#I've had my fair share of bad and good experiences with the fandom. It's the main reason I've decided to largely become a passive spectator

[blackkatdraws2]

[Achromatic Loop AU]

Animation in progress!

[Small Note Below] ↓

My fixation on the fandom is dwindling!! I am finally ready to turn both my AUs into Original Works. [They already were though the moment I decided to turn them into AUs though LOL]

I AM NOT LEAVING TSP!

Don't get me wrong, this isn't me saying I'm gonna leave the fandom HAHA! I'm not!! :3

I want to let myself free from the restrictions of having to strictly follow the TSP storylines and branch off with my own ideas, you know? Let myself have some fun too. [Because lately, the creative weight of having to bind myself down to TSPs original story has been troubling me~ no fun at all!!]

My AUs have really transformed into something really big!! Elements of The Stanley Parable are still there, but I also want my audience to acknowledge that a lot of the things I make for it are also my own stories and characters now! [Not to misunderstand as me 'claiming' TSP / its characters, I meant that I own the designs, original storylines, and lore for them.]

It's going to be an original work inspired by The Stanley Parable and will contain a lot of elements related to the game itself! [Think of Undertale AUs HAHAHA! The logic here is similar to those!]

I'm still going to make canon TSP related content here and there, but I'm largely going to focus on my two AUs, Achromatic Loop and Blank Scripts.

[sleepyconfusedpotato]

Thinking About Expanding...

One thing I learn from CF convention is the fact that people create their circle of friends mainly from Twitter, because they said in Twt it's very easy to get mutuals and friends, easy to connect, and basically every person use it to an extent - it's pretty much equal in Instagram in usage.

I've been thinking about expanding my connection beyond Tumblr and Instagram, because... why limit myself ? ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

But there's this big gate of thinking that in Twt experience it could either be a good place or a hell hole and no in between. In Tumblr I feel safe because it's the home for fandom creations, and I rarely gets judged for what I create in here. But in Twt (and including TikTok in this case), those apps are very judgemental, and it's more open to expressing opinions, both positively and negatively.

Of course, the appropriate reaction to it is either "Don't care about the bad opinions too much!" or "Don't be afraid to post your stuff there!" or "Just block em!"

And yes of course, I've had my fair share of hate messages and death threats (which means nothing to me), and I think I've already heard every insult that has possibly ever created. But again, It makes me feel uneasy (๑﹏๑//). I mean, it already happens, and again, I've had my fair share of those things, but in Twt I think it'll be like opening an even bigger Pandora's Box as it is a very big audience.

Maybe I'm thinking too much of it, maybe it'll happen, maybe it won't. Maybe I'll gain more exposure and more friends, maybe I'll get more negative comments.

Maybe I should just take a leap of faith and get straight on with it.

Anyway, I'm just expressing my thoughts ever since the CF convention! I just feel like it's such a big, BIG gate for me to cross.

Thank you for reading though! Have a nice day *(੭*ˊᵕˋ)੭*ଘ

[esther-dot]

I'm sorry, that's gonna be a really weird ask from one jonsa stan to another but I'm genuinely curious - is there any anti jonsa argument/claim that actually made sense to you? I'm really asking for the sake of, well, civilised discussion - because if there are arguments there ought to be reasonable counterarguments. And all that I see is the same tired old crap - "she's not his favourite sister" and "but they are relatives!" and all the other stuff. Given, of course I'm not hanging around jonry@ and jon@erys side of this fandom (dark things happen to any sansa and jonsa stans there) and have no idea if they have any reasonable metas. Or maybe if there was a moment that made you actually question possibility of jonsa happening in books? (once again - because I'm anxious like that - I'm not asking this to disprove something or make people question jonsa but because I wonder if you personally had this sort of experience).

Thank you and hope you're having a nice day!

No worries! I enjoy looking at things from different angles, so I don’t mind at all. Unfortunately, I haven’t read anti jonsa stuff that isn’t exactly what you described, so I can’t actually have the convo you want about this. I tried to go to some jonerys blogs but their anti tags weren’t what we’re looking for. There’s a blogger people view as neutral who other Sansa fans/Jonsas put on my dash, and a BNF who people I follow also reblog from, so I went over to their blogs to look around and they’re less rabid, but I can’t say they offered though-provoking pushback. I’ll share some snippets though, in case you’re interested.

There was the old "but their siblings" argument:

I, ah, I do not think Jon marries Sansa in any scenario. Regardless of biological relationship, they think of themselves as siblings. The people around them are also quite likely to consider them siblings or as good as, having been raised as such (see also Theon being accused of kinslaying over his apparent murder of Bran and Rickon). Nor do I think either would be in a rush to go back to the traditional “but the Targaryens practiced incest,” again considering that their society is strongly anti-incest. Jon and Sansa were raised together, in the same house, as brother and sister, and that makes a material difference.

But you know, raised as siblings and please nobody try the “but they weren’t close” with me, that’s so not true.

It’s interesting to see someone say they were close, that’s not something I’ve seen before. I suppose my biggest issue with this line of thought is that it feels true for a generic fantasy maybe, but hardly convincing when talking about ASOIAF? Martin wants to talk about incest. So far, we have all the bad, abusive variations covered. I think he’s gonna work some shades of grey into it the same way he tries to do with everything he discusses, and to pretend like he would never feels disingenuous to me. Even if he ultimately abandoned the initial draft, from the author’s mind came the idea of a Jon / Stark girl romance. He has entertained it. Secondly, Jon is a Targ and it’s reasonable to expect that to manifest somehow, or at least, for Jon to experience the fear that there’s something latent there. And third, if we’re gonna get a romance, I think Martin would write it with the complexity and inner struggle that he writes everything and fauxcest offers him that opportunity, not to mention all the parallels it would allow as well.

Let's see...I also saw that they object to the Beauty and the Beast reading of Jonsa:

And I've been searching but apparently I never posted the rest of my "Bear and the Maiden Fair" thoughts, but that's the in-world Beauty and the Beast story. Through that and looking at bears elsewhere in the story, you can track this idea of the beast not being a monster, but being perceived as one by society, an outcast, which is why the Hound, Tyrion, and Jon all fit the role/are related (in a way), and why Jon will be the final suitor or real bear/beast.

