#and someone from an older generation of fandom creators too

[maglors-anion-gap]

I've been mulling something over lately. It's almost a given that one will find questionable elements to older texts; some are overt and some sneaky even to the modern eye. There are, undeniably, many such elements in Tolkien's work, and they cause a lot of trouble for marginalized readers and for fan creators grappling with it in relation to meta and fic.

That the Silmarillion is a largely-omniscient myth-text narrative, composed from a variety of drafts, the discarded versions of which we also have access to, further compounds the issue. Who has read what? Who samples from what? How deeply do some themes pervade both the text and the fandom? There are discarded portions that raise eyebrows (and thankfully, were edited out at some point). However, there are moments where those discarded portions shine through the cracks in exposition, dialogue and reasoning left in the official composite text by the sweeping style of the narrative. The composite can be seen to still rest on certain narrative and valuational presuppositions of Tolkien's - presuppositions he assumes the reader to share.

In the text, of course some have value or more of it, some have honor or more of it, some overcome darkness while some naturally succumb to it. The narrative certainty in these characterizations rests on these lurking (racist, antisemitic, ableist) presuppositions, and in some cases handwaves any deeper exploration or explanation.

There seem to be two fan solutions to reckoning with a cross-draft-consistent bigoted theme. 1) Write meta that explores its traits and manifestations in the text and syncretizes canon assertions with authorial biases, and/or fic that directly addresses the in-text impact of these biases. 2) With an awareness of the bigoted themes, create headcanons, new verses, and fic that subverts, rewrites, or negates the original theme. The former refuses to allow the presuppositions of the text to become the presuppositions of the fandom. The latter allows (particularly marginalized) fans generative space, fodder to create anew, breathing room, and expanded perspectives. Different functions, parallel purposes, both important.

Because it's fandom, and it's large, and our idea of on-the-side fun and not our job or our marriage, we do not have the same preferences for how we go about dealing with these textual issues or the cohesive pressure to be like minded (even as we recognize the need to deal with them). One person's way of reckoning with textual biases or gaps may strike another as reaching too far from canon to be of appeal. This is a common reaction to headcanons, canon divergences and alternate universes, and crack or humor, particularly in the tolkien fandom. However, personal preference is not a basis for asserting that someone is reading the text wrong, especially when the issue at hand is one of reparative analysis and creation.

I am drawn to the issue of the Petty Dwarves. Most information on them comes in pieces from disparate drafts and satellite texts. Some information was erased entirely from the published Silmarillion. However, many people have noted the continual issues in Tolkien's treatment of the Dwarves, the iterative issues with his treatment of the Petty Dwarves, and rightly begin to link the two, plumb them down to their connecting factor, and begin excavating the silences in the narrative which Tolkien allows to be filled by presupposition.

I have found that people who cite personal preference may bring up canon elements to excuse or disprove certain readings; I would argue that the canon elements cited are less often exculpatory of our faves and more often proof of deeper biases, proof of biased presupposition as a stand in for rich characterization. Let me explain. We hear from the Sindar that the Petty Dwarves are reclusive, aggressive, and territorial (on this they base their initial assessment that the Petty Dwarves are two-legged animals for hunting). We hear from the Dwarves who cross the Blue Mountains later that the Petty Dwarves descend from expelled Dwarves who were the smallest, weakest, most conniving and self-serving, and violent persons. At one point, Tolkien describes the Petty Dwarves as older residents in Beleriand than both the Sindar and the eastern Dwarves, and the original inhabitants of Nargothrond, and it is them who Finrod hires to finish its construction. Tolkien describes the Petty Dwarves as agreeing to do this under false and duplicitous pretenses (for what reason, he doesn't say); later, Mim tries to kill Finrod (again, the narrative is sparse on motive), and Finrod alternately outs the Petty Dwarves from Nargothrond or pays the other Dwarves to turn them out. Tolkien evidently means for this to paint a picture of a group of people who are inherently wicked, cannot help but be so, are hated and pitied (for one does not preclude the other, and all good people should pity bad people, after all), and bring about their own diminishment. There's the in-universe justification for it.

