Will and Horace sketch

starting this rant off with the fact that i love RA. i adore Rangers Apprentice and i have since i first read it at age 8, but holy hell does Flanagan have a lot to answer for in terms of the archery.

Flanagan was in no way an archery expert, and neither am i, but i have been shooting recurve bows since i was old enough to hold them (my first time shooting was hysterical, the bow was bigger than me) and i know a bit about the differing types of bow, arrow, fletching, etc. and how different bows are designed for different people.

my first issue is that fact that Halt, who is canonically Short As Hell, uses an english long bow. this has nothing to do with strength and everything to do with the fact that the bow is bigger than him. he MIGHT be able to bring it to 3/4 draw with his arm length. i’m 5’4 and cannot possibly shoot more than 30” (apologies for the imperial, i’m north american) arrows, and long bow arrows are usually at least half a foot longer than that.

we stan one Short King but it doesn’t matter how buff you are, shooting a longbow is basically pointless if you can’t even bring it to full draw

just ra things 🍂

sometimes i peek back on this account and the RA tags and hope to see joy and sometimes i don't which makes me sad. like it's not always negative and i've blocked accounts that affect my enjoyment, but if y'all ever struggle the way i do, please remember to share the love and joy this fandom and series give you. send asks, compliment peoples work, never be afraid to reach out. my askbox is always open for those that want to share or talk <3

I don't see enough people simping for Cassie in this fandom and that's a crime

Where are all my lesbians at??? I know we have some

Find the Ranger(s) LOL

Gilan with his sword 🍂

trying to make my way into a new fandom by posting full rendered fanart

Gilan with his sword 🍂

Find it incredibly funny that in the first two books of Ranger's Apprentice the main antagonist is a guy with a psychic link to a bunch of bear-like monsters and then several books later one of the plot points is "magic isn't real you idiot"

As it is International Asexual Day and I feel empowered I feel the need to say this:

Halt and Crowley are ace to me and this is just me one hundred percent self projecting on to my two fav characters.

Ranger Gathering Day 25: Cozy

They're chilling

my dream as a fanfic writer is to write a story which people want to talk to me about and send asks about afterwards and discuss things the characters did and the symbolism and meanings behind certain lines and I'll be all "hehe thanks" but irl I'll be in literal tears because I wrote something that means something to someone

The 'write for yourself uwu' culture shift has done real damage to fic writers imo. I recently had a post on the importance of strategic commenting break containment and I'm surprised by how many strangers who rb it in agreement feel the need to reassure in the tags that they do write for themselves, but...

There is a kernel of truth in the heart of this sentiment--if you only chase stats, you are unlikely to find joy in your writing. At the same time, I think we've veered too far in the other direction.

It is only natural to want engagement and the write for yourself crowd often overlooks how communal an effort fic writing usually is. So many story ideas are born from casual discussions about h/c's and favourite scenes and what ifs and the comment box is a cornerstone of this process. Not only can the discussions in the comment box be a hub for idea generation on their own, but even when the said idea generation takes place in DMs or Discord chats, commenting is often the first/easiest way into befriending authors; it's where community building starts.

Further, the write for yourself crowd similarly overlooks that the things a writer can write for themselves are often vast and many at any given time, and relative engagement levels across fandoms/ships can play a large part in which of those ideas a writer chooses to pursue--or whether they choose to publish their finished work at all.

In sum, I don't think we need to be this apologetic as writers for wanting feedback and engagement for what we post -- writing is hard work and it's only human that we want something external out of it in turn, however rewarding the process might intrinsically be.

Disorganized RA headcannons

During the whole Skandia arc, Cassandra would braid/play with Will’s hair. It was just something to distract them from their situation, but ever since, having his hair done has been very calming for Will.

Will and Gilan’s relationship consists mostly of them insulting each other. If they’re not insulting each other, they’re actually upset with each other.

One of the ways Will would get back at Horace while they were kids was to do the classic “Horace, there’s a spider on your head!” and Horace fell for it every time.

Maddie one way or another heard about that ‘spider’ trick and tried it on him. It still worked.

On that note, Horace was deathly afraid of insects (particularly spiders and bees) as a kid. As an adult, he’s not really scared of them, but he will still avoid them best he can.

At some point during Cassandra’s reign, Halt goes on a week long vacation out of the country. Cassandra had him legally banished during that week as a goof.

Horace is weirdly good at cutting hair. He could be a stylist if he wanted to. No one actually believes he has this ability though unless they see it for themselves.

"i can fix him" "i can make him worse" yeah well i can boop him