#and by ppl I mean both fandom and published authors

[sarafangirlart]

Is it a coincidence that around the time ppl started depicting Andromeda as black (or at least a WOC) they also start shipping Perseus with Medusa? (Disposable black girlfriend trope much?) Or have Perseus and Andromeda be together but in an abusive relationship? Bc it seems only the white Andromeda can have a loving husband and a happy ending.

[kuwanxs]

Hellooo there was something abt your post that kinda got me thinking. The mha fandom has always been populated by mostly fem and general queer people, which is probably the reason why these toxic brodudes were SO pissed whenever anything queer looking would happen in the story, and why their reaction to 430 was so bitter and vindictive. They hate when they see the queers feeling like they have been catered to, and they hate having to be creative by themselves.

I watched a video by a yt named Shaun, abt a fake outrage that the same kind of brodudes instigated, but with the difference being that it was abt video games. He said something that seriously makes sense even in the context of mha and various other mangas.

"They don't want to be a part of diversity, they want to be superior to it. They don't want a game with the option to cater to them, they want to be the ones who the game solely caters to".

And to me, that is exactly what 431 is.

Now i'm gonna be honest, my opinion of Hori wasn't the greatest before, and after that it just became really sour. But i recognized his capabilities and his passion. So being as chariable as possible coming from me; i think he just got angry that he had to see people criticizing the previous ending in such a humiliating way. It wouldn't be surprising, since the the fuss they made wasn't just in one place, it was everywhere. Everyone was spreading misinformation to hell and back and even attacking him personally.

He tried his best to counter all of what they were saying, by making everything they wanted a possibility at the very last minute. But, as you know, the things they wanted were absolutely nothing but the bland, underdeveloped het ship becoming canon. And for that, everything had to be dumbed down, forgotten, or forced in a shoddy way. Now all the same ppl who were pissed are praising him for "fixing" his ending.

He'll probably try to do damage control if the backlash of now gets to him, by like, idk making family/romantic illustrations for Iz/och? Which to me personally will just mean that he really is that lazy or weak willed. But maybe he will just show cool illustrations and stay quiet.

I think you are sooooo right about dudebros wanting a piece of media to only be catered to them. Your quotation is also so on point.

The biggest problem with mha is that it’s debut, and the initial few years of its publication, it mainly garnered a very dudebro like fanbase. Even during the first half of 2020 when it blew up, it catered heavily to dudebros with fan service and power scaling. The issue is that eventually as the manga transcended to become something that was much more inclusive, it stopped catering to these guys.

I have always said this but a man’s biggest enemy is women and queer people. So when a fanbase garners a massive female and queer audience, it becomes a job for these guys to shame said consumers who actually heavily heavily contribute to the popularisation of said media. I’m not sure if you have seen the video of that woman on tiktok who went viral for crying over chapter 431 and how aggressive these “normal” guys were towards her. I believe infiltration of fandom spaces mainly happens when the author tries to cater to EVERY side of the audience, the dudebros, women, queer people. And it simply cannot work that way. This is something i have always critiqued on Hori’s part, that despite that sheer density and strength of his story, he becomes directionless when it comes to appealing to certain sides of the fandom. Which is why we get sm fan service, sm forced izcha crumbs, its Hori’s attempt at keeping both bkdks and izchs happy. And it simply does not work that way.

However, i truly truly thought his choice of ending 430 the way he did was groundbreakingly beautiful. It was the most amazing open ending we could’ve had. But his choice to publish 431, which, he too, seemed unwilling to, really undid 430 chapters of his hard work because not only did it fracture the narrative and corrupt the characters but it also dismantled everything he had built. In a way, it also very much ruined mha in multiple ways.

I hadn’t seen a relationship as beautiful as tgchk and bkdk in shounen before, it was so raw and jarring in so many ways. And as a bisexual woman, Toga’s conclusion felt very dear and personal to me. But sadly, the ending really left a hole in my heart. So when i see these dudebros violently trashing ships and calling them senseless I cannot help but feel super sad because in a way, after chapter 430 the number of these aggressive dudebros had significantly reduced maybe because they were forced to come in terms with the finale. But 431 really resurfaced them in the worst way possible.

[randxmthxughts]

I really don't like tiktok as they always tend to drag ppl in the avatar fandom when it comes to aging up characters (even though the avatar characters are na'vis and they mature faster/reach adulthood at a faster age). also, not to mention the fact that when I first saw neteyam, I literally thought he was like 18/19??? He just doesn't look like a little kid, at all.

Also, you know it's a fact that the avatar characters already know of such topics like when lo'ak was like "who do you think knocked her up" and both spider and kiri knew what they were talking about. It's not like we're aging up Tuk, that would be very wrong for obvious reasons.

On top of that, how tf are all of those tiktokers gonna react when the rest of the avatar chracaters reach adulthood in the other films. Is it still gonna be "bad?" That literally means they will get aged up in the films, so what different is it then someone aging them up in their writing, jfc??

I hate tiktok, it's toxic, always has been, and always will be. As an avatar fan/ smut writer, I don't even use tiktok and just decided to get off of it or else drama will just happen, or I'll see some unnecessary drama and it's all just very tiring.

Plus not to mention the fact that if you happen to post something about smut, it's very open and there are lots of minors on it and they're the ones complaining about the content even though they don't respect the 18+ warning on the videos or accounts lol.

i get that, with avatar tiktok i only try to look at edits and those 'details you may not have noticed' vids. the fans making videos of themselves and poking fun at other avatar creators gives me such an icky feeling

i also find it amusing how the same people who call fandom p3dos end up making these edits of lo'ak that are clearly romanticizing him as a love interest? is there a line that they're also crossing? are they hypocrites?

it's such a weird topic, and the overall attitude is very confusing. are we going to cancel all of the published authors in their 30's who write young adult fiction books? what about directors who make movies about teenagers? is greta gerwig cancellable p3do because ladybird had a sex scene?

idk you guys tell me, all i can say is that once in a while i see that stuff and i feel guilty about it, and i'm not sure how to deal with it

[meganswifeong]

p.s. don't @ me w/ "don't use the x reader tag cuz you just want attention". I put it here for a reason. The more you tell me not to, the more you show me why it should be there.

X reader tag is exactly what it mean, for fanfiction, not memes, not relatable content, not discourse, it's for WRITTEN WORK, if u wrote a fic &n also added at the end in an authors note smthin like "i dont like a lot of the incest fics i want to make less dark content etc etc" that's reasonable, dont put non-x-reader work in x reader tags, that's the point, this is a discussion post (as u admit in comments) tag it the character / fanfiction etc

Older boyfriend Leon is *chef's kiss*. Daddy kink is alright, I like that one too. Whatever includes Leon not being related to the reader AT ALL.

right. so a kink (daddy kink) which is literally an incest/age play kink is ok, but not... incest... i dont get this. like what do u think daddy kinks r? yah. its incest/incestual roles rp & ageplay. if u like daddy kinks, ur reading incestual role play in kinky context. THATS sexualising incest... idk what this is, written fictional incest is precisely what daddy kinks r, both r fictionalizing the concept of incestual roles for incestual rp.

all the ppl telling u "first time in fandom" r correct. AO3 was made to host incest (thorki & wincest), redfieldcest/weskercest used 2 b the most common shipfics outside of chreon fics on ao3/fanfiction dot net. incest in written fiction even outside of fanfiction exists everywhere, stuff that is nominated & even in some states, read for educational value (flowers in the attic for example)

no offence, but if u dislike a certain topic you deem not-okay, simply saying "its gross!! shouldnt exist!!" isn't reasonable, murder, incest, rape, violence, corruption etc are things meant to be explored in fiction, published more often than not, same as it is in fanfiction

some of u come to this conclusion that fanfiction writers have a different expectation than published authors, and should NEVER EVER write sensitive topics, which is odd. and censorship will do us no good, yes even stuff you dislike

ppl aren't exactly coming into school libraries and writing on the walls "THERES GROSS BOOKS IN THIS LIBRARY!!! INCEST BOOKS IN THIS LIBRARY!!!", becoz common sense u dont

there is no actual, constructive opinion you've delivered here, aside from "I dislike that this work of fiction displays a disturbing topic. and why am I seeing it??" well y is cuz u arent filtering or shi.

so then. what is ur point in posting this, when u have not reblogged a single other fic written by non-incest leon writers? yall dropped out of school lost basic comprehension and critical thinking, and whine about it on the internet. that's what tis shi look like. go outside, real problems r going on, trump's team does want to ban books from public eye, books that are imperitive to education, focus on THAT, instead of yapping abt fanfiction of all things n showing fanfic authors 0 support as well

Guys can we like... NOT write literal incest fanfiction about Leon Kennedy? Like??????? Disgusting????

