#LIKE THESE FANDOMS PROBABLY HAVE ZERO OVERLAP

[kairithemang0]

Riku from Kingdom Hearts would get along really well with Doug and Bud from Gutenberg the Musical

They all want to eat dreams!

[cuubism]

Found this old fic concept in my notes, I doubt I'll ever get around to writing it or that I could do it justice if I did, but it still makes me laugh so I wrote it up as a little blurb. Perhaps it will make you laugh too.

Mega Popstar Dream and Hob, his extremely non-famous celebrity crush

So in this universe Dream is an extremely famous musician. He's like Taylor Swift level of famous, if you walk up to any random person on the street they would know who he is. Meanwhile Hob is an actor but really not very well known, he was in a few small projects and is in the core cast of one TV show that's well-regarded but not super popular.

It's Dream's FAVORITE TV SHOW and Hob is his FAVORITE ACTOR that he's ferally OBSESSED WITH. Everyone knows about this too, Dream is really obvious about it. In interviews people will ask him what he likes and he's like "this is my favorite TV show" "have you seen Hob Gadling in that show isn't he incredible", They'll ask him if he has a celebrity crush (as a joke) and he's like "YES HOB GADLING 😍" like it's become a meme in Dream's fandom how much he has a crush on this random actor.

They've never met though, probably Dream was afraid to -- 'never meet your heroes' and all -- and never let his team book any overlapping events. So he's never seen Hob in person, only watched his favorite TV show 65 times in a row and memorized every inch of his face. Like a stalker.

So then a Buzzfeed-esque YouTube channel is running a special edition of their usual challenge show, "People Meet Their Celebrity Crush", except this time it's "CELEBRITIES Meet Their Celebrity Crush." Dream's entire team conspires against him to book him on this. Dream doesn't know what it is until the very moment since the whole point is to surprise people with their crush. Needless to say, Hob was REALLY dubious when the channel reached out like "do you want to come on as Dream's celebrity crush" but what's he gonna do say NO? say NO when Dream is so pretty and cute? So yeah he goes.

Anyway during the moment in the video when they revealed his celebrity crush to him -- aka Hob just looking like a totally normal and random guy -- Dream literally tripped over a chair and fell on the floor and then fainted. Instant meme and it became the thumbnail of the video. When Dream woke up to find Hob crouched by him all concerned asking if he was okay he nearly had a panic attack, he was never more flustered and nervous in his whole life not even performing for crowds of millions.

Hob fell in love instantly. He doesn't even know much about Dream, he hasn't even listened to Dream's music other than what's just playing ubiquitously on the radio all the time but all it took was watching Dream fall over a chair and then look up at him with his huge starry eyes and he was like 'This one's mine forever idc. I gotta protect this nerd he won't survive in the wild.'

Anyway they did start dating after that and Dream never leaves the honeymoon phase for the rest of his whole life, he truly thinks Hob is the most handsome man and best actor in the entire world and will tell anyone so at any opportunity, he goes around saying things like "see if you believe really hard you too can marry your celebrity crush 🥰" with zero irony, he might have skipped the Grammys to go to the premiere of season 3 of Hob's show (Hob didn't ask him to do that) (Dream won the Grammy but had more fun staring at Hob's face for 2 hours than he would have had at the awards show). Meanwhile Hob never talks about Dream in public because Dream already has negative 500% privacy in his life, he's extremely protective of him, and he allegedly punched one of the paparazzi in the face when they tried to take stealth shots at their wedding which was supposed to be a private affair. ALLEGEDLY. No charges were filed.

Dream did post one photo of the wedding on insta for his adoring fandom in which he described Hob as his knight in shining armor and then denied any knowledge of any 'alleged' events when asked about it in the future. Because Hob was so much more private about their relationship than Dream, for a while Dream's fandom had been like HOB DOESN'T DESERVE DREAM but after the (alleged) story about Hob punching someone in the face came out they were all obsessed with him. So that solved that problem.

(Despite Hob's efforts a paparazzi photo did come out of them the morning after the wedding, Hob sitting on the terrace drinking coffee, Dream sitting on his lap wearing Hob's shirt and looking thoroughly ravished. Dream might have framed it.)

Then they lived happily ever after. Dream put Hob in every one of his music videos regardless of whether it made sense for the story. Hob got one of Dream's songs put in his favorite TV show which made Dream's whole entire year. The end :)

[bomberqueen17]

wildly unexpected fandom overlap

so i admit i'm working on a fic maybe, because i let myself hyperfixate while i was sad/tired about things, as one does, and at one point i was like

aha this timeline aligns (sidebar to laugh hysterically at the aubreyad timeline. five books occur in the repeating year of 1813. one can do what one wants forever. but since i am bad at linear time and in fact that's where i'm mildly hung up in the witcher stuff, i do like to try to impose some rigor onto things, and while actual dates may not work, they're a good starting place)

ahem the timeline aligns such that a character who is not "on-screen" in the books happens to be out of the picture for the entire run-up to , and event itself, of the Battle of Trafalgar, and I thought, oh! I can put him there!!!

So I went through the wikipedia pages of all the ships in that action (yes i am normal and no i am not having some sort of adhd event why do you ask) and I settled on the Bellerophon for various reasons I'll get into later probably. Not least that her crews universally could not pronounce her name (named for some warrior who rode Pegasus? something greek, they got it out of a dictionary) and so she was generally called Billy Ruffian. Which is fucking adorable.

Anyway. The Battle of Trafalgar is notable for many reasons, not least that Nelson fucking bit it. (I did find it odd that in a series where so many of the characters are obsessed with Nelson there is absolutely no attention given to the fact that he fucking cops it right in the middle of the third book. Like.... I can see how news wouldn't reach them at the time but at no point does anyone bring it up!) But another famous thing about this battle is that Nelson, a wordy and pretentious motherfucker, immediately preceded the battle with this incredibly long and complicated signal, and I immediately was like oh I need to devote at least a little screen time to the characters reacting to this "wait he's hoisting MORE shit?" developing situation.

I shit you not this shit was twelve hoists to convey exactly zero useful information, and it had to be repeated by the signal ships, and he had to do it quickly so there was time to actually relay the battle instructions immediately afterward. It took four minutes for the series of hoists. I love this. (I'm not saying Nelson didn't know what he was doing, it seems to have motivated people and has undeniably Passed Into Lore, but it's funny to imagine it in the heat of the moment. Nelson's second in command is on record as having reacted to the beginning of the signal with some impatience.)

Anyway so. I was like. I bet I can find out who the signal midshipman was on the Bellerophon because I bet that shit is recorded. And sure enough. he's right in the ship's Wikipedia page.

I clicked on his name and was like wait I know this motherfucker. why is his name familiar.

John Franklin. No fucking way. No fucking way!

It's that John Franklin. He was nineteen at the time.

Anyway I was inspired to write this up and post it by seeing this post which is largely incomprehensible to me because I have not watched The Terror but I get it and think this is amazing.

[mcyt-rarepair-tournament]

Welcome to the MCYT Rarepair tournament!

