You sweet thing, thank u! Since I’m sort of clawing my way back up to the real world from being sick, this was especially good timing ❤
*~5 things that make me happy~*… in no special order…
1. Retail therapy – not necessarily buying anything, sometimes just the hunt is plenty. But of course, if you find that one amazing jacket/dress/top, you gotta buy it, bc when you’re looking for an amazing jacket/dress/top for a specific event, suddenly no one makes good things anymore!!!
2. 80s and 90s music – mostly the hits, one-hit wonders, and also other songs by artists from that time period that didn’t get as much radio play. I think I love it bc it reminds me of when I was riding the bus to/from school, the idea of being in that liminal space, no seatbelts, dappled sunlight, kids chattering around, the smell of the sunshine cooking the green faux-leather seats, being in transit, clutching a book in my hands, and these songs being so optimistic, even when they were angry (Nine Inch Nails) and/or miserable (Smashing Pumpkins). There was always a sparkle of hope that things could be learned from the darkness. Or maybe that was just my own interpretation.
Among which: I love Duncan Sheik, apparently? Good writing music. I had a friend who was obsessed with his music in high school and kept looking for secret messages in the first letters of the track names, and kept trying to get me to listen to his non-hit stuff, and I just… I think I was refusing to do it, just to keep the game of it up with her. That push-pull. I have to reach out to her and admit that I might be as big a fan now as she was then!
3. My oil lamp – I used to buy candles and that gets so expensive and messy, and it’s wasteful, bc I end up unable to burn through all the wax (unless it’s tealights but those burn so fast), and I hate putting so much trash in the landfills. This is much more efficient bc I can have that friendly little flame and the clear kerosene isn’t too expensive. I like the historical feeling of it, and that ppl had to clean the glass just like I’m doing. I like the smell of the kerosene but some ppl don’t like it.
4. Comfy shoes – I used to have giant pumpkin-shaped slippers and I wore them to their destruction… I wear slippers around the house. I have 3 pairs of slippers now! Not slippers but: my fave black leather boots are comfy, too, and they make me feel like a BAMF. I’ll have to take pics. They fit my calf muscles perfectly, like a hug. Which is special bc my calf muscles are pretty big.
5. Short film viewings/art gallery crawls – I like going to gatherings and meeting new ppl, watch short films, see a bunch of art for a few hours. The variety of it all. I like picking out faves, and meeting the artists and asking them about their process and inspiration.
^I think this last one also applies to my role in fandom, I really love encouraging fanartists and writers, even in other fandoms. I’m not rich by any means, but I scrape together money for commissions now and then. Fanworks are the lifeblood of a fandom and I like to add my applause to the mix. Sometimes I feel like the one in the audience who starts the applause, and that’s fine, too!
ELI AND OSKAR… Oh my god what can I say except I want them to be happy together forever. ; ;
Eli is given the ability to fly with strange membrane wings- but those wings are never discussed further in the book than when a passerby notices Eli take flight and has to duck. Much like Eli’s toes, which grow long for claws, I imagined bat wings and long fingers to be the solution here.
ANYWAY. I imagine Eli is being sneaky and swoops down after a hunt for a hug.
This was a 3 hour piece. 1 hour sketch and 2 hours rendering.
(I received this ask and chose to censor the person’s name to protect their privacy, but I wanted to respond publicly bc I felt like it was a good thing to discuss out in the open, bc I have seen similar issues come up before, so I will refer to the asker as Anon.)
Anon, while I do try to reblog cosplays here on my blog, it’s not a main focus. We both know that I have reblogged several of yours in the past, I’m so impressed with your skill and resemblance to the characters you cosplay! I can definitely understand why you feel salty about putting so much effort in and not getting the attention when someone who seems not to put in any effort gets the credit for cosplay with the #cosplay tag.
And may it is also just a salty moment just for me salty cosplayer. I am sorry.
It’s okay, I’m sorry that you were hurt. It was not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings. Please accept this hug from me ❤
I feel like there are several ways of answering this, one way would be to remove that tag from the reblog of that post, and another would be to offer an explanation of my thought process on that tag. Since I really want to keep that tag on it, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, hopefully my explanation below will reduce some of your salt by offering more perspective on it. If you’re still feeling hurt after this explanation, I am sorry. We all come to fandom as a safe space to be creative and have a good time, and unfortunately we sometimes have different and incompatible definitions of how that works 😛
Again, it was not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings, it was my intention to compliment the OP of that post, and sadly, when someone is complimented, it can make others feel hurt and/or envy. Maybe this explanation will address those feelings.
So why tag a post #cosplay if OP didn’t tag it #cosplay??
Anyone can tag a post with anything at all, I can tag it #lobsterface, if I have some kind of inside joke with that person, even if no one else understands it! I can tag it with #WOW AMAZING, and other people would probably disagree. One’s tags are one’s own creative expression in that way.
I want to talk about cosplayers, bc that is part of the issue here, that some appear to make “more of an effort” than others in their cosplay.
A) Keep in mind that some cosplayers have considerable advantages over others:
Some cosplayers are skilled at being able to sew/make their own costumes,
Some choose to buy their costumes,
Some choose to cosplay a more modern-era time period and do not need to sew or buy difficult pieces,
Some are skilled at photoshop and can change their hair color/style or create fangs or alter the scene digitally,
Some have access to cool locations like cemeteries or fancy architecture,
Some have
photographer friends who can stage the lighting/scene really well,
etc…
^All of these are great and can add to the quality of a cosplay post 😀
B) On the other hand, some cosplayers do not have these advantages, or choose not to do elaborate cosplay for their own reasons.
