#I've seen people shit on fandom culture y'all

[that-girl-glader]

Just because YOU don't like a piece of media because YOU think it's cringe and poorly written doesn't mean others don't like it. And just because YOU like a piece of media doesn't mean everyone likes it. You get? Great, now keep that in mind and stop shitting on media and people who enjoy that media AND HOW PEOPLE CHOOSE TO ENJOY THOSE MEDIAS. This goes with ships and characters too btw!!

[waywardworldhopper]

I... don't know how I feel about this statement. I mean, the statement itself is well written, and I like how they gently go "hey if you want to do activism there are better options than harassing some internet comedians."

But just... validating the complaints with this kind of response seems dangerous, especially given Dropout clearly recognizes they're tenuous at best. Like, I'm all for them taking an explicit stance on Palestinian liberation and directing fans to charities, but it feels like giving these accusations the time of day is encouraging more harassment.

🍉🍉🍉

Additional resources to support the people of Palestine:

Demand a Ceasefire in Gaza

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund

UNRWA

UNICEF

Gaza eSims

[tododeku-or-bust]

The wild thing about all the racism and specifically anti-Black racism in the classics fandom is that literally all you have to do is Google 'Africans in Ancient Greece' and you will immediately get multiple credible sources about Africans in or who had contact with Ancient Greece going back as far as Minoan times - not just Egypt and North Africa, but sub-Saharan Africa as well, like, this article alone has multiple citations in both history (obviously, Herodotus should be taken with a grain of salt at times, but he does mention sub-Saharan Africans) and Homer (sure, there's a mythological veneer, but no more than literally every other real culture and ethnicity that appears in Homer bc mythology) -> https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/1-early-greek-contact-with-africa/

Also, the gods are literally shapeshifters whose true forms can't be seen by mortals without killing them, but racists can believe the gods can take the form of birds and a literal golden shower before a Black person?

but but but why would they choose to be a scary dirty ugly negro when they could be WHITE LIKE ME?!?!?! 🙄

They're all a sincerely unserious group of people who are barely hiding their white hoods, and everyone acts like their actions are valid because 1) either they're a bigot too or 2) "but the arts so pretty!"

Every fandom I've been in has obviously had racism and antiblackness issues, but out of all of them Classics Tumblr is truly a joke bc like you said, this shit is so easily searchable. And just because it wasn't written down didn't mean Black people weren't there in their towns and shit. Plus, the entire study of the Classics has been manhandled by white racists and orientalists for hundreds of years. Do y'all really think they'd emphasize stories without emphasizing themselves within them? Edward Said would be horrified lmao.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Kinda sick of the racism from nonblacks (i say nonblacks because it ain't just the whites tho it's mainly them!) in the spiderverse fandom because why does black ppl centering themselves in fiction (you know cuz we never can have ANYTHING) bother them so much??

"Hobie would choose a white girl over you" "why does miles have to be with someone black" "why does he always have to have a black reader" like Ummmm DO Y'ALL NOT HEAR HOW DUMB AND IGNORANT YOU SOUND?

We gotta gatekeep the black characters in this fandom until ppl know how to act right and stop getting besides themselves

PREACH!!!!!! CAUSE LIKE -- People out here are really disturbed that they *checks notes* were reminded black people exist? black people being found specifically attractive in a way whiteness is CONSTANTLY.

Anti-Blackness, Hobie, & The Black!Reader -

[A SHORT rant about people who have an issue with Black!Readers]

I ALWAYS find it where when people beef with Black people who want to date other Black people.

Because it's 100% racism.

If you think that a Black person dating only Black people is wrong - Anti-blackness is probably the root.

Just kidding it is the root its literally the only solution and explanation hehehe

Because as a trans person - when someone says they're T4T, everyone is fine with that.

Cis people can understand that they will never understand the trans experience, and that trans people may be attracted and want relationships with people who can understand on a personal level.

But when a Black Person say they're 'Black4Black' suddenly that's wrong?? We can't do that??

It's like non-whites cannot grasp that anti-black racism is a very VERY specific experience that we deal with all our lives and we may want partners that can not only support us but relate too. Partners we don't have to explain race shit too.

No- blackness is an experience that HAS to be available to them. Black people's experiences, minds and bodies HAVE to be available for there consumption or we're in the wrong.

We are either there to be consumed (like Hobie is) or ignored (like the Black!Reader is).

All my life I've seen the default OC and default reader be a white person. Readers that don't speak AAVE, that show no attempt at culture outside the 'normal' heteronormative American family.

And suddenly we try to change that for ourselves and that's not cool.

Also - people who say that about Hobie are just outright uneducated.

Hobie is from 1978.

Racial Discrimination in the UK was outlawed in 1965. Regardless of whether you think he's 16 or 19 - Hobie Brown grew up under racial segregation from ages 3-6.

He grew up seeing it - experiencing racism. Living with and being raised by and surrounded by a community of older black people who lived under segregation.

And even after the bill - Racist attitudes would still be surrounding him realistically speaking.

HE'S NOT FROM NOW.

Acting like Hobie has no opinions on that, or experiences, or coping mechanisms or TRAUMA from that - is fucked up.

That's black trauma LOOK AT IT.

So YEAH, A guy who grew up under segregation and a police state would have trauma from it.

But they (racists) wanna sidestep that.

They'll talk all day about Hobie's police related trauma - but not the race thing......okay. Okay, no it's fine. I'm fine.