Welcome, welcome! This is the MCYT rarepair brackets, where we shall pit our little guys against eachother whilst they hold hands <3

Just to get a few things out of the way:

What is a rarepair by your definition?

In this bracket, a rarepair is a pair that is not very popular by any sort of imagination. When you send me a pairing, I will check Tumblr, Ao3, and a few other places to see what is there. If I deem it rare enough, I will let it into the brackets!

2. What do you do that determines a rarepair?

First, I look at fandom size, mainly on Ao3. The size of a fandom determines a LOT. For example, if a fandom has 600,000 works and your pairing has 40-50, that's rare enough! If a fandom has 700 works, however, and your pair has 40-50, it's probably pretty popular in that fandom, and thus won't count.

3. What if my pairing has no content?

Well, first, I'm so sorry. I've been there. Second, it counts! Your pair is probably VERY rare, lol. The MCYT fandom doesn't place a lot of stock in romantic pairings, so it's not uncommon for a rarepair to have zero works.

4. Isn't this similar to crackships?

Sort of! Rarepairs and crackships can interact quite a bit! A rarepair is a pairing that is, well, rare. So two characters can interact in canon and have good chemistry but not get much attention as a pairing by the fandom. Similarly, a crackship can be absolutely wild, crossover-ship stuff, but still get notice and art by the fandom. See? Not quite the same, but they certainly have some overlap. If it's rare, it's a good enough pair here.

5. How long will submissions and polls last?

Dunno! The submission part, at least. It all depends on how much attention this tournament gets, y'know? Might take some time. Polls, however, will last a week. I might adjust it if some people need more time if they want to make propaganda.

6. What fandoms in the MCYT community are you taking from?

All of them! I do not discriminate by fandoms, though I can't promise I'll know your guys. Even stuff that was discontinued or unfinished, like TFTSMP, will be accepted.

With all that out of the way, let the submissions begin!

Also, quick disclaimer: This blog was in the works before it came out that the content creator Wilbur Soot was an abuser. While I believe in separating the characters from the content creators, I understand if people can't vote for his characters right now or make propaganda. As such, I will not be taking pairs with any character of Wilbur Soot's. Peace and love, and be sure to Shubscribe. Don't you wanna be a Shubster? It's one of the coolest subscriber titles, you know.

[gffa]

for the character ask game! dick grayson: 5, 16, 25

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them? Lmao please don't ask me this question, because I have zero musical taste--and I don't mean I have bad musical taste, I mean I have no taste whatsoever, I barely listen to music, and I have no funny suggestions! (Mostly because I don't care for most of the ~jokes~ about his physical body.) 16. What's your least favorite ship for this character? Fandom has made it extremely hard to like a lot of other Dick ships because literally half the fandom can't stop tearing down Dick/Babs to build up their ship, which means there's nothing there for me to like, all it does is make me think there's not much there, if the only content to come up with is ranting about another ship. Nobody's obligated to like Dick/Babs, nobody's even obligated to not rant about it, I know where my scroll button is, but also all it does is push me further away from the ship that was supposedly being sold in that post, because it seems like an unfun place to be. But my actual least favorite ship for Dick is probably Bruce/Dick because it's so close to what I want out of that relationship, except also a thousand miles away from it! Honestly, one of my oldest friends is a Bruce/Dick shipper and the overlap we have of views on the characters is probably like 85%, we just diverge on how that plays out and we both feel extremely strongly about how we dislike the other path, but that we respect the other person being on it. We both are really into the fucked up entanglement of the characters, the mirroring aspect they have of each other, the belief that the other is the pure version of who they're meant to be, the frustration of how much they love the other while also being mad at them for the distance between them, the co-dependent disaster relationship, etc. All of that is the same for both of us, we just diverge on the context for it. Which is fine in our friendship, we meet in the middle, but there have been times when I feel like the ship would be so delicious for me, because it would tunnel vision in on those aspects I like, but the thought of them so much as even smooching makes me look like I bit into a lemon. How dare fandom almost give me what I want and then take it away from me!!!! Like, I don't actually care that it exists as a ship, fiction is not in a 1:1 relationship with reality and I think a lot of us get blinded by how modern comics go hard on the father & son aspect, which I am into and think is fair to evolve them into, but that wasn't always true and it's not like Bruce/Dick came out of nowhere. It just denies me personally what I want and therefore it it is The Worst For Me Personally And Thus Jail For DC Fandom For One Thousand Years!!!! 25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now? Dick Grayson is my longest running Blorbo, like that guy invented Blorboism for me, before I ever had such a name for the concept. Dick Grayson has been my One True Character for 20+ years, nobody has ever unseated him, not Anakin, not Obi-Wan, not Thor, not Usagi, not Duo, not Tezuka, NONE OF THEM that I've lost my mind about. Dick Grayson came on the scene for me when I first watched B:TAS and hit my tiny little baby brain with his daddy issues on display and excellent Nightwing design in later episodes and the push-and-pull relationship with Babs and my fannish life has never been the same since. "That it. That's him. That's the one. That's the character I'm going to obsess over for the rest of my life." I must have said when I first saw him and I HAVE NOT BEEN PROVEN WRONG YET.

[snickerdoodlles]

Macau&Chay you got mail AU? Please tell us more!

lil late to answering but!! YES!! time for some good ol' AU nostalgia, which is really funny to me because what I know about that movie I learned exclusively through this being a really popular fandom AU like 10 years ago or whatever. anywho!!! the fic:

Macau and Chay know each other vaguely as "that guy (derogatory) from my school"

they don't actually dislike each other. there's no reason for it. this isn't even a rivalry, just that somehow, somewhere in their years of overlapping schooling, they rubbed some shoulders somewhere and went "ugh nope, wrong vibes."

'fuktong1' and 'free waifuuu'* meet on videogame chat boards. it started as a need for an extra player to round out a team, but they like each other best out of the group and soon start coordinating to play together regularly.

its a solid friendship!! neither has any particular desire to bring their friendship out of the videogame/chatroom context yet, but Macau does once send Chay a bundle of games for his old system that Chay wouldn't have been able to afford otherwise.

this changes after Yok's bar.

Chay is…not so fond of shooting games now. being slapped in the face with his lack of awareness is a large part of it, but learning Porsche was literally in a shoot-out while he was tucked away ignorant and oblivious is similarly bad for him. it's a rough time to be Chay basically :(

luckily for him, fuktong1 has never been overly fond of shooting games and has so many recommendations that are much more palatable for Chay's current tastes. they play together more and more, and naturally chat more and more, and overall get much closer.

Macau and Chay's relationship also change. for the worse specifically.

Chay's really going through shit right now -- loansharks and low grade mafia thugs have been beating down his door all his life, and now Porsche is running a mafia branch. (the branch that specifically deals with shaking down people and cleaning up the main family's mess, no less.) he's isolated in the family compound and cut off from everything he's known. somehow his mother's back from the dead (kind of). he's still barely seeing Porsche. Kim's giving him mixed messages. he's really fucking pissed at everything, and Vegas (Macau's brother) was also responsible for (or at least tied to) his kidnapping, second attempted kidnapping, and Porsche's new injuries. Chay has zero sympathy to spare for ANY mafia-related people, and Macau is part of mafia-related people.

