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My vore server just got updated - you can freely join it now
Posted a month agoThe Bellyverse has been radically reformed! Here is what just changed.
- The name is now "The Bellyverse - Modnar's feeding grounds", with the long term goal of making the second part the only name.
- There is now a permanent invite link! Here it is: https://discord.gg/cj4MMhWDS3
- Switch role added!
- You can give yourself the prey, pred or switch role now. You MUST have one of these roles to interact with the server
- You can also give yourself other kinds of decorative roles to describe yourself quickly
- Preds' lairs have been replaced by three generic rp channels
- If you like perma endo and want to be Modnar's stomach pet, you can ask me to give you the special "Modnar's stomach pet" role to have access to an rp channel representing Modnar's mighty gut, where to live, feed and mate permanently
- The name is now "The Bellyverse - Modnar's feeding grounds", with the long term goal of making the second part the only name.
- There is now a permanent invite link! Here it is: https://discord.gg/cj4MMhWDS3
- Switch role added!
- You can give yourself the prey, pred or switch role now. You MUST have one of these roles to interact with the server
- You can also give yourself other kinds of decorative roles to describe yourself quickly
- Preds' lairs have been replaced by three generic rp channels
- If you like perma endo and want to be Modnar's stomach pet, you can ask me to give you the special "Modnar's stomach pet" role to have access to an rp channel representing Modnar's mighty gut, where to live, feed and mate permanently
I'll be at Eurofurence next four days.
Posted 2 months agoSee ya there
Telegram channel
Posted 3 months agoI'm in my train back to Awoostria, will write in detail about what experience it was for me in next journal, in the meanwhile have a look at this Telegram channel I just made
https://t.me/randomandmodnar
https://t.me/randomandmodnar
Petition to repeal UK's Online Safety Act
Posted 3 months agohttps://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/722903
This is of course for any of you who is British or lives in UK.
Pretty much you have only few days left before you can be freely yourselves without using VPNs. This should make your parliament start considering turning back
This is of course for any of you who is British or lives in UK.
Pretty much you have only few days left before you can be freely yourselves without using VPNs. This should make your parliament start considering turning back
Anyone on SoFurry beta? I have an account there too now.
Posted 3 months agoWe need to talk about these age verification laws.
Posted 4 months agoBeing a furry, scaly, otherkin or whatever makes you open an account here isn't a sexual thing by itself, we all know it. But it's a fact that most of use are very comfortable being open about our sexuality and showing it proudly. This alone is enough to make us keep it among ourselves in a global culture where sex is still largely something ostracized. But I always considered sex openness to be the path to oppenness in general, to being more at peace with yourself, all things that scare off most humans, creatures of comfort and fear of unknown.
So it doesn't surprise me that such an open community will never gain the favor of society, given that society itself refuses openness - and therefore, maybe, it was only a matter of time before they'd start cracking down on it.
Yeah, these age verification laws don't target furries in particular. But that doesn't change the subsrance. All over the USA (where most websites we use are based) and Europe (my continent), governments are now starting to demand that we give proof of our real identity if we want to see sexual content on the internet.
As I'm writing, in the UK websites are being obscured or shut down because they cannot economically comply with their new draconian law called Online Safety Act. In the USA, the Supreme Court has judged the states have all the rights to shield citizens from watching sex without compromising privacy. In France, Italy and Spain, media regulators have already ruled similar things. E621's own existence is at legal risk.
In a better world, I wouldn't have as many problems with it - if only society had a mature approach to sex, and not the repressive, juvenile approach inherited by - ahem - certain religions. Who among us dares risk associate our real identity with our furry identify when the latter is so associated with kinks most people don't even k ow about? Maybe someone will, driven by libido, but look at me in the face and tell me that you won't prefer using a VPN.
We all know what these laws are presented to be for - "for the children". These mystic, pure beings that are a shield to any kind of decision that may be questionable. I also assume you guys know that it was never about the children, who are already exposed to all kind of atrocities anyway (dear parents, making me listen to the news every meal was NOT beneficial), and that sexual repression is a pillar of every authoritatian force. I can only hope it's just a political phase, and that it will end up like other times when the internet seemed to be going into shambles. But this time they seem to be more serious.
All this to talk about one thing: the future of our communities. I am afraid for Furaffinity, for E621, for my UK friends, for the artists I like, and for the community in general which will be forced to go even more underground and become much more difficult to find for those who need it.
I could revert back to being solely SFW, yes. But one year after finally being honest with myself? When being open led me to so many new friends and revitalized my art? I will survive, yes, but it'll be a poorer, more repressed Random (let alone Modnar), and so will most of you, no longer able to express what you can't do elsewhere.
Will we make it to 2026?
So it doesn't surprise me that such an open community will never gain the favor of society, given that society itself refuses openness - and therefore, maybe, it was only a matter of time before they'd start cracking down on it.
Yeah, these age verification laws don't target furries in particular. But that doesn't change the subsrance. All over the USA (where most websites we use are based) and Europe (my continent), governments are now starting to demand that we give proof of our real identity if we want to see sexual content on the internet.
As I'm writing, in the UK websites are being obscured or shut down because they cannot economically comply with their new draconian law called Online Safety Act. In the USA, the Supreme Court has judged the states have all the rights to shield citizens from watching sex without compromising privacy. In France, Italy and Spain, media regulators have already ruled similar things. E621's own existence is at legal risk.
In a better world, I wouldn't have as many problems with it - if only society had a mature approach to sex, and not the repressive, juvenile approach inherited by - ahem - certain religions. Who among us dares risk associate our real identity with our furry identify when the latter is so associated with kinks most people don't even k ow about? Maybe someone will, driven by libido, but look at me in the face and tell me that you won't prefer using a VPN.
We all know what these laws are presented to be for - "for the children". These mystic, pure beings that are a shield to any kind of decision that may be questionable. I also assume you guys know that it was never about the children, who are already exposed to all kind of atrocities anyway (dear parents, making me listen to the news every meal was NOT beneficial), and that sexual repression is a pillar of every authoritatian force. I can only hope it's just a political phase, and that it will end up like other times when the internet seemed to be going into shambles. But this time they seem to be more serious.
All this to talk about one thing: the future of our communities. I am afraid for Furaffinity, for E621, for my UK friends, for the artists I like, and for the community in general which will be forced to go even more underground and become much more difficult to find for those who need it.
I could revert back to being solely SFW, yes. But one year after finally being honest with myself? When being open led me to so many new friends and revitalized my art? I will survive, yes, but it'll be a poorer, more repressed Random (let alone Modnar), and so will most of you, no longer able to express what you can't do elsewhere.
Will we make it to 2026?
I'll stream the Eurovision final on Discord tonight!
Posted 5 months agoReferendum for same-sex marriage in Italy: we need your sign
Posted 5 months agoCurrently there is an ongoing proposal to organize a referendum in Italy that could potentially give us access to same-sex marriage and adoptions.
https://firmereferendum.giustizia.i.....o-open/3600000
If you happen to have Italian citizenship, please consider signing it too. Pretty much we cannot expect our politicians to do it themselves, especially the current government. We're still the only Western European country without it.
The website is from the official Ministry of Justice, so it does have legal value and if we reach the minimum number of signs the proposal will be evaluated by our constitutional court for the final approval
EDIT: I was partially mislead. The referendum wouldn't introduce marriages, but it would give civil unions (which we have) the same rights of married couples. Still important.
C'è al momento un'iniziativa per approvare un referendum che potrebbe legalizzare in Italia matrimoni e adozioni dello stesso sesso.
https://firmereferendum.giustizia.i.....o-open/3600000
Per favore, considerate di mettere anche la vostra firma. Ē ormai palese che non possiamo aspettarci che ci pensi la nostra classe dirigente, specialmente il governo attuale.
Il sito è quello del ministero della giustizia, quindi se passasse il quorum, il referendum verrà valutato dalla corte costituzionale per la sua approvazione finale.
EDIT: Mi sono parzialmente sbagliato. Non verrebbe introdotto il matrimonio per coppie dello stesso sesso, ma verrebbero dati gli stessi diritti delle persone sposate a quelle in unione civile. Comunque importante.
https://firmereferendum.giustizia.i.....o-open/3600000
If you happen to have Italian citizenship, please consider signing it too. Pretty much we cannot expect our politicians to do it themselves, especially the current government. We're still the only Western European country without it.
The website is from the official Ministry of Justice, so it does have legal value and if we reach the minimum number of signs the proposal will be evaluated by our constitutional court for the final approval
EDIT: I was partially mislead. The referendum wouldn't introduce marriages, but it would give civil unions (which we have) the same rights of married couples. Still important.
C'è al momento un'iniziativa per approvare un referendum che potrebbe legalizzare in Italia matrimoni e adozioni dello stesso sesso.
https://firmereferendum.giustizia.i.....o-open/3600000
Per favore, considerate di mettere anche la vostra firma. Ē ormai palese che non possiamo aspettarci che ci pensi la nostra classe dirigente, specialmente il governo attuale.
Il sito è quello del ministero della giustizia, quindi se passasse il quorum, il referendum verrà valutato dalla corte costituzionale per la sua approvazione finale.
EDIT: Mi sono parzialmente sbagliato. Non verrebbe introdotto il matrimonio per coppie dello stesso sesso, ma verrebbero dati gli stessi diritti delle persone sposate a quelle in unione civile. Comunque importante.
Each opinion of mine about 2025 Eurovision songs
Posted 5 months agoGuys!
IT'S EUROVISION WEEK!
And for the first time I've started following since 2016, this year I haven't waited for the final to listen to the songs, but have actively followed the national finals and waited for all songs to be released. So this time, instead of frenetically writing my impressions during the final to put them in a journal later, I can write a journal about all songs, even the ones that will be eliminated in the semifinals, days before the whole event starts.
So pretty much I already have my favorites, and the ones I expect to win the most. Without further ado, let's begin.
I will follow a quasi-regular tier list chart, with the following grades from highest to lowest: S, A, B, C, D, F, Israel. (The latter reserved for songs with a clear political promotion done by authoritarian forces. Fight me.)
🇦🇱 ALBANIA
My kind of folk banger. The riff in the beginning immediately immerses you into a genuine ethnic atmosphere that grows up in a dramatic, but not bombastic crescendo. But I partially dislike the second stanza with that kind of...spoken words bunch that ruins a bit the atmosphere, but it's not so bad to make me put them down in my tier list. But there's a reason if some wish for an Albanian win this year, and I'm among them. Unlikely, but never has Albania been so close.
TIER: S
🇦🇲 ARMENIA
It is powerful, but the fact the main chorus has the following rhyme: "I'm a survivor - Staying alive-a" is something not even Super Mario could have ever done. There is potential, but misses some kind of crucial ingredient to truly elevate it. (And anyway, their national final didn't have much better to offer.)
TIER: B
🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA
A blatant sexual joke and not much else. For some it has its own appeal, and I don't find anything bad about the melody, so I still put it in the middle of the ground.
TIER: D
🇦🇹 AUSTRIA
When I first listened to it, it was the only song that made me think: this is likely to win. A lot of it has to do with the fact it's popera like the previous winner, yes, but it is genuinely dramatic and grows in an innuendo that explodes into 30 seconds of trance music, and his voice is astounding (of course, he comes from Vienna's opera house). Although it makes me wish that there was not a limit of 3 minutes per song, or that it was just a bit longer, because the trance part feels so choked when it is so short. It would have even more potential, but it's already great as it is.
TIER: S
🇦🇿 AZERBAIJAN
Would be a very good song to listen in the car, and I totally love whatever that ethnic instrument is in the final part of the chorus. Would put it in B or even A - if it wasn't the song from Azerbaijan, which has a terrible list of attempts of rigging Eurovision results and other stuff. Azerbaijan overall as a country is easily comparable to certain rich authoritarian country that use public events to enhance their soft power, especially Eurovision in their case.
TIER: Israel
🇧🇪 BELGIUM
You conquer my heart with the techno chorus, I just wish it started much earlier, it's a waste to keep it only for that part.
TIER: A
🇭🇷 CROATIA
Not bad, but there were much better songs in the national final, and even as a dark electro song, I preferred others if we look at all national finals. Just like Armenia, it misses something crucial. A powerful riff maybe?
TIER: B
🇨🇾 CYPRUS
FINALLY CYPRUS SENT SOMETHING THAT ISN'T ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT RECREATING FUEGO FROM 2018. And I like it a lot just for the techno chorus alone, just like Belgium.
TIER: A
🇨🇿 CZECHIA
A ballad that tries to be as bombastic as possible, but fails at doing a memorable melody. The metre change that temporarily switches it to a danceable electronic pieces for 15 seconds attempts at elevate it, but does not much. Overall, a passable song at best.
TIER: D
🇩🇰 DENMARK
They have basically discovered what a great banger Euphoria by Loreen is 13 years later. You can tell it's forgettable because I love trance, and this trance piece didn't make me feel anything, even if it's not terrible. Hooray for a fifth consecutive semifinal elimination?
TIER: F
🇪🇪 ESTONIA
When I first heard it, I laughed a lot. This is like the third time Estonia goes Italian (eeerggghhh kinda) after 2007 and 2018. Of course our national boomers were quick at getting offended, but personally I don't think it's THAT offensive, in fact I recognize him to avoid the temptation to mention pineapple on pizza. (Guys seriously, stop trying to get me angry over pizza horrors - I don't care at all.) Fine, the "mafioso" part is problematic, but I made a deal with that stereotype by concluding that you foreigners have an idea of mafia that is much more romantic than reality, so it's just blissful ignorance. Besides, whoever knows Tommy Cash knows also he could have done much, much worse. Like that porn olympics video from last year.
