Fandom Hell @alarichume - Tumblr Blog

These two have my whole heart split between them.

This is Cadbury. He’s looking quite proper with the rainbow.

And this is Cinnamon. Whenever I’m working from home, inevitability she occupies my lap.

I just love them so much <3

#cats #my cats #my sweet angels #except for when they’re not #kittens #cat owner

luxwing

Whenever someone reblogs a post of mine from like four years ago it's so wild like how did you find that bud

harrold-the-magicalgirl

See you in 4 years!

luxwing

Damn I got owned from the future

infiniteeight8

misspaperlilies said: What is this Sentinel/Guide business I keep hearing about?

infiniteeight8

Man, I wrote an entire short essay on The Sentinel’s place in fandom history, and then I went, “Hmm. She probably just wants to know what the trope refers to.” *g* So I’ll do the short (Edit: Not so short, I got carried away. LOL), tropey explanation, and then I’ll put the fandom history essay behind the cut for those who are interested.

The Sentinel was TV show that ran from 1996-1999. In it, Jim Ellison, an Army Ranger, gets stranded in the jungles of Peru, and his team is all killed. The isolation etc. causes genetic-but-previously-latent hyperactive senses to wake up. So he has super-hearing, super-sight, etc. He gets rescued and unconsciously suppressed the senses again and becomes a cop in Cascade, Washington. One day he’s on a long, isolated stake out, and the senses come roaring back and fuck him up because of the sensory overload.

Blair Sandburg is an anthropology student studying the concept of Sentinels, who he describes as “protectors of the tribe” and who have these hyperactive senses. He’s found people with one enhanced sense, but never all five. He hears about Jim, arranges to meet him, and convinces Jim to let Blair ride along on his police work so that Blair can study a real live Sentinel and Jim can get help controlling his senses from Blair.

The series is full of little details about the senses and how they work and the mythology around them. Here are the ones that usually come up in fic:

The zone out: This is when the Sentinel gets hyper focused on one sense and blocks out all other input, becoming almost catatonic. They have to be coaxed out of it with quiet talking and contrasting sensory input.

Spirit guides: In the show, Jim has several visions in the spirit world. While there, he has a spirit guide, a panther. When Blair ends up in the spirit world with Jim, his guide is a wolf. They also occasionally see their guides in the real world, usually trying to warn them of something or tell them something or lead them somewhere.

Territoriality: The Sentinel is described as having a primal instinct to protect his/her tribe. Jim’s interaction with another Sentinel that appeared on the show is…complicated, but fic usually just runs with the idea that Sentinels have a territory (the boundaries of which they determine) and that they’re extremely protective of it. They usually don’t like other Sentinels in their space, either.

Guides: Guides are fanon. People sometimes forget this, but literally the only place that guiding comes up in the show is when a guy in the spirit world tells Jim that “he guides you”, referring to Blair. However, it’s fanon that is 100% accepted by everyone in Sentinel fandom and the resulting trope. So. The Guide is assumed to also be genetically determined. They’re usually presented as someone who is good at calming the Sentinel, who has a strong connection to the spirit world, and who are generally a stabilizing influence on the Sentinel. Guides are also presented as the people who are most capable of getting Sentinels out of deep zone outs.

Bonding: This comes from a scene in the series where Blair is dead. Like, the medics call it. No heartbeat. Dead. Jim flips out, and goes over to Blair, and we cut to the spirit world, and stuff happens, and then the panther and the wolf run toward each other, jump up and merge in a giant flash of light. And Blair comes back to life. Fandom takes that merging of spirit guides and runs with it, usually giving them an awareness of each other’s location and empathy. Other effects of the bond vary depending on the author.

