#(it’s because the overlap in fandoms cannot POSSIBLY be large even if a fandom can be said to exist for this show and also i may very well

[camgoloud]

there is… a document now. with words in it… actually a lot of words considering i only started typing them last night…

your second priority at work should always be working. your first priority at work should be trying to cast all of your blorbos in an imaginary production of [REDACTED] because you just had the GREATEST fic idea

[lover-of-queens]

Farah Dowling is Alive Part 3

Or, as I like to call it, I think I’m running out of funny subtitles. 

If you haven’t yet, I recommend checking out Part 1 & Part 2

Under the cut, as usual!

Parts 1 and 2 of this analysis were focused on a deep dive into the first season to to look for clues and any evidence that suggests getting our lovely Eve Best back for season 2 of Fate. This part will be slightly different. While I’m honestly surprised at the seeming fandom consensus that Farah is alive, there are some counterarguments I’ve seen/heard that I’d like to address. These counterarguments may either be the ones most convincing to me that Farah isn’t coming back (and then I’ll give reasons why I think they’re wrong) or fears about Eve’s filming schedule (I’ll also try and offer some hope there). 

The first counterargument is that the writers may choose to not bring Farah back in order to play into the dead mentor trope. Also known as the Mentor Occupational Hazard trope. Pretty self explanatory, but the essential idea is that at some point the protagonists of the story have to learn how to make it on their own without that guiding figure; they have to grow up. Frodo has to make it without Gandalf, etc. You only have to google examples of this trope to see how much it shows up in the media we consume. And it could easily apply to Fate. Farah provided that mentoring role in the first season but now, without her, the girls have to figure out how to hold their own against the villains infiltrating their school. The end of season 1 is, essentially, setting this trope up. 

I just don’t think that Farah has to be dead for them to do it. While I don’t know where the writers are planning to take season 2, I would imagine even if we do get Farah back, she won’t play as big a role as she did in the first season. What this means is that likely the winx girls will still have to figure out a way to hold their own despite losing that mentor figure (hopefully, she’ll just be in hiding and not dead *cough cough* fate writers). 

Also, the thing with setting a show at a school is that the mentor role is somewhat inherent to the structure. And as I’ve mentioned in the previous two parts (extremely unlikely redemption arc pending) I just cannot see Rosalind holding onto that “mentor role” for more than a season (or two, depending on where season 2 ends & if there’s a renewal for a third). Seems to me like they’ll have to bring that “dead mentor” back to resume her rightful place. So, I think it’ll be more likely we’ll get a subversion of the dead mentor trope. 

The second argument & the argument that concerns me the most can be summed up in one character: Andreas. Now, I know what you’re thinking, what the hell does he have to do with this? It’s less to do with him and more to do with the fact that he came back from the dead (or allegedly dead, it’s complicated!). This concerns me because writers generally want the idea of death to be taken seriously on the show or whatever form of media they’re writing. Especially since Fate has taken a darker route, I’m not certain it wants viewers under the impression that anybody they kill off can just come back; it somewhat defeats the purpose. 

So will Fate writers want to bring Farah back despite knowing this? Maybe. 

The whole ‘Farah’s eyes glowed before she died’ plot is interesting because of precisely how vague it is, how many directions it can be taken in that could either lead to her coming back or not. It may be intentionally vague because they want us theorizing and talking about the season/show after it’s ended, it may be vague because they themselves are trying to figure out what direction to take. But let’s be clear, they are heavily pushing the theorizing angle. These are all taken from three separate posts on Fate’s IG page: 

In the last one, Hannah, Precious and Sadie all agree that Farah needs to be in season 2. As Sadie says “We can’t have a season 2 without her.” Precious points out how the death scene was “too easy”. Similar sentiments are echoed on Netflix’s Afterparty for Fate when the host asks: 

David Spade: “Do you think Professor Dowling . . . faked her own death and then she can come back on season two? . . . sometimes it’s such a big hit like this, then they say ‘People like that character, let’s try to find a way to come back’”. 

To which Abbey says: “It’s a magical show, anything can happen!” 

I mean one only needs to take a look at AO3 to see that over half of the stories on there feature Farah - but admittedly that is a more niche section of a fandom. Something broader would be looking at the IG comments where Farah’s name generally pops up in the top comments with a message hoping she’s going to be brought back. Also the Farah/Eve fandom on IG is LARGE and growing.

Additionally, I think the amount of Farah/Golden Trio bloopers we got is also a good sign (especially because Eve got single shots) that Netflix/Whoever is in charge sees her as a popular character. And I don’t think there would be a push for discussion of Farah theories just for it to end with her remaining dead. So even though Andreas has come back, I think Farah can too. The next person that dies on the show though . . . well . . . that’ll likely be more permanent. 

Now that we’ve established from a story and fandom perspective why Farah is likely coming back. Let’s talk about what most people are actually worried about. Eve’s filming schedule. I’m going to preface this argument with a mention that I’m not an industry professional or anything, so these are just my best guesses based on the facts available to us. 

House of the Dragon is due to start shooting in April (source). Since it’s the first season we don’t really have an idea of how long it’ll take to film, but since it is the GOT prequel, I would say its a fair assumption to base a rough production schedule around the earlier seasons of that show. The reason why I say earlier is that the later seasons did come with longer filming schedules, but GOT was the epitome of pop culture at that point. I don’t think House of the Dragon will be getting that treatment until it proves itself. 

Game of Thrones took roughly six months to film a season (source). If we’re assuming that HOTD will take a similar timeline then we’re probably looking at an April to September filming schedule, possibly longer because Covid is causing production delays everywhere. 

We don’t have news about when Fate is planning to start filming their second season. From Abbey’s IG, we know that the first season filmed from September to December 2019, so I think it’s also fair to assume that we’re probably looking at a similar schedule for season 2. Also, considering they got an additional two episodes then I’m guessing their filming time will increase. 

Put these two schedules together and there’s not that much overlap and even should HOTD take longer, or Fate start shooting earlier, there’s still should be enough time for Eve to film both - if she’s willing! Also, realistically, I don’t see any way that Farah’s screen time doesn’t drop in season 2 (for a variety of reasons) but that drop should hopefully mean that they can get Eve. 

Alright y’all, I think that’s the last part of this series, at least for now. It has been so so fun to theorize with all of you and to write almost four thousand words on this topic (that’s crazy!). I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t fun for me, but at the same time, seeing everyone’s reactions to these posts really just makes my heart warm and it all worth it. So, thank you all for coming on this journey with me <3 

[elfwreck]

AO3 has

No unpaid interns

No paid interns, either

No software that replies to submissions (other than the bot that sends an email that says, basically, "we see you sent us a thing and we will look at it when we have time." That's your confirmation that it worked, not a response.)

Several committees with non-overlapping jobs

Several committees with partially overlapping jobs

A communications team that is supposed to review important communications

A legal team that is supposed to review communications that might touch on legal issues

A programming team that would need to be consulted for questions like "what would it take to add/change this feature?"

As noted, a whole bunch of volunteers in different time zones, with different amounts of time available for their AO3 work

The only things tons of pressure for a fast response would get, are

A massive slow-down in the whole process of actually getting stuff done, and

Maybe, a response from someone who sounds official, who says "We see that you are sending in A Whole Lot of Emails about this topic. That must mean it's very important to a whole lot of people, so we will be prioritizing getting you an answer as soon as we can make one available. Until then, let me refer you to [link] this FAQ page and/or [link] this part of the TOS and/or [link] this part of our About Us History. We appreciate your patience and will attempt to get you an answer promptly."

Note that that does not say, "we will address your problem immediately," which a quick spokesperson cannot say. It also does not say "we agree that this problem should be fixed in the way you want it fixed," because again, the quick spokesperson does not know that; the problem may have to pass through several committees before they can decide what can and should be done about it.

AO3 cannot bump the items on the write-in campaign to the top of the priority list. The priorities are generally set long in advance. The top of the list is "the top" because that's stuff that MUST be addressed as soon as possible, often for legal reasons, sometimes for archive integrity reasons.

(DDOS that prevents access to AO3 is top of the priority list. Tag that is wrangled in a way that makes it hard for people to find what they want, is not. Is never going to be. Even if it's acknowledged as the top tag issue to deal with, it is not a "please pull several people off other committees and force them to deal with this issue" top priority.)

AO3 is run by fans, for fans, on volunteer time. Everyone there wants the archive to be awesome. Nobody is making decisions to screw over fans. None of it is "eh that fandom isn't important and it doesn't matter how the tags get wrangled." Every fandom's tags are managed by someone who loves the fandom; large fandoms are wrangled by teams who love the fandom.

All the decisions are made based on a combination of "how can fans best find stuff they want" and "how does the database actually sort all this data?"

There are trade-offs involved. Feel free to contact them to say, "I would rather it worked THIS way even if THAT stuff is now a bit harder to find, harder to sort, more trouble to work with."

Or to say, "I think we could have THIS feature without THOSE problems if you did THIS THING HERE to the database." Maybe you're right; maybe not. They'll listen. (You maybe technically right but not know some other details about how it works, that make your suggestion non-viable.)

Swarming them with identical requests/complaints will not make anything move faster. Swarming them with near-identical complaints that they have to read carefully to see if they cover a different issue, will slow things down.

If they're reading the three hundred complaints, they're not working on a fix.

Reminder, again: BY FANS FOR FANS. Many AO3/OTW volunteers are active on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Dreamwidth, Bluesky, Mastodon, Tiktok, Youtube, Twitch... if there's a huge public discussion about the topic going on, they know it, and they're watching.

A direct email pointing out the highlights of the discussion might be useful. Specific recommendations are useful. Explanations of why you would prefer THIS solution and not THAT solution might be useful.

Several dozen emails that basically say "don't you dare do X" are not useful. Neither are several dozen that say "we demand you do Y instead." And those only slow down the whole process of making changes and fixing problems.

So I've been tagged by a few people asking me about the All Media Types (AMT) tags on AO3 and what's happening there.

Pause for me to remind everyone that I am, in fact, a single woman with a blog and not the OTW, AO3, or in any way representing volunteers as a whole.

I don't know why the AMT tags are being discontinued, but this is not a new thing. There hasn't been a new AMT tag created in at least 5 years, if not more. [Update since I started writing this: changes to AMT tags have been halted pending further discussion and the changes that were made have been reverted]

I'm not a fan of AMT tags, personally, because I'm one of the fans whose searching and filtering is made harder because my fandom is under one of those giant umbrellas. Yes, I can see the utility of the tag for some people, but for people like me, they cause a lot of frustration. That said, I had no expectation of them being removed. They were an albatross around my neck that I'd just learned to live with, like it or not.

Everyone has different needs when it comes to tagging and searching and filtering, and no solution will work for everyone. Will disassembling the AMT tags improve anything? I have no idea. Everything I've learned about wrangling has been to answer a question on this blog.

I do wish that communication about changes didn't happen in the form of [change happens], [fandom gets alarmed], [my dash catches fire as I'm just walking in the door with some pizza].

I also wish that people would stop encouraging write-in campaigns. Those campaigns are exhausting to be on the receiving side of, and they take time and energy away from fixing the problem because the same people who answer those emails are the ones trying to put out the fire.

I know it doesn't feel like it, but volunteers see your social media posts. They reblog them, comment on them, show them to other volunteers. If you raise an issue and get any kind of traction on your post, you can be pretty confident it's been seen. Volunteers are fans too, and there are enough of them that there are probably at least a few who agree with you.

Communicating with a userbase of several million people isn't easy, but I think that improvements could be made. This is a situation where a heads up and a clear explanation might have made the fires burn less brightly. I'm glad to see that there's a post folks can reference now.

