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masezace · 8 months

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little off topic for my blog, but i started watching a new show since a friend mentioned it was good and i'd heard positive things about it, so i just wanted to talk about it a little bit (probably never again after this since this isn't a fandom blog, but it's the only one i have rn so idc it's going here)

the show is Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous, and just going on looks alone, despite my love for dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park franchise i never would have considered it. it appears to be very much for kids, and as i'm in my late twenties now i'm not particularly interested in especially kiddy media. however a friend my age enjoyed it and mentioned it has a canon lgbtq+ couple in it among the main characters, so of course i just had to watch it. i had already been hearing that despite its initial appearance and premise, it was surprisingly good for a kids' show, so i had already been curious, but i was even more keen after knowing there were queer characters, and not even the adults, the kids themselves (in a kid's show?!! what a time to be alive), so i finally sat down and watched it.

[spoiler warning, both minor and major, for the rest of this post btw, so continue reading at your own risk if you haven't seen it yet/are still watching]

the show overall

okay so firstly, i am coming at all of this from the perspective of a writer, so my observations are from a technical standpoint more so than just as a fan of the show. and honestly, it really is a well-written show as a whole. is it geared towards kids? definitely. there are plenty of jokes/gags in it that just don't appeal to me as an adult, but beyond that, there was plenty to appreciate as an adult.

the writing is actually phenomenal? there were several points in the series where i just sat back and mulled over the way a scene went, what the thought process behind writing it was like, how well it was executed, and how important it was to the characters and overall plot.

the suspense is spot on, nothing gets dragged out too long, and i will admit there have been a few scenes throughout that actually got me; i jumped! it's actually scarier than i expected a kid show to be, but i'm so glad they went where they did because it really elevated the experience.

the pacing overall is very good, adequately engaging for kids' short attention spans (and us adhd adults 🥲) but not too short either to a point where things felt abrupt or unfinished. plot arcs are well developed and tied up nicely. also, as a bit of a dinosaur nerd, the array of dinosaurs in the show is super broad and satisfying! very fun stuff.

character element

imo the real gem of this show is the character development. honestly it's just *chefs kiss*

the characters grow and change so much and so realistically over the course of the show, it's honestly so much better and more satisfying than the character growth in most adult fiction/media recently.

the growth in ben (who btw was def my favorite character by the end of s1) and kenji in particular were my favorites and, in my personal opinion, the most interesting. the way ben started out anxious, cowardly, and rule abiding to a fault, then grew into a brave, confident, adventurous little pyromaniac gremlin, then had that stint later in the series where he regressed a bit-questioning himself-until eventually ultimately striking a great balance and really coming into himself was just... peak character writing.

kenji started out overconfident, lazy, and overly concerned with money/status. but that arrogant overconfidence and laziness slowly turned into responsibility, and a desire to protect his found family, and the realization that it's the people in your life that really matter most.

honestly what i mentioned only scratches the surface in terms of those two characters, there's certainly more that can be said about them (as well as all the others) but i'm not really in the mood for a deep dive character analysis atm. just trust me tho when i say these characters are so well done and each one of them have arcs that are super satisfying to watch play out.

queer representation

and as for the queer couple? yasmina and sammy are PERFECT. it was so beautiful watching their relationship grow from one-sided to mutual friendship, to loyal devotion, then to love. they were set up incredibly well and incredibly naturally. i have like, no complaints when it comes to them. i don't even know if there's anything i can say that would add to things, they were just a really awesome couple to watch become canon, they're the beautiful and painfully needed representation we all beg for in tv and movies.

shipping, chemistry, and intent

but oh goodness... probably my only real complaint about the entire show would be how benji (ben x kenji) and kenji x brooklyn (kenlyn? brookji? idk and idrc) were handled. because for all that this show did SO much beautifully right, they really screwed the pooch here, sadly.

i'm gonna start by saying that the writing in this show, as with most, is deliberate. what i mean by this is that despite having no clue who it would be because my friend thankfully did not even spoil me as far as the genders of the queer couple, i clocked yas and sammy as the would-be queer couple as early as season one (actually it was between them and benji, but more on that later). i could already see the chemistry, because it was deliberately written in.

shipping is subjective. anyone can ship any character, and in most cases it's pretty easy to see how there could be (romantic) chemistry between fan pairings based on their personalities, their arcs, etc. and that's okay! ships don't even have to have any canon support to be valid, because shipping is for the fandom, and it's for fun (i have a few rarepairs and crack ships across different media that i just love).

but onscreen/written romantic chemistry is a lot less subjective (to clarify, it is subjective whether or not the chemistry is good, but it's not subjective about whether or not it exists). there are literally scenes written with the sole purpose of building the romantic tension and/or chemistry between planned couples (some of which even have absolutely zero plot relevance, which usually is not advised tbh, and most of which are the cliches/tropes you see in literally any romance ever written, some are just disguised a little better than others. but make no mistake, it's all the same set of cliches. there is nothing new under the sun), as well as intentional, key moments within scenes that have other purposes. they are essential to establish romantic pairings.

and typically, the foundations for these couples are laid VERY early on. always within the first or second season (well, at least they are when the writer actually knows what they're doing and has at least a rough plan/outline for the entire series & characters. this is usually a large part of what separates the good chemistry from the poor chemistry. an author who knows who the couples are going to be and has a plan from the beginning to build them up is going to be more successful in creating a believable relationship with good chemistry. one who does not plan, or makes last minute plans will almost certainly fail, and the couple is just going to suck). when the set of characters you're working with are going to stay the same for most or all of the story, you start immediately.

i don't mean to toot my own horn, because i think it's because i'm a writer so i just pick up on narrative patterns very easily, and pretty much always clock the planned couples within the first few episodes of any series, and by the end i am right like 9 times out of 10.

that being said, do you know whose deliberately written chemistry i also clocked in jwcc? ben and kenji's.

kenji and... brooklyn?

