#I don't usually engage with the fandom but I feel this needed to be said

[razor-rabbit]

Everyone needs to calm down. These people are just losers looking for the only ounce of attention they will ever get in their lives.

Do what you can. Report, block, and then move on. They are actively breaking laws doing this and could have a lawsuit filed against them. They are leaking paid content which Kittycorn could sue them for.

[unexpectedgeese]

I love you kudos I love you second kudos I love you keysmash comments I love you ‘<3’ I love you guest accounts I love you worldbuilding questions I love you comment spam from new readers I love you bookmarks with summaries of the plot I love you ‘to read’ I love you ‘fave’ I love you Artists who draw scenes from the fic I love you discord proofreaders I love you beta readers I love you Inbox (1)!!!!! You are the beating heart of the Ao3 community and the world is better with you in it!!!

[getvalentined]

An open letter to @staff

I already submitted this to Support under "Feedback," but I'm sharing it here too as I don't expect it to get a response, and I feel like putting in out in public may be more effective than sending it off into the void.

The recent post on the Staff blog about changing tumblr to an algorithmic feed features a large amount of misinformation that I feel staff needs to address, openly and honestly, with information on where this data was sourced at the very least.

Claim 1: Algorithms help small creators.

This is false, as algorithms are designed to push content that gets engagement in order to get it more engagement, thereby assuring that the popular remain popular and the small remain small except in instances of extreme luck.

This can already be seen on the tumblr radar, which is a combination of staff picks (usually the same half-dozen fandoms or niche special interests like Lego photography) which already have a ton of engagement, or posts that are getting enough engagement to hit the radar organically. Tumblr has an algorithm that runs like every other socmed algorithm on the planet, and it will decimate the reach of small creators just like every other platform before it.

Claim 2: Only a small portion of users utilize the chronological feed.

You can find a poll by user @darkwood-sleddog here that at the time of writing this, sits at over 40 THOUSAND responses showing that over 96 percent of them use the chronological feed*. Claiming otherwise isn't just a misstatement, it's a lie. You are lying to your core userbase and expecting them to accept it as fact. It's not just unethical, it's insulting to people who have been supporting your platform for over a decade.

Claim 3: Tumblr is not easy to use.

This is also 100% false and you ABSOLUTELY know it. Tumblr is EXTREMELY easy to use, the issue is that the documentation, the explanations of features, and often even the stability of the service is subpar. All of this would be very easy for staff to fix, if they would invest in the creation of walkthroughs and clear explanations of how various site features work, as well as finally fixing the search function. Your inability to explain how your service works should not result in completely ignoring the needs and wants of your core long-term userbase. The fact that you're more willing to invest in the very systems that have made every other form of social media so horrifically toxic than in trying to make it easier for people to use the service AS IT WORKS NOW and fixing the parts that don't work as well speaks volumes toward what tumblr staff actually cares about.

You will not get a paycheck if your platform becomes defunct, and the thing that makes it special right now is that it is the ONLY large-scale socmed platform on THE ENTIRE INTERNET with a true chronological feed and no aggressive algorithmic content serving. The recent post from staff indicates that you are going to kill that, and are insisting that it's what we want. It is not. I'd hazard to guess that most of the dev team knows it isn't what we want, but I assume the money people don't care. The user base isn't relevant, just how much money they can bring in.

The CEO stated he wanted this to remain as sort of the last bastion of the Old Internet, and yet here we are, watching you declare you intend to burn it to the ground.

You can do so much better than this.

Response to the Update

Under the cut for readability, because everything said above still applies.

I already said this in a reblog on the post itself, but I'm adding it to this one for easy access: people read it that way because that's what you said.

Staff considers the main feed as it exists to be "outdated," to the point that you literally used that word to describe it, and the main goals expressed in this announcement is to figure out what makes "high-quality content" and serve that to users moving forward.

People read it that way because that is what you said.

*The final results of the poll, after 24 hours:

136,635 votes breaks down thusly:

An algorithm based feed where I get "the best of tumblr." @ 1.3% (roughly 1,776 votes)

Chronological feed that only features blogs I follow. @ 95.2% (roughly 130,077 votes)

This doesn't affect me personally. @ 3.5% (roughly 4,782 votes)

[patrice-bergerons]

The 'write for yourself uwu' culture shift has done real damage to fic writers imo. I recently had a post on the importance of strategic commenting break containment and I'm surprised by how many strangers who rb it in agreement feel the need to reassure in the tags that they do write for themselves, but...

There is a kernel of truth in the heart of this sentiment--if you only chase stats, you are unlikely to find joy in your writing. At the same time, I think we've veered too far in the other direction.

It is only natural to want engagement and the write for yourself crowd often overlooks how communal an effort fic writing usually is. So many story ideas are born from casual discussions about h/c's and favourite scenes and what ifs and the comment box is a cornerstone of this process. Not only can the discussions in the comment box be a hub for idea generation on their own, but even when the said idea generation takes place in DMs or Discord chats, commenting is often the first/easiest way into befriending authors; it's where community building starts.

Further, the write for yourself crowd similarly overlooks that the things a writer can write for themselves are often vast and many at any given time, and relative engagement levels across fandoms/ships can play a large part in which of those ideas a writer chooses to pursue--or whether they choose to publish their finished work at all.

In sum, I don't think we need to be this apologetic as writers for wanting feedback and engagement for what we post -- writing is hard work and it's only human that we want something external out of it in turn, however rewarding the process might intrinsically be.

[finalgirllx]

we need more bottom!ellie and subtop!ellie in this fandom plssss😭🙏

oh i so agree. i’ve been pretty lucky to stumble upon creators in the fandom who also like to push the sub!ellie agenda but i can and will always eat it up.

i've said it before and will say it again: ellie, as a lover, leans heavily into admiration, adoration, body worship. she's still sassy as hell and engages in a fair amount of teasing edging during sex, but often trades in her sardonic wit to emphasize how much she loves you and your body. i really don't see her as the degrading type. like, when ellie does top you, she melts into a whimpering puddle even before your legs start trembling. how well you take her fingers, tongue, strap if that's your thing— she's a quivering mess even on the giving end. you're so gorgeous beneath her; she can't help but feel overwhelmed with her own arousal. ellie is a pleasure top at her finest, getting off from simply knowing that she's the one turning you on. she constantly mouths praise between shaky exhales, her neediness crystal clear. and if you guide ellie on how to please you- unlike her usual defiant attitude, your orders bring her to her knees literally. and once you finally orgasm, she's finishing alongside you. as for bottoming? sheesh, ellie crumbles so fast under your attention. for someone usually so resistant to expressing her own desires, she folds unbelievably quickly under your touch. ellie is desperate and often impatient, trying to reverse roles by taking hold of your hand or hair to guide you where she needs you. except sometimes, you pull back to bask in her pouty expression just a bit longer. you comment on how cute it is that she's so attracted to you and starved regardless of how long it's been- making every time feel like the first.

[blitzwhore]

I just saw Blitzø get called Stolas stockholm victim I can't with this fandom anymore😭

😂 As outrageously incorrect and stupid as that take is, I'm going to go on a tangent here. I hope you don't mind.

