LeDiz Tumbles

Sometimes fangirls grow up, but they still play with the toys.

[thelediz]

One of my last units in my MBA is Global Sustainability, and in the middle of a discussion of Indigenous issues, we started talking about Captain Planet. And now I can't stop thinking of Captain Planet as a connection between humanity and earth.

The 90s have come back to eat my brain alive.

[thelediz]

Realistic characters vs construction

Okay, so I was watching Stranger Things. I got up to season five, episode one, have not been able to get back to it partly because of life and partly because of… -gestures vaguely at the whole series-

Can I say I enjoy watching it…?

…It makes me think? So like...?

Not in a like… oh, wow, this is so meaningful and powerful sort of way because it really isn’t. But in like a… constructionist sort of way.

Specifically, it makes me think about the importance of tropes, and character types, and narrative construction, and how that is not the same thing as naturalised storytelling and development. It’s all just… interesting and I need to think about it out loud.

So first things first: tropes are not bad.

Tropes are recognised and accepted for a reason. They are powerful tools. They can become shorthand, they can help us understand things. We recognise tropes in fiction, and we recognise the mirror they hold to real life. They become bad when they are not written well, or the characters enacting the trope don’t have enough depth, so you instead find yourself choking down a paint-by-numbers marketing campaign. And even those can be fun, after all – they gave us thirty years of children’s television and our parents despaired the toy aisle.

In the same way, character archetypes are not bad things either. The popular girl, the jock, the nerd, goth, the freak – The Breakfast Club hit the way it did because they were characters we knew and cared about, whether those characters were realistic or not. The actors gave the tropes heart. You believed them, you gave a damn, whether you liked them or not.

Stranger Things toys with these things, but it doesn’t commit.

Instead, it starts with vague tropey outlines and then fleshes them out and lets the characters grow into real people. And that’s something I admire about the show: most of the characters in Stranger Things feel aggressively, heart-breakingly, dirt under your nails, blood in your knuckles real. The kids especially, who are horrible and wonderful and full of the passionate loyalty that only kids can have.

The teens flirt with it. Their arcs feel real, particularly Nancy’s, but they tip over into magical realism a bit too often. Nancy belongs in a young adult dystopian fantasy, and that’s close enough to what she has that it mostly works, except her supporting cast doesn’t belong there with her. Her love triangle doesn’t work, because Jonathan belongs in a gritty cyberpunk thriller where women don’t develop growth like Nancy, while Steve fell out of his coming of age romance and got dragged into a completely different heroic fantasy by a completely different character and motivation. Robin had her queer coming of age story before the story even started, but she doesn’t fit into fantasy, so she fails as a proper sidekick and just kind of bounces around trying to be important to the narrative.

The adults started real. Then they got to season three and kind of… committed to the bit. They became fully fledged constructions. Joyce the determined single mother, Hopper the gruff action hero divorced father, Murray the eccentric hacker with Mysterious Connections. They were fully paint by numbers by season four.

And while there is nothing wrong with paint by numbers, you cannot have them alongside the dirty, messy realism of those kids and expect me to care about them both. You absolutely cannot give the paint by numbers more emotional exploration than the realism. It draws attention to the disconnect.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t mix and match. I think you probably could and maybe even should have, but just…

Stranger Things has too many storylines going. But at its core are three emotional throughlines: Will’s transition from victim to hero, Eleven’s escape, and Nancy’s growth into a woman. In season one, there was a fourth and fifth in Joyce and Hopper’s mirrored recoveries from battered woman and grieving father respectively, but those storylines were dropped by season two so I don’t think they count.

Sadly, Will’s storyline wasn’t given enough airtime. Eleven was elbowed into Mike’s coming of age plot. Nancy mostly did okay, except she lost one arm of her love triangle to Dustin, of all people, which kind of crippled her arc in weird ways.

Yes, I appreciate how problematic it is that Nancy’s storyline needs a love triangle. But it does and here we are.

And Joyce and Hopper took the airtime that should have been given to Will.

I have… I have essays rants about each and every character in Stranger Things bubbling away in my head. I do. But the thing I cannot get past is this… mess of having the aggressively real kids, the failed tropes of the teens, and the shallow archetypes of the adults all mixing in together. Badly.

Because you can do it! You can have messy, realistic characters in tropey situations. Sometimes that makes for the best dialogue and the most heartwrenching scenes – hell, this was why a lot of 80s and 90s romcoms worked! You can have shallow archetypes stumbling into gritty situations – that’s what made the original slasher movies creepy. The eternal success of the teen fantasy novel reminds us that you can have shallow characters in predictable tropes and we will love it every time.

But you can’t have all three at once. Not without putting a lot more time and character work in than a cast of fourteen major characters and a minimum of four central plots per season allows.

God, there are just so. many. characters.

I really wish they had leaned into the character tropes instead. This was magical realism – it should have revelled in fantasy construction.

Foils. Comparative narrative. Draw attention to the similarities between Will, Eleven, and Nancy as they all grew up and gained strength in themselves. Had the supporting cast intertwine and play off each other more. Drop characters once they stopped serving a clear purpose, or give them an actual job to do in the trio’s growth. Max.