[remythologise]

Hello! I found your blog via you amazingly summarizing all that's going on with the spn drama. Due to my schedules, rl stuff, some of the arcs that didn't vibe with me, my availability to find a place to watch...the rollercoaster I was used to with this fandom was more me binging it in a weekend to going months to over a year without watching it. I still haven't watched the last season(but with a fandom this big it's pretty impossible not be spoiled so I more or less know what happened) BUT oh great one I ask of thee for more information if you have it...other than being busy and whatnot, I'm not really one to keep up with the actors as well. So could you also maybe do a summary of all the stans? I'im seeing terms I haven't seen before. Who is Kelios(sp?)? Hellions?? probably messed it up but like...I guess what are the name of each legion? Who do they have alliance towards? What was their desires? Que paso?!?!?!?

Hi there! 'Some of the arcs that didn't vibe with me' me emotionally quitting Supernatural in Season 7 after they killed Castiel 😂 Anyway I totally get it, I went through the same culture shock mid-last year when I got back into SPN and tried to find where fandom was at! There's really a LOT of lore and content after 15 years though so I'll just do the broad brushstrokes based on my impressions and personal stereotypes PLEASE remember this is oversimplifying groups and individuals to tendencies and I'm very biased! Also important that there are sub-factions within sub-factions - again, I'm simplifying here!

I've also linked to the 'Super-wiki' in terms of some definitions because the Super-wiki has pages for them where the Fandom-wiki does not. Great introduction actually - only in the Supernatural fandom. There are two Supernatural wikis. One, through curation and twitter activity, supports BiBro/Wincest factions and does not support Destiel users. One is more neutral or Destiel-friendly (I don't know that the Fandom wiki has a personality/social media presence per se). You cannot make this up. There is a factional war... within use of fandom wikis.

Destiel faction

People who primarily ship Dean/Cas, love Castiel and (often, although not always) Jack, and the 'found family' of Supernatural as well as the brothers, and like the post s3 seasons too. Hated 15.19 and 15.20 for killing Dean and ignoring the other characters/narrative arc of the show. Nicknamed 'Destihellers' by the Wincest faction as a derogatory term, 'reclaimed' and shortened as 'Hellers', a nickname they use affectionately to describe each other. See more info on nicknames here.

Sometimes also ship ‘Cockles’ (the ship between Misha Collins and Jensen Ackles) although generally speaking they're more respectful of the wives of the actors than J2 shippers, who are notoriously responsible for... a vast series of insane-fan misdemeanours. Historically most were also good at keeping RPF to themselves and not harassing celebrities with it directly, although recently, particularly with younger twitter fans, that has not been the case.

Sub-factions:

The ‘Desticule’ or ‘Destiel tumblr’ - general grouping of Destiel-shipping tumblr users around 20-30 years old, usually LGBT+, most who came back to the show post-15.18 after leaving it for various reasons including getting sick of the queerbaiting. Funniest bitches alive etc. and responsible for the best text posts you’ve ever seen. Can also start stupid discourse and in-group drama when they’re bored.

'POLOL' - People of Lots of Letters, a discord group (of tumblr and twitter users) that ran on the assumption Andrew Dabb was playing a hugely intricate game of 3D chess to do with gnostic symbolism among other things, and would make Destiel canon. Have since had their own factional sub-wars and fallen apart a bit. Some of their meta was and is good and interesting! Some of it was wildly off the mark. Now generally insist that Dabb/the writers were all pushing for Destiel canon and the network is entirely to blame.

Twitter fans (TikTok edition) - younger fans around 18 and younger who (FOR REASONS BEYOND ME) started watching the show around 2018-2020. Definition of 'stans'. Tend to be very loud and aggressive on twitter when Events Happen, which like. I do get, because they've grown up in a completely different media environment and this kind of Dinosaur Politicking around LGBT+ issues is beyond them. Fancam central. Anyway stream #CASTIEL for clear skin!

Twitter fans (AO3 edition) - older fans around 30+ who kept going with the show but either don't have a large tumblr presence or just prefer twitter. A lot of fic writers, GISH-ers, and BNFs in this group. Some of them are very cool and reasonable in their opinions, some of them act like the younger stans. Some of them too accepting of what happened wrt 15.19-20 in my opinion, because, in contrast to the younger twitter stans, they grew up expecting Destiel to NEVER be canon or respected. 'Can't believe we got this far' etc.

Multiship faction

Multishippers or shippers of things not as large as the two main behemoths . Sub-factions based on shipping, e.g. Megstiel and Sastiel. I don't think these groups are very large though, and seem to have very little influence in the Discourse.

Wincest faction

LARGE overlap with the 'BiBro' faction and their opinions, which I'll get to. Ship Sam and Dean romantically. Often pretend to be BiBros on places like twitter and reddit in order for outside groups to take their opinions more seriously. 'Wincesties' etc. are derogatory nicknames given by the Destiel faction.

Sub-factions:

Multiship fans - ship Sam and Dean but respect Castiel/the 'found family'. Politically overlap with the faction of multishippers, I think. I don't have a lot of insight on this group of people honestly, but I know they exist.

Bronlies - the typical BiBro and 'Wincest' shippers most people think of, twitter user 'Kelios' is one of the would-be ringleaders of this faction - typically tend to be older white midwestern women. Historically have been pretty nasty on twitter (leading to Robert Berens, writer who made Destiel canon, occasionally subtweeting Kelios). Also tend to ship 'J2' - and take it very seriously as a legitimate thing that is really real. This is called 'tinhatting'.

BiBro faction

People who think the show should JUST be about the brothers, love Supernatural s1-3 and everything after it should have been just like Supernatural s1-3. Hate Castiel, Jack, and the 'found family'. Largely loved 15.20. Go to literally any comments section on any Supernatural article and You Will Find Them complaining about how the show should just be about the Brothers. Tend to be older, straighter, and more conservative/Republican (and male) fans. (I am aware that the definition of 'BiBro' used to refer to people who just liked the brothers but there's no definitional difference now in the discourse.) The Wincest and BiBro faction are generally much more wealthy than the Destiel faction (they being younger and more diverse/queer/left-leaning in general) and would be the biggest revenue generators at conventions etc.

Sub-factions:

Reddit bros - literally anyone who visits r/supernatural. Well, that's not fair - there are people who post reasonable opinions on there, but it's pretty rare and they get downvoted a lot. Like to talk about 'toxic Destiel fans' 'ruining the show' and how Dean is a straight man who is straight and could never possibly be gay. Might even think the confession was platonic despite all evidence to the contrary. I'm Not Homophobic I Have Gay Friends, But No Gays on MY Show!

Old Guard - group of older fans who overlap strongly with the Wincest faction, but might not necessarily ship Wincest.

GA faction

'General Audience' - These are the group of audience members that aren't 'online' so to speak; most watch the show on TV as a Casual Viewing Experience (are therefore also sometimes referred to as 'casuals'. Mostly their opinions tend towards BiBros, but they have a vast range of baffling views thanks to being Not Online and usually Not caring about Supernatural that much or thinking that deeply about it.

Sub-factions:

People who simply watch Supernatural on TV and then don't think about it very much after that.

I said they weren't 'online' but that's not entirely true; I'd probably classify people on Supernatural Facebook Groups as GA, along with friends of friends who post statuses about how 15.20 was a neat finale that wrapped up the series.

Conclusion

Supernatural is famously the show that appeals to both Republicans and Democrats, literally All Orientations, so there's a WIDE range of factions. However, most warring online boils down to Destiel vs. Wincest/BiBro - the war that started in Season 4 and has simply never ended. In terms of the 'actors' and their stans, in general, Wincest/BiBro fans love Jared, like Jensen, and dislike Misha. Destiel fans love Misha, like Jensen, and dislike Jared. Of course as with everything, there are variations and this is just a generalisation. But that's the summary of it, from my perspective!

This didn't even get into Sam girls, Dean girls and Cas girls. God. Anyway.

Hope that answered your question, anon!

[freddieofhearts]

Bye bye, dears (for now!)

I know there have been a lot of rumours and some posts about me leaving, so here I am to set the record straight and say a quick ‘au revoir’. This post is long, and I don’t expect everyone to read the whole thing—if you just want information on how to keep in touch, or about access to my removed fics, scroll to the bottom. ⬇️

*

Why are you leaving?

Firstly, of course I’m not leaving Freddie. This is just an ongoing hiatus from the social side of fandom, because while I have some incredible friends here, who have done all they can to support me and have made this experience wonderful in lots of ways—it’s also true that the social space has become more and more toxic for me.

I get a wild amount of hate. Despite never having my ask box enabled on here, people create new accounts just to message me and tell me all the problems in this fandom are my fault, that I’m faking being sick, that I should kill myself, that I’m fat, etc. I also very regularly get hateful comments on AO3.

Obviously I realise that I’m not the only one who receives these cruel attacks, but it’s become increasingly hard to handle them—especially as some people (‘real’ accounts, not faceless anons) do continue to blame me for wider problems in the fandom. It makes me feel consistently sad, anxious, and paranoid, so that I can’t focus on anything Queen-related that I enjoy.

More pressingly, it’s affected my mental health, which is—imperfect at the best of times. As I’ve occasionally alluded to in older posts on this blog, I have a history of anorexia, OCD, PTSD, and some other overlapping issues. Most people who know me in the fandom are also aware that I’m ‘clinically extremely vulnerable’ to Covid-19, significantly immunocompromised, and have been isolating at home for eleven months.

The combination of all of these things + the constant toxic messages has really been triggering me, and leading to an uptick in disordered behaviours, which my body cannot sustain. Every new instance of hate from an anon—every time there’s another indication of groups in the fandom wanting to ostracise me further—my reaction is deeply self-punitive and unhealthy. Ultimately I need to be out of this environment for, at least, a protracted period. My therapist, my partner and my close friends in the fandom support this decision.

*

So, what went wrong?

In 2019, I expected to be an absolutely tiny blog in the Queen Tumblr landscape. The fandom was already well-established, and I have never worked to ‘build a following’ on here—I think I’ve linked my own fic a maximum of three or four times!—in fact, more or less the opposite. As I mentioned above: ya girl is nutty as a fruitcake. As a result, I often avoid extremely niche things in daily life which cause severe anxiety for me, Relevant examples here: I never look at my timeline. I never intentionally look at my follower number. Yup, it’s strange, I fully admit it, but it’s best for me to go with these things—usually. In Queen fandom, however, this avoidance both of analytic stats and of most direct engagement led to some problems... My followers grew without me realising, and way more people were reading my blog than I was aware of. I was still in a—“Wow, this fandom is very frustrating, and rife with ableism, racism, etc., so how do we fix this???”—mindset, and I wanted to share my opinions, sure! but I also thought I was sharing them with 15-20 like-minded people.

Now, intent is not impact, and I recognise that I was brusque, didn’t phrase things particularly sensitively, and absolutely did hurt some people by criticising the fandom so freely. I still regret this—and I regret just as much the fact that some assholes have used my criticising the fandom on my own blog as implicit justification for attacking authors. I have said on here many times that I don’t condone that behaviour—but I also think there’s some truth in the presumption that these anonymous malcontents felt my critiques somehow ‘permitted’ them to engage in abuse. For the first few months, though, I genuinely had no idea there was a link at all—and so I was initially slow to condemn this abusive behaviour in public, because I was taking it for granted all authors agreed it was shitty. It took someone directly telling me (shoutout to @a-froger-epic) that people had identified a connection between my posts and the anons, before everything fell into place.