I think every fandom has annoying people with awfully terrible takes in it. People with zero media literacy. People who hatewatch. People who think they're entitled to the exact show they would've wanted, which has nothing to do with the actual, existing show.

This is especially true for queer media, and especially true for queer cartoons. (Hi, yes. I was active in the Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Voltron, and She-Ra fandoms when those shows were airing, respectively. I've seen some stuff). Some people just can't handle queer cartoons, period. If the queer characters/ships are soft and wholesome, they're infantilising and boring, and if they're complex and nuanced and actually have conflict, they're abusive and problematic. You'll hear the same recycled arguments over and over again. Like, the shit some people are saying about Blitz and Stolas after The Full Moon? Is literally almost word-for-word what they said about Catra and Adora post-season 3 of She-Ra (and even at the end of the show).

Here's the thing, though! Those people and their bad takes are not what I want to think about what I think about a fandom. Those aren't the people I want to call the fans. They don't deserve that title. Not when so many other people are out there dedicating their time to making gifs and art and meta posts, and writing fic, and commenting/reblogging to show support, and sliding into people's DMs to scream and squee together about a thing they love.

At the end of the day, "fandom" is just a lot of people each doing their own thing. Which people you engage with and allow to stay within your line of sight will determine your fandom experience. Fandom can be a huge, convoluted, online space full of people who are constantly arguing with one another and whose takes make you unfathomably angry... Or it can be you and your 5 friends and mutuals who scream gleefully at one another in 2-note posts. You can't control what others post online, but you can control your engagement with it.

How? Well, here's what I personally do to avoid getting upset by people's stupid opinions online:

Filter 'critical' and 'anti' tags (eg. #anti stolitz #anti vivziepop #Helluva Boss critical #HB critical #vivziepop critical). Many people actually do tag their critical posts because they know it's the respectful thing to do!

If I come across a post that has one or more of those tags, obviously, I don't click through to see it under any circumstances.

If I stumble across a stranger's untagged post with hate/criticism that upsets me: I stop reading and BLOCK. Immediately. I don't look back. I don't finish reading. I don't engage. I just block block block. I <3 the block button, seriously.

If I feel my mind reeling from a bad take I just came across: I take a step back, close my phone, breathe, remember life is beautiful sometimes. Go back and watch an episode I really like. Clean my living space a little. Vent about it to a friend (but only if I really need to, because if not, I'd rather not dwell on it).

If I'm starting to feel the need to reply to someone's bad take (directly or via my own post), I instead make the decision to channel that energy into making fandom posts out of love. (I don't do this just with fandom. If I see something transphobic online, I usually react by reblogging a bunch of trans art or trans positivity posts on my main, for example). I like to think of it as putting some positivity out into the world to compensate for the negativity I just saw. So, for example, if I see someone shitting on my blorbo, I may make a silly post just saying how much I love blorbo. Or I'll make (or draft) a post about how interesting I find some of blorbo's actions. Or reblog another person's positive/interesting post about blorbo.

And finally, I stay the hell away from Twitter. Or at least, if I go on Twitter, I try my best to avoid any tweet that has text in it instead of just art. Even the people who have good opinions spend too much time arguing with the people who have bad opinions on there. I don't want to see people's bad takes! No, not even while reading founded and perfectly articulated criticism of those bad takes! So I just limit my time on Twitter. And again, if someone is putting bad takes on my TL (even if it is to counter them), I unfollow and block as needed.

All this to say, yes, it really fucking sucks to read the opinions of people who don't understand and who hate the characters and ships and worlds you love. Gosh it's the worst. But you can curate your fandom experience. You can focus on the things you can control. You have the power to decide if your fandom experience is draining or fun!

And because I don't know how to finish this, here, have a Stolitz kiss to heal you:

We will keep winning and there's nothing the haters can do about it. 😌

[olderthannetfic]

audience question: how did you approach having to explain jkr's descent into madness to people who are chronically online but aren't tapped into the major fandom community, without just sending them contrapoints' video? (i mean, i can, but i'd consider it as a last resort if they want further info)

context: my old college friend who is a hp fan (the usual childhood book geek backstory) recently bought the legacy game and i had to bite my tongue when they try to engage me with it. it's in the scope of our usual topics, which is just sending memes to each other and minding our own business in different fandoms, but now i feel like i should say something, except that opens up a can of worms because of the *waves hands* discourse surrounding it.

i'm not sure how to unpack this without me having to come out to them in some capacity first (which is something i've been planning to do for awhile now, i know i'm not obligated to). it's such a charged topic for a friendship that's built on daily posts of cat gifs and i'm not sure how to bring it up without seeming like i'm shaming them for it? it's astounding to me that they have no clue why 'they're not seeing any fanart of this character on twitter when they checked' and actually went to tumblr to find some, without bumping into any bullshit, but i guess the tags self-contain the topic so they don't get see any discourse against it.

tl;dr: should i even bring this up? or should i just let it die down? i feel kinda bad ignoring the topic, but it's also something that i would not prefer to engage with said friend because i don't want to spend my energy having to address it. (i should just send the contrapoints video, huh)

--

I think I would say something like "JKR turned into kind of a jerk over the years and it soured me on HP-related things." If they ask for details on her being a jerk, send the video link.

I don't think it's necessary to come out, nor do you need to elaborate a lot until they ask. You can get into the issues with the game itself if you want to, but if your primary aim is to get them to not talk to you about HP and/or to be aware that there's something going on with HP, you don't need to get into that level of detail.

The experience of not liking a creator anymore after they change or you find out things is pretty common. If you keep it more to "I feel sad now", that gives them less to get offended by or argue with and feels less like an accusation.

[cpericardium]

So! I've gotten a host of messages and asks regarding recent disk horse and I wanted to address them as a collective.

I know I have anon asks off, I won't share your URLs, but I do want to thank you for asking and clarifying some of the frankly vile things people have been saying about me, my girlfriend, and friends. I value those of you who offered your words of support, and didn't jump to believe screenshots taken out of context and lies written with the utmost confidence and none of the facts. I am a little tired of having my morals questioned and my views conflated with every single person I associate with, but there it goes.

tumblr user cpericardium suspiciously silent on the subject of Gaza: does this mean you support ethnic cleansing???

My reticence when it comes to posting about topics like I/P is because:

-This is a fandom blog intended for lighter topics, except maybe the occasional vent about life stuff, which I usually hide under a cut. I don't have sideblogs. They seem tough to maintain and I don't post nearly enough to justify it. If I were to make one it would be for another fandom or maybe just the freakier bugs. I simply prefer my social media experience to be stress-free.

-Anti-slacktivism. It's a documented thing: posting about an issue makes you feel like you're doing something, you get that little shot of dopamine, so you don't actually go out and do something that effects meaningful change. I'm trying to do less of that. I'm good with the friends and people I follow who choose to post about it and this is a strictly personal belief, but when I engage in activism, it is offline or it is a donation. You're not going to hear about it.

But don't you reblog lgbt and women's rights posts?

Yeah, and that's usually when I want to save a post for one reason or another (e.g. to talk about with someone on discord later). The bottom line is that the main purpose of my blog is not to post political takes or to spread awareness of anything. It is just a collection of my interests (fan stuff, bugs) and hopefully a way to share those interests with like-minded people.

