#from last year i think i did this at like 4 am iirc
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cant believe i forgot to post this here too
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hi!!! how long does an average panel of one of your comics take??
i love your work so much!! it got me into silmblr hehe
HI NONNIE!!! thank u sooooso much for checking in and for ur lovely ask! it means a lot to hear that my silly ol scribbles were what introduced u to the glorious landscape that is the tolkien fandom! on tumblr no less!! i hope you stay a real long time, and have a blast while you're at it 💖💖
now onto your question! that's some good food for thought uhhhh i can try to estimate?? its been a while but i shld have some rough ideas abt each that i can share! the time frame each comic/panel takes is highly dependent on WHAT kind of comic it is. i hv two kinds of comics I usually do: 1) full-length, and 2) goofy/4koma.
i have a few full-length comics laying about in my archive, but my most recent one/best example is Ghosts which was around uh.... 7 pages excluding the bonus panels! in terms of the process, i usually divide it into 5 stages:
Drafting: this is either the fastest stage OR the slowest depending entirely whether i know what im doing LMAO,, if i have a set idea for what i want to happen, i might get drafts done in a few hours, but if i flounder, it can take a few days 🤔
Lineart: relatively simple enough once i hv the draft down, so id say anything ranging from an hour to half a day if theres nothing else going on irl
Block colouring (main actors): there are DEFINITELY easier and more professional ways to do this with mass-selection and the lasso fill/bucket tool, but idk how to do that on SAI (my art program) so i colour everything by hand HAHA which makes the process longer.... half a day to a day?
Shading: THE WORST!!! definintely my least favourite bc i find it tedious due to all the details/prettification of elves that i am legally obliged to pour into this stage 😭😭 as a result, it can take days!!!
Background + Lighting + Final Rendering: similar to the previous stage haha it just depends on how much effort i wanna put into the final product looking nice. roughly a few days? it kind of meshes with stage 4 anyways haha
just for fun, i hope this process gif for page 6 can illustrate that 👇
these are just rough estimates, bc all in all, the time it takes so finish a page is really dependent on how free I am hahaha. Also, I usually work on full-length comics like Ghost which have more than one page all at once, which means I drafted all 7 pages at once, then did the lineart for all 7 pages at once, coloured at once, shaded rendered bla bla bla 😚 iirc, i think it took me 11 days in total to finish Ghosts before the end of June last year!
For goofy/4-koma, its usually just one page with less detailed/more cartoonish/chibi character styles so it takes a day or two days at most! again, it all boils down to how free i am hehe
YEAH SORRY THIS ENDED UP BEING AN INFO DUMP but thank you so much again for asking and letting me ramble! <3 i ended up having a lot of fun looking back on my drafts n thinking back on my processes.... theres defininitely room for improvement, but thats another worry for another day heheh 😎
#rin replies#anon asks#silmarillion#yeah sorry again this turned into a yap fest 💃💃#i never knew all those wips wld come in handy but maybe its a good thing i like sending myself things hehe#cannot reiterate enough how much i HATE colouring :((((#thank you again for ur kind message nonnie <33#silm#silm comic#wip#behind the scenes stuff
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I've been writing fic for a bit more than ten years now; most of which (eight? nine?) as a pantser. At most I'd make a timeline, for a complicated timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly fic, but other than that, I just daydreamed the story and then wrote it down 😅
Then in the last couple of years, I tried to learn more about the craft of writing. I never had any training in school or uni, never any class or anything; I did work with a writing coach for a while two years back, and read a lot of advice. I've started to plan stories out more, to be more intentional about what I write -
But I have now run into a problem that I heard pantsers describe, which is that when they plan out the story till the end, they feel like it's done, and the impetus to write it just drops away.
I think I'm still right in the middle of finding my writing approach, which - on the one hand, exciting! I'm learning more about myself, that's always good! But on the other hand, I'm sad about the projects I was working on that I have somehow run out of steam on. I do have other projects that I still am excited to write, but I'm a bit worried I might lose interest in them too as I try to find the right balance between planning and pantsing.
IIRC you are a pantser, right? Any advice on how to not get ahead of myself when I approach a new story? How to keep pace between the dreaming-up of the story, and the writing-it-down?
OMG this is the question!! I am absolutely a proud member of pantser nation, yes, and I'll tell you what works for me, but I do honestly think this is something that (sadly) each person has to figure out for themselves via trial and error.
Terminology for those who don't know:
Pantser: someone who writes by the "seat of their pants," aka no outline, no real clue what happens next. The joy is in the journey!
Plotter: someone who plots everything out before hand, like by outlining or using scene cards or something. The joy is in knowing the journey before you start!
Most people are somewhere in the middle, or vary project by project. There are lots of names for it, like plantser or "headlight method" or whatever, but basically you can think of it as the Kinsey scale, with 1 being solely pantser, 2 as leaning pantser, 3 as equally both, 4 as leaning plotter, and 5 as solely plotter.
I'm a 1.5 I'd say, the 0.5 being from having to learn story beats in order to sell original fiction to traditional publishers, which means things like "the breakup should happen around 80% of the way through" and "inciting incident at 0 or 10%." If that doesn't make sense to anyone reading, don't worry, it doesn't need to! (But if you have questions about story beats, feel free to ask!)
As a true pantser, I typically know the following things before I start. I'll give an example from a long fic I've written and for a book that none of you have read because it hasn't gotten bought yet (SADFACE).
I know the characters and some basic facts about them and their relationship pre-story:
Back to the basket: Alex is a closeted college basketball coach who washed out of the WNBA (life based on Adia Barnes). Maggie is an assistant coach who used to fuck Alex in secret during college and is hella gay.
Original romcom: Libby is great at making friends. Sasha is a serial monogamist. They are both "straight."
Setting and meeting:
Back to the basket: Maggie joins Alex's coaching staff. The fic will last the entire college season (~6 months)
Original romcom: Libby and Sasha meet on a dating reality show. The book will encompass the first 6 weeks of the show.
Primary conflict:
Back to the basket: Alex wants to focus on work because she's A Big Failure. Maggie wants to date. They have undeniable chemistry and horniness.
Original romcom: Classic "straight" friends to gay lovers problems, made worse by the reality show setting.
Ending:
Back to the basket: We get really far in the tournament and Alex and Maggie get their happily ever after
Original romcom: Libby declares her love at the Ceremony, Sasha declares it back after some mental buffering, and they get their happily ever after.
Once I know those things, I'm pretty much good to go. For some books I know the midpoint (I knew the midpoint of my forthcoming novel before I started writing it) but for most projects, including fics, I don't know it until I've written my way there. In these examples, there was a clear time boundary (6 months, 6 weeks), which I find very helpful. When co-writing with the incredible @roadien60, we've put time boundaries on our fics together to help us keep the story tight, compelling, and contained (I mean LOL, Missives is literally almost 80k, but just imagine how bad it would have been if we hadn't been counting down to the eclipse!)
While pantsing, I really try to let the scenes shape themselves, to let the characters simmer when they need to and move forward when they don't. I don't let the characters do whatever they want, because those wants might not make for a compelling narrative or be what I want to write, but I try to let things flow naturally from one event/emotional beat to the next.
This method requires revision, sure, but revising is easier than forcing yourself to draft something that simply won't come, and that's what matters.
I try to be very very careful about NOT thinking ahead. I don't even let myself daydream the things I'm planning to write. I'll think about the next chapter between writing sessions, but never further than that, because if I've so much as thought about it, some of the joy is spoiled. I'll think of great dialogue in my head, and then forget it, and no matter what I write down on the page later, I'll always think it's worse than the first thing I dreamed up in the shower, and that's a kind of regret I don't have space for in my brain.
And the consequences are real! The only fic I took 5+ years to finish, Splice World, is the only one I plotted out all the way. I had to wait until I had forgotten what I plotted to be able to finish it, and even then it was a bit lackluster.
So I guess after all of this word vomit, my questions back to you are:
What was going wrong when you pantsed? What specific problem are you trying to solve for? Sometimes people try to start plotting because they think being a pantser is less "good" or sophisticated or something, to which I say, fuck them!
