I’m Going To Say Something That Might Make Me Seem Ungrateful, But I Think It’s True Of Many Fic

ooo i'd love to hear more about the casting day announcement from your pov if that's ok! like how did people react? did you think they looked the part but wasn't keen on their past acting work? did everyone freak out lmao

HELLO!!! i love talking about it!! let's gooo

so the day of the casting announcement for me was also the day i found out they were making rwrb into a movie, idk how it was for other people, but before that day i hadn't realized we would get a movie

so i was just SO HYPED about getting a film at all, you know?

then we got this announcement:

and i looked at them and IMMEDIATELY went to taylor's instagram and i was like "is that the dude from the kissing booth?" (i have never seen the kissing booth before that, but i have seen people on youtube doing some of those commentaries where they make fun of every single movie under the sun for views - the person i was friends with at the time loved watching those, so i have seen a few)

and i IMMEDIATELY became obsessed with him because i thought he was the most beautiful man i've ever seen. height aside, he was pretty much what i imagined alex to look like. back then, i'm pretty sure he hasn't been in many things so i watched tkb2 & 3 for him (or mostly his and joey's scenes because i didn't like jac*b el*rdi) and i watched minx, where he was AMAZING.

meanwhile nick creeped up on me much slower - but he did have many more movies out so i also watched all of those. at the begining he hadn't been dyed blonde yet so it was a bit harder to imagine him as henry, but the second they made him blonde i thought he was spot on as well. the filming was in progress around the same time purple hearts came out so i waited for the premiere with him and the rest of the cast, because they were all SO excited for nick - they even had a watch party and they all watched it together when it came out, and on the day of the premiere they decorated nick's trailer with tiny handmade purple hearts which was super sweet and he was adorably blushy about it.

okay back to the casting announcement day.

we got the announcement and immediately EVERYONE was negative. and i'm not exaggerating. everyone said they looked nothing like the characters, they said taylor is too pretty to play alex, that neither of the boys deserves to play these characters bc they're both straight and "sTrAiGhT acToRs sHoULdn'T pLAy quEEr cHaRaCteRs." it was just CONSTANT negativity. if someone was excited they were made fun of. people would go into nick and taylor's comments on insta and say pretty bad things.

the fandom for the movie on tumblr was nonexistant tbh. there were a few people who were fans of the book and were very vocal about how awful the movie will be with those awful actors. see, people had fancasts for alex and henry and they weren't willing to let those go. even if the guy they had in mind for alex wasn't even mexican and the guy they had in mind for henry wasn't even an actor.

i was still patiently waiting for any news to come out and for tumblr to get on with the program. at the same time first updates accounts on the movie, firstprince and nick & tay started appearing on instagram so i was mostly there, having thought that tumblr will just hate this film forever. i reread the book then and having many feelings about it i went into the tumblr tag again - there wasn't much change, but there were a few people who seemed to be just as excited as i was and i would have blocked all the negative people back then.

one of the people i saw being excited about the movie and the boys was @sincenewyorks so after some time and after gathering some courage i messaged them and we talked. there were also a few other people who were being positive by then, but all in all the fandom was pretty small and people still negative especially when they found out that june and rafael luna won't be in the movie - that brought a whole new wave of hate. some hardcore book fans have already decided the film would be awful.

i was just happy to follow the boys and the rest of the cast through the filming process, a little bit here, but mostly on instagram and in private messages with like-minded people here.

fun fact: the nick and taylor tags on tumblr were practically empty by then - taylor's had a few gifs of his naked scenes from minx and a few gifs from the kissing booth. nick's tag was almost completely empty.

flash forward to the day we got the trailer. this is the day EVERYTHING changed, because the trailer came out and suddenly? all the haters went silent. (take into account the fact that i had blocked some of them already so that might also be why lol) and the movie started reaching more and more people. overnight there were a lot of gifs from the trailer and people started posting about the movie more.

in the following weeks, more and more people were talking about the movie and nick and taylor and the bad comments were mostly kept to minimum. we could all see how excited taylor and nick, but especially taylor were about the film.

the the strikes started and we were all heartbroken that the movie wouldn't get the premiere it deserved and secretly hoping the strikes would be done by the time the movie was supposed to come out, but that didn't happen, unfortunately.

then the movie came out and some people really loved it, some others said it was disappointing, there were a few really weird takes, but mostly people REALLY loved it. the fandom has already grown bigger at that point and there were many more people willing to freak out and talk about it. then people started watching nick's and taylor's previous movies as well and their tags filled out and the rest is history, i guess.

sorry that it got SO LONG omg. some people were annoying about the casting announcement, and there was a lot of negativity at first but to be honest? i still had so much fun and the whole experience will always remain in my heart as a positive one <3

if you have any other questions, please do ask me, i can always talk about it more, i love trips down the memory lane lol

King Alex The First with his stupidly handsome boyfriend watch me spend the next few months replacing acd with the king for every video or photo i see of mary&george On Patreon the version without watermark and wallpapers!

