Ok so I'm reading fanfic for like, the first time in my life, and holy fuck I love it so much, I can't stop thinking about it and I feel all my comments are pestering the writer (who is amazing, RobinWritesChirps on ao3, check her out) and like, it's such a messy premise, like, every starkid character under the sun, in a post apocalyptic world, and yet it's SO GOOD

also super gay which like, always a plus

💛Smoshblr December Asks Day 21💙

What are your top 3 favourite tropes in media and/or fanfiction? (can be as general or specific as you want)

Bonus: What are 3 of your fave fanfics? (can be smosh related or from other fandoms)

YAY FANFICTION APPRECIATION

v general category here but psychological whump is my shit. whump and extreme hurt/comfort have always been incredibly cathartic for me. i love making little guys miserable. it's great.

fake dating! encompasses miscommunication, mutual pining, being frog boiled by your feelings, awkward performative firsts, all the good stuff.

i had to think on this one but the "everyone can see it" trope, when done well, can be so cute. sort of adjacent to fake dating. i think having two people who already sort of know they can work well together in a relationship yet procrastinate on acting on their feelings, being pushed together by well-intentioned family and friends... very cute. very sweet and goofy.

and ohh i'm telling on myself with these fave fics of mine but alas the writers need their flowers!! sort of dead dove disclaimer here, these are v particular and ns/f//w at times soooo. read under the cut!

We Go Anywhere But To The Ground by geordielover (bbc sherlock, sherlock/john, mature) - veeeeeery whumpy, sad, and dark. but i love when fics actually address characters' trauma?!¿?!¿ and the writing is so top tier. i'm sure i've been peppering little things from this fic in my own writing.

Best of Three by SilentAuror (bbc sherlock, sherlock/john, explicit) - IT'S SMUT i'm sorry it's smut!!!! but i'm gonna be so honest, i probably read this as a teen and this fic sort of exposed me to the idea of dudes just fuckin down and dirty........ and various other forms of foreplay lmaoooo. the writing is so good, the pining and emotion is so good.... my aspec ass is truly not opposed to admiring smut.

Simple Math by TheMouthKing & tripwirealarm (w//atcher entert//ainment, ryan/shane, explicit) - ok i'm like SUPER telling on myself with this one lol. it's sad and horny—and written so, SO fantastically. i'm never a multi-chapter fic gal but this one caught me with the pining and whump. like i was reading this as weekly updates. it was such an experience. and this fic basically combines the elements of the last two fics i mentioned........

Because I've been enabled once again, I've returned to my bullshit.

Once again, thank you to my favorite enabler/mutual @chazz-is-a-zelda-fan 💜

Today I present, a full and comprehensive tier list of every fanfic I've written and posted as well as a sneak at some WIP's and such 👀

Whether you've read everything or just a few of these, I'm curious to hear your thoughts and whether you agree or disagree with any of my placements of these works 🤔

Now that we've seen said list, allow me to briefly voice some thoughts on my placements 😌

Firstly, I've gone on record several times saying that I firmly believe that Favorite and Best are not mutually exclusive things. Just because something may be the "best" doesn't mean it has to be your favorite, and conversely, just because something may be your favorite thing doesn't necessarily mean you think it's the best of that thing either. But in this instance it just so happens my favorite fic, OUAD, is also the one I think is the best aksks.

OUAD is just brilliant. The combination of 4 of my favorite things: my favorite movie, my favorite Disney couple and just individually favorite prince and princess, my favorite show, and my favorite ship. A loose yet still fairly faithful adaptation of the film that brings me so much joy while also tearing my soul into shreds. And the casting? Phenomenal on my part. When I clear some stuff from my plate, I swear I'll be working on a sequel 😤

Salt In The Wound also got to sneak up into Best because in my opinion it's my best one shot. And also I just legitimately like the actual writing in it, I think it's some of my best work. Also I just needed it. I emotionally need that aftermath to Zane and Syrus's duel, I needed the comfort of them caring for Sy and catharsis from airing frustrations with Zane and the show didn't give it to me, so it's kinda a fulfillment that's on a totally different level than anything else I've done before.

Now Sons of The Stars. The fully crafted from the ground up, fully designed wardrobe, 130k fantasyish au that all stemmed from a throwaway joke in Angel's Tears. I love this one, especially the new updated version, I fixed so many things and just improved it so much from how it was originally. But I have some beef with it that keeps it from Best but still at the very top. The execution of Jaden and Jesse's romance isn't my favorite and I wrote it under a time crunch originally so you could tell towards the end I was rushing. That's been fixed a bit now but I still have a lingering disappointment with the idea that if I waited to write it originally I could've just done a better job overall with it. But as it stands I still think that fic is fantastic and it's my pride and joy.

