Contest July-August 2016 Short Story Contest Voting Thread

Might have had something to do with the UE fluff section generally being a barren area of dustballs and faded whispers. It's nothing against your work, it's just that the main focus for members has been the painting and gaming. You almost never get comments on fluff on the UE.

 

I'm not sure I'd count myself in the 'great female authors' category, but thank you for that . I've been mulling this over in my head for a while, and I've come to the conclusion that I always do (rather unfortunately). Tropes are fine unless overdone or mishandled, whether they be gender-based tropes in stories about lizard people or the can of worms that is female characters in games. I do tend to think of Lizardmen as masculine (though not male, for obvious reasons), partly because they are named Lizardmen, and also because the Saurus display attributes traditionally thought of as being masculine i.e. aggression, physical strength and the like. Conversely, to me, Skinks are more feminine, once again due to displaying traits that are thought of as more feminine. I haven't really been brought up to believe in traditional gender roles, but I have been exposed to media (and people) that do tend to portray men as strong but dim (which is HIGHLY unfair, I have met women who are complete idiots) and women as weak, but verbally and mentally gifted (bleeding Trollz cartoon). So, to sum up, gender is flipping confusing. I'd just stick to the DrakenGard thing, where the dragons are all asexual, but do still have genders based on the scary demon babies pointing and going 'Yep, you're masculine. No reason, you just are.' Good grief, I can certainly ramble. Sorry.