#(anytime i get fanwork of my AUs people always do them better than i can)

[wyervan]

AHHHHHH!!!! I can’t believe it was you 😍😍😍 every time i see you in my notifications, I click on your profile to see your art again and again and again!!!!

I’m so incredibly lucky. You did so much work 🥹🥹 A WHOLE COMIC???? little momo is so adorable. Exactly the sort of cheery little sister I was picturing y/n would have when I thought of the story of the AU.

And God, YESS!!! *fist pumping* Grumpy y/n, just tryna to bring their little sis back home, now has to deal with two capricious Christmas entities 😜 you did their dynamic P E R F E C T.

"Three! Two! One! Cheese!!!"

Hey! Momohere!@wyervan Hello! I'm your SS!! It's a gift!! I've been following your artworks for a long time, in fact, but I haven't had the courage to try it (because of the style of painting, hehe), but thank you for your ask reply! This encouraged me and helped me do them well!

When I saw this story, my first reaction was! It's so cool!! I love the Chronicles of Narnia!!

The second reaction was that there must be many, many, many little cute guys in this story, otherwise it would really be a simulation of an attempted kidnapping horror game, so I joined Momo! (She's just a little kid who doesn't know what's going on, and she's just the younger sister of yn to promote the story)

And this is a small comic with a synopsis!! Hey, it's really fun to interact with each other! Thank you for asking and au tag, they really inspire me a lot!

[magicrazy-1205]

Fandom vs. Religion: Is Fandom a Religion?

(This is an actual paper I submitted to my college English prof. He said write about anything so I did.)