I mean to explore why it is not satisfactory to leave the matter alone at "the Petty Dwarves brought about their own downfall." To begin, why does Tolkien rely on the characteristics he does when describing both the Petty Dwarves and Dwarves in general? These are multiple pieces of bigotry at play, chiefly some old antisemitic stereotypes (which have already been unpacked at length and by Jewish fans who are more knowledgable than I; if other have more to add, please do so). But I will give it a try.

First, Tolkien never pins down why the Petty Dwarves are expelled westward, only vaguely pinning it on their inborn characteristics. One old piece of antisemitism held that Jewish people were smaller and weaker than gentiles; Jewish men are still held to be less masculine, which can be traced from a medieval supposition that Jewish men menstruated. Coupled with the ableism of expelling the stunted and the inutile, Tolkien describes here a sort of itinerant and pitiful scrounger who does not belong in a society to which it cannot contribute and into which it cannot assimilate. The concept of vagrancy and the homelandlessness (consider the antisemitism in the concept of the cosmopolitan Jew, and Tolkien's deliberate linkage of Dwarves and losing their homes), is further connected to antisemitism by the Petty Dwarves being duplicitous, self-serving backstabbers toward Finrod, who Tolkien sets up as innocent and trusting enough to sleep unguarded near Mim, further juxtaposing the two. Furthermore, the gentile assertion that Jewish people are violent is escalated to accusations of blood libel and sorcery. Tolkien may not go that far, but he ties this predisposition for violence into the passage about Nargothrond, and their territorial defensiveness and their aggression toward the Sindar. Jewish people have long been stereotyped as insular, traditional, and cold to outsiders (consider the gentile furor over "goy"). All of this passes under the surface of the text - where Tolkien does not elaborate, this rises to the surface to color the reading.

When fans identify these elements in the text (and realize they are very similar to Tolkien's handling of the Dwarvish sacking of Doriath, or gold sickness, or Dwarvish isolationism as a whole), they begin to investigate the places they show up in text. The meta they write must try to syncretize the canon of what is said with the authorial context applied in the characterization. The fic they write must try to fill in lazy gaps left, and to imagine and then confront the missing exigence to the conflict while refuting the antisemitic presuppositions upon which the text relies in place of characterization.

Because it's fanwork, some people may have concepts that you think miss the mark or push further with assertions than you think is logical. However, no one who is in good faith creating, exploring, or trying to remedy the issues of the text, can be accused of using their ideas as a cudgel against canon or against others. Discussion is welcome, when it is conducted in good faith as well.

Relying too heavily on the surface-level assertions of canon to shoot down these musings at times verges upon what I have described above: leaning into the in-world justifications of hierarchy and subjugation to excuse the real-world hierarchies upon which these presuppositions are built. It is not so important how or when the Sindar realized the Petty Dwarves were people: what matters is that Tolkien created a character group, designed to be hated and pitied but never respected, onto whom he mapped real world stereotypes, and set them up in events where these stereotypes lead. It's highly worth considering why we are defending portions of text that are inherently bigoted. The whole broth here is the issue, but people are quibbling over whether they've fished out a potato versus a turnip.

[galedekarios]

seeing @mercymaker's own post about the "apology" made me feel confident enough to air my own feelings about it now that i have had a night to think it over and not internalise it anymore.

i'm not going to further belabour the point again how this "apology" is not an apology at all, but a statement where he doubles down on everything, omitting important facts, twisting truths, dancing around the issue at heart, and so much more.

it's frankly exhausting at this point.

i want to address one thing specifically however since he thought it was prudent to dedicate an entire paragraph to it in his "apology".

the fact that he wrote this:

"Truthfully I am not sure when or if I’ll begin creating again but I will continue to ask for permission to credit/use someone’s works if I feel like I’m inspired like I honestly had been doing following the late March situation. I do not expect any forgiveness or positive reactions to come out of this tbh, I just know an apology was warranted and deserved. This time I’m actually taking a step back to evaluate it."

after he just said this:

