thelediz

[thelediz]

Hi there! I just wanted to say, you single-handedly made me see the potential in sonamy. I’ve always been a hardcore sonadow fan from the start, but reading ‘The Lost Prince’? I remember starting the fic, noticing the romance subplot and quietly thinking “aw man”, cause sonamy is usually just not my cup of tea. But the way you wrote their relationship was unlike any sonamy dynamic I’ve seen before. The way they just have this understanding of where they stand, not caring to label it, Amy seeing a relationship with sonic as exciting and interesting no matter what he’s doing - it was such a wonderful take on their relationship. What might seem like miscommunication and unrequited love (manic telling sonic to stop leading amy on) is actually just pure, complete understanding of each other, their boundaries, wants and needs. It really feels so stable, and irrefutable once they work things out in the fic. That heart-to-heart in ‘Long Shot’ was really special, and I LOVED the conversation they had with Sonia they had together afterwards.

Your writing gave me a whole new perspective on a ship I’d never much seen the appeal of. If I’ve misinterpreted anything of your writing, please correct me, of course.

Thanks again for such a wonderful fic!

Aw, thank you! You're way too kind.

I think I love Sonic and Amy together so much because they're the perfect mess. They're both chaotic and difficult to understand, with such strong beliefs in how they personally see the world. They match each other in ways that can be really hard to understand.

But I totally get why a lot of fandom doesn't like them.

I've said before that one of the reasons I love Amy is because she's so passionate. She wants what she wants, damn the consequences.

And Sonic will do what he thinks is right, damn what anyone else thinks.

They're wild, they're strong, they're quite literally violent in their beliefs, but they're fundamentally good people and heroes besides. They're weird.

The creators of Sonic have said that he's not ready for romance, though I think they're changing their minds lately (it's cooler for boys to feel things these days), and while I think that's true, I think it's also because a 'normal' relationship would start to feel confining to him. He can't settle down - he has to be able to go where he wants, when he wants, and not feel guilty about that. So I don't think he's ever going to be ready for happily ever after.

And that's why Amy is a good match, because she's strong enough in her self and her love to believe he'll come back eventually. And if he doesn't, well, whatever, she's perfectly capable of tracking him down!

And I think Sonic loves that. From Sonic Adventure, he's always let Amy chase him. He's always waited for her to catch up. I think he always will.

He'll make a big show about how annoying it is, and how pushy she is, but honestly, I don't think he could be with anyone who wasn't willing to chase after him. He'd just leave them behind.

That said I totally get Sonadow for people who want someone who's capable of running beside him. Or Sonnuckles for people who want someone that can calm Sonic down. But I am first and foremost a fan of Sonic as a chaotic force for good so you know.

The lovely couple. I love them.

[thelediz]

I saw you didn't mention Agent N and the RIA in "The Price Of Freedom", you know its interesting as its the only time in the series we see anyone else as a member of the Robotnik empire or other's competing with Sleet for the dictator if the Planet's favor.

Otherwise Robotnik has Sleet and Dingo do everything from collecting taxes, janitorial duty, commanding Swatbots, ETC.

But I liked Agent N for that reason, even if his "Ape swatbot with three tubes sticking out of his face" was very weird, even for the show! Your thoughts?

Honestly? I didn't even clock it. I had to look him up to know what you were talking about.

For those playing along at home, Agent N is the one who is supposed to pick up the modified watches and distribute them.

On the one hand, it's because it was one line in one episode, and he wasn't the focus of said episode. There was a lot going on when he was around.

On the other hand, he IS interesting, isn't he? The idea of factions within Robotnik's power base... it feeds into that idea that there were two concepts for Sleet and Dingo that they couldn't quite decide on - the one where Sleet wanted to work for Robotnik and the one where he didn't. This is clearly going into the theory that he does want to work for Robotnik, but can't get everything he wants because there are other areas drawing attention and skill.

But on the third hand... honestly, Trashfire, you had another faction that could have been used to focus and enhance Sleet and Dingo's characters and motivations, and they show up in ONE EPISODE for like FIVE MINUTES.

