THESE INSATIABLE ASPIRATIONS MAKE ME WHOLE @a-blue-goblin - Tumblr Blog

Hi!!! You can call me ‘Blue’ or ‘Goblin’ or I guess even ‘A’ or I guess even ‘-‘ I don’t really careee so much as I know i’m being referred to!

(artfight pfp frame by @a-online-person )

#goblin yaps #yayyy intro post! And it will probably be edited five billion times #intro post

ispyspookymansion

if you want me to consume a new media you MUST catch me at the exact moment when the stars are aligned and the air pressure is equal to the current degree of the sun’s peak against the horizon and all the cosmic energies are perfectly unified (aka my old interest is fading out) or i will nod and say “im adding that to my list!” Knowing theres no chance i will check it out

ispyspookymansion

“unless its a book!” “unless you tell me it has gay people in it!” “this but only for live action shows” “theres a good chance i’ll get to it eventually” no wrong this post is not for you this post is ONLY for bitches who could have a treasured friend recommend them something that sounds grown in a lab to be your personal catnip and, with no choice in the matter, immediately know it will never be the right time to watch/read/listen to it

#reblog #i will get around to it eventually i swear

an-ruraiocht

#reblog #fave

bluemuffin-draws

Eridian OC but they are the same shape and size as Grace

#THEIR HOLE IS OUT !!!!! 😦😦😦#reblog

punkitt-is-here

you seem very bnuny-oriented lately. any particular reason for that?

#reblog

penwiper

So a couple days ago, some folks braved my long-dormant social media accounts to make sure I’d seen this tweet:

And after getting over my initial (rather emotional) response, I wanted to reply properly, and explain just why that hit me so hard.

So back around twenty years ago, the internet cosplay and costuming scene was very different from today. The older generation of sci-fi convention costumers was made up of experienced, dedicated individuals who had been honing their craft for years. These were people who took masquerade competitions seriously, and earning your journeyman or master costuming badge was an important thing. They had a lot of knowledge, but – here’s the important bit – a lot of them didn’t share it. It’s not just that they weren’t internet-savvy enough to share it, or didn’t have the time to write up tutorials – no, literally if you asked how they did something or what material they used, they would refuse to tell you. Some of them came from professional backgrounds where this knowledge literally was a trade secret, others just wanted to decrease the chances of their rivals in competitions, but for whatever reason it was like getting a door slammed in your face. Now, that’s a generalization – there were definitely some lovely and kind and helpful old-school costumers – but they tended to advise more one-on-one, and the idea of just putting detailed knowledge out there for random strangers to use wasn’t much of a thing. And then what information did get out there was coming from people with the freedom and budget to do things like invest in all the tools and materials to create authentic leather hauberks, or build a vac-form setup to make stormtrooper armor, etc. NOT beginner friendly, is what I’m saying.

Then, around 2000 or so, two particular things happened: anime and manga began to be widely accessible in resulting in a boom in anime conventions and cosplay culture, and a new wave of costume-filled franchises (notably the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings movies) hit the theatres. What those brought into the convention and costuming arena was a new wave of enthusiastic fans who wanted to make costumes, and though a lot of the anime fans were much younger, some of them, and a lot of the movie franchise fans, were in their 20s and 30s, young enough to use the internet to its (then) full potential, old enough to have autonomy and a little money, and above all, overwhelmingly female. I think that latter is particularly important because that meant they had a lifetime of dealing with gatekeepers under our belts, and we weren’t inclined to deal with yet another one. They looked at the old dragons carefully hoarding their knowledge, keeping out anyone who might be unworthy, or (even worse) competition, and they said NO. If secrets were going to be kept, they were going to figure things out for ourselves, and then they were going to share it with everyone. Those old-school costumers may have done us a favor in the long run, because not knowing those old secrets meant that we had to find new methods, and we were trying – and succeeding with – materials that “serious” costumers would never have considered. I was one of those costumers, but there were many more – I was more on the movie side of things, so JediElfQueen and PadawansGuide immediately spring to mind, but there were so many others, on YahooGroups and Livejournal and our own hand-coded webpages, analyzing and testing and experimenting and swapping ideas and sharing, sharing, sharing.

I’m not saying that to make it sound like we were the noble knights of cosplay, riding in heroically with tutorials for all. I’m saying that a group of people, individually and as a collective, made the conscious decision that sharing was a Good Things that would improve the community as a whole. That wasn’t necessarily an easy decision to make, either. I know I thought long and hard before I posted that tutorial; the reaction I had gotten when I wore that armor to a con told me that I had hit on something new, something that gave me an edge, and if I didn’t share that info I could probably hang on to that edge for a year, or two, or three. And I thought about it, and I was briefly tempted, but again, there were all of these others around me sharing what they knew, and I had seen for myself what I could do when I borrowed and adapted some of their ideas, and I felt the power of what could happen when a group of people came together and gave their creativity to the world.

And it changed the face of costuming. People who had been intimidated by the sci-fi competition circuit suddenly found the confidence to try it themselves, and brought in their own ideas and discoveries. And then the next wave of younger costumers took those ideas and ran, and built on them, and branched out off of them, and the wave after that had their own innovations, and suddenly here we are, with Youtube videos and Tumblr tutorials and Etsy patterns and step-by-step how-to books, and I am just so, so proud.

So yeah, seeing appreciation for a 17-year-old technique I figured out on my dining-room table (and bless it, doesn’t that page just scream “I learned how to code on Geocities!”), and having it embraced as a springboard for newer and better things warms this fandom-old’s heart. This is our legacy, and a legacy the current group of cosplayers is still creating, and it’s a good one.

(Oh, and for anyone wondering: yes, I’m over 40 now, and yes, I’m still making costumes. And that armor is still in great shape after 17 years in a hot attic!)

pellaeas

Hang on a minute. I recognize the name “penwiper”. Let me check– Ok, yeah, I’ve heard of this person.

OP also invented armsocks.

Y'all might have noticed that your friendly community moderator has been slacking a bit lately. No updates. No organizing. What the heck was

OP I have been thinking about YOUR IMPACT since 2011. Do you know what you did for Homestuck lmao

manasaysay

Another example of a foundational internet text that millions of people don’t know was so influential.

#reblog #fave

uberfluss

first 5 faceless emojis are how your summers gonna go

thesebonesbite

Magnus Archives fan I see

partywithponies

THIS IS SO FUNNY I'M SORRY

#‼️🫵🔥👀🏳️‍⚧️#IM ON FIRE AND TRANS THIS SUMMER????????#reblog

gahbungle

Tried to socialize. They just acted like I wasn't even there. Why do I even try.

#reblog #well they’re clearly having an IMPORTANT DISCUSSION

lindleland

there is so much to unpack in this clip

lindleland

#schrödingers queer identity #reblog

deepfrieddeltarunememes

#reblog

just realized i talked about my love for puns and bad jokes within a couple hours of ranting about the beauty of string theory and mathematical paradoxes . maybe im sans undertale

#goblin yaps #hmmmmmmm #much to consider #this isn’t even a joke i can provide receipts

cosmovain

jack on his way to cash in 50000000 jackbucks for one golfcil scene

#jack you later #<- read that as the signing off portion of the post. like you walked away right after saying it #very funny #reblog #mutuals

cuunos

hey can everyone do me a favor and put in the tags why they chose their name? even if you don't go by a chosen name irl, you can put why you chose your online name.

#my username comes from a short lived stardew valley playthrough with a buddy where i made my character blue and was extremely capitalist #I go by jack on a couple other things because i matched with my partner as dave and jack dsaf at one point on smthn else and it stuck #reblog