no offense to people who like/enjoy kenji and brooklyn, you are free to love them, but the way their romance was written is... quite possibly the weakest point of the show. it felt like they were just trying to appease the upsetto heteros in charge, because there was definitely another het pairing that had a lot more potential than kenji and brooklyn (hello darius x brooklyn aka darilyn, you would have actually made sense because your relationship had amazing buildup and multiple standout scenes from s1 on. dgmw, i love that we got a m/f strong, supportive, purely platonic friendship out of them, i live for those and we really need more of them. but we could have had that with kenji and brooklyn, or darius and sammy, or ben and yas, literally any other pair instead).

kenji and brooklyn as a couple came out of absolutely nowhere. i honestly think they decided to shove them together last minute, and had no actual plan for them until they were working on s4. because their development barely started at the VERY end of s3 (the abruptness of him caring about her being held hostage so much more than literally anyone else in their group despite them having like zero buildup to that point gave me whiplash), but honestly didn't really even become "meaningful" development until s4, over halfway through the series. the two spend the first 3 seasons basically not particularly gaf about each other individually, only as part of the whole group and on an equal level with everyone else. they otherwise have no deliberate narrative foundation. it just starts in s4 with no prior hinting. which makes their development rocky and difficult to believe. the funny thing is their characters literally have dialogue (in s4) trying to draw comparisons/parallels between them to say that they especially have a lot in common and like??? no? they really don't? not any more so than any other two kids in the group. their relationship just, really falls flat.

it was disappointing to see it take such a massive spotlight in the series for almost all of seasons 4 and 5, overshadowing the friendships that have been the focus of the show and should have remained so, to the point where at times it just felt like i was watching some stereotypical het highschool romance. genuinely, it made s4 & 5 more of a drag to get through. yasammy and ben and yas' growing bond (which by the way was so sweet, it had the strongest queer solidarity vibes good lord, i sure wonder why yas chose ben out of everyone to come out to first, hmmm) were some of the few things that kept me invested, otherwise i would have dropped it if it had leaned much farther into becoming the kenlyn show than it already was. especially when it was that pair so much of the focus was given to, even though we had so readily and perfectly available, the pair that could have, should have been: benji. which finally brings me to:

ben and kenji

benji's foundation was laid in s1. their interactions, the situations they found themselves in, were deliberate (on the writers' part). i'm even gonna go out on a limb here and say the pairings were fully established in s1e3, even with parallels between yasammy and benji (sammy clinging to yas and ben clinging to kenji throughout the episode), and darilyn gets the beginning of their development too.

even though they bicker a lot in the beginning, they clearly care about each other? kenji protects/helps ben multiple times, and there are definitely some looks ben gives kenji at times. at the end of s1, the one who seems the most deeply effected over ben's "death," other than darius (understandably since he's the one who failed to save him), was kenji! immediately after it happens, we get two close up shots, darius and brooklyn then yasmina and sammy. after which, we go back to the whole group with kenji in center frame, the focus is intentionally on him. it is only kenji who drops to his knees at the loss, and then we get a close up of just kenji. he was saved for last, and he was alone in frame (tbf bumpy was in frame too, but i'm talking humans here), which implies his feelings are especially important in this moment. that is the reason for solo close ups.

after ben's "death," kenji takes to always wearing ben's fanny pack, and up until bumpy--who ben cares VERY much about--got separated from them, kenji was the one who (however briefly) took over her care, ensuring she got off the monorail with them, and he's extremely distraught, more than pretty much all of them, when they can't find her, and he's last to leave when they decide to accept that ben's gone. even when they do leave, he's distant and distracted and his mind is clearly still on ben.

other than darius, kenji is the only one (if i'm remembering correctly) to mention ben/say his name after they lost him, upset because he was actually trying not to think about him. he has clearly thought about ben, probably a lot, because it's hard not to be reminded constantly when you wear something that belonged to a deceased loved one. and frankly, he appears to be the only one who dwells on him that much.

when ben reappears alive (which btw he found the group again because of kenji's butter knife, hello), the frames literally purposely focus on kenji's reaction. he's the one in the foreground every time they show him and brooklyn in that scene. he is the first one to say ben's name, the first one to go to him and hug him, and the scene takes special care to highlight kenji's strong emotions at ben's reappearance, lingering on his teary face as the focus for a bit even after brooklyn enters the frame to hug ben (because she is not at all an important element in the scene at that moment). just like when ben "died," the way this scene is written and shot HEAVILY suggests that ben holds significant importance to kenji, specifically. because again, the focus here is on kenji and ben almost exclusively, with brooklyn as only an afterthought lol. and quite frankly literally everyone else's reaction to him being alive was pretty lackluster compared to the special attention they gave to kenji on this.

and then in s3 we have the infamous hat scene, where darius and ben are in the limo and ben sees and mentions kenji's sailor hat, looking sad and sounding like... longing?? then directly after we switch to kenji realizing he forgot his hat?? the scene has no real significance tbh other than to draw a connection between ben and kenji. like, it acts as a transition to switch to the pov of the group on the boat, but it was entirely unnecessary? why not just have darius say something about the others and then show them on the boat? if there were no special relationship between ben and kenji, it would have made far more sense if they really wanted it to be ben to say something, that he sees the hat, and sadly says something along the lines of "i hope the others are okay/doing better than we are right now/etc" which implies that the hat made him think of everyone, their whole group. rather than what we got... which very much implies that he was mostly just thinking about kenji 💀 and then kenji thinking about the hat at the same time ben's looking at it and thinking of kenji. like, this is.... a very blatant connection being made by the writing/directing here.

all of that. so many deliberate connections made between ben and kenji, they had a very solid foundation laid for a romance to develop, and by all intents and purposes one already WAS developing according to the show's own subtext. which was why up until s4 obliterated the idea, i was positive the queer couple in the show was either going to be yasammy or benji. it was extremely obvious imo. but as soon we started getting the typical, loud, cliche "we are going to pair off these characters" scenes for kenji and brooklyn, i knew we were getting yasammy and not benji (to be clear, i'm not at all upset about yasammy, they're beautiful and i love how their relationship was done, i wouldn't have had it end any other way for them. but i do personally prefer benji, i just like their personalities and dynamic more. and i feel they had so much potential that got wasted to make way for a far less interesting pairing between kenji and brooklyn. why can't we have 2 queer couples, huh? and if we really needed a minimum of one hetero pairing to appease whoever needed appeasing, darilyn was right there).

