snowflake challenge 2026 #3

[brutalbunny]

Write a love letter to fandom. It might be to fandom in general, to a particular fandom, favourite character, anything at all.

hmmmm. hmmmm... to be honest... a *love* letter is kind of...
see, i mean, i don't hate fandom or anything, but... how do you say... it's hard.
coming from a younger generation of fandom is... it's changed i think to how things used to be, and honestly, picking apart what is "fandom" and what is "nonfandom socialization" is hard... like what is fandom vs what is politics vs what is high school culture... lmao
and if i can manage to pare down my scope, to be very specifically About Fandom, it's still.... do i love it? it's hard to say i love it.
i love the friends i've made through fandom but the fandom part is like, incidental at that point. LMAO

i'll be a little insane here and write to a favorite character. :-)
because truly my time in fandom, what drives me to reach out and create art, is not so much "a desire to connect with other fans", but a desire to show others what i see in a character...
the way i feel about datz are'bal is... he's just way too cool. i feel the way about him the way i imagine he feels about dhurke, except like, without the sexual attraction. no offence datz you're just not my type </3
but he's So. Cool. and i just want everyone to know it. and i want to *prove* it. i want to underline his importance in canon, i want to explore any possible interpretation of his character... like i see him as this super sweethearted uncle but someone else might be coming at it from the "cool badass with the typical emotional investment of a 46 yr old man" and its like. well! yes!! Bc he has so much depth...!!!
the kind of guy who must have dropped everything to follow his friend into exile... trusting him and defending him against false charges... i mean...
aiding his revolution and Helping Raise His Kids- it's all for the sake of "well someone needs to talk about dhurke before dhurke becomes part of the story" but it's
so
it just
it makes him seem like SUCH an invested kind of guy?! and he doesn't get any focus at all, which i'm not saying as a critique, but i'm saying it drives me fucking feral apparently
there's just enough detail to make out the vague silhouette of his character, but he's not the main character, and he's not dhurke, so none of it really matters. there's hints. and i have to follow them...!!
he feels like a puzzle i've been working on for Almost Seven Years Now Fucking Hell
because for some reason i feel like there's still things to "figure out" about him. i keep coming back to soj weeks and days and months and years later, rereading transcripts and thinking about him...
how his relationship with dhurke started, what apollo and nahyuta think of him, how he feels about amara, how will little faitah grow up, what would it be like if he adopted armie or ahlbi, does he try to build a friendship with rayfa? is he banned from the wright anything agency pre-emptively? will we see him in aa7? (we won't)
the lizards on a stick.. the apples... the kukri... the scarf.. the goggles.. all of these little things he carries around... his EARRINGS like what's important to him? his whole life. i want to know everything. tellme everythi gn

ex military, huh? why?! which military?! khura'in doesn't have a military so is he a deserter from another country, did he just join a neighboring country for fun, or is khura'in lying about its military presence? did he have political motivations, you know? or was he just a dumb shithead kid who didn't have anything else to do?
if khura'in isn't his home country then why does he have such a loyalty to it? why does he follow dhurke in his dreams of revolution?! he was 23 when It All Happened, and you generally have to be 18 to enlist, right, so there's 5 years..... i mean, he needed to be in the air force long enough to learn how to be a paratrooper, but also out of it long enough to possibly meet dhurke and become fast friends, enough that dhurke would trust him with his kids--
LIKE
IT'S INSANE! THERE'S TOO MUCH! THIS IS ALL FROM SOME RANDOM DETAIL IN ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE.... "oh he's ex military (which explains why he's a paratrooper.)" and i could go on FOREVER about just that one bit!
Not to mention!!!! this is just about datz himself!! god forbid i let myself even think about dhurkedatz, i'd actually rather jump off a cliff

so
in terms of love letters, this is a terrible love letter. this is a deranged scrabble on a piece of paper about how a side character is holding 80% of my brain hostage
my love of datz led me to having a girlfriend for four years (what the fuck) (we broke up but like, still, what the fuck) and making some great friends that i still have today,
furthered my artistic growth, inspires me to keep improving just so i can Get Better at depicting him...
i learned how to draw humans for him... i learned how to write for him. i also forgot how to write but it can't be helped
i learned how to code a website to create a webshrine for him (that's unfinished because there's TOO MUCH TO WRITE)
and i'm worried that one day i'll learn how to synthesize humans or i'm going to break into capcoms office and Demand They Tell Me The Truth
and theyll be like "what truth are you talking about oh my god" and "i can't speak english what are you saying" and "can you please leave"
this isn't a love letter this is a cry for help

Comments

[autobotscoutriella]

Datz!!!! I do love that webshrine (WIP or not). The little Datz sprite in the corner just looks so happy.

[brutalbunny]

thank youuu i think the sprite was one of the first things i put in. so for a while it was just him and me on a blank page. i needed him for emotional support 😭

[tjs_whatnot]

so
in terms of love letters, this is a terrible love letter. this is a deranged scrabble on a piece of paper about how a side character is holding 80% of my brain hostage

I LOVE THIS SO HARD! Love isn't always sunshine and rainbows, sometimes it's WHY? and HOW? and UHHHHHGGGGGGGG!

😍😍😍