, it’s one of my favorites regardless of my opinion on bakugou and bkdk) and seeing if watching his development ends up making you come around on him. And if it doesn’t that’s fine too! There’s are tons of people who don’t like the character or the ship for various reasons, some similar to yours, and that’s totally 1000% fine and valid.

And if you don’t want to watch the show/read the manga because it’s just not your thing or whatever, then I genuinely just recommend blacklisting all the bakudeku and bakugou stuff and forgetting about it. It’s just a ship and a character you didn’t like, curating them out of your space and focusing on the stuff that makes you happy is always the best solution.

I hope I helped a little ^-^; My inbox is always open if you need a place to talk, anon, I hope you have a great week 💙💙💙

[longlivefeedback]

hey! so, i'm sure this is something that's been discussed, but i can't find any discourse on your blog. i'm a fic writer and NOTHING annoys me more than the "don't say anything negative" attitude toward fanfiction. if someone leaves a comment that says "i loved your fic but i'm curious as to why character didn't do [x] since it seems a little inconsistent..." or "loved it! just wanted to point out a couple small inaccuracies that most people won't notice but since i work in this field..." (1/?)

it shows me that the commentor was paying attention and thinking about my writing, and isn’t that the ENTIRE point of posting your writing online? i’ve run across quite a few writers who will criticise any criticism or less-than-effusive comments, and it just really, really annoys me. the main reason i think is bc i legitimately LOVE fanfiction—it’s my preferred thing to write/read over original fiction bc it allows me to focus on just exploring the characters since people are already(2/?)

familiar with them/the canon verse. it’s why i hate that it isn’t taken as seriously as original fic, and i really think this culture of “don’t engage unless you only have good things to say” is one of the reasons it just isn’t taken seriously. ofc, not saying that you should just point out all the flaws, but some polite, helpful concrit or probing questions in addition to praise?? makes me really happy tbh. idk maybe i just take it too seriously but (¾)

it REALLY bothers me, and so i wanted to read some debate on this matter from both sides — not just writers, not just readers. this my extremely long-winded way of asking: do you guys have any posts like this?? (4/4)

LLF response: Hi Anon! We do have some posts about commenting culture and a brief guide to supporting authors, as well as reblogs on a guide to reviews and an overview of fandom commenting. Assuming you’ve looked through those posts, the reason why you cannot find anything that addresses your specific concern (i.e. questions in comments bringing up inconsistencies or trying to understand why a character appears to be acting OOC) is probably because LLF has been primarily concerned with broad structural changes and feedback initiatives thus far and the topic you raise, while valid and important to feedback culture, is a bit too nuanced for the current focus of this blog.That being said, I think that your ask brings up some interesting assumptions and perceptions that are critical for fandom health and which I can give my personal opinion on under the jump.

Full disclaimer, the following is my (mod dragonling’s) personal opinion and interpretation of the ask.

1. i’m a fic writer and NOTHING annoys me more than the “don’t say anything negative” attitude toward fanfiction.

This to me is indicative of differing expectations for fandom. Let’s say that instead of fic writing, we’re all chefs (or people who make food) here. We each make a dish and now we want to share it with the world. Do you (A) take it to your friend’s house where they are holding a potluck celebration; (B) set up a stall at the state fair; or © enter it into a cooking/baking competition ala Chopped where 5 star judges and food critics will sample your food? Depending on where you take you food, you would expect very different reactions.

Generally speaking, you would probably want your friends at the potluck to thank you for bringing something and compliment you for how delicious your dish is. If you were still fine tuning your recipe, you could let them know and maybe they would be able to say one or two things they liked or didn’t like about it which you would file away for the evening, to be looked at for the next time you made something.

