#I've just seen a lot of negative comments about the fandom and the show lately by people who say they're also in it

[averygayplant]

I love this community so much, but sometimes it gets to me how pessimistic some people are, like- Sure, there's a lot of things wrong with the show, and obviously there are a lot of things wrong with some people in the fandom too, but why you gotta be part of the problem by constantly focusing on those things?

Like, if you're really seeing that much stuff you hate on your dash then girly pop I don't think you're doing Fandom right, actually. The whole point of having a fandom is finding a common ground with all KINDS of different people, and that common ground is liking this certain media. You're simply not going to get along with all of them. Get over it.

[incorrect-rqg]

Okay my intent here is not to start drama in the rqg fandom in 2024 because I love this community and frankly it's not that deep, but there's something I just wanna talk about for a sec.

I've seen the sentiment around lately that the party is unnecessarily cruel to Wilde - from the Prague arc all the way up to Damascus or even Japan - and that this specifically contributes to Wilde's guardedness and unwillingness to be emotionally open with the party throughout the show. That he goes "oh, you want me to be the snarky punching bag with no feelings? Then that's what I'll be."

While this is a sentiment I generally agree with, I take some issue with the idea that the party - Grizzop specifically - is mean to Wilde for "no reason".

Grizzop has a very good reason to dislike being around Wilde, which he expresses on numerous occasions - Wilde's lack of respect for Grizzop's personhood and his use of condescending and demeaning language.

While Wilde never actually calls Grizzop "It" like he'd later claim (just a result of long gaps between sessions and Ben being a human being with imperfect memory), he does call him "this one" and generally treat him in a dismissive and condescending way, even after being told to stop numerous times.

Now, I've seen the argument that this is kind of just how Wilde talks to everyone. That's just who he is, especially in earlier arcs. This isn't entirely untrue, but that doesn't change the fact that like... Grizzop is a goblin (in the RQGverse a minority race with a history of oppression), who has been the target of this kind of language and attitude from humans his entire life. He's entirely warranted in being upset at being treated this way. Wilde doesn't ever really give Grizzop any reason to like him, and frankly Grizzop doesn't owe Wilde jack shit.

Another scenario is the iconic moment where Grizzop punches Wilde in the dick. I made a post about this a couple days ago while Very High and then forgot to delete it in the morning so it's just up now. But I've seen a couple comments (on the post and elsewhere) being like "poor Wilde :(" or "he didn't deserve that" and like... He kinda did? He was being antagonistic and negging Sasha, deliberately trying to make her feel worse about her upcoming Risky Medical Procedure. Even if it was just him being silly that's still a pretty shitty thing to do. You can argue that Grizzop went overboard with the physical violence, but arguing that it wasn't at all warranted doesn't make sense to me.

I love Wilde as much as the next rqg fan. He's probably my favourite character, maybe behind Sasha. But in order to appreciate the extent of his character growth it's important to recognize situations where yeah, he was being shitty and antagonistic.

And, even in a scenario as silly and fantastical as this, I still think it's important to not brush off the experiences of a marginalized person who says they're a target of discriminatory language, even if the perpetrator is someone you like. Wilde is white, and charming, and wealthy, and in a position of power over Grizzop as his handler and as a government representative. He is not the victim in this situation.

Again, very much not looking to start shit here, especially because "aw, poor Wilde :(" is definitely a thought I've had while listening to early RQG. This is just something I've been thinking about a lot during my current relisten and wanted to share with you guys.

[woman-of-many-fandoms]

Honestly though, it must be so weird to work with some people for a few years of your life and for years, decades, later people are shipping you with your co worker.

I'm obviously all for shipping fictional characters, but this is the actors job. Where they get a paycheck. They are literally being paid to act like found family.

Like imagine you worked in an office with some people for 3 years in 2004-2007 and in 2030 people are making clips of you and how in love you look while eating lunch with Carol or saying hi as you both arrived in the parking lot.

I've seen this in pretty much every fandom I've been in. Star Trek, good omens, X men, Marvel. I do not think RDJ has any emotional attachment to Chris Evens or that Shanter really cared about and enjoyed spending time with Nimoy. I'm positive for David Tennant, Good Omens is just his next job and Michael Sheen only likes it because it made him much more well known in the acting world and it'll be easier to get his next gig. Yes Pine and Quinto look like they are actual friends outside of the movies but that is an exception.

Anyway, just my thoughts since I just saw a post of some Trek actors in I'm assuming the late 80s or 90s and people were saying 'how could he not be bi saying stuff like this'. Money, the answer is always money.

edit: OK let me address some of what is in the comments. Do actors say they are friends, sure, and if you want to take that at face value then you are right, they are friends. I personally don't think it counts if you are being paid to do so. And before anyone says anything, no not directly. But they have a whole 'image' to uphold that their income is tied to.

I don't know much about the entertainment industry and don't know why people would want that life but it's .... well, different, is the nice way to say it. My sister's career is considered part of the entertainment industry though she is behind the scenes. (And, side note, even being behind the scenes I've still found photoshopped images someone made of her in her in sexy lingerie ... )

TBF we don't talk that often but I've heard some stories (apparently Bill Nye is more then a bit of a jerk behind closed doors) She's lived in Hollywood 12 years now and there is the face people put out in the public and who they truly are. Yes, we all have a self that we hide (I'm autistic so I know all about masking) but it seems that is pushed to extremes.

I've seen her act like many people's best friends (house parties and giving favors and gifts that I question) and promoting their good name in public then she'll tell me in private some horrible things that person has done to others and how it's just how it works. She house/cat sat for a guy (and sent me views from his balcony, my god it was nice) who I think a lot of people would recognize from TV but their relationship was built on respect for each other careers.

