#this and homestuck gave me my first blorbos

[mugwot]

consider this ask a free space to reccomend a piece of media that you love but would usually consider too niche or strange to reccomend out of pocket. gimme your oddities, big or small.

oh! oh, this is a fun question! The Gray House (though i read it as "Дом, в котором...") was like The Book for me. Its a solid Brick of a book, but the shit got me through high school, haha. Its a kinda surrealist magic realism novel about disabled kids in a boarding school. the narative is split between the past and the present to contrast how things in the house and its kids have changed. the plot is mostly about the graduation, a mystery of what happened at the old one and a question of how they will handle theirs (spoilers, Not Great). though that comes way after we get to be Immersed in the Vibe of the place. its really quite something, i dont know if it hits as hard if you are not grappling with the fear of change, but the characters are Great.

[clownstho]

Rare skeleton clown spotted!

[relatableblorbopoll]

Round 1 of preliminaries, group 6

The first two places get a place on the bracket

Little reminder: there will be 2 more rounds of preliminaries, the losing blorbos of this poll still have 2 chances of getting in the official bracket

propaganda under the cut

Jesper Fahey (Six of Crows)

No Propaganda

Crowley (Good Omens)

"He's gender. He's been in love with one guy for literally 6000 years and then royally fucks up his entire confession. He yells at his plants. He drapes himself over every fucking surface he sits on. He walks like *that*. He just fuckin makes sounds sometimes. He's me fr."

Dave Strider (Homestuck)

"everything that can be said about Dave's relatability will probably sound redundant, clichéd, or overdone if you are at all familiar with tumblrs sort of blorbo culture. this is exactly why he should be in this tournament.

stop me if you think that you've heard this one before: he hides his genuine emotions behind a persona, deflects sincerity with jokes, but also has a deep desire for validation and connection, so that his persona has many cracks where little bits of his true self slip through. deeply insecure, compares himself to others. a defeatist streak, avoids responsibility. does not wish to be troubled by The Horrors. he just wants to hang out and do his lil creative hobbies (making music and drawing comics). talks a lot to the point of being pretty awkward, rambling, and accidentally saying stuff he shouldnt.

all these things I think tend to resonate deeply with a lot of people, especially on Tumblr - that "person who is insecure and struggles with emotional openness so copes by making jokes" sort of trope, it's just like kin bait (affectionate). he also has a complicated relationship with gender which I know many find relatable (shout out to the "Dave homestuck was my trans awakening" homies) but whether it's about figuring out gender or sexuality or trauma or the apocalypse or anything else, Dave comes at it with an initial, learned, fear and reluctance that I think a lot of people have experienced, because it's very human and very much a part of many readers experiences (we live in a society). but he's always good, and likeable and that makes for a very important sort of relatable character. very comforting. even if he's a mess and he's an idiot you can believe he can get to something better, and you can watch him develop and grow.

also, I think he's extremely relatable because he never really knows what's going on in the comic either. I mean, that's gonna be relatable to most people Vis a vis homestuck. he's confused and he just wants to vibe and make his friends laugh. WHO AMONG US cannot relate?? I do not believe you if you say no.

I wrote too much and got way too weird about it. I'm sorry it's late I'd edit down but I really don't have the brain capacity.. which is very Dave core of me actually"

Junior (Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race)

"i relate to him a lot because his whole character is being embarrassed of his dad who tries too hard to be cool, but still loves him anyways. that is literally me"

Kim Dokja (Omnicient Reader's Viewpoint)

"kim dokja. oh kim dokja. so, without going into spoilers too much, kim dokja is very much a character you are expected to relate to and it makes the novel DEVASTATING. here's just a few things about him: - he is obsessed with a particular piece of media, and finds comfort in it when real life doesn't give him any. he's constantly thinking about it and defending it and trying to recommend it to other people (even though no one else bothers reading it, because it is an objectively bad 3000-chapter webnovel). even beyond that one novel, he's been using fiction as an escape for just about his entire life, something that rings true for a lot of people, especially in the modern world. - he struggles with socializing with other people. the first chapter alone gave me so much second hand embarrassment. it's so real but god it's So bad. he has zero friends and has that sort of loneliness where you're miserable but you can't really bring yourself to feel anything but resigned to it. in general he is just very Resigned to his unfortunate life and can't fully understand or accept it when it finally does get better - he has a complicated relationship with his mother. it's the kind of relationship where the parent genuinely does love their child, but they fail to give them what they need & have to accept that they hurt their kid and that they cannot be the most important person in their life. it's certainly not a universal experience but those sorts of parent-child relationships are woefully common but scarcely acknowledged -the insecurity. god there is so much insecurity in that man. it's hard to even completely tell it's there at first, because it's so ingrained in how he thinks that you don't question it until you know more about his character and suddenly it's all too apparent. he cannot believe that he can be loved (or, if that he can be, that they certainly would not be able to love all of him, only what he chooses to show them), and is selfless but like. the literal meaning of the word, where he will throw away all of his being for the people he loves. in general there is a lot of sacrifice as a love language which like. while i'm not off around throwing myself in front of magic death beams for people or anything i sure would give up everything i could if it meant helping the people i love - ok enough of that. here's some funny things i can relate to. the guy meets his favorite fictional blorbo and instead of worshipping him instead he bullies him constantly and internally complains about how unbearable he is both in the book and in real life. it's like a "i love my blorbo. i would not last 2 seconds in a room with him." You know. he gets so caught up in his fanon characterizations and biases about characters that he completely mischaracterizes them like constantly. he literally kills a guy half because he was his least favorite character. -this is a poll about blorbo relatability. therefore i must mention that kim dokja too related to his blorbo (or at least attempted to) and what is more relatable than that. anyways. kdj made me realize far too much about myself and is by far the most i have ever related to a character (and i Hate it). and tumblr would definitely relate to him too so :thumbs-up:"