However, if you were at a state fair, even getting your dish looked at by the crowds of people milling around would be an achievement. If someone bought some of your food, that would be fantastic! If they bought it, took a bite, and then told you how tasty it was, even better! Those people that bought your food, went away, and then came back to tell you how much they enjoyed it or came back to buy some more and brought all their friends with them are heaven sent angels. You probably wouldn’t expect anyone to say anything negative about your food because even if you were still fine tuning the recipe, a state fair is neither the time or place where any sort of meaningful culinary discussion can really take place on a consistent basis.

The situation would be different if you were at a cooking competition. There, you would expect these food experts to pick apart your food. Maybe not steamroll and chew you out ala Gordon Ramsey, but even then if that’s what you were expecting and the kind of feedback you respond best to, then sign up for a competition he is judging at. Perhaps you don’t want to just be yelled at, but would actually like to be coached, then maybe enter a competition with more of a mentoring element versus cutthroat competition.

This all really boils down to knowing who your audience is and your expectations for them. I would say that posting to ao3 is closest to the state fair, and is why the “don’t say anything negative” attitude is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged. The fact that this annoys you indicates that there is some disconnect between what you really want and where you’re going in order to get it. I think that we can all agree that going to the state fair and expecting Gordon Ramsey to show up and tell you why your dish sucks is just…not going to happen. Even more, it’s something that shouldn’t happen. What if you were at the state fair to raise money for charity? No well meaning person is going to tell you that your food sucks and that you should do better and if they do, they don’t mean you well.

So, rather than get hung up on the “don’t say anything negative” attitude in fandom (which, I may add, is there and has been cultivated for a reason), take another look at your audience and your expectations. If you want criticism that is helpful and of good quality, go to an editor or join a writing group. If you want to give criticism, find someone to beta for where you can cultivate a relationship that is mutually beneficial. Don’t be a Gordon Ramsey walking around at the charity fair of home baked goods giving tips to the local families trying to raise funds to repair their schools. Be conscious of the fact that people write for different reasons, and that while some may be okay with great advice being shouted at them, for others, it is a nightmare. Be kind and don’t show up at the wrong party.

2. “i loved your fic but i’m curious as to why character didn’t do [x] since it seems a little inconsistent…” or “loved it! just wanted to point out a couple small inaccuracies that most people won’t notice but since i work in this field…”

I understand where you’re coming from, Anon, and the two examples you mentioned evoke an important point of why it is so difficult to give criticism online. Your questions attempt to illustrate how one might leave a comment that shows that the reader was paying attention and thinking about your writing, and from your ask, I can only assume that you would be thrilled to personally receive either of those comments. To assume that others would be similarly thrilled, however, is fallacious and a dangerous assumption. What works for you, may be hurtful to others. You pointing out “a couple [of] small inaccuracies” may be you being genuinely helpful, but to the author, it may come off as a reader assuming that they didn’t do their research, a reader being a know-it-all, or a reader missing the forest for the trees, especially if this is your one and only comment in a long multi-chaptered work.

Of course, things get even more nuanced when we consider context. Your comment about inaccuracies may be the best thing ever if the author specifically asked for guidance on this matter, or if you have a long standing relationship with this author and somehow commenting in ao3 is the way you beta for each other, or maybe this small inaccuracy is actually a big inaccuracy and you’re just trying to be super tactful about it… I could go on an on and on about it, but how you say things is often just as important as what you say, and in writing, where we do not have the benefit of verbal and visual cues, expressing what you mean becomes even more complicated.

Which is another reason why “don’t say anything negative” is the default. It’s harder to ruin someone’s day with only positive statements, especially when you don’t have the time or platform to really explain yourself and have a meaningful conversation with the author. This Anon’s view on concrit is worth pondering. If you don’t understand or agree with this sentiment, then the conversation we should be having is not “why doesn’t anyone leave concrit” but rather “what is concrit?” 

3. i’ve run across quite a few writers who will criticise any criticism or less-than-effusive comments, and it just really, really annoys me.

