DOINK! Friending Meme!

[ffexchange_mod]

We’ve always wanted to have a friending meme for Doink, but... in an exchange where gifts are surprises, and gifters and recipients are big secrets, it never seems like the right time. So we’d like to have one now! No one has to worry about ruining the big reveal, and we all get to have fun and make some friends!

If you’d like to participate, we’ve prepared some text you can copy and fill out to tell the community a little bit about yourself, where friends can find you, and which parts of Final Fantasy fandom make you sparkle like a happy Megalixir. Feel free to fill out as much or as little as you’d like - we encourage everybody to share their fandom likes and loves, so that you can connect with like-minded fans, but it isn’t necessary.

The way to play is quite simple:

1. Copy the text, fill it out, and leave a comment! We’ll have two posts, one for LJ and one for DW - if you’re looking for new friends in both places, feel free to fill both out.
2. Scan the page and read about the Doink community! Does someone look interesting? Strike up a conversation! Make some friends! WRITE COMMENT FIC. Whatever you’d like!
3. Add folks to your various friend networks as you desire!
4. Repeat as needed.
5. Everyone wins!

Just two notes before we start:

• This is not exclusive to Chocobo Down participants, or to Doink participants. It’s open to everyone! So please spread the word.


• We hope this doesn’t really need to be said, but please stay kind, positive, and respectful of everyone’s widely different kinds of fandom love.

Enjoy!

<b>Name / Pseud</b>: <b>Journals (LJ, DW, etc) / AO3 username</b>: <b>Other places I’m looking for awesome fandom friends:</b> [other journals, Twitter, Tumblr, etc] <b>FF canons I’ve experienced</b>: [games played, movies watched, etc] <b>FF Fandoms I’m active in</b>: <b>Ways I participate in fandom</b>: [writing, reading, drawing, reccing, flailing, lurking, etc!] <b>5 characters I love and one sentence why</b> 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. <b>5 pairings I love and one sentence why</b> 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. <b> Themes, kinks, tropes that I really love to see in Final Fantasy fanworks:</b> <b> One ridiculous thought or question I have about FF and/or fandom, to start discussion with my new fandom friends:</b> <b>Anything else?</b>

Livejournal post

Comments

[cumuluscastle]

Name / Pseud: cumuluscastle
Journals (LJ, DW, etc) / AO3 username: cumuluscastle

FF canons I’ve experienced: FFV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XII, XIII
FF Fandoms I’m active in: VIII, IX, X
Ways I participate in fandom: drawing/painting and reading/reccing

5 characters I love and one sentence why
1. Yuna, because she is a summoner and she's strong, but still manages to be very polite about it.
2. Auron, because outwardly he's so tough, and cool, but internally he's seething with self-doubts.
3. Aeris, because she is very sweet and down to earth and funny for someone who has so much power and I love how she gets Cloud into drag.
4. Balthier, because, yes, he does amuse me, thank you very much, with his exaggerated suaveness.
5. Faris, because she's a woman disguised as a man and because she is a pirate and because she saves her sister.

5 pairings I love and one sentence why
1. Balthier/Fran, but like it best when they're either in the stages of not admitting they have a thing for each other, or when they're already a long-standing couple who basically function as one person at this point.
2. Auron/Lulu, because both of them are intelligent and no-nonsense and can bond over teasing Tidus (which is way too easy).
3. Andddd I draw a blank. I don't much care for specific pairings to be perfectly honest.

Themes, kinks, tropes that I really love to see in Final Fantasy fanworks:
I like character and plot driven stories, because I think that the games can be short on both.
I like stories that describe and build on the bonds between all the characters rather than just focusing on the romance between two characters.
I really enjoy when people flesh out a blank space in the game, a part that we don't get to see, or that is mostly taken up by random encounters for the game player. I love slice-of-life type stuff, so this is no surprise.

One ridiculous thought or question I have about FF and/or fandom, to start discussion with my new fandom friends: Why are there so few adult adventurers in the games, and why are over thirties considered 'old'? (I fall into this category now!)

[auronlu]

OLD PEOPLE:
When I first played FFX, I was the same age as Auron. It was...amusing.

These games were originally cast for teens, young teens at that, and I expect that's why the "anyone over 30 is old" trope is in there. I believe the franchise has slowly raised its primary target audience from teenagers (FFVII-FFX) to adults (FFXII & XIII) I believe, but that target window aging more slowly than its original fans.

[cumuluscastle]

You're right. There are always exceptions. FFVI has Cyan and Strago. I've been noticing since I'm replaying it right now.