When plotting, at what level of advance detail do you get bored? If you know the ending, the next chapter, five chapters in the future, etc? Maybe you can find a happy middle there, where you can think a few chapters ahead but not the whole thingy.
How much do you daydream/think about the story without writing it? If it's a lot, trying doing it very little or none and all, and see if that helps!
LET ME KNOW!!
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20 Q's for Fic Writers
thanks for the tag @spacejammie-eimmajecaps!
How many works do you have on ao3?
Officially 8, but I have one on anon and one currently unrevealed in a fic exchange
What's your total ao3 word count?
61,996
What fandoms do you write for?
So far I've written for Death Note, Tangled the Series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Haikyuu, plus a couple of crossovers. Haikyuu is definitely my main rn though
What are your top five fics by kudos?
#1: Frosting and Freckles: 69 (nice)
#2: Draw Me Near: 39
#3: [embarrassing anon fic]: 35
#4: Varian Is Not a Wizard: 25
#5: Midnight Coda: 21
Do you respond to comments?
Yeah, I love to! I don't get a lot so they always make me happy :)
What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
probably the anon fic sdfsk but other than that, Midnight Coda is kinda bittersweet because of what happens later
What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
hmm idk but the sappiest is definitely Frosting and Freckles
Do you get hate on fics?
Not so far, thankfully! I don't think I have a big enough readership for that haha
Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I have not; not sure what kind it would be if I did
Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I love writing crossovers! A PJO/HP crossover was actually what got me into fanfic. Unfortunately most of them are merely concepts or abandoned (for now), but as for crazy, I think my Lunar Chronicles/PJO one is the craziest in terms of how the plot grew out of control from a simple "what if these two characters interacted" to "I could rewrite most of this series," which is why I got stuck and put it on hiatus lol but I do want to get back to it someday. Maybe once I finish my other active crossover
Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not to my knowledge
What's the longest you've spent working on one fic? And the shortest?
Uhhh well if we count "working on" as "having it in the back of mind to get to but haven't worked on in months," probably Sent from the Heavens lol. If not, then Varian Is Not a Wizard (just over two years since I published the first chapter). Shortest is definitely Midnight Coda, since I wrote that pretty much in a day iirc
Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No, but it sounds like it could be fun!
What's your all-time favorite ship?
From all fandoms? Dude I have no idea how to narrow that down. Best I can give you is my current fave is Tsukkiyama from Haikyuu
What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
Probably my "Leo Valdez ends up in the ATLA world" one :sob: It never made it past the word doc and about three pages of story and I haven't looked at it in like two years
What are your writing strengths?
I like to think I'm pretty good at dialogue and grammar/spelling
What are your writing weaknesses?
Everything else (jk). I am awful at describing scenes/settings; I get bored writing them so I don't put as much effort in as I should haha. I also tend to ramble and use passive voice too much
Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I haven't done it, but I think it's fine as long as it fits the context
First fandom you wrote for?
Published: Avatar: The Last Airbender. Unpublished: Percy Jackson
Favorite fic you've written?
I think it's still Bent Out of Shape. It's so niche, but I had an idea and I executed it, and I'm proud of what I accomplished. Although once I finish Varian Is Not a Wizard, that might take the top slot.
No-pressure tagging: @supermarine-silvally @starrynightarchive @litterateur97 @palant1r @soreiya @lilac-writes @oloreandil @kandybarkreepshow @ellegamgee and anyone else who wants to!
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OK time locked DC events pre 2011 canon in Batfam:
52: this is the time post infinite Crisis, pre OYL. It's a 1 year gap basically during which main titles do not have events happening.
Infinite Crisis: This happens right before 52 and one year before OYL
Bruce Wayne: Murderer link canonically happens one year after NML, referenced in multiple titles. Cass, sometimes after NML ends, accepts Shiva's challenge to fight her in one year. Sasha Bordeaux mentions living with Bruce for close to one year in Detective Comics, and she only started living with Bruce a couple months after NML ended.
No Man's Land: Canonically lasts one year.
Non Batffam time events: Wonder Woman 226 confirms our worlds at war was 2 years ago from infinite crisis, and that was after NML. Jefferson Pierce also canonically spent 2 years as Luthor's secretary of education.
Then you have before this a list of many many events that had to happen during tim's time as robin link I have a hard time imagining JPV bats and knightfall stuff lasting any less than 6 months. I'd have to re-read to see if there is any on panel confirmation of time passed
then before that you have tim's robin training, which I am assuming lasted 6 months because that's how long jason's lasted canonically and the writers were putting a lot of emphasis on tim's training.
so anyway lett's start with OYL, when Damian canonically makes his first appearance, as year "0". He should be 10 at that time.
(should be noted> this is the most condensed timeline possible w/ these events, not what I personally prefer to adhere to. I personally put 1 year between knightfall and NML to re-establish normalcy and allow for late 90s disasterous gotham events)
year 0: Damian is 10, 1 year later comics published
year -1: Damian is 9, infinite crisis
year -3: Damian is 7, our world's at war event happens
year -4: Damian is 6, NML happens
year -5: Damian is 5, Tim starts getting Robin training and then Knightfall happens..
ok so that means that, assuming 0 time between jason dying and tim starting trainin, jason died at year -5.
how long was jason robin? We don't know for sure, but I generally put it at ~3 years. which would put Damian being 2 when Jason starts being Robin. He could easily have been (again, going with the most condensed timline possible). He could easily have been conceived sometime when Dick was a late teenager without breaking any timeline shenanigans.
I really do think DC being scared to age up Tim, Dick, and Bruce makes Damian's existence look implausible but like. Tim should not be 17. Based on the very condensed timeline I did there, if he starts Robin at canonically 13 he should be 18 by time Damian joins. and if Damian is 14 now Tim should be 22.
Dick meanwhile was referred to as 25 in a rebirth comic which is also very implausible for all of the stuff he's been through. IIRC NTT confirms at least 18 months timelock... just for the first 40-something issues.
Anyway I hope this was informative WRT timeline stuff @jackdoe
EDIT wait i forgot that Azrael comics mean time would have had to happen between end of knightfall and start of NML even w/ the condensed stuff... b/c azrael has to be depressed and homeless, then he has to start his new life in gotham, lose his powers, get his powers back, start a new life out of gotham...
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spg anon here once more: i am now in love with rabbit and i would die for her
also if you have any links to good places to read the lore at, i would be welcomed to get them! i have read the storyline and timeline on their website and have read the comics so far and im just in love with this entire concept
Beloved SPG Anon, I feel like us Rabbit Spouses (TM) should start a union because our collective wife puts us through so much daily. And yes! I can definitely provide some links aside from the website and comics!
A fair warning beforehand: a lot of these resources, especially the older ones, do reference Mike Reed and Steve Negrete, both of whom have left the band after rather upsetting behavior. I won't go into it here, but it's pretty easy to find reasons why. Please take the necessary precautions beforehand if this is something that could trigger you.
A GREAT resource is going through the Internet Archive and plugging in http://www.steampoweredgiraffe.com and clicking around. A good addon is /cavalcadium, which will bring you to their old lore hub, as well as any /CHARACTERNAME.html (i.e. "/Upgrade.html") to bring you to a character-specific page. I don't remember what date saves are especially good, but if you click around you should see some good stuff. Definitely recommend spending a lot of time here, since you'll find the most lore here as far as I know!
Another cool resource is the Reddit SPG Lore Sundays Bunny did, which are linked here (1), (2), (3), (4).
Their YouTube channel has some nice videos and playlists explaining some lore/in-jokes, as well as some aspects of the Vice Quadrant. Their podcast has some bits of lore, but it's mostly them fucking around for an hour, so YMMV. There is an in-character improv radio show with the characters if you're interested though here! The Youtube clips of their performances are really fun but not as lore-heavy aside from a few one-off jokes. The major exception to this is the Malfunction Incident featuring a flashback to the Weekend War (there's another significant malfunction in the Walter Robotics Expo liveshow video, which is $5 for the full recording and IMO well worth it).
Their Tumblr @officialsteampoweredgiraffe has some really interesting bits of lore as well, but you will definitely have to dig for it. I personally recommend starting at the very last page and working your way forward, since the blog nowadays just autoposts new podcast eps.
