#Even better when making a webcomic with it's own fandom..

[floorpancakes]

i keep running into people in my fandom circles being elitist pieces of shit conflating popular=bad or 'i saw a teenager like it once so it and everyone into it are all awful uneducated assholes' with feigned moral superiority and it's pissing me off bad. if you want to be a hater at least be honest about it. stop pretending like you care about people's media consumption habits when you actually just want to hate anything you don't know and make yourself look better than everyone else. especially if you only start making these assumptions and comments the moment a piece of media blows up in popularity and you thought it was cool or left it alone before. this shit can have serious consequences but mostly I'm just sick of seeing it hate ethically please. and not in a 'im claiming my taste in media is ethically superior and everything else is for snivelling uneducated heathens and probably has bad rep in it or something and isn't a classic™ as deemed by the fandom elders so it's probably vapid and worthless and has something wrong with it and everyone that likes it is bad' way

[winns-stuff]

LO RANT:

TRIGGER WARNING: SA

Okay I’m back again and it’s only to say this.. The comments on the new fastpass are genuinely disgusting. I don’t care how you put it or feel about both characters it’s absolutely deranged to ship or want a redemption arc for a rapist, maybe I’m being too harsh but I can’t find soft words to use for this. The fact that there’s so many people girlbossing this entire situation as a “I got the entire lineage on my shoulders!!! I slept with the brothers and the father!!!!” thing is weird to me because these fans are all missing the point of Hera’s entire story and it makes no sense that as I’m ALWAYS saying these fans are quite literally shipping rapists with their victims when the entire point of Lore Olympus was to shed light and bring awareness to Sexual Assault that is not violent or gruesome in physical action.

And we all know why this is happening, Rachel doesn’t know how to properly handle this situation and it’s clear that that’s how this is coming across to her fans. They don’t see this as a rape survivor story they see this as another dark romance since she doesn’t bother on actually addressing the assault in a respectful and dignified way, every single time she adds another sexual assault in her story she’s always glamorizing it or diminishing it whenever she gets tired of writing about it and it’s infuriating. Your fans should know better than to ship victims with their abusers and you wanna know why? Because you pride your comic on healthy relationships and mental health talks, you use the sexual assault as some kind of badge to show everyone that you know what you’re talking about when it’s clear that you will abandon all real representation of a situation that affects millions of people around the world just for crappy fan service.

Lore Olympus fans are groomed to dismiss these arcs since they’re not even treated like they’re serious and it doesn’t seem like Rachel takes it serious as well, she’s never taken any advice from survivors who aren’t pleased with how she portrays SA and she completely ignores the feelings of those truly affected by the traumatic events that she shoves into her webcomic just so it’ll stay “interesting”. I’m tired of Rachel getting away with drawing absolute trauma porn and I’m sick of her sexualizing every single woman we come across, how many times do we have to continue this long and excruciating pattern of giving the women of your comic terrible consequences and make them suffer just for drama and nothing else. How many other situations are you willing to completely spit on just to look self aware?

This is honestly the last straw because there’s been so many people genuinely shipping Hera and Kronos and also saying borderline disgusting things just to defend stuff like that. Rachel needs to say something, you cannot just sit back and be quiet while your fans openly admit to wanting to see a rapist and his victim together for the sake of your own comic and “beloved” main character hell even for a lot of your fans you need to speak up about this and address it letting a mindset like that fester in a fandom probably filled with survivors of assault is a disservice to them and it’s a slap in the face to the comfort that your webtoon gave them.

[artist-issues]

I’m so enjoying the whole “Harry Potter is good but whenever the Marauders pop in I feel like I could be reading an even better story” vibe, that I go into the tags to search and see Marauders fan stuff, and what are you guys doing?

…I mean I know I’m like 28 years late to the party, but what? Was Harry Potter like…the first fandom that ever just went insane and completely ignored what the characters in the canon material were actually like, so that they could make self-satisfying headcanons and slap the names “Lupin, James, Sirius,” on top?

Is this where the “yeah I really love this carefully-created, artfully-portrayed teenage boy character, so I’m naturally going to prove that love by oh completely re-writing his personality and interpersonal relationships in my own headcanon.” came from? From the Marauders and Harry Potter?

I mean jeez, where are you getting some of this stuff? I’m no expert. I know I just started reading these. But Rowling’s characterizations seem pretty straightforward, so when I look at the most prominent fan-accepted headcanons, it’s hard not to be like…Did you read these? Are we reading about the same characters, because this character in this book does not match with your webcomic. Is this the same character? Do you even like them?

[helluva-dump]

At this point, the hazbin/helluva critical community has fallen flat. And when I say that, I mean that it lacks potential. Like, I thought we were criticizing about the characters and the show itself. I thought we were talking about it's issues and what Viv could approve on it. But now, these people are just targeting fans of Viv's show who are just going on about their day, taking screenshots of harmful posts and posting it on the critical blog just to shit on them. You can't even consider that "critical" now when you're just being an asshole. They wonder why Viv and her fans think the critics are so bad. On top of that, these people love to make assumptions about Viv harassing Gooseworx all because she's a "terrible person" like please stfu. "She probably did this" and they don't even have any proof. Maybe consider that Viv actually enjoys tadc and it's success? What is all of this "viv is mad because the amazing digital circus is more successful than her shitty shows"? I dunno, man. That critical community is just so fucking dumb and stupid. They're not even talking about the shows anymore. They just bitch and fuss about everything.

