#I need to go look at some Good Omens post.... I'm in my GO era and I'm not unhappy with it

[noblesselover99]

Good Omens update #mysoulhasbeencrushed:

"I'm back on my hyperfixation bullshit, and I might not want anyone to save me this time around." I said after finishing season one. "This is the best show!" I said halfway through season two.

Now, after finishing GO2, I realized how naive I truly was. I know now that I am a fool for not expecting my heart to be shattered into tiny microscopic pieces.

In my 14 year long reading escapades, and my 24 years of watching t.v/movies, I've been stabbed repeatedly in the chest before... But this? With THESE characters?? It has stabbed me in the chest, sliced me open and slowly ripped my beating heart from my opened chest cavity and slowly crushed beneath someone's foot.

Neil has chosen violence and I'm at his mercy... I've been BURNT enough times that I should have seen the pain coming from a mile away, yet I foolishly decided to turn a blind eye for my new found favorite characters, so for shame to me for getting too comfortable.

All the dramatics aside, however. I'm gonna start the series over again because I can. Bravo Mr. Gaiman, Michael Sheen, and David Tennant, and everyone else who has worked on GO... bravo.

[snek-panini]

Today's completed book is a bind of Glimmer, by @tawnyontumblr (hi, it's me, the person who asked to bind your story way back in April). This story is a Good Omens human au about sex workers in the Regency era, and it's gorgeous and lush and fantastic. Sexy and vulnerable and all the good adjectives. Go read it if you haven't yet, it's wonderful.

This is another legal-size quarto, my second (of 4; more are on the way). It really is an addictive size, and perfect for fics this length. The cover is done in this really pretty red damask lokta paper that highlights different parts of the image depending on the angle of the light. I was toying with the idea of binding this fic, and when I found this paper I immediately bumped it up the list because it's so perfect. The spine is dark gray lineco book cloth that I simply cannot resist putting on spines. I realize this is a pattern and I do not care. It's softer visually than black and it coordinates with everything and I will not stop.

More photos under the cut!

What did I tell you, it coordinates with everything. I used silver foil HTV for the title, and I elected to put it just on the spine so as not to cover up any of the floral patterns on the cover. Honestly, I thought about it but just couldn't bring myself to cover it up. The interior of this one has some very fancy fonts and I wanted one for the spine but they were all too spindly. But this one's a good compromise, I think. Delicate but straightforward.

Top view. I really wanted to do custom end bands for this one, for maximum luxury, but it was too thin, so it has pre-made black ones. They sort of disappear in the photos but make a nice contrast in person. I am totally in love with the starry endpapers even though they are only scrapbook paper from Joann's. It was surprisingly difficult to find something that looked good with the red cover, because plain solid colors looked too lackluster and most prints were too bold with the floral, not to mention a lot of colors clashed with the red. But I love these gray-on-gray stars. They're perfect. And a lot of the fic takes place under cover of darkness, and stars are a symbol of hope, and this fic's about wanting to escape your current circumstances, so it's kind of thematically appropriate. I'm going to say it is, anyway XD

So I think the title page is my favorite part of the bind again. I found this vintage valentine graphic on rawpixel for free and it's probably the most opulent thing in the whole typeset. The sort of uneven ink distribution is on purpose and adds to the vintage feel. I remember thinking about a year ago that my title pages were too plain and I needed to level them up somehow, and with the batch of binds I've been posting for the last week or two I think I've done it. The fonts here are called Annabel (the one with the trailing ends) and Victorian Decade (the swirly one that my bindery name is in). Both are available for free from DaFont. I did have to get a little tricky with the line spacing to get them to print correctly, but it was worth it. I wanted opulence for this one.

And that's that! I hope I did the fic justice, because I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome.

[drconstellation]

All The Colours In Good Omens: Version II

Part 1: Black to Gold

Even when I put together my original big colour meta back at the end of October 2023 I knew things were going to change on it. Over time it became pretty clear we were way off-track with several of the colours, and I didn't have anything for orange, which does actually appear in a significant amount in S2. There was also a bit of effort to try and incorporate the colours seen in S1 with what was appearing in S2, and to see if there was any consistency. Then I wrote the Passion of Jimbriel, and several particular religiously-themed colour-associations kept appearing, so I went on a search for a more biblical-based interpretation of colour. As a result of this, some colours have more-or-less stayed the same, some have expanded considerably in their range of meaning, and some are completely different! But I think you find the results interesting, nonetheless.

Basically, interpreting the colours in the two series is not a simple task. The colours used in S2 differ slightly to S1. For example, in S2 there is a lurid green associated with Hell (for reasons, which I will explain,) that is not used in S1. But there is also a dark green used elsewhere that turns out to have a different meaning that is not associated with Hell at all, so context becomes very important when trying to decide what it means. Rather than try and fit all the colours into one post, I'm going to split things up and take as much room as I need to explain it all this time.