Apart from that, this is pretty much this year's joke entry, and no Eurovision would be complete without a joke entry. It does remain in your mind though, although likely much more for the provocative lyrics than the actual song. And I hope he did learn to sing better than at the national final - pretty much he won it only for the brand Tommy Cash has. In short, I am tempted to put this in every single tier at once apart from Israel's, but let's just do an average.
TIER: C
🇫🇮 FINLAND
The difference between Australia and Finland is that Australia's entry is a sexual joke, Finland's talks about sex more openly and more seriously. It is a song about female sexuality, how she welcomes hers with open arms, and in a time period where politics seems to be flirting with moral conservatism we need songs like this a lot. Not mentioning that the song is powerful, and has a melody that musically speaking is not banal at all. And the final part is genius - it speeds up and grows up in intensity, and then suddenly stops, and with the accompanying cheering crowd it really simulates the act of coming (in the sexual meaning). Which is also the song's title. Would be very happy if it won. Oh, and even the coreography finds a clever way to convey the meaning without putting a penis on the floor.
TIER: S
🇫🇷 FRANCE
Sigh. Not that I expected something that isn't a French ballad, 2022's fiasco pretty much guaranteed that they would never dare something different again. But that "Mamaaaaaaaan" remains stuck in your mind, and the message is pretty much universally understandable, so I'm sure it'll work well. It's just not my cup of tea.
TIER: C
🇬🇪 GEORGIA
The song itself tells me nothing, but what is really relevant here is that we're talking about a song called "Freedom" sang by someone who sang at Pro-Putin rallies sent by a nation run by a Russophile government who is cracking down freedom of expression.
TIER: Israel
🇩🇪 GERMANY
Unfortunately when it comes to the German entry I will never avoid thinking about how the fan favorite in the national final, "Knightclub" by Feuerschanz, was literally killed by modifying the voting system at the last minute so that juries would eliminate it in cold blood, so for me it's impossible to give a fair vote to the one they're sending.
TIER: C
🇬🇷 GREECE
The kind of ethnic ballad you'd expect from Greece. Would gladly sing it around a fire for a ritual though.
TIER: A
🇮🇸 ICELAND
Pretty much what Alestorm would come up with if they had to write a song for a youtuber. Good for the final, but not top 10.
TIER: B
🇮🇪 IRELAND
Like a Pixar movie: the children will love it and dance on it, the adults will also catch the sad story in the lyrics. Anyway, given dogs' short lifespan, even if Laika hadn't died, she would have had her little party around the stars at best until the early 60s. As for me, I totally loved it at first, then it went down a bit, but I'll still be angry if it does not qualify.
TIER: A
🇮🇱 ISRAEL
Israel.
TIER: Israel
🇮🇹 ITALY
I wrote about what I think of it in my previous journal. Short is: it feels like a genuine, relatable song from a true artist that has been accompanying my life moments a lot recently. Given that I've listened to it and sang a lot, I'll put it a tier above now.
TIER: S
🇱🇻 LATVIA
Sounds like a really good year for folk that isn't just ethno-pop. I don't love it as I love Albania's, but I'm happy that such a song is in the context. This year we'really ready to evoke the spring gods.
TIER: A
🇱🇹 LITHUANIA
I would have never imagined to hear post-rock at Eurovision. That alone makes it probably the most inaccessible song to the general public from this year, but it shows how the quality of the contest and the variety of music has increased compared to when I started following it. Great piece btw.
TIER: S
🇱🇺 LUXEMBOURG
Kinda adorable and funny. But that electronic stanza has absolutely no place in a song like this.
TIER: B
🇲🇹 MALTA
I recognize it is a banger, but I prefer other bangers from this year, and even at the national final my favorite was Lalaratatakeke Lalaratakabum (yes there was a song called like this.)
TIER: C
🇲🇪 MONTENEGRO
Ballad, not a bad one, but just a ballad that at best will qualify by a tight margin.
TIER: D
🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS
No, Stromae did not participate in writing this song. I know, I'm surprised too. But just like with France, that "C'est la-la-la-la-la vie" is memorable.
TIER: B
🇳🇴 NORWAY
I feel genuinely disappointed by Norway. After three consecutive memorable songs (especially Queen of Kings), this year they send what feels like a regular Eurovision style pop song. I mean, initially it seems to build up something grandiose, but then solves in a chorus that consists in...some pop-reggaeton rhythm. Guess you can't do good every year, or that they were much more scared of doing things after getting unfairly in last place the previous year.
TIER: F
🇵🇱 POLAND
It wasn't my favorite in the national final, but not by a big margin. The song works, even if it's not the best this year, but I predict a good result from Poland. This is the way to go.
TIER: A
🇵🇹 PORTUGAL
Great. Another saudade. And having seen the national final, I am very well aware of how their scoring system kills every chance of having something different from them. On behalf that there's nothing that bad in the song, I'm not putting it in F, but I want to see something different from Portugal from once.
TIER: D
🇸🇲 SAN MARINO
Ok, hear me out...this year San Marino has sent a song called TUTTA L'ITALIA ("All Italy")...which was THE ITALIAN NATIONAL FINAL'S ANTHEM FOR THIS YEAR...and it's by GABRY PONTE, THE MIND BEHIND BLUE DA-BA-DE-DA-BA-DAAA and a pillar of my music library in my childhood. How can I not put it in the highest place possible. Well, maybe the second highest would be more fair.
TIER: A
🇷🇸 SERBIA
This year, Serbia's national final has been heavily conditioned by the political turmoil in the country and has given as an output the number one candidate for being eliminated in the semifinal. It is just another ballad. Given that all singers in the contest showed openly their opposition to the government, it saves itself from the Israel tier, but that's the only thing I can concede.
TIER: F
🇸🇮 SLOVENIA
Ballads are the kind of songs I dislike the most in Eurovision - my mantra is "if you can't do it great, at least do it weird", and ballads for me usually are neither great nor weird. And this is very problematic because the song is about a really tragic, emotional story! The melody should help me feel for the singer who had to endure having the love of his life getting diagnosed with an incurable disease (she recovered, thankfully), but I feel nothing. It's not horrible, but if you don't make me cry you pretty much failed as a ballad.
TIER: F
🇪🇸 SPAIN
This is the most stereotyped song Spain has ever sent since Do It For Your Lover in 2017, and whoever has heard that song can realize what a big accusation this is...
...and yet it has entered my library, only for the electronic arrangement. So here we have the triade of 2025 Eurovision songs saved by techno: Belgium, Cyprus and Spain. So, F for the song itself, S for the beat.
TIER: B
🇸🇪 SWEDEN
Ok, there is SO MUCH to say about it.
This year in the Swedish national final there was Måns Zelmerlöw (you know, the one who won in 2015 and was a co-presenter in 2016) with a song that despite being called "Revolution" had absolutely nothing revolutionary - just another Swedish pop song. But everyone was sure he would win and we'd get a repetition of 2023...until a Finnish comedic trio managed to enter by inserting a Swedish songwriter in their song about going to sauna. And they WON, against every expectation. Now THIS is a revolution for Sweden, usually without a doubt the most boring, corporate, conservative (not in the political sense) country when it comes to Eurovision.
And literally everyone loves it. It has been number one in Sweden and Finland, and even the Finnish president has visited first them, and only after did he visit Erika, the actual Finnish entry. For the first time ever, Eurovision fans are cheering for Sweden to win.
And I wouldn't complain either. Well, a bit, I still don't feel Sweden deserves another victory, otherwise I'd join the club. Finland has such a deep emotional meaning to me, and their song is a perfect representation of the true Finnish experience, especially their coreography. You'll see it when the day of the final arrives. And we'll see whether Måns' words after losing were right or not.
SAUNA!
TIER: S
🇨🇭 SWITZERLAND
It's so lovely. It's just that kind of song you need to hear to remember that things can go better when you feel down. Like a mommy telling you she loves you dearly.
TIER: S
🇺🇦 UKRAINE
Maybe it will grow on me with time during the week, but at first I pretty much ignored it. It does have some genuine songwriting quality, with a memorable chorus and some good arrangement changes.
TIER: A
🇬🇧 UNITED KINGDOM
Ok...WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING IT? It's one of the most interesting things the UK has sent in recent years! A pop song sang by a female band that is clearly inspired by Queen is not something you hear often, it's like they put a summary of all their most historic music into one song. That's what I always wanted the UK to do! At times in my life half the music I'd listen came from them, so having them performing so badly every year was so unforgivable. Things started to change in 2022, and I feel like they're getting there. Nobody is giving it love, but Random will.
TIER: S
So, here is the final tier list from me.
S: 🇦🇱 🇦🇹 🇫🇮 🇮🇹 🇱🇹 🇸🇪 🇨🇭 🇬🇧
A: 🇧🇪 🇨🇾 🇬🇷 🇮🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇺 🇵🇱 🇺🇦 🇸🇲
B: 🇦🇲 🇭🇷 🇮🇸 🇳🇱 🇪🇸
C: 🇪🇪 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇲🇹
D: 🇦🇺 🇨🇿 🇲🇪 🇵🇹
F: 🇩🇰 🇳🇴 🇷🇸 🇸🇮
Israel: 🇦🇿 🇬🇪 🇮🇱
Pretty much the ones that look more likely to win are Sweden and Austria, but apparently even France and Netherlands have good chance. I would like to see Albania winning, we need an Eastern/Balkan win that isn't a rigged one or influenced by politics. Otherwise my money is on Austria.
IT'S EUROVISION WEEK!
And for the first time I've started following since 2016, this year I haven't waited for the final to listen to the songs, but have actively followed the national finals and waited for all songs to be released. So this time, instead of frenetically writing my impressions during the final to put them in a journal later, I can write a journal about all songs, even the ones that will be eliminated in the semifinals, days before the whole event starts.
So pretty much I already have my favorites, and the ones I expect to win the most. Without further ado, let's begin.
I will follow a quasi-regular tier list chart, with the following grades from highest to lowest: S, A, B, C, D, F, Israel. (The latter reserved for songs with a clear political promotion done by authoritarian forces. Fight me.)
🇦🇱 ALBANIA
My kind of folk banger. The riff in the beginning immediately immerses you into a genuine ethnic atmosphere that grows up in a dramatic, but not bombastic crescendo. But I partially dislike the second stanza with that kind of...spoken words bunch that ruins a bit the atmosphere, but it's not so bad to make me put them down in my tier list. But there's a reason if some wish for an Albanian win this year, and I'm among them. Unlikely, but never has Albania been so close.
TIER: S
🇦🇲 ARMENIA
It is powerful, but the fact the main chorus has the following rhyme: "I'm a survivor - Staying alive-a" is something not even Super Mario could have ever done. There is potential, but misses some kind of crucial ingredient to truly elevate it. (And anyway, their national final didn't have much better to offer.)
TIER: B
🇦🇺 AUSTRALIA
A blatant sexual joke and not much else. For some it has its own appeal, and I don't find anything bad about the melody, so I still put it in the middle of the ground.
TIER: D
🇦🇹 AUSTRIA
When I first listened to it, it was the only song that made me think: this is likely to win. A lot of it has to do with the fact it's popera like the previous winner, yes, but it is genuinely dramatic and grows in an innuendo that explodes into 30 seconds of trance music, and his voice is astounding (of course, he comes from Vienna's opera house). Although it makes me wish that there was not a limit of 3 minutes per song, or that it was just a bit longer, because the trance part feels so choked when it is so short. It would have even more potential, but it's already great as it is.
TIER: S
🇦🇿 AZERBAIJAN
Would be a very good song to listen in the car, and I totally love whatever that ethnic instrument is in the final part of the chorus. Would put it in B or even A - if it wasn't the song from Azerbaijan, which has a terrible list of attempts of rigging Eurovision results and other stuff. Azerbaijan overall as a country is easily comparable to certain rich authoritarian country that use public events to enhance their soft power, especially Eurovision in their case.
TIER: Israel
🇧🇪 BELGIUM
You conquer my heart with the techno chorus, I just wish it started much earlier, it's a waste to keep it only for that part.
TIER: A
🇭🇷 CROATIA
Not bad, but there were much better songs in the national final, and even as a dark electro song, I preferred others if we look at all national finals. Just like Armenia, it misses something crucial. A powerful riff maybe?
TIER: B
🇨🇾 CYPRUS
FINALLY CYPRUS SENT SOMETHING THAT ISN'T ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT RECREATING FUEGO FROM 2018. And I like it a lot just for the techno chorus alone, just like Belgium.
TIER: A
🇨🇿 CZECHIA
A ballad that tries to be as bombastic as possible, but fails at doing a memorable melody. The metre change that temporarily switches it to a danceable electronic pieces for 15 seconds attempts at elevate it, but does not much. Overall, a passable song at best.
TIER: D
🇩🇰 DENMARK
They have basically discovered what a great banger Euphoria by Loreen is 13 years later. You can tell it's forgettable because I love trance, and this trance piece didn't make me feel anything, even if it's not terrible. Hooray for a fifth consecutive semifinal elimination?
TIER: F
🇪🇪 ESTONIA
When I first heard it, I laughed a lot. This is like the third time Estonia goes Italian (eeerggghhh kinda) after 2007 and 2018. Of course our national boomers were quick at getting offended, but personally I don't think it's THAT offensive, in fact I recognize him to avoid the temptation to mention pineapple on pizza. (Guys seriously, stop trying to get me angry over pizza horrors - I don't care at all.) Fine, the "mafioso" part is problematic, but I made a deal with that stereotype by concluding that you foreigners have an idea of mafia that is much more romantic than reality, so it's just blissful ignorance. Besides, whoever knows Tommy Cash knows also he could have done much, much worse. Like that porn olympics video from last year.