@emmi-kat has done some phenomenal lore masterposts too, and I can link some here and here off the top of my head.
They also have a Patreon with content dating back like ten years or something?? I haven't gotten into it yet but I plan to and I have a feeling there's a lot of cool stuff in there. If you're interested, the lowest tier iirc is like $1.
That's all I can think of right now, but I'm gonna maintag this as an open invitation for anyone with more resources to add on, because I would like to know too! My literal second post in the SPG fandom was 'hey guys where can i find lore because it's impossible' so trust me, I know the feeling.
#spg#steam powered giraffe#answered#anonymous#hope this helps!! this is all i could think of off the top of my head#man. man. daily i do learn new stuff abt spg lore.#please anyone who sees this do add on resources!! for my sake as well as spg anon please i am dying here#mild self promo im working on answering a p comprehensive ask abt automaton backstories so when that posts u could read that if u want....
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PLEASE tell me more about how you came to be riding bareback on a horse down a mountain in a stampede. This lore is fascinating
Ok, so, bit of backstory: when I was in my early teens and had no experience with horses at all I got suckered into this Very Bad Barn. I feel quite embarrassed and ashamed about this. It was bad for many reasons, but without being excruciating these were the main issues in hindsight:
1) It had lax to nil safety considerations (no insurance, unqualified instructors in their early teens, only let us ride bareback because they didn't want to maintain school tack, didn't actually teach proper riding skills, etc)
2) manipulative and abusive social structure (compelled to volunteer with no compensation or lose your space, lots of gaslighting/moving the goalpost, the group of teens I was with were super fucked up and did a number on my mental health, the adults were even worse especially the barn owner - I have actually run the BITE model used to assess cults against this place and it places alarmingly high)
3) financial abuse - including but not limited to exorbitant prices for what was offered, 'gifting' horses to kids like me who didn't know better (no papers exchanged - paid for a horse for years and took care of all bills, etc only to have him taken away and been embargoed from seeing him when I had a disagreement with barn owner)
4) TERRIBLE horse welfare - I don't want to go into detail on this because it is still very raw, but the worst was a combination of not letting horses be pulled out of lessons despite injury + no biosecurity protocol = disastrous and fatal consequences
Ok, that actually ended up being excruciating detail, sorry about that. Depressing details out of the way, now onto the funny/dramatic part.
So all of this culminated in me, not knowing how to ride very well but thinking I was competent, riding multiple times weekly in groups of about 10 people who were also incompetent but confident (a dangerous combo) bareback in the mountains. The mountains where I live are steep, rocky semi-alpine, and where we rode usually reached a height of about a kilometer.
One of these rides I was in the middle of a group of said riders. We were making our way slowly up the mountain, which was a rather wide trail at that point with very large gravel, probably 45 angle iirc, and had almost reached the top of the mountain. I think there were about 4 horses in front of me and 4 or 5 behind me (cannot remember the exact number) and I was in the middle. I think I was about 20. It was sunny and we were all pretty relaxed and not paying attention, especially the ride leader. I am not sure what the ride leader's horse saw or heard, but he spooked hard and fast. The sleepy ride changed in an instant. All the horses spun 180 fast, unceremoniously dumping their riders onto the gravel. Except me. I missed my chance to fall relatively safely, and by the time my brain caught up with what was happening it was too late to make a last ditch attempt at 'dismounting' (read:falling).
The horses took off at a dead gallop down the mountain. I would say it was probably about half a km on the straightaway before the gravel path started to curve (thankfully the curve was pretty gradual) and head into the forest. I had a death grip in my horse's mane, and was using all my leg strength to hold on (keep in mind, due to the abysmal nature of this barn, I had very little experience cantering and had never galloped in my life. What little times I had cantered had all been on straight stretches with no turns). The horses were clumped right around me, so there was no place I could see to fall where I didn't run the risk of getting trampled or kicked in the head. When we got into the forest the situation got more dire as the path narrowed and the horses maintained their pace, but clumped even tighter. I'm not sure how likely I was in reality to be seriously or fatally injured if I had fallen off, but my thoughts were very loudly telling me that injury or death was a possibility so I didn't want to risk it.
Once we reached the forest it wasn't long before we encountered the stream. A tiny stream, but a short and sharp dip down to the water and then a short and sharp dip back up. They thankfully avoided the bridge. I don't actually remember riding the stream - did they jump the bank? Trip on rocks? I don't know, fear blurred my memory. And then we were continuing on the narrow forest path, me in my stampede, and I wondered how much longer I would be in hell and what I was going to do when the horses stopped - and would they stop? Then we were across the (fairly deserted, thank god) road and at the trailers. Finally the horses drew to a stop. I leaned forward and slid off my horse's neck, and here my legs collapsed and I actually did fall, slightly under his chest but by this time Jace has regained some of his senses and brought himself up so he didn't step on me.
My legs were raw from where I had been slamming my inner thighs into his withers - as I mentioned I had never been taught proper riding. If this happened now (which it wouldn't because I am at a Safe and Accredited barn, but I digress) I would be physically able to ride it better, but where I was then I had been relying very strongly on my death grip in his mane to stay on (the horses were very reactive to having leg pressure on them so we always rode with our legs slightly off the horse's sides, which resulted in us more or less balancing entirely on our pinbones. It took me probably 4 or 5 months when starting at a proper barn to start consistently keeping my leg on horses while riding because I was so conditioned to expect them to try take off when your legs touched their sides). I had basically been getting a few inches of air every stride before slamming back down. Poor Jace. Poor me.
There I was, with around 10 loose horses is very stages of remaining panic, frantically trying to catch everyone and tie them to the trailer. One of them, Thor, would not stop loosing his head and kept circling onto the road, which while relatively deserted still had cars sporadically coming and I do not know how he managed to not get hit - I couldn't get near him. I was bawling my eyes out at this point, but trying to stay calm enough to round everyone up. The equestrian parking lot was bordered by a general use parking lot mainly used by hikers, and there was about 5-10 different groups of people there, but no one offered to help. I could understand it being unsafe for them to help with the horses, but no one even asked if I was ok. What I really wanted was to send someone to check if the people I was riding with were ok - a significant portion of them were seniors and I thought they might have gotten hurt in the fall. One of them I had narrowly missed running over at the start of the stampede. Worst of all, some guy on his atv started to DRIVE HIS ATV THROUGH MY SCARED HERD OF LOOSE HORSES until I ran at him, waving my arms and screaming at him to go another way. I am still extremely indignant about this.
Anyways, thankfully soon after Mr Fucker on the ATV the other group from our barn, who had been riding on trails on the other side of the road, came back and were able to help finish catching the horses and go fetch the fallen people. No one ended up being seriously injured (though I walked with a limp for about a week because my legs actually scarred on the inner thigh) and all the horses were safe. But yeah. Sorry for being kind of long and rambly, I know it isn't really a very exciting story but it's a very strong memory for me.
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Hello, I am one of the other 5 Jacob Hopkins fans on planet earth. I’ve been planning on writing a redemption fic for Jacob as a way to make something meaningful out of the 1000s of hours I have spent daydreaming about this loser, as well as to make a rebuttal of sorts to all of the people in the fandom who thinks he is pure evil and deserves to be horrifically murdered.
The fic only has 4 paragraphs at the moment because I suck at writing, but the basic idea for the plot goes as follows.
After his last appearance in Thanks to Them Jacob gets arrested for harassment, setting up illegal traps, etc and serves time in prison for a couple of months to maybe a year. He is then submitted to a mental rehabilitation facility because he’s him. In the facility he unlearns all of his conspiracy theories, including the ones about the existence of Vee, Eda, and the demon realm as a whole. He basically gets gaslighted into believing he was hallucinating everything magic related. He is then released from the rehabilitation center and stays with a family member who lives in a town close to Gravesfield and acts as his ward (I currently have it as his cousin). The fic starts 2 years into his stay with his cousin and Jacob is relatively sane and able to deal with his NPD (he has that by the way) and the traumas he experienced during his time as a conspiracy theorist, as he works at some kind of low skilled job to help pay for bills and things.