I will state my views clearly for the record: I support Palestine. The ongoing genocide is heartbreaking and so is the violence against protestors. Additionally, I am against antisemitism and the harassment of Jewish people in the name of supporting Palestine. This shouldn't even need to be said.

Is your girlfriend a Zionist?

No.

Does she support Zionists?

No.

Wasn't she in the military?

Yes, years ago.

But the military is evil?

It is. She's extremely hardcore anti-war and anti-military, does not believe the US should even have an army, and actively PMs strangers on reddit to try to convince them to not make the same mistake. If they're dead set anyway, she gives them detailed advice on how to survive. Because she actually cares about the human cost of war, not the social clout gained from shunning or sneering at people who make wrongheaded choices. I have seen her doing this, seen her seeking to understand their reasons for joining so she can systematically explain—from personal experience!—why they're not going to get any of that out of the army. It is a hell of a lot more effective than bitching them out or writing callout posts or starting whisper campaigns about them. She cannot delete those years of her life no matter how much she regrets them. There is only forward. I think we can all agree on that.

But what about all those things she said. "I regret nothing, I have no qualms, VA nipple money etc."

Well you have to understand that while of generally upright character, she is a bit of a scamp. She believes she fundamentally should not have to explain herself to randos who do not know her, who have never, not once, interacted with her, who are clearly digging for dirt and will twist anything she says no matter how banal. People see what they want to see and they look for evidence to reinforce their preconceptions; they'll go so far as to make alts to join servers, cherry-pick screencaps, crop them, and conveniently fill in the rest of the narrative for curious onlookers. So she decided to exaggerate and amplify and twirl her mustache like a supervillain. Give them a show, as it were.

To be clear, I'm not sold on this strat because it makes her look cartoonishly evil to people who can't understand sarcasm and hyperbole. But her friends and I are aware of her actual beliefs from actually talking with her for more than one (1) second instead of immediately believing two mysteriously cropped screencaps from a thirdhand source, and also aware that she did not in fact do those things people imagine she did. And isn't that what matters? Real-life harm? Do you even care?

Re: screenshots/so-called proof from shakertwelve & lakesbian's "callouts"

Girlfriend addresses them here. I will also note they have spread lies about me and other people before.

[mcsm-confessions]

Right, ok. So, I don't usually put any confessions on this blog, I usually just read what is on here but with all this ship discourse and people hating on rare pairs, I feel like I want to say something now.

As long as your ship isn't:

Minor x Adult

Incest

Glorifying abuse of any kind

Anything that is illegal or immoral

It's fine! I mean, for God's sake, I've seen people, including myself, ship two characters who have never canonically met. And the same goes to enemies to lovers, when done right, it's really good and quite frankly, cute.

Remember, guys. These characters are literal Minecraft blocks. Why are you attacking or just being rude to others because they wanted to ship Romeo x Jesse or something other than Jesse x Lukas/Jesse x Petra? This is nothing against those ships because I too enjoy them as well.

It just feels like this fandom needs to realise, if they don't like something, doesn't mean they have an excuse to be rude to someone. Just don't interact with it, block the tag if you need to. Just don't be rude.