Macau is ALSO going through shit right now -- Vegas was shot up and is now bedridden in the hospital. the father who never cared for them is dead. the uncle who cared even less took away their men and home to give to Porsche. the same uncle may or may not being looking after him and Vegas to either kill or use them later. Macau, who was also iced out of the mafia business by a protective brother, has absolutely no idea what's happening as everything spirals out of control. his only support is his (bedridden!) brother's maybe boyfriend, who was previously only known to Macau as his eldest cousin's head bodyguard. he probably has finals to deal with too. it's a rough fucking time to be Macau, ex-fucking-cuse him if he doesn't give a shit about Chay suddenly getting what was previously his and Vegas's wealth and security.

someone more well versed in videogames will have to give me suggestions for what games they play, idk enough about those because ultimately this whole situation is just to force Chay and Macau to see each other in a new light. because they don't have any reason to like each other in or after canon! Vegas and Porsche have their weird friend-enemy dance, because they're bros and like each other, and Porsche can't hold a grudge to save his life and Vegas's relationships are so fucked up that anyone who genuinely likes him bypasses any other complications, but their relationship doesn't translate to Macau or Chay. at all. Macau and Chay both have only ever had their older brother as their support their entire lives and absolutely hold grudges against intruders (for themselves and their brothers).

Chay figures out who fuktong1 is first. (how? no clue! maybe they planned to meet up and it went bust, maybe one of Macau's usernames gives a clue? idk.) initially, Chay's outraged, because he keeps dealing with his life suddenly going "and it's mafia!" for fucking everything, and Chay's so, so angry about it all. but he also can't help but put the puzzle pieces together. suddenly realizing his friend fuktong1 has also had to dance around the mafia issues every time they talk and the general recontextualizing of everything his friend ever told him with what Chay now knows about the Theerapanyakul family takes almost all the heat out of Chay's anger towards everything and all he can feel is sad. sad about the circumstances forced on him and Porsche and Macau (and Kim and Khun and Kinn and even Vegas), sad about their loneliness, sad about the trials and burdens the mafia (Korn, Korn and Gun) have put all of them through. it's…a lot to deal with.

(whether this realization happens before his reconciliation with Kim and facilitates it, or happens after it and he has Kim's shoulder to cry on is tbd. depends on which one is the more emotional spin cycle really, it could go either way.)

on Macau's end, he has a brief spike of anxiety and self-pity when his friend free waifuuu abruptly disappeared on him, but he doesn't think anything more on it after he pops up again (he doesn't). their friendship grows deeper as they both open up to each other about more of their personal lives and they're both very sympathetic to each other without ever falling into pity. idk how Macau and Chay's relationship progresses after Chay's discovery or how the 'free waifuuu is Chay' revelation comes about yet, except that there are a lot of tears, a lot of yelling, and ultimately they become proper friends both on and off the chat boards, weird mafia family relationships and that time Chay called Macau 'daddy' for a week after he gave him a bunch of turnips in Animal Crossing aside.

*usernames are a work-in-progress, as usernames are NOT my specialty, esp not in a different language. Macau is playing with 'fuk'--he actually learned 'fuck' from Vegas before he learned the thai 'fuk' (gourd), and he's been having fun with it since. Chay's is a play off the phrase "sleep with me, free wifi" which i am told is slang more or less equivalent to 'netflix and chill' (i think? someone might be playing with me, idk). anyways, Chay greets Macau with "hey pumpkin~" when he's feeling flirty. they have so many husband/wife in-jokes.

[lightphieric]

Which is your fav game and fav/s pairings (platonic/romantic/familial)

Ooh so, I love all the games in the series but my favorite game is, controversially, Zero Time Dilemma. This is probably somewhat just me being contrarian to the parts of the fandom that annoy me, but really, genuinely... I just really like it. It makes me smile and I don't really feel the need to justify my tastes beyond that? I just... think it's neat, that's all!

My absolute favorite ships are Dio/Kyle, Seven/Lotus, Carlos/Eric, Eric/Mira, C-Team OT3, Sigma/Diana... those are the ones at the top, at least, but when you get down to it, I have at least one thing that I ship for almost every character! I've said it before and I'll say it again: love is stored in the Zero Escape.

As for platonic dynamics, my top favorite characters are Kyle and Eric, and I love to see them interacting with any other character who can be a positive presence in their lives - my favorite Kyle dynamics are with Luna and Phi (both of which kind of overlap with family dynamics lol), and I want Eric to be BFFs with Diana and Akane so bad. I also have a real soft spot for a Phi and Junpei friendship - I know they barely interact in canon but the interactions I've seen with them in fan works are always perfect. I love the Q-Team and D-Team family dynamics, Light and Clover are wonderful of course, Quark and Tenmyouji too...

I could keep going honestly. There is very, very little in this series that I actively dislike and a whole lot that I love very much. Thank you anon for giving me a blank check to gush about all my faves.

[halotolerant]

Dear Yuletide Writer 2024

Dear Yuletide Writer

Thank you for writing for me! I am delighted you also enjoy these characters and fandoms :D 

I have rambled about each one to give you a starting point, please write what you feel moved to write. I am very into stories about relationships - platonic, romantic, sexual and all the overlaps. I definitely enjoy an E rated fic but I’m always there for the characters first and foremost. I am open to BDSM, omegaverse and other ‘role based’ scenes or world building, if that’s your thing. 

Just getting one fic about any of these would be a dream, but I am absolutely open to treats! 

LE SSERAFIM (Band)

Any

I have loved Le Sserafim since the Hybe Picnic aka Game Caterers x HYBE. I enjoy their attitude and their chemistry, and I’m fascinated by their histories - the fact that Sakura and Chaewon were previously in a different band together, and that they knew Yunjin as well, and then you’ve got Kazhua speaking another language, from a totally different world of classical ballet. And Gold Maknae Eunchae too of course! 

I would be really interested by a fic about them and their interactions, be that a slice of life or something more complicated, ‘canon compliant’ would be fascinating but I could imagine wonderful things with e.g. X Files AU, buddy cop AU, omegaverse - or a canon-divergent where they meet under different circumstances. I would love something shippy, for any combo of these 4 including poly (to be clear: not anything shippy involving Eunchae though). 

DNWs: Death, suicide/sucidal ideation, self-harm, non-con, or vast amounts of dieting stuff, as canon as I know it is

Vanner (Band)

Lee Taehwan (Vanner), Lee Wonseo | Gon (Vanner)

Like so many I fell for Vanner during Peak Time, and I’ve become increasingly obsessed with Taehwan and Gon’s married couple vibes. The dynamic between Taehwan as the sensible leader but also the band’s biggest cuddler, versus Gon as the choreography who joined them as a member, who is so wacky and yet so sweet. I feel pretty certain they’ve made out a non-zero amount of times, even if it was just to get attention in the club, back when they were far from famous and Dispatch was not remotely an issue… Again, I would be really interested in a fic about them however you’d like, be it canon based (and so much has happened to them in the last 2 years!) or some kind of AU (they would also rock the ‘buddy cop’ trope). 