BLACK

Biblical Meaning: Darkness, sin, Earth, affliction, humiliation, calamity, death, mourning

Additional: Suffering, punishment, Satan

Black doesn't automatically mean a relationship with Hell. The demons don't all wear entirely black, they are actually dressed in a lot of colour, but they do tend towards the darker shades. The colours they do wear reflect individual qualities or characterizations. For example, Lord Dagon is dark blue to reflect their fish god avatar, but it also reflects their senior authority and power. Furfur is in shades of dark green with a few tiny red highlights.

Historically black had an association with wealth over time, as it was difficult to obtain and dye black cloth. In out modern era we would tend to associate it with power and authority - or just looking "cool."

One interesting combination to mention is Aziraphale's magician's costume - black, gold and white. It's the only time we see him, an angel, wearing black. Originally it looked like he was clothing himself in mystery, but I would now say its a combination of calamity and humiliation. I've included a GIF set from S1E1 with the duo discussing Warlock's 11th birthday party in the park, plus recall Arizaphale was heckled from the audience in 1941 when his turnip trick failed. (I guess we could argue this one, its still up for debate!)

Black is also associated with the Horseperson Famine, who rides a black horse. Nobody is getting anything to eat tonight here - or the rest of the week, for that matter.

RED

We originally had red a a single colour, but it's more complex than that and needs to be split into two shades, scarlet and the darker crimson. (I will do pink in another post.)

We can still associate it generally with passion, romance, the Left Hand Side (the sinister side or demonic side), goats, sin, and the archangel Michael on the LHS of Jesus.

The Horseperson War and their parallel character Pepper from the Them both wear red as well. War is said to ride a red horse.

RED - Scarlet

Biblical Meaning: Royalty, blood of humanity

Additional: Martyrs, prostitution, wealth, power, revolution

Scarlet is a lighter red than crimson, just to differentiate between the two colours. It's the colour on the back of Crowley's collar.

Jesus was dressed in red during the Passion to mock him as a king, but he when he appears in imagery such as the sign on the Resurrectionist pub below it reflects his future status as King of kings. It also reflects his connection to humanity, through the blood he shed.

Prostitution is connected through the mention of the Whore of Babylon in Revelations, but the connection to revolutions is a more recent one that may be worth including in anticipation of S3. Wealth and power also belong here, particularly in historical connections.

RED - Crimson

Biblical Meaning: Splendor, victory, sin

Crimson is the colour that Shax wears, the darker of the two shades of red. She comes across as being hungry for success and eager for promotion, both of which tie in with the concept of victory. Her darker red is also mixed with black.

ORANGE

Biblical Meaning: Fire of God, deliverance, passionate praise

Additional: sacrifice

Originally I did not have an interpretation for orange, and did not think there was a lot of it present in S2. Then it was pointed out that Maggie's shopfront was orange, she herself wears orange several times, a lot of the extras wear orange and Beezlebub's sash is orange, too!

Yellow and orange have some cross-over in meaning with sacrifice, but I'm going to do my best to separate them and I'll explain where the fuzziness comes into play in yellow, as I think it sits best there.

Both yellow and orange are also associate with fire, as flames are seen as yellow and orange, not red. The "Fire of God" is alluding to presence of the Holy Spirit.

YELLOW

Biblical Meaning: Faith and Glory of God, anointing, joy, presence of God, fire

Additional: Illness/leprosy, God's judgement and anger, sacrifice, optimism, faithfulness in awaiting the return of a loved one

Yellow is probably the most controversial colour of the spectrum. It's the colour of Crowley's eyes, and we know Aziraphale painted the walls of the bookshop to reflect this.

But let's turn all your preconceived ideas on their heads.

It's one of the colours of fire, so it is closely associated with the presence of God, but also the expression of God's anger.

It is the colour of clear olive oil used for anointing.

On the negative side it is associated with illness, in particular with leprosy.

It is the colour that the traitor Judus Iscariot is often depicted wearing in art.

And it is the colour of saffron and marigolds, both associated with sacrifice in more than one religion. Saffron as a colour can vary in colour from pale yellow to deep orange, and so can marigolds the flower. The flower is named after the Virgin Mary, as in "Mary's-gold," and the array of petals are supposed to be symbolic of the the rays of light that crown her head, relating to the giving of her self to the Ineffable Great Plan, so to speak.

Here's Norman, leader of the yellow team at Tadfield Manor, giving his speech that includes the line "...bugger off and tend to your marigolds." I've shown in other posts that there is the allegory of the Great War/Glorious Revolution being played out here, and Norman is the analogue of Lucifer. Right after his speech he runs out and is felled by a shot to the heart: a sacrificial loser, as all the yellow team and demons end up being.

Adam wears a t-shirt with two yellow stripes on it in S1. Combined with the blue, he does appear to be anointed for a larger role in the story.