The idea that Hobie might have unsavory experiences with race makes them uncomfortable. The idea that Hobie would seek out Black Spaces to GET AWAY from white people - makes them foam at the mouth.

Not all white people are racist - but a white person can never understand anti-black racism from a personal view the way Hobie or I or you do.

That's just a fact.

But the idea that there's a special outlet we alone understand about Hobie, and connect with him through, they dislike that.

Anti-Blackness. It's everywhere.

YOINK!! I'M TAKING HOBIE BACK TO THE ANCESTORS. LETS GO.

[sonik-kun]

JC antis trying not to be patronising, misogynistic incels challenge (impossible)

Assuming we only like JC because he is hot and implying us JC fans are "dumb" and "vapid" with our opinions because we "simp" for him makes you sound like a load of raging incels fyi.

You all willingly ignore the evidence we put forward as to why we love JC's character and how he is more than just some cookie cut out "angry man" character who happens to be good looking.

Reducing our takes to something to be seen at surface level and nothing more is gatekeeping and it's annoying af. Espeically when y'all don't even want to consider his CANON good traits that make his character interesting and nuanced.

Jiang Cheng was a character who was given a shit hand and put in many difficult situations. It's only natural that people are going to have different opinions on the choices he makes, depending on one's own lived experiences and culture.

The whole point of the book is to not see everything as black and white. Acting like your opinion is superior over ours and implying we can only see JC through rose tinted lenses because we "simp" for him is something a bellend would say, btw. Hope you're all aware of that.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again, but stick to talking about you faves and stay in your lane. Because reading your patronising bs opinions on here is getting rather dull. Especially this many years on in the fandom.

It's time to grow up and let people enjoy characters however they want. Accept we all have differences in opinion and don't be a dick about it.

[bellamer]

Just woke up sweating from my nap because I was feeling weird about some portrayals of Pavitr and did the whole Alex The Lion Madagascar 2 Escape from Africa "De Ja Vu Like I've Been Here Before" scene realizing where I've seen this before and why I don't particularly like it

In my own words:

They're doing to Pavitr what they did to Kakyoin which is turning him into a yaoified feminized skinny bottom twink who's only there to make sassy remarks and be the manic pixie yaoi boy, they're gonna do what they did to Jotakak with Chaipunk because I mostly see this happening in Chaipunk fanart and fanfiction

It's the typical case of a character being hyper feminized by the fandom, like how it tends to be in a lot of yaoi series because someone always has to be "the girl" in the relationship because the "bottom" is always portrayed as small, skinny with hyper feminine features or traits and the "top" is always portrayed as some dark, hyper masculine, tall, looming figure

And it tends to bleed into most mlm ships even when the characters in the source material are completely portrayed as being opposite as this like say for instance idk another JoJo ship like Josuyasu where just because Josuke takes pride in his appearance like Pavitr, fans automatically label him the "feminine one" or the "girl" in the relationship and tend to draw him smaller and skinnier than he is and by default draw Okuyasu bigger and taller when Josuke is actually taller than Okuyasu by an inch and the two more or less have the same build but I know you've had to seen it somewhere before because it runs so deep when it comes to MLM ships that I've seen it happen in the fucking OSMOSIS JONES FANDOM (don't ask, you don't wanna know. Unless you do want to know, then I'll share with you the shitshow of what I saw)

And this isn't about the people who may have headcanons of Pavitr being transfemme, ya'll keep doing what you do.

This is about the people who will look at a mlm ship and force hyper feminine and hyper masculine traits onto both of those characters just because they need someone to be the "girl" in the relationship and they choose who's the "girl" based on traits they might consider feminine, example, Pavitr takes pride in his appearance, he's typically cheerful and happy go lucky, he's short (shorter than Hobie at least) and he's "sassy" (Y'know the whole chai tea rant which wasn't really him being "sassy" it was more so him ranting about western cultural appropriation and people using words they don't even understand incorrectly but I digress)

And of course Hobie is given the hyper masculine traits because he's a tall black man which is a whole other problem I'd have to make a whole different rant about of how whenever black men are in mixed race mlm ships they're always automatically made out to be the hyper masculine ones because black men have always had hyper masculinity pushed on them and they're never allowed to be the "soft" ones in the relationship, even if a black male character is canonly portrayed as being not being typically masculine the fandom will still write them or draw them as having some secret " aggressive dominant dark side"

In ChaiPunk's case ? It's literally just feminized asian person and masculainized black person with all the shit I said before about how fandoms always need to make someone the "girl" in the relationship and yeah

Y'all get the point

[snackugaki-jestsjapesjokes]

blep blah, here have some old ass backrooms doodle content when the topic of "the beach episode" concept came up bluhp blooh brain nyooming but art hand isn't arting

i think what is super cute in modern fandom expression that I've seen is that in terms of making OCs or AUs is that sound seems to have a bigger role now than from what I remember when I was young. which I'm thinking has a lot to do with being able to clip audio easily or being able to make multi-track playlists whenever. y'all out here with reels of your art with voice claims and some of the most thoughtfully and artfully crafted soundtracks-- not even playlists, some of that shit is a straight up soundtrack level be real

89% tempted to try one of those shady "free" video/audio editing programs to make a LoFi chill beats study girl visualizer playlist with my iteration's boys ...