Sure, you can tell me not to base the examples off my sisters stories and, ok fair. But I'd also want to point out - the part of RDJ buying evens a car, I did some math. He has 300 million net worth according to google. I have a salary, not net worth (or a negative one cause of student loans I guess), but it is the equivalent of me buying my co worker a $32 gift assuming the car was 150k. I met a guy who performed in Vegas shows and told me how they've had dinner with (I honestly don't remember if it was Penn or Teller) at their house with their spouses. And private chats ... doesn't really tell me much.

I'm currently seeing a bunch of clips of the main actors for the new Wicked movie saying how each other changed each others lives and it just comes off as more acting to promote the movie to me.

And even with Pine and Quinto , I only gave that one a pass because they said knew each other and got along before being in Trek and even then, eh..

Again, just how I interpret things. I know friend can mean different things to different people and a lot of what I see I don't interpret as friend, I see it as networking. I would absolutely be 'friends' with someone if it helped me make and maintain my multi millions .

[self-indulgent-paw-patrol]

I just woke up and noticed we had more extra posts in the Zuma Week tag. I'll share them too, in a bit. But first...

Just wanted to thank everyone who participated!!! It wouldn't really have happened without all of us coming together for this!!

This whole thing was very important to me and probably to a lot of you too. Lately, most I've seen coming from the fandom was just sadness, frustration, resignation, complaints on how things have been going on about the show. Sure, I'm no exception, I posted some of my opinion on this matter too. It got to the point where the few "safe spaces" for enjoying Paw Patrol "content" were now mostly only the currently active askblogs run by fans, and even those were affected - what with people sometimes questioning Zuma why he hasn't shown up in Rocky's Garage yet, for example...

It was a very good change of air to finally have nice posts about something again. We spent an entire week saying good things, saying why we like this or that, sharing each other's posts, commenting, creating amazing connections, stories, some headcanons, heck we got even short fanfics and fandub clips! How cool is that?? For a moment, we ENJOYED things about the show once again, we CHERISHED one of the characters. And we were HAPPY doing so.

This is what a fandom is supposed to be like. We all know the show has taken bad turns, some poor decisions by the producers, etc. But aren't you tired of not enjoying anymore what used to be such a good show to you? Maybe a comfort show for so many of us? Seeing only complaints around is tiring. It's not secret to most of you I'm nearly on my 30s now (One month from now!! Omg) and the amount of times I left from previous fandoms I was in just because they were no longer enjoyable places to be in... I can't even bother to count. I didn't want this to happen here too. I refuse to let it happen yet again and have Paw Patrol be just one more past in my list like "Yeah I used to like this, but everyone would only complain about stuff not going well with the show or their favorite characters, there was barely anything nice around to enjoy, so I left".

We're remembering how it was to enjoy the show, enjoy moments, have fun picking favorites or top 3 or 5, bringing up funnies and cuties, come up with headcanons and little stories. Let's always go back to it, what do you say? Sure we are frustrated, but it's been a few years from what I know and complaining didn't get you guys anywhere better about the show's situation with the producers. Social media mods/staffs aren't allowed to engage/respond to negative feedback - as neutral as you try to be, it's still considered negative feedback. So, why not show them what we like, why we love this show, so they can see it?

With that being said...

We are NOT DONE YET!!!

I still will finish my post for Zuma's Birthday prompt, because it was just too big a thing to get done in time in my current situation. At least this means I can take some extra time and work on it properly now. Another friend was very busy this week too and will post their stuff for each prompt in the next days and I'll share them too. And there will be an extra surprise about all the little stories lovingly written by @cottoncandyswirl828 for each prompt!! I just need my new laptop to be delivered here in a week from now, hehe...

In the meantime... I'll release the next event in the Paw Patrol Community at some point today!! No, it's not another Appreciation Week already, you'll see 😂 But next year we'll have more Appreciation Weeks to celebrate, praise and cherish more pups!! I already have the next one planned, just gotta pick a good week for it!! IN THE MEANTIME, LET'S KEEP FLOODING OUR TAGS WITH NICE STUFF 💙❤️🩷💚💛🧡

Once again, thank you all!!!!

[peppertaemint]

This TaeKey situation is so messed up. Like, I don't blame people for being upset, or hurt, and wanting to let the guys know that the things they say can affect others negatively...  but at the same time the way this is going down is wild. I never thought I'd see shawols react to them like this.

The number of people(some of them that I've been following for a while, who always seemed mature and level headed) who were positively gleeful talking about Taemin and Key "getting their lashings". Calling them disgusting, saying they deserve what's coming to them, they don't want to see anything from them unless it's an apology "with tears" and all the other generally insulting things that people have been saying about their appearances and them as people.

It's like people were just waiting for their moment to turn. Or they're so desperate to show that they're "good" and they're not one of "those" fans that puts idols on a pedestal that they've gone tol far in the opposite direction and just gotten nasty.

Like, maybe I'm stupid, maybe I am one of those fans that's putting them on a pedestal but I'd like to think that Taekey are generally good kind people who always do their best to be respectful. Of course they're gonna fuck up every so often. There isn't a person alive who doesn't have some kind of internal bias about something, whether they're aware of it or not. But when someone I care about screws up, I would think the best course of action would be to say "hey, I know you probably didn't mean it maliciously, but the connotations of what you said are kind of shitty. Especially to people with darker skin tones and I hope you can consider that going forward" my first thought wouldnt be to call them disgusting and essentially get a megaphone to announce their fuckup all over social media so as many people as possible can see it and join the hate train.

I just hate this so much. And now stupid sm is just editing the video and the members probably have no clue about it and the people who are angry are getting even angrier and even more nasty.

I wish Taekey could address this but unfortunately I really don't see it happening and then it's like,where do we go from here?

Where do we go from here? A good question.

I think that where we don't go, but it's too late because it's already happening, is commenting on Taemin's IG that he should collaborate with Morgan Wallen. How is that helpful? It's disingenuous.