For real, I had never seen such a critical community this much of a train wreck as the fandom is.

I mean hell, I engaged with the SVTFOE community before (and that show has the EXACT same problems as Helluva boss) and the critical blogs were very chill.

I feel like what didn’t help is how immature and unprofessional Vivziepop acts publicly. But at the same time…. I can’t really blame her for getting defensive when these antis dogpile her on everything.

And yes, the screenshots making fun of harmless posts of fans were red flags to me. Like dude, we have rabid fans and Stans do that to us, why the hell are you stopping to their level??? (I’m not gonna include the voodoo controversy because that to me needed to be talked about. A lot of POC fans and criticals had every right to discuss that and Viv should had given an apology or explanation over that. With closed religions that always got stereotypes due to colonizers, you need to be careful when writing about them. )

Oh God don’t get me started on the whole Vivziepop and Gooseworks relationship assumptions… that actually annoyed me too and I’m sure there’s no bad blood with them. I get she had bad blood with Tracey and possibly Ashley, but I don’t think it’s fair to assume she’s like this with every indie creator.

Honestly, its both of their fandoms that are acting unhinged. But I even seen hardcore fans of Viv like Dani praising TADC and Gooseworks, so I doubt the whole fandom are planning to sabotage them. TADC isn’t a rain full of sunshine either, they too have so much bad apples there.

Also my big issue with this community I’ve noted some critical blogs that claim they wanna make an original series (well one already made a webcomic) but they NEVER stop bitching about Viv and go on and on how they never do this to their project… unmmm dude? If you constantly compare your project to Viv’s, your gonna lose your audience this way. This can make you come off as an a logger and a very petty person to others. Trust me, this is NOT going to make people want to be interested in your original projects.

It’s also very unprofessional to do this publicly. I get looking at bad writing motivates you how to not to things… but the constant comparing is going to make you look like a very petty person to your outside audience. And they feel like your project won’t have agency on its own without being “better than Helluva/Hazbin.” I say this because I too am working on an indie project I want to make to a webcomic. And I REALLY don’t wanna ruin my reputation that way.

That’s what Zeartist did when he made his shitty ass books and would constantly hitch and whine about twilight on his life journals. And he would always bring up his original series and how it’s “better” and how he wouldn’t write such garbage like Stephanie Meyer.

And guess what???? His books are just twilight 2.0 but even worse 😂😂😂 he ended up doing the exact same thing stephanie did, bitches out over criticism, and yeah a huge hypocritical asshat.

That’s why constantly comparing your project to another person’s to seen as better is NOT a smart idea. Please have some self awareness there if your actually planning to make a webcomic or an original series.

Also… I’ve noticed people that have beautiful startled would waste it on blind hatred. Like that “I HAtE VIVZIEPOP” blog. Like godamn, their art is beautiful but they had an unhealthy hate obsession with Viv… why waste your energy on that when you can make something better?

I’m not talking about rewrites, AUs, or redesigns because to me those are like fanfics and for fun. The stuff I do is mainly just for fanfic fun and a writing/world building exercise for me. But also a little bit of self indulgence since I sitll admire Viv’s characters. You can enjoy something without giving your support to the actual creator. I’m trying to show my support to the team behind it.

(I’m even planning to buy fan merch from one of the clean up artists on their shop. To me it’s the ethical way of getting Hazbin/Helluva merch without directly giving it to Viv but to her artists instead. )

[blockgamepirate]

If I'm entirely honest, even if I get that all fandoms love angst, I find it kinda tiring, especially when it comes to MCRP, because I got into MCRP partly to get away from the angsty shit. And that's still what I tend to want from it, and it feels like the perfect medium for more lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek stuff, because it's so inherently goofy lbr, but I guess people just love angst so much that they just gotta make everything about the angst

Not that I can't appreciate the angst too, sometimes, but there's been so much of it on QSMP lately. This is what frustrated me about DSMP too, when it just kept getting angstier and angstier and bleaker and bleaker...

I mean it's not that I think ALL MCRP has to be lighthearted, I would never wanna arbitrarily limit any medium like that, it's mostly just me being frustrated with the general tendency where I get into some series because it's funny and lighthearted but also has a cool story going on, and then inevitably it ALWAYS seems to get super angsty and often lose the things that made it appealing to me in the first place. I used to get this a lot with webcomics and now I'm getting it with MCRP

Jungryeok's introduction yesterday was a breath of fresh air tbh, didn't need to worry about any of the angst for several hours, just people chilling and having fun (even tho I was kind of overwhelmed too lol)

I'd like to enjoy Phil's streams the same way, and he does generally do his best to keep things lighthearted (even when it's his own angst he tends to not take it very seriously), but the angsty storylines keep intruding on his chill vibes too, you can't chill when you know what's actually going on in other POVs