Actually used Steve as the plot device he should have been.

Hell, have Mike narrating campaigns to give the damn thing structure and make him more than just the romantic false lead!

Or, you know what? Play into the DnD characters. Nancy and Jonathan are rangers, while Lucas is an archer. Max and Ericas are rogues. Dustin and Eddie are bards. Give more weight to Will the unwilling warlock.

Screw you he is not a sorcerer, just ugh.

ELEVEN COULD HAVE BEEN A CLERIC

She GODDAMN RAISED DEAD I JUST

Anyway.

Instead, I get the impression that the characters ran away with the writing.

And I understand that, I do, but this is why editors exist.

Editors are not something that I think Netflix does well. They have a million producers, but increasingly I feel like producers just think shoving more money into a cash cow will get them great benefits.

And part of me doesn’t think it’s a problem that producers are no longer calling as many shots as they used to – their control over the industry is why most of television’s history has looked and sounded the same. We’re finally getting some interesting faces and stories on streaming services now, and that’s great, but…

But structure.

Tropes.

Thought and design.

Creativity is great and all, but while you're throwing your guts onto paper, try to keep them contained in a rib cage, you know?

That was a terrible metaphor.

Because I really wanted to like this show and I just…

I mean I have so many rants. An entire blog's worth of discussions to be had about missed opportunities and potential storylines. And the fanfic is great, even though it makes me want to dig out my old theses and problematise fangirls in new and exciting ways. Seriously, kids, your obsession with ABO needs to be STUDIED. And so it clearly has grabbed me, but like...

-flails madly-

You know??

[thelediz]

Did you know Sonic Underground has a noncanon canon ending? The show didn’t have a proper ending, but archie comics (under direction of Ian Flynn) took it up and was planning to make a comic of the ending.

Archie lost the rights to make sonic comics to IDW and Ian released a doc with the planned ending. Then fans made the comic themselves.

I found this out because a YouTuber called Yugi Jo made a video about it and it happened to come across my dash.

I was reading the Archie comics when they announced it. You have no idea how much I loved the cover Patrick Spazinate did for it.

But no, I haven't read the document or looked at the comic because the forums it was released on scared me. There are rabid Sonic fans and then there are Ian Flynn fans......

The impression I got was that Archie significantly jumped the gun by announcing it, and it was never approved by SEGA or anyone who worked on the show, which given the litigious issues they were having at the time was a horrendously bad idea. Hence why it remains fanfic to this day.

But it was a cool idea. I was super excited at the time.

[thelediz]

Hello! Hope you’re having a wonderful week.

I’m the user who asked about the Lost Prince timeline a while back. At the time I hadn’t actually realised that you had two other fics written in the same universe before it.

I’ve now gone and read The Undergound Game, and I am once again blown away by your writing and worldbuilding. There are so many moments in that fic that just sort of connected the dots for me in my brain having read everything, and it was such a joy .

One in particular was chapter 15, when Tails wants sonic to shoot him “for science!” Knowing what I know from The Lost Prince, what with solar, sonic and the anarchists, made that chapter hit so hard.

I just really think that reading that fic as a prequel works just as well as reading the Lost Prince being a sort of sequel, and I feel that that’s a testament to your writing skills.

Another thing I’d like to mention is that your writing really epitomises the “show don’t tell rule”. There’s so much implication in your writing of past events, and I think that’s what made the Lost Prince so much fun - there was an element of mystery in not quite fully understanding everything until the end.

I’ve already done quite a few asks about this fic, but it’s just such a gem. I can’t believe that after wanting more of it for so long that there were two whole fics in the same universe I didn’t know about 😂

Sorry for the super long ask, thanks again for your wonderful writing!

People being too nice to me, thank you...!

In everyone's defense, the other two are on ffdn and these are old. But I'm glad people still enjoy them. I did really like the chapters of The Underground Game with Sonic and Tails, so that one gets me especially.

And thank you on the show/tell! I adore show and tell, and the difference between them, so I'm so happy that you think it works in my stories.

Seriously, thank you so much and I'm glad you enjoy.

[thelediz]

hello, I hope you're having a wonderful holiday! Today caught me wondering if Sonia and Manic (and even Aleena!) make an effort to keep in touch with Sonic after The Lost Prince, so I figured I'd ask, haha.

I almost didn't bc this came from rereading The Underground Game (specifically the drabble where Manic and Sonia witnessed Tails and Sonic commit chilli dog crimes :P) and trying to predict where the future of a *finished fic* from an early version (which likely had different themes!) seems in poor taste...

...but Rouge pointing out that if people don't come into Sonic's life he lets them stay out of it has me thinking! and well. I just think it would be nice that, after breaking all their assumptions of who Sonic was into a billion pieces, they made the effort to seek him out in his own terms every so often.