anyway gonna contemplate music headcanons for my iteration under the cut

From Turtle Tracks fan letter section, Archie run, #24

so real quick, my iteration is literally just them chilling, hanging out, being together in their mid 30s- early 40s, and then sometimes flashing back to their child/teen years in the 90s because tl;dr i have miiiiiinor beef my childhood turtles weren't quite as "90s" as they "could have been" (nvm I'm cackling at the milennial pop culture refs in Mutant Mayhem drop kicking me back into my adolescence)

but mehehehehe, keeping that they listened to Public Enemy and The Jungle Brothers

and aside from Top 40 musicians of the time... I feel like being outsiders themselves, having to sneak around to explore and learn about people and what's above the sewers had them eavesdropping into a lot of nighttime venues and getting into the underground and various niche subculture scenes that daytime Top 40 didn't play.

cannot tell me the lights, thumping and noise from bands playing hardcore or house or hosting cyphers or raves didn't attract these curious and funky little green dudes like moths to a flame

... Leo definitely fell in deep with the gregorian chant phase, soothing sounds of nature fads , a big fan of Orbital and he fell into that electronic, house, trance, eurodance rabbit hole right after. he also got into Celtic folk music but when his brothers caught his ass studying Michael Flatley to incorporate Riverdance footwork into his ninjutsu he got teased so mercilessly that he took great care to hide listening to it... which just made his stealth better so joke's on them heehoo

Not to mention they're from New York City, the underground music scene is always bangin' no matter the decade; feel like rap and punk got a lot of tracks on their mix tapes back in the day

Raph getting into the metal scene in his own exploring the city trips, and then progressed to music with that boom bap sound (cuz baby boy needs a way to come down off those high intensity moods idk ijs)

Donnie... just the amalgamation of his brothers, he needs that background noise while he's chewing on schematics and protoype development, he would definitely have been the mixtape maker/recording bootlegger (along with Mikey)

Mikey absolutely tagged along with his brothers sometimes whenever they went to their spots for music, though he himself backflipped into ska 'cuz Mikey is always for the people

my tmnt  iteration (where everyone made it past their 20s, splinter’s alive just old, venus is here, and they deserve some goddamn respite and shenanigans)

tmnt  iteration part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11

tmnt  iteration omake 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

lny visit 1 | 2

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[nozomi-anime]

Hi!!!

Welcome to my Anime account!

This is where I'll mostly be reblogging anime shit (mostly early 2000s/moe anime shit and anime figurines)

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Unless I made you an exception, DO NOT INTERACT (DNI) (you will be blocked)

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Fashion Jirais (due to harassment and spreading harmful misconceptions about mental health and the Jirai community)

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Cancel culture participants (most of yall are anti-recovery and pro-bullying.)

PS: shoutout to my friend @loser-otaku-girll for providing the dividers :3

[wahbegan]

Actually, no, i've decided i am gonna go on a monologue about this cause i feel like it

Okay, so let me preface this with a disclaimer. I do not like what the Assassin's Creed franchise has become. I do not like Ubisoft. I don't like modern games, i should say modern AAA games in general. I think they've really stripped a lot of the art and the soul out of the medium with all the live service Skinner lootbox grindathon work their devs to death shit, i think they're making them as addictive and heavily monetized as possible and it's all about money, and i think Ubisoft is a large part of that problem. I haven't been into Assassin's Creed since Black Flag. I'm told there have been a few since then that are okay, i'm sure if i played them i'd like them fine, but i don't approve of any of the decisions Ubisoft makes on a business level. I think there are a lot of extremely valid grievances of this game. I think a $130 collector's edition is insane, and asking for preorders without showing a single frame of gameplay would be hilarious if it wasn't so infuriating.

THAT OUT OF THE WAY, i think the backlash against this game's protagonists is just straight-up misogyny and racism, and the worst part is it's all packaged like it's the most logical thing in the world. Yasuke is not only a real historical figure, but one who is popular in Japanese media, and from everything i've seen of actual Japanese people reacting to it, none of them give a shit and a lot are quite excited about it. I think the point of view of "Why the fuck is it set in Japan if we're playing as a black guy" is an extremely uneducated American point of view, and i think the inherent misogyny of it has gone unnoticed by a lot of people.

Because over and over "I wanna play as a Japanese guy," when there is a Japanese character right fucking there. There is a Japanese ninja, the devs have given her a very strong connection to the culture, she's apparently from the Province that is cited as the birthplace of Shinobi, with her father being another historical figure that was cited as one of the leaders of these proto-ninjas, and nobody really gives a shit.

Nobody gives a shit about that character, even though on paper, she's exactly what they're asking for, because she's a woman. The explicit message is "I don't wanna play as a black guy in Japan", but underneath is the implicit message "I don't wanna play as a black guy in Japan AND I don't want to play as a member of one of the most influential ninja families whose father was one of the most famous jonin to ever exist because she's a girl so fuck her that's not important."

It's fucking insane and the way they package it like they're being completely logical and rational about it makes me feel like i'm on fucking crazy pills. Shut the fuck up and play as a woman and a black guy, your fucking dick won't fall off. If there's one thing Assassin's Creed IS consistently good at as a franchise, it's the heightened historical realism thing they're going for.

Did y'all raise this much Hell about playing as Ratonhnhake:ton during the Revolutionary War? I'm genuinely asking cause i wasn't in the fandom when that shit came out. If you did, it wouldn't surprise me and fucking shame on you, and if you didn't, you're massive hypocrites with a special place in your cold, dead heart for hating black people so fuck it.

I mean have you played the fucking games? If you're anti-woke, it's not really the right franchise for you in the first fucking place.