Going back to expectations and audiences; remember which party you’re going to. Also, what may seem like just a less-than-effusive comment to you, an outsider who stumbled upon this one comment thread, may actually be a long antagonistic war of words between author and commenter spanning many years, fandoms, and fics. I don’t know. It could happen. Maybe you just have a higher tolerance of trolls and criticism than the rest of us.

It’s certainly happened to me and Rose here on the LLF blog. Either we read the same ask differently or just have different reactions and ways of responding to things that tick us off. Even if we have a shared goal and have known each other for awhile, we’re both different people. It’s not reasonable for me to try to change Rose’s responses to match my own exactly. Just because you care about fanfiction so much doesn’t mean that everyone else does or should as well. If this is something that really truly annoys you and you are trying to see both sides of this issue, I think that you’re on the right track and want to encourage you to keep learning and thinking about it.

4. it isn’t taken as seriously as original fic, i really think this culture of “don’t engage unless you only have good things to say” is one of the reasons it just isn’t taken seriously.

I am not a literary expert, and cannot really opine on how fanfiction is viewed by traditional literature or whether a fantasy AU is better/worse than a published fantasy book or how they relate to the writings of Homer. I also am not sure what you mean by fanfiction not being taken “as seriously as original fic.” Certainly you take it seriously. I take it seriously enough to spend my free time on it, and I take fandom seriously enough that I am spending time I could be using to write fanfiction to help run this blog. If you mean that publishing houses will not pay any attention to a fanfiction story, I would agree because why would they? Fanfiction is, by definition, derived from original fiction. Publishing houses are after new and original content because copyright is a real thing.

Even then, let’s look at Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s Twilight fan fiction. Is it taken more seriously than Twilight? Why or why not? How does it compare to Harry Potter, or Pride or Prejudice? Reading and writing are such personal experiences that I hesitate to say that one piece of writing is inherently better than the other. Hence, I do not think that fan fiction’s audience who “don’t engage unless you only have good things to say” is a problem. To me, that’s like saying “anime isn’t as good as non-anime cartoons because people who watch anime don’t speak English.”

5. not saying that you should just point out all the flaws, but some polite, helpful concrit or probing questions in addition to praise…

Yes, agreed; and if this is what the author has asked for, please go ahead! However, please also remember that not everyone knows how to ask probing questions, give helpful concrit, or even be polite. Sometimes, they aren’t even trying to be rude. It just comes off as such. Maybe the commenter is having a bad day and can’t word right. Maybe the author is having a bad day and can’t read anything without their own personal negative bias clouding their perceptions.

It’s one of the things that we are trying to address at LLF so that these barriers are lower. It’s one of the reasons why some things (native comment templates) just will not work for AO3, because tone is hard to convey, nevermind that your audience probably numbers in the millions, each with their own personal biases and understanding of language. We know that even with giving kudos, people mean different things. Think about how difficult it is to convey sarcasm in writing. AO3 already receives flack for their kudos message, which is the way it is because can you come up with something better that will not tick off anyone? Maybe people want to be polite, maybe they want to be helpful, maybe they just don’t know how. We’re trying to change that and trying to give people the tools to help them comment: LLF Comment Builder, LLF Comment Project, in-line commenting (these tools are mostly focused on how to give positive comments because from the feedback we’ve gotten, people have a hard enough time doing that as is.)

But hey, if you want something for concrit or how to ask probing questions, don’t wait for us. Look up a good guide and reblog it. Encourage your followers to ask you questions about your writing. Write your own guide to commenting. Go. Be the change you want to see.

6. do you guys have any posts like this

So, after all that, LLF may not be the blog for you if you are interested in hearing as many opinions as possible about this topic. However, I would highly encourage you to check out @ao3commentoftheday, which has already hosted quite a few asks about this:

sometimes-i-dont-comment-because-im-a

actually-i-have-a-question-about-commenting

do-writers-like-constructive-criticism-in-reviews

about-the-leaving-only-glowing-praise-comments

about-concrit-i-dont-explicitly-discourage-it

its-not-about-wanting-concrit-its-about-wanting

1-with-concrit-i-think-the-question-is-not

Don’t forget to check the notes on those threads!