but then??? their like entire bond just gets dropped (honestly ben himself gets pretty heavily sidelined for almost all of the last two seasons, which is criminal imo). mostly so that a rushed kenji x brooklyn can be established. like there are still a few small moments here and there in early s4, and one episode in s5 (ep 10), but from early s4 till pretty much the end of the series we hardly see them have any meaningful conversations or interactions, meanwhile literally every other combo in the group does.

it's so weird? why build up benji so deliberately over the course of multiple seasons just to like, fully discard it for a pairing with far less chemistry, even after the chemistry-building scenes they shared, some of which literally had no other purpose than to affirm their connection? even though they were very sparse, the moments benji had were just so blatant (kenji leaps into the rock crevice right onto the back of a saber tooth to save ben?!!?? like he literally was just willing to exchange his life for him like that?? he basically says that he wasn't really thinking, he just did it. so he moved out of what, emotional instinct, that's what we're meant to intuit from that series of events? implying that he specifically has strong emotion and doesn't think things through when it comes to ben? because he doesn't do that kinda stuff for any of the others in the group! even better, this parallels when sammy jumped on the nothosaurus to save yasmina. and then the way benji look at each other after it's over??? hello??? and then how kenji pulls both brooklyn and ben in for that hug a couple minutes later... side eyeing the writers for that choice. they knew what they were doing there and they were evil for it). i just can't see any reason to have dropped them like they were, after all the development they shared for 3 seasons. confounding. biggest disappointment of the series.

i know this probably reads to some as just "wahh, my ship didn't become canon" nonsense. but that's not why i'm bugged. this wasn't just a ship i liked and wanted canon despite no actual narrative support, as most ships tend to be. this ship did have narrative support. there was intent behind many of their scenes together, lingering looks and little things that matter narratively and are always used to signify a stronger/special connection. and it led nowhere, for no good reason. that bothers me. writing that implies and promises something, but never delivers on it. like a person who never finishes their sentences (think Dr McPhee from Night at the Museum). ultimately it's not a HUGE deal or anything, at the end of the day it's just a ship and just a kids' show. but as a writer, it's just irritating to see something like that be done. what can i say 🤷

conclusion

even despite the wasted potential between certain pairings, and even though i do think the first three seasons were superior to the last two, overall i really enjoyed the show, and for what it was, it was really well-made. the overarching focus was of course on found family and friendship before anything else, which i absolutely love, and it was masterfully done. out of 6 kids, all of them had at least one or two meaningful bonding moments one-on-one with another in the group, so every possible combination had their moment to build strong, believable friendships with each other. i'm just so surprised by how good it was as a whole honestly, good enough to binge over the course of a week. i will happily recommend jwcc to anyone willing to give it a watch regardless of age, because i definitely think there's no age limit for a good story, no matter the medium it's told in. :)

#jwcc #jurassic world camp cretaceous #benji jwcc #benji #yasammy #yasammy jwcc #i would say that there's prob an age minimum tho... it's a bit scary so depending on the kid i wouldn't rec it to under 10 years #this is a long post #omg so long i'm sorry #i just have a lot to say #gotta shout into the void #it just be like that sometimes #fair warning this post is literally just me praising the show in the first half n then going absolutely off about benji in the second half #review #tv show review #as always with stuff like this that has any mention of ships it is bound to ruffle some feathers #so let me postface this with the reminder that this is all just MY OPINION #you are free to disagree but i'd rather you don't share your disagreements on my post via reblog/notes #feel free to write up your own show/ship review if you feel so strongly #otherwise if you dislike anything i've said you can just scroll past or block me <3

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spiderh0rse · 2 years

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No one I've watched play Ultra Deluxe really understands the Skip Button Ending, just like they likely wouldn't understand the Zending. They really do just press the button over and over again. Half of them don't even notice that the door goes missing, or that the plant dies, and they don't treat the situation with any amount of gravity. They're leaving a person completely alone for hours, then days, then weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennium, EONS. and none of them care. they play funny music and make fun of the narrator. even his droning of "the end is never the end is never the end is never the end" doesn't get so much as an "i broke him" or a "he's not ok". thoughtless of them.

#the stanley parable #ultra deluxe #tspud spoilers #Spoilers #I just have a lot to say #And no one cares. Except AO3 writers #You guys are the lifeblood of this fandom I swear

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yallemagne · 5 months

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Whenever I see people on the hate train against Jonathan -- it doesn't seem as common nowadays, but they're apparently still alive and roaring in their circles jiogep -- it's soooo funny how they use Mina as a scapegoat for their anti-Jonathan rhetoric but can't think of a solution to Mina being "overshadowed" other than... erasing Jonathan from the narrative and/or replacing him with a new guy. They don't share this attitude toward Van Helsing though, which I find curious. I mean, perhaps they have some bitterness towards the guy, but never have I seen them speak on that... nope, it's just vitriol for Jonathan.

This is a rant.

A lot of people like Jonathan. Sure, sue us. And there is generally a problem with female characters being less prioritized in fandoms than their male counterparts. But the cultural impact of a few tumblr users calling Jonathan Harker their blorbo will never stand a chance against the wider interpretation of Van Helsing.

All of Mina's accomplishments and ideas are attributed to VH in many adaptations and readings, and she gets pushed to the side and downgraded into a screaming damsel who, in the worst cases, is depicted as encouraging Dracula's sexual crimes. Mina isn't the only victim of this flanderization, all the protagonists in Dracula are often dumped for the sake of raising up Sexy Tortured Hunky Helsing, but it's especially offensive to see this highly intelligent and resourceful female character have all her intellectualism stripped and given to an older male character. In fact, the very older male character who endangered her life because he doubted her mind and infantilized her!! The irony hurts!!

Now, I am pissed that the vast majority of people will always see VH as the ultimate champion against Dracula and view Mina as nothing more than a wayward virgin in the devil's clutches, but I don't direct that anger toward Van Helsing and get pissy any time I see him. But people who are still furious that love for Jonathan Harker exists do precisely that to Jonathan. And when I try to figure out why VH is not attacked with such venom but Jonathan is... it doesn't look good, chief.