Eventually the plot happens and he begins to slowly figure out that magic, demons, and witches do in fact exist with a heavy amount of angst. Current idea for that happening is Hunter just showing up because Luz, Vee, and Camila realized one day that they have no idea what happened to Jacob after he was arrested so Hunter does some Reconnaissance for old times sake (Camila might be there too). Then more plot happens until Jacob is properly informed of and then brought to the demon realm via the boiling isles human realm exchange program, where he makes peace with his past and properly addresses what he did and apologizes.
With that in mind, here is my request.
Your headcanons. Give them to me. (pretty please)
All of the personality traits, hobbies, backstories, and everything else about Jacob Hopkins that you’d be willing to share. And also some feedback about the overview, what ideas and themes could be explored, and just your general thoughts would be nice.
Cheers.
Oh boy I hope you're prepared for a lot of rambling, your fic sounds absolutely AWESOME and I'd love to read it when you post it! I also don't really understand the abundance of hate he gets in the fandom. Like I understand not liking him and he IS kinda annoying, but I've seen people that like Philip treating him like the antichrist. Tbh I'm not really too bothered by it from a moral standpoint because he isn't real but it does make me a bit sad (my autism has latched HARD onto this character)
The cousin aspect is also a funny coincidence because I'm also incorporating his cousin into my AU because she's Masha's mother lol, and the NPD would make a lot of sense tbh. I think a cool idea to explore could maybe be his relationship with Eda since iirc she was the first demon he came in contact with, I also think while he's relearning that magic and demons and witches exist he'd still struggle a bit with not seeing demons and witches as people because he finds them fascinating (obviously he'd get better about this but it'd be fun to explore a few of his flaws during his redemption n stuff!) I also think exploring a possible friendship with Gus would be cool, since Gus is heavily interested in humans and Jacob is heavily interested in witches though I'm not sure if Gus would be comfortable with it at first from the whole scene where he gets arrested. I unfortunately can't do most of these for my AU since Eda is deceased and the idea is moreso him getting what he wants but facing consequences for it (and not learning because he has someone around to encourage said behavior.. ooo mysterious)
Like I said your fic sounds extremely cool to me and I'd really like to read it when you're finished if you're comfortable with that!
As for headcanons I have A LOT of convoluted stuff about this guy bc I too daydream about the loser daily lol. I unfortunately have a bad problem with forgetting stuff as soon as I go to write it down BUT I will do my best to give you some unsorted headcanons. A lot of this will be explored in my AU specifically once I get to it lol. Also some of this might be contradicted by canon because I unfortunately cannot rewatch the series until my brother is ready to bc I promised. hope I can give you some good inspiration though!
- I think he's pretty tech savvy and good with computers. Probably cares a lot about his appearance online, maybe more than his appearance in real life.
- He definitely gets a lot of stuff for his collection that are (supposed to be at least) magical artifacts, but he also buys novelty items, taxidermy, weapons, old junk, etc. Basically anything he finds cool.
- Was actually planning to buy the old house (y'know, the one with the portal door that I think the wittebanes used to live in?) and turn it into a sort of research facility for himself away from everyone else. I imagine in canon he would've been really mad when he heard the Nocedas bought it.
- I personally think he has always been into theories and had a few weird beliefs, and the fixation started off harmless enough but it ended up escalating to the degree it was hurting other people and himself when he got a picture of the owl beast and moved to gravesfield.
- Speaking of above in my AU he is mostly influenced by a group of people online and radicalized if that's the right term. Most of them are a lot like him and just.. heavily misinformed. Basically his beliefs got more and more outlandish over time to the point where it impacted his everyday life and the people around him. He sees them as his friends though. They play DND. Yippee.
- Masha and him are related as I said before, Masha pretty much sees him as an uncle. I hc they'd actually hang out at the historical society with their friends once they got back from camp, and Jacob would show them and their friends his collection sometimes but he probably wouldn't let them touch anything.
- Masha and him bonded over their shared love for cryptids.
- In the canon timeline I hc Masha cut him off after finding out what happened with Vee and Luz. Pretty sad but honestly kinda deserved.
- Personality wise I think he can come across as kind of an asshole but he doesn't really realize that he's doing it. He's gotten better at it since he got his job, but his only interactions with someone could be arguing and he'd assume they're friends when the other person hates him.
- When interacting with other people if he assumes someone doesn't like something he does and wants to appeal to them he'll simply lie and say he doesn't. I hc he kinda has a problem with lying about himself and putting on different personas with people.
- Projects onto Philip a LOT because of his own experiences with his brother and it's one of the main reasons he fixated onto the story of the brothers wittebane so much (will go into more detail in the AU on this one, don't wanna spoil too much)
- Undiagnosed autism and ADHD. Because every character I like needs to be autistic (joking) I feel like he doesn't get it checked out because he thinks "well I don't have a problem functioning so there's no way I have that kinda thing"
- Definitely into the fantasy genre with the whole renaissance fair thing. Likes DND and probably game of thrones (I know nothing about game of thrones so I can't talk about it more lol) I also think he's into the owl house universe's equivalent of pokemon + MLP but that's more on the downlow.
- Does not like birds. Even if he didn't think they were spy cameras (which he does) they still freak him out. Masha has a pet pigeon and he hates it.
Ok, I'm probably gonna go to bed now but these are the ones I can think of. Thank you for the ask and I hope I gave you some good ideas ^^
#jacob hopkins#the owl house#seriously tho link me that fic when its done it sounds cool!!#jacob toh#toh#masha toh
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💤, 🙈, 🌌, 🪤 and 🔪 for rome, marlo and ness
💐, 📖, 📣 and 🔫 for adonis
and💧 for. idk an oc of your choice. or more than one oc of your choice. up to you! i am just asking for little a angst, as a treat
emoji questions
damn. ok
💤 SLEEPING: do they fall asleep easily? what helps them sleep?
MARLO: no, and they have a hard time staying asleep. that’s just trauma, babe—a combination of a circadian cycle warped by the valley campaign, paranoia, and in the event of they dream at all, nightmares. the best remedy they’ve found is sleeping interlocked with someone they’re close with, which is an infrequent luxury but does help negate the paranoia.
ROME: i don’t think she has any particular difficulty or ease in getting there, though like the average inkling she’s a late riser. she has a proper wind-down routine (no phone before bed, warm cup of decaf tea, that kind of thing) because one can take only so many years of frantic travel schedules and repetitive hotels before they break and do something about it.
NESS: there’s a joke that, since he’s an ornate sleeper-ray, he can just conk out on command; it isn’t really that easy, but he is prone to dozing off. he could catch some Zs just about anywhere but, naturally, it helps just to be in his own bed, or read in order to wind down.
🙈 SEE NO EVIL: what’s a side of your oc that they don’t want to show other people?
MARLO: frankly, all of them. i’m fond of saying marlo is a façade all the way down and it’s true. they’re capable of just about anything under the right circumstances; it just depends on who they’re talking to—they're ashamed of just about every part of themself and, if they're bothering to hide it at all, do their best to tailor-make themself for others' sake.
ROME: she markets herself on acting prim and demure and inoffensive, but she's bitter and sour and has a lot of anger bottled up. it's an authenticity she doesn't have the luxury of, and at this point wouldn't know how to wrangle if she did.
NESS: his own moral ambiguity. he doesn't want you knowing how cunning or manipulative he has the capability of being, or the fact that his past doesn't haunt him—staying underestimated grants him a lot more room to move laterally and get his job done. but at the same time he doesn't want to invite misunderstanding: just because he has the know-how doesn't mean he likes it.
🌌 MILKY WAY: what was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?
MARLO: it’s gonna sound kind of wild, but marlo was originally a self-insert. i’d started playing with a friend and gone... ‘but what if my player character was Agent 3?’ and it went from there. that contributed to a lot of their background & physicality. otherwise, it’ll make a lot of sense to hear that i wanted to push the bounds of just how serious i could take the campaign—that was their inspiration and it also shaped every other foundation about them, to make sure the campaign and its core conflict would tear them down as thoroughly as it could. they were, in the truest sense, doomed from the start.