[the-knights-who-say-book]

hey could i ask you to elaborate on the acowar and why it's not a good book/book series to read? i've never really been interested in SJ maas or any of her books, but someone recently recommended acotar series and made it sound interesting and good. but now i'm not so sure about it. idk, i'd just like to know what there is about her writing that's discouraging for readers, especially if it's insensitive.

hi anon! i want to specify before we get into anything that this won’t really be “why ac0war is a bad series to read”, partly because i don’t want to put anyone down who enjoyed it and partly because i have seen the less great side of the fandom get incredibly ugly over anyone insulting sj.m’s writing. so this isn’t a hate post, it’s an honest review of the two books of the series that i’ve read, personal to myself and my own preferences.

(although it did turn into a rant post by the end. tbh if you like the series just don’t click the read more because i’m bitter and needed to get it out)

that said…

(beware spoilers, though i’ve tried to keep them vague)

1. smut scenes can make me very uncomfortable, and sj.m’s style isn’t one of the few i can stand. your mileage may vary — other people love them, other people dislike them simply for being too dramatic. i try to skip them as often as possible, so i have no comments beside “no thx”

2. i don’t enjoy her romance style in general. all the snarling and ~claiming~ and soul-mating and, uh, for the mate bond to be cemented the female fae cooks for the male one? i’ll take “unnecessary heterosexism” for 800 pls. also, someone please explain what happens if there are two women or two men. who cooks for whom. i am not having this shit

3. there’s also the fact that one guy drugs the main character? literally roofies her? but it’s “ok” because it was for her own good? sj.m why?

4. and then there’s the second book. i’m going to be honest here, i shouldn’t have read the second book. i didn’t enjoy the first one enough to continue with the series, i just got caught up in booklr’s general enthusiasm for ac0maf and thought i would love it too!

5. did not.

6. don’t understand why Rhiys being a little less of a jackass makes him the Most Feminist Person In The Series. pretty sure letting a woman make her own decisions is the basic requirement for being a decent human (er, fae) being, not a saint. don’t understand why everything has to be so heterosexual. don’t understand why every female character with agency in this book is Evil unless they got their power Approved by a man. sorry, a male. don’t understand why it always has to be male and not man. the longer it goes on the more it grates on me.

7. and oh boy, then the ac0war spoilers started coming and i’d say watch for spoilers here but i’m tired of “being gay being a plot twist” so guess what! m0r is gay! but she only comes out to Faeyr! because maintaining the illusion that Asriel could one day date her is more important than her being able to be herself around the friends who are supposedly as close as family! although how they can be family to her when one of them willingly collaborates with the man who abused her makes no sense! this is not what friends do! that’s what assholes do!

8. i have’t even read ac0war and yet every tiny detail i see about it is. um. bad

9. the night court’s entire aesthetic is based on cultural appropriation, sj.m doesn’t understand how to write bi characters without using the slutty bisexual trope, her use of characters of color has been suspect at best and fallen into many stereotypes, one blogger wrote her thesis on all the sexism issues in this series and got harassed so much for it that she had to take it down? idk anon this is turning into a Mess, if you want details on the things i’ve mentioned you’re probably better off finding an anti-sj.m blog that goes into more depth. i don’t really want to go climbing in any further than this

[themadcapmathematician]

all i know abt transformers is the shia movie and the fact that darren criss plays one in the cartoons i think? should i get into transformers is what i'm asking

Oh god this is my favorite question. I’m not sure how to answer it but its my fave. Pull up a chair. I hope you’ve got some time on your hands.

The short answer: yes. You should at least give it a try. Transformers is a 30+ year old muti-media franchise that gets rebooted almost every 3 years so it basically has something interesting to offer almost any fan. If you end up not liking it that’s cool but there’s a lot to try before you decide.