Do not tell me it's a kink or something. It's just sick.

And trust me, Leon would get a restriction order against all of you who write it.

Older boyfriend Leon is *chef's kiss*. Daddy kink is alright, I like that one too. Whatever includes Leon not being related to the reader AT ALL.

Like, seriously... INCEST???????

Get tf out of here. Hella my face.

p.s. don't @ me w/ "don't use the x reader tag cuz you just want attention". I put it here for a reason. The more you tell me not to, the more you show me why it should be there.

[eowynstwin]

more on my cousin - even as a published author she still has a patreon, idk her tumblr but she definitely has one - idk what fandom this was in when she was writing (something vaguely anime/homestuck/mxdx idk it was never my scene) but it definitely happened. i think it's more popular in anime/animated fandoms and not so much in like cod/tlou/book based fandoms. doesn't mean it shouldn't happen here tho. so like - artists/writers/creatives deserve to be paid for their work, if they desire that, ppl who are upset at you are the same people who write/draw with AI and say it's easy - creatives deserved to be compensated for their time!!

Ooh that’s really cool! I know N.K. Jemisin still maintains her patreon too, even considering the success she’s found—I think it’s a very smart thing to do, both with staying engaged with your most passionate readership and ensuring that if your sales suddenly run dry there’s still a monthly income.

[golbrocklovely]

I’ve been a fan of this blog for a little bit, I’ve noticed you don’t really talk about yourself too often. So how’s life? Is writing just an hobby? Who do you favor more, Sam or Colby? How did you become such a popular blog? Favorite color? And lastly, favorite conspiracy? 😁

You don’t have to answer all of them, I’m just a curious kitten and want to know the person behind the blog haha

i do talk about my life on here, just not as frequently as other ppl i guess haha

my life rn has been a bit hectic. it always seems like when i'm feeling good about myself or feel like i got my footing just right, the rug gets pulled out from under me. or more specifically, when i feel good the rest of my family doesn't. and it's not that they do that on purpose, it's just life likes to make me feel good for a moment only to ruin everything else around me. i can never be happy too long. life is never just... mundane.

but things seem to maybe be looking up. so i guess that's a positive. or at least a potential positive.

writing is a hobby of mine, but i would love to one day publish my works and become a famous author. i do have plans that once i finish the chosen daughter i want to really work on it and publish it. whether i shop it around or just self publish, i'm not sure. but i would love to write books that ppl talk about - not just in the snc fandom.

i would say i most likely favor colby more only bc i'm more attracted to him. but that doesn't mean i hate sam by any means. i genuinely love the both of them a lot.

idk if i would say i'm popular, but i think i'm well known on here just bc i constantly talk about snc. when i first got on here, there wasn't that many ppl. and along with my writing, i think me opening up my account to allow ppl to vent about what they were feeling about snc/fandom anonymously really allowed a community to grow on here, and thus for a lot of ppl to know who i am. i think that's always been a major issue in the fandom; nobody wants to hear "negative" opinions about snc or anything related to them. obviously there are times when it's not appropriate, or there are ways to not be rude about it, but if we can't even agree to disagree... how can we be a fandom?

my favorite color is red :)

and i actually don't really like conspiracy theories, weirdly enough. i think some are interesting, but none that i can really pin point. maybe the bermuda triangle? that's kinda cool. but other than that i don't really care for conspiracy theories.

feel free to send in more questions, if you want. no pressure tho !

[ouyangzizhensdad]

People praising the purity of the romance in cql (nothing wrong with that btw) while throwing insults to novel and author always forget that if it wasn't for the fans of the "dirty novel", cql would have a half assed het plot and flopped so bad most ppl would never know it existed.

I do see an issue with praising the “purity” of romance: there is a difference between having personal preferences and wanting to see variety in media, and claiming that a “”pure”” romance is morally superior compared to a “dirty” novel. This is particularly concerning with the stigma around queer’s people sexuality, and gay people in general. It is also weirdly puritanical, and I’m not sure how that became a thing in supposedly progressive spaces. Like, congratulations on sounding almost exactly like a conservative bashing gay content by calling it “gay filth”.... 

There are adaptations that actually improve upon the plot or the thematic explorations of the original, adaptations made by people who are more competent storytellers than the original creative. CQL is not one of those: most of its interesting set-ups, character traits, themes, the striking dialogue etc., imo, come from the novel. So to me the issue is not only that the novel and its fans are responsible for us all not getting an explicitly het version of MDZS, but that CQL did not imo improve upon the material, and only muddled parts of it in the process of adapting it within the context of their specific challenges they faced (censorship, budget, different medium, etc.). It is however certainly better than it could have been, and I will gladly give them that! So even if people choose or are not interested in reading the novel because it features explicitly sexual scenes or some dub-con or for whatever other reason (which is fine in itself!), the level of disrespect and dismissal towards it and its author is really hyperbolic and unjustifiable, particularly considering how many of the criticisms levelled at MXTX are actually baseless or result from people’s poor reading comprehension (for instance the ‘LWJ calls WWX his wife’ nonsense). 

I also find myself exhausted by the ignorance regarding how and why media adaptations happen, or even the vaguest understanding of how the media works in China. The complete lack of engagement with the material (aka the economic) and the political in favour of moralising along the dichtomy of pure and dirty content..... It’s wack. Applauding a production team for showing two men gazing at each other in a show that managed to pass a government-backed media corporation’s internal risk assessment mechanisms with regards to both censorship and profit-making (a media corporation who benefits $$ from making sanitised version of danmei works that authors put themselves at risk to publish for very little financial gain) while shitting down on a woman who is literally taking a risk by 1) publishing her stories 2) having become an incredibly well-known figure of the danmei writing community (considering the fact that the Chinese government has, in the past, specifically targeted visible figures as a way to make a statement) 3) and also who got a relatively or laughably small portion of $$ resulting from the success of all the adaptations of her novel. That does not mean MXTX and her works is above criticism, but I think you get where I’m going with this. 

Who’s really benefitting from CQL’s success? Who’s really benefitting from all the EN-language fandom shitting on the novel and encouraging people to not even give it a fair chance? Gay people? Pfft. 

I’m exhausted.

[rainystudios]

Here’s a list of resources you can use to learn more about Japanese Queer history, literature, BL, Gei Komi, Fujoshi, Fudanshi etc.

fujoshi.info

----

Edit: It’s honestly depressing that anyone I’ve seen so far who disliked this post and commented on it either went off on completely unrelated tangents, or assumed that I'm either white (I’m not) and/or not gay/queer as an excuse to talk over me. It’s extremely ironic claiming to be open-minded/progressive while removing any association of queerness from people who discuss BL/Fujoshi history as an excuse to talk over them. “You’re gonna say your as oppressed as gay people???” hello, I am a gay POC.

People who perpetuated the Anti Fujoshi narrative were terfs and you’re actually being transphobic by spreading their narratives. They call trans MLM fujoshi because they hate trans men and see them as “fetishistic” women. They don’t see trans men as men, they see them as women.

Just like how people who hate trans women call them “fetishizers” since the 1970s in western anti-trans circles. That’s it. That’s where it comes from.

These same people even censor Queer which was also perpetuated by TERFs as a means of excluding trans/nonbinary/intersex identities.

Either read the masterposts in the links or leave, but stop getting into fights with your own strawmen on my posts.

//

Sidenote, I find it interesting (and by interesting I mean disgusting & disappointing) how the term ‘Fujoshi’ has come full circle in western culture to mean: ‘rotten women, degenerates, women who ruin everything, women who are ruined/deviant/corrupted, Abusers etc. etc.’ When it originated as an overall general term for women who didn’t conform to conventional gender & heterosexual roles & standards in Japan. That was it. That’s all it meant.

They were literally considered “ruined women” not fit for marriage or regular society. It was deeply misogynistic & homophobic in root. Female fans were referred to as Fujoshi whether they were “exploitative” of M/M relationships or not. Simply appreciating or engaging in queer relationships to any degree was seen as “rotten” and deemed someone a Fujoshi. The term is NOT exclusive to people who are seen as fetishizing said content/relationships. It’s a reclaimed term still actively used to this day in Japan.