The next one, I’m just gonna post the whole thing:

I’m not sure if the best part is the implication that Jon/Dany (which they believe is inevitable) have what’s required to allow for “quick deep emotional connections” or if it’s reading the Hound insult and threaten and then finally put a knife to Sansa’s throat and deciding “romance! chivalry!” The Hound may be disillusioned, but the fandom has got to stop pretending like some of his espoused beliefs aren’t self-serving, a defense because he is a monster. We have Brienne and Jon showing us different versions of knights, true knights, so acting like the Hound is in the right is just bizarre.

Anyway, no, I’ve not read an anti argument that made me doubt it. I do doubt what Martin is aiming for at times, so I’ve vacillated between potential paths/endgames for them over the years, but the anti arguments generally are coming from a reading of characters and dynamics that’s disturbing to me which means I’m usually alienated, not compelled.

[moodymisty]

Ok forgive me if this isn't super articulate, I just got off of a long shift.

You're a wonderful writer first and foremost, the way you choose words and weave them together makes for incredibly vivid and lush scenes that are a delight to read. Many of your fics I've read over and over again, finding more little quirks and details that I adore each time I revisit a fic. I feel that you have a really good grasp on picking out personality details that breathe life into what you write about.

Your writing is also the reason I got into 40k in the first place funnily enough! I found your blog through a totally different tag, stumbled across one of your sanguinius stories and immediately had to go hunt down more info on that sweetly troubled vampire angel. It's spiralled a lot from there and I've been having a great time reading the lore books and seeing people's analysis of them. So genuinely, thank you so much for sharing your art with us, I imagine a lot of other people had their curiosity piqued by your work too. You're one of the pillars of this little community of fans who really like to delve into the character writing aspect of 40k and fully embrace the melodramatic space opera parts that I also love.

On a final note, sorry for saying all of this on anon instead of in dms or something. I've had some rough experiences in fandom before and get really shy about talking to new people. I always end up ducking out when i go to heap compliments on my fave artists and authors because I don't want to bother them or like assume familiarity, if that makes any sense? Regardless I wanted to say something in whatever capacity I could to try and reassure you that people love you, love your art, appreciate your thoughts and ideas, and want to see you be happy both in your hobby and in your offline life.

I hope you feel better. I hope people are being kind to you, because you deserve nothing less. I hope you continue being able to enjoy talking to folks online and writing. Thank you for being with us and thank you for being you. 🖤

Thank you, I'm very honored you like my stuff enough to go back and reread them, and enjoy the way i make them.

And there's nothing bad about being on anon, the level of interactiveness you want to participate in is up to you. I keep anons on for a reason. And I'm sorry you've had bad experiences, i've had my fair share as well and i still honestly feel weird commenting on things outside of this circle. I could go on about how fandom is now but i won't.

I'm still of course staying i have zero desire to leave unless something horrible happens XD I've just had a bit of a shitter of a month when it comes to things so i wanted to dial it back a bit.

[phoenixwrites]

How do you keep yourself from feeling down about your haters/anti your ships?

There’s these (literally) 5 girls who think they’re the queens of my current small fandom and their hate is starting to get to me even though I try to let it roll off my back.

How do you do it, Phoenix?🥺 How do you keep the Plastics from ruining your fandoms and ships?

Oh goodness, Sass, I'm so sorry. I've been in my fair share of fandom dramas (the worst being last summer) and it's never an easy thing to deal with.

I want to gently correct you, though. The hate DOES get to me. Last summer, there were anons in my inbox telling me I deserved to be sexually assaulted as a child because I support dark fic writers. There were anons calling me a pedophile. There is a 600 note reblog going around the Stranger Things fandom claiming I was a pedophile. I was suicidal at that point, because it was triggering as hell.

But at the same time, I refused to give up MY tumblr space because of bullies. This is my blog. I've had it since 2011, it has been a space of freeverse, of gossip, of art, and of joy. I will not change that for the satisfaction of a few teenagers who think TikTok is activism.

I got through it a few ways.

Turn off anons. I am a stubborn bitch and I only turned my anon off once during that period, right after someone told me I deserved being assaulted at seven years old. I turned it off for one night then turned it right back on, because I hated limiting access to my lovely anons because of bullies--same reason I haven't privatized my AO3 account, even though AI very likely will steal my work. I hate the thought of some anon who reads my fics for comfort being denied access to them. But that's my thing. Turning off anon is the best way to shut off their power to hurt you. If you don't want to turn off anon, delete their messages. I am CHOOSY about which anons I answer. They are reaching out to me, on MY blog, it's my decision whether I deign to answer them or not. If I'm in the right mood for it, I might be trolly and snarky. If they're sweet, I love to hear from them. But I delete just as many as I answer.

Get off the internet. The internet is my space where I can zone out and do whatever I want. Sometimes that means watching a carefully curated selection of TV shows while writing fanfic. Sometimes it means doing TV show meta. Sometimes it's just goofing off. But the internet is chocolate, it's a lovely sweet treat. But if you have nothing but chocolate, you will get sick. Take walks. Go outside. Forget online drama (it's never that serious), enjoy your offline friends, snuggle your furry friends, go out for a cup of coffee and read a book.

Curate your experience. If you see someone with an absolutely RANCID take--like how Eddie wasn't flirting outrageously with Chrissy (sure jan) or Neal was a rapist, whatever. Don't engage, don't comment, don't reblog. BLOCK THOSE BITCHES. Block the people who make you feel weird. Block someone who used to be in your fandom but has moved onto reblogging something that annoys you. Block, block, block. Or use tumblr savior assiduously. When it was really bad in Hellcheer land, I watched Smallville and blogged about it until I felt ready to play in Hellcheer again.

At the end of last summer, the hate started dying off for a couple of reasons.

One, school was starting (yes, I do believe the majority of these bitchy anons are bored children, they ALWAYS have an uptick during school breaks).