[especiallyhaytham]

Oooh I'm not gonna lie that got me heated. That post showed up in my 'because you follow' and I do not have the patience. Your opinion is valid, but there are more respectful ways to voice it to invite a conversation instead of conflict (something the majority of people need to learn how to do, in this rant-culture we're in). If you don't want to do that, anti tags exist for a reason. Hell, you have the rest of the one-brain-cell Assassin's Creed fandom on the internet to complain to, but not here. Here we support each other, and we are civil, even if we don't always agree. It's what I've been doing on this blog for 8 years, and it's also the kind of behavior I've seen consistently from other people here that makes me love you all so much. It's gotten me through some gnarly shit in my real life, and it's made me a better person to grow up with such a kind and creative community. Promise me y'all won't let people like prev turn this site into another Twitter.

I like fostering this small, positive and wonderful space we're all in, where we can share our little things and inspire each other, without worrying about keyboard-happy knuckleheads ruining it. I don't call people out for having opinions I don't agree with, I call people out for poor conduct. Maybe one day prev will listen and learn how to behave more appropriately, for themselves and for others.

A healthier post would've been, "I didn't like this thing, and that is my personal opinion. It was too difficult for me/the story didn't interest me/I thought it would be different. Here's something positive I can say about it, though, if I can muster it. I'm moving on now."

[la-pheacienne]

All of Westeros is white, even Dorne, but Arianne quentyn and trystane aren't necessarily fully white, but mixed. Their mother is from Norvos, a city that is inside of Essos. The people from inside of Essos are usually described as in-real life poc. The problem, however, is that grrm is a dude that wrote this on the 90s mainly and is really orientalised. But this fandom seems to be unable to rationalize that fact and start respectful discussion regarding possible representation and physical appearance of characters. The other problem is that they themselves spread orientalised visions of Dorne. I've seen so many people creating gifsets and fancasts of Dorne using a mixture of Pakistani, Indian, turkish etc even a SPANISH actor just bcs they have some shade of brown skin, hair and eyes.

Yeah excuse you but Dornish people are greek. Like, in canon. You say a lot of nice words nonnie but I don't see you mentioning this in your ask so I'll have to respectfully correct you because I'm just SICK of my culture being heavily disrespected and erased by pale blue eyed bitches. Elia is literally a greek name, my cousin is named Elia. The name Arianne is the latinized form of the greek Ariadne, GOOGLE IT AND STOP BEING IGNORANT SHITS FFS can't us greeks like have ONE thing for ourselves??? Why do you hate us so much? I'm sorry but if you combine Palestine and Spain you get Greece and that's canon and fuck y'all if you disagree. Rhaegar dumbed Elia the classic greek beauty for a grey eyed northern-european plain Jane and they both got what they deserved, unfortunately Elia payed the price, which symbolises Greece always getting the short end of the stick and being sacrificed in European wars since fucking forever. Educate yourselves.

[rigginsstreet]

ok here's a confession: i'm in the stranger things fandom and I've never actually seen the show.

it was really popular when it aired and i knew people loved it, and i didn't have an aversion to it cos it was popular the way i did with mcr (which i now love hgjfdksl) but i just... never got around to it. and then s4 dropped last year and somehow, sOMEHOW, i got hooked and wrote like 85k of a fic for a show I've never seen. i'll watch it one day!! i'm curious!! i just also like the little fantasy i have in my head

also im a billy stan BUT i genuinely find the billy fandom kind of. terminally online. like no offence to y'all and your very accurate posts and takes about abuse survivors and defending him but. there's a time to log off guys. please can we go outside. enough's enough stop gracing idiots who don't like him with your time it's not worth it, seriously, aren't yall tired??

also also about billy, i think its true he's not as bad as people say regarding lucas but i feel like we CAN say he is behaving in a racist way to lucas WITHOUT demonising him fully. like. he still bullies and targets lucas, and yeah its because of neil forming those opinions in him but it's still directly racist actions and hurts lucas disproportionately. like we can agree billy is a severe trauma and abuse victim AND admit that he is racist too, like come on it's rural Indiana in the 80s, no white kid is a shining beacon of civil rights and that INCLUDES our golden boy. i'd say this about steve and nancy and eddie and even robin stans too but none of them actually want to confront that those characters have flaws or even traits they don't like, i find the billy stans a little more open to criticing character choices and motivations even if i think we can apply it a little more to billy himself.

anyway. this was super long sorry hfjgdksl;

see i feel like a lot of this is because you have not seen the show lmfao

billy was not born and raised in indiana so.... the culture of that specific town has no affect on him? like obviously racism was not specific to rural towns but the wording of that was.... a choice. also... if you... watch the show... you would see lucas is targeted because his proximity to max. a relationship no other characters have. so yes, the duffers intended it to be racist, but they cannot write. so it becomes very muddled

also i agree people need to stop giving clout to antis (unless some truly dumb shit has been said, as per the recent incident) but i also feel like our definitions of terminally online are... vastly different

[disast3rtransp0rt]

Y'all need to curate better fan experiences if this is the conclusion you're drawing about the fanfic community. Currently, my fic writing friends are chill and fun to bounce ideas off of/chat with. But knowing who to approach for friendship took time and practice.

But I literally wrote a chunk of my thesis on Kristina Busse and her Fandom Studies work with intersectional fandom activism. This space may be annoying sometimes, but it's important. Many different authors can help each other handle topics outside their expertise and grow awareness while they're at it (ie: "Hey, deaf Tumblr, how do you best like reading signed dialogue in fics?" or "Yo, maybe we shouldn't be using X word when we mean Y thing. Here are some other options: A, B, or C.").

