#am I afraid to criticise it

[hilacopter]

leftists have created for themselves a situation where they have to either be islamophobic or antisemitc, because to them anything even mildly criticising islam or muslims and not treating them as a pure, primitive and peaceful culture is islamophobic. acknowledging jewish oppression under muslim rule or our indigeneity to the levant interferes with their narrative of the perfect noble savages, so now they have to choose between supporting jews or continuing to be unconditionally islamophilic. guess what they chose.

[fumekara]

ALL THE THINGS I HAVE DONE (Part 2)

SatoSugu x Gn reader 

Plot: Your relationship with the strongest sorcerers in Japan was falling apart after they yelled at you and broke your heart. 

n/a: English is not my first language, there will be a final part of this writing experiment, I am not very satisfied with how it came out. 

Tw: A lot of angst, season 2 spoilers, mention of sex, polyamorous relationship, mention of the death of one's pet, the reader has a cat, in this version Geto is a sorcerer. 

If you are sensitive to mourning for your pets, do not interact with this fic. 

WC: 1.9K

Click here for part 1

You had lain down and held Nuko in your arms the night you found him under the bed in the guest room and, without your noticing, you had fallen asleep, but no one seemed to care, Sutoru and Suguru had not come to wake you up to join them. 

You were sure they were still angry with you for what had happened the night before and you didn't want to think about it, since you now had another problem to deal with, Nuko's. 

He wasn't well, not at all, you could see it from the way he was lying on himself, the way he avoided moving and the way he occasionally meowed as if to warn you that he was still alive, for now. 

You stroked his back and he let you, after all he couldn't do much. 

Suddenly you heard the sound of approaching footsteps in your room. Immediately you rolled onto your back and pretended to be asleep.

When Suguru and Satoru entered your room, trying to make as little noise as possible, Nuko lifted his head as if to find out who was interrupting your fake sleep.   

You felt their weight sink into the bed when they sat beside you and then you felt a hand gently stroking your back.

"Y/N?" Satoru called you in a low voice. You didn't answer hoping that would be enough to convince them to leave you alone.

"We know you're not sleeping," Suguru said as he approached you from the other side of the bed, being careful not to crush Nuko with his weight. 

"How did you know?" you asked resigned by the fact that it was now useless to pretend.

"Your breathing was too irregular, that's not what you do when you sleep. We know better by now after so long sleeping together." you heard Sato chuckle as he rested his head on your shoulder. He was uncertain of the movement because he was afraid you would reject him because of what happened yesterday, but when you didn't he kept to your side. 

Suguru who was in front of you removed a lock of hair from your face very gently, as if you were made of glass, the same gesture you had made to him yesterday, and it broke his heart when he thought back to how badly he had treated you after you had given him a taste of your love. 

You reached out your hand again, but not to return the affection of the two men beside you, but to stroke your cat again, who was taking quick, heavy breaths.

"He's sick" you broke the silence.

"What's wrong with him?" asked Satoru looking at Nuko.

"I don't know, but he doesn't eat, breathes poorly and sleeps all day." You rolled onto your back and the white-haired man pulled away from you to give you space.

"Is that why you didn't sleep with us last night? Or even because of what happened yesterday?" asked Suguru worriedly, but you had a hunch he was using it as an excuse to criticise you. 

"What do you mean, that I use my cat being sick as an excuse not to sleep with you?" you asked without hiding your irritation.

"I didn't mean that, we're just worried." 

"Really?, so why didn't you come to wake me up if you care so much?" you sat up and so did they. "Don't pretend you care so much, I know you don't" you spat, by now you had a feeling you didn't care what they thought anymore, not after the words they said to you last time. 

"Y/N, we do care about you. We came here to apologize to you," Satoru told you, trying to find the right words to keep you from getting angry. 

"We went too far yesterday, Y/N, we shouldn't have treated you that way" Suguru picked you up and made you rest your head on his chest and shortly afterwards Satoru joined in the hug "We are sincerely sorry for what happened".

You felt the strong urge to cry and let them wrap their arms around you, but part of you did not believe their words. By now it seemed to you that they were only pretending to really love you. All you had been thinking about for weeks was how you felt like the third wheel in your relationship, as if they were only with you for convenience, because you were fun for them and not because they cared about you. 

The way they talked to each other, cuddled and had fun without you had started to make you feel insecure about your role in the relationship with Suguru and Satoru, even though those moments made you suspect that they didn't really need you, it still remained an assumption. But you also suspected that they were more aloof and impatient with you in a different way than between the two of them, and yesterday's discussion and the fact that they didn't want you with them in bed seemed to have awakened in you the confirmation of your worries. 

"How many times do we have to go through this again?" you said trying to hide the urge to cry "Now you apologize, but I know it will happen again in the future."

They looked at each other not believing your words.

"What do you mean, sweetheart?" asked Suguru. 

Then you confessed: "I am not part of this relationship.". 

"Yes, you're part of it, we love you Y/N," Satoru told her by taking her chin mat so she could look straight into your blue eyes "I know what we said to you was mean, but you mustn't think we don't love you just because we had a fight once. We..." 

