Fandom Snowflake Days 9 & 10

[thisbluespirit]

Challenge #9: In your own space, brag about yourself. Tell us what things you've done that you're proud of; the things that make you the wonderful person you are.

The worst challenge! Apart from possibly #10, or if they ask you to pick one creator (ONE?!! 1?). Anyway, the examples say I can just rec my own works that I like, so I will do that now. Using only things written in the past year, to avoid it always being the same works again:


it's the rain that will strengthen your soul (10926 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi
Characters: Padmé Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, C-3PO (Star Wars), R2-D2 (Star Wars), Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Yoda (Star Wars)
Additional Tags: Padmé Amidala Lives, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Spaceships, On the Run, Recovery, Loss, Clothes are Important, Found Family, Alien Planet, 5 Times, Slow Burn
Summary: Five pit-stops on the way to anywhere but here.

As I mentioned in the end of year writing meme, this was probably the story of the year on multiple levels and the most popular one, and I'm not about to argue with that. I think it probably is the best thing I wrote this year, overall.


AU Meme: Gytha Ogg (1232 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Discworld - Terry Pratchett
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Giamo Casanunda/Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Gytha "Nanny" Ogg & Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, implied Gytha "Nanny" Ogg/Owen Tudor
Characters: Gytha "Nanny" Ogg, Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, Giamo Casanunda, Samuel Vimes
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings Fusion, Humor, References to Shakespeare, Innuendo, but probably not as much as there ought to be
Summary: 10 AU scenarios for Nanny Ogg written for a Dreamwidth meme.

I like quite a few of the AU meme ones I have actually managed to do (*looks shifty*) but I think this one wins. It has Nanny Ogg in it, so it would have to. It's also a different tone to the above. I can be versatile!


Trees Too Tall to Climb (1340 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Obi-Wan Kenobi & Obi-Wan Kenobi's Mother
Characters: Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi's Mother, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Community: 100_women, Community: halfamoon, Mother-Son Relationship, Sacrifice, Jedi, Stewjon, Backstory, Pre-Canon, Community: allbingo
Summary: She's never been this brave before...

I was a bit torn between this and the unexpected Jedi wing!fic AU, but probably this. It also did quite well, which I think probably speaks for itself - it must therefore objectively work, because people do not get into worldbuilding-type fic that is fundamentally about an OC (even if one who must obv have existed in canon) if it doesn't. And I liked it a lot when I wrote it.


I also continued to try and make gifsets and though not being able to do them in my photo editor is frustrating, I have been pleased with the ship and character sets I've been making. I like the Barbara one most so far for the characters and maybe the Kenny & Lynda one for the ships. (What I don't like: why is tumblr suddenly putting that random gap there on this view; it's not there on the dashboard version. *glares*)


Challenge #10: In your own space, write a love letter to Fandom in general, to a particular fandom, to a trope, a relationship, a character, creator, episode, or it could be your fandom friends. Share your love and squee as loud as you want to.

If I wrote a love letter, challenge, it would be private! Anyway, I was also feeling very grumpy - fandom in general keeps migrating to platforms I just cannot do and dropping most of what I enjoyed as it goes, and while I am feeling a bit better about Doctor Who now, I'm still not happy that I spent most of the year upset by and shut out of that as well.

But my flist are still lovely and inclue many longstanding true friends and that is always something to celebrate! So, thanks you lot, for being generally kind and patient and funny and supportive and all sorts of things between you all. ♥

And I did enjoy that flight into SW Prequel era. It was a very pretty place to escape into, and I definitely want to go back there from time to time. I still have ideas unwritten and so on, and the burst of fannishness I had for it startled me. I had no idea I still had that in me!

Comments

[luthien]

Yay for fandom friendships and yay for creating fic!

[thisbluespirit]

Indeed! ♥

[sjh2009]

Thank you for taking part in the challenge.

I love your selection of works, and Nanny Ogg, wonderful! I've bookmarked that to read later :)

I so hear you about fandom migrating to different platforms, it's frustrating isn't it. Don't even understand half of the new ones, lol!

Fandom wouldn't be the same without our friendships, even those people who we no longer share a current fandom with still remain our friends and that's one of the most wonderful things about our communities. I'm glad that you still enjoy escaping into your fandom.

Thank you for sharing and for taking part in the challenge.

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks!

[kalium]

The Nanny Ogg AUs fic is a treasure; you are absolutely right to feel good about it!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thank you! ♥

[liadt]

The Nanny Ogg AU is great fun!

I wish more people would do fandom the DW way, the new platforms are too fast for me. I'm not keen on moving images which is a disadvantage. Keep it slow:)

\o/ for fannish friends.

I'm glad fannish feelings can still take you by surprise.

[thisbluespirit]

Thank you! ♥ And, yes, people should come back to typing everything out and threaded comments and slowness and all the things they just don't want. Heh.

[kateoftheangels]

Nanny Ogg is a treasure!

[thisbluespirit]

She is!

[singe]

Luckily I left fandom before the new platforms had a chance to confuse me. And we still have Ao3!

[thisbluespirit]

We do, and that is something, but I miss journal-style fandom. It was the best platform for me that I've used and I've been on ones before and tried newer ones, too.

[singe]

I miss it, too. Those were fun days.

[spikedluv]

I feel you about the new platforms. Tumblr is just not a good place to fandom, imo. Fandom friends are the best!

[thisbluespirit]

Tumblr isn't even the worst of them!

[swordznsorcery]

I've never got into the SW prequels. I should probably give them a proper try sometime. I haven't watched the postquels either yet. I think half the problem now is, I watched Guardians Of The Galaxy and fell totally in love with it, and can't help thinking that it's just what I always wanted SW to be like. (Although admittedly I'd never imagined SW with a talking tree and a psychotic raccoon.)