Aziraphale's hat-bands are yellow after the 1827 Edinburgh incident. Both in 1862 and 1941 his hats have a yellow ribbon around them. While this could be related to a Heavenly aspect, fanon has it that it's part of his expression of his feelings for Crowley. The tradition of using a yellow ribbon to show that one was waiting for a soldier to return from war was started around the late 1700's.

It is confirmed that the name of the colour used inside the bookshop is indeed called Va Va Voom. While it could be many things, the one thing it is not is fear.

Neither is this example - it's more likely to be fire - cleansing fire. Jim is cleaning with it.

GOLD

Biblical Meaning: Glory, divinity, holiness, eternal deity, altar, beauty, precious, kingship, majesty, righteousness

Additional: Trial of Faith

Gold is usually associated with Heaven and the divinity of the angels in Good omens. Most of the time we see the angels with some trace of gold on them. The most obvious examples were the golden collars and trim on the robes in the Job minisode in S2E2. They even wore golden sandals on their feet.

The archangels and Aziraphale all have their golden rings. Here is Michael with their ophanim ring.

We also have the golden lions that occur in several locations in S2, representing the royal house of Judea that Jesus is said to belong to.

The most interesting use of gold has been on Crowley's "throne" in S1. "Nice chair," Hastur comments at one point.

Oh, and I can't forget this one, either:

This series on colour continues in the following posts:

Part 2: Green to Purple

Part 3: Silver/Grey, White & Brown

Part 4: Tartan Colours Review

[moriarty1234]

T*LC Refutation (but decidedly NOT Johnlock refutation, because that definitely was a thing.)

Part- 1: Introduction.

[Note: I love and ship johnlock because I saw it for myself in the show when I watched it and was part of the general audience in the past. I even want it to become canon in some Holmes adaption in the future. But T*lc needs to get sucked into obscurity and forgotten. Other fandoms like Good Omens, etc., are following the same rhetoric in their "meta" posts, and that needs to go. This is crucial for our basic critical thinking skills and objectivity.]

Alright, folks. Let's talk about the logical fallacies, and how most of the t*lc metas are flawed to their core.

Not to beat the dead horse here, but I entered the fandom in late 2021 (after having watched BBC Sherlock a year ago). I'd started to ship Johnlock as soon as I entered the fandom (because that's what I saw on the show independently, as part of the general audience in the past, even though it was on a subconscious level at first).

I discovered T*LC in December, watched and read metas about it, became a T*LCer myself (albeit briefly - for like a month or two), and then I grew out of it.

I grew out of T*LC because while the meta posts were seemingly clever, I always thought there was something off with most of them. I didn't have much vocabulary related to critical thinking skills back then (because English is not my first language), so I couldn't put my finger on exactly what was wrong with them.

I reluctantly and falsely assumed they must be right just because I couldn't come up with effective counter-arguments then (what a flawed way of thinking). I just thought that this thing (t*lc) was not my cup of tea (ha!).

I continued to ship Johnlock though. I still do it wholeheartedly. I'm no longer part of the BBC Sherlock fandom, but I do still ship Holmes/Watson enthusiastically in various other Sherlock Holmes adaptations.

In the meantime (i.e., from when I dropped the idea of t*lc like a hot potato to the day I decided to exit this fandom for good), I did a lot of research.

Research related to what the fandom used to be like throughout different eras when the show was still on air (through sources such as old posts on Tumblr/other social media platforms, Sarah Z and hbomberguy's videos on t*lc and the actual show criticism respectively), and also research about how the rhetoric of most conspiracy theorists looks and sounds. I've read about articles on science vs pseudo-science as well (I come from a science background myself, so those articles were helpful as a refresher for me).

I also read a lot about cult psychology and how it can be used effectively to lure anyone in.

T*lc checks all the boxes of flawed ways of thinking, various logical fallacies used to prove or disprove something, pseudoscience, a typical conspiracy theorist's rhetoric, and a cult group's way of thinking in real life.

When I use these terms, I do not throw them around lightly. I've read a lot about this along with my friend, let's call them Kim. For context, Kim also comes from a science background. They ship johnlock too.

I know the comparison of T*lc with a religious cult in real life has been done to death, and same is the case with the comparison of t*lc with any other outlandish conspiracy theory out there. It's just that I've been bottling up my thoughts and feelings on this thing for way too long. I can't do that anymore. Just bear with me if you find something repetitive.

Kim and I read about all these things on the internet, had a lot of long discussions for months altogether, and now I've personally decided to share our conclusions with anyone out there who stumbles upon this post.

This blog is a few days old, and I'm the only person behind this, so I don't have many followers just yet. I'm not even expecting anything from anyone. If you see this post, I just want you to read it with an open mind and act according to your judgement afterwards.

Now that we have the whole context with us, let's begin.

Part- 2 : What's wrong with their actual meta posts?

