hi!!!! i fell off the radar for AWHILE and im so sorry! organizing this by myself while trying to keep up with the prompts for my own fics and work and life and being an adult, things just got away from me! but the event is STILL HAPPENING!!!
if you want your creative work to be featured on this blog (and i hope you do!), please dont forget to tag this blog in ur post on tumblr and i will attempt to do my very best to reblog yβalls creations!!
if youβre worred about me missing it, just feel free to send me an ask or a DM directing me to your work and i will get right on that!!!
HAPPY CHENRICH WEEK EVE MY FRIENDS!!!!! and donβt forget abt the ERIKA MORI AND KATY BENTZ APPRECIATION DAY on the 17th!!!!
hey friends!!! itβs been a little while since iβve posted an update! life has gotten pretty busy for me lately, and iβm running this event solo. but huge thanks for all the followers and the interest <3 i canβt wait to see what everyone creates for this week!
reminder that it is coming up in just under a month! SEPTEMBER 10-17! the prompts are all listed on the sideblog and are open to ALL creators, whether youβre an artist, a writer, a gif maker, a video editor -- whatever it is! if you love chenrich, this is the week for you to create your little heart out!
If I have to be honest, Life is Strange True Colors fandom is the least toxic fandom of them all. Everyday, I keep seeing the same arguments from the LisSubreddit and Listwt, usually by the same group of people (whom I won't name - chances are, they might be on tumblr too and could be reading this too). Such as ship wars, which are the best endings, and let alone same insults everyday like "max flopfield" or listwt starting shit and being triggered over petty reasons or over nothing. But this is what happens when you're in the small fandom dedicating to Life is Strange, I know we're all desperate for new contents. So am I, but why use the same takes that'll cause unintentional or unnecessary drama for the sake of something new? I miss the old days when we're only writing fanfictions, drawing fanarts, or coming up with ADORKABLE headcanons :(
I get what you mean, and youβre right. The lack of new content means that old discussion (more like argument topics) get rehashed over and over. Social media like Twitter and Reddit tend to create their own echo chamber as the loudest voices drown out more nuanced takes and those people become too discouraged to continue (I unsubscribed from the LiS subreddit ages ago and I never go on Twitter). But nostalgia can be deceiving; the fanbase was more active in 2015 so there was more fanfiction and fanart, but on the flip side the ship wars were at their worst and LiS1 was the subject of awful online vitriol just because the protagonist was a teen girl. I still remember the downright nasty Pricefield vs. Amberprice ship wars in 2017 and the relentless hate (and racist reactions, but I wonβt go there rn) that LiS2 got in 2018. Nowadays itβs like LiS2 never existed and it bums me out, even if my feelings on the game have soured since 2018.
But Iβm gonna change the subject, because I was so interested in your wording βthe true colors fandom,β because I think thatβs a larger issue within LiS: the internal divisions within the series and the separate βmini fandomsβ for each game. Itβs sadly true that fans of LiS1 are rarely also fans of 2 because thereβs so little overlap. This series has has a weird trajectory from the beginning, because itβs clear that LiS1 was always meant to be a small standalone story that achieved runaway success and spawned a prequel by another studio, and then DN suddenly had to figure out how to turn LiS into an anthology series. But the very specific, unique, and unprecedented (for its time) style and cultural impact that LiS1 had simply cannot be replicated twice. As it stands, the dead parents, queer characters, supernatural elements, and indie soundtrack simply arenβt enough to keep these games feeling cohesive and like they are set in the same universe. And as such, they never attract the same fans back to the next game. Not to mention the spin-off content has been kind of lukewarm: I stopped reading the comics and it seems like everyone does not want the TV adaptation to happen.
Adding onto this, discussions about TC fizzled out disappointingly fast because itβs a shorter game with a safer, more conventional plot. The characters and main ships are the least problematic than theyβve ever been, the game is almost squeaky clean with its political correctness, and the choices are never controversial. The thing is, that leaves almost no room for discussion. I think Alexβs parents had a lot of potential for their choices and how they affected their children, for example, but theyβre barely in the game. TC kind of reminds me of Tell Me Why, actually: a very safe, careful, small game that was meaningful in the moment but one that people move on from quickly.
