#writing has always been a character based interest for me and people expressing themselves

[goodluckclove]

How I Critique Writing (A Loose Collection of Tips)

Someone asked me for insights into my methodology when it comes to giving feedback on writing and I realized I had way more than I could say in a reasonable amount of private messages. Are you someone who I've spoken to about their writing? Did someone send you their work and you don't know how to respond? Maybe this will help? Based on how people react I feel like it might be controversial but it seems to work.

When someone sends me their writing, no matter the size, subject or genre, I:

Take it seriously. It's a generational epic about the Vietnam war and its effects. It's a cute, young adult romance. It's Zim and Dib from Invader Zim realizing they've always been in love with each other. All of these things can be written with earnestness, strength, honesty and skill. It's fucking hard to write and if someone writes a single sentence that wouldn't otherwise exist its worth holding in your hands and examining with the same eye as if you were taking an interesting book off the shelf.

Respond with curiosity. It's common for critiques to follow a theme of ambiguous disdain. This doesn't work. Delete this. Bad. No. Gross. Guess what? That's not helpful. If you got that feedback, even if you followed it, you wouldn't be thrilled about it. Oftentimes you can take a line that makes you want to say Bad and ask something else. What is this supposed to express? What were you trying to do here? Am I supposed to feel happy/sad/uncertain when I read this? Curiosity can reframe something that you don't think works as a reader and turn it into an opportunity for the writer to look inward and solve their own problem. They might explain what they were trying to do, and if you were to say that it didn't pan out for you they're way more likely to tweak things themselves and feel like they still have control over their project.

Give comments. I've started giving more in-depth comments on the writing people give me depending on how anxious they are about it. If you're a pretty confident writer I'll give a summary of what I gained and what I was left wondering, what I thought and what I felt, what associations it made me think of in terms of tone and other forms of media - stuff like that. For newer writers, especially those who are far more doubting of their own abilities, I go buck wild. And in my opinion notes should be less like Good! I like this! Wow! Nice! (What are you, grading my book report? No thanks), and more like what you think when you're reading a book you're truly invested in. Make jokes about the characters (Not mean ones. I will send bugs to you in the mail.), chart exact lines that provoke physical reactions, even a small one. Can you imagine reading someone treat your work like it has its own fandom on Tumblr? You can do that for someone else.

Fucking have some fucking awareness of the fact that it might not be for you and that doesn't mean it's bad. I'm angry about this one considering the novel a friend sent me last night that they've been too terrified to try and post online, despite it being fucking brilliant. I'll try and calm down. Listen - you read what you like. I mainly read literary and experimental fiction, some poetry, horror and some sci-fi. Not a lot of genre fiction. But I will always be down to read someone's high fantasy story, because even though I don't really like fantasy I know what the good ones sound like. I've forced myself to gain a sense of what someone else would like, even if I don't like it. And I can still critique it. If I'm a builder and I see a house that's painted a shade of green I find sinful for a home (i.e. mint), I can look past that and focus on the state of the walls and the stability of the foundation. You aren't a reviewer, man. You are neither Siskel, nor Ebert. They write for readers, you write for writers. So you don't like historical fiction? Cool, man. Congrats. If someone trusts you enough to give you some to read and critique, you should still do so objectively. If you give it an automatic F because you wouldn't buy it, then you are legally a stinky little trash man. That's just the law.

Ask them what they liked to write and what was the hardest. There's apparently a weird trend on online writer communities that say there are specific rules that all writers need to follow. This is not true. It just isn't. If the dialogue in a story you read is weak, and the writer says they hate writing dialogue and really struggle with it, maybe tell them they don't have to use it. You might change their entire life.

RESPOND WITH CURIOSITY. You see the Ask games where people try and get more detail on the WIP of certain authors. If you have a WIP and I ask you a worldbuilding question that doesn't relate to the direct plot of the story as it exists now, I bet you'd like to talk about it. If I ask if you were inspired by a certain tone or movie, you might know the work I was talking about and feel happy. Or you might not know it, look it up, and feel inspired. I don't think people realize that a critique of new/unfinished writing is not a one-and-done exchange. You are taking part in an isolated process in a way few other people on the planet will. It's not homework. It's. Not. Homework. We spend so much of our time alone just fiddling our hands and making our magic, and in instances like these we share something in one of the ultimate forms of artistic trust. They're taking you into a world that hasn't fully formed yet. Is it cool? Can you tell me about it? Can they?

Be nice. Storytime, friends. In the way early 2010s, there was something on the internet called sporking. It was pretty much a line by line roast of someone's writing - typically fanfic. And I hate to say this, but I read a lot of it. I was 13, somehow untreated and overmedicated, and I was miserable constantly. Just cold in my chest. At one point I had the chance to critique a stranger's story - probably another child - and I essentially mocked the whole thing. They ended up deleting the story off the website. I cannot begin to describe to you the shame I feel about doing this, even ten years later. It burns in my heart and makes me sick to my stomach. If you are a serious writer, especially a young writer, and you insult another writer's craft to their face just as they're getting started - you will regret it. I promise you that. You will think about holding something alive and full of potential in your hands and squeezing your fists until it is just flecks of meat and crushed bone. It will haunt you. Maybe only a little, but constantly and for the rest of your life. So don't do it.

Wow what a grim note to leave on! That's essentially my philosophy on writing critique, do with it what you will. Want to send me some writing to receive this kind of excessive treatment? Cool! I have an email in my pinned post and I'll do that! I'm also down to chat if anyone wants to send me asks or DMs on writing/writing struggles/publishing tips.

#writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing #on writing #writing community #authors of tumblr #actually writing #queer writers #fanfic writing #writing critique #writing criticism #writing tips #writing help #writing resources #writing inspiration #i went crazy on this one didn't i

[evelyyyna]

WHY THE ENDING OF THE AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER DOES NOT MAKE SENCE (Part 1 )

Okay first, let's talk about the creators. So, Bryke. (sigh).

Two people had this idea about a sketch of an old man and turned him into a child. And they they were like " Hey, we should make this a reality" ( just for you to know I do not know their real words but it must went like this). They investigated, they wrote, they painted and ATLA as we all know it, came to life. This work is one of the best animations ever, not only for the story, but also for the dark themes which are shown into the eyes of children that watch the show, the stories , the characters , the songs and especially (and in my opinion one of my favorites) the directing.

A.HOW THE DIRECTING FORESHADOWS THE OUTCOME OF A TV SHOW AND HOW THE ATLA DOES IT

In many movies or tv shows, or even books or theatre plays, ( most of the time after you finish watching or reading the project in front of you and if you do some research on the internet- - that's what I do- ) you will realize that the director was giving you hints about the ending. Literally throwing you hints and images so you would be the investigator of his work and find out about the ending. Now that, is mostly happening in works of the Asian culture. And I think that it is has to do with a new idea of writing ( or an old one that has been come to the surface the recent of years) which I'm a fan of and I would like to think that in my works of writing, I use this way of communicating with my audience pretty successfully. Cause that is how your work WILL ACTUALLY COME TO LIFE. ONLY WHEN THE AUDIENCE WILL ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND AND GET TO KNOW THE CORE OF YOUR WORK, THE HEART AND SOUL OF YOUR CREATION. This does not have to exist in all the projects that are shown in front of your eyes, only some which are the ones that interest us.

ATLA is one of those shows. And the director does not do that only in scenes that have to do with future plans they have, things that are going to happen. They do that with scenes that have to do with the characters as people and times that those people are fighting inside them with their wills and their emotions, in times when they remember things they did, people they have lost , even themselves.

ex:

1) We all know the scene when Sokka and Suki first almost kissed. Sokka just have lost Yue and actually meeting his future girlfriend again. It is night, they both are sitting together and Suki wants to express to Sokka that she has feelings for him. And Sokka seems to have feelings too. But when Suki closes her eyes and prepares herself for the kiss, Sokka can feel the moon to shine above them. The moon that reminds him something or someone from his past, Yue the beautiful and first love of Sokka that sacrificed herself in order to save her people and actually became the Moon Spirit. Yue that may be actually able to see him from where she is. And suddenly the guilt of him forgetting her strikes him. Makes him pull back and explain to Suki why he did not kiss her and why he cannot.

2)And an other example is when Zuko went to see his uncle Iroh in the prison after he betrayed him and joined Azula and his father. If you notice you can see him be the one behind the prison. Not his uncle. And with that we can understand that Zuko is a prisoner of his own people, believes and fears, of his guilt that he had left his uncle. He is not as happy as he thought he would be cause he might earned the love of the father he always want to, but he lost the real father he always had (according to him ), his uncle.

I can present you many many other examples but it is going to take many many hours, so I think you understood my point. Using that kind of directing makes the show alive and we the viewers understand better the characters and we see them as people not only as an animation.

Now where this went absolutely wrong.

B.THE DOWNFALL OF THE ATLA

Before you starting to swear at me, I would like you to remind you that this my opinion, but is based on many many things I and many other people realized after we finished the show. I watched ATLA when I was 12, now I'm 21 but I watch it again every year, in any case, if I make any mistake I would be grateful if you would write to me about it at the comments section ( with a kind and gentle way, thank you).

We all love this show. But that does not necessary means that ATLA does not have it's plots holes. As I talked above about the directing of the show and how much it is important and helps with the plot, in this case it is actually destroying the plot. The directing here is not only responsible. The writing it is too, so it is a combination of these two things that are making the story into reality.

I told you guys about this in my previous post but i'll do it now too. The Episode 02 of S2 : The Cave Of Two Lovers, we see Aang and Katara to be trapped and trying to find a way of getting out of a grave maze before the dark consume them and die before exiting the grave. So, Katara proposes Aang to kiss him cause she looks up at the art that is shown in front of them of a couple kissing and assumes that this is the way of them getting out, cause she read the legent of the 2 lovers, Aang feels shy so he says some words that Katara misunderstands and she gets mad at him. But later, when the torches seem to loose their light from the fire, she looks at him and they both are shown just as they are about to kiss. But then the crystals are shinning and Katara says that this is how the 2 lovers from the grave were finding each other, they will turn off the light and follow the path of the crystals. Aang tries to talk to Katara but she just runs off and gets out of the grave. ( as I said before, SHE LITERALLY RUNS AND LEAVING HIM BEHIND WITHOUT SECOND THOUGHTS ).

Then we have the last episode of S2. When Katara is in the prison with Zuko. They have that moment where it is actually seems very romantic, they speak their truths, something that Zuko never done. He never spoke about his mother. And Katara was always speaking about her dead mother but this is the first time that we see her connecting with someone else (besides her brother), with that matter ( I'm talking about the loss of a mother.) And in the end, when Aang comes and takes her and uncle Iroh takes Zuko and they are separated, what Katara does when she leaves? What Zuko does when Katara is leaving? THEY FUNKY LOOK EACH OTHER!THEY MEET EACH OTHER'S EYES! UNTIL KATARA ACTUALLY STEPS OUT OFN THE PRISON! Like how Katara, meets the enemy's eyes while leaving the cave, after they both had that romantic moment, been surrounded by crystals of the same color with the grave's, they had ( as i said before again and again), the same colors and moves and the way of them standing was the EXACT SAME with the LEGEND OF THE 2 LOVERS? While running away from her destined future husband in the other episode and even though she blushed at the ep2 of S2 she left that incident behind? And the fact that Aang was trying to forget her in the exact same episode, did not help the situation either. Because we were shown another possible pair that actually makes more much sense. Stay tuned for more =P .