"To one gifset in particular, the hands set, that gifset was honestly a pure coincidence/accident. I truthfully had no idea that the blog had done something similar first. Hands are a common theme in Gales romance that I picked up on and I had no idea a similar set was done prior. I can say this about other sets too but it was this one in particular that I can honestly say was an honest coincidence/accident. And I couldn’t have known that those scenes/themes bore any special significance to that blog. Also I want to acknowledge I was never seeking “mutualship” but more so I enjoyed them as a creator and most likely had tumblr technical issues. I’m sorry if my actions ever made you feel unsafe, that’s the last thing I’d want to make someone feel :/"

it's just... absolutely vile to me.

first off, i have to ask: which is it? are you "apologising" or are you still trying to pretend that the concepts gifs i created and you stole are "common" things that you "picked up on" and "had no idea a similar set was done prior", which you could "say about other sets too"?

i'm confused at this point...

i'm being facetious here. i'm not. he's not sorry. he's sorry he got caught. again. and that, this time, it reached other parts of the fandom that it previously didn't, where he couldn't lie anymore about how all of this is just a case of people bullying him, of people being exclusive and clique-y.

i don't understand why he singled that set out in his "apology", however, other than that he must know by at this point that it's the one gifset that most upset me. not only because he stole it twice, but because it is so meaningful to me.

so... let's look at the facts here:

he followed me from early on, ever since my blog got traction in the bg3 fandom after the full release of the game

he engaged with me via messages and comments at around this time

there was no talk abt this theme specifically in relation to gale until after my meta and gifset gained traction, despite being a set containing an original character, which generally does worse in terms of engagement

he stole several other of my concept gifsets that i posted around this period in time (gale + missing waterdeep, gale + saying i love you, gale of waterdeep vs gale dekarios, one of my oc compilation sets)

he contacted me to remake a gifset in particular that was an older set as well, just like the hands set

i showed side by comparisons in my original post (same scenes, same frames, same framing, same caption) and it was so blatant to the point of where several people reached out to me, confused if the copy is actually my set or reblogging it, thinking it was mine

i think it's pretty obvious what actually happened, considering the context and, to be honest, at this point i don't think even he believes his own lies anymore.

all i can say is that this was not about apologising - none of this was - it was about trying to save face and doubling down.

[rouge-fauna]

It is really sad honestly, and I've had similar things happen to myself too with many many friendship falling outs. Both cc discduo believe the other has manipulated, been dishonest and faked their friendship. Dream has understandable valid reasons to believe this, tommy seems to believe it due to influence from his fans and friends and because he misinterpreted Dreams dms to him as manipulative because the dms are emotional. And in general many people tend to see emotional = manipulative. Like how people view "am i annoying you" msgs as manipulative. I do not at all believe that their entire friendship was a lie, and I dont believe they were never close and were just coworkers, based on their past intereactions and based on how upset Dream is, he clearly cared otherwise he wouldnt be sending those messages and getting upset on stream about it. People think he's obsessed with tommy for saying tommy has a good heart, but this is how you speak about an ex-friend, its not obsessive. Its sad. On top of that all the shit dream has had to cop with and tommy only making it worse. That said, I don't think tommy faked the friendship because tommy did defend dream a lot post-allegations from his own friends and fans, and checked up on him regularly but I do think its fucked now that tommy is acting like this , playing victim, feeding into his fanbases bs. Its clear to me that tommy genuinely thinks dream wronged him, but at the same time tommy is doing this to get more popularity. Another thing is when dream said that if it werent for the fanbases, then he and tommy might have been okay, I completely agree with that too, I've noticed since the start that the fandom has constantly torn into discduos friendship, analyizing every little detail to the point where it was straining their dynamic. Anyway...

those stats for prison arc damnn I had no idea ctommy did allthat, and the fact he killed the cat. I get why you would not watch exile arc rn, I've had to stop my whole dsmp rewatch plans cause of this, might return to it in 4 months

[context]