You mentioned the ao3 author curse in one of your asks and I’ve never heard of this before? I am now super curious if you could maybe elaborate?

Oh BOY anon! Welcome welcome, this is a fun one.

You ever see one of those posts floating around, either here or on other social media, that's just a compilation of the most unhinged AO3 author's notes you've ever seen? The ones that are like "sorry this chapter is a day later than normal! My house was flooded and my fish died and my grandfather was struck by lightning three times in a row so I had to finish editing this in the hospital overnight. Please forgive me, next week will be back to our regular schedule!"

That's the AO3 author curse. It's not an always thing. It's not even a most of the time thing. But sometimes life goes to absolute shit, and sometimes that happens when you're in the middle of posting a fic, and sometimes you end up being incredibly apologetic about schedule slippage on writing that you are doing in your spare time for free while you're having to deal with Actual Real World Stuff and explaining why the schedule slippage occurred in the author's notes that makes your life sound completely batshit.

A couple of examples:

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CRACK

sideblog for weird or unhinged ao3 screenshots and quotes >:D feel free to send/submit yr own

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Im the one who just egged your house

starting a collection

(Me: I haven't yet had anything happen while posting, but while co-writing a fic with @ships-to-sail that was literally set in the afterlife and all about grief and the impact we have on the people we leave behind I had multiple family members/family friends die, which was uhhhhhhhhh not conducive to writing that particular subject matter lmao)

Fanfic writers!

My theory is that most fanfiction writers are 30+. Let's test this theory.

RWRB Movie Posters

I've seen so many online sellers trying to make money off of printed posters that are just the promo images released by amazon, so I found HQ versions and am posting them here, for anyone else who wants them.

Sources without tumblr compression: One, two

+ Bonus

First firstprince from me! ❤️🤍💙

Shoot Your Shot, Alex/Henry. M, 4.2k

Jimmy raises his eyebrows in anticipation. “First celebrity crush?”

As usual, Alex’s mouth is moving before his mind can catch up.

“Oh,” he gestures, like this is both obvious and the easiest question he’s ever been asked. “Prince Henry.”

Henry and his ties: (part 1)

Pink

Affectionate and soft, the adjectives given to the Prince of England's hearts

Blue and white stripes

Formal, navy is the color of authority and power

Blue and light blue stripes (Henry focus pls)

Simple but formal, two colors often used for work settings. Light blue adds friendliness

Grey

Conservative and conformative, add mysteriousness

Orange Copper

Wealth, copper indicates luxury and sophistication

Blue and silver stripes

Grace and elegance, Henry needed to be pretty for his date 💕

Carmine with green stripes

Love, red is associated with passion and sensuality but also prohibition (+ green can indicate outlaw lifestyle)

Sky blue with thin white stripes

Peace, sky blue symbolizes daydreaming and conveys serenity; white is associated with purity

Side addition: solid tie is the basic pattern that doesn't add anything to the tie and lets the color speak for itself; polka dot adds playfulness and/or sophistication; stripes mean classic and elegant but can differ from one another (Henry always wears the British type with stripes that run from left shoulder down to the right side)

Wise men say, only fools rush in

But I can't help falling in love with you

Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?

If I can't help falling in love with you

Happy Valentine's Day from these soft boys

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit; this is the coolest fucking thing that’s ever happened to me in fandom --

@sightetsound bound a copy of Be Worthy Love, and Love Will Come (AKA Adventzilla) and shipped it to me! I was too excited to touch it and admire it to actually find a photogenic location for the big reveal, so you get shaky unboxing pics in my kitchen.

Kayla, I am so wildly grateful for all of the hard work and skill that went into crafting this hardback. I'm not gonna lie, seeing the words I wrote in a physical edition gave me some emotions! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! ❤️❤️❤️