Of course, when he's a globetrotting adventurer with no fixed adress, that's easier said than done— IF they do that! Which I'm asking, NOT speculating and making even longER :P it's fine if they don't or if you haven't thought about it, and I'm perfectly okay with waiting after the holidays if you're taking a break from online stuff. Happy trails!

You're basically on the same train of thought as I am on this one!

Because yeah, Sonic doesn't actually make it easy to keep in touch with him. He will inevitably end up where you need him, which seems to include just showing up when you were kind of hoping he'd be around to hang out, but I think Tails is the only one who has a method of actively calling him.

But I do think Sonia, at least, would make an effort to keep in regular contact with Tails (who reads her letters but only answers sporadically - he's almost as bad as Sonic, let's be honest). She'll probably asks him to ask Sonic to visit for whatever the winter holiday in Mobius is, but I think the one who actually gets him there is Amy, who gets invited by Bartleby. Those two have phone calls at least once every couple of weeks. Complaining about the Hedgehogs they love is at least half the point.

Manic and Aleena are too ashamed to reach out at first. And by the time they get over it, they've both decided to leave it as Sonic just showing up when he will.

Because Sonic, I imagine, does show up occasionally. He's not actively avoiding Mobius anymore, but it's still not the sort of place he enjoys hanging out. Too much anarchy beryl in the ground gives it icky vibes.

But Sonic will show up when people need him. That includes his family, and they get that now.

[thelediz]

Hi :33 I am speaking on Behalf of Rose Amber we actually had a conversation on A03 comments & I told you about the Idea I would like to share, If you allow me I can share it with you.

Sure...? The ask box is there for questions and comments!

[thelediz]

Because I'm sure there is one, I'm going to need Sam Haft and Patrick Stump to release Abel's cut song. It is a matter of my inner emo-child heart's survival.

[thelediz]

Hi! Did you end up watching the Sonic 3 movie and/or the knuckles series? Kinda curious abt what thoughts you had if you did :)

I did! Eventually - I have had... trouble sitting down to watch movies this year.

I liked it more than the second movie, and I did like the second movie, so take it as the compliment it is.

But I must admit I... mm.

MM.

Okay. So. One thing I love about these films is the theme of familial love, and how loneliness affects us, and how often, it doesn't matter how strong we are, we still need other people to help us.

So this movie did that well, and I loved it. I loved the entire scene in the corn field.

I continue to applaud this film's casting director, and especially the voice actors. Keanu Reeves was fabulous. Love his work. He did Edgy the Hedgie so proud.

Tom, Maddie, and Agent Stone continue to be wonderful. We adore all of them.

I will never forgive Agent Stone for making me double-take so hard at "Let's get one thing out of the way: you're adorable". I love him so much.

BUT FFS CAN WE PLEASE STOP WITH THE GAME SHOUT OUTS.

It annoyed me in the second movie, it REALLY annoyed me this time. The cheap airline quote is iconic in the game because of the context. The Shadow the Hedgehog trailer shot was cheap. The damn Chao Garden better have been a marketing deal. The literal freezeframe in the Sonic/Shadow team up made me sigh out loud. These movies are good on their own terms, all you are doing is drawing attention to the games and that draws attention to the changes you are making and this time I genuinely think some of those changes hurt the story SO BADLY so STOP.

-pantpant-

Let me explain.

Shadow. In the games. Is an interesting character. He is an artificial creation, made to heal a sick little girl but as a byproduct of how he was made, he is also an incredibly powerful weapon. GUN created him, GUN killed the little girl he was supposed to heal, he became the weapon GUN always wanted. A little girl saved his heart, completing the cycle.

In the movie, it's implied he's from the same place as Sonic, biological, and it's only Gerald's word that tells us GUN decided to steal Shadow. And frankly, Gerald in this movie is not exactly a trustworthy source. GUN does not directly kill the little girl, it's not clear how GUN recaptured Shadow, it's all... choices were made. And while I understand wanting to streamline Shadow's story, and that you cannot show a little girl getting shot in the back in a PG movie, I am very much stuck on Shadow not being artificial. I don't know why, I don't normally care that much about Shadow, but for some reason, that really bothered me. It's so core to his character and it's just not a thing here. He's just Vengeance and The Night, and... -vague bored gesture-

Also, I still love Carrey's Robotnik, don't get me wrong, but there were many bits of his that we did not need.

And I definitely didn't need the fourth wall break. It wasn't funny, we got the joke before you said it. I liked Deadpool too, but we don't need fourth wall breaks.

And... the mid-credits sequence...

Metal Sonic looked so cool and I was so excited by that sequence and I do love Amy Rose but there are already too many characters and they had to squeeze so many cameos in and how are you going to have Metal Sonic when his creator is dead which means they're going to change Metal's backstory too and arghhhh

I hate to be That Fan but arghhhh

But yeah. Objectively good movie. Loved the soundtrack too. Admittedly did like hearing Live and Learn in that sequence not gonna lie.

But yeah, it was... I was...

