fandom flailings
Sunday, May 31st, 2020 07:56 pmA bit up and down this week, but good in general. I've been sleeping better -- seven hours! more than once! -- and I've been tracking my mood since the end of last year and the past few weeks it's been peeking out of my 'low' score. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened after I moved my desk next to the window in a room that has the nicest view of our backyard cluster and most of the day's sunlight. I also figured out a way to nibble on my actual job a little bit at a time so I don't fry my brain trying to do big chunks of it, which I hope is going to work out well in the long run.
I got past the point of Caesar's peaceful campaign maps that I got stuck on as a youngling, because the mod really does make it a lot easier to play. I also played some more of FF7, after taking a break to play the remake and then deal with other brain weasels, which is going a little slowly because I'm trying to grind through the party's limit breaks, but on Friday I got through the Cosmo Canyon section. It's making me excited to see all this in the next remake installment… I've been craving a little bit of Dishonored, randomly -- maybe it was being reminded of this year's chocolate box fic?? -- so maybe if I get a chance I'll play a bit this afternoon.
In other news, I can and can't believe that it's the last day of May? It feels like it's been forever and the blink of an eye at the same time, unlike April and March which just felt like forever. I don't think I could tell you what the hell went on this month either. Anyway, posted a meme last week! Got some replies!
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theseatheseatheopensea asked:
M: Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.
I think… I have a lot of candidates probably but I think it would have to be either Eliot Spencer (Leverage) or Tifa Lockheart (Final Fantasy VII) because they're both have the perfect combination of sheer badassery and soft centres, as well as loyal, reliable, kind, and excellent cooks! They're probably not going to hesitate to frown at you a lot if you're being very stupid about something, which is always a good friend quality.
:)
R: Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?
Barret and Marlene in FFVII Remake! I cannot believe they came for me with how much he loves to get in everyone else's face, but will utterly melt in a second in front of his daughter? How much he adores her? How hurt he is that he has to leave her while he does dangerous vigilante activities -- and later dangerous world saving activities? This scene absolutely murdered me.
U: Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.
Cloud Strife (FFVII) -- Possibly the original fave. A poor, lonely boy tries to become a hero and doesn't make it. Then he has his home town burned down by the man he thought of as his hero, is used as an experiment that renders him catatonic, watches his best friend get murdered by the same people they serve with, ends up getting his identity turned inside out with the trauma of it all, and is basically mind controlled into making world ending mistakes. Still, at the end of it and with the help of all his friends, he manages to claw back some of his own personality and identity, and saves the planet.
Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells) -- Most recent fave. The saltiest half human half machine security construct tries not to be an object of mass murder but also not be a person because humans are gross why would you even? They technically don't have to do their job any more but does it anyway, albeit while watching massive amounts of tv to cope with the awfulness of having feelings, and even when they literally don't need to do their job any more still feels compelled to save every person they come across no matter how inconvenient this is to their personal goals?
Tough to fill the last spot, but I think I will have to go with Cullen Rutherford (should I call this one 'problematic fave'??), see the next question for more about that one.
Looks like a traumatic past and a broken sense of self and perhaps a desire (or compulsion) to help people are the main qualifiers for the fave club.
wheatear asked:
K: What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
I don't know if this is an actual unpopular opinion or my hindbrain just feeling like I would definitely not be wanting to say this on tumblr, but I've thought this over a bit because in most characters don't seem to change enough to be particularly memorable, or if they do then it's not always in ways that feel like good writing to me. I think Cullen Rutherford of Dragon Age particularly stands out to me as a character who is noticeably better off as the series progresses, and written in a way that I find satisfying, even though I played the games out of order (a fact that I think might have endeared me to the character more, tbh). Over the course of three games he goes from fervent believer in the Templar Order -- something that stems from childhood hero worship and being a devout follower of the dominant religion of the setting. There's some beautiful touches (in my opinion, of course) on the way he has to reconcile the fact that he loved the Templar Order, or at least everything he believed they were, with his whole heart since he was a child, and the fact that not only had it turned out to be something quite different, but having this guilt that he didn't wake up to the reality soon enough to do something about the things that Templars did, or could do, to others with impunity. There are still moments where he is kneejerk "mages are dangerous" but I actually like these because I think a lot of fiction makes it look a little bit too easy to change thought patterns that have been pressed into you for most of your life, and Cullen's in particular have been amplified by trauma. I love characters who have to turn away from things that have been part of them for a long time, maybe their whole life up to that point, and I love it when it's not easy, not linear, not quick. Cullen's arc ticks almost every box I have for a good one, and watching him grow (a little late, but that just makes him more relatable) into himself is a lot of the reasons he's one of my faves.
X: A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.
Hard to pick just one, but it might be found families, especially ones involving lowkey triadic/polyarmorous relationships.
enemyofperfect asked:
L: Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves.
Harold Finch (Person of Interest) is one that I have not always loved -- although I think this is more to do with the flawed overall writing of a couple of seasons rather than bad character writing -- but he's enigmatic, intelligent, and highly moral. He built the kindest, most big hearted artificial intelligence that I can think of, and has the capacity to be just as kind himself. One of my favourite episodes (2.11) there's a scene where he sits down with a guilt-ridden, genius teenager who's about to act on a long time plan to kill himself and then he doesn't do it and… I don't know, maybe I just find the moment painfully relatable, but… I really liked it, and I really liked Finch in this episode. He was good.