"It's not just that" you interrupt him "I watch how you treat each other and you don't do it the same way you treat me. It's not the first time you've made me feel clingy, when you often do things as if I'm not there, when you change the subject as soon as I butt into the conversation or when you get nervous about the smallest things I do." you continued "I feel like that all the time, when we're together, when we talk to each other, even when we make love I feel like I'm just a fun for you, not someone you love."

After you opened up to them, your boyfriends stared at you, not believing what you had just told them. They were not sure what had made you doubt the love they both had for each other, but they thought back to the fact that the two of them had known each other longer than you, worked together and always together had faced so many problems and dark pasts that, although they had hurt them deeply, they had learnt to face them together and, no matter how hard you had tried to support them, as they had supported each other in the darkest moments of their lives. You were not to blame, they were simply part of a world of which you were not and could not be a part. 

Together they faced the death of Haibara and Riko and both shared the scars that had been inflicted on them by Toji Fushiguro. For years they supported each other and loved each other unconditionally, sharing everything with each other, everything they loved most, including you. 

They loved you, really loved you, but they knew that they had both shared something in their experience as sorcerers that had allowed them to strengthen their bond and their love, but they had left you behind.

They both did not know what to say because they knew that was the truth. The only thing they felt able to do was to hold you in their arms again, this time with more strength, with more affection, as if they did not want to let you go. Their faces were buried in you, Suguru in your back and Satoru's in your shoulder, and you heard them crying. 

"I have to take Nuko to the vet. But I think there's not much to do with him," you said, letting a silent tear slide down your cheek.

"Let us take you," Satoru told you, holding you tightly, rubbing his head in the crook of your neck.

"No, I need to be alone," your voice broke. By now you knew you had lost the boys you had fallen in love with and you just wanted to run away.

By now you could no longer contain the tears that fell uninterruptedly from your eyes, they let you go, and as you left the room carrying Nuko with you, you heard their sobs and your heart broke. 

______________

And now here you were, in the driveway of your backyard sitting on the seat of your car holding Nuko's yellow collar. 

You had been there for fifteen minutes already, but you hadn't yet made up your mind to get out and go into the house; you didn't know how you would face Satoru and Suguru. You were afraid that after all you had confessed to them before you left them alone in tears it would be the final turning point that would end your relationship. You didn't want to hurt them, just the thought of making them cry made you feel bad, you loved them, you loved them so much and you would probably separate. 

You took a couple of deep breaths and got out of the car. 

After entering the house you closed the door and took off your shoes still holding the collar. 

You had been out of the house all day and by now everyone must have gone to sleep. The house was silent and shrouded completely in darkness except for a light coming from the kitchen. 

As you silently entered you saw Suguru and Satoru sitting on either side of the dining table who, as soon as they noticed your presence, although you could glimpse tiredness and sadness in their eyes, tried to show you their best smile. 

They had been waiting for you.

They both extinguished their smiles when you approached them pointing out the traces of crying on your face, and only then did they realize that you had returned alone. 

You sat by Suguru's side with Satoru facing you and placed Nuko's collar on the table, letting them know that your cat was gone forever. Suddenly you felt tears fill your eyes again.

"Oh love, come here," Suguru hugged you, while Satoru got up from his chair to join you and do the same. You stayed like that for you don't know how long, despite everything that had happened, they were there for you at that moment, just as you were always there for them when they needed you. They let you cry and vent, hugging you as if to protect you from all the evil in the world. 

At one point you felt your body lift off the ground, you didn't know if it was Satoru or Suguru holding you, but you buried your tearful face in his neck as he carried you to the bedroom. 

They laid you in the middle of the bed and held you close all night, even when you all fell asleep together. 

Perhaps there was still hope between you, perhaps all was not lost.  

Click here for the final part

Tag: @tatahungry

[asexualbookbird]

Ah, I read some books in 2024, huh? And eight rereads? Who am I. Tried a lot of new things this year which yay! Go me! Branching out! Not all of those were successes, but I did it and therefore no one can criticise me. But we all know what's important here. So here you go, THE BEST AND WORST OF 2024 (in no particular order)!

THE BEST BOOKS OF 2024

The Adventure of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty - yes, I am still thinking about this, thank you for asking! A full entire adult of a person, a mother even, going on adventures? Fighting and killing and fucking and living? Hell yeah! More of this, please! I would also love to see a prequel of Amina's adventures before the book timeline. Everything about this was so great, I look forward to rereading it.

The City We Became by NK Jemisin - I was wary about this because it was so polarizing to readers. On one hand, even my least favorite Jemisin was still fun, on the other hand, I know nothing about New York. HOWEVER. The audiobook was FABULOUS. I wholeheartedly believe the audio is why I enjoyed this so much. This was FUN this is what reading should feel like all the time.

When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb -FRIEND TO MY SOUL. Again, beautiful audio performance. Beautiful story. I need my own copy so I can reread this to my hearts content. It's cute, it deals with heavy topics, it's gay, it's the friend to my soul.

WORST BOOKS OF 2024

The Novice by Taran Matharu - Ugh. Bought when released, knowing nothing, which seems to be a Theme with books sitting on my shelf I end up not enjoying. Learning about the history of this book made me more angry than the book itself. What do you mean his entire series was bought and published without an editor? It shows, but. Come on. Wattpad born and it shows.

Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox- this was only for a summer reading bingo challenge, but come on. There are ways to pull the memory loss, or altered memory plot line and have it work. This did not do that. Wish a library would eat my memories of this book so I never had to think of it again.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence - Mark Lawrence is one of those authors who writes long books because he thinks it makes him a Good Writer. Mark Lawrence is one of those writers who is afraid to write adult characters because he thinks they won't sell, but continuously puts them in adult situations to show how Hard their lives are and Isn't This Dark And Gritty And Sad without doing the work to actually get there. It toes the line between fantasy in scifi, but not well. It feels more indecisive than anything else.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace -more like fireBROKE MY HEART!!!! It was on my tbr list for years, and I finally found a copy and I'm glad I own it so I can reread it at my leisure. It's what Ready Player One could have been if it was actually good.

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner - Okay honestly, this and City were fighting for a spot in the main top three. Either could be there. I do honorable mentions for this very reason. I was surprised to learn this was a tiktok book, because yknow. It's actually Good. Witcher vibes, but with more respect towards women. Why isn't book three in my possession right this second.

Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell - I Am Normal About This Book. It was fun to read and annotate it for a friend. It was fun to be around as two friends read it and I loved seeing their reactions to it. Loved cheering on Shesheshen, still think she deserves to eat more people. Friends and I will still share biting goop memes with the caption "Shex3 posting". It's safe to say this has rewritten my brain.

DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward - I was hyped about this book before release. I bought book two before even reading this because I was that sure I'd enjoy it. What a fool. This did NOT have to be 800 pages. It was another example of someone writing many words because they think that's what Good Writers Do, and not stopping to think about what those words even SAY. Which, in this case, was ~Absolutely Nothing~

Ghost Station by SA Barnes - crying sobbing this book was so fucking stupid. Best thing to come out of it was seeing a friend read it and confirming that yes, it was That Fucking Stupid. Learning the author mainly writes YA Paranormal explained why everyone had Too Stupid To Live disease.

I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S Beagle - Admittedly only here to make things even and because it's still pretty fresh in my mind. I was soooo excited when this was announced, and now I'm soooo happy I didn't preorder it. More boring than anything else, but I don't wish it was longer because it already felt Too Long.

Once again, ignored rereads because I feel like that's cheating somehow. Let these be for highlighting new and fun books I discovered! I feel like the last few Bricks I've read have been Very Bad so I hope a couple of the bricks I have planned for 2025 are actually good. Considering one of those is Labyrinth's Heart, I think we're okay.

[zenchii]

THANK YOU

I was afraid I was going insane by thinking season 2 was bad and cowardly and being heartbroken about it because the Arcane fandom feels like an echo chamber but i'm glad to see other people that also think this

Criticising a popular piece of media (or god forbid, one with a reputation for being 'deep') will always make you feel insane, I feel your pain 😭 Every day I am grateful to the arcane critical tag for existing.

I understand the urge (I mean, I was part of the camp defending Act I's pacing) to want to defend a show you love, to consider it above criticism, but bad writing is bad writing. A lot of people will act like just because you're being negative means you didn't pay enough attention or that you love the show less, but that's not the case.

The reason I'm disappointed and heartbroken is because I was invested and expected better from a show I considered above many shows in quality, and that's the case for most people who are criticising Season 2. So it sucks when people treat you like you're stupid or "media illiterate" just cause you're not willing to just accept whatever so long as it's not 100% awful.

[alcoholicweiwuxian]

how do you expect people to get better at writing, analysing, drawing, creating, whatever, when youre a complete asshole when they do it "wrong" ? arent "good enough" ? no one steps out of the gate being "good" at it. it takes time, and effort, and passion. If you kill that passion, that joy, they wont continue, and wont put effort or time into it. "yeah I complained about this person's fic because it was badly written/had bad takes/etc" congratulations ! you are killing fandom

controversial but if you care about the preservation of fandom, especially in the face of ai, if you care about people contributing and creating and earnestly loving fandom ? you have to be okay with people being bad at it. you have to be okay with people being "cringe" about it. you have to be okay with things you think are dumb. you have to be okay with it. grow up.

[tubbytarchia]

literally so sick of everyone telling you to stop disliking scott. I see ppl complain abt it and it literally drives me up a wall. the block button is right there that’s all it takes.

anyway just trying to be a breath of positivity that its really nice to see someone criticise him for doing things that make me as a queer woman super fucking uncomfortable. Thank you for being a person who just who can actually think about creators critically and not back down in the face of assholes.

on another note, I’m sure you’ve talked about this before but doesn’t it drive you crazy when everyone chalks up the Scott crit to homophobia??? I’ve had to narrow down the people I can criticise him to, to about 3 people. and while I understand internalized homophobia is a thing, I AM VERY GAY AND TALK ABOUT IT. It’s not about that at all! Drives me crazy when people do that.

again thanks for being so unafraid to share stuff because I’m sure you get bullied a lot about it. I’m really glad to see other people sharing my opinions especially someone so bold and unyielding as you <3