Sorry for rambling in your ask box, mod. I just felt like it needed to be said, though I'm sure someone else has said this before too.

~~~

You're all good, OP. As lovely as the amount of engagement I receive from these debates is, it's also not good for any of us to fight this much. If you don't want to see something, block the tag. Fighting each other over it won't defeat the issue. Agree to disagree on which block people should kiss.

[i-heart-hxh]

Hello! I hope AX is fun!

I have a question along the lines of some that you probably have already gotten before. If so, sorry. Mine is basically: do you think people who say there's queer/gay subtext in Gon and Killua's relationship are reading too much into it, or are otherwise biased to an extent that it's effecting objectivity?

The reason I ask is: usually people who say these sorts of things are the borderline homophobic sort that insist kids their age can't be gay or make fun of people who like to engage with anime fandoms, but I have come across someone (in private, friend of a friend, lol) with a couple of arguments which I think leave out all that, and I thought it would be valuable to ask, both just to have a discussion and because I don't quite trust my own skills.

One point was that the famous shinjuu line isn't as romantically charged as the English speaking fandom makes it out to be, and that the word contemporarily refers to multi-death tragedy or dedication resulting in death generally, especially in the context with which Killua said it (being that he was about to follow Gon into a fight with Pitou which he knew they'd lose without any prior mutual agreement). The argument was that a romantic reading of the line comes from bias and unfamiliarity, and as a result isn't as paid attention to in Japanese HxH communities as it is in English ones.

The other was that a lot of the moments showcasing the intensity of Gon and Killua's feelings (such as the dodgeball or "you are light" scenes) are very typical/standard of shounen anime, which often have central themes of friendship that are frequently "overestimated" by fandom to be intentional romantic undertones, and that these two characters are not unique in that respect. They said determining romance-establishing purposes to scenes like the ones Killua shares with Palm is projection that interferes with analysis for all the reasons mentioned above. Part of the argument was that a romantic interpretation ignores a subversion of 'the power of friendship' shounen trope, as Gon and Killua have a comparatively tragic "end" (in quotations because obviously the story isn't done), where Gon pushed Killua away, Killua could not stand up for himself, and Gon ended up defeating a powerful enemy without him; adding romance to it obscures and misses the point of this subversion. They also said it was very unlikely for Togashi, should he want to explore queer themes like this, to be so subtle about it, and to not ascribe intent to the author.

The way I see it is that reading romance between Killua and Gon is just one of many interpretations someone may get from a culmination of moments from the text, and that a lot of meta analysis will inevitably be biased by someone's own experiences. For example, a lot of people can relate to the experience of having a baby gay crush, and so see themselves in Killua and read the character with that background in mind. I think the arguments I see here (on tumblr, but also your blog) are well-substantiated and well-explained, which I think are all that's needed for a "valid" interpretation.

Anyway. I apologize for the long ask. Thank you for reading all that!

Hi! AX was fun, thank you!! I caught a cold so I've been slow to recover this week, but I'm starting to feel better.

So, I've answered similar questions with a lot of different reasons why I think the subtext is intentional, and I think it's worth reading that first because it helps when thinking about Togashi's mindset and interests in his works. While of course I can't put words in Togashi's mouth, there is validity in examining things he has actually said and included in prior works and deducing some of his tendencies and patterns based off of that. I do not think it's a stretch or leap at all to read queer themes into the work of someone who has stated an interest in creating queer works, expressed that he enjoys and is influenced by queer works, is married to someone who created a work known for its queer themes, and has previously included queer themes in his works as well. And I mean, KilluGon isn't even the only queer inclusion in HxH by far either.

The thing is, I can understand where this person is coming from...up to a point. If you take any one or even a small handful of these points in isolation, sure, it's not difficult to say that perhaps the romantic reading of those moments is incidental and not intended to be taken that seriously.

I think the real problem with this attitude is that when you start adding up the number of times something with a romantic implication is included between Gon and Killua and look at the picture as a whole, it does reach a point where it gets increasingly ridiculous to claim it isn't intentional or has no real weight. Why would someone like Togashi, who has such an eye for detail in his stories, bother including these implications over and over and over again if he didn't want it to be read this way? Especially when he is someone who has expressed interest in writing queer stories? I struggle to look at the full picture and accept that there isn't a strong degree of intention to the decisions he makes.

I've seen tons of other anime, including lots of shounen, and while I understand that person's perspective with the fever-pitch friendships that the fandom then takes and interprets as more (something I believe Jump intentionally fosters as a marketing tool), personally I do see HxH as being several notches above other shounen series with regards to both how much subtext exists and also how seriously the bond between the characters is portrayed. To me, it does feel distinct from even many other series where male characters are commonly shipped for these reasons, and I'm actually rather skeptical with regards to the majority of these ships being considered canon or even close to it even when there is some basis the fandom is going off of. But I do think HxH leans into this aspect even more than most other shounen do, both in the series itself and in related offshots like the musicals and marketing and even how both versions of the anime were approached.

Also, I will say that I follow the Japanese side of the fandom pretty closely and read tweets frequently, and I do see people bring up the shinjuu line with regards to Killua's feelings and especially what it says about the gravity of how he feels towards Gon. I would actually agree there is less emphasis on it in the Japanese side of the fandom because the word (including the subtext) is already familiar to Japanese audiences and so they just see it upfront and then either take it that way or not, while it has to be explained to a non-Japanese audience due to the lack of cultural familiarity and also the inadequacy of the English translations to capture the meaning.

Regardless of the fact that it technically can be taken either way, I do strongly feel like the word was used by Togashi with intention and knowledge of how it's normally used in a literary sense. I believe Togashi made a choice to use that word on purpose and let his audience take it as they will. It's also worth noting that Gon and Killua directly parallel another lovers' suicide--that of Meruem and Komugi, who do use romantic language towards one another. Komugi says "I may not be much, but please, let me accompany you," which is an old fashioned way for Japanese women to accept a marriage proposal. This echos Killua's "Gon, you are light. Sometimes you shine so brightly, I must look away. But even so, is it still okay if I stay at your side?”

I also think Gon and Killua's friendship can be and is still a subversion of shounen friendship tropes while at the same time being romantically coded. In fact, that it is so close to romantic is a bit of a subversion itself. I don't think the coding gets in the way of the shounen friendship subversion or takes away from it--both can exist at the same time. I still say that the way the Palm subplot is constructed doesn't fully make sense if you remove the intention of the exact nature of Killua's feelings being explored. Otherwise why bother to have so much emphasis on romance as a theme? Why not construct things differently? Why not have Gon make a platonic friend for Killua to get jealous over instead? Why essentially give Killua a romantic "rival"? Why have Killua "stalk" them on their date and point out that's what he's doing? Why have him freaking out at the thought of Gon going on dates and then saying he wants to be with Gon forever literally the next panel? Why make his jealousy come off as romantic in nature because of the way the whole situation is set up? These decisions matter! Togashi could have approached this entire subplot from any angle, and yet he chose to keep repeatedly referencing romantic love when the focus is on Killua's feelings for Gon.

