What is this even supposed to be?

I'm Halcyon, but you can call me Hal. ☆ twenty-something ☆they/them☆ icon from http://phius-art.tumblr.com ☆

[witch-in-pointy-hat]

Angel and devil on your shoulder except it’s Terry Pratchett saying writer’s block is fake and Douglas Adams being locked in a hotel room by his publisher so he’d actually work on his manuscript.

[penny-anna]

one argument you often see about fanfiction is that it's like 'training wheels' writing? like 'oh it's fine to do that while you're still learning, it's easier than coming up with your own ideas'. and I have to say I have just never agreed with that.

[penny-anna]

in my experience it's actually pretty common for newbie fanfiction writers to gravitate towards coming up with OCs rather than writing about the canon characters (hence the infamous Mary Sue); this suggests that many people find that 'easier' than attempting to write about pre-existing characters.

I would say that recreating the characterisation, mood and general vibes of an existing work of fiction is in fact a skill in and of itself that's acquired via practice. A common compliment delivered to fanfiction writers is how well they have captured the spirit of the original work. Inexperienced fanfiction writers fail to do this.

When creating an original character you can, ultimately, say anything about them and now it's canon bcos you created them and you said so. conversely, well, if you are covering a well known song and start playing the wrong notes people will notice immediately.

In addition: a lot of fanfiction, IMO, is in actuality a form of metafictional literary analysis. a story where two characters sit down and talk about their feelings about a canonical event? literary analysis, which is of course a skill. Sometimes fanfiction is bad bcos the writer is not good at interpreting texts.

finally I have made this point before but you never really see anyone suggesting that fictional works based on existing public domain texts are on 'easy mode'. is it 'easier' to write something based on a copyrighted work than a public domain work? Of course it isn't.

[penny-anna]

I know I said 'finally' but I forgot a point:

A major strength of the transformative work is its ability to create dramatic irony. If a fanfiction's emotional resonance is dependent on being familiar with the source material that's not necessarily a bad thing. sometimes it's a sign that the author has done a really skillful job of engaging with said source material.

[prismaprimrose]

Eva, world famous polyglot watching Grace pick up an entirely alien language in six month on the Vlogs after she dragged him all over the world for four years, having people speak English for his benefit, and translating for him while listening to him whine and winge about his own TeRrIbLe PrOnOuNcIaTiOn, knowing full well now he probably understood what everyone was saying around him just fine after six months, actually: Better stay up there...

Dimitri: What was that?

Eva in perfect Russian, glaring at the screen, Grace and Rocky having an arguement she can only understand half of: I said he better stay up there.

[radgepacket-deactivated20241030]

big day today

[buryymeinblack]

queued for the next wednesday the 12th

[buryymeinblack]

happy wednesday the 12th everyone

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Hi! Recently I've been reading a lot of (translated) Japanese fantasy light-novels for my sins, and they often fall into the pattern of "Find the nearest Adventurers Guild, sign up as a new adventurer, have the clerk explain how the guild works even though they all work the same in every fantasy universe, then go do the first quest which is Gather Herbs In Beginners Forest". As the best plantologist I know, I'd like to know your take on 1) how many newbie adventurers it'd take before all the healing herbs in the nearby Beginners Forest are gone, and 2) why don't they have herb gardens

Hahaha!!! Yeah

Alright:

This of course depends on factors such as how many adventurers, how big a forest, how resource-rich a forest, how often they forage, etc; but I think a reasonable estimate is probably A Week, all told

For the same reason prepper men don't learn fibre arts while preparing for doomsday - wild forests are more rugged and adventurous than gardening

The No-Prize:

There is a herb garden. It's extremely prolific and well-stocked and magically supplemented, and fastidiously maintained by breathtakingly well-paid gardeners in the Guild.

There are also forest managers. They rotate the sections adventurers are allowed to enter and forage; they maintain the roads leading to each entrance to be conveniently blocked off by landslide, itinerant fish markets, sleeping megafauna and a slew of alterable roadsigns and maps, to direct the newbies to the right one.