Boy do I get bullied... that is putting it very nicely haha, but people like you anon make it worth it to stand my ground. The rampant toxic positivity of this fandom that shuns and alienates its own kin for not abiding by their belief that criticism equals hatred and reason to dox and attack people, isn't going to go anywhere if no one stands against it, and I'm certainly not going to make any difference but if I can just provide a space obsolete of that and encourage people to speak up where they've previously been too afraid to (for very good reason), then I think that's good enough for me. If people want to be so biased towards someone for being gay then by that same logic they should stop attacking me because I am incredibly queer also, as are you and so many others who share these sentiments lol. How these people don't grapple with the fact that it's fucked up to view Scott as gay first and Scott second, I will never know

[carolinagirl80]

question why do you guys fight against criticism against Jared but allow criticism against Jensen and even Misha to happen. whether you like it or not but Jared algae done about it things in the past that deserves to be criticised over and don’t say he apologised because we both know he never apologised. Now I am NOT SAYING JENSEN OR MISHA IS PERFECT BECAUSE THEY ARE DEFINITELY NOT PERFECT but it seems that criticism about Jared is not allowed and mental health only matters when it comes to Jared and no one else

Yeah, you’re right anon. None of them are perfect. No one is.

That being said, the amount of hate that gets thrown Jared’s way is disproportionate compared to the hate flung at Jensen or Misha. Jared’s transgressions, which I’m sorry, are honestly minor, are never forgiven and used against him on a regular basis years after they occurred. Along with the near constant amount of people wishing death on him or his family. That is not ok. So forgive us for wanting to defend him. That doesn’t mean we don’t know he’s done less than savory things in the past. We know it, we’ve accepted it, he’s not continued to do it and we’ve moved past it. Just wish others could do the same.

While Misha could be out there killing puppies and his fans would somehow find a way to say “oh, it was just a joke”. Misha’s behavior hasn’t been blemish free over the years. Though even the AntiMisha crowd doesn’t typically resort to death threats against him the way Jared Anti’s do to him.

Jensen’s fans (mainly the AA crowd), treat him like a Ken doll. They have him living in a fairy tale world where he can do no wrong. I know that’s not true, and my friends and I on SM platforms regularly discuss his shortcomings and are not afraid to call it out. We do it all the time. I am a J2 fan, but Jensen holds my heart and I’m not afraid to say he’s done wrong.

Moral of the story, they’ve all done things they shouldn’t. This fandom is toxic as hell. We defend Jared a little harder because he gets it worse than anyone else and deserves it the least. Sorry not sorry on that one.

[hamilando]

ੈ✩‧₊ One Step ੈ✩‧₊

Pairing : Seunghan x Gn! Reader

Genre : Idol au, Angst

Song : Happier than ever ( rock version) by Billie Eilish

TW: Depression, cyber bullying, idol life , suide

A/N : This is a very sensitive fic, I wrote this because all that's happening with Seunghan is absolutely not fair, not only him but other idols also suffer. We need to realise they are also human and it's their first time living too.

･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･ ✩ ･ﾟ ･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･･ﾟ·:｡･ﾟﾟ･

The car horns were blaring, the wind forcing the boy to keep his eyes open. Standing on top of the roof edge, his eyes blurred, with tears or with regret, he could not tell. He may have made mistakes in the past, but he wondered how much he could take before he could give up.

His ideal dream of debuting in an idol group, discovering the wonders of the world while touring and singing his lungs out had been reduced to an hope which was being extinguished by some jealous friends of his on the Internet. Seunghan debuted as a member of RIIZE, a group under the biggest entertainment in South Korea, fame finding them before they could even step out of the basement.

It scared him, how he was not afraid to die, rather afraid of being wrong in front of some users on the internet.

The life he sacrificed everything for, snatched away because he had a few moments of joy, but now he was fighting for the courage to live than kill himself. He felt broken, like that last piece in a puzzle that was not fitting. He was only human, 'it was your fault' ringing inside his head. He brought disgrace to his group, he brought disgrace to his family, all would be gone if he took a step. One step to his freedom, one step to his new life, one step to happiness.

"Does it ever stop hurting?"

Seunghan turned around and saw a person's shadow, but the tears flowing made it difficult to make out who it was.

"Of course it does, once the blood seeps out." His voice quavered.

"Go ahead and leave then, everyone does."

"They hated me in life, maybe they could love in death."

"It's worth giving a try to relive."

"Reliving where I don't have to starve myself to sing, carve my name in trophies to redeem myself."

"You failed in living, what makes you think you will succeed in dying."

"I kept running behind success, let this fall make it run after me."

Seunghan could feel a smile creep on his face, the feel of ending it all making the adrenaline rush in his body, the same adrenaline feeling he got before his first ever debut stage. Oh, but look at irony, a smile starting the movie, an even bigger smile to finish the movie. A movie well criticised by those who could never feel the making of it.

"If all you had to do was run, you should have joined a marathon team."

"At least there I would run towards my goal and not away from it."

The person took a few steps forward, hands in pocket due to the cold wind blowing, Seunghan just staring at the person in front of him.

"Is this you speaking or the adrenaline in you speaking because you are standing on the edge?"

Seunghan scoffed at the question, he was considering taking his life right here and this person was taking it as a joke,

"Of course it's me, I won't be standing here because of a dare."

"Well, then I dare you, come down the edge and say you want to jump off, look me in the eyes and say you want to jump off."

"I can say all that from right here."

"I know you can, but just come down once."

"Once you reach the top, it's difficult to come down"

"Then don't look down, look at me, I am here for you."