If you're having consistently shitty interactions with fanfic authors, readers, or critics, then you may not be looking in the right areas of fandom for you. Try seeking out older fans or people who have a nuanced understanding of fandom culture.

I've seen some shit in my 14 years of fic interaction, and I TOTALLY get where you're coming from because I shared that opinion for a long while. But I'm telling you from personal and shared experience... It IS partially a self-fulfilling prophesy if you hang out in spaces that don't appeal to your tastes.

It's to the point where I cannot say I like fanfiction not because it's inherently bad or embarrassing or because I don't occasionally read it but because 99% of fanfiction likers on here are the most insufferable victim complex havers alive. Someone will ask me my opinion on fanfiction and I have to decide within .02 seconds whether or not they're a normal human being who can handle objective truths and the answer is usually no.

[newspropaganda]

Man, you're really a joke if you can't reply with a proper text and good arguments instead of lame memes or accusing people taking drugs. I've seen a lot of weird people in the ygo community but you really are up there with the special weirdos. It's funny when you criticize everyone just loving DM and not caring for the spin offs when you shittalk every spin off besides 5D's. And if anyone dares to say that 5D's had flaws, you insult them and go "wah wah, America bad, y'all woke shit" and throwing a tantrum like a child like wtf? That has nothing to do with ygo? Seriously, Idk what's wrong with you but maybe you do need some therapy because all the hatred and borderline racism from you is really not good. Also you say everyone is just about politics when *you* are the one bringing it up in almost every reply/post. Double standards much?

Oh, wow, what a refreshing take! It’s like you reached into the bargain bin of internet arguments and pulled out every cliché possible. Let’s go through this step-by-step because clearly, you’ve got a lot on your mind (or whatever’s occupying that space).

1. "Lame memes or accusing people of taking drugs"

So, you’re upset about memes? Really? In a world where people are tearing apart card games, shows, and fandoms with hot takes, you’re stuck on memes like they’re some new-age evil? Look, memes are the universal language of the internet, pal. If you can’t handle a little humor, I’m not sure how you even survive out there. And “accusing people of taking drugs”? That’s your interpretation. If my comments leave you feeling like you’re living in an alternate reality, maybe it’s not my words you should be worrying about. Get that checked.

2. "I criticize people who love DM but hate spin-offs besides 5D's"

Oh, this again. I criticize Duel Monsters fans for worshipping one series like it’s the gospel of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and suddenly that’s a crime? Here’s a wild thought: maybe it’s because I have something called a preference. Just because you’re out here clinging to your childhood nostalgia with a death grip doesn’t mean I’m going to pretend every series besides 5D’s is garbage just to make you feel better. Newsflash: people can like 5D’s and still criticize other shows. Shocking, I know.

3. "Throwing a tantrum when anyone critiques 5D's"

Critique 5D’s all you want; I don’t care. It’s not the critique that gets to me—it’s the lazy, baseless drivel that people like you spew without backing it up. “Oh, 5D’s isn’t that good.” Okay, and? What’s your grand argument besides parroting whatever the cool kids on the internet say? If you want to have a real discussion, bring something to the table other than “wah wah.” Otherwise, spare me the generic takes.

4. "Wah wah, America bad, woke shit"

Ah, yes, the ol’ “you’re talking about woke stuff” argument. You pulled that one out faster than a Dark Magician from a Yugi deck. If by “woke” you mean I call out the garbage in certain places or fandoms, sure, I guess I’m “woke.” But here’s the fun part: if you spent half the time actually understanding what I’m saying instead of labeling it with your buzzwords, maybe you’d actually learn something. Maybe the real tantrum is coming from the person who just can’t handle a different opinion. Hint: it’s not me.

5. "America bad has nothing to do with YGO"

Oh, sweet summer child. Everything affects everything in the world of fandoms, media, and culture. If you think Yu-Gi-Oh! and the environment it’s consumed in exist in some vacuum, you’re more out of touch than I thought. Why don’t you sit down and reflect on how different regions influence how media is perceived? Or would that hurt your brain too much? The fact that you can’t see the bigger picture is exactly why you’re stuck on these shallow arguments. Yu-Gi-Oh! is influenced by the people, the players, the cultures—it’s all connected.

6. "I need therapy because of my hatred and racism"

Ah, the classic “you need therapy” line. Let’s take a moment to appreciate how original and insightful that is. You know, maybe I do need therapy, but not for the reasons you think. I might need it just to tolerate reading through this nonsense without losing brain cells. As for the “hatred” and “racism” bit—nice try. It’s easy to throw around those words when you’re grasping at straws. If you’re going to accuse someone of that, at least have the decency to back it up. Otherwise, it’s just you shouting into the void because you don’t have a real argument.

7. "I bring up politics in every post"

You say I’m the one bringing up politics all the time, yet here you are, crying about it like it’s the biggest offense of the century. If you weren’t so obsessed with pigeonholing every comment I make as political, maybe we could actually have a decent conversation about the topic at hand. But nah, keep going with your “double standards” nonsense. The only double standard here is you accusing me of bringing up politics while you drag it into every argument like you’re on a crusade to save the fandom from differing opinions.