(also the FOMO is too strong, I ended up watching Bagi and Tubbo instead of Phil yesterday because I wanted to know what happened and then I also kept checking in on Bad's POV when I realised he was live etc. I know that's my own fault, I should just not watch them when they're being angsty if I don't want angst but I still care about the characters and the story orz)

(And I want to check the tags on Tumblr and I want to see what other people are posting about QSMP, but the angst is even more impossible to avoid in fandom spaces, also it makes you very conscious about how people feel about Phil and his character so then you're even more stressed out when you watch his streams because any time he says something because he doesn't know any better or because he's assuming that the server is primarily meant for fun and not to be taken overly seriously, you know people are gonna rant about it, and then you have to once again quarantine yourself from the fandom to avoid being annoyed, which is boring)

It's the same problems I had with DSMP...

This is why I should become a Hermitcraft main again tbh

But at the same time I can't get the multilingual experience on Hermitcraft, I remember the other day seeing Iskall and Keralis talk and I found myself wondering for a second why they weren't speaking Swedish to each other (dw I did realise it very quickly lol) because I'd gotten so used to seeing people switching languages based on who they were talking to

The language stuff is 100% what I would miss the most if I dropped QSMP

I mean I would miss the roleplay too, I do enjoy the roleplay. And the eggs. And the characters in general. But yknow, there's other roleplay series out there, the multilingual aspect is harder to find

[davekat-sucks]

Wow amazing art but this is strike one. Yiffy was the inevitable failure of postcanon, even with the new union and art team, her very existence ruins Rosemary, ruins Jade, ruins the setting and pisses off the fanbase no matter what you do.

Remove Yiffany and you retcon a major plot point of postcanon and the 4th kid for the new kids for the Candy timeline, keep her in and Jade is still a futanari who imposed herself on Rose to ruin the fanbase’s favorite lesbian couple and raise the kid with a fascist because… people on Earth C are too nosy.

Yiffany destroyed all hype for the original Homestuck^2 when she was revealed, even for as mediocre as the comic started out as, there were fans and speculation, which turned to spite for being so poorly handled. Even now with the new team, r/homestuck at least seems to enjoy the new content (excluding a few voices and r/englishpumpkinparty) but clearly any content with yiffany is gonna piss someone off.

Literally if Hussie just stopped at the epilogues the fandom would like postcanon more. It would have its detractor but it’s easier to defend the epilogues than Beyond Canon.

I can actually understand and connect why Jade and Jane became the way they are in the epilogues. Jane’s encounters with trolls were awful and the mothergrub does lay thousands of eggs to deal with such a low rate of successful brooding grubs. Jade was alone on her island and in a ship for 3 years (post retcon) and needs human connection desperately. My issue was the epilogues do a very one-dimensional and extreme version of these characters and justifies this by saying “no one checked in on them or helped” over the course of a 7 year timeskip and even after the characters did a whole webcomic where the point was friendship and connection is healthy for a human to develop emotionally to maturity, are we seriously doing this theme again?!

But Jane in Beyond Canon is a villain with barely any screen time or dialogue to ramble about why she’s “doing the right thing” and Jade is stripped of any nuance to this invasive and careless brat who tries to gain sympathy by whining about how much her life sucked/still sucks

I swear, this comic will go on hiatus again by the end of 2024 (if everything goes right) or on 4/13 (if it all goes wrong)

At least Jade was justified because 1. She didn't know how Grandpa English died and only came to the shocking realization she accidentally killed him (Tavros had also intervened too during this). 2. She had to grow up alone on an ISLAND and has no social cues how to properly act. Sure she would have Internet, movies, games, and books to read. But they aren't the true basis of human connection. 3. Neither Hussie, James, or anyone in WhatPumpkin/HICU had given a reason why Bec couldn't just teleport her to meet with the others since he still had Space Powers. Some could say because it would ruin the plot and Sburb wouldn't happen that it only took the meddling of MSPA READER in Pesterquest to do it. Her situation is just as shit like Jake English. And look how the series, writers, and nu-fandom shit on Jake despite his conditions is just the same, if not WORSE because of the lusus animals trying to attack him that he had always be training to survive for his life. At this point, drop any faith you have in James Roach and Beyond Canon. Apologize. And hope that this will fail hard that James and Hussie will just let the fandom make up their own ending. Even say DO NOT GIVE James Roach any money if they do go through with the Homestuck merch and vinyl. You are better off supporting the fandom itself. Pay for commissions, buy fan merch on places like Etsy, etc. Do not give shitty people like James or Hussie any cash. Go give Toby Fox some love too. Because he is one of the few sane people left and is successful outside of Homestuck.

[eerna]

Hello! This is incredibly random, but as a fanartist, enjoyer of critically examining media, and critic of capitalist corporations (*cough* Disney), do you have any thoughts about fan art being a form of unpaid labour?

