#'i am not on the internet enough to care about ship wars'

[adammilligan]

are you actually anti destiel..... because your midam posts absolutely fuck but i cant interact with an anti. for personal reasons

no lol

[bicheetopuff]

Hey puff, it's me again!! First of all, I want to offer you my favorite fic of BK to you as an offering.

Second of all- I read through your Puff ask tag again and I was enjoying myself until the part of the ship war pops up. I'm really sorry for anyone who had genuinely got fried due to the fandom spaces being hostile. For my younger fandom experience, I didn't really get into MHA fandom much as a child. I have a fixation over Katsuki and that's that. I wasn't as obsessed of BKDK until 5 months ago because of college and needed something to fill my brain. Then bkdk ended up filling that brain.

Third of all, and what I want of your in depth opinion of is Mitsuki. I'm born in the southeast asia (what country, you can guess lmao) and when ever I actually look at Mitsuki, she remind me of my own mother. She's loud, she hits me as a child and mostly discipline me like how Katsuki is being treated. I always thought it was wrong kind of because I know I was kind of different from the other kids, (in a sense that I have problems mentally and never did get unchecked). Unlike Katsuki, I can't just yell back- and when I talk about this to other family members, they just say that it's normal. My dad is also kinda like Masaru.. just, more distant. Lmao my parents fight all the time that seeing them interact normally felt like something is wrong.

When I see Katsuki and Mitsuki interact I kind of see them having a flawed, but happy nonetheless family in some kind of way. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but I can't help but think in some kind of way that yelling might be another form of affection for them(?) Every family have another language for affection right?.. I'm not sure anymore.

So what I'm getting from this is like.. I don't, understand what counts as Abusive or Not. I'm getting better to understand that what my mom did to me as a child is the result of her punishing my misbehaving ass but was it really necessary to hit and scream at me? I'm not really sure. You don't have to answer this ask. I don't want to justify Mitsuki's actions but I also think that she does care about Katsuki. She's just, not good at parenting.

Sorry for the venting kind of ask, I just want to know the line honestly. It's kind of hard to understand where the lines are when you're buried in said line.

It’s not weird at all, I’m sorry for taking so long to respond to this. I wanted to find the time to give a meaningful response when I wasn’t busy.

I think the bnha fandom is the first time I’ve been in a hostile fandom space, but I’m grateful to have found a corner of the internet with minimal hate. But I relate really hard to bkdk filling my brain when I became overwhelmed with college. They became a great escape for me and now two and a half years later, they filled my mind again when I’m going back to college lmao.

My opinion of Mitsuki is kind of in shades of gray… I’m not Asian, however I am a person of color with one of my parents having been an immigrant and she really reminds me of my mother too.

On one hand, she upset me by blaming Katsuki for All Mights retirement and when I realized that it was probably a trend throughout his childhood, it upset me even more, mainly because I related to it. Being told that everything you do is wrong and feeling like you’ll never be good enough for your parents approval, hurts. I don’t care if Katsuki is tough, I know that shit hurt and had a big impact on who he grew up to be.

Having said that, I do kind of appreciate that Katsuki is able to defend himself to some degree without any real punishment. I like that Mitsuki lets him feel angry without shaming him for it, but I also feel like she kind of ignores his feelings, and the fact that she never addressed them and even encouraged him, also effected how he grew up to view himself. He saw himself as someone who’s praised blindly while thinking that he’ll never be good enough for the expectations he set for himself due to his mother degrading him. We’ve never really seen either of his parents celebrate his accomplishments like we’ve seen with other characters so I think his parents don’t really congratulate him because success is what they expect from him. They make more of a big deal out of his losses and faults than anything else.

I try to see them as a happy family as well, but I think that’s just me projecting. Because if their family isn’t happy, then what is mine?

I know for some people yelling and hitting playfully is a form of affection, me included, but it took me a while to realize that there’s a difference between playful fighting and actual fighting. Because, like you, my parents used to fight a lot and as a kid I just began to associate that with love (which probably explains my shit show of a love life lmao).

Again, this is probably just me projecting, but i don’t think I’d use the word “abusive” to describe this kind of family dynamic, especially since it’s basically customary for most children of color to grow up in a similar strict environment. It’s definitely not ideal, but I think it does have a lot to do with culture and generational trauma. I’m sure Mitsuki’s parents weren’t much different.

Where the line is, is up to you ultimately but I think there are certain lines of respect that shouldn’t be crossed for anyone, as just basic human decency. Hitting you, blaming you for things that aren’t your fault, taking away your ability to defend yourself, are lines that are the same for everyone in my eyes. No one should put your hands on you, no one has a right to take away your voice, and no one has a right to make you feel like you’re less than them. I don’t recommend yelling back, but I hope you can find the voice to stand up for yourself on day. Good experiences with parents doesn’t make the bad experiences go away, nor does it justify their bad treatment.

I’m sorry for the winded response, idk if I make any sense because I’m stuck in that cycle myself and didn’t start to realize until more recently what’s bad and what’s good when it comes to family. I hope I didn’t upset or offend you.

To ease the tension, um… I’d like to know what your favorite fic is!

[madfantasy]

Dears;

Sleepless

I didn't know that I could be more sleep deprived, more in the sense that the nightmares of death and murder wakes me up in fever and chest burn now.

I thought I was okay and I was just witnessing and grieving over everything happening in this world, I can't much speak on it but with my siblings, my guardians ofc know and part of our family even affected by the "wars" that raged in and around 🍉, I still feel just as suffocated, useless, helpless and isolated as I feel everyday if not more. The internet remains my only window to the world..

The only thing I could able to talk to my guardians about is that telling them I feel immense guilt, my other half, my other home is being wiped out, land stripped of human warmth, from recent and ancient memories, all the structures old and new, the nature that hugged it tightly and the music that floated from it's midst. And here I am carrying nothing but a blood connection and writing in immaculate Arabic, one thing I was consistently praised on and ment alot to me in terms of belonging, but literally can't understand the casual/slang part of it no matter how I think I get it. Which I understand finally is what called: a late diagnosis of autism, possible related to those specific speaking patterns.

I'm 80% nonverbal, and when I find my voice, specifically when it comes to expressing myself, everything I say sounds like riddles or poems instead of plain direct speech with clear indication and values. I take so long revising these little writings to make sure at least they are coherent. It's often frustrating as suddenly not being able to scream when u need..

In the same time, I can't deal with being perceived, I can not even interact with what I've shared on my TT or @madmanii because my brain just shuts down, it doesn't matter what's the situation, as long there's social interactions, my rational blanks and stops translating sense to me.. it might be so good I can't even say how much intensely I love it, same as bad.. Even through art, and I thought because it is in art form, something I feel more able expressing, I can't say more or do more or give more engagement than this. While engagement with my art shocks me each time as if It was the first time. It takes all my remaining soul to make this art, this last tether to my sanity and humanity, so I have unmeasured gratitude..

The only release to this raging sense of belonging and grief I had all my life is to make stories, OCs. Those two are just fantasy-ed version of the 2 homes I'm from. But never shared more drawings of them because I did not want to be identified and get any "anything-against-mainstream" phobia towards me as I've been punished for it severely lots in real life. They are even not a romantic pair, just bromancing and 'too' beautiful, and I still drew many other romantic ships and posts them, regardless..

But I worry too much and often my art, posts or whatever is never seen..

Whatever it's the algorithm or doing communication, I can't not do more of what is socially 'required' to be seen and heard, my art is all I can offer and as it always shows me it's never enough, I tried so hard that my art for the first time in my life became just another burden and chore instead of a sanctuary and brain food. Whatever I did, I don't have a presence online, I only have the few Snape fans who truly care about me and showed me humanity I've never known. But I still don't have numbers or popularity, and at this point I'm so burn out from trying that I don't care I'm losing followers or have no likes, it's silence on both ends now...

I wish I could achieve more and be more helpful and not worry about fearing anything, my existence here online is done by secret to begin with and not consistent cuz I have trash net, and I don't know how to do more.. even for myself..

It's my birthday month, and that's ticks down one year of six..

About perception I relate to Hard: https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSNQeJy8u/

Thank u for reading, Sweet dreams, precious 🖤❤️

[hjea]

okay, some 1899 theories because fuck it! i’ve got at minimum a whole year before i’m proved wrong. mostly about maura, because i’m a sucker for an alice reference, no matter how cliché.

SPOILERS

firstly, i probably need to watch the show a second time and much more slowly, for this to make much sense. a 24-hour-binge is not the most conducive meta vehicle. 

and putting aside whether or not the space ship is another simulation and just taking it at face value, i think we have to take some meaning from neither elliott nor daniel being in the room when maura wakes up. 

so it’s pretty heavily implied that elliott is either dead or nearly dead, and perhaps maura initially built the simulation as a sort of suspended animation for him rather than letting her son go. 

now i don’t think maura’s father is a reliable narrator, but i was at least inclined to believe him when he told elliott that he (elliott) wasn’t his father’s priority. i think we saw that throughout the season that daniel was always focused on getting through to maura, and that he was manoeuvring elliott around the space as a means to do that. and by the last episode he’s even using elliott’s safe space as the way to wake maura up, while leaving elliott behind with henry. which is not to say i don’t think daniel cares for elliott, but just that maura, and trying to make her remember their relationship, is his whole motivation. 

so! what if elliott’s death or illness or whatever it is, and daniel wanting to let him go while maura refused to, actually split them apart. and now some unknown time later—maybe while travelling through space? idk—daniel is obsessed with getting her back? but maura has moved on, maybe falling for eyk after bonding over the shared loss of their children? and daniel keeps trying to use the simulation of their son to get through to maura and remind her of a time BEFORE it all fell apart, but she just keeps finding eyk again and again. 

and also if she’s alice, then eyk is the red king. she literally asks him if it’s hr dream or his that they’re stuck in (which is a meta question for a whole other day). 

anyway, that’s all i got so far. mostly this is a long rambly to say I DON’T TRUST DANIEL. i don’t think he’s evil or anything, i just think there’s s whole hell of a lot he’s leaving out of his story and about their relationship, and his singular and obsessive focus on maura makes me uneasy. 

but also like, i am way to old to get into ship wars or whatever. and if you like daniel and think i’m wrong, that’s cool! luckily the internet is big enough for us all. 

