obianakin

[obianakin]

Day 18: Drive

[obianakin]

[obianakin]

segments of fandom discourse that say "dark content is only acceptable if the person is using it to cope or work through trauma!" are so absolutely wild to me.

like these are the people that equate dark media to irl abuse/irl abuse material, but they'll excuse it on the justification of mental health? would these same people justify the production of irl abuse material on the basis of mental illness or trauma too?

dark media and "problematic" fandom content is acceptable because it is fictional. plain and simple. no one needs to disclose their mental health history in order to enjoy any kind of fictional content. and honestly? we should stop engaging in those kinds of poor faith arguments.

[obianakin]

honestly, people - especially younger people who might not remember as much of the internet before things like tiktok or youtube's adpocalypse - need to understand that censorship is not just a government act. as we lose more and more low-cost irl meeting spaces and are more confined to a work/home dichotomy, social media becomes our main public forum. and social media is censored more and more each year.

i have friends that would rather send me voice memos or talk on the phone because they worry that text messages would "leave a trail" if they talk negatively about their job. i have friends who, after telling a political joke on discord call, will say things like "don't worry fbi guy, it's just a joke!" that shit is not normal. they're not things that i remember doing a decade ago.

just like how a decade ago i could watch a youtube video covering recent news where they didn't censor the words rape or murder. or a video about reproductive health that could say the words penis and vagina. now if i decide to watch tiktok i am forced to hear "unalive" and "SA'd" and various fumbling, inappropriate euphemisms for serious topics. and that's not even counting the censorship of cursing.

censorship is a serious issue, and it is not just government-sponsored. while yes, you should absolutely fight the books being removed from your local libraries and talk your representative's ear off about how you want to keep the internet free of government regulations - they are not the only people censoring your shit. there are advertisers and stockholders and groups of concerned pearl-clutching mothers that are also hounding for this shit. do not tolerate censorship, even when it's perpetuated by your friends or your favorite social media website.

[obianakin]

no, creators can set boundaries. some examples could include:

don’t send me any fanfiction of my works or ask me to read fanfiction

don’t send me or tag me in art of (insert ship here)

don’t ask me to sign nsfw art of my characters

for the sake of the fandom, please remember to tag your nsfw and triggering content appropriately. a creator could also ask for nsfw content not to be added to the main tags for a non-mature work (family friendly works, etc)

all of these boundaries involve things being directly presented to or sent to the creator. the last bullet mentions a creator reiterating a common fandom boundary. these are normal things that anyone on the internet might ask for. anyone - including creators - is allowed to ask for things to be properly tagged around them and for triggering topics to be kept out of their inbox/@ tags

however, problems arise when creators try to weaponize their position as creator in order to force others to police the way they interact with the work. examples of ways creators should not try to exert control over fandom spaces:

don’t create fanworks of x ship

don’t make fanworks where my characters are gay (was very common in earlier internet fandom)

don’t make nsfw content of any sort (more common recently)

don’t interpret my work in a way that relates to (insert minority experience here, like gender dysphoria or growing up in a specific cultural household)

don’t draw political assumptions from my work

anything that would restrict how someone could interpret or interact with an original work

creators have been upset about how people have interpreted their works for centuries. it’s not just the rules of the internet, it’s the rules of art, honestly. you cannot control how other people interact with that art. the sooner a creator is able to understand that they cannot control another person’s understanding and enjoyment of a work, the happier and less stressed that creator will be.

some of you really aren’t gonna like this, but a creator’s wishes should never dictate what fan content is produced for a piece of media.

in the past, authors like anne rice have tried to limit the production of fanfiction. but at least rice was honest - she thought this infringed on her copywrite. back in the day, this was considered a valid argument to not create any fanfiction at all for her works.

do you understand what i’m saying? while you may sound valiant for placing a creator’s “discomfort” above the fan’s natural proclivities in fandom, really you’re just continuing to advocate for censorship in fan spaces.

and for anyone who is a creator, or who wants to become one - get comfortable with the rules of the internet. there will be erotic content made of your characters, there will be weird AUs made with your characters. there will be strange pairings and headcanons, no matter if you interact religiously with the fans or not. you cannot stop people from connecting with and wanting to be creative with your characters.