Western fandom has taken this reclaimed word that comes from Japanese context & culture, and weaponized it all over again. To the point where people don’t even remotely know what it means in historical terms and throw it around with smug abandon. To the point where if they saw a Japanese person use it, would likely unleash a full-scale hate campaign against them. I don’t know if some newer western self identified Fujoshi are somehow using the term wrong as well but I’m talking about the actual REAL original meaning & context that has only become present day warped in western fandom, and is used to attack women & lgbt+ ppl who dare mention the term. (Or label them as such to deem certain ppl as fandom undesirables.) It’s embarrassing.

I’ve literally seen people say ‘time to reclaim X series from the Fujoshis! :^)’ When the original author of said work they’re celebrating... Would be considered a Fujoshi...

Fujoshi isn’t synonymous with ‘exploitative nasty straight women’. 

Many of these women were & are queer themselves and “BL”, Yaoi & Yuri works are all a means to explore gender identity, sexuality, empowerment, etc.  Lots of iconic shojo series overlap with themes present in a lot of these works too. It’s not a coincidence (Utena, Sailor Moon, Fruits Basket, etc.) 

Many people I know personally who also grew up with BL works, including myself later discovered “Oh I’m bi, I’m genderfluid, I’m nonbinary, I’m trans, etc.” The past few decades BL has still been ‘taboo’ for having queer relationships, but at least in western culture it was a “safe” way to engage in these stories when LGBTQ+ media was actively shut out from main stream media. People didn’t pay attention to manga or comics, so buying them, borrowing them, reading them could be done almost in plain sight. While most of us didn’t identify/call ourselves Fujoshi we’d still be considered Fujoshi, make sense?

I implore you all to at least do some research and read academic articles BY Japanese women & other older fans about these topics before subscribing to the misinformed hate-wagon and bastardizing a non-western term beyond recognition.

I also find it worth mentioning that Fujoshi & Fudanshi both refer to women & men respectively who are “corrupt/rotten/disposable” for enjoying M/M relationships in any fashion. Sexualizing men is seen as inherently negative. 

(This is a side topic but there is even a whole paper (I dont think it’s been published yet? I know this because I attended a conference where she presented last month) done by Kazumi Nagaike who found that there are self identified Fudanshi men who identify as straight & read BL manga because its the only media in which they can experience a male character receiving romantic affection, attention and being comforted and cared for lovingly) They actively hide it though because it would be seen as shameful. Fujoshi & Fudanshi culture isn’t as shallow & degenerate as these westerners make them seem.)

But, there is no mainstream term (if any) for individuals who write about/enjoy or sexualize F/F relationships, and if there IS a term I’ve never seen anyone use it or make a big fuss over it to remotely the same degree. No “lets reclaim these yuri/lesbian characters from those nasty men >:)” large scale campaigns. It’s always women & queer fans that get thrown under the bus.

Here’s a great master post with numerous sources and further in depth explanations I would just end up copypasting so here’s the link instead

[2ndblogg]

Hey! Just read your hot take on novel!wangxian and I absolutely agree. I'm gonna have to say here that I believe it boils down to the fetishization of homosexual men in a lot of the fandom culture that surrounds mlm shipping, as you said it's a space for a lot of women to experiment with their desires and whatnot, but I think therein lies the breaking points between reading novel!wangxian as a good, healthy relationship vs. reading it as a very flawed and toxic one. As an LGBT person, reading the way the author dealt with their relationship made me extremely uncomfortable, it just really feels like something that is written by someone who is more invested in using her queer characters for satisfying her and her reader's own pleasure than a well-built, strong relationship between two characters. Not to take away from the novel in some other aspects, I believe that novel!wwx is a much better, much more nuanced character than what he is in cql, but when it comes to wangxian, I think the intentions are very different for each of them. To each their own, I guess, but I do find it very troubling that some people in the fandom have a really hard time admitting that novel wangxian is not even remotely healthy.

Absolutely.

And can I just say how glad it makes me to see that not everyone is praising this book for it’s lgbt representation...

But I guess that’s also why I just occasionally feel the need to scream my frustrations into the void or try to make sense of the novel.

And why I try to be understanding and accepting of people’s opinion of the novel and not take it ‘personally’ (in the sense of sitting there thinking “holy shit this is how they view ME, this is what they think of ME” etc).

I was in fandoms back when they were really a place dominated by straight (homophobic) women and realism or lgbt representation wasn’t on anyone’s mind (and the occasional dude butting in to say that’s not how sex works or bottoming is experienced was ignored or told to get out). I experienced this change to fandoms being more of a lgbt space, of people becoming aware that media can shape your views of groups of people, of people becoming aware of their fetishizing of fictional gays vs. their prejudice against real life lgbt people etc.

And tbh MXTX just writes like one of those, she writes wangxian like everyone wrote their gay relationships around 2005 and earlier; clear power imbalance, clear roles and attributes that are divided into ‘manly’ and ‘feminine’, certain physical attributes (like the female self insert character aka the bottom being pretty and slight and weaker and shorter), men/the penetrating partner can’t really be raped so anything the woman/bottom tries isn’t really ‘bad’, the male love interest is forceful and self centered but ONLY because he’s so in love and since he’s emotionally stunted he has to express that through sex, men/tops NEED sex and it’s rude/mean to deny them that, the girl/bottom isn’t THAT horny or in charge of their own sexuality but wants to please their partner and what they really get out of it is the emotional aspect, decisions need to be made for them because the dude/top just knows better, the girl/bottom is childish and flirty and the guy/top suffers through it until he finally snaps and shows the girl/bottom who'sboss etc etc. (honestly homophobia and misogyny is so tightly knit in this kind of fiction, if it wasn’t so frustrating it would be very interesting).

Tbh I disagree with novel!wwx being more nuanced (despite a lot of ppl whose opinions I really respect also feeling this way), because I simply cannot seperate him from the wangxian relationship. All I see are tropes and stereotypes applied to make him ‘work’ in the context of the wangxian relationship instead of an actual personality...

To me, in CQL WWX is clearly the main character and you love his interactions with LWJ and want more of them and value them, wheras in the novel most of the time WWX plays second fiddle even when a scene should technically be about him and LWJ’s presence is incredibly suffocating, because he’s always being controlling or at the very least influencing WWX.

I also don’t feel like WWX has much of a character arc/growth. We’re essentially told he had one but the only thing that really actually changes is him hating himself a bit more and letting LWJ smash..., and I guess: he’s less independent than ever, he’s more isolated that ever...

I’ve called novel!wangxian a relationship between an abuser and his victim, because you can find evidence of that in the text. Not because I think the author wanted to portray an unhealthy gay relationship. Like you said, she was fetishizing and wrote for a similar crowd. But to me that ‘realization’ helped...I still don’t see how people can call it a masterpiece but I can at least understand hyping something you like up...

And like, badly written gay relationship or not; gay/straight,man/women, I see how people can find it hot. Exploring your sexuality through fictional characters isn’t necessarily a strictly straight girl phenomena. I probably have read fic that was exactly like this, I can’t judge anyone for it. But no one prints out the last PWP they read and goes, “this is ideal lgbt representation and nothing will ever be this good, the fact that it includes rape makes it so realistic” like????

(Is that part or an effect of the woke and purety culture? you can’t say ‘i like this book but it has flaws’ or ‘i’ve enjoyed this but it’s not up the feminism or lgbt acceptance that i preach/live’ so you have to pretend it’s flawless?)

And like, I do think novel!wangxian is a nightmare when it comes to lgbt representation and I do believe this is largely due to a cishet woman writing about gay men and fetishizing them (the fact that a lot of peoples arguments why novel!wangxian ‘is better’ boils down to ‘there’s kissing and sex’ is also pretty telling). And I am frightend and worried by some peoples response to it.

But is it really fair to see it as just that? It’s a problem sure, but that same thing happens in straight media (which I am admittedly not well versed in). Stephanie Meyer didn’t set out to write Edward Cullen to be a creep and non of the teenage girls that went crazy over him viewed it as such...Reylo fans (aside from some of them proclaiming Finn to be the real villain and saying it’s racist and misogynistic to not find Kylo Ren hot) found a way to view him threatening her as romantic and sexy, Loki fans that didn’t ship him with Thor usually fell into the camp of “he would be a perfect boyfriend” or “what if this OFC was his slave and he raped her everyday <3″... like ignoring/glorifying/romanticizing behaviours or exploring what kinks you might have through the safety of fictional characters and fictional settings isn’t JUST happening when it comes to ‘the gays’...