PS. So, I wasn't planning of writing a part 2 but now and after hours of writing this one, I will continue and speaking about it in my next post. And the plot holes that exist and what could happen that would make more sense. You will see, you will see. I'm leaving you now ,cause I really need to drink some coffee and then I will continue writing the next post.

#zutara #avatar the last airbender #zuko x katara #zuko #katara #aang x katara #bryke critical #atla #review #shipping #directing #screenwriting #atla aang

[woethehero]

Wyrd RPG Blog Post #1 !!! - Introduction to my Project

Hey Hero (: Thanks for taking a look! If you'll have me, I'd like to share a TTRPG (tabletop roleplaying game) project I've been working on for a bit after finally taking a plunge, and I wanted to document it in a fun way. So far, it's been about 2+ weeks of brainstorming and prototyping with my partner, so we're talking super early stuff.

Quick important foreword please read, I don't want anyone confused! I am exploring designing an RPG as a way to express my art, but I am not a professional game designer and can not promise this will become a full, polished, amazing new RPG at the end of the process. That'd be super sick, but this is primarily just a creative way for me to document exploring my interests of game design and writing alongside my art. I've wanted to do something more long term and dreamed of playing an RPG in my own art world, and no ones gonna try to make it but I.

TLDR: No promises of an actual game. Exploring for fun, documenting to share. Yay!

Now on to the post!

In this first post, I wanted to talk about my design goals, scope, expectations, and what I'm looking forward to so far!

Major Design Goals:

A singular core dice system of d12's being the most used die to determine the success of actions and their outcomes.

Player Characters take on the roles of Aspiring Champions, adventurer-types that wish to make a name for themselves. You are what you do. Your actions, the skills you focus on, and the people you walk with all have an impact on who you become as you grow in power and status.

Asymmetrical combat for GM's and PC's. Player Characters have a much deeper experience

Provide the tools needed for GM's and Players to create custom "home brew" content for their games based on templates so they grounded to the system but unique to the player.

Encourage GM and Player collaboration as much as possible

Classless Characters, characters comprised of Skill Levels and Traits that make up their core identity and capabilities. No EXP, No Levels. Character progression is awarded through play and during the Downtime Phase.

Different modes of play to break up the pacing of a game, examples being Combat, Exploration, Downtime, Social, and Meta.

Quick and lethal combat experience. Fighting directly isn't always the best solution, clever action to shift the odds more in your favor should always be preferred.

Dang Woe, that's pretty ambitious.

Uhh yeah lol. I tried to imagine my dream game for my art and it came out huge. I think it's just gonna be fun to try and explore a lot of different things and learning how to "gamify" things. Digital game dev has just too many barriers for me to explore, but I know my way around a TTRPG! I can't imagine having all these ideas written into mechanics and tested and everything flowing perfectly, but it's gonna be fun to try.

d12 System Yeehaw

The biggest thing I want to cover right away in this post is explaining the d12 action die pool system and how they work. Every Player Character will have a pool of d12s that make up your Effort.

What is Effort? Effort is your "action points," your Stamina, your Energy. You can give something your all, but you can't do it all the time. Effort is broken down into Regen, Stored, and Exhausted, which will be explained later in this post.

Internalize this now before moving on, in the context of rolling dice, 1 is good. 1 is the new slay. 1 is best number. You now love small numbers. When you come to a WyrdRPG post you will be pavloved into remembering 1 is best ever.

Your skills come into play when rolling your Effort. They determine what numbers on the dice count for successes and which do not. Skills lie on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being an absolute beginner and 10 being a renowned legend. Skills are displayed as "Skill #".

ex. Small Blades 8 is a decorated Knight known for their sword and shield mastery. They strike reliably and true.

ex. Small Blades 4 is an amateur or a young mercenary. They are competent and can cause deep wounds, but are far less reliable and strong, and thus require more effort to do the same damage.

Actions in this game have their outcomes determined by how many successes turned up in an effort roll. The max amount of successes you can get is up to how much effort you put in. As a brief example, if you want to swing a sword and have Small Blades 4 as a skill, every die you roll needs to have a 4 or lower to count as a success towards the outcome.

The fun part, 1's are Crits! They count as two successes!

You roll 5 Effort dice. You get 1-3-4-6-10. 1 counts twice, then 3 and 4, for a total of 4 successes. Gonna be a big hit!

12's aren't critical failures. They don't count against you or anything, unless something says otherwise. I'm currently thinking if you use a tool or item that's "broken" or "malfunctioning" then maybe that could apply. Could be cool idk!

Effort Explained More

Last important piece of this heartbeat is Regen, Exert, and Exhausted, the 3 states of Effort. Regen will show up like Regen 3 or Regen 4, meaning you have that number of Effort dice that cannot become Exhausted. You always get these back.

Exert is exhaustible Effort, that if used in addition to your Regen die as all must be used first, will be moved to Exhausted. You cannot use these dice until they are restored. In order to restore Exhausted dice, you have to underspend your Regen dice. For every Regen not used during a round, one exhausted is returned to Exert.

The idea behind this neutral-exert-rest flow is to give more long winded battles a chance to shift and provide risky opportunities to gamble a rest or full-sending an attack with more effort than you probably should, but you really wanna be sure you get this guy.

I appreciate you reading, I'm really curious to hear some of your thoughts as things are moving along. I have a lot of ideas for art and I think regardless of how this goes there's going to be something cool from it!

Okay bye hero!

Yours,

Woe

#fantasy #digital illustration #artists on tumblr #ttrpg art #ttrpg #rpg #indie rpg #illustrative art #woelock #woecore #WyrdRPG

[hua-wangs-blog]

Hello lovely readers! Today I am so excited to bring you an interview with Ella, also known as ynhpstories on Wattpad and TikTok. Many aspiring authors, including myself, have been motivated by Ella's talent as a content developer. She is an inspiration to many and has a unique and distinct style that stands out.

In this interview, I get to know more about Ella and her journey as a creator. We discuss her creative process, the challenges she has faced, and her advice for aspiring content creators. So, join me as I get to know more about Ella and her journey!

Hua Wang: It's truly incredible to read what you have created. Your talent for creative writing is truly remarkable, and I am in awe of the stories you tell.

I am curious to know what themes you explore in your writing. What topics do you focus on, and how do you go about tackling them? Do you enjoy delving into themes that are grounded in reality, or do you prefer to explore more fantastical concepts? How do you approach these themes and make them come alive on the page?

Ella: A lot of the non-book themes are based on real-life situations, such as anxiety, depression, and low confidence. I explore them through many different ways my characters express themselves. I find them easier to talk about because they are loosely based on things I have experienced, so I want to share with others that it's okay to feel like this and that there are people around us who care about us and will always support us. I also like to explore more lighthearted and fantastical themes, like those that are seen in the books, like magical powers and abilities. I want to create a balance of fantastical and grounded themes to create an atmosphere that feels both realistic and fantasy at the same time.

Wang: It's really awesome to hear that you draw from your own experiences to create the characters in your work; not many people have the courage or the ability to do something like that. The way you explore topics through your characters is truly fascinating. You have a knack for bringing depth and life to them, and it's really impressive. I'm sure your readers appreciate the effort and thought you put into your work. It's also impressive to hear that you are striving to balance the thin line between reality and fantasy in your work. It can be a tricky endeavor, as the two can often become entangled and blended, but you manage to add all these remarkable elements of fantasy that really make it come alive.

Ella:Aww, thank you so much. That's so kind.

Wang: There is no need to thank me. You have a lot of talent. So, in response to one of the queries I get while writing new stories for my school, we can only imagine the difficulties you've had to overcome in order to bring your stories to life. So that takes us to the question or questions. What obstacles have you encountered while creating fanfiction? Is there anything in particular that has been particularly challenging to overcome? How did you keep motivated and inspired during the process? I'm sure your readers would love to hear about your experience and the most fulfilling aspect of creating fanfiction.

Ella: In the 2020 lockdown, I went through a really rough patch for my mental health. I felt really alone and down, and I felt like I had no one to talk to. So when I tried to portray some of these feelings in my writing, I was writing a particular rough chapter that included mentions and descriptions of SH and mental health. And it suddenly brought me back to that time in my life. I had to physically stop writing it for a week so I could process how I was feeling. I was really close to deleting the chapter because it was so impactful for me. But I knew if I deleted it, I wasn't going to do any favors because I wanted to show these themes to let people know they are not alone. So the feeling of shining light on these themes for people who are struggling kept me motivated, and now it's one of my favorite chapters because it is so raw and vulnerable, but knowing that there were people there that supported Y/N through it made it worth it.

Wang: I understand how difficult it can be to write about a difficult chapter in your life. Especially when it is something so personal and painful as self-harm. It is admirable that you are willing to open up and share your experience.

I understand how difficult it can be to talk about painful experiences, especially when it comes to self-harm. I have had my own struggles with it in the past, but I'm proud to say I have been clean for a long time now. It wasn't an easy journey, but I am grateful for the people who helped me along the way. Now, I can talk about it without being overwhelmed with pain.

Ella: That's great to hear! I'm glad you got through that and that it's okay to talk about it; it's admirable!

Wang: Thank you.

Wang: Getting back to the interview, that certainly got a bit sentimental! To lighten the mood, here's a funny Harry Potter-related joke: Why did the goblin cross the road? Because he was the Minister of Silly Walks!

Wow, that was horrible. Well, now we know why I'm not a comedian. Anyways, Writing characters is one of the most fun parts of writing fanfiction, don't you think? Out of all the characters you've created, which ones have been your favorites to write? What qualities make them special? Do you love their backstory, or perhaps the exciting adventures they go on? It's always fascinating to explore the lives of these beloved characters. Y/N Lupin is my absolute favorite character, and I could read about them all day. I love all four fanfics, but the one about the roller coaster-like love story of Fred Weasley and Y/N Lupin is definitely my favorite; it's so much fun.

Ella: A lot of the characters that weren't in the books are loosely named after my friends; some have different names, some have their own (depending on their preference). The character 'Katelyn," who has currently appeared in one chapter of the Y/N Lupin story, is completely based on one of my best friends, and there is still so much I'm going to explore with that character, including a love life! Another one of my favorites is the parents and grandparents of Y/n in 'More than Friends." They are based off my parents and my maternal grandparents' personalities to a T. It's always fun making characters based off people I know. I also love making Y/N in any book a fun but relatable character. They are all my favorites for many different reasons. Y/N Lupin shows my more emotional and vulnerable side. Y/N Lestrange shows my confident and insecure sides. And Y/N Bailey shows a side of me that is an absolute badass; I love the energy they give off, and my story lines bring out the best (and worst) of each character! Don't worry. There is more to come for the love lives of Fred Weasley and Y/N Lupin!

Wang: It is truly incredible how you take the people in your life and transform them into characters that we can all relate to and care about. It's a powerful testament to your creativity and imagination that you can take the people you know and turn them into something new and exciting. It's also a wonderful way to honor the people who have made an impact on your life. Through your stories, you are able to give them a lasting legacy and remind us of the importance of the people around us. The characters you create bring out the best in people and inspire us all to be better versions of ourselves. It is truly remarkable how you can take real-life people and craft them into memorable characters that we all love and cherish.

Ella:Aww, thank you.

Wang: Have you considered teaming up with other fanfic writers to bring your ideas to life?

