raggedy queer muppet. fanvidder. fic writer. visual artist. purveyor of squee. Still obsessed & mostly reblogging all things Witcher (all canons). Also sci-fi, horror, and all the women in all the lands. And all the cool art.
January
Bones (The Fall of the House of Usher, ensemble)
May
Wobble (Monkey Man 2024, Kid action tribute)
June
Dirty (Shadow and Bone, Crows ensemble + Kaz)
July
Dead of Night (The Witcher Netflix season 3, Yennefer/Thanedd/Yennefer/Geralt)
August
Every Step That I Take (Shadow and Bone, Kaz Brekker)
September
Only Happy When It Rains (Stigmata 1999, Frankie Paige(/Andrew Kiernan))
December
You're Gonna Go Far Kid (The Witcher Netflix, Aplegatt)
Losing My Religion (The Witcher Netflix season 3, Ensemble + Ciri)
Vidding Process Resources
A Vidding Primer - brief intro about the vidding process with resources + community links. 1700w.
A Guide for Discovering Fanvids - originally written in 2023 but archived on AO3 in 2024. How to use AO3 and tumblr to find fanvids. 709w.
How to Leave Feedback on Fanvids - originally written in 2022 for the Witcher Commnent Crawl but archived on AO3 in 2024. Examples of different kinds of comments. 1300w.
Vid Recs
Let’s Talk About Vids - I contributed a vid rec for this vidding zine, a zine run by @cosmic-llin with many contributors this year. Lots of great vids and vid talk!
Vid Rec Ask Game - I pitched the idea of a vid rec ask game during VidUKon and @heliological put this together with help from Gus and Emma. You can check out a bunch of amazing vidder’s recs here in the tag and in the reblogs.
Kuwdora Vid Rec Compilations:
2024 was the year of getting back into writing recs. I wrote over 120 recs for fanvids. I created a series called “Saturday Morning Vid Recs” which gave me a tidy deadline of when to complete/share recs. I wanted folks to see a lot of new and old vids that I’ve found incredible and hopefully encourage people to watch/share.
Saturday Morning Vid Recs:
FEELINGS & THAT DYNAMIC (12 recs, BIG emotional feelings and joy and soul)
Vidder Ask Game - I answered a ton of questions about my vids and vidding process which you can browse through the tag here for text and video and lots of navel gazing and links.
Naked Vid Draft Series (watch kuwdora make a vid)
Dead of Night (The Witcher Netflix, Yennefer/Thanedd):
Process Video: the first 30 seconds
First Draft Sneak Peek
Timeline Progress
Losing My Religion - vid outline, rough drafts, revision notes
Archiving Project - Kuwdora Vids on AO3
2007 Kuwdora Vids (95% complete)
2008 Kuwdora Vids (incomplete)
2019 Kuwdora Vids (incomplete)
The most complete archive list is this pinned post in my dreamwidth. Which you can see from the length why this is a an Ongoing Project to Archive.
Lots and lots of notes and thoughts and details about my 2024 vids, writing recs and trying to write about the vidding process. All beneath the readmore. These are the same questions I've been answering (more or less*) since 2007. 🤯 !!
*I've dropped a few q's from the original meme over the years since they just didn't work for me. But it's 95% the same questions Since The Beginning, aha.
Overall thoughts:
This year I only finished 8 vids and I think I only have one WIP that I started in 2024 that I did not finish and it’s 90% finished so I might try to get that done before Festivids drops at the end of the month.
I spent a significant amount of time thinking about recs and writing recs. My vidding communities originated on journal platforms and the fractured nature of fandom spaces these days means there’s a lot of amazing things people have no idea exists, or they get recced behind discord walled gardens or at online cons. Or vids are passing under the tumblr radar because, as many vidders themselves have noted, tumblr is a very difficult platform for visibility/engagement for fanvids.
I get a lot out of watching vids in discord/con group watches but I really wanted to get back to writing/sharing recs. Cause these are really cool fanworks.
I also spent a lot of time thinking about my vidding process. This year I had a great desire to try and share about what I’ve learned and how I’ve engaged with this creative act, and how it’s been an enduring hobby for me for…18 years. Fuck. That meant I wrote a primer about the vidding process, I started archiving previous things I’ve written about vidding on tumblr. I’ve also started rummaging livejournal/dreamwidth to archive other things I’ve presented at cons and in interviews/community spaces about vidding.
Also trying to (slowly) archive my old vids on AO3. Not everything is on YouTube because of copyright or the source material has nudity/some other obscenity, so my pinned post in my dreamwidth remains the most complete list of my fanvids over the years. For now.
Final vid breakdown:
I made 8 vids. 5 of them were different sources. 3 vids were The Witcher Netflix, 2 vids were Shadow and Bone. Two films (Stigmata and Monkey Man). And a Festivid for the Mike Flanagan show The Fall of the House of Usher. 50% of my vids were ensemble pieces. 90% of these vids I finished in a month, two months at most.