T*LC (but NOT Johnlock as a whole) refutation master post.

[pranpats]

every month of 2023

link your favorite or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!) and tag some CCs you love !

i was tagged by @pranink & @i-got-the-feels (thank you lovelies 💗)

going through all my posts this year and i'm so surprised but i actually managed to post a gif set/edit at least once every single month. all my edits are almost always pretty simple but it was nice to look back on what i actually giffed this year (no surprise a lot of bad buddy)

tagging: @milkpansa @kinnsporsche @punpunsutatta @casualavocados @nick-nellson and anyone else who wants to !

january - my first post of 2023 and 2nd most popular of the month is this purpley micellar water patpran scene. honorable mention is this many faces of night set from dirty laundry (nanon's facial expressions, need i say more)

february - most popular was this monsam scene from GAP it was such a soft moment and i really like the (purple) coloring

march - most popular is this khatha + touching dome's face set from midnight museum, also one of my favorites of the month is this patpran set of pat being cheesy and pran secretly loving it

april - most popular was this (feral) patpran parallel set, also really like the pink coloring here

may - most popular was this beyond evil set of dongsik and juwon looking at each other like that when dongsik arrests juwon but i also really like this patpran sniff kiss set and patpraninkpa parallel set because of the colors.

june - most popular was this patpran scene from ourskyy. my favorites were probably this patpran cuddle parallel because of the scenes and coloring & this inkpa ourskyy set

july - good omens s2 came out and this was my most popular aziracrow gifset

august - most popular was this rwrb kisses set but my favorite and one i was really happy with is this inkpa set

september - now i entered my one piece era and my popular post was the crew's moments of realization about luffy. but my favorite post is the evolution of pran's emotions set, this was one of the first times i giffed with added effects/ink drop transitions and i was so happy and proud of how it turned out

october - most popular this month was my patpran bad buddy anniversary set, also really liked the colors of these pluto trailer gifs

november - this bad buddy/love senior parallel

decemeber - my one of my last posts of 2023 was this inkpa cuddly girlfriends set 💜

wishing you all a happy and healthy new year 💗

[wistfulcynic]

3, 12, and 23?

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year

favourite line, from On the Side of the World:

Crowley turned to the Metatron with a smirk so smug that if you murdered him for it no court in Creation would convict you. Aziraphale had never loved him more. “I believe the human expression for that is ‘hoist with one’s own petard',” he observed.  “Crowley,” said God, in a voice that was at once a pat on the back and a knife in it, “you always were too clever for your own damned good.”

favourite scene, from taking it slow:

Maybe he just doesn’t want me.  It’s an absolutely ridiculous notion given Stede’s very obvious suffering but Ed’s sexually frustrated too and it’s seriously messing with his capacity for rational thought. He’s been throwing himself at Stede for days now and Stede’s done absolutely fuck all about it and the only explanation Ed can come up with anymore is that Stede just doesn’t want to.  So much for I didn’t know it could be like that, he fumes, as he hammers nails into the roof with more force than is advisable, given the rickety state of said roof. So much for Oh, Ed you feel perfect. So much for the greatest sexual experience of Ed’s life, apparently it meant nothing at all to Stede. Apparently fucking Ed was so awful that Stede will go to just about any lengths to avoid doing it again.  He works himself up into such a lather with these thoughts that when he’s done on the roof and goes back inside, the sight of Stede’s welcoming smile tips him right over the edge.  “Oh there you are, Ed,” he says, “good. I wanted to ask you—”  “Mate, what the fuck?” Ed yells.  Stede’s brow knits in confusion. “What?” he says. “You know what,” Ed snaps back. Stede’s wearing a well-worn white shirt today, so thin and open at the collar he may as well be wearing nothing. Ed wants to lick him. Just lick up that little pool of sweat that gathers at the base of his throat. Lick his pecs, bite his nipples, suck his dick—fuck.  “I can’t do this anymore,” he growls. “I fucking won’t.”  “Do what?” Stede looks truly baffled. “Ed, what’s wrong?”  “What’s wrong?” Ed throws his hands in the air. “You’re asking me what’s wrong?”  “Yes, I am.” Stede stands and cautiously approaches. “Is there anything I can do?”  “Anything you can do?” Ed starts to laugh. “Is there anything you can do? Yes, Stede, there fucking is something you can do. You can fucking mean it when you say you love me.”  “I—”  “You can be honest,” Ed barrels on, ignoring his attempts to speak, “and tell me that I’m not enough for you and you hated having sex with me and you never want to fucking touch me again.”  “Ed—”  “And you can stop,” Ed continues, voice rising, “wearing those fucking shirts that leave your chest bare and smelling like clean sweat and the sea and hibiscus, some-fuckin’-how, and you can stop looking at me like you think I’m the greatest thing ever when you won’t fuckin’ just fuck m—”  He’s cut off by Stede’s lips on his, hard and ravenous. Before he can fully process what’s happening, Ed finds himself slammed back against the wall with such force the whole building shakes and kissed as though both their lives depend on it. As, very possibly, they do. 