I love you, but you know the bland stare I'm giving you right now, don't you?

[thelediz]

Ever notice how Underground Masquerade forgot the entire Sonic Underground were wanted fugitives and that every single Swatbot is supposed to go "Hedgehog alert, Hedgehog alert" whenever they see Sonic or any of his siblings?

In that episode, they only arrest Manic for stealing.

Well, I mean, you can either remember that it's a trashfire and consistency is for chumps, OR you can be delusional kind to the narrative and think that the SWATbots were originally security, designed and installed to maintain order, and remember that even today, software upgrades sometimes require you to actually physically interact with the hardware so maybe they're just older models and I mean...

It was a bad episode and I didn't like it in the first place but if one commits to delusions, one must commit all the way.

[thelediz]

Hi! I know it’s been a while since you’ve finished The Lost Prince, but I wanted to ask if you’ve ever posted a timeline of events for the fic. You did such an incredible job of blending sonic underground with mainline games, I would love to see everything laid out - when sonic meets tails in relation to other events, where certain games take place in relation to sonic underground events, etc. While I remember you covering these things in the fic, I’d love a confirmed timeline straight from you. Your fic is probably one of my all time favourites, if not my favourite fic of all time. I’d love to rant about how much I love it but I’ll keep this question on topic. Thank you so so much for writing it, it’s a really incredible piece of writing. ❤️

Aww, thank you! That's lovely to hear, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I kind of have, but it was mostly about the games. Also, Wrong or Right covers some of this, as does The Underground Game. Both were my brain pitching the story to me so how canon they are to the fic is... debatable.

So uh... let's see.

Revalt the Hedgehog was an adventurer with Chaos powers kinda around the same level as Knuckles. He saves his kingdom from some nebulous evil and becomes its leader. The next kingdom over asks for his help and guidance, and so on and so on until he suddenly has an empire that he doesn't want. In order to force him to remain in charge, his advisors use anarchy beryl magics to control him into believing he has a responsibility to lead and protect. So forms the empire of Mobius, with many of his descendants falling to the same control.

Five hundred years pass.

Aleena gets pregnant, starts having visions of Sonic in his various super forms and adventures, freaks out

Her husband, who has heard of human scientists researching Chaos, offers to go find them and bring back knowledge of how they can handle it

He finds Robotnik, who hears the story, gets intrigued, tries out his robotocisor technology on him. Husband is never seen again.

Robotnik goes to Mobius, meets Aleena and tells her that her husband abandoned her. Being Aleena, she believes him and welcomes him into her court because his knowledge of Chaos will help her keep her child safe.

Robotnik starts courting the court, taking advantage of how Aleena doesn't prioritise science or economics to convince the aristocrats that she's unfit to rule. He is not entirely incorrect, so the aristocrats side with him. Please do not read any historical or contemporary analysis into this even if I originally wrote it that way it makes me sad right now

Robotnik makes the medallions. The triplets are born. On a casual trip to see the Oracle, he tells Aleena she's in danger and she finally realises Robotnik Might Be Bad. (Aleena is slow on the uptake)

She runs. She separates her children in the hope of teaching them the ways of her people, forgetting the whole underclass as she is wont to do, but the underclass take matters into their own hands by stealing Manic.

Sonic's foster parents join the rebellion in a support capacity, providing rest and recuperation to burnt out soldiers. Robotnik knows of them, eventually arrests them and destroys their home. Sonic goes to live with Uncle Chuck.

Sonic's foster parents are mutilated live on camera and the record of their mutilation is kept to be played to anyone arrested.

Growing up, Sonic becomes one of the Resistance Brats, meeting Cyrus, Trevor, and basically catching the attention of everyone in the Resistance because he's fast, charismatic, and growing up Capable.

Sonic and Cyrus get arrested, they see the video. Sonic blanks out.

Sonic wakes up on Mighty and Ray's island and grows up a bit more, teaches himself how to fly a plane, how to survive on his own - Sonic the Hedgehog (arcade) occurs and Sonic becomes a Hero

Sonic the Hedgehog (mega-drive/genesis) occurs. Robotnik realises the blue hedgehog is The blue Hedgehog. Proceeds to get obsessed because he is NOT slow on the uptake.