-vague hand gesture-

[thelediz]

I wanted to let you know that I absolutely adore your work “Guard Dog” and it is one of two fics I think about as defining to how I see his character!! I think you always have a really good grasp on characters in your works and so I read them regardless of knowing canon but knowing the canon for that one made me appreciate it so much! I adore Laios and you showed his depth so beautifully!!

Heh, thank you so much. He's a complicated one. I'm really glad people are enjoying it!

[thelediz]

That infuriating feeling when you fall back to an old fandom, scour the archives for a specific kind of fic, fail to find it, find it in your own drafts, and discover you didn't even get halfway through writing it.

[thelediz]

Hi there! I just wanted to say, you single-handedly made me see the potential in sonamy. I’ve always been a hardcore sonadow fan from the start, but reading ‘The Lost Prince’? I remember starting the fic, noticing the romance subplot and quietly thinking “aw man”, cause sonamy is usually just not my cup of tea. But the way you wrote their relationship was unlike any sonamy dynamic I’ve seen before. The way they just have this understanding of where they stand, not caring to label it, Amy seeing a relationship with sonic as exciting and interesting no matter what he’s doing - it was such a wonderful take on their relationship. What might seem like miscommunication and unrequited love (manic telling sonic to stop leading amy on) is actually just pure, complete understanding of each other, their boundaries, wants and needs. It really feels so stable, and irrefutable once they work things out in the fic. That heart-to-heart in ‘Long Shot’ was really special, and I LOVED the conversation they had with Sonia they had together afterwards.

Your writing gave me a whole new perspective on a ship I’d never much seen the appeal of. If I’ve misinterpreted anything of your writing, please correct me, of course.

Thanks again for such a wonderful fic!

Aw, thank you! You're way too kind.

I think I love Sonic and Amy together so much because they're the perfect mess. They're both chaotic and difficult to understand, with such strong beliefs in how they personally see the world. They match each other in ways that can be really hard to understand.

But I totally get why a lot of fandom doesn't like them.

I've said before that one of the reasons I love Amy is because she's so passionate. She wants what she wants, damn the consequences.

And Sonic will do what he thinks is right, damn what anyone else thinks.

They're wild, they're strong, they're quite literally violent in their beliefs, but they're fundamentally good people and heroes besides. They're weird.

The creators of Sonic have said that he's not ready for romance, though I think they're changing their minds lately (it's cooler for boys to feel things these days), and while I think that's true, I think it's also because a 'normal' relationship would start to feel confining to him. He can't settle down - he has to be able to go where he wants, when he wants, and not feel guilty about that. So I don't think he's ever going to be ready for happily ever after.

And that's why Amy is a good match, because she's strong enough in her self and her love to believe he'll come back eventually. And if he doesn't, well, whatever, she's perfectly capable of tracking him down!

And I think Sonic loves that. From Sonic Adventure, he's always let Amy chase him. He's always waited for her to catch up. I think he always will.

He'll make a big show about how annoying it is, and how pushy she is, but honestly, I don't think he could be with anyone who wasn't willing to chase after him. He'd just leave them behind.

That said I totally get Sonadow for people who want someone who's capable of running beside him. Or Sonnuckles for people who want someone that can calm Sonic down. But I am first and foremost a fan of Sonic as a chaotic force for good so you know.

The lovely couple. I love them.

[thelediz]

I saw you didn't mention Agent N and the RIA in "The Price Of Freedom", you know its interesting as its the only time in the series we see anyone else as a member of the Robotnik empire or other's competing with Sleet for the dictator if the Planet's favor.

Otherwise Robotnik has Sleet and Dingo do everything from collecting taxes, janitorial duty, commanding Swatbots, ETC.

But I liked Agent N for that reason, even if his "Ape swatbot with three tubes sticking out of his face" was very weird, even for the show! Your thoughts?

Honestly? I didn't even clock it. I had to look him up to know what you were talking about.

For those playing along at home, Agent N is the one who is supposed to pick up the modified watches and distribute them.

On the one hand, it's because it was one line in one episode, and he wasn't the focus of said episode. There was a lot going on when he was around.

On the other hand, he IS interesting, isn't he? The idea of factions within Robotnik's power base... it feeds into that idea that there were two concepts for Sleet and Dingo that they couldn't quite decide on - the one where Sleet wanted to work for Robotnik and the one where he didn't. This is clearly going into the theory that he does want to work for Robotnik, but can't get everything he wants because there are other areas drawing attention and skill.

But on the third hand... honestly, Trashfire, you had another faction that could have been used to focus and enhance Sleet and Dingo's characters and motivations, and they show up in ONE EPISODE for like FIVE MINUTES.

I love you, but you know the bland stare I'm giving you right now, don't you?

[thelediz]

Ever notice how Underground Masquerade forgot the entire Sonic Underground were wanted fugitives and that every single Swatbot is supposed to go "Hedgehog alert, Hedgehog alert" whenever they see Sonic or any of his siblings?

In that episode, they only arrest Manic for stealing.

Well, I mean, you can either remember that it's a trashfire and consistency is for chumps, OR you can be delusional kind to the narrative and think that the SWATbots were originally security, designed and installed to maintain order, and remember that even today, software upgrades sometimes require you to actually physically interact with the hardware so maybe they're just older models and I mean...