Vidding Process notes:
My biggest hurdle was burnout and my inability to work on my old WIPs that I have been gnashing my teeth to work on and even rewatched the source for and got excited to work on again but didn’t manage to get any traction on them. But also I focused a lot of effort on writing recs and talking about my vidding process, which I think was a good use of the working brain I had left.
The Witcher Netflix remains my favorite thing to be vidding at the moment. I’m vidding so close to the source, so close to my fannishness about the the source, the various witcher canons, and the fandom. Those vids are probably less readable to those who aren’t into the show/fandom, but I fucking adore vidding this show.
Favorite Vid:
Dead of Night - My Witcher Netflix Yennefer/Thanedd vid of intrigue. I love the actress who plays Yennefer, and I really reallllly loved working on this. The feeling of when the verses and choruses were coming together was fannish euphoria. Dopamine of the highest degree.
Hardest to make:
None of these vids were hard to make. Which is something I’ve rarely been able to say when it comes to my vids. The hardest thing I encountered this year was my inertia. I’ve been so burnt out and dealing with job hunting fuckery and a toxic workplace that I just didn’t have the brain to start or work on anything that would be challenging me. I needed fun and frictionless this year, and that’s what I made for myself.
Most successful:
Dirty - Shadow and Bone Crows ensemble. I made this as a premiere for VidUKon. It went over SO WELL and I was elated to watch the chat stream by with cheers and to see some recs and comments come in on it. I let myself play a little with some After Effects transitions I had bought many years ago since I thought the song would greatly benefit from that kind of snappy slick editing. It was a lot of fun and the song went over really well with the audience, too.
My best vid:
These are all my best vids. Every year I feel more confident in what I’m making and how I’m making a vid. If I were to think about what an audience might say might be my best vid - it would either be Dirty/Crows ensemble vid or my Losing My Religion Witcher Ensemble+Ciri vid due to how well I nailed a specific tone and emotional atmosphere.
When it comes to technical/structural best I would say that would be Bones, my Fall Of House of Usher vid. That’s an ensemble vid with something like 9 fucking characters and it was so much to try and cram into a single vid. I framed the vid by beginning with the ending of the show and ended it with the ending of the flashback with Roderick and Madeline. The first Bridge/chorus I did a brief overview of the Usher family and the intrigue/deal with the Angel of Death. Then each verse I introduced two Usher siblings, and then introduced two more and kept stringing the Usher Horribleness along the timeline until it just kept Escalating. It was so much fun. This is the type of vid that is probably most appreciated to watch just after you watch the show when the source material is so fresh in your mind.
Most fun vid:
You’re Gonna go Far Kid, a super niche Witcher Netflix vid. This is not a fun subject, but it was fun to finally come up with a song for an idea that I wanted to do since the summer. This is the type of vid that will probably only make the most sense to people who have read both the books and are fans of the show because it’s a wry commentary about Netflix’s adaptation choices and how it really just…fell flat. My vid notes about this are longer than the actual vid and I rambled even more in the comments to mayoho about it. It’s fun but it’s also ridiculous and really made for that audience of like 4 people. Heh.
Favorite vid moments:
Dead of Night - 3:18-3:48 - Fighting and dancing and fucking. The choreography of this makes my soul vibrate. 🔥🔥🔥
Wobble - 2:08 - 2:18 - This action sequence makes me fucking cackle so fucking much. So much. I love it so much. I also love everything else in this vid, too.
And the entirety of Losing My Religion is my favorite vid moment.
Things I learned in 2024:
I learned it’s possible for me to set up structure to write and post/share vid recs. I also learned that I have quite a lot to say about vidding. I didn’t manage to work on or share anything about song choice (I started writing something for the vidding zine and didn’t get far because brain squish blahs) but I’m also quite happy with how well my vid recs and vid meta was received this year. I wasn’t sure about it when I started working on those projects but it was really gratifying to see folks were interested in what I had to say and share
I also had some revelations about what it is about songs that make my brain tick. Also I realized how my finished vids definitely reflect that “holy shit two cakes” meme you see floating around fic spaces. I’ve made the same exact vid several times and I’ve even been able to freak out (happily and incredulously) when I’ve been able to pin down my vidding style because of that.
I also am still coming to terms with letting go of vid WIPs while also still wanting to figure out how to hack my brain to get the motivation back because I genuinely am excited and want to be working on those vids.
I also learned that I am not going to get tired of vidding The Witcher Netflix and that’s probably not going to change for awhile.
In 2025:
Every year I have ambitious plans that inevitably get derailed. I say as much every year in this meme (go ahead and click thru previous years). The past two years I’ve been in burnout and my health woes are wearing me down in new ways so it’s been a struggle. I need to be less ambitious. But that doesn’t mean I can’t daydream and…have desires. Intentions, maybe. This is all with a grain of salt, right. I want to write more vidding process stuff but that's still ambiguous in my head.
And for the past 3 or so years I keep saying I’ve been wanting to work on my Moonhaven and my Green Knight vids. I’m still not ready to let those fall into my never-finish WIP pile. It’s been strange that I can’t seem to let these two go when I’ve been able to let go of other vid WIPs. So I want to figure out what this hangnail is in my brain about these vids are. Would be a dream to finish them..