Apart from that, this is pretty much this year's joke entry, and no Eurovision would be complete without a joke entry. It does remain in your mind though, although likely much more for the provocative lyrics than the actual song. And I hope he did learn to sing better than at the national final - pretty much he won it only for the brand Tommy Cash has. In short, I am tempted to put this in every single tier at once apart from Israel's, but let's just do an average.
TIER: C
🇫🇮 FINLAND
The difference between Australia and Finland is that Australia's entry is a sexual joke, Finland's talks about sex more openly and more seriously. It is a song about female sexuality, how she welcomes hers with open arms, and in a time period where politics seems to be flirting with moral conservatism we need songs like this a lot. Not mentioning that the song is powerful, and has a melody that musically speaking is not banal at all. And the final part is genius - it speeds up and grows up in intensity, and then suddenly stops, and with the accompanying cheering crowd it really simulates the act of coming (in the sexual meaning). Which is also the song's title. Would be very happy if it won. Oh, and even the coreography finds a clever way to convey the meaning without putting a penis on the floor.
TIER: S
🇫🇷 FRANCE
Sigh. Not that I expected something that isn't a French ballad, 2022's fiasco pretty much guaranteed that they would never dare something different again. But that "Mamaaaaaaaan" remains stuck in your mind, and the message is pretty much universally understandable, so I'm sure it'll work well. It's just not my cup of tea.
TIER: C
🇬🇪 GEORGIA
The song itself tells me nothing, but what is really relevant here is that we're talking about a song called "Freedom" sang by someone who sang at Pro-Putin rallies sent by a nation run by a Russophile government who is cracking down freedom of expression.
TIER: Israel
🇩🇪 GERMANY
Unfortunately when it comes to the German entry I will never avoid thinking about how the fan favorite in the national final, "Knightclub" by Feuerschanz, was literally killed by modifying the voting system at the last minute so that juries would eliminate it in cold blood, so for me it's impossible to give a fair vote to the one they're sending.
TIER: C
🇬🇷 GREECE
The kind of ethnic ballad you'd expect from Greece. Would gladly sing it around a fire for a ritual though.
TIER: A
🇮🇸 ICELAND
Pretty much what Alestorm would come up with if they had to write a song for a youtuber. Good for the final, but not top 10.
TIER: B
🇮🇪 IRELAND
Like a Pixar movie: the children will love it and dance on it, the adults will also catch the sad story in the lyrics. Anyway, given dogs' short lifespan, even if Laika hadn't died, she would have had her little party around the stars at best until the early 60s. As for me, I totally loved it at first, then it went down a bit, but I'll still be angry if it does not qualify.
TIER: A
🇮🇱 ISRAEL
Israel.
TIER: Israel
🇮🇹 ITALY
I wrote about what I think of it in my previous journal. Short is: it feels like a genuine, relatable song from a true artist that has been accompanying my life moments a lot recently. Given that I've listened to it and sang a lot, I'll put it a tier above now.
TIER: S
🇱🇻 LATVIA
Sounds like a really good year for folk that isn't just ethno-pop. I don't love it as I love Albania's, but I'm happy that such a song is in the context. This year we'really ready to evoke the spring gods.
TIER: A
🇱🇹 LITHUANIA
I would have never imagined to hear post-rock at Eurovision. That alone makes it probably the most inaccessible song to the general public from this year, but it shows how the quality of the contest and the variety of music has increased compared to when I started following it. Great piece btw.
TIER: S
🇱🇺 LUXEMBOURG
Kinda adorable and funny. But that electronic stanza has absolutely no place in a song like this.
TIER: B
🇲🇹 MALTA
I recognize it is a banger, but I prefer other bangers from this year, and even at the national final my favorite was Lalaratatakeke Lalaratakabum (yes there was a song called like this.)
TIER: C
🇲🇪 MONTENEGRO
Ballad, not a bad one, but just a ballad that at best will qualify by a tight margin.
TIER: D
🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS
No, Stromae did not participate in writing this song. I know, I'm surprised too. But just like with France, that "C'est la-la-la-la-la vie" is memorable.
TIER: B
🇳🇴 NORWAY
I feel genuinely disappointed by Norway. After three consecutive memorable songs (especially Queen of Kings), this year they send what feels like a regular Eurovision style pop song. I mean, initially it seems to build up something grandiose, but then solves in a chorus that consists in...some pop-reggaeton rhythm. Guess you can't do good every year, or that they were much more scared of doing things after getting unfairly in last place the previous year.
TIER: F
🇵🇱 POLAND
It wasn't my favorite in the national final, but not by a big margin. The song works, even if it's not the best this year, but I predict a good result from Poland. This is the way to go.
TIER: A
🇵🇹 PORTUGAL
Great. Another saudade. And having seen the national final, I am very well aware of how their scoring system kills every chance of having something different from them. On behalf that there's nothing that bad in the song, I'm not putting it in F, but I want to see something different from Portugal from once.
TIER: D
🇸🇲 SAN MARINO
Ok, hear me out...this year San Marino has sent a song called TUTTA L'ITALIA ("All Italy")...which was THE ITALIAN NATIONAL FINAL'S ANTHEM FOR THIS YEAR...and it's by GABRY PONTE, THE MIND BEHIND BLUE DA-BA-DE-DA-BA-DAAA and a pillar of my music library in my childhood. How can I not put it in the highest place possible. Well, maybe the second highest would be more fair.
TIER: A
🇷🇸 SERBIA
This year, Serbia's national final has been heavily conditioned by the political turmoil in the country and has given as an output the number one candidate for being eliminated in the semifinal. It is just another ballad. Given that all singers in the contest showed openly their opposition to the government, it saves itself from the Israel tier, but that's the only thing I can concede.
TIER: F
🇸🇮 SLOVENIA
Ballads are the kind of songs I dislike the most in Eurovision - my mantra is "if you can't do it great, at least do it weird", and ballads for me usually are neither great nor weird. And this is very problematic because the song is about a really tragic, emotional story! The melody should help me feel for the singer who had to endure having the love of his life getting diagnosed with an incurable disease (she recovered, thankfully), but I feel nothing. It's not horrible, but if you don't make me cry you pretty much failed as a ballad.
TIER: F
🇪🇸 SPAIN
This is the most stereotyped song Spain has ever sent since Do It For Your Lover in 2017, and whoever has heard that song can realize what a big accusation this is...
...and yet it has entered my library, only for the electronic arrangement. So here we have the triade of 2025 Eurovision songs saved by techno: Belgium, Cyprus and Spain. So, F for the song itself, S for the beat.
TIER: B
🇸🇪 SWEDEN
Ok, there is SO MUCH to say about it.
This year in the Swedish national final there was Måns Zelmerlöw (you know, the one who won in 2015 and was a co-presenter in 2016) with a song that despite being called "Revolution" had absolutely nothing revolutionary - just another Swedish pop song. But everyone was sure he would win and we'd get a repetition of 2023...until a Finnish comedic trio managed to enter by inserting a Swedish songwriter in their song about going to sauna. And they WON, against every expectation. Now THIS is a revolution for Sweden, usually without a doubt the most boring, corporate, conservative (not in the political sense) country when it comes to Eurovision.
And literally everyone loves it. It has been number one in Sweden and Finland, and even the Finnish president has visited first them, and only after did he visit Erika, the actual Finnish entry. For the first time ever, Eurovision fans are cheering for Sweden to win.
And I wouldn't complain either. Well, a bit, I still don't feel Sweden deserves another victory, otherwise I'd join the club. Finland has such a deep emotional meaning to me, and their song is a perfect representation of the true Finnish experience, especially their coreography. You'll see it when the day of the final arrives. And we'll see whether Måns' words after losing were right or not.
SAUNA!
TIER: S
🇨🇭 SWITZERLAND
It's so lovely. It's just that kind of song you need to hear to remember that things can go better when you feel down. Like a mommy telling you she loves you dearly.
TIER: S
🇺🇦 UKRAINE
Maybe it will grow on me with time during the week, but at first I pretty much ignored it. It does have some genuine songwriting quality, with a memorable chorus and some good arrangement changes.
TIER: A
🇬🇧 UNITED KINGDOM
Ok...WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING IT? It's one of the most interesting things the UK has sent in recent years! A pop song sang by a female band that is clearly inspired by Queen is not something you hear often, it's like they put a summary of all their most historic music into one song. That's what I always wanted the UK to do! At times in my life half the music I'd listen came from them, so having them performing so badly every year was so unforgivable. Things started to change in 2022, and I feel like they're getting there. Nobody is giving it love, but Random will.
TIER: S
So, here is the final tier list from me.
S: 🇦🇱 🇦🇹 🇫🇮 🇮🇹 🇱🇹 🇸🇪 🇨🇭 🇬🇧
A: 🇧🇪 🇨🇾 🇬🇷 🇮🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇺 🇵🇱 🇺🇦 🇸🇲
B: 🇦🇲 🇭🇷 🇮🇸 🇳🇱 🇪🇸
C: 🇪🇪 🇫🇷 🇩🇪 🇲🇹
D: 🇦🇺 🇨🇿 🇲🇪 🇵🇹
F: 🇩🇰 🇳🇴 🇷🇸 🇸🇮
Israel: 🇦🇿 🇬🇪 🇮🇱
Pretty much the ones that look more likely to win are Sweden and Austria, but apparently even France and Netherlands have good chance. I would like to see Albania winning, we need an Eastern/Balkan win that isn't a rigged one or influenced by politics. Otherwise my money is on Austria.
I ranked every Italian Eurovision entry since 2011
Posted 5 months agoSo, next week is Eurovision week. First of all, I pray that we get back having a nice, funny event with lots of good weirdness, and not something like last year. Second, while waiting for FA to get back to normal, I decided that other than my usual journal about my opinion on Eurovision songs (for those who discovered me only after I left DeviantArt, I've always written a journal about what I think of Eurovision songs since 2017), I could make a tier list of all Italian song entries since we came back to Eurovision, so starting from 2011.
I must say, it's still surprising to me that we usually go so well at Eurovision. To me, Italian mainstream pop has always been the blandest, most generic thing that exists, with 99% of songs being just some ermetic song about love and the 1% being something that tries to become a summer hit. Yet, starting from 2017 something happened, and now I have several Italian pop songs in my library, so in some case the good placements are justified. In all others, I have the uttermost convinction that it's just because Italian sounds romantic to foreign ears. Anyway, let's begin. I'll follow the classic tier composition, so from highest to lowest S-A-B-C-D-F.
2011
Raphael Gualazzi - Madness Of Love
In these first four years, the representative was chosen among those who were in that year's Sanremo music festival, so they weren't necessarily the winners of it.
In a period when Eurovision was still pretty much stupid joke songs and ethnic pop, getting back with a jazz-esque piece of music was certainly a way to elevate yourself from the rest of the contestants. Personally I have a fond memory of Raphael Gualazzi and his style. In fact, where did he go? I never heard a song of his again after that year. Anyway, a nice song that is genuinely classy, although a bit inaccessible.
TIER: A
2012
Nina Zilli - L'Amore È Femmina (Out Of Love)
Pretty much the same pattern from the previous year: classy act, nothing weird, mix of Italian and English. Objectively, this is a great classy song with a powerful chorus, or maybe it's just me who loves choruses having a totally different key change. Yet for all the time I couldn't take away the annoyance from the fact that it hugely took from two things: one is 2011's performance. The other is Amy Winehouse. Not only is the music genre the same, but even her haircut is identical. The song quality saves it enough to not make me judge it as a ripoff, so I'll put it high, but not TOO high.
TIER: B
2013
Marco Mengoni - L'essenziale
First instance in which the contesting song is also the Sanremo winner, and well. This is exactly what I was complaining about in the introduction. This is just...boring. Marco has a good voice, yeah, but it ends there. The song tells me nothing: I can't find anything bad about it, but I can't either find anything remarkable. The lyrics are those ermetic love songs I'm so used and I hate so much, and the stage has nothing at all, it's just him singing while standing on the same place while waving a bit his hands. I mean, four years later Portugal would triumph with such a minimalist stage, but their song was so soulful that in that case the lack of stage was a stage in itself, here it's just emptiness. This kind of seriousness works in Sanremo where the atmosphere is completely different from Eurovision, but here I want something, anything to happen, whether it be an amazing song or something so ridiculous I can do memes for years.
TIER: D
2014
Emma - La Mia Città
This is the only year in which the song did not come from Sanremo but was internally selected.
The complete opposite of previous year, yet it reaches the same result. Here Emma tries everything she can to appear interesting: Greek-inspired outfit, cheap rock (seven years before Maneskin), a lot of movement by her on the stage which should be...vaguely sexy? But in the end not much is achieved, given that the song itself, while not being the generic Italian pop from 2013, is still a generic Italian rock. Italy here desperately wants to appeal the Eurovision audience instead of genuinely being themselves, and in fact it's still our worst result since our comeback: 16th. Still, at Eurovision I always prefer those who dare rather than those who do nothing, so I'll still put her higher than 2013.
TIER: C
2015
Il Volo - Grande Amore
Starting from this year, Sanremo winners are automatically offered to participate in Eurovision, but they can decline it. For now these were the winners.