ROME: rome was drawn from the aforementioned friend’s player character, because i had to have someone for marlo to live with during the campaign & saw fit to combine my and marlo’s introduction to inkopolis. at this point, she had a name, gearset, little sister, and relationship with marlo, and that was all. it wasn’t until last year that i set about bringing her back... and because i had just removed marlo from the rp circle i’d written in and had to fill some gaps asap. (you can actually watch my friend playing as her in this old jaymoji video)
NESS: he. didn’t really have one. i’d kept trying to make Agent 4 ocs for months at this point but none of them had stuck or resonated, until i gave up and dumped my entire job path and personality into one & had someone to bounce him off (his roommate & co-founder). he’s kind of the inverse of marlo in that he inherited from me all the things they didn’t. iirc his foundations are (1) his job and (2) his connection to egyptian myth. that’s... about it.
🪤 MOUSE TRAP: what will always lure them into certain danger? a loved one in danger? a promise of something they are always searching for?
MARLO: it's quicker to ask what wouldn't; danger doesn't often factor into marlo's decision-making these days. death and power and praise are equal prizes in their mind, and even if that weren't the case, their experiences as an agent warped their idea of what even counts as dangerous to begin with. it's literally just tuesday for them.
ROME: nothing short of revenge, or something like it—she prides herself on being cunning and prudent enough not to fall for that sort of thing, and not much matters to her more than her own self-preservation. but rome did very much endanger herself in the name of finding closure & as a means to vent her own raw fury (and never quite realized that's what drove her).
NESS: theoretically, not much: he's very far past the point of wanting to risk his life for just about anything. but at the same time he's a sucker for the extraordinary and wants to know everything. consider the fact he thinks of marlo as both an inherent danger and an inherent fascination, and his relationship to them varies depending on which has more weight at the time; he wants to be a part of their legend, even if it's gonna kill him.
🔪 KNIFE: how do they react to injury / misfortune befalling their loved ones (significant other, family, friends)? do they put themselves at blame?
MARLO: we don't have time to unpack all of that. others' health (mental & physical), no matter their proximity or importance, don't... usually matter to marlo, except where it impairs them. but they do blame themself—at length—for the hurt they themself cause, and hurt is usually the outcome of that exact attitude, so yes, but no. they're capable of demonstrating care and empathy, but in effect they often trivialize others' pain because they're so numb to their own (and instead complain about how much worse off they are).
ROME: either a freeze response or activation of caregiver mode: she might go very quiet, or instantly attempt to offer comfort and/or solutions. most of the time, that's not a bad thing, and there's a reason others think of her as quite kind; but it can be unsettling how rapidly she switches it on (and can't always turn it off again). she blames herself only if she can't fix the problem.
NESS: you'd think for a guy who makes money off unfortunate situations he'd handle it better, but most of the time he reacts with horror. he ensures his sanity thru distancing himself; being presented with it directly often causes him to back off even further, and he ends up seeming callous & selfish. he tries not to ignore them totally, but... he's not good at it. in any case, though, he won't blame himself for situations he couldn't have affected the outcome of.
—
💐 BOUQUET: create a bouquet for them! what do those flowers mean? are any of the flowers their particular favourite?
normally i love researching flowers & symbolism for multiple hours but i want to finish this ask sob. instead i'm gonna say a dozen red roses—in myth aphrodite created them in anguish over the death of adonis; make of that what you like. :)
📖 OPEN BOOK: do they like reading? what’s their favourite genre?
adonis doesn't have a strong opinion one way or another; as he's gotten older he's come around to reading more often, but mainly as a time-killer or to affect the last of his dignity. he likes biographies unironically and trashy romance novellas half-ironically (once he picked one up in a, god forbid, thrift store, and got more fun out of it than he was willing to admit). as part of his attempt to seem "rich and well-bred" during the height of his ink battle fame he read a number of classics, but got very little out of them. who knows, maybe he'll revisit them and get really into jane austen someday.
📣 MEGAPHONE: how loud are they? what do they speak like? got a voice claim?
at one point i said his vc was yuri lowenthal, but i don't like the performance i settled on back then, so take it with a grain of salt. *definitely not as spiderman, in any case. there's not much distinctive about his voice, he talks at an ordinary volume most of the time & it's not too smooth nor too rough & he's trained himself to speak in an inkopolitan dialect. he does like to speak with a flamboyant inflection & inject french phrases into his dialogue, though—mon chéri type beat—and despite himself, when he gets drunk or angry or the like, the southern does tend to come out and then this mf's talking like benoit blanc.
🔫 PISTOL: do they trust people easily? how easily will they turn their back to someone? have they been backstabbed before? will they betray someone if given an ultimatum?
i don't think he knows the meaning of the word—the short answers to each of these are no, instantly, i'll give you a hint as to where the scars on his torso came from, and yes. he never had trust in his parents, in his sibling, in anyone he ran into while adrift in inkopolis, in his ranked teammates, in his competitors, in anyone who showed at his parties, and none to show for his coworkers. the notion is alien to him. he gets by fine without it.
—
💧 DROPLET: random angst headcanon
in the months after their campaign and as they figured out how their life had broken down around their ears—as they realized they could never go home again, both literally and metaphorically—marlo spiraled very hard and very rapidly. as their roommate and best friend, rome took the brunt of it: their burgeoning paranoia, fanaticism, and desire for / use of power over others as a crutch. rome was not the type to stand up for herself at that point, but even she reached a breaking point, and one morning in a whirl of desperation and rage and fear threw marlo out of the house for good. they then did not run into each other for the next five years.
#inbox#kellsodaa#oc posting#oc soda#oc rome#oc ness#oc adonis#HI SRY THIS TOOK EIGHT MONTHS TY FOR SENDING IT IN
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i’ve honestly always wholeheartedly adored kirby tbh. i’ll never forget seeing scream 4 at a formative age and wanting to be just half as cool as her so bad lmaoo. i don’t know if this is really related at all but i think at least in 4, she was a little more flawed as a person than some people really pick up on. and i think those flaws genuinely make her a more interesting character. she’s a little rude, blunt, callous, whatever. doesn’t outwardly care too much about her friend getting brutally murdered right in front of her. still goes to stab-a-thon, has a good time, flirts with charlie, hosts an after party, brags about her movie knowledge. which good for her with the last one ❤️ but she does come off a little self involved. she’s also a teenager so. fair enough. but she obviously has a lot of good moments as well. she seems to care deeply for jill and shows a lot of courage, heart, and vulnerability in that final scene trying to save charlie’s life. she wasn’t perfect and that’s what makes her pretty compelling to me. i think mindy shares a lot of these qualities as well but she didn’t really get a heart and vulnerability moment like kirby did with the trying to save charlie debacle. i feel like she’ll be getting one in 6 though, not gonna lie. idk but i do love them both and i’m excited to see them again <3
agreed in full, buddy, agreed in full!!
and to be fair, as self-involved and blunt as she comes across, uh, even kirby's more callous lines don't compare to robbie tbh. iirc like, olivia's body is barely cold and he refers to her as "the girl who'll now never date me," or if not that exactly, something to the effect of it (now i have to re-watch scre4m yet again). like. fuck man.
also when kirby tried to save charlie (as far as she knew) and started shakily rattling off whatever remake come to mind, hayden panettiere's performance was so raw and compelling that on the first watch i didn't even realize it's supposed to be the film taking a crack at how derivative and lazy so many remakes are!! the commentary totally flew over my head bc i was so wrapped up in her urgency and desperation.
although my favorite kirby moment will always be when she yells at trevor after her interrupts her and charlie. her face is a whole mood, i swear if this movie had come out a handful of years later than it did kirby prolly would've become a reaction gif. 😂
and mindy! yes, ofc i adore mindy. and she is similarly kind of harsh. like when she refuses to go with richie to the basement and he goes alone and like, as soon as the door shuts behind him she's all, "well he's dead," and shoves her hand in a bag of chips. LMAO. to be fair tho, to be fair richie is irritating af and that prolly would've been my reaction too. anonymoose friend, i am sorry if u like richie but he just aggravates me, personally, he was getting on my nerves the whole movie.
i do feel we'll be getting more vulnerability from mindy come scream vi tho, more development for her character in general. jasmin savoy brown has the range!!! and already the super bowl ad heavily suggests her girlfriend is going to get killed.
i keep re-watching it (and all the other ads, ngl) trying to work out the mechanics of that scene.
it looks like anika is already wounded? she's covered in blood. yes, it could be someone else's blood but i'm thinking it's hers bc in the one shot it looks like mindy is helping her on the floor? it's blink-and-miss-it, but it's there, for the life of me tho, which trailer or tv spot was it in?? i don't remember, they're all blurring together. but also it seems that mindy gets on the ladder before anika does, that she's left her in the bloody bedroom (quinn's bedroom?) and that makes me wonder if the plan is for mindy to go first bc anika could potentially successfully play dead if ghostface enters the room, given that she's already injured. if that is the plan it clearly doesn't work, but. still.
anyway, yes, i love kirby and mindy and i'm very excited to see them both again and hopefully we'll get some good interactions between them too!!