[obianakin]

i edited (deleted) my comment about "being baby" because i realized it was mean & i don't know you tbh, literally a second after hitting publish. also added more of my thoughts to my reply just in general because i don't know how i feel about stuff before i see it overall & sometimes change my mind or get additional thoughts. i'm human, sue me. the internet is not kind to the evolution of thoughts and editing of posts for clarity. sorry that you saw that. i didn't think anybody was sitting there waiting to pounce the instant the notification went off.

you wanna revisit your reblog replying to me or?

considering that you still have your own reblog up which, as i stated, contains blatant misinformation, no, i will not be taking down my post just because i reference a very rude comment you made and then deleted. the rest of the reply has been edited in light of your recent blog post, as it seems you continue to spout (perceived, lmao) rhetoric regarding age and opinion. so, here are a few things that we, as adults, should all take note of when we interact with others on the internet:

blocking is a personal choice and a boundary. i blocked you not as some sort of “gotcha” or because i want to “create an echo chamber.” i blocked you because this is a fandom-based blog and it’s clear you are hostile towards people who participate in fandom, considering you think all fanworks are illegal (by claiming they violate copyright law). tacking on to the reasons why i blocked you now includes your behavior, as referenced in the following:

when you apologize for something, it shouldn’t be to receive a desired outcome. you, as noted in the post on your blog, only apologized to me and retracted your rude comments calling me immature and “a baby” because of my reaction and response to you. once i blocked you, instead of learning something about how you should treat other people and reevaluate your own biases regarding age, you instead backtracked and doubled down on your insult. maybe you weren’t taught this in elementary school, but when you apologize, it doesn’t mean you will be forgiven. apologies are for the one apologizing - recognizing their wrongdoing and admitting it to one's self and others. you're just upset i was able to gauge that your apology wasn't genuine and didn't give you what you wanted.

just because i didn't link to evidence in my reply doesn't make me wrong, jesus fucking christ lmao. i assumed you were capable of a simple google search. fair use policies are pretty common knowledge in the modern day, especially considering the state of our internet. just because i didn't link to an easily accessible wikipedia article doesn’t mean what i stated about transformative works is untrue. what you stated, which is that fanworks are abject violates of copyright law, is categorically false. that means it is misinformation.

also - just because i am making a broad statement about copyright law and using anne rice as an example doesn't mean i am a "baby." i don't know a lot about anne rice and what she did to her fandom because as soon as i heard about that shit i lost any interest in reading her books and ran the other way. because - even if the law is on your side - you can still be sued, and lawyers cost money even if you win. that's why combative creators destroy fandoms - because people like rice have the money for expensive lawyers, and your average fanworks creator does not. there is a lot of shit regarding rice that i really don't care to touch on regarding her qualms with fandom, because my initial post was about fandom in general, not about rice and her inability to navigate fandom. i used rice as an example because she's well known by many, not because i specifically care about her.

lastly, someone matching your energy when you insult them is not someone being combative. you personally attacked me by insinuating i was young and, by your logic, stupid. even when you edited your post you kept in “uwu copyright” as if that isn’t condescending. i never personally attacked you in that post beyond stating that you shouldn’t speak on copyright law since you obviously can’t be bothered to google something for yourself and read a little of the first result. the fact that you doubled down on insults afterwards because i didn’t roll over and turn sweet is telling of your own character.

oh, and lastly: this is 2024 and you are on tumblr. when you are unable to access someone’s account or they don’t have their pronouns listed, you should use the gender neutral pronouns they/them. this is a common courtesy on most modern websites to avoid misgendering. learn it lmao.

