Furball's Influence Map Thing

It's messy and terrible and awful. Not sorry.
Anyway, from the top left:

1. Pokemon
I doubt I would be an artist today if I hadn't found something that motivated me to draw. The talent would just lay there... wasted. I mean yeah, I drew stuff, but I didn't start drawing like a maniac until I was 5 and saw "Pikachu's Goodbye" on the TV. It was the first time I ever saw a Pokemon. And I was hooked. I porceeded to draw Pikachu constantly. I would later learn more of what Pokemon was when some neighbor kids came to visit my Grandma's house while I was there, and they were trading Pokemon cards in the backyard, by the biggest apricot tree, one of which was a Ghastly, if I remember correctly... strange the things my mind latches onto. I can't even remember their names, or what they looked like, or how old they were (older than me, certainly), but once I learned from them that you could watch Pokemon on channel 7 after school, I forgot them completely. If I had a time machine, I would like to go back and thank them for introducing me to such a huge part of my life... I wouldn't be who I am today if I hadn't discovered Pokemon. From then on it was a long, long wait to finally get myself a Pokemon game. Over 9 years, even. Don't get me wrong, I begged my mom for a Gameboy every waking second from 1999 to 2002, but that dream never came true until I was 14 and got Diamond version used for 15 bucks. (That's also why that picture has all the Pokemon up to gen four instead of all the current ones; I like the new games and can't wait for them to announce the next ones, but I'm a Sinnoh girl, and always will be.)

2. Lisa Frank
You gotta start loving rainbows and glitter somewhere. For me this was even earlier than my love of Pokemon; for my fith birthday I got this sweet Lisa Frank dolphin planner-notebook-stickerbook-majigger. Not the one up there, because I couldn't find a picture of it, but it was awesome. Came with a pink glitter pen and everything. My twin sister and I were rabidly into anything Lisa Frank for like a year there. She got a Unicorn one. I wish I still had mine, if only for nostalgia's sake... I still splurge on a fuzzy poster now and then, haha...

3. Sailor Moon
About a year after Pokemon came Sailor Moon. Sailor Moon is largely to blame for Lunari's ribbon obsession and association with the moon (big shoker, I know). Our stepsister introduced this to us, and after that we rented the one Sailor Moon videotape they had at the local Blockbuster at every opportunity. I don't even remember the plot anymore, and would love to find a good place online to watch it, but yeah. I literally wanted to be a Sailor Scout when I was six. My sister would say "Do you want to play Sailor Moon?" and I'd be like "YES!" except that she never actually let me be Sailor Moon. She said I would be Sailor Jupiter, because I had long brown hair, and SHE would be Sailor Moon. Forget the fact that her hair was just as long and brown as mine, she was ALWAYS Sailor Moon. She was very bossy. Eventually I started saying no, because I didn't want to be Jupiter. I wanted to be the special one, not just the side character. So instead I started imagining things myself and secretly pretended to be Sailor Pikachu. Sailor Pikachu was just like Sailor moon and was very special and definitely the princess Sailor Scout but she was also a Pikachu. Truth be told, this was probably Lunari in her earliest stages. Don't tell her I told you, she'd be mortified.

4. Redwall and Skulduggery Pleasant
I didn't have friends in middle school, I had books. The two series that stand out the most in my memory are Brain Jaques' (may he rest in peace *sob*) Redwall and Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant, which I HAVEN'T FINISHED YET NO SPOILERS OR I'LL HURT YOU. Redwall was the first time I felt like it was ok to not feel like a human and feel like a, well, a furry instead. I've never really felt like a human shape fits me, but I never told anyone back then (no, not even the internet) because I had this delusion that all good stories were only about humans (or human skeletons, as it were). These books proved me wrong. You could TOTALLY have a good story without a single human in it. They also introduced me to fantasy worlds, magic swords, epic battles, and happy endings.
Skulduggery Pleasant was a whole different ballgame. I instantly fell in love with the witty characters and writing style, the dark humor, and the idea that something secret, magical, and even dangerous could be hiding just under the surface of the "normal" world. It also has one of the biggest, most contorted, pretzel-like plot twists I've ever run into. I can't help but love a good plot twist. I spend way too much time speculating and making theories about sotires I get really into, and more often than not, I hit pretty close to the mark. And while that's great, what really makes my heart pound is when it goes the complete other direction, in a way that I could NEVER have seen coming. I LOVE being proven wrong, at least as far as predicting story plots goes. This series does it time and time again.

5. Dragonology
Dragons! When I was in 5th and 6th grade, the Dragonology Complete Book of Dragons was the bible. I loved how it gave order and sense to magical creatures, applying pseudo-realistic anatomy and laws to them. I had always loved dragons, but this gave it structure. It also taught me how to read runes. I still have like four of the books on my shelf.

6. Crystals
I love me some shiny rocks.

7. Nebulas
Part of why Lunari's race existed almost entirely in outer space was because of the sense of wonder and, to be honest, insignificance I always get when learning about space. It's just so big and mysterious and ever-so-slightly frightening...

8. Defiane/Lyrit Wolf
Surprise! You're on here, ! I think I would still be bottling up my artwork and stories and identity as a furry if I hadn't met you. It took me a long time to gather up enough courage to actually talk to you, but I'm very glad I did. It's done wonders for my self confidence. And your artwork is inspiring, I don't know what I would be drawing right now if I hadn't started shamelessly trying to emulate you thus improving my skills at drawing the things I really like. You're also a wonderful writer and I cry at Nyxis' story every time. Every. Time. THE FEELS. (Also, um, just for clarification: Are we friends? I'm socially retarded and never had a friend so I don't really know, but you've drawn me stuff and I've drawn you stuff and we talk and critique and joke around, so I assume we are?  )

8. Manga and Anime
I've probably seriously cheesed some Otaku out there by lumping those together, but there ya go. I love the over-the-top boss fights and insane upgrades and just the sheer ridiculousness of it. Every time you think they couldn't possibly get stronger, THEY GET STRONGER. In a world of overpowered beings, it's OK to be overpowered. And I like that. (Chose Recipe for Gertrude because it's my favoritest ever even though it's super short, and actually, now that I think about it, doesn't contain any of the stuff I just mentioned, haha!)

9. Missingno (Yes, Pokemon got on here twice)
My interest in glitches and programming is entirely due to one glitch, namely this guy. I was poking around on the internet back in '07 or '08, looking for a way to possibly get a Mew on Diamond, when I found an article with a title to the tune of "MEW IS NOT UNDER THE TRUCK: Pokemon Myths Debunked" and learned about how incredibly, wonderfully broken the original Gameboy games were. It is, perhaps, a good thing that I never got a Pokemon game until I was old enough to have a basic understanding of how programming works; had I run into Missingo on accident as a young child, it would've scared the crap out of me, possibly driving me away from Pokemon forever. As it was, I was intrigued. I have since obtained an emulator and ROM for Red and Yellow, and conquered the worlds therin with glitches. Missingo is still easily my favorite; contrary to popular rumors, he's quite harmless to catch, and is actually incredibly helpful. "Only 1 Master Ball? I CAN HELP YOU WITH THAT!"