On character design, what are your thoughts on there being official art? Not the art itself, though if you have thoughts please share, but for example, my own opinion is that while it's a good tool and help for cosplay and nice as a base for artists to use when drawing, I feel like it stifles a lot of creativity. When you have a "correct" template to follow it's so much rarer to see any designs that don't match up, and if they do they easily fall into samey stuff or stereotypes like characters that are infantilised being chubby or having big round glasses (as was mentioned with Imogen and Jester). I think it'd be really cool to see what all the talented artists in this fandom would do with character design if there wasn't anything but descriptions as to what characters looked like (I've seen one person do that and it's easily some of my favourite c3 art out there). With official art it just sort of feels like every piece of fanart ends up being a bit of a dtiys of the characters. Imagine how many cool robot designs of FCG there'd be for example, since that is a race that really lends itself to unique designs as it doesn't follow the humanoid forms everyone else has. I think it'd also lend itself more to small variations that end up happening during sessions, like imogen being blue or bald. And while I'm not sure if she started wearing them, Fearne got those glasses of charming people and I don't think I've seen any art of her wearing any yet

This is going to sound pretty harsh, but: I like having official art, and I like seeing other people's interpretations within the bounds of that art but a lot of "interpretations" go into the realm of "literally an OC" and often in ways that are like...actively worse. I've seen multiple people try to tone down Ashton's obnoxious outfit or draw his hair as regular hair rather than purple crystal and it's like "literally just make your own character at this point, who is this bargain-basement imitator that you captioned with Ashton's name."

Like...I recognize this sounds rich coming from me, a person who can just about draw a stick figure, but if someone wants to draw creative aeormatons...no one is stopping them, but at the same time, FCG is a yellow robot with a sort of cylindrical head and big blue glassy eyes, with an image of some blades of grass on their chest, and that's what they look like and if you draw something else I'm just like "maybe make an original character then? If you say it's Aeormaton concept art you can even still tag it as Critical Role in good faith."

It's also worth noting: I don't reblog a ton of NADDPod or TAZ art, but those are both fandoms that by and large haven't had very prominent official art (at least not until TAZ Balance's graphic novels). The following two things have happened pretty often:

The art still is largely all very much the same - which, I should point out, I don't mind! I mind when people all do the same thing and I think that thing sucks, but like, you can look at my blog and see tons of reblogs of renditions of Imogen looking largely the same throughout (ie, very similar to the official depiction), but they're interesting and enjoyable for reasons of composition and art style. I have a stronger musical background than visual arts, and the idea with music(unless you're doing like, improvisational jazz) is that you add your own self-expression through the interpretation, but you are still largely hitting the same notes as anyone else, and I don't think that's a bad thing! I think it shows judgment and talent to work within parameters in a way that is still unique to you. Toddlers can easily scribble outside the box and frequently do. It takes some skill to actually add something inside the box that makes people go "oh hey I never saw the box that way."

People get, shall we say, self-righteous and terrible. I think representation in art is important, but this is where you get headcanon depictions being treated as canon, and then, if canon art comes out later and conflicts with that hc depiction, a certain segment of people start bringing out the accusations of bigotry and the creators are like "literally I was just hanging out". I've mentioned how absolutely bugfuck people got about Taako having blue-green skin. I also love NADDPod but people who complained about the lack of diversity in CR often touted NADDPod, a show that is also entirely made up of cis white people over 30, as some shining unproblematic example; at least part of this was, in my opinion, because there was no official depiction of the characters and therefore people felt more validated in their headcanon depictions - there isn't, actually, any more representation. (This is not the only reason why this happened, nor should "fandoms having some obnoxious people in them" be a reason for creators to do anything ever, but, on a practical level...having official fan art is my preference).

I guess the tl;dr is: if you truly want to let your creativity roam free...why have you chosen the medium of "art based on an existing work." I say this as someone who writes fanfic - it's great! It's fun! Also if I wanted to write a story that deviates significantly from how the characters are depicted in that work, I would write original fiction rather than a fan work.

hello!! i just wanted to let you know that i really enjoy your account and your content. i feel like fandoms don't really give appreciation to their writers enough, and in a fandom as dry as bully, i wanna give that encouragement you know??

i've been in the fandom for about mm a little over 2 years now, and back when i first joined, i never imagined someone writing an entire fic about derby/bif and actively posting content about that ship + the preps in general. they've always been my favorite ship and i've always wanted to make content for them but never really had the time to with my schooling and my job lol so i've mainly been a passive enjoyer of what other people produce.

and idk, i just really admire you for creating this content. this is a small fandom, and in the long run, all of this is so minuscule, but right now, it makes me really happy, and i know it makes other people happy as well.

i really love your work, and i hope you don't stop anytime soon (unless you lose enjoyment which is totally valid). thank u for doing what you do, and i look forward to what you continue to create. <3

This is really sweet anon! I really appreciate you reaching out. I am self-admittedly the kind of fandom writer that craves comments and feedback so I really do appreciate it. And the Bully fandom is understandably quiet, skewing towards lots of likes from people w nearly blank blogs.

But the fandom’s always been relatively small and quiet. And the funny thing is, though, I’m not the first to write them. Or, I am the first, but to invoke the ship of Theseus I’m not much the same girl I was in ‘07, churning out 50k+ of derby/bif fic on ff dot net in the first month of my freshman year of highschool. I don’t mean to mention it every time I talk about them! Just, you can imagine if you joined 2 years ago and you’re surprised someone’s writing them, I’m as equally surprised someone’s reading it after all this time, haha. Multiple someones, even! it’s been a pleasant surprise that I got to come back and rewrite characters from my childhood that were very dear to me when I was truly in the shit trenches, and somehow there is still a fandom for a 16 year old game to receive and welcome what is ultimately a nostalgic vanity project. The fandom is so different now but it is, also, kind of the same? There’s a metaphor for life in general somewhere in that lmao. (The same but also generally overall better. For all the wank and drama of fandom today, at least nowadays none of the comments start with, “I don’t like slash, but this was good.” and I don’t have to worry about my writing being deleted just because it’s not het like it was a decade plus ago.)

But, digressions aside, thank you thank you thank you for both reading my writing and taking the time out to send me an ask! I write for myself (I mean, you really gotta, right?) but comments spur me on to actually share it, yknow? Life is just minuscule moments you give meaning to and it really makes my day knowing I can create something that others enjoy. ❤️ I do have a few more bits and pieces about Derby and Bif (and Tad too, if I can coax the words out right.) in the works though I am taking a writing break atm to do some editing. But stick around, once I work through the block I should have some more content. :)