Two, I got a book deal. I was too thrilled with my success and though they tried to threaten me, it didn't have much of a sting. My publisher and agent don't give a shit about the latest fandom drama. My editor LOVES horror and darklit.

Three, I fell in love. I have an incredibly wonderful partner who is a writer too (for television! I used to write fanfic for a show he worked on! :D). Autumn was an incredibly wonderful season of joy for me (minus my then-work troubles) which bled into a romantic winter, a challenging spring, and now it's becoming a lovely summer.

I had a bunch of lovely things happen to me that made me realize that the internet is actually quite small. It doesn't matter if STEDDIELOVER69 hates me or believes I'm a pedophile. What matters is that there are plenty of other folks who love reading my work, who like hearing my thoughts, who enjoy my VQ gossip, and those are the people I want to engage with.

Those folks don't know you and the joy you experience every day. Keep that joy close to your heart, as closely as they keep their own bitterness and cruelty.

You'll be all right, love. I promise it gets better.

[sandalwoodbox]

Vidder asks: 12, 21, 27?

Thanks for asking!

(This is part of the Get to know the Vidder ask meme. See all my responses here and feel free to send me asks!)

12. Most underrated vid that you wished had gotten more views?

I'm going to say Stray Italian Greyhound for Dear Missy. I really like this vid because I think it most accurately summarizes what I see as the plot of the actual series - Lu Ke's journey to recognizing, accepting, and ultimately living her feelings for Shen Siyi. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out, and it can still fairly reliably make me tear up to watch. It's a really great show and more people should watch it! Even with the weird canonical straight ending it's pretty good tbh 🤣 it has things like men and women dating and breaking up and still being part of the same friend group 🤯 what a concept!

But personally I always advocate for just ignoring the heterosexuality in the last six episodes & just watching them for the bonus Lu Ke / Shen Siyi fluff.

21. How would you describe your vidding style?

Answered here with bonus "what is your vidding process" because I got distracted 😅

27. Advice for anyone just starting their channel?

I'm interpreting this to mean "advice for anyone starting out making fanvids"?

I'd say do what you want and don't expect anyone to see it. Exchanges (like Festivids) and cons (like VidUKon, Fanworks, or WisCon) are a great way to "force" people to watch your vids and not get criticism unless you want it. (YMMV - I am not sure what the experience of submitting to AMV contests is like, for example.)

I'd recommend using a modern fully-featured video editing program like Da Vinci Resolve from the beginning rather than something like iMovie - DVR is more complicated but makes it very easy to separate the vid itself from the source files. That is, you can move the files from your hard drive to a backup drive to free up space and work on something else, then put them back later if you want to go back to a previous fandom!

That said, if a low bar of entry is important, iMovie is also fine. Whatever works for you!

Bonus question 1 (from replies): How do you get ideas for vids?

It depends! Sometimes it comes from blorbos or otherwise loving a show such that I want to share it with other people. Other times it comes from frustration with something not being done the way I wanted in the show, or drawing out a theme that I think the show didn't fully explore. A large chunk of my vids are from Festivids, which is great because I can see what ideas other people have and then make treats for them if I'm excited about what they've suggested and think I have time to pull it off (which is usually only possible for movies and for shows I've already (mostly) clipped, in my experience.) From time to time I'll hear a song and think it's perfect for some character or concept, but I'll generally still end up spending a fair amount of time searching for other potential songs before I actually get started on the vid. More often I'll hear a song and think, that would make a fun vid but I don't know what for, so I stick it in a playlist that I go through every time I'm looking for potential vid songs.

If I have an idea for a vid, I write it down in a spreadsheet. I'll never make most of those ideas, either because I've moved on from the fandom or because I just ended up not liking it as much later. Here's a snippet of vids I will probably never make from my spreadsheet in case it's interesting:

Bonus question 2 (from replies): What makes a vid you're working on feel done to you?

I'm a bit of a perfectionist with my vids, so this can be tricky. I think I would say: Once I am satisfied that the clips on the timeline are doing what I want and there are no clips that I believe would be strictly better, I try to stop.

Overall my process is: I'll generally make a first draft that doesn't have things that feel obviously bad (but I might still have things I'm not satisfied with but don't know how to solve). I send that out for beta and work on other things in the meantime. Depending on how much I care about the vid / how uncertain I am about it, I might do multiple rounds of beta or send it to multiple betas at once.

Depending on the vid, I might do a pass specifically looking at clip timing or motion or color correction (for example, making sure dark scenes are possible to parse), or anything else that I particularly want to work well for the vid.

Once I have something that feels "final" I like to let it sit for a week to a month, then come back to it to see if there's anything else I notice that I'd want to change before calling it done.

But a lot of times I'm working on a deadline for an exchange or a con, which means that at some point I just have to stop and call it good enough.

By the time I'm done with a vid, I often no longer feel like I can tell whether it's good or not because I'm too deep in it, so I see things nobody else would. I can't necessarily tell how satisfied I'll be with a finished vid until 6-12 months after I've posted it. (So I try to keep that in mind if I'm agonizing over whether people will notice a cleancredits glitch that's only visible in the lower left corner of a clip for like 4 frames.)

I have a vidder friend who I can show things to at that point not for beta but just to ask, is there anything obviously wrong with this? Any reason I shouldn't post this? (The answer is usually: It's fine, just post it!)

[gaywatch]

hey, it's the 911 anon

i just wanted to thank you for actually reading that whole thing, I know it was a lot

and I really hope you know that I didn't mean it in any kind of negative way

I don't know how to explain it exactly, but the whole thing with that character/actor and his fans has been making me really upset, and I see you as sort of a comfort person and a big part of my fandom experience in general so I guess I just wanted to know you would be on my side

(I'm answering this one in particular because it's shorter+easier on people's dashes but I've read the other two, no worries.)

Pinch of salt because I haven't seen the show and I'm not part of the fandom, but it seems like this is the situation: Buck came out, Tommy came back to the show as Buck's romantic interest but has a history of behaving badly (and still isn't behaving too great), meanwhile Eddie has been Buck's friend from the beginning and there's even been a lowkey outside-the-show confirmation that he's getting his own queer arc while Tommy was never meant to be a regular--which most likely means Buck and Eddie are headed towards canon.