I’m not so sure if it was the fandom that turned Tommy against Dream or perhaps Tommy grew up and realized he needed to stand up for himself. Do I think Dream is this big evil manipulator? No, I think whatever Dream did he wasn’t aware of how he was coming across - like Tubbo talked about in his stream about how the majority of the content creators thought he was taking credit for their success when that wasn’t true. But just because someone doesn’t mean to hurt someone or come across a certain way doesn’t mean that they didn’t and that the other person’s feelings are invalid. Additionally, I think you can be hurt by something in retrospect without that other person being a shit person or whatever. For example, in retrospect after my first kiss I realized how uncomfortable and such I felt and how I felt violated afterwards, but here’s the thing, that doesn’t make the guy who kissed me a bad guy. He asked for consent and I gave it, in the moment I didn’t know what I was feeling till afterwards and afterwards I felt violated and manipulated into it. But I still don’t think he really meant to do that or that he is this shitty terrible guy, just because I feel this way after the fact. You can feel things even if they don’t make sense. So I think perhaps Tommy does feel a certain way in his retrospect and as he gets older feels like Dream wronged him and stuff, but the things is feelings don’t make something true. Feelings are always valid yes- but they are not truth. In fact, in the theme of comparing c! to cc!s, I think this is one of c!Tommy’s big character flaws. That he turns his feelings into truth. He felt like no one visited him in exile therefore no one visited him. Which obviously isn’t true. So perhaps this is a flaw within cc!Tommy too that he mistakes emotions for truth so because he feels wronged by Dream that makes Dream a wrong’un. Which is a very scuffed way to view things especially when you take your younger self’s view at face value. Because here’s the thing, when you are younger you have such limited experiences to look and view the world and you often make connections and opinions and observations you take into adulthood based on this limited experience. So perhaps Tommy was hurt by Dream but that doesn’t make Dream bad, clearly he was just being a good friend and helping him….

Yea I was pretty surprised. Like that’s only the things we see too, who knows how much theoretical stuff happened in those other weeks of them being stuck together. Like we literally see Tommy hit Dream more times on stream than we do Quackity. And Quackity is supposed to be the torturer, mind you of course, Quackity was hitting Dream with swords and shears and lots of it happened off camera, still… I found that interesting…

[callistawolf]

Dark clouds on the horizon

I'm still here. Sorta. I've used Tumblr to stalk a few niche interests of mine lately. (Baldur's Gate 3, Love and Deepspace, ACOTAR, etc) But I haven't posted a lot. Or even reblogged. I haven't really *blogged* in a long long time.

It's no secret that things are pretty bad in the world at large and in the United States specifically right now. (and please, spare me the whole pain olympics things where someone says "such and such place has it worse") I wanted to talk about something that I need to get off my chest because it's been weighing on my heart.

The TikTok ban. Now, I know a lot of people here on Tumblr don't love TikTok, at least, that's what I've seen on my own dashboard the few times I've gone scrolling over the last year or so. People who talk about it tend to use sneering language, the dismissive sort of talk you'd expect to see from older generations.

TikTok isn't just a kids dance app. It hasn't been for a long time. Not since I first downloaded it in the early days of the pandemic back in 2020. Every time I hear someone refer to it as such I cringe because how out of touch can you be? TikTok has whatever you want, whenever you want it. You want political discussion? Cat videos? Fandom thirst traps? Book club community? Concert videos? DANCE VIDS? It's got all of that.

TikTok got me through 2020. And 2021. And every year since, let's be honest. But 2020 was a big one because that year was a doozy. It was a rough, wild ride that was sadly a portent of things to come. That election was a nail biter and TikTok was the voice of reason throughout. I found creators who spoke eloquently and with knowledge about what was going on.

I think that's why it's getting banned, to be honest. There's no national security threat, not any more than any other app that gathers our data. If that were a reason to ban TikTok, all the other social media and shopping and music and video and photo and whateverelse apps would be banned too. TikTok is being banned because the government cannot control what information we see on it or how we organize and find community together.

Everyone I know has grown increasingly frustrated with legacy media in this country. Coverage of the last campaign cycle is just the latest in a long list of ways tv news, newspapers, etc have let us down as a society. I stopped listening to them, reading them, giving them attention. I was getting the information I needed, without filter and without agenda, over on TikTok, and I wasn't the only one. I bet they couldn't *stand* that.