And not just specifically in fandom spaces either, a lot of ‘romantic’ movies include inappropriate touching, the boy/guy knowing better than the girl what she wants etc. And I absolutely do believe that that’s something that normalized these things for a lot of young girls and guys (I don’t want to get into this too much, I’ve really seen a change in the past few years, but before that it was pretty common for young boys to believe they need to keep pursuing and pressuring a girl that has said no, girls truly thought boys could die of blue balls, girls thought it was their duty as good girlfriends to let their boyfriends fuck them even when they weren’t in the mood, that they couldn’t talk about what they want in bed or what they don’t find enjoyable because ‘sex is for boys and girls get a relationship in exchange’ etc.).

And in much the same way movies have only relatively recently begun being called out for that, it’s also still pretty recently that they’re being called out for having their one queer coded character be a pedophile and a murder or whatever...Like, society as a whole becoming aware of these issues.

But do authors that publish their work with a specific target audience in mind have a responsibility to think about the effect it might have on them? (And I can already hear loud screams of ‘no way, it’s not your fault if your audience isn’t smart enough to understand that this bad thing is bad’, but I actually do believe in a way they do. That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t write whatever you want, just maybe take a look at HOW you bring your point across. (We do KNOW people are influenced by what propaganda they’re consistantly fed. I mean, you wouldn’t write a pro-drugs childrens book...) )

What if the author isn’t aware of their bias and prejudices? Or their target audience isn’t their actual audience?

And do we, society and media, judge female and male authors differently when it comes to romance and sex in fiction? (The answer is yes btw) But also, where do we draw the line at calling something ‘badly written’ and calling it toxic? Can it be both? As I’ve said before, a lot of people claim that only the physical intimacy scenes of novel!wangxian are bad, because they’re badly written and OOC, some say the book as amazingly written and only the wangxian relationship is bad because the author doesn’t know how to write gay men. In my ‘hot take’ I essentially said that’s not necessarily bad writing so much as it’s simply an (okay, unintentional) toxic relationship. And would this relationship still come across as toxic (or badly written, whichever you want) if we didn’t know the author to be a cishet woman? Or if a gay man had written it? (my personal, eloquent answer for this is: yes, but differently.)

Which was really all just a rambly way to get to my point of: it’s not just fetishizing of gay men, it’s also the homophobia and self-inserting in a safe situation.

You can literally replace WWX in the novel with a female character and it wouldn’t change a thing. The author takes such an effort into building up this power imbalance in every aspect of their life that if WWX were a heroine nothing would change in this (sexist/ancient society) setting.

(And clearly this is something that appeals to people if you look at the amount of female!WWX fics...)

Not even the sex scenes. There are maybe two allusions in all of them combined that WWX might also have a dick but like, you can’t be sure and it sure as hell doesn’t need stimulation.

(and again, that could be written as a kink...but it’s just not.)

CQL is a gay love story. MDZS at it’s core is none of that.

But I also very much agree with your ‘to each their own’, like here I am criticizing and trying to find explanations and whatever, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter why someone might like (or write) a book like this, I vastly prefer CQL!wangxian but people have their own reasons for not doing so.

The ‘problem’ really only lies in, as you said, people not being able to accept that it’s not a healthy relationship. Or claiming it to be perfect lgbt rep.

And because my brain can’t shut up today:

I also can’t stop thinking that the way some people ‘glorify’ the book as due to their age and ‘inexperience’.

When I was a pretty young kid and got into fanfiction, there was nothing but completely OOC!whump to be found in the first two fandoms I was in. And I loved it. It was YEARS later that I thought I might like to read something with the characters being...in character. What I’m trying to say, in different stages and phases of your life you might enjoy different things, for different reasons...and obviously, in that moment, you won’t think about ‘what appeals to me here/should this appeal to me/etc’.

I don’t mean inexperience as ‘sexual inexperience’ here, though of course that could be part of it, but also like, inexperience with this genre (is this the first book like this you read, or did you just read 50 in a row that all had the same unhealthy vibes?), with lgbt people and issues (do you know any lgbt people or is your only image of them either the cute boy you can’t have and don’t want to see with another girl or grown men in full kink gear in front of children during CSD? and also: do you think ‘i like this’ and that’s the end of it or do you notice how many people idolize this objectively unhealthy relationship and won’t allow critique on it...)  

I...just wanted to say thanks really.

I just can’t stop rambling apparently and I know I mostly just repeated what you said or what I already said but in longer... I just really do feel very strongly about novel!wangxian and the perception of them and have actually at times felt very personally...worried/affected, by people’s acceptance and love of them and I just... have to try and make sense of it...

[bettsfic]

life update? i guess?

things are bad!

or i guess just drastically different than what they were before and what i expected them to be.

i’m entering week 5 of the first semester of my phd (english, focus on creative writing: fiction) and even though it’s in mississippi, i’m still in ohio because it’s all online. until now i haven’t been very affected by quarantine, because i never left my house anyway, but this is the first time i’ve had to teach online and i can’t tell you how much i hate it.

in part it’s because i’ve been given a set curriculum and i don’t do well with authority generally, let alone being told how to do something i’ve been doing for 4 years. also, i only had 1 week to prepare my class and learn an entirely new medium for teaching. also also, very few students keep their camera on, so i can’t see their faces and i can’t get to know them and building a community environment that way is tough. i think it’s doable in classes of ~10 but ~25? it’s just unbearable.

so teaching, which is my favorite thing about being alive, has become intensely stressful, because i am not doing as good a job as i know i can do. i’ve always hated teaching this class with the standard restrictions (it’s composition; i’ve never had a lot of wiggle room to do my own thing, or at least, no one will ever let me teach this class the way i feel it needs to be taught), but online, with all new tools, all new medium, with at first no agency at all to do my own thing -- i really want to give up. 

the good news is, i have been very vocal about my struggles and after working with the comp ppl i am now moving in my own direction a bit (which is amazing! i’m being heard!). the bad news is, in doing so i’m spending more time on teaching than i am on my own classwork and writing, which is not what i’m supposed to be doing. 

(on that note, i did write a short story i’m very proud of, even though it’s about to be ripped apart in workshop on monday. i started working on an apocalypse linked short story collection about kindness and compassion at the end of the world.)

so far i haven’t felt any impostor syndrome, in part because of the welcoming vibe of my department, but also because i’m confident in my writing and teaching abilities. mostly the challenge is in the workload and being told what to do. i’m also struggling with grades, which i hate both giving and receiving. i do work because it’s relevant to my studies; i won’t do assignments i find inane, and if i do, i’ll tailor them to my interests so that i get something out of them. there’s no point of grading in a phd. what are we going to use grades for? it’s a terminal degree.

the program is as great as i knew it would be. i feel very well supported. all the problems i’m having are with myself, the pandemic, and the structure of academia at large. i can’t stop thinking about how i am being trained for a job i’ll never have (because there just are no jobs), and writing fiction that will probably never be published. teaching and publishing have nothing to do with how good you are or how hard you work. it’s all just random. 

also, i did not win the contest i was a finalist for, which. i mean i knew i wouldn’t, but it still stung. this past year i’ve gotten 125+ rejections and 0 acceptances, and that’s really really wearing on me.

so i’m feeling very hopeless and considering quitting. not writing but (literary) publishing. fanfic continues to be my favorite genre, and my favorite part of writing is posting for small but vocal and encouraging audiences. 

speaking of fandom, i started watching cql (i’m on ep25) but then got distracted by street dance of china 3, which i got intensely obsessed with, and that led me to jackson wang and lay zhang, which led me to got7 and exo, and now i guess i’m into kpop. i’m afraid to set foot in bts but i think that’s inevitable. anyway right now it feels so overwhelming, because there’s no specific canon, it’s just an abyss of media to fall into. 

i’m caught up on sdc3, and i plan to finish cql next, and then ?? start reading fic i guess? watch This Is GOT7 or Day Day Up? do a deep dive into the jiaersubs archive? let youtube’s autoplay feature direct me? 

at present i don’t plan to write for any of these fandoms, but if anyone has any reading recs or drama recs or song recs, lmk.

this is getting too long, so hopefully next time i have an update, things will be better.

[1-800-i-ship-it]

khun modern bf headcanons?