(If you repost please give credit where credit is due) It is the most moving thing I have ever read. It makes me feel so close to the creator that I am breathless. Tears are streaming down my face, making me look like a fool but I don’t care. I just want to bathe in my feelings and let them infect others. The need to tell others of this wonderful thing. This thing which has reaffirmed my faith in humanity. This book that has such depth and is so poignant. Most people would think I had just found my way into religion. They would be wrong. I had just read The Fault in our Stars, a book that made even my heartless sister cry. This book caused us to go crazy. Anytime the author publishes a new book we must have it. Anytime there is new merch pertaining to the book we must have it. We try to emulate the way the characters behaved. Tried to be just as strong. Before long we joined a fandom full of people just as crazy about it as we were.  It was like joining a religion. But aren’t fandom and religion kind of the same thing. Couldn’t fandom be a religion. Fandom is a religion or substitute religion because, like most religions it has a big following, the characters and figures are emulated in the hopes of becoming more like them, there are a lot of sub fandoms like there are lots of sub-religions, and finally elements of fandom are very similar to those of religion. Fandom and religion both have a large community of people. Most of the time, the public recognizes the religious community more than the fandom community. Fandom occurs more indoors, on the internet, than out in the open. The only reason fandom people are out in the open are for a fandom reason, such as, fan conventions.  As such, any demographics pertaining to fandom are far more scarce than those that are about religion. Also, most surveys are done through the large fanfiction sites. Mainly, Fanfiction.net, Archiveofourown.org, and Wattpad.com, which are all sites for unpublished books and fanfiction. This makes it difficult to get any numbers. Another difficulty is the ever changing number of people joining or leaving a fandom. But there are a few things that are certain. Fandom is 17-25 year old female dominated. There are guys in there too but there are definitely more girls. Another factor is where in the world a person is. It is practically a requirement for a person to have internet in order to be involved in fandom. Some countries don’t have that access. And the last classifier is the fandom itself. Unfortunately I was unable to find any numbers that encompassed all fandoms compared to the rest of the world, however I can use a fandom I am involved in. Supernatural is one of the most prominent fandoms around. Anyone involved in any kind of fandom knows about supernatural. The first episode it aired it was viewed by 5.69 million people. And although viewership has gone down over the past 10 seasons it has not dipped below 1.45 million. That is just one fandom. There are hundreds even thousands more fandoms. And although I cannot give a number I can say it is a majority of the First and Second world countries population are a part of fandoms. Religion also has a large following. Religion is easier to get statistics on because people practice out in the open. They show their faith by going to church and following any holy texts the religion may have and emulating those that are in the texts. Since they are out in the open it is easy to get stats on religion. Jennifer Harper from the Washington Times said that 84% of the world's population in 2010 participated in religious affairs. That is roughly 5.8 billion people worldwide involved in some type of religion. And of those, the main religion appears to be Christianity with a whopping 2.2 billion people worldwide. The global median age for any religion is 28. There are about 14 million Jewish people in the world. This is comparable to supernaturals 5.69 million. If fandom was socially accepted like religion it would probably have more readily available numbers. The fact that one fandom can hold up against one religion speaks volumes for fandom as a whole. Emulation is a big part of anyone’s life. Everyone tries to be better or worse than they are. And to do that they have role models. In the case of fandom, characters are the role models. In religion, a messiah or prophet or creator of the religion.  The difference between the two is the fact that fandoms can dress as their role models. They can act like them and use them to try to be braver or whatever they are trying to be. Cosplay is a way for fandom people to be able to dress up as their heroes in public. This is not blasphemous in the eyes of their peers, like dressing like jesus is. Claiming to be anything like the deity of a religion is considered bad form. The characters imitated through cosplay are able to be related to because they are (usually) human. Even if they will never be them they try to be as like them as they can. In religious teachings, the religious figures have an unattainable level of goodness. Those within a church are meant to be getting closer to the lord by being more like him knowing they never can be like him. In an interview I did with a friend of mine i asked him why he cosplayed. Below is a picture of his cosplay. His response was that he felt like it released apart of himself that related to deadpool. When asked why he enjoyed cosplay he said, “ Because for that short moment of time you can be something you want to be or can be.” He was relating the character to himself as a role model that could be achieved and maintained. Another thing i asked was if liking deadpool had ever affected any decisions or actions he had made in the past. His answer, “Yes; being able to let go of things that could harm me emotionally and psychologically.” This all goes to show that fandom people try to emulate their characters just as religious people try to emulate religious figures. Religion and fandom are large and widespread throughout the world. There are many different types and subtypes. In religion it is mostly because throughout history everyone has a different opinion about creation and death. There are about 4,200 different types of religion not including sub-religions. Christianity as i said before is the largest and most widespread religion. But under christianity a person could divide it down to, "6 major ecclesiastico-cultural mega-blocs" according to the world christian encyclopedia. These blocks are subdivided again by country. Altogether without all the subdivisions there are around 33,000 different denominations of christianity. The first subdivision is simply a differing in opinion. And this is just christianity. There are many many more in the other major religions. And anyone who does not have a religion is basically cast into the atheist division. But that is a minority. All over the world there is something someone is worshipping. The map below shows that.