[adventure-showdown]

What is your favourite Doctor Who story?

ROUND 1 MASTERPOST

synopses and propaganda under the cut

Victory of the Daleks

Synopsis

Receiving a call for help from his old friend Winston Churchill, the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond head for World War II to assist the Prime Minister. Once there, though, the Doctor reunites with his greatest enemies, the scum of the universe — the Daleks. But why are these survivors passing themselves off as man-made weapons? And why don't they recognise the Doctor? What could these "Ironsides" have planned?

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

The Curse of the Black Spot

Synopsis

The TARDIS is marooned onboard a 17th century pirate ship whose crew is being attacked by a mysterious and beautiful sea creature. Becalmed and beset by cabin fever, the pirates have numerous superstitious explanations for the Siren's appearance. The Eleventh Doctor has other ideas, but as his theories are disproved and every plan of escape is thwarted, he must work to win the trust of the implacable Captain Henry Avery and uncover the truth behind the pirates' supernatural fears — and he must work quickly, for some of his friends have already fallen under the Siren's spell.

Propaganda

I don’t understand why nobody else seems to like the curse of the black spot, its so fun, is it the best episode ever, no, but I like it when Doctor Who gets silly with it (anonymous)

Closing Time

Synopsis

Craig Owens is having enough trouble trying to care for his child; the last thing he needs is the return of his old friend, the Doctor. But, as ever, trouble seems to have followed the Doctor, this time with a silvery shine.

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Asylum of the Daleks

Synopsis

Insane Daleks are about to escape the Dalek Asylum where they are kept. The rest of the Daleks call on their greatest enemy, the Doctor, along with his companions Amy Pond and Rory Williams, to lower the defences so they can destroy the Asylum. Can the Doctor save the day, along with his companions' marriage, as easily as he can fix his bow-tie?

Propaganda

my mortal enemy, the amy and rory are getting a divorce subplot (anonymous)

The Bells of Saint John

Synopsis

When Clara Oswald has problems with her Internet, she's given a telephone number: the number of the "best help line in the universe". When the Eleventh Doctor answers at the other end, Clara is pulled into a life of adventure and mystery. But danger is lurking in the signals, picking off minds and imprisoning them. "It's like immortality, only fatal." But can the Doctor save Clara before... "I don't know where I am!"

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

Name of the Doctor

Synopsis

A prophecy is coming true. The Eleventh Doctor is summoned to Trenzalore where it was said he would fall. But what does the alleged site of his final battle have to do with the mystery of Clara Oswald? Can the Paternoster Gang help him avoid his apparent destiny? And most of all...Doctor who?

Propaganda no propaganda submitted

[laylajeffany]

Thank you for looking into it - I think that it's sweet that other people do care enough about AO3 authors they've never met to try and help problem solve. It's honestly just kind without defending someone in a way that just adds to the problem. Content scrapers, deliberately targeted - it's just...why. It's a HOBBY FOR ME, but a personality for other people, I guess.

Here is some absolutely long-winded discourse that NO ONE ASKED FOR coming up regarding what I think could be causing fans to act bat-shit crazy and possibly put a bot on the story of a person who has LITERALLY NEVER EVEN ENGAGED WITH THEM BEFORE (honestly guys I talk to like ten people in this fandom what the fuck).

One of the reasons I literally don't interact in this fandom almost at all/particularly consistently & regularly, outside of my horrible past experience in my last fandom, is how uncomfortable I am with the stan culture (and in this one, because of the incredible tag abuse - I just stay out of it so I don't have to see the bullshit/unrelated nonsense).

And yeah, I'm about to 'back in my day' the hell out of this conversation, but I have been a participant in online fandoms on and off since 2002 and watched things evolve and change to the point where it's not that I don't participate just because I'm older/out of touch with the youths, but because of how interaction of people within fandom has shifted so much that I generally don't find it fun to be a part of anymore. I've seen a lot of 'ship-wars' and plenty of fandom drama, but the toxicity in the modern fandom era feels so much more intense and I think it's for a variety of reasons. Our online fandoms always had fandom elders, but now that fandom is spreading across even more generations, it's likely that we can feel the changes that come with each new one that joins, and as those of us who have been around the block continue to get older, it's an ebb and flow of understanding of current interaction norms/culture and differing boundaries from incoming fans and remembering that maturity takes time. As Gen Alpha enters the chat all we can do is skibbity toilet ohio rizz them I guess. Nah, I work with these kids, they are so fucking cynical and hate disingenuous bullshit so much they are going to be a riot in fandom spaces.

Additionally, I think the increase of multi-platform fandoms has made it more intense as well. Most people I knew who participated in fandom didn't use modern-era 'social media' for fandom until later Twitter and Tumblr, really, like 2010ish era. Before that, you'd have ff.net and your big/main fandom message board that was attached to a specifically run fandom, dedicated sites managed by by BNFs that moderated content. Yes, that also caused some problems, but people weren't spread out across the internet. Sure, there were also AOL chat rooms and MSN spaces of smaller groups, too. But most people in this fandom likely have at least an AO3, Tumblr, twitter, Reddit, Discord, and more I probably don't even know about all just for fandom activity in addition to their personal/school/work accounts and other platforms. People also use these apps on mobile, all day - you're not waiting until it's your turn on the family computer in the basement to get online for an hour or two. It's in your pocket all day long.

I think that multi-platform usage on mobile at an instant have contributed to this incredibly intense stan culture that has morphed from fandom being hobby to fandom being personality. When you perceive something as a threat PERSONALLY, you react, fight-flight-freeze. Fanwars have always existed and persisted, but now we're talking five-generation cohorts and instant, on-demand access to things that provide intense amounts of dopamine. We've created an environment where it's very difficult for fandom to just be a fun hobby for most, and a potentially toxic/dangerous all-consuming part of someone's life for many.

If your fanwork (art, fic, edit, post, etc.,) isn't receiving the engagement that you crave/desire because this isn't just something you're doing for fun, you are doing it because it's a needs-based, dopamine-addicted part of your personality, you may feel personally victimized when someone else's fanwork receives more attention than yours. This could put you into the fight-flight-freeze state and make you act in ways that are completely inappropriate responses to the reality of the situation that just isn't a thing, but it feels like a huge deal to the people who have made fandom their life/personality. People develop parasocial relationships so fucking easily that the line between reality and internet is just gone, not even blurred. And it's not just here, it's not just Wednesday/Wenclair/fanfic. Chappell Roan is going to end up leaving music before we ever get another album I bet because of how out of control stan culture is, unless she's in some god-awful Kesha style contract that forces more out of her. Much as I can't stand her music, Taylor Swift's plane is tracked every time it takes off and the speculation on every fucking move she makes by PEOPLE WHO LIKE HER. I don't know a lot about K-Pop but I know people my own fucking age who have gone to South Korea JUST TO STAND OUTSIDE THE PRIMARY SCHOOL THAT THEIR FAVORITE POP STAR WENT TO. Stan culture is in just about every single space that pertains to any kind of media.

Honestly in this fandom that has absolutely nothing to do with me or my fic - what I find most egregious is the stan culture surrounding Jenna. People are so fucking creepy. Maybe it's because I like her and think she's a good actress, and she's a pretty girl, but I've never been attracted to people younger than me, so I don't get it, but either fucking way the way so many people (in the Wenclair tag as well) talk about her publicly makes me so fucking uncomfortable that I don't engage at all. I feel bad for her as she continues to rise in popularity and people continue to approach her in public and tag her in creepy shit online that she should never have to see, she's not going to be able to enjoy anything without security because people are such goddamn creeps with zero boundaries and intense parasocial relationships.

TL;DR - I don't know who would be targeting people's stories on AO3, but at least maybe this could be why. In the very least, it's why you almost never see or hear from me publicly unless I'm dropping a fic.

Private engagement is a WHOLE other issue due to history of individuals violating my boundaries, ALSO likely related to the above reasoning as people develop parasocial relationships with AO3 authors, too.

Reading laylajeffany's and boojangs' posts I couldn't help but be surprised, because my only knowledge of the whole "kudos bot/AO3 web crawler" mess was that it had been around for three years at least but was a relatively harmless nuisance.

But searching for info on what is happening to them and other authors, I find that for the last year or so there has been another bot and that it is being deliberately targeted at specific fandoms and authors to inflate and unbalance their Kudos counts and make them targets for harassment campaigns using accusations of self-promotion or other bullshit.

Apparently the theory is that it could be related to content scrappers trying to steal fanfics for their own purposes (?). What is the logic behind doing something that forces authors to make their content private and lock their stories, I don't understand. Alternatively, there are people who are just plain assholes and mean-spirited like that, who probably just want to cause harm/stress.

[nationalrecluse]

RULES & GUIDE

RULES

Do's and Don't's. Make sure to re-read them when a change is announced.