Around all of this is a pretty intense ship war with a lot of people on either side saying all kinds of ridiculous, sometimes even harmful, things and generally talking past each other while making bad faith/reductive arguments. (Not saying you were, this is what I've seen from other posts from my dash since I follow people from both camps.)

Shipping-wise, I don't know which one I'd go for but I see the appeal of both on paper. I'm down for a good Friends To Lovers, and I also have my fair share of ships where one (or both) of them has done or said harmful things in the past but could be great with their love interest after some redemption.

Fandom-wise, all I can say is: don't engage. There are unhinged people in every fandom, for every ship, even if some have more than others. Ridiculous, unfair, nonsensical opinions are everywhere online and it's not up to other people to fix them (I say after many years of thinking they might see reason if I explained will enough). If they're ruining the experience--fandom and shipping should be fun, full stop--then it's time to curate your experience and start blocking people/tags and following people who are on your wavelength. This even applies to people who should technically be on your side, I can't tell you how many time I've had to unfollow someone who likes the same character I do but in a really weird, distorted way I simply don't understand.

It sucks that you've got a lot of fandom drama going on around you, I've totally been there. I haven't seen it first hand but I've seen posts recounting it like your asks do and it's still exhausting me so I can only imagine what's like to be in it. When the drama gets to these levels of absurd it all becomes one big game of 'my toys are better than yours' and all you can do is hope they're like thirteen and will grow out of it while you're over in your corner being sane and having fun like the fandom gods intended.

[vraisetzen]

https://www.tumblr.com/vraisetzen/767046956775342080/historians-will-say-that-they-were-best?source=share

hi v,

i'm afraid i'm not a 'shipper,' but i'd be curious to know:

what are your top ten favourite anime ships?

Hi! Thank you for your question!

To be honest, I've left my shipping days far behind me especially since I got into writing Reader Inserts — I can't even remember the last time I rooted enthusiastically for a ship (besides Garashir and Janeway/Chakotay from Star Trek DS9 and Voyager).

(Also, I just wanna quickly clarify that I don't actually ship Mizuki and Gegero, even if I do see/understand why they're very popular when I saw the film. I was just awestruck by the official art, haha)

And I know there's currently a ton of debate surrounding shipping, to which I'd like say that I seldom have any icks or squicks when it comes to pairings. If I dislike a ship, it's probably because of a bad experience I had with their fans. However, I would add that my favourite ships are pretty vanilla and tame, and more often than not the result of my asking, "What if these two randoms were placed in a room with one bed together?" I love a niche pairing with zero fics written for them on AO3, lol.

So yeah, I'm gonna spotlight some of my niche pairings that I enjoy quite a fair bit! All of them are het and slash ships, I'm afraid, out of sheer coincidence that most of my favourite characters are male. I do love femslash/yuri ships as well, but they're generally quite popular, so I wouldn't be contributing anything new. They're not ranked in order of preference because I love them all!

Hijikata/Otae, Gin Tama: I love Otae so, so much, and I think she gets a ton of unwarranted hate from a vocal minority of the fandom on Twitter and Reddit. The GinTae vs GinTsu debate is still very real in 2024, but I think my girl deserves a man who earns a stable income and doesn't denigrate her appearance.

Koenma/Botan, Yu Yu Hakusho: The first of many niche pairings to come. Botan is such a lovely girl who is friendly with every one, but I get a kick out of imagining the two of them getting into all sorts of trouble and shenanigans whilst nagivating the bureaucratic hell that is, well, Hell, and falling in love in the process. And have you see the official art of them together? It's so cute!

Ogata/Sai, Hikaru no Go: I was so disappointed when I didn't find any content of them both! I think Ogata would have gone insane had he been the one to stumble upon Sai's Go board, before falling in love with him, and then into despair as he realised he cannot touch the one person he loved and idolised the most.

Muzan/Tamayo, Kimetsu no Yaiba: As a KnY fic writer, I feel obliged to include at least one ship from this fandom. I love all canon and fanon pairings in this work (a rare thing for me, personally), but I especially love the divorced couple dynamic between them both. The most recent season finale cemented that belief for me, and I do spend a lot of time brainrotting over their past before Muzan encountered Yoriichi.

Kusakabe/Utahime, Jujutsu Kaisen: I stumbled upon this fanart a long time ago, and thought: "Spectacular; give me 14 of them right now." He's an experienced First-Grade sorcerer who's honestly not the best teacher, she's a Second-Grade sorcerer who loves her students — they bond over their mutual irritation for Gojo and absolutely hooked up during the exchange event.

Shunsui/Ukitake, Bleach: What's there not to love about Old Men Yaoi? I've loved these two ever since I saw them, individually and a pairing, and I don't I will ever forgive Kubo for separating them in TYBW (albeit in a good way). The Hell arc was just the icing on the cake — a reverse star-crossed lovers, if you will.

Ryoga/Ranma, Ranma 1/2: I love a small-stakes rivalry, and there's something very cute about a guy who absolutely does not care about the gender of his opponent and will stop at nothing to fight them.

Shishiba/Osaragi, Sakamoto Days: Let it be known that I've clocked this couple ever since they first appeared in the manga, and I staunchly believe that they're endgame. Chapter 161 was everything — nothing can convince me otherwise that they're just mentor and mentee. Have you ever seen a mentee stroke her mentor's cheek as he laid bleeding on the ground, saying: "I'll be right back. Don't die"? Yeah, I thought so.

Mitsui/Yohei, Slam Dunk: I wish I could give a better explanation for why I love them so much, but really — the moment I saw Yohei beating the crap out of Mitsui with relative ease and zero effort despite being the smaller guy, I just felt the yaoi monster stirring in its sleep and shaking my bones. A former student athlete-turned-delinquent crossing paths with an actual delinquent makes for such fantastic tension, really.