The long answer is: yes you should and here’s why and here’s a rough idea of all the options you have to sample. I’m about to go on a long rant anon so you can check it out now or later or whatever but I’m just warning you ahead of time.

The basic Transformers plot (which I’m sure you know but I’m gonna go more in depth in a minute) is that a race of giant robot aliens who can turn into vehicles and other things have been engaged in a civil war that has lasted millions of years. This is the basic plot that all tf franchises spawn from although some explore slightly different subject matters. If that doesn’t appeal to you I mean there /might/ be a few other things you might find worth sticking around for because there’s just so fucking much of it, but you’re welcome to turn back now because that’s the basic things tf has to offer: giant robot aliens, cars and planes, fighting, some drama. Those are what tf is best at, with some variation.

It has a very active and long lived fan base and each section of the fan base is interested in different stuff with some crossover. There are people who literally only care about collecting the toys, people who wont try any other series except g1, people who only like the comics, etc. Etc. You’ll probably find people who like what you do pretty readily. If you like the toys there are toy forums and blogs. If you like the cartoons there are forums and blogs made for that too. If you like the comics, same. There’s a pretty active following of the comics and cartoon series on Tumblr alone; I would try searching the #maccadam tag since most tf activity has been moved there since the bay movies came out. Id also use the tf wiki liberally because it has pm all the information you’ll need to know about the fandom and the canon lore. There’s also plenty of fan fiction on Ao3 and ff.net if you’re into that and pm anyplace that hosts fan art has tf fan art.

Now there are several series, including comics, cartoons, the Michael bay films, the cartoon movie, spin off books, and video games. I’m gonna go over my personal favorites because I like and know them best but there are more than these if you’re interested in digging deeper.

(More under the cut)

G1: there are a lot of forms of what fans refer to as Generation 1 or G1 but if you live in the US its likely they’re talking about the very first cartoon series.

Summary: the autobots and the decepticons stripped their planet of resources and went looking for a new planet to continue surviving on. They both crashlanded on earth where they lay dormant for millions of years until conveniently awakened somewhere during the 1980s, where they continue their war all over again

Why you should try it: listen its cheesy as hell and full of nonsense plotlines and animation errors but not only is it good fun but at least watching an episode or two might give you a decent grasp on what spawned this enormous franchise in the first place.

G1 movie: this movie was a game changer. Its technically right in the middle of the g1 cartoon but it works as a standalone film too. while it has many trappings of the cartoon its better animated and has a more consistent and dramatic story.

Summary: Optimus Prime and Megatron fight, OP dies (yes he fucking DIES for the very first time. thousands of 10 year olds bawl their eyes out), Megatron gets mortally wounded, and the Matrix of Leadership (aka an autobot holy item/macguffin [this is the proto-cube btw]) has to choose a new leader.

Why you should try it: decent animation, classics lines, tons of 80s rock music, and it establishes a lot of tf conventions that would be carried over to all series that come after it.

Beast Wars: haha the 90s couldn’t be left out of the transformers fun, now could it? This was one of the first all-cg cartoon series in history and while its not much to look at nowadays, it was a big step in the 90s.

Summary: the series doesn’t center on Optimus Prime and Megatron but their decendants. The war is long over but some factions are starting to clash once again. Several members of these factions do the whole “crash land on earth while fighting” thing except they wake up during times before humans and instead of taking vehicle modes, they take animal forms, thus the name.

Why you should give it a try: it establishes the idea of Sparks for the first time, it has historical significance in the cgi realm, and it has a decent storyline with interesting characters. If you can muscle through the 90s-computer-animation look it might be the show for you!

Transformers: Animated: I dont think its a secret that this is one of my favorite tf series of all times. It was the first cartoon series I ever watched of tf and it also features my favorite toy line.