General RP etiquette is expected (don't godmod, don't force things on me without discussing it OOC & getting my explicit consent, be polite to mun)

You, the mun, must be at least 19 years old to follow my blog. Muses can be any age.

Have your muse be in their late 30's at the minimum if shipping ensues. (doubtful!)

No disturbing shipping dynamics (pedophilia, incest, necrophilia etc) in any shape or form allowed.

Don't involve me in your drama. I don't participate in call-out culture. I don't care. I won't care. I don't spend nearly enough time on the internet to care. Don't bother with me if this is bothersome to you.

I am NOT available on discord. Even if I've given you my discord, you'll have better chance at talking to me by shooting an IM.

Don't pressure me for replies. Remind me about our interaction if I haven't replied or liked your post within 2 weeks of posting them. I'll do the same.

GUIDE

In-depth information about how I run my blog.

Only aquainted with the anime and very vaguely with the manga

Donovan is married to Melinda and they don't seem to have a good relationship. I'm iffy about shipping outside of their marriage, so please be aware that I will treat every single romantic ship as an extra marital affair.

I'm open to write as many genres as my RP partners are, but I have a strong preference for drama. Anything triggering will be talked about extensively OOC and placed under a read more and tagged appropriately.

Please don't assume you know Donovan's war plans if your muse doesn't have a good reason for it. (He'll have to take you out, and I'm not talking dinner!)

I'm open to have different muses play collaborative roles in Donovan's life. Just discuss it with me.

I play Donovan as heterosexual and aromantic. That said, erotica isn't a focus on this blog and neither is romance. That's not to say that neither won't commence.

I HC that Anya can't hear Donovan's thoughts because of the scars he has across his head. My HC is that has implanted something in his head to prevent subjects from Project Apple (+ others, including Anya's lab) from having access to him.

Super duplicate friendly!

I am an ESL writer. I do what I can with what I know at the moment.

My blog is low activity as a default. I will reply to what I have muse for in the moment.

[alligatorjesie]

you're really dedicated to making reylos look horrible. like maybe 60% of reylos are actually awful people right but you really just want to make it look like 100% of them are

Man, first off how fucking deep are you yanking these fucking numbers of your asshole because this is shit antis say. 60%? That's over fucking half. I've seen some pretty toxic fandoms, which reylo is most fucking certainty not fucking one of them, that have better numbers than that. Fuck the Star Wars fandom itself, you know the fandom that made the kid who played Anakin have to get therapy, the fandom that caused the man who played Jar Jar to consider killing himself, the fandom who made the actor who played adult Anakin quit fucking acting for a really long time, the fandom who made Gorge Lucas not want to make fucking star wars anymore, the fandom that made the actress who played Rey leave Instagram, and the fandom who made the actress who played Rose just leave the fucking internet entirely has a better statistic than that and there are actually nazis in that fandom, on top of all the shit I just listed which is hardly fucking everything this trash fandom has done. The worse I seen the Reylos do is get upset with John Boyega because he made comments about fucking his coworker and I'm pretty fucking sure Daisy Ridley, a married woman, wouldn't fucking appreciate that. Generally sexual comments are regarded as sexual harassment even if they're in tweet form. The reylos were more appalled that a man who is close to her and calls her a friend would say something like that. I don't make mean spirited sexual comments about my friends to goad people on twitter of all fucking places, that's fucking weird. Either way, what happened was fucking minor. John Boyega is still on twitter and fairly unaffected by the event. Daisy on the other hand was harassed off twitter and instagram by fanboys upset that a girl was the main character by sending her fucking death threats. These things are not the fucking same. If you fucking think they are you need to reevaluate your moral compass. What the ever-loving fuck is fucking wrong with you? But your shit morals aside: Mmm. But those reylos. Just thinking about how much they want to see the son of Leia Organa and Han Solo be redeemed and live a happy life for once is just enough to put any unsympathetic asshole's panties in a bunch. I'm being fucking sarcastic by the way. There is not a single fucking thing wrong with that mindset. What is a bad mindset is dedicating a large chunk of your life to hating what is essentially Space Beauty and the Beast because you can't emotionally comprehend a simple fucking redemption arc. No, I'm dedicated to telling anti assfucks to go fuck off and out of a tag they ain't got any fuckin business being in to fucking start with. I don't like Anime and wouldn't you fucking guess it? You'll catch me dead before you see me in the fucking anime tag being a useless twat to people in that fandom. Because I'm not a fucking twat. Well... I mean I am, but not to people who don't deserve it. Antis deserve it. Antis who come into my fandom space and actively harass me and my friends for enjoying a canon ship really fucking deserve it.

I don't fucking care what a anti thinks about me. I want antis to hate me, fuck they already do so what the fuck is a little more? I ain't winning you fucknuts over with honey any fucking day soon so baby it's time to get the Raid. I want every single anti who meets and fights with me to remember the fucking prick who told them to fuck off in such excruciating detail it would overfill a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet.

I want every single fucking anti asshole who comes into contact with me to remember the mean alligator reylo who told them they can kindly just pop their heads back into their shitty assholes where I can only assume their shitty opinion originate from and sonic roll out into low tide. I don't give a flying fuck and honestly at this fucking point I don't fucking care anymore. It's been 8 fucking years and if your opinion on reylo was this shit that long ago having one more telling you to kindly dick off isn't going to change your fucking mind. Oh no, one asshole thinks a reylo is an cunt, the same asshole who just told me statistically they already think over 60% of reylos are just fucking cunts so why the actual fucking Christmas Christ do you think I give a single solitary shit about you thinking I'm a cunt? Go ahead mate. I don't fucking care what you think. But you can close the door on your fucking way out and I hope it smacks you in the fuckin ass so hard it sends you flying out space never to be fucking seen again. Fucking Bye Felicia.

[valkyurii]

Lmfao not surprised about the (most likely) straight dudes making those salty comments about finlay. Look, if malenia were real or if those dudes existed in the world of ER, i am 1000% sure malenia wouldn't even give them the attention she gave godrick. Plus hey im willing to bet those dudes overlap with those other dudes who complain unconstructively about malenias boss fight. It just feels like they're that kind of gamerbrodudes.

When you’ve been around enough fandoms like I have you kind of get used to this sort of thing but yeah they’re 100% salty straight men there’s no doubt. The thing that’s funny is turning around and saying Malenia’s not/can’t be a lesbian is just flat out untrue because there’s absolutely no reference to her having a love interest of any kind. So for that alone people can headcanon whatever they want. I am really not in the business of trying to gatekeep characters and ‘ship wars’ or whatever don’t interest me in the slightest, but what I do get annoyed with is how these comments always end up being fueled by homophobia. It’s never *insert valid reason why I don’t like ship* and instead it’s just “you fucking gays try to ruin everything” and that’s when it hurts cause it gets personal, you know? I’m already made to feel bad about my sexuality by the people in my everyday life, I really don’t need that shit on here too. I get that it’s the internet and you’re always going to come across these people, but at least there’s the block button on here.

(tw: rape mention below the cut)

So yeah if I’m being honest I’ve seen way too many men talk about her in disgusting ways, either venting because of her boss fight or because of lore (R*dahn fanboys are still nuts go figure). That it kind of puts me off listening to what they have to say about her cause most of the time their comments are filled with violent misogyny. So many clips I see of her fight have titles like “giving the bitch what she deserves” or “putting the bitch in her place”. But hey that’s got nothing to do with her being a woman right? Just people being annoyed at the fight, right? How some folks like to outright deny the exsitence of sexist dudebros in this fandom is beyond me. Have they never been around gaming communities before? Just because they might not see them themselves doesn't mean they don't exsit. It’s not so bad now, but there was a time it was so difficult looking up content for her cause I’d end up seeing rape porn or fics or other nasty things. Imagine getting so angry at a boss fight in a video game that your first thought is rape. If that’s were your mind goes you’ve got a problem. I don’t believe in these types of fetishes at all. No normal person thinks about these things, fictional or not. And saying it’s only fiction and that no one wants to actually do these things irl is just an excuse to justify themselves. There are people out there who do very much get influenced by the things they see online and then act on it in real life. So it’s not just innocent fiction if you ask me.

I’ve gotten way off topic, sorry about that. So basically yeah these types of men are shit and they can die mad for all I care

[severeearthquakebanana]

Hilariously enough, i left my entire watch-through of OUAT in the drafts. So to bring it to the blog. I watched the first 4 seasons of OUAT when they originally aired and then fell off the wagon cause i went to college and was even more internet incapable than i am now. So in the fall of 2022 i decided to finally get around to rewatching the whole thing and actually finishing it.

People, this show is bonkers. Absolute bonkers. And i ADORED every second of it. OUAT is many things, but i was entertained the entire time, so i consider it a win✨

Anyway, i didn’t get on tumblr until college so i missed ALL of the ship wars. And even if i would have been on tumblr at the time it would have gone right over my head, i didnt quite care about Emma ships, i just had a thing for Robbie Kay cause he’s like 2 or 3 years older than me and even on rewatch he did a damn good job as Pan. Now as an adult i was oddly a swanfire shipper, didn’t see that coming, but i did find myself really falling for the character of Hook. I still say Cora is my favorite villain, 3a is my favorite season, but 5a was really excellent for the returning cast, Emma and Killian especially.

I’ve always been a fan of the canon ships, inadvertently, so i’ve never been in the trenches of fandom discourse. However, as this article states, these are FICTIONAL characters. I know OUAT fandom was wild, but this is insanity. Why are death threats always a feature of ship wars? And why do the actors need to be dragged into this?? I really enjoy all the Captain Swan fanart and fanfiction i’ve read. Every fandom i’ve been in, theres just so many creative people!! Its amazing!! Yet it can never just be that can it? Theres always got to be fighting. Its just so interesting to read about.