"(SPOILERS) He is literally all of us. Reader. Just some guy. And then insane tragic backstory. But he’s also just some guy. He’s special and also just a guy. He’s also god. He can be shipped w anyone. He has versatility and interests and motivations. He also never tells anyone anything ever. He is so me."

"He reads a trashy, long-ass novel as a coping mechanism and doesn't think he's capable of being loved. Bro dissociates when he's emoting too much."

"I'm a homestuck fan, a Dave Strider fan even Never heard of Omnicient Reader's before Voted for the kim fellow because judging by the propaganda it looks like he himself would be a homestuck reader therefore making him more relatable than the homsetuck character himself"

"This guy’s been my companion since I was 11, I’ve grown up with Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint and I think that’s pretty funny since he grew up with Ways of Survival (the 3149 chapter novel) and therefore I’m straight up mirroring him. I, too, scare everyone off by being too enthusiastic whenever the webnovel is brought up! His insecurities are severe but I do see myself in some parts of him (which is worrying but whatever.) He is absolutely The Guy Ever. Utterly pathetic wet cat of a man. I love him. He represents the crazy fandom tumblrina in all of us."

Donutella (Tokidoki)

"she's made of donuts basically like me at this point"

[wannabemasterofwindintraining]

Yall like homestuck?

Well I'm not waiting for an answer here are some classpects

Starting off with some gay ppl Jestro is a page of rage i was considering page of breath for him but i decided that rage fit's him better

And clay is a knight obviously how could you look at this man and give them any other class like come on they were made for this

Anyways clay is a knight of blood aka basically karkat

Aaron is rogue if breath

Breath cause come on look at this man he's basically flying around during the whole show also rogue cause idk i just felt like it

Macy is a maid of hope or as others might say made of hope

She is basically the hope driving her friends forward or that's how i loke to think of her idk

This man gave me a real hard time deciding on a class for him

Like aspect? Easy heart but class? I had to go over every class thinking of which one fits best and even the one i settled on feels off

Anyways he's a sylph of heart

Then there's jade harley i mean axl

I love putting this man in skirts and dresses

His aspect probably makes no sense if you're only viewing the show axl but bases in the axl in my head this is him

Then i also classpected the kids cause i love them

Ava is obviously a mind player cause duh have you seen ava?

Thinking of her as a mind player and as a theif separately made sense but when i tried to think of her aspect as a whole it started to feel kinda off

But then i thought about it more and i decided yeah it's alright

Robin is a heir cause that's the blorbo class for the lil blorbos my sweet sweet blorbo Robin <3

Also he's a time player cause... idk not every classpect needs to make sense sometimes you just go off of vibes ya know?

Speaking of vibes

At first i didn't think of Merlock and Monstroxs classpects in relation to their characters i just thought it'd be cool for Merlock to be a muse of life and Monstroxs to be a lord of doom cause of yin yang parallels or whatever

But the more i thought about the more i realised that actually this vibes only classpects kinda works with their characters?

With them both being commanding classes but Merlock as a passive class just staying in the fortrex while Monstrox as an active class actually doing the evil stuff (kinda he mostly gets Jestro to do it for him but he's very active in the destruction)

And Merlock wanting to save life while Monstrox wants to doom life like i literally bullshited this classpect why does it fit so well

[blorbuscon]

hi there - i'm currently doing an ma in classics and for an upcoming presentation i've been talking about fanmade (and kind of specifically ao3 and tumblr) adaptation of mythology, so of course mesperyian came up on my list, and i just stumbled upon this blog which looks amazing??? i was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about what happens here and how this came to be - thanks so much!

your presentation sounds fascinating! i know a couple people here have presented about tumblr's classics reception before, so y'all may want to connect.

blorbuscon is an event that i (tumblr user nathanielthecurious) originally organized almost a year ago, when i was an MA student in classics and followed a lot of other classics grad students on tumblr.

shortly after the word "blorbo" first became a tumblr meme, a few people (originally tumblr user catilinas) in my tumblr circle had started an in-joke in which they made up detailed backstories for 2 nonexistent fictional consuls named titus blorbus plinkonensis and quintus aemilius tumblrinus. (if you search through the right people's blog archives from the time, you can find fake inscriptions, analysis of fake sallust passages, and all sorts of other stuff about these guys.)