Hmm oof i am probably not the best person to be asking this cause I dont write fics or anything but I’ll do my best

So i realized that i just wrote plot stuff but im posting anyway cause i spent way too long on this ahaha 

apologies in advance for typos that I'm too lazy to go through and correct

Enjoy the headcanons that i wrote later + plots that i originally wrote and went on a long tangent on oops

Headcanons:

Khun would be that subtle overprotective boyfriend 

He’d just kinda silently watch from afar but he’d totally kill anybody who hurt bam in any way, shape, or form

But he’d like be SUPER sweet with bam like

Pet names yall PET NAMES like khun and bam would prob both mutually melt when they call each other pet names

Khun would always help bam with hw and whatnot, let’s pretend bam’s a physics genius cause thats just how i imagine him in modern life, always has trouble with law class (he’s  taking it just for khun so he can understand what khun’s talking about) so khun helps him

Khun would be a super smooth talker, can woo a n y b o d y, exceptional at speeches, captain of speech and debate team

Khun would never admit he’s jealous but like the whole gang would know (except for bam who’s clueless as usual) 

Like bam is friendly with everybody so khun’d just be like ugh screw yall 

But then bam always confides in him and spends a crapload amt of time with him so he knows he’s just doubting himself and he’s mad at himself about it cause he knows bam is loyal to a fault and would never betray him

When bam gets older bam uses this against him hehe

Khun would also be that bf that everyones jealous of 

Everyone would want to be with khun but he only has eyes for bam

Ignores everybody else who hits on him

Side note i still stan top!bam and bottom!khun 

Khun would also be super thoughtful and goes out of his way to help make bam’s life easier whether its doing chores or smth etc, and each time bam smiles at him and expresses his gratitude khun’s heart would melt for the 1000th time

But like secretly khun really likes confident and sexy bam

They’d probably roleplay ngl (let ur imagination wonder~)

Khun would enjoy just spending time with bam :’) just cuddling and doing mundane things, they’d be super adorable together, hugs and kisses and ah just too cute-

Khun secretly likes bdsm and bam knows this 😏they switch roles from time to time, i cant decide who’s sub/dom

Khun would plan a super elaborate proposal to bam but then somehow bam would catch him off guard and then khun would just blurt it out when they’re together <3

Khun’d always be up early to cook for bam, they both morning ppl tho khun’s always sleep deprived bc hes also a night owl 

Khun is shy with pda in public but eventually he and bam decide they dont care anymore and just hold hands and act all lovey dovey to the point where shibisu cant decide if he’s a proud dad or if he wants to throw up, rak is always proud of his turtles, endorsi and hatz literally want to throw up all the time and would die before admitting that they secretly approve of khunbam

Khun is all around a model bf that i am sure half the fandom would be willing to date but im sorry guys khun’s taken cause he’s only got eyes for bam~

Plot things/idk what they’re called:

CEO!khun and intern!bam

Assassin!khun and assassin!bam who eventually get together and destroy the corrupt system

Gdi i thought of so many while having dinner but i forgot

Hmmmm

Imagine bam as jue viole grace like forced to work in a gang or smth and then khun as the gang boss 

I totally dont have a thing for badass assassin themed things pls dont judge me

Teacher!khun and student!bam (ofc it’d be near graduation if u get my drift...😏)

Idk why i thought of this but imagine idol khun o.o wait YO idol khun + assistant bam

Tutor!khun and student!bam 

I feel like im literally just saying the same ideas

Theres a reason why im not a fic writer :’)

High school sweethearts -> angst bc parents dont approve, sad forced breakup, no contact -> get back together when older after a time-lapse when they’re more mature, heated reunion 

Best friends bam and khun since preschool, since they were in the womb, PINING, both of them scared to admit it cause they dont want to ruin their friendship, meanwhile the entire gang is betting on them getting together (aka mainly rak and shibisu betting, hatz, endorsi, anaak, (insert s2 and s3 gang dont wanna spoil) everybody etc)

Uni students with khun as a law major and bam as a cs major (both geniuses, nerd bam), roommates *insert smirk* lots of pining, blushes from them casually changing in front of each other...the rest is up to ur imagination

Khun and bam as rival sports teams coaches 

Age gap!khunbam (not a lot, somewhere between 5-8 yrs), with bam as the younger one who kept saying that he loves khun but khun just laughs it off bc bams a kid but then khun sees bam after he comes back from college and bam gets a massive glowup from clueless cinnamon roll to clueless cinnamon roll hottie who only has the hots for khun (still) and then khuns all like “fuck” *dies inside*

Single dad khun, bam as a daycare employee who keeps getting flustered by khun, khun takes interest in bam bc he doesn’t ask nosy questions like other ppl, and bam has these mesmerizing golden eyes

Tailor/dry cleaner owner!bam and office worker!khun who constantly needs his clothes to be altered so they fit exactly how he wants them to (this eventually results in awkward moments and blushing), and also dry cleans like his countless number of suits and dress shirts and whatnot

Author!khun and publishing assistant!bam (is it even called publishing assistant honestly i have no idea but u get what i mean right), khun never signs books but bam convinces him to 

Poet!khun and uni student!bam as a literature major who’s a big fan and wanted to meet khun at one of his signings but is too shy even though shibisu drags him there, accidentally bumps into khun in the bathroom, is all flustered, ends up talking to khun for super long, khun loves bam’s enthusiasm for the subject, offers to give feedback on bam’s poems, bam is literally about to combust, they have lots of meetings and khun flirts with bam who’s clueless but blushes a lot anyway, they kiss *ahem* the rest is history

Spy!khun and bam, khun realizing he doesn’t want to hurt bam, sends fake info back to his country (ruled by eduan and jahad), eduan finds out (sent khun out in the first place bc khun was a threat to him cause the ppl liked khun better), sends out an assassin to get khun, who knows this and escapes with bam somewhere, some complicated plot taht idk how to figure out but you get the drift, eventually khun rules the country with bam

Real estate agent khun and contractor bam, eventually start their own business together

Khun as student pres, also known as the ice king bc he’s turned down dating everyone who asked, bam as the transfer student who catches his attention  (bam with more of a jue viole grace complex), the silent physics genius who is also on par with khun when debating in speech and debate club 

Khun and bam as besties, always do their hw together and hang out after class (cause bam always needs help haha), something leads to them fake dating, eventually real dating 😏

Khun and bam as besties, always do their hw together and hang out after class (cause bam always needs help haha), someone (rachel, DO NOT KILL ME I HAVE A REASON) asks bam out and he doesn't know how to say no (the rest of the gang egging him to date cause they know khuns gonna be jelly) khun goes and sulks, eventually bam gets hurt and manipulated by her, khun is pissed off, rachel is reported for abuse, khun and the gang fight for bam, khun is there for bam all the time, after a while bam asks khun out of the blue if khun likes him (shibisu let it slip that khun is gay bc god knows bam is oblivious af), khun is shocked but says yes bc he cant hide it anymore, bam says he always loved khun but thought khun was straight (bc of some dumb rumor someone said) which was why he ignored his feelings and agreed to date rachel bc he just wanted to distract himself, lots of cuddling thereafter, they get together, rak wins the bet for when khunbam will get together, khunbam gets married

oh man that became way longer than i expected...anon i hope u enjoyed that? half of it prob made 0 sense ngl and idek if i answered the q properly?

kudos to you if you actually read like all my rambling :’)

[thejudgingtrash]

I wanna hear the Dom/sub discourse!!! Also love ur blog :) (I personally am a proponent of dom percy just bc I like that idea but I’d love to hear yours!!! I didnt even know there was discourse!) love to hear your thoughts and again super cool blog!!!! :’)

* ALSO WOULD LIKE TO CLARIFY IF IT WASNT ALREADY ESTABLISHED BUT ONLLLLLLY IF THEY ARE LIKE IN THEIR OLDER 20S!!!! ppl doing that in the context of teens is *gross* (previous anon who sent in the ask before) :)

Oh! Thank you for the compliments. I’m still not used at being so visible now to people 🥺😥😅

Good that you’ve added your points because that essentially brings down my issues with this whole spiel. I guess I’m going to play the other card. My main issues with this whole thing are:

A) the fandom sexualizing kids

B) people not understanding that looks/behavior in or outside of a (romantic) relationship don’t necessarily have to correlate with sexual behavior, especially when powerplay is involved

Of course Percy is easier to grasp for us. We have five whole books where we hear his every thought, follow his every move and think we get to know him (that automatically makes Percy not a reliable narrator, just saying).

For every book quote that puts Percy into the „Dom“ slot, there’s also a book quote that would be fitting for Annabeth (the dance from TTC comes to my mind). I can see both going either way. Despite them having mostly different personalities (Percy internalizing his thoughts and motives, whereas Annabeth is doing rather the opposite), they are very similar when it comes to leadership and end goals. Annabeth can range from emotional to bossy in a similar way Percy does. They just express themselves on different levels and get seen by outsiders in different ways.

Did you catch that? Did you see the hypocrisy that I just committed? We are using book quotes to justify placing characters that are in that context and in overall canon minors/teens/essentially fucking children in sexualized categories. Tbh, as much flag as you can give Riordan, I can’t blame him for blocking people who do this. Not every author is a fan of fanfiction and fan theory and what not.