I would like to offer my apologies to the fandom at large for not being more quick on the uptake about this, because I feel that had I realised sooner that these people were taking ‘inspiration’ in some way from me, it might have been easier to put a stop to it. It does seem that there is still a lot of confusion about whether I support them and which of their views I agree with. Let’s be 100% clear on this: I do not support the anonymous commenters on AO3. At times there is some, limited overlap between parts of their views and parts of mine, but even that is less than you may think—I often see anonymous comments from so-called ‘Freddie fans’ that I substantially disagree with.

Perhaps even more importantly: I do not support anyone who sends anonymous hate on Tumblr.

*

What’s all this about ‘overlap’ with the anons?

Let’s do a mini-summary of the myths vs. the truth. There are views I hold which are genuinely unpopular in the fandom—but which I own up to completely, and have never tried to hide in any way. I’ve never needed to use anonymous to share my opinions because I’m completely open about them! What people who don’t know me tend to have ‘heard’ about me, though, is usually a drastic distortion of my real opinions.

What people think I think:

- Freddie should never top.

- It’s okay to send anon hate if someone writes Freddie ‘wrong’.

- It’s more important to correct ‘wrong’ portrayals than to respect other writers.

- It’s inherently wrong to be more interested in band pairings than canon pairings.

- Freddie should be overtly written as a r*pe survivor/victim (and not doing this is wrong).

- Freddie should be overtly written as having an eating disorder (and not doing this is wrong).

- Kink fics are wrong.

What I actually think:

- I believe Freddie did have a strongly defined sexual identity with marked preferences, but I don’t think Jim Hutton lied when he said that Freddie topped. I believe Freddie did top, but this isn’t the time or place to get into my thoughts on why/when/how much. I do believe that my analysis of the sources relevant to this subject is as historically accurate as one can reasonably be in matters of sex (where historical accuracy will always be particularly limited and imperfect)—but I don’t think it’s morally wrong to write Freddie as topping more than he probably did.

- I don’t believe there’s only one ‘right’ version of Freddie (all others being ‘wrong’). I do believe it is possible to be more right or less right—but I’m also conscious of the fact that this scale of value is not one by which everyone measures fanfiction. As a result, then, I don’t think that any perceptions surrounding ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ justify sending anonymous, non-constructive criticism, or outright hate.

- I do believe constructive criticism is a good thing. I welcome and appreciate it myself; I have received it on my fics in Queen fandom, and it has made them better. I have been in writing workshops which included very forceful criticisms, and the value of such feedback has been intimately and immediately part of my life as a writer for years. However: in this case, I have accepted that my opinion differs from the general community preference, and so I no longer offer any constructive criticism (outside private beta-reading). I haven’t changed my view, but I’ve changed my practice to align with community norms.

- I do not think any single, individual writer has a personal responsibility to write about Freddie Mercury in any given way. That ranges from including the more distressing topics to which I’ve devoted attention (such as trauma)—to concentrating on ‘canon’ pairings like Jimercury—to, even, focusing on Freddie at all.

“Now, that doesn’t sound like you, @freddieofhearts,” you might be thinking. And I know it doesn’t; I think something I’ve done a poor job of articulating is the difference between how I view each individual fan—namely, as free to shape their creative experience at will, even in ways that I might find distressing or offensive; even in ways that you might find distressing or offensive—and the way I view the Collective. I think people have interpreted some of my critiques of ‘Queen Fandom’ as meaning something like: “You-in-particular, a specific Queen fan, are doing it wrong and should change everything about how you do it; also you don’t really care about Freddie.”

And—that’s not it. What any given fan, as an individual, does, isn’t a problem. And that can be true alongside—concurrently with—a multivalent critique of how the fandom is lacking in representation of Freddie’s life, with all that that (wonderful, deservedly celebrated, but also profoundly traumatic) life entailed. I still hold that view; I still have myriad problems with ‘the fandom’ (structurally, collectively, historically and presently—from the 1990s to the 2020s). Some of what I want to work on (away from the social life of fandom) is expressing those critiques with greater nuance, in ways that can’t be misinterpreted as shading any particular fanfiction author or subgenre of story.

In brief: I haven’t changed my mind, but I think Tumblr is an untenable environment in which to discuss the things I want to analyse, especially as there is an ever-present danger of hurting someone.

*

Can we keep in touch? Where is the fic?

I will drop by this account periodically to check out posts that friends have sent me, so you can always sent me a private message to ask for my contact details on the other app that I’m using now for fandom friends. Multiple Freddie conversations and projects are going on over there, off-Tumblr, with a much ‘gentler’ environment and no bad actors—I personally love it!

All my fic has been downloaded and saved. I don’t want to deal with constant harassment on AO3, but I’m happy to share a copy with anyone who missed it and wants to read/re-read something. I also saved everyone’s lovely comments and thoughtful con-crit, so none of that has been lost or erased.

Thank you to everyone who welcomed me to the fandom, made me think, taught me, shared with me, sent me into fits of the giggles, collaborated with me creatively, and otherwise made this one hell of a ride! Love you all. ❤️

[dramionediscussion]

Thanks Lisa and Anon for answering! I don’t think I really disagree with either of you. I think, we share quite similar views, or at least something quite close to each other. Those answers got me thinking, and gave me a lot of food for thought. It’s not exactly the first time, I’ve pondering this. It always happens, when I am trying to find AU Dramione fics (semi-regular occurrence. I especially enjoy regency Dramione, which compliments HP and the pairing marvelously. As I see it, HP is unconsciously reminiscent of and models certain aspects of wizarding world after Victorian and Edwardian Great Britain). I just cannot help myself with stuff like this.

I imagine, there aren’t many people who find something like this riveting to think about or discuss, so thank you for indulging me. After all, people get by splendidly, without ever considering what is the formal definition(s) of AU. In almost anything people can operate exceedingly well by just going with their their gut instincts (kind like, I know what AU is, when I see it serves people well).

I’ve seen roughly three different main interpretations for the term AU, each with some internal variations and nuances. Differences are mainly on how encompassing they are, as they tend to overlap and include each other, because they are formed from common basic principles. They are just applied differently, or more accurately it goes from broader to narrower, but broad definitions also include narrower ones.  

Also, there are more possible definitions, which could be derived from same principles, if one would on look at them entirely divorced from how they are actually used anywhere in the fandom. Just by looking at the word AU totally atomized, and then forming principle from it, and applying deductive-logic.

The first principle is canon divergence. Whatever AU is, it’s clearly related to divergence and alterations from canonical events, characterizations, and universe. The differences are mostly about how widely or narrowly this is applied. Sometimes also what exactly counts as canon, or what is believably canon compliant. The second principle seem to be avoiding redundancy, though this is applied a lot more randomly, and its usage seems to based mostly on conventions and popularity of certain tropes.

By redundancy I mean, that certain more commonly used tropes and descriptors often don’t use AU, because they are well-established terms by their own right, and they obviously by their own definitions are AUs. Like mentioned 8 Year, EWE, time travel, Marriage Law, creature fics like werewolves and veelas, and many others. Sometimes all non-canon pairings intrinsically are omitted in similar manner, but sometimes they are not. Like said, this seems to be more up to fandom conventions and mimesis, rather than applying logic rigidly from first principles.

By using these foundations, one could establish quite many similar but slightly different definitions, depending how HP universe / canon is understood. People seem to go with mostly with 2-4, but logically one could use 1 or 5 as well, but it’s impractical for other reasons. First one is broadest, and fifth is narrowest, and first includes all others within it, second everything except the first, and so on.

1. All fanfics are AUs. If HP universe / canon is understood very stridently as single chain of events and singular universe, which is authored only by JKR. Every fanfic forms its own universe, which will be slightly different from JKR’s one, by adding literary anything what wasn’t already in it. Even if a fic doesn’t contradict JKR directly in a knowable way, but it still won’t be the same, because we cannot know if events or characters would’ve taken that exact particular path, or if any description or characterization would exactly match the one true timeline and universe. We can only asses whether something is more believable or likely to happen in canon, but we cannot ever ultimately confirm them, because the final reference point is JKR’s works.

As an example, saying that Harry Potter drinks a cup of tea at Burrow at midday 2.10.2015 might not be exactly contradicted by anything in canon, but the event itself isn’t canonical, and it is contradicted by saying that Harry Potter drinks a cup of tea at Grimmauld Place at midday 2.10.2015. Both are equally true and likely to happen canonically, yet neither is canonical event. They are differing alternate universes, despite being about equally compatible with canon. If canon is understood as single non-contradictory universe with single timeline with exact properties, then all fanfic is AU.

2. All fics which diverge from or directly contradict canon are AUs. In this definition antonym for AU is canon compliant, and every fic can be classified as either AU or canon compliant. This is quite common definition out there. It certainly is workable and there’s nothing wrong in using it. However, like with all definitions it’s not entirely free of problems and ambiguity, especially how it’s applicable and to what it fits exactly. Some say that adding anything to already covered timeline is AU, even if it could believably happen between gaps not covered by canon. So, in order to not be AU, it has to set before or after HP heptalogy*. You could say, that we cannot know anybody else’s inner-voice or mindscape except Harry’s, thus anything written from any other perspective is AU.

Most people can agree that certain events are canon, and that’s fairly uncomplicated (Sirius dies at the end of OftP, Bill and Fleur have their wedding at Burrow, etc), but almost everything else gets quite murky very fast. So, if this definition includes anything beyond those canonical events, like characterizations, descriptions and mechanics of how HP universe functions exactly, then it can be fairly difficult to determinate whether a fic is AU or not. As almost everything except those canonical events are easily contested and ambiguous to being with. Usually there’s multiple equally plausible interpretations for almost anything not covered explicitly or in great detail in canon (sometimes even when they are covered extensively).

Personally, I am not too found of this definition. Not because aforementioned difficulties, but because it’s too broad and encompasses too much. All non-canon pairings are AU as an example is just too large portion of fanfics, because we only use AU in context of fanfics, thus it’s better that the terminology reflects and helps us to distinguish and categorize fanfics. Multitude of fanfiction has grown so much beyond canon, and spiraled so far and wide, that terminology which is so pivotally anchored to canon is more detrimental than helpful.   

3. All fics which diverge or contradict canon in some major or significant way are AUs. This is something I see used a lot, and I believe this definition of AUs was what the person in Dramioneasks was referring to. Typically this means absence of some major characters, such as Voldemort or Dumbledore, or that major canonical events are changed, such as Wizarding Wars are have starkly different outcomes, or that golden trio never became friends, or main characters are sorted into different houses. Also, widely different characterizations (Evil Harry or Hermione, or good Voldemort) are counted as well.  

I found this to be quite solid definition, and this is my personal threshold of what I consider to be AU. Ofc, its not unproblematic either, because what exactly counts as major or significant is very open-ended. There probably is very strong inter-subjective consensus on certain matters, like everybody probably agrees that Harry, Voldemort and Hermione are major characters without any doubt. Also, they’ll probably agree that Oliver Wood is a minor character, but what about Draco, Neville or Luna? How about if or when Harry joins the Gryffindor quidditch team. Does alterations in stuff like that count as AU? Can many minor changes create a cumulative effect, in which the fic in question is so different from canon universe, that despite no major changes, it should still count as AU, because so many little things are different.

Quite a lot of characters, details and events fall into that gray zone, so often it can be quite difficult to determinate AU by this definition, because so many things fall into that gray area of what is exactly significant change and what isn’t, and from what perspective. The only way to really determinate something like significance is an inter-subjective consensus by the fandom, and that might be either uncharted or too arbitrary for some people.