Ella: No one has really reached out about it, and I would be open to it if their goals for writing are similar to mine. I don't want to go so far out of my writing style that the themes I make clear vanish within it.

Wang: We are almost at the end of this interview, and we have just three more questions to ask. One of them is related to your familiarity with the Wizarding World and other genres or fandoms. Are there any particular genres or fandoms you are more familiar with other than The Wizarding World?

Ella: Ooo, it's tricky because all the other fandoms left my head. I really do enjoy the Heartstopper fandom because it's so open and honest about those topics. So I've tried to bring some of those topics into my story. That's the only one I can think of right now.

Wang: I'm curious: how do you handle feedback on your work or criticism? It can be difficult to accept criticism, but it's important to remember that it can actually help you grow and improve. Do you strive to take feedback in a very modest, honest, and fun manner? How do you use it to your advantage?

Ella: Most of the time I use it as a learning opportunity, but there are many parts of my first fanfic that I would change. The readers give me ideas on what to avoid, so I will listen to them and see if it actually works. But I have had a couple of rude messages, and I don't let them affect me. But I've also kept my first fanfic exactly how it is; I'm not going to change anything in it to show that feedback can improve someone's writing, and I will make every recommendation happen in the way that they would like it to!

Wang: What advice would you give to a beginner fanfic writer?

As a seasoned fanfic author, I'm sure you have a lot of experience and wisdom to share. What tips and tricks do you have to offer those who are just starting out? What would be the most important things to keep in mind when it comes to writing fanfiction? What did you wish you had known when you first started writing?

Ella: There are a few things I wish I knew: 1. The name and cover of your book have to be appealing and interesting; if they're generic, fewer people will click to read them.

2. Make the description exciting—it draws more people in to see what things your characters get up to!

3. It's okay to take breaks. Burnout is a normal thing when writing; it's okay to stop and have a few weeks off. I haven't published anything in a while because the more you put it off, the worse burnout gets.

4. Don't expect to have the first chapter blow up; my books always took the first 3–4 chapters to be published before I saw reads that I was happy with. People normally come back to the book when there are more chapters left.

5. My favorite one: just be you—don't let one comment about your writing style stop you from writing or change the whole theme of your book! You should write something you are proud of, so make that one silly moment in your book, retell that story over and over again, and use the writing style you want! It's uniquely yours, so be proud of it.

It's always tough to start writing a fanfic, and there are so many reasons why. But remember to always stay true to yourself and make something you're proud of, because it's so much more rewarding that way!

I want to thank Ella for allowing me to interview her and giving me the opportunity to learn more about her and her work. I would like to give her a huge shout-out for her amazing work on both Wattpad and Tiktok. Everyone should definitely go check out her accounts on both platforms and read their stories. It has been a pleasure interviewing Ella, and I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this interview with your favorite fanfiction author! We hope you enjoyed it and learned something new.

No matter where you are or what time it is, we wish you a wonderful day or night. Take care of yourself and have a great time.

Goodbye, Amores!

Sincerely,

Hua Wang

#fanfiction #blog post #anime fanart #marvel fanfic series #marvel fandom #harry styles x y/n #louis tomlinson #bucky barnes x y/n #loak x y/n #loki x y/n #hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry #hermione granger #harry potter #welcome home #the owl house #steve harrington #x reader #remus lupin #ron weasley #reader insert #long reads #random #george weasley #fred weasley #wattpad #writing #woman #neville longbottom #news #professor dumbledore

[mcmactictac]

So I’m trying to write a paper on the pros and cons of fandom culture for a media class right. And let me just say it makes me SO MAD trying to find sources because there are so many genuinely wonderful things about fandom and there are many complex social issues reflected in them. Yet so many of these articles are all just based so heavily in sexism? Like playing into that “crazy fangirl” stereotype. And listen I get it yk some people are like that. But I want to talk about WHY fandom is so important to so many people.

Everyone is so quick to judge without getting any understanding of where the sense of attachment comes from. Yes, fandoms have bad people. Yes, there is fetishization, doxing, and a shit load of other problems. It just drives me nuts that those problems are pointed out and no academic sources make an effort to figure out why those problems occurred. Like the relationship between society and fandom is so fucking interesting and its really interesting to see how different fanbases reflect different viewpoints on things.

Also I’m tired of everyone saying we control the media. I have not sat through years of queerbaits; through all of November 5th and the hell that came after it for people to say that producers always listen to fans and give them whatever they want/target everything towards them. Like yes ofc massive media companies are going to take advantage of people cause sadly that’s just how so many of them are. But that doesn’t take away from the genuine meaning and support that media gives us? 

Like brief academic moment here we’ve been talking about Stanley Hall’s model of communication and the idea of encoding and decoding, and how media can have multiple different meanings. I fully agree that people’s own cultural experiences and personal contexts change the way they interpret something. And it’s absolutely fascinating to see how fanbases can have such a large majority of people who draw the same conclusion from media based on their experiences. Especially with queerbaiting and queer coding. I've been thinking about BBC Merlin a lot recently and how interesting that show is not only on its own but in relation to it’s fandom. How so many people can watch it and see magic as something so clearly queercoded, and identify themselves with that characters, and then other people can insist that we’re grasping for straws. 

I just wish it was taken more seriously yk? Like the good and the bad that comes along with it are both very real and intense emotions, especially with so many neurodiverse people in fandom space who become hyperfixated on media. That’s something that has a massive impact on people. Fandom can be a space to connect with others, to explore your own identity, to critically reflect on what you’re consuming, to inspire yourself to create! 

Whenever people outside of fandoms talk about fanfiction it’s always about slash fiction and YES that is a part of it but I have read some truly incredible and impactful fanfictions that has understood the target audience better than a majority of media sources. Fanfiction that can speak to you, reflect your own feelings, provide a sense of comfort or a way to express emotion. Like yes there’s fic’s that are just smut but I’ve seen just as many 100k+ fics that are like focused around found family, mental health issues, AU’s with incredible worldbuilding, fans who put the devotion into creating well rounded characters and expanding upon the foundation placed before them. I’m tired of all that being ignored, because it should be appreciated. I’ve seen so many people who manage to communicate a certain feeling or emotion through fanfiction better than in books I’ve read.

And as so much of adolescent culture shifts online I think fandom spaces are HUGE in terms of self discovery. I’m tired of adults invalidating fandoms because it’s just “made up of obsessive teen girls” there is so much more to that and every day I am tempted to write an essay (not for class) on it because I have so many thoughts on it and I absolutely hate that people refuse to take it seriously.

Wow ok clearly had some feelings there thanks for coming to my TED talk 

#rant #fandom #fandom culture #was this ambitious of me to do for an academic essay? Yes. Will that stop me? No.

[bisexualchrissycunningham]

What tropes DO you like to see in hellcheer fanfics? Now I'm worried that I've been incorporating things that are harmful without even realizing it and I want to write things that won't accidentally trigger or upset a reader. Our fandom is small but strong and I don't want to contribute to any discomfort.

Oh boy. Firstly, it’s really lovely to know someone takes reader discomfort seriously and wants to ensure they’re not causing harm. 

But secondly, don’t avoid writing anything out of fear of reader reaction. That’s what tags are for! Here’s the thing: I wish more people would use too many tags rather than too little just to be safe. Or give a much better idea of what a fic will entail in the description. If they don’t want to spoil readers, one thing I’ve done in the past has been stating in my authors note that I would put a detailed description of any potentially triggering content in the end notes on AO3 and they can choose whether to read or not. Just something, you know? 

I hold myself totally responsible for what I choose to read, which means I have chosen to limit my fic reading much more than I originally thought I would out of an overabundance of caution. I think tags can only go so far if the writers themselves don’t seem to be fully conscious of what they’re putting out there with their writing. 

Which I guess leads to a thing I’ve been biting my tongue on cause my thoughts on it are still so unformed and I’m always scared of provoking hatefulness.. there is a pattern across fic in general (not just Hellcheer) of power dynamics being written naturally into all ship interactions without proper tagging. Sometimes BDSM is tagged, but nothing to specify non-sexual power dynamics, which in my perspective can often be MORE important to warn for. It seems like a lot of writers have sort of internalized this idea that there always has to be a dominant partner and a submissive partner in any pairing, and of course it almost always means the male or more masculine-presenting partner is the dominant one.

I think in normalizing this, some people started missing the fact that this is, in fact, a kink and something that HAS to be warned for. Readers should always be aware of any type of unequal power dynamic before reading a fic. 

A lot of writers are aiming for the sub partner as a fully-empowered character with their own autonomy who chooses to be submissive, but tbh, not all writers are successful at demonstrating this and instead recreate pretty fucked up dynamics that can lead to otherwise fine content being distressing for readers. 

An unrelated issue I’ve run into that a lot of people aren’t gonna wanna hear: B*lly showing up in fics without being tagged. Fucking ALWAYS tag this character. You KNOW he’s upsetting/triggering for people due to his canon behaviour, regardless of how much you personally like/relate to him. I recently read a Hellcheer fic where he showed up out of nowhere, played a prominent role in several chapters AND was in a relationship that made me super uncomfortable. If it had been in the tags, I could have at least made an informed choice about reading it without being completely fucking blindsided. 

Like I said above, I don’t think anyone should not write something cause of the way readers might react. I fully believe there is room for all types of fic– I dabble in writing pretty taboo stuff privately, and I really love darkfic. Obviously I am fine with simply not reading things that don’t interest me based on what the tags and synopsis tell me. I guess I just wish the fandom was a little more united and therefore friendlier, and had more of the kind of environment that welcomed sticky conversations like this, but it’s not and it doesn’t, so being cautious feels like my best option. 

To speak to your concern about your own writing and possible harm.. honestly, I have only seen a single other person express discomfort with some of the things I described above, and I’ve never felt comfortable discussing it one on one with anyone to see if anyone else experiences anything similar. Fandom friendships are so precarious as it is–often just expressing an opinion a mutual doesn’t like can lead to them no longer engaging with you, so the risk doesn’t feel worth it. 

I genuinely worry this is only a me problem, and other people simply don’t care and think anyone who does should just toughen up, or be less uptight or something. Maybe I’m just bitter or cynical about this fandom though. 

As for tropes I do like reading.. hmm. I feel like if I list anything right now, it’s just going to be a bunch of things that are the opposite of everything I talked about above. Is there anything in particular that sparked your message you wanted to discuss? I'm happy to chat more.

#i don't know how to tag this #is that ironic??? #answered #fic tagging discussion #discourse-ish

[consequencesofargentdawn]

While this may be more of a historical question that has been asked time and time again. Why would people like Morsteth, Lunarglade, Fearless, Coalburnt, Gruggosh and Stormbinder etc commit themselves to serving under a vanity project for one person? Especially when amongst the named people you have some pretty big narcissistic egos.

When you look at it they all had their own power bases within the PCU. Lunarglade and their wacky Illuminati cultist, Morsteth and his edgy fascist shock troopers, Shewp/Coalburnt and his inquisitors. Are or were these individuals genuinely loyal to Perroy as a figurehead of their community?

Or was it something different. E.g they knew that their behaviour and antics wouldn't be tolerated in other parts of the community but perhaps they realised they could live out their power fantasies in the PCU. Perroy basically created a haven for a certain type of player to congregate.

Some of the above were always Perroy's enforcers, but others have been rogue elements and trouble makers that Perroy never really did much about. With that in mind, just how much control did Perroy have over his lieutenants - or did they in fact control him?