As someone from Canada, TaeKey's words were gross and not cool. But I also understand that they aren't from my culture, and because I watch a lot of Korean content, I know what is seen as acceptable there. That doesn't mean it's acceptable to me personally.

They deserve fans telling them how they feel honestly. And I think in the majority of cases that has happened. But like you say, some people are taking this extremely far and turning it into an excuse to be nasty, when I don't think TaeKey meant anything other than childish/ignorant making fun. That doesn't mean what they said was okay or should be overlooked, but intention and someone's character does count for something, does it not?

People keep leaving all sorts of remarks on IG, WeVerse, Twitter etc so I would say at this point, they should be aware there's a large swathe of the fandom unhappy. I did put my thoughts on WeVerse and Bubble - but I did that once and let it be. I'm not harassing people.

SM editing the video makes it worse because clearly management or at least the YouTube team know about the issue. But from what I heard, they didn't edit it well, and I think that speaks to the lack of knowledge around this issue. The staff members likely don't understand fully what the issue is and how it makes fans from certain areas feel, so they guessed at how to make it better and mostly failed.

Cultural exchange is full of this kind of uncomfortable stuff. It's easier when it's on a personal level, because then we can have a conversation with the person/people directly. We can't exactly do that, but fans have social media to use, which they are.

[3416]

i feel really similarly re: your answer to the ask about leafs fans. one thing that genuinely annoys me to no end is how people don’t seem to realize that a lot of the hate/negativity that surrounds the leafs is literally a direct byproduct of other fanbases seeing how awful “fans” of the leafs themselves talk about the team and its players 😭 like uncles will complain about all the disrespect the leafs get but if supposed fans of the team constantly broadcast themselves ripping into players then why wouldn’t fans of other teams think they have a free pass to repeat the same talking points lol. steve dangle making an entire career off exactly that and still being popular within the fan base speaks for itself. it’s just irritating that every single widely held (obviously baseless) criticism about the players like about mitch and his character or jt not being captain material or the core not caring etc etc etc literally began from fans themselves like that’s so sad to me lol

that's extremely well put and 100000% the case, lol. i totally agree. and it's why the divide in fans annoys me so fucking bad. all the neutral people who are like 'you can't tell people how to be a fan and ultimately we all want the same thing' are also obnoxious bc like. these people who are actually hateful and constantly negative use the length of their 'fandom' to explain why they're fed up and it DOES contribute to the way other teams fans view us and makes it hard to be a fan out loud and it EVEN impacts how players perceive toronto as a market (elliotte on a show last night admitting that the marner debacle has made players be like... ehh not there! abt toronto is so funny). anyway it's like........ once again, i fully believe engaging in sports and hobbies in general is a choice, whether it was something shown to you as a child or you discovered it yourself later. plenty of people who have been fans for the same lengths of time have managed not to become ugly and over the top about it so lol. i know some people manage to detach themselves from players but ultimately.... you're here to root for players as much as the team. you buy jerseys with their names on it and you spout facts about their individual play to other teams fans to defend your own. athletes are human beings, and i think that's a much more interesting and grounding way to interact with sports than the barbaric and annoying ass way so many men do. nothing's going to change about it, but i think toronto media in general needs more neutral to positive voices (fuck you steve dangle fr.) bc they get accused of having homer broadcasts and yet. every time i listen to either the american or the canadian ones during leaf games, the leafs are never getting the benefit of the doubt and they can never do anything right, lmfao. and maybe that's been shaped by their playoff failures of late but i don't care. we're here to have fun, and i want to be able to be positive and believe in this team and its core players (who are going to end up the best to ever do it in blue and white regardless of the playoffs btw) every offseason in a place without 49023492 idiotic comments telling me they can't win a certain way. like. you've lost the plot if part of your thing as a sports fan isn't blind belief. that is quite literally what it is... every year 31 teams lose and still have a fanbase at the end of it, lmfao.

i'm aware of how celeb culture and parasocial relationships impacts all of that too. i feel it in myself, the weird urge to be defensive over some of these guys i know that i don't know, but on the other hand, i fully think that the people who are overtly negative have their own little parasocial thing going on where they make up their own narratives and personalities for these guys they don't know either. i've fully seen a couple twitter users insinuate bc they, a toronto/ontario native themselves, have never heard about a positive interaction with mitch marner first hand that must mean he is actually the devil (they never say they've heard negative things either LMFAO.. like they don't know him or know people who know people who know him and say he's decent so he must be rotten bc hockey circles are small and blah blah blah). it's just so................ it's all bc toronto's a huge market and hockey is the thing to talk about 24/7.

[keeperoftinyarmy]

Could it be easier for people to start talking about their dislike towards Tae since he hasn't been connecting as much to army and at least on screen to the other members (apart from the runbts episodes we got). We know there's a lot we don't see, even Hobi told us that Tae was very supportive of his solo stuff when it was happening, but we just didn't see it. And now what we see is Tae hanging out with his other friends and doing non-bts related content. He is free to do what he wants as are the other members, but it has felt like he's been making a boundary so to speak, either consciously or by accident. I personally miss seeing more of Tae in bts related things or with the other members so the live was a fun surprise. But I don't blame him from pulling back, if that's what he's done, there's a part of the fandom that hasn't really treated him well, especially last year. I don't always understand him and I don't have to, I'm just a fan, but I can't really think he would have any malicious intents behind his actions. Maybe he's a little bit of a tease sometimes, but they all are.

(by the way I've loved seeing you more on my dash lately, your blog was one of the first ones I followed when I came into the fandom and I've been missing the old times, it's nice to see you're still here)

I actually rarely see hate toward V. The spaces I frequent in fandom are very much filled with love for him. He’s the bias of so many people. I’ve really only seen any “mass” (I put it in quotes because I actually don’t feel it’s widespread at all) negativity toward Tae in jikook spaces..especially of late.