Summary: Optimus Prime is much less a war hero and more of a ..janitor really. He flunked out of the academy and spends his time repairing space bridges. One time during repairs though, they stumble across the Cube and just their luck, Megatron and some nearby cons are looking for it. They portal away to earth where they, you guessed it, crashland, until they’re awoken sometime in the future and go on adventures in futuristic Detroit.

Why you should give it a try: I like tfa’s art style and story and characterisation best tbh; Optimus is younger and more unsure of himself but also more earnest, with more visible baggage. The rest of his team feel like a ragtag band of misfits (which I have a weakness for no lie lmfao) who are still trying to find their place in this conflict and the future ahead of them. Sari is also one of the more beloved human companions and the show’s take on classics characters feels fresh and interesting, and the interpretation of the autobots and decepticons themselves is surprisingly nuanced.

Transformers: Prime: remember that 90s animation? Kiss that shit good bye my friend. This cgi is some beautiful shit. More than a few fans wish tfp is the art direction the movies had taken, storyline aside.

Summary: the autobots are already on earth, staking it out and fighting a more subdued sort of conflict with the cons. One day they get some human kids involved and stumble across some conspiracy shit and it all spirals out of control from there.

Why you should give it a try: great animation and atmosphere, gorgeous character designs, a solid interpretation go the characters, and it offers a more serious take on the story over all.

Rescue Bots: I’ve noticed this show doesn’t make the list a lot which is a shame? It has a much younger audience than any of then other series but its still quality and one of my fave tf series.

Summary: the ship of four non-combatants who were left in stasis before the war detect a transmission telling autobots to go to earth, so it…goes to earth. There they wake up on some island and are told they’ve gotta start building a repatoire with the native species…but they can’t reveal that they’re sentient aliens yet.

Why you should give it a try: ok ok, most of the series are made for 7-12 year olds with the teen and adult fans sort of in mind, this show…is a show made for pre-K kids, no joke. Its a lot less…murder-y, and this is especially saying something because it came out at the same time TFP did and in fact is supposed to take place in the same universe!

BUT, but it has a consistently well-written story and characterization, it addresses stuff I never thought it would, and its a nice break from the ridiculously high stakes of the other series. Honestly Rescue Bots is great and I wish more people talked about it because its a series totally worth watching, certainly as much as any of the others.

More Than Meets the Eye comics: there are a lot of comic series but so far this is my favorite one lol

Summary: the war is over, Optimus is done with everyone’s shit and splits the matrix in half, giving one to rodimus and they other to bumblebee. And what does roddy do with his newfound matrix half? Decide he’s going on a quest of course! And who better to go with than literally every unqualified misfit the autobot and neutral factions have to offer?

Why you should give it a try: ridiculous shenanigans, horror, drama, intrigue, strong characterisation, and a killer aesthetic. Damn it may not always give me what I want but its got a lot of exactly what I’m always looking for.

There are some video games (Fall of Cybertron, War For Cybertron, Transformers: Devastation), other comic series (Robots in Disguise, G1/UK comics), and the Robots in Disguise cartoon, however I don’t have a decent enough grasp on them to describe them super well I just know they’re pretty good and have had people recommend them to me. You’re welcome to try those as well of course.

Also if you’re into toy collecting or want to get into it there’s a lot of materials you can read and such but my personal advice is pretty simple:

1) go to walmart, target, a store that sells collectibles, a convention, or a garage sale

2) buy a cheap toy that you like. Don’t spend over like $20

3) decide if that was a fun experience or not and if you like having this toy or not

If you liked it enough to keep buying, then congrats, toy collecting might be right for you! Do your research, Don’t blow too much money too quickly, take it easy, have fun.

But yeah sorry this is really long but I do hope you consider giving transformers a try since I know I love it a lot and it really has a lot to offer. I hope this wasn’t like…a crazy response. That a crazy person might give. And that I didn’t scare you away or anything XS

the key is to try some stuff and have fun and if its not your thing that’s cool too! Have a chill night anon