Anyway to wrap this up, i feel like fandom history is honestly just as if not more than entertaining than the work it’s derived from. Idk how that happens but it sure is an interesting way to spend an evening lol

Featured Article: Captain Swan vs. Swan Queen

This week our Featured Article is Captain Swan vs. Swan Queen, a long-running ship war in the Once Upon A Time fandom, between two juggernaut Emma Swan ships: Killian Jones/Emma Swan (Captain Swan) and Emma Swan/Regina Mills (Swan Queen).

At its most volatile in the mid-2010s, the ship war brought accusations and harassment between shipping factions, and in some cases even involved the show’s cast and showrunners. For many teenage fans, it was also their first experience of a ship war.

Do you have tales from the Captain Swan vs. Swan Queen wars? Add to the page on Fanlore!

------

We value every contribution to our shared fandom history. If you’re new to editing Fanlore or wikis in general, visit our New Visitor Portal to get started or ask us questions here!

[headspace-hotel]

YA Book Synopses Written By a Text-Predicting AI

so, my best friend bought a month of InferKit, which is basically an AI that will continue any text input that you give it, using its “knowledge” of the internet to figure out the kind of thing you are writing and plausibly finish it.

I decided to find out what would happen if I put a bunch of YA book synopses in a numbered list and made InferKit continue the list.

Well…

InferKit does in fact pick up on the fact that I am giving it book synopses.

They didn’t generate with titles in most cases, so I have decided…to make them up.

I quickly notice that a majority of the results involve mysterious murders, small towns, and hot love interests the female protagonist is irresistibly drawn to, no matter what input I give it. There are a LOT of vampires, werewolves, and other paranormal creatures. The reason, I suspect, is that detective thrillers, mysteries, romance, and paranormal romance books are just very numerous. Readers of those genres consume books in huge numbers, which makes it statistically more likely for any given book to be one of those types.

So I get a lot of stuff like this. 

Angelic Temptation (Fallen Angel Chronicles, #1)

(I don’t know how to title paranormal mystery romances. Be nice.)

Bound by secrets.

Bound by Justice...

When Joss knows that she’s done the only thing she can, she’ll do anything to find peace—including leaving behind the sexy Fallen angel who suddenly and inexplicably moves into her empty apartment. But she soon discovers that James is a target, caught in a dark plot that may put everyone he cares about at risk, starting with the woman he’s falling in love with.

When an undercover officer is shot during a stakeout gone wrong, Keiran must face his past and his feelings for Joss. But what started as a simple stakeout is about to turn deadly when he finds out who is behind it and just how far they’ll go to keep their secrets.

Bound by lies, Joss has no choice but to trust Keiran with the truth. Yet trust doesn’t come easy—especially when Joss and Keiran know each other’s darkest secrets. Is their love strong enough to overcome this extreme circumstances, or will the past and present stand in the way of their love?

Uh, moving on.

Okay. I’m questioning my commitment to make up titles for all of these.

Please give me something to fucking work with here (What Even Is This, #1)

Dakota's been running from her past ever since her mom left. But when she finds her, hiding in an attic, all hell breaks loose. Dakota doesn't even try to resist him, even as he betrays her best friend and gets himself killed. In fact, she embraces everything about him: his love for Star Wars, his dark humor, his intelligence, and especially his darkness.

Ever since she lost her sister to a war she was in the middle of, Kalani hasn't lived. Now, she's chosen a life of vengeance and bloodshed, and she's just beginning to realize that there are more important things than killing. When the things she's running from reappear, Kalani is thrown into another nightmare. Her sister's soul is trapped in a demonic creature, and only Kalani can save her. She won't stop until she defeats the creature, and she finds a way to save her sister.

HOW ARE THOSE TWO STORYLINES RELATED, first of all, and second of all, why is her mother hiding in an attic, and also, STAR WARS?

I do, however, get plenty more YA-typical synopses:

The Boots of Power (The Boots of Power #1)

Imagine being the chosen one. Born with magical, jewel-encrusted boots that can make you run faster, jump higher, and shoot further than anyone else, you are at the pinnacle of human potential. Or so it would seem.

This child is different. Intensely gifted, emotionally fragile, and under constant threat of death, he has never been taught the ways of magic. Now, having just turned sixteen, he's about to be shipped off to the Royal College of Spells in order to train under the world's most renowned and feared mage.

Sounds great, right?

Well, this is just the beginning.

The Last Storm Chaser (The Storm Chaser Chronicles #1)

Sixteen -year -old Grayson Hart has a dark secret: the lightning bolt scar on his face belonged to his father, a legendary electrical storm Chaser who was said to have died in battle.

But when a mysterious lightning storm appears, the animals of the forest can sense his presence. They go wild, savaging the town and wreaking havoc.

Grayson knows what it means. For months, he has searched for his father, trying to understand who he really was and what he died for, only to find the man was only part of a much larger secret. Now Grayson will need to accept the truth: his father was a Chaser. A killer. And he is the one who has brought destruction to the forest and the people of Wye.

Okay, we’re getting to the good stuff.

Maybe I should just go with the classic “[Thing] of [Thing] and [Thing] format. That can’t be too hard, right?

…

King of Wolves and Dentures (The Hunter Chronicles #1)

Every village had its true king and its dirty rotten mayor, the two who ruled the roost. In Goldenshire, these were Robber and Alistair and, of course, Kip, who with his longbow, tinkering, and ability to make a set of dentures appear at the word of command, was the king's favourite toy.

When Robber learned that all the gold he was looking for had been stolen, he enlisted Kip and two others to travel the river valley and find the thieves. They suspected nothing of the landscape and its inhabitants: their innocence lasted until the sun rose on their third day of travel, when they stumbled upon a half-wolf, half-man creature. In desperation, the group tried to slaughter it. But in saving his friend, Kip saved their lives as well. For the second time in his short life, Kip became a hunter's worst nightmare.

But when Robber meets Cal, he can't believe his luck. Cal has everything Robber ever wanted – a city, a wife, a comfortable life. But the price of Cal's happiness is Robber's.

Okay.

So Robber and Alistair are a king and a “dirty rotten mayor,” who are ruling the same village, which is apparently normal enough to be like, a pithy refrain in this world. And…dentures??…okay I give up understanding this

For this next one, you have to imagine it in really dramatic all-caps font. Okay? Cool.

Tree Huggers (The Tree Hugger Saga, #1)

A disaster leaves Katilyn with no memory of who she is. Her hair, a wild, red mass of unruly hair, muddles up the details of her life. No one seems to know how she came to be out in the storm, and now Katilyn is drifting in the wilds, with only her twin brother Sam for company.

Enter Gabril, a man with a mysterious past, who calls himself a 'Tree-Hugger', and claims to know Katilyn from her childhood. He knows more than he is letting on and before long she is drawn deep into a world of healing, mystery and arcane power. But nothing is as it seems.

It’s picked up on the Capitalizing Random Nouns part of YA books. Excellent!

This next one came with a title!

It does not help.

The Spider Queen's Curse

Not everyone can become the king's champion.

But one can become a queen.

The Spider Queen's Curse is an adventure for middle graders that teaches courage, loyalty, and creativity.

There have been no men in Shithouse since the green warlock and princess destroyed the city and killed their ruler. But the city lives on, hidden under the rubble.

Now three treasure hunters enter the ruins, searching for the magic that will bring the city back to life. But as they begin to untangle the web of lies and greed that has kept them trapped in this city, they find that the price of rebirth will be more than any of them could have imagined.

SHITHOUSE??????

MIDDLE GRADE??????

…Moving on.

okay, this one executed me, for the simple reason that I made a post on here a while back about words that would make good YA character names based on the letters they include

And MERIDIAN was ON THAT LIST.

At least a title was easy for this one:

Queen of Faeries and Witches (Amaranth Lake, #1)

A young woman, broken and battered by a man who should have loved her. A young woman, learning to survive in a world of beauty and ugliness. A young woman, slowly realizing that her destiny is not only to find love, but to save it

Meridian Blackthorne can’t remember a time when she wasn’t beautiful. She isn’t the focus of gossip at school anymore—her tragic history has made everyone stop talking, if they were ever talking in the first place.

But there’s still plenty of gossip in her hometown of Amaranth Lake: she’s still the girl whose father was killed by a faerie’s arrow, and who was raised by a witch from another coven. When she returns home to stay with her aunt and cousin for the summer, she’s determined to blend in as little as possible, with the possible exception of her budding friendship with the prickly Sebastian Tate.

But it’s not long before a new, mysterious creature appears in town: one that’s not quite human, and definitely not who she thought she was. The faerie queen beckons to her. She craves her power. But can she resist the temptation—or is she already lost?

Princess of Pain and Pride (Tree of Life, #1)

Princess Shana of Strontia is so confident in the purity of her soul that she refuses to taste the fruit from the Tree of Pain. But even the king's divine gift is no match for the sin of pride. And when it finally consumes him, Shana’s only hope is to slip away unnoticed in her long-delayed wedding day, to find the Tree of Life on her own and gather the herbs that will keep her dead body from rotting away.

But when the queen is murdered in the great hall by one of the queen's guards, Shana's tenuous hold on her sanity slips further and she is forced to hunt for the killer herself.

Her only ally is the impulsive novice prince Caiden Xach. Although he hates her, he trusts her to keep his secret: he is a god. But he will tell her nothing until she tells him a shocking truth about her own identity. And with two royals already dead and a crime book cover on her hand, how will she escape a second death?