"I am glad, but it's a little late to be here for me."

Talking made it all the tougher for Seunghan to clear his mind. With a last glance at the person in front of him, he turned facing the city lights and said with confidence,

"Why would I come down when right now I feel the happiest man on top of the world?"

With that he took the step, deaf to the screams of the person behind him, deaf to the car horns blaring, deaf to the screams of his fans on debut, deaf to affections of his parents, deaf to the laughter of his members,

deaf to the little voice in his brain saying "one more chance was all that was needed."

[olderthannetfic]

My experience with shippers has been such a mixed bag.

Sometimes there are those "controversial fandom takes" threads and some comments go like this:

"Shippers are the worst. They only care about their romance and never talk about anything interesting in the story outside of that!"

Which will be responded to with either:

"There are lots of ways to enjoy content, mind your business!"

Or

"Shippers are the backbone of a fandom. We can discuss the intricacies of the work AND be horny at the same time!"

I'm sure that's true, but that was rarely how it went in the fandoms I was part of, unlucky bastard that I am. Out of the languages I can understand, I only saw a few times fans engaged in discussions about several topics concerning the show or the book. The rest were either quiet or balls-deep in messy shipping behaviour that is often criticised.

The irony is that it was always the shippers who got angry when people complained about them being "that kind of fan" who would engage in huge blown-out public arguments online. The last time I saw it happen, a group got super angry when a random person online, who none of them followed, criticised their favourite ship in the quotes of a tweet that wasn't theirs. It was a dumb criticism from a person who didn't understand the characters nor cared to understand the chemistry that fans of that ship see. Very stupid and, to me, easy to ignore. But the shippers got so angry that the fight spread outside of their bubble and more random people got involved. Eventually, their fight reached a big artist from that ship and that person shaded their holy war by saying: "I love [pairing] as much as you guys do, but fighting over this is so unnecessary. Ignore them and stop doing this shit! How tiring and boring that this always happens!" and it eventually stopped. Later, I caught one of them wondering if the artist was talking about them, afraid they would get blocked for bringing toxicity to the artist's page, which I found out is something that the artist does to curate their online experience. You know, like a sensible person.

I wish I could say they were teenagers, but they were between 22 to 29 years old.

And let's not talk about the civil wars. God forbid a ship be interpreted in a way that the others dislike, or explored in darker and more controversial themes!

I just can't wrap my head around the behaviour of getting into fights with strangers on twitter dot com or anywhere on the World Wide Web because someone out there said something stupid about a thing I like. Why do some people get so aggressively defensive rather than just blocking and moving on? Maybe throwing in a "spoken like a true tasteless bitch" if feeling particularly vexed?

I'll never say shippers are useless fans like some say, but they can be some of the most consistent shit-stirrers in fandoms. My biggest struggle with them is that the crazy shippers aren't vile in the same way that some fans can be when a black woman is cast for the role of a character that isn't black, for example. They are vile in the way that they will send death threats to the directors, the animators, and the actors if their ship isn't made canon by the end of the story.

At their best, shippers can be some of the most engaged and passionate fans anyone could have the pleasure to find in their fandom. But at their worst... man...

--

I'll eat my hat if like 90% of people reading here don't ship a bunch of ships.

[petitemortality]

Is there a best way to criticize editing without criticizing the writing? Such as a situation where I find the writing fine but find its inclusion not so great and something the editor should have caught or not let into the book?

Unless you're talking about e.g. the selection of pieces included in a multi-author anthology, or factual inaccuracies in non-fiction writing, it's harder than you might think for a reader to accurately guess which authorial decisions were made by the writer and which came from their editor. The relationship between a writer and editor tends to be a relationship of discussion and negotiation (even at major publishing houses where you might imagine the editor gets 'final say' over the content on the page).

For instance, let's say a writer is dealing with a delicate topic like race. Their editor might query aspects of the way it's dealt with in the text, and make arguments for altering or removing passages they consider too provocative. The writer might then agree with and accept some changes, but push back against others and make arguments for the importance of those passages to the larger work. If there is a strong financial or reputational risk, the editor may be under pressure to insist on certain changes, and the writer must then decide whether the inclusion of those elements is worth jeopardising the publication of the overall work. On the other hand (more common in small press), the editor might defer to writer on the basis that arguments have been made in good faith, and it is ultimately the writer's choice to deal with delicate subjects the way they see fit.

If a reader picks up the book and objects to its handling of race, who is then to blame? The writer for writing it? The editor for not insisting on the 'right' changes? The writer for accepting 'wrong' changes and allowing the work to be published in that state? At what point does the editor have the right to fundamentally alter what the writer intends to say? At what point does the writer bear responsibility for the changes they allow an editor to make? At what point is the editor at fault for allowing a writer to publish something they wouldn't have written themselves? At what point does an editor become a cowriter? And how much of this can even be discerned in the finished product?

I'm speaking as both an editor and a writer here, to be clear. Unless an author explicitly says that some element of their published writing was the result of an editorial change, I don't think it's possible to clearly disentangle the roles of writer and editor in the decision-making process that shapes a finished piece. Apart from anything else, there are so many different kinds of editorial relationship - some very intimate and involved, others more like a stamp of approval to say 'I looked at it and there's nothing outright dogshit in here'.