4. Only fics which change canon or the established universe in some foundational or fundamental way(s) are AUs. These are fics, which are not set in a same timeline at all (at the end of the 21th century UK), such as medieval, regency, prohibition, and they might only have slight parallels to canonical events. Also if some common defining elements such as presence magic or muggles are entirely absent, or changed beyond recognition (everyone’s magical, or nobody is, or muggles are aware of wizarding world, and actively hostile towards it). No Hogwarts at all, or the entire wizarding world is modeled differently, etc.

I see this used quite a lot as well, and these tend to be automatically labeled as AUs by almost everybody. It’s quite narrow and specific, thus it’s not very problematic, except it borders of being too narrow or rare to be really useful. Personally, this is mainly what I am seeking for, when I look for AUs, but I can see that it doesn’t cover enough ground for many. This is what I am primary thinking, when I see tag AU, but I can see why including previous definition is necessary. Problems are quite similar as in previous, the similar ambiguity of what is foundational or fundamental, like in beofre. But I believe there’s way more common ground and shared understanding with this one. It’s very rare to see a fic, which would qualify as something like this, but what isn’t described or labeled as AU.  

5. Only fics which change some determined core component(s) are AUs. This is merely taking similar logic one step further, and saying that some specific element(s) is absolutely crucial and at the core of HP (like the presence of magic), and as long as a fic fulfills that condition, it isn’t AU. Nobody actually uses this definition, but I added it as more as demonstration of logic and principle, and how it can be applied further, exactly like the first definition (logically totally sound and sensible, but empirically mindless and useless).

Ofc, one could use this logic even further to either direction. Sort of logic ad absurdum, to a point in which, either every Harry Potter text out there (even those published by JKR) are actually AUs. or nothing is. Already not everybody considers everything JKR has said or published as canon, and by restricting what counts as canon one could get to a point that nothing actually written is really canon (something like real canon is what JKR intended HP to be, but failed to accomplish by her writing). Or that only one particular fic counts as AU, or that no fanfics are AUs, because by labeling them HP fics in some manner is meaningful enough to consider them just as a re-interpretation of multifaceted canon.

The first and fifth definitions are closing into the absurd territory, and I’ve not seen anybody using them. Words are more than stiff logical proposition, and there’s other considerations, which sometimes overrides internal logical consistency (reasons relating to things like aesthetic, social, and utilitarian concerns). Like the first definition would be totally unproductive and redundant. AU is always used in the context of fanfiction, in order to distinguish different fics from each other, thus a term which contains all fanfiction is tautological and useless for that purpose. Also, too narrow or specific terms are not useful either, because they pile on unnecessary accurate and too specific information, which ends up distracting people by cluttering them with overabundance of details and needless complexity (human mind is nothing if not finite after all).

*What are canonical texts of HP is can of worms I am not touching. Most agreed consensus is probably that at least HP heptalogy is canon, so for purposes of this that’s what I am sticking by. There’s some differing opinions about CC, Fantastic Beasts, her online commentary, Pottermore stuff, interviews, and QAs. I’ve only met one person who didn’t consider the whole HP heptalogy as canonical (because he was convinced that books 5-7 were written by a ghost writer, and they didn’t count). Everything else seem to be quite disputed.

[skylerrroses-blog]

Should Adaptation Adhere to the Source Material: An Analysis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its Fandom

This essay intends on exploring the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s relationship to media theory, in particular the ideas of fidelity in adaptation through the lens of Bakhtin’s Heteroglossic Approach (Bakhtin, 1934) and fandom reception and interpretation generated by the films via Jenkins’ ‘Textual Poachers’ theory (Jenkins, 1992) and other such sources to demonstrate how both fidelity and non-fidelity are valid ways in which to consume media, whilst also illustrating the shortcomings of both methods, and how embracing a balance of both is important for fandoms.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a series of films produced by the Disney-owned Marvel Studios, a branch of Marvel Comics dedicated to creating films and TV shows adapted from the popular and long-running connected Marvel comic book universe. These comics have been written and printed since 1939 with the release of their first issue, ‘Marvel Comics no. 1’ dating back to October 1939. Since then, the comic company has developed and held a large and passionate fanbase of readers up until the modern day. Many film and television adaptations of these comic books were created from this original source material, but it wasn’t until 2008, when Marvel Studios released ‘Iron Man’ (Favreau, 2008), that the idea of a Cinematic Universe was truly realised on the silver screen.

Since ‘Iron Man’, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has grown from one film to twenty-three, and with this growth came an increase in worldwide appeal and profit, becoming the single highest grossing film franchise in the world, according to statistics website ‘The Numbers’. However, the original Marvel Comics fans have still persisted amongst this massive growth of fanbase, and due to the diverging paths the narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (henceforth to be referred to as the MCU) from the Marvel Comics Universe (henceforth to be referred to as ‘Marvel 616’, the name of the universe in the comics), the fandom began to compare and speculate on the MCU through the lens of Marvel 616, expecting and anticipating certain storylines to be adapted to film. However, this created a dialogue within the fandom questioning whether it was important for the films to adhere to the source material, or whether it was just as valid, if not more creative to change elements of the story to better suit the differing tone of the universe. For example, in Cosmonaut Variety Hour’s video “The Marvel Cinematic Universe - All Marvel Movies reviewed and Ranked (pt. 2)” (2018), he criticises ‘Captain America: Civil War’ (Russo’s, 2016) by directly comparing it to the comic story ‘Civil War’ (in Figure 1).

In this clip, he admits that he often attempts to distance the story of the comics from the story of the MCU, but in cases where he perceives the original material to be superior, he cannot separate the adaptation from its original source material.

This brings up an interesting question: is fidelity necessary and important in adaptation, particularly of the comic book medium to film. Fidelity in adaptation is the idea that adaptations should adhere as closely as possible to the source material of that adaptation to satisfy fans and properly honour the original story. An example of this done to an extreme degree is ‘Watchmen’ (Snyder, 2010) which was praised by fans as being a ‘comic book come to life’. This approach is quite safe in terms of fan response; however, it creates a more intense expectation of quality and fidelity in the final product.

The MCU, however, tends to stray from the source material, instead employing the ‘Heteroglossic Method’, a method coined by Mikhail Bakhtin in his book ‘Discourse in the Novel’ (Bakhtin, 1934). This method, employed by writers adapting material to other mediums, states that an adapted text that is reflected through the metaphorical lens of other creatives and creative visions will be different and reflect different themes and ideas of the story that may not have been explored in its original incarnation. The MCU heavily takes this route, as it veers away from the specific events and story beats of the Marvel 616 story, instead opting to tell their own story while adopting the familiar characters, locations, and broad plot structures of the source material.

This approach has become invariably successful, as while it portrays characters fans will recognise and latch onto, it creates its own story and world for the audience, fashioning its own identity outside that of its source material. In ‘Hunting the Dark Knight” (Brooker, 2012), Will Brooker analyses adaptation in the Batman universe by saying, “Nolan’s Batman movies were released into a complex network of existing, ongoing narratives, which continued during and after their cinematic exhibition. These narratives offered similar but distinct representations of the main character, his world, his history, and his supporting cast.” The idea of a separate distinct world that has similar and familiar elements to others running alongside can be reflected through the viewing of the MCU in relation to Marvel 616, as the latter of the two has continued through the 10+ year run of the MCU, with sales rising due to the films’ popularity. This distinct representation of these characters has resulted in a mixed opinion among fans of Marvel 616.

In Figure 2 by Twitter user @moonlillies, they criticise the MCU iteration of superhero Hawkeye by directly comparing him to his Marvel 616 counterpart and criticising the differences in his character. In contrast, below is a tweet from user @ParkerBMovies (Figure 3), who expresses their preference for the MCU iterations of the characters, claiming they “are the best incarnations of the characters, even better than the comics.”

This large variation in opinion between individuals within the fandom is only natural due to the sheer size of fandom groups on the internet on sites and forums such as Twitter or reddit, but the existence of a discourse around this topic paints the idea of fidelity in an interesting light, as it portrays fidelity and heteroglossia as both inherently neutral and up to interpretation of the individual and is therefore subjective to the individual.

However, another element of the fandom is anti-fans. Anti-fans, which are the topic of Jonathon Gray’s article “New Audiences, New Textualities: Anti-Fans and Non-Fans” (Gray, 2003), are a group of non-fans who consume certain media in order to criticise it and express their vitriol towards it. A Twitter user with the display name ‘milo’ in Figure 4 below criticises a sect of Marvel 616 stans (a term for super-fans) who deem themselves better than MCU stans “because they read the comics”, while also stating “not everyone has access to comics. Not anyone has the money to buy them”.

The concept that this Twitter user is criticising overlaps with the academic journal “

Modelling the Marvel Everyfan: Agent Coulson and/as Transmedia Fan Culture” (Scott, 2017), in which the author, Suzanne Scott, analyses the transmedia franchising model that the MCU developed, and how this franchising model is to the benefit of the ‘everyfan’, a concept that implies that the majority of fans are an “avid consumer, collector and completionist”. This concept fundamentally benefits middle-class male-driven methods of fan engagement and ignores other methods that are more commonly employed by women or minority groups. This imbalance in the fandom can create animosity between its members

due to a perceived superiority of Marvel 616 by some sects of fans due to the MCU being an adaptation.  This shows an inherent bias for some who prefer the original material as they can often be influenced by nostalgia and may not be able to see the strengths of adapted material. Due to the subjective nature of the topic, the preference to older material is acceptable, however many view the putting down of other fans due to their own preferences as veering into the ideology of anti-fans, and so heavily discouraged within the fandom.  Another concept within fandom that is important when talking about the MCU is the idea of ‘Textual Poachers’, a term coined by Henry Jenkins in “Textual Poachers: Television fans and participatory culture” (Jenkins, 1992) that describes a certain group of fans who take the existing material of the text, and in this case the films, and builds off of it with their own creative ideas and stories; this can include art, fanfiction and fan films. This fan-created content in an important factor to consider whilst analysing adaptation through the lens of fandom, as fanfiction and fan content is its own form of informal adaptation that is consumed by the fandom itself. Due to its widespread appeal within the fandom thanks to its quicker production, higher quantity, and relatively easy distribution along with its often free cost, fanfiction and fan content is viewed and consumed much more readily by the fandom, and therefore expectations of quality and potential content are formed in the eyes of the fan.

These pieces of fan content can often be inspired by events from Marvel 616, as there is far more potential content to draw from, even when in the context of the MCU, which creates a set of desires for where fans want to see the actual story go. Since expectations are set, they can often not be met by the films in the MCU being underwhelming or simply not playing out how people may have hoped. Therefore the MCU is further compared to Marvel 616 as an inferior adaptation of the original source material. However, this building of expectations can also be very enriching and exciting to many fans, as being validated by the films can be a very positive experience.

This is often the case with pairings known as ‘ships’, where people speculate for romantic relationships between two characters and voice their support in favour of them becoming a couple in the narrative. Often, however, these ships are not validated, and some fans tend to become passionate when their pairings do not come true. For example, in Figure 5 below the user @CROWLEYBEANS criticises the MCU on how their favoured pairing, “Stucky” (a romantic relationship between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes), was not canonical because of its nature as a non-heterosexual couple. In fandom, seeking representation through media is exceedingly common, as observed again in “Textual Poachers: Television fans and participatory culture” (Jenkins, 1992), where Jenkins studies the fanfiction created by fans of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ (Roddenberry, 1966-1967) that pair Captain Kirk with his crewmate Spock. In this, he speaks on how fandoms can often create their own representation through the interpretation of media to feel as though they have a voice and an identity that can be seen in the media that they watch and look up to. These fans would argue that adhering to potential source material is not always the best story option, as it deprives the text of representation that could have a positive impact on fans and straying from the original material for adaptation can be advantageous for the overall quality.  