Some people might feel that they resemble the characters enough that they choose not to add anything to what they already have naturally,
Some people lack some/all of the skills mentioned above,
Some cannot afford to buy costume pieces, but still wish to cosplay their favorite characters.
^This group (B) are no less qualified to cosplay than the people who have the advantages mentioned above, and they have every right to make cosplay posts of their own.
EDIT: I decided to remove the part of this post that addressed a specific other blogger. I don’t think it’s appropriate to drag them into this when I am protecting the anonymity of the person who raised the issue.
But my advice still stands as follows:
It’s a reasonable compliment that we do give to people who happen to look like the fictional characters, unfairly or not.
So why reblog a selfie that’s not tagged as a cosplay and tag it with #cosplay? Well, it’s a compliment to the person.
Hey dear, in honour for cosplay it makes me (i do not speak for all so just my no-one-actually-ask-for-opinion) sad that ppl got tagged as cosplay just because they have a kind of simillarities for fictional characters.
So unfortunately, this does happen, and it is a compliment.
It is a kind of hurtful for those who bring a lot of effort for the actually costume.
I can understand that. I’m sorry you were hurt by this. The other difficult thing about tumblr is that the tags are there to advertise as well as organize, and for my own blog, I wanted that post above to be in my cosplay tag so that in the future, if anyone asked me about X character cosplay examples, it would be included. And I think it is a good example to have because, as I mentioned above, some people do not have the advantages you might have to create/buy costume pieces, and/or some people choose not to do those in cosplay for their own reasons.
I think you did the right thing coming to me to ask about it, and hopefully my answer will reduce some of the hurt. In this case, I don’t want to remove the #cosplay tag from that post because of the reasons I stated above, I’m sorry about that.
And… if I would dye my hair more red would civil photos also be a cosplay-tagged post? 🙁 I am confused.
I wouldn’t recommend that you dye your hair just to have your selfies reblogged as cosplay, in my experience, reblogs are VERY subjective. Reblogging someone else’s selfies especially is something every blogger has to decide for themselves, as selfies can be very personal. Everyone has their own reasons for reblogging a post, and in my case, I reblog things to have them in my personal collection to refer to later if I want, and again, sometimes it’s also a compliment for someone.
Even with the very elaborate cosplays, you can’t predict what will be reblogged. I might put a lot of effort into a post, fic, fanvideo, and it will get very few notes. I might put very little effort in and it gets 5k notes.
I would suggest that if you want more attention, give other people attention, that’s how this blog became so popular! It is like real life, you get out what you put into it. People tend to give attention to people who have given attention to them *hugs*
Let the Right One In sketch. UGH I loved the film, devoured the book, and just UGH. Loved it. ; ; Eli and Oskar broke my heart… Their friendship and love and belief in one another and just the sweetness of it all was so uplifting to read.
Hi Anon, thank u for coming back! You’re welcome for that answer (so good to know you appreciated it), but gosh, I’m so sorry for misreading your intentions
*hugs*
It’s so easy to misread unintended emotions into text, especially when it’s such a short note. I apologize if my answer came off as crushing to you specifically.
I’ve seen so much Discourse from anti-shippers lately that I may be a little predisposed to seeing it in innocent asks, too. Engaging with the question itself could invite Discourse, so my response was more about supporting shippers as a general rule.
I absolutely never intend to shame other fans, I hope that much came through in my response and in my other posts. I do want my blog to be seen as something interesting and relatable, non-shaming and knowledgeable, but I’m absolutely not the authority on VC. Even the “Marges” of the fandom have every right to do what they do, I just choose not to engage with them. I wanted to make a point of identifying them for others, like you, so that you know that their way is not the only way, and they are not the authority on VC, either.
Your being fairly new and overwhelmed to this fandom, let me tell you, it’s a series about murderers, lovers, wacky shit, silliness, some religious stuff mixed in heavily, re-invention of the vampire origin story, etc. It’s not for the faint of heart but if you can manage not to take it too
seriously
you’ll probably have a better time. Please don’t let this one little interaction deter you from reading the books and/or making friends here, bc I’ve met some of my best friends through VC, honed my own writing, shared headcanons, etc., and I would wish all the good aspects of fandom on every new fan ❤
P.S. To answer your previous question a little more gently, Marius/Armand appeals to some fans bc of the taboo nature of it. It disgusts some fans bc of that, too. There’s no right or wrong. My opinion is that I like exploring scary things in fiction even if they’re dressed up to look good, so I would say it’s a perfectly decent ship to ship, even if Anne Rice holds it out as an ideal relationship.
Again, I’m not well-educated on the horror/goth lit aspect so I can’t fully address that, but I would think that Anne Rice had read some of those, and was inspired by them, that she felt her writing (especially in IWTV) was a natural update and/or extension of those characters/tropes/stories.
Marius himself is a character who is probably largely based on the benefactor characters in Dickens that Anne Rice has always loved. She mixed that in with some Daddy kink, some *healing dick* trope, and overall Father-knows-best sort of attitude, and that’s basically Marius. Is he a pedophile? That’s for the reader to decide. Again, I don’t want to make that distinction for you. I’m not interested in getting into a debate about it with the “Marges” of fandom, and tbh, I would recommend that you don’t try them, either, especially being fairly new and overwhelmed as it is.
Have an open mind, read the text yourself. Try to enjoy what you can. It’s a buffet, you don’t need to like all of it 😉
I-want-my-IWTV 