[obianakin]

lmao you’re calling me a baby and you don’t seem to understand basic copywrite law and fair use exemptions, so i’ll explain them briefly

fanfiction, fanart, and other fanworks are considered transformative works, as they transform the original media by adding new elements that were not present within the original work. for example, writing the hunger games from the POV of peeta is transformative considering we never receive his POV in the original book. even though this fanfiction would be directly retelling the events of the book, because it is told in a different POV, it cannot be considered plagiarism or a violation of copywrite so long as it is treated as a fanwork.

this comes to my second point: you cannot compare fanworks to for-profit IP infringement. someone screen printing t-shirts of copywrited images and selling them on tiktok shop is not the same someone publishing to AO3. there is a reason why websites like AO3 are nonprofits, and it’s because as soon as you start trying to sell your fanfiction or fanart, it starts to break fair use, as transformative works still often need permission from copywrite holders in order to produce and distribute a transformative work for profit - like when a musical artist samples a song.

this is why there was so much pushback in fandom recently when people started paying to have their favorite fanfictions professionally bound into physical books. because then someone is starting to make a profit off of it, and fair use will come into question.

so no, that is not the way the law is set up in north america. fanfiction, cosplay, and fanart are not the same as plagiarism and IP infringement. allowing fan engagement and creativity is an important part of these IP holders actually making money - if you bite the fans that feed, your fandom (and bank account) will suffer the consequences.

please do a quick cursory google search before adding even more misinformation to this post, thanks very much.

some of you really aren’t gonna like this, but a creator’s wishes should never dictate what fan content is produced for a piece of media.

in the past, authors like anne rice have tried to limit the production of fanfiction. but at least rice was honest - she thought this infringed on her copywrite. back in the day, this was considered a valid argument to not create any fanfiction at all for her works.

do you understand what i’m saying? while you may sound valiant for placing a creator’s “discomfort” above the fan’s natural proclivities in fandom, really you’re just continuing to advocate for censorship in fan spaces.

and for anyone who is a creator, or who wants to become one - get comfortable with the rules of the internet. there will be erotic content made of your characters, there will be weird AUs made with your characters. there will be strange pairings and headcanons, no matter if you interact religiously with the fans or not. you cannot stop people from connecting with and wanting to be creative with your characters.

[obianakin]

it’s absolutely insane to me how the only - LITERALLY the only people complaining about erasing representation on my post are referencing ace characters. i’ve gotten 4 of them now and i’ve deleted them all because they were replies, but i just think it’s interesting that actually no one besides ace characters have been brought up

[obianakin]

this isn’t about “content” in the way you are describing it. “content” indicates a thing that is created with the intent of some kind of transactional end goal: money, fame, social leverage, etc. this post is not about “content” - it is about art.

my point is that once you start sharing art with others online, there is a high probability that someone will misinterpret it or interact with it in a way you may not like. i shared an anecdote on a similar comment on this post - the first ever short story i submitted in a creative writing class was taken in the complete opposite way as to what i intended. it was a small class with less than 10 students, and my point is that even with a very small following, once you start sharing your art online, you don’t know who it will inspire, or how it will inspire people. that can be a fantastic thing - but it can be difficult for people who struggle to understand that art isn’t just the artist’s. it also belongs to lovers of the art that will create fan-derivatives and alternate envisionings of it. that’s what fanworks are.

despite the current climate surrounding art and fandom, i really hope that the possibility of a fandom popping up surrounding your original work doesn’t make you scared or worried about producing content, or algorithms or any of that bullshit. this post is just about respecting the fans as artists themselves, not about having to commodify every little thing you do.

some of you really aren’t gonna like this, but a creator’s wishes should never dictate what fan content is produced for a piece of media.

in the past, authors like anne rice have tried to limit the production of fanfiction. but at least rice was honest - she thought this infringed on her copywrite. back in the day, this was considered a valid argument to not create any fanfiction at all for her works.

do you understand what i’m saying? while you may sound valiant for placing a creator’s “discomfort” above the fan’s natural proclivities in fandom, really you’re just continuing to advocate for censorship in fan spaces.

and for anyone who is a creator, or who wants to become one - get comfortable with the rules of the internet. there will be erotic content made of your characters, there will be weird AUs made with your characters. there will be strange pairings and headcanons, no matter if you interact religiously with the fans or not. you cannot stop people from connecting with and wanting to be creative with your characters.