Deviating from GX quick, my FFXV fic. What Goes In, this is just a good ass fic imo. Taking a segment from the game and answering for myself questions both the main game and Prompto's dlc raised and didn't answer, incorporating a lot of twists and turns and my own spin on what happens in that segment of the game, while incorporating actual game dialog and moments and shit too GAH it's good 😭 Also indulging in Promptis and Gladnis on the DL In the middle of all the pain and angst 🤭 biggest problem is that I haven't posted in it since March of 2020 and there's only 1 chapter left 😭 I promise I'm working on revising it right now and I'm finishing it by the end of 2023 that's my goal!

Might be controversial placement, but I put Sustained By Hate in the "Good" category......

Listen I love it. Camula coming back for revenge is an S+ idea. My problems lie with some of the execution, also me not really having the characterization of my version of Chazz's mom on lock yet. There's a lot of revisions I wanna do to that fic bro. Nothing too drastic or anything but still. There's also just so much happening in that one it feels a little messy to me now going back and re reading it. But Lexi usurping the main character role towards the end is brilliant and I actually wrote a duel which was hard as shit and I'm so proud of it and myself so extra bonus points for that! Overall, I love that fic but still as it stands I only think it's good. Perhaps a revised version would get bumped up on my list 🤔

Traffic Lights, my 5Ds one shot that's just Carly sitting in her car trapped in traffic 😂 not a lot to gripe about or say here, it's just a cute little work. I like it, I think it's good, but I feel like most of what I've written is better, it's that simple. I still really like it a lot though!

Angel's Tears, the first GX fic I ever wrote....... listen I thought this was my magnum opus for the LONGEST time..... if you've read the original version, that's embarrassing for me to say. Now the revised version I did recently? That's less embarrassing. But still this fic's only alright in my opinion. It was good at the time, I was 18 when I first wrote it and like I said, it was the 1st GX fic I ever wrote. But I've just improved so much as a writer, the newer version supports that better now akaksk and well, it's just not my best work in my opinion. I also don't really like the title anymore but it's been too long I can't change it now. But this fic was what got me started with writing these kids so I owe it a debt of gratitude for that. We wouldn't have all the rest of these works without it.

A Friend In Need, my Bastion one shot. Like the Carly one, not much to say about it. I like it, but it's just old and I need to revise it. It's cute and appropriately upsetting and a good idea to address Bastion's feelings of invisibility and inadequacy in season 2, the execution just needs to be given a face lift in my opinion.

Before I sneak at my WIPS, I'm gonna jump down to Rewriting.

Alice was an old fic I did that was basically an episode rewrite for episode 80, you know. The filler episode after they get back from Domino. With Alice... hence the title.... well if you read that story before I deleted it to rewrite it well you're entitled to compensation of some sort. It wasn’t good if you ask me. And rereading it there were a couple moments in it that made even me uncomfortable now that didn't back then. Literally I lost the plot while I was writing it like I jumped off the deep end a few chapters in and it dips so hard in quality. I'm just redoing it from like chapter 2 or 3 on, It has to be done.

Anyway now a quick roll call of my current WIPS for you babies because I like you and they're all S+ concepts 😌

We ALL know about Chazerella. My stormshipping Cinderella au riding the coattails of OUAD. I'll be starting writing that once we cross into the new year 👍

My Stormshipping + Alexis crossover with Mario.... yeah that started as a joke but isn't a joke anymore. I've posted about that so much you all know akakaka Chazz hanging out in Bowser's dungeon with Peach while Atticus and Alexis traverse the Mushroom Kingdom with Mario and Luigi to go rescue them??? Yes please!!

The GX/Fatal Frame 5: Maiden of Black Water crossover, I said that would be the next one after OUAD but well it's just gonna happen whenever it happens, that one is purely for me. I have actually started writing it and once I get a little further I think I'll be posting that one as I write it 😌 it'll take as long as it takes and y'all will have to deal with the suspense and cliffhangers while Alexis teams up with Yuri and the camera crew to find Atticus and rescue him from ghosts aksks (also I'm actually using the Japanese names for once in this one be proud of me!!)