Well...wow. If I could represent how foreigners like to picture Italy, the video of their performance would be a good candidate. Opera singing, love song and a background consisting of generic Greek-Roman statues. To be fair maybe it's also a perfect picture of how Italians like to think of themselves when they're not talking about politics: love, beauty, ancientness.
It definitely does work, a lot. You don't listen to opera singing that often in Eurovision, so it certainly has an impact. The melody is quite complex too. Too bad the lyrics are very, very banal, but at least these are love verses I colud say someone instead of whatever they're talking about in usual Italian pop songs (seriously, translate any of them and get back to me).
To me, it's a song that I never dared liking more than I actually do. This because back then a lot of people openly hated them because they appeal so much to middle-age-to-elder people - and well, that's true, especially with those clean nice guy faces, but damn if a song works it works. Pretty much the dumb lyrics are the only thing that don't make me put this into the highest tier.
TIER: A
2016
Francesca Michielin - No degree of separation
First instance in which the Sanremo winner refused to participate (Stadio, the band who won, had too many concerts in that period). Also, this was in the first Eurovision edition I ever saw, so from now on we enter the realm of my actual Eurovision memories.
I could literally copy and paste what I have already written about 2013 so I won't talk about this one that much because it's just an uninteresting song with uninteresting vague lyrics about some kind of emotion. Pretty much what I wrote back then on social media ("Italy, you're a certainty. Mediocre as usual") stands still for this song.
TIER: D
2017
Francesco Gabbani - Occidentali's Karma
I seriously thought we could win with this song back then. It is catchy, it has some very original lyrics with a lot of cultural references, even if they seem to talk about a lot of things (the topic being the banalization of Eastern religion and meditation practices in the Western world). And also, we had a weird, funny stage, with a man in a gorilla suit dancing next to the singer (and it was just one year after Harambe!), so what else do you want from Eurovision? Unfortunately though, the song was ruined by Eurovision's 3 minute limit which severly undermined its potential, and most of all, I hadn't considered that night I would witness a Portuguese singer with a minimalist stage and a true heartfelt song which would destroy the idea of Eurovision I had about it being a song where weirdness works best. The cuts this song had to endure is the only thing keeping it from S.
TIER: A
2018
Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta - Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente
Okay. Deep breath. Remain calm and explain yourself rationally...
If there's one thing I hate a lot is what I call "easy applauses". It's those things that try to get people's approval with very little, with opinions that mostly everyone agrees it's right. It's those endless monologues that could be easily summed up with "war is bad" or "protect children"; those movies that get plenty of Oscars because they depict some very famous tragic historic event. Let me be clear: I don't hate them because of the message they bring, but I hate them because they are so pretentious and pompous, but whoever has just a little bit of brain realizes that behind that aura of intelligence is a very banal mind that can only think banal thoughts.
Therefore, a song that openly talks about all the terrorist attacks that had happened in Europe back then could only end up as the Eurovision song I hated the most, ever. I still remember my reaction of absolute horror and disgust I felt when I heard it, and tonight was only the second time I dared listen to it again. Pretty much the whole lyrics are about what I talked: current events, generic calls for peace like the ones the Pope does, and then a nice heartwarming child's eyes. All of this screams pretty much: like me, I'm a good guy who cares about tragic things. And damn it worked, since it ended up one position higher than 2017, especially since they made sure the lyrics' pieces would appear on-screen translated in all possible languages. I guess elsewhere this kind of easy message aren't widespread in media as much as here.
Oh yeah, I should talk a bit about the melody. It's pretty much the only thing vaguely interesting since I'm not used to Italy bringing some kind of country arrangement. But this is clearly a song that does not care at all about the melody, despite this being a music contest.
TIER: F
2019
Mahmood - Soldi
Thankfully the year after things went better. Much better.
What makes me rate it so high? Well, the melody first of all feels fresh and modern, it has rhythm and has those very clever two claps in the lyrics that make it instantly memorable. The lyrics are something I really appreciate: my favorite kind of lyrics are those where the singer sings about a personal story, because it makes the song feel really genuine and heartfelt, the story in this case being Mahmood being abandoned by his father at a early age, and seeing him look for him again only once he became famous and only because he hoped to get some money from him. The coreography was nothing bombastic, just some dancers and some translated pieces of lyrics in the screen which help foreigners get the song's meaning, but the song is powerful enough to not need any bombastic stage. And despite having been reduced compared to the original like Occidentali's Karma, cuts here were much more clever and didn't compromise the song's structure. Still to this day, Soldi for me remains a banger.
TIER: S
2020
Diodato - Fai Rumore
There was no contest that year and we all know why, but still there was a song that was supposed to compete, so here we are.
Overall it goes into the same category 2013 and 2016 are in, so very little to say. This one, however, has something more, and is mainly Diodato's voice. I don't mean that Mengoni and Michielin are bad singers, it's just that Diodato here actually shows how powerful his voice is when singing the chorus, so that I do feel something in my soul. Just something, though. I know here personal taste is playing a key role, but I just can't put it that much high.
TIER: C
2021
Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni
At last here it is, the song that gave us our third victory.
I remember so clearly thinking at first that I wasn't so impressed since I had just heard Finland delivering a really cool nu-metal song so my ears had had enough distorted guitars. Then the final results came, and did I copmpletely change my mind while I rejoiced loudly just like when we won the football world cup in 2006. This is definitely one of the Eurovision songs I listened the most in my life - so energetic, so lively, so rock. Yes, rock. There's nothing that makes me think Maneskin are not rock as all those classic rockers cried about in the years after their victory. They are a band that plays instruments (even if at Eurovision instruments must be in playback), they write their songs, they have scene presence and a trasgressive but studied look, what else do you want from them? Just because there's no solos? This song bangs.
It also started a really strange period for Italy. All of a sudden, we started winning in many things and being present a lot. After that we won the European football championships, some very important gold medals at the olympics, a Nobel prize for physics, and thanks to Pixar's Luca we were featured in American cinema too. Maneskin were definitely the image of this Italian modern renaissance, which lasted only a handful of months but was incredible. Seeing an Italian rock band achieving worldwide success is probably something that will never happen again. I really thought that rock, a genre that I considered terminally ill, reduced to being a genre for boomers, could have a second youth. Well, four years later it's pretty clear it didn't. A bit because of rockers' elitism, a bit because young generations probably perceived them as a cool gimnick, a bit because after that Maneskin released a very mediocre album probably influenced by their record company and now are on a hiatus, rock remained that geriatric genre it has been since the 2010s. Still, this sad legacy will never delete the impact this song had on Eurovision, which suddenly started producing actual quality songs and their first worldwide famous act since Celine Dion in 1988. And I still love this song.
TIER: S
2022
Mahmood and Blanco - Brividi
After the wonders of 2019 and 2021, I hoped for another daring song, especially from Mahmood, instead we got back to our standard love pop. However, the fact it was sung by two males is not something to underestimate in the country where the Vatican resides, so that's already an achievement by itself. (Maybe we'll get gay marriages before 2050. Maybe.) Although the way Blanco enters the stage with that strange walk is something I can't really explain. But for the rest, I really can't find anything to say. Let me tell you, I prefer much more the version sung by Topo Gigio.
TIER: C
2023
Marco Mengoni - Due Vite
I didn't even remember the song's title before searching for it, this is to show how memorable it is.
And yet, compared to his first participation ten years before, Marco has improved a lot. He has an interesting outfit made of what looks like jewellery and leather jeans, instead of a boringly formal attire. He moves a little more on the stage. He shows off his voice's power in the chorus. All this however is just not enough to elevate the song for me, which is just another bland pop for me.
TIER: C
2024
Angelina Mango - La Noia
Maybe if this song had come out in the 2000s, or was sung by Cyprus, it would have done amazing. For being the Italian entry, this feels much more like an international pop song, but I don't mean it in a bad way. Having such a danceable latin-like song whose topic is boredom is definitely interesting.
A lot of people said that the coreography is too crowded and severely limited Angelina's stage presence compared to what she showed off at Sanremo, where she was alone on stage. But I mean, we were still seventh. True, it was our worst placement since 2017, but I'm pretty sure all other countries, even Sweden, would pay gold to have seventh as the worst placement in nine years, and besides, 2022 and 2023 we were sixth so we weren't that different. If anything, for me this song has something to say compared to the previous two years.
TIER: B
2025
Lucio Corsi - Volevo Essere Un Duro
Finally, this year's song, and also the second time the Sanremo winner refuses to go to Eurovision due to being full of concerts, and thank goodness because Balorda Nostalgia by Olly was as interesting as cardboard.
This song is turning out to be...some kind of life companion to me. It's just so relatable, but not in that horrible way of relatable content social media is plagued with. It's about the fact you maybe hoped to be cooler than you are and then instead dramatically realize you're just yourself, with your own weaknesses, and you still feel bittersweet about it. I found myself instictively singing it on many occasions, especially when feeling down. It's a bit like a friend giving me a warm hug to make me feel better. Not mentioning that Lucio has the attitude of a real artist, as his stage makeup inspired by 1970s glam rock (for the record his whole style is inspired by that period) shows off.
So far it has never been put among the favorites, and the stage will play a key role in making the song be appreciated by the rest of the world. We'll see how it goes next week, for now though I definitely put it in a very high tier, but not too much for precaution.
TIER: A
And so, here is my complete tier list of Italian Eurovision entries since 2011.
S: 2019, 2021
A: 2011, 2015, 2017, 2025
B: 2012, 2024
C: 2014, 2020, 2022, 2023
D: 2013, 2016
F: 2018
I must say, it's still surprising to me that we usually go so well at Eurovision. To me, Italian mainstream pop has always been the blandest, most generic thing that exists, with 99% of songs being just some ermetic song about love and the 1% being something that tries to become a summer hit. Yet, starting from 2017 something happened, and now I have several Italian pop songs in my library, so in some case the good placements are justified. In all others, I have the uttermost convinction that it's just because Italian sounds romantic to foreign ears. Anyway, let's begin. I'll follow the classic tier composition, so from highest to lowest S-A-B-C-D-F.
2011
Raphael Gualazzi - Madness Of Love
In these first four years, the representative was chosen among those who were in that year's Sanremo music festival, so they weren't necessarily the winners of it.
In a period when Eurovision was still pretty much stupid joke songs and ethnic pop, getting back with a jazz-esque piece of music was certainly a way to elevate yourself from the rest of the contestants. Personally I have a fond memory of Raphael Gualazzi and his style. In fact, where did he go? I never heard a song of his again after that year. Anyway, a nice song that is genuinely classy, although a bit inaccessible.
TIER: A
2012
Nina Zilli - L'Amore È Femmina (Out Of Love)
Pretty much the same pattern from the previous year: classy act, nothing weird, mix of Italian and English. Objectively, this is a great classy song with a powerful chorus, or maybe it's just me who loves choruses having a totally different key change. Yet for all the time I couldn't take away the annoyance from the fact that it hugely took from two things: one is 2011's performance. The other is Amy Winehouse. Not only is the music genre the same, but even her haircut is identical. The song quality saves it enough to not make me judge it as a ripoff, so I'll put it high, but not TOO high.
TIER: B
2013
Marco Mengoni - L'essenziale
First instance in which the contesting song is also the Sanremo winner, and well. This is exactly what I was complaining about in the introduction. This is just...boring. Marco has a good voice, yeah, but it ends there. The song tells me nothing: I can't find anything bad about it, but I can't either find anything remarkable. The lyrics are those ermetic love songs I'm so used and I hate so much, and the stage has nothing at all, it's just him singing while standing on the same place while waving a bit his hands. I mean, four years later Portugal would triumph with such a minimalist stage, but their song was so soulful that in that case the lack of stage was a stage in itself, here it's just emptiness. This kind of seriousness works in Sanremo where the atmosphere is completely different from Eurovision, but here I want something, anything to happen, whether it be an amazing song or something so ridiculous I can do memes for years.
TIER: D
2014
Emma - La Mia Città
This is the only year in which the song did not come from Sanremo but was internally selected.
The complete opposite of previous year, yet it reaches the same result. Here Emma tries everything she can to appear interesting: Greek-inspired outfit, cheap rock (seven years before Maneskin), a lot of movement by her on the stage which should be...vaguely sexy? But in the end not much is achieved, given that the song itself, while not being the generic Italian pop from 2013, is still a generic Italian rock. Italy here desperately wants to appeal the Eurovision audience instead of genuinely being themselves, and in fact it's still our worst result since our comeback: 16th. Still, at Eurovision I always prefer those who dare rather than those who do nothing, so I'll still put her higher than 2013.
TIER: C
2015
Il Volo - Grande Amore
Starting from this year, Sanremo winners are automatically offered to participate in Eurovision, but they can decline it. For now these were the winners.
Well...wow. If I could represent how foreigners like to picture Italy, the video of their performance would be a good candidate. Opera singing, love song and a background consisting of generic Greek-Roman statues. To be fair maybe it's also a perfect picture of how Italians like to think of themselves when they're not talking about politics: love, beauty, ancientness.
It definitely does work, a lot. You don't listen to opera singing that often in Eurovision, so it certainly has an impact. The melody is quite complex too. Too bad the lyrics are very, very banal, but at least these are love verses I colud say someone instead of whatever they're talking about in usual Italian pop songs (seriously, translate any of them and get back to me).
To me, it's a song that I never dared liking more than I actually do. This because back then a lot of people openly hated them because they appeal so much to middle-age-to-elder people - and well, that's true, especially with those clean nice guy faces, but damn if a song works it works. Pretty much the dumb lyrics are the only thing that don't make me put this into the highest tier.