To me…we haven’t seen V less than the other members. (To me the least visible was Jimin - until Face began and of course Jin) V has been posting his photo shoot pictures, random shots and stories, and he’s commented on weverse. He also has his on solo projects - like all the rest - so yes he’s promoting them. Mentioning the Wooga Squad and showing pics with them etc is expected since he’s had Friendcation and Jinnys Kitchen.

Also he’s on a group break, his time is more his own, so he gets to spend time with friends in ways he probably couldn’t for years. I’ve always loved that he had the Wooga squad. It’s healthy and normal to have friendships outside of work. And no matter how much BTS love each other, it is still work for them. So as they’ve mentioned it has been good for them being more apart and it actually has made them closer. 💜

I think the main issue here is lack of consistent BTS content…OT7 content. We don’t have that to pull our focus together so some people are bored and stirring things up. (Not to say that people don’t legitimately dislike Taehyung - his personality is not for everyone) Jikookers especially have no reason (imo) to be saying stuff about Tae. Even if he didn’t say much publicly during Face promotions, JK more than made up for it.

I feel like we took JK’s efforts too lightly. IMO this might have been the biggest public statement he’s ever made. This is a man that consistently pulls in huge numbers of viewers on his lives and he used that to first remind people that SMFpt2 was coming and basically led them to it right at teaser release. Then he spent an entire live watching Jimin content. This is using his platform in a huge way. We should be on our couches still squealing about that and not getting into it with other shippers who are disappointed in their own content and taking out their misery on certain members. I personally have ignored all that (for years) because to me nothing compares to what we get from jikook and I have nothing to debate about with other pairings.

Thank you for following me and noticing I’m back. So kind of you to mention that ☺️

[therealraeweber]

Let's talk about The Marvels, and a bit about Marvel fans... (spoiler free)

First off, I just want to say how much I LOVED this movie!!! It was so amazing to see my girl Kamala on the big screen! I absolutely adore her, and getting to see her interact with her heroes was very exciting for me. This was my most anticipated Marvel movie of the year, apart from maybe Spider-verse, and it definitely did not disappoint.

What I wanted to talk about it the reception that so-called Marvel "fans" have been having to this movie. I'm sure we've all seen the comments I'm going to talk about.

The first thing I've noticed is that the negative comments seem to have died down quite a bit since the movie actually came out, as I've been seeing much more positive feedback in the last couple days. Perhaps people realized they were wrong? Or maybe that's just because I've been reading more comments through Tumblr lately, which tends to be more positive than Instagram, especially when it comes to this type of thing. Whatever the reason, it just makes it even more apparent just how horribly people were treating this movie BEFORE IT EVEN CAME OUT.

This is something that is really interesting to me. Whenever I saw a post on Instagram promoting The Marvels, I would immediately run to the comments to see what people had to complain about that day. There were so, so many hate comments, but at the top there would usually be one or two comments saying something like "Why all the hate? Your misogyny is showing." ALWAYS there would be someone responding to these saying "It's not about the female characters, it's about the bad writing". Again, these comments were all posted BEFORE THE MOVIE CAME OUT.

A couple days before the movie premiered, I took some screenshots of comments I saw on Instagram and... well... look for yourself...

So, here we have people, 15 weeks before the movie came out, deciding the script was poor and the movie was mid. Sounds reasonable, right? Perhaps if you want your argument to be "We don't hate female characters, we just hate bad writing", then maybe wait until the movie actually comes out to judge the content?

When prompted with comments saying things like "Stop hating female characters", "The people hating on this are misogynistic", etc, SO MANY men hopped in to defend themselves saying that no one is hating because of the female characters. Essentially gaslighting the women commenting, saying that what they have heard was not sexist. It took all of 5 MINUTES to disprove these arguments and see that many people, in fact, have a problem with women being the leads of this movie.

Again... I found these within the span of 5 minutes. It took absolutely no effort to find sexist comments. So, to the people arguing that "No one is hating on it because of the women"... try again. Just because that isn't YOUR issue, doesn't mean that other people don't take issue with it.

And, one last thing I want to comment on, is the sheer number of comments I saw that were saying that this movie was "woke", "feminist", "pandering", "pushing an agenda"... I hate to break it to you... Having female characters in a movie isn't "woke". It's called... having characters. Having POC characters in a movie isn't "woke". Having characters of different religions in a movie isn't "woke". IT'S CALLED HAVING CHARACTERS. And, not every movie that has women in it is a feminist movie. This is just a movie that... has women. There is absolutely no agenda being pushed. But the fact that Marvel has started making movies with women seems to threaten a lot of insecure men.

And, I can not emphasize this enough, when looking through Instagram comments THIS TYPE OF COMMENT WAS THE VAST MAJORITY. This isn't a small, one-off issue of a couple men being sexist. This is a large problem that is plaguing the Marvel fandom as a whole. And, until it's fixed, Marvel might still see these types of movies as being a "risk" to make. Which sucks. Which really, really sucks.

I do want to say, this is nothing against people who didn't like The Marvels for other reasons. That's valid! The writing and vfx may not have been everyone's cup of tea, and that's ok. This post is for the people who feel the need to be vocal about their hatred for this film, and belittle people who enjoyed it. Don't be like them.

And, I'll leave you with one last comment.

Have a great day, everyone. Spread love, not hate. <3

[greatqueenanna]

I just saw a few twitter sccounts dedicated to comparing Frozen to other things negatively. I haven't been active in the Frozen fandom for a while but god it's weird how haters are more obsessed with this franchise than fans. I love Frozen since 2014 because of how it showed me that people can love in a variety of ways and the mental illness subtext, particular Elsa leading me to discover about my anxiety and depression issues. (1/2)

Thank you! And don't worry about writing rants to me. I love reading them so haha.

Oh man, I know the feeling. For a while, it was considered a shameful thing to be a fan of Frozen.