I do find the subject interesting, whether it was out of fear or loyalty or and I -hate- to say it was it down to Perroy's charisma that brought these various people together who may have been enemies? The curious thing about this is when Perroy departed some of those individuals were immediately at each others throats especially when they knew that there wouldn't be any consequences from Dear Leader.

The general allure of the PCU, like all fascistic organisations is to give a sense of belonging to those who otherwise would not be able to fit into the wider community because of their extreme and socially disapproved positions.

Perroy never made a move against 'rogue' parts of his community because they served two purposes:

"If I keep Stormbinder, Fearless, Lunarglade, Boush etc around it lets me look more reasonable in public while letting me send them out against actual serious opposition."

and

"I can use their maladaptive socialisation to my advantage and make them feel welcome and therefore they are loyal to me and anything I ask of them won't be opposed, even if they take the long way to do it/make a mess of it along the way."

Loyalty has always been more valued in the PCU than actual quality of personality as a player or skill at writing a good character. Narcissists surprisingly congregate around likeminded figures. They play off one another by showering each other in fake compliments and encouragement, nothing positive a PCU higher up says is factually or even subjectively true, it serves a purpose. Perroy has been caught on record, and we have posted chat log evidence of this that the PCU is not a democracy, it's not about personal freedom to play a character you want or to express opinions you desire. It has always been his autocracy and his will. Unity must be shown at all times publicly.

Now look recently. Unity is broken into pieces, something unthinkable even two years ago. Once Perroy is no longer on the scene, and definitively at that, the facade turns to sand. Once the genius of the great icon of the cult of personality is gone, the cadres and apparatchiks start to turn on one another, even if there is an official "new leader" i.e Gruggosh, that is merely a public face.

Question why the PCU has gone from 26 guilds in April 2022 to merely 12 a year later? 12, of which half have probably less than 10 active members. The more pressing concern now for us is these 'false PCU' guilds made to effectively act like ratlines for members to jump into to hide from the consequences of their actions.

#confessions of argent dawn #pcu #argent dawn eu #perroy #hypocrisy

[astromechs]

hi!!! hope you’re having a good day <3

for the fanfic writer emoji ask:

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

💋 first kiss fics. love em or hate em?

i'm an absolute sucker for them. i'm very secretly a hopeless romantic, and i love the awkwardness of trying to express feelings and enter into/navigate a relationship. so, yeah, there's a LOT that a first kiss fic can accomplish, and i definitely have a lot more in me!

🥺 is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

i really love when people who have a lot of trauma are able to open themselves up to trusting another person, and those people being there for each other. just... little moments of emotional vulnerability and support like that. those are the types of things i feel like i base all my writing on, because that's just, that's where the good stuff is. trust and connection; learning you're not alone.

🤩 who is your favorite character to write?

this is hard, so i'll name a few! jyn erso, who's been one of my favorite characters to write for several years now. also my man cassian andor; i'm a little less confident in his voice than i am in jyn's, so i tend to default to her more often, but man, when i get into his headspace it's SO GOOD (by which i mean it's sad. but it's good). matt murdock also became an unexpected favorite for me last fall, but i just really love the way he processes through the world — and his abilities make for a really interesting exercise in using sensory imagery without using visuals at all that's just really rewarding. my guy rich rider goes without saying, of course. i always really love gamora's pov. and wanda maximoff has a really interesting perspective on the world, too.

fan fic writer emoji ask!

#asks #percyshotgirlsummer #thank you! i'm doing great <3 how are you?

[waterspinachdith]

IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN!!

Fandom can provide a safe haven for us to express ourselves, have fun, and participate in activism. However, fandom is not always amusing. It can also be harmful at times. One of the toxic fandom cultures that we may have heard about recently is the "duty" to stream songs or music videos by idols in order to meet particular screening targets. Of course, this is done to both respect and encourage idols' work and hard work.

This behaviour, however, can become toxic if one fan or group of fans forces other fans to stream as well. Fans who do not stream militantly have been abused and dubbed "disloyal" to their idols on countless instances. Bullying is nothing new in the fandom. According to the BBC, in 2018, Canadian writer Wanna Thompson was bullied by Barbz, as fans of rap superstar Nicky Minaj were known. Wanna, who is also a fan of Nicki Minaj, questioned Nicky's work at the moment. He believes that the performer should write more mature songs.

Wanna began receiving threats and insults from the Barbz shortly after tweeting. They even found a photo of Wanna's four-year-old son and made fun of him. Gayle S. Stever writes in his article "Parasocial and Social Interaction with Celebrities: Classification of Media Fans," which was published in the journal Psychology Theories Methods and Applications, that a person can love or like his idol based on feelings such as "celebrity idols are similar to him," "he wants to be like a celebrity," "romantic attachment," and "considering idols to be holy heroes."

It's no secret that all fandoms can be awful, and I've certainly known this, but for those who prefer to use fiction to inspire and distract themselves from reality for a while, groups within a certain fandom might feel like a safe place to create relationships and not feel alone. For the longest time, I was only interested in one fandom, which I adored. There were some negative portions, but not nearly as horrible as some other fandoms I wanted to join. I'm getting into the practise of ignoring fandoms that I find offensive or obnoxious, but it makes me feel more alone in my enjoyment of a series; also, depending on the fandom, it can cause me to see a character or series as just one big cringey meme.

From my personal record, When I was in highschool, I was part of the Beliebers (Justin Bieber's) fandom. I remember creating a twitter account just to make friends with other beliebers. I used to post edits and tagged Justin's official account on every post I made. I believe I made quite a few friends on the acc even though none of us actually know each other personally. The fact that we're all gathered under the same interest. I used to get mad at people who make stupid jokes about him. I made a mistake and allowed it to impair my enjoyment of the series, something I'm trying not to repeat. It bothers me to see something that I find uplifting and reassuring portrayed as filthy and cringeworthy. Apart from meeting friends online, I remember that I used to skip school lunches just to save my pocket money for Justin Bieber's merch. The fact that this might be seen as cringe or childish to others, I was really enjoying those moments as a fangirl.

#mda20009 #week 9 #fandom #justin bieber #yuh #slayminaj

[scoops404]

this is late! but i'm always curious with rpf writers: how do you consider the 'characters' you write about against the real person? as in, how do you personally manage the separation between the two? especially in regards to shipping as the fandom as a whole seems to veer more towards truthing and an assumption that we, as fans, are able to truly perceive these people.

i see you're very respectful of the creators boundaries in regards to personal information that hasn't been freely given. has this ever been a struggle for you? it's almost impossible not to learn things about creators that has been obtained by shady means as there's an obviously toxic community dedicated to stalking and doxing creators and then using that information to harass fans by shoving it in their face. hopefully this hasn't happened to you but if it has and you've been unwillingly shown personal information about the people you're writing about, how do you personally deal with that while writing to ensure you're respectful of their right to privacy?

sorry if this is a bit more esoteric than you were asking for! i won't be offended if you choose not to answer :) love your writing! you're definitely one of my go-to authors if people ask for recs!

It took me a while longer to get to this ask because I wanted to think on it, hope you don't mind :)

Also, this got super long so it's below the cut

I never for one second have thought I actually know the ccs, in any of the rpf fandoms I've been in. I was trying to think of how I've always felt that distinction, and honestly, I think it's because I've read so many AUs that it's easier to separate fic!cc from irl!cc - dunno if that helps, but for me it's like the written versions in stories are so different because they always have the tone of the author in the style of the piece, the "characters" are filtered through their eyes, no matter how grounded in their quirks and vernacular the author is, they can't 100% take themselves out of it. That's how I always see the distinction, i guess. No idea if this is making sense to anyone else.

Moreover, I've also always believed the ccs deserve their privacy, so for someone to write a story about them and think they haven't missed any nuances of who these people are as people, is like so dumb? We can't 100% know them, and we SHOULDN'T 100% know them. There should be a wall dividing us from them.

As far as writing them--some stories they are completely different but you have to reach at something true about them and expand on it. I'm talking mostly about AUs like thief and cop AU or king and knight AU because those obviously have dynamics that aren't inherent in our Dream and George. For the style of fic I like to write, which is mostly IRL or "reality" based with a twist, you can only guess at what you think is real and true to each one of them and focus on drawing that part of them out, in regards to whatever the plot needs. With "Fallen," George's mom's divorce is the catalyst that draws them together, so we needed the angst of George seeing that relationship fall apart and wondering if his relationship with Dream will inevitably go the same way. In "Deep in the Dream of Game" their lives are at stake and so the protective side of each of them comes out and the strategist side of Dream that works to get them home and keep everybody together and alive. I hope that makes sense. In "Shine Here to Us" George's jealousy of Dream having a child with someone else prompts him to rearrange his life (again) in order to be the closest person to Dream, to do it with him.

We've seen snippets of private George, of how he keeps information close to his chest, how he doesn't talk about past relationships, etc and I channeled that into Fallen. We've seen Dream be protective over George -- the cooking stream and telling him not to put his hand in hot oil, "Tiktok fix your shit", etc and I channeled that into Deep in Dream. Anytime Dream expresses interest in someone else, George gets jealous (I feel like this happened with Foolish) -- and thus a nugget for Shine here to us.

I do try to be respectful of their boundaries. Before George's last name was in his meet-up vlog, I'd seen it in lots of stories and that never sat right with me. Not in a way where I'm passing judgment on those writers, I wouldn't, it's just a line I myself wouldn't cross. I've made guesses at things based on stories they've freely told us, but I've been lucky enough to avoid doxxed info. I came into fandom twitter space (where most of it seemed to leak) after that seemed to die down--or I was lucky enough to avoid it, I dunno. My friends said there were times doxxed info would be in replies to cc'd tweets and I never saw that, which I'm grateful for. I've been on tumblr a LONG time, but on this account, I've never gotten critblur asks like most of the big blogs did (So I've been told after the fact, and also THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION TO SEND THEM TO ME, DO NOT). So, I don't go looking, and I don't incorporate private information into my stories.

I think if I had been shown private info, I'm pretty good at forgetting things. I have to double check stories with my friends and betas all the time, so I think I'd be okay at not using that info.

It's interesting to me to see the line of fandom moving as I've aged in fandom. A lot of people in this community are young (which is great!) but the "rules" of this fandom are a lot different from other fandoms. Though, I do think it's really cool to have the main three--dream team--cool with being shipped and written about. I think Dream made a really smart choice when he was blowing up. (not to say I think he played into queerbaiting--he's a person not a corporation and can't queerbait. I'm pretty sure he and George are just like that.)

I firmly believe he did a lot of research on cultivating a fandom when he started popping off and when he realized his audience was primarily LGBT and leaning female, he embraced it and encouraged them in things that female leaning people tend to do in fandom, which is, mostly transformative works. There's an interesting article that i can't find that talks about the traditional "roles" of men vs women in fandom spaces and men do more archiving and collecting ((think racecars, pokemon cards, mcc reddit spreadsheets, etc)) which is not to say women can't do that, but apparently women lean more towards writing fan fiction and drawing fan art. I think that article didn't talk about trans or nonbinary people but I see a LOT of them in this space, which is, again, amazing.

Anyway, Dream's growth in large part is tied to not only his creative videos and terrific editing skills, but the cultivation of a fandom that he allows full creative freedom--edits, tiktoks, analysis videos, fanfic, and fan art!! I don't know any other cc who encourages artists as much as Dream and I think that's really helped him.