Jotaro/Kira, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: I actually thought very long and hard about my favourite JJBA ship, because, like KnY, I love all of the characters and have no issue with either canon or fanon pairings. But then, I saw this fanart of JoKira/KiraJo, and it scratched such a specific itch inside my head that I have not been the same ever since.

Here it is! I had an fun time thinking about my favourite ships and choosing those that were truly obscure; some of them — HijiTae and ShunUki — are fairly popular, but I think my preference for them trumped any other rarepair I could have thought of for that fanbase.

xoxo, V ♥️

[mahoutoons]

i really do not get all the hatred sonamy fans get in the sonic fandom.

"but they're so toxic!!"

so are all other ship fandoms. i've had experience with toxic shippers of other ships. but you won’t see me generalizing the ship's fandom over them. every ship has its fair share of toxic fans. so why is it that only sonamy fans get all the heat for being toxic? i'm not denying that there are bad eggs in our fandom but i don't think its fair yo act like we're a special breed of toxic. i've seen fans of other ships with r*pe on amy yet people don't use them to generalize the whole ship's fandom.

"they think their ship is canon!!"

in the 2000s-2010s, maybe we did have a lot of fans who thoight that way. but nowadays whenever sonamy fans claim its canon, its always done in a joking way. its what fans lf literally every other ship do. i've seen people jokingly say "x ship is canon" because character a looked at character b funny. but no one ever attacks them for it. so why is it that only we get attacked when a lot of the time we aren't even serious?? we KNOW our ship will never actually be canon. we KNOW sega has no intention of changing their dynamic as of now. we're just having fun with the moments we're given. especially in recent media. why do y'all froth at the mouth over that. don't like it? just ignore and block.

and to be honest? as sonamy is now, it can be considered semi canon. like, give me a platonic explanation of the "amy, i should've made up my mind sooner" line in frontiers. IF sega decides to make them a couple, their dynamic still won't change. it'll still be very subtle except they're actually a couple now and you won't even notice it. and even then no one's stopping you from liking other ships. and if they are, well the block button exists for a reason.

"but the fanfics-"

i have my beef with old sonamy fanfics. but i have a feeling the people who made them were young kids and teenagers. i'll bet a lot of them have grown up now and have better things to do in life. now i hardly see any sonamy fanfic that villainizes sally or makes sonic an asshole for the sake of angst. the more extreme shippers from the 2000s-early 2010s should not be used to judge shippers today.

imagine if i used the sonadow shippers i encountered in 2014 deviantart, who were mostly allocishet girls who shipped them because they fetishized gay men, made both of them extremely ooc (anyone remember the terms seme and uke?), and of course hated amy for getting in the way of their ship, to judge the sonadow shippers of today who are now mostly mellow and enjoy their ship in peace, it wouldn't be fair now would it?

"the age gap is problematic!!"

most of the ages in sonic make no sense! there's a line in sonic forces where infinite claims sonic has defeated eggman for decades, and sonic's only supposed to be 15. granted using sonic forces may not be the best example but it shows how little sega cares about the ages. and now they've even been renoved from sonic channel. AND even ian flynn himself has said not to worry about pairings like sonamy and knuxouge because there's nothing wrong with them.

and i KNOW people are gonna take this to mean "so shipping things like s0nt@ils is okay now??" no, because tails is still coded as a little kid. sonic and most of the cast are coded as teenagers.

there's people who ship tails and fiona, and that's an actual toxic ship with an actual problematic age gap. but they don't get half the heat that sonamy shippers get.

"sonamy is a ship for the cishets"

really now? i guess my lgbt cars has expired guys. maybe that's a good thing because i was born and raised in a country where its illegal to be lgbt and my parents are kinda religious. and even the country where i'm originally from is pretty homophobic despite gay marriage being decriminalized. who knew all it took to solve those problems was to ship sonamy?? thanks guys.

do you see how stupid that logic is? a fucking ship doesn't determine your sexuality. i don't want to kiss women any less because i ship sonamy.

[bookwyrm35]

I've seen a bunch of theories circling about what makes a person's Talents stronger so here's a compilation/my two cents on the subject.

1. The closer you've been with death, the better you can sense it. The first example that comes to mind in A. J. Lockwood himself. Orphaned at age six, his sister murdered three years later, and his uncle passing after a stroke somewhere along the way, Lockwood's life has been filled with death and maybe that's why he's able to see it so clearly. Lucy Carlyle, the greatest Listener since Marisa Fittes, has also had her fair share of nearness to violent ends. Her entire team from Jacob's was killed by that ghost and even if she doesn't dwell on it in the books, she carries their deaths with her forever.

A counter point to this theory is the fact that it implies your Talent gets stronger as you have more experiences with death, which isn't something we really see as the books go on. Lucy mentions after she (spoilers!) leaves that she feels she's getting stronger and more confident in her Listening abilities, but she hasn't had any brushes with death in that time.

If it's true though it does make me wonder what kind of life Marrisa had before the Problem that made her gifted enough to hear Ezekiel...

2. When you meet your soul mate, your Talent gets stronger. I remeber this being illustrated with Locklyle by saying that Lockwood seems surprised at the brightness of Mr. Hope's death glow in 62 Sheen Road. Despite knowing the abruptness of his end, Lockwood didn't think the death glow would be bright enough to warrant bringing his sun glasses. Lucy likewise seems to be surprised by the clarity of what she hears and the impressions that come when she connects to Annabel Ward's ghost, making me think that this is a new development.

It's a bit of a romantic spin on a gift that's only good for dealing with the dead, but in this fandom something like that is inevitable.

The counter point again stems from Lucy's resigning from Lockwood and Co. but this time it's a bit more complicated. Yes, she is physically far from Lockwood during this time, but it's only because she cares for him that she left. This is an entirely different tangent that I might get into later, but I truly believe her leaving was an ultimate symbol of love in her (subconscious) mind.