I saw it had been said that they feared TikTok was sowing unrest with Americans towards their government. Uhm, we don't need an app to do that, thanks. Banning popular social media sites seems to do the trick just fine. No, they're okay with us being upset with them. They don't want us talking to each other about it, spreading the word, letting other countries see our unrest. Instead of trying to listen to the will of the people and improve things for us, its easier to just cut off our voices and freedoms, right?

And that's what brings me to the crux of this, at least for me. Yes, TikTok has been a lifeline for me the last few years but you don't get to my big age without being used to seeing social media come and go, ebb and flow. No, the thing that is sticking in my craw is the banning. I'd feel uneasy even if it was Truth Social they were banning. No social media site should be *banned* by the government. If that doesn't make some of you break out in a cold sweat, then I don't think you're paying close enough attention.

If they can ban TikTok, they can ban any other site. This could just be a litmus test, to see if they can get away with it. Snapchat. Youtube. TUMBLR. Will people just roll over and let it happen? Or will it be the straw that breaks the camels back? How much are we going to put up with, as a society? As cities burn and flood and are inundated with terrorist activity, can we tolerate having yet more rights stripped from us simply because we don't use that particular app? Do we not care until they come for us, specifically?

Something to think about.

[bytherosebushlaughing]

Seeing AI in fandom spaces continues to baffle me so I am going to get up on my pedestal because I'm seeing such a rise of AI-generated art, fics, etc. across multiple platforms and am appalled that people just don't care that they're consuming stolen art.

I've had many conversations with folks trying to dissuade them from supporting these things in a pleasant and well-meaning way, but there seems to be such a disconnect from understanding the basis of how AI even functions which I think is aiding people in being so dismissive.

AI functions and is good at doing what it's doing because it uses stolen art/writing/etc. that it's pulled from thousands of pre-existing works. It is literally looking at all this pre-existing data, seeing what is good and what isn't, pulling the best parts from each thing, and combining it all to create what you are asking for based on those results. This is plagarism. Using it to create art is stealing from artists who have painstakingly worked for hours to create something with a skill that sometimes takes years to perfect. Using AI to check grammar/spelling is stealing from writers who have belabored for hours over something until it is refined and perfect. It dehumanizes these processes that have always been a part of the art community.

Not to mention, the clear fics where the "authors" are clearly just feeding prompts/plotlines to AI and having it write based on what is shared. Or even worse, writing something and then having AI rewrite. As a lifelong reader and writer, and as someone who went to school for English and studied the craft of writing for four years, it is so disgustingly obvious to me when something is written by AI. It's a big slap in the face to creators who do put in the work to create something original, especially when those fics/pieces of art are being praised more than human-created art/fics.

There is no excuse for using it for either of those things, especially in fandom spaces when there is no shortage of talented artists who would be more than willing to create art for you. Beta'ing has been around forever too and should be a preferred option before using AI to "spell check" anything! I still beta read and have for years, it's a way to make friends and build community over shared interests. Using AI not only steals art from creators, but it is killing the concept of community in fandom spaces. Fandom is supposed to be a fun, creative outlet and a bonding experience for people in the fandom over a shared love of the piece of media; whatever it may be.

End of rant. Maybe I'm just getting ornery in my older years, but I'm so upset by this as someone who has been in fandom spaces for over a decade.

[fractualized]

hi I sent that last ask and I appreciate you so much. I love how chill you are. I love that you speak up and aren't afraid of others people's opinions of you -- because you talking about that helps me realize exactly what you were talking about about.

my critical online space that shaped my brain was Tumblr growing up, much in the same way reddit or 4chan or anything else was for others, and as positive as it was and as much as I stay here, there were some HEAVY years of thought policing and performing perfectly at all times and I really think it fucked with my head!

not to trauma dump, but the way it related to starting off by policing each other in fandom just happened to spill into every other aspect of my life too. every thing is black and white. every interaction is perfect or you are flawed and not worth anything at all. people literally judging you off stupid fandom shit behind a fake name dressed up in sparkles and curiosity was enough to call you a monster who deserved to be alone. the fuck??