I think those are the major elements of the trope! Damn, that got longer than I meant it to. *g*

And if that wasn’t enough, and you’d like some fandom history, check out the additional info behind the cut:

Keep reading

emmy-likes-attention

Wait, a character can become canonically queers and not immediately be sent to super mega turbo hell by the writers???

aidenlydia

A lil comfort sketch..

were--ralph

twitter is funny sometimes actually

daily-spooky

rongzhi

astronnova

lanadelreyquasa

WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT

kaibas-paragraphical-mind

YOU COULD BE A FUCKING BADASS DRAGON THAT’S THE POINT

who-the-f-ck

“I AM A CREATURE OF DARKNESS” “oh hey sabrina.”

shitsuren-chama

I guess the point is that you could shapeshift into the body you always thought you’d grow into when you were a kid

taller, shorter, slimmer, more muscular, purple hair, tattoos everywhere, tattoos nowhere,

every single shoe would fit you every single time you tried it on, every single article of clothing would fit your perfectly, all you have to do is transform slightly, you’d never run out of ‘your size’ again

and you wouldn’t have to work for it at all, and you’d never be limitted by your bone structure or something. You could just transform at will.

elvenrainbow

bogleech

I don’t see how this is much of a downside

When you turn into a sixty story tentacle demon and terrorize a city you want to get the credit you deserve

revereche-deactivated20140508

Oh man that would be so sweet. I could be an annoying fuck as an insect or something but you couldn’t kill me because everyone would know

perpetualcombustioninstruct-blog

That’s great but have you considered

~cosplay

~Halloween costumes

~acting

~cosplay

~stretching to reach stuff and shrinking to fit through spaces

~cosplay

~COSPLAY

solsolecito

imagine being at work minding your business and then suddenly you look out the window and see like a 50ft tall flamingo and then someone just says “oh, yeah, that’s just pete, he does this sometimes, don’t worry”

brightlotusmoon

“BRB, gonna be a cat-sized dragon for a few hours. Might come home a foot taller with mood tattoos.”

“Don’t antagonize the fae.”

“I AM the fae, Susan.”

aqueerkettleofish

Also, consider— people will know it’s you, but it doesn’t say they’ll know what you are. “So is Pete a 50 foot flamingo who changes into a man, or the other way around?” “We.. we don’t know. Barbara asked him once, but he just grinned. She said they weren’t the teeth of a human OR flamingo and she didn’t want to talk about it.”

frolicking-cat

Iconic post

themoss-deactivated20210919

LEMME BE A DRAGON I DONT CARE IF YOU KNOW ITS ME

I’ve seriously only seen screenshots of this post before though

godspeedyoublackemperor

This is legendary

ghalind

“I AM HERE FOR YOUR SOULS”

“George, did you forget your coffee?”

this-account-is-a-mistake

ok but like the only difference here is if you dont press it you cant shapeshift. theres no loss in pressing it

soraitmnt

Look I can’t shapeshift now, at least after I’ll be able to shapeshift

letsstartafamilywellinvitewelove

@hellsite-hall-of-fame

chaotic-public-menace

I would love to shapeshift. Gimme that shit. I want to turn into a Komodo dragon and sit in front of random people’s windows and doors and s t a r e

cugzarui

the reason they know it’s you is because you keep your signature hairstyle in all forms

angelsallfire

eugeniedanglars

buck: i’m so nervous

dean winchester: don’t worry, it’s gonna be okay

*3 hours later*

doctor: your surgery was a success

buck: wait, where’s dean?

doctor: who do you think gave you the bisexuality?

marveladdicts

theroseandthebeast

#it’s strange to thing back and realise this incredibly charged scene was their introduction #no flash backs #no explanations #no descriptions #no ‘well as you know’ exposition #it’s just 2 very very subtle actors with decade of experience and a very spare very short scene #but you KNOW #you KNOW IMMEDIATELY #you know a) these two have oceans of history between them #b) they hold diametrically opposed viewpoints #c) they have probably tried to kill each other at some point #d) they retain enough loyalty to an earlier version of their friendship that they talk amiably about that fact #e) you know shits going to hit the fan as a result of their opposition but you know they cannot do otherwise #and f) they both regret it in a way #THISE SCENE GOES FOR ABOUT 25 SECONDS #you get a cast iron sense of their dynamic with no backstory AT ALL (harrietvane)