Sonic CD occurs (yes, officially Sonic met Amy first)

Sonic meets Tails.

Uncle Chuck hears stories, goes searching for his nephew. When he finds Sonic, they have a minor argument because Sonic is still freaking out and in denial. Uncle Chuck goes back to Mobius, Sonic pretends it didn't happen, even when Tails asks what the argument was about. He is Not Okay.

Sonic 2 occurs

Sonic 3 and Knuckles occurs. Sonic realises this isn't going away. He decides to go back to Mobius. He is Not Ready.

Sonic is adopted into the Anarchists. Solar takes advantage of Sonic not being particularly stable to mess with him and make him overly loyal, until he wants Sonic to commit murder. Sonic refuses, leaves the anarchists because they're too extreme for him. Solar becomes obsessed.

Sonic goes back to Uncle Chuck. The whole Resistance welcomes him because they are also not slow on the uptake and he is clearly a powerful hero.

Meanwhile, Tails is upset and angry that Sonic left him, goes on Tails Adventure, low-key massacres an army, no one notices. Also Knuckles Chaotix is happening but whatever, it only impacts him.

Oracle contacts Sonic, Sonic Underground occurs.

A routine raid gets out of hand, and Aleena shows up. It turns into the final showdown. In the end, Sonic and Robotnik are alone and squaring off. Robotnik asks Sonic if he's going to kill him. They both know that's not who Sonic really is, and it kick-starts Sonic actually realising this whole prince thing isn't who he is. He lets Robotnik go and doesn't tell anyone.

The Council of Four moves into Robotnik's palace. They set up a court. Aleena goes back to being Queen, has not learned anything except that her judgement sucks and Sonic is more powerful than her. She does not deal with this. Sonia and Manic do not notice any of this because they are swept up in the excitement of having Won.

Sonic runs away again. He meets back up with Tails by coincidence, and for the first time in over a year, actually feels good. So he sticks around, as much as Sonic sticks around anywhere.

Sonia makes her speech to the aristocrats about how traitors should have to live with their crimes and will not be forgiven, while the empire will rebuild with the strength of its people. The people of Mobius are happy about this. The aristocrats start panicking. The class divides continue to struggle.

Sonic Adventure through to Sonic Colours happen.

By now, Sonic is actually Okay. He knows who he is, he's comfortable, he has occasional pangs of guilt about abandoning Mobius, he's FINE.

Mobius is still struggling. With some direction from the Oracle, Sonia and Manic learn that Sonic is still around and can be found through his friend Tails the Fox.

The story begins.

Phew!

[thelediz]

Been playing Platinum recently and it inspired me to reread A Professor And A Student and Return again...when I found the Frustration TM in the team galaxy base I was like !! Ik what this does thanks to Lediz fic! Haha. (I'm sorry you hated it, but Return is one of my favorite pokemon fics to date, so I can only thank you for pushing through. I hope you're enjoying everything you write nowadays!)

But man, playing through sinnoh really highlights why I've checked out of new pokemon stuff since I dropped journeys... I finally worked up the guts to check paldea out and it made me want to cry —if anything is gonna spite me into creation it's gonna be scarlet/violet, by taking a hammer to it.

Have you been into anything pokemon since dropping journeys? Regardless of whether it be new or old—I'm kinda curious...if not, feel free to ignore this!

(orrr you could also elaborate on what you meant by "reeks of someone trying to enforce agile iterative development" w the gen 9 games... even if I don't understand the technical terms, it's always super interesting to read opinions from people who know how things work behind the curtain!)

But see, even if I didn't like it, hearing people did get something out of that fic makes me happy, so thank you for telling me <3

I haven't done much pokemon stuff, though I keep meaning to sit down and watch that Pokemon Resort show that was on Netflix. I hear it's adorable escapism, and who doesn't need some of that in their life?

As for what I said... ahhhhhh.... this is gonna be boring, but you did ask.