But I do think that sometimes people confuse him being open with his fans to being open in the sense that they are owned information about him. They aren't. They never will be. He tells us way more than we deserve to know and way more than other ccs tell their fans. I block those people and keep it moving.

Sorry that this got way off track, lmao. Clearly I just needed to ramble about fandom stuff for a while. Sorry.

Thank you for reccing my fics, that's lovely to hear! I really love writing for this community :D

#on rpf

[redheid]

my personal cut key to unlocking a sincere passion for writing prose not just the dialogue was realising i could actually write in first person as much as i want to or, when it’s in third, could write myself in as a very hands-on narrator so it almost feels like i’m writing another character into it. i think that is cool. no, i know it is cool

#2014 i only wanted to write dialogue thats why i leant more towards scripts but now im the opposite baby i love the whole thing #writing has always been a character based interest for me and people expressing themselves #even though im envious of people who has a talent for describing setting (genuinely i am i AM) that ain't me that isn't what i enjoy writing #i really only do setting as i *need to* for the rest to make sense and then i move on #love reading it hate writing it

[memryse]

The magic of 3rd Life, or why such a simple hardcore miniseries works as well as it does

For a series which only lasted for eight sessions, 3rd Life has had a profound impact on the MCYT fandom. While it did go comparatively unnoticed on Twitter (as is consistent with YouTube-based Minecraft content as a whole, admittedly), Tumblr and other platforms have fallen in love with this series, and it’s become a vector for many fans to familiarise themselves with Hermitcraft and Empires SMP as well. But at its core, 3rd Life is a simple vanilla survival series with a gimmick. What about it resonates so much with so many people?

I would argue that its simplicity, its small cast, its vanilla gameplay “with a twist” is certainly part of it. It’s an easy series to consume, with many POVs totalling four hours or less, and it doesn’t require any prior knowledge of any of the members. Its mechanics are easy to understand. As a standalone, it functions perfectly – it’s immersive and can be followed easily by anyone, regardless of any prior knowledge they may or may not have. However, these factors alone don’t quite encompass what makes 3rd Life so special. Its true charm point lies in the format of the series, and how well it utilises improv.

[more below the cut; this is a fairly long post about 3rd/Last Life meta and my love of its improv. I'm mostly talking about 3rd Life here as it's a completed series, but this most definitely does apply to Last Life as well]

3rd Life is an entirely improv-based series. Whilst members may have a brief concept of the direction they’d like to take their series in – how heavily they want to roleplay, for example – the actual content of each session is fully improvised. Each episode is recorded in one three-hour block, and members are not allowed to play on the server outside of the allotted time other than specifically to finish builds. This time constraint prevents any planning from going into each episode, and interactions between players are completely spontaneous. Players simply run around the map looking for others to interact with (which is significantly easier with the limited world border) and chat about various events on the server, form alliances or deals, etc.

By definition, this almost completely negates the possibility of bad writing. Each player’s reaction to any server event is spontaneous, a legitimate reaction; they aren’t trying to play any specific roles or shoehorn in any specific events (with the exception of the Red King/Hand of the King roles, who were still completely improvising). Even the finale – a distinctly heart-wrenching and tragic scene – was improvised without Grian or Scar attempting to tell any specific story. According to Martyn, they weren’t roleplaying, they didn’t have any aims with that scene. It just happened to turn out in the way that it did, and they were legitimately sorry to one another. The server progressed in this natural way, and every person’s perspective tells a completely different story. It’s hard to identify any specific heroes or villains – fans of the Dream SMP can surely relate to this feeling, but I would argue that 3rd Life takes this one step further. 3rd Life is a tragedy from all perspectives, a tragedy which tells one cohesive story in its entirety before stopping as abruptly as it began.

3rd Life hinges entirely on its interactions between its members. Whilst solo content does exist – base building, for example – the majority of each session is spent interacting with others. 3rd Life is carried by its dialogue; nothing else drives the story, and yet many episodes are between 30 minutes and an hour long. It’s that dialogue-heavy. Members of the server have expressed trouble with even editing their videos because there is so much key dialogue that they don’t want to cut. People don’t watch 3rd Life for the actual gameplay, at all – there’s so little of it! They watch it for how each member interacts with the people around them. This is something not found in any other SMP I’ve encountered. SMPs livestreamed on Twitch have plenty of downtime, and people will happily watch streams on that SMP no matter what’s occurring on the server; people often watch them for their interest in specific members. Other currently popular YouTube SMPs, namely Hermitcraft and Empires, are well-balanced between solo content and interactions, and all server content hinges on the members’ various skills like building and redstone. 3rd Life is, to my knowledge, the only SMP which does not rely on building or redstone skills (what’s the point, when they’ll be dead the next week?), it doesn’t rely on the creator doing solo work talking to their chat, it doesn’t rely on planned roleplay. People legitimately just want to hear various members talking to each other. It’s a fascinatingly unique series in this regard. This dialogue-heavy aspect of 3rd Life ties back to my earlier point about 3rd Life feeling like a completely different series from all perspectives; with all of this dialogue being conveyed through proximity chat, so many events are entirely left out of other POVs, or presented in very different lights.

The pure improv format also helps significantly with worldbuilding, whilst also leaving plenty to the imagination. MCYT fandoms always require a significant amount of imagination to become invested in them, let alone make fan content of them, and 3rd Life is no exception to this. As discussed in this post, which was incidentally the inspiration for me to write this one, 3rdLife is full of lines which flesh out the series, which illustrate what happened better than can be shown in Minecraft. These lines are improvised on the spot, and are often complete throwaway lines in the creators’ eyes. In the fans’ eyes, they make 3rd Life feel alive, they provide plenty of material on which to base headcanons. Again, this isn’t necessarily unique to 3rd Life, it’s a common aspect of all Minecraft series, but I think this is where the rather angsty nature of 3rd Life comes into play. A dramatic survival game, entirely unscripted, with all events hinging entirely on your interpretation of them? It’s not hard to see why 3rd Life fans are so creative with character designs and fanfiction – hell, a lot of 3rd Life fics simply narrate canon in their own more dramatic light. Canon-compliant fics are significantly more common for 3rd Life than other fandoms I've encountered, because people hear these simple lines and want to dramatise them, put their own spins on them. I don't feel that this would be possible with any other series, not to the extent that 3rd Life fans do it. Other series' canon is either already dramatic, and so rehashing it can feel repetitive, or so lighthearted that people write AUs/new storylines. 3rd Life strikes a brand-new balance.

The development of its characters is also bolstered by improv. As no events on the server are pre-planned, members have to react completely spontaneously to anything that occurs. They don’t get time to think – only to react as though they genuinely were in that situation. As I said at the start, 3rd Life inherently lacks bad writing, because it’s not written. Ren, for instance, began 3rd Life as a kind and harmless person, with others often walking right over him. His reaction to his death by Grian and Scar’s trap spurs him to become the Red King; he raises an army and goes to war, and ends the series having taken countless lives, becoming hardened by war. He begins Last Life by isolating himself from others, seeming jaded and unwilling to form alliances, ready for another war to break out. Being improvised, it’s impossible to say how much of this was deliberate, or if Ren just started building his base without thinking about continuity from the previous season. This improv is what makes it feel so natural. It isn’t planned beforehand. This is Ren’s natural reaction to starting Last Life. It makes his character feel so much more real than it would if this was all scripted beforehand.

3rd Life is, overall, a testament to the power of improv. It manages to be compelling and dramatic without any acting feeling forced or wooden. Its characters’ arcs feel natural, because they are natural. Placing such a heavy emphasis on dialogue, with the gimmick of the server being a vehicle for interactions to happen rather than the sole appeal of the series, makes it truly feel as though we’re getting a glimpse into the characters’ lives, rather than watching a story which has been written beforehand. We get to watch everything unfold in real time. 3rd Life has a magic to it that, to my knowledge, no other SMP has been able to recreate.

#3rd life smp #last life smp #trafficblr #mae analyses #THIS IS REALLY META BUT I JUST <3 I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR HOW WELL 3RD LIFE DOES WHAT IT DOES #THERE'S A *REASON* IT'S SO COMPELLING #it has this different feel to it #one that i've never encountered before because there is NOTHING like 3rd life out there #ohh i love 3rd life a normal and reasonable amount

[ghooostbaby]

deeeep dive into why and how wei wuxian and lan wangji love each other, complete each other, are the inverse reflection of each other’s deeply hidden internal selves mirrored through the other’s external self, lan wangji’s inner wildness that he has to conceal and protect recognizing and loving wei wuxian’s outer wildness, wei wuxian’s deep, fuddy-duddy morality and values that he conceals with an elaborate subterfuge of jokes, mischief, and bravado, seeing and loving in lan wangji the ability to say no that it was never safe for him to express directly, “between you and me there is no need for thank you and sorry”

oh and a slight diversion midway through into a manifesto on WEI WUXIAN IS NOT INSECURE the whole story is about a society where being liked is ESSENTIAL for survival and it is actually completely perilous not to be liked, and his “people pleasing” is a skill and tool for his survival especially as an orphan and proven to be a necessary one when he stops doing it and STOPS SURVIVING

after the cut discussing the very interesting dynamics of consent in general in the novel, but not going into the consensual non-consent kink stuff till the last paragraph if you need to avoid for any reason.

I've been thinking about how Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian the exterior, unfettered expression of the wildness Lan WangJi holds in him and protects with rigid codes of conduct, propriety and outward dignity.

I have had this sense that these two are mirrors, either one reflecting the hidden, interior (and unallowed) self of the other. but it seemed more clear from Lan WangJi's side, especially knowing about his history with his mother and the spicy side that emerges when he drinks and in the extras.

I also - just... the way this whole story shows how romantic love is truly this longing for your self, to become yourself, to become the thing you're not allowed to be, seeing in that person the expression of whatever it is you can't become and longing for it, protecting it, joining with it as closely as you can without ever being able to let it live inside your own body.

On the surface it seems a lot more difficult for Wei WuXian to find a piece of his soul in Lan Wangji. I think its a bit too simplistic to see whatever draws Wei WuXian to Lan Wangji as a reverse-psychology sort of craving of acceptance from the only one who won't give it, pushing and pushing against this impenetrable boundary that he needs to break to feel assurance that no matter what he can make anyone accept him.

And he is SO drawn - in a mind boggling way, in the teenage flashbacks Lan WangJi rudely and aggressively throws him off over and over and Wei WuXian cannot keep away! Even when he talks about how boring Lan WangJi is, he never stops trying to be around him and talk to him.

I've seen discussions of the way Wei WuXian has always relied on the goodwill of others to survive, and that his placating of others to survive is a character flaw. Although that seems only halfway true. 

As a young child he didn't have anyone's goodwill for a while and he survived, and it seems like he can always find a way to survive from whatever means and sometimes very limited resources he has at his disposal. Doing what he has to do to become powerful enough to survive losing his core and being thrown into the burial mounds slowly costs him the goodwill of everyone around him - and what happens to him as a result shows how much placation was a truly necessary for someone without the protection of biological/hereditary family bonds.

(Don’t get me started on how his loss of his golden core and his development of demonic cultivation to give himself power by ‘unnatural methods’ through the use of a musical instrument is a metaphor for disability and the way ableist society sees the use of accessibility devices and tools. Actually please DO get my started haha.)