12. favorite character to write about this year

this may be cheating but it's definitely Chad from On the Side of the World. He's an OC and if i'm honest he's just Bertie Wooster in a himbo suit but i have had so much fun writing him and the response from readers has been lovely.

23. fics you wanted to write but didn’t

this was kind of a slow year for me for fic writing, i took a long break which i really needed and also deleted a wip that i liked but was not rewarding to post. So i think all told i wrote what i wanted to write. However. i do have an idea for a continuation of taking it slow which would see Ed and Stede into the innkeeper era and beyond, an OFMD season three pre-write, effectively. Which is madness to contemplate considering i'm just finishing my Good Omens season three pre-write but no one ever said fic writers had any sense of proportion. So idk, maybe it will get written in 2024. It is a banger of an idea if i say so myself but ouf, it would be at least 60-80k and take forever.

thanks for playing!!

-

SEND ME AN END-OF-YEAR FIC ASK

[faeryfrogs]

[From the drafts, written March 3, 2024]

Not to be like the problem is late stage capitalism but... yeah. Medium length post incoming.

I once worked for this large and well-known media imprint which had a mini department centered on fandom (so in this role, my value as a worker was directly proportional to my fannish knowledge and adaptability). I feel I can speak to this one from multiple angles. Not saying anything new, but maybe putting together a few old ideas in one place with perspective of both professional creator and fannish consumer.

There's a lot of love and passion tied up in fandom. But also secrecy as a form of longevity and survival.

For as long as fandom has been even a little bit visible, there has been a system of markets around profiting off of fans. From fanartists on tumblr and patreon selling prints to Etsy shops with themed candles to artist alleys and merch stands at conventions. Think also of very small fandoms with no official branded merch, making and selling fan-made merch.

(Aside: It's eternally shocking to me to see a fandom go from a no- or low-merch fandom to one with branded merch. I saw this happen a long time ago with Sailor Moon [no U.S. rights for about a decade so secondhand finds only then rights were renewed and stock everywhere] and most recently with Good Omens [no merch at all for a long time, then a bit, then a flood of stock from a major retailer, Amazon.] Same energy as like... your high school friend becoming famous and suddenly their face is in your social media feed in a completely different way.)

Before the internet, some amount of peer-to-peer fans would also barter/sell individual items to one another. Think figurine collectors snail mailing each other because they met a friend of a friend at a con who gave the other their contact info. Now we're at, uh, a different level, on a global scale.

To be extremely clear, I see absolutely nothing wrong with fanartists and other indie entrepreneurs who tend towards being in-group. A by-fans-for-fans type of market. My hesitation comes from the Hot Topics of the world, mass production of merch. Especially when half-blind baby fandoms start creeping out from semi-underground subculture in a way where their vulnerable quivering bodies fall under the hungry, sharp eyes of consumerism-- which is like some great vulture always looking for its next new market. meal. yeah.

Pretty obvious to say this next part in but I'll say it anyways. A lot of us don't want something that thrives in the grey area of underground indie to be dragged out into the open. Not in the sense of engagement with content creators and celebrities (mail-in membership to the Official Elvis Mail Presley Fan Club, anyone?), but in the sense that the attention will attract money and therefore lawsuits. While we're no longer in the age of the author's note disclaimer (AO3 feels like a golden era to me in its convenience sometimes) there's a very reasonable leeriness of having fandom in the spotlight. In the past, I wouldn't have felt the need to speak the obvious but is there a new contingent of fans that may be endangering all of us with their, I don't know, illegal fanfic binding sales? That's what the gossip has been about, anyways. (Has the fan social contract changed with the newest generation?)

...

Fandom is also incredibly personal and is tied closely to other subculture and counterculture movements. Some people wear fandom on their sleeve, others are extremely quiet about their hobby. Corporate fandom basically has the same feeling as corporate pride to me. Also, fan-made merch is almost always better. It's usually more subtle and tasteful, too, my god! It has love in it, and wasn't usually made on a strict deadline (unless the design of it was part of a fan event with a deadline, lol). There's a reason we love fan creations. Usually it's creativity for the sake of sharing.

I'm also not saying original creators shouldn't profit off their creation! Obviously they should, and people should, you know, pay artists for their work. But like... some Naruto notebook off Amazon from a third party vendor, or some Etsy mass dropshipper stealing Loki fanart to sell tees? Yuck.

Back to my old job. Full of people who loved what they did. Fans giddy to be professional fans (and also often miffed to have the more conservative mgmt squeezing their great big flowering idea into something tinier and box-shaped, as mgmt by nature made to do). But people with deadlines, and time budgeting, and typical capitalist machinery grinding on, cannot do as good a job on someone utterly in love with all the free time they can get. Good enough is good enough, you know? And so the horde of mediocre soulless Marvel merch which fills the racks at Five Below and Target. The sort of flavorless merch which, at its pinnacle, is charmingly and most accidentally Camp.