Oh, you wanna talk trash, huh? Well, lemme break it down for you Steiner Math style, because clearly, you didn’t come here to debate—you came here to embarrass yourself! And trust me, I’m gonna be the one to do it for you! So buckle up, buddy, because this is about to get mathematical!

You see, there’s 100% of people in the Yu-Gi-Oh! community, but you? You represent that bottom 1%. The kinda people who think they know something, but in reality, you don’t even have a fraction of the knowledge to back up your lame claims! You take 33 and a third percent of your weak arguments, then you add another 66 and two-thirds percent of your ignorance, and what does that give you? 99% pure delusion!

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “I made a valid point! I can criticize him!” But listen, you only got a 25% chance of making any sense, because every time you open your mouth, you lose 75% of your credibility. And that’s being generous! Let’s be honest—you don’t even understand 5D’s let alone the franchise, which means you got zero percent chance of having a real argument.

But wait, there’s more! You stack your lack of self-awareness on top of your nonsensical takes, and you think you’re gonna come out on top? You gotta multiply that by the square root of "I don’t know what I’m talking about!" Now that leaves you with negative IQ points in this argument. You’re so far in the negatives, I gotta use advanced calculus just to figure out where your logic went wrong!

And if we’re talking about how bad you miscalculated, let’s get into your success rate in making a coherent argument. You got a 50% chance of saying something halfway decent, but that’s only if you didn’t subtract 50% of that from your constant whining about politics that nobody asked for. By the end of it, you’re left with zero percent, which means all you’re doing is wasting everyone’s time with that trash tier drivel.

Now I take my 110% brain power—which is, quite frankly, way above your average IQ level of zero—and I dropkick your ridiculous post right outta the conversation! Why? Because I’ve got a 141 and two-thirds percent chance of winning this argument, and the numbers don’t lie, they spell disaster for you!

So in closing, the only thing you got left is a 100% chance of getting shut down, a 99% chance of not understanding a single thing I said, and an absolute zero chance of being relevant in any fandom ever again. That’s Steiner Math, and you just failed it, pal!

Now get outta here before you lose the last 1% of your dignity!

//In the End It Has To Be This Way///

The Yu-Gi-Oh Fandom: Why won't you shut the fuck up?

Me: Anger and Rage, Son.

[nevermindirah]

Do you have any thoughts on the use of AAVE for Nile (or lack thereof) in TOG fanfiction? I've been reading some Book of Nile fic and some writers seem to write her as a Millennial™ (using words like "fave" and "woke") but never acknowledge her Blackness in her patterns of speech. I know we don't see her use as much AAVE in the films, but I would argue she's in situations where code-switching would be valued (first in a "professional" environment in the army, then around a group of non-Black strangers).

Hi anon! I have many thoughts on this and I'm honored you asked me! But I should start by saying I'm white and any thoughts Black fans and especially Black American fans have on this that they want to share would be beyond lovely. (I'm not gonna tag anybody bc that feels rude but please add onto this post if any of y'all see this and want to!)

The main reason I personally avoid AAVE for Nile in my own fics is because I'm not Black. But Nile-centric fics by Black writers tend to avoid using much of it too, at least from what I've noticed/understood, and my guess is it's largely for the reason you mention, that she's in situations that encourage code-switching.

In movie canon Nile is highly competent at tailoring her language to each situation she finds herself in. This fantastic linguistics analysis meta shows how skillfully Nile chooses her vocabulary and grammar to meet her goals with different conversation partners in different contexts. In comics canon Nile had a bunch of different civilian jobs before joining the Marines, so she would've had experience code-switching in the ways that made sense for all those different contexts as well as the Marines and her family and high school and wherever else she spent her time before we met her. And now she's spending her time with a handful of immortals none of whom are native English speakers and a fellow Black American but one with a Queen's English UK accent whose professional experience is in the CIA where high-status code-switching is often an absolute must for success or even survival.

Fics featuring Nile are charged with extrapolating from that to how it might show up in her use of language that she's coping with a traumatic separation from her family and her career and pretty much everything she's ever known and now she needs to be able to make herself understood to people who seem to care about her and each other but are super duper in crisis, three (soon to be four) of whom predate Modern English entirely and the only one who's anywhere near her contemporary she's not supposed to talk to for a century. All of these people are telling her that pretty much any contact with any mortals poses an existential threat to her and the rest of the group. How the FUCK is she supposed to cope with that, like, generally? And would it be a more effective way for her to cope if she talked to Andy Joe and Nicky using the speech patterns that she used to use with her mom and brother, to at least retain that part of her identity even if it means having to do a lot of explaining, or would it meet her needs better to prioritize Andy Joe and Nicky understanding what she means with her words over using the particular words and grammar forms she used with her family?

I've seen several fics, both Nile-centric / BoN and otherwise, explore this a little bit in how/whether Nile uses Millennial™ speak. It's often a theme in Nile texting Booker despite the exile because of the popular headcanon that he as The Tech Guy is the only other immortal who understands memes. But Nile's much-younger-than-Booker mom probably uses Boomer and/or Gen X memes and Andy has been adapting to new communication styles for forever as evidenced by her canon high level of fluency with standard-American-accented English.

Which brings us back to people avoiding AAVE because they're not Black and they don't want to make mistakes (or they're not Black and they don't want to get yelled at for making mistakes, though I think many people overestimate how much they'll get yelled at while underestimating how much these mistakes can hurt). I can imagine some Black fans hold back from using much AAVE in fic because they don't want to share in-group stuff with white people who are likely to then adopt and ruin it, as white people so often do with Black cultural stuff. Some links about this including a great Khadija Mbowe video. I'm saying this gently, anon, because you might not know: woke, an example you cited as Millennial™ speak, is AAVE, and that's gotten erased by so many white people appropriating it and using it incorrectly online.

