I was reading through Stiefvater’s blog post about her health struggles, specifically thinking about the mentions of the rather predictable fandom response to the resulting errors in The Raven King, her absences from touring, etc. I was thinking about how fandom– and online culture in general– tends to catastrophize, assume the worst of people but specifically creators. Naturally, that’s if we’re not idolizing our faves. Maybe you can’t have one without the other, I’m not sure.
Even when I agree in principle– for ex, about queerbaiting issues– in the end I disagree when the discussion frequently turns to intent. Some people do talk about queerbaiting regardless of creator intent, but that’s a touchy topic and a difficult balance to strike, isn’t it? If you’re upset, you want to blame someone. And if you see something wrong, the default assumption (even if it’s a reasoning error) is that it’s intentional. No one thinks to imagine the thing that irritates or hurts them is just a largely meaningless accident, let alone a result of totally unrelated personal issues like with Stiefvater. Surely it’s got to be related, people reason. Surely it’s about you.
However, the fact is, 95% of the time, I’m guessing it’s not, in fact, about you, or me, or us (or even them). It’s about the creator(s) and whatever their needs, desires and personal issues are. So yeah, I’m guessing most creators don’t do anything either for or against fandom, most of the time. Is that an ugly truth, or just boring?
Sometimes creators want to keep you in suspense. That does happen. JK Rowling and Moffat, for example, are both fans of playing with fans’ minds in that way. But it’s not personal. It’s a part of the performance, rather. In the case of shocking plot reveals, your shock as the audience is part of the theater of it all. Actually, this kind of audience manipulation is probably as old as stories. I’d imagine Shakespeare must have been a fan of the shocking reveal/reversal where possible. Romeo and Juliet is full of that sort of thing. And that play really plays with the audience, too. I only imagine it was limited by the fact that it wasn’t a long-term serial. Alas.
Anyway, back to the point. Anytime someone assumes the creator(s) are out to get you (or us) just for kicks and/or for some even more nefarious reason, I’d take a step back and indulge in some healthy skepticism. Not that I expect this to happen anytime soon, alas.
If anyone sent some requests/AUs for any kind of short fanfic/piece they want written, i wanna practice my writing :( , fandoms i can do are in the hashtags
hmu if u wanna form a borderline codependent friendship group! we can traipse through the aesthetically pleasing country side unlocking ancient magical energy sources while aggressively loving and supporting each other!
“Adam felt a surge of both accomplishment and nerves. He skated an edge here. Making Ronan Lynch smile felt as charged as making a bargain with Cabeswater. These weren’t forced to play with.”
Can I totally and 100% see Blue as a Girl of color? Absolutely! Would I like an actress of color to portray Blue in a live-action adaptation? Yes, please!
But… (yes there is a but): Do we really have to antagonize readers for how they imagine a character? Especially if there is a huge chance of said reader to be quite young… I love to see diversity in books and every other kind of media. I especially love to see characters come to live as people of color that my brain imagined as white.
because look… our imagination is shaped by how we grew up. If you grew up among a fricking bunch of white people, your brain will make characters white by default - unless some descriptors or names lead you to believe otherwise.
Unless people fight your image of a character, why would you belittle theirs? (This argument does not apply to people who are in charge of casting movies or shows… there is a massive need to cast more diversely)
Also: what does that even mean “she’s literally half-tree”? (I know what it means in the books… I’m asking in this context) Are you saying There are no trees in countries populated by white people? Or that white people have no connection to nature? Is she a girl of color because the bark of trees is mostly dark? I actually really don’t get it…
I’d like to recommend all of the dream pack fics by MakingPoetry on AO3. They’re all great, the characterization is really good and it straddles the line between soft and dark, at least for me. I would tell you my favorite, but I honestly can’t pick. Happy reading!
Once K has face planted into Proko’s chest, there’s a good chance you won’t see his face again until absolutely necessary and it’s best to just save your needs and questions for later because you will be ignored
Ronan walked through the crowd with a beer in his hand, unsure of where he was really going. Why was he even here? He didn’t know. He did know who he was looking for. Kavinsky. When he asked, people pointed to his car.
And there he was, sitting on top of the car like a king on a throne, and a queen lounging between his legs. Sitting propped up on K’s chest was Ilya Prokopenko, head lolled onto K’s shoulder and his forehead touching the side of his neck. The two looked like they fit together so perfectly, and they did. It was a beautiful and tragic sight.
K’s head was tilted back, eyes closed with a joint between his lips as he held them up with one hand, the other traced Proko’s leg lazily. Neither seemed to have a care in the world. Neither noticed Ronan or even seemed to be aware of the party around them, only lost in hazy eyes and lazy touches with whispers of promises neither could true keep.
Joseph Kavinsky was a king, but Ilya Prokopenko was his queen, and god save anyone that hurt him.
((It’s short and not the best but I wanted to get it down because I liked the concept and aesthetic.))
i have no real excuse for drawing this besides the fact that i wanted to draw something sleazy and i was bumping my kavinsky playlist a few too many times in a row yesterday, so here we are. kavinsky and skov bein bros. (skov’s knuckles say “stay gold” because he enjoys being an ironic/sarcastic asshole)
can’t wait to draw the whole dream pack in all their horrible glory ԾᴗԾ
Listen all I’m saying is K’s homescreen is totally a picture of him and Proko kissing and his lock screen is of the boys doing something stupid together and K managed to get a picture
So I no longer have a scanner of my own which is part of why I haven’t been posting here even when I do draw. But I’ve been inactive on tumblr for so long I’ve decided it doesn’t matter.
So here, have some crappy cell phone photos of my inktober drawings so far.
as much as i want it to be true, i know that ronan doesn’t have ear piercings bc if he did gansey would always be like:
the light glinted off ronan’s silver hoops as he turned his head away. once out of ronan’s eyesight, gansey brought his hand to his earlobe in a private gesture. he could hear helen’s voice telling him not to get a piercing. “they’re so late-2000s gauche. you would look even more like a forgotten member of vampire weekend.” gansey didn’t know what she was referencing, but he understood that she meant he couldn’t pull it off. besides an earring didn’t complement his polo shirts very well. “maybe blue would like it?” he thought while reaching for a mint leaf. as he put the leaf to his mouth he knew she would immediately ask if he got his ear pierced because of ronan. adam would smirk at the question. ronan would ignore both of them, stare at it, and then tell gansey that it was the gay ear. he sighed and chewed the mint leaf.
Actually half of the appeal of trc was just really intense codependent friendships and switching from regular pov to whatever the hell adam was thinking