Context is I’m writing an essay about digital labour and how fan creation is basically kind of like free PR for big corporations… and now whenever I do fanart I can’t get that thought out of my head uGH. I want to believe that drawing fanart is my own form of creative expression and way of showing love for the media, but at the same time I’m like “am I being exploited???” since I’m helping advertise smth for free and these corporations are just capitalizing on my love for said media??? and I can’t reconcile these thoughts 🥲🫠

Also I’m struggling with the essay LOL my eventual conclusion is that we as fans do have agency but we kind of still are being exploited… so it’s not a very optimistic outlook haha. Doesn’t help that the scholars’ articles I’m reading are all very negative about this digital labour thing. Help.

Sorry if this is unexpectedly deep!! 😅 just really curious to hear a fellow fanartist’s thoughts, and I respect you a lot for being unafraid to criticize media 🙏🙏

Hi! First of thank you for your kind words~ Second off, what a cool concept to discuss. Your message is pretty much how I feel. It is very frustrating to remember that so much of the media I love is so closely tied to the harmful cycle of capitalism. I grew up in a country that didn't have access to merch or much in the way of official media so piracy was my go-to most of the time. This means I was introduced to the concept of consumerist aspects of fandom via the Internet as a teenager and started feeling bad about "not supporting" stuff I love, but I told myself "Well I pay back by doing fanart and talking about it online". And then I found out about the way capitalism shapes the media landscape and started feeling bad for playing into it, the same as you. It gets even more conflicting when I am talking about something I dislike made by a company I dislike - yeah, I am probably preventing some people from interacting with the media for themselves, but I am also probably making others interested. What makes me feel better about the entire thing is that the "digital labour" I do is that I'm doing it for other fans like me, and to express myself. I love things so much that it makes me feel like I am going to explode, but pouring it out onto paper helps with it! Of course, I don't have to post it online for it to be worthwhile, but sharing it with others who feel the way I do makes the feelings even better. BUT one of the most important aspects of the issue is how willing those companies are to let me gain something monetary from the relationship. Are they ignoring fanworks being sold as fan merch, as commissions? It is illegal, but I feel like it should absolutely be allowed as a sort of unmentioned perk of being a fan worker, and the companies that don't allow that are evil. My audience gets bigger, I sell more prints, and so do they. (This is also why I never accept money for fanworks made by small creators, such as webcomics)

There's also the fact that lately I've been seeing the rise of "If you REALLY love this piece of media, it is your DUTY to consume it as much as possible and spread the word about it as much as possible and make the company as much money as possible if you want to see more things like it!" takes. These are utter bullshit and where enjoyment of media goes to die. The moment you reduce your love for something only to how much money it can make the evil capitalist overlords who allowed it to grace your eyes, you completely deny any kind of artistic worth. Media should exist because we deserve to have our hearts touched by stories, not because it makes someone money.

I don't have a clear answer or feel like my approach to the issue goes entirely along with my morality. But I don't think we can find a way to feel good about the entire situation as long as our media is dictated by capitalism. It's the sad reality of loving something in a system that will squeeze any money out of you that it can. But we gotta march on, remember that we are the ones allowing them to survive and not the other way around, and love while we do it. Good luck with your essay, stay positive!

[lloydfrontera]

obsessed with this (and many others) story being so dead-set on two main guys and their just absurdly close relationship and then having the balls so say NO HOMO and being so scared of having an open end so it just had to follow the heteronormativity norms. im so sick and tired of it. it just cheapens the whole things. it cheapens whatever respect there was for female characters involved, which was already not a lot because well. lets be honest yeah. i just wish these stories were self-aware enough to leave the characters alone. no relationship is better than what usually happens in these stories :( that's why im so hesitant to read the novel because im not always able to ignore such stupid literary device. im ranting to your inbox because i think you'll get it and my god i was so bitter when i was spoiled about the story's ending and the violent need to have everyone married it's hhghgghhhnng

i get it yeah. i've been deep in fandom spaces for about ten years now, this is not my first rodeo, won't be my last and i'm already used to it. doesn't mean i'm not tired of it too tho kjasdasd

and yeah i agree, at this point i'm not even really asking for a ship to be canon, i truly do believe sometimes the better option is to just have an open ending and leaving things to the imagination, but the amount of times authors feel the need to shove a last minute het romance just so they can beat the queer allegations,,, is too many to count

i think what gets me with tged is that,,, you can really take away the canon romance and nothing changes. it adds nothing to the plot, it really was something bk moon added in the last chapters purely to make it canon at the end. you could erase those bits and the general plot and characterization remains the same. it is... bad writing to be honest. like. from a purely technical standpoint that's a bad relationship, that's not how you add a romance to your plot!

but! on the other hand! the fact that it can be erased that easily does make it very easy to ignore it and focus on the good parts of the plot which are truly worth everything else aksdhskaj

it's like,, the gay equivalent of that thing marvel does where it includes their 'diversity' moments in such a way that you can cut them off and the film is still perfectly watchable. here you can cut the straight bits and you still get an awesome novel with great characters and deeply moving relationships lmao

it cheapens whatever respect there was for female characters involved, which was already not a lot because well. lets be honest yeah.

and this. yeah. Yeah. i did my fair bit of ranting when the webcomic decided to make silurian javier's love interest, retroactively fridging her for his manpain and also straight up ignoring and erasing her arc in the novel about her not needing to marry to be made heir for the city. like. they just didn't mention it. at all. what the fuck.