DNWs: Death, suicide/sucidal ideation, self-harm, non-con, or vast amounts of dieting stuff, as canon as I know it is

Love in Translation RPF 

Daou Pittaya Saechua, Offroad Kantapon Jindataweephol 

This is classed as ‘Love in Translation RPF’ but it was actually ‘Century of Love’ which got me into these actors/singers and their amazing chemistry. The scene in ‘Century of Love’ where Offroad is a nine tail… phew! I know they won a survival show together and obviously have done these two awesome projects since, I love and am fascinated by that ‘work relationship’ where they need to be so intimate and are clearly so comfortable with it and each other. If you’ve offered this pair, you probably have your own ideas about how you’d write them and please go for it! If you’d like a prompt, I’m up for all the classics: kissing practice, fake dating-turned-real dating, feelings realisation, domestic fluff :D

DNWs: Death, suicide/sucidal ideation, self-harm, non-con, or vast amounts of dieting stuff, as canon as I know it is

Malory Towers (2020 TV)

Daryl Rivers, Gwendoline Mary Lacey

I really enjoy this adaptation of the Blyton books - it’s diverse, inclusive and the kind of show my young teen self would have adored. And as a young teen at a girls school, what I was going through at their age was realising that I felt a whole lot of certain kind of way about other girls. Daryl and Gwen are my favourite characters, and I’d love a story about them having that kind of experience. I do ship them - the foe yay, Drarry-style, is immense, and I love the idea of how *annoyed* they’d be at finding each other attractive as they grow up, and how blindsided they’d be by a crush. Gwen’s earnest romanticism and wanting someone to kiss her - maybe she’s got a volunteer closer to home? But equally, them reuniting as adults would be fascinating - possibly seeing each other with a girlfriend, how would that feel? Or not shippy, but one of them having that experience and the other reacting and incorporating that into their ongoing relationship. 

DNWs: Death, suicide/sucidal ideation, self-harm, non-con.

[jestbee]

i agree with what you’ve said about this situation and about quackity. though i will add, whilst we will probably never know who came up with what first, we do know that regardless of that, quackity kept everything to himself. he told no one about the qsmp or the qsmp’s real time translation. so it’s impossible for dream to have ‘copied’.

and i’m not say quackity copied either. though there’s more wiggle room for speculation about that considering dream announced his first (still too quick for a whole mod to be made) but also there is overlap between qsmp members and people who may have known about dream’s mod. most notably bad (he most definitely knew because of the hot wings stream question and he is also on the qsmp and may have brought it up offhandedly to quackity- who knows?)

Look, I'm not saying one way or the other, but everything you said is only when/how they said stuff publically. You say Q didn't tell anyone anything, but you mean he didn't tell us, or maybe he said he didnt tell anyone. But the fact is, he clearly has a team working on this. It's not a one-man show, Quackity isn’t a coder, and we don't know when he came up with the idea. We don't know what friends he mentioned it to before actively working on it or during. We don't know anything.

I do know know that acting like no one knew literally anything at all makes a very good spin for launching a project. Especially one where the marketing campaign is teaser images and mystery about what the project even is. That doesn't mean no one knew anything behind the scenes for real; it's just the story we're told. It's content.

Dream announced the live translation to us first, but Q hinted at it being part of his plan for qsmp before that if you interpret his comments that way, still too early for anyone to know what it was or for Dream to have copied it but still, it was in the works. I don't know if Q brought up his release date, I don't know if Dream did. I don't think theres any malicious stealing, I'd like to think they're still friends, but we literally don't know. We see such a small fraction of cc's lives, and they literally only tell us what they want us to know, so using that stuff like it's all the facts is just pointless and wrong.

All the speculation you're doing right here, without citation, without actually having concrete proof of who knew what and what was planned when, it's just not helping anything. /nm

There are literally a million scenarios of what could have happened, but we have zero way of knowing what that is unless they tell us. I think the theorising is what's causing the issue in fandom right now, and that's why I wish both sides would address it.

Dream has given his side of the story, Q has ignored it entirely. Make of that what you will.

[fatalism-and-villainy]

@overripethighbones:

YEAH, this. and tbh I think the assumption that liking specific media means something about you underlies a lot of fandom tension and the feeling of betrayal some people have when they turn out not to automatically get along with everyone in fandom. There’s somehow they expectation that we are all fundamentally alike, similar people because we like the same TV show, and that is just. not how it works.

Yeah man. I've been thinking a lot about this for uhhh... a long time. Probably since before I got deep into Hannibal. And I honestly have many many tangential threads I could go on relating to this topic that I've been trying to narrow down.

But I think first of all, that tonal undercurrent of betrayal is a big part of what I find exhausting about fandom (perhaps especially on tumblr) right now. The sheer pervasiveness in the style of expressing disagreement with a certain perspective with this tone of anger and entitlement... yeah, I don't care for that. Part of being in fandom, for me, is about cultivating a sense of curiosity about other perspectives - why interact with other fans otherwise? I'm a pretty opinionated person, and pretty firm in my convictions, and there are certain approaches that I'm never going to vibe with, but it's because my view is so singular (as are most people's!) that that curiosity is necessary. I'm never going to find anyone whose sensibility completely overlaps with mine, so if I'm going to interact at all, it requires some grasp of the concept that, wrt relationship with the source material, people are different from each other.

I also think one frustration I have with this "well why would you even like this canon if you don't like this central aspect!" mindset - and I wrote up a post on this topic awhile ago, that I've been meaning to reblog and bring back around - is that what people perceive as being "central" or "essential" to the text varies considerably from person to person! Not in the sense that one can never make any more objective analytical claim as to which textual and thematic elements are more central to a text, and which are more ephemeral or not engaged with at all. But in the sense that... well, for one thing, most texts worth engaging with are pretty multifaceted, and analysis and critical approach pretty much requires zeroing in on one of those facets. One can never engage with literally every single essential element of a story. And for another, everybody carries their own perspectives and their own interpretative lenses with them at all times. Most of us have some sort of subjective overlay we're inclined to use for our personal engagement with stuff, or certain elements we're inclined to latch onto and amplify in our responses that others might not notice at all. That diversity is part of what's intellectually engaging about both fandom and criticism!

For me personally, for example, regarding Hannibal as a piece of media - I'm not a huge horror person. It's not its frightening or disturbing qualities that put me off, it's just not remarkably compelling as a story structure or bundle of critical concerns to me at the moment. The same is true for gothic fiction, although to a lesser degree - I have some interest in the gothic in the sense that a lot of film noir (a genre/style I do love) was influenced by it, and because a lot of the applications of queer theory that interest me engage with gothic tropes and narrative structure in some way. But I'm not especially drawn to gothic fiction for its own sake. I can recognize that Hannibal is a work of gothic horror, and that its engagement with that genre is a significant aspect of it. But I do not believe that one has to be a fan of that genre to "understand" Hannibal, or that one is "missing the point" of the show for not personally being drawn to that particular quality it possesses. (In fact, the question of why someone who doesn't normally like those genres likes this particular work that falls under those headings is, in fact, an interesting critical inquiry that's worth following through on, rather than snidely dismissing!)