It was a bad episode and I didn't like it in the first place but if one commits to delusions, one must commit all the way.

[thelediz]

Hi! I know it’s been a while since you’ve finished The Lost Prince, but I wanted to ask if you’ve ever posted a timeline of events for the fic. You did such an incredible job of blending sonic underground with mainline games, I would love to see everything laid out - when sonic meets tails in relation to other events, where certain games take place in relation to sonic underground events, etc. While I remember you covering these things in the fic, I’d love a confirmed timeline straight from you. Your fic is probably one of my all time favourites, if not my favourite fic of all time. I’d love to rant about how much I love it but I’ll keep this question on topic. Thank you so so much for writing it, it’s a really incredible piece of writing. ❤️

Aww, thank you! That's lovely to hear, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I kind of have, but it was mostly about the games. Also, Wrong or Right covers some of this, as does The Underground Game. Both were my brain pitching the story to me so how canon they are to the fic is... debatable.

So uh... let's see.

Revalt the Hedgehog was an adventurer with Chaos powers kinda around the same level as Knuckles. He saves his kingdom from some nebulous evil and becomes its leader. The next kingdom over asks for his help and guidance, and so on and so on until he suddenly has an empire that he doesn't want. In order to force him to remain in charge, his advisors use anarchy beryl magics to control him into believing he has a responsibility to lead and protect. So forms the empire of Mobius, with many of his descendants falling to the same control.

Five hundred years pass.

Aleena gets pregnant, starts having visions of Sonic in his various super forms and adventures, freaks out

Her husband, who has heard of human scientists researching Chaos, offers to go find them and bring back knowledge of how they can handle it

He finds Robotnik, who hears the story, gets intrigued, tries out his robotocisor technology on him. Husband is never seen again.

Robotnik goes to Mobius, meets Aleena and tells her that her husband abandoned her. Being Aleena, she believes him and welcomes him into her court because his knowledge of Chaos will help her keep her child safe.

Robotnik starts courting the court, taking advantage of how Aleena doesn't prioritise science or economics to convince the aristocrats that she's unfit to rule. He is not entirely incorrect, so the aristocrats side with him. Please do not read any historical or contemporary analysis into this even if I originally wrote it that way it makes me sad right now

Robotnik makes the medallions. The triplets are born. On a casual trip to see the Oracle, he tells Aleena she's in danger and she finally realises Robotnik Might Be Bad. (Aleena is slow on the uptake)

She runs. She separates her children in the hope of teaching them the ways of her people, forgetting the whole underclass as she is wont to do, but the underclass take matters into their own hands by stealing Manic.

Sonic's foster parents join the rebellion in a support capacity, providing rest and recuperation to burnt out soldiers. Robotnik knows of them, eventually arrests them and destroys their home. Sonic goes to live with Uncle Chuck.

Sonic's foster parents are mutilated live on camera and the record of their mutilation is kept to be played to anyone arrested.

Growing up, Sonic becomes one of the Resistance Brats, meeting Cyrus, Trevor, and basically catching the attention of everyone in the Resistance because he's fast, charismatic, and growing up Capable.

Sonic and Cyrus get arrested, they see the video. Sonic blanks out.

Sonic wakes up on Mighty and Ray's island and grows up a bit more, teaches himself how to fly a plane, how to survive on his own - Sonic the Hedgehog (arcade) occurs and Sonic becomes a Hero

Sonic the Hedgehog (mega-drive/genesis) occurs. Robotnik realises the blue hedgehog is The blue Hedgehog. Proceeds to get obsessed because he is NOT slow on the uptake.

Sonic CD occurs (yes, officially Sonic met Amy first)

Sonic meets Tails.

Uncle Chuck hears stories, goes searching for his nephew. When he finds Sonic, they have a minor argument because Sonic is still freaking out and in denial. Uncle Chuck goes back to Mobius, Sonic pretends it didn't happen, even when Tails asks what the argument was about. He is Not Okay.

Sonic 2 occurs

Sonic 3 and Knuckles occurs. Sonic realises this isn't going away. He decides to go back to Mobius. He is Not Ready.

Sonic is adopted into the Anarchists. Solar takes advantage of Sonic not being particularly stable to mess with him and make him overly loyal, until he wants Sonic to commit murder. Sonic refuses, leaves the anarchists because they're too extreme for him. Solar becomes obsessed.

Sonic goes back to Uncle Chuck. The whole Resistance welcomes him because they are also not slow on the uptake and he is clearly a powerful hero.

Meanwhile, Tails is upset and angry that Sonic left him, goes on Tails Adventure, low-key massacres an army, no one notices. Also Knuckles Chaotix is happening but whatever, it only impacts him.

Oracle contacts Sonic, Sonic Underground occurs.

A routine raid gets out of hand, and Aleena shows up. It turns into the final showdown. In the end, Sonic and Robotnik are alone and squaring off. Robotnik asks Sonic if he's going to kill him. They both know that's not who Sonic really is, and it kick-starts Sonic actually realising this whole prince thing isn't who he is. He lets Robotnik go and doesn't tell anyone.