and then there's alicia who. the more i think about her and the way her relationship with lloyd is handled the more upset i get. she was such a cool character, with her own thing going on, her own motivations, her own worries, her own deal. and then she becomes lloyd's love interest because. well, she's literally the only important enough female character who isn't related to lloyd or already married who can do it. like. that's it.

silurian gets an entire arc about why she doesn't need to marry lloyd, sherazade marries lloyd's brother, marbella is his mom, moira basically disappears after her introduction... and that's... it, i think?? who else?? emily? the mermaid queen? i for the longest time thought raphael was a girl and was sorely disappointed to find out he was not so. yeah.

then there's the "magentano carry" title effect thing going on and,,, that's a whole mess on its own. i hate it. there's literally an otherwordly power making alicia trust lloyd. let me rephrase that. they had to force the canon love interest into giving her full trust to the main character. the very foundation of their relationship is built on her being literally unable to mistrust him because there's an external force forcing down her suspicions and doubts about him.

and we have canon confirmation that if lloyd pushes hard enough when she's already paranoid because of other factors, that effect can break and all her mistrust and wariness about the potential danger he is to the crown come back with full force and she'll declare him a traitor and go to war against him. like. that's the state of their trust and relationship when the novel is 89% done. i'm not even slightly exaggerating i literally did the math.

it's. it's just bad. it's so bad. i'm. i don't know what else to say. she didn't deserve that. lloyd didn't deserve that. we certainly didn't deserve that either.

so like. after all of this it'll sound really hypocrite of me to tell you to read the novel but. i do think it's still worth it. everything i'm talking about is. such a small part of the entire novel. which is kind of the problem but also the very reason i still think it's worth reading it.

everything else makes up for it i promise akjshdjka

[batman66sexyrogues]

Round 2, Match 7:

As requested, it is now time for the Battle of the Riddlers!

Portrayed by Frank Gorshin and appearing as the first villain in the series, the Riddler remains as one of the most notable rogues to emerge from the 1960s Batman series. Prior to the series, he had only had about three appearances in the comics from the time of his creation in the 1940s. In his forward to the collection Batman: Featuring Two-Face and the Riddler, Mark Hamill even describes Gorshin’s performance as the moment when the Riddler “really came into his own.” His first appearance in that first episode would see the introduction of the Riddler’s question-mark suit and bowler hat, his fiendish giggle and enthusiasm for everything he did, as well as showcasing his use of misdirection and love of dangling clues in plain sight, since he used a riddle to tip off the Dynamic Duo to his ruse and used a gun-shaped lighter to trick them into making a false arrest. While his riddles in and of themselves were not always particularly challenging, he often set them up in a way that the answers could point to multiple next steps for his plans, sometimes even managing to get a step ahead of our Caped Crusaders.

In season two, the Riddler was temporarily recast, portrayed by John Astin (a.k.a. Gomez Addams). There seems to be a bit of disagreement in the fandom over whether Astin’s Riddler should be considered a separate character from Gorshin’s iteration, since he generally came across as a bit sneakier and less theatrical, with some fanfictions portraying him as a separate character using the Riddler title, while others, namely the webcomic spinoff, portray the Astin Riddler as a disguise. Interestingly, Astin’s Riddler marks the first time the character would be portrayed with the question-mark cane.

[iam93percentstardust]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this (or when you feel up to it!), reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love!

Ooh fun! I'm gonna go with semi-recent fics from the last year or so (with one exception) because 230+ fics means I have a lot of faves and narrowing it down is a pain.

Enchanted

Steve starts making his way back towards the directions of the cars, wanting to greet her, only to stop dead when he realizes who her date is. Natasha has brought Tony with her. Tony of the pictures, of the stories, of Steve’s infatuated little heart even though he’s never met him in person.

I love writing celebrity aus and this one was particularly fun because I wrote something I don't normally do with celebrity!Steve and nonfamous!Tony. Plus I got to write Natasha and Tony besties, which is always a lot of fun, and got to include a shout-out to my childhood best friend (and I always enjoy when I can work in references to my own life).

Death by a Thousand Cuts

“Tony?” Pepper asks, and he can tell just by the look on her face that whatever she has to tell him, it isn’t good. “What?” he asks. She looks uncharacteristically hesitant. Pepper isn’t supposed to be hesitant. She’s supposed to be barge-in, guns-blazing, unapologetically confident. “The news leaked,” she says eventually.

And now the flip side! Pop star Tony currently owns my entire heart, and I love the idea of breaking up and making up but with the added complication of having to do it on the global stage. There's just something extra delicious about Steve and Tony having to work things out when they have all these people shouting on Twitter and TikTok about how they're better off on their own.

Dear Juliet

When Steve Rogers is given a chance to accompany his friends to Verona, Italy, he's expecting to spend a few days wandering through vineyards and probably seeing at least one Shakespeare performance (and if he's lucky, finding some inspiration for his next webcomic). He isn't expecting the handsome brown-eyed man who works with Juliet's Secretaries or the decades-old love letter that he finds behind a loose brick underneath Juliet's balcony or that the response he sends to Dame Margaret Carter will be answered, not by another letter, but by the sender herself showing up in Verona. He isn't expecting that he'll get caught up in a whirlwind adventure to help Peggy search for her lost love, the woman she left long ago, her beloved Maria.