3. Talent in simply tied to your physical senses. I personally like this theory the best because I see a lot of evidence for it. Lockwood had good Sight because he's got good sight. If you read carefully you'll notice he's usually the one who tunes in to visual things first. He'll see someone coming to answer the door, detect movement from far away before the others do, and spot clues that have led them to sources many times. There's not as much on this for Lucy but I think that might just be due to the fact that she's the one narrating. The others don't hear what she does but she doesn't realize it. George, as we know from the scene when they're trying to get information from Carver before he dies, has very bad hearing. (that or he just has a hard time focusing on soft sounds when he's stressed. Which is valid, but really George? Bogeys?) While we're talking about George though, it's a good time to bring up that they never mention his Talent in Sight because, if this theory is correct, he's as blind to ghosts as he is to everything else with his glasses off. It's also worth noting I think that ghosts are best seen in the corner of your eye, an obvious blind spot to any glasses wearer.

It also explains (in my mind at least) why Touch isn't as talked about as the other senses. It's hard to gauge how physically sensitive you are, so I'd wager it'd be the same for the psychical side.

4. Strength in Talent is genetic. This one has the least going for it in my opinion. We know that some of Lucy's sisters and her mother had Talent when they were young, but it was barely enough to qualify them for Night Watch. We don't know much about the abilities of Lockwood or George's family, but I feel like we would have gotten some snippet of information if they were.

5. It's random, there's no rhyme or reason, and I spent way too much time thinking about this 🙂.

Thoughts anyone?

[mementoshay]

Hi, I have a question for Eden: What kind of friends were you and Shay? I would like to hear your stories of your friendship. I know this is a blunt question. But I think the best way to mourn someone who is no longer with us is to keep remembering. Please answer if you would like.

Hello, this is a sweet question.

Unfortunately, I can't say I've ever been able to be a proper 'friend' to Shay until the end, more like somebody who watched from the sidelines, I think. The one who I knew interacted somewhat regularly with them was Mari (who also had their phone number), which was the person I reached out to when I felt like Shay was spiraling last December.

We mostly interacted casually through the old Discord server and only had two chats in private, most of which have been made public on the document after what happened in the Discord server. I remember feeling very bad for them, because it brought back a lot of memories from personal experiences and I wanted to be there for them, I wanted to help.

I also went through pretty much the same thing a few years ago, but with another fandom. For me, the matter ended on a completely different, much brighter note (which today left somewhat of a "survivor guilt" I'm trying to live with, to be fair).

It all happened so quickly I couldn't really savor the few moments we shared together until they were gone. So I kind of keep them all locked somewhere at the back of my mind, trying not to let the feelings get the best of me.

I think a good memory I can share is getting to watch Treasure Planet together. Shay seemed to like Dr. Doppler a lot, they said he made them laugh. Meanwhile, I got to express how much I love the character of Silver (plus the protector/protegé relationship that blooms between him and Jim). Jim's theme also really seemed to carry a deep meaning for both of us. So we listened to it twice. Of course, now it has a new meaning for me.

Thank you for your question, it was very nice of you.

- Eden

They can't tell me who to be 'cause I'm not what they see yeah, the world is still sleepin' while I keep on dreaming for me and their words are just whispers and lies that I'll never believe

See you on the other side, Shay.

[infintasmal]

mun meme

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍!

★  NAME:  Chai ! KC is also acceptable

★  PRONOUNS:  she/they/unbothered

★  BEST EXPERIENCE: Def the relationships I've managed to forge. I've had some partners for years, those that I've become great friends with, with whom I owe much of my development as a creative toward. I've found a sense of community in rp spaces that I otherwise wouldn't have had access to.

★  PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Any DMs are fine, discord or otherwise. I am notably bad at initiating or maintaining conversation, I struggle a lot in social settings even online so I am appreciative of those that have been patient with me. I'm trying to be better about it but I know it can be frustrating.

★  MOST ACTIVE MUSE: Botan on DeathBlossomed is at the forefront rn which is why I've been low activity here. However Ja'far is nearly always active and has remained a steady muse for several years.

★  EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS: I started in middle school (I'm turning 30 next month, so 2007/8) on Gaiaonline, writing real cringy stuff but it sparked a long standing passion. I moved onto tumblr in 2012/3 my freshman year of college. You can do the math bc it makes me feel old

★  RP PET PEEVES:  

I tend to be pretty unbothered by most things, I've been here too long however I'll never like the active policing of other people's blog content that seems to have intensified in the recent years with the 'puriteen' wave. I think people really forgot fandoms roots with the "Don't like, don't read. Dead Dove Do Not Eat." disclaimers and could use a lesson in it. The whole 'proshipper' discourse is just exhausting and I'm simply too old to be bothered, y'know. I don't mean to be like 'you shoulda seen what was going on back in my day *shakes cane*' bc some of it was skeezy for sure and we had our fair share of problems, but I felt like most people were at least staying in their own lane.

I also take issue with people who repeatedly, publicly complain about not having 'any' rp partners or not enough interactions while simultaneously making no effort to reach out to others and show interest in anything beyond their own self satisfaction. It shows that you don't appreciate the current rp partners you have or have had by stating that they're 'not enough' and that you're only looking to satisfy your own needs rather than acting as part of a community. It sucks to feel left out but at some point you've gotta start taking initiative. If we all sat around waiting for someone to come to us, no one would ever communicate.

★   PLOTS OR MEMES: I find that memes are good way to initiate a first interaction, it kinda gives me a sense of who you wanna write with, what kinda things you're interested in, and sets up the relationship nicely. But I do like plotting out threads, but only as an outline or a starter point. Sometimes, we end up plotting a little too specifically and it's like, what's the point of writing it if I already know what's gonna happen, y'know? Like, tell me where I'm going but don't tell me what I'm gonna see along the way. I like to have a solid starting point and then go with the flow from there with discussions being mainly about major plot points.

★  ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: Ahh, I'm sure if you look closely enough you can find some overlapping traits with some of my muses (like dumb & gay LMAO) but I don't think there's any one muse that I would say is really like me. I think I'd be a really boring character to rp as so I'll leave it for memoir writing x3

Tagged by: @quickdeaths (Ty !! I appreciate it ~)

Tagging: I've seen a lot of my dash do this so if you haven't had the chance yet, go for it bbs

[aeternallis]

KM Discord Server

As a POC (SE Asian) who was also dogpiled on a much a smaller scale in another discord server, and as one who'd witnessed in real time the events that unfolded in December 2023 in the KM discord server, I think the one thing that's been lost in all this chaos and drama is the human decency of giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Feel free to skip this section!