Wei WuXian is so charismatic and seems very used to getting what he wants and needs on the strength of that. He pushes a lot of boundaries and seems pretty confident and flexibly prepared to handle the consequences, whether beatings or harsh words. But he does work so hard to make others feel good, good with him, good with themselves.

When he is in the cave with Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian is described as "like one who forgets all past pain as soon as the wound heals". He can't resist coming up beside Lan WangJi and talking to him again and again after every time Lan WangJi pushes him off, only finally staying away when Lan WangJi bites him (and he still keeps trying to talk to him after a little bit!) and then calls him an awful person (!!! Bad Wangji! :(((( ). In the end, when Lan WangJi (very minimally) discloses what happened to his sect and his father, and even cries, because of all the defences/assaults Lan WangJi has put up Wei WuXian can't do anything or say anything to help and feels miserable.

Lan WangJi just absolutely refuses to allow Wei WuXian to take care of him - and I began to wonder maybe that’s what Wei WuXian actually really likes about him? Why he is unable to resist coming up to Lan WangJi again and again? Maybe because Lan WangJi refuses to let Wei WuXian appease him. He’s not trying to crack Lan WangJi to get to this impenetrable place of approval and acceptance. In a way he can’t quite understand, Lan WangJi is a respite for Wei WuXian from the constant work to be the one who pleases.

And  how different this is to how Wei WuXian is (or has to be) with Jiang Cheng when he wakes up in Lotus Pier after the cave. Jiang Cheng gets so down and really really needs Wei WuXian to do what he does so well (and wasn’t allowed to do with Lan WangJi) - chasing Jiang Cheng down while being injured and reassuring him about all his insecurities about his father's acceptance and becoming a sect leader and Wei WuXian's own abilities excelling his - and at first Jiang Cheng is pushing him away, but he really does need Wei WuXian to do all this to feel better.

Wei WuXian is described as not wanting to be lonely, and not wanting to see other people unhappy, and he keeps trying to push and pull with whatever he has to not be lonely and lift the mood for those around him. I don't think it's a kind of codependency or insecurity. It’s not that Wei WuXian is afraid to say no, in fact I would say he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do, but he must always do it creatively, with humour. Similarly to Nie Huaisang, he uses a persona of foolishness to give himself a covert agency.

I also think I'm writing this because I don't like seeing this discussed as a sad bean character flaw for him to always need to be liked - its a strategy, its a tool, its how he survives and excels. Doesn’t the whole story prove how essential being liked is to a human’s survival? And he is so so good at being liked, in making others happy, even when he is refusing to do what others want from him that he doesn't want to do, he does it in a way that deflects criticism, with a smiling bravado that never says what it truly means and has people writing him off as shameless or foolish or just endearing himself toward them despite themselves.

He is always at work really, with jokes and flattery or mischief and teasing, to get the resources he wants and needs. Case and point, when he makes a big coquettish show for mianmian, definitely not being "people pleasing" for her, but the group of girls around them all find it funny and cute and in the end she gives him a perfume sachet which ends up being a valuable resource for later. Or the time he outright tells Jiang Cheng that if you give the girls some lotus seeds they'll remember you and return the favour in the future. (Also notice how his interactions with girls seen as flirtatious are actually strategic resource-gathering acts.) These are the skills he has developed to meet his own needs. (THIS IS NOT A CHARACTER FLAW. I REPEAT.) He takes what he needs and steals from the Lotus Pier markets knowing it'll be paid for, he lives like he never know when his next windfall will come from so he'll take what he can when he can find it. Like Jiang Fengmian said, if there is no guarantee of a meal in the future then today's meal should still be enjoyed. It’s how Wei WuXian said to Nie Huaisang at Cloud Recesses, you have to find ways to make your own fun out of whatever you have. So he gets kicked out of class, goes fishing, gets alcohol, he pursues his own pleasure. He actually is quite insistent of his own agency and right to choose, he just can never directly say no.

And that little detail that Wei WuXian always tucks coins into his clothes just in case, that makes him able to buy food when he and Jiang Cheng are on the run... breaks my heart and reveals so much about the way Wei WuXian is constantly at work on ensuring his own survival and never takes for granted whether he is safe (he knows he never is). 

I've seen some people talking about Wei WuXian sacrificing so much for his brother and sister out of a need to be accepted out of a chronic sense of insecurity. But isn’t this just true? Doesn't he live in a world where being accepted is absolutely essential for survival? Doesn’t this whole story show the cruelty of a social system based on networks of hereditary/biological family that closes out and scapegoats any outsiders, and that without biological family connections that can enclose around you, you can never truly be safe if not constantly working to earn acceptance? (And then beautifully ends with the way a gay romantic relationship that queers marriage/family/etc disrupts all this and creates safety and inclusion for Wei WuXian without needing a normative family.) (AKA romantic love does not resolve some internal personal problem in Wei WuXian but disrupts and refuses and rebels against the problem of SOCIETY.) (*breathes heavily*)

And that’s why Lan WangJi is magnetizing to Wei WuXian. Lan WangJi is always saying no. Although what Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian is an exterior wildness, Wei WuXian is not really out of control so much as he is playing and caring and supplicating and showing off and pleasing people to get the resources and the acceptance he needs to live his life. He has firm values and desires that he can never outwardly state, only creatively spinning plates to distract and deflect while he refuses what goes against his values, protects who he cares for, or takes what he needs to in order to survive/thrive. Lan WangJi embodies an exterior of resoluteness and direct agency that Wei WuXian doesn't have the luxury of. And he's so drawn to him for his ability to repeatedly say no, to refuse to get along, or make others laugh, make other people happy, but just simply follow what he thinks is right.

Wei WuXian’s outward wild movement protects an inward stillness. He is an exterior of people-pleasing around an interior of refusal. He is an exterior of youthful rebellion around an interior of unflinching morality. He sees in Lan WangJi the outward expression of his stillness, his morality, his resistance that he can't express, that he's had to protect.

FYI after the cut gets more into the dynamics of consent in the story, and the last paragraph directly talks about consensual non-consent kink play in wangxian’s relationship.

When Wei WuXian is with Lan WangJi, there is no work to be done. Lan WangJi cannot be swayed by him, and so there's no point vying for resources or favors. Lan WangJi will either give him everything or refuse him everything based on who he is, it does not matter what Wei WuXian does and he can't do anything that will change Lan WangJi’s mind. Someone he literally can't win over. After the resurrection, they are often in an adorable tug of war, where Wei WuXian tries to take care of Lan WangJi, while Lan WangJi won't allow him to but demands to care of Wei WuXian right back. Actually, Lan WangJi insists that Wei WuXian take everything he wants or needs from him and is even angry when he doesn't take or when Wei WuXian tries to offer a gesture in return, even something as simple as a thank you Lan WangJi won't accept. It’s kind of adorable how frustrated Wei WuXian is in doing this thing he's learned that he needs to do, and just... so confused by Lan WangJi, and has to find a way to please this person who aggressively refuses to be pleased and is ONLY pleased by Wei WuXian being pleased.

(Not to mention the way Wei WuXian delights in finding that Lan WangJi can’t say what he wants, and they have sort of these chaotic cohesive both-being-so-pleased-by-working-hard-to-please each-other moments where Wei WuXian is letting Lan WangJi please him by finding out what pleases Lan WangJi and giving it to him.)

The wildness Lan WangJi had always hidden within himself is something he sees as just as dangerous as Wei WuXian thinks of his desire to refuse. He saw his mother be socially alienated, shunned, and eventually die because of her wildness. His ability to survive in the world, aka to be accepted by his family, is contingent on him being able to control this inner wildness. From a young age (re: Phoenix Mountain kiss) he could only understand his sexual desires for Wei WuXian as something repulsive or dangerous that had to be repressed and controlled, and that the only way he could imagine his desires as possible was as non-consensual. His secret gay desires were never available to him as anything but something monstrous.

Importantly, it’s not like everyone else other than Lan WangJi are all vampires cruelly demanding Wei WuXian’s constant sacrifice. Wei WuXian is always vibrantly, charismatically offering so much, before anyone has asked. It’s Wei WuXian who creates this kind of relationship for himself again and again. It’s Lan WangJi who simply refuses - he refuses to charmed, to be cared for. And so in the end Lan WangJi becomes the one person who Wei WuXian feels doesn't need anything from him. When he says he's eating the corpse's fruit to save Lan WangJi money and Lan WangJi says that will never be necessary. Or when Wei WuXian asks what toy he should win for Lan WangJi at the market game, and Lan WangJi says anything Wei WuXian gets will be the one he wants. (XD stahhhhp it’s too sweet !!!) He really just wants Wei WuXian to be, to exist, to spend his life discovering his own desires and allow Lan WangJi to help satisfy them, he doesn't want anything from Wei WuXian other than him living - happy and safe.

It takes someone like Lan WangJi to refuse Wei WuXian’s aggressive generosity, it’s definitely not an easy thing to say no to Wei WuXian, dazzling or annoying people so chaotically before they even realize there’s something to say no to. The sacrifice he gives to Jiang Cheng, he never even offers a choice - and perhaps it would have been too much for Jiang Cheng to accept if he had the chance.

Lan WangJi’s statement "Between us there is no need for thank you and sorry" seems like one of the most important sentences in the novel, and you can’t help but noticed the way “sorry” and “thank you” is littered meaningfully through the book. What is owed, what the characters owe to each other, the give and take, touches every part of the story (down to wangxian's erotic explorations!).

When Jiang Cheng talks to Wei WuXian at the Guanyin temple he makes a lot of contradictory statements about what Wei WuXian owes, what he was given, what he took, what he (Wei WuXian still) is owed in return. Wei WuXian, according to Jiang Cheng, took everything from the Jiang clan, and paid them back with their deaths. The Jiang clan give him his life when they took him in, and he owed Jiang Cheng service for the rest of his life as the right hand to the sect leader, that’s what Wei WuXian had promised anyway. At the same time, Wei WuXian sacrificed everything (his golden core) to Jiang Cheng, by giving everything he was taking one more thing - Jiang Cheng’s right to even be angry at him. Jiang Cheng had taken everything from Wei WuXian. Everything that happened around Wei WuXian after could be said to be because of the loss of his golden core, which Jiang Cheng might be said to be responsible for. But he never asked for it, maybe he never would have wanted it. He wishes Wei WuXian told him, but Jiang Cheng never told Wei WuXian his golden core was melted while he was sacrificing himself to save Wei WuXian. He wants Wei wuxian to say sorry, but that makes him feel pathetic. And Jiang Cheng says sorry too. It’s a mess of paradoxes, and in the end somehow it seems like the scales are balanced in the most hollow, dismal way.

What is owed, what is given, what is taken ... Wei WuXian has never been part of a family. He has always had to say thank you and sorry for everything he's taken. Wei WuXian himself admits that he used "thank you" as a way to enforce distance between himself and Lan WangJi. Lan WangJi's point i think is that they belong to each other, Wei WuXian is his, and he is Wei WuXian's, unconditionally. The way that Jiang Cheng speaks of him in the Guanyin temple (admittedly I read a fan translation and this is very nuanced, related to slight variations of grammar), even when Jiang Cheng clearly is so broken by the loss of Wei WuXian from his life, he talks about Wei WuXian as an outsider. It is what MY family gave to YOU, never what you took from our family. But at one point Wei WuXian was part of their family - but he takes too much, and becomes an ex-disciple, not a brother. Wei WuXian’s inclusion as a Jiang was always conditional. 