The Council of Four moves into Robotnik's palace. They set up a court. Aleena goes back to being Queen, has not learned anything except that her judgement sucks and Sonic is more powerful than her. She does not deal with this. Sonia and Manic do not notice any of this because they are swept up in the excitement of having Won.

Sonic runs away again. He meets back up with Tails by coincidence, and for the first time in over a year, actually feels good. So he sticks around, as much as Sonic sticks around anywhere.

Sonia makes her speech to the aristocrats about how traitors should have to live with their crimes and will not be forgiven, while the empire will rebuild with the strength of its people. The people of Mobius are happy about this. The aristocrats start panicking. The class divides continue to struggle.

Sonic Adventure through to Sonic Colours happen.

By now, Sonic is actually Okay. He knows who he is, he's comfortable, he has occasional pangs of guilt about abandoning Mobius, he's FINE.

Mobius is still struggling. With some direction from the Oracle, Sonia and Manic learn that Sonic is still around and can be found through his friend Tails the Fox.

The story begins.

Phew!

[thelediz]

Been playing Platinum recently and it inspired me to reread A Professor And A Student and Return again...when I found the Frustration TM in the team galaxy base I was like !! Ik what this does thanks to Lediz fic! Haha. (I'm sorry you hated it, but Return is one of my favorite pokemon fics to date, so I can only thank you for pushing through. I hope you're enjoying everything you write nowadays!)

But man, playing through sinnoh really highlights why I've checked out of new pokemon stuff since I dropped journeys... I finally worked up the guts to check paldea out and it made me want to cry —if anything is gonna spite me into creation it's gonna be scarlet/violet, by taking a hammer to it.

Have you been into anything pokemon since dropping journeys? Regardless of whether it be new or old—I'm kinda curious...if not, feel free to ignore this!

(orrr you could also elaborate on what you meant by "reeks of someone trying to enforce agile iterative development" w the gen 9 games... even if I don't understand the technical terms, it's always super interesting to read opinions from people who know how things work behind the curtain!)

But see, even if I didn't like it, hearing people did get something out of that fic makes me happy, so thank you for telling me <3

I haven't done much pokemon stuff, though I keep meaning to sit down and watch that Pokemon Resort show that was on Netflix. I hear it's adorable escapism, and who doesn't need some of that in their life?

As for what I said... ahhhhhh.... this is gonna be boring, but you did ask.

Okay, so agile iterative development is a very, very popular way of developing products these days. Particularly digital products like software (ie, video games).

Agile is a project philosophy (it's not a methodology, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, they're talking about Scrum) which is, as the name implies, about being agile and responsive and not just sticking to The Plan because We Have A Plan.

When done well, Agile is a great philosophy. The idea is to do constant check-ins, only ever do as much as you need to, make sure that what you're working toward still looks like the thing you want and change what you're doing if it doesn't. WHEN DONE WELL, it is cheaper, more efficient, and usually gets you a better product.

(a history lesson, look up early Toyota manufacturing. It's called Lean development now and was an early form of Agile)

Iterative Agile is stuff like Scrum (which I am twice-certified in). Iterative development (again as the name implies) means you do things in small iterations, only ever planning a short period ahead, with the intention of stopping with the iteration that your client/customer/consumer will accept.

When done well, Scrum is THE MOST cost-effective and quality efficient form of product development, because you will usually have your client sitting right next to you the entire time TELLING YOU when you're getting things right.

You will hopefully have noticed how much I am repeating "when done well".

Because more often than not, you don't have the client sitting right next to you.

And there is a HUGE difference between "minimal viable product" (which is usually when sales starts to sell stuff) and "minimal loveable product" (which is when sales SHOULD start to sell stuff).

Think of an animation.

A minimum viable product is a storyboard. You can follow the story, you can read the dialogue, you can get a general idea of how the scene will work, and some people will pay for it even as a PDF.

A minimal loveable product is Flash animation. Flat 2D models properly animated with music, voice acting, et cetera. Think South Park, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the old Adult Swim cartoons that riffed on Hanna-Barbara, Teen Titans Go, what have you.

A full product is something hand- or computer-animated, with animated backgrounds, shading, a full arc of story. Think the original Teen Titans, anything in the DCAU, Riders of Berk, that kind of stuff.

An over-stuffed product is season two of Arcane (it was GORGEOUS but I want you to really think about whether it really needed to be the most expensive animated series of all time to tell you that story).

In non-Agile environments, projects would aim for Arcane, and quite often run out of money because they were so busy getting the muscles in Vi's jaw right that they didn't get around to finishing the script. Funnily enough, producers prefer being able to pump out a hundred hours of Teen Titans Go and then sell a bunch of merchandise on the cheap. Hence while iterative development is so popular these days.

However. For iterative development to be done very well, you need to have the original vision of Arcane. You need to know it, feel it, want it. And only then do you say "okay. So what's the most important thing here? The story, or the character designs?" and then do that first.