The fandom that has developed around the MCU encompasses many types of fans due to its sheer size, such as Marvel 616 fans, avid consumers of all content, MCU-exclusive fans, fans on a casual level, and so forth. This means the fandom itself cannot truly come to a unified consensus about fidelity in adaptation from Marvel 616 to the MCU, however a concrete measure of success for the MCU can be seen in the general size of the fandom, along with its popularity in modern pop culture. The unequivocal success of the MCU lends to the idea that regardless of fidelity in adaptation, so long as the adaptation in question is enjoyable and presents interesting characters and a compelling narrative, a fandom will generate around it to support and consume it. As a consumer of the MCU member of its fandom, I am sympathetic to those who seek representation through media as I often find representation from similar social groups to mine in mainstream media to be important for many fans, including myself. In terms of adaptation, I am not insistent on fidelity, as I believe that many of the stories told in the MCU are better than many of the stories within Marvel 616 due to being far more character driven over spectacle. As a consumer, I am happy with the direction the MCU is taking in terms of narrative, however I would appreciate more representation as it is an important aspect of the films for the fandom surrounding it. In conclusion, fidelity in media is a valid way of consuming media due to a connection to the source material, however it is also important to embrace the heteroglossic approach when consuming media such as the MCU, as creatives seek to tell their own stories through adaptation and fans may desire other forms of representation through stories that were not originally present.     

Word Count: 2,208                            

References: 

Bakhtin, M., 1934. Discourse in the Novel. Austin and London: University of Texas Press

Jenkins, H., 1992. Textual poachers: television fans and participatory culture. New York: Routledge.

Brooker, W. 2012. Hunting the Dark Knight: Twenty-First Century Batman. New York: I.B. Tauris

The Numbers, 2020. Movie Franchises [online]. California: Nash Information Services LLC. Available from: https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchises [Accessed 1 June 2020]

Cosmonaut Variety Hour, 2018. The Marvel Cinematic Universe – All Movies Reviewed and Ranked (Pt. 2)[video, online]. Youtube. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUl7y9qNZqQ&t=1843s [Accessed 28 May 2020]

Cox, G. & Steinberg, B., 2017. Comic Book Sales Fly on the Capes of Hit Movies, TV Shows [online]. California: Variety. Available from: https://variety.com/2017/film/news/comic-book-sales-superhero-movies-1202499029/ [Accessed 1 June 2020]

Rosy Maple Moth Stan Account, 2019. Clint having a family in the mcu. Twitter moonlillies [online]. 8 February 2019. Available from: https://twitter.com/moonliIIies/status/1093881781147836418?s=20 [Accessed 28 May 2020]

Parker B, 2018. Hot Take. Twitter ParkerBMovies [online]. 8 December 2018. Available from: https://twitter.com/ParkerBMovies/status/1071226507123703808?s=20 [Accessed 28 May 2020]

Gray, J., 2003. New audiences, new textualities: Anti-Fans and non-fans. International journal of Cultural studies [online]. 6(1), 64-81.

Milo, 2019. comic stans that think theyre better than mcu stans. Twitter fuckclub [online]. 17 December 2019. Available from: https://twitter.com/fuckcIub/status/1207086328778756096?s=20 [Accessed 28 May 2020]

Scott, S., 2017. Modelling the Marvel Everyfan: Agent Coulson and/as Transmedia Fan Culture. Palabra Clave [online]. 20(4): 1042-1072

blacklivesmatter, 2018. If Steve or Bucky was a woman. Twitter CROWLEYBEANS [online]. 9 May 2018. Available from: https://twitter.com/CROWLEYBEANS/status/994314360171397122?s=20

[kineticallyanywhere]

Lets make some AU terminology

Disclaimer

I cannot possibly go over, mention, or hit, every single type of AU out there. I only hope to generate and/or explain some terms and invite the creation of more. Some of the ones I've ended up with here are: genre, trope, home grown, canon divergent, toss the canon, butterfly effect, reality twist, classic crossover, transplant crossover, framework, hog wild, character fodder, and world fodder.

Okay here we go

The Genre AU

A genre, or genre-bending, AU is an AU which takes the characters of a given canon and transfers them to a generic or original setting based on a specific genre. These are most commonly fantasy AUs, sci-fi AUs, or modern (realistic fiction) AUs. These AUs may or may not retain many or most of the original canon's story beats and plot elements. Often, however, these elements are translated through the lens of the new genre to take a new shape. For example, a character who's original fantasy story and saw themselves locked in a tower with a dragon, may find themselves in a modern AU with an overly protective parent who's installed way too many parental controls on their computer, phone, or living space. 

A subcategory of the genre AU is the trope AU. These are some of the most common AUs, which take the characters of a given canon and move them into a well-established environment. (Note: this environment is not created by another canon property. Those are considered a type of crossover.) These include coffee shop AUs, high school AUs, or soulmate AUs, and fusion AUs (more on this last one later). 

The Home Grown AU

These are AUs which alter a story or character canon based on ideas or headcanons unique to the canon it alters.  There are two major categories of this:

First is the canon divergent AU. This AU follows canon story lines up to a specific point, where it branches into a new string of events based on certain events playing out differently than they did in the original canon. This could be based on a character making a different decision, or a previous plot element no longer existing, or a new plot element being introduced. Longer canon divergent AUs either toss the canon series of events out the window for something entirely new; or become a kind of experiment on the butterfly effect, reaching similar canon plot beats but in different orders, with different results, and/or to different emotional effect. 

The second category is the reality twist AU. These AUs change a fundamental aspect of the canon world and let a story play out based on that change. These could include characters being born under different circumstances, or powers and authorities functioning in fundamentally different ways. Maybe there's a fifth Hogwarts house, or maybe a magical girl's powers hurt to use, or maybe Green Lanterns all permanently turn green. The world is at your fingertips. 

Crossover AUs

There are two different categories of crossovers, and we're going to start this section by having a short naming party about them, because one of them doesn't really have a name and the other's name conflicts with a specific type of AU which is referred to by the same name. 

The first one's easy, I'll be calling them classic crossovers.

The second category is traditionally called the fusion AU BUT because "fusion AU" also refers to a specific type of trope AU, we'll be having a short interlude here.

Fusion AUs

In 2013, a show called Steven Universe premiered. While it can't take the original credit for the concept or the idea (I don’t know what can, though I hear Transformers has a similar concept), Steven Universe popularized the concept of two characters being able to merge their minds and bodies into a single, new, individual. AUs which incorporate this idea of characters being able to do this do not always incorporate the mechanics by which Steven Universe goes about it, and therefore I classify fusion AUs of this kind as trope AUs, unless explicitly put in the Steven Universe universe. When a fusion AU comes up in conversation without clarification, in modern fan-talk, a typical interpretation is that this is the kind of AU being talked about. 

However, "fusion AU" has, for much longer, been a term used to refer to a certain kind of crossover AU. These crossovers take characters from canon A and transplant them into canon B. For the sake of clarity, moving forward, I will be calling this category of AU (the second category of crossover AU, as mentioned above) transplant AUs. 

With that out of the way, we can go into greater detail. 

Classic Crossovers

The first category I will be calling the classic crossovers. These are the kinds you typically get out of TV shows and movies. In classic crossovers, story-lines and characters stay within their own individual canon and then meet another's canon on the same level. This can happen through the two worlds existing in the same setting all along, or through travel between two universes in a connected multiverse. Classic crossovers include the likes of the Avengers movies, or DCTV's CW crossover events, or some of those classic Disney Channel crossovers. Details of how these two worlds could exist in the same space may be glossed over, or pieced together where they overlap in order to fit the same space, but neither of these options fundamentally alter the canon. 

My own crossover fanfic, Heroes Under Drinking Age, is a classic crossover because it combines the worlds of the shows without altering the initial stories that their canon presented. 

Transplant Crossovers

As mentioned before, transplant AUs involve taking characters from one canon (canon A) and transplanting them into another (canon B). The types of transplant AUs discussed in this section have canon A's characters replace canon B's characters as the focus of the story. There are two kinds of basic transplant AUs: the framework AU, and what I affectionately call the hog wild AU. 

In a framework AU, the characters being transplanted from canon A take on the same rolls as the characters originally inhabiting canon B. This results in canon B's major characters being put to the side or eliminated. If you're making a framework AU, you'll ask yourself questions like "Which of the Harry Potter trio best embodies Luke Skywalker? Who, at that point, would be Leia? Who would be Han?" et cetera, et cetera. A framework AU will largely stay true to the plot beats of canon B, however a framework AU could just as easily go off the rails from the initial line up of characters and venture to new territory based on the new characters involved. At this point, the AU begins to resemble the second kind of transplant AU. 

A hog wild AU does not care to line up character roles from one canon to another. Major events of canon B's world may still take place, but the insertion of canon A's characters do not match up with canon B's original cast, and may consequently alter the world in new ways. Hog wild AUs treat canon B's set up as a playground for canon A's characters to explore, and to allow those characters to be explored in a new way by the author. In this way, these AUs share much in common with generic genre AUs, but the inclusion of a secondary setting with it's own canon solidifies the crossover classification. 

A hog wild AU may or may not eliminate canon B's characters entirely. If they do not, canon B's characters are far out of sight and do not appear within the new story. Transplant stories which include canon B's characters fall under another category,

Classic-Transplant

At the middle of the spectrum between classic and transplant AUs is another type of AU we can call the classic-transplant AU. These AUs transplant characters from canon A to canon B, but retain the characters and story of canon B. Maybe canon A's characters go through the story alongside canon B's characters. Maybe canon B's characters make minor appearances, implying that the new story with canon A's characters is influencing canon B's story. Either way canon B is not fundamentally disrupted by the inclusion of canon A’s characters.

The Fodder Effect

While I'm here I want to talk about a concept I've considered while thinking about transplant AUs: that is, good canon ends up becoming either character fodder or world fodder. 

Character fodder refers to canon which presents characters that are fun, well-rounded, and easy to move from world to world. Canon which can be considered character fodder is largely a matter of taste, but can generally be spotted by the size of the fandom and how prolific that fandom's spread of transplant AUs is. 

World fodder refers to a canon which presents a world which is so well-structured, fun, and inventive, that it's easy to transplant characters from anther canon into it's set-up. World fodder stories are easier to spot, as transplant AUs which use a world fodder canon's world as a model can be found across many, many, completely unrelated fandoms. The most popular world fodder story is probably Harry Potter, given that it has it's own AU title: the Hogwarts AU. Other examples would be Star Wars, or the Hunger Games. 

In Conclusion

This could obviously get even more complicated and I've probably missed a major category somewhere. Hopefully this can at least create some level of ease of talking about AUs, either when describing them to someone or when attempting to build one with someone an wanting to pick a category you feel the most comfortable writing from. For example, I do most crossovers as transplant AUs. From there I usually choose a framework style and refrain from going too hog wild with it. In other words, I tend to enjoy true framework transplant AUs. In canon divergent AUs, I also tend to prefer butterfly effect stories rather than tossing the canon entirely. In other words, butterfly effect canon divergence.

I hope this can be helpful for future AU discussion!

[phoenixyfriend]

I should add in that there's also the element of balancing out what is canon in a vacuum and what is canon in a way that is insulting to real-world populations. Like... part of why I want to take a good faith reading of the Jedi whenever possible is because, very often, the ways in which they're called 'problematic' are actually just... objectively neutral traits that are shared with Religions That Are Not American-Neutral-Christianity.