...Once again, go support your faves by buying their official merch. I have more than one fave who could hire a better design team (thinking of quite a few musicians right now) but I'll buy their tote bag anyways.

RE: Graham Norton-- what's happening there is the convenience of the internet paired with a frankly unhealthy workload for segment producers, who are chronically underpaid and given quick turnarounds. I don't watch Graham Norton outside of the infrequent GIF of A Beloved British Actor Being Charming so no comment on the quality BUT I've worked on that sort of show in the past, and here's how it goes: segment producer is assigned segment(s), has x amount of time to brainstorm ideas, then commits to idea. Fastest way to cram knowledge about a guest before pitch time? Go see what the fans are talking about online. Some shows are great at their research, others... less so. It's why a lot of the time, a host's questions can feel super shallow to dedicated fans. And viewers eat up anything with a weird/sexual lean, which fandom often is. Also lowest common denominator with viewership are casual fans, so there's not really a need to pander to super fans. It's tailored to be generic, unless the deep cut is lurid and exciting or the show is known for deep cut questions. And the deep cut won't be there at all if the producer didn't have enough time to research before writing or has way too many segments because someone is out sick.

(Also, marginally related, confused producer note: Hot Ones is really telling people they have only three researchers like it's some great achievement? I briefly did the napkin math. If the average late night variety show TV producer is assigned 4-12 segments/week and each Hot Ones producer has .33 segments per week... that means the average Hot Ones segment may have 1200- 3600% more pre-production research time than average. Unless I'm wildly misunderstanding the production timeline, those are downright luxurious amounts of research time. When I was a researcher for a major program at a major network I was also a talent producer, digi producer, and script manager, because quadruple dipping.)

TL;DR- Fandom is better when it's indie and DIY, and as free as possible.

I know the genie is out of the bottle and you can't go back but dear GOD I hate the mainstreamification of fandom so much

I do NOT want authors or showrunners or actors to acknowledge us or talk about fanfic or fanart or fan theories! I do NOT want people asking questions of the canon creators and getting them answered (make up your own answers, like god intended!) I do NOT want companies making jokey advertisements aimed toward fandom!

I know that fandom was never entirely underground but like... I miss that fourth wall existing, you know?

[vidavalor]

<<With this whole disgusting situation with gaiman, I’ve honestly come to realize that…he hardly does anything for the show.>>

Yes. Louder for the people in the back, my friend. Even before the accusations he was, by far, the least appealing part of all of this.

Don't feel guilty-- you did nothing wrong. There is nothing wrong with an author engaging with their fanbase online a bit and it's even business-savvy but not in the way that he did it. Good Omens is a pretty unique fanbase because of how it spans generations and has been around for a long time. Even though I'm comparatively newer to it than others here, I'm in the camp of being with some of the older (not old lol, just older) people here and I think maybe it's being a bit older that led me to look at how he chose to engage with a bit of a raised eyebrow.

For example, we need to talk at the fact that his stated rationale for why you aren't supposed to tag him with your theories and fics is complete bullshit...

At first, when I found out that he had a Tumblr account, I thought what most of you did-- that it was a fun, fairly unique thing, even in an era of 'we've seen every author's house on Zoom since the pandemic'-type of engagement. I checked it out and started reading through some of his Good Omens Asks replies. Between those and just being around here on Tumblr for a bit and seeing him popping up in people's threads and finding posts that aren't tagged to him and kind of creeping on them a bit, I found myself really put off from his attitude in these replies. You can tell that most of the people asking him questions are relatively young by how some of the questions are worded and I felt like he was a jerk in a lot of the responses. I'm pretty sarcastic myself but this went beyond that-- this was being a dick to kids. Many of the young people reading his work and his posts admired him and I believe that older adults have a responsibility to support younger ones so that left a bad taste in my mouth.

He's not the first author to be an asshole by any stretch of the imagination lol but think about it for a moment here: here's a guy who has had success and who predominantly writes for young adults who is allowing young writers to directly engage with him online about his works and his attitude in many of the posts was too sarcastic and, at times, even a bit mean. These are mostly basically kids that he's replying to and after seeing that a bit, you start to realize that he's a grown ass man who honestly doesn't need to be having *this* level of engagement with his fanbase to still be seen as engaged and accessible... so, why is he?

The rampant, unchecked ego on display. He seemed to revel in the fact that people would jump on his every word. That's just the start of the stuff that shocked me, though... ever notice how he uses his platform on Tumblr to publicly feud with Amazon?