People made entire tumblr blogs, twitter accounts and other socials dedicated to telling people how overrated and bad Frozen was - picking apart every teeny tiny animation mistake, heavily and unfairly criticizing its designs, complaining about what it could have been, and pointing out constantly that the film was taking away credit from other Disney films.

There was even a time in late 2014 - 2016 that many Frozen fans weren't even allowed to say that Frozen was their favorite Disney film or one of their favorites without writing an explanation as to why they liked it and making sure they recognized its flaws. On top of this, whenever someone would even criticize other Disney films, even if they never mentioned Frozen, they would often be met with the "They must be a Frozen fan lol."

Of course, this isn't me saying that some of the criticisms weren't warranted - however, Frozen was unfairly put in the hot seat when many Disney films before it (and some after) had many of the same issues but were being ignored for the sake of nostalgia or personal biases. Most of this was also because the film was popular and its flaws became more apparent because of people's high expectations.

The hate mob died down quite a bit after 2017 though, and now most of the arguments that are happening are between fans who liked Frozen 2 and those who didn't. Now it's just an occasional comment or a leftover Twitter/Tumblr account that really has nothing better to do. Like the ones you saw on Twitter (I've seen them too.)

I think what a lot of these haters refused to see is that people loved Frozen because it meant something special to them. It wasn't about how well it was written, if every single snowflake was actually different or not, or if Anna and Elsa had the same face. The characters and story meant something personal to them, and the film made them happy.

I suppose people just don't like seeing others happy about something they can't personally find enjoyment in for whatever reason. Their reasons are of course valid, however, they should always let people who do enjoy the content regardless enjoy what they want without judgment - even if the content is 'overrated' in their opinions.

[freegrain]

Things We Can Do to Support Fiona and #BlackLivesMatter

Hey, so I decided to make a post on things we can do to deal with racism and support #BlackLivesMatter within the fandom 💜 A lot may be obvious but it's just a simple guide to things to help. Also be noted, I am not black but I am a person of colour. (ik it's a long post, I'm on mobile so I'll stick a keep reading in when I can, sorry!)

1. Check Yourself 

The thing to remember that we are not infallible. We are human, we can mistakes and say things that are hurtful without meaning to. Acknowledge this. If someone calls you out, thank them and try not to make the same mistake in the future. Depending on your upbringing, your experiences, the people around you, you may support BLM wholeheartedly but pick up microaggressions, say words that you shouldn’t, think ‘jokes’ are funny when they’re not. But as long as you learn, it means you are trying. 

2. Friends Shouldn’t Be Defensive 

The second place we look is at the people we surround ourselves in in fandom. If you see someone doing something racist; be it through art, fanfiction, how they refer to people, shoot them a message explaining why you think what they're doing is wrong. Most people would unaware and would be glad to know. However, if they get defensive and insist they're not racist, perhaps stop and think about how important this person is to you. And if you find yourself getting defensive, please look again and try see it from their perspective!

3. YouTube

Ah, the big one. As AH's content is based off YouTube this is where we can do the most! Fiona has already mentioned that she knows videos with her in them get less views, get more dislikes, get more hate comments. So things we can do include:

1. Watching videos

See Fiona in a vid that you weren't going to watch? Maybe put it playing in the background, or put headphones in if it's distracting. Your view counts! All of ours do!

2. Reporting hate comments

Hate Speech is illegal on YouTube. If you see any comments, report them with either hate speech or harassment/bullying (although, I'm not sure how well YouTube handles this but it's better than nothing). I won't encourage you to engage with these commenters but if you do, be aware that people who openly hate are usually quite set in their opinions.

3. Overwhelm the hate with love

We know that AH doesn't read all the comments because how could they? However, if they were to read them, they'd see the top comments first. This is why it's important to comment nice things, like other positive comments and dislike negative ones. Also like the video! Trevor has said many times that with the new algorithm, likes impact how a video is recommended and viewed.

There is also roosterteeth.com. I personally don't use the site but I assume much is the same!

4. Social Media

Both our own and theirs! Let your voice be heard! Leave supportive comments on their Twitter and Instagram. Also, some AH members have been doing personal fund raisers so check them out if you see them.

Social media also includes the content we as fans create! Be it fanart, moodboards, fanfiction, show your support to Fiona and the others 💜 I've seen people talk of a Fiona Week (like a ship week but for celebrating what a wonderful person she is) but nothing has come of that as of yet. (If no one picks it up 👀 I'll see how busy I am). In general be supportive!

5. Fanmail

This one would have been easier if they were in their office and we all know how AH are with packages. But better late than never! If you can, send letters or gifts in to let Fiona know she's loved from the community. Also, from the AHWUs, they've mentioned that Fiona is usually the one to drop by the office to collect packages for everyone so if it's addressed to her, she'll probably get it.

6. Also!

Here's a link to a petition micooll made to let Fiona know how much the community loves her. You can sign or leave a comment, I just thought it was a cute idea!

-

And that's what I could think of 👉👈 of course, there are probably other ways so feel free to add on.

As always, sign petitions, donate, spread posrs, educate yourself. This was for internal fandom stuff but there's other things we can do to support #BlackLivesMatter

[roswelldetails]

RNM 2x07 - Como La Flor

Apologies for being so late this week!! Lots of translating to do, and research. Mucho gracias to @queenrikki for reviewing this one for me!

EPISODE SUMMARY:

OLD WOUNDS — Liz (Jeanine Mason) is forced to revisit a painful part of her past when her mother Helena (guest star Bertila Damas) shows up at the diner unexpectedly. Michael (Michael Vlamis) urges Maria (Heather Hemmens) to seek help after she experiences a strange vision, and Kyle’s (Michael Trevino) attempt to get Steph (guest star Justina Adorno) to open up doesn’t go as planned. Finally, Helena’s arrival in Roswell sends Rosa spiraling. Nathan Dean and Lily Cowles also star. Barbara Brown directed the episode written by Danny Tolli & Carolina Rivera (#207). Original airdate 4/27/2020. 