Like... I'm not the best person to talk about it, definitely, but there are plenty of posts on tumblr by people who can better talk about how canon and fanon both approach the traits Jedi have in common with Buddhism or Taoism with a very Western, very negative take... even if those things are, on their own, not actually negative things?

It's an extension of the whole "call the Jedi a cult because they're collectivist, even if there are no actual cult traits at play" thing.

We just... obviously everyone approaches things differently and with different lenses, and we all have our own way of viewing things (e.g. I know my approaches to Mandalorian politics in particular are very niche), but part of why I want to take an approach to Jedi that's positive and hands them as much leeway for context as I do is that... so much of the negativity feels racist.

So we balance out:

canon racism (by George Lucas)

semi-canon racism (by various Legends authors)

fandom racism (largely by Western fans)

harm reduction as a philosophy and practical approach to duty

mindfulness as an approach to mental health management (among many)

their inability to help a man that aggressively does not want to be helped, and is being manipulated from the outside by a malicious third party

Anakin's biased POV is also the main POV

the Jedi often lacking information that we have as the audience

the very 'this is for children' writing of the animated shows, and the very rushed, very 'this is for children' writing of the Jedi Apprentice novels, which often oversimplify political concepts or plots or philosophies to make them understandable to a younger audience - this overlaps a lot with the 'authors had an intent but weren't necessarily competent with writing that intent'

the impossible situation of the war that Palpatine has engineered for them, deliberately set for them to never be able to make the right decision, because there never was a right decision, and to not choose the lesser evil was to condemn innocent people to death by their own inaction

I cannot emphasize enough how much of the 'Jedi weren't good' takes rest on a refusal to recognize that not taking the moral high ground was them trying to save as many lives as possible:

diplomacy wouldn't work because Palpatine was blocking it from happening (and to my understanding, the Jedi were not the only ones attempting diplomacy, and it just got shot down by Palpatine or Dooku or another battlefield atrocity every time because the Sith benefited from the war continuing)

if they don't take the clones, the Republic would assign them natborn officers (who wouldn't keep as many clones alive as Jedi, if only because they don't have superpowers, even if they aren't actively dismissive of their personhood)

if they take the clones and run away from the war, they're abandoning countless planets to things like the Blue Shadow Virus and Defoliator - they already know that Dooku is a Sith Lord and, by that information, he is liable to approve actions by his armies that the Republic wouldn't agree to - many of the clones want to be fighting this war, and removing them from the war against their will, even by Jedi, would require force, and deprogramming their indoctrination so they can make that choice of their own free will would take time they do not have - drafting an army of natborns would take time as well, and at that point we circle back around to 'abusing millions of clones vs killing or leaving to enslavement possibly billions of sentients', which isn't a matter of 'are the clones people' but of just numbers

if you take the moral high ground and cause more harm than you prevent, it's not the moral high ground, so just saying 'no, we can't use the clones as war slaves' doesn't work - I do not believe the Jedi were happy or even complacent with using the clones, but weren't able to find a better option because, again, billions of potential civilian deaths - Again, what we know about the Jedi's reaction to slavery in current canon is that, when they have the ability and option, they do choose to interfere (Quinlan in TPM, the Zygerria mission), but don't have the resources to do more, especially during the war

More things that were originally above the cut but I decided to move down here:

bringing in children who are too young to choose, leaving this major life decision to their parents, which is often seen as taking children against their will

some of the most controversial elements (e.g. the age limit for padawanship) are only ever mentioned in one book or comic, and are directly contradicted in other, more canon shows or books, but the controversial element is Spicier and so gains traction

I don't even know how to describe 'biased takes by authors in regards to things that are not inherently racist' but this post about Filoni's approach to including Satine being dismissive of aro/ace people is a good example of unintentional messages by creators (even if it doesn't have anything to do with Jedi being good/bad, it's a good example of what I'm trying to say)

the biggest Jedi crimes are often done under extreme circumstances or are only ever done by the disaster lineage and not by more traditional Jedi (I'm thinking about how most characters use mind tricks to try to get information about brain worms or to get into secure Separatist facilities, while Obi-Wan just uses it to make Sleazebaggano leave him alone)

subconscious fandom misogyny painting things (e.g. Luminara's very contained reactions to Barriss being in danger aren't her being cold, but her coping differently from Anakin... who is a biased 20yo and so accuses her of not caring, which portions of fandom takes as fact)

When it comes to Jedi crit, I feel like there's a lot of 'intentionally picking the least kind reading' and 'bending the canon to suit your desires' rather than 'interpreting the character actions through the lens of what the creators were trying to say, even if they weren't very good at saying it.'

And in the case of the animated shows or Jedi Apprentice books, not enough 'this was written for 12yos and should be interpreted with the understanding that the 'reality' was likely far more complex or subtle than what is shown on screen.

It's like... I think a lot of of the critical commentary has a handful of biases going in wanting the Jedi to be bad for the crime of being boring, you know? The idea of 'they're doing their best for the circumstances, and likely do not have the resources to do all things they'd like to do' and 'some of what they do is heavily influenced by risk awareness in the moment, or awareness that they don't have enough information to do things safely' and 'they made choices based on harm minimization because the moral high road would have killed significantly more people' is just... not taken into account often enough?

IDK I feel like it shouldn't be this controversial to say 'the Jedi, as both individuals and a community, did their best for the impossible situation the Sith put them in, and their best wasn't enough.'

[porcelaindagger]

since this won’t show in the tags from the actual blog

After speaking with some people privately, I had been under the impression that I had been doing a good enough job keeping my head down, minding my own business, and not making a fuss, but it’s evident that this is not the case. I have been back in the community for about a year now as Elle, and since then I have made every effort to use this new alias as an opportunity to turn over a new leaf, make a new start, and be an unobtrusive and altogether quiet presence in the community. I came back simply to write – not to make a fuss or make waves, and I was open and honest about my identity and my past mistakes with those who came to me to ask, and have a small group of people who know that I am Beth, who have known for quite some time now. It was not my intention to “fool” anyone by returning under a different alias, but to exercise the change that I’d implemented in my own life and to show both myself and those who I’d so horribly hurt in the past that I have changed, and that it is possible for people to change for the better. I think the fact that I’ve flown under the radar until now is decent proof that I am not the person I was a year ago; a year ago, I would have gone absolutely nuts in the face of the PSA that’s floating around, and I would have lashed out with irreparable damage – we all saw it happen last time, and it’s because of that that I was so determined not to do it this time. I understand completely why people would not want to be close to me given what I’ve done in the past; I lied, I talked about people behind their back, I pretended to be someone else to hide from what I’d done, I spread slanderous lies about someone who had been nothing but a dear friend to me, and I kept that same friend’s group from receiving the love and praise it deserved simply because I was bitter, paranoid, and malicious in my mindset. I was in a horrid place and going through a downward spiral in which I could not recover from – and though I knew I could not recover, I lashed out and pulled people down with me simply because it was the only option my toxic mindset gave me. I wrecked people who I’d considered family, who’d followed me through hell, high water, and two roleplay groups which ended with my complete meltdown. It was all building up from mistakes I’d made, even before that – in 2013, I copied things from a drabble someone had written; in 2015, I encouraged a friend to write a PSA about another friend simply because I felt that they were drifting from me, and I was so selfish and paranoid that I just couldn’t handle it. I was immature, and felt as if I didn’t have to own up to my mistakes, but as I see the error of hiding from this all and hoping that it’ll just blow over, I think that it’s time for me to put it out there. I was Wesley, I was Beth, and this blog was supposed to be Elle – the new leaf. Elle would never start a positivity blog, only to filter the messages; Elle would never send nasty messages; Elle would never vague blog; Elle would never strongarm someone out of playing the same character; and Elle would certainly never steal, though Beth once thought she could get away with it, and owned up to it.

In my personal life, the last semester has been an absolute trainwreck, and this blog, in my own corner with a small collective of people who I’d told, and in the roleplay groups that I’d chosen to join, was an oasis, and I am incredibly proud of the progress and of the changes that I’ve made in my life, as reflected by my unobtrusive and quiet presence in the RPC. I’ve done my best to be nothing but positive – and those who I’ve found myself close to can attest to that. I never thought of this attempt at a positive new start as an attempt to “trick” anyone with friendship and kindness, and I am so sorry that it’s come across as that, or as anything even remotely underhanded. I hoped that by being Elle and by starting over I could somewhat start to make right the wrong I’d done when I was Beth, and by being kind to those I’d wronged in any way I could, I thought that I was. I never intended for any of this to become a question of lies, victim shaming, or anything of the sort – I was just trying to keep my head down, and mind my own business. I’d even become close friends with one of the people I’d wronged in the past, proving to them that I’d changed before they even knew who I was, and I spoke to another, leaving things on what I assumed was a peaceful note. Perhaps it was a mistake to apply for a character that I’d played so often while I was using my old alias – but I never thought that it would start the wildfire that it did, since I’d been nothing but supportive in doing it. If anyone would like to message me privately, and not anonymously, to discuss the things that I have done, I would be more than willing to do so openly and frankly at my new url, which was created not to hide but to post fandom content rather than rp content without clogging up anyone’s dash.

I do, however, wish to address the claims of plagiarism that have been floating around, as this may be the only chance I have to do so. I understand that everyone’s concerns have merit; I have been a horribly sketchy person in the past, but the claims that are going around now are ones I hold issue with, and I’d like to address them here. Firstly, I’ll start with the claim that I plagiarized an OC from the group I used to run, Fidite Nemini. The character in question is named Holly – I don’t even remember the OC’s last name. A wonderful OC, written by a wonderful person; perhaps the best OC I ever had the pleasure of writing with. But the fact that I also have two characters named Holly is now being called plagiarism, and with this I take issue. First, I have Holly Blanchard, named as such for Holly Golightly. I’ll link her biography HERE. Second is a character in another roleplay that I ran named Holly Gilmore, who was named as such for the plant reference, and because I was going through a heavy Gilmore Girls phase at the time of writing her. Her bio is HERE. I cannot link you to the bio of the OC simply because I deleted the Fidite Nemini main and have no way of finding it. I don’t know where it is, I don’t know what her last name is; the only similarities between these characters is the fact that they’re named Holly and that they’re generally nice, sweet people. I can see how, upon first glance, having a character named Holly might raise some eyebrows, but upon actually reading the bios, it is quite clear that there is no other overlap.

I was also accused of stealing things from the person who played Bellatrix in my group – I cannot link anything here since the Fidite Nemini main has been deleted, but I used, in applying for a Marauders group recently, the bio that I, as an admin, had written as a jumping off point for an application. I’d gone through the old player’s blog to find the biography that I’d written since the main was deleted and I hadn’t saved anything for my own use, and I understand how that must have looked, but had I not deleted everything I could when I left Tumblr the first time. I’d be happy to dig through my google docs and link the application that I’d written up in this post, but I regrettably cannot access the Fidite Nemini bio anymore, or I would. The person who played Bellatrix at Fidite Nemini is, without question, one of the greatest writers I’ve ever had the pleasure of collaborating with, and I must say that it would be very obvious had I stolen from them, as their writing truly stands alone.