from fandom cops telling me that portrayals of fictional characters in my head were an actual meter that we can base if we're deserving of human connection made me think about what ELSE could be important. aren't there things a little more pressing than fictional characters?? the words I use. the way I behave. move my face. micro express, leave pauses in sentences, judged by everything! I've been taught that the LITTLEST OF INDICATIONS OF HUMANITY were going to be the death of me. I couldn't exist. all because of fictional themes that creators are allowed to make, but fans are not allowed to enjoy unless it's the "right way". even though the people CREATING it are also exploring it. rules for thee but not for me.

it's gross. I felt like a monster and when the only other people who are kind to you are monsters, it really makes you wonder why fandom cops find themselves so much morally superior to others 👹

People have told me I'm chill before and I'm always like, "excellent, they can't tell I'm yelling on the inside." 😂

Sometimes I wonder if I would be different if the show Heroes hadn't ended as such a clusterfuck. And by that I mean that my experience with that show ended on such a sour note, I wound up drifting away from fandom for 5-ish years. And it wasn't because of the Heroes fandom itself! It was because by the end I was hate-watching the show, and that kind of headspace is just no good. I wasted too much energy being mad at something that wasn't going to improve, and my other fandom interests weren't strong enough for fic, etc. I still lurked here and there, but otherwise I focused on life stuff.

At the point I left, tumblr was popular but I was still a livejournal (and journalfen) holdout. As a result, I was simply absent during the most intense tumblr years. I have a general idea of what it was like from everyone's descriptions, but from my point of view, five years passed, Telltale Batman: the Enemy Within came a-calling, I started writing fic again, and uhhhhh things sure were different.

Not entirely for the worse. For one thing, as someone who unavoidably grew older, yeah, I do keep in mind that there are children running around these parts. The increased focus on tagging your work is also good, so people can avoid what they don't want to see. And it's just always been a good general rule to be mindful when getting into sensitive topics, and I was seeing more of that.

Buuuuuuuut yeah, with that it seemed like "don't like; don't read" was out, and witch hunting was in. Some slight mistake might indicate you were actually one of the Bad Ones all the long! And everyone must know! I mean, there's always been fandom police, but fandom's mainstreamification definitely made it worse for a host of reasons. And I actually was unnerved by it for a while, even though the Enemy Within finale had me indulging in fluff. I was probably safe-- but then again who knows what blunder or improper deference to a sensitive subject could bring a swarm of strangers!

But eventually I was fluffed out, and chatting batjokes with people was giving me new ideas that would have me explore and indulge in (gasp) darker ideas. And by that point I was just like, I'm a freaking adult. I tag my shit. I'm here to have a good time with people I like, not worry about a bunch of randos who probably get as much anxiety making a cold call as I do. And yeah, why are fans supposed to be judged on a different metric than the creators?? I'm going to do what I want!

And with that rallying cry… I mean, nothing ever happened. 😂 Not the first time I've built up worries in my head for nothing.

I can see it taking me longer to get to that point if I'd fully marinated in the thought policing, though. I think people get that instinct because of the age-old lack of control elsewhere in life (especially nowadays, with all the… everything). Surely if someone can get everyone in their orbit to behave in just this way, then at least things there will be okay. Nothing bad will happen! (It's not as if rigid mindsets hurt people and their relationships, or performatively good people still do atrocious things. No, surely not.)

I don't have a good closing, so here's an Reno 911 icon from the old days:

[chengfagshi]

one thing that i've been noticing with this recent-ish puritanism behaviour (in and outside of fandoms, about media perception in general), is that there's a big generational and cultural divide

while it's not only younger generations or USAmericans that are starting to think like this, they're the majority

and that got me thinking what other cultural differences there may be between southwestern European countries vs the USA, about this issue

I've yet to see someone mention fairy talkes/folk tales/fables. Europe has a long tradition of tales, USA not really. whatever native american tales existed have been erased from the average citizen’s cultural knowledge.

but my generation and older, we grew up with Aesop and La Fontaine Fables, Grimms Fairy Tales, Perrault, and Hans Christian Andersen. They taught us how to engage with our imagination in a way that didn't make us lose ourselves in it.

it also taught us morals and about the real world, in a way that didn't feel "heavy" like inside a classroom.

these tales exist to help teach children what parents hope kid tv/youtube will do instead - and when it does badly, they blame the show/content creator instead of their own parenting.