My current baby! Dear Juliet is an idea that's been sitting in my to-be-written folder for literal years. It was one of the very first ideas that I had for this fandom, and I've been chomping at the bit to write it since 2018. It kept getting put off though, first because I was working on three separate long fics at the same time and then I got caught up with all these other long fics over the years, but after I finished up MRaMRN last year, I told myself that once I was done with my long fic break, I was going to write Dear Juliet. And now it's finally here!

Tied Together With a Smile

“Captain Rogers, this is my sub, Maria,” Howard managed through a strangled voice. “And my son—” “I’m Tony,” YouKnowWhoIAm said, boldly sticking his hand out for Steve to shake. He took it, automatically raising it to his lips to kiss, the way he’d been taught to greet unattached subs as a child. It had fallen out of fashion while Steve was in the ice, and he’d mostly trained himself out of the impulse, but he just couldn’t resist when he saw Tony.

Age difference! Social media AU! Dom/sub verse! Art by two of my favorite artists in this fandom! I feel like this fic has everything that I love, and I pretty regularly go back to reread it.

Marvels Unsolved

A Buzzfeed Unsolved AU starring Tony and Bucky as two ghost hunters searching for truth and Sam as their long-suffering cameraman

Here's my little exception to the five fics because this isn't a fic, it's a verse, but I just love it so much. It's such a rare pair (I think I've written a third of the fics for this pairing), and someone once told me that I wasted a great AU idea on this pairing, but this verse is easily one of my favorite things I've ever written. I'm planning on wrapping it up next year, but I will very much miss it once it's over (and hey, if you like this verse, keep an eye out in October for another installment and a hint of a greater plot!).

[venacoeurva]

IRT the slavery jokes, and the tag about how bad it must have been years ago: I’ve been in the fandom for almost twenty years, and it honestly wasn’t too bad until Oblivion came out? The fandom shifted from quiet nerds to mainstream very quickly. Could be that I was insulated to some specific forums where the biggest drama was “stop asking us where the puzzle cube is” and one of the mods wanted to make dremoras and atronachs kiss, but I don’t remember much in the way of slavery jokes and offensive bullshit until Oblivion happened and attracted a bunch of randos, a lot of whom were edgy teens who started the whole thing. Worryingly, a lot of people also came in and played Morrowind out of curiosity, then walked away thinking the whole Dunmer xenophobia thing was “cool.”

HOMOPHOBIA, on the other hand, was a big deal even before Oblivion. Lots of people gnashing their teeth over Vivec being canonically bi and AlienSlof making mods that had assless chaps for men. It’s kind of funny that Voryn/Nerevar is the big ship nowadays because I can still remember all the dudes who felt personally threatened by mesh shirts for elves, and screaming “IM NOT GAY” while staring at the Nude Better Bodies option on GameSpy.

Yeah, I can see that happening (keep in mind I was like 6 when mw came out and I wasn't exactly Online), Oblivion promo was everywhere around when it came out and permeated everything for YEARS (at least around here, everyone had it, everyone was playing it, same with Skyrim, but I feel like Oblivion was a BIG big thing because the high fantasy sort of appeal, the lore wasn't prohibitive for new players, and it looked graphically ambitious for the time). I think the aughts were around when being a Gamer started being seen as a semi-cool/acceptable subculture, too, so I'm sure that emboldened a lot of those dickweeds because they felt like revolutionaries or something and circlejerked, including their shared bigotry (and then the skyrim nazi problem happened). Biiig gateways to get people into the older games.

But yeah, I remember constant homophobia and every other [minority]phobia was just a Fandom Problem in general regardless of series... at least the fragility of homophobic dudebros toward even the most basic shit like a male character being shirtless or had tight pants, or having long hair (or a female character having short hair, because they're afraid that's too gay for them) was funny and pathetic as hell when they weren't expressing a wish that people like me die or something. The fact that people still act like this makes me wonder how they survive.

I saw it in multiple places. I think it helps along with general social progress that social media is more than mostly just forums, old style blogs, webcomics, and dA so more lgbtq+ people can just be out there and not get flamed and harassed to the point of just leaving all available mainstream platforms for fans of something and sites are (usually) more proactive about preventing as much hate speech and the average person will shut down or ignore and simply report/block anyone trying to be bold with it.

Also yeah it's kind of funny it's so big suddenly? I think people just really like running with subtexts with fanbases in general these days instead of just sticking to staunch, outright and stated canon that's put directly in your face (which is kind of moot with dying on that latter hill for this series lmao) because people used to just fight you on that shit back in the day for any series, and going nuts and finally have the freedom to do so. New people coming in with their pre-established behavior and accepted norms from other fandoms helps as well I'm guessing. And judging by tags on my art, gay dudes just really like Voryn and see him as a projection character/he was a gay awakening for some of them? I think being on the gay trans website in an era that shipping is its own subculture within fandoms helps

[jurinova]

Hi! I wanted to get in contact with you for a couple reasons. You can feel free to answer this publicly or privately, whichever you're comfortable with, and your welcome to DM me if you need to have me clarify or explain more about the situation.

