Just this evening, when I went to check this site, I got a weird error page, telling me that I was being geoblocked due to age verification laws in Mississippi.
I was using Dreamwidth earlier today without any issue, and I was definitely not in Mississippi. Multiple reloads later, and I was still geoblocked. It became obvious I'd have to download a VPN to get on here again.
I went with Proton VPN due to how often it appears in Best VPN lists (usually as something like, "Best Free VPN"). My relief was palpable when I was able to access the site again. The server randomly chosen for me was in the U.S., so I was a little worried nothing would change, but it must have been far enough from Mississippi to not be an issue.
I was concerned about the privacy implications prior (because you KNOW these companies that collect ID scans don't provide this service out of the goodness of their hearts). But it hadn't occurred to me how prohibitively expensive age verification would be for smaller sites that run on donations.
These fuckass age verification laws had better not come for my state.
Current Mood:bitchy
Current Music:Random conversations in a restaurant
I can't say if I'm proud or ashamed to say that I started reading the IDW Sonic comics just so I could learn more about Surge the Tenrec. Most of what I learned about her is secondhand/thirdhand. Skimming wiki pages, hearing other fans talk, that sort of thing.
Funny thing is, I wasn't even intending to read the IDW Sonic comics. My sister had been trying to convince me to read them for quite some time, but usually when she talked about them, she was venting about how woefully OOC Shadow or Amy (her main Sonic blorbos) are. I don't feel quite so strongly about those two, but it did leave a bad taste in my mouth. Epecially when I saw how Silver was portrayed as an adorable, happy-go-lucky cinnamon roll. (He may be naïve, but he would never grin ear-to-ear like he does in the comics! Just look at 06! He is a brooding, rude, and desperate antihero! 06's reset be damned, if you're going to make him that different, just make an original character!)
Resists the urge to slap him repeatedly into a normal face — oh what the heck, then he would probably cry, which might be even more annoying.
She did have a lot of good things to say on Sonic's characterization though. And Sonic is probably my favorite character across all Sonic media. His stoicism, smiling for his friends even in the face of the Metal Virus, especially sounded interesting.
As a Sonelise shipper, I like the idea of Sonic also powering through his negative feelings with a smile, and if the comic leans into that, I'm all for it.
I've heard some mixed reviews on the way Sonic's morality is handled (framing his repeated fights with Eggman as a result of mercy, as opposed to circumstance or the Egg's ingenuity), but my sister thinks some of this is overstated.
But what really cemented it for me was when she told me about Surge's introduction. For my sister, Surge was just "Oh, okay, another villain.". But she knew I would adore her. I've always loved characters with tragic pasts, who have been manipulated by authority figures, and are forced to carve their own (ethically dubious) path. And — this is the juicy bit — make their trauma EVERYONE ELSE'S problem. Surge does all this and then some.
So I decided, what the heck, it's time I read it already! And if Sonic is mischaracterized, at least me and my sis can commiserate over the butchering of our blorbos!
I'll have to see how much of the online takes on Surge are fair, and how much of it is ignoring context/telephone gaming others' takes. I see mostly positivity regarding her backstory and personality, with some critique pertaining to her inconsistent badassery/woobification and redemption arc. But honestly, if I can enjoy Elise in spite of her flawed writing in 06, there's no reason why I cannot do the same with Surge. If we can hate without reason, can we not love? (This may come as a surprise, but I hated Elise at first!)
For Surge, it was love at first sight really. Lol! She is unbearably cute though.
One thing that I frequently find maddening as a fan of Princess Elise is when people confidently spread misinformation about her, parroting takes that strip nuance.
I don't like the idea of doing one of my pet peeves with a character, even if it would be positive. There's only so far you can get in fandom by regurgitating other peoples' takes. Even when it comes to material that diverges heavily from canon, like AU fanfiction. Yet another reason to get into Surge's source material.
I also look forward to seeing Kitsunami the Fennec. I was wondering if a character whose existence is so closely tied to another's might be bland, but my sister has a lot of good things to say about him. Just hearing her talk about the selfless-but-villainous boi makes me want to give him a hug! And I've always been partial to fennec foxes.
A few months back, I had already tried reading the comics right from issue #1, but I got a bit bored. Skimming ahead, it looked like Sonic was repeatedly introducing himself to individual characters. Felt like it was written for fans who didn't know much about Sonic. So my sister, who has already read ahead to forty-something-ish, suggested I start off with Vol. 4: Infection, or the very start of the Metal Virus Arc.