I'm not trying to say I love Amazon lol-- I'm pointing out how fucking unprofessional his comments have been. If a company is doing something so horrible that you'd be labeled a whistleblower for exposing it then no one with a conscious is going to blame you for blowing that whistle. That's doing the right thing. But that's not the stuff he's talking about with Amazon. He's publicly complaining about the budgets. He's publicly disparaging Amazon at every opportunity.

This is literally dissing your boss in public because, make no mistake, Amazon is his boss. Amazon doesn't actually need NG to make Good Omens. Good Omens is actually owned by its publishing houses, who have sold the rights to make it to Amazon. The publishing houses retain the right to do so and they could and can do so without author approval. NG can't actually stop his publishers or Amazon from the process, even if he wanted to, because the publishing houses own GO. The reason why he's on the project is because his name is on the book (and because he's built himself a shield of a little online fandom... see what I'm saying about his motivations for doing so a bit here?) ...but, with his reputation taking a hit, if all of the other parties involved decide it would be better for them if he wasn't involved, they are the ones that really have control over Good Omens. They can make the decision to fire him from Good Omens. (Same goes for those involved with The Sandman, etc..).

NG knows that. It looks to me like he was using his platform here to drum up anti-Amazon sentiment in the fanbase so that we'd see him as essential if they tried to fire him. He's trying to make it so that we'd see Amazon as screwing the fanbase and demand that he stay... which all smacks of the behavior of a guy who thinks Amazon might toss him if they had grounds enough to say his behavior violated his contract.

Which smacks of the behavior of a man who knows that his days are numbered because, one of these days, he's going to wake up to the first of the women coming forward and then everything will be over for him. His only and really pitiable line of defense is arguing that he can't be fired because "the people won't watch the show if it's not me at the helm of it" which lol ok dude✌️

But that's actually not even the only scummy behavior I saw on here... the 'don't show him your theories' thing? Yeah, that is just as bad... It's complete and utter bullshit, btw. Let me explain why...

Let's say I write a story. It's fiction and all my own work. I've made up the characters and the world and every part of it myself so it is my own intellectual property. Let's then say that I show this story to another writer before I publish all of it myself and the other writer decides to steal it. They change a character name and a couple of words or two but it's otherwise the same story. They put their name on it and publish it as their own. If I can prove that the story is mine through some sort of paper trail-- bits of it emailed to someone else, a doc history online, someone else I showed it to who can back me up and say it's mine... anything along these lines-- I can sue the person who stole my story for intellectual property theft, even if I had not yet filed to formally copyright the story as my own.

How can I do this? Because I own every bit of the work with no other complications. It's mine.

But let's say that, instead, I write a theory about Good Omens S3 or that I write a fanfic that is a version of what could happen in S3 and I post that theory or that fic here on Tumblr ahead of S3 being made. Let's say that, when I post this theory or fic here, I @'d NG or tagged him or tagged Amazon Studios-- or even did all three of those things.

Then, let's say that S3 airs and it turns out that I was really, really right about it-- something like 90% or more right. Finally, let's then say that I'm a crazy person lol who decides that because I guessed a tv show plot correctly and because I showed those ideas to NG online and then they showed up in the show, I am going to sue NG and Amazon for plagiarism. In doing so, I would be claiming that the ideas are mine and that they stole them from me.

Do you know how far I'd get with this?

Nowhere.

Do you know why?

Because I don't own Good Omens.

I don't own Crowley & Aziraphale. I don't own the show and I don't work for it. No one stole my idea because, legally, it's not my idea to be had.

This is why no one who writes fanfic is ever going to be able to sue the writer(s) of the IP for which they're writing fanfic over intellectual property theft. Good Omens could literally take a fanfic you wrote and film it, word-for-word, plot-point-by-plot-point, if they wanted to and call it theirs and you do not have any legal ground to stand on if you were to sue them because they own the story, not you. It's their playground and they're letting you come over and play in the sandbox.

Technically, fanfic and fanart is actually illegal. Back in the old days, some studios and publishing houses actually went after fanfic writers for violating copyright by making art using the studios and publishing houses' copyrighted material. Unless you're someone making tens of thousands of dollars a year right now selling, I don't know, t-shirts of your own design for a fandom in the MCU, the lawyers aren't going to knock on your door. They don't care anymore because, in the era of online engagement, they realize that it winds up alienating fanbases if they target those trying to just have some fun with it and the reward of allowing them to have that fun greatly outweighs the cost of going after them for it.

Mah point is that they own the IP in question. Theories and fanfic and fanart are creative works made using their intellectual property so you cannot actually sue them for stealing your idea because it's their ideas that you stole to write the idea in the first place. You don't own the ideas-- they do.

There's also the lunacy of NG saying that showing your theories and fanfic to him would mean he can't use those ideas in S3. Mathematically, there are only so many ways that even the most surprising story can go. There are some of us sitting here on Tumblr who have already written theories that are at least partially correct about where S3 is heading. It's just math at this point. Even with the "don't tag or ask Neil about this theory" stuff, he's inevitably already seen theories on here that are going to be proven correct come S3. I really doubt any lawyer working for Amazon is losing a wink of sleep over this.

