Awholelottayeehaw - Howdy, Ya'll

i love you people who hold doors i love you people who let others pass on the driveway i love you people who make funny faces at babies i love you people who pick up litter i love you people who say please and thank you i love you people patient with service workers i love you people who share an umbrella i love you people who are casually kind

This is the first character (and man) that has had me by the emotional balls for longer than three months. This year will mark the 2-year mark since I started pining for him. Happy anniversary, baby.

One of the things I really enjoy about Din Djarin as a character is the layers.  And I mean that both literally (the victorian ankle kink is real) and figuratively.

This is a guy who can be implacable, even brutal, when he’s bounty hunting.  But even at the beginning, he seems to have a preference to bring bounties in alive when possible.  Initially, he was pretty inclined to murder the Jawa that ransacked his ship, but once Kuiil pushed him to make a deal instead, he started using that very currency as his primary method.  Even at times when he really didn’t have to, like fighting a krayt dragon.

This is a guy who can be snarky and curt when he meets someone on the job, or in a combat-likely situation, but once pushed out of his comfort zone, turns awkward and even shy.  The best example of this is on Sorgan, with Omera, when the scary mercenary turns skittish animal, and kind of blurts out his tragic backstory as soon as someone shows a hint of interest.

And then there’s the number of times that the poor guy gets stabbed in the back, manipulated into something he doesn’t really want to do, or has even friendly allies up and change the terms of their team up on him.  And he still ends up going along with it.  After complaining and protest, but still.  I’ve joked that he can’t win an argument with a baby, but let’s be real here, the baby is pretty fucking persuasive.  This is however a guy who gets bullied by his mechanic to carry a frog person that she doesn’t even know to a neighboring system.  And then manages to get bullied by said frog person along the way.  And the frog person doesn’t even speak Basic!

He’s a literal knight in shining armor who will blow up a krayt dragon from inside its stomach and he’s bullied by pretty much everyone he meets, and it’s hilarious every single time.

He sleeps in full armor, in a cupboard in the space opera equivalent of a 1982 Honda Civic.  He cauterizes wounds by campfire.  He spends a whole lot of time hanging out in a forge, apparently having traumatic flashbacks at the banging noise.  This man might well be Greef Karga’s highest performing hunter, but he’s also a walking trainwreck and I love it.

He won’t remove his helmet to save his own life (though he will for his kid) but still keeps a reasonably well groomed mustache.  Does he even own a mirror?  Or does he shave by reflection in his own helmet?  I love that Din is so weird that this is a legitimate question.

He’s a solitary man with no name and the uptight governess who protects her kid with a rifle, and each season ends with him basically raising an army of friends he met along the way.   (My wishlist item is that next year, Grogu gets to raise the army to save him instead.  That and a nude bathing scene in the living waters of Mandalore.  But I feel like one is more likely than the other.)

I never would have thought that a Star Wars character could surpass Luke Skywalker in my heart, but Din Djarin might well have been created in a lab to deliberately push every one of my fannish buttons, and I love him for it.

what emotion do you guys write from? like sikens is panic. mary olivers hope. what is yours?

REBLOG IF ITS OKAY TO TALK TO YOU.

Please.

@oonajaeadira has a great response to the reason drama in the Pedro fandoms and I hope we can all learn to handle these situations as lovingly, gently, but firmly as her. Everyone's feelings are valid, but not everyone's actions are and I hope we can all move on and make this a learning lesson where no one else gets hurt. Mentally, physically, or emotionally. As a writer, my first reaction was to block, but Adira's loving note made me reconsider and have an open heart about this. For everyone involved.

Not trying to add to any drama, my heart goes out to everyone who is hurting from this.

I am not stealing anything. I have removed/ changed everything I've been asked to remove. I voiced my opinion. This post by @stealyourblorbos is unwarranted, nasty, and untrue. If y'all would give me a chance, then maybe this can be worked out without hard feelings and people being blocked.

Come sit next to me, kitkat. Let me love on you. Gonna say some things that you might not like all the way, but I see that you're angry and hopefully I can help you see where I'm at.