1, sorry for the spam, and 2, I'm really glad I have finally found your blog, Because I've been looking for a minute now. For starters thank you for unaware and subtle influence to my art style and my own outfit designs, I've really become super into outfit design wayyyy more than I was years ago when I first saw your outfit meme, and better at it two and secondly, one of your outfits was the first set of clothes i ever drew when I was redesigning my first OC from being a fandom and animal character to being more stand alone and human, years ago, and that means personally a lot to me, especially since I'm hoping to make something like a webcomic or animation outta my own characters and story eventually.

Although, to be fully honest and transparent, the reason it took so long to find your blog is because I didn't find your meme through Tumblr, I found it on Google images on Pinterest and lost the image and etc when I moved phones (where I do my art on), and full transparency, I do suffer from some mental health issues and one of those unfortunately means I have a really bad memory, and admittedly, I must of at some point just forgot that I had drawn the outfit from your meme originally and have continued using it? Im actually embarrassed to admit that and I feel awful about using your design for so long before I actually remembered that it wasn't mine or just something I saw someone wear once irl or etc, and I wanted to let you know that now that I am fully 110% aware now, and are older/wiser enough to know better than to use even others outfit designs like it's no big deal and that I wanna do what I can to fix things?

I'm planning on redesigning my main OC, who rn you can see clearly in the outfit on my icon/blog to have a different default outfit, and trying to go back to everything that has the old outfit and give proper credit, but I wanted to ask if there was anything else I can do or etc to help mend myself forgetting the outfit wasn't mine and using it so long without permission/credit. Because as someone who ended up making my own outfit memes, and has had designs and art basically stolen or having others take credit for, I feel awful that I somehow got myself to this point where I was absent mindedly using your design this whole time. Your art and designs are really fantastic and I don't wanna contribute to you not getting that attention/credit as I have been doing, and I feel bad I even forgot that kinda thing in the first place. I'm just glad I woke up and realized that I had basically gaslit myself into forgetting it was your design/one from a meme and not mine, because the last thing I'd want is to continue being a design thief now that I'm aware, and I'm glad at least I caught it before I started making my own comic or etc and had continued doing it.

TL;DR I've been accidentally using one of your outfits designs as a default on a main character of mine for a few years now, unaware I was even doing it because of certain memory issues I have, and now that I am fully aware, I want to deeply apologize and try to fix things and tell you that I plan to stop and change their default attire completely and go back and credit you wherever I can wherever I have used it, and ask if there is anything more I could do to fix this mess I've made?

Hi! First of all: Absolutely no need to apologize for spamming me with likes! That was great, and really made me smile. Thank you for that!

Secondly, thank you for having the courage to message me about a matter like this. Of course, I feel sad to know that my outfits memes are floating in Pinterest and who knows where but that is something many artists these days have to face. The internet culture currently is about sharing and many people don't stop to think about the consequences, and that sharing images might cause problems for artists. Without sources people can't find the right artist or they may not know that the content was not for taking. Obviously I don't want people to intentionally take my designs or art, but I am aware that it can happen completely unintentionally: which I'm sure was the case with you.

So, please don't feel bad about the situation anymore! We all make mistakes, that's just life. The fact that you're choosing not to use the outfit in the future is enough for me. It actually feels great to be an inspiration and to know that my outfits are well liked, so if I can offer any further advice it's this: go forth and design more cool outfits! Be inspired by others but always create something that is yours. When you look at the old outfit on your character, think about what was it that made it seem so perfect for that character. Then take those parts and transform it into something new, something better, something more you. That's really the cool thing about designing, you really get to express yourself and your characters through outfits. It's why I love doing it so much.

I wish you all the best and good luck with your webcomic project! ✨

[schwoofy]

I'm not an artist so I can only tell you what I've heard from others, BUT the thing about making something like a webcomic is that you've gotta start somewhere. If making something simple would work for you as a warm up, go for it, but there's always going to be at least some level of intimidation when you tell yourself "okay it officially starts here" and you just gotta take that plunge. You're gonna get better either way!

First of all I appreciate the message!

Making something fully original has always intimidated me to some degree. I tend to lean toward producing fandom content because having my own creations posted publicly can be anxiety-inducing, even if it's just silly art of my OCs.

I've worked on this comic project since as early as 2017. It's evolved a lot since then and is very precious to me. I know a webcomic is a huge commitment especially if you want it to gain any sort of traction; updates need to be consistent, and finding a good starting point is the cause of most of my rewrites.

In the end I know no one is going to care about it as much as I do unless I show it off, and the best thing for me to do is to "take the plunge" and just go for it.

[sntechsupport]

Hi! I'm sorry if this is long. I have a question regarding whether or not some profiles are fake on tumblr. So I have a small blog on here, nothing gets too much attention, so I'm surprised when people who haven't posted or liked anything relating to the fandom I post about start following me (I sometimes check followers' profiles to see if I want to follow them back). Recently, this started happening more often, almost on a daily basis. These blogs usually have one or two posts of a selfie/thirsttrap, and nothing else, no likes, nothing, just a link in the bio (I never click on it). Are there real people behind these pages, or are they completely fake, is it a virus I downloaded or should I just mind my own business and let them be or what? Also, what do I do if it's fake/harmful?