Anyway, thanks for sending this message, itβs nice to have a LiS-related ask again.
i just wanted to put my two cents in regarding new content for chenrich in particular! i am hosting a chenrich ship week to hopefully get people inspired to create new content for alex and steph, whether itβs new fics or new art or even fan vids or graphic edits or whatever else! so if people want to see more new content for chenrich in particular, they can follow this blog and check the sidebar for info on the prompts and the dates! itβs gonna be running from september 10-17, to celebrate the 1 year release date anniversary of LISTC itself :)
Hosting Chenrich Week 2022 on September 10-17. Dedicated solely to the Alex Chen/Steph Gingrich ship from Life Is Strange: True Colours.
YES there is a twitter if you would like to follow it there also! cross-posting (posting your creation to tumblr and to twitter) is totally encouraged for this event, so feel free to pop over there and give it a follow and continue to spread the word there!!
itβs almost been a FULL YEAR since true colours released!!! for those of you who donβt know, iβve created this blog specifically to host a Chenrich Ship Week to celebrate the one year anniversary release of the game! it will be starting on September 10 and going until September 17! the prompts are as follows (and can also be found on the side bar of this blog!)
Day 1: Gabe Lives AU
Day 2: Second Kiss
Day 3: Autumn/Fall
Day 4: Found Family
Day 5: Concert/Jam Session
Day 6: Camping
Day 7: Proposal
Day 8 (Bonus): Erika Mori & Katy Bentz Appreciation Day!
if youβre stuck for inspiration, you can refer to THIS POST for some ideas from me to get those creative ideas flowing! super excited and looking forward to seeing what everyoneβs gonna come up with!!
i will do my best to reblog the creations made for chenrich week, and i will be using the tag βchenrich weekβ or βchenrichweekβ or βchenrich week 22β³ to find the posts!
Hello again all! I wanted to make a specific post for the Chenrich Week prompts to hopefully help inspire any and all creators! Again, you can refer to the list more easily at any time by clicking through the link I have on the blogβs sidebar if you wish! But for some more in-depth details, please read on!
And again, all of the below ideas are just suggestions to get the ideas flowing! As long as you come up with something you think fits the prompt for the day, you are more than welcome to share whatever you come up with!
CHENRICH WEEK (September 10-17)
DAY 1 (Saturday): GABE LIVES AU
Obviously, without Gabeβs death, there wouldnβt have been a plot at all, but that doesnβt matter with fan works! Whatever you wish could have been given more focus while Gabe was alive, now is your chance to explore! Whether itβs seeing more of βProtective Big Brotherβ Gabe giving Steph the third degree, whether Gabe wouldβve been a little shit and teasing the hell out of both Alex and Steph for their crush, or whether itβs a flash-forward to the future where heβs Alexβs best man at their wedding, or cat-sitting at Steph and Alexβs apartment that definitely shouldnβt have that many cats, the possibilities for an alternate universe where Gabe lives are endless!
Steph and Alexβs first kiss was absolutely wonderful and earth-shattering of course, but what about their second kiss? After Alex suffered several awful bodily injuries, after Steph went through a period of anxiety and self-doubt and worry, after Jed confessed to be a liar in front of everyone, when and how do Alex and Steph approach the idea of βwho they are to each otherβ? Is their second kiss soft, full of relief? Is it a passionate promise of tomorrow?
Or, perhaps, if you want to deviate away from canon, is there an AU where a second kiss occurs? Perhaps they drunkenly met at a bar one night and ended up making out and the next morning one of them finds themselves over at the otherβs house. Or thereβs elements of mysticism and the supernatural involved where one of them remembers every life, but for the other, each rebirth or reincarnation is like kissing for the first time.