And finally, So Take Hold of Me, And Hang On 'Till The Hurt Is Gone. You guys remember that one little snippet excerpt whatever you wanna call it with Chazz and Atty I posted I believe in like November or something? Yeah, this is that 🤭 I haven't touched it really since then but I'll make a full thing out of it mark my words! (Also the title comes from one of my favorite Yellowcard songs, "The Hurt Is Gone", that was actually the initial inspiration for that work 😊 that song, and the word "stay")

Anyways y'all, that's my tier list of my fanfiction! This was actually really fun but also really hard to make I'm so indecisive I went back and forth on a lot of these for so long akakksksksksks

But anyways hope y'all had some mindless fun with me, and I'm curious to hear any thoughts if y'all have any thoughts to share!

Keep your chins up and smile! 💜

A few days ago I saw the ice-cold take that the reveal of Rey’s parents was bad because... get this... it “reinforced the idea that you have to be born special”.

Yeah? This is Star Wars?

Star Wars has literally always had the premise that you are born a certain way and sometimes that way gives you super special powers. Someone got on my case a while back about how before the prequels people had this idea that anyone could be a Jedi, and to that I say... you watched the OT once, didn’t pay attention, and then read a bunch of crappy fanfic. In ANH, Luke was going to be a Jedi because his father was a Jedi. Period. There’s no way to escape this. And throughout the movie it’s made clear that this is in fact an ability that not just anyone has: Luke is a better pilot and a better shot than most of the much older, more experienced, professionally trained people he works with. Vader notices at once that the Force is strong with Luke, and even if you want to argue, for some reason, that just anyone can use the Force, that still introduces the thematic fact that Luke! Is! Special! He has half a day of training and yet he’s powerful and skilled and noticeable!

And the theme is carried on in the next two movies, when it turns out that Luke is so powerful because of who his father was (and we’ve seen how terrifyingly powerful Vader is), and when it’s revealed that probably the second most powerful protagonist is also part of the family, the young woman who was spying and bluffing and leading armies at 19, guess what? It’s because she was fucking born special. (Combined with, like, top tier training, but if you think she wasn’t using the Force to make everything work for her then you’re wrong.)

And then Luke is able to triumph because of how he was born, I.E., as the son of Anakin Skywalker. He could have been anybody else with the exact same personality and Vader wouldn’t have chosen him over the emperor, and the Rebellion probably still would have won, but Luke would have died a horrible death.

I’m not even gonna get into the PT because the theme is already there! In your precious infallible OT! You cannot separate Star Wars from the idea that some people are born to change the world! It’s a theme and it has been from the start! And if you personally don’t like that theme, or if it offends your delicate sensibilities to watch space fairy tale have speshul people, why in the hell are you watching Star Wars. No, I want an answer! Why? You can’t possibly be having fun!

Edit: This is not at all to say that ordinary people can’t do extraordinary things, a la Rogue One or Han Solo or Padmé, but in the main movies the movers and shakers are all special people who were born special. (Who might not have succeeded if it wasn’t for the ordinary people, but the ordinary people wouldn’t have succeeded without the special people either.) It would have taken some truly amazing writing to change that mold after six movies, and the ST never had that kind of skill on board.

After the break, the remainder of this post will be Andrew Hussie’s newspost from 11/08/14. In it, he goes pretty in-depth about the symbolism and intent of Homestuck’s GAME OVER flash. I wanted to share this because it’s one of the most concise examples I can think of that stresses why I still think he’s goddamn lovely. It also contains his own rather clear declaration that he prefers Death Of The Author over Word Of God (”Now, since they can no longer depend on answers which I supply between horse jokes and snappy retorts, they are lost in the woods to fend for themselves against the wolves of dubious fanalysis.“), a sentiment which echoes darkly through the fandom these days. You could argue he pretty much spends most of the newspost trying to explain how to read the ending to come. And plus I can say this is a #ThrowbackFrihorse thing, even though it’s nowhere near Friday.

Spoilers ahead, those of you who have not yet finished reading Homestuck.