I would now like to address the claims that I stole a fair bit of characterization from the user who wrote the PSA about me. I’ll start by saying that yes, I did pin a few of their pins on Pinterest (but I went to a lot of Pinterest boards to create my own), and we have reblogged some of the same things – were I to remain a large presence in the RPC, I would make a point not to reblog musing from anywhere but inspo blogs to avoid this. But I must raise some issue with the claim that I stole a headcanon about sunflowers, a headcanon about running/athleticism, and a FC. I use flower symbolism in a fair number of my applications and characters, and this particular headcanon was written when I read the ProFlowers description of what sunflowers meant (in fact, at the time I was buying flowers for my grandmother, whose birthday I had forgotten, and thought sunflowers might be nice according to the description). I’ll link the headcanon HEREas it includes a link to the article. The running/athleticism headcanon is twofold – the graphic linked HERE is from a quiz which many people in the tag were using, and was therefore not my own doing. But I had put some stock in the character’s athleticism, since it’s both canon that she’d have to be athletic, and because the character is suffering, in the plot, from severe PTSD. It is often recommended to sufferers of PTSD, like myself, and like my combat veteran father, to put much of their anxiety into athleticism, as linked in the headcanon HERE. I put a lot of myself into my characters, and I thought that, as I am dealing with my own battle with PTSD, it would be appropriate to make a point of expanding upon it in the development of a character who very clearly has it. This is not copied and pasted from any blog, nor was it written in an attempt to mimic anyone else’s portrayal. And to insinuate that I am stealing simply because there is overlap in the usage of two face claims is also up for question – I will admit that I did take an interest in Lindsey Morgan as the character because the author of the PSA used her, and I commend you for your excellent FC choice. But the second mentioned, Deborah Ann Woll, is merely a coincidence, and I must take issue with the idea that face claims are exclusive.

In the PSA, it linked things from my old Alice blog that I’d recycled because I am who you all now know I am – were I trying to hide, I wouldn’t have done that. I’d have never been so obvious. I was too optimistic, I suppose, in that I’d kept my head down enough to play this character again, and I truly am so sorry for making you all uncomfortable, and for making you all feel as if I was trying to be devious by going under another alias. All I was doing was trying to mind my own business – and that is what I’m doing now, by turning my writing blog into a simple fandom blog. I’m even further in my corner now, and though I have no intention of leaving my corner, I thought it appropriate to leave this here as both an admittance of everything I’ve done, and a defense of the new character that I’ve built for myself. I understand that the PSA was made to warn people about someone horrible – but I’m not that person anymore. I have nothing but remorse for what I’ve done to those I’ve hurt, and I will never stop regretting the friendships that I destroyed. I considered so many of you my family, and I hurt you. It’s irreparable, and I will never ever stop trying to be a better person because of it. All I wanted was to turn over a new leaf, and to have fun writing with those I could reconnect with, and I apologize from the bottom of my heart for drudging up old hurts. I never want to hurt any of you again, and I never plan to. If anyone wishes to come talk to me about this, so I can explain and own up further, or if you would like a direct apology, I’m now at arhwen. I hope you’re all well, and finish out 2017 well, too.

[kuuderekun]

Most critics of fiction seem to believe strongly in Nuture over Nature.

Most critics of fiction seem to believe strongly in Nuture over Nature. 

You may or may not know that within the world of psychology there is an ongoing debate about why people are the way they are, called Nature vs Nurture.  Are we who we are because of what we've experienced, starting with how we were raised? or is that simply how our Brains are wired?  Or is it a combination of both?

And even though most people take that third option, they still want to debate whether it tips one way or the other.

But the way fiction is critiqued seems to show a clear bias towards Nurture from critics and anyalists.  Now in fairness this largely starts with how many successful and influential writers have clearly strongly advocated for Nurture in their writing, and their writing is what many critics are taught as examples of how it should be.

This kind of overlaps with the over reverence for Deconstructions.   Which come from the philosophy that certain unconventional character traits can only be the result of some kind of trauma or abuse.

This is part of why I'm so often at a disconnect with critics.  I'm seeing people criticize something I like by saying "they never explain why these characters are this way".  Or praising something that I feel wasted to much time on backstory by saying "It's so great to see this character trait being given an explanation for a change".

Though perhaps it's unfair for me to bring this debate into it.  Because even if I fully agreed with Nuture over Nature I'd still be like "THAT'S NOT WHAT THIS STORY IS ABOUT, WAIT FOR THE DAMN PREQUEL!!!!".

In fact given my history of praising Prequels as an art form, you might be surprised to see me be so critical of the Nuture argument.  But the Prequels I like reflect a decent balance between Nuture and Nature.   Anakin Skywalker was influenced by his experiences, but he did not start out a blank slate.

And then there is Lupin III The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.  What I love about this Prequel is how it starts out seeming like your generic Deconstruction, "obviously a woman would only behave like a Femme Fatale if she was horribly victimized" to in the end say, "NOPE, she was like that all long, deal with it".

I watched a video on YouTube praising how Lucky Star deals with familial relations.

Lucky Star is one of my favorite Animes, and I do like how it depicts all it's relationships, so for that I like and recommend the video.

But this video also expresses an annoyance at how other High School set Animes write around the parents (western shows will also do this, "Out of Town" is a meme in the PLL fandom).  I have always been fine with that, a tv show only shows us 20-40 minutes a week of the characters lives.  When I was in school I had no friends and still spent way more time then that away from my parents.  The parents aren't who I watch Cute Girl shows for, in fact I like them best when it's possible to imagine that the male gender doesn't even exist.  (Yet SciFi stories explicitly based on that premise tend to bore and disappoint me.)

This video and even more so it's comments talk about how important it is to show how our families shape who we are.  And that annoys me, who I am can't be logically explained by my parents.  My ideology doesn't resemble theirs enough to say I simply became them, but isn't opposite to theirs enough to say I'm just rebelling.

But this is at it's most annoying when it's applied to the Anime Tsundere, where I see comments like "the tsundere schtick is handled well when the trope is treated like a mental hangup bordering on mental illness."-a YouTuber calling themselves Char Azanbel.

You see I've paid enough attention to the world to know that the Tsundere isn't unique to Anime.  It can be traced back to Shakespeare at least.  Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing describes Beatrice's feelings for Benedick thusly:

By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it but that she loves him with an enraged affection: it is past the infinite of thought.

Skye Sweetnam had a song called Tangled Up In Me where she was basically singing about being a Tsundere.  That whole common idea you've heard that if a girl was picking on you on the playground it probably means she likes you, is exactly what the Tsundere is based on.  It's only become so well categorized in Anime because we Otaku obsess over categorizing everything.

It is common in fiction because it is a damn near universal experience. We've all been a Tsundere towards something at some point, before I started writing blogs I would hide much of the fiction I enjoyed.   Frankly I think Digibro is a Tsundere towards Sword Art Online, I think secretly he loves it, but can't admit that to himself because it breaks those writing school rules he worships.

So Asuka from Evangelion keeps getting praised as the best written Tsundere. I was unable to find her likeable regardless of her backstory, and that's as someone who's bias is always to favor the female characters.  So I get sick of seeing Asuka praised for being Traumatized, while Rin Tohsaka is considered just a visual novel cliche by "educated" critics. And Kagami ignored for being from an Anime that isn't story driven at all, but that's what I like about Lucky Star.

What amuses me most however.  Is when these critics who are generally just as Liberal as I am are applying this Nuture bias to every character trait but sexual orientation.  But remain deeply offended at any suggestion that Homsoexuals aren't born that way.  My position on being "born that way" or not is first that it should be irrelevant towards Gay Rights, or whether they are viewed as human beings, or whether it's a Sin or not (I strongly believe it is not). But I firmly agree we can't control who we're attracted to, but that goes right down to an individual basis. And every sexual preference I have also has it's exceptions, from gender to hair color.

[jesatria]

The Other Princeps, Chap 39

Title: The Other Princeps Fandom: Codex Alera Characters: Aquitainus Attis, Amara, Antillus Raucus, Ensemble Pairings: past!Attis/Invidia, slight past!Attis/Septimus, Attis/OCs Word Count: 3,273 Rating: R Summary: In which Attis’s confrontation with Invidia during the Battle of Riva goes better for him. AU. WIP. Warnings: Massive spoilers for First Lord’s Fury. Disclaimer: I do not own the Codex Alera. This is only for fun & no profit is being made from it. Previous Chapters

Chapter 39: The New Alera

         Time passed.

         The Realm healed.

         My children grew.

         When spring came again, and with it the one year anniversary of the end of the war, it caught me by surprise. Much had happened since then, to say the least. Octavian decided to declare the anniversary of the Vord’s defeat a day of remembrance for all those who perished in the war. This brought with it a host of ceremonies, and thus I found myself in Riva for the duration. I made good on my promise to see that the Legions who fought on the first wall were commended. It was also the first meeting of the Dianic League of the new year, and Camilla had received an invitation to join.

         “The Dianic League. I’ve never even given it much thought. Courtesans do not get invited to join organizations of female Citizens,” Camilla remarked to me after the invitation arrived.

         “No, you are certainly not their typical member. But you are High Lady Aquitaine now, and you can’t be ignored or excluded,” I replied. “Invidia was very active in the Dianic League, so it’s possible they expect you to follow in her shoes.”

         “It sounds like those are some rather large shoes to fill,” Camilla observed.

         “She took it upon herself to win me the support of the League. It wasn’t terribly difficult—half the League wanted to mother me and the other half wanted to fuck me,” I remarked, grinning.

         “Did you actually sleep with any of them?” she inquired.

         “A few. The women of the Citizenry have found me… interesting ever since I was a youth not yet come to manhood.”

         “Can’t say I blame them. I suspect there was some overlap between those two groups—plenty of women like mothering men and plenty of men like being mothered by their lovers,” said Camilla, her eyes shining with mirth.

         “Invidia used to mother me sometimes because she knew it annoyed me.”

         Camilla shook her head. “Truly incredible you remained married to her as long as you did. You should get some kind of medal for that.”

         “It certainly wasn’t easy. However, she did do her job well with regards to the Dianic League,” I replied. “All joking aside, I do think being physically attractive helped me get their support. That and publicly opposing slavery.” I’d learned shortly after realizing I was attractive that it was another weapon I could add to my arsenal.

         “Did you actually go before the League yourself?” asked Camilla.

         “Several times. I thought it best to remind them from time to time who it was they were supporting. I probably should’ve done it more in retrospect. Invidia was the public face of my cause on too many occasions.”

         Camilla made a face. “You couldn’t be more different! I hate to think that people saw you that way.” She and Invidia had only met a handful of times, but Camilla had heard plenty about her from me.

         “That makes two of us. I’ll not make that mistake again, though I no longer need to gather support to make a bid for the throne.”

         It soon became obvious after we arrived in Riva that the Dianic League, like everything else, had changed. A number of its members had died in the war, which was unsurprising considering many of them were powerful Citizens. As such, Aria and Isana had taken the reigns of leadership. Exactly what the role of the Dianic League would be in the new Alera had not yet been determined, though the presence of Kitai as a new member certainly set the tone.

         Aria and Isana gave Camilla a warm welcome. It didn’t surprise me, but I was glad to see it nonetheless. “We are pleased to welcome you to the Dianic League, Lady Aquitaine,” said Aria. That took me aback for a moment—I hadn’t yet gotten used to Camilla being addressed as Lady Aquitaine. “And I offer both of you my congratulations on your marriage.”

         “Thank you, Aria,” I replied. We’d invited the Placidas to the wedding, but they’d been too busy with the process of liberation to attend.

         “I’m very pleased you chose to accept the invitation,” Isana told Camilla. “This is likely all a bit intimidating for you. It was the same for me when I entered public life.”

         “You would be correct,” Camilla replied. “Courtesans are not generally trained to address bodies such as the Dianic League.”