I really think that's another big difference that only increases the divide between morally "better adjusted" and "lesser adjusted".

because it's not normal or moral for, currently, huge numbers of teens and young adults to not be able to understand that what you read in a book/watch in show isn't happening in real life; even if you're "seeing it" - that's just your imagination.

just take a peek at the shifting community - they genuinely believe that their daydreaming is them shifting into an alternative reality, where they exist alongside their favourite characters from their favourite series. that’s not just weird, it’s concerning too

That's honestly very interesting to think about. I'm actually worried about the future of these kids, because they have such a huge problem separating fiction from reality that it's very concerning.

[mcytblr-archive]

Early MCYTblr Interviews: Anonymous

our interviewee today is the anonymous author of the "SBI Crit Post". he's asked to both remain anonymous and not to be sought out; he's been incredibly helpful and polite through this entire interview process, and i would ask you all to leave any residual feelings you may have from that time at the door. If you think you remember who posted it, please keep it to yourself. that said, let's begin!

Q: Before we begin talking about the ‘Crit Post’, I’d love to hear what your experience of MCYTblr was like before it was posted. Do you have any standout memories from this time?

A: Not particularly. There's some things that I guess looking back on nowadays is kind of wild, like how in the groups I was running in, shipping of any kind that wasn't DNF was super frowned upon (as in, I trigger tagged for IRL shipping)…but truthing wasn't really? Or, how back then the lines between 'critblr' and main mcytblr were super fuzzy. I hung out with both groups before the Crit Post to no issue. Oh!!! And this is a wonderful piece of MCYTblr lore that you may not know, but when I posted the Crit Post, I was apart of a MCYT art exchange themed after MCC called MC Creatives. I think it only happened once, and I can't exactly remember who ran it. They were a really nice DNF (? or just DTeam) blogger. I think it's cool to see that even back then the community was pretty tight knit and had overarching community activities like we see today. It's interesting to me that our fandom has missed out on some of the more important parts to being a fandom… not many big bangs, only one or two that I know of. It's very sad, but we are a weird fandom in general, and definitely a Modern Fandom, if you understand what I mean by that LOL. There is one memory that does stick out, completely irrelevant to this interview though. The fake Dreambur meetup. I pulled an all nighter for it. I was shaking. I drew fanart (though never posted it). Everyone was hysterical. And then it was faked and everyone went WHAT.

Q: As you let me know in your dms, you were the user who made the original “SBI Crit Post”. Would you mind giving a quick rundown of what it was exactly, for anyone who may not know?

A: I would, but frankly I barely remember anything about it. It was like… I saw someone being like "weird that we aren't as critical of SBI as we are of DT" and I thought, "Well, I can probably try?" and made shit up. It was nonsense. I can't even remember what I said about Philza. The points against the others were "Tommy is too young to be in this business" "Wilbur queerbaits" and… "Technoblade needs to be less honest about his ADHD he's glorifying it" or something like that. Again, it was nonsense at its best.

Q: What was your reasoning at the time for making the post? Did the overall culture around you play a part in it?

A: Here's the part no one knows: At the time of posting, I was 13 by maybe… one, two, or three weeks. And I'd spent almost the entirety of my time as a 12 year old in a community that was like "we need to be Critical of our Favorite Creators because this is Righteous and the Only Good Way To Engage With MCYT" and I was like "Everyone here is older than me and therefore endlessly smarter than me," and therefore just accepted it. You can see it very clearly in the part that was "critical" of Wilbur Soot. He was queerbaiting for what? Acting like he wanted to kiss men? Dressing nice? Ridiculous! But if we called Dream a queerbaiter (and never GNF, because everyone was convinced he was gay), then I thought surely Wilbur Soot could also be a queerbaiter! This made total sense to baby 13 year old me. It's not fair to really call that indoctrination: it's not like I was falling down an alt-right pipeline or anything. I was just a stupid kid with too much internet access who liked minecraft and knew nothing about like Dan & Phil or Septiplier (kind of thing that would make me suspicious of this activity--especially truthing). I thought I was fufilling some honor by saying "and yes, my favorite minecraft boys aren't without fault either!" The people that stayed friends with me after that… some of them were my closest normal non-Critblr friends, who refused to abandon me (shout out to you guys you know who you are), and the rest were the people in Critblr who were… okay with my behavior.