Everyone is part of a religion, just like everyone is part of a fandom. If there is something a person likes there is a fandom for it. From a prominent tv show to a hobby like knitting, it is out there. There are fandoms for sports, music, people, shows, and hobbies. There is a fandom for bagels, there is a fandom for that one particular blade of grass in someone’s front yard, for goodness sake. But how are fandoms categorized? Well first there is is something a person is obsessed with, whether mildly or highly, and this person joins a fandom. A casual fan does not usually go into depth with his or her chosen fandom. But the more obsessed the more options. For example, on my tumblr page one would find an exorbitant amount of NaLu fanfiction. This is a ship fandom. It is one of the subdivisions of the fairy tail fandom. Which is a subdivision of the anime fandom, which is a subdivision of the tv show fandom, which is a subdivision of the tv fandom, which is a subdivision of fandom itself. Finding a fandom can be tricky with this many subdivisions but with a little perseverance I can almost guarantee it is out there. And one never has to go too deep if they don’t want to or stick with it till the end of time. The amount of sub-fandoms compared to the amount of sub religions is incredibly hard to count. But the fandom is most broadly categorized by its medium. So anything goes really. Except porn. Let me be very very clear. PORN IS NOT A FANDOM! IT IS IT'S OWN THING! But that is the only exception to the rule.  All these subdivisions add up into one whole just like all the subdivisions in christianity.  This all shows that since it has many subdivisions fandom is like a religion. Lastly I will be pointing out the glaring similarities between being involved in fandom versus religion. It is not a commonly accepted thing to compare fandom to religion. However a person cannot ignore the differences between the 2. The things that define fandom as fandom are if it has a large fan base and a lot of fanwork. Fanwork is fanfiction, fanart, any kind of contribution. There are those within a fandom that follow a fanfiction more than the actual thing the fandom is based on. Throughout all this mess though the characters are always the same. And unless it’s an au the work is also in the same universe. There is also fan merch as well. Anything that is sold pertaining to a fandom is merch.  There are also fanvids fanmusic and a million other things i am forgetting. I am not saying all this for no reason. If a person was to think about it it sounds like any religion. A holy text could be classified as a fanfiction. Whether it is based on real or fictitious events makes no difference. Any paintings classified as real art that are based on any part of a religion are fanart. My favorite example is the roof of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. The below picture is called the Creation of Adam. It shows what appears to be god leaving the garden and adam to go back to heaven with his angels.

This is a form of fanart. It is not an original idea even if it is beautiful. It is a fanart of events that may or may not be fictitious. There is also the merchandise to think about. It has become more prominent in the late 1900’s and now but there has always been holy merch. For example, crucifixes, holy figure statues, rosaries, anything having to do with religion is merchandise. In recent years those types of things have expanded. Crosses on everything. Crosses on leggings shirts dresses shoes jewelry accessories and even tattoos. All this is merch just like in a fandom. And this not even the half of it. There are also the religion based movies, and music. These are also elements that can be related to fandom. These are the similarities that turn fandom into religion. Fandom comforts people in a way that is similar to religion. If a person is stressed reading a book or watching a tv series helps them to relax. It is the same way with religion. People turn to religion in times of need or sorrow or stress. It comforts them knowing there is something bigger than them at play, some higher purpose they are meant to serve. It is also comforting, for me, to know there is someone in the world who suffered more than I am. It helps me to know that my life is actually pretty good and that i  have no excuse for feeling the way I do if they had it worse and still smiled. That is what fandom and religion do for me. I prefer fandom to religion because the characters are more relatable, more human. The characters I choose to emulate are always changing. This is what makes them a good dynamic character. They are like me. Changing to suit their situation, and growing in ways they did not think possible. And there are more people than me who think the way I think the same. Over many many more continents. This is what would make fandom a good religion. Fandom has a big following, the characters and figures are emulated in the hopes of becoming more like them, there are a lot of sub fandoms like there are lots of sub-religions, and finally elements of fandom are very similar to those of religion.

Works Cited "Finding Faith? Fandom and Religion." — University of Leicester. Leicester University, 20 July 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. "Most Popular Fandoms." - Top Ten List. N.p., 2015. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. Romano, Aja. "Is It Possible to Quantify Fandom? Here's One Statistician Who's Crunching the Numbers." The Daily Dot. N.p., 30 Jan. 2016. Web. 29 Apr. 2016. "Khan Academy." Khan Academy. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd Edition)." The Facts and Stats on 33000 Denominations: World Christian Encyclopedia (2001, 2nd Edition). N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "List of Religions and Spiritual Traditions." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "Role Model." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "The Global Religious Landscape." Pew Research Centers Religion Public Life Project RSS. N.p., 17 Dec. 2012. Web. 01 May 2016. "Fanfiction Terminology." Fanfiction Terminology. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "Most Popular Fandoms." : Page 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016 Lusby, Allyse A. "Tumblr." Log in. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. Sendlor, Charles. "Fan Fiction Statistics - FFN Research." : Fan Fiction Demographics in 2010: Age, Sex, Country. N.p., 18 Mar. 2011. Web. 01 May 2016. Harper, Jennifer. "84 Percent of the World Population Has Faith; a Third Are Christian." Washington Times. The Washington Times, n.d. Web. 01 May 2016. "Fandom Cosplay." Personal interview. 25 Apr. 2016.