You also need someone keeping track of the money. To make Arcane, you need 250 million dollars. You won't have 250 million dollars at the start. You might have 50 million. When you have spent 10 million, you need to have enough of a storyboard to convince your investors to give you another 25 (for a total of 75). Then another 50 so you're up to 125. Then another. And so on, and so forth.

More often than not, the sales team see the storyboards and start making promises, so you have to quickly pretty them up into animatics; the money runs out and you have to start selling your storyboard and hope it makes enough money to hire a voice actor or two; OR money gets continually thrown at a problem and nothing ever gets released.

In the case of Pokemon gen 9, it felt so storyboard-y. Pokemon has always been a pretty simple game, so you can imagine someone saying "alright, minimum product: 150 pokemon, two player characters, a rival, the ability to catch pokemon, and throw some cool new features in there to attract the kids. Motorbikes are always a good sell, right? Cool. Go."

And they knew it would sell. So they got it out the door, with some vague promise to fix the bugs and add the other three-hundred odd pokemon, graphic and gameplay stability, and quality of life features after the investors got their money back.

BUT HEY. I don't work in game development, and I am not Game Freak.

That's just how it looked from the outside.

Still here? No?

Okay, I'm going back in my box...

[thelediz]

Fandom should be fun

Something I’ve noticed in the last couple of years, but has been weirdly nagging at me in the last… six months? Has been the marked difference between people who participate in fandom for fun and those who do it for profit.

And how much more successful the profit-driven people are in fandom.

For fairly obvious reasons.

But it’s interesting and I have to think about it out loud or it’s going to eat at my brain.

Now, when I say profit, I don’t necessarily mean ‘for money’, or at the very least any intention to make a living out of it, though there are certainly people who do. They’re not a new phenomenon, either – originally I think it was only common among musicians, but visual artists and even writers that produce for commission have been around since the original Star Trek days. Hell, Dante’s Inferno exists for a reason. But when I mean ‘for profit’ I think I mean the people who produce content in order to earn something, be it money, likes, comments, what have you.

And don’t get me wrong, as a fanficcer, I love comments. It 100% fuels motivation to know that people are engaging with your content.

But as a fandom lurker, it feels disingenuous of me to want them. And with the way fandom has shifted lately, I’ve found myself thinking about why. What is it about a comment that fuels me?

Because I’m not chasing down kudos or comments or bookmarks. It makes me happy to know that people are reading and sharing my stuff, and I’ll admit I do get some badly needed endorphins every time I see someone paying it attention. But I’m not one of those people who will write generic stories and slap different character names on there to fit the fandom I’m in that day.

I write because the content I’m engaging with is tickling something in my brain and I want to think about it more.

And it’s fun, of course, but… yeah.

I write to engage with the original content.

That’s why some fics go unfinished or never get off the ground, because once I start engaging with them, I realise the thought has run its course and… I’m done. It stops being fun.

Honestly, and I’m giving away secrets here, that’s why I hated writing Return so much, and I still don’t like it. Occasionally I go back, because I get a comment or see a bookmark saying it meant something to a reader, and I think “…ugh, I should rewrite that bit to make it a bit more in character” or I can acknowledge that it was actually a half-decent storyline. But I do not like that story.

I started writing it hoping to kickstart something in me that didn’t happen. In the XYZ and Alola period of Pokemon, it was such a beautiful, positive force, about hard work and triumph and believing in yourself. I was chasing that. I wanted to talk about how hard that had to be for Ash. I wanted to point out what a beautiful story it is that Ash kept going despite never winning for so long.

But I should have put the fic down. The original content just wasn’t there anymore. I was still using Pokemon Go, but it sure as heck wasn’t for the storyline. And the anime lost me so early on in Journeys. I should have put the fic down and walked away, but I was addicted to the dopamine fandom provided me. I hated writing that story and I’m just grateful that it ended up meaning something to someone because otherwise it should be wiped from the internet as something I never should have done.

Compare and contrast F’d Up Three Ways, which I had almost entirely written before I started posting it. I adore that fic. I had so much fun writing it. Even when I started posting, I got barely any engagement and I didn’t care. There were bits and pieces in there that were me feeding off fandom, but most of it was just me devouring the original content and then thinking “and then what?” which is exactly what fandom should be, and it felt so good.

It’s the only thing I’ve done for that fandom, it’s all I’m ever going to do for that fandom, but it was what I wanted it to be.

So why do comments motivate me? Why, now that comments are so rare, do I constantly check my Ao3 to see if someone’s put a bookmark with a note? Why do I give a damn if people read my stuff?

Because I too am looking for engagement.

I want to know my stuff is making people think, or feel. It made me think and feel, so… am I alone in that?

When I was writing Dropped Shield, I was mostly writing that for myself. It was already mostly written when it was posted. But the comments were amazing and made me hungry for more fandom. People digging into the characters, the plot, the professional behaviour…! (It is such a weird fic, I cannot believe how many people like it, but I love it even more for that) Reading people’s comments on that fic made me feel so full.