Okay, so agile iterative development is a very, very popular way of developing products these days. Particularly digital products like software (ie, video games).

Agile is a project philosophy (it's not a methodology, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, they're talking about Scrum) which is, as the name implies, about being agile and responsive and not just sticking to The Plan because We Have A Plan.

When done well, Agile is a great philosophy. The idea is to do constant check-ins, only ever do as much as you need to, make sure that what you're working toward still looks like the thing you want and change what you're doing if it doesn't. WHEN DONE WELL, it is cheaper, more efficient, and usually gets you a better product.

(a history lesson, look up early Toyota manufacturing. It's called Lean development now and was an early form of Agile)

Iterative Agile is stuff like Scrum (which I am twice-certified in). Iterative development (again as the name implies) means you do things in small iterations, only ever planning a short period ahead, with the intention of stopping with the iteration that your client/customer/consumer will accept.

When done well, Scrum is THE MOST cost-effective and quality efficient form of product development, because you will usually have your client sitting right next to you the entire time TELLING YOU when you're getting things right.

You will hopefully have noticed how much I am repeating "when done well".

Because more often than not, you don't have the client sitting right next to you.

And there is a HUGE difference between "minimal viable product" (which is usually when sales starts to sell stuff) and "minimal loveable product" (which is when sales SHOULD start to sell stuff).

Think of an animation.

A minimum viable product is a storyboard. You can follow the story, you can read the dialogue, you can get a general idea of how the scene will work, and some people will pay for it even as a PDF.

A minimal loveable product is Flash animation. Flat 2D models properly animated with music, voice acting, et cetera. Think South Park, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the old Adult Swim cartoons that riffed on Hanna-Barbara, Teen Titans Go, what have you.

A full product is something hand- or computer-animated, with animated backgrounds, shading, a full arc of story. Think the original Teen Titans, anything in the DCAU, Riders of Berk, that kind of stuff.

An over-stuffed product is season two of Arcane (it was GORGEOUS but I want you to really think about whether it really needed to be the most expensive animated series of all time to tell you that story).

In non-Agile environments, projects would aim for Arcane, and quite often run out of money because they were so busy getting the muscles in Vi's jaw right that they didn't get around to finishing the script. Funnily enough, producers prefer being able to pump out a hundred hours of Teen Titans Go and then sell a bunch of merchandise on the cheap. Hence while iterative development is so popular these days.

However. For iterative development to be done very well, you need to have the original vision of Arcane. You need to know it, feel it, want it. And only then do you say "okay. So what's the most important thing here? The story, or the character designs?" and then do that first.

You also need someone keeping track of the money. To make Arcane, you need 250 million dollars. You won't have 250 million dollars at the start. You might have 50 million. When you have spent 10 million, you need to have enough of a storyboard to convince your investors to give you another 25 (for a total of 75). Then another 50 so you're up to 125. Then another. And so on, and so forth.

More often than not, the sales team see the storyboards and start making promises, so you have to quickly pretty them up into animatics; the money runs out and you have to start selling your storyboard and hope it makes enough money to hire a voice actor or two; OR money gets continually thrown at a problem and nothing ever gets released.

In the case of Pokemon gen 9, it felt so storyboard-y. Pokemon has always been a pretty simple game, so you can imagine someone saying "alright, minimum product: 150 pokemon, two player characters, a rival, the ability to catch pokemon, and throw some cool new features in there to attract the kids. Motorbikes are always a good sell, right? Cool. Go."

And they knew it would sell. So they got it out the door, with some vague promise to fix the bugs and add the other three-hundred odd pokemon, graphic and gameplay stability, and quality of life features after the investors got their money back.

BUT HEY. I don't work in game development, and I am not Game Freak.

That's just how it looked from the outside.

Still here? No?

Okay, I'm going back in my box...

[thelediz]

Fandom should be fun

Something I’ve noticed in the last couple of years, but has been weirdly nagging at me in the last… six months? Has been the marked difference between people who participate in fandom for fun and those who do it for profit.

And how much more successful the profit-driven people are in fandom.

For fairly obvious reasons.