In general, an older, accomplished man with a lot of say in group decisions against a younger, inexperienced man with little say in group decisions. An enforcer of gender roles against a challenger of gender roles. A man who said to Mina's face that he doubted her intelligence against a man who eagerly kissed her when she displayed her skills in deduction... Who is the evil gigachad? Truly neither of them, but I hope this illustrates my point. VH's authority and sexist beliefs are already a bit of an obstacle for Mina (one she thankfully overcomes) and yet her supportive husband is seen as the problem. Not because he's not supportive enough, but he's just too charismatic.

You don't need to write Jonathan out of the story to put more focus on Mina. Bram didn't feel the need to do that when he summarized his entire novel as being about Mina's gallant bravery, so why would you? Unless maybe... it isn't wanting more focus on Mina as a female character but rather a call for less focus on Jonathan as a male survivor of assault.

It's incredibly telling when they go beyond erasing Jonathan and actually replace Jonathan with a new man that their problem isn't that Mina's supposedly being overshadowed by her male love interest, it's that Mina's male love interest is not an overbearing hypermasculine figure. Mina, who had an equal partnership from the beginning, is told "nonono, you have to get with an awful man... and transform him into an okay husband". I don't know about you, but that does not sound like putting Mina at the forefront whether that new man is an OC, a character from another novel, or Dracula himself. That sounds more like twisting her into being the catalyst for an awful man's character growth. WHICH WE ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH OF IN FICTION.

And hey, lissen, you can read and write as many reimaginings of Beauty and the Beast AU Dracula as you want, but stop lying and claiming it's for Mina's sake, like fuck dude, your taste in men is not Mina's, she much prefers her gothic heroine of a husband over your saviour complex nonsense.

#i just have a lot to say #dracula daily #dracula

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m4ndysk4nkovich · 9 months

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fiona gallagher and debbie gallagher.

something i’ve noticed in the shameless fandom is that some (a lot of) people hate debbie and love fiona, and others hate fiona and love debbie. what honestly confuses me is why more people don’t love them both so much?

so, to start off- they both share three important things about their characters. grew up/matured far too quickly, constantly self-destruct, and are the only girls. these three things make it so that they’re more similar, but also make it so that they are always fighting with eachother and the fandom is always putting them against eachother.

in fiona’s case, she had no choice but to grow up too quickly. actually, that’s the case for every gallagher, but especially her, since she was first, and the second that lip was born (when she was 5) she became a mother. she had no choice, it was either raise her siblings, or let them die. she further started self-destructing by having sex at a young age, and once she started doing that she did it frequently, to the point where she connected it to her worth. she got into toxic relationships, and jumped from relationship to relationship without every catching a break (that’s a direct quote from shameless) and throughout the show, fucks herself over whenever things are going well. for example, going on a bender while on probation. and, a lot of the people who hate her (irl and in the show) are misogynist’s or people who don’t bother to understand her well enough to hate her.

in debbie’s case, she grew up too fast also not by choice, except there came a point where she started to mature quicker on purpose when she no longer needed to act 23 at 13. one of her first lines is, “you’re almost nine, carl. you’re going to need to start pulling your weight.” she’s a year older than him so clearly she has already done her part and stepped up, and throughout the first two seasons you see her acting so mature, yet so childish. she goes from kidnapping a child to innocently playing with a baby doll and naming her “gin-gin”. then, there comes a point where fiona has taken legal guardianship of the kids, and has a good job. she has an opportunity to relax, but she doesn’t. debbie is traumatized, and abandoned, and scared, so she confides in the comfort she’s seen work for her older sister, older guys. she dresses a certain way, sleeps with a twenty year old guy (whatever your thoughts are on that situation doesn’t matter in this case), and ends up getting herself pregnant and carrying the child to term. this is all pure self-destruction. then she continues to self-destruct, ruining friendship’s, relationship’s, even her bond with her family members. all of her hurt and trauma from childhood led her straight into the depths of hell. and what’s one of the major reasons she’s hated in the show and in real life? you guessed it! because she’s a woman. and like her sister, another reason she’s hated is because people refuse to read into her character and only see what’s on the surface.

fiona and debbie are two hurt girls who didn’t recieve enough love and so they self-destructed. but, do you want to know the most ironic thing? that’s what every single gallagher ever has done.

frank is a drunk and a drug addict who never bothered to attempt to recover, even when it was for his kids, and even when it was for himself.

lip is an alcoholic who has purposefully ruined his relationships and his schooling just because. he, unlike his father, has tried to recover, but fails.

ian also ruins his relationships to destruct himself, and like his sisters, starting having sex with older guys at a young age. we even see him burn himself “just to feel something”. in ian’s case, though, he gets a happy ending. not everybody really gets that.

carl doesn’t self-destruct as much, but at one point with kelly, he did. he gave up on west point, he gave up on becoming a cop, he gave up on everything and just decided to work at fast food until the alcoholism, substance abuse, and mental illness came to him.

liam honestly didn’t get the time to destruct himself… he was so young throughout the entire show. however, there was that part where he found this potential family for him that were all black and related to monica, and he felt seen by them. but then he robbed them all and ruined it. i’m not sure this really counts as much, though.

but the boys never get as much criticism, because why would they. they’re boys.

fiona and debbie should feel more connected. when fiona leaves, debbie takes on her role and tries to hold everything together, but instead, everything falls apart. debbie has really always wanted to be like fiona, and i always see people on tiktok saying “debbie’s really trying to be fiona💀” and shit, but it’s honestly true, she is like her. just not in the best ways.

anyways, that’s my rant. i have more to say but this is all that’s really important.

#shameless #shameless us #shameless rant #shameless analysis #character analysis #shameless meta #fiona gallagher #debbie gallagher #frank gallagher #lip gallagher #ian gallagher #carl gallagher #liam gallagher shameless #i also mean NO HARM to the boys (except frank) i’m just saying #feminism #i know that nobody will read this entire thing lmao #i just have a lot to say #franny gallagher

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mibkid · 10 months

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sketches and colors... and

Hihi Yosuke always ends up there doesn’t he?