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is it true that official-mugi-two is a pedo?
Why do people keep coming into my inbox and asking me stuff about "is X a pedo" "did you hear X is a pedo" for no reason and with no additional information, I am going to pollinate all of your dads. If what you're doing is asking me "oh renardie of the lake, what is your wisdom", the answer is "if it's true I certainly haven't heard of it, and also I've been off-site for a few weeks as of this writing, and also I don't want to look it up".
I will say though that based on my Database Of Memories on him, I don't think it's true? As in "if you asked me if he was a pedo based on the information available to me at this very second I would say no". The closest associations between this topic and him that I remember was like, making a joke at some manga and/or hentai shop in Japan that the MILF section and loli section were on opposite sides of the same isle, beefing at pictures of insane people on twitter who think that any anime girl that doesn't look like Mitsue from Interspecies Reviewers is literally 4 years old, and also being a connoisseur of anime women (On Main Formation).
I think the worst thing I could say about him is that he's in the adjacent Cringe Zone of anti-SJWdom, mostly in terms of association and also "getting angry at pictures of insane people on twitter" which by the way does actual brain damage over time (see: Hero Hei, SYABM, Small Horse, other anti-SJWs). But he'll also sometimes comment on more overtly political stuff and I remember one that was distinctly bad that I had to write a post talking about why I disagreed with it (in drafts, might release soon). Although at the same time, I also remember him actively beefing with the more overtly bigoted anti-SJWs when they started siding with DeSantis' Gay Panic Bill, with mugi taking the explicitly pro-gay and pro-trans side. In addition to generally being on the up and up where that's concerned IIRC.
So like barring some massive change taking place between now and "the last time I saw mugi post", I think he's in the clear in terms of noncehood and stupidville, and if I'm concerned with anything it'd be with the second thing.
#ask and receive#hope this helps and if it didn't or i was wrong then i dunno step up your game and DIY or something
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Sometimes a thought pops into my head and I decide to open my original blog (from 2003-2011ish, though I posted in it a few times after that and when I started writing in my LiveJournal again, I used IFTTT to duplicate my posts there) and look things up. Then I get sucked in and start reading things and going down rabbit holes with my tags and I look up and it's been an hour and I'm deep into 2007 when I was pining hardcore over this girl from my LGBT History class that I was pretty good friends with, despite us having a very drunk hookup (that IIRC was still pretty fantastic sex) on our first date. NGL, she's definitely one of the ones "that got away."
(Yes, I am happily married. But sometimes you can't fight the nostalgia.)
Anyway, what sent me there was to see if I could figure out when I first started seeing my therapist and apparently my anniversary with her is Thursday. I've been seeing her for 14 years! Yes, there was a 4 year gap where I took a break (I felt like we kept having the same session over and over again), but holy shit.
I also don't think I can ever visit my blog without having nostalgia for the guy who dumped me for grad school when I was 21. I've been thinking about him a lot, especially with the last few Heartstopper updates. It's not really a spoiler if you've read Nick & Charlie, but basically Charlie had originally assumed Nick was going to go to Kent so he wouldn't be too far from Charlie. I actually met that guy while he was in Chicago for a gap year between undergrad and grad school. We hadn't been dating long, but we kind of knew we were doomed because he wasn't planning on staying in Chicago. Sure, he got into UofC, but he had also gotten into Penn and Carnegie Mellon. As our time was running out, I practically begged him to stay. Ultimately, he ended up at Carnegie Mellon, where he met his spouse (plot twist: we both ended up marrying nonbinary people) and I think they live in North Carolina.
I browsed through his profile on Facebook this afternoon and god, we were adorable together.
When I started writing in my LJ again, apparently someone who was a friend of a friend of my ex I dated right before I dated that guy had stumbled across it and said she was still Team [grad school guy]. And on this entry I wrote about trying to understand my sexuality as a monogamist (Am I still bi if I marry someone or am I really gay or straight, depending on that person's gender?), there's an anonymous comment that I'm pretty sure is the same person.
All I can say is I'm definitely still bisexual and marrying a gender fluid person really solidified that for me. I never would have thought it'd end up that way, but I'm really glad it did.
#blogger#livejournal#bisexual#gender fluid#non binary#the one that got away#university#grad school#getting dumped for grad school#is this what marriage is?#heartstopper#narlie
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youtube
Was going to leave comment but I actually uate leaving YT comments— so here we go commentary on this video:
I agree that 10's ending felt like an ending to the show which meant not giving 11 a chance, he was unintentionally set him up to lose viewers. But 10s ending as a character still makes sense, his wallowing over it, his last line, and his complete angry rant about it not being fair after he thought he escaped were all very in character. He was the most human like doctor in the new series— and I mean tbf he turned into a human twice (John Smith & Meta Crisis). I've heard from fans his idea of regeneration being dying is possibly heavily influenced by how John Smith died, and that makes sense to me.
11ths is great. 11 was Amy's imaginary friend, him hallucinating Amy makes complete sense even without Rory; especially because regeneration energy makes all the Doctors high. I also always thought 11 should have been Amy-Rory-River only, no Clara. I don't mind Clara with 11 at the end of the day, but I still think those 4 should have been a neat box with a nice bow all wrapped up (except River who is a nice surprise among 12). The bit about him getting younger again is a bit odd, but I think the speech coming from the actual actor rather than a make-up aged version of the actor was better. It gives a better goodbye to the audience in my opinion sometimes focusing on the audience especially (not the characters) with changes like this, is okay.
River & 12 being together for 24 years is bad??????? I've never heard that take. I love it so much. The Husbands of River Song is one of the best episodes ever for me. "No it doesn't mean forever, it just means time. But I suppose thats not something you could ever understand." - River. Maybe it's because of how big of a River x Doctor fan I am and other people really disliked it. Alex Kingston's reaction to the scene when watching it was really cute
The bit about Donna being a really good end because Davies understands endings and the Clara thing being stupid because Moffat doesn't know how to end things might probably age badly when the 14th doctor specials comes out, we'll just have to wait and see
Maybe everything said in this video is why I prefer Moffat often, Davies episodes often make me way too damn sad when I just want a break from my shitastic life. I don't want my heart broken at the end of every episode.
Obviously 13 isn't in the video. Hers is short and sweet ("less is more with regeneration" according to the video) I know people kinda hated the "tag you're it" line but it seems entirely in character for her. And gives the next doctor a chance for fans to like (if it had been Ncuti) instead of dislike because he represented her dying. Its the polar opposite of 10s regeneration. Which kinda makes it hilarious that she regenerates into Tennant.
I don't have a feeling one way or another on 12, except the line about his name made no sense considering he tells River. There were good nuggets in it but it did feel like it had unnecessary bits. I can say, the destruction of the TARDIS was Chibnall's idea IIRC. He wanted it destroyed. Steven Moffat even expressed a bit of dislike for that choice (its in an interview I can't find).
9s was good but I don't see how it was SCORES better than all the others as the video explaones. I love the emotions and confusion from Rose. And his last line is absolutely amazing.
The 8th was really great because of the Karn aspect imo.
I think thats all my thoughts? I rarely disagree so heavily with a video like this. Reviews of specific episodes absolutely all the time; but when its talking about something overall like comparing regenerations I usually agree with something but other than the 8th doctor, and Moffat needing to learn to just let characters die, I don't think I agreed with much else.