DETAILS:

Max and Isobel both describing to Rosa how it feels to use (and control) your powers.

Isobel:

"Ground your intention.  Feel the current running through your body, your hands guiding it with purpose."

Max:

"Okay, draw energy from your spine…"

Arturo on Rosa:

"I heard a little mouse crying in her room this morning."

Escamoles - like Liz says in the episode, they're ant larvae. One article I found called them "the Caviar of the Mexican desert". 

Helena calls Liz "mi corazón", which means "my heart".

"Arturito, te ves bien."

Arturo, you look good.

Adding "ito" to someone's name in Spanish can both be positive or negative.  It can refer to smallness or also tenderness (like an affectionate pet name).

@tasyfa pointed out that there was a little timeline error in this scene.  Arturo says that he hasn't seen Helena in 7 years, since Jim Valenti's funeral, but last season it was established in 1x12 that Valenti died in 2014.  Also, remember the show is a year behind reality right now, so it's still 2019. So off by 2 years.

The reason for Helena's visit - transferring her ownership of the Crashdown for Liz so that Liz can sponsor Arturo's residency for citizenship. I did a lot of research trying to understand and clarify why this is.  Thanks to those who weighed in when I was struggling to find a clear answer. Eventually I reached out to Define American, the non-profit org that provides support to the show on racial and immigration related issues.  Here's the response:

The short version is that Liz has to meet minimum income requirements in order to sponsor Arturo, because she has to be able to certify that she can financially support him.  Since she's currently unemployed except for the Crashdown, transferring half of the ownership to her makes her a business partner and helps her to meet the income requirements. 

The Spanish:

"¿Cuánto quieres, Mamá?" 

How much do you want, Mama?

"She has a very thoughtful manicure."

If you don't understand, it's cool. I'm not going to explain here.  Feel free to DM me though! I won't judge, promise!!

Narrative thread about Max's nightmare/memory continues from 2x03 and 2x06.  Don't forget that 2x03 was just Isobel remembering it. Max was a hallucination. So when he brings it up here, it might be something they haven't discussed in a very long time.

The Spanish from Rosa on her red jacket:

"Eres una mujercita."

Basically translates to you're a little woman or young woman.  I assume the "cita" is supposed to be diminutive here.

"Mom is an opportunist.  If she found out she had a kid who came back from the dead she would use you to get to Anderson Cooper. And then she'd use him to promote her latest lounge singer gig."

"Isobel pays double.  Becky tax." 

A Becky, according to common colloquial use, is an annoying white woman, usually entitled and privileged.

Lead bartender quit..meaning there's a job opening at the Pony…hmm. Wonder if any of our characters need a job... 🤔

Maria's vision:

Michael drops the change

Flash to Kyle dropping his keys & bending down to pick them up.

Kyle staring into a bright light.

Maria shouting his name.

"My heart was broken.  Liz ended things and a part of me died."

Max's story to Valenti… not all THAT far off from the truth.

Note: has anyone told him about Valenti investigating him? We know Liz and Isobel were questioned.  Michael was present when Liz was questioned. Kyle knows the whole theory his mom was pursuing. And he just wanders in there like nothing happened?

"Try leading several short staffed investigations with the mayor breathing down your neck."

Another subtle reference to the mayor, including the election banners hung around town in S2 and his "anti-immigrant agenda" which was referenced in S1.

Max has been with the department since he was 18 - this is the first time we learned that.  In 2x05 we learned he was there at 21. So that timeline has now been further clarified. Which also means he was hired during Jim Valenti's time as Sheriff.

"I need eyes on you at all times now."

Definitely implies a lack of trust, or possibly still wanting to keep an eye on him for the purpose of her investigation (not a fact, just a theory).

Steph tells Kyle that she's always hanging around the hospital because she's doing admin work for her dad.

"I'm starting to feel like you're a ghost who only I can see."

"Ask them if they can see me. Or if you were just talking to a ghost." 

Note that ghosts have been a running theme this season with Rosa returning from the dead. This seems to be in line with that. Or are they subtly tying Steph to Rosa (I'm grasping at straws here, probably).

Liz leaves the safe on 3...but before she changes it is on 81. Helena leaves it on 78 after stealing the ring. Good continuity, RNM!

The whole "my mom hates cops" theme is a little confusing to me.  I mean, it makes sense given what we know about Helena. Except that she had an affair with Jim Valenti, who was… a cop. And also an addict.  Maybe it was different because they rehabbed together (just an assumption, not a fact). Or maybe the Jim experience contributed to her dislike of cops.

Liz...might be grasping at straws when she refers to police work as "something you love" to Max.  He didn't exactly seem enamoured by the job when we first met him in Season 1.

First time we learn Max and Isobel's father's name. And it is… Dave. 🤔

The Spanish Helena uses when she meets Max:

"Pero que guapo estas."

But how handsome you are.

"Cuidado Arturito."

Careful, Arturo…

Helena found Liz and Diego's wedding registry online. 

“Look there are medical reasons for non-drug-induced hallucinations - epilepsy, schizophrenia…”

“My mom has a degenerative brain disease. My grandma did too. I've always known I'd be next.”

Helena wanted to be Selena.

Which fits with Liz's lounge singer comment earlier.

And the "drunkenly singing in the car with your daughters in the backseat" fits with the story Liz and Rosa discussed in 2x02 about the car accident they got into as kids with Helena driving drunk.

Helena shows Liz her ten years sober chip, suggesting that she's been sober since Rosa died, but Rosa finds pills in Helena's car later in the episode.  Oxycodone. The same drug that Rosa used to steal from her mom as a kid (which we learned about in 2x04) and the same drug that she and Kyle discussed when he was checking her health in 2x01.

