Writing fanfic, enjoying fandoms

She/Her. Marzo, writer of fanfiction and partaker of fandoms. I'm not on much anymore, but I'm always watching! 

[silversiren1101]

I'm realizing there are 3 types of Dragon Age fans.

1) Gamers who play latest big flashy action game

2) UwU kissy dating and besties simulator

3) Interested in the sociopolitical and theological themes and thesis statements the series is historically known for

Veilguard is not made for fan #3. It is a very pretty game that has absolutely nothing it wants to say--to the point that what it says by saying nothing is often times pretty offensive.

[martxoa]

Honestly it's not made for #2 either. I care a lot about the lore but also joke that DA is my favorite medieval dating sim...the amount of content our romances get is pretty weak tbh.

[martxoa]

"Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story" but romanced Leliana about a Warden who died fighting the Archdemon thank you good night.

[martxoa]

Also are we just gonna ignore that if you play a dalish warden in origins it is very possible that Hawke ends up slaughtering your entire clan in Dragon Age 2. Like. Merrill is in your clan. That's the same clan.

You think the warden ever heard what happened and went 'what the actual fuck.' Where's my Hawke vs. Warden fic where they're understandably out for revenge not knowing the full story of what happened.

[martxoa]

Not Dragon Age making me Lowkey want to write fanfiction again.

Seriously, I played the series backwards and I just started Origins, but Isabela/Fem!Hawke has absolutely rotted my brain.

[martxoa]

oh no, my brain started thinking about Zootopia for some reason

Someone ask me why I think it's a terrible allegory please

[thedandeliongarden]

Well, I just got here but; why do you think it’s a terrible allegory?

Bonus round: do you still think it’s a good film despite this?

[martxoa]

Wow I can't believe someone asked.

In short: it reads like it's about racism against white people. The villain is literally spouting conspiracy theories used in anti-immigrant rhetoric (we outnumber the predators so we'll take over! Muahahaha!) To be clear, I don't think anyone on the writing staff is racist or was trying to sneak anything in or something. I just find it poorly thought out.

And Judy wasn't a victim of racism. She was a victim of Being Tiny. I am 4'11 and overweight, if I said I wanted to be a cop and face dangerous criminals for a living I'd get laughed at too.

Beastars is an anime that handles this concept a lot better, I'd recommend it.

Otherwise...eh? It's fine. Surface level it's an OK don't judge a book message for the kids.

[martxoa]

Hey Creampuffs, out of curiosity, how ya think Laura's love of Harry Potter aged? Think if it was still going her blog would have mentioned it? xD

[martxoa]

The fandom is here to write fics about bumbleby hooking up in Jaunes cabin, meanwhile the show is like 'actually Yang snores so bad they ain't even spooning.' xD

[ekingston]

sometimes i say things on twitter and then make a little graph about it

[martxoa]

My first ever fanfiction was literally just me rage smashing a fic about how much I hated the Hans twist in Frozen and how much better I thought it would have been if they did it MY WAY.

[martxoa]

This is me emerging from deep hibernation to say congratulations to the gays for RWBY

I don't go in that fandom, but as someone who used to be deep trash for sapphic content (still am tbh, just less outspoken about it) I feel like I need to give y'all a shoutout. You kept up the good fight for ten years. Bumbleby shippers are the real deal.

Also can I just say RWBY generally just isn't my cup of tea, but in terms of aesthetic? Oh my god, 10/10. Cute reserved smart girl with cat ears with a rowdy blonde ray of sunshine? Sign me the fuck up. I saw the confession all over the place and the fact it gave me feels when I didn't even know them is a testament to how well crafted that scene was. Bravo guys, bravo.

[martxoa]

Aye, came here from your old fanfic Stronger Together. Glad that your alright mate. Yeah people interests change throughout their life so I guess enjoy what you enjoy.

Oh hey! Thanks for asking after me, it was kind of neat that someone cared enough xD (not that people don't). Like I said, I do really appreciate that you enjoyed my stuff. I'm proud of the sheer amount I managed to write for that fic even if I ultimately lost steam.

[fuckyeah2000s]

what’s the first movie you remember seeing in theaters? don’t try and be all edgy and cool and say like tetsuo: the iron man. be honest.

Go!!

[martxoa]

The Incredibles. However I do know that this was not the first movie I saw, just the first one I can recall, because I remember being mind blown when I realized movie theaters did in fact play the same movies multiple times a day when we decided we were gonna go to one later in the afternoon.

[martxoa]

oh no, my brain started thinking about Zootopia for some reason

Someone ask me why I think it's a terrible allegory please

[martxoa]

The Kaguya-Sama Dub is Awful Even if the Narrator is Funny

When you're translating something, the purpose is to try and keep as much of the original meaning of the work as possible while making it accessible to a western audience.

In the Kaguya-sama dub they didn't just entirely miss the point of the narrator's humor (taking every action the characters make and treating with all the seriousness of a spy thriller) they decide to do literally the exact opposite. That's terrible localization, I'm sorry. And honestly in a way kind of disrespectful to the work you're adapting.

[martxoa]

Have you ever wished golf had way more wlw subtext?