i thought it would be funny to put out an extremely serious-sounding call for papers for a conference on blorbus. was i disillusioned and mocking classics academia? was i showing off that i was in-the-know about it? was i treading dangerously close to connecting my professional persona and my online persona? did i just want an excuse to zoom with the people i'd known on tumblr for years (a couple of whom i'd already run into at real conferences!)? yes to all of it. everybody liked the idea and submitted a bunch of abstracts so i was like, well i guess this is actually happening.

we held the conference over zoom. if i remember correctly there were about 75 people on the call and 9 people gave papers (which mostly consisted of a combination of made-up ancient rome content and memes); the structure was like an academic conference but with a lively audience that had the vibe of a twitch chat. after a few hours, when all the papers were done, it evolved into a less structured discussion about everything from fandom stuff to the reception of the classics on tumblr. it was all incredibly cringey and hilarious and fun, and a really bizarre time. people's classics knowledge ranged from phd candidates to "wait, is cicero one of your fictional romans?" people's appearances ranged from business casual to history-inspired high fashion to camera off with a homestuck profile picture.

some people wanted to organize a second blorbuscon, so a few months later we had one focused on mesperyian. it was similar, though not quite as well attended. currently, blorbuscon lives on as a discord server in which tumblr classics bloggers mostly discuss classics stuff.

[omegamoo]

bet you forgot i’m a homestuck you don’t KNOWWW how much this silly comic means to me. jade harley was the first character who i really really connected to and went omg a blorbo. i read it with all my friends and messaged them about it constantly. it connected me with people and with myself and gave me this entire world and vocabulary to read and understand. the first time i really cried over media was over [S] Game Over. i woke up early one morning to evade my family and watch [s] cascade and then listened to the music on repeat. [s] make her pay changed my internal organs and homestuck fan playlists and lyricstucks forever changed my music taste in a way that still affects me today. god. and the trolls were everything to me i quoted all of that all the fucking time. my first piece of fanmerch was a space aspect hoodie. i know jade’s design better than the back of my hand. i have the first page memorized verbatim. god. thanks homestuck, for everything. for everything.

[thermoskind]

tag 9 people you want to get to know better!

kindly tagged by @ourflagmeansgayrights

three ships: of all time? that's tough!

wrightworth (ace attorney) - the lawyer husbands got me early and got me good. like phoenix was on some elle woods shit running off to law school to chase his ~childhood friend~ only it actually worked for him. i doubt capcom will do more than hint at how married they are, but i'll eat up every crumb they give me.

bubbline (adventure time) - what 'what was missing' aired and marceline sings about wanting to mend the rift between her and bubblegum? and then it's revealed that bubblegum wears a band shirt marceline gave her as pajamas?? this changed my brain chemistry and i still have that shirt lol.

gentlebeard (our flag means death) - the gay pirates have devoured my brain, i went in blind and caught up after episode 8, and i lost an entire night of sleep with the chain on repeat in my head. this character dynamic is such a targeted attack against me.

(honourable mentions to rosemary (homestuck) and jonmartin (the magnus archives) it was so hard to choose three ships and i'm so fond of these ones too)

first ever ship:

zelink (legend of zelda: ocarina of time) - lol idk 10 year old me thought they were cute and they're the reason i first ventured out into fanfiction.net and read a lot of script-style fics where all the characters lived together at hyrule castle and the author argued with them in the notes.

last song:

*deeply sighs* smooth flow by neil cicierega - look, i am a clown, and i wanted to listen to clown music and rotate my blorbos in my head at the same time on my way home from work, so yeah, the last song i listened to was a santana/enya mashup that i dream of someday using in an ofmd edit once we have more seasons.

last film:

glass onion - really enjoyed it, i've had a crush on janelle monae for more than a decade and i had no idea she'd be the blanc girl in this movie, what a pleasant surprise.

currently reading:

calvin and hobbs anthologies - my dad left a few at my place last time he was over. reading a few pages each morning while i eat breakfast has been really lovely.

currently watching:

the owl house - episode 2 of season 3 just came out, but i have to wait until my sister's over to watch it. SOON!

currently consuming:

jalepeño & cheddar doritos - i've got my snacking chopsticks and everything,

currently craving:

season 2 of our flag means death - i'll take any crumb, blease just gimme something!

tagging:

i'm very bad at this and don't want to be a bother, but i thought this was fun so here goes: @xoxoemynn , @asneakyfox, @roseinmyhand, @givefangapuppy, @blackbeardsemophase, @effervescentluminescence, @totallyboatless, @douwatahima, and @thebadgersknackers . no pressure of course.

[darling-child-tisarwat]

Imperial radch, homestuck, and the locked tomb blorbos?

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most):

Imperial Radch: Seivarden. This is very tough but I think I have to go with my gut, even with my url. I simply love her so much I gave her Seivarden Sunday.

Homestuck: Terezi. Always was and always will be. We share a love of having our tongues out, dragons, and having fucked up relationships with your first ex-gf.

The Locked Tomb: Ianthe. See above as she is the fucked up ex-gf. But also her motivations fascinate me and I love a blond.