Obviously as someone who ships Gon and Killua, I do have a certain degree of bias, though I like to think I am able to step away from that and look at the series more objectively as well. I do have moments where I go, "I am I being a little delusional here? Do I need to re-assess?" and think over all of what we've been provided again and...honestly I just come to the same conclusion every time no matter what angle I try to look at it from. I do believe that Togashi writes the KilluGon dynamic in such a way that people who would rather ignore the romantic subtext can do so. It's a perfectly beautiful and complex friendship regardless of whether you acknowledge the romantic subtext or not. I think Togashi enjoys playing with the ambiguity of it. But just because it's ambiguous doesn't mean the romantic subtext doesn't exist or have meaning/intent behind it, and to me, adding up all the different choices made in the series, it does reach a tipping point wherein I seriously believe Togashi includes it with full intention and knowledge of what he's doing. And for what it's worth, I don't think it's actually that subtle. A lot of people notice it and wonder about it and connect with it, even including some people who don't actually want to see it (think about all the dudebros who post online going, "Is it just me or does Killua seem kinda gay???").

I hope this response is helpful to you! I wish I could provide more concrete examples in this post, but I feel like it's getting awfully long as it is. I do sincerely believe that the romantic interpretation is a valid and meaningful one that has legitimate merit when looking at the series. If others would rather ignore that aspect, they're allowed to feel that way, and of course no one is obligated to ship Gon and Killua in a romantic way no matter how much subtext exists. But I don't think that perspective erases the existence of the romantic implications, which are fairly heavy in my opinion when you add them all together.

[peachie-kittie]

GROUP AU

I cannot stop thinking about TPTM. So, in honor of that, I made those old fandom like - flow charts with the colored lines. 9 images, I'll be explaining below the cut

So! Quick run down on what the lines mean:

Pink: crushing. Explains itself, romantic attraction.

Yellow: close friends. Also explains itself, they consider themselves close confidants.

Cyan: like/friends. Not super close, but they'd hang around each other outside the group in big groups or every so often one-on-one.

Gray: neutral-friendly. Probably wouldn't hang out outside the group, but there's respect there and they usually get on fine.

Purple: calibers personal MOM line lmao. Not biologically obvs but she sees these girls as smth akin to her kids/nieces.

Got it? Sick.

-----

Disposable Girl (Jordyn-Mae Thomas):

Notes (in order for each girl):

-It and Irreverent have a cordial relationship but aren't close. They're personalities just don't really click.

-cluster b mfs who don't wash their hair stick together!! You can't tell me disposable doesn't drag splitter to the skate park after dark where they fuck around and eat stolen gas station snacks.

-wants to be closer to fainéant but doesn't wanna bother them. They're so sleepy all the time and also a smidge intimidating with how sarcastic they can be. Faineant finds Disposable girl really funny though and relates to the feeling of being sidelined.

-Looks up to Caliber as a cool aunt kinda figure but is too shy to ever express it. Caliber worries about Disposable hurting itself while skateboarding and enjoys talking Pokémon with it.

-Do I even need to say it. The Instagram story bro. Chocobo and Diaposable are GAY.

-Similar case to Irreverent with the added bonus of being slightly intimidated. I mean, Taxidermy's cool as fuck - wearing leather and other kink gear pretty openly. But also she's pretty stoic AND 21 and it makes Disposable self aware. Taxidermy, on the other hand, has a thing with anyone under 20 - that being, he thinks of them as BABIES (/silly). Aka he doesn't want to make them feel weird at all, mixed with the canonical shyness, makes her very reserved around Diaposable.

-originally it was pretty intimidated by chemical bc she's strong and atheletic as fuck but then chemical complimented Disposables outfit ONCE and it WOULD NOT let chemical go. They ended up bonding over shit like music tastes, anime, and even exercise a bit! Turns out disposable has a talent for ddr.

-it's admiration from disposable that makes her line blue and ignorance on refractions end. Disposable doesn't approach them often so they are clueless to the fact disposable finds her very ethereal and very cool.

------

Irreverent Girl (Kairi Herring):

Notes:

-Irreverent thinks Splitter is clever and brave but a little too reckless for co's tastes. One is aware of the fact, however, that Splitter thinks she looks cool and certainly doesn't mind the little debates they occasionally get into.

-Faineant and Irreverent are laid back buds who love to chill together. One is more than happy to just spend time in silence with Faineant and send each other memes. When faineant has the energy, they like to go online shopping together and discuss things like what happens post-mortem. Also, Irreverent is thankful that Faineant doesn't mind the flat affect of her tone.

-Appreciates Caliber's concern, but is fine with the casualty of their friendship. They don't have much in common anyway, but appreciates knowing another person in the group also struggles with emotional suppression the way co does.

-I said it in my headcanon post and I'll say it here; UNLIKELY DUO OF CHOCOBO AND IRREVERENT!! I love love love the idea that chocobo forced himself in irreverent's life and actually ended up bonding well with one!! It caught Irreverent off guard, too, but she realized that Chocobo's willingness to engage with many topics and do anything as long as the person he's with is genuinely happy was not only pleasant, but something co admires. It's also just funny to imagine Irreverent with her flat affect ass and Chocobo explaining how excited it's friend is, that's just co's face. Also they share accessories every so often bc Irreverent has more than just the cute bunny hood.

-Irreverent and Taxidermy are both flat affect motherfuckers. I'm not wrong. The only reason taxidermy's line isn't yellow is because Irreverent is 19. But once co turns 20, Taxidermy will probably be more willing to hang out around her.

-I don't have as many thoughts here; I see this as a slightly similar-ish situation to Splitter though. Chemical is really gentle and generally friendly, but not so affectionate that she'll just cling to people like Chocobo. And since friendship with Irreverent often requires initiation from the other party, they just never really bonded. Co has no qualms being around Chemical, though, and they've had a few fun interactions.

-Refraction's talk of metamorphosis and life after death intrigued Irreverent. She doesn't feel like many of the others would be as okay with such dark topics (save for Faineant, who deals with severe medical issue already), so she finds it nice to have someone co can talk to freely with. They don't talk much in person, however - lots of texting. They've probably gotten stoned together tbh.

-----

Splitter Girl (Tahira Rashid):

-Something I've read that I kinda wanna incorporate is this thing that some people with NPD experience is thinking you're closer to someone than you actually are.

-I say this bc it's her relation to faineant jdjdbsnsn splitter thinks they're besties and faineant is like "yeh she's cool but very loud n I'm gonna need her to tone it down before we consistently hang out." Splitter is trying her best to do so, she's just VERY hyperactive. They're working on it, essentially.

-Now, with Caliber, this is the closest pairing out of every single one that is at risk for conflict; and even then, it's not likely. It's because Splitter has like - issues with authority, prone to some envy, and seeing Caliber complain about things like how stressed she is from working her job and balancing all the (admittedly impressive) aspects of her life occasionally causes Splitter anger-jealousy. Caliber does their best to be patient with it and understand Splitter's side, and Splitter (while she'll never probably consider herself a friend to Caliber), is willing to see her a mentor of sorts.

-Chocobo and Splitter get along well! They know each other thru Disposable and while they don't hang out as much one-on-one, they have a very fun trio energy whenever they're around each other. Main issue is that Splitter can be a bit violent, gory, generally abrasive for Chocobo's tastes - Disposable mediates and the two are working on cooling it with the sensitive topics (Splitter) and getting a bit thicker skin to handle them (chocobo).

-SPLITTER THINKS TAXIDERMY IS METAL AS FUCK. She wishes Taxidermy was less worried about the teenager thing, but considering Splitter is the BABYEST-BABY of the group, it applies to her. However, Taxidermy has complimented her before, so she believes that once she's 20 it'll be fine and she'll TRULY get to impress this metal as fuck deer person. She also experiences mild envy towards Chemical and Irreverent for being exceptions lmao.

-Again!! Cluster b friends stick together! Not as close as she is with Disposable, but that's just because they vastly different interests so it's hard for them to find hobbies they can mutually enjoy. BUT!! They enjoy playing ddr together (despite splitters two left feet) and gush about figmas, gundhams, and garage kits together. And on days where Chemical is willing to stay in, anime binge days. Another thing is, again, Chemical is more gentle than Splitter - and her severe moods can influence Chemical's bpd poorly. They've both agreed to try and get closer as they manage their symptoms, though.

-Just not fond of Refraction, and it's mutual. Not in an antagonistic way, they're just kinda...parallel. Though Splitter will always admit it's pretty sick how openly Refraction is willing to talk about death, and Refraction will admit Splitters antics can be pretty funny.

-----

Fainéant Girl (Freyja Maria Mendoza):

Notes:

-You know I didn't intend to make Faineant one of the top three most social fucking girls but here we are. Idk why I just see her as getting on with everyone pretty well bc she's chill as shit and willing to do literally anything bc she likes going out (when they have energy!) But also know how to enjoy themselves inside so it's like. They ball dude.