TIER: A
2016
Francesca Michielin - No degree of separation
First instance in which the Sanremo winner refused to participate (Stadio, the band who won, had too many concerts in that period). Also, this was in the first Eurovision edition I ever saw, so from now on we enter the realm of my actual Eurovision memories.
I could literally copy and paste what I have already written about 2013 so I won't talk about this one that much because it's just an uninteresting song with uninteresting vague lyrics about some kind of emotion. Pretty much what I wrote back then on social media ("Italy, you're a certainty. Mediocre as usual") stands still for this song.
TIER: D
2017
Francesco Gabbani - Occidentali's Karma
I seriously thought we could win with this song back then. It is catchy, it has some very original lyrics with a lot of cultural references, even if they seem to talk about a lot of things (the topic being the banalization of Eastern religion and meditation practices in the Western world). And also, we had a weird, funny stage, with a man in a gorilla suit dancing next to the singer (and it was just one year after Harambe!), so what else do you want from Eurovision? Unfortunately though, the song was ruined by Eurovision's 3 minute limit which severly undermined its potential, and most of all, I hadn't considered that night I would witness a Portuguese singer with a minimalist stage and a true heartfelt song which would destroy the idea of Eurovision I had about it being a song where weirdness works best. The cuts this song had to endure is the only thing keeping it from S.
TIER: A
2018
Fabrizio Moro and Ermal Meta - Non Mi Avete Fatto Niente
Okay. Deep breath. Remain calm and explain yourself rationally...
If there's one thing I hate a lot is what I call "easy applauses". It's those things that try to get people's approval with very little, with opinions that mostly everyone agrees it's right. It's those endless monologues that could be easily summed up with "war is bad" or "protect children"; those movies that get plenty of Oscars because they depict some very famous tragic historic event. Let me be clear: I don't hate them because of the message they bring, but I hate them because they are so pretentious and pompous, but whoever has just a little bit of brain realizes that behind that aura of intelligence is a very banal mind that can only think banal thoughts.
Therefore, a song that openly talks about all the terrorist attacks that had happened in Europe back then could only end up as the Eurovision song I hated the most, ever. I still remember my reaction of absolute horror and disgust I felt when I heard it, and tonight was only the second time I dared listen to it again. Pretty much the whole lyrics are about what I talked: current events, generic calls for peace like the ones the Pope does, and then a nice heartwarming child's eyes. All of this screams pretty much: like me, I'm a good guy who cares about tragic things. And damn it worked, since it ended up one position higher than 2017, especially since they made sure the lyrics' pieces would appear on-screen translated in all possible languages. I guess elsewhere this kind of easy message aren't widespread in media as much as here.
Oh yeah, I should talk a bit about the melody. It's pretty much the only thing vaguely interesting since I'm not used to Italy bringing some kind of country arrangement. But this is clearly a song that does not care at all about the melody, despite this being a music contest.
TIER: F
2019
Mahmood - Soldi
Thankfully the year after things went better. Much better.
What makes me rate it so high? Well, the melody first of all feels fresh and modern, it has rhythm and has those very clever two claps in the lyrics that make it instantly memorable. The lyrics are something I really appreciate: my favorite kind of lyrics are those where the singer sings about a personal story, because it makes the song feel really genuine and heartfelt, the story in this case being Mahmood being abandoned by his father at a early age, and seeing him look for him again only once he became famous and only because he hoped to get some money from him. The coreography was nothing bombastic, just some dancers and some translated pieces of lyrics in the screen which help foreigners get the song's meaning, but the song is powerful enough to not need any bombastic stage. And despite having been reduced compared to the original like Occidentali's Karma, cuts here were much more clever and didn't compromise the song's structure. Still to this day, Soldi for me remains a banger.
TIER: S
2020
Diodato - Fai Rumore
There was no contest that year and we all know why, but still there was a song that was supposed to compete, so here we are.
Overall it goes into the same category 2013 and 2016 are in, so very little to say. This one, however, has something more, and is mainly Diodato's voice. I don't mean that Mengoni and Michielin are bad singers, it's just that Diodato here actually shows how powerful his voice is when singing the chorus, so that I do feel something in my soul. Just something, though. I know here personal taste is playing a key role, but I just can't put it that much high.
TIER: C
2021
Måneskin - Zitti E Buoni
At last here it is, the song that gave us our third victory.
I remember so clearly thinking at first that I wasn't so impressed since I had just heard Finland delivering a really cool nu-metal song so my ears had had enough distorted guitars. Then the final results came, and did I copmpletely change my mind while I rejoiced loudly just like when we won the football world cup in 2006. This is definitely one of the Eurovision songs I listened the most in my life - so energetic, so lively, so rock. Yes, rock. There's nothing that makes me think Maneskin are not rock as all those classic rockers cried about in the years after their victory. They are a band that plays instruments (even if at Eurovision instruments must be in playback), they write their songs, they have scene presence and a trasgressive but studied look, what else do you want from them? Just because there's no solos? This song bangs.
It also started a really strange period for Italy. All of a sudden, we started winning in many things and being present a lot. After that we won the European football championships, some very important gold medals at the olympics, a Nobel prize for physics, and thanks to Pixar's Luca we were featured in American cinema too. Maneskin were definitely the image of this Italian modern renaissance, which lasted only a handful of months but was incredible. Seeing an Italian rock band achieving worldwide success is probably something that will never happen again. I really thought that rock, a genre that I considered terminally ill, reduced to being a genre for boomers, could have a second youth. Well, four years later it's pretty clear it didn't. A bit because of rockers' elitism, a bit because young generations probably perceived them as a cool gimnick, a bit because after that Maneskin released a very mediocre album probably influenced by their record company and now are on a hiatus, rock remained that geriatric genre it has been since the 2010s. Still, this sad legacy will never delete the impact this song had on Eurovision, which suddenly started producing actual quality songs and their first worldwide famous act since Celine Dion in 1988. And I still love this song.
TIER: S
2022
Mahmood and Blanco - Brividi
After the wonders of 2019 and 2021, I hoped for another daring song, especially from Mahmood, instead we got back to our standard love pop. However, the fact it was sung by two males is not something to underestimate in the country where the Vatican resides, so that's already an achievement by itself. (Maybe we'll get gay marriages before 2050. Maybe.) Although the way Blanco enters the stage with that strange walk is something I can't really explain. But for the rest, I really can't find anything to say. Let me tell you, I prefer much more the version sung by Topo Gigio.
TIER: C
2023
Marco Mengoni - Due Vite
I didn't even remember the song's title before searching for it, this is to show how memorable it is.
And yet, compared to his first participation ten years before, Marco has improved a lot. He has an interesting outfit made of what looks like jewellery and leather jeans, instead of a boringly formal attire. He moves a little more on the stage. He shows off his voice's power in the chorus. All this however is just not enough to elevate the song for me, which is just another bland pop for me.
TIER: C
2024
Angelina Mango - La Noia
Maybe if this song had come out in the 2000s, or was sung by Cyprus, it would have done amazing. For being the Italian entry, this feels much more like an international pop song, but I don't mean it in a bad way. Having such a danceable latin-like song whose topic is boredom is definitely interesting.
A lot of people said that the coreography is too crowded and severely limited Angelina's stage presence compared to what she showed off at Sanremo, where she was alone on stage. But I mean, we were still seventh. True, it was our worst placement since 2017, but I'm pretty sure all other countries, even Sweden, would pay gold to have seventh as the worst placement in nine years, and besides, 2022 and 2023 we were sixth so we weren't that different. If anything, for me this song has something to say compared to the previous two years.
TIER: B
2025
Lucio Corsi - Volevo Essere Un Duro
Finally, this year's song, and also the second time the Sanremo winner refuses to go to Eurovision due to being full of concerts, and thank goodness because Balorda Nostalgia by Olly was as interesting as cardboard.
This song is turning out to be...some kind of life companion to me. It's just so relatable, but not in that horrible way of relatable content social media is plagued with. It's about the fact you maybe hoped to be cooler than you are and then instead dramatically realize you're just yourself, with your own weaknesses, and you still feel bittersweet about it. I found myself instictively singing it on many occasions, especially when feeling down. It's a bit like a friend giving me a warm hug to make me feel better. Not mentioning that Lucio has the attitude of a real artist, as his stage makeup inspired by 1970s glam rock (for the record his whole style is inspired by that period) shows off.
So far it has never been put among the favorites, and the stage will play a key role in making the song be appreciated by the rest of the world. We'll see how it goes next week, for now though I definitely put it in a very high tier, but not too much for precaution.
TIER: A
And so, here is my complete tier list of Italian Eurovision entries since 2011.
S: 2019, 2021
A: 2011, 2015, 2017, 2025
B: 2012, 2024
C: 2014, 2020, 2022, 2023
D: 2013, 2016
F: 2018
Humor, according to me
Posted 6 months agoI love laughing. And I love making people laugh. I guess that’s true for everyone, but few things give me the same satisfaction of making others laugh (intentionally, that is). Making others have fun, getting liked for that. I luckily know a lot of stuff that makes me able to often find a good reference that builds up to a clever joke – but there’s more to that, and most of a good joke is not much given by the joke itself, but by the way it’s told. My mother has always said that I have a typically British humor, and for long I couldn’t understand what she meant by that – then I figured out: it’s because I have this capacity of telling absurd jokes while keeping my state of mind absolutely serious. That’s pretty much where I shine (thanks, autism) and it let me reflect more about why something makes us laugh.
So, what is funny on first place? Pretty much all funny things are things that are not ordinary – word plays, weird scenes and clever jokes, they’re all things that subvert our expectations. In fact, rarely does a joke make us laugh twice, because at that point it no longer surprises us. And why this? Well, we are creatures that are deeply guided by an universal fear of the unknown – what we cannot describe, what we have never faced. It’s too much of an effort for our brain to try think about the unknown, and most of all we never know if said unknown is an actual threat that could lead us to the unknownest of all unknowns – that is, death. So, to take care of that, sometimes we feel fear, so that we stay out. Sometimes we get pumped with adrenaline or decide to study it to understand it rationally, if somehow we can face it and need to act. But sometimes, we just laugh, if that unknown can be tamed by making it ridiculous. So this is what humor is: a way our brain has to face a mild kind of unknown.
And here is the key. Who gets told a joke must not predict what is about to come, or they have no longer an unknown to fight. Not only the joke itself, but also the fact that they’re being told a joke. A funny situation may not be that funny if it’s been built on purpose, but make you laugh as hell if it comes in a supposedly regular situation. And that’s why saying jokes seriously is so efficient. If the tone is already humorous, you prepare your listener to the fact a joke is incoming, diminishing its unexpected-situation power.
There are other rules though, which all come from what said about humor being about the unknown. An important one is keeping things as minimalist as possible – that is, if a detail can be shown without saying it explicitly, omit it. A good amount of jokes in fact are based on this: an example would be “What is the difference between a battery and [something to denigrate]? The battery at least has one positive side.” If the joke continued by saying “But [something to denigrate] has none”, the unknown would be revealed, and the joke destroyed. (I’m sure there are other rules, but I can’t think of any of them right now. If I do, I’ll just expand this journal.)
For all this, in my opinion writing comedy is much harder than writing tragedy. We all agree on what is tragic, right? Death, death, and more death. Well, also war, depression, violence and so on, but they can all by summed up by death anyway. But humor? It depends extremely on everyone’s experience, on the set of what they know already, and on their sensitiveness, so that we all laugh for different things. Worse, jokes work only once, because the second time they have entered the realm of what is known – you may still laugh a bit, but never like the first time. So you have only one chance to make your audience laugh.
Well, usually I would end up with a conclusive line, but right now I have none. Have a good life everyone.
So, what is funny on first place? Pretty much all funny things are things that are not ordinary – word plays, weird scenes and clever jokes, they’re all things that subvert our expectations. In fact, rarely does a joke make us laugh twice, because at that point it no longer surprises us. And why this? Well, we are creatures that are deeply guided by an universal fear of the unknown – what we cannot describe, what we have never faced. It’s too much of an effort for our brain to try think about the unknown, and most of all we never know if said unknown is an actual threat that could lead us to the unknownest of all unknowns – that is, death. So, to take care of that, sometimes we feel fear, so that we stay out. Sometimes we get pumped with adrenaline or decide to study it to understand it rationally, if somehow we can face it and need to act. But sometimes, we just laugh, if that unknown can be tamed by making it ridiculous. So this is what humor is: a way our brain has to face a mild kind of unknown.
And here is the key. Who gets told a joke must not predict what is about to come, or they have no longer an unknown to fight. Not only the joke itself, but also the fact that they’re being told a joke. A funny situation may not be that funny if it’s been built on purpose, but make you laugh as hell if it comes in a supposedly regular situation. And that’s why saying jokes seriously is so efficient. If the tone is already humorous, you prepare your listener to the fact a joke is incoming, diminishing its unexpected-situation power.
There are other rules though, which all come from what said about humor being about the unknown. An important one is keeping things as minimalist as possible – that is, if a detail can be shown without saying it explicitly, omit it. A good amount of jokes in fact are based on this: an example would be “What is the difference between a battery and [something to denigrate]? The battery at least has one positive side.” If the joke continued by saying “But [something to denigrate] has none”, the unknown would be revealed, and the joke destroyed. (I’m sure there are other rules, but I can’t think of any of them right now. If I do, I’ll just expand this journal.)