During Helena's toast to Rosa:

Preciosa = precious

Rosa Linda… still not sure personally if this is a continuity error or a pet name.  I’m inclined to go with a pet name. Throughout the whole episode Helena uses lots of pet names, nicknames, diminutives to address people. Rosa Linda may be just another version of this since Rosa's middle name was pretty well established as Helena in Season 1 between her grave, memorial pamphlet, etc.

Kyle calls attention to Steph's bandage on her arm.  She says she gave blood, but it feels like she's evading.

Also she calls him McDreamy, which is a Grey's Anatomy reference. Kyle called himself McSexy (another Grey's nickname) in 1x08 as well.

Note: I've seen some people talk about the speech about his sick friend as being about Maria, but I think he's really talking about Steph.  Or both, vaguely. He's certainly trying to get Steph to open up to him. Here's what he says:

"I just found out a friend of mine is sick. And I can't do anything to help her. And I hate feeling helpless."

Only after Steph puts her walls back up, does he gesture to Mimi's files.

The Spanish:

"Oh, ándale, gùero."

Ándale is like, go! Or let's go! Gùero we discussed earlier...basically white boy.

Por favor - please 

Rosa's art that we first saw in 2x05 now looks finished:

Isobel's graffiti "In Pod We Trust"

Both Isobel and Rosa's graffiti:

Isobel's assessment of Rosa's art

"That's a black hole. An unstoppable force of destruction. And it's getting closer. I see a girl looking into her own doom. She thinks it's inevitable, that she can't stop it, but she can. See, she created it. That means she can destroy it."

Rosa on Isobel's efforts to help her:

"You and Max, you keep talking about harnessing emotion and grounding myself, right? But I can't do that.  It is in my DNA to be screwed up. Literally. My mom's mentally ill. So, so am I. I was broken long before Noah did what he did. That's why he chose me to prey on.  That's probably why he chose you too."

Maria on her grandmother:

"When I was a child my Grandma Patty was the only adult who understood my make-believe world. Thing is, I was six.  So my favorite things about her were just illness, I guess…"

Maria on her mom:

"She was always kind of out there.  By the time I realized it was more than that, I just became obsessed with money. Wanted to be able to take care of her. I invested everything Grandma Patty left me, and I worked, scrounged.  It was about three days after my mom was finally fired from her job at the Pony, I bought the place."

Maria's blood does not contain the alien protein that Kyle found in the Pod Squad and Rosa after being in the Pod for a decade. (and yes, he actually said Pod Squad, which feels like an OG fandom victory)

"Look, there is one thing I noticed in your grandmother's file. Her insurance company is the same one that paid for my dad's cancer treatments...My dad got cancer because of an alien incident at Caulfield Prison. A fake insurance company established by Project Shepherd covered his bills."

"Okay so my grandmother got sick at the same alien prison where your mother died?"

More Spanish (there's lots of it this week).

Helena, when she gestures to the present:

"Abre tu regalo."

Open your gift.

Quinces is just slang for Quinceanera.

Just in case you're not familiar with quinceaneras (Liz's was also referenced in 1x02).

"Mija, me enseñas tus prom photos?"

Daughter, show me your prom photos.

Regarding the power outage.  Liz thought it was Max. Max thought it was Rosa. But the wire is frayed, like it was cut or chewed through. So it wasn't alien power related.  When Arturo finds the wire though, he says, "Must have been a little mouse." Which is how he referred to Rosa earlier in the episode. So the question is, does he actually think it was a mouse? Or does he think Rosa cut the wire? And if Rosa did cut the wire, then why? To distract them while she goes after her mom's car?

In the big Liz/Helena argument, Helena calls Max “a güerito cop”.  Güero means white person, similar to the more commonly used gringo.  But by adding the “ito” onto the end (like discussed before), Helena is basically diminuitizing Max.  She’s using the “smallness” above to basically imply that he’s some white nobody.

“I may not be the PTA mom who made cookies for bake sales or hosted sleepovers, but I sacrificed everything to come to this country to give you a better life.”

This is...not actually true.  Liz and Rosa are both natural born U.S. citizens, born in Roswell.  So she didn’t “come to this country” for that reason. She was already here when Liz and Rosa came into the picture.  And it’s not like she came pregnant with Rosa or anything, since Rosa is Jim Valenti’s daughter.

The ring that Helena took was ARTURO'S mother's ring.  It wasn't even Helena's family's heirloom.   

Liz and Arturo sharing flan for dessert.  At the start of the episode before Helena arrived they discussed making flan for Rosa.

Arturo admits that he always knew the truth about Rosa's heritage. (*fistpump* that's one of my headcanons coming true). 

"Rosa es mi hija, siempre y para toda la vida."

Rosa is my daughter, always and for life.

"Maybe you're right. I am playing the hero. Just like you're playing the politician's perfect arm candy.  See, I did a little digging. And your boyfriend, Dirk-- he ran for city council. It's very impressive. But there's no mention of your daughters. I'm guessing Dirk doesn't even know about Liz or Rosa.  Does he know anything about you, Helena? 'Cause it would be such a shame if he found out about a little town called Roswell."

Helena gives Max the ring, but keeps the box… maybe that's what Helena really wanted?

Huevos = eggs.  Basically, slang for balls.

"I know that face.  You uncovered a massive conspiracy."

"I checked the Caulfield drives. No sign of a Patricia DeLuca, but there was a Patricia Harris. Her maiden name. She signed up to participate in an experimental trial. Government was interested in weaponizing alien abilities. They wanted to create super soldiers. Your grandma was one of the first human subjects."

"Kind of wish I was an alien instead."

"What happened to the experiment?"

"It was a total failure. Caulfield shut it down in the '70s after people started dying. I don't understand how your grandmother got involved."