People throwing these BSDM terms around without a second thought makes me cringe (tbh, I’m too lazy to explain the psychology of power play and kinks in that regard, just know that the instigator is not automatically the top/dom and there are many, many, many layers in a pp relationship). You cannot base sexual behavior from the canon itself. We know nothing about Percy and Annabeth in that regard to even justify the slightest. Ripping actions out of context to give them a label doesn’t work like that so easily unfortunately.

The only way to settle this question for once and all would be by simply doing this:

The whole debate that happened months/weeks ago (quarantine makes everything blurry in my memory) was just fucking stupid?

Imagine being a 15 year old, anxious, frightened girl. You’ve been deeply traumatized since you’ve been seven years old, you’re scared to death because you have a crush on your best friend and think he might perish (newsflash: of course you as the reader can foreshadow that in that context the series goes on. The characters can’t as they lack that specific insight. Percy didn’t have to wind up dead in the books, but he could have been severely mutilated, gone missing (guess he did later), bruised, etc. apart from his mental struggles. The super power part is essentially the only thing that’s keeping him alive), you give him a kiss because you’re too shy to admit your feelings for him and he’s being an awkward cheeky bastard before looking for a fight and then some adult asshole has the caucasity of calling you a bratty sub. Literally what.

Some anon (or a group of anons, don’t know which) contacted a bunch of people with that Dom!Percy and Sub!Annabeth stuff. Anon, Liebste, homegirl, my love, mija, if you see this please slide into the DMs because whaddefuck? Your thought process hotdamn. Where did you pick this up? Let’s be open about this discussion. You didn’t go from A to B, you went from A to Z and robbed Jeff Bezos on the way out. I mean what???

People using canon to justify their headcanons is simply something I can’t get behind in this matter. The main issues is that they are children/teens/minors in canon. There is no way around it. Trying to justify/back up some of your thoughts in that regard with actual quotes only makes it worse because you aren’t only sexualizing them in your fanon, but you are also automatically transferring these thoughts to the actual books and thus fore sexualizing them in canon. You’re changing the basis and narrative.

I honestly don’t get the obsession that some have with their teenage sex life? This isn’t a personal attack on people but I’ve seen this throughout several group chats and social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest even and of course Tumblr. And popular stuff like Riverdale, Euphoria, 13 Reasons Why and New Adult Twilight rip-offs á la Shades of Grey and that Harry Styles fanfic honestly don’t help with the portrayal of „curious“ teens.

This also isn’t a strict PJO phenomenon, it happens across all fandoms. The odd trend with sexualizing kids/teens or things intended for kids has been going on for ages. I get it, you grow out of the related audience but that doesn’t justify the means? Canon won’t change simply because you do.

Percy and Annabeth are awkward teens that have never dated anyone else and had barely half a year between pjo and hoo before getting caught up in another mess. I’m not saying that teens aren’t curious and don’t experiment, some do drugs and/or have sex (let’s be real the probability of something happening in the stable scene in MOA is very high) but still? Putting dom/sub labels on them is sketchyyy. Also throw your fucking sex god headcanons out of the motherfucking window. They are 17-ish, if you need the mental image of some weird kids flopping on top of each other for two whole minutes for some odd reason, good for you but I’m side eying the fuck outta you.

You can’t really blame Riordan for not being more explicit. A) the series is for middle schoolers (aka kids), so it’s not strictly Young Adult and there’s only so much you can do B) publishers/editors interfering is a thing (especially with society’s views of sex = bad and violence = just fine) and c) the probability of sexualizing the characters of his own creation in that sense might have made him uncomfortable. Better to play safe, than end up with a bigger mess, just saying. I’m all for the sex talk in a non-berating, (slightly) educational approach when it comes to that in non-adult literature. Or even just stating a sex scene in a mere sentence. (Karen M. McManus did an amazing job with portraying struggling teens with a right approach in One of Us is Lying. Stating it or making it very, very, very clear between the lines. Then again, not everyone can pull that off or wants to go in that direction).

In addition to that, seeing stuff like the infamous ”the sea doesn’t like to be restrained“ or ”Percy has handsome features which shifted from humor to anger“ quotes getting constantly shredded is so… Meh. One simple question: what does Percy having a mean resting bitch face to do with his sexuality/sexual behavior? What does him being annoyed and on the moodier side have to do with it? For me absolutely nothing. The correlation isn’t really clear and out there. Pissed Percy doesn’t translate into Percy automatically being the dominant (in Percabeth’s sex life)?

I mean I get it. We all grow up. Erotica is a wonderful genre and art form (if you waddle through the trash). You will never be able to get that out of fiction and fanfiction. That’s also neither my goal nor my place to decide. As cheap and stupid as it is, I’d rather have people intentionally aging the characters up and stating their headcanons in that regard rather than people attempting to abuse canon where the characters are minors in order for sexualizing them. There’s no good way to prevent this from happening unfortunately (unless you really want to abolish all explicit fanon stuff).

Whenever you post a sexy headcanon just hold on for a second. If you have abstract future headcanons sure, go ahead, personally don’t see a problem with that. But if you use source material to fixate your thoughts on minors in canon to give them sexual labels… I urge you to seriously rethink that.

Stop sexualizing minors. Please. Pretty please.

Peace

[leighways]

Y’know, I debated not answering you bc what you sent sounds like the typa shit that attracts unwanted discourse. So if that was your intent (and I mean this with all sincerity): go fuck yourself.

I’m not sure where you got the idea that I’m "still devoted to" C3, esp since the last piece of art I made for that ship was pre-KTGG -- nearly a year ago. That was also the last time, until recently, that I spoke about C3 at all. So ???

I will admit I didn’t answer that ask very thoughtfully when I originally responded -- mostly bc I assumed by now ppl understood my stance on this issue -- so I went back and edited for clarification. However, if you’d read my about page instead of jumping to conclusions, you’d know where I stood.

But since that clearly didn’t happen, I’ll spell it out for you: I used to ship C3. As of right now, I don’t. However, during the time in which I did, I was in the process of building an extensive backstory AU that I am still very much attached to and enjoy creating content for. It was designed specifically to establish Copia as an outsider -- not a member of the Emeritus family -- which has been my view of him since since day fucking one (x).

One scroll through my blog will show you none of this is new. Copia's underdog status plays a vital role in how I draw, write and headcanon him, as well my general attachment to his character. Sure, you can sit there and claim I dreamt all this up for the purpose of shipping, but you'd also be lying out of both sides of your mouth. If my development of this AU was nothing more than ""justification"" for C3, my blog wouldn't be littered with loads of art and comics focused on the rest of the family and their respective dynamics. (x) (x) (x) Not to mention the countless memes and shitposts that have goddamned nothing to do with any of this.

Anyway, for me, an AU only works if you can establish a very clear departure from what's been described in canon. KTGG presented several plot holes I had never previously considered, and these muddied waters made me unsure of how to continue world building. I don't want to publish anything until there are no surprises left, so until we get more official information regarding this lore, I have temporarily pulled the breaks on this project.

Still, none of this is reason to completely dismantle something I've been working on since 2018. Nor does it suddenly make the material itself "problematic". I should be able to keep my AU (C3 storyline or not) without ppl like you accusing me of being some incest-obessed fujoshi simply bc I chose to view the source material in a way you don't personally like.

From last summer forward, every time I’ve been asked about the topic of my AU, the answer never contained any mention of C3 (x) (x) (x) bc I don't currently ship C3. If by "devoted to" you meant "it's on the back burner and also the stove isn't on" then sure, I'm super devoted.

But even if this weren't the case -- even if the amount of currently unanswered questions didn't bother me and I plowed ahead with my story no holes barred, what exactly would my crime be? Why would an AU created to explore the non-canon backstories of Copia (a Catholic orphan) and Papa 1 (his unrelated mentor) suddenly become problematic just bc once in a blue moon a scene appears in which Copia has a boyfriend? Considering all content I've made for C3 sees them as completely unrelated and has also been 100% SFW, what line have I crossed? I know my lane. I'm not mlm (I'm not wlw either, which is what you're trying to peg me as) so I would never create explicit content for a community to which I don't belong. But if you think LGBT+ folks can only make material tailored to their specific identities in order to not be fetishy, then I've got some fuckin news for you and you're not gonna like it.

Anyhoo, I don’t believe for one second that you’re this casual by-standing "outsider" -- not least bc you knew exactly where to find the post where I first addressed the plot twist possibility, but lmfao whatever you say bubs. I also love that you’re on the "outside" while simultaneously in the know about what the fandom collective has decided re: What If Copia Is An Emeritus. You need to get your story straight.