( transcript of the scene, so spoilers for this episode )
O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of?
Ah, as luck would have it, I landed on an easy one -- Ben E King's Stand by Me. It's not surprising that the ships it makes me think of are platonically Noctis, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto, and romantically Noctis and Luna, given that Florence and the Machine recorded a cover for the end of Final Fantasy XV. Listen here.
Y: What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?
The Good Place? B99? I didn't get into the Good Place because it didn't really seem like my kind of show, although I enjoyed hearing about it fromenemyofperfect. I don't have a clue what my excuse is for B99, I feel like I couldn't go two posts down my tumblr dashboard without tripping over a gifset for it and I always thought it was kind of awesome.
sideways asked:
B: A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.
I'm not sure how much this counts as someone changing my mind, but there were two prompts in the 2019 chocolate box requests that made my brain do dinner plate eyes of why didn't I think of that before?!?! and I ended up writing treats for both of them.
One of them was Cassandra/Cullen (Dragon Age) and although the prompt I adore friends to lovers and obscene amounts of pining, and all the other characters shipping it. And courting, I love the gruff character trying to court the sweet one. wasn't ship specific I just couldn't unsee it, and now I have a little soft spot for the pairing.
The other one was a prompt for Emily/Corvo (Dishonored) because too much loyalty and not being able to say no because of it, the moral dilemma of it (for Corvo, because I wrote a high chaos Emily who doesn't have many of them), unhealthy and codependent relationships?? Sign me the fuck up, I guess!
T: Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?
Vernon Roche (The Witcher) is ace? 1000% married to Temeria, at least.
Sam Drake did not intentionally con his brother into the events of Uncharted 4, he's just damaged and fucked up. And a fuck up.
Nothing else is coming to mind (^_^;) Maybe I'm not a hard and fast headcanons person? (^_^;)
Z: Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!
I recently got put onto an anime byenemyofperfect that's about a girl that dies as a teenager and gets reincarnated as the villain of her favourite otome game and sure I was expecting something cooky and fun, which it absolutely is, however! It's also so fucking good?!?! It's a harem anime, but… wholesome instead of slutty? The main character is such a… hapless sweetheart (please interpret this literally, all she wants to do is be nice to her friends and eat cakes and cookies) that all the people who are supposed to hate her in the game to the point of killing her are head over heels in love with her instead! The guys AND the girls! The girl crushes are even more into her than the guys are and the show isn't even downplaying this in any way? It's so cute and adorable and fucking funny. This is where I've been watching it, please watch it too!!!!
I got past the point of Caesar's peaceful campaign maps that I got stuck on as a youngling, because the mod really does make it a lot easier to play. I also played some more of FF7, after taking a break to play the remake and then deal with other brain weasels, which is going a little slowly because I'm trying to grind through the party's limit breaks, but on Friday I got through the Cosmo Canyon section. It's making me excited to see all this in the next remake installment… I've been craving a little bit of Dishonored, randomly -- maybe it was being reminded of this year's chocolate box fic?? -- so maybe if I get a chance I'll play a bit this afternoon.
In other news, I can and can't believe that it's the last day of May? It feels like it's been forever and the blink of an eye at the same time, unlike April and March which just felt like forever. I don't think I could tell you what the hell went on this month either. Anyway, posted a meme last week! Got some replies!
theseatheseatheopensea asked:M: Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.
I think… I have a lot of candidates probably but I think it would have to be either Eliot Spencer (Leverage) or Tifa Lockheart (Final Fantasy VII) because they're both have the perfect combination of sheer badassery and soft centres, as well as loyal, reliable, kind, and excellent cooks! They're probably not going to hesitate to frown at you a lot if you're being very stupid about something, which is always a good friend quality.
:)
R: Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?
Barret and Marlene in FFVII Remake! I cannot believe they came for me with how much he loves to get in everyone else's face, but will utterly melt in a second in front of his daughter? How much he adores her? How hurt he is that he has to leave her while he does dangerous vigilante activities -- and later dangerous world saving activities? This scene absolutely murdered me.
U: Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.
Cloud Strife (FFVII) -- Possibly the original fave. A poor, lonely boy tries to become a hero and doesn't make it. Then he has his home town burned down by the man he thought of as his hero, is used as an experiment that renders him catatonic, watches his best friend get murdered by the same people they serve with, ends up getting his identity turned inside out with the trauma of it all, and is basically mind controlled into making world ending mistakes. Still, at the end of it and with the help of all his friends, he manages to claw back some of his own personality and identity, and saves the planet.
Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells) -- Most recent fave. The saltiest half human half machine security construct tries not to be an object of mass murder but also not be a person because humans are gross why would you even? They technically don't have to do their job any more but does it anyway, albeit while watching massive amounts of tv to cope with the awfulness of having feelings, and even when they literally don't need to do their job any more still feels compelled to save every person they come across no matter how inconvenient this is to their personal goals?