Also,,,,, I am so weirdly proud of that 3rd year yosuke, Shhhhhhhhh he looks cute and soft there. I promise I am so normal about him... that’s a lie I am not... sigh*.

Anyway enjoy my silly sketches.

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dgknightblue · 1 year

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When I write about baby transformers, I don’t believe in Robot Pregnancy.

Adoption or physically having a part in building or just the all spark doing I t’s thing or they give some of their (???) to somebot.

Like I have this idea where Optimus technically becomes Sari’s mom in a dire situation to keep her alive.

While Sari is still techno organic- she also has a more cybertronian look if she chooses or needs to.

The added “DNA” of Optimus was to solely keep her living until she replenishes her spark or something.

I’m not saying much because I want to write stories~

Sari teases him about being her mom and then he shoots back that Megatron’s her dad and she shutters because he doesn’t know the implications and doesn’t want to tell him.

Sari softly rebooted to her child look and when she transforms she is still a child- I felt like we where robbed of adorable baby + overprotective giant.

Because honestly? I want to nerf her. She’s doing a lot- always being or mostly being the answer and I just want her to be a small nudge towards it instead.

This new her isn’t all powerful, she can barely dent a shin if she tries.

Not going to say more because spoilers for what I have for her, but she has one more state of being that will make up for her obvious weakness.

Okay also she has only three modes by the by-

Fight

Civilian

Human

Cough stop talking cough

She’s technically a Decepticon-

Stop!

Part of a rebellion

Stop it!

Heir

I’m

I’m done now

#fanfiction #au #transformers #transformers animated #sari sumdac #tfa optimus prime #optimus prime #megatron #tfa megatron #…..megop……#cough #TFA MegOp #couch cough #I’ll stop eventually #I just have a lot to say #okay I’ll stop

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forabeatofadrum · 1 year

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My fic year in review, 2022

I saw @captain-aralias doing this and I thought “hey, this is fun!”. So cool that you (aralias, you are the you here) do this every year.

Fics I wrote:

Learn to let go (929, T, CrisTales)

A rip in time (68K, T, Doctor Who Universe)

Zimbits April Updates (2.7K; T; Check, Please!)

che col tuo lume mi levasti (63K, T, Simon Snow Series)

At last (801, G, Glee)

e pare stella che tramuti loco (29K, T, Simon Snow Series)

Wielded by the righteous (2K, G, Simon Snow Series)

The Naked Truth (15K, T, Simon Snow Series)

Call Me Maybe (12K, T, Simon Snow Series, with @captain-aralias)

Barking Up The Wrong Bakery (8.7K, T, Glee)

These numbers could be lucky for you (402, G, Glee)

Then maybe time would not erase me (2.7K, G, Julie and the Phantoms)

Thinkin' about us (377, G, Our Flag Means Death)

All I needed for another day (768; G; Love, Victor)

Ebb & Flow (29K, G, Glee)

Dalton 8 Days of Pride (2.8K, G, Dalton)

Dalton 8 Days of Wrath (WIP, T, Dalton)

I can't believe it IS butter (1.111, G, Simon Snow Series)

Time After Time (18K, T, Simon Snow Series)

The Moon fic (49, G, Glee)

Stage Fright (12K, T, Glee, with all the authors of the @gleefrankenfic)

aap noot mies (8K, G, Glee)

A Grimm Christmas (5K, G, Simon Snow Series)

So Much Better (12K, T, Glee)

There's nothing ironic about show choir (14K, T, Simon Snow Series)

Ljubim te (WIP, T, Glee)

Holy moly. This is... more than I thought. I also just found out that you can filter your statistics page by year, so I don’t have to grab my calculator. AO3 tells me I published 319,614 words this year! “Published”, because I have a lot of unfinished WIPs that I wrote for. Meanwhile, Paradiso 2 was written in 2021 and part of Paradiso 3 as well. I’ve been writing A rip in time since 2017 and also I wrote the beginnings of the alien!Blaine fic and Time After Time in 2018 and 2021.

All Glee fics are about Klaine. Almost all Simon Snow fics are about Snowbaz, with Call Me Maybe as the exception. That is a gen fic. Same goes for the Love, Victor one, the JATP one and the CrisTales one. The Dalton ones are multiships. The other two ships I wrote for are Zimbits (OMGCP) and Gentlebeard (OFMD).

Some questions under the cut. Aralias, these questions are really good.

Best/worst title?

The best titles are Time After Time, The Naked Truth and A Grimm Christmas in my opinion, and I cannot take credit for those. Christina @facewithoutheart came with Time After Time (my working title was “damn Baz, you live like this?”), Pati @aristocratic-otter came up with The Naked Truth and Jas @aroace-genderfluid-sheep came up with A Grimm Christmas.

If I gotta pick my own work, it’s I can’t believe it IS butter. Okay, and I kept laughing every time I wrote There’s nothing ironic about show choir, because Rachel’s delivery of that line would play in my head.

The worst is probably Thinkin’ about us. That was definitely a last minute title. I mean, it makes sense to me, but it makes no goddamn sense for this fic. I chose it since it’s the lyrics of Just A Dream (UH UH UH I WAS THINKIN’ ABOUT YOU, THINKIN’ ABOUT ME, THINKIN’ ABOUT US yada yada) which is a huge inside joke in the Dalton Discord, but this fic has absolutely nothing to do with Dalton and its Discord. The fic is about waking up from a dream, hence the shit connection, but yeah... not the best.

Best/worst summary?

I am not the best at writing summaries, mostly because I tend to forget about them until I am ready to post and I’m like “oh SHIT oh FUCK”, so the best? Hmmmm. @cerriddwenluna really helped me out with the aap noot mies and the Ebb & Flow ones. But alas, if I have to pick my own work, I think it’s Time After Time.

Simon Snow dies in the White Chapel, and Baz has to live an immortal life without him. Or so he thinks. Every twenty years, when the Veil lifts, Simon and Baz are able to reunite. Something is keeping Simon from moving on, and Baz doesn’t know if he wants to find out what that is, because it would mean letting go.