Regarding what does appeal to me about the show - this will be a non-comprehensive overview, but: very stylized and avant-garde visuals, and an awareness of the expansive possibilities of the visual medium and visual storytelling that so few TV shows possess. Applicability to queer theory stuff that I'm invested in, like camp, decadent literature and the aestheticism movement, queer epistemology, gothic doubling (there's the gothic!), etc. A strong ensemble cast with lots of well-constructed and nuanced parallels between different character dynamics (one of the show's under-discussed strengths, imo). A primary ship that appeals to my id in a vast number of ways. ...Yeah probably lots of other stuff I'm forgetting about.

I think all of those things are absolutely relevant to what the show is doing, and what its thematic and artistic concerns are. (Yes, even the last one - the interpersonal dynamic between the show's main characters, and how its erotic undercurrents are implemented, are ripe for serious analysis, and have received it!) Yeah, these points of appeal are pretentious as fuck, because that's who I am as a person, but that's also the point - you cannot actually cleanly separate out what the "point" of a piece of media is from personal and subjective investment in it. I'm not missing the point by focusing on what interests me about it - what has continually interested me about media in general.

And I think this failure to understand how multifaceted and idiosyncratic everyone's approach to stories is, to some degree, also produces the idea that people can just transfer enjoyment from one work to another work that shares certain attributes with it. A lot of media that gets touted as being "like Hannibal" has been vastly disappointing to me, or has entertained me without prompting the same sort of love and creative investment. Conversely, when I think of media that has absolutely thrilled and delighted me, made me revel in what storytelling as a whole is capable of, in ways that feel similar to the feelings Hannibal instills in me - the first thing that comes to mind is The Insider (1999). It has absolutely nothing in common with Hannibal, outside of it being directed by Michael Mann of Manhunter fame, but it gave me the same sense of awe as to what the filmic medium can do - the attentiveness to its visual composition, and its operatic soundtrack, elevate it far above the bare bones of its story. See also Barry Lyndon (1975), which, like Hannibal, has so many frames that are pure works of art (they literally look like paintings! how!!).

Idk man. Art is complicated and has lots and lots of moving parts. The same is true of people. You can't guarantee anything.

A meme is not that deep but I do really reject the idea that it's possible to simply list television shows that will allow people to get to know you. All people know from a list of your favourite shows is that those shows resonated with you or were enjoyable to you in some way! Watching the shows wouldn't clue anyone into what you specifically liked about them, or what values or interests or aesthetics or ideologies of yours they reflected, because what people take from media varies wildly from person to person.

[presumenothing]

actually now that you mention it. i feel like i remember you making a post going "well i'm late but i'm going to watch fma finally" and i was excited because i love hearing about people watching it for the first time. but then i turned around and like a day later you'd finished it and had started churning out fic it was INCREDIBLE

ksjdfksdfsjdf you know what anon. i have absolutely No Corrections to offer on your account of events, save for the fact that it actually took me just over a week* to finish fmab. but yeah i really did start yeeting fic into the void from the literal next day after finishing it huh!! pretty sure that’s record speed even for me, since usually i leave things to stew in brain juice for a while longer than that before writing

though i think i might’ve only really posted here after i was done/almost done watching it…? so the turnaround time on that must’ve looked extra ridiculous from yalls perspective yeah. i’m not in the habit of liveblogging things as i watch them outside of discord shitposting bc i don’t tend to have much interesting things to say anyway. but then again maybe my brain just automatically sublimates all the fun stuff into fic ideas, which is also entirely possible

(*eight days according to my netflix history, which is insanely fast given my work schedule + extremely short attention span for watching things that don’t glue me to the screen immediately)

[olderthannetfic]

asdfgh yeah polls are not going to give you an accurate view of fandom unless they're hosted by a centralized website and even then, only for that community. Sample bias baby!

The anonymity is actually not too big a problem in certain circles of study like the humanities. There's been a lot of discussion over stuff like gaining informed consent and ethics and privacy which is a super thorny issue btw, which with the pandemic has become even more a Thing To Discuss, but basically the idea is your online identity is still basically a facet of you. Sure, it might not be the same as your IRL persona but in the same way your work identity might be different to your home persona or in-polite-company persona and that performance as shaped by space and relationships is kind of a thing a researcher is already aware they're supposed to navigate. Usernames can function just as much a performance of identity and socialization as IRL or legal names.

But this is less hard stats and more qualitative data through stuff like participatory observation and interviews. The thought of trying to get any hard stats about fandom or anything online without the aid of a larger organization gives me a headache. I'd probably narrow it down to the larger fandoms, and then the major social groups within those to push my survey. And then choose some small fandoms and more sidelined social groups do the same to them. And then make sure the data from these samples are weighted correctly. And that would only give me a rough projection with no way to tell how the canon itself each fandom is based around shaped the demographics. Idk, I'd have to refine the methodology and even then there'd be a high percentage of error since it would give me, at best, a vague guess in some trends.

--

What I would do if I were an academic who wanted to study this and I had tenure and freedom to do anything I liked (so basically zero actual academics who work on fandom) would be this:

Define my population of interest as fanfic writers who write in English.

Focus on the "big three" of FFN, AO3, and Wattpad because their scale (and the minute scale of anything else in comparison) means that taken together, they likely do represent fanfic writers overall pretty well. (Obviously, if I were looking at all languages, I'd have to look at, say, Ficbook, which is smaller than the big three but still pretty huge.) It might also be necessary to look at Quotev. I'm not sure how big it is and how much the population overlaps with Wattpad. That would require investigation.

Also look at FIMFiction and Space Battles for comparison (as spaces that are as opposite of AO3 and Wattpad as fic spaces get), though AFAIK, these are pretty small in comparison.

Collect extant fandom survey data for comparison. That means the AO3 Census, that FFN research blog from 2010, r/Fanfiction's periodic demographic surveys, etc.

Do a big survey distributed through tumblr and twitter and reddit, etc. This survey would include questions about where you found the survey and which sites you use in addition to whatever else I was interested in.

But also, and this is key, I would randomly sample the big three (four?) to find random user accounts. I would look at the profiles of those accounts and either try to contact them for survey participation in a second survey or gather data directly from them/places they link to or both. Aside from that FFN research where they looked at profile pages, I haven't really seen attempts to randomize the sample like this. Nobody tries it because it's a pain in the ass.

Issues you'd face:

no PM function on AO3

very few filled-out profiles on AO3

filled out profiles being non-random (i.e. disproportionately power users or long-time fandom people, not new n00bs, regardless of site)

low response rate even if you're able to contact people

lack of demographic and other data on most profiles on most sites (though you can often tell gender or pronouns)

people perceiving this as spam or intrusive

I would also do a comparison of archive content. This is easier to randomly sample than users are, so comparing overall archive shipping stats to what survey respondents say they like could give one insight into how well the sample of users represents the archive... or it could point to gaps between what people think of themselves as doing and what they actually do. Same for other ways of looking at content: fandom, rating, etc.