But it’s interesting and I have to think about it out loud or it’s going to eat at my brain.

Now, when I say profit, I don’t necessarily mean ‘for money’, or at the very least any intention to make a living out of it, though there are certainly people who do. They’re not a new phenomenon, either – originally I think it was only common among musicians, but visual artists and even writers that produce for commission have been around since the original Star Trek days. Hell, Dante’s Inferno exists for a reason. But when I mean ‘for profit’ I think I mean the people who produce content in order to earn something, be it money, likes, comments, what have you.

And don’t get me wrong, as a fanficcer, I love comments. It 100% fuels motivation to know that people are engaging with your content.

But as a fandom lurker, it feels disingenuous of me to want them. And with the way fandom has shifted lately, I’ve found myself thinking about why. What is it about a comment that fuels me?

Because I’m not chasing down kudos or comments or bookmarks. It makes me happy to know that people are reading and sharing my stuff, and I’ll admit I do get some badly needed endorphins every time I see someone paying it attention. But I’m not one of those people who will write generic stories and slap different character names on there to fit the fandom I’m in that day.

I write because the content I’m engaging with is tickling something in my brain and I want to think about it more.

And it’s fun, of course, but… yeah.

I write to engage with the original content.

That’s why some fics go unfinished or never get off the ground, because once I start engaging with them, I realise the thought has run its course and… I’m done. It stops being fun.

Honestly, and I’m giving away secrets here, that’s why I hated writing Return so much, and I still don’t like it. Occasionally I go back, because I get a comment or see a bookmark saying it meant something to a reader, and I think “…ugh, I should rewrite that bit to make it a bit more in character” or I can acknowledge that it was actually a half-decent storyline. But I do not like that story.

I started writing it hoping to kickstart something in me that didn’t happen. In the XYZ and Alola period of Pokemon, it was such a beautiful, positive force, about hard work and triumph and believing in yourself. I was chasing that. I wanted to talk about how hard that had to be for Ash. I wanted to point out what a beautiful story it is that Ash kept going despite never winning for so long.

But I should have put the fic down. The original content just wasn’t there anymore. I was still using Pokemon Go, but it sure as heck wasn’t for the storyline. And the anime lost me so early on in Journeys. I should have put the fic down and walked away, but I was addicted to the dopamine fandom provided me. I hated writing that story and I’m just grateful that it ended up meaning something to someone because otherwise it should be wiped from the internet as something I never should have done.

Compare and contrast F’d Up Three Ways, which I had almost entirely written before I started posting it. I adore that fic. I had so much fun writing it. Even when I started posting, I got barely any engagement and I didn’t care. There were bits and pieces in there that were me feeding off fandom, but most of it was just me devouring the original content and then thinking “and then what?” which is exactly what fandom should be, and it felt so good.

It’s the only thing I’ve done for that fandom, it’s all I’m ever going to do for that fandom, but it was what I wanted it to be.

So why do comments motivate me? Why, now that comments are so rare, do I constantly check my Ao3 to see if someone’s put a bookmark with a note? Why do I give a damn if people read my stuff?

Because I too am looking for engagement.

I want to know my stuff is making people think, or feel. It made me think and feel, so… am I alone in that?

When I was writing Dropped Shield, I was mostly writing that for myself. It was already mostly written when it was posted. But the comments were amazing and made me hungry for more fandom. People digging into the characters, the plot, the professional behaviour…! (It is such a weird fic, I cannot believe how many people like it, but I love it even more for that) Reading people’s comments on that fic made me feel so full.

And I think that’s what’s made me start thinking about it, because there’s those kind of comments, and then there’s the lovely heart-filled comments that are so sweet, and make me smile, but don’t fuel any kind of motivation.

I love getting them. They made me happy. If you’re someone who does that, do not stop making those comments, they are wonderful.

But they aren’t going to drive me to think more about the content and therefore will not encourage me to produce more.

Which brings me back to the difference between the kinds of people who create for profit and those who create for… whatever it is I and people like me are creating for.