And for a little background, here's my experience: I reblogged a post on my blog and ranted about a few headcanons that I don't agree with in the tags. Some people read my tags, and concluded from that one post that I'm an outright ableist. Mind you, it was one day, and one post when I had absolutely no filter. Yet still, in which case, the conclusion drawn about me was fair, since in retrospect, I see where I went wrong. Again, I was frustrated for one day in that post and did not think of my tone whatsoever. I face the repercussions of that misjudgment today. For the record, just because I'm a POC, it doesn't mean that I'm immune to hurting other people, no matter the fact that that was never my intention. I did hurt certain individuals with that one damn post and the tags I wrote, and I'll be apologetic and remorseful about it for a long time. But having said that, I'd honestly expected certain people in this fandom to be mature enough to reach out in private first and ask for some clarifications, not to be immediately gossiped about in the discord server we were a part of. On top of that, besides that one incident, I hadn't even realized there was already growing resentment towards the metas I've written for KP/Kimchay, besides one of the few times I brought up personal frustrations I experienced as a POC. Lol

From what I've noticed with this incident in the KM server as well as the small discord server I was a part of, when POC share their own cultural context and understanding of something, not just the piece of media for which is the reason why we were all there in the first place, the knee-jerk reaction for most westerners are almost always to think of those things as "fandom policing."

In fact, in a separate conversation from my experience, one of them even said, "it's not so much about culture!" LOLOL To have that sentiment hurled towards me, while I was speaking of my frustrations of when culture erasure takes place in conversations of certain topics, while the conversation took place in a discord server meant to celebrate an Asian piece of queer media…was quite an experience. XD Goodness, I can only wonder what it's like to be able to have the privilege to say that so easily. That's all I'll say. Ha~

Yet still, from my own point of view, do I call the people who hurt me “individuals with a colonizer mindset” and that other word that’s hanging around right now and unsaid, just because of these few incidents? My knee-jerk reaction is to say yes, considering I wasn't even given a chance to explain myself, but I'll clamp that knee-jerk reaction down as much as I can, because despite everything, I still personally think the KM discord server and that other discord server still did more good than bad (not by much though), in the grand scheme of things. Those servers allowed for some instances of astounding cross-cultural communication (even if it also allowed rampant western ignorance to thrive), and for what it's worth, there are still good people in this community, despite everything.

And at the end of the day, who am I to hurl hurtful labels towards those who'd hurt me, when I hardly even knew them in the first place (two of them I never even talked to, LOL), and I know to myself that they meant no harm at the end of the day. Even if they certainly didn’t hesitate to throw the label “ableist” at me without a second thought.

It's a serious thing to throw a label like that at someone, even if my own experience as a POC who was dogpiled on by a number of westerners...hmm, let's stop that train of thought.

Getting back on track. Even still, these opinions I hold won't erase the experiences of other POC members in this fandom and in the KM discord server, the hurt they've experienced, nor can I speak for any one of them.

I think the bad habit of knee-jerk reactions—specifically the knee-jerk reaction of those wanting to protect the KM discord server in the way that's perceived to result in the least amount of drama, the gut instinct to not want to be caught in the crossfire, the conscious choice to tolerate such things, for the sake of preserving the safe space that one has left—is pretty much what's dominating the behaviors of people responsible right now.

The mods who run such servers like the KM server and others like it—they're not perfect, but I would have at least expected from them to be more open and proactive to the concerns of its POC members. Perhaps it's too much to expect that they would be equipped to handle very sensitive issues as the ones its POC members experienced, but damn...the bar is quite low, even just to meet the minimum.

And that's the most frustrating thing, to be honest. All this time, in all these various situations for those who’ve spoken out, it's the POC members of the community who are ALWAYS the ones who are pressured to having to give people the benefit of the doubt, to have to be careful of what they say, but NOWHERE in these situations is that sentiment even remotely returned to POC.

It was the POC members affected by the incident in December who had to remain patient with the mods, it was the POC members who had to face the backlash of negativity that happened, it’s the POC members of the community who’ve had to face the accusations of fandom policing, it’s the POC members of the community who have to face daily micro aggressions in this fandom, when all we’ve done is express opinions and our viewpoints.

At the end of the day, it’s POC members of the community who face the repercussions of having spoken out, yet the rest of the westerners in this community have the damn luxury to walk away, unscathed, to think to themselves that they did nothing wrong.

So I’ll be blunt this one time: yes, for the most part, there are good people in this fandom, there are. But even so, not a single one of us here is perfect, we’re all human.

And if I do say so myself, there is indeed quite a desperate need for fandom spaces, not just the KP fandom, to decolonize their ways of operating, starting with: giving POC the benefit of the doubt and actually trying to handle our concerns with some effort.

[chaoticquill]

On Events, Part 1: Bangs and Reverse Bangs

I'm happy to say this year, I went completely ham with fan events. If my count is correct, I've completed eight-ish. Five of them have been big bangs, and one of the three was a reverse bang (for those curious, it's the SKK Big Bang, the SKK Reverse Bang, the Ranpoe Big Bang, the SSKK Big Bang, and the BSD Big Bang).

If you don't know what a big bang is, it's an event where an author writes a summary, an artist picks their top five or so, and they're paired up. The writer writes, the artist arts, the beta betas.

In a reverse bang, the artist arts and creates a summary for the image. The writer chooses which one to write and has the freedom and flexibility to adapt the artist's idea.

What I appreciate most about events like these is the opportunity to collaborate with people. While all of my teams have been incredible to work with, I think I appreciate my experience in the SSKK the most. My team and I worked really well together. I knew the beta from other events and servers, and the artist, beta, and I worked really well together. At one point, the artist expressed concern about overstepping by suggesting plot points, but honestly, I welcome the input. I join these events to collaborate and connect with other folks. It's always fun to see what kind of art people create.