Even when Wen Qing and Wen Ning leave him to go take the blame for qiongqing path they tell him "thank you and sorry", drawing a line between them and him, so he doesn’t even belong to these people who he sacrificed everything for. The way Wei WuXian acted when he was younger, he was always keenly aware of this - he always knew that he didn’t belong to anyone, no one is going to protect him unconditionally. And after first escaping the Burial Mounds, he is done pretending. When Lan WangJi warns him about what a demonic cultivation path will do to his heart, Wei WuXian replies: “After all, on the topic of how my heart is, what could other people know about it? Why should other people care about it?” He is done pleasing. Nothing has changed really, he still belongs to no one and is alone, but now he is angry about it, and instead of saying thank you and sorry he is going to become too powerful to be at anyone's mercy. And then we see in the story afterward what happens to people who don't say thank you and sorry.

The whole point I think is the impossibility of choice, the impossibility of consent in this society. If he didn't forgo the behaviour his social acceptance was conditional on, he wouldn't have survived the burial mounds. But once he becomes powerful enough to survive and get revenge on the Wens, he is socially outcast. Except he was already outcast from the beginning.

And so how do Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi find a way through all that to a life together where all their desires are possible, where Wei WuXian can say no while also being pleasing (safe) to others, and Lan WangJi can indulge in his wild desires while still being good? The answer is kinky sex!

It is kind of miraculous and beautiful how Wei WuXian finds a way to say no, while simultaneously pleasing Lan WangJi, giving pleasure, while taking it, saying no, and knowing his refusal is not just tolerated, but gives Lan WangJi pleasure, knowing Lan wangji and knowing the painful belief Lan WangJi holds within that his desires are unacceptable and unspeakable, and that Wei WuXian can take care of Lan Wangji in a secret little way and please him and give everything to him by craving this wildness in Lan WangJi while at the same time he gets to say no again and again , and it won't push Lan WangJi away, he can refuse everything while at the same time be totally pleasing and thus safe, and also for Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian's pleasure at saying "no" while still being held onto, that he genuinely wants to be fucked even while begging Lan WangJi to stop (and the many ways he does give his consent for this throughout, especially their first time), allows Lan WangJi the ecstatic feeling that this idea that his sexual desires are only possible through force are not just something his lover forgives him for but something his lover is SO turned on by, and that he has consent for his fantasies of non-consent, Wei WuXian has the same fantasies from the other side, he is doing what he is supposed to while doing what he shouldn't, and actually these monstrous feelings in him allow him to take care of Wei WuXian in a way that he needs - that they both need - and all these impulses that are so wrong with Wei WuXian become very right and a way to do good. And they are just both so perfect and perfect for each other and I love them and I am so happy for them to have a long kinky life together.

#wangxian #mdzs #mdzs meta #holds wei wuxian close and murmurs into his hair 'no one knows you like i know you baby'

[rantrambles]

Ever get so upset you make a Tumblr account to vent?

I haven’t even listened to The Penumbra Podcast yet but it’s on my list because it’s insanely popular and the cosplays I’ve seen are hot as hell (A+ to all the cosplayers I’ve seen you’ve done great work). Now, with the recent news surrounding the podcast, I’ll wait till it’s done if I ever do get into it. I’m Asian and part of the LGBT community but I’m not nonbinary so I can’t say much about the trans represention in the art but I wanted to add my two cents on the matter as a person of color and someone examining the situation from the outside. Also, before I get deeply into it, I’m not the only person of color with opinions on this matter so if people have their own frustrations and criticism with the racism in The Penumbra Podcast and/or the new artist they hired, definitely listen to them too. These are my own personal opinions, and I’m sure other people will disagree and that’s fine. We’re all going to have different views on this so bear that in mind. Also, feel free to correct me or add anything if I’ve missed some information. Here’s a great breakdown of the whole situation for those that don’t know what happened. Finally, I was very hesitant to post this, but I felt it was important because I make a statement at the end on how race should be presented in a podcast format so if you are interested in making a podcast and want to have a diverse range of characters, please skip to the end to read those thoughts.

I’ll start off by saying, I’m not even that upset with the new artist that The Penumbra Podcast hired. I know that statement alone is controversial but I don't personally know them, and I’m not going to judge who they are as a person by a few pieces of art they’ve made. They are the least of the problems that I have here. Since the announcement and the backlash, I’ve been scrolling through the artist’s Instagram account and I can tell why people find the designs offensive, but I’m also comparing the designs to the artist’s other work, and I honestly believe that’s just their style. They’ve exaggerated the features of just about every character they’ve made, regardless of race or gender. From what I’ve seen the sharp angles and overly round curves in the anatomy that make some of the character’s features more jarring are how they prefer to draw. I’m sure they’re capable of drawing more realistic proportions but for the most part they’re art aims to call attention, be bold, and create distinguished features. Not inherently a bad thing on its own.

And yeah I’d understand the issue if this were a scenario where the artist heard how these characters acted in the podcast and thought “hey, obviously this character is a black woman because they are super strong and therefore must have big muscles, no other woman could look like that” or “hey, this character has to be Asian because they act super seductive sometimes better draw them as such.” But from my understanding the race was already decided by previous official artists and a general description of the characters were already generated by the audience, similar to how The Magnus Archives leaned towards drawing scrawny Jon with black, greying hair and dark skin. The new artists couldn’t really change those features even if those features aren’t described in canon because a depiction that strayed too far from popular fandom interpretation would make the character’s unrecognizable to the fanbase. 

I think the reason this became such a big issue for most people is because the new Penumbra artist used their exaggerated art style when making these characters and people of color and nonbinary folks already see themselves drawn as these exaggerated caricatures all the time (with those images being used to further discriminate against them). I’m sure the artist didn’t mean for their art to be offensive, but that of course doesn’t change how it was received. 

According to some, the poses and expressions the artists chose did not fully represent the characters entirely and only served to further perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and I’ll have to take their word for it because I still haven’t listened to the podcast so I have no idea how the characters act. But again much of the criticism is based on the one line-up and doing a deeper dive into the artist’s work I managed to find artwork that was much less offensive. Here some art where Vespa is depicted in a non-violent pose and one where Vespa is in a threatening pose but not an overly violent one. Here is Peter drawn in a non-seductive pose. Hopefully, the artist truly does keep the criticisms in mind as they work on the new official art. I’m just not the type of person that wants to get the pitchforks out and cause this particular person to lose a job they seemed really excited about over their old character line-up, especially when that person is also part of a marginalized group.

Again, that’s just my opinion on that particular artist. Those who are offended by their art are still valid in how they feel, and the artist should absolutely take their criticism to heart to better how they represent the characters.

What I’m more upset about is that I think The Penumbra Podcast should never have released official art for their characters in the first place and that’s their mistake that they refuse to own up about. They have made it clear that the story was never meant to portray characters of colors, a fact emphasized by the fact they hired mostly white actors from the start. They only started releasing art of the characters to get a profit. And the thing is they know what they did was wrong. All I had to do was search Penumbra Podcast racism and there is a note on their website saying that they archived some old official art.

“We have discontinued all Penumbra merchandise that uses the original character designs, and in the meantime, any profits on the sales of that merchandise will go to the For The Gworls project. We also realize that the depiction of these characters as POC, while not appropriate for us to use in our marketing and merchandise, has nonetheless become personally meaningful to many POC listeners. For that reason, and because we do not wish to distance ourselves from our mistake, we are keeping these images on our website for archival purposes. Though we do want to make it clear that many of the main/featured voice actors are white and that we did not write the characters to represent any specific POC experience, you are, as always, free to imagine these characters in any way that you like.”

I went to their shop and they still sell posters and pins with the character’s faces on them, but they are donating it to a good cause so hopefully that stays the same. However, I still find it a little uncomfortable that they are still selling character merch and have plans to continue selling character merch. They have no right to dissuade the fans that already found representation in the characters, but they also have no right to profit off the representation that was built, regardless if they made the story. 

Let’s compare this to another piece of popular media. I love Avatar the Last Airbender and, I liked the ATLA voice actors just fine but there should have been more people of color doing voice acting behind the screen too. The voice actors for that show were mainly white too, however, the creators knew that they would be making poc characters. That’s what makes the difference. Did they still choose to go with mostly white voice actors? Yes. Could they have done better and pay more people of color? Also yes. But I’m not as furious at them because they did their research on the cultures they were basing the ATLA world off of and intentionally gave us a show where Asians could see characters that looked like them represented on the screen. The Penumbra Podcast did not do any of that. Again, they openly admitted that it was never their intention to make the character’s people of color when they made the podcast so that goes to show no research was made to properly represent specific cultures. The color of the character’s skin in their official designs therefore became more of aesthetic choice rather than representation, and it wasn’t even their aesthetic choice to begin with!

Race isn’t a color you can just throw onto the character because you feel like it. So I want this to be a lesson to anyone that wants to make a podcast: if you want to include poc characters please do some research into the cultures you plan to represent the way you would with any other form of media. Just because the audience can’t see the characters and just because it’s harder to smoothly introduce the character’s appearance doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be lazy on how you present the characters. Do research before you start writing the first episode and take the time to hire poc actors. Hiring poc actors is actually the least that can be done to show representation. Also, since the audience cannot visually see the race of the characters on a podcast and it can’t typically be described the way you would in a book, you’ll have to be creative. It’s not my job to say how, but my suggestions would be, before the fans come up with their own image of the character, you need to establish race in the first few episodes or release character profiles on a website so that the fans know you canonically intended the characters to be of a certain race even if you aren’t able to mention it in the actual podcast. If you are unwilling to do any of these then the best route is to avoid stating race at all and allow the audience to build their own representation into your form of media. However, once this happens, you are not allowed to profit off popular fan interpretations. You lose all rights to create official art or images of the characters. You cannot use “we have a diverse cast of characters” when you market your story. It doesn’t matter whether you created the content or not, you did not create the representation for those minority groups.

It’s one thing for fans to build their own inclusivity into a form of art like a podcast, but it’s another thing for the creators who never worked to make the representation happen to take advantage of the representation that the listeners built for themselves. Thank you for attending my TedTalk.

#the penumbra podcast #podcast #race #the magnus archives #diversity in podcasts #diversity #tpp #tpp fanart

[ramayantika]

An unofficial beginning of the Nrityamasika

This is going to be more like a casual write up because this struck me right now. To be honest I have always thought about it but chose to express some of my thoughts right now.

I have seen some of the young people coming up to me telling me how classical dance is restrictive and does not allow one to express themselves.

This is both true and untrue.

What actually is the purpose of dance or let me say nrityam. Now as soon as we write a sanskrit word, we think oh my god this is going be something complex or mystic.

Let's begin with the Natyashastra which is the backbone of all forms of dance in India right from the classical dance forms to the folk styles.

Note: The difference between folk dance and classical dance is another topic. I will soon post something about it.

So the Natyashastra is a manual for music, dance and drama. What's common among them? Stories. Be it a tune from a flute or a tabla, the tunes sparks imagination inside one's mind and imagination leads to a story. Moving to dance -- a dance is a story of movements. Movements form a story. Let it be the abstract dance piece, they still create a story. And drama is obviously again a story, a presentation of a story which could be fictitious or be based on a real incident which again is a story.

Now the youngsters issue. Classical dance is majorly based on the topics of worship and devotion. The items only talk about a relationship with the divine. 'I don't relate to it.'