"I do. Henrietta Lacks, Tuskegee, Holmesburg.  The DeLucas aren't the first black people to be secretly experimented on."

Highly encourage you to read these if you're unfamiliar with any of these references.  It's African-American history (and really a black mark on U.S. history) that's rarely taught in schools.

Henrietta Lacks:

Tuskegee:

Holmesburg:

Reality versus Maria's flashes… great gifset by @rosaortecho on this here:

Kyle rips his jacket, staggers out to the parking lot, drops his keys, and is almost hit by a car, but Michael throws him out of the way with his powers (and Kyle still ends up injured because he lands on a glass bottle).

"Now that we know your illness is related to Caulfield we can find a cure for it."

"Maybe it's not an illness. I saw the future today, Guerin. When I first found out Grandma Patty was experimented on, I was furious.  But what if my genetic inheritance isn't just injustice? It's also actual superpowers. Saved a life today. And not just any life-- Kyle Valenti's. Tomorrow he's gonna turn around and save five more lives."

Liz and Rosa's dueling big sister act is super fascinating.  Rosa admits that she wasn't going to burn the car, and then she saw Liz crying, felt helpless, and that's when her powers went all wacky and caused it to explode.

Meanwhile, Liz has spent the whole episode trying to keep Rosa safe from Helena, and is trying to comfort her here by talking about Helena's sobriety.

But--Rosa stole Helena's pills, so she knows Helena is not sober, and she doesn't tell Liz that.  Why? To protect her.

At some point these two should probably stop keeping secrets to protect each other and start actually sharing what they know.

Kyle stitches himself up.

Steph quoted in this scene:

"I was up in the gallery contemplating American downfall thanks to progressive socialism."

"People tend to bail when things get real. I'm not into that."

Cameron's car was impounded a couple hours away.

Max is turning in his badge and gun and is turning down desk duty to search for Cam.

Isobel and Michael's discussion at the Pony:

"Do you think that Noah chose me because I was already broken?"

"I think you are the only one of us who ever keeps it together."

"I'm serious, Michael. The night that drifter attacked me, why am I the only one who started blacking out? I mean, Max literally murdered a man, but I'm the one who breaks?"

"You were traumatized. We were kids. At that age, trauma gets etched on to your soul."

"But what if it's not in my soul? What if it's in my DNA? Look, my whole life, I've played Stepford wife, because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. But...I need to understand myself now. I need to know where I'm from.  And if I don't know who my biological parents are, how am I ever gonna know who I really am?" 

"What are you saying, Iz?"

"I know that we said we shouldn't look into the past, but…"

"It keeps pulling you back. Me too. I spent my whole life thinking I'd build a ship and blast off into the ether. And then the minute I decide to leave that all behind and focus on this good thing in front of me, I'm sucked back in. Maria's family was experimented on at Caulfield. I need to find out more so I can find a cure for her illness."

Rosa takes one of her mom's pills. 😭

MUSIC:

1. Cactus Groove "This World"

2. Shelly Fairchild "Drive"

3. Mathis Hunter "Mrs. Vinegar"

4. Big Stone City "Good For Zero"

5. Big Stone City "Way Down Below"

6. Selena "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom"

7. Elizabeth Moen "Best I Can Do"

8. Wagons "Keep Coming Back"

9. AG "Where Is My Mind" (Pixies Cover)

[pynkhues]

I've been trying not to, but I'm starting to buy into the rumors of tension on set. It's so strange to me that Manny and the ladies are never in promos or pictures together. I always think of shows like The Mindy Project and New Girl, the cast was always together taking selfies and commenting on each other's instas. I really hope Manny and Christina are pals in real life. Am I crazy?

Ah, so, I’ve gotten quite a few of these sorts of asks again lately, so I figured I’d just answer them all here. Hope that’s okay.

As a rule, I don’t like to speculate on the relationships between the actors or anything behind the scenes between them that isn’t related to speculating about the show because at the end of the day we have no idea, and these are real people, with real lives, and I really don’t like the thought of fan speculation affecting them in the way I’ve seen it affect actors, writers and crew in other fandoms. (I’d love the fourth wall to never have come down really, but here we are, haha). 

All that aside, these rumours seem to be predominantly founded on the fact that Manny and his wife seemed to have mixed emotions about the finale and liked some negative things on twitter, and that not all the actors follow or engage with each other on social media.

Which, okay, for starters - this is not a cast who’s particularly active on social media at all anyway. Hell, Christina only even got Instagram a few months ago and has always been a fairly private person. Manny barely uses it at all and has deleted his Twitter, Mae and Matthew both mostly use it to promote work or their friends’ work, Reno mostly instagrams about his kids’ sports games or the gym. The most active is Retta, but even she is really selective about what she posts. I mean, there’s a reason most of the BTS stuff we’re getting is from the child actor accounts or guest stars. It’s also a cast who’s frankly a bit older than, say, the cast of New Girl was in it’s heyday.

As for the promos and pictures - we just don’t get a lot period. We seem limited to one poster every season which always just features the girls, and then just the episode stills. There’s barely ever any interviews, and in terms of events - off the top of my head, the only events I can think of that they’ve done together (or with more than just the girls) is the Gracie Awards, the panel they did after the finale, and that NBC event the other night, and at each they seemed happy to me? Maybe it just feels like we never see Manny with the girls because we don’t see a lot of the cast together generally at all.

And look, tension or not, the cast always speaks really highly of each other in interviews, and multiple actors have talked about what a wonderful, happy set it is to be on - from Allison Tolman to some of the really small guest stars, so I don’t know. If I’m perfectly honest, I feel like it’s just generally a pretty low key set with a cast who is relatively lowkey and private, and some of them probably get along better than others, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to tension, nor does it stop people from being friendly and professional. 

But, of course, at the end of the day, I have no idea, because I don’t know them and I don’t know the set. Hell, I’m literally halfway around the world from it, haha.