Obviously, this too would require refining, but at least trying to add these other two elements would be far more interesting than the samey voluntary surveys distributed through a couple of people's LJ flists or twitter followers that we get now.

[hope-to-hell]

So I was thinking about how much I miss your writing and then I was thinking, I have questions. This has been my favorite to ask people lately because I find it fascinating: What character or arc surprised you the most while you were writing?

As an aside, did you ever have a plot line that wouldn't die, no matter how hard you tried to fight it?

I miss seeing you on my dash. I know you've lost some jazz for the fandom but I'd love to pick your brain just a bit to relive old joys.

Hey there, friend. It’s been…difficult, to say the least. To be honest I have a couple of one-shots that have been sitting in my google docs for weeks because every time I open them it’s like staring through a doorway into nothingness. The words just…aren’t. It’s frustrating, because fic is, like, my thing. I think it’s been a mix of less free time, schedule/routine changes irl, dwindling blog interaction, and who knows what else. It’s hard to want to write and to remember what it feels like to hit that groove where the words come out so easily, and yet be unable to just do it.

None of that answers either question, does it? Lemme back up and try again. I guess August is the one who’s surprised me the most. I’ve probably mentioned this before, but he was originally a kind of pushback against what I was seeing a lot of at the time: sexual predator August, just a massive dick with a mustache and a bad attitude. The “if I can’t have you, no one will” kind of guy. Or Daddy August, which much of the time seemed to be a way to twist the daddy/brat dynamic into something less healthy and more manipulative on the brat end. Not to knock anyone’s kinks or fantasies; I’m a big girl and I know better than to engage with what doesn’t interest me, but I wasn’t finding the type of stories that I wanted. (As an aside, my “August and the Brat” story kind of backfired on me. I wanted to tell a story with Consequences to give the reader a bit of pause and, well, it kind of had the opposite reception to what I’d hoped for.)

But anyway. August. That’s where he started, and what I didn’t expect (although perhaps I should have) was for him to evolve into a fucking cryptid. At this point he probably bears zero resemblance to the original canon character. He became fierce and damaged and possessed of some sort of loyalty and love. His backstory changed a little bit from story to story to fit each narrative— I found that my concept of writing was not so much a single story as a collection of overlapping worlds. And that, too, fit the evolution of “my” August. He grew into a myth, or maybe a ghost. Every story is true to him even though the facts may change. I gave him a place at the lakehouse as a sort of nexus, a place to center his character. It wasn’t something I meant to happen, but when it did it seemed like he’d been there all along. Somehow he’d become something of a guide, a thread pulling the Reader from one story to the next.

I tried not to lose sight of him as a ferocious man, capable of cruelty. After all, it’s August. I wanted to give him the beauty and weight of dark dreams, of sharp-toothed creatures stalking through the rubble of fallen houses. I wanted him to be a burned-out cathedral, or the sky viewed from the bottom of a lake. I wanted him to be death and decay, blood and bone. I hope I succeeded. I think I did.

And I still hope that I’ll find my way back to writing, one way or another. I do miss it. I consider my writing to be something of an outlier in fandom. It’s the Weird Stuff, the niche shit. I still consider myself a writer, even if I haven’t done much of it lately. Thanks for thinking of me, friend. I don’t know if this answered your questions at all but it felt good. Thank you❤️

[comedicreliefonlyworkswhenfunny]

I am against the "Americanization" of fandoms.

What this applies to

Holding non American characters (and sometimes even fans) to an American moral standard. This includes

Refusing to take into account that, first things first, America is NOT the target audience, so certain tropes that would or would not pass in the west are different in Japan.

Like seriously, quite a few of the jokes are just not going to pass or hit, because they require background information that is not universal.

Assuming all American experience is standard. (This could mean watering down just how much pressure is placed on Japanese youth irl by saying that sort of thing is universal (while it is, to a degree, Japanese suicide rates are pretty fucking high because of how fast paced and work heavy some of their loads tend to be), and it's really annoying and rude when someone is trying to speak out about how heavy and harsh the standards are placed on them to succeed just for some American whose mom occasionally yells at them to do their homework dropping by to say "it's like that everywhere")

Demonizing (or wubbifying) a character using American morals, including and up to harassing fans over their interpretations or gatekeeping whether or not a character "should" get development (while you shouldn't do that fucking period, it's rude and annoying- this is specifically for the people who use American standards without acknowledging the cultural gap between them and, you know, the fucking target audience) ((Like seriously, saying "It's different in Japan" is not the end all be all excusing someone's actions, but sometimes the author didn't immediately think that maybe (insert vaguely universal thing) was that bad or that heavy of a topic before they put it into their media. If you don't want to see things like that? Pick a different series and stop harassing the fans))

Getting mad at or making fun of Japan's attempts to satirize their own culture. (A good example is Ace Attorney! To most of us, it's just a funny laugh can you imagine if courts were actually like that- guess what? Japan's are! (Not that America's are actually that much better, they just look good on paper))

Making America/American issues the center of your fan spaces

(Usually without sharing or bringing light to the issues that other countries are going through)

Your

Experiences

Are

Not

Univseral!

Seriously, very few things across America, even, are universal. Texas things the hundreds are nothing while Minnesota's like "oh it's only thirty degrees below zero"- so for fucks sake, stop assuming that all other countries work in ways similar to America.

It's good and important to share Ameican issues with your American followers, but guess what? America isn't the only country out there, and it's certainly not the only one going through bullshit. Don't pull shit like "why's no one reblogging this?" or "why should I care about what's happening in (X country)?"

Don't assume everyone lives in America.

Stop assuming everyone lives in America.

America is not and has never been the target audience for anime, and it's certainly not the only country outside of Japan that enjoys it.

Like I said above, sometimes Japan attempts to satirize its own culture. We can't tell what is and isn't meant as satire, because it's not our culture.

Social media activism can be tiring and maybe you don't have the energy to focus on things that are out of your control, but, if someone tells you about the shit they're going through, don't bring American politics up.

For the neurodivergent crowd out there thinking, "But why?" it's because a lot of social media, especially, is very heavily Americanized- sometimes to the point where people assume that everyone is American. Not to mention, it's disheartening. I'm sorry to say, but you're not actually relating to the conversation, you're often diverting the focus away from the topic at hand. Even if you mean well, America is heavily pedestaled and talked about frequently, and people from other countries are tired of America taking precedent over their own issues.

Don't divert non-American issues into American ones. Seriously. It's not your place. Please just support the original issue or move on.

Racist Bullshit

This especially goes for islanders and South Asian characters, as well as poc characters (because, yes, Japan DOES have black people)

Making "funny" racist headcanons. Not fucking cool.

Changing the canon interpretation of an explicit character of color in order to fit racist stereotypes.

Whitewashing or color draining characters. Different artistic skill sets can be hard, yes, but are you seriously going to look at someone and say "I don't feel like accurately portraying you or people that look like you, because it's difficult for me." If someone tries to correct you on your cultural depiction of a character and/or their life style, don't be an ass. (If possible, it would be nice for those that do the corrections to be polite as well, but it does get really frustrating).