This post was originally spurred by @notherpuppet (who does wonderful Hazbin Hotel art and comics and I hope doesn’t mind me referencing her – please tell me if you’d rather I don’t tag you and I’ll take this bit out) who is SO popular and so gets a lot of people wanting to make content of her content. And those people often get money out of that. And while notherpuppet didn’t mind that, when those people start promising paid content based on her currently non-existent future content, that’s… much less okay.

Because notherpuppet doesn’t draw for profit. She draws for love and fun. And so the moment it stops being fun, she absolutely should put down her tablet and walk away.

People just assuming she will continue until people are no longer interested makes me super uncomfortable. She's not doing this to get paid, she is under no obligation to produce, why would you assume she will?

That’s all putting aside the people in the early days of fandom getting sued by creators for copyright infringement. I never saw it happening myself, but when I started in fandom, people put disclaimers on their work reminding everyone it was not for profit for damn good reason.

So anyway. Coming back to the point.

It’s increasingly rare these days to get comments. This is a known thing. Many discussions have been had about it. And fandom as a whole is changing too. What people are posting is changing. How people respond to them is changing.

I’ve gotten comments from people pointing out they wouldn’t normally read my stuff because it’s too long, but they got a recommendation from someone else and so gave it a shot.

Which… okay, fair. But some of them say that about things that are like 6,000 words and that’s… that's not a long fic for me. I used to spit out that kind of content daily when I was in high school and could devote the brain power.

But when I started in fandom, drabbles were super common. Flashfic was a thing. Because we were all posting on blogs and forums and the formatting just wasn’t there.

And now a lot of fandom is video and audio that takes thirty seconds or less to consume. Longer to create, but... the similarities are there.

At the time, no one expected great feedback on drabbles or flashfics – they were just for the fun of creating. But the short-form content you see these days is very much chasing likes and comments and responses.

I don’t know where I’m going with all this, but… man. If I was still a fandom academic, that… there’s something in that, isn’t it? Something interesting.

Anyway. TL;DR, I repeat, and will always repeat: fandom should be fun. It makes me sad when it isn’t fun.

Please try and have fun.

[thelediz]

I just watched the 3rd sonic movie and it made me reread your 2020 sonic series... it's still as good as I remembered it to be hehe. You don't shy away from the snaggly bits and bumps in the road, if that makes sense - Sonic isn't flattened down to "cute kid", Tom and Maddie aren't perfect parents who get everything right the first time, and they feel so much more like real people that way.

Did you end up watching sonic 2 and 3? Did you enjoy them? :)

Aw, thank you! I love the Wachowskis so much...!

I have seen 2, haven't gotten around to 3 yet though. Honestly, I'll probably wait for it to be on a streaming service. I'd also really like the Knuckles series to be on something other than Paramount Plus so I can watch that because seriously, I am not buying another service, I don't care how much Idris Elba makes me laugh.

I did enjoy Sonic 2, but not as much as 1. The first Sonic movie, in my opinion, was just a Good Kids Movie. The characters stood on their own, it was adorable, it was fun, it had a lot of heart and that was all it needed.

Sonic 2 was a great Sonic Movie. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, I love Tails, I love that they kept Colleen O'Shaughnessey, I love his relationship with Sonic, I ADORE Idris Elba as Knuckles, I love how they adapted Knuckles' 'heel'-face turn, I... enjoyed the Super Sonic bit, mostly because I really, really appreciated Knuckles being like "careful, he's basically a god now, he's not going to be the person you - oh, okay, he's still Sonic, fine, no respect necessary", even if I think how they did that was a little silly. I really enjoy James Marsden and all the human characters, so I thought the wedding was great.

And GUN. Holy wow, I LOVE GUN in Sonic 2, they're SO RIDICULOUS, it's AMAZING. Operation Catfish is so something they would do, it's hilariously horrifying...!

But I think it leaned into the fandom a tiny bit too much. There were all these shout outs to the franchise, these nods and winks, and I didn't feel it was necessary. There were some sequences where I started playing a game with myself, saying "Ice Cap zone, Hidden Palace zone, that specific frame from this game, oh that sound effect's familiar, where do I know that from, hey, look, it's that meme..."