Damn near everyone in this fandom has created some sort of AU -- whether that be a world where they self-ship, a universe in which none of the Papas died, or, I dunno, one full of dragons and dinosaurs :-) The fact that you're specifically honing in on my AU with insane and disgusting out-of-left-field accusations tells me everything I need to know about both you and your motives, so listen very closely: there is nothing wrong with creating an AU that diverts from canon. Despite what you think, viewing Copia as unrelated to the Emeritus family is pretty goddamned normal around here. And considering Tobias obviously wanted us to think of him this way (and let us do so for over a year and a half) it's easy to see why so many ppl prefer that concept to the story we'll probably get.

You are not the boss of me. You are not the judge of my character. You have no authority over me, and you need to stop talking as if you do. Your tone is condescending and sexist -- which is odd, considering you're not speaking to a woman. I'm definitely not a fujoshi, but you quite possibly might be a transphobe. Or is truscum a more accurate way to describe you? :-) Anyways, thanks for that. Getting misgendered in our own inbox? We love to see it.

This is the last time I’ll be addressing this topic. If you have any further questions feel free to call my personal hotline @ 1-800-EAT-MY-ASS.

[i-want-my-iwtv]

Hello! I'm hoping you are well. I just want to say I love your blunt/possitive posts about fiction not being reality, personal responsibility, authors' responsibility if it even applies...just all of it. Really, major kudos to you for being so blunt!

Aw thank you! Yes, I am doing well. Hope you’re doing well, too. I took a decent break from tumblr, and now I’m getting back into the swing of things, there are fanworks to reblog here

(I’m sorry that this response got kind of long, there are things in here I’ve expressed before, and some I may not have, or haven’t mentioned in awhile, and I kind of want to have these things out there for ppl to see where I’m coming from.)

Your message really means a lot, bc I feel like, if I have any responsibility to the fandom as a somewhat popular blog, that I have to stand up for shippers and creators of fanworks. Fanworks are the lifeblood of the fandom, both for the creators and the consumers. Fanworks are made for free (or on commission) by smaller creators who need the encouragement more. Being smaller and more accessible, they’re also easy & more responsive targets for harassment than the published creators :-P

And so when you see it from that perspective, you can understand that when I reblog those fiction =/= reality, pro-shipping, and anti anti posts, it’s coming from a place of good intention. I identify with those easy targets who are criticized for their creation/consumption of published works and fanworks. I was bullied for pretty superficial reasons in my formative years, not an unusual amount/degree of bullying, but it hurt. “Oh, but words can’t hurt you!”

And this part of the story is my own attachment to canon (and, later, fandom), before I was even aware of others. Do we sever our attachment to something bc smne else says that their connection to it is more valid? I feel like fandom is limitless, it’s big enough for all of us.

Media/Fiction was an escape from reality for me. It was a place I could find inspiration, could see characters beaten down (by antagonists and/or their own faults) and rise up again and again, in so many variations! Even the same plot points can yield different emotions when told in different ways, and/or involving different characters. Characters refusing to lay down and submit to their obstacles/antagonists was inspiring and helped me rebuild the self-confidence the bullies had crushed. 

So that was my story, as valid as any. I love stories of how ppl got into VC (or any fandoms/media really!), and there are so many. I don’t think that any reason is more valid than any other. 

There are those who saw themselves reflected in the fact that there are queer/LGBT+ characters, that they existed and had depth and could love and be loved in return. 

Someone told me that they shared a love of history with their father, especially of Rome. The father passed away when the person was young, and so they loved the historical explorations in canon, it seemed to bring them closer to that lost parent. In fact, the act of pointing out historical inaccuracies in canon was enjoyable to this person.

There are those who passionately adore Armand, for all his beauty, strength, and sass, the fact that he is a survivor of so much tragedy. “We must be beautiful, powerful, and without regret.”

There are those who love the quiet and dignified manner of Louis and how he burns everything down handles situations. 

There are those who live for the ~purple prose~ and ~wealth porn~, in the loving descriptions of luxury, the declarations of love and 3 pages of describing how pretty a character is.

… etc. etc.

^And fanworks based on the media consumed may relate to the fans’ reasons for getting into that fandom in the first place. I like to think my memes and fanfic show the same refusal to quit that I valued so much in the characters when I read canon. I would think that other writers/artists/etc. would say smtg similar, that their fanworks are their way of engaging with canon, whether it’s to have more of what they enjoy about it, fix and/or explore a character/ship/situation, or take the characters into different situations (like AU) and see how they might fare within changed parameters. Ppl analyze canon and critique it, comparing it to other fiction/non-fiction to lay out their ideas. Ppl might want to dress like the characters and act like them in cosplay! So many ways to engage with canon. And then you have comments on works and works inspired by fanworks and that’s p. much the definition of fandom, to my mind.

HOWEVER.

In my zeal for reblogging posts (and writing my own) about defending shippers and creators/consumers of published media and fanworks, I can be too blunt, and unintentionally injure others. I trust ppl to inform me privately if a post goes over the line in that regard, and I have responded by editing/deleting posts. This blog isn’t sacred, editing/deleting a post is not a sign of weakness, but of curating it to better serve my needs and those who come to it for whatever reason. 

Bc my blog really is at its core about entertainment and encouragement/sharing of fanworks.

It’s hard for me to sit in silence about attacks on shippers and creators/consumers of published media and fanworkswhen I feel like if I don’t speak up, silence is tacit agreement when ppl state, “Don’t draw/write/talk about X bc it is harmful to Y” I understand that some ppl do have real triggers and some fictional characters/ships are painful to them, but on the other hand, is it fair to restrict everyone else who wants to explore those characters/ships? 

We have to find ways to coexist, and that may mean everyone taking on some responsibility for their fandom experience and extending respect towards others. Someone asked me to tag a certain ship, and now I do, so that they can block it. I can’t tag every possible thing, but within reason, I will add tags on request.

I don’t believe in censorship when it comes to fiction, for many reasons, there are blogs out there who are much more eloquent than I am in their defense of it. I don’t have their rhetoric. But I feel like I need to defend those who are easy targets for bullying (as I had been).

^^^With all that said, I think it would be best for me to refrain from too much of this type of posting so as not to trample others. Instead, I want to focus on encouraging fanworks, reblogging posts about writing/art and advice about that.  

(If you are looking for more blogs that defend fanfiction, I can recommend more to you privately, or in a separate post.) 

[sagemoderocklee]

so i was thinkin’ a lot about fanfiction today--as i so often do, being that i am, in fact a fic writer (and maybe someday a published fantasy writer, but i digress). anyone who follows me has probably seen some posts wherein i get on my lil soap box and wax poetical about fanfiction or bemoan how frustrating it is to be a fic writer in fandom these days, which means my handful of followers are probably going “oh boy, here they go again” 

listen, i know i talk about fanfiction a lot--whether it’s talking about my own fics or talking about fanfic in general or talking about the culture surrounding fics in fandom--but it’s important to me. i’ve put a lot of time and energy into my writing, and i know other writers have too, so it really gets to me when i think about how many of us struggle to get any kind of attention outside of a small circle of people

part of being a fic writer means that i’m always checking my stats on AO3 because i obsess over the reception of my works. why wouldn’t i though? i mean, i’ve put countless hours into what i’ve written, i’ve done it for absolutely free, and all i really want is for people to leave comments and maybe even share what i’ve written. 

while it would be nice if writers could have the same sort of support through kofis and patreons; while it would be super if ppl were as interested in commissioning written work as they are in commissioning art, the most i think any of us really hope for is some nice comments on the pieces we’ve worked so hard on

[image: screencap of a fic’s stats on AO3. words: 182,115 chapters: 15/19 comments: 45 (minus 21 of my own comments which =24 comments total) kudos: 53 bookmarks: 15 hits: 1638]

this photo shows the counter for what is to date my longest fic, both in word count and just by how fucking long it took me to write it. the fic itself is fully written–finished in December of 2014 and first published January 2015. The writing process for this one fic started in late July/early August 2010. it took five years to write, and three years later still needs further editing which means it has taken me 7+ years to write. currently, this fic stands at approx. 250k. For perspective: That’s about as long as Order of the Phoenix.

now, usually fics that sit around without updates lose readership. understandable of course, however, part of why it’s taken me so long to complete this is in part the lack of feedback i’ve received over the years. It was so incredibly disheartening to spend literal years writing this to get very little in return. A lot of writers do this, not out of spite or anything, but because it is incredibly frustrating and draining to pour your soul into something and get next to nothing back; it makes you lose confidence. what’s the point in sharing this if no one really cares about it? 