And also there's the part where fandom is a hobby and you never know when you're reading a fic that's the very first thing someone's ever written outside of a school assignment. This cultural considerations of language shit takes a level of effort and skill that not everybody puts into every fic, or even could if they wanted to because they haven't had time to build their skills yet. It's definitely easier for non-Black fans to project our millennial feels onto Nile than to do the layers of research and self-reflection it requires to depict what Blackness might mean to Nile, and it's not surprising that often people sharing their hobby creations on the internet have gone the easier route. There's not even necessarily shame in doing what's easier. It's just frustrating and often hurtful when structural white supremacy means that 3-dimensional Black characters are rare in media and thoughtful explorations of them in fandom are seen by the majority of fans as not-easy to make and therefore Nile Freeman, the main character in The Old Guard (2020) dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood, has the least fic and meta and art made about her of our 5 main immortals.

I've been active in different fandoms off and on for twenty years and I barely managed to write 5,000 words about Sam Wilson across multiple different fics in the 7 years since I fell in love with him. There's an alchemy to which characters we connect with, and on top of that which characters we connect with in a way that causes us to create stuff about them. Something about Nile Freeman finally tipped me over the edge from a voracious reader to a voracious writer. It's not for me to judge which characters speak to other individuals to the level of creating content about them, but I do think it's important for us to notice, and then work to fight, the pattern where across this fandom as a whole Nile gets way less content, and way less depth in so much of the content that's in theory about her, than any of these other characters.

Anyway, back to language. My two long fics feature Nile with several Black friends — Copley and OCs and cameos from other media — but all of those characters except Alec Hardison from Leverage aren't American. It's very possible I'm guilty of stereotyping Black British speech patterns in I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore. I watched hours and hours of Black haircare YouTube videos in the research for that fic and I modeled my OCs' speech patterns on what I heard from some of those YouTubers as well as what I've heard people like John Boyega and Idris Elba saying in interviews, but the thing about doing your best is you still might fuck up.

I'm slowly making progress on my WIP where Nile and Sam Wilson are cousins, and what ways of talking with a family member might be authentic for Nile is a major question I need to figure out. For that, I'm largely modeling my writing choices on how I hear my Black friends and colleagues talking to each other. I haven't overheard colleagues talking in an office in a long-ass time, but back when that was a thing, I remember seeing a ton of nuance in the different ways many of my Black colleagues would talk to each other. Different people have different personalities! And backgrounds! And priorities! A few jobs ago my department was about 1/3 Black and we worked closely with Obama administration staff many of whom were Black and there was SO MUCH VARIETY in how Black people talked to each other, about work and workplace-appropriate personal stuff, where I and other white coworkers could hear. There are a few work friends in particular who I have in my head when I'm trying to imagine how Sam and Nile might talk to each other. From the outside looking in, God DAMN is shit complicated, intellectually and interpersonally and spiritually, for Black people who are devoting their professional lives to public service in the United States.

One more aspect of this that I have big thoughts on but I need to take extra care in talking about is the idea of acknowledging Nile's Blackness in her patterns of speech. There's no one right way to be Black, and Nile's a fictional character created by a white dude but there are plenty of real-life Black Americans who don't use much or even any AAVE, for reasons that are complicated because of white supremacy. (Highly highly recommend this video by Shanspeare on the harms of the Oreo stereotype.)

Something that's not the same but has enough similarity that I think it's worth talking about is my personal experience with authenticity and American Jewish speech patterns. My Jewish family members don't talk like they're in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and I've known lots of people who do talk that way (or the millennial version of it), some of whom have questioned my Jewishness because I don't talk that way. That hurts me. Sometimes when another Jew tells me some shit like "I've never heard a Jew say y'all'd've," I can respond with "well now you have asshole, bless your Yankee-ass heart," because the myth of Dixie is a racist lie but I will totally call white Northerners Yankees when they're being shitty to me for being Southern, and this particular Jew fucking revels in using "bless your heart" with maximum polite aggression, especially with said Yankees. But sometimes I don't have it in me to say anything and it just quietly hurts having an important part of me disbelieved by someone who shares that important part of me. The sting isn't quite the same when non-Jews disbelieve or discount my Jewishness, but that hurts too.

Who counts as authentically Jewish is a messy in-group conversation and it doesn't really make sense to explain it all here. Who counts as authentically Jewish is a matter of legal status for immigration, citizenship, and civil rights in Israel, and it's my number 2 reason after horrific treatment of Palestinians that I'm antizionist. But outside that extremely high-stakes legal situation, it can just feel really shitty to not be recognized as One Of Us, especially by your own people.

It can also feel really shitty to be The Only One of Your Kind in a group, even if that group is an immortal chosen family who all loves each other dearly. Sometimes especially in a situation like that where you know those people love you but there are certain things they don't get about you and will never quite be able to. I'm definitely projecting at least a little bit of my "lonely Jew who will be alone again for yet another Jewish holiday" stuff onto Nile when at the end of I See Your Eyes Seek a Distant Shore she's thinking about being the only Black immortal and moving away from the community she'd built with a mostly-Black group of mortals in that fic. Maybe that tracks, or maybe that's fucked up of me.