It took me out of the cute story about friends finding each other and reminded me that I was watching something designed to make money.

There's nothing wrong with that. I just liked the first movie more.

But... when Sonic 3 doesn't cost me $50 to see, I will watch it. I'll probably love Keanu!Shadow. Hopefully it will kick-start me into finishing that series, but I doubt it. We shall have to see!

[thelediz]

it has been like at least eight years and sometimes I still think to myself, when I am tired, “but I am le tired… well then take a nap! AND THEN FIRE ZE MISSILES” even though in retrospect that is like one of the most embarrassingly unfunny videos to ever come out of the internet 

[thelediz]

I have many confused thoughts about these jokes, but I am mostly in this for the replies. So many valid additions. A+ all of you.

Sonic the Hedgehog (sustained speed of 767 MPH) could have made the journey from the Shire to Mount Doom (1718.5 miles) in just over two hours. But also he famously loves rings, so he almost assuredly would have found the thrall of the Ring far too powerful to resist. Tails would have had to shoot him

[thelediz]

G'yahh, tagged by @jkateel!

Rules: Without naming them, post a gif from ten of your favourite films, then tag ten people to do the same!

Except I don't know that many tumblr people, so I shall not be progressing the chain, I'm sorry

[thelediz]

I'm replaying Dragon Age Origins, trying to find the enthusiasm to buy Veilguard (I want to meet these new companions, but the story so does not interest me), but because I have a shiny new computer I have to re-earn all my unlockables. By doing so, I am finding weird easter eggs I never picked up before.

Like Bonny Lem, who I always thought was a weird merchant to just... be randomly found in DA2 like he was important, IS an important character... to Leliana.

Bioware, the random details you stick in thinking we'll remember and care about them all... I don't know whether to be impressed, exasperated, or fondly exasperated...

[thelediz]

I read the last chapter a few days ago, and I LOVED it!

I can't quite put my finger on what it is in this fanfic that has caught my attention, I think you write the characters so well and faithfully that it made me feel warm and fuzzy

Following the plot was a lot of fun, I confess that I will miss when I opened Ao3 and the first thing I did was check if there was a new chapter lol

I think I'll re-read it all again, and probably have the same reactions to everything

And also because of this fanfic, I decided to read your other fanfics, like the ones about Sonic Movie, and I was so IJWWIWI, you know? I think it's so good how you write the characters, and of course, I also liked these fanfics

I just thank you for existing and writing such incredible things!!🩷🩷🩷

I hope you find all the fics you love to read!

[thelediz]

YOU DID IT!!! It's so crazy to think i've been following this fic since 2017 and it's finished today... I've been getting notifs about updates for almost a third of my life, so it kinda feels like saying goodbye to a friend haha, but hey, I know where to find it whenever I need it! I may not have been here from the beginning, but it's been a joy and an honor following along in this journey with you 🫡

[thelediz]

[thelediz]

It's a Friday night after a long and very weird week and I am feeling sappy. Please ignore everything below the cut.

Because the whole thing is that Ash Ketchum does not have an ending. The journey continues.

Ash Ketchum is an important story about tomorrow.

Sometimes, you will fail. You can do everything right, you can make all the right choices, you can be the very best, like no one ever was, and you will still fail. Maybe it wasn't your day. Maybe you looked twice for a second too long. Maybe you were sabotaged. Maybe the other person just got lucky. But sometimes, you are just going to fail.

Sometimes, you'll win. You'll get absolutely everything you wanted. You will build that business, you will win that contract, you will find that person, you will have that one perfect day that you have been waiting for. Sometimes, you will win.

Some days, you won't do either, you'll just... get up. Go to work or school, do what you can, come home, it will just be a day, but it will be done.

No matter what happens, you will need to wake up tomorrow.

You need to do something tomorrow.

Win or lose, succeed or fail, tomorrow will come. And you should be a part of it. Maybe not always a big part, maybe you won't even leave your house, but... you're still a part of tomorrow.