But to answer the question (and, again, I am speaking as a writer here as much as I'm speaking as an editor), I don't think you should be afraid to criticise writing holistically. You should be able to say what you liked or disliked about a piece of writing and trust that the author is capable of taking responsibility for their own work, process and all.

If you can clearly and constructively express e.g. 'I think this particular part of the book didn't deal so well with race and this is why', it doesn't matter if you can definitively say it's the editor's fault or the writer's shortcoming, or some marketing executive meddling with a manuscript. The writer should know what happened. And if a bunch of readers consistently dislike decisions that came from their editor, they should pretty quickly figure out they need a new editor whose creative vision more closely matches their own.

[rudystree]

https://www.tumblr.com/rudystree/766597159322845184/the-only-unprofessional-ppl-are-the-pates-and?source=share

the pates live and breathe nepotism. it makes total sense that they would do shit like that. and they don't understand that that's literally one of the main issues of the industry because "it's always been like that"

they put their own family in their work left and right. they look at this as more of a fun project than an actual workplace, I fear. and that's where a lot of these issues stem from. bc we know Rudy can be professional, which is also why I don't believe he was the one who asked for the stunt doubles.

~echobx

I’m afraid you’re absolutely correct

I don’t wanna comment on stuff I don’t know, and I don’t know them personally, but I will criticise their work

I can understand that if you create, produce and direct your own show, you have a lot of creative freedom (and I wouldn’t hold it against them to give their friends and family a couple of cameos) — but evidently the culture on set was dysfunctional in some ways and I think the show runners have to be blamed for that to some extent

Rudy is an extremely professional and capable actor; he’s proven that over a variety of projects, his costars attest to it, I have no doubts. He has no problem filming intimate and sexual scenes with other female scene partners in other projects. So when I see people blaming Rudy for whatever interpersonal issues seem to have been present on set…yeah I am very skeptical of how much he is really at fault.

[save-the-villainous-cat]

Can you do an undercover hero working for the villain and the villain hears them talking to superhero but make it spicy?

“Could you come over to my office, love?” The hero nearly choked on air as they heard the villain’s voice on the other side of the door, persuasive and gentle. Involuntarily, they clasped their phone a little too harshly as they tried to conceal their superior’s voice.

“What is going on?” They were already aggravated. In their opinion, the mission was clearly taking longer than it needed to but the hero needed time to figure out the important details.

Important details which weren’t interesting enough to the superhero.

“I gotta go. You can keep listening but I can’t talk right now.”

“Hey, what are you—”

The hero didn’t end the call, they just muted their superior and let them sink back into their pocket. They hurried out of the break room, still a little frustrated. Getting criticised for their work was a little infuriating. It had taken a lot of work to get the villain to even talk to them. Trust was something which only grew slowly.

“Are you alright?” the villain asked softly. “You look a little red in the face.”

They sat on their chair, looking at their desktop.

“I— uhm…I am fine.” The hero gave a small smile in the hopes of convincing the villain this lie was true. “What can I help you with?”

Unfortunately, the villain was attractive. Stupidly attractive. Their eyes pierced through the hero and tugged at their heartstrings, taking everything apart with surgical precision. Whenever the hero messed up (on purpose, for reasons of sabotage), the villain defended them in front of the other villains.

They brought them coffee, even though it was the hero’s job as their assistant. It had been going on like this for the last week and truly, the hero didn’t want this to end. Somehow, the hero felt drawn to them, not only because they were good-looking.

But because they were also their nemesis.

Exciting, in a twisted way.

“Come here.” The villain gave them a once-over and the hero obeyed immediately. As soon as they stood in front of them, the villain got up, so much taller with so much more power in their own building, all of it right in front of the hero.

The pressure was crushing the hero. Not only that, but also the villain just being the villain was intimidating.

“Personally, I think relationships which develop at work are…messy.” The hero blushed. What a way to start a conversation.

“How so?” the hero asked, genuinely curious.

“Most of the time, there’s a power imbalance. I want an equal, not a dog following me around,” the villain said. Again, they looked at the hero and wetted their lips, probably not even aware of it.

“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t follow,” the hero tried but their heart was beating in their chest harder than ever. It almost hurt.

The villain grinned at that, showing off their perfect set of teeth.

“Work is a nasty thing, isn’t it?”

“I enjoy it, actually—” Suddenly, the villain cornered them, trapping them between themselves and the desk. The hero gasped at the close proximity, at the villain’s arms caging them. They leaned in, slowly and some sort of panic entered the hero’s nervous system. However, they weren’t worried about the danger of being caught. This feeling was something else.

“Darling,” the villain purred, “what a smart hero you are…if I had known sooner, I would’ve devoured you a month ago.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” By now, the hero had to grab the villain’s shoulders to keep their balance and prevent crashing onto the desk. Panic wasn’t part of this anymore.

All the hero could think about was the villain’s body against theirs. Meat to meat.

They gasped anew.

“Oh, please. I would’ve recognised that ass everywhere. But you were good…until you messed up last week.” The villain chuckled tenderly and let their hand fall down to the hero’s lower back.

To stabilise them, the hero realised.