To consider why, think of other fandoms for tv shows you have been a part of or are a part of currently... have you ever seen anything like NG's request in those fandoms?

You haven't, have you?

I'll give you an example of just how few fucks a major studio gives about people involved in production learning about fan theories or seeing fanfiction...

A friend of mine and I met in another fandom that recently celebrated 20 years. This fandom basically created online engagement in the pre-social media, pre-streaming eras when it first started. It's widely credited with being the original binge tv show. Producers, directors, writers and acting talent were and are all involved online with the fanbase. They hold podcasts and Zoom roundtables with fans where they have 1:1 direct conversations with members of their audience. They actively seek out what it is that you might like to see happen in the series and what you think might happen, based on the story already. The fanbase has brought back characters and changed some story as a result of this engagement. I've had two, different executive producers of the show like and comment on what I thought would-- and directly said I hoped would-- happen in a then-upcoming season of the show. Not because I requested them but because I happened to be correct about where the story was going, those things happened in the future. At no point did lawyers for those producers or the show itself reach out to me, thinking that I was going to sue. No one was worried about that in the least. It was just earlier this year, that some of the network executives were even in the Zoom as well-- and, again, this is for the fanbase of this show. No one from legal cares because the know that the fans don't own the IP so no plagiarism lawsuit could ever really be effectively mounted.

At no point were any of these veteran filmmakers, actors and writers all 'oh no don't tell me your theory because then we'll have to do something different!'... it is the complete opposite of that. They wanted to know. They still do. They're excited about our engagement. This has been the attitude I've seen in every other fandom, with any other person involved in production that is engaging with that show's audience. They aren't worried about opening themselves up to legal issues. They're just having fun engaging with the people who like their work.

Michael Sheen and David Tennant own Staged, right? It's their IP. Is there a request on Sheen's Xwitter telling you not to send him your ideas for a Staged S4 because then he'd never be able to use them if they were to make it? Nope. Is there a message saying that he's involved with Good Omens' production so he can't read your theories or fanfic so please don't send it to him? lololol girl...

I'm pretty sure that man has actually read your all fanfic and left you kudos under his secret username by this point and, even if he's only joking about it, he's at least fine with joking about it without it being a whole legal issue for him or the studios because it isn't one. None of you would get anywhere if you sued because you sent your theory to Michael Sheen online and then your theory came true because you don't own Staged or Good Omens or anything else with which he's involved. He knows that and so does everyone involved in other shows with online fandoms with whom they're engaging.

I don't know for a fact why NG has been telling you not to tag him your Good Omens theories and fanfic but I do know that it would seem very unlikely that it has fuck all to do with whether or not he can use those ideas in GO S3. I feel like the fact that, since virtually no one else is doing things like this, it might be safer to consider the idea that he has-- rightly or wrongly-- quietly been accused of plagiarism himself in the past and he's trying to cover his ass... and also, perhaps, the darker possibility as well...

Asking you not to leave a digital paper trail linking him to something you've written is asking you make it easier for him to continue to peruse the fandoms of his works and potentially take any idea he might like and use in his own original work outside of that fandom.

Because while you'd get nowhere suing him for stealing your idea about his own work, you could get somewhere if you, say, wrote a long, very plotty Crowley & Aziraphale fanfic or a wildly innovative theory about Good Omens that wasn't actually correct for what's happening in Good Omens but would make a pretty killer story in its own right... if you did that and tagged Gaiman and he used to write a brand new, non-Good Omens work... if you noticed that new work as being your own ideas, you might actually have something of a legal case against him.

Not a particularly strong one but maybe something of one and, if you were to sue and that were to get out, just the idea of it alone could be damaging to him.

If you never tagged him, though... you can't legally prove that he ever saw it.

It means that he's free to take what he likes.

It would not shock me if this all gets worse and now that these women have opened the floodgates against him, we also eventually hear from people in, idk, writing classes or something, who feel like he stole their work.

Again, to be very clear: I do not know this for a fact.

I just cannot express how rare and bizarre that request not to tag him is and where there's smoke? There's usually fire.

Okay I lied I do have something else to say about the neil gaiman allegations

Do NOT drag Terry Prachett into this. I haven’t seen anyone do so myself yet, but I’m sure someone probably will and it disgusts me.

And also, stop giving neil all the credit for everything. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed, it’s that the GO fandom gives neil WAY too much credit. I’m even guilty of this. But it isn’t right and it absolutely isn’t fair to Terry Prachett or anyone else who was worked so hard on the show. People only give neil so much credit because he is alive to answer questions about GO and talk about how it was written while Terry Prachett unfortunately no longer can.

Sorry that this isn’t very well articulated it just was something that came to mind and made me very upset. Hope this makes sense.