I'm not great with tech, so sorry if the answer is in front of my eyes.

Thank you in advance.

Hey pal. I’ve gotten your follow-up ask, but I’ve decided to answer this anyway:

With 99.9999% probability those are bot accounts. The general consensus is to block on sight. Even if you think they *might* be a bot, just block ‘em. If you can report these bot-blogs for something, do that.

I don’t know if there is a virus, but better not click anything that is not the block button.

Staff has tried several purges and so far it never rid us of the problem. Also these bot follows come in waves, and after a while you learn to recognize them by their url and avatar alone.

This anti-bot PSA has been brought to you by SkaiaNet Technical Support, a company that definitively exists and makes games and is not by any means based on a webcomic

[spacemancharisma]

Do you have any OCs? feel free to talk about them if you do What was the first piece of media you engaged with on the internet? Are you still interested in it? What's something you made or did that you're proud of? What's something that made you smile this month?

oh hello!! thank you for sending these questions this is so nice!!!

so I had a whole slew of ocs when I was a kid but they fell by the wayside loooong ago- the only thing I really have now is a pair I don’t think about too often, but I’m very fond of: they started as a good omens au back in 2019, but they grew way past that canon so they had to just become their own thing lmao. basically you’ve got a deeply repressed preacher’s son in the deep deep south and the trans guy runaway whose car broke down outside of town and is just kinda living there now, and they’re in love and I care them very much. maybe i’ll write it someday. oh!!! and also the dubia ranch!!! a webcomic I may or may not ever actually draw that’s a western and all the characters are different lizards. i’ve got a character sheet in my notes app that my husband and I wrote up in a three hour frenzy in the middle of the night one day. fuckin love those lizards.

so the first piece of media I was ever really in “fandom” for was percy jackson when I was 12/13 and was learning how to find fanart and fanfic on deviantart. I got in huuuuge trouble for reading fanfic when my mom checked the browser history, even though the raunchiest stuff I was reading was like. kissing with tongue. I didn’t have a tumblr till I was 18, and this blog started as a les mis blog lmao. I still care about both of those books and they have very special places in my heart, but I haven’t read either of them in a while. I’m excited for the pjo series though!!!

honestly lately i’m just really proud of where I am in life. it was a major step for me to be able to take control of my own life and make choices for myself, not to please others, and my life has become so much better for it.

highlight of exactly a month ago was getting my new rescue beardie!! he’s my absolute sweet boy and I adore him

[pokemonlunarregion]

A little extra about the Lunar region. (Something while I work on finishing up for the next post.)

Why did I pick eternal night? I love the moon and night hence the whole region.

What started this region? I started it when a mix of things happened. I drew line art for my first regional form which was Delcatty and Skitty. I didn't know what to do with them at first. I even left them not colored for awhile. While watching pokemon content I saw people making their own regions. While at first being hesitant knowing how much work it'd be I decided to do it. Here I am now.

Do you plan to finish this region? Yes. I really do plan on finishing it. It might not be very quickly done but it'll get done.

Will this turn into a video game or webcomic? Likely not. I don't have the skills to do so. Not to mention the money to pay someone to make it into a game. Plus I haven't finalized parts of it at the time of writing. Some very important stuff is still unfinished. So there's still more development to go. BUT I am hoping to one day write a fanfiction from this region. That is a future project when I've gotten it all done. More so the towns, maps, and characters. Thinking about finishing that up then releasing new regional pokemon as I please. It will be known when that story will be shared. Might make it chapter to chapter based depending on how things go.

Is this your only project? No. I write all sorts of stories for fanfiction websites for different fandoms. I also love doing art which has different art pieces for different things. I even have some unrelated pokemon drawings like paradox forms of pokemon that have been sitting around. I work on multiple projects at once.

Why is the posting a bit all over the place? I'm sorry about this. I just get busy in my day to day life and don't always have time to post. I am thinking about setting up a posting schedule which might make me feel a bit better, as well as really get this region moving along. The posting schedule is still in the works as I gotta decide what will work for me and my schedule. I will update you all when I get a more proper posting schedule ready.

Why do you pick the pokemon you do? Honestly I started with some pokemon I liked only to try to push myself towards other pokemon. I am expanding past the pokemon I like. Especially since I need some typings and I'm going to run out of pokemon I think are awesome haha. Other than that I tend to go based off of a type I can make them or if I get a vision on how to draw them. I had to especially expand to get certain types in along with the types that are already there. I keep making a list of how many pokemon of each types there are only to end up keep losing it. I'll get a list that I don't lose eventually.

Will there be a creator face reveal? Not likely. I don't feel like this has taken off on the internet for me to do such a thing. I don't plan to cancel it if it doesn't get too much attention. It's fun to do this especially at my own pace. So it still plans to keep on going. Perhaps if the story ends up taking off with this blog doing so too then I might.