From my personal experience, I could never relate to dance piece on Ganesha. Even though I have always adored the festival of Ganesh chaturthi, I could never invoke the bhava and rasa on ganesh vandana. But it is in the tradition to first learn the ganesha item. (That's what we do in odissi. The Manglacharan begins with Ganesha)

Does that mean I should find it restraining? This artform has its steps to learn. To find your presence, your touch in the artform, you need to find ways to make it work according to you.

Who to blame for people not liking or enjoying the classical arts? It's all of us. Today I see parents sending their children to dance class because their neighbour's child won a prize in their dance competition. It is no more a learning experience for the child but some kind of a race.

Why will a child find interest?

Ten years back or back when the veterans of the classical arts learnt under their respective teachers, dance was taught along with music, poetry and literature. Today parents and children are in a rush to bag performances and arangetrams/rangapravesham/manchapravesh. In a two hour class or one hour class once a week the sole motto is to end learning this artform and move on the next.

A five year old child should be provided with ample of time to know these stories. Personally I believe to express your own self through dance can happen when one is well versed and thoroughly trained and learnt the traditional format. Surely new ways of teaching methodology can be implemented due to advanced of science and technology as well as for the ease of understanding in children.

But the root core? The philosophy on what this dance is based on. Before one heads to stage to express oneself, it would be better to find themselves through the 'traditional' characters they are taught to.

Today the dance training is limited. It's sad to see children choosing other forms because it is seen as more liberating.

I choose to end it over here. I am aware of many people learning dance and would love to hear their views. Surely this topic is open to debate, but I wanted to put forward some of my own thoughts.

For me, this is a misconception that classical dance is restrictive. It isn't only limited to a performance showcasing a devotee worshiping Nataraja or any deity. Dance has been used to showcase various philosophies and themes but these shows haven't bagged much spotlight.

That's it. Thank you.

May you keep dancing always in this dance of life.

#nrityablr #danceblr #bharatanatyam #odissi #classical dance

[cyndavilachase]

I’m Looking Forward Now 💖Thank you and good bye

So, it’s been a little over a week since Steven Universe Future ended… 

I’ve been hesitant to write this, honestly, but I’m tired of holding myself back from properly expressing myself in fear of appearing overly invested in the media I consume, even in private. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and I feel like these thoughts in particular may resonate with many, so I want to share them. I want to talk about what Steven Universe has done for me personally, both as an artist, and as a person.

I’ve been around since the day the first episode of the original series aired. I actually remember when Steven Universe was just a logo on Wikipedia’s “List of Upcoming Cartoon Network Shows” list, back when I was a freshman in high school. It piqued my interest, but when commercials finally dropped for it, I thought it was going to be bad because of the way marketing handled introducing Steven as a likeable character. There was still something about it that made me want to give it a chance though, so I went online and watched the pilot before the first episode's release. I was hooked immediately. I knew I was going to love it, and I did. I fell so absolutely in love with Steven as a character, and the world that he and the gems lived in. I became obsessed. I was always so excited for new episodes to come out. Little did I know what else it would do for me as I went through my adolescence alongside it.

As the show progressed, it was evident that what I wanted out of a western animated childrens’ cartoon was finally coming into fruition: this show was becoming serialized. There was continuity, there was plot, there was character development-- it was getting deep. It was pushing the groundwork that Adventure Time laid out even further (thank you, Adventure Time).  

I will give credit where credit is due: earlier western childrens’ cartoons I grew up with like Hey Arnold, and Rugrats, among others, also touched on heavy topics, but Steven Universe was able to take similar ideas (and even more complex ones, concerning mental health and relationships) and expand on them outside of contained episodes and/or short arcs. These themes, which were a part of the show’s overarching story, spanned across its entirety. Continuity was rampant. 

What did this mean? It meant kids cartoons didn’t have to be silly and fun all the time and characters weren’t just actors playing a part in 11-minute skits. Steven and the gems would remember things that happened to them, and it affected them and how they would function and play a part in their story. This was a huge deal to me as a teenager. I always wanted the cartoons I grew up with featuring kid characters to feel more. In my own work, I often felt discouraged when combining a fun, cutesy western art style with themes as dark or layered as anime would cover. I always thought it had to be one or the other because an audience wouldn’t take a combination of the two seriously enough, based on discussions I had with classmates, friends, and online analysis I read at the time. Steven Universe proved to me otherwise. This show was opening the door for future cartoons exploring in-depth, adult concepts. I felt so seen as a kid, and was inspired to stick with what I love doing.

I was actually very worried about the show’s survival. It was in fact immensely underrated and the fandom was miniscule. Then in 2014, JailBreak dropped, and it’s popularity exploded. Part of it was because of the complex plot and the themes it was covering like I mentioned, but also because of its representation. 

I remember when fandom theorized that Garnet was a fusion due to grand, tragic reasons. Turns out, she’s simply a metaphor for a very loving w|w relationship. This was huge. I cannot stress how important it is that we continue to normalize healthy canon queer relationships in childens’ media, and Steven Universe finally was the first to do that proper. Introducing these themes offers the chance for a kid to sit there and ask themselves, “Why is this demonized by so many people?” I asked myself exactly that. Ruby and Sapphire were my cartoon LGBT rep. They were the first LGBT couple I ever ecstatically drew fanart of. I was dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia at the time, and they showed me that I was allowed to love women and feel normal about it. The process of overcoming this was a long one, but they played a part in my very first steps into becoming comfortable with my sexuality. I could go on and on about it’s representation in general-- how it breaks the mold when it comes to showcasing a diverse set of characters in design, in casting, and in breaking gender roles. It’s focus on love and empathy. Steven himself is a big boy, but he's the protagonist, and the show never once makes fun of his weight, or any other bigger characters for that matter. It wasn’t hard to see why the fandom had grown so large.

Fandom was always a joy for me. It was a hobby I picked up when I was in middle school, like many of us here did. I would always cater my experience to fun, and fun only. I only started getting more deeply involved in SU’s fandom when I had just turned into an adult. During the summer of 2016, between my first and second year of college, I drew for the show almost every day non-stop when the Summer of Steven event was going on and posted them online. This was a form of practice for me in order to become not just more comfortable with experimenting with my art, but also to meet new artists, make new friends, and learn to interact with strangers without fear. I dealt with a ton of anxiety when I was in high school. When I was a senior applying to art school for animation, I decided I was going to overcome that anxiety. I made plans to take baby steps to improve myself over the course of my 4 years of college. Joining the fandom, while unforeseen, was definitely a part of that process. I started feeling more confident in sharing my ideas, even if they were fan-made. I fell in love with storyboarding after that summer, when I took my first storyboarding class, and genuinely felt like I was actually getting somewhere with all of this. I remember finally coming to a point in my classes where I could pitch and not feel hopelessly insecure about it. I was opening up more to my friends and peers. 

But this process, unfortunately, came to a screeching halt. 

My life completely, utterly crumbled under me in the Fall of 2017 due to a series of blows in my personal life that happened in the span of just a couple weeks. My mental health and sense of identity were completely destroyed. All of that confidence I had worked for-- completely ruined. I was alone. I nearly died. My stay at college was extended to 4 and half years, instead of the 4 I had intended. I lost my love for animation-- making it, and watching it. I could no longer watch Steven Universe with the same love I had for it beforehand. It’s a terrible thing, trying to give your attention to something you don’t love anymore, and wanting so desperately to love again. I dropped so many things I loved in my life, including the fandom.

Healing was a long and complicated road. I continued to watch the show all the way up until Change Your Mind aired in the beginning of 2019, and while I still felt empty, that was definitely a turning point for me with it’s encapsulation of self-love. I was hoping James Baxter would get to work on Steven Universe since he guest-animated on Adventure Time, and it was incredible seeing that wish actually come true. The movie came out and while I enjoyed it and thought highly of it, I was still having issues letting myself genuinely love things again, old and new. It was especially difficult because cartoons were my solace as a kid, when things got rough at home. I remember feeling sad because the show ended, and not getting the chance to love it again like I used to while it was still going.

By the time Steven Universe Future was announced, I was finally coming around. I was genuinely starting to feel excitement for art and animation again. I wasn’t expecting there to be a whole new epilogue series, but happily ever after, there we were! Prickly Pear aired, and the implications it left in terms of where the story was going did it. I was finally ready to let myself take the dive back into fandom in January of this year. My art blew up, something I wasn’t expecting considering my 2-year hiatus. Following this, I was invited into a discord server containing some of the biggest writers, artists, editors, and analysts in the fandom. I had no idea there were so many talented people in the fandom, some already with degrees, some getting their degrees-- creating stuff for it on the side just for fun. The amount of passion and productivity level here is insane, and so is the amount of discussion that has come out of it.

I didn’t realize it at first, but it was actually helping me gain back the courage to share ideas. I lost my confidence in pitching while I was taking the time to heal, and graduating meant there would no longer be a classroom setting I could practice in. This group helped immensely. 

I have made so many friends through this wonderful series, and I have so many fond memories talking to like-minded creatives, getting feedback and a myriad of sources for inspiration, as well as all of the memes and jokes and weekly theorizations that came about as we all waited on the edges of our seats for episodes to air. I needed this so badly, I needed to get back in touch with my roots, when I would go absolutely hog-wild over a cartoon I loved with people who loved it as much I did. Future has been a blessing for me in this way. I graduated feeling like I was back at square-one, but now I feel like I’m on my way again.

It’s 2020 and while I’m doing great right now, I am honestly still recovering from the total exhaustion that followed after graduating a few months ago, and finally leaving the campus where my life fell apart behind. Needless to say, watching Future was like looking into a mirror. Watching one of my favorite characters of all time-- one that grew up with me-- go through so many of the same things I went through not too long ago was absolutely insane to watch unfold. It’s such an important thing too, to show a character go through the process of breaking down over trauma and all the nasty things that come with it, and to have them go on the road to healing. Steven got that therapy. He wasn’t blamed. The gems were called out. The finale was everything I could have ever hoped for. The catharsis I experienced watching it was out of this world.

As I continue my own healing journey, I will always look up to the storyboard artists, revisionists, and designers that I have been following over these past 7 years, as well as the new ones introduced in Future. It's been such a joy watching these artists release their promo art for episodes, talk about their experiences working on the show, and post the work they've done for it alongside episodes airing.

Thank you Rebecca Sugar, the Crewniverse, and the fans, for making this such a truly wonderful and unique experience. Thank you for reminding me that I am, and always will be, an artist, a cartoonist, and a fan. Thank you, my followers, for the overwhelmingly positive response to my artwork. I have had so much fun interacting and discussing the show with you all again over these past few months. Steven Universe and it’s fandom will always have a special place in my heart, and it will always be a classic that I will return to for comfort and inspiration for decades to come. I am sad that the cartoon renaissance is over, but so many doors have been opened thanks to this show. I am so, so excited to see what this show will inspire in the future, and I hope one day I get the opportunity to be a part of that. 

Goodbye Steven, thank you for everything. I wish you healing, and I wish Rebecca and the team a well-deserved rest. ♥️

-Cynthia D.

#steven universe #steven universe future #steven universe future finale #steven quartz universe #the future #i am my monster #good bye steven universe #thank you steven universe #crystal gems #garnet #amethyst #pearl #bismuth #lapis #peridot #greg universe #connie maheswaran #lion #su #suf #su future #art #artists on tumblr #illustration #tears #lineless