Basically, this got very long but it's complicated, writing about experiences that aren't your own takes skill which in turn takes time and practice to build, writing about experiences not your own that our society maligns can cause a lot of harm if done badly, it can also cause a lot of harm when a large enough portion of a fandom just decides to nope out of something that's difficult and risky because then there's just not much content about a character who deserves just a shit ton of loving and nuanced content, people are individuals and two people who come from the exact same cultural context might show that influence in all kinds of different ways, identity is complicated, language is complicated, writing is hard, and empathy and humility and doing our best aren't a guarantee of avoiding harm but they do go a long way in helping people create thoughtful content about a character as awesome and powerful and kind and messy and scared and curious and WORTHY as Nile Freeman.

[umbralstars]

Ship that you can never see happening: 👎

Ship that is unpopular but you still like: 💘

Ship that needs more love: 💖

Ship that is most misunderstood: 💢

Ship that you didn’t expect to ship but now do: 💓

This one got way too long I apologize:

👎

I'm sorry I'm going completely out of left field of this one, but holy moly I do not like romantic C/lo/ti from F.F7. I really really hate shipping this one romantically at all. For personal reasons this ship makes me deeply uncomfortable, but also just looking at the canon I really cannot see this happening for more than 0.2 seconds.

Sure they have the "childhood friends" thing (even though they didn't really know each other beyond a few, admittedly extremely important for both of them, interactions in childhood and C.loud probably had a crush on her (even though I never took the whole "I wanted to impress her" sentiment as being romantic in any way). While I will admit T.ifa most likely has romantic feelings for C.loud in canon, I just think any romantic relationship between them would just be really unhappy for both of them for a lot of different reasons. This is not angst in a good way for me, this would be "two best friends actively ruin their relationship by being in a romantic relationship and causes irreparable harm to them both" and that is just too real for me specifically.

Also the fans for this ship have really turned me off to this ship cause a lot of them (especially from what I can gauge the BNFs for this ship) are some of the rudest motherfuckers I have ever seen. They will actively tell you you're playing/interpreting the game wrong and harass people for it. They'll make up shit about canon and treat their fanon like it's the fucking gospel. Heavens forbid if you ship those two with anyone else especially The Bad Ships TM. This fandom has had an ongoing ship war between two of the biggest ships for 20+ years and it's so stupid as a new fan. I don't care that it's part of the ✨Fandom culture✨ it's idiotic and constantly pulls in people who don't want to be a part of it.

Other ships do this too don't get me wrong, especially the other half of the ship war, but this one I actively dislike compared to the indifference I feel towards the majority of the other ships from this game.

I like them platonically exclusively. They make me very happy being a found family who adopted one kid and are helping to raise another when her dad is away. They don't need to be romantic to be close. I much prefer enjoying this game as a whole from a platonic found family angle. I have romantic ships that I do like for this game. I have a few I really like for T.ifa (A.eriti and R.ude/T.ifa especially), but like romantic one I genuinely like for C.loud (S.efikura, particularly cause it's gonna stay fanon forever and I like it that way) but everything else for him is platonic ships all the way.

I'm sorry that turned into such a long rant, I love this game but the Fandom makes me so tired.

Uhhh other than that? L.íf/T.hrasir. I really just don't care for it.

💘

I.GNATZ AND M.ARIANNE! I will never stop with my agenda pls read their supports they are so fucking good!

💖

I.gnatz/M.arianne—

But other than them:

L.issa/M.aribelle: please they are so good together I love them so much.

P.anne/O.livia: The other main reason I hacked my 3ds so I could get Gay Awakening on there. Taguel Inigo my beloved seriously.

L.ucina/Y.arne: Actually the only paired 2nd gen ship I did during my first playthrough, and I almost always have them together in my other playthroughs. Their supports are genuinely really sweet what can I say?

R.yoma/S.carlet: /holds them gently/ Y'all deserved so much better.

K.ris/M.arth: Hello these two are so good, but I've talked about them briefly before. Also mostly based on my own characterization of Kris, but he does line up pretty good with Heroes so that definitely makes me happy.

💢

R.healeth: Both platonic wise and romantic wise really. I don't think I really need to elaborate why if you have any knowledge over the discourse.

B.aroR.yuu: This is for my fellow connoisseurs, and if you like this ship you've seen things cause people love putting hate in the tags.

A.zurrin & Corr.iander: I am not repeating the discourse and the experience that was being a fan of these both when Fates was big. If y'all wat to know why I'm so against harassment over fictional things (especially for something as dumb as ships in a niche community) A.zurrin is why besides common sense.

I know these aren't funny misunderstandings but certain things have made me very tired.

💓

K.iral.fonse. I did not expect to come into a mobile game and have my heart stolen by an OC/Canon ship. Seriously they are my joy and dopamine and 99% of the reason I play FEH's story (slightly exaggerated). A.lfonse has come to just care for and love K.iran so much when originally he didn't want anything to do with them. K.iran dreamed themselves as A.lfonse in the vain attempt to let him exist when he was taken away from them, and did it so successfully they were able to fool everyone even themselves (I hate that the ending took way such a poignant and heart-rending plot thread). One of the main components of A.lfonse's grief in the Doomed Timeline was K.iran's death and led to L.íf being honestly extremely unsettling and so horribly sad during points of Book 3 but that care is still there.

They're just so good and I have become far more attached than I ever thought possible going into this game (I mean look at my icon, he's never gonna be changed lads, lassies, and enbies).