Tough to fill the last spot, but I think I will have to go with Cullen Rutherford (should I call this one 'problematic fave'??), see the next question for more about that one.
Looks like a traumatic past and a broken sense of self and perhaps a desire (or compulsion) to help people are the main qualifiers for the fave club.
wheatear asked:K: What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
I don't know if this is an actual unpopular opinion or my hindbrain just feeling like I would definitely not be wanting to say this on tumblr, but I've thought this over a bit because in most characters don't seem to change enough to be particularly memorable, or if they do then it's not always in ways that feel like good writing to me. I think Cullen Rutherford of Dragon Age particularly stands out to me as a character who is noticeably better off as the series progresses, and written in a way that I find satisfying, even though I played the games out of order (a fact that I think might have endeared me to the character more, tbh). Over the course of three games he goes from fervent believer in the Templar Order -- something that stems from childhood hero worship and being a devout follower of the dominant religion of the setting. There's some beautiful touches (in my opinion, of course) on the way he has to reconcile the fact that he loved the Templar Order, or at least everything he believed they were, with his whole heart since he was a child, and the fact that not only had it turned out to be something quite different, but having this guilt that he didn't wake up to the reality soon enough to do something about the things that Templars did, or could do, to others with impunity. There are still moments where he is kneejerk "mages are dangerous" but I actually like these because I think a lot of fiction makes it look a little bit too easy to change thought patterns that have been pressed into you for most of your life, and Cullen's in particular have been amplified by trauma. I love characters who have to turn away from things that have been part of them for a long time, maybe their whole life up to that point, and I love it when it's not easy, not linear, not quick. Cullen's arc ticks almost every box I have for a good one, and watching him grow (a little late, but that just makes him more relatable) into himself is a lot of the reasons he's one of my faves.
X: A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.
Hard to pick just one, but it might be found families, especially ones involving lowkey triadic/polyarmorous relationships.
enemyofperfect asked:L: Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves.
Harold Finch (Person of Interest) is one that I have not always loved -- although I think this is more to do with the flawed overall writing of a couple of seasons rather than bad character writing -- but he's enigmatic, intelligent, and highly moral. He built the kindest, most big hearted artificial intelligence that I can think of, and has the capacity to be just as kind himself. One of my favourite episodes (2.11) there's a scene where he sits down with a guilt-ridden, genius teenager who's about to act on a long time plan to kill himself and then he doesn't do it and… I don't know, maybe I just find the moment painfully relatable, but… I really liked it, and I really liked Finch in this episode. He was good.
( transcript of the scene, so spoilers for this episode )
O: Choose a song at random, what ship does it remind you of?
Ah, as luck would have it, I landed on an easy one -- Ben E King's Stand by Me. It's not surprising that the ships it makes me think of are platonically Noctis, Gladio, Ignis, and Prompto, and romantically Noctis and Luna, given that Florence and the Machine recorded a cover for the end of Final Fantasy XV. Listen here.
Y: What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?
The Good Place? B99? I didn't get into the Good Place because it didn't really seem like my kind of show, although I enjoyed hearing about it from
enemyofperfect. I don't have a clue what my excuse is for B99, I feel like I couldn't go two posts down my tumblr dashboard without tripping over a gifset for it and I always thought it was kind of awesome.sideways asked:B: A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.
I'm not sure how much this counts as someone changing my mind, but there were two prompts in the 2019 chocolate box requests that made my brain do dinner plate eyes of why didn't I think of that before?!?! and I ended up writing treats for both of them.
One of them was Cassandra/Cullen (Dragon Age) and although the prompt I adore friends to lovers and obscene amounts of pining, and all the other characters shipping it. And courting, I love the gruff character trying to court the sweet one. wasn't ship specific I just couldn't unsee it, and now I have a little soft spot for the pairing.
The other one was a prompt for Emily/Corvo (Dishonored) because too much loyalty and not being able to say no because of it, the moral dilemma of it (for Corvo, because I wrote a high chaos Emily who doesn't have many of them), unhealthy and codependent relationships?? Sign me the fuck up, I guess!
T: Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?
Vernon Roche (The Witcher) is ace? 1000% married to Temeria, at least.
Sam Drake did not intentionally con his brother into the events of Uncharted 4, he's just damaged and fucked up. And a fuck up.
Nothing else is coming to mind (^_^;) Maybe I'm not a hard and fast headcanons person? (^_^;)
Z: Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!
I recently got put onto an anime by
enemyofperfect that's about a girl that dies as a teenager and gets reincarnated as the villain of her favourite otome game and sure I was expecting something cooky and fun, which it absolutely is, however! It's also so fucking good?!?! It's a harem anime, but… wholesome instead of slutty? The main character is such a… hapless sweetheart (please interpret this literally, all she wants to do is be nice to her friends and eat cakes and cookies) that all the people who are supposed to hate her in the game to the point of killing her are head over heels in love with her instead! The guys AND the girls! The girl crushes are even more into her than the guys are and the show isn't even downplaying this in any way? It's so cute and adorable and fucking funny. This is where I've been watching it, please watch it too!!!!