Seriously, no offense guys, but, if you want to persue art, you're going to need to learn to depict different body types, skin colors, and/or ethnic features.

On that note, purposefully, willingly, or consistently inaccurately portraying people or characters of color (especially if someone in the fandom has "called you out" or specifically told you that what you're doing comes across as racist and you continue to do it). If you need help or suck at looking things up, there are references for you! Ask your followers if they have tutorials on poc (issue that you're having), whether it be bodily portrayal, facial proportions, or coloring and shading. Art is so much more fun when you can depict a wider variety, and guess what? Before you drew the same skinny, basic, white character over and over, you couldn't even draw that!

Attempting or claiming to DEPECT CULTURAL ACCURACY within a work or meta, while being completely fucking wrong. ESPECIALLY and specifically if someone calls you out, and you refuse to fix, correct, or change anything.

*little side note that the discussion revolving art is a very multilayered conversation, and it has quite a few technical potholes, which I'll bring up again farther into this post.

Fucking history

Stop demonizing or for absolute fucks sake wubbifying Japanese history because UwU Japan ♡0♡ or bringing up shit like "you know they sided with Nazis, right?" It's good to recognize poor past decisions, but literally it's not your country keep your nose out of it. And? A lot of decisions made by countries were not made by their general peoples. Even those that were, often involved heavy propaganda that made them think what they were doing was right.

Seriously, it's not your country, not your history. Unless you have some sort of higher education (but honestly even then a lot of those contain heavy bias), just don't butt in.

^^^ this also goes to all countries that are NOT Japan (specifically when people from non American countries talk about their history while in fandoms and someone wants to Amerisplain to them why "well, actually-"). When we said, "question your sources," we didn't mean "question the people who know better than you, while blindly accepting the (more than likely biased) education you were given in the past."

What this does NOT include:

Fanfiction

FANfiction

FanFICTION

FANFICTION.

Seriously, fanfiction is literally UNPAID WORK from RANDOM FANS- a lot of which who are or have started as kids. ((No, I'm not trying to excuse racist depictions of people just because they're free, please see above where I talk about learning to grow a skill and how it's possible tone bad and get good, on top of the fact that some inaccuracies are not just willful ignorance))

"Looking it up" doesn't work

"Looking it up" almost never works

Please, for fucks sake, you know that most all online search engines are heavily biased, right? Not to mention, not everything is universal across the entirety of Japan. You want to look up how the school system works in Hokkaido? Well it's different from the ones in Osaka!

Most fanfiction is meant to be an idealized version of the world. Homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, and racism are very prevalent and heavy topics that some fan authors would prefer to avoid. (Keep in mind, this is also used by some people in those minorities often because thinking about how relevant those kinds of things are is to them every day).

A lot of shit that happens in writing is purely because it's an ideal setting. I've seen a few arguments recently about how fan authors portray Japanese schools wrong- listen, I can't tell you how many random school systems I have pulled from my ass purely because (I need them to interact at these points, in these ways). Sometimes the only compliment I can think of is 'I like your shirt' or sometimes I need character A to realize that character B likes the same thing as they do, so I might ignore the fact that most all Japanese schools require uniforms, so that I can put my character in a shirt that will get someone else's attention.

Sometimes it's difficult to find information on different types of systems, and sometimes when you DO know those things, they directly rule out a plot point that needs to happen (like back on the topic of schools (from what I've seen/heard/read- which guess what? Despite being from multiple sources, might still be inaccurate!) Japanese schools don't have mandatory elective classes (outside of like gym and most of them usually learn English or another language- I've seen stuff about art classes? But the information across the board varies.), but, if I need my character to walk in and see someone completely in their element, I'm probably not going to try and gun for accuracy or make up a million and two reasons as to why this (non elective) person would possibly need something from (elective teacher) after school of all things.)

Some experiences ARE universal- or at least overlap American and Japanese norms! Like friends going to fast food places after school doesn't /sound Japanese/ or whatever, but it's not like a horrible inaccuracy to say that your characters ate at McDonald's because they were hungry. Especially when you consider that the Japanese idolization of American "culture" is also a thing.

Also I saw someone complaining about how, in December, a lot of (usually westerners) write Christmas fics! Well, not only are quite a few of those often gift fics, with it being the season if giving and all, but Japanese people do celebrate Christmas! Not as "the birth of Christ," but rather as a popularized holiday about gift giving (also pst: America isn't the only place that celebrates Christmas)

But, on that note, sometimes things like Holidays are "willfully ignorant" of what actually happens (I've made this point several times, but (also this does by no means excuse actual racism)), because, again: plot convenience! Hey what IF they celebrated Halloween by Trick or Treating? What if Easter was a thing and they got to watch their kids or younger siblings crawl around on the ground looking for tiny plastic eggs?

Fanfiction authors can put in hours of work for one or two thousand words- let alone ten thousand words, fifty thousand words, a hundred thousand words. And all of these are free. There is absolutely no (legal) way to make money off of their fanworks, but they spent hours, days, weeks, months- sometimes even years- writing. It is so unnecessary to EXPECT or REQUIRE them to spend even more hours looking up shit that, no offense, almost no one is going to notice. No one is going go care that all of my combini prices are accurate or that I wrote a fic with a Japanese map of a train station that I had to backwards search three times to find an English version that I could read.

Not everyone has the attention span or ability to spend hours of research before writing a single word. Neurodivergent people are literally a thing yall. Instead of producing the perfectly pretty accurate version of Japan that people want to happen, what ACTUALLY happens is that the writer reads and reads and reads and either never finds the information they need or they lose the motivation to write.

^^^ (This does NOT apply to indigenous or native peoples, like Pacific Islanders or tribes that exist in real life. Please make sure that you portray tribal minorities accurately. If you can't find the information you need (assuming that the content of the series is not specifically about a tribe), please just make one up (and for fucks sake, recognize that a lot of what you've been taught about tribal practices, such as shit like human sacrifices or godly worship, is actually just propaganda.)

Not to mention, it often puts a wall in front of readers who would then need to pull up their OWN information (that may or may not be biased) just in order to interact with the fic ((okay, this one has a little bit of arguability when it comes to things like measurements and currency, because Americans don't know what a meter is and no one else knows what a foot is- either way, one of yall is going to have to look up measurements if they want to get a better understanding of the fic)). However, a lot of Americans who do write using 'feet, Fahrenheit, dollars,' also write for their American followers or friends (which really could go both ways).

On a less easily arguable side, most fic readers aren't going to open up a new tab just to search everything that the author has written (re the whole deep topics, not everyone wants to read about those sorts of things, either). Not only are you making it more difficult on the writer, but you're also making it more difficult for the reader who's now wondering why you decided to add in Grandma's Katsudon recipe, and whether or not the details you have added are accurate.

Some series, themselves, ignore Japanese norms! Piercings, hair dye, and incorrectly wearing ones uniform are frowns upon in Japanese schools- sometimes up to inflicting punishment on those students because of it. However, some anime characters still have naturally or dyed blond hair some of them still have piercings or wear their uniforms wrong. Some series aren't set specifically in Japan, but rather in a vague based-off-real-life Japan that's just slightly different (like Haikyuu and all of its different prefectures). Sometimes they're based on real places, but real places that have gone through major changes (like the Hero Academia series with its quirks and shit).