The gardeners supply the forest managers with a steady supply of new plants that can be transplanted into the resting sections and magically established, before being rotated into use for newbie adventurers to practice their skills. For bonus points, they'll also allow in low level monsters and the like, depending on the Guild's requirements.

And thus, magical ecological balance is maintained.

[gilgameshhimself]

(Getting swindled by a genie) it’s like talking to a fucking tumblr user with you

[higglety]

the genie: how dare you say I'm fucking a tumblr user

[kyoshi-lesbians]

my controversial opinion is I don’t think Zuko was confused by “my first girlfriend turned into the moon”

[kyoshi-lesbians]

he was there during siege of the North. he infiltrated the spirit oasis. he has an uncle who studies spirits and the spirit world. he watched the sky go dark then the moon suddenly reappear like everyone else in the entire world did. and most importantly he watched zhao get eaten by a giant godzilla fish spirit.

[kyoshi-lesbians]

his entire life since he saw that beam of blue-white light in the south pole has been ‘this day has already been so goddamn weird’

[edgar-allan-possum]

The only really new information was that that was Sokka’s girlfriend

[library-graffiti]

Important opinion in the tags that I need to have be part of the post:

[clearascountryair]

Also, Iroh was there? He literally watched Sokka make out with the moon spirit. And you want to tell me that a romantic sap like him would not have immediately told Zuko about this romantic tragedy? Please, Zuko has known about this for ages, he just knows that this is not an acceptable situation in which to say “yeah, I know.”

[terriwriting]

Sokka: “My girlfriend turned into the moon.”

Zuko: “I know.” “Yes.” “She sure did.” “Uh huh.” “Tell me something new.” “Are we still talking about that?” “That’s rough, buddy.”

[alexseanchai]

[image: tags by samwisethebold: #it’s not that he doesn’t get what sokka means #it’s that how on earth do you respond to that]

[uberguber89]

When you put it like that, this is actually a legendary display of tact on Zuko’s part

[cannibalcaprine]

K

[gumi-megpoidd]

U

[pepper-steak12]

N

[beetroot-merchant]

G

[four-two-six]

P

[ibuildblasters]

O

[shed-some-light]

W

[silaswhatever]

P

[beetroot-merchant]

U

[silly-gobbledygook-deactivated2]

S

[living-shifting-oil]

S

[asu-xu-namir]

Y

[star-mom-selkie]

[jacobtheloofah]

Visit Original Link

side note, teaching myself to pronounce that last one felt like learning a new fucking language

[jacobtheloofah]

10 years of hungolomghnonoloughongous….waow……

[strelitzicae]

The moon maiden's lullaby

[melonsharks]

"oh ryland. only you would cry over a bunch of rocks."

[queercanelady]

how it is apparently

[her-butchship-holly]

on the one hand i agree but on the other it doesn’t fucking matter. you think what you do has meaning? you think that convincing a single person to stop buying Harry Potter merch achieves anything? it doesn’t. the world operates on such an astronomically large scale that no individual action can actually effect it. you convince that guy; another million guys fill his place.

[ivyroseiris]

Youre acting as if boycotts dont work. They do.

Stpp being a defeatist and taking the blame off of people who fund JKR's attempt at genocide

[paper-mache-stars]

been thinking about grace and adrian being alike

[willgrahamscock]

⚠︎ ! your body has kept the score.

[willgrahamscock]

⚠︎ ! hospital ⚠︎ !

[shopcat]

look at this wonderful gif of scallops getting scared and scattering like a flock pigeons

[elioftheasphodel]

whatever. go my scallops

[whitachi]

last night I had the experience of "referencing a tumblr post that you think is widely known but turns out to not be as widely known as you thought it was" last night and it was this post. whatever. go my scallops

[oliviapescado]

[sailorbowie]

made in honor of this great silly automaton and the 5 other people who are playing this game (that I love so much)