I finally read it the first time around (thanks Hoopla!). I aim to read it again before it's due so I can organize my thoughts and make another, more in-depth post on it.
Word of mouth advertising is something else, huh?
Current Mood:optimistic
Current Music:Too-loud conversations around me in the libary
Yanno, the next time I go through a playthrough of Sonic 06, I'm thinking of pausing it on the prettiest shots, and going frame-by-frame to grab the best screenshots. Especially those with Elise and Sonic. I started awhile back, but never finished. I stopped at the point where Eggman was trying to abduct Elise in the opening cutscene.
I got into the habit of actually keeping an organized file of reference images of Princess Elise because I often looked for images of her online. And half the time I'd click into a screencap and it would have some dumb bashing like "Top Ten WORST video game girlfriends!". So rather than slogging through oceans of salt just to find references for Elise's hairstyle, I decided to finally get organized about my images so I wouldn't have to search the web for lost images. It was probably a good habit to get I into anyway. Before I did this, I would have a bunch of randomly-named images in my downloads, if I had even bothered to download the reference at all.
What I have in mind is an advanced version of that. Except instead of a low-res screenshot swiped from a clickbait article, these would be right from the source—the full frame, no downsizing, no nasty text attached, just pure aesthetic. I'd easily be able to make stamps, collages, etc, without having to remember exactly what point in the game a specific moment or pose was.
These are few screencaps I've already taken from the aforementioned cutscene:
Thank you for checking out my request letter! I hope some of the ships here speak to you! Any of the likes are purely optional, please don't feel like you need to cram every one into one work, especially if you're unfamiliar with the fandom!
General Likes
Fluff
Artwork, especially traditional
Light Angst
Awkward First Times (Kissing, Handholding, Sex, etc.)
Temporarily unrequited love
Feelings realization
Embarrassment over crushes
Height difference cuteness (Sonic standing on something to kiss or hug his gf, being lifted up so they can kiss, sitting in a partner's lap, etc)
Pregnancy
Hand kink, provided it's not laid on too heavy
Mundane AUs, provided the characters are still recognizable and have references to critical parts of their canon selves (If they have powers like super-speed, preferably they still have it but use it for a job other than being a hero)
Robot feels
Guys being simps!
General DNW
No violence more graphic than would be allowed in a PG film
Any fetishes or kinks not requested, including things like rape, incest, and dubcon
Another love interest arriving and fighting over a character, or shown being jealous
Making a relationship a result of cheating on a partner or otherwise bashing a rival love interest 'in the way' of a ship
Species changes that don't occur in canon (e.g., please don't turn Zelda into a Hedgehog "so she can be with Sonic")
Sonic being aggressively forward/flirty/objectifying towards a love interest
Poking fun at Sonic being attracted to a human(oid) character
Explicit works where the characters aren't aged up (though it's rarely brought up in canon, Sonic is 15/16 depending on continuity)
Trans headcanons that don't line up with a character's canon gender expression (e.g, trans male Sonic is fine, but no trans female Sonic)
Here are the ships listed in order of interest (though I will be ecstatic to receive something for any one of these ships! The number of times I've re-ordered this list lol...). Many of these relationships only appeared in a single episode or film available to watch on Youtube, and when this is the case, I will link to it! ( Read more... )
One of my pet peeves is when I come across a fanfic rewrite of an unpopular official work, and the summary is just...like...a combination of the author self-aggrandizing and/or talking about how bad the original is, listing all the things they didn't like, and then stating what they'll do to fix it. And their dislikes/fixes are things that many fans have proposed before.
I get being upfront about what your story will be about, but if they can't be bothered to make their summary a more interesting read than a random forum post fantasizing about a hypothetical rewrite, why should I be bothered to read it?
Each author is different. Each rewrite is different. But here they are, deliberately emphasizing the same-ness of it to other people's ideas, making it sound as cookie-cutter as possible!
I think the best summary is a coherent hook for a story that stands on its own, and, as odd as it sounds, doesn't rely too much on the idea that it's a rewrite. What I mean is, hypothetically, if the original work that prompted it were to vanish from existence, would the fic still sound like something worth clicking into?
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