Ash Ketchum, for all the jokes we make about him being the eternal ten year old and how frustrated we all got with him never winning, is a beautiful example of someone who keeps getting up tomorrow.

He had to learn how. In the first season, he had to learn how to get back up after a fall. And it was a hard lesson. He didn't always get it right, either. Sometimes he got cocky, or he got frustrated, or he lost hope, but in the end, he always got back up.

And then, eventually, he won.

And then, he had to keep going. He had to find a new goal. And he did.

Because Ash Ketchum keeps going. No matter what happens today, tomorrow will come, and he will be there. He will be a part of it.

We should all want that. We should all hope to be that.

So maybe there is no happy ending for Ash Ketchum, just as there is no happy ending for us. But there can be happy times, and we can keep looking for them.

May our journeys continue too.

Just finished my own re-read of A Professor and a Student and Return (fantastic as always). A few years later and after the end of Ash’s story, do you have any headcanons about what his “happy ending” might be? Personally, I’d like to imagine he eventually goes back to Alola for good, but it’s hard to imagine Ash Ketchum ever settling down somewhere.

Honestly, as much as I disliked Journeys, and I don't exactly rate the ending miniseries, I think the 'ending' it provided was perfect. Ash is a traveller--a Knight Errant in sneakers--and as long as he's got Pikachu by his side, I think his story should always end with "and the journey continues!"

[thelediz]

Just finished my own re-read of A Professor and a Student and Return (fantastic as always). A few years later and after the end of Ash’s story, do you have any headcanons about what his “happy ending” might be? Personally, I’d like to imagine he eventually goes back to Alola for good, but it’s hard to imagine Ash Ketchum ever settling down somewhere.

Honestly, as much as I disliked Journeys, and I don't exactly rate the ending miniseries, I think the 'ending' it provided was perfect. Ash is a traveller--a Knight Errant in sneakers--and as long as he's got Pikachu by his side, I think his story should always end with "and the journey continues!"

[thelediz]

Just finished my bi-yearly reread of Professor and Student! I absolutely adore the story with all of my heart. It’s incredibly well done and contains so many wonderful complexities and character traits that I can’t help but think of as canon. To this day, it remains one of my favorite stories of all time, both within and outside of ao3. It really is amazing.

But I wanted to ask, in your mind, roughly what age is Ash? (In both P&S and Return).

I always assumed his age looked to be something like this.

Kanto - Johto : 10 - 11.5, Honen : 12, Sinnoh : 13, Unova : 14, Kalos : 15 and Alola : 16

Is it roughly the same for you? Or do you imagine him to be younger?

You're too sweet.

But that is a good question and within fics I prefer to leave my answer to "yeah, about that". Canon is crazy, so we let it vibe.

But because you buttered me up so nicely and gave me the out of instead saying how old he seems across the different series...

I generally agree, though the timeframes get wonkier as the series goes on. Unova-Kalos-Alola seem to occur over much shorter timeframes than Kanto-Johto, Hoenn, and especially Sinnoh.

Kanto is definitely about fourteen months (however much the writers don't want you to remember him specifically saying so), Orange islands plus Johto is probably another year (again, either don't take the Pikachu shorts as canon or ignore him saying it's an anniversary), Hoenn a year, and Sinnoh a year.

I often think of Unova and Kalos each lasting about eight months max, despite the called-out two month training montage in Unova, while Alola always feels more like six.

That said, based on actions and attitude, Ash definitely feels like an angry fourteen year old in Sinnoh, while in Kalos there's an overburdened sixteen year old vibe to him. So it kind of fits with the timeline.

Alola, however, definitely feels like a "yeah, about that", because it changes depending on who he's hanging out with and what he's doing.

Sophocles and Lana feel fourteen, Kiawe feels seventeen, Gladion is an edgy fifteen year old if ever I've seen one, height- and body-wise they all LOOK somewhere between ten and twelve... it's weird. They feel like 'generic high schoolers', so that's kind of what I headcanon them to be.

I do, however, appreciate how much that non-answer annoys people, so I'm sorry to everyone.

It's just the joy of Ash Ketchum: the implausible oddity!