I really, really hope DW gets better for you with the new series.

[thisbluespirit]

Thanks! And if SW had a talking tree and a raccoon, the fans who couldn't even cope with Ewoks would probably just faint off; that is the problem with OT fans. (Never imply that a storm trooper could be bested by a small cute-looking thing! Or a tree.)

The Prequels are clunky & have emo!Anakin unfortunately (& the worst romance scenes in history) but they are also very pretty and have a great cast and the best lightsaber fights. (Tbf, they are the only one where canonically there are multiple trained force-users fighting each other.) And Ian McDermid hamming it up beautifully for everyone at the back as Palpatine plots his way to power. (WhoEVER could be doing these APPALLING things? Not ME, I am a saint, I AM the Senate!) Christopher Lee fights Yoda! And then it all ends in mass scale murder of cute kids while Obi-Wan saves babies and goes off to be sad in a cave. Honestly, some people just don't like fun. ;-p

The sequels are much better films but they don't make much sense with continuity (and not in small nitpicky ways) but they're still SW; they're hoky fun if TLJ would stop pretending it's doing Serious Things Unheard of Before in SW when actually the PT went there, too. Just because they're clunky doesn't mean they didn't happen!

Have you seen Rogue One? R1 is the one where I like it a lot and it's good, amazing.

[swordznsorcery]

I've only seen the original trilogy and the first prequel. I always meant to try the others, but it never happened. I didn't like anybody in the prequels, which was an issue, although Christopher Lee fighting Yoda is most definitely a draw! I've heard a lot of good things about some of the later ones, but they killed Han, which I'm still sulking about. But I will grow up about that eventually.

I think Rocket Raccoon would bite you if you called him cute! Although Baby Groot is clearly the cutest sci-fi has ever been, so might indeed cause SW fandom to implode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEPbXYzE5_Y

[thisbluespirit]

Well, there's a 10 year jump between 1 and 2 of the Prequels, so a lot of the characters and vibes are quite different from The Phantom Menace, so you might find you get on a bit better with them (Anakin aside, lol). Or not. But I wasn't joking about Christopher Lee fighting Yoda!

The Sequels were at least even handed in killing all the original trio, so I suppose that's, um, something??

[swordznsorcery]

I suppose it is! I guess they had to do something about Leia, but I had no idea they'd killed Luke as well. Blimey, that's cheerful.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, I'm sorry! I just didn't think it was possible to be in net fandom spaces and not have been spoilered for the ST, at least not that particular point. Um, my apologies? /o\ But, yeah, that's why people are so mad about it all. Partly. There are also other things they're mad about because fandom.

[swordznsorcery]

Oh, don't worry! I don't mind the spoiler, and certainly not after all this time. In a sense it's almost better to be forearmed!

Just seems an odd choice. I know Harrison Ford made being killed a condition of his returning, but he's always hated SW. And Leia was taken out of their hands, although arguably they could have just left her off-screen. Killing Luke as well seems designed to annoy fandom! (Plenty of them deserved it, mind, after all the fuming about women and black people being allowed to do stuff these days...)

Basically, SW always seems guaranteed to make unfortunate plot choices! Although, the horrors of Anakin aside, I am still tempted by Christopher Lee fighting Yoda. :)

[thisbluespirit]

Given that we often like completely opposite people, you might even like Anakin! (Off-screen Hayden Christensen seems like a really sweet guy, who's handled all the years of hate with grace, so I bear him no ill will.) Although not the love scenes. You will need your fast-forward button at the ready, because I think otherwise you might implode during them and I wouldn't want that. XD

And, yeah, SW, is SW. It's hoky fun, it's a mess, but it's a nice galaxy to visit. I prefer the actual fairy-tale kingdom side of pre-fall Republic, and there are 1000s of years of that in the EU, and plenty more actual canon rebels and empire stuff for the people who hate the Republic and just want to blow up Death Stars forever and never actually, like, win and rebuild. Heh. It's all good, it's all bad.

I liked Rose in the ST. People are just awful sometimes.

[seal_girl]

The SW-prequel fic is great.

I haven't dared venture out of DW to tumblr etc. Not sure I want to!!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thanks! ♥

I haven't dared venture out of DW to tumblr etc. Not sure I want to!!

I don't really get on with global tagging and reblogging, because it's not primarily how I work, but tumblr is on the decline itself and I still find it much easier than twitter/facebook/instagram or Discord. It's like any fannish platform - you need to be able to work out how to safely carve out your corner. If you're into one small fandom or pairing or whatever that can work out (provided there IS someone else out there in it), and it can be quite fun as at least you can all find each other and hang out. But there are no comms, no levels of privacy, no threaded comments etc. and it's harder to avoid the people who are shouting about everything because even trusted mutuals will go and reblog them without tags. But it can be fun and starting out isn't too scary because nobody will notice you; you'll be lucky if anything you post even shows up in the tags. So if you ever want to try, it's all right!

[seal_girl]

DW seems like quite a versatile platform, and there are levels you can go into it. I never found that w twitter or fb.

I not even sure what discord is...

It's actually like all online places - you need to know why you are using it and what you want from it. I have a few older friends who asked me about twitter and FB - and they had no clue what they wanted to do with it. Nothing happened and they just got bored!

[thisbluespirit]

It's actually like all online places - you need to know why you are using it and what you want from it.

Absolutely! And while I prefer LJ/DW type hugely, there are things that tumblr does well that you can't do here, so, yes - it depends what you want! And, of course, these days, how you access the 'net.