Andrew: There comes a time in every young Homestuck's life when they must face the fact that a notable comic author has swindled them into getting on a bus labeled "cool updates", only to swerve said bus off the highway and into a precipitous gulch of unmitigated sadstuck. But the old wives tale says that sadstuck was just a thing that happened in our fanfics, the bus children wailed. That's what they said about the tricksters too, a veteran child in the back replied. They said the tricksters would never see the light of canon, but where are the doubters now? Where are they now. Propping up six feet of dirt is where. The veteran child is weirding everybody out, so they stop looking at him, and turn to the driver. But the driver is now a spooky skeleton and the kids lose their shit. The skeleton head does a creepy 180, and speaks his scary curse. Heed me bus youths, for I am the ghost of future sadstuck. I have traveled back in time and am on a bus for some reason I guess, to punish you for your maudlin fics. For every time you murmured sadstuck while having a feeling, for every fic you pastebinned by candlelight, my curse has grown stronger, and my legend, dumber. Then the skeleton ran out of stuff to say, and looking a little embarrassed, turned around again to keep driving. Then he screamed once he remembered the bus was falling. Thanks for listening to my short story. We like to have a good time here at MS Paint Adventures, The Website. The gigaplay is off to a rocky start of unhewn feels. If your kerchief has become too soggy with tears from emotion, skeleton terror, or just plain admiration for my skill as a short story writer (can't blame you there), and you wish to lighten the mood, I recommend moseying over to Paradox Space, which is currently running a 24 page comic I have written about Crowbar. I am alert to the desires of readers every single day, and the one thing I hear them clamor for above all else, is more stories about CROWBAR. We want more content about Crowbar, RIGHT NOW, they say, and make that content consist of 24 beautifully illustrated comic pages, MINIMUM. I just give the people what they want. Fortunately, Homestuck's Premier Felt Fan #1 Jones was available to do a spectacular job of illustrating this comic. My rambling noir-style monologues have never before overlapped such lovely artwork. GOD TIER TALK! I don't answer Q's about Homestuck much anymore. It was a practice which I think used to be some people's lifeline for decoding the enigmatic runes of this story. Now, since they can no longer depend on answers which I supply between horse jokes and snappy retorts, they are lost in the woods to fend for themselves against the wolves of dubious fanalysis. Pulling the ripcord on the Homestuck machine again, combined with recent story events, makes me think something FAQQY may be in order. The thing is, when you make a big story, and allude to rules for a complicated system dictating mortality, people tend to REALLY, REALLY want to understand how it works. Speculation naturally fills the vacuum in lieu of concrete data. Theories are crafted. Headcanons, congealed. Then, when additional data is presented (DEAD KIDS), which happen to chafe with fanon constructs, feelings run ragged, and Bullshit is called. Then Bullshit shows up, and says, you rang? And the fanonistas say, yes Bullshit. Look at this mess. LOOK at it. This in NO WAY jives with my views on what constitutes heroism and justice. Bullshit nods sagely while lighting its pipe. Earlier in HS when god tier folk were more scarce, the story was more cagey about these verdicts. The Vriska ruling was presented as a close call, which maybe could have gone either way. Then Slick smacked the clock to Just before it could settle, leaving the true verdict ambiguous, and the 'moral debate' intact, so to speak. But now that there are a lot of god tiers running around, with the stakes raised and the body count piling up, the game (or, story) is starting to be more liberal with its rulings. As in, more likely to come down hard on Just, Heroic, or Neither verdicts without intervention or obfuscation, helping us better understand the boundaries of heroic and just action through example. Not necessarily by moral definitions, but as dictated by the rules of a game. So that turns the story guy (sometimes known as an "author") into something like a ref at a basketball game. He blows the whistle when he sees the basketball guy (the "baller") take a half step without bouncing the ball. The home team crowd does not detect the subtle violation and goes boooooo! Those homers can boo all they want, but you know, the guy is really just some bozo with a whistle. The rules are the rules! There's reason to think there is a nuanced scale ranging from Heroic to Just inside the clock. There may be many shades of justice and heroism, some forms just barely qualifying to seal one's fate. But there's nothing nuanced about Alive vs. Dead. The result of a coin flip is absolute, even though there may be many subtle factors contributing to which side it lands on. Such as whether the coin is pure of heart, and whether the table it lands on has ever killed a man. You get a sense for the nuance of the judgment when it comes to these "close calls", like with Vriska, or more recently, with Jade. In her case, she was subject to mind control when she racked up her misdeeds, which ordinarily would probably exempt her. But it wasn't ordinary mind control. More like flipping an "evil switch", removing her ethical filter, thereby letting he personality come through, and giving her license to act on impulses which she'd ordinarily suppress. So this gives the clock something to work with. Still, her behavior is compromised, so it's by no means a slam dunk. (BASKET BALL! that is still the metaphor.) So it's very close, and perhaps the clock even spares