         “Neither are steadholders. It took me some time to grow accustomed to doing these things,” said Isana. The more time I spent around her, the more I came to understand how she had captured Septimus’s heart. Speaking at these kinds of events had never come easy to him, though he’d done well enough in Rhetoric class. Isana was completely outside that political world and had only been forced to join it out of necessity. That was probably a not insignificant part of what drew Septimus to her. She was in no way a political creature.

         “I’m sure the same will happen to me in time. Fortunately, I do have plenty of experience in a variety of social settings,” said Camilla with a small grin. “I doubt many of the League’s members will have a high opinion of me, however. I immediately became the most hated person among the women of the Aquitainian Citizenry the moment Attis and I announced our engagement.”

         “At least some of them have resigned themselves to the reality of you as their new High Lady by now,” I pointed out. “I doubt any of them will openly insult or slight you, but I want to know if any of them do. That cannot be tolerated.”

         “Of course, dear. Though I suppose you being there for my presentation might be enough to dissuade them,” she said, grinning.

         “And you have the full support of Isana and myself,” Aria assured Camilla. “That should send a message.”

         “Thank you, your highness, your grace. Your support is greatly appreciated,” Camilla replied.

         When the time came for Camilla’s official presentation, I waited with Isana and Aria in my box. Camilla had spent some time carefully reviewing and memorizing the remarks she was to deliver. I gave her a few speaking tips and used my earthcrafting to calm her nerves before she was called to the podium.

         “And now the Dianic League is pleased to welcome our newest member, Aquitainus Camilla, the new High Lady of Aquitaine!” The audience broke into polite applause as Camilla approached the podium. She wore a new gown in our colors, as it was typical to wear your city’s colors on an occasion such as this.

         “Greetings, fellow Citizens,” she began, “I am pleased to accept the League’s invitation.” As she spoke, I relaxed my shields enough to sense the feelings of the crowd. There was some excitement, but I could also sense disgust and disdain. There was no doubt that they knew she was a former courtesan, even though they might never mention it aloud. That the new High Lady Aquitaine had sold her favors in exactly the same way as a common whore was not a topic for discussion in polite society. “The relationship between the Dianic League and the House of Aquitainus has been a long and productive one. My husband,” some of the crowd turned to look at me, “and I mean to continue this relationship. I fully intend to participate as an active member of the League and do what I can to improve the status of women in the Realm. Both myself and First Lady Gaius Isana represent women who have come from different backgrounds to join the ranks of the Citizenry. It is my hope that more women will have that opportunity in the new Alera. I look forward to working with all of you in the future.”

         Loud applause followed Camilla as she walked back to the box. At least half of it was genuine, I was sure. Pride swelled within me—my wife, a former courtesan, had just spoken before the Dianic League as a full member. As soon as she set foot inside my box, I wrapped my arms around her and gave her a soft kiss. “I’m so proud of you, Camilla.”

 **

         The memorial events had concluded and we were preparing to return home when Octavian approached me. “I would like you to take a short trip with me, Lord Aquitaine.”

         Of all the things I’d expected him to ask me, that wasn’t it. I did not think it was anything sinister, not after his previous decision to spare my life. “What sort of trip, sire?”

         “To Appia.”

         I raised my eyebrows. “Appia? For what purpose? Has it even been cleared of Vord?”

         “It has, and I have some important matters to discuss with you.”

         “Very well. I will go with you to Appia,” I replied, inclining my head in agreement. A short while later, we boarded his windcoach. It was surprising he was willing to be in the coach alone with me, though I was sure each of the squad of Knights Aeris accompanying us were all completely loyal to him. We made small talk on the way there, discussing our infant sons and the areas still in need of liberation. The trip passed quickly and before long we were arriving at the ruins of Appia.

         It looked much the same as it had the last time I’d been there, during my time at the Academy. Few seldom ventured there, expect for scholarly purposes. The Vord had left the place largely untouched, though I had seen some patches of croach from the windows of the windcoach on the way there. “May I ask why you brought me here, sire?”

         “Because I’d like your opinion, Lord Aquitaine. I’ve been thinking about what to do for a new capital. Riva has sufficed for an interim capital, but it can’t be a permanent one. I’ll be accused of favoring Riva over the other high cities. No, there will have to be an entirely new capital. Why not Appia?” he proposed.

         “An interesting choice, to be sure. Most of the Realm expects you to rebuild Alera Imperia,” I said. It wasn’t surprising that he did not favor that course of action. Octavian never took the expected option.

         He shook his head. “I thought about it, but I think what Alera needs is a new beginning. A new capital would be the perfect symbol of that. And it doesn’t feel right to build a new capital on the bodies of the dead,” Octavian explained.

         “And Appia was the old Romanic capital, built without furycrafting,” I added, following his reasoning. “By making Appia your new capital, you send a message regarding your intentions to build a new Alera where furycrafting is no longer the only measure of a man’s worth.”

         “Exactly. Do you think it has merit?”

         “I do. It sends the right message for your objectives and Appia is as good a location as any. Not as centrally-located as Alera Imperia, but close.”

         Octavian nodded. “It will naturally be some time yet before construction can begin, but I mean to start as soon as possible.”

         “I would be happy to suggest some of the best architects in Aquitaine for the project.” We began to walk among the ruins, with the Knights Aeris staying close enough to alert us of any danger. Our walk took us through the ruins of a large colonnaded building. Much of the roof had collapsed in places, but numerous statues could still be seen here and there. I stopped by a particular favorite I’d seen during my previous visit. It was of a beautiful young man reclining on his side, a crown of spikes upon his head. A name could be read at the base of the statue: Attis.

         Octavian noticed it too. “Your namesake?”

         “Apparently so. Your father and I spotted this statue years ago when we visited Appia as part of Magnus’s class,” I explained.

         “You were in Magnus’s classes?”

         “Of course. I’ve always been interested in the Romans. Raucus was in the class too, but he was never all that interested in history.”

         “My interest in the Romans was more about their lack of furycrafting than the history aspect,” Octavian confessed. “It made me feel like less of a freak.”

         I nodded, seeing how it would’ve appealed to him. “If you don’t mind my asking, why did it take so long for you to come into your furies? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Your father…”

         “Started furycrafting when he was five, yes, I know,” Octavian cut in. He sat down on a broken pillar. “It was my mother. She didn’t want anyone to guess my real identity, so she used her water fury to stunt my growth. It ended up working a bit too well.”

         I seated myself on a broken pillar across from him. “No one could accuse your mother of not being cautious.”

         We remained where we were for a few minutes, looking out over the ruins of Appia. “I won’t have all of these ruins made into new buildings,” said Octavian, thinking out loud. For a moment I wondered if he’d forgotten I was there. “Scholars would be furious with me if I did. This structure, for one. No one knows exactly what its purpose was.”

         “The scholars will certainly appreciate that. I daresay my daughter will come up with a list of things she’d like to research after she visits Appia for the first time.” I could’ve sworn Thyra’d spent more time in our library over the winter than anywhere else.

         “She seems like a very intelligent and capable person. I’m glad you chose to acknowledge her and welcome her into your family,” said Octavian. “Bastards have been treated terribly for far too long.”

         “I’m glad too. I only wish I’d been able to find and acknowledge them sooner.” The corners of my mouth twitched up into a smile. “Your father and I talked about this a few times. We knew about your friend Maximus—Raucus told us right after he was born. We didn’t care in the least that he was illegitimate. Septimus told me he wanted to do what he could to remove some of the stigma around it once he was First Lord. He never liked seeing people being treated badly for something they had no control over.”

         There was a hungry expression on Octavian’s face, something I’d noticed when we’d discussed Septimus previously. It was natural for someone who’d never known his father, I suppose. I took it as my cue to continue speaking about Septimus. “He liked to disguise himself and go incognito among the common people. He thought it was good for a Princeps to spend time among his people and see what their lives are really like.” Octavian stared at me with rapt attention. “But I think he also liked to escape from being the Princeps for a while. Sometimes all of that, being given special treatment because of his station, got to be a bit much for him. He told me once that one of the things he appreciated most about our friendship was that I always treated him like Septimus instead of the Princeps.”

         “I’ve heard he used to do that,” Octavian remarked. “It’s how he met my mother, in fact.”

         I hadn’t heard how Septimus and Isana met before, but I wasn’t surprised. “Of course. That makes perfect sense.” Octavian’s eyes were so fixated on me now that I doubt he’d have noticed if a pack of Vord attacked us. “We used to disguise ourselves and sneak out of the Academy at night. Much of the time we went carousing, but we also took the time to observe and interact with the people we encountered.” I smiled as the memories came to me. “One time, we got into a brawl after Septimus confronted a slave trader who was beating his slaves. We always tried to hide the true extent of our powers on these outings so no one would guess our identities, but we ended up giving up the charade once he called in a bunch of his thugs. The looks on their faces when we revealed who we really were…” I grinned, remembering. “Gaius was furious with Sep for ‘causing such a scene,’ as he put it. But we kept doing it.”

         “It sounds like you had quite an enjoyable time at the Academy,” Octavian commented.

         “Yes, your father and I certainly did, and Raucus too. He and Septimus didn’t get along at first, but eventually we befriended him. The three of us became inseparable after that.” I had to pause for a moment as so many memories came rushing back to me. “Septimus and I would talk about what we were going to do once he was First Lord and I High Lord of Aquitaine. He truly understood that it is the duty of the First Lord to protect all of his people, Citizen or commoner, slave or freeborn. When he came out publicly against slavery, he took quite a bit of criticism for it. He was interested in doing what was right, regardless of whether or not it was popular.”

         “I can tell how much he meant to you every time you speak about him,” Octavian said, voice soft. “It’s obvious, even through my shields.”

         Camilla had said something very similar to me once, when I told her about what Septimus meant to me. “I couldn’t hide it even if I wanted to. He was the greatest friend I ever had and I’m certain he’d have been an excellent First Lord. He was the best of us.”

         “I wish I could’ve known him.”

         “I wish that as well. He’d be very proud of you if he could see you today.” I paused a moment and looked out at the ruins. “He should be here right now. Everything would’ve been different. I might’ve been an unofficial uncle to you instead of a one-time political rival.”

         “Well, we are technically adopted brothers,” Octavian reminded me, a note of amusement in his voice.

         I inclined my head to him and grinned. “That is true. In all seriousness though, as much as I wish Septimus were here with us today, I can see now that part of him is here. I can see him in you.”

         A wave of strong emotion hit me from him. It was nearly overwhelming with my shields as relaxed as they were. His feelings regarding me were still complicated, though I could sense they were changing. There was still wariness and some degree of suspicion, but the roots of trust were beginning to grow. That was something I could work with, a beginning.

         “Thank you, Lord Aquitaine.”

         We sat in silence for several minutes, the weight of understanding settling comfortably between us. I could not say what went through Octavian’s mind in that comfortable silence. Perhaps he was thinking of his plans for Appia. For my part, I felt another burden lifted from me. Septimus’s son and I were not friends, but perhaps someday we would be.

         “You know, I think Septimus would be very amused that his son grew up as a shepherd boy with no idea he was the Princeps,” I observed, breaking the silence.

         Octavian smiled and rose from his seat. I followed suit and together we left the unknown structure behind us. As we walked back to the windcoach, I felt excitement begin to grow within me. I couldn’t say where the future was headed, but I was fairly certain it wouldn’t be boring.  

 Notes

The statue described in this chapter is based off of real life statues of the god Attis. Since the gods aren’t a Thing in Alera, Attis would have no idea that he is in fact named after a fertility god.

One more chapter left, folks!