And if there’s one thing Baz can not do, it’s letting Simon go.

Simple and straight to the point. It introduces what the fic is about and it also introduces the main source of tension: Baz doesn’t want to let go of Simon. Drama ensues!

Worst:

And finally, the end.

This is from the Zimbits Update fic and it means absolutely nothing. That’s because these Updates fics are collections of drabbles, so each chapter has a summary of its own. But as a result, I always put my own commentary in the summary of the fic as a whole. It makes some sense if you read the series in one go, which is something a lot of people do (and it always brings me joy when I get an AO3 e-mail with kudos and it’s clear that someone went through it all), but on its own it is terrible.

I just refuse to write “I am bad at summaries” in the summaries. I at least gotta commit to the bit 😔✊.

Best/worst first line?

All my first and last lines are very short. I realised most of the fics start with a short line, then a larger line that really kicks of the story.

There seems to be one exception, which is the Bakery fic. That’s why I think that’s the best first line.

There are many decisions that have led Kurt Hummel to this dog bakery, but the biggest one was his decision to move to Los Angeles to become a dog party planner for influencers.

And worst.... Hmmm. Like I said, most of the first lines are very similar: short and not saying a lot. I don’t think the beginnings of my fics are bad, per sé, because all the opening paragraphs are a decent way to start a fic. I’m going with At Last, since that is a missing scene from Glee, so the fic jumps straight into a scene:

“But... But what?” Kurt asks, desperate to make some sense out of this situation.

Best/worst last line?

The best is probably The Naked Truth, once again because that one is longer than 10 words.

I put my pencil on the paper, I look over to Simon who’s already flexing his upper body, and I start to draw.

But yeah, I don’t think of first and last lines, but I think of beginnings and endings in a larger scale, like a paragraph or a chapter. But this one is nice and it also says something about what the fic’s about, unlike other last lines.

I picked the upcoming worst line since I apparently used it twice.

All is well.

Again, my last lines are very short and again it doesn’t mean they’re bad, but sometimes they are. Sometimes it’s clear I was looking for a quick line that felt fitting for any kind of ending. So this is the end of A rip in time and The Moon fic. (And I won’t be surprised if I have used it more).

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

Damn, I wrote a lot more than I thought. Over 300.000 words is insane, so yes, definitely more than I thought. I admit I don’t really plan my fics in advance. It’s changed a little bit since I started doing fests (more on that later), but most of the time I just start writing and I see when (or if) it sees the light of day.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Well, I couldn’t have written for Gentlebeard since the show didn’t exist last year, but jk jk. More seriously, I did write for three new fandoms: OFMD, JATP and CrisTales. And I got some returning ones (Dalton and Love, Victor).

The genre that completely threw me off was parenting fic or whatever you want to call it. I never even attempted a serious fic with any of my ships as parents. There have been kid OCs before (like, Julie for Klaine in the Myosotis series, or the unnamed twins for Zimbits in one fic that I can’t fucking remember right now), but I never wanted to do that, mostly because I don’t want kids myself so I never think about it.

And then my little Rosemary Snow happened. Maybe this is cheating, cause I did mention that I wrote part of Paradiso 3 in 2021, but oh MAN. OH MAN. How much love I have for this fictional child. If Simon and Baz are the dads, then I am the fairy godmother (who killed her biological parents oop-). She’s not real and yet I’d die for her. And not only is this a fic with a kid, but also it delves deep into adoption, another topic that I swore I’d never delve into. Alas, here we are.

Oh, and I wrote my first Main Character Death with Time After Time, but Simon is still constantly present in the fic as a Visitor.

What’s your favourite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Paradiso series. And yes, I know, I wrote all of Paradiso 1 and 2 in 2021 and part of Paradiso 3 in 2021 as well, but I loved it. I had so much fucking fun.

I often say that Paradiso 1 is the amazing eldest child, Paradiso 2 is the awkward middle child and Paradiso 3 is the surprise youngest child. What I mean by this is that Paradiso 1 is probably the best and maybe I should’ve ended it there, but I wanted to continue so badly that I wrote Paradiso 2. Could that fic have been better? Definitely. I think it is quite messy. But I love it nevertheless and it still introduced a lot of cool things. Paradiso 3 was even more unplanned and since it took me on a journey, it was a surprise.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

Everyone say “Thank you AO3!”

I usually don’t pay attention to my stats. I have no clue if something is popular because a) most of the time I do not know how many kudos etc. a fic has and b) even if I do have a vague idea of it, I don’t know what constitutes as “popular” in the grand scheme of things. I do sometimes associate one person with a fic and even if that one person was the only one loving it, I’d be happy.

So thank you AO3 for this goddamn great statistics page. Now, I do peek here maybe once a year, just out of curiosity (I think I may have made annual posts about that) and god this page is a godsend for having all the information in one place.

Here are the hits:

Note that a lot of people who read A rip in time read it in the beginning of when I started posting (2018). All the others got posted in 2022 only. Oh, well, Paradiso started posting mid-December 2021, but most of it was posted in 2022.

Kudos:

Same story here. I filtered the results on 2022, but since A rip in time did post in 2022, it is an outlier, like spider georg.

Comments:

Bookmarks:

And here again. If we disregard A rip in time, it seems like Time After Time is the most popular. Damn Baz, you live like this?

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Call Me Maybe. Call Me Maybe! God, @captain-aralias already mentioned it, but yes, I totally agree that Call Me Maybe is the most underappreciated. And I know why. It isn’t a shippy fic. It’s a gen fic about Agatha, and Simon and Baz only make a “cameo” in the actual fic.

But I put my heart and soul in this fic. I projected on Agatha like a boss. I even tried to rickroll the fandom!

And this was the only time I was aware of it not being popular. Like I wrote above, I have two reasons that I am usually ignorant of how well my fics are doing. I don’t care. Yes, I’d like people to read my stuff. I always use the cake analogy. If someone spends hours baking a cake and no one eats it, then even when the baking process was fun, it stings. But even then, since I do not actively track my stats and I don’t look at other people’s stats either. I remain blisfully ignorant and I find that very freeing.