[hallulawy]

Why most of my POI drawings are not posted up here anymore.

Some people may be interested in this, and some maybe gauged the answer through certain contexts. Either way, I think this answer has been due for a year, so I’ll just address it while it’s fresh in my head.

The main reason: I don’t really feel comfortable sharing it here.

Not because of art theft or the people in the POI fandom, none of those sort of reasons apply. I’m sure people from the POI fandom are nice and welcoming, and my drawings are not really that great to be stolen (my self esteem talking, I’m still aware of the arguments against this). It’s just that I’ve joined the POI fandom since August 2015, starting from other social networks, such as Twitter. I did try to engage further with Tumblr, but I realize it’s harder for me to get into the fandom on this platform due to my own preferences. My preferences involve subjecting the characters in the OTP to the perhaps silly and now unpopular ‘top/bottom’ formula, wherein it’s apparent that mine is stapled on the idea of Reese/Finch.

I’ve been in many fandoms in the past, and this have not caused much of a problem to me, but perhaps in this fandom, it’s where I realize the distance of my preferences and understanding with the general trend. Associated with this would be the still prevalent form of ‘top/bottom’ shipping on other platforms, and thence I feel more involved and accepted in those than I would here.

Further than that, it’s obvious that my drawings are not really that POI-ish. They’re usually deemed as adorable and peculiar in their ideas (because I couldn’t control myself with AUs). Again, it strays very far from the concept and theme of POI itself. And again, I feel that they don’t really feel at home on Tumblr because of the gulf (in which I perceive) in the theme between the fanworks. I deem my work as silly and couldn’t be taken seriously, and I’m always nervous when I post it on Tumblr because it feels too out of place.

Some may think that I’m just looking for a place to accommodate myself better. That’s true. All in all, obviously it’s my own issues that hindered me from engaging further with Tumblr. I could barely go through any fanworks without thinking ‘what if it’s not what I expected?’ because my concerns contradicts a general norm in the fandom. Does that imply in any way whatsoever that either of us should prevail? Not at all. The POI fandom here is fine on its own, to end my frets, I just have to move to another platform that is better suited to my end.

And maybe another factor is I don’t feel obliged in sharing my art up here, ultimately. It’s a fandom thing all over again, where an obligation to share fanwork on a platform because it can be shared with the desired audience. I don’t think my work is required here, there are plenty of other amazing works around. Not saying that they’re required at other places, but my desired audiences are there, and knowing that my work reached them is important to me. I really thank those on Tumblr that made the effort to follow me on Twitter! I’m really sorry if it caused you any inconveniences, but that’s where I feel more at home, and you’re welcome to visit anytime you’d like.

And well, one of the most recent example of how conflicted I am with my work and Tumblr/AO3 is the ABO fanfic I posted yesterday. I didn’t put any notice on Tumblr regarding it’s posting and I tried to keep it low-key on AO3, so that it won’t cause any discomfort to the general audiences for the ship up there. In the end, I still tagged the ship (many hours later) because it just doesn’t weigh right for me? I feel that I’m not doing something right, like I do wish to share some of my works with Tumblr/AO3 yet there’s the idea that they don’t really fit. I thought of resolving this by just not posting anything POI-related on Tumblr/AO3 ever but that’s not really proportionate. I don’t really write POI fanfics (I wrote more last year) because most of the people I interact with are not native in the language. Posting it on a foreign language platform is silly when obviously there’s Tumblr/AO3. 

Well, but all of these came from my own insecurity. And that’s the most important part. So tl;dr, that’s the answer right there. I hope I didn’t offend anyone in this weird post, I’m still thinking about the whole matter in my head as I write this and it’s just such an odd situation that I put myself in. Thanks for reading and have a nice day.