Also, Cyan weirds me out since one of my favourite fantasy authors, Patricia McKillip has a novel with a character named Cyan in it (who is also a very courtly knight with dark hair), but that's completely tangential.

[liri]

Almost everyone in VI is over 18, save Gau and Relm. I didn't really start to find that refreshing until around the time VIII came out.

I've been told that XII was originally going to have Basch as a main character, but they threw in Vaan because they were afraid to skew the cast too old.

[cumuluscastle]

Yes, I heard that too about FFXII. I would have liked to have played that game, I think.

I didn't know that about FFVI, actually. I wasn't sure on some of the ages.

It's not that I mind younger characters. I do appreciate a mix though and I maybe find it somewhat absurd for an all teen cast to save the world all the time. Sort of like Mystery Solving Teens.

[sarasa_cat]

I too would have much preferred Basch as the main POV character in FFXII. Perhaps we would have learned more details about his backstory and how his brother came to hate him so much.

[liri]

Well, most of VI's cast is under thirty (Terra and Celes are 18, Locke's 25, Setzer, Edgar and Sabin are all 27) but compared to the early-20s casts of IV and VII and the teenagers of VIII, IX, and X... I don't really know how old the cast of V runs, but Galuf's a grandfather!

[sarasa_cat]

Continuing on that FF age thing:
And why are the few older female characters given mysterious ages? Fran is ?? years old. Fang is 521 but is "physically 21."

Also, some characters seem a bit mature for their age. Do you really believe that Balthier is 22?

[stealth_noodle]

I'm pretty sure the only playable female characters non-mysteriously over thirty are in The After Years, and that's only because of math. Dear Squeenix, women do not become unstuck in time after the age of twenty-two, I promise.

I am almost always surprised when I see the official ages listed for characters. When I first played through IV and VI, I assumed most of the party was in their late 20s and 30s, and then the Internet cheerfully informed me that, for instance, Celes is an eighteen-year-old Imperial general. Balthier is another case where I'm just like, "What? No."

[sarasa_cat]

Wait. Celes is 18? I somehow skipped right past that fact never once thinking she is in her TEENS. WHAT IS SQUEENIX SMOKING???

[liri]

...he's 22? I feel like a cradle-robber.

[sarasa_cat]

His voice actor is way, way older so, um...

Anyhow, if all of us suddenly became final fantasy characters, we'd be de-aged to our mid-late teens or, at most, 21. ;)

[liri]

I could really get behind that! "No, I'm NOT old enough to buy this beer! Thanks for noticing! :D :D"

[auronlu]

No, nor do I believe that Lulu is 22 and Wakka is 25. (Especially since Wakka says he was too young to remember his parents when they died in the same attack as Lulu's did, when she was five). DAMN YOU SQUEENIX.

Faris is also 22. This seems to be the Age of Maturity and Wisdom in Squeenix. College seniors, yo!

[sarasa_cat]

Lulu is so not 22. Not. Not. Not. Disbelieves. Fingers in my ears nanananananananannanana cannot hear you.

Squeenix actually contradicts their crazy age math in FFXII. Somewhere in an Ultimania they list the Judge Magister's ages as all very ridiculously young---Drace & Bergan are both 33! Zargabaath is *only* 39?! Old Man Ghis is "old" at 41---yet, may I quote the clear-as-canon bestiary entry for 36 year old Gabranth? "Gabranth, and his power, are respected by other Judge Magisters, and Emperor Gramis himself places great faith in this younger Judge." YOUNGER judge. YOUNGER. *Looks up at Ultimania's age for Drace and Bergan*

Oh squeenix.

[liri]

Wait, what? Wakka's supposed to be older than she is? I would have sworn he was a year younger! I thought he was 22 and she was 23. I guess it makes sense for him to be older in one way, since she was with his younger brother, but... I refuse. My impression would explain the memory discrepancy a little, too.

[thene]

It's the kiddies in III that weird me out the most. I just assumed they were all in their late teens like most other FF heroes. :(

[sarasa_cat]

I guess the kiddies in III are comparable to the main characters during the earlier Harry Potter books but minus the adult supervision...

[thene]

THAT WORKS. Oh Refia, maybe adult supervision would have stopped you having a canon romance with someone who's about to get married to someone else. I settled for writing shipfic set several years after the game. (and I need to finally finish it, too. sod WIPs.)

[cumuluscastle]

I've always felt that way about the ages too. Sometimes I do a double take when I see their 'official' ages.

[lassarina]

It's also a fantasy trope: people under 18 have fewer things to tie them down and keep them from running out. You can't use the "but the wife/kids need me!" excuse.

[cumuluscastle]

It is more convenient.