#fan rambles

[yourlocalsilly2763]

I just realized something

the profile for the Disaster!007n7 skin is the same as this image from the updated c00l carnival house

[jurijurijurious]

Still sketching and thinking about these two and the RotS AU I sorta started 20 years ago...

I drew a lot of pretty gay sketches of Dooku and Grievous for my AU ideas back in the day. There's an unavoidable amount of homo that comes with one man saving, nursing and restoring another. I honestly never really intended the gayness at the time, but now I'd actually be keen to explore their bromance. It isn't inherently sexual, I don't think, but it's one that contains a strange, deep bond, an unspoken loyalty.

Even now, I still very much cling to the pre-RotS Clone Wars cartoon Grievous (how very 2003 of me) who was a sinister and efficient murderer of Jedi; contemplative, insidious, deadly. That is Dooku's protégé. Grievous owes Dooku everything, including his life. I'm attached to the idea that he is like a loyal guard dog and would save Dooku at high cost to himself.

The idea of bionics, of becoming a machine, is anathema to Dooku. There's a lot about the lengths Grievous has gone to to survive - or agreed to go to - that, deep down, disgust Dooku. Grievous likely knows this but, when the General saves the Count after Anakin has severed Dooku's hands, Grievous still choses to give Dooku bionic hands anyway. He knows the Count will hate them. Yet he knows Dooku will need them for what is to come.

But what does come next? Does Dooku break from Sidious? There can be no other option. The Sith Master was banking on Anakin killing the Count. But the plan failed and now Sidious is an apprentice short.

But former Sith apprentices cannot just walk away.

Can Sidious be outmanoeuvred? Does Dooku out him to the galaxy? But to whose advantage? Who are his friends? He cannot ally with the Republic, that corrupted vessel he has lost all faith in. Perhaps he can still strike out on his own? But who else might join him? Maybe an ideological senator from Naboo if he allows her to discover that the man she enabled to become Chancellor, a fellow citizen of Naboo, is actually the Sith Master the Jedi have been seeking all along. But after everything, would she trust a former Jedi - and former Sith - and his droid armies over the equally duplicitous Palpatine?

But say she does join Dooku. What will Anakin Skywalker do if his mentor, Palpatine, remains on one side of the war, but his secret beau, Padmé Amidala, absconds to another?

Ugh, I love speculative AUs...

[goldentail-readswarriorcats]

I NEED THIS BOWTIE SO BAD

[sjbattleangel]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who legitimately enjoyed the sequels (especially The Last Jedi); who loved the characters of Rey Of Jakku and Rose Tico.

[akai-kiki]

I’ve noticed that the recent event honestly seems to have nothing to do with Don’s upcoming chapter, which has me… worried?

Like, I get the feeling if Project Moon is giving us this little to go off of for what the next chapter will be like, it’s going to be an absolute gut punch. They’re pretty good at knowing when to withhold information for dramatic effect.

[theromanticscrooge]

Rambles About AleHeather and my Fan Stuff

I’ve been thinking about what cartoons and media I’ve watched over the years that stuck with me in a significant way. The one cartoon that’s stuck to me like glue is Total Drama World Tour. Or more specifically, how the characters Alejandro and Heather have been living in my mind rent free for the past 10 years. 

I’ve been embarrassed about admitting that this stupid cartoon was part of my life, but the older I get, the less fucks I give. Everyone has some kind of media they enjoy and significantly engage with, whether it’s geeking out with friends or writing fan fiction about or whatever. There’s so many established authors and artists that got their start writing fan fics or drawing fan art. And it can be a fantastic outlet for self-expression, too. And who cares if that “thing” isn’t an Oscar-winning masterpiece? Not every work of fiction has to meet some high standard to be enjoyable and it’s absolutely okay for someone to enjoy trashy content.

In regards to Total Drama, I like it for the cheesy, ridiculous romp that it is. But there’s only so far the concept of a reality TV show parody can go. Season 1 was the strongest execution for this concept and probably the only season I’d seriously recommend to someone that wasn’t already a fan. Otherwise, AleHeather is about the only reason I revisit Total Drama in any capacity. I LOVE how petty, dramatic, and ridiculous both of them are. I love the soap operatic theatrics. They steal the show with their dumb, fun banter and underhanded schemes. They’re the only fictitious couple I prefer as “rivals to lovers to rivals” vs permanently stable canon. And damn, I had fun playing with or dialing that dynamic to 11 in my own derivative works.

I remember starting a Total Drama High School AU fan fic called “Captivated” on a whim and getting stupid excited when it took off. It was thrilling to read the reviews on fanfiction.net and know that someone was enjoying reading my off-the-rails soap opera as much as I was writing it. It was one part entertaining my childhood dream of being an author and one part wish fulfillment. In high school, I was a meek, overly conscientious nerd with my nose stuck in a book. It was cathartic playing the ridiculously capable charmer Alejandro that could, in theory, get whatever he wanted and seduce whomever he wanted.

I didn’t give Heather as much teeth as I feel like she should have in a proper fic. She’s in a shallow relationship with Justin to bolster her reputation. She’s not popular unless she’s dating a handsome, D-list celebrity. That could be an interesting angle. Heather comes across as mean and unpleasant. In the show, it’s implied if not outright depicted that she tries damn hard to be involved in everything she can but pushes others away because of her attitude. But, my fic doesn’t explore why Heather is so desperate to stay popular and she only maintains her spot because of Alejandro, another handsome face. I wrote Heather as just a love interest.

Then I tried 2 other rewrites in 2014 and 2019 respectively. And there’s my weird attempt at writing my own Total Drama season where it’s competing couples, Chris and Blaineley host, there’s Greek gods, a mad scientist, and supernatural/paranormal creatures. There’s at least two attempts at that one and it started shifting from “If Aleheather were a bad YA novel” to “This is the backstory of my mad scientist OC....”

Besides writing bad fanfiction, I also have a mountain of old AleHeather fanart from between 2010-2014. It’s fluffy. It’s angsty. They’re plugged into weird scenarios as demons, angels, and otherwise. Most of the time I rendered them in the TD art style, but there’s a few in my attempts at a “digital paper cut-out” style, too. I latched onto these two in such a way that...it shaped a huge, significant part of what my art was at that time. So, I have a perpetual soft spot for these idiots as well as online galleries excessively full of ship art, fan art, whatever.

Hell, that part of my life is why I’ll gladly argue in favor of fan fiction and fan art every time.

If I piqued your interest, there’s links to some of the bad fanfiction mentioned and more of my old fanart under the cut.

Captivated (2010): https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6201865/1/Captivated?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=hADR8nSo8_MbzsgvRSvoqUFgUl73YvCdLhD2yJoxnCY-1636302698-0-gaNycGzNBr0

One Word Revenge (2010) : https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6318851/1/One-Word-REVENGE

[walsiegirl]

So recent conversations with my awesome ol' Rushie pals have unearthed a couple of dessert recipes Geoffrey shared on various platforms back in the day, so prepare yourself, I am going to be making Geoffrey's caramel pear tart and then also his fruit-topped pavlova - hopefully next week as my car needs to go to the garage and I'll have a day twiddling my thumbs at home.

I am still debating if I should buy a cardboard cutout of him (and also a chef's hat to go on his head) so he can join me in the kitchen, sort of, but time and budget may not allow it...

I am admittedly not a great cook but... this should be fun. I shall share the recipes too if any of you are, like me, only motivated to bake when your fave person authors a recipe. 😅