“Not a power imbalance when the two most powerful people in the city are having fun…what do you think?” They dragged their finger down the hero’s throat, over their windpipe, down to their chest. The hero grabbed the villain’s wrist.

“Please…”

“Sensitive?” the villain asked and the hero could only nod in embarrassment. The villain’s smirk only grew.

“You’re adorable. You have always been my favourite.” The hero blushed even more than they already did. “But, my love…end that call, will you? What happens next here, isn’t for your superior’s ears.”

And that was the moment the hero wanted to sink into the ground and never appear again. They had totally forgotten that the superhero had heard everything.

[multi-fandom-lunatic]

I think overall, the misogyny, sexism and racism in booktok is so prevalent because the fans who are recommending these tropes/seeing them as good and fine are very socially privileged. It makes it hard to criticise those tropes without getting verbally abused online by those refusing to acknowledge the harm done, so people have had to make an 'anti booktok' space when that shouldn't actually be the case. The racism in play is massive because those white people essentially think of poc as tokens - little bits of diversity here and there do they can point at us to prove they're not racist. The thing is, fiction is caused by reality. A lot of the white people who are fine with these racist tropes (Black best friend, quiet Asian nerd etc.) do actually tokenise us in real life and see us as a tickbox they can use, rather than a human being they can be friends with...and I think this mindset is absolutely encourage by what fiction has done for years - placed Black people in the best friend role with no shot at romance, refused to let the Asian exist without being awkward and out-of-touch, and making the queer best friend fashionable and a hype person without letting them be the main character. It's no wonder that the people obsessed with making adult lit like YA and putting high school level drama and romance into adult settings, have racist mindsets; most of the tropes I mentioned come from coming-of-age/high school movies for teens. It's just a mess.

I think nostalgia is a big part of it. The people who consume this content (white, abled, Christian, cishet women) saw this as the only kind of main character during the 2000s/2010s, and even though we've socially progressed since that time, nostalgia and their privilege doesn't let them remember the bigotry present. That's why, even though there are more POC and queer shows/media, it's all written to be digestible for these women and it just... irks me.

It's absolutely tokenising, and it's honestly disgusting. They don't understand that there is such thing as bad representation - if they see a person of a marginalised group, they'll consider it good representation, no matter how forced, stereotypical and poorly written it is. They see these stereotypes in real life and apply it to POC. And maybe this is a me thing, because I still mentally struggle with "fitting into the boxes". For context, I am Asian, and while I'm not a genius, I am fairly nerdy. But constantly being told to "not be like the other girls" and showing these other girls as 2D stereotypes, it's always been hard for me to embrace myself without feeling guilty about "being a part of the stereotype". I'm kind of getting the hang of not being afraid to have interests/hobbies that would put me inside the box now (Now I realise, it's completely the fault of the people who create those boxes), but it's still hard sometimes. Okay, done with that personal tangent.

I have an equation. Social privilege + nostalgia = tropey BS. Or at least, a taste for tropey BS.

And yeah, it definately plays into the whole merging of YA and Adult Lit, because nostalgia just keeps these people tethered to these tropes, and it bleeds into not only reality but also the way we write different genres. Worst part is, it's not even exclusively a Booktok problem. It's so glaringly obvious in teen movies/shows/literally any media. And adult ones too. I'm so ready for this BS to die out.

[sirianasims]

It was Saturday night. We had ordered room service, watched an old cult classic in bed. Paul hadn’t felt like going out. A reporter had cornered him in the airport yesterday and questioned him about his frequent visits to San Myshuno, asked if he was seeing someone.

He’d denied it.

Despite the fame, Paul was an intensely private person, always guarding his personal space against a world that kept demanding more. I respected that, even though I was more used to the opposite. My personal life was part of my online brand, but I’d followed his lead and kept our relationship secret.

Paul’s arms were wrapped around me, his chest firm and reassuring against my back. The rhythmic cadence of his breathing was like a soft lullaby, but I was nowhere close to falling asleep.

“Julia? Is something wrong? Are you still thinking about the reporter?”

“It’s just… all this secrecy.”

“You don’t think I denied seeing anyone because I’m ashamed of you, do you?”

I took a deep breath.

“Seventeen years, Paul. It’s not just the number, it’s the experience. I’m proud of what I do, I really am, but compared to you, drawing and sewing in front of a tiny camera by myself seems… trivial. You have this glamorous life, you know all these famous people, you’ve traveled the world. I haven’t done anything. Sometimes I’m afraid that I might not be, well, sophisticated or interesting enough for you. That I might never be someone you’d want to show off in public.”

“Listen to me, Julia. You are more than enough for anyone. Definitely for me. But if people find out about us, I’m not worried about myself. An older actor dating a younger woman? That’s not a scandal, that’s a cliché. But you… I really don’t want you facing the kind of judgment this would get you.”

“Wait, you’re saying you’re concerned about my reputation?”

“In a way. I don’t care what people say about me any more. I’ve been in this industry long enough to develop a thick skin. But you deserve so much better. And while it isn’t fair, the world is much more likely to judge you, and that’s the last thing I want.”

I cupped his face in my hands.

“Paul, I don’t care. What could they possibly say?”

He looked away, a hint of bitterness in his voice.