Of course, I've had my fair share of road bumps. My partner (both beta and artist) in the SKK Big Bang just disappeared. Even now, I admire the mods working quickly to pair me, and the art from that bang turned out so soft, I still smile when I think about it.

In all my bangs, I have grossly underestimated my word count. I can't say much about my BSD Big Bang piece yet, but let me put it this way: I estimated the word count being between 40k and 65k. It turned out being 82k. With a spin-off. And a one shot for one of the rare pairs in it. And a sequel set in a totally different time period. That server is quiet, but I've appreciated the opportunity to connect with people in the fandom nonetheless, and I think the fact that my bang fics often spiral say something about how much I'm enjoying the creative process.

As someone whose most popular (and longest) longfic started with a single image (a future tumblr post?), I also found it really interesting to work in a reverse bang, and the collaboration there was great, too, and in the end, the artist drew three pieces.

If anyone is considering a bang, here's my advice:

If you're feeling insecure, remember others are likely feeling the same. Lean into that feeling. What you create as a result will probably surprise you.

If things go awry with your artist, it's not a comment on your work, but how the mods handle it can easily show something about server leadership (good and bad).

Finally, communicate your expectations, or if you're experiencing delays.

More on events in later posts. :)

[stranger-rants]

Do you ever feel like some people take their projections onto characters too far sometimes, particularly when it comes to campaigning and activism within the fandom? I've recently had to unfollow one blog because they're posting multiple vent posts a day where their core issue about whatever they're ranting about is actually, at its base, just their own personal issues/interpretations. To the point where they're trying to stifle the voices of other queer fans by saying that their discussions are triggering them as a queer person. They've also began to take their own personal headcanons and argue about them/present them as fact in their posts, which just takes away from their points because they're presenting an argument based on something that isn't actually part of the character, and most of their points and examples aren't actually about the character but about themselves. It just feels iffy to me, and I feel like if you're at a point where you can't approach something objectively, even something like basic discussions or other people sharing their individual perspectives, then you need to take a refresher break and come back when you can stop absorbing so much of what's being said as being aimed personally. The way they post is just starting to sound like the victim antis who try to dictate that how they experienced or responded to abuse is the absolute, and how because its their experience its the experience.

Eh, I think this is an issue across fandoms. When something about a character, either canon or fanon, becomes so deeply rooted in your brain it can be hard to understand other people’s perspectives on them. I definitely have strong feelings about certain characters and how they’re interpreted, and I’ve been in the position where it’s hard to accept a different interpretation. I also have close friends who feel very strongly about certain characters and ships in a way that I simply do not and/or totally disagree with.

I think as long as this doesn’t totally destroy your relationship with them or cause frequent breakdowns in communication, then it’s really not a big deal to have these strong feelings. However, you might just need to reevaluate if it’s interfering greatly with your interactions in fandom. For example, I feel pretty strongly about Billy as an abuse survivor (canon) and as a chronically ill person (fanon) based on my experiences as both. Yet, if another chronically ill abuse survivor sees him differently then I have to accept that.

I don’t have to like other interpretations of a character, but I can understand why they exist. I don’t think liking or disliking other interpretations makes me a bad person or a good person. It’s pretty neutral to me. I also have some pretty negative thoughts and feelings about certain characters, but I know that I can’t possibly know all the reasons why someone likes them. So, I try to stay in my lane unless someone makes it my problem.

Fandom is about curating your own experiences, though, so if people insisting on a particular interpretation bothers you then it’s completely fair to avoid that person and/or content. If someone is having trouble coping with this kind of thing, it’s something they’ve got to work through and not something you need to fix. It can suck. There’s certain topics I have to avoid with friends because of it, but ultimately their issues with something or someone don’t have to be my issues.

[newwavesailor]

print("Hello, World!")

And goodbye, Twitter/X...

It's a beautiful day.

You probably don't know, but I was on Twitter from around 2014 up until the dawn of X. (the name of the platform, not the punk band)

Yes, as I am somewhat ashamed to admit, I tolerated the Muskrat's consumerist bull crap for what may have been too long. I had previously experimented with Tumblr in the past, originally wanting to do an ask blog. (Yeah, remember those?) But alas, that account sat abandoned for a good few years before I deleted it. But I'm back.

To say my time on Twitter was all bad, would be a lie. I met some real nice people on Twitter, and I hardly ever had a bad experience. It was through Twitter I really started embracing my role in the Sailor Moon fandom. But once the Muskrat took over, it would be an understatement to say all hell broke loose - It was practically Armageddon.

Verified accounts being prioritized, limits being placed on the amounts of tweets you can view, punishing those who dared say a bad thing about the Muskrat, barring off links to other platforms, it's fair to say that The Social Media Platform (Formerly Known as Twitter) was slowly becoming a small authoritarian city-state of the Internet.

But I tolerated it. I endured it. But as with a lot of endurances, there will be a straw that will break the camel's back. And for me, that was X.

I was shocked. Flabbergasted, even. The Muskrat had basically stripped the platform of its very identity -- And for me, that was the breaking point. I had to get off Twitter. I put my account into an archive state, and earlier today, I deactivated it for real.

Thus bringing a bitter end to my time with Twitter. What started as a place to speak your mind, and share your interests, slowly but surely became a place to really watch your tongue lest Big Brother Muskrat banish you. I guess all good things must come to an end someday.

Long rant over; Allow me to introduce myself!

Hello, my name is Maxwell. I'm an artist type. I'm a huge fan of Sailor Moon, though not necessarily anime in general, and I also really enjoy things from decades before my birth -- Especially 1980's new wave music.

Now, I know what you're thinking, "Oh, you're just another one of those 'born in the wrong generation' type people, are you?"

Trust me, I've seen those kind of people. I don't know what they're like, but they seem a bit fake. However, I mean it. I genuinely love old music. Other interests of mine include SpongeBob SquarePants, retro video games, making song mashups, drawing cartoons, and Neil Cicierega. I am a liberal democrat, in case you were wondering.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at an early age, which puts me on the autism spectrum. The exact details I will not go into.

And that's really the lot of it. I hope to see you around!