Checkmate

Haddock | 32 | she/her Hello hello! Call me Haddock! Dedicated Dragonmarker, FMA obsessee, GF lover, music composer, professional linguist, and all around fandom nut. HTTYD + other fandom analysis blog. NOT SPOILER FREE, but all spoilers and topics tagged thoroughly. I can't guarantee I'll respond because life's busy, but feel free to stop by and chat! Please don't send book/show/etc. recommendations - thanks! Expect a decent helping of other fandoms like FMAB, GF, LOTR, and VLD. I have a separate video gaming blog for Undertale and Mass Effect.

[kingofthewilderwest]

I've been on tumblr a decade and never made a pinned post so let's do the overdue yeeeet.

Me: Haddock (she/her) 30s Perpetually garrulous and out-of-the-loop for what's cool ˖.✦*｡

I don't watch / play a lot, but when I do, I have Everything to say

I work in linguistics as my dayjob, but you shouldn't trust my old linguistics posts from when I was a cocky grad student. Washed up classical music composition major from Back In Ye Daye. Woo.

What I post: Primarily fandom content including but not limited to: DreamWorks, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gravity Falls, How to Train Your Dragon, Voltron, other animation, yada yada. Most known for being in the HTTYD community. Historically a fandom analysis blog... life keeps me busy so I don't answer much anymore. BUT I LOVE and read all asks, and there's a chance I'll respond and analyze away. ;)

Traditionally I've kept my video game interests to my sideblog and my record-collecting / bluegrass interests to my other sideblog (Earl Scruggs my beloved). All blogs are active, but I'm tempted to post on main and everything goes everywhere. May chaos reign!

I'm currently in a classical music kick so if you want to entertain me, let me scream about violas, Mozart, counterpoint, flute trill fingerings, ridiculous classical music history stories, and everything else you didn't know you didn't want to know.

I do not post politics, world news, etc. posts. This isn't because I don't care (I do), but because tumblr is a personal space of diversion. Everyone is welcome on my blog and I hope to make it a place of joy and entertainment. I am Christian, so there may be the occasional faith-based reblog.

Everything (everything) is tagged carefully, including spoilers, in case there's something you want to blacklist. <3

I love making friends and keeping tumblr as a community-community, so feel free to say hi! ^^

[p-artsypants]

Sure, they can recreate HTTYD2 with real people. Some people might even like it.

But they will never, NEVER recreate that first teaser trailer where Hiccup took off his helmet for the first time and we all went feral over his glow up.

[fforsythiaaa]

Once when I was in undergrad, someone described something as “problematic” in class and our professor was like, “That’s cool, but ‘problematic’ doesn’t really mean anything. It means that the thing you’re describing has a problem, and in and of itself that’s not bad. Art, especially, should always have problems, or else it’s not interesting and not art, either. It sounds like you’re trying to say that this is bad, but you don’t want to say ‘bad.’ Is that right?”

So from then on whenever one of us called something problematic, he would make us talk it out until we could name the “bad” thing we were hinting at. In this particular class, 7/10 it was some type of oppression, and the remainder was like, “I’m uncomfortable because this is very new/confusing/pushing boundaries that made me feel safe.”

Once we stopped calling things “problematic” and stopping at that, class got way more interesting and... we all had to say, like, “that’s racist” or “that’s misogynistic” or “ew capitalism gross” out loud, which a lot of us had never done in a classroom before. Or we had to be like, “Uhhh... I’m not sure what’s so bad?” and confront our own beliefs and that was maybe even more useful.

Anyway. Whenever I see the word problematic, I can’t help but think of this professor being like, “Good starting point, now let’s get specific.” I think when we have to commit to saying “that’s ___” it requires a lot more careful thought about the truth and impact and complexities of whatever we’re claiming. Sometimes there really is some bullshit afoot, and also sometimes it’s art, and it should be full of problems, because that’s what art is.

[leonardbirdstein]

Your honour, I love him 🥰

[hugsohugs]

one genre of fanfiction that seems to have mostly disappeared since i became an adult is shenanigans-type fics. like not exactly crack but just "the gang goes to 7-11" type, extremely low-stakes plot stories. the beach episodes of fanfiction. i just feel like i don't see those around so much anymore. whered they go. i miss them :(

[httydpolls]

Which game do you see as the most canon?

School of Dragons

Rise of Berk

Titans Uprising

Dawn of the New Riders

Something Else

Voting ended onJun 4

[jayalaw]

4AMonthCreate

@kingofthewilderwest and I were talking about this, a lowkey challenge to create one item a month - writing, art, anything you like - based on monthly prompts. @everlastingfable and @ashleybenlove also showed interest so tagging you two. If anyone wants to be tagged in upcoming posts, just reply here.

The idea is just get them muse going. Each month will have four prompts premiering on the first, and you can choose one or more to inspire a creation.

June Prompts

Whimsy

Cricketing

Solstice

Fireflies

My only rule: NO GEN AI! This is not for bragging rights or prizes, just getting a creative spark going. Using a generative AI prompter misses the point of that. Let’s have some positive reinforcement here.

[kingofthewilderwest]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! LET'S A-GO!!!!!