I don’t know about this one.

Can’t go wrong with fire metaphors.

Servant of Fire (Guardian of Fire, #1)

A refugee from the destruction of her village, Scarlet lives in the shadow of the sinister city of Sandjarak, surviving by picking fruit in the many orchards in the endless landscape.

Until one day, Scarlet is approached by the messenger of the Duchy of Droum, one of the last of the Free Countries, and offered a chance at a new life ... as a servant girl. As Scarlet settles into her new life in the city of Droum, she will learn that she has just two years to protect the life of a beautiful girl.

Dare she walk the path of love, or fulfil her destiny as the next Noble Guardian?

I adore all of these character backstories. It’s really like “and she’s a *spins wheel* refugee who had to survive by uhhh *spins another wheel* picking fruit in the orchards

Assassin of Magic and Wilds (Fey Assassin, #1)

An anguished body lies on the banks of a strange lake. Dishevelled and bruised, his skin is a greyish blue. It is a dead man and he is a Consul. So begins the journey of the Consul's ex-assassin, Tisiphone. Darkly seductive, there is a dangerous edge to Tisiphone's voice. It speaks of violence and blood – it is a voice that could seduce a duke, but this Consul is used to having people betray him.

When the Captain of the guard falls in with a strange group of people on the outskirts of the city of Tay, he is drawn in by their strange and unfamiliar ways. A wild journey around the fabled lands of Endovier takes him to the wondrous world of the Fey, where monsters lurk in the shadows, giant insects fill the sky and an immortal prince is born.

Tisiphone…

I legit tried with this one, but No

Tarver Merendsen is a fisherman, and he fished a friend out of the ocean once. He fished him out of the ocean a second time and now he's out to f*ck him out of the ocean a third time.

All he has in his way is Imogen, a reporter with a bone to pick, a gorgeous surfer and an attitude that'll make him forget his every damn rule.

…

He’s out to WHAT NOW???

now he's out to f*ck him out of the ocean a third time.

*fear*

…

Castle of Vampires and Martians (Castiel Castle, #1)

For sixteen-year-old Kal, there is only one place in the world that he wants to go: Castiel, the castle of his dreams. Kal's brother, Allen, has told him everything he needs to know to survive the journey: "Castiel isn't just your average vampire. He's a beautiful one—tall, dark and intensely, undeniably sexy." Kal's dream finally comes true when he joins the group of apprentices at the Castiel Castle. But the brothers quickly learn that there's more at stake than a place in the city's lucrative beauty industry. When a rash of new visitors begins to arrive at the castle, all hell breaks loose. Kal and Allen are forced to ally with an odd group of outsiders who just might be capable of saving Castiel Castle and the city itself. As the Brothers must survive a new alliance of desirous vampires, an army of White Martians and an army of furry little creatures, they must do more than just hide from their fears: They must remember their dreams and seize their destiny.

not gonna lie, I would read that one

Ballet of War (War Dancer, #1)

Kathryn Abbington, ballet dancer and fourth in line for the throne, has spent her whole life training to be an instrument of war for her country

If it weren't for her companions on her dangerous missions, she would never have made it this far, never have fallen in love with the boy she never thought she could.

Archer Lake, captain of a pirate ship, was born on the wrong side of the tracks to a poor family, and was raised on the wrong side of the law

With all the respect of a vicious pirate, Archer has finally found his home among the salty waves. But when he rescues Kathryn from a cruel fate, he finds that he can't take what he wants from a woman who seems to think she belongs to him.

I have totally given up (Fuck This, #1)

Bound by fire...

Bound by pain.

When Mimi catches her boyfriend, Blake, in the arms of another woman, she discovers her body isn’t the only thing she gave away that night. In the aftermath, the police are searching for her, her parents want her shipped off to boarding school, and Blake will be lucky to keep his own head above water.

When Mimi starts working at a sweet, local diner to hide from the media and the town, she meets Mimi, the girl next door, whose grandmother ran away to join the circus decades ago. When Mimi offers to help, it leads to an adventure neither of them could ever have imagined. But when the circus closes, Mimi’s world is about to change.

Now Mimi has to come to terms with the mistakes of her past and fight to regain what she lost. But in the end, she has to ask herself: can love survive it all?

I hate it when your grandmother runs away to join the circus.

Heir of Ruins and Flight (The Wood Nymph Heir, #1)

Tessa has always lived in her brother's shadow. The heir to the Tremayne fortune, her abilities should have made her a star pupil, but she barely scrapes by with Bs and Cs. While her brother lives in luxury as the Lord of Harrow, Tess works as a kitchen maid, selling day-old bread to the rich and famous, if she is lucky.

Forced to live in a crumbling town in the center of the ruins, Tess has little contact with the outside world, and that is just the way she likes it—until she meets Flemeth, the mysterious wood sprite who has taken up residence in the neighboring estate. For the first time, Tess can take flight like the air-born nymphs in which she is entranced. But she is not as alone as she thinks.

Both she and Flemeth have much to learn about one another—and a powerful enemy to face.

Tessa never imagined that fleeing her brother's manipulation could bring her true home to her. She has not been home in a long time, and as she journeys across post-apocalyptic lands, her heart leaps at the wonders of both the past and the present.

But she is far from home in her heart.

First of all: Flemeth. Second of all: selling day-old bread to the rich and famous

[un-pearable]

OH another very important comment i completely forgot to add: despite the long winded diatribe, i am, actually, having fun with ninjago again and am not dreading clicking the next episode button. im excited to continue watching. which is a definite improvement from like. last week. honestly in my experience some amount of moping and whining and gnashing of teeth is good for the soul. not too much and you cant just sit around and mope all day, but a bit of moping... it does help. i think.

unrelated but regarding your post on comics, technically im coming from a weekly serialized manga perspective but yeah no exactly having something that comes out so frequently produces many opinions all the time. i also feel compelled to talk about these opinions, all the time. i have to say though my sincerest condolences for being in the dc fandom. from the handful of posts ive seen from you it looks ... frustrating

hell yeah!! the good ol whine and dine (on fic) strategy to get you excited again

on the topic of comics,,, yeah. yeah. its really annoying bc its the kind of fandom where the last thing I want to do is get involved in discourse but Oh Do I Have Thoughts. and my usual strategy of venting in my small discord is not enough 😔 this next part is a very frustrated vent so uh. under the cut as to not piss off one of the most notorious fandoms of all time that I have Zero interest getting involved in

comics fandom is fucking insane bc anywhere else this isn’t anywhere close to a debate, but here arguing that a character being accurate to canon should be a priority means you’re fighting in the fucking trenches. saying someone should read an arc is a declaration of war with some of these people it’s baffling. why are you here if you don’t care about what actually happens to these characters

it’s completely deranged!!! this isn’t even “oh this particular stuff is treated as non canon bc it portrays the character poorly” it’s literally people BRAGGING about never reading the source material. writing a direct adaptation of the characters debut arc gets you dogpiled by people who think the completely woobified version from their fic is the end all be all characterization. and their one personality trait is an addiction

hate that i do this to myself. i was a part of the sinking ship that was voltron. i witnessed the rise and fall of countless stupid fandoms driven by the fandom’s flanderized dreams and every single time i fall for it. what the hell

it’s the mystery box. it’s getting to the core to see what could have gone well or what the original ideas were or the drama behind it al but EVERY time i burden myself with knowledge and endless frustration and a persistent fear of getting caught up in my own internet drama. agshdjdj

[relax-and-read-on]

Heyo! Time to create a pinned post I suposse!!

Please call me Math. I'm a late 20's medical worker, with more health issues than I know what to do with. Sometime, I get very low spoon, and I may not post for a long time. I use She/They and happen to be very, very queer.

Rn i'm hyperfocused on warhammer, but I love a lot of other fandom! Star Wars, LoTR, BNHA, a lot of animes and books.... This blog is not fandom specific tho, scroll down far enough and you will probably find me yelling about comic book. I have been on tumblr for a solid 10+ years, and had this blog the entire time lmao.

I write fanfic! And headcannons!! Are they accurate? Most of the time no, and I don't care!! I'm a stranger on the internet, having fun with the backstory of the tiny plastic army people. I will 100% sacrifice entire part of canon to the altar of Better Narrative and Storytelling.

I am also 100% a chaos apologist. While I love a lot of loyalist (Roboute my beloved...), The traitors just have more FlAvOrS. I do realise that quite a few of them are problematic, but like, we are all adult here, we can appreciate a horrific story arc with solid writing. That said, Konrad is my stinky blorbo, pathetic meow meow, and no one can have him.

That said... Some of my content may not be for you. I ship a lot of things in warhammer. In a sexy, queer way. If you are bothered by astartes fuckings, or primarch getting down and dirty, because you think of it as incest, that's totally fair, and we should probably part way. I'm not here to judge your comfort level. I'm a veteran fanfic reader/writer, and as such, I often touch very dark topic in my writing. Let's call it therapy on the cheap side. I won't be offended if anyone block me.

Aside from that.... Please drop in my dm/ask! I l o v e talking to new people. I'm a super social person, lmao! Especially, drop ask/request/ideas, I will run WILD with those, even if it take me a long time to answer.

On a final note, here is a list of my most common headcanons that like.... Always apply to all my post, and give you an idea of my content:

Fulgrim and Ferrus Manus are together.

Sanguinius and Horus are also together.

Corvus Corax is a trans woman.

Most legions are chill with trans space marines.

A few are chill to the point of accepting women.