Autumn means Halloween, Thanksgiving... maybe even preparing for Christmas already! Maybe Steph learns that Alex never really had any good βtraditional holidayβ experiences in her childhood and decides to pull out all the stops. Is it a comedy of errors where Steph tries a little too hard and it all falls apart? Or maybe they have a nice quiet evening to themselves and enjoy each otherβs company!
Fall could also mean Stephβs trauma around the fall of Arcadia Bay rearing its ugly head once again. How would they process that together as a couple?
Thereβs a lot of warm and friendly people within the town of Haven. If Alex stuck around with Steph, what does it look like for her to settle into life with the people around her? How quickly does everything start to feel like home?
And if Alex and Steph decided to leave, to tour around the world, what would that look like? Who would they meet on the road, how would Alex feel around Stephβs old band contacts? Would Alex feel out of depth in βStephβs worldβ, or would they grow together as they travel?
Thereβs a few texts in the game between Steph and Alex that imply that they totally had one-on-one jam sessions together at the record shop. And obviously thereβs no way their performance at the Spring Festival was a fluke, so theyβve obviously rehearsed together! What would their jam sessions look like in a familiar space where theyβre alone together?
Or, perhaps, how does their first performance on the road go? Are they in a small dive bar where no one pays them any attention? Do Stephβs old contacts hook them up with a bigger venue right off the bat? Do they brainstorm band names beforehand or completely forget about that tiny little detail until Alex is standing at the mic for the first time?
Camping can be super romantic and serene. If youβre prepared, that is! Maybe Steph wants to take Alex out for a lovely experience in nature, just the two of them, and she forgets to bring something crucially important. Maybe Alex is just as confused as she is, or maybe sheβs a secret wilderness buff because one of her foster families put her in the girl scouts.
Do they get horribly lost while hiking because somebody canβt read a map? Or maybe their idea to rent a canoe wasnβt exactly the smartest one because neither of them really know how to paddle, exactly. They donβt know why they keep spinning in circles, they really donβt.
Who ends up getting down on one knee? Do they plan a surprise proposal, or is it something that is just so natural that thereβs no fanfare, almost as if it is an inevitable conclusion? Do they get friends involved with the occasion? Are they one of those βwe both somehow decided to propose to each other on the exact same dayβ sort of couples? What makes them decide to propose in the first place?
The final bonus/optional day is a day to appreciate the full performance artists (mocap for face&body as well as voice acting!) for Alex Chen and Steph Gingrich - Erika Mori and Katy Bentz!
Maybe itβs just making a post talking about your favourite moment in True Colours (or in Wavelengths as well as LIS: Before The Storm for Steph!) that you felt was performed really well. Something that just really grabbed at your heartstrings and pulled you into the world and made you experience it fully.
Since Erika and Katy are both on Twitter, this would be a wonderful chance for everyone around the same time to flood their mentions with appreciation, positive comments and so so much love. They worked really hard, and what better way to show them that their performances still impact so many of us, even one year after the release of the game.
Katy Bentz is also a streamer on Twitch! If sheβs streaming on Saturday, why not stop by and spread some love there! I personally frequent her streams fairly often, and she really does appreciate every message she gets from people who say how much her performance of Steph means to them. She doesnβt stream too often on Saturdays, so maybe get a headstart on this one and pop in on a Friday instead ;P
i love all the moments alex and steph have together in true colors but it's really funny to me that after they happen steph always just...leaves afterwards? like i know sheβs leaving for narrative reasons because other plot things need to happen without her after those moments but it just gets really funny when you think about her FINALLY getting to kiss her crush and confessing that she wants to be in a relationship and then immediatley running away
ok but wtf was steph thinking during the council meeting scene
like imagine you are her, yesterday you kissed a really pretty girl and you might be together but you're not sure and the next day she stops responding to your texts and you get super worried and ur freaking out and there's a big town meeting in a bar and its going well AND THEN THE PRETTY GIRL SHOWS UP HALF FUCKING DEAD AND LOOKING HORRENDOUS
i chose to leave Haven with Steph because I know that while It would be nice for Alex to have some stability after bouncing from place to place, an adventure on her own terms with the girl she'll eventually build a home with is what she needs right now.