I want to write more about my vidding process - and hope that others might find it interesting if I were to actually try and get out all these sticky intuitive things in my head and articulate them.
I want to write more vid recs in 2025, and possibly ping the vidding discord and Fan Tech discord for ideas to make vid rec templates/setting up automations for sharing recs more easily across platforms. I have so many ideas but also I keep spiralling out into burnout. I have at least 2 more Saturday Morning Vid Rec themes that I have vids for I just need to finish writing/formatting. And I want to do another round of Festivid Recs for the 2024 collection that will go live at the end of the month.
I want to continue archiving my old vids on AO3 and maybe remember to crosspost here on my main blog or my @kuwdoravids sideblog, and probably set up some automating crossposting to bluesky.
As for vid ideas. I have so many. I also think I need to set myself up wtih a combination of “vids that are going to be fun and easy to work on” and make sure I have myself set up with clipping so I can just ease right into it when I need the dopamine boost. But I also have a growing desire to finally work on some more challenging vid ideas that I’ve had brewing for awhile.
Some Vid Ideas for 2025:
Captain Janeway Kuwdora Thesis Statement Vid - I discovered my Janeway vidsong in 2019 and it’s been 6 years of rewatching and fannishly meditating on this vid. It might be time to embark upon this. The last time I spent this much time Actively Contemplating for a vid was for High Voltage and…this would be a similar type of Great Character Scope. Huge project though. I have DVDs to rip and 20+ episode seasons to trawl through and clip. But the end result… nobody would be ready. Maybe this year?… maybe.
Interview with a Vampire. There’s only two seasons here but during VidUKon @sandalwoodbox gave a panel presentation on audio editing and the season 2 finale was airing that weekend. My brain just had a cataclysmic idea. Not just an idea. An Idea. Something that would focus on POV and memory / unreliable narrators. This vid concept would be outside my wheelhouse because of the song / audio editing involved. Which is something I haven’t done before (or at least to this specific extent). So it’s scary and new in a way and I think might be really refreshing challenge for me to try.
Sydney Character Vid - The Bear. I’ve rewatched this show like 4 times already and I adore Sydney. I meant to make this vid in 2024 but just didn’t get to it. I have a song, I have the love. I just need to sit down and grind through the clipping process.
Black Sails/Andor. This might be a great vid for WisCon VidParty, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to make for a few years now. Andor season 2 is coming out at some point but I think I could make it without the second season.
Foundation - I have two Foundation vid ideas I keep bouncing around with. I adore the visuals and the actor’s performances so fucking much, and I’m obsessed with Salvor and Gaal. This is something I’m really keen on and am most likely to start and finish since it’s limited source and a relatively contained concept (while one vid would also a tribute to one of my favorite vidders that inspired me when I first started vidding). Also a good idea for WisCon Vid Party if that happens this year.
Now looking back on this list that I’m writing on January 1st 2025 will be fun because odds are I’m going to pop out another 4 Witcher vids and probably hiccup out three impulsive festivid treats that I didn’t think I’d make, lol. I mean I’ll make Witcher vids regardless, I’m just wanting to dream about my other vid ideas for now.
[ID from Alt: A drawing of a smiling gecko holding on to a sunflower. The caption reads, "maybe today's a recharge day rather than a problem solving day". End ID]
The other night husband and I were watching a documentary about the yeti where they were doing DNA analysis of samples of supposed yeti fur, and every one of them came back as bears.
Anyway, the next night we watched a thing about some pig man who is supposed to live in Vermont. People said it had claws and a pig nose but walked upright like a man. Now, I happen to know that sideshows used to shave bears and present them as pig men. So every piece of evidence they gave of this monster sounds to me like a bear with mange.
So now the running joke in our house is that everything is bears. Aliens? Bears. Loch Ness monster? Bear. Every cryptozoological mystery is just a very crafty bear.
Bears. They’re everywhere. Be wary. Anyone or anything could be a bear.
As the OP of this post, I’m going to threaten that if this gets to one million notes by the 10 year anniversary on 1 June 2026, one year from today, I will get a lower back tattoo of the loch ness bear monster.
never related to authors being like "childhood is such a blessed innocent time", catch me with that jane eyre shit like "such dread as children only can feel" and "I then sat with my doll on my knee til the fire got low, glancing round occasionally to make sure nothing worse than myself haunted the shadowy room"
"Adults can change their circumstances; children cannot. Children are powerless, and in difficult situations they are the victims of every sorrow and mischance and rage around them, for children feel all of these things but without any of the ability that adults have to change them. Whatever can take a child beyond such circumstances, therefore, is an alleviation and a blessing."
I find this passage from the Mary Oliver essay "Staying Alive" very poignant and true.
Everything I read about recovering from burnout is like “it takes months or even years to fully recover” and it’s like okay…. I have a weekend before I gotta clock in on Monday
I'm forcing my sister to watch black sails and she hates flint (gates pushed her over the edge) so much lmfao. She says she doesn't give a fuck what his motivations are there's no way they could be good enough for her unless. and I quote. "he's doing it all for the gays or something"