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Genuine question to your last humorous post (it got a chuckle out of me so thank you for that) would you say Danny ITA here? Or Sidney for that matter? I keep seeing mixed reviews on the both of them in the phandom per this episode and I’d love to hear your thoughts on it!
ok bet
i think danny is 14
heres the thing right is yeah blahblah abuse or whatever bad but a) middle school bullying is always comedically exaggerated for kids media, esp and DP and b) 14 year olds are just like that. like literally the capacity for empathy is not fully developed at that age. this is also recognized in-universe; Vlad goes iirc "of course you wouldnt understand, you're what, fourteen?" and danny says "hello misplaced aggression"-- so applying the "children are shitheads" logic isnt just something I can say from the armchair, but within the show itself. basically i think he gets a bit of a free pass on being an asshole because of the Circumstances that are about being a teenager
2. the argument that "fighting your bullies makes you as bad as them" IS a shit argument, but theres Context DP has
yeah yeah fight back against ur oppressors or w/e (please god remember dp is a show about a nerdy elmersona who thinks hes a better person than he is, and NOT a succint and valuable critique on class relations in contemporary america.) but like. buddy. he can walk thru walls disappear and fly. dudes bringing a gun to a fork fight. if we're reading into deep metaphorical language here then literally whatever danny is doing is 100000% worse than dash. dash does physical assault (bad). DANNY does physical assault (bad), reputational ruining (bad), mental assault/gaslighting (bad), and psychological trauma (very bad. we see in that same episode that getting possessed is absolutely horrifying and dannys just doing it for a Bit. a Joke. a Gag if you will). what I'm saying is if you want to approach this issue as a microcosm of a larger conceptual element, you cannot walk away from here saying danny is NTA. luckily for me i dont give a shit about this point like, at all, and in fact am mostly tired of hearing it
3. fuck sidney
maybe this is rewrite bleed (it is <3 I made him a redditor) but sidney is just so much of a nothing, stupid character it hurts. dude haunted the locker NEXT TO DASH for at least a school year and his first conclusion was that dash was some POOR VICTIM OF BULLYING? if we gloss over that then its just like. what does he do here. 1) terrifies children internationally with that possession sequence 2) traps danny in 50s hell 3) is the episodic antagonist 4) has an annoying voice 5) gets. redeemed? for some ungodly reason? sidney in this ep is a metaphor/stand-in for danny's recompense and Not Bullying, but he's. EVIL? but we're supposed to be chill with it? except when we're not. and SIDNEY bullying bullies is (goood? funny???) except when the narrative needs him to be the Good Person he totally drops that entire personality and is now bffs with dash? i do not understand what the fuck he means within the larger narrative, like at all. as such im just like. fuck this kid fuck this episode in its entirety and it makes me want to disagree with the episode premise just bc its poorly written
4. dash did nothing wrong
dash did nothing wrong. i have a brand to keep
but for real tho like, the conceit of this episode is that bullying is normal within the world yeah? like its not GREAT but danny and sidney aren't demonized for it (the conflict is about like. learning to be liked as a person? OKAY fucking ripoff side tangent here but SIDNEY gets to be bffs with DASH and ALSO his 50s bully -- if Sidney is a character parallel to danny WHY DOESNT DANNY BEFRIEND DASH BY THE END OF THE EPISODE? GOD? IT MAKES NO SENSE) and dash's is just like. slightly annoying slapstick. dash's character is also built on super dumb hypermasculine traits like hazing, ie, a bonding experience (even though danny might not see it as such). instead of like. talking w dash. or using his powers to impress him. (you know. what sidney does. right here). danny just goes "die a thousand deaths" and slams his head into a locker. like. bro. Unproductive. PLUS when sidney DOES stop being a shithead to dash (again i will never understand why. hes a fucking trainwreck of a character), dash IMMEDIATELY does a 180? like hazing continues but after the football scene dash is genuinely impressed. bro if you just get on dash's playing field he will literally do nothing. according to this episode anyway
summary: this episode fucking sucks
basically i think this episode is horribly plotted + written and the overall message/theme gets very muddled very quickly because its more of a "what would happen, realistically??" story than a "this is a story with a message that the universe will bend to accommodate" and thats just like. NOT good for this kind of "is he an asshole" discussion. in a realistic setting id say yeah danny ITA because. bro. you could do LITERALLY anything else. but not in a condemnatory way. like if danny was telling this story at college and making fun of himself when he was 14 id be like omggg daniel you did NOT. shut up thats so funny.
anyway if im extrapolating whatever message this ep was trying to push, and debating it with the rest of danny phantom tumblr as if it were a cohesive plot worth arguing about, id say ESH. sam is supposed to be a "rebel" yet she hates beating up dash. sidney is supposed to fight for the "little guys" yet he doesnt fucking know dash is the bully. danny psychologically tortures people which i think is probably a war crime.
except dash tho. i have a brand to keep and that means that everything he did in this episode was fine actually. he was having a bad day <3 he beats the shit out of dweebs to cope <3
#wahoo#this is nothing gamers. this episode is bad and im tired of pretending its worth talking about#all discourse on this ep is just people projecting what they THINK it was saying/what they WANTED it to say#in actuality. its nothing#danny phantom#ask#long post#thanks for the ask!!! i love typing sentences and words
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Now that both Courtney books are out and I’ve read and processed them both, I do want to say that I think they’re the least well-written of any of the AG books, but not through any fault of their own- let me explain.
(Note that for this discussion I’m ignoring the Doylist criticisms- Courtney and 3/4 of her friend group being white again, the lack of gay discussion in-text in regards to the HIV crisis, etc. These are valid complaints and concerns, but not what we’re talking about right now.)
The Problem with the Current Book Length
I think the main problem with Courtney stems from the fact her books are so short. American Girl has literally been doing the stupidest things in regards to their books lately, almost as if they’re trying to sabotage them on purpose. First they remove illustrations in 2015- when their target audience is about nine years old. I don’t know about you, but when I was six and getting into American Girl, the illustrations were the highlight for me. Not because I had no attention span and loved pretty pictures, but because it showed me firstly what the girl’s life was like, whether it be 1760s wilderness or 2001 Chicago. It was like stepping into their world, really helping you get into their heads, which was basically what the dolls were supposed to do, to let you know that girls like you exist throughout time and space.
As well as that, the illustrations were free advertisement. I can’t tell you how excited me and my sisters were as children to go to the American Girl place and look at the doll displays, shouting that that’s the dress Felicity wears to the ball! or look, Josefina’s goat looks exactly like the book! AG cut that from 2015 to 2020, as if they were trying to appeal to an older audience- while at the same time changing all the doll outfits, accessories and marketing to appeal to a younger demographic.
Now, this isn’t about the illustrations, as Courtney got those- it’s about what they did to the historical characters after the Illustration Outrage™ happened. See, they’d condensed the historical six-book format into two books- not necessarily a bad idea, parents would be more likely to buy two books for their kid than consider buying six. However, they then claimed that if they put illustrations back, they would have to abridge the books- literally my nightmare.
First of all, American Girl, we know for a fact you can fit all six books plus illustrations into ONE VOLUME, let alone two. You’re just being cowards here and trying to nerf your own stories for... some reason.
So that meant a lot of important things got cut- Rebecca’s Chanukah story, Melody’s cousin’s house search, Maryellen’s Christmas adventure... all things important to the girls’ histories and character.
The Problem with Courtney’s Writing
Now, Courtney was the first doll to be released after the abridging began, meaning her books were released, in their entirety, just as short as the abridged stories. So it basically means she gets four books while the others get six- and unlike the others, Courtney doesn’t even have mysteries or short stories to pad out. (And honestly, looking at her book’s amount of content, I’d even argue that she basically got two while everyone else got six, but I digress.)
The problem with her books isn’t that they have an author writing them poorly (I really feel like her author was doing the best with what limited time she had), but in how cramped American Girl made them. Because, well, Courtney has to deal with a lot in such a short amount of words.