But this fic was part of a fest. All the fics of that fest were put together in one AO3 collection. And that made it very easy to see how this fic was not getting the hits that others did. It took a long time before this fic even got 100 hits, while others already had over 400 or so. When it hit 100, I was very emotional. I knew it wasn’t going to be as popular, since this isn’t a Snowbaz fic, but man. There were some huge differences.

Now, honestly, the most important thing to me was that @captain-aralias liked it, which she did. I am so happy she liked it. Even her comments in her 2022 review page make me feel warm and fuzzy and happy. But I also wished more people had the chance to like it as well.

I’ve talked about my approach to stats etc. several times with people. There I also said that no matter how true it is that 99% I do not care, there is also the 1%. I think every writer, even “chill” ones like me, is prone to some anxiety or disheartened feelings at one point about stats and Call Me Maybe was my fic for that situation. I just really, really wanted people to read it. I still do. I haven’t checked the stats ever since it hit 100 hits, since that was the milestone I had in mind when I realised Call Me Maybe was falling behind, and it happened, but I wouldn’t mind more people reading it.

Story that could have been better?

Without a doubt, it’s Ebb & Flow. It’s just messy. Even more messy than Paradiso 2. (Not as messy as A rip in time, though, but the whole idea behind A rip in time is that it’s kinda bad anyway, which is why I love it.) (If you love the Doctor Who universe, and mess, A rip in time is the fic for you!).

Or well, at least I think Ebb & Flow is messy. It had a beginning with a lot of info-dumping, a wacky middle where too much was going on, and a good ending that is only that good because I was inspired by another fic. It’s because I had a story to tell, but I also wanted to nerd out about Splatoon 2. Do I regret the nerding out? No, not at all, but it made it a bit messy, especially for people who do not know Splatoon 2 (I did provide a glossary, but still). Besides, the Big Sad of the story is that Burt is dead and I am not sure if I like how I handled the grief. @thnxforknowingme told me it’s fine, which was reassuring, but every time I reread Ebb & Flow, I have to stop myself from skipping to the last few chapters cause that’s the good stuff.

Sexiest story?

Gotta pass. Would you believe it when I say T-rated The Naked Truth is the most steamy I ever wrote? All because they were undressing each other! (Well, okay, look, Simon was naked for a lot of the fic but in relation to his relation with Baz, it’s only a scene where they start to take off to undress). I used the word dick for the first time! Wooooh!

Although I think an upcoming chapter of Ljubim te might surpass it. Not too big. I don’t think I’ll ever write E (or M. I gotta see how it goes with Ljubim te.)

Saddest story?

Time After Time. I mean, it’s MCD. I made people cry! Even though Simon is still constantly in the fic, he’s Capital D Dead as in No Amount of Magic Can Bring Simon Back kind of dead.

And on a personal note, Paradiso 3 was incredibly emotional for me, as an adopted person, to write.

Most fun?

Probably I can’t believe it IS butter. I want to write more of the Butter Saga, where Simon marvels over all the forms of butter!

Just... the image of Simon carrying butter packets with him everywhere, so that he can gnaw on them. I love this guy. I kept laughing throughout the entire writing process and I loved that I got to share it with the CO Discord, since the idea came from there.

Oh, and as a Glee fan, I absolutely loved There’s nothing ironic about show choir. I really tried to capture the crazy Glee dramatics for this fic and Simon and Baz’s feud. Ruta and Vitis forever!

Story with single sweetest moment?

Not to toot my own horn, but I am obsessed with this line from The Naked Truth:

Again, there’s so much laughter.

Is this what love is like? Endless exuberant laughter? I revel in the sound of his joy.

I mean, pretty swell for an aroace gal.

And I also got the comment that Time After Time is utterly romantic in its own way, and I have to agree, even though Simon is super dead.

Hardest story to write?

Ebb & Flow. It’s the unfortunate truth that I hated writing this fic. I complained constantly about it here and on The Lima Bean Discord. I don’t want to put it so crassly (”I hated writing that!”), because it was a fest so I wasn’t the only person involved, but it’s just what happened. I loved the prompt. I fucking ADORE the art that was created for it, but the writing.... Oh honey.

I got stuck a lot. Getting stuck isn’t new, but this was my first fest and it was nerve wrecking. I’ll get more into that later. But this led to this extra pressure and that only made the existing bad feelings even worse. Basically, when I ended it, I was so fucking done I couldn’t look at it, since it just made me anxious. I normally write and then polish my work before posting, but here I didn’t want to dwell on this fic. The day before posting day, I finally opened the document after 2 weeks (I think?) to do some final edits and that was it.

This also goes back to the whole “story that could have been better” answer. Is Ebb & Flow truly that messy, or am I just projecting my negative feelings on it? I did talk with some others about how I started to like Ebb & Flow after I got positive feedback, and how that also motivates me to comment more. The comments I got on that fic make my day and I admit I am surprised every time I get a positive one. Not that I expected negative ones, but I don’t know... I just didn’t like it.

I do now. Don’t get me wrong. I like Ebb & Flow since the people in this fandom really lifted me up, but I still think it could’ve been better. But I like it. It’s on my mind a lot, mostly because I am listening to a lot of Splatoon music and of course, Splatoon 3 has been released. Hmmm, maybe I’ll write that sequel one day (*wink wink nudge nudge* @cerriddwenluna).

Easiest/most fun story to write?

Barking Up The Wrong Bakery. I actually wrote Bakery fic to counter all the bad feelings that arose while writing Ebb & Flow. Instead of polishing up Ebb & Flow, as I should’ve done, I went head first into Bakery fic.

I even made a meme about it:

It was just so much fun. The whole idea of this fic was letting go of trying too hard and it was so worth it. And I had Cooper as a cartoon villain of sorts. I have more to say about it later, but crack is very relaxing to write.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

Call Me Maybe definitely was a huge thing. I had written an Agatha saga in 2021, but I still think Call Me Maybe was the first time I gave Agatha the love she needs. And, yes, yes, projection on characters. You know how it is.