Astartes can use their dick/pussies, they just aren't fertile.

They have! Personalities! Like and dislikes and things they enjoy!

Big E is often not that bad of a dad in my writing, because letting him close to canon make his gross incompetance almost comic.

Sevatar made the Carcharodons don't @me my boi is a loyalist now.

Salamander aren't chucked in black paint oh my gooood nope I refuse.

[brettdoesdiscourse]

the bad part is when you exclusively write those things and also post them in public spaces where anyone could find them both because you’re exposing others to things they don’t want to see

It's not the responsibility of authors to make sure you don't see their content. Every dead dove author I've ever known has tagged their content. People just refuse to use filters to see it.

Also, it's important to post them because it helps others cope. A lot of people cope through reading that type of content. A lot of people wanting to use it to cope aren't in a safe place to write this content.

And what does it matter if someone exclusively writes it? Although I've never really met anyone who exclusively writes problematic content.

and also because I think at a certain point it starts to become a form of self harm or like, glorifying your trauma

You don't get to speak for other people. You don't get to determine whether someone is using fiction as self-harm or not. You don't know strangers on the internet well enough to be able to say if they're using it to self-harm or not. You're also not a mental health professional, your opinion on how someone uses a coping strategy does not matter.

The real world does not engage in anti vs pro ship discourse because the general consensus is that incest and pedophilia and abusive relationships are bad.

Oh my god. It's almost like the general consensus of people online, even in pro ship communities, is also that abuse is bad. I've never once seen a pro shipper defend real life relationships with children or otherwise abusive relationships.

They'll defend fictional depictions of those relationships because they're fictional and nobody is directly hurt by fiction.

People who spend their time obsessively writing these things need genuine help like psychiatrically

This is hilarious considering fiction (yes, even this type of fiction, OP) is considered a healthy outlet by pretty much every mental health professional. This psychiatric help you're so comfortable saying other people need? It defends what the thing that you're calling a sign someone needs help.

oh I am technically anti ship, it’s just that in the real world we call that being normal and don’t have to debate it.

Funnily enough, you're wrong about this.

In the real world, most people tend to have one of two things going on.

One, they find all shipping to be weird and something you need help for. Even in 2023, fandom culture and shipping is still very ostracized. A lot of people in the real world will look at you like you're insane if you say "yeah, I spend my time writing about these characters from this thing dating." Even if it's the most mundane, healthy, unproblematic ship in existence. Even if you're writing completely sfw content for that ship.

Two, the real world people couldn't give less of a shit about whether the ship is problematic or not.

Do you know how many non-fandom aligned people don't care if a ship is abusive in some way?

Twilight is full of unhealthy and codependent relationships/themes. Do you think most real world people are going to call you abusive for shipping Twilight characters?

Star Wars had a brother and sister kissing, they had a ship where the characters met when they were 14 and 9, they had a ship where the two characters tried to murder each other. Do you think that most people were offended and appalled in the real world?

Game Of Thrones prominently features rape, incest, abuse, torture, age differences, and so many other problematic themes/ships. And yet it's one of the most popular shows. Real world people didn't give a shit.

Stephen King uses a lot of rape, abuse, incest, and other problematic things in his writing. Real world people love his books and movies. Most real world people don't think Stephen King should be put on a watchlist for "obsessively" writing about it.

Hell, real world people frequently speculate on and discuss relationships between real life celebrities. Even before the internet was even a prominent thing. You're fooling yourself if you don't realize how many people's grandmas were talking about how they imagined John Lennon and Paul McCartney were fucking back in the day.

Real world people include therapists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals. And an overwhelming majority of them support writing problematic content (and even posting it with the proper precautions.)

Do you think if you walked up to a real world person and asked them "do you think reading/writing about abusive relationships makes you an abuser/abuse apologist/a red flag?", do you truly believe they would say yes?

I will ultimately always be on the “antis” side of like, pro ship vs anti ship discourse but I also think that it’s very stupid discourse for a few reasons:

Reducing everything to a black and white world view is bad. I do think people can write about fucked up topics like incest or pedophilia without being for those things, and I even think people can write about those things without explicitly condemning them in their work without being for those things. Satire exists, and horror exists, and in general there are tons of genres where these things are looked at and they aren’t considered “pro” whatever they’re writing anout

Adding onto first point I think that exploring fucked up topics can be a healthy or safe way to cope with your trauma, the bad part is when you exclusively write those things and also post them in public spaces where anyone could find them both because you’re exposing others to things they don’t want to see and also because I think at a certain point it starts to become a form of self harm or like, glorifying your trauma

All of this is entirely based around fandom discourse. When someone criticizes Stephen king’s depiction of teenage girls in Carrie, or the 11 year old orgy in It, they don’t call it “pro fiction” discourse. They just discuss why these topics are fucked up, how they could have been handled better, if there’s any utility to the way they were depicted in these stories, etc.

I do think some of this comes from a puritanical centered society, not because I think things like incest or pedophilia are good or should be normalized, but because I think there’s a view in our society that these things shouldn’t be talked about point blank, and that I believe does more harm than good

The real world does not engage in anti vs pro ship discourse because the general consensus is that incest and pedophilia and abusive relationships are bad. People who spend their time obsessively writing these things need genuine help like psychiatrically, but also obsessing over the idea that people are writing these things is equally as unhealthy, most people do not spend any considerable amount of time thinking about this kind of shit, not because they don’t care but because they are just able to say “pedophilia is bad” and move on.

Side note on the lay point but if you’ve gone on Twitter or whatever and you see the guys who like, post Loli porn or are self proclaimed “maps” aka pedophiles they don’t engage in this kind of discourse because they’re too busy being genuine freaks.

Where’s that one post that’s like “oh I am technically anti ship, it’s just that in the real world we call that being normal and don’t have to debate it.” Anyways to conclude yeah I think it’s weird and fucked up and you should be on a watchlist if you’re like “this 10 year old and 20 year old should date because it’s hot” but I don’t think completely eradicating fucked up topics from media is the solution.

[shadowfae]

We’re all pretty aware that the tumblr otherkin community is at a huge decline; I was wondering if you have any theories as to why that is?

American Protestantism, the decline of queer oppression in North America and the AIDS crisis, helicopter parenting, web 3.0, morality politics, and  Tumblr’s porn ban; roughly in that order and rolled up into one bombshell that was a few years in the coming but nobody really saw it and understood it until it was far too late.

That was a mouthful and probably only made sense if you follow current cyberpolitical theory. For some of you reading this, as with every other hot take I have this has a chance of being passed around, that alone is enough. But for others who had no idea what I just said and need the ELI5 version, let me explain that. Buckle up, this’ll be a long one, and will go into fandom history a bit as well because it is actually relevant.

As we know, tumblr is a very American-centric platform. Twitter is also this way, but less so, but tumblr has it bad. Now, I’m ‘lucky’ in the fact that I’m Canadian and a twenty minute drive from the American border, so that puts me in the ‘privileged’ majority. (I say privileged because I’m not really sure what else to call it. Most of the information going around about politics either directly affects me or indirectly affects me approximately one or two links of contact away. Someone who’s only influenced by American politics because it makes their sister’s online friends sad is not going to be privileged in that way.)

This means that American politics and their social climate overwhelmingly affects tumblr’s social climate. This also bleeds through into other fandom spaces, on twitter, instagram, and Pixiv to name a few places; but here’s where I spend the majority of my time so here’s what I’ve witnessed.

America’s main religion, as far as I understand (from the raised agnostic and currently neopagan view I have), is some weirdass capitalistic-Protestantism that is so many miles from what the actual Bible says that if I were a betting man and knew more about cults than I did, I’d say it’s some weird fucking cult and never set foot in the country again for any reason that isn’t gaming free shipping through a PO box. If you have no idea what I just said but are at least vaguely familiar with Christianity, this graphic explains it pretty well. So we can see there’s some glaring issues with that ideal.

The decline of queer oppression and the rise of queer rights in North America, which is to tenderly include my own country but we all know when people say ‘in NA’ they mean ‘America, and Canada where it applies because the right-wing Republicans are really good in the propaganda department to convince everyone that Mexico is a drug-lords-and-anarchy wasteland to the point where even I don’t actually know what’s down there other than bad drivers and heat’; means two things. One, it’s a good thing by a long shot and do not mistake this as me thinking queer oppression being lessened is a bad thing. But two, it means that thanks to the AIDS crisis, queer folks lost a lot of first-person sources as history.

The queer elders in NA who survived are typically either a) bitter anarchists who are often POC, probably still dirt poor and do recreational drugs or b) university-tenured TERFs (trans exclusionary radical feminists). Category A are the people who Republicans have deemed worthless in every way, because racism, queerphobia, ableism, and all the other ways to be wrong and different and Evil that they can’t handle, because Jeezus would never want them to actually learn to love someone who wasn’t just like them, and they don’t have the compassion to do better. Category B are the people who want to be different in just a teensie little bit, typically with TERFs they want to be lesbians, but they don’t want to challenge the status quo. They’re fine with the way things work, they just want to be on top oppressing others over ripping the whole damn thing down and building a more forgiving system.

Now, due to all those ‘isms and the cheerfully malicious aid of the Republicans, pun not intended but drives home the cruelty of it all, we also see the rise of helicopter parenting. The invention of the internet did not really help this. Basically what you’ve got is a whole bunch of parents who saw the civil rights movement, just got access to the internet and things going viral, know the world is changing, and like all parents, they’re scared for their children. Now instead of parents knowing one or two people in their classes who just went missing one day and everyone assumed they ran away, they hear about eight homicides in the city of kids going to parks at night and dying. The Satanic Panic was another event around this time that contributed to that, but I’ll let you research that one.