-ANYWAY the rlly appreciate Caliber bc they care and express a lot of worry but sometimes she feels a tinge smothered. Caliber ofc does her best to avoid doing it bur Caliber is a perfectionist and sometimes not overdoing it feels like failure to help. But as a highly independent woman herself, Caliber respects Fainéant's deep need for independence.

-Similar to above with Chocobo. Chocobo is sweet and usually is good with not infantilizing Faineant, but can occasionally overdo it EMOTIONALLY. A lot of the time Faineant needs a little extra time to process their emotions bc of daily brain fog and sometimes Chocobo can go overboard in trying to help. Not to mention, Chocobo isn't really one for staying in unless it's a party, baking, or crafting - but they're still on pretty good terms!

-Taxidermy and Faineant are parallel but like. Not in the disinterest way. They're very much the type of duo to parallel play and send each other memes over discord. They also do girl talk about sex, honestly - talking about weird body shit, they're favorite sex toys (not in a flirty way!) and their gripes about it. But bc they're both quiet and Taxidermy is more reserved than Faineant, they aren't besties.

-Chemical girl!! Helps!! They met online in a forum where Faineant was asking about exercising when extremely disabled and although Chemical herself isn't she works in a gym and has helped people like her!! So she responded, they did a video call, and now Chemical is her personal trainer. The funniest part is that I imagine that happened before the hospital incident so just. I'm imagining a scene of them leaving the hospital at the same time and they run into each other and they're just pogging at each other. Then a few weeks later Faineant rolls into the first group session and just

"Why is my workout buddy at my therapy session???"

-And as for Refraction, they share similar struggles and have similar personalities; sarcastic, a little fatigued all the time, friendly, maybe a lil pessimistic on their outlooks in life. Faineant feels a huge sisterly bond with Refraction and they keep each other motivated to stay alive.

-----

Caliber Girl (Nora Qu):

Notes:

-MOM??

-anyway Chocobo adores Caliber!! Caliber was a little surprised at first, but ended up really appreciating Chocobo in a rich aunt-loving niece kinda way. They go out shopping together, Caliber gives her advice about red flags in people, and they honestly love gossiping (harmlessly!!) together. Caliber is the first significantly older person in Chocobo's life (other than his parents) he actually trusts again, feeling like Caliber is a mentor, aunt, and sister all in one. Also chocobo makes SURE caliber eats. Oh also before group therapy Caliber actually knew Chocobo through a coffee shop it worked at so when Caliber first saw him she thought the coffee shop was catering. No your favorite batista is just severely mentally ill sorry Caliber.

-Taxidermy is vvv shy and while she thinks Caliber looks sick ("the leather boots...where did you got those, ma'am" -taxidermy) he feels a little bit intimidated by Caliber's impressive record and social grace. Caliber is friendly nonetheless, and is trying to slowly get Taxidermy to open up.

-If chocobo is making sure Caliber is eating right then Chemical is making sure she isn't overworking herself! I hc'd they went to the same gym and I stand by it!! Before Chemical would just be on her ass for drinking water but now that she's heard her struggles with anorexia Chemical keeps a closer eye on Caliber. Also, similar aunt-niece relationship. Honestly, since I made all three close I've decided the three will go out and have shopping days. They're interests are all different but they've got alternative fashion and high energy to spare so it's chill.

-Refraction and Caliber have a similar dynamic to Rafraction and Splitter; parallel but in the way where they just don't touch. They look out for each other in therapy and occasionally talk, but nothing too close. They are fine like this.

-----

Chocobo Girl (Morgan Moretti):

-If Caliber wasn't required to have purple lines and I didn't need to indicate the crushes Chocobo would have 5 best friends. There are no gray lines. Everyone likes it.

-Anyway!! Just like with Irreverent it might seem unlikely but they have a nat 20 charisma stat and roll 15+ on 8/10 rolls for charisma so yeah. Taxidermy is shy and a bit aphasic BUT Chocobo is so patient and better at explaining their feelings once given a thread. They help Taxidermy open up and...being serious for a second. They did bond over sexual trauma. A lot of the girls have little bits of sexual trauma interspersed (Disposable not seeing itself as sexy, Irreverents line about being sinful, Caliber experiencing societal pressures) but these two are the most effected by sexuality related traumas.

-Anyway...moving on. Chemical girl and Chocobo both love going out. They're also both extremely gentle so they're very nice and fragile with each other. And like I said with the disposable + splitter combo: CLUSTER B BADDIES STICK TOGETHER!! They both experience rage-sadness a lot and know what the other needs to calm down; Chemical often does exercise and vents. Chocobo also vents BUT can get stuck in a thought loop so it's also helpful to have him watching Disney movies. Chocobo AGE REGERESSES and it's THERAPEUTIC for it be NICE.

-Receaction enjoys Chocobo's company! But similar to Faineant, he can be...a lot. It takes a lot of restraint on Chocobo's end not to try and force Refraction to "cheer up" - she's still getting used to not just jumping in to help. On the upside, Refraction is starting to sew more positives even with the chronic depression - and Chocobo is getting better at sitting with negative feelings :)

-----

Taxidermy Girl (Mayra Tikuna)

-Okay so after going through the faux-medixal records I realized Irreverent, Faineant, and Taxidermy all deal with schizospec disorders. With that said - these three hang out in silence texting each other and talking about literally anything. It's a great time.

-Anyway, Taxidermy and Chemical are decently close! Taxidermy appreciates how gentle Chemical is and they both have similar tastes in music. But, just like with Irreverent, Chemical isn't 20 yet so Taxidermy does her best not to interact much. Chemical is chill about it and is currently planning to invite Taxidermy to her 20th birthday. The other thing is that sometimes her mood swings prove to be too much for the gentle Taxidermy, and then need time away from each other.

-Quiet, reflective, and unintrusive? Great friend! Taxidermy and Refraction don't even talk much. They just really enjoy each other's vibes mutually.

-----

Chemical Girl (Joy Sinclair):

-Last pairing! Chemical and Rafractiom are friendly with each other, and get along well in groups. However, one-on-one, they don't have much in common. Still though, Refraction is like an anchor for Chemical, and gives good advice in regards to emotional regulation.

-----

Refraction Girl (Nataana Nchoko):

And that's my hcs for the au! I know it's a lot but I am genuinely so in love with this series it's unreal. Anyway.

I'll probably be back with more but I worked on this entire project in one day for at least 3 hours so. Yeah. Bye.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Do you feel comfortable with us recommending your blog to others or...?

Because there are blogs dedicated to analyzing homestuck and they are usually very good but the moment they talk about Eridan all the magic disappears and, I just want to know if it is acceptable to recommend you as like, homework i guess (?).

In the style of, if they are going to talk about complex characters then they should do their due research.

It's okay if you're not comfortable with the idea, maybe I shouldn't be that interested either, it just hurts to know that they can do better, and they are not (on the contrary, its just worse).

Unfortunately, not with that attitude!

I actually have a pretty strict rule to never go out into the fandom in search of fights, and to never answer asks asking me what I think about another fandom member's interpretation of canon ("official"/semi-official works like PQ are exempt). This is because, if I go onto some other guy's blog with zero intention to change my opinion, and say "you're wrong," that makes ME the asshole.

Nobody likes it when someone rocks up to the discussion to tell them they're wrong and try to own them with facts and logic. It's actually kind of a dick thing to do! That's why I contain my takes to my own blog, which, thanks to the block button and blacklists, means that nobody has to engage with me if they don't actively want to.

I've had several instances on this blog before of either having to dismount a conversation where neither side will change their mind with "agree to disagree," told people I can't/won't comment on something because I don't engage with the fandom overall, or straight-up blocked people. I do this because I've made the mistake before of trying to be Correct on the Internet, and the truth is it's an unwinnable battle that makes everybody involved look like a clown. At the end of the day, we're all squabbling about what a webcomic "means," and it's impossible to be 100% correct. God knows I've been wrong, sneakily edited posts, and hoped nobody noticed (if you did, thanks for not saying anything).

If you like my posts and agree with my opinions - great! I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't like the ego boost. If you don't, I'm usually willing to hear people out, but I'm pretty egotistical and we'll most likely agree to disagree. I pretty exclusively reserve actual retaliation for people who rock up (especially while hiding behind anon) pretty much just to tell me I'm wrong. Like I said, the person who does that is an asshole! I try not to be that asshole.