now, as an individual, i struggle with mental health issues, physical health issues, used to be in school for fashion which was intense, and i have to work 40+ hours a week for minimum wage--all of this adds up to one thing: i am quite often very tired, sick, or emotionally unable to write. and when people don’t comment, or even just give a kudos, I have even less motivation. 

if i’d gotten more comments on this fic in the early days of posting, i am positive i wouldn’t have fallen so behind. ultimately i felt–and i think a lot of writers share this experience–that after all that work, all that time and love and energy, no one fucking cared.

and that fucking hurts

this fic was years of writing and researching and editing and fine tuning and love and frustration and losing pieces of it to computer problems and sleepless nights and so much more. this fic that’s nearly 300k words, 19 chapters, and has only 24 comments. and many of those comments come from the same people (who honestly are so amazing and keep me going) which also means that more than half of the 53 ppl who left kudos didnt comment. and based on the views, i’m getting 1 comment for every 68.25 ppl who even click on this fic (this number doesn’t account for repeat hits, though because there’s no way to know that). i have no idea what most of the people who have looked at this fic think of it--if they’ve come back, if they’ve hated it, if they’ve loved it... I have no idea, and that is so devastating. 

no one has to comment, there is no rule that says you absolutely must comment by law or face a fine or whatever. but in the spirit of community, of fandom, of supporting and appreciating those content creators who work so hard to produce things you get to consume for completely free, asking for comments is really not that much. i mean, think about the original source material: someone created that, unprompted, simply for the love of creating something. but what happened? It got published. It got shared. Over and over. People bought it. And they kept buying it. And they bought the merchandise and they built a fandom and.... 

what would the original source material be without the support of the people consuming it? We wouldn’t have these series to love without those very basic things that people seem to forget to do with fanfiction far too often: love it vocally, share it far and wide, and support it with all your heart. 

let me make something clear: I love writing. I will never stop. I don’t think I’m the best, but I’m fairly okay at what I do, and if nothing else I have really good ideas. Maybe I’m not really all that special, maybe i’ll never be one of those writers with hundreds of comments on one single fic, but you know what? I put a fucking lot of work into my writing and I think that myself and countless other writers deserve more than what we get. 

i mean, do you know how much work goes into writing even just one story?

last night i wrote about 10,500 words (unedited) over the course of about 7 hours once you factor out the breaks i took. i sat on my futon typing for at minimum 7 hours. that’s basically a full shift at work without pay. 

let’s assume then that on average for every 10.5k words to a story a writer has spent 7 hours writing them (which is being very generous because there are days where i spend hours in front of my laptop and only manage a measly 2,000 but we’ll ignore those bad days for the sake of easy math)… so without taking into account the editing, research, and the lost words, that’s about 166 hours of work just for this fic. 

and that still isn’t all the work that was put into this fic. editing is a process that varies from person to person, but for me takes at least 3x as long, if not more. the research i did for this fic alone would double the hours i worked on this fic. the words i’ve lost, cut, and that just didn’t make it in would add at least another 50 or so hours.

so overall this fic took upwards of 1,000 worth of work.

and all i want is a few more comments.

all any writer really wants is a few more comments. maybe some more kudos. and definitely some more shares because fics get lost in the sea of fics on ao3 far too easily. all we want is appreciation. all we want is proof that our content was enjoyed. anything so that the hit count doesn’t look so disproportionate to the actual return we’re getting on a fic that we labored over for free because we love writing, and the fandoms and pairings and characters and community. 

so please support fanfic authors vocally. support them passionately. support them so much that they forget all the doubts that the first few months of getting absolutely no feedback brought up. 

support us, please

[the-madame21]

About Me As A Writer

Tagged by @foxyena~ <3

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean? I’m literally madamemalfoy21 everywhere. I loved Draco and Lucius and I just wanted to be a mistress to one or both lol. 21 is one of my favorite numbers and it just sounded mature so I stuck it at the end. 

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

An Omega’s Heat has the most hits/kudos (nearly 26k hits and 1.5k kudos) but A Place to Call Home has the most subscriptions/bookmarks. Makes sense since one’s a oneshot and the other’s an ongoing story lol. 

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

Also the same as here and everywhere else. My little book with flowers. I literally just googled book and I think this is a stock photo of some sort so I just snagged it cuz it looked cute. 

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

YES! Omg they’re like my everything. @sound-of-inspiration is a HUGE one she’s the best, @seamorered has been super busy but like always so supportive and their comments always hit all the right parts, @trashytacosan is a given she literally pushed me through Cigs and Soda uhhh MisakiHan is fabulous I always look forward to their reviews and lots lots more, I have like 30 people who consistently comment on A Place to Call Home and I LOVE them all but I have no idea what anyone’s tumblr is so if I didn’t mention you I’m so so sorry DX

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

Snape Brings in the New Year With a Bang by Ms-Figg. It’s old, it’s on fanfiction.net, I don’t even ship this pairing, but goddamn it was absolutely brilliant. 

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I’m subscribed to like 2 and I have none bookmarked lmfao. 

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

Uhhhh I don’t really have a set AU?

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

227 subscriptions and 3002 bookmarks

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

Ok straight up. I have been wanting to write a Laito x Cordelia smutshot for like the LONGEST but I don’t want to deal with the whole having to explain fiction vs reality to people. I don’t support their relationship at all, to be honest I fucking hate Laito, but I think the amount of inner struggle/turmoil that would go on in that particular exchange would be particularly fascinating to explore. The focus wouldn’t be so much on the sex but more on Laito’s thoughts during the sex. 

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

I’d love to be able to do action scenes better. I really suck at writing those. 

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

Uhhh usually popular ships. I throw in a rarepair every so often but it’s usually small and a side thing. I do have my favorite rarepairs though. 

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

Apparently 55 lmfao. 

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

Uhhhh??? A lot. 

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

Pretty much just keep them in my head. If they’re good enough they’ll stick. 

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Yes! @soul--surgeon and I were co-writing a HP/DL crossover fic ^o^ 

16. How did you discover AO3?

Uhhhh well I was on fanfiction.net and everyone was saying that for Haikyuu I HAD to get on the AO3 train so I did.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

Not really. 

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

Literally what does this mean

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

Like personally there, pushing me to write? No. I just started writing cuz I wanted to. Although what inspired me to start writing was a series of really bad dramione fics with horrible pacing. 

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

READ. Like I know it’s the one thing everyone says but seriously, you have to read. You have to get out of your own head. If you’re like me you think everything you do is perfect. It’s so important to see how other people are wording things, how other people express themselves, because oftentimes there’s someone out there doing it better than you. Learn from that, but make sure that you mold it into something that’s your own, and not stolen. Don’t steal ppl. 

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

Honestly not gonna lie I just kinda wing the shit out of everything. I have very loose and general plot lines planned out, but there’s always being reworked along the way. That said though some stuff is most definitely planned in advance. I know my endgoal. How I get there is up for debate lol. With longer fics though like my Masks series and Place to Call Home I’ve pretty much got those figured out. I only expect minor tweaks to those. 

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

Ok so I’ve never gotten a comment where it’s like “I hate this and you suck” but I have gotten really dumb fucking comments that make me question if they just don’t know how to read or if I don’t know how to write. Those bother me the most. 

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

aCTiON

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

A Place to Call Home for the most part. I have other wips but I just haven’t given them attention since school has been busy. 

I’m also working on my very first original work! It’s going to be called The Witch of the King’s Court and it’s gonna be up on my patreon by the end of December ^o^

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

Sometiems yes and sometimes no. I do go through dry spells on occassion. But when it’s yes it actually becomes a bit of a problem lol. 

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

lol

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

Uhhhh yeah. Definitely. 

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

Ahhh this is hard. It’s between A Place to Call Home and Her Undertaker, Beautiful

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

Hmmmm that’s kinda hard. Me and Tetsu I guess, since I really didn’t know anything about Kuroo when I wrote it. 

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

I would reallllllyyyyy like to be published. But we’ll see. I won’t get my hopes up. 

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

The writing part of it. 

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

The writing part of it. No actually--editing. I fucking hate editing. (Why don’t you just get someone to beta? NO. I hate that shit.)

33. Why do you write?

It’s truly the thing I love most. It makes me happy, and it helps me relax/deal with the stress of school. 

Tagging: @sound-of-inspiration @itsalwaysmiyukikazuya @bentnotbroken1fanfiction and anyone else who wants to!! No pressure ^o^