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

I'm probably going to start with a cake decorator AU idea that I came up with last week. That's whimsy! Goal: post chapter one this June 😊

[janmisali]

pick whatever option the person you're following who reblogged this post didn't pick. if they didn't say in the tags what they picked or if you're seeing the original post and not a reblog, pick at random instead.

first option

second option

Remaining time: 17 hours 45 minutes

[quanta-44]

Opinion here, I think that food allergies should count as an invisible disability.

If you have a food allergy, you have to put extra time, effort and money into simply getting the nutrition you need to survive, navigating unclear ingredient lists, recipe changes and confusing "may contain" disclaimers. Free from foods, which are foods that have been made without and tested for allergens, often cost far more than regular food items, and are only available for the most common allergens.

You have to be hypervigilant with every product you buy, not just food, since it is not required for companies to clearly state common allergens on cosmetics or medicines, or even in clothes!

Having food allergies also limits you socially (rip to my already socially limited self). Attending any event where food might be involved becomes a nightmare, as you have to plan what you will say to the people making/serving the food, and carry your own backup food. And food is involved in almost any social gathering you can go to. It takes days of planning, often searching for information that is incomplete or not included, to simply go to a restaurant or on holiday. And even if a place seems accessible, you are often met with disappointment on arrival. Trying to manage everyday outings, which should be fun and simple, can become really stressful. You have to carry epinephrine auto injectors with you everywhere, cause you never know if you'll meet an allergen in the wild, which means you have to carry a bag with you all the time :(

I have been stopped at airport security for carrying epinephrine injectors. I have been told I can't take my own food into cinemas (what am I supposed to do, buy food I'm allergic to?). I have been excluded at school, had teachers not understand or just outright ignore my allergies, I've been singled out for being the "allergy kid". I've been told that I can't attend peoples birthday parties because I have allergies and I'm "too difficult". And don't get me started on the bullying. Very few people seem to understand and take allergies seriously.

And allergies are serious. I could die from an allergic reaction if I come into contact with an allergen.

Having food allergies is exhausting and stressful and there isn't enough awareness of them and there aren't enough people and places willing to make accommodations. They limit what I am able to do quite a lot, since I can't eat some things without, um. Dying. And they limit my social life even more. I would say that they disable me.

[kingofthewilderwest]

Seeing these responses back-to-back is SENDING me AHAhhh

[tsumugiology]

random question:

what was your first exposure to prev and what made you decide to follow them?

[kingofthewilderwest]

Number of words written in the last two months for fics: 15,100

Number of words POSTED for completed units of fics: 1,721

AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[kingofthewilderwest]

@hellssharks

Tyyyyy so much!!!!!!!!!! ❤︎😊❤︎ Appreciate the kind words! YAY!

The idea of killing your darlings to hone your art is a great one. I feel like I grapple a lot with that in music composition, too. But as you more or less said—it can bring a great end product. No words are wasted when you're learning or winnowing a project into something satisfactory.

In truth, right now, while there has been a chapter I've rewritten multiple times from scratch since spring, the OG chapter will mostly be reused, just much later than intended in the fic. So most of my 15,000 words WILL see the light of day!

My longer chapters have been progressing slower than I've wanted as I've tried shaping them, so that's most of where the large word count but zero posted output is.

"Let's just do something short. I can post it. Then I will feel satisfied I'm completing something. That'll make me feel good as I keep sculpting my longer chapters." <- A good idea. In theory. That. I've been doing.

Aaaaaaand yet this Oneshot Theory has engendered chaos, because my brain is very overpowered And Yet Scattered, and I am multiplying WIPs like rabbits on aphrodisiacs.

My WIPs, for one fandom, I've worked on since March.

FML common writer problems tho amirite

[catholic-on-main]

Is this anything?

[markovchaingang]

hey you. teenage girl writing in her diary. quit talking about the boy you have a crush on and start writing about the current political situation, the valuation of currencies, and the level of technology your people hold. your diary might be the only piece of evidence our society existed after nuclear war fries all of our data backups. future historians don't need to know about damian, they need at least a secondhand accounts of the great water wars and whether or not your leaders truly did worship a deity called "the free hand of the market"

[mothnem]

Keep writing about your crush Teenaged Girl. About your clothes, and how that other girl wore the same dress as you. Paint me a picture of what you were like.

[enchantedlantern]

Historians are going to hear about Damian and they're gonna LIKE IT

[kingofthewilderwest]

Perfect Instagrammy location photos a la influencer wannabe creep me out. Not that it lacks skill to take photos, but. I'm not here for trend or clout. I'm not mirroring others, going to the same locations or doing the same things or doing the same poses for no more reason than repeating what others who are getting views are doing. I'm not doing it for cool person points, like my visits are an ad to myself. Flawless photos, flawless photos, like a social commodification of recreation. I'm not here to have the locations make ME look good. If I'm in an awesome spot, I'm here to enjoy the awesome spot, and if I want to be in the photo, a dumb selfie or group shot with flaws commemorates the joys of living a real life in a real world.

[ravioliet]

"why can't they just be friends?" not in the homophobic sense, but in the "in your need to center romance in everything you are missing the whole point of the media in question" sense

[samreich]

preshow rituals can look like anything 🥰