If someone's takes are so "bad" to you that you can't stand seeing them, you have the power to banish that person from ever appearing before you again. Block they ass. You literally don't need a reason. But if you want to do the hard, thankless, joyless, unrewarding, and nearly always futile task of changing someone's opinion, then step one is to take a deep breath and trying not to think about it in terms of enemies and allies, right and wrong. This person is another human, just trying to make a living on this shitty earth, talking about this thing you both like. The vibe should be excitement that you can share an insight they haven't considered, not a tribal monkey instinct to hit another monkey with a big bone club.

If these blogs already do a lot of Homestuck analyzing, chances are, they're receptive to Homestuck. Instead of using me (some rando on the internet) as a source, you should use the comic itself. Lucky for you that I cite my sources, or at least make it easy to look up the parts of the comic I'm talking about. It's a little more legwork than just linking an essay, but you're trying to perform the nearly impossible task of changing someone's mind, so put some elbow grease into it.

And if that doesn't work, welp. Agree to disagree! Haha.

[oldmanffucker]

just want to address something i've been getting in tags of reblogs of my art, and something i've seen in regard to other artists/writers with a great deal of skill who decide to use that skill to make fan art.

I received two separate comments on two separate art pieces of House fanart just yesterday saying my skill is wasted on them, and i have a lot to say about that.

while i dont think either of the comments were intended maliciously, i think we need to reframe our idea of good fanart being a waste of time/energy/skill by the artist/writer.

in real life, i am a professional artist. i am an art instructor. i make "real" art that goes into exhibitions, and yes, i also decide to spent my time/energy/skills on drawing blorbos.

I think that drawing the things you are connected to and drawing silly fandom art for the heck of it is exactly how you Get those skills. I am good at portraits because I frequently draw or paint portraits. And I frequently draw or paint portraits bc I want to be able to capture blorbo bc I feel like it and I can.

Someone said my 'skills at colors and expression' was what was wasted on them and I want to emphasize that I’m able to capture their microexpressions bc that is what I want to be able to capture, so I make an effort, and I keep practicing until I’m able to do that. When I’m drawing portrait of random ppl online as portrait practice I’m just drawing what I see instead of trying to capture an essence of a person or character I'm familiar with. And that’s a different skill!

And I’m good at colors (partially bc I’m an artist who paints a lot but in this specific example it’s:) because doodling a blorbo is low stakes. I try new things and learn new techniques bc it’s just something I’m doing for me, for fun, and I’m not getting graded on it and I don’t need to hang it in a museum.

It’s art for the sake of being made, which is exactly what you need to make to continue getting better at making.

The stupid hyperfixation of drawing all the frames of a gif is ridiculous when it’s all for a house md effort, objectively yeah lmao, but it’s the equivalent of studying any other image for hours and distinguishing how micro movements affect which muscles, and how the movement of different muscles changes the shape of shadows and light, and it helps anchor understanding of anatomy.

And drawing all this stupid stuff is especially fun for me bc I can see my actual real art skills improving with every drawing I make or thing I write which benefits my real world art. Like I know this might sound some type of way, like I’m trying to make it sound like drawing gay old man medical malpractice yaoi is subverting the zeitgeist and some sort of momentous critical imperative but I don’t think it’s that serious. Which is my whole point! It’s not that serious, it doesn’t matter, AND I’m genuinely improving my craft while doing it so what’s the issue is basically my point ig. And I wouldn’t be drawing at all currently if I wasn’t drawing them bc there’s nothing I feel drawing to capture in this medium irl!

(and if you've left this comment in tags or otherwise, this is not an attack! it is a backhanded compliment to receive/give, but I also acknowledge that it's not usually said with malice, and not something you were likely thinking about to this level. that's ok! just listen & learn yk)

Using your skills for things you enjoy is never a waste! You're exercising your art muscles and bulking up! if you make art outside of fanart it WILL benefit from these endeavors. and if you don't make art outside of fanart, then you're still engaging in the wonderful beautiful practice of creating!

[frownyalfred]

tips for starting out writing fics?

i honestly don’t have that much writing experience but am also a perfectionist unfortunately and know i'll criticize whatever I write. i know the only way to improve is to actually write so any tips for starting out are appreciated 🙏

Hey anon! I totally understand where you're coming from. Us writers can be so hard on ourselves when our writing doesn't come out perfect.

My usual tips for getting started with writing are below. Take them with a grain of salt, I am just a lowly fic writer, but I did complete a BA in a writing-intensive field and was a journalist for a few years, actually.

Write as frequently as you can. Even if it's just short snippets or quotes. I like to write dialogue ideas down on the treadmill sometimes.

Let others engage with your writing. Ask friends to look over drafts (shoutout to my love @musicalgirl4474) and post your fics, even if they're not perfect! Letting things sit unseen does your writing a disservice, even if it feels better.

Read as much as you can. Read fics in your fandom, and from authors whose writing style you enjoy. Figure out what they're doing that you like -- is it the pacing? The humor?

Write what you want to read. This is the best motivation, in my opinion. If you can write a summary for your fic that you would click on instantly as a reader, you're doing something right.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. Spelling mistakes happen, even in published novels. So do characterization errors or plot holes. Even if you spent 40 hours on a single fic, it still won't be perfect. But it can definitely be good, or even great!

Engage with other writers. Join some discord groups with other authors! Reply to tumblr posts about writing. Discuss your fic ideas with fellow writers.

Remember: You do this for free. Improving your writing can often be a full time job. Hell, actual writing is a full-time job. If you need to take a break, or step back, that's okay! Comments, kudos, praise and criticism are all optional. You don't have to agree with anyone, or change anything about your writing if you don't want to.

Comparison is the theft of joy. Don't spend time looking at ratios, or comparing yourself to bigger authors/blogs. Everyone's situation is different, and so is their writing approach.

I hope these help, anon! I am by no mean the end all, be all of writing. If anyone else wants to chime in, it's much appreciated! I'm also happy to offer any insight on what I personally do, but as I said, everyone's approach is different.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Sorry if u have already answered this or this isn’t really ur blog focus but how do u structure and come up with ideas for such good and lengthy analysis?

Do u read and see the shows contents multiple times? Or interact with other fans/ fandom?

And once u have an idea how do u go about it?

— from a small niche fandom blog

I'm honored that you think my stuff is good! As for how I come up with it, well, I'll answer as best I can, but I don't know how useful it will be? If you wanna ask something more specific, feel free!

Most of my posts are responses to asks, so my general process is to read the ask, think about it as I go about my life, and then write a response once I feel like I have my thoughts in order. Then I add the post to my queue so I can reread it at least once before it actually posts to catch any errors and make sure it reads coherently. I usually find the time to do that, though not always.

The posts that aren't asks are just me talking about random things that I can't stop thinking about, so I need to scream into the void to get my brain to move on. Those ideas come from random thoughts, a trend I notice in fanfic, comments/reblogs in my asks, and a whole host of other places. I've got one post in my queue right now that I'm pretty sure was spawned by my latest rewatch of The Good Place, but I can't be sure about that. I don't try to look for post topics, they just come to me.

I don't watch the show over and over. Not really my thing. I've seen all of Miraculous seasons 1 to 3 once and I've seen most of seasons 4 and 5 twice (once subbed, once dubbed). Origins and Oblivio are the only exceptions. They're my favorite episodes, so I think I watched them a few times back before season four aired and my feeling toward the show started to really sour. When I'm pulling quotes, I just rely on my memory and the fan wiki, which has transcripts for all of the English episodes, allowing me to fact check myself. I occasionally pull up a specific episode to check the visuals in a given scene, but that's really rare and I only do it because I have access to the streaming version. If my SO ever cancels Disney+, then I'll be script only.