“Oh, you have no idea. They’ll say that you callously seduced me to further your own career or that you’re too dumb to be anything more than arm candy. Probably somehow both. They’ll accuse you of being a gold-digger. Men will hate you because they can’t have you, women will hate you because they can’t be you. People will be cruel and unforgiving and pick apart everything you are. They will criticise your work, your looks, the way you walk and talk. And it never ends. The peak of my fame was almost a decade ago, but they’re still following me into airports and asking about my love life.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond. Paul looked at me earnestly.

“Julia, I believe in you. Your work is great, especially your own designs, and I’ve seen a lot of costumes. I want you to be famous for being incredibly talented, not just for being Paul Romeo’s girlfriend.”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, so I am your girlfriend, then?”

He laughed.

“That’s your takeaway from this conversation? Of course you are, what do you think we’ve been doing for the last few months?”

“Well, what do I know, I’m just the dumb arm candy of Paul Romeo. I should probably be pestering you to buy me a sports car made of diamonds or a platinum ladder so I can social-climb in style.”

Paul chuckled.

“That sounds impractical. And you’re definitely not dumb, but you’re pretty terrible at being a gold-digger. All joking aside, I don’t like keeping you a secret either, but I know the dark side of fame, how toxic it can be. It can really poison a relationship. I’ve seen it happen to friends and colleagues over and over again, and I just want to protect you from that. Protect us.”

I respected Paul for his noble intentions, for looking out for me. Still, a part of me, that stubborn – and probably naive – part, wanted to stand tall and shout it from the rooftops, consequences be damned.

But I also knew that he was right.

Those consequences would hurt me way more than they would hurt him.

beginning / previous / next

[damianbugs]

Don't we all just love it when EVEN IF A FICWRITER portraits Talia as positive character AND shows Damian's trust and calmness when talking to her (in the fic he's always scared around the others - Bruce, Tim, etc.), people just can't accept it and keep see her as horrible IN THE FIC. Just why?..... 😭Like, we're not even talking about Morrison's canon, we're literally only talking about tHE FIC. READERS, WHY.

sorry, just screaming because you seem to be upset with Talia treatment too.

it is racism and misogyny my friend 😔 fandoms with white male dominated characters tend to be ignornant as a given, but the batfamily fandom specifically has a very big issue when it comes to how brown and black characters are perceived. i'll stick to just talking about talia in this, but it applies to other characters too.

talia gets double the horrible press because not only is she a person of colour, but also a woman of colour. like you said, comic writers (read: GRANT MORRISON) established this horrific characterisation of her and for many years the other stories followed this and it rewrote her entire personality. thankfully, more recent comic writers (read: ram v ❤️) are tackling this and rewriting her already rewritten character — but i am afraid the damage is already done. this is only made worse by the animated movies and shows ALSO adopting this version of talia as their base character.

now when it comes to fics you get two terrible outcomes: people who only know morrisons talia and write her based on those comics, or the more often seen, people who don't read comics but read fics written with morrison talia and assume this is how she has always been. then there's the third more sinister thing of people who Know this characterisation is racist and ooc, but use it anyway because it gives way for them to write whump and angst about one of the sad pathetic white boys.

this creates what you mention about readers who for some reason only accept this HEAVILY CRITICISED characterisation and RETCONNED actions and refuse to see her as anything more than the evil brown lady. especially when it comes to damian fics, she is often written as this caricature of stereotypes in order to highlight how his white american family "saved" him from his abusive uncivilised middle-eastern family. the ignorance and racism is very poorly hidden when you say it how it is.

i give people the benefit of the doubt, because yk, sometimes they honestly don't know the racism and microaggression that was put into her rewrite and they're not aware of who she was before grant morrison got their claws into her. they're just ignornant and not educated on this topic, and thats not their fault.

but once readers and writers ARE aware of this and continue to perpetuate it — then they're just as racist and misogynistic as the rest of them 🤷🏾‍♀️

[maceysbookclub]

Self Criticism

I think criticism is super important. The unfortunate thing about criticism is you often need an audiance, or someone who is reading your work to criticise it.

I am going to go through and criticize my own work and try to explain how I am going to solve the problems, because no one is currently reading it.

Starting with characters:

Joshua from Wizard is too reactionary. Though his whole quest is a reaction to the events happening around him. He doesn't have many oportunities to bounce off others, rather internalizing his feelings. He feels uncomfortable, but I play into this a bit in huntress and half way through, he meets a character who mirrors him and I plan to use this to push a better dynamic between the two forcing him to change into a proactivecharacter.

Andrew Summers from Intern is very blank slatey. He imparts very little to the story, I didn't mean for this, it just kinda happened as he is thrown into a new world and needs to adapt. I plan to build out a better dynamic between him and Mr. Creed as master and student as well as give him more initiative going forward, growing him from a skeptic to an active participant. It will help when he goes off to meet people on his own.

I feel I do a decent job in some cases with these characters, but I find they are bland in most situations because they are so adaptable. Wrath from trillion on the other hand, as a main character is very personable, having his own motivations and knowing his shortcomings. He bounces off the others because he has no choice but to work well with them.

Main characters are hard to get right without being bland or too in your face. I tend to lean on bland, not wanting to annoy my readers with quips and one liners, but I am afraid to impart character onto them.

It can be hard to admit faults in your work, but it is worth being honest.