This means that all of these parents, instead of doing what their parents typically did and let their kids wander off for the day so long as they’re back by sundown, they can’t let their children out of their sight. There might be a freak accident where their child is decapitated on the playground swing! Their baby might get murdered by an evil Satanist walking home from school! Their dearest darling might go online and tell their address to someone who’s got a 100% chance of being a pedophile who will show up and kidnap them in the night!

…You get the idea. 

Combine those three things I just established, what we’ve got is a lot of queer kids who have a lot of internalized shame for being different and wrong, because they’re queer, and they can’t find spaces offline to be themselves, because all of the elders who would do that are dead and/or inaccessible and their parents won’t let them go to any clubs that aren’t school-related, which they’ll never find a GSA or queer club because Republicans, ‘isms, propaganda, and the war on Category A queer adults have all done their best to ensure that those spaces don’t exist.

So you have a generation of kids who I am the youngest of. The first generation on the internet. The late Web 1.0 (usenets and Geocities) and early Web 2.0 (livejournal was the big one, ff.net too, also 4chan but fuck those guys) generation. What we were taught was: trust nobody on the internet with your real info no matter how much you like them, this is a wilderness and any crimes that happen won’t be punished or seen so don’t put yourself in a position where you’re going to be the victim of one, and everything you put online is never getting taken down so don’t put anything up that you’re not willing to have on the front page of your local newspaper.

This worked out pretty well, actually! You had kids who knew that if they got in trouble, there was no backup coming to save them. Because the form that backup might take - parents and police - wasn’t going to help. Best case, they’d be banned from their friends and online support groups for being queer. Worst case, they’d be jailed and put in juvie and conversion therapy and turn to drugs and become evil Satanists just like everyone says they secretly are already. So they learned very quickly to take care of themselves. Nobody was going to save them, so they learned to not need saving.

And then, well, Web 2.0 shifted to Web 3.0. Livejournal died because parents - the Warriors for Innocence was the big name - went “gasp how horrible my children are being exposed to the evil pedos and homosexuals they’re going to do drugs and die of AIDS!”. Which is uh. It’s filled with a lot of bigotry, and I’m not excusing them - absolutely I am not - but you can kind of see where they’re coming from, if you tilt your head and squint.

Either way, LJ died, tumblr took its place, Facebook was fast taking off, and the fandom folks who had seen mailing lists go inactive, web admins take their fanfic sites down due to copyright, entire fandoms burnt to the ground in flame wars, said ‘fuck that we’re making our own place’ and that’s how AO3 got made.

That’s important. A lot of folks move to AO3, because well, the rules let them. The rules say ‘you can throw literally anything up here so long as it’s fan content and is not literally illegal, so we don’t get taken down’. It’s a swing for the first generation internet users, those kids who know this place is a wilderness and are carving out our own sanctuary.

But. The children under us. The children for whom AIDS is a nightmarish fairy tale, for whom the ghost stories are conversion therapy, for whom know they can’t really talk to their parents about being queer but can trust they probably won’t get kicked out over it. The children who haven’t spent ten seconds without supervision except online, and their reaction isn’t ‘oh thank god I’m finally free to express myself’ but ‘if I get in trouble, who will protect me?’.

And there’s nobody there. Because we went in knowing there was no backup. And that was fine. But now, the actual adults have figured out that hey uh, maybe we should make cyber laws? Maybe we should make revenge porn and grooming children over the internet crimes? And they grew up with that. They grew up learning that no, even if your parents are suffocating and controlling, they’re always be there for you! Some adult will always be there to protect you!

That isn’t the case. It’s not. But they expect it, because it’s always been done for them. They don’t really want to change the status quo, because that means doing it themselves. They can’t do that, because they don’t know how, they’ve been controlled for every single part of their lives thanks to helicopter parenting and without that control, they don’t know how to keep their lives together, and they demand someone come and control it for them, without restraining them.

Effectively, they want someone to ensure they never face the consequences of their actions. Helicopter parents will rescue you from whatever you did, because you’re their precious baby and it doesn’t matter if you punched a kid, you can do no wrong and the other kid clearly started it.

But being queer is doing wrong. Being queer is something Jeezus doesn’t approve of. So they want to make it something he could approve of! But if it’s too off what they consider to be okay, if it’s too different and weird and wrong and evil, that can’t do, that’s still bad, and they’re precious angels, and children, and minors, why are we the adults not protecting them and letting them see it? Why aren’t we being just like their parents  but queer-friendly, why aren’t we protecting the children?

The adults who taught us were the children of those who died as a result of AIDS. The eldest of my generation knew some of them personally. My therapist’s younger brother died at 20 of AIDS, and she told me what it was like. But they don’t have that. These kids of web 3.0, they don’t have that. What they have is over-controlling parents, and the expectation that someone will always be there to protect them but hopefully in ways that don’t hurt them this time, no real understanding of why Category A queer elders are the way they are, and so much internalized shame that they have to do some pretty fancy logic-leaping to keep them from collapsing entirely.

They can’t turn into Category A queer youngsters, because they don’t know how to unravel the system around them, because they’ve never had to actually make choices in their lives and live with the consequences, because they don’t have the example of how to do it. They can’t unravel their internalized shame because again, that’s hard and they don’t have their parents to take away the consequences and pain. It doesn’t come easy to them, so it may as well not come at all.

But, you ask, if Category A queer elders aren’t around to teach the kids, then how are they learning anything positive at all? Well, Category B, our university-tenured TERFs, who don’t want to change the status quo but want to just be at the top of it instead.

For a lot of kids who don’t know how to make hard choices but want to be queer, this is an extremely attractive option. But when they go online to queer spaces, a lot of them say fuck terfs, we don’t support your hate, and they go ‘yeah okay that makes sense’. They can say fuck terfs without ever actually questioning why terfs are bad. They’re Bad and Evil, just like drug addicts, just like fairytale nazis, just like the evil homophobes.

And we saw them say ‘yeah fuck terfs’ and we were like, ‘aight you got it’ and we never questioned if they actually understood us. They didn’t. They didn’t, and we didn’t do enough to fix it, because not enough of us realized the problem. So terfs got a little sneaky. They hid behind dogwhistles and easy little comments, hiding their rhetoric in queer theory that you’ll absolutely miss if you just memorize it and never actually question it and understand why that point is being made.

This goes back to America sucking, because their school system is far more focused on rote memorization over actual logic and understanding of the text. They’re engaging with queer theory the way they’ve been taught, which is memorize and don’t think, don’t question. Besides, questioning and understanding is hard. Being shown different points of view and asked what they think is not only hard but requires them to go against all of the conditioning that says to just listen and agree and never question it, which goes back to tearing the system and internalized shame down, and we’ve established they can’t do that so naturally they don’t do that.

This begets, then, the rise of exclusionary politics. They’re turning into Category B queer youngsters, because we told them ‘hey that’s a terf talking point what are you doing’ and they never questioned why. They learned you can do all sorts of things, just don’t say X, Y, or Z, because they never thought deeply about it.

The children who have grown on Web 3.0 do not want to do any heavy lifting to make things easier for themselves long-run. They want to do as little as possible and have things get better for them. There isn’t enough of us left in Category A, because Category B terfs are very good at recruiting young folks and Cat. A is overwhelming poor, dead, and easily dismissed in the system as evil and bad, so we can’t exactly convince the young folks to listen. If all of the young kids could agree to tear down the system, a lot more older folks might listen. Change always starts with the young, and there’s a reason for that.

But Republicans have figured out, if you get people fighting, they never put together a force that can actually stop you. TERFs, who want the exact same thing as Republicans but with themselves on top, are doing this to queer youth, and Cat. A elders can’t fight back because there isn’t enough of them and the odds are against them, and the young folk like me who follow their lead.

People can kinda handle gay people. It’s not so far from the acceptable normal that it’s impassable. But you want them to handle kinky people? Gay people of colour? Kinky gay people of colour? Trans people? Those are bridges too far to step across. The original idea was to get the foot in the door with marriage equality and inch our way through with racial equality, sex positivity, dismantling ableism and perisexism (forgive me if that isn’t the word for anti-intersex ‘ism), and see if we can’t patch up the system instead of inciting a civil war over this and have to tear down the system entirely.

Well, we might’ve managed that if not for AIDS being the perfect ‘Jeezus is killing all the evil gay people for being sinners’ propaganda machine. As it stands now, not a chance in hell. So long as Republicans and terfs keep everyone fighting, nobody has the power to dismantle their empire, and they stay in power.

So then, you ask me, “Lu what the fuck does that have to do with the decline of otherkinity on tumblr???” and now that you’ve got all that background knowledge, here is your answer.

Those children who want their experiences curated for them and the evil icky content they don’t like to be gone because it disgusts them and anything that disgusts them is clearly sinful problematic and should be destroyed, are what we call ‘antishippers’, or anti for short.

They like being progressive. Sort of. They learned what Republicans and terfs have honed to a fine talent: keep people fighting, hold them to a bar they have to constantly make or risk being ostracized, and harass the people who don’t play along into getting out of your sight forever. Sound familiar?

They learned of otherkinity, and particularly fictionkind, because web 3.0 means if something goes viral on one site, it doesn’t just go viral on that site, it makes it to worldwide newspapers and twitter and nobody ever, ever fucking forgets it. They realized the following: “Hey wait, if I’m this character for realsies, not only does it help me deal with the internalized shame I’ve done nothing to actually fix because that takes work, I can also tell these people who draw gross content I don’t like they’re hurting me personally, and that actually sounds credible, and I can shame them into stopping”.