After Wayward Son, I was really rooting for aroace Agatha. So much that after I first finished AWTWB I was clinging onto the fact that Niamh wasn’t mentioned in the epilogue. As in “yes, yes, they kissed in the book but that doesn’t mean they actually end up together, Agatha can still realise this isn’t what she wants either!”. I came around because I too am obsessed with Niamh. If I weren’t aroace and if Niamh Brody weren’t fictional I’d also ask her hand in marriage. If Agga doesn’t want her, then I want her!

So yeah. Niamh Brody, amirite?

But still, I liked the idea of exploring the big What If. Originally, Call Me Maybe started out as Agatha realising she likes girls since she gets a crush on Penelope. @captain-aralias already wrote in the original CO WIP Adoption Fest fic that she was also fine with it being a friendship fic between Agga and Penny. I shifted the crush part from Penny to Ginger. I tried that for a while, which is why the beginning of what I’ve written is more about Agga having Feelings and Thoughts when she’s around Ginger.

But I suppose Ginger isn’t Niamh. I realised I wasn’t vibing with it at all. I already have issues with writing characters who fall in love because my aroace ass has no clue what that is. So I messaged Aralias again to tell her it was going to be an aroace!Agatha fic and I realised that I could use the Feelings and Thoughts from the beginning for that reason as well. Yes, she has Feelings and Thoughts about Ginger, but it’s not romantic and that bothers Agga, because she doesn’t know why she can’t just fall for her. As a result, I had to let go of the more flirty playful Agatha from AWTWB, but I worked out. So maybe it wasn’t a change in perspective, since I already had aroace!Agatha in mind after WS, but more a “coming back to that perspective”, after AWTWB changed it up.

Most overdue story?

A rip in time. I mean, I started writing it in 2017 and I started posting it in 2018. I felt incredibly empty when I finally finished it, but it was time. I knew I wanted to finish it before 13 regenerated, so I did.

God.

What a ride this was, though.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Oh, yes, definitely. There are probably two big risks and one smaller risk.

The smaller one is that I branched out to new fandoms, but honestly, that isn’t super new. I also wrote fic for other fandoms in previous years. It’s just true that Glee/Simon Snow/Check, Please! are my go-to’s, even though I only wrote one Check, Please! fic this year.

The bigger ones are:

1. I participated in collaborative fests and challenges. I have been doing the Klaine Advent since 2015 and I’ve written for some other challenges, but this is the first year I collaborated. Call Me Maybe and Stage Fright are the only ones that I co-wrote, but the other collaborative fests are still collaborative in my eyes, because I wrote other people’s prompts or other people made stuff for the fic. But yeah, I had the 321 Klaine Reverse Bang, and the CO WIP Adoption Fest, and the Glee Frankenfic, and of course the latest Klaine Secret Santa. And oooooh boy, it was nerve wrecking. Not gonna lie there. I usually live by the “I write for me and ME alone” principle, and that obviously does not apply when you’re working with someone else. There have been moments where I was so nervous. I was constantly hoping that the others would like it, especially with So Much Better, because that was a holiday gift! I remember fistbumping the air when I got the news that I could use Legally Blonde for that fic. Sometimes that had negative consequences (yeah, again, Ebb & Flow), but I learnt a lot. I do think I ought to tone it down. I wrote a lot about my girlboss situation, which was basically that I took on too many challenges etc. and that I was girlbossing too close to the sun. I am just genuinely excited and I want to encourage people in the fandom to make more challenges, but woooh, maybe I gotta tone it down.

2. I wrote a surprising amount of cracky fics. Bakery fic, The Moon fic, Thinkin’ about us, Butter fic, aap noot mies, There’s nothing ironic about show choir... Heck, I still have the WIPs Hold on to that feeling and Just Some Guy. I started both this year and those are also cracky. I made Baz a Klainer 12! Check, Please!’s John Johnson is here! I usually write angst and serious stuff, like mental health issues, grief, broken friendships, internalised homophobia, questioning identity etc., so this was a huge departure. Not to say I’ve never written crack. The fic where Jack and Bitty almost adopt a donkey on the Sims 4 is a thing. But I didn’t see it as a genre that I write often enought to say that it’s a genre I write. Man, Bakery fic did me a lot of good, because I had a fucking blast writing all the crack stuff. I kept laughing a lot while writing the stuff and I am happy being also found it cracky. Kissy kissy smooch smooch! BONK!

This year’s theme and the story that demonstrates it most:

Kinda what I wrote above: crack and collabs. I don’t know if there’s one specific story that demonstrates it. None of the collab fics are the cracky fics. Although that being said, I shared a lot about writing the cracky fics, since I obviously didn’t have to keep that a secret until a post date. As a result, I did get fun feedback while writing it. I already made a mushy post a few weeks earlier about how I am so happy that fandom exists and yeah, yeah I am happy it exists.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

please for the love of god let me finish my fucking zimbits fics oh GOD

This is a long post so if you made it to this spot, hi! Since it’s a long post, I wrote some little drafts for each answer and the sentence above is the draft for this one. Because yes, please, let me finish the two Zimbits fics that I’ve been writing since 2019. They aren’t my oldest WIPs, but I want to write Zimbits again because I miss these characters.

I don’t know when I’ll get to it, though. I currently have one WIP on AO3, which is Ljubim te, my Klaine Advent 2022 fic. I don’t feel rushed to finish it. After all, I finished my 2019 Advent fic in October 2020, but I want to finish it. And I really want to wrap up my CO textfic. I got very far into that fic, but then I put it away to focus on the fests and challenges that did have a deadline.

I‘ve also been thinking about bullet point fics/fic where the author just writes it down as “notes”. There are two big AUs that have been on my mind for a while, namely the Sarah Jane Adventures Extended Universe (SJAE, since 2017) and the Glee/Sense8 crossover (since 2020) and since these two are basically a collection of ideas, maybe it’s possible. I’ve never made a bullet point fic/”notebook fic” (no idea if that is an actual term), but I have read them.

Apart from that, I’ll see.

#..... this got LONG #i just have a lot to say #My posts #story extras

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