I read other fan analysis if it crosses my dash, but I don't go looking for it or follow any super active blogs. While I think there are others with valuable input out there, I already spend enough time thinking about Miraculous for my own blog, so I try to focus my energy in other spaces when I'm not managing said blog. I don't like to endlessly scroll on Tumblr and only follow blogs that don't post much to keep from feeling overwhelmed or sucked in.

I started talking about Miraculous on here because I found it genuinely fascinating how badly it was written. I think you could teach an entire class on basic writing principles using Miraculous as a case study because there are so many things it does wrong and failure really is a fantastic teacher. But the analysis I do for Miraculous isn't a skill that's unique to Miraculous. What you see on this blog is my default state. This is just how my brain works. How I engage with the majority of media. When I finish watching or reading something that I didn't like, I want to understand why I didn't like it and how it could be shaped into something I would like.

It's a honed skill. I've been obsessed with story telling since I was a little kid and my parents sort of accidentally started training me on analysis at a young age. Add in years of voracious reading and several excellent English teachers and I'm able to run this blog without too much mental effort. Talking and thinking about writing are legitimately fun for me. This stuff is my "I'm too drained to write" hobby.

None of this makes me some arbiter of quality or means that I understand every point of view about what makes a story good. All it means is that I know enough about writing to be able to clearly articulate why I like or dislike the way a story was told.

I guess that's the one piece of advice I can give. When you find something that bugs you, really think about why. Was it just a matter of taste or is there something more? Does it seem like the flaw is an intentional writing choice or not? Why? What changes could you make to fix the flaw? Can you make those changes without completely rewriting the story? Those are the kinds of fixes I look for first. There are certainly cases where massive change is needed, but looking for small changes will really hone that analytical ability to improve your writing as it forces you to focus on the fine details of the way stories work.

[thegreencooler]

Amends

I don't usually dip my toe in the drama pool. At least not too deeply. But what's going on in fandom this week, the revelations, were extreme. The people who have come forward... they were in a cult. I am not being overdramatic about this. Gamifying harassment, forcing disconnections like Scientology, needing everyone to observe the same talking points or risk ostracism, leadership using it for money, criminal behavior towards those The Guru has deemed the Out-Group including members who don't conform heavily enough... That's a cult. The internet has made cult behavior REALLY easy. Likes and engagement make you suddenly aware of which direction your circle is leaning. If you agree, YOU TOO GET POINTS. You too will experience that sense of belonging, and that's what it's all about. So if your circle is being outright mean... if you don't want to be cast off as "not one of them"... maybe you say the mean thing too, even if it's a lie, even if you're not really sure why you're saying it. That approval feels SUPER GOOD and is addictive. And your circle amps each other up, gets meaner and meaner. The only people who stay in the in-group are those who don't speak up about the bad behavior and are willing to keep going along with it. Those aren't friendships. It's a pack of hungry carnivores. It's the same behaviors police gangs use on cops who speak up. I do have some sympathy, especially for the younger people who were still forming their identities. They were victims of indoctrination and criminal harassment. That said, they have to own their own behavior. I hope they learn and grow. They're going to have to have some self-reflection on what they've done, the lies told, the hate, the virulent -isms that were expressed, and literal crimes that were performed in the name of fitting in and winning some points with the clique. They're also going to have to reassess who their out-group is, why they even NEED an out-group over fandom things, and if there are still people in their schema who they have an impulse to hate for no reason.... because of a ship or actor preference. They're going to have to question all the lies they were told and if they are still holding onto hate based on that. That's hard if they aren't even sure what the lies were. It's going to be a process for them. We should give people the space and grace to get better. To deprogram themselves. But this does not mean there needs to be automatic forgiveness. Nobody needs to like anyone. But nobody needs to hate anyone either. Maybe the middle ground is we can grow some indifference or the ability to say, "I'm letting it go, this person is in progress, I can't control their journey, the ball is in their court."

If you were behaving badly, you've earned the suspicion of the people you hurt. A few of you are expressing amends, which is wonderful. But part of the thing with making amends is that you don't get to control the outcome. You make a genuine apology for EXACTLY what you've done, you own your part in it, and you don't make excuses... and from there, people may accept what you've said and they may not. They may forgive you immediately, they may take time, they may never forgive you. You have to learn to be good with that. It can be uncomfortable, to feel disliked, ESPECIALLY if the reason you got into the cult was because of that sense of belonging. Your impulse may be to keep giving explanations of how the group influenced you, to distance yourself. You may tell yourself, "I'm not that person, this isn't really me, it was the group." You want to be seen as CHANGED - virginal and new because you made the hard choice to finally leave the cult. ...It isn't that easy. You want the space and grace and you should get that. But guess what? You need to give that to others, too. You need to understand that people have real reasons to distrust you if you were exhibiting cruelty. And part of doing the work to make amends is the actual work. If you're serious about it, it means a lot of difficult self-reflection. You need to take an unflinching look at WHY you could ignore or participate in racism and lord knows plenty of other -isms, why outright defamation and death threats to actors and other fans were okay, why doxing people and trying to get them fired was seen as fair game, why trying to make someone feel hated and terrible about themselves was your impulse, why you were giggling and congratulating yourself for leaning into your worst impulses...until the group turned on you. Because that's the truth of the situation. You now have that self-knowledge of what you're willing to participate in. The question now is what are you going to do with that? I hope it includes therapy and I don't mean that glibly. I think it's possible there are some internet addictions going on where people crave the rush of getting Likes and engagement... and ragefarming is the best way to get engagement. If that's true... it will be EXTREMELY easy to move from the space of performing FOR the cult to performing AGAINST them, so that you can maintain your hit of Likes. And that is just sitting in the same behaviors. But if you're serious about getting better, if you're serious about being honest with yourself, you're going to need to fight against those inclinations. Please ask yourselves if you truly feel your apologies and want to change...or if maybe some part of you is just posting your attempt at amends because you want to fit in with those leaving or because you're craving that approval. Leaving is great! But are you getting the same psychological hit from your posts now? Are you trying to collect a new group that will lovebomb you because you're seeking self-esteem and miss the people who used to give it to you? I'm not saying this in judgment, I'm saying it because many people go from one cult or MLM to another, seeking that same sense of belonging. That's not my wish for you.

To the people on the other side of this... I'm not saying not to speak up if you see people slipping or people whose apologies are revealed as false words. I'm not trying to tone police people getting angry. There have been real reasons to be angry. HOWEVER... please be aware that if we want people to actually learn and grow we need to give them room to do that. There's nothing wrong with a really direct "This is really shitty and unkind behavior." Going scorched earth every time isn't the way. Is it our responsibility to motivate them to change, is it on us? Absolutely not. But are our actions going to unintentionally make them more likely to try and find a gang again because they're feeling defensive? If we also truly want to make things better, we have to ask ourselves what our goal is. Do we just want to give a tongue-lashing because we're angry? We might. And that can be justified sometimes in life. But cornered people don't often make great decisions. If what we want out of this is for people to be less terrible - there are ways to call people in and out, firmly and not sugarcoated, while still not going on the attack.

To the people who finally spoke up, you should be proud of yourselves for that. You took the first step. I hope you keep walking forward.

If you actually read to here... holy crap, I apologize. Many, many words, but I wanted to put them all down somewhere instead of continuing to overthink it at 3:30am. I do want to say... this is just my perspective. If it came off as trying to tell you how to do or feel, or like I think I'm perfect? Nah, kids. I'm a fallible screw-up, too, who is often "cringe," as the children say. We can all work on ourselves. At least that's the hope. If we're open to it.

Anyway. Love y'all, TGC