[obianakin]

i’m going to reply to this here just because this is a massive leap from my original post

when i reference anne rice in my original post, it’s because she’s the most popular creator that fanfiction.net has listed as an author who has asked for their works not to be utilized in fanfiction. i could have used “archie comics” for the same reason.

this post is not about anne rice. nor is it about sexual abuse (neil gaiman) nor is it it about stalking and harassment (chappell roan).

this post was made about two small indie horror creators, neither of whom are women. in my original post, i even insinuated that rice’s reasoning for not desiring fanworks for her books was more reasonable than some modern creator’s desires for their fandom.

i think it is incredibly ignorant and presumptuous to assume that the idea that fans will create fanworks regardless of creator intent is seen as an inherently sexist idea. that is putting words in my mouth based on your own bias and ideology. my qualm isn’t even directly with rice - i understand her point of view, i just inherently disagree with it. again, i will reiterate that i made this post to (vaguely) call our several modern indie horror creators that acted as if they could control their fandom - mostly due to them weaponizing their parasocial relationships with fans in order to control fan content.

in fact, the idea that fans will rally more against women in regards to this specific issue can be refuted pretty easily by going through the tags on this post. most of the creators or fandoms that are tagged or referenced either involve irl men (such as minecraft youtube) or are the creations of men.

plenty of creators make things due to grief or loss - myself included. that still does not mean we get to dictate how others are inspired by that work. others should not have their creativity and fan spaces limited because of these things. and i say this as a creator.

some of you really aren’t gonna like this, but a creator’s wishes should never dictate what fan content is produced for a piece of media.

in the past, authors like anne rice have tried to limit the production of fanfiction. but at least rice was honest - she thought this infringed on her copywrite. back in the day, this was considered a valid argument to not create any fanfiction at all for her works.

do you understand what i’m saying? while you may sound valiant for placing a creator’s “discomfort” above the fan’s natural proclivities in fandom, really you’re just continuing to advocate for censorship in fan spaces.

and for anyone who is a creator, or who wants to become one - get comfortable with the rules of the internet. there will be erotic content made of your characters, there will be weird AUs made with your characters. there will be strange pairings and headcanons, no matter if you interact religiously with the fans or not. you cannot stop people from connecting with and wanting to be creative with your characters.

[obianakin]

You're the only light I need 💔

Comm for Lemons❤️

[obianakin]

[obianakin]

very funny (read: sad) how many people on my post with the misinformation add-on that are asking in reblogs like “source? anyone have a citation?” like brother look in the fucking notes you don’t even have to google anything

[obianakin]

i started reading lex talionis for the first time and i have too many feeling and felt inspired ✨

[obianakin]

a large portion of my brain is dedicated to the dysfunctional activities occuring in generals kenobi and skywalkers shared tent

[obianakin]

[obianakin]

honestly it only takes one person to read/interact with your work for it to be interpreted in a way you didn’t want it to be.

the very first short story i workshopped in a creative writing class, at 15 years old? completely misconstrued. it was meant to be a kind of creepy horror story with biblical undertones. the rest of the class? convinced it was an allegory for mental health. the type of critique we did in that class meant i had to just sit there, silent, as everyone else theorized about concepts i hadn’t intended for the audience to latch onto.

while no, not every piece of work will spawn a fandom, you as an author or creator have no way of dictating what other people will see as meaningful in your work. when i say “get comfortable with the rules of the internet” it’s not because your work could potentially gain massive popularity (although that is always a possibility). it’s because once you share your work with the world, you can’t control what other people say about it, think is meaningful in it, or how it inspires them. the sooner you learn that once you display a work to an audience of any size, that you relinquish control over how it’s seen - that will make your experience as a creator that much easier.

some of you really aren’t gonna like this, but a creator’s wishes should never dictate what fan content is produced for a piece of media.

in the past, authors like anne rice have tried to limit the production of fanfiction. but at least rice was honest - she thought this infringed on her copywrite. back in the day, this was considered a valid argument to not create any fanfiction at all for her works.

do you understand what i’m saying? while you may sound valiant for placing a creator’s “discomfort” above the fan’s natural proclivities in fandom, really you’re just continuing to advocate for censorship in fan spaces.

and for anyone who is a creator, or who wants to become one - get comfortable with the rules of the internet. there will be erotic content made of your characters, there will be weird AUs made with your characters. there will be strange pairings and headcanons, no matter if you interact religiously with the fans or not. you cannot stop people from connecting with and wanting to be creative with your characters.