And I think that’s what’s made me start thinking about it, because there’s those kind of comments, and then there’s the lovely heart-filled comments that are so sweet, and make me smile, but don’t fuel any kind of motivation.

I love getting them. They made me happy. If you’re someone who does that, do not stop making those comments, they are wonderful.

But they aren’t going to drive me to think more about the content and therefore will not encourage me to produce more.

Which brings me back to the difference between the kinds of people who create for profit and those who create for… whatever it is I and people like me are creating for.

This post was originally spurred by @notherpuppet (who does wonderful Hazbin Hotel art and comics and I hope doesn’t mind me referencing her – please tell me if you’d rather I don’t tag you and I’ll take this bit out) who is SO popular and so gets a lot of people wanting to make content of her content. And those people often get money out of that. And while notherpuppet didn’t mind that, when those people start promising paid content based on her currently non-existent future content, that’s… much less okay.

Because notherpuppet doesn’t draw for profit. She draws for love and fun. And so the moment it stops being fun, she absolutely should put down her tablet and walk away.

People just assuming she will continue until people are no longer interested makes me super uncomfortable. She's not doing this to get paid, she is under no obligation to produce, why would you assume she will?

That’s all putting aside the people in the early days of fandom getting sued by creators for copyright infringement. I never saw it happening myself, but when I started in fandom, people put disclaimers on their work reminding everyone it was not for profit for damn good reason.

So anyway. Coming back to the point.

It’s increasingly rare these days to get comments. This is a known thing. Many discussions have been had about it. And fandom as a whole is changing too. What people are posting is changing. How people respond to them is changing.

I’ve gotten comments from people pointing out they wouldn’t normally read my stuff because it’s too long, but they got a recommendation from someone else and so gave it a shot.

Which… okay, fair. But some of them say that about things that are like 6,000 words and that’s… that's not a long fic for me. I used to spit out that kind of content daily when I was in high school and could devote the brain power.

But when I started in fandom, drabbles were super common. Flashfic was a thing. Because we were all posting on blogs and forums and the formatting just wasn’t there.

And now a lot of fandom is video and audio that takes thirty seconds or less to consume. Longer to create, but... the similarities are there.

At the time, no one expected great feedback on drabbles or flashfics – they were just for the fun of creating. But the short-form content you see these days is very much chasing likes and comments and responses.

I don’t know where I’m going with all this, but… man. If I was still a fandom academic, that… there’s something in that, isn’t it? Something interesting.

Anyway. TL;DR, I repeat, and will always repeat: fandom should be fun. It makes me sad when it isn’t fun.

Please try and have fun.

[thelediz]

I just watched the 3rd sonic movie and it made me reread your 2020 sonic series... it's still as good as I remembered it to be hehe. You don't shy away from the snaggly bits and bumps in the road, if that makes sense - Sonic isn't flattened down to "cute kid", Tom and Maddie aren't perfect parents who get everything right the first time, and they feel so much more like real people that way.

Did you end up watching sonic 2 and 3? Did you enjoy them? :)

Aw, thank you! I love the Wachowskis so much...!

I have seen 2, haven't gotten around to 3 yet though. Honestly, I'll probably wait for it to be on a streaming service. I'd also really like the Knuckles series to be on something other than Paramount Plus so I can watch that because seriously, I am not buying another service, I don't care how much Idris Elba makes me laugh.

I did enjoy Sonic 2, but not as much as 1. The first Sonic movie, in my opinion, was just a Good Kids Movie. The characters stood on their own, it was adorable, it was fun, it had a lot of heart and that was all it needed.

Sonic 2 was a great Sonic Movie. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, I love Tails, I love that they kept Colleen O'Shaughnessey, I love his relationship with Sonic, I ADORE Idris Elba as Knuckles, I love how they adapted Knuckles' 'heel'-face turn, I... enjoyed the Super Sonic bit, mostly because I really, really appreciated Knuckles being like "careful, he's basically a god now, he's not going to be the person you - oh, okay, he's still Sonic, fine, no respect necessary", even if I think how they did that was a little silly. I really enjoy James Marsden and all the human characters, so I thought the wedding was great.

And GUN. Holy wow, I LOVE GUN in Sonic 2, they're SO RIDICULOUS, it's AMAZING. Operation Catfish is so something they would do, it's hilariously horrifying...!

But I think it leaned into the fandom a tiny bit too much. There were all these shout outs to the franchise, these nods and winks, and I didn't feel it was necessary. There were some sequences where I started playing a game with myself, saying "Ice Cap zone, Hidden Palace zone, that specific frame from this game, oh that sound effect's familiar, where do I know that from, hey, look, it's that meme..."

It took me out of the cute story about friends finding each other and reminded me that I was watching something designed to make money.

There's nothing wrong with that. I just liked the first movie more.

But... when Sonic 3 doesn't cost me $50 to see, I will watch it. I'll probably love Keanu!Shadow. Hopefully it will kick-start me into finishing that series, but I doubt it. We shall have to see!