her... except for Aranea, whose luck lets close calls break in her favor, and nudges that needle one hair to the Just side. Very unlikely that happens if it's not close already though. Jane's situation is basically the same, and so is her verdict. How about Jake? He's the only player who's had two rulings. The first time, he was blustering Ronald Reagan quotes at the top of his lungs when Jane forked him, which I think we may agree safely disqualifies him from heroism (though the Republican party may disagree). The second time was ruled Heroic, when he took a realmaginary ninja sword through the chest for a friend. This corresponds pretty closely with most people's definition of heroic, so I doubt anyone would consider this one controversial either. Dave? Probably not much to debate here either. Fighting while attempting to save a dead friend, to bring her back to Jane for resurrection. There's a moral element here, tied to common ideas of heroism, so there's not much in dispute. When factors stray somewhat from moral notions of heroism, that's when there is more fuel for debate. So what about Rose? Wasn't John killed by Jack under similar circumstances to how Rose died? So why did he survive, and Rose didn't? The circumstances were very similar, on the surface. But I would suggest that the similarity of the two situations, both leading to different outcomes, helps clarify the rules in play, not confuse them. The reason for this? SCIENCE. If you were a scientist in this fictional world, trying to test this fictional construct, these are the exact kinds of situations you would seek out to prove or disprove whatever hypothesis you had. Situations that are very similar, with most factors isolated, and varying only in minor and controlled ways. That's how you would start to understand where the line is between heroic and non-heroic conduct. So what varies between the situations? What line does Rose cross which John doesn't? It becomes pretty obvious if you break the two scenes down. John was standing there, poised for battle with Jack, for all of two seconds before Jack auto-stabbed him from behind. Not even to speak of the underhanded tactic by the villain, I think what's more important is John didn't even get a chance to move. Or specifically, to prove through action that he was prepared to do battle with a foe. In fact, hindsight may tell us he wasn't. He hadn't been through much then. But years later, when he reenacted that scene with Jack through a dream bubble, he was ready that time. He had years to think about that moment, to reflect on the damage caused by Jack, and what he might have done differently if he'd been more prepared, and if the battle wasn't cut short. But during the first encounter, there was no time for heroic intent to translate into action. Compare with Rose's situation. Her feelings are unambiguous. Her mind is made up, and committed to action in the form of forward motion. Sorry Rose, you took a few too many steps through the paint on your drive to the hoop. Gotta blow the whistle! The two similar situations illustrate where one of the lines are for heroism (as a game rule, not moralistically), and in this case, that line is action. It would seem it's not good enough just to have heroic intentions or bold feelings. It doesn't cut it to strike a pose and look cool for two seconds. The intent should be expressed through commitment to an action. The action is what proves the intent. For all we know, John wasn't ready to back up his posture. For all we know, he was terrified! Rose wasn't though. Her action proved it. Why does Rose lashing out in vengeance count as heroic? If you wanted my personal opinion on heroism, I would say a vengeful act is not heroic by itself. We all have our ideas on what heroism means. But I think this is the wrong question to ask. The concern here is less about the moral definition of a heroic act, and more about how heroism is defined in terms of a series of rules which a game system can enforce. Based on some evidence we have, and some things Doc once said about god tier immortality, it's pretty safe to make at least one generalization about heroism as a game construct. The game/story regards your behavior as Heroic if you make some effort to defeat or kill someone who is villainous (or in other words, someone worthy of a Just death). The state of the hero's mind is just an additional consideration, such as whether they happen to be motivated by anger or vengeance. But let's imagine for a moment that a vengeful act is automatically unworthy of heroism, even if directed against a great evil. Wouldn't this be a MAJOR loophole for god tiers to avoid dying heroic deaths? It would mean to qualify as a hero, you couldn't feel anger toward a villain who has almost certainly done something to provoke anger. If a hero ever experienced loss at the hands of a villain, their natural emotional state would exempt them from the heroic consequence of the actions resulting from that anger. They would be completely invulnerable to a villain, so long as they maintained a grudge! The thing with villains is, they tend to have a way of inflicting loss on others. If being wronged precluded heroic behavior, villains would suddenly discover heroes to be incredibly rare commodities. There's a lot to think about here. It's a combination of how you want to morally define heroism and justice, and how to pragmatically construct enforceable rules to that effect. The latter is something that can get very technical, and boil down to hairline actions such as whether one exhibits clear enough forward motion or such, roughly the way sports are officiated. There's no way I'll ever come up with a full list of rules, or even get much deeper into the rules than I have here. But I believe this is a rational outline for the way the subject may be examined, if you wish to do so!!!