PLEASE check out Birdie Wings: A Golf Girls Story.

[julymp4-deactivated20251125]

ppl complaining about the quality of first kill have forgotten their herstory

[martxoa]

Look I'm probably not going to watch First Kill because I'm a disgusting weeb now and I've kind of outgrown Carmilla (but with very fond memories of its fandom) but man I love that it exists.

[oddeyesarcpendulumdragon]

based on a true story

[real-life-pine-tree]

I don’t think Fortnite is to blame for kids nowadays not reading…

[askshadetrixieandfamily]

That’s the joke. It’s the authoritarian overbearing parent.

[ranty9000]

He was being sarcastic lol

[draconic-duelist]

Reminded me of these

[vaporwavevocap]

That violin one hit close to home.

[kaldicuct]

I remember doing homework once, asked my grandmother if she was proud of me. “Do some thing for me to be proud of.” That hurt.

[bundibird]

That comic up there – I witnessed almost that exact scenario. Teacher wanted the kids to all pick books. One kid spots something on the shelf and gets visibly excited. Pulls it out and starts reading. Teacher sees it, snatches it off him and tells him that this is a book for 8 year olds (the kid was 15ish) and tells him to get a book more appropriate for his age. Kid slouches around the shelves for about 10 minutes, finally picks up a book at random and sits in his chair tucking the edges of each page into the binding to make that looped-page look. He didn’t read a word. He sat there and did this to his book for the remainder of the reading session:

He had been genuinely excited about the 8 year old book he’d picked up. It was a new one in a series he used to read as a younger kid. He’d been actively sitting and reading, and then he was embarrassed in front of his classmates, told off for reading a kids book, and voila. He lost all enthusiasm for reading anything else that day.

What’s worse? That kid had been hit by a car like a year and a half earlier. Severe brain trauma. Had to re-learn a lot of basic things, like how to speak and how to read.

An 8 year old book would have been perfect for him. Easy enough to read that it would have helped rebuild his confidence in his own reading ability. A book meant for 15/16 years olds? A lot harder to read than a book for 8 year olds. Especially if you’re recovering from a relatively recent brain injury.

And yeah, the teacher knew all about his brain injury, and the recovery. He just seemed go be of the opinion that the kid was 15, so he should be reading books for 15 year olds, irrespective of brain injury.

[mighty-meerkat]

Reading this thread I’m reminded of Daniel Pennae’s The Rights of the Reader, which can be found in a lot of bookshops and school libraries: 

The child speaking at the bottom in Quentin Blake’s distinctive spiky handwriting is saying ‘10 rights, 1 warning: Don’t make fun of people who don’t read - or they never will’

[prismatic-bell]

OKAY LISTEN

This thread is fucking depressing so I wanted to add an example of what can happen when the RIGHT approach is taken.

My best friend is a school librarian. But for a few years, she taught 7th and 8th grade. This was right around 2010.

She assigned a book report. You could do any book you wanted, but she had to approve your choice.

Some girl chose Twilight.

Alicia called me and said “I don’t know what to do. Her other teachers said it was a miracle she picked a book at all. She won’t even read two paragraphs for homework. But…it’s TWILIGHT.” Which, yes, Alicia had read, because it was popular with her students and she felt like she had to keep abreast of their likes and dislikes to be effective. (For those who weren’t around for this, or don’t remember: a lot of schools and teachers were banning Twilight more or less on the basis of finding it trashy.)

I said: “tell her yes. But tell her that if she wants to read Twilight, there are some questions you want her to keep in mind while she reads.” And advised her to tailor those questions around things that bothered her about the books (for example, Edward’s stalking of Bella).

She did.

A few weeks later she called me again.

The girl decided to read the whole series, got halfway through Breaking Dawn, took her the book, and said “Mrs. [name], I just don’t LIKE any of these people.” Normally, Alicia would’ve recommended Harry Potter, but again: these were the only books the girl had been known to pick up in YEARS, and the final Potter book was just barely three years old. If she’d wanted to read it, she already would have. Alicia’s preferred genre is one I call Tudor-lite (Jane Austen, Philippa Gregory, that stuff), and she was pretty sure the stuff she was really into wouldn’t pass muster with her student.

I was still living in the same area as Alicia at the time, so I told her to ask the girl what she HAD liked about Twilight, give me the answers, and my creepy-loving ass would make a recommendation and give her a book. Based on her answers, I gave her my copy of ‘Salem’s Lot and told her to tell the girl she could keep it as long as she liked.

I NEVER GOT IT BACK.

This girl went from ‘Salem’s Lot to Dracula. And from Dracula to Frankenstein. And from Frankenstein into the wider world of gothic literature. By the end of the school year she’d plowed through almost fifty books—which meant ALMOST THREE PER WEEK.

All it took was being told “sure, you can like Twilight” and then “it’s okay, you don’t have to like Twilight.”

A little sun, a little rain, a little love—that’s all it takes to make a flower grow.

(And sometimes, a copy of a book you will have to accept it was time to lose, because it will bear more fruit in different soil.)

[martxoa]

I want to thank everybody who helped my werewolf post blow up because I saw it while scrolling Pinterest the other day and that's how I know I made it.