If this is your first time here and that sounds sickening, it damn well should, and I am so, so sorry that any of us had to witness this, and I am more sorry I and everyone else who personally witnessed this didn’t realize what was going on and put a stop to it. I answer asks and browse the tags and clear up misinformation and it isn’t just a genuine desire to help. It’s damage control, and my own way of trying to deal with the guilt of not stopping this. I’m well aware I couldn’t have seen it coming, I was a teenager myself still learning and no one person has that much power. I still feel like I should have done more, and I’ll do what I can to fix what’s within my power to fix.

So back to the story. This all culminates around 2016 or so. Trump wins the election, and every queer person ever knows they’re fucked, and the younger generation’s only ever heard horror stories, never seen actual oppression that this could bring. We’re all scared. We all don’t know what to do. Nobody has any answers or any control over the situation.

So they lash out. They attack others for drawing things they don’t like, for challenging them in literally any way, for asking them to reconsider the vile shit they just said, for so much as defending themselves from the harassment they just got. And when challenged, they yell “But I’m a minor! A literal child! How dare you attack me, clearly you get off on this, you evil pedophile!” and they sling around every insult in the book until one sticks. Pedophile is a pretty good one, so is abuser, and sometimes zoophile works out too. Freak is great, everyone gets right pissed off about it.

The fact that Category A queer elders were called pedophiles and freaks is not a fact they know or care about. The fact that they are quickly making every fandom community super toxic is also not a fact they care about. The fact that the ‘kin community has words and terminology and they actually mean shit, and the fact that they’re spreading misinformation faster than we can keep up with, are not facts they care about.

So they come in, take our terms, make it impossible for us to find new folks. They realize our anger is easily a power trip, because we’re already made fun of, so they get off on the little power they can find and make fun of us too, and then when we get rightfully annoyed and pissed off, they can hide behind being minors.

Then tumblr implements their porn ban, because nobody’s stopping them, because it isn’t profitable to have porn on here. Considering most of the otherkin community, and most fandom communities, are full of adults who do occasionally talk about NSFW things, and the fact that they’re just banning everyone who so much as breathes wrong, this begins the start of a mass exodus, scattering already fragile communities to twitter, pillowfort, dreamwidth, and a few other places. Largely, twitter, where you can’t make a post longer than a snappy comeback and where the algorithm is literally designed to piss you off as much as possible.

So community elders have largely left, because they can’t stand the drama and the pain of what’s happened, and that’s if they didn’t get banned for being kinky furries who do talk about how their kintypes merge with their sexuality. Most community members have also left or stopped talking about being ‘kin, because they get associated with antishippers and toxicity and it’s just not worth it. Those of us who are left get drowned out by misinformation and trolls and wishkin and antishippers who appropriate our terminology because it supports them getting a power trip, and whenever we argue, we get called pedophiles and freaks and worse.

And now there isn’t much left. I hope we get to find a better place. Othercon was a good place to talk about it, I did a whole panel (it’s on Youtube!) about what we want to do about it. But I don’t really have any answers. 

But to sum it all up... America’s political climate ultimately culminated in destroying queer spaces, and we survived, and then people who wanted to destroy smaller communities to get on top showed up and we were all but defenseless against something we had never, ever dealt with before on this scale.

One of my twitter mutuals mentioned how kinning and otherkin are now completely separate communities. It’s really the best I can do to keep hoping that continues, until nobody realizes the words are at all connected to each other. It’s the best anyone can hope for, now. I hate it. I hate every part of this. But maybe we can salvage what’s left.

[c-is-for-circinate]

So here’s the thing:  I really, honestly do not get the appeal in Widojest.  I don’t entirely see the appeal in Caleb Widogast.  And I’m okay with that; I have other faves who I pay more attention to; I get to do that, because my show is 3-5 hours long every goddamn week that it airs and there is plenty of time for literally everyone.  And I do not have to be a Caleb stan to understand at a really fundamental level that, hey, even if he isn’t important to me?  He is very clearly very important to a lot of actual real-live people.

There will always, always be stories that aren’t for you.  Maybe they just don’t speak to you at all.  Maybe they hit buttons in your brain that remind you of real hurts.  It’s always going to happen.  In a perfect world, with perfect representation where there are stories for you everywhere, there will still be stories that aren’t.

And it hurts, I know it does, when you feel like the story you want for you doesn’t exist anywhere, but here’s one more story that isn’t it.  It hurts when there’s a story that you thought was for you and then it turns out not to care about you at all.  There should be more stories for all of us, especially the stories that feel like they’re not getting told.

That is a real, valid pain.  We all clear on that?

Good.  Because this next part is also absolutely true:

The story that is not for you is very important to someone else.  And particularly in fandom spaces, there is a very good chance that the someone else in question has experienced marginalization on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, disability, mental illness, or general trauma.

The story that is not for you has worth.

People who find worth in stories that are not for you--even if your story is underrepresented and their story really has been told one hundred billion times before, even then--ARE NOT INHERENTLY BAD PEOPLE for finding worth in those stories.

There’s this extra dimension to this particular ship war, where I think a lot of Beaujester shippers are so angry not because of what’s actually happened, but because of what years of pattern recognition has taught them (taught us?) must inevitably be coming next.  When a leading man in a fantasy series, on an arc of learning to better himself and maybe even value or forgive himself, repeatedly expresses unrequited love for a girl who he believes is too good for him, the narrative will give her to him in the end.  This is a pattern and it’s real and its existence hurts, outside of Widojest, just in general in the world.

And on one hand: that has not happened yet with Widojest, and there is a very good chance, for a million reasons, that it won’t!  And on the other hand: even if it did happen, that would not be an excuse for violent or abusive behavior, or to dismiss the worth that story might have to other people!  And on the third hand: yes, I totally see why it feels like that’s the trope being invoked here, and why that is scary, and why it hurts!

We know about Caleb’s feelings in this one specific way and we don’t know about Jester’s.  In theory that means that Jester’s feelings could be ANYTHING, and this could go ANYWHERE, and of course Caleb and Liam would respect Jester and Laura’s ‘no’, and there is plenty of agency all around and that’s great.  In practice, it can feel like another reminder of that old trope, where the male lead character’s emotions are given to the audience like something important, and the female lead character’s feelings are generally passed off as vague platonic affection until the final romantic reveal, and we have to extrapolate what was going through her head the whole time.

We know that Critical Role cares about representation and queer visibility, and without a network to fight, they get to make the show as gay as they want.  In theory this means that we can trust them to give us the rep we’re craving.  In practice, we worry, because in an ad-libbed show where you don’t have to plan ahead or deliberately fight for representation, it’s easy to accidentally slip into old familiar patterns and biases without even noticing they’re there.

We know that Laura’s agency and Jester’s agency matter here, that of course it’s not just about Caleb, and in theory that should make ANY romantic ending better and good and right and fine, but in practice--well, what does it mean, when you’ve got agency over a story, and use it to choose to tell what feels like the same old story all over again?

And right, let me say it again: none of this has happened yet.  QUITE LIKELY NONE OF IT EVER WILL.  We don’t know!!!  Not even the players know!!!

Which, maybe that’s the scariest thing of all.  When I’m watching a scripted show, I usually know what to expect out of the formula.  I know when a show is going to be queerbaity and then quit gay chicken at the last second.  I expect it.  I can feel out how trustworthy the showrunners are in a few episodes, and while sometimes there’s a long slow decline or a short sharp surprise, after 20-30 years of media engagement, I know what I’m going to get.

I suspect that CR feels like it should be more “trustworthy,” to many Beaujester shippers, in terms of providing the kind of story they’re craving--but it’s so hard to know for sure.  It’s so hard to know whether to brace for disappointment, or be resigned, or ragequit and be done with it, or most terrifyingly at all, to be hopeful.

It’s hard.  I do get that it’s hard.

And it’s really easy, isn’t it, to go on twitter and tumblr and into the comments sections on critrole.com and fuck knows where else, I’m assuming there’s a Discord somewhere that I’m not cool enough to know about, and be furious.  To be mean.  To blame the fear of not getting the story that will mean something to me, again, on anyone else.  To make fucking death threats, I don’t even know why that seems acceptable or easy to anyone, but it’s just words typed on a keyboard, so yeah, I guess it’s easy.

Do not fucking do that!  Don’t do it!  Whether you identify with everything I’ve said here or you have a completely different reason to be full of rage and fury, don’t do the furious threats thing!  Just don’t!  That, also, is easy!!!  And doing absolutely nothing is at least as effective as being violently angry at strangers on the internet, so it has that going for it as well.

There are a lot of feelings to be had here, and I’m sure not going to sum them all up or solve the problem of representation in fiction in one tumblr post, but maybe we can change this discussion a little.  Maybe we can redirect.

I started this post by saying that I’m not the world’s biggest Caleb fan.  I don’t mind him, but his story doesn’t particularly speak to me.  I don’t love the amount of space he takes up in the ongoing fandom discussion.  I particularly don’t love that every single time he comes up, the volume of discussion doubles because of people vociferously objecting to every single thing about him.

So I find the parts of the story that are for me.  I let the people who want to have Caleb discussions have their Caleb discussions, because they are enjoying a thing they like and I’m glad for him, and then I host a discussion about Beau or Fjord or Caduceus or whoever, because I WANT TO HAVE FUN TOO.  I am watching this show because it is full to the brim with things I like and have thoughts about.  There is SO MUCH OF THAT TO GO AROUND.