Listen. Jules is a good friend of mine and I trust her. With my life. Every interaction I've had with her has been genuine and while I don't know everything about her life, I know enough that having her work stolen can be not only demoralizing, but damaging to her profits. She is a working artist. And while, yes, she does post stuff very generously online for free, those posts can bring her commissions and work. So to have someone pass them off as their own can be severely heartbreaking and damaging.

I didn't see the posts in question, so I have to imagine what the situation was. I truly believe that you didn't mean to pass the work off as your own. You may have just seen something beautiful and posted it because you're curating your blog. But if you don't credit the artist or reblog from the original source, that is basically you claiming yourself as the OG poster, and that is a kind of theft. It's better if you post a link to the artist. But it's best if you reblog from the original post itself. That's how the artist intended the work to be shown and it also directs people back to their blog so they can gain interest and therefore work.

You already know all of this and I'm sorry if this comes off as condescending. I don't want to condescend. At all. I asked you to sit by me for a reason.

If you noticed, I did NOT block you. In fact, the post led me to follow you. Because as much as I trust Jules, I also love her a hell of a lot and I know myself enough to know that emotions can do things to judgment. I wanted to make sure I wasn't just blocking you blindly out of my love for her. I always want to give people the benefit of the doubt and see their side of things before I bring out the pitchfork.

So I took a look at your page. Did I see anything that was stolen and passed off as your own? No. Did I see a few pieces of reposted artwork that wasn't credited? I did. Hmm. So there's some improvement that could happen there. But. I appreciate that you have done your best to remedy the situation. I'm glad you ultimately respected the wishes of the artist to remove a piece when it was asked you do so. Thank you.

Now then, let's get to my actions. Did I reblog Jules' post? You bet I did. She was hurt, she's my friend, and she's a fellow creator. As a creator myself I would feel horrible if someone reposted my work without crediting me. I felt that hurt in my soul. And whether you apologized or took down the posts, that hurt remains and distrust will linger. Righting a wrong does not instantly warrant forgiveness. That must be earned.

If you did something to hurt and you're sorry for it, then you'll do what you can to show that you truly appreciate the art that you put on your blog. In this case, you could do your best to credit and support the artists whose art you love. Follow a few of them and get to know them. Tell your followers who they are and why you love their art. Become a friend to artists.

However, if you believe you weren't in the wrong, that others are overreacting, then I stand by my reblog of Jules' post. You'll notice my tags were something along the line of "don't do this." And I mean that. This is a cautionary tale for others. "Please, fandom friends, don't treat creators this way. It hurts, and we'll get angry about it."

So know that while I listen to my friend--someone who has been nothing but good to me and deserves my support--I'm also listening to you. I hear you. I am 100% giving you a chance. I don't want to block you, because in this fandom we've all been through enough mistaken conduct and finger-pointing and really, all we all wanna do is love a really nice man and the work he does. I know that's what Jules wants, it's what I want, and taking the time to peek at your blog, now I think that's probably what you want too.

But just to be sure, I'll give you a follow and get to understand you better. While I must support my friend's feelings, I hope in time I can come to trust that your intentions are well-meaning.

(gif by dieter-bravo)

I hate it when you’re reading smut and you can’t figure out what position they’re in.

I guess the thing to be learned from everything going on with The Mandalorian storytelling right now is how vital it is to understand what characters and themes make your story compelling to your audience. What aspects of your story made people fall in love with it and keep coming back to it? Those are the things you shouldn’t heavily mess with without careful consideration and planning otherwise you’ll alienate your entire audience. Imagine if The Hunger Games switched from Katniss’s pov to the pov of some other tribute mid-series; the whole story would fall apart. Or imagine if the series pivoted away from its main themes halfway though. It just wouldn’t make sense. You have to think deliberately and critically about what characters, themes, etc your story couldn’t “live” without — what things make your story

Shout out to fanfic writers who write their favourite characters into incredibly specific niches like complex academic studies or horse taming or the intricacies of the fashion industry or historical politics just because they love it. I do in fact want to learn about your niche interests disguised as fanfiction, thank you

So you're telling me my Texan drawl is the OG British? Fuck me I got them original colonizer way of speaking.

at what point in history do you think americans stopped having british accents