For all this, in my opinion writing comedy is much harder than writing tragedy. We all agree on what is tragic, right? Death, death, and more death. Well, also war, depression, violence and so on, but they can all by summed up by death anyway. But humor? It depends extremely on everyone’s experience, on the set of what they know already, and on their sensitiveness, so that we all laugh for different things. Worse, jokes work only once, because the second time they have entered the realm of what is known – you may still laugh a bit, but never like the first time. So you have only one chance to make your audience laugh.
Well, usually I would end up with a conclusive line, but right now I have none. Have a good life everyone.
10 years of dragons (small revelation in the end)
Posted 6 months agoAnd therefore 10 years of daydreaming, writing, pictures, books, mythology research, and most of all, friends. If I was still on DeviantArt, I would have likely waited for 2026/05/15 to celebrate 10 years on that website instead, given how much of my soul I have put there until last October, but let’s not talk about that website any longer unless necessary, alright?
Technically speaking, it was in 2014 that I first discovered Dragonheart and that lead me to first watching How To Train Your Dragon for the first time and then reading Eragon – but it was in the early days of April 2015 that I started my very first (forever unpublished) dragon story, so I make my dragon journey start from that month.
And what a journey so far, right? It only took me one more year to discover the Finnish word for dragon is “Lohikäärme” which literally means salmon-snake – all thanks to five months of being an exchange student in Finland, merging it with “Carmen”, the latin word for “Poem” and therefore creating the word “Lohikarmen” and deciding to use it for a book about a land where dragons and humans are bonded together. So much different from the kind of stuff I’m doing today, to show how far the journey has taken me.
Indeed, I passed from showing that dragons should be befriended, to analyzing dragons’ complex psychology in relationship to humans, to finding my soul is divided into two dragons, Random and Modnar, and finally recognizing dragons’ true predator nature. Basically, I first loved dragons for what I wanted them to be, now I love them for what I feel they actually are.
But this journey would have likely stopped after some months without the friends I made along the way and that I keep doing. Even though I didn’t create it alone, Dragon-Human Association is the most wonderful thing I ever made – a community that gave me my best friends ever. Now it’s no longer my only community – new, fresher ones have come alongside it, mainly the Bellyverse and
Dragonfire7 ‘s Formula 1 league, plus the Italian furry community I entered in contact with just last year (and I wish I had done it many years before, I really regret not accepting being part of the furry community earlier). Especially in 2020, DHA was the thing that kept me the most afloat, and I’ll never forget it.
Now many of those friends are no longer into dragons the way they were in the early parts of my journey, but our relationship hasn’t gone off one single part. We no longer need dragons, but it was still them I’m friends with them. And dragons keep making me meet amazing people from all over the world. Their wings keep me bringing me into the most incredible places. Which nowadays happens to be their stomachs half of the times, but it’s not a problem, I love being part of them.
Well, now there’s a small revelation I want to do. The reason that made me decide, back in 2016, to post my writings on DeviantArt and not some website more specialized in writing, was because I already knew how many people interested in dragons were there. And you know how I knew it? Because of all the dragon vore stories published on DeviantArt I kept finding while secretly looking for vore content. So in a way, I could start depicting dragons befriending humans thanks to dragons eating humans. Their pred nature was always there, just deeply hidden. (This is basically Modnar in a nutshell…)
Well, it looks like my journey will continue for a while. Let’s see where else new I end up.
Technically speaking, it was in 2014 that I first discovered Dragonheart and that lead me to first watching How To Train Your Dragon for the first time and then reading Eragon – but it was in the early days of April 2015 that I started my very first (forever unpublished) dragon story, so I make my dragon journey start from that month.
And what a journey so far, right? It only took me one more year to discover the Finnish word for dragon is “Lohikäärme” which literally means salmon-snake – all thanks to five months of being an exchange student in Finland, merging it with “Carmen”, the latin word for “Poem” and therefore creating the word “Lohikarmen” and deciding to use it for a book about a land where dragons and humans are bonded together. So much different from the kind of stuff I’m doing today, to show how far the journey has taken me.
Indeed, I passed from showing that dragons should be befriended, to analyzing dragons’ complex psychology in relationship to humans, to finding my soul is divided into two dragons, Random and Modnar, and finally recognizing dragons’ true predator nature. Basically, I first loved dragons for what I wanted them to be, now I love them for what I feel they actually are.
But this journey would have likely stopped after some months without the friends I made along the way and that I keep doing. Even though I didn’t create it alone, Dragon-Human Association is the most wonderful thing I ever made – a community that gave me my best friends ever. Now it’s no longer my only community – new, fresher ones have come alongside it, mainly the Bellyverse and
Dragonfire7 ‘s Formula 1 league, plus the Italian furry community I entered in contact with just last year (and I wish I had done it many years before, I really regret not accepting being part of the furry community earlier). Especially in 2020, DHA was the thing that kept me the most afloat, and I’ll never forget it.Now many of those friends are no longer into dragons the way they were in the early parts of my journey, but our relationship hasn’t gone off one single part. We no longer need dragons, but it was still them I’m friends with them. And dragons keep making me meet amazing people from all over the world. Their wings keep me bringing me into the most incredible places. Which nowadays happens to be their stomachs half of the times, but it’s not a problem, I love being part of them.
Well, now there’s a small revelation I want to do. The reason that made me decide, back in 2016, to post my writings on DeviantArt and not some website more specialized in writing, was because I already knew how many people interested in dragons were there. And you know how I knew it? Because of all the dragon vore stories published on DeviantArt I kept finding while secretly looking for vore content. So in a way, I could start depicting dragons befriending humans thanks to dragons eating humans. Their pred nature was always there, just deeply hidden. (This is basically Modnar in a nutshell…)
Well, it looks like my journey will continue for a while. Let’s see where else new I end up.
2024 end-of-year reflections
Posted 10 months agoThis year has been the equivalent of a revolution for me.
After eight years, I finally recognized that I couldn't keep doing the same stuff forever; or at least, I recognized that it was finallly time to, after a drenage of ideas that I solved once I started drawing and revealed the kinks I was so afraid to admit. All this though wouldn't have happened without finding my definitive scalesona. Whom was readily accompained by a second one, and their identies are equal and opposite sides of me, and this is something I'm proud of: Random and Modnar are not just made to be liked by me, in face they both are me. That's my idea of sonas: characters that represent your real self. I hope this new cycle can give me as many friends and ideas as the previous one did.
All this made me manage to finally leave DeviantArt, the website that had nurtured me for long, but whom I became disaffected. Still, reading that final letter I published there always gives me goosebumps. It's been like leaving your parents' home forever: the relief and the melancholy happening at the same time.
Even outside the internet I walked down a harsh mental road that forced me to face what I really am and where I want to be in the future. It finally made me recognize that my life is where I am now. For years I've wanted to be abroad, and part of me still does, but at 31 I want to be able to plan my things without thinking "Eh, what if one day I manage to leave...?" It's been really freeing. As much as I'd rather be from other places, I can still extract the best in life from Milan, my hometown. In short, I've become more adult, and feel more at peace. At least now.
Before the final greetings, let me tell you a bit about the cons I'll be attending in 2025. I already booked everything for Awoostria (Vienna, July 24-27) and will surely attend Furizon (Milan, June 3-7). I'm thinking about FurryWeekend (Netherlands, April) and Goldenhorn (Slovenia, November), but it's just ideas.
So I guess that 2025 will just be the natural continuation of the revolution that happened in 2024. No more just a dragon writer, but being a furry in general. I have a great esteem of this community, they represent everything I stand for.
See ya!
After eight years, I finally recognized that I couldn't keep doing the same stuff forever; or at least, I recognized that it was finallly time to, after a drenage of ideas that I solved once I started drawing and revealed the kinks I was so afraid to admit. All this though wouldn't have happened without finding my definitive scalesona. Whom was readily accompained by a second one, and their identies are equal and opposite sides of me, and this is something I'm proud of: Random and Modnar are not just made to be liked by me, in face they both are me. That's my idea of sonas: characters that represent your real self. I hope this new cycle can give me as many friends and ideas as the previous one did.
All this made me manage to finally leave DeviantArt, the website that had nurtured me for long, but whom I became disaffected. Still, reading that final letter I published there always gives me goosebumps. It's been like leaving your parents' home forever: the relief and the melancholy happening at the same time.
Even outside the internet I walked down a harsh mental road that forced me to face what I really am and where I want to be in the future. It finally made me recognize that my life is where I am now. For years I've wanted to be abroad, and part of me still does, but at 31 I want to be able to plan my things without thinking "Eh, what if one day I manage to leave...?" It's been really freeing. As much as I'd rather be from other places, I can still extract the best in life from Milan, my hometown. In short, I've become more adult, and feel more at peace. At least now.
Before the final greetings, let me tell you a bit about the cons I'll be attending in 2025. I already booked everything for Awoostria (Vienna, July 24-27) and will surely attend Furizon (Milan, June 3-7). I'm thinking about FurryWeekend (Netherlands, April) and Goldenhorn (Slovenia, November), but it's just ideas.
So I guess that 2025 will just be the natural continuation of the revolution that happened in 2024. No more just a dragon writer, but being a furry in general. I have a great esteem of this community, they represent everything I stand for.
See ya!
What I learned from my first year following F1
Posted 10 months ago...by both watching the real life races and driving in Dragonfire7 's Fur Racing League.
- It IS tiring, doesn't matter that you stay on a seat all time.
- Drivers' fathers have an uttermost importance. Whether they be former drivers themselves, teams' owners or just little karens that yell that their son deserves respect.
- It's not just about being fast, it's about having a calm and focused mind. Otherwise you'll get lotta poles but barely any win.
- For the love of god, wait until the adrenaline in your body has been disposed of before talking about the race with your other contestants.
- The Pythagorean theorem DOES NOT apply.
- Yes there are rules, but it is recommended to test how much you can violate them until you get caught.
- Swear words are much more unacceptable than glass debris on the fucking track.
- Playing F1 games is not like Need for Speed at all.
- The most entertaining part of a race is the team radio messages.
- It's a combination of driver and car, until rain falls. At that point, it's just the driver.
- There being only 20 protagonists per time, and not thousands like in football, it's easy to create some simply lovely ships. Takes two figures of Verstappen and Russell and says "NOW KISS"
- Everyone secretly wishes they could take Monaco out of the calendar.
- It is a sport by millionaires for millionaires, but unlike top-tier football it doesn't shy away from it.
- Usually the first third of a race is the most exciting part. The second is the most boring. The final one usually varies.
- YOU GOTTA LEAVE SPACE TO THE OTHERS IF YOU'RE NOT HOTLAPPING DAMN, YOU'LL CAUSE INCIDENTS IF YOU DON'T. (Easy to understand, but trying to apply it gave me some existential crisis)
- Friendships do get destroyed when the pair ends up as team mates.
- Ferrari will always win next year, every year.
WHAT I STILL NEED TO LEARN:
- How the F1 cars work in general.
Dragonfire7 's Fur Racing League.- It IS tiring, doesn't matter that you stay on a seat all time.
- Drivers' fathers have an uttermost importance. Whether they be former drivers themselves, teams' owners or just little karens that yell that their son deserves respect.
- It's not just about being fast, it's about having a calm and focused mind. Otherwise you'll get lotta poles but barely any win.
- For the love of god, wait until the adrenaline in your body has been disposed of before talking about the race with your other contestants.
- The Pythagorean theorem DOES NOT apply.
- Yes there are rules, but it is recommended to test how much you can violate them until you get caught.
- Swear words are much more unacceptable than glass debris on the fucking track.
- Playing F1 games is not like Need for Speed at all.
- The most entertaining part of a race is the team radio messages.
- It's a combination of driver and car, until rain falls. At that point, it's just the driver.
- There being only 20 protagonists per time, and not thousands like in football, it's easy to create some simply lovely ships. Takes two figures of Verstappen and Russell and says "NOW KISS"
- Everyone secretly wishes they could take Monaco out of the calendar.
- It is a sport by millionaires for millionaires, but unlike top-tier football it doesn't shy away from it.
- Usually the first third of a race is the most exciting part. The second is the most boring. The final one usually varies.
- YOU GOTTA LEAVE SPACE TO THE OTHERS IF YOU'RE NOT HOTLAPPING DAMN, YOU'LL CAUSE INCIDENTS IF YOU DON'T. (Easy to understand, but trying to apply it gave me some existential crisis)
- Friendships do get destroyed when the pair ends up as team mates.
- Ferrari will always win next year, every year.
WHAT I STILL NEED TO LEARN:
- How the F1 cars work in general.
I should find a way to call Random and Modnar together
Posted 10 months agoMaybe the Vanglobros?
Random and Modnar's Discord servers
Posted 11 months ago[center]
"Hi, I'm Random."
"And I'm Modnar."
"We'd like to tell you guys you can reach us on Discord!"
"On two separate places, although Random attends mine too."
"Mine is Dragon-Human Association. It's the community I built in a lifetime, where dragons and humans can live together as friends. We're a chilly group of friends where to chat about normal things. Strictly SFW, no eating humans allowed. Follow the link if you want to meet me there! https://discord.gg/TeaeZAQdTs "
"Mine is The Bellyverse. In my temple, the food chain is strictly enforced and humans are nothing else but food. All willing meals are welcome to join me, together with fellow preds that want to help me in putting back prey in their place. My place is NSFW and its main theme is vore RP. Enter it through the following link: https://discord.gg/cj4MMhWDS3";
"So, whatever you feel like, see you on DHA!"
"Or in my belly." Giggles
"Hi, I'm Random."
"And I'm Modnar."
"We'd like to tell you guys you can reach us on Discord!"