Fandom is not a full time job. Please stop treating it like it is one. Most people in fandoms have to engage in other things like school or work that most definitely take precident over frantically Googling the cultural implications of dying your hair pink in Japan.

Art is also meant to be a creative freedom and is almost always a hobby, so there are a few cracks that tend to spark debate. Like I said, it is still a hobby, something that's meant to be fun (on this note!)

If trying new things and expanding your portfolio is genuinely making you upset, it's okay to take a break from it. You're not going to get it right on the first try and please, please to everyone out there critiquing artists' works, please take this into account before you post things.

I'm sorry to say, but, while it gets frustrating to see the same things done wrong over and over again, some people are genuinely trying. If it matters enough for you to point out, please offer solutions or resources that would possibly help the artist do better (honestly this could be said about a lot of online activism). I get that they should "want" to do better (and maybe they don't and your annoyance towards them is completely justified- again, as I said, if this becomes a repeated offense and they don't listen to or care about the people trying to help them, yeah you can be a bitch if it helps you feel better- just please don't assume that everyone is willfully ignorant of how hurtful/upsetting/annoying a certain way of portraying things is), but also WANTING to do better and ACTUALLY doing better are two different things.

Maybe they didn't realize what they were doing was inaccurate. Maybe they didn't have the right tutorials. Maybe they tried to look it up, but that failed them. Either way, to some- especially neurodivergent artists- just being told that their work is bad or racist or awful isn't going to make them want to search for better resources in order to be more accurate, it's just going to make them give up.

Also! In fic and in writing, no one is going to get it right on the first try. Especially at the stage where we creators ARE merely in fan spaces is a great time to "fuck around and find out", before we bring our willfully or accidentally racist shit into monetized media. Absolutely hold your fan creators to higher standards, but literally fan work has so little actual impact on popular media (and this goes for just about every debate about fan spaces), and constructive criticism as well as routine practice can mean worlds for representation in future media. NOT allowing for mistakes in micro spaces like fandoms is how you get genuinely harmful or just... bad... portrayals of minorities in popularized media that DOES have an impact on the greater public. OR you get a bunch of creators who are too afraid to walk out of their own little bubbles, because what if they get it wrong and everyone turns against them. It's better to just "stick with what they know" (hobbies are something that you are meant to get better at, even if that is a slow road- for all of my writers and artists out there, it does take time, but you will get it. To everyone else, please do speak up about things that are wrong, but don't make it all about what's wrong and please don't be rude. It's frustrating on both ends, so, if you can, please try not to escalate the situation more.)

Anyways, I'm tired of everyone holding fictional characters to American Puritanical standards, but I'm also tired of seeing every "stop Americanizing fandom" somehow loop into fanfiction and how all authors who don't make their fics as accurate as possible are actually just racist and perpetuating or enabling America's take over of the world or some shit.

Fan interpretation of published media is different than fan creation of mon monetized media. Americans dominating or monopolizing spaces meant for all fans (especially in a fandom that was never meant for them to begin with) is annoying and can be harmful sometimes. Americans writing out their own personal experience using random fictional characters (more often than not) isn't.

[lightphieric]

I’ve been on a Hollow Knight kick and I don’t know if there’s any overlap at all with the Zero Escape fandom (it literally might just be me) but let me just say, the phrase “KYLE KLIM AND PURE VESSEL PARALLELS” popped into my head and I feel like I’ve achieved nirvana.

I mean first of all, both are children artificially created in service of stopping a plague. That’s huge parallels already. I’ve even seen speculation that the “K” moniker might not just be a reference to Kyle’s name but also his being Sigma’s eleventh attempt to create a clone, so he even has a string of failures before him, if not to the same magnitude as the vessels.

Now the thing about the Pure Vessel is that it was meant to be hollow, right? No thoughts, no beliefs, no sense of identity. But the Pale King basically ruined everything by showing his child affection and giving it a sense of purpose in the process.

Kyle’s backstory boils down to “My father neglected me and showed me no affection, he hid his work and intentions from me, I have no idea how to behave around other people because of him and I hate him.” In the ? ending we are told that Sigma did truly love Kyle, so it is probable that his neglect of Kyle was calculated to serve the AB Project, either by keeping him ignorant of its purpose, or ensuring his temperament was appropriately standoffish and clinical.

I’m not trying to defend Sigma OR the Pale King here - both of them took ridiculously extreme measures to stop their respective plagues and the question of whether they should have even done that in the first place is a discussion entirely its own. They both toyed with the autonomy and humanity (or... bugginess?) of their children and yeah, that’s bad. I’m just stating in the most objective way possible: One father neglected his child, one didn’t, one succeeded in preventing a devastating pandemic, one... didn’t.

Also Kyle and PV have the same sister:

[irisseireth]

Let’s do oldest brothers- Maedhros Fingon Finrod?

Maedhros

I don't have very strong opinions about Mae. A lot of these overlap with Fëanor because of the things he did, but I believe that Maedhros was not like his father at all, and this disappointed Fëanor quite a bit, considering I think Fingon was more like Fëanor in temper. Maedhros seems like a born statesman, and as the eldest grandchild of Finwë has been babysitter in chief. I appreciate him being the only son of Fëanor who attempted to do something about the Silmarils that didn't involve massacre (and which ended horribly because of the curse, of course). But I dislike a lot of the kidnap fam takes, so I tend to stay away from Maedhros material a lot.

Fingon

Fingon my beloved! The favourite eldest brother for sure. His death hits so hard for me in the Silmarillion, I remember reading it for the first time and going "NOOOOOOOO NOT FINGON". Again, I think the fandom in general misses a lot of the nuance about Fingon (luckily I have connected with very smart people with all the correct opinions). Fingon committed kinslaying! Probably without knowing what was going on, which is worse! Fingon braved the ice thinking his BFF had abandoned him! Fingon went on a suicide rescue mission! But I hate that the fandom zeroes in on his relationship with Maedhros, and totally overlooks that he was also close with the Arafinwëans as if they were all siblings. Fingon with Angrod and Aegnor in particular, I think is such an underrated dynamic. And hot take but Fingon as father of Gil-Galad is my third favorite theory, after Peredhel Gil-Galad and Fin-Galad.

Finrod

Another blorbo who gets taken at face value! Finrod is very nice and very generous and very shiny and whatnot. But he is also cunning, callous, can be arrogant and condescending, self centered. I think the fandom misses a lot of his negative traits. That's why I love the Athrabeth! Finrod is so human in it! He has flaws, he raises his voice and loses his cool when Andreth brings up points he disagrees with! He's self righteous and believes his truth is the only truth! There's so much good material in there! Anyway he didn't deserve to die like he did (or he did, that's what you get for trying to interfere in your brother's love life). Perhaps Finrod is so widely seen as being just good due to his status as a fandom bicycle, but I wish to see more nuanced takes on him.