Let’s compare her to Julie, for instance- Julie pretty much has a new 70s thing every book. In order: feminism, rising divorce rates, San Francisco’s Chinese culture, environmentalism, the country’s bicentennial, anti-bullying and deaf acceptance. And adding to this, we also have her own personal journies through her parents’ divorce and move, her basketball team, her friendship with Ivy (and later Joy), overcoming her fear of horses, student council, detention... It’s a lot, and yet her books don’t feel rushed or forced at all. It’s just a year in the life of a girl going through a lot of new and sudden events, and how she grows and changes throughout them. She may not be as deep a character as Addy or Kirsten, but not every girl goes through the trials and tribulations they do, and it’s a good series overall.
Courtney, meanwhile, does feel rushed and forced, because of the short timespan. Instead of fitting everything into a six-book format- or even at two-book format that is the same length and content as the six-book- everything has to be fit into two short books. Everything Courtney has to cover includes the topics of divorce and stepfamilies, feminist and technological advancement, the Challenger explosion, the HIV crisis, Hands Across America, and the founding of Pleasant Company. And in Courtney’s own journey, she has to cover her learning to stand up for herself, her relationship with her stepsister and Tina’s own character development, her mother running for mayor and how that affects her, how much she misses her Dad after he moves, her friendship with Sarah (note on that later), her basically getting hate-crimed after standing up for her friend... that’s a LOT of stuff, and I didn’t even include the non-AG 80s product placement they shove into her collection.
But without the longer format, everything is pushed together to its detriment. Tina’s development and Maureen’s mayoral candidacy are two plotlines that are literally dropped and almost completely ignored in the second book. The Challenger and HIV issues were handled decently, but the Challenger only lasted a few short chapters, and the HIV topic was not as informative as it could be, leaving out several things like Reagan’s refusal to treat it for so long, and its effect on the gay community. Honestly, the HIV scare was more shifted to focus on the mob mentality of a new and scary disease- which, while needed right now, also ignores many of the bigotry-related reasons it became an epidemic. Pleasant Company’s inclusion feels forced in, and I think was the only resolution she had to her Dad plotline?
And don’t get me started on the Sarah plotline- every Girl of the Year since Kanani- sans Isabelle and Luci- has had the story of “oh no I’ve been ignoring my friend and now they’re mad at me :(” and it’s SO old. Seriously, I counted the contemporary dolls that have had that storyline, and it’s thirteen*. Thirteen times we’ve covered this issue- almost all of it in quick succession- and now we have to deal with it in a historical character book while much more important things are going on! Yes, it sucks when a friend ditches you while you’re being attacked and bullied for something you’re standing up for, but once again, with how much is happening in such a short book, it just feels like a forced-in plotline that we’ve seen a billion times, and with their falling-out happening mainly due to the attention Courtney was given Isaac, it serves to make Sarah seem closed-minded at best and bigoted at worst- it’s clarified that she’s not, she’s just scared and upset with Courtney, but when you put those events so close together, it leads the reader to lump them together and get the impression that, you know, Sarah is a worse person than she is.
*Full count: Nicki (book 2), Chrissa (book 2), Kanani (2), McKenna (1 iirc?), Saige (both books), Grace (2), Lea (3), Gabriela (1 and 3), Tenney (2), Z (1), Blaire (1), Joss (1) and Kira (1).
It’s a bit weird, too, that Courtney’s... what’s the word? Vibe? with her how her story is written and marketed Is closer to the Contemporaries than the Historicals. Am I the only one feeling this? My best explanation for it is that the author, Kellen Hertz, had only written contemporary books for American Girl before- the third Lea Clark book and all four Tenney Grant books, both of which contained the Friendship Issues™ plot. I’m not at all saying she’s a bad author- I honestly love the way the Tenney books are written- and I’m not saying she couldn’t write a historical book, but it’s clear American Girl didn’t ask her to change up her style or content from what she’d done for them before, as well as giving her way too much to cover in such short books.
Conclusion
Honestly, this conclusion should be obvious- American Girl needs to expand their books again. Whether they simply allow the books to be unabridged, or go back to the six-book format, Courtney's books are too cramped to tell an effective story, let alone the poor abridged girls.
The other girls were given six-book length, so if they went back to that length or format, Courtney would have to be rewritten, at least a little- and that’s okay! There’s a lot of things that could use expansion or connection, such as her Summer trip with her Dad that was given basically one sentence in the text. Her growth with her stepfamily could be acknowledged- and honestly? I think that if these books were expanded, her mother’s mayoral arc should either continue through the books, or Maureen should become mayor before the book 2 arc. I’ve mentioned this before, but having Maureen as mayor (or even still a candidate) would put a lot of pressure on Courtney to be perfect so that nobody can say “look at how awful this woman is for doing politics instead of raising her family right”- which means that when the Isaac stuff happens, it has even more stakes for Courtney and her family. Does her Mom still support her with her own reputation on the line, and what does that say about Maureen’s character, how does it affect Courtney and the D’Amicos... that’s all fascinating stuff that was completely missed out on.
And if she was turned into a six-book format- honestly, here’s how I’d do it, just off the top of my head. It would involve a bit of event shuffling, but honestly I think it would work!
Meet Courtney - pretty much the setup for everything happening, her starting to get her Crystal Starshooter plans and her mom’s campaign beginning.
Courtney Learns a Lesson - her relationship to Tina, culminating in the Challenger incident.
Courtney’s Surprise - we move the founding of Pleasant Company over here, since Molly’s basically her Christmas Present. We’ll probably need an additional plotline- maybe similar to Julie, she can have a story on spending the holidays in different places.
Happy Birthday Courtney - end of summer, aka meeting Isaac and her trip with her Dad.
Courtney Saves the Day - Beginning of the HIV arc, ending at her presentation to her class.
Changes for Courtney - Continuation of the HIV arc as things get worse for her and Isaac, ending where Friendship Superhero ends.
Is that a perfect sorting? Probably not, I came up with it in ten minutes. But would it give Courtney space to breathe and more time to explore everything happening to her? Probably!
The tl;dr of this is honestly that American Girl are absolute cowards right now, and need to expand their books back. Their abridging is only harming their stories- which, as Courtney herself points out, are the reason girls got into their company in the first place.
#courtney moore#american girl#american girl dolls#american girls#1986#negativity#mine#americangirlstar
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About 750 words written today. Also, I was word count tracking this month, and I think this may actually have been my best writing month in...a really, really long time, possibly since the last time I won NaNo. (Which was about eight years ago, IIRC.) I wrote 42K this month. (My daily goal is 500 words a day, or about 15K a month.) Was I sort of a disaster on a personal level? Oh, yeah. Did I get a bunch of fucked up family news, including some today (holy shit, y’all, you have no idea). OH, YEAH.
Snippet from On Yonder Hill 4. (BTW, I will eventually stop pulling snippets from this chapter (which I normally do for finale chapters), and I know exactly the point at which I’ll do so. We’re not there yet.)
“You killed for me,” Thanos said.
Yeah, you bastard, I know you, Natasha thought as she crept closer; at least the rubble provided plenty of cover for her approach. His triumph had obscured him when she had seen him last back on his garden world, but he was clear enough now. Just another Dreykov, alien and writ large on an intergalactic scale, but all too familiar. There were always men like him.
Natasha was close enough now that she could hear Loki’s mail chiming slightly – he was shaking.
“Yes,” he said, and let the single syllable hang between them.
Thanos didn’t say anything in response, just watched him with that small, terrible smile on his face as Steve and Tony came up to flank them. Natasha circled wide; she wasn’t under any illusions about her ability to go hand-to-hand with Thanos, and maybe she could put a bullet or ten in his brainpan while he was distracted by the three men. Right now she didn’t have a shot; even unhelmeted, his gorget rose too high for her to get a bead on his brainstem, and she had seen enough to know that with his physiology her bullets would just bounce off his skull.
“I am King of Asgard,” Loki said before the silence between them grew too terrible, “and Lord Protector of the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil. The Earth is under my protection, Thanos, and I will give you this one chance to leave it and go elsewhere for your reaving.”
Thanos’s smile grew. “It’s all the same to you Asgardians, isn’t it?” he said. “Conquer it. Protect it. You couldn’t do either in the end, and where did it bring you? Back to me.”
“Well,” Loki said, “as a friend of mine once told me, if we can’t protect the Earth, then we’ll damn well avenge it.”
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