"On two separate places, although Random attends mine too."
"Mine is Dragon-Human Association. It's the community I built in a lifetime, where dragons and humans can live together as friends. We're a chilly group of friends where to chat about normal things. Strictly SFW, no eating humans allowed. Follow the link if you want to meet me there! https://discord.gg/TeaeZAQdTs "
"Mine is The Bellyverse. In my temple, the food chain is strictly enforced and humans are nothing else but food. All willing meals are welcome to join me, together with fellow preds that want to help me in putting back prey in their place. My place is NSFW and its main theme is vore RP. Enter it through the following link: https://discord.gg/cj4MMhWDS3";
"So, whatever you feel like, see you on DHA!"
"Or in my belly." Giggles
I'm abandoning DeviantArt.
Posted a year agoI wrote a journal about it there. https://www.deviantart.com/randomva.....art/1114318329
Made a BlueSky account
Posted a year agoI'll be posting NSFW too from now on.
Posted a year agoThere's a bit of big revelations I'm ready to tell you.
During this almost nine years devoting myself to dragons, I had a lot of internal conflicts. I hesitated identifying myself with being a furry (or scaly) despite writing about dragons, making poster about dragons, creating a community about dragons, befriending people with dragonsonas, using websites like DeviantArt, SoFurry and FurAffinity. That is solved now, but it has solved only some months ago.
But I had an even worse conflict in me. Growing up in 2000s Italy, where at middle school "gay" was the most common insult, caused me to be very shy about the kinky side of me. So for all this time I forced on myself a clean image that with time has gotten tighter and tighter, until now it was literally choking my mind - especially now that any possible variation on the "dragon-human relationships" topic feels to me like being drained off. Indeed, a big reason of why I've been drawing much more than writing is that I wasn't getting no longer ideas for writings or posters about my usual topics..
Still, with some close friends of mine, some years ago - starting from 2020 - I began being open with some intimate friends on Discord, and that deepened my bond with them. And yet I was still so hesitant about opening myself to lewdness in my public profiles. I was too scared of what could happen to my profile - and even to my relation with some friends of mine that sometimes seemed to have shown contempt for it.
Well... it's turning out that I had no reason to be so. More and more fellow friends whom I deemed unsuspecting turned out to be deep in kinks too, I found communities, made friends out of them, at the point that with the help of my acceptance of being a furry, by now the mask has fully fallen off.
So yes. I'll no longer hide myself. You can already see I started to fav pics of big bellies. You could expect even more bellies from myself now. Petting them, caressing them... and most of all being inside of them. Yup. To be fair, through the years I left some various hints at my real likings by putting references in stories or making parodies. Now you have the confirmation. I'm a goddamn sucker for big bellies.
My DeviantArt profile will remain SFW though, since that remains my general-audience profile. FA has a much more intimate feeling where I am more comfortable about being fully myself.
I don't know if someone will be shocked by this, but if there are some, don't worry, I'm still your usual friendly Random dragon writer and I remind you there are filters you can apply in the website.
In the meanwhile, a huge thank you to all the friends that already knew me in deep, your encouragement and friendliness freed me.
During this almost nine years devoting myself to dragons, I had a lot of internal conflicts. I hesitated identifying myself with being a furry (or scaly) despite writing about dragons, making poster about dragons, creating a community about dragons, befriending people with dragonsonas, using websites like DeviantArt, SoFurry and FurAffinity. That is solved now, but it has solved only some months ago.
But I had an even worse conflict in me. Growing up in 2000s Italy, where at middle school "gay" was the most common insult, caused me to be very shy about the kinky side of me. So for all this time I forced on myself a clean image that with time has gotten tighter and tighter, until now it was literally choking my mind - especially now that any possible variation on the "dragon-human relationships" topic feels to me like being drained off. Indeed, a big reason of why I've been drawing much more than writing is that I wasn't getting no longer ideas for writings or posters about my usual topics..
Still, with some close friends of mine, some years ago - starting from 2020 - I began being open with some intimate friends on Discord, and that deepened my bond with them. And yet I was still so hesitant about opening myself to lewdness in my public profiles. I was too scared of what could happen to my profile - and even to my relation with some friends of mine that sometimes seemed to have shown contempt for it.
Well... it's turning out that I had no reason to be so. More and more fellow friends whom I deemed unsuspecting turned out to be deep in kinks too, I found communities, made friends out of them, at the point that with the help of my acceptance of being a furry, by now the mask has fully fallen off.
So yes. I'll no longer hide myself. You can already see I started to fav pics of big bellies. You could expect even more bellies from myself now. Petting them, caressing them... and most of all being inside of them. Yup. To be fair, through the years I left some various hints at my real likings by putting references in stories or making parodies. Now you have the confirmation. I'm a goddamn sucker for big bellies.
My DeviantArt profile will remain SFW though, since that remains my general-audience profile. FA has a much more intimate feeling where I am more comfortable about being fully myself.
I don't know if someone will be shocked by this, but if there are some, don't worry, I'm still your usual friendly Random dragon writer and I remind you there are filters you can apply in the website.
In the meanwhile, a huge thank you to all the friends that already knew me in deep, your encouragement and friendliness freed me.
Ask me about dragons!
Posted a year agoWant to bring here something I used to do on DeviantArt. Write any kind of question about dragons and I will answer.
The pretentious tourist
Posted a year agoThe majority of tourists travel for ostentation, and it is not certainly something that is invisible in this social media era. That doesn’t mean they aren’t genuinely interested in the location they’re in – it still happens once in a while – but nothing screams “I have an interesting life” than showing pics of yourself in a town surrounded by other people taking a selfie just like you. However, for some tourists the ostentation isn’t about traveling in that certain place, but the more general concept of traveling: for them, it’s not just about saying “I have an interesting life”, but also, and most of all, “I am an open minded person”.
This one is the pretentious tourist, a person who doesn’t go on vacation, no: they go on a journey. In fact, they’re not even a tourist, but a traveler, like they want to tell everyone else. Any word commonly associated to tourism is offensive to them, despite fully taking part in it.
What is the pretentious tourist like? In general it’s a young guy (up to the millennials’ generation), with a passport from a Western country, a medium to high education and a financially solid family that can support them in their vacat- ok, ok, journeys.Having their age’s natural tendency to exploration, and the means to do it, they satisfy as much as they can and take pride in it. But being well educated also means that they know a little more than the average person, and the person that knows a little more happens to show off their knowledge much more than actual experts, who know too well how little their knowledge is compared to the whole subject. The subject, in this case, being the place the pretentious writer travels to, and the expert being any actual local resident.
But where exactly does the pretentious tourist travel? The necessity of being different from the mass starts from home, when they desperately look for a place where mass tourism still hasn’t arrived. However, once they have excluded all the zones in the world that aren’t calm enough to let them backpack in a hostel, the countries remaining are all European, or Western-style countries, at best South-East Asia. No problem, though: the pretentious tourist will still search on the internet for potential hidden gems that haven’t still been discovered by classic tourists. All right, yes?
After arriving in the country, and hopefully when they did they have avoided taking local cash in the airport’s ATMs, it’s time to get to the place they’ll stay in. Which is never a hotel: that is for tourists, and they are a traveler. Still, they will sleep in a place that is made for people like them, that is, tourists that don’t want to be tourists. The most classic option is a hostel, where to meet other fellow pretentious tourists, the most modern one is an Airbnb, where to have the illusion to stay at a local’s house, and not the property of some foreign investor who has never been in that same place. But let’s be fair, some manage to learn to use Couchsurfing and convince another pretentious tourist who’s currently home to host them.
Once settled down, comes the fun part: discovering the local culture! Not the monuments, not the sightseeings, but the culture. Because the pretentious tourist is convinced you can get a full understanding of a foreign country by spending a handful of days in it, and doing activities every local does there every day, like walking around towns without a single job. And so they wander around, in search of an authentic local experience that will make them get a real taste of the country, or at least make them believe so: the most egregious examples being restaurants, their writings like “Traditional local food” in English and their microwaved food presented as a delicacy – but after all, when it’s the first time you eat it, you don’t have the means to realize it.
In all this, they nevertheless have visited all the sightseeings all other tourists go to, because they are must sees, it would be stupid not to go there. The pretentious tourist stays there, admiring that so famous landmark with joy and at the same time feeling a tingling irritation in their mind at the sight of the regular tourists around them, all taking selfies, wearing backpacks in front of their bodies, traveling in organized groups with a guide... But it’s ok, if they weren’t present, the pretentious tourist wouldn’t have the opportunity to think about how they’re not one of them, that they are a traveler. Oh, and those hidden gems mentioned before? They appeared in lists published in websites that have optimized their content to appear first in search engines, so when the pretentious tourist goes there, instead of finding the solitude they hoped for, they’ll meet other pretentious tourists who read the same website. Luckily, the selective cancellation of memory will activate, and the pretentious tourist will still believe to know the place better than everyone else.
Finally, it’s the end of the memorable journey. It’s been days passed at watching touristy landmass, eating at restaurants made for tourists and sleeping at places made for tourists, but the pretentious tourist doesn’t realize all that. They have learned a lot about this beautiful country and the wonderful people coming from there, knowledge generously given by the museums they went to and the landmark signs they read. Why can’t their own country be more like this one? Don’t they see how people here are happier, more relaxed, more sympathetic? Only a very tiny minority of pretentious tourists actually did the big step and slowly started to realize how many cultural elements of their country had always taken for granted, and now that those are no longer there, it’s emptiness for them every day. Meanwhile, they’ll still proudly share on their favorite social media posts saying something like “Never stop exploring” with some footprints going through a beach, and fiercely say they never visited any souvenir shops during their journey, apart from that one time because their mother asked them to bring something nice.
This one is the pretentious tourist, a person who doesn’t go on vacation, no: they go on a journey. In fact, they’re not even a tourist, but a traveler, like they want to tell everyone else. Any word commonly associated to tourism is offensive to them, despite fully taking part in it.
What is the pretentious tourist like? In general it’s a young guy (up to the millennials’ generation), with a passport from a Western country, a medium to high education and a financially solid family that can support them in their vacat- ok, ok, journeys.Having their age’s natural tendency to exploration, and the means to do it, they satisfy as much as they can and take pride in it. But being well educated also means that they know a little more than the average person, and the person that knows a little more happens to show off their knowledge much more than actual experts, who know too well how little their knowledge is compared to the whole subject. The subject, in this case, being the place the pretentious writer travels to, and the expert being any actual local resident.
But where exactly does the pretentious tourist travel? The necessity of being different from the mass starts from home, when they desperately look for a place where mass tourism still hasn’t arrived. However, once they have excluded all the zones in the world that aren’t calm enough to let them backpack in a hostel, the countries remaining are all European, or Western-style countries, at best South-East Asia. No problem, though: the pretentious tourist will still search on the internet for potential hidden gems that haven’t still been discovered by classic tourists. All right, yes?
After arriving in the country, and hopefully when they did they have avoided taking local cash in the airport’s ATMs, it’s time to get to the place they’ll stay in. Which is never a hotel: that is for tourists, and they are a traveler. Still, they will sleep in a place that is made for people like them, that is, tourists that don’t want to be tourists. The most classic option is a hostel, where to meet other fellow pretentious tourists, the most modern one is an Airbnb, where to have the illusion to stay at a local’s house, and not the property of some foreign investor who has never been in that same place. But let’s be fair, some manage to learn to use Couchsurfing and convince another pretentious tourist who’s currently home to host them.
Once settled down, comes the fun part: discovering the local culture! Not the monuments, not the sightseeings, but the culture. Because the pretentious tourist is convinced you can get a full understanding of a foreign country by spending a handful of days in it, and doing activities every local does there every day, like walking around towns without a single job. And so they wander around, in search of an authentic local experience that will make them get a real taste of the country, or at least make them believe so: the most egregious examples being restaurants, their writings like “Traditional local food” in English and their microwaved food presented as a delicacy – but after all, when it’s the first time you eat it, you don’t have the means to realize it.
In all this, they nevertheless have visited all the sightseeings all other tourists go to, because they are must sees, it would be stupid not to go there. The pretentious tourist stays there, admiring that so famous landmark with joy and at the same time feeling a tingling irritation in their mind at the sight of the regular tourists around them, all taking selfies, wearing backpacks in front of their bodies, traveling in organized groups with a guide... But it’s ok, if they weren’t present, the pretentious tourist wouldn’t have the opportunity to think about how they’re not one of them, that they are a traveler. Oh, and those hidden gems mentioned before? They appeared in lists published in websites that have optimized their content to appear first in search engines, so when the pretentious tourist goes there, instead of finding the solitude they hoped for, they’ll meet other pretentious tourists who read the same website. Luckily, the selective cancellation of memory will activate, and the pretentious tourist will still believe to know the place better than everyone else.
Finally, it’s the end of the memorable journey. It’s been days passed at watching touristy landmass, eating at restaurants made for tourists and sleeping at places made for tourists, but the pretentious tourist doesn’t realize all that. They have learned a lot about this beautiful country and the wonderful people coming from there, knowledge generously given by the museums they went to and the landmark signs they read. Why can’t their own country be more like this one? Don’t they see how people here are happier, more relaxed, more sympathetic? Only a very tiny minority of pretentious tourists actually did the big step and slowly started to realize how many cultural elements of their country had always taken for granted, and now that those are no longer there, it’s emptiness for them every day. Meanwhile, they’ll still proudly share on their favorite social media posts saying something like “Never stop exploring” with some footprints going through a beach, and fiercely say they never visited any souvenir shops during their journey, apart from that one time because their mother asked them to bring something nice.
Linux distros in few words
Posted a year agoUBUNTU
The distro that invented user-friendly Linux, now the most hated in the nation.
LINUX MINT
What Ubuntu should have become.
ZORIN
If I had to convince someone that Linux distros are modern too, I'd show them Zorin first.
POP!_OS
I can't wait to finally try their Cosmic DE, but since they've developed they've been in a limbo, and this project can only mark their rebirth or their death.
FEDORA
The perfect mix between stable and updated, no wonder it has powered my laptop for almost four years now. If only it wasn't based in the USA and was forbidden to release out of the box so many patented, but essential, packages...
ULTRAMARINE LINUX/NOBARA
Luckily, you can easily just fork it to make a version of Fedora that is based in countries where such patents don't apply and make it even more user-friendly.
ARCH
It's more a meme than a distro.
STEAMOS
Yet if Valve chose Arch as a basis for its own portable console, it has undoubtedly something good.
GARUDA
If I had to convince a GaMeRz that Linux distros are CoOl too, I'd show them Garuda first.
MANJARO
It was so popular four years ago, what happened?
ELEMENTARYOS
How they achieved the closeness of Apple despite being FOSS is a mystery.
DEEPIN
Like a pug: its only purpose is looking cute, while inside it's a mess.
SOLUS
They were a rising star in 2018, now barely anyone has ever heard of them. Making a completely independent distro is not easy nowadays.
VOID
When Arch is no more enough to be an elitist.
GENTOO
When Arch is no more enough to be an elitist, and you have even more time to waste in compiling the whole kernel.
DEBIAN
Your nice grandpa you can always count on.
SLACKWARE
Your distant grandpa you have barely ever met because your parents migrated.
ENDEAVOUROS
When you like the idea of Arch, but also want to get shit done quickly.
VANILLA
No, immutable distros don't really make sense for a desktop usage, sooner or later you'll WANT to modify something about how your system behaves.
MX LINUX
Why is it always on top of the Distrowatch.com chart?
KALI
No, you're not Hackerman, you're just some kid who needs an identity for themselves.
The distro that invented user-friendly Linux, now the most hated in the nation.
LINUX MINT
What Ubuntu should have become.
ZORIN
If I had to convince someone that Linux distros are modern too, I'd show them Zorin first.
POP!_OS
I can't wait to finally try their Cosmic DE, but since they've developed they've been in a limbo, and this project can only mark their rebirth or their death.
FEDORA
The perfect mix between stable and updated, no wonder it has powered my laptop for almost four years now. If only it wasn't based in the USA and was forbidden to release out of the box so many patented, but essential, packages...
ULTRAMARINE LINUX/NOBARA
Luckily, you can easily just fork it to make a version of Fedora that is based in countries where such patents don't apply and make it even more user-friendly.
ARCH
It's more a meme than a distro.
STEAMOS
Yet if Valve chose Arch as a basis for its own portable console, it has undoubtedly something good.
GARUDA
If I had to convince a GaMeRz that Linux distros are CoOl too, I'd show them Garuda first.
MANJARO
It was so popular four years ago, what happened?
ELEMENTARYOS
How they achieved the closeness of Apple despite being FOSS is a mystery.
DEEPIN
Like a pug: its only purpose is looking cute, while inside it's a mess.
SOLUS
They were a rising star in 2018, now barely anyone has ever heard of them. Making a completely independent distro is not easy nowadays.
VOID
When Arch is no more enough to be an elitist.
GENTOO
When Arch is no more enough to be an elitist, and you have even more time to waste in compiling the whole kernel.
DEBIAN
Your nice grandpa you can always count on.
SLACKWARE
Your distant grandpa you have barely ever met because your parents migrated.
ENDEAVOUROS
When you like the idea of Arch, but also want to get shit done quickly.
VANILLA
No, immutable distros don't really make sense for a desktop usage, sooner or later you'll WANT to modify something about how your system behaves.
MX LINUX
Why is it always on top of the Distrowatch.com chart?
KALI
No, you're not Hackerman, you're just some kid who needs an identity for themselves.
My favorite dragon artwork of the last six months
Posted a year agoEvery 15th May and 15th November (ergh, it's 46 minutes past the beginning of 16th May while I'm writing but never mind) I have the tradition of sharing the dragon artwork that I liked the most in the latest six months. Why such date? Because on 2016/05/15 I first opened my DeviantArt account and began my dragon journey, and have started this tradition of mine six months later and is still ongoing - now also on Furaffinity. So here you go, a list of dragon stuff from FA, DeviantArt and Mastodon.
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/moymoy13/
moymoy13
Of all stuff I found so far in Furaffinity, Moymor13 and his huge, fatherly dragon Gordon is the thing I fell in love the most, mostly because it has a lot of things I personally love and feels close to certain experiences of mine. There are some hints at mature themes, but it never gets into porn, in fact it remains wholesome at every single submission. I even dedicated my very first piece I drew with my new drawing tablet: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56516442/
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/walnut45/
walnut45
Not one single artwork, but an entire profile. NomexGlove, with his pictures of what NOT to do when approaching dragons (and vice-versa) has made more dragon-human worldbuilding than me in years.
https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/rodannax/folder/1388700/Dragonstar
rodannax
Big and adorable golden dragon who acts like a pet, something I may not approve for my stories, but works great for entertainment.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56503890/
Reyk the water shapeshifter dragon by
ReyDeleyk
One of the most original dragonsona concepts I've ever seen!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56180968/
Fursuit - Righin by
LadyNightLight
This makes me want to get a fursuit SO BAD. Luckily, I know that with the money needed I could travel to Australia again.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11909757/
Welsh Dragon Playing Tuba 2 by
Temeraire-Windragon
Why? Well, why not?
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10374660/
So you want to be a dragon? by
Darasmera
Has several topics that I covered many times, but they're never obvious and I always appreciate when I find them in others' writings too.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dragons
The truth has been spoken. Not only laughable, but an important revelation for many writers about how to give a personality to dragons that doesn't revolve about the fact they are dragons.
https://dragonchat.org/@Rhaeloth@mastodon.art/112282543443848201
I'm still waiting for the moment I can use this as a reaction in some chat.
https://dragonchat.org/@betsystreeter@mastodon.art/111427049134780460
Maybe I should write a story about something like this.
https://www.deviantart.com/chainbreakerink/art/Pages-1-and-2-Revisited-1034741261
I put only the first page here, but this dude is writing an entire dragon origin story complete with drawings that are great to watch.
https://www.deviantart.com/dniprodragon/art/This-is-fine-meme-dragon-edition-1032518997
I mean, it's the This is fine meme but with a dragon, what else is to ask?
https://www.deviantart.com/mensjedezeemeermin/art/Dragon-s-Lullaby-774266164
I think the last time I saw here a dragon poem, teutorix-maxen (old DA user) was still active. I miss that guy, he was the one who made me write poems on first place...
https://www.deviantart.com/wazaga/art/Comms-The-Mail-Dragon-1021156677
Anything showing scenes of dragons and humans coexisting always gets my attention, even more if it shows HOW dragons could integrate among humans.
https://www.deviantart.com/olafsonn/art/No-pet-999291622
Finally real hierarchies have been re-established and the world is in balance.
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/moymoy13/
moymoy13Of all stuff I found so far in Furaffinity, Moymor13 and his huge, fatherly dragon Gordon is the thing I fell in love the most, mostly because it has a lot of things I personally love and feels close to certain experiences of mine. There are some hints at mature themes, but it never gets into porn, in fact it remains wholesome at every single submission. I even dedicated my very first piece I drew with my new drawing tablet: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56516442/
https://www.furaffinity.net/user/walnut45/
walnut45Not one single artwork, but an entire profile. NomexGlove, with his pictures of what NOT to do when approaching dragons (and vice-versa) has made more dragon-human worldbuilding than me in years.
https://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/rodannax/folder/1388700/Dragonstar
rodannaxBig and adorable golden dragon who acts like a pet, something I may not approve for my stories, but works great for entertainment.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56503890/
Reyk the water shapeshifter dragon by
ReyDeleykOne of the most original dragonsona concepts I've ever seen!
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/56180968/
Fursuit - Righin by
LadyNightLightThis makes me want to get a fursuit SO BAD. Luckily, I know that with the money needed I could travel to Australia again.
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11909757/
Welsh Dragon Playing Tuba 2 by
Temeraire-WindragonWhy? Well, why not?
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/10374660/
So you want to be a dragon? by
DarasmeraHas several topics that I covered many times, but they're never obvious and I always appreciate when I find them in others' writings too.
https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/dragons
The truth has been spoken. Not only laughable, but an important revelation for many writers about how to give a personality to dragons that doesn't revolve about the fact they are dragons.
https://dragonchat.org/@Rhaeloth@mastodon.art/112282543443848201
I'm still waiting for the moment I can use this as a reaction in some chat.
https://dragonchat.org/@betsystreeter@mastodon.art/111427049134780460
Maybe I should write a story about something like this.
https://www.deviantart.com/chainbreakerink/art/Pages-1-and-2-Revisited-1034741261
I put only the first page here, but this dude is writing an entire dragon origin story complete with drawings that are great to watch.
https://www.deviantart.com/dniprodragon/art/This-is-fine-meme-dragon-edition-1032518997
I mean, it's the This is fine meme but with a dragon, what else is to ask?
https://www.deviantart.com/mensjedezeemeermin/art/Dragon-s-Lullaby-774266164
I think the last time I saw here a dragon poem, teutorix-maxen (old DA user) was still active. I miss that guy, he was the one who made me write poems on first place...
https://www.deviantart.com/wazaga/art/Comms-The-Mail-Dragon-1021156677
Anything showing scenes of dragons and humans coexisting always gets my attention, even more if it shows HOW dragons could integrate among humans.
https://www.deviantart.com/olafsonn/art/No-pet-999291622
Finally real hierarchies have been re-established and the world is in balance.
HE WAS ONCE A GREEDY DRAGON - Available in bookstores
Posted a year agoHe Was Once A Greedy Dragon, the third volume of the Novellae Draconum, is available in all main digital bookstores!
Novellae Draconum is a series of short, cozy dragon stories, good for spending some nice evening or when you're traveling on public transport. If you just want to let your mind leave the mundane world and fly with your fantasy for a while, these are your stories.
SYNOPSIS:
...now he's no more a dragon.
A mage called Galain tricked him, and turned him into one of the very creatures he used to extort gold from: a human.
And he won't get his body back until he gets taught by Galain what it means to be a being he always deemed inferior...
Novellae Draconum is an anthology series of lighthearted short stories, where a human and a dragon get to know each other. Whether for a relaxed evening at home, or a long journey by public transport, let your fantasy take the flight with the help of new scaled friends.
ALL BOOKSTORE LINKS: https://www.bookbub.com/books/he-wa.....-carmine-bruzi
Add it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show.....-greedy-dragon
Cover by Ryuvhiel
Novellae Draconum is a series of short, cozy dragon stories, good for spending some nice evening or when you're traveling on public transport. If you just want to let your mind leave the mundane world and fly with your fantasy for a while, these are your stories.
SYNOPSIS:
...now he's no more a dragon.
A mage called Galain tricked him, and turned him into one of the very creatures he used to extort gold from: a human.
And he won't get his body back until he gets taught by Galain what it means to be a being he always deemed inferior...
Novellae Draconum is an anthology series of lighthearted short stories, where a human and a dragon get to know each other. Whether for a relaxed evening at home, or a long journey by public transport, let your fantasy take the flight with the help of new scaled friends.
ALL BOOKSTORE LINKS: https://www.bookbub.com/books/he-wa.....-carmine-bruzi
Add it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show.....-greedy-dragon
Cover by Ryuvhiel
He Was Once A Greedy Dragon - book available on May 7!
Posted a year agoThe third volume of the Novellae Draconum will be released in digital format on May 7.
If you know me from DeviantArt, you will remember it when I published its early version two years ago, when its name was only "The Greedy Dragon". As with the previous releases, I significantly improved the flow and structure and added new funny scenes, while keeping the plot the same.
And as with the previous releases, I will archive the version published on DeviantArt.
Novellae Draconum is an anthology series of lighthearted short stories, where a human and a dragon get to know each other. Whether for a relaxed evening at home, or a long journey by public transport, let your fantasy take the flight with the help of new scaled friends.
SYNOPSIS:
He was once a greedy dragon...
...now he's no more a dragon.
A mage called Galain tricked him, and turned him into one of the very creatures he used to extort gold from: a human.
And he won't get his body back until he gets taught by Galain what it means to be a being he always deemed inferior...
LINKS:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZV2GSTV
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show.....-greedy-dragon
(Other store links incoming the next days)
If you know me from DeviantArt, you will remember it when I published its early version two years ago, when its name was only "The Greedy Dragon". As with the previous releases, I significantly improved the flow and structure and added new funny scenes, while keeping the plot the same.
And as with the previous releases, I will archive the version published on DeviantArt.
Novellae Draconum is an anthology series of lighthearted short stories, where a human and a dragon get to know each other. Whether for a relaxed evening at home, or a long journey by public transport, let your fantasy take the flight with the help of new scaled friends.
SYNOPSIS:
He was once a greedy dragon...
...now he's no more a dragon.
A mage called Galain tricked him, and turned him into one of the very creatures he used to extort gold from: a human.
And he won't get his body back until he gets taught by Galain what it means to be a being he always deemed inferior...
LINKS:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CZV2GSTV
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show.....-greedy-dragon
(Other store links incoming the next days)