Q: I understand that the backlash to the post was very intense– what was it like from your perspective? Did it have any affect on you?

A: Lots. Lots and lots and lots. I lost a bunch of my close friends who weren't okay with what I'd said or how I'd doubled down, and it really messed with me as a kid in the middle of quarantine. There were times where I genuinely considered hurting myself irreperably as either a way to "apologize for what I had done" or just a way to stop worrying that everyone I knew was going to block me one day. Those feelings lasted for a long time, I still struggle with them to this day, over three years later (? I think). And I was kind of lead to believe that was an okay response. I recieved asks the night that it all went down where I was told I should hurt myself. Of course my own behavior wasn't cool, but neither was that. I know there was a post out there by a popular (at the time?) Technoblade blogger that detailed the faults in that post, but I never read it. All I knew about it was that people saw it, and harassed me because they saw it, and that the OP of that post hated me. It got to the point that seeing that blogger's URL caused me to have panic attacks, a ridiculous thing because that blogger as far as I know never actually did anything wrong. I don't know. Every once in awhile, someone in the server I'm in (hi some of you are definitely reading this :3 i love you guys) will bring up the post in passing and I'll have to mute the channel for 24 hours because I'm scared. Or even when we're discussing normal drama, if something feels too close to the Crit Post, or like it might come up, I'll get shaky and nauseous and have to mute the channel for 24 hours. It's weird, the shit being told to kill yourself because you did something dumb as a 13 year old can do to you.

Q: As a follow-up: What, if anything, do you wish had happened instead?

A: I don't know really. I guess the obvious answer is "I didn't make the post" or "I didn't double down", but I think the real answer has to be that I wish the community I was in hadn't taught me that what I was doing was an okay move.

Q: Do you have anything else to add about the Crit Post, MCYTblr, or the community as a whole?

A: Not really. I "retired" from MCYTBlr in I think 2022, but kept a passing interest in it for a long time, and I'm still active in a discord (hi again) comprised entirely of fans and retired fans. I loved MCYT, and in some ways, I still do. When I'm sad, I put on old Technoblade videos. When I'm really sad, I put on old Purpled videos. These things are my comforts, things that I haven't ever been able to give up. And that's good! Even if I don't talk about MCYT anymore, I'm glad it's there for me.

[inkher0]

About the Yandev situation:

I'm more confused why he's facing punishment now for what he's done. He's been accused of this stuff before, and he's been accused of general pest behavior in the past. Hell, I assumed most people hated him purely because of how badly he sucks at making a game. Knowing people were still into him despite his controversies being within a single Youtube search is disappointing, to say the least.

I think this is important to say, as someone's who's experienced a crumb of attention from a younger audience: If a content creator really loves you, they won't want to be your friend. They are so concerned about making sure you understand the boundary between you two, it sometimes comes off as being cold. They'll block you first if you try to get too personal with them. They will be friendly in public, but they will never invite you somewhere alone with them. They will never want your Snapchat, your email, your phone number- nothing. You are a username and an icon to them, and sometimes a face they'll forget. That's how it should be. Expecting any more should be met with an iron wall of rejection. That's what boundaries are.

To the fans and other creators that stayed, even when there was plenty of reasons not to: Shame on you. You put each other in danger, and you need to support his victims the loudest now. You aren't the problem itself- that belongs to yandev alone- but you are part of it.

Quite frankly, I'm fucking sick and tired of the "but muh Fandom", ESPECIALLY from people my age and older. Get the fuck over yourself, you literal fucking nerd. Your anime clubs are full of pedophiles, transphobes, and racists. How you can stomach those "cherished memories" knowing it was there is beyond me. Either choke them out of your groups or leave the group. Sometimes you can salvage a space, sometimes you can't- it sucks, I know.

Do it anyways. This isn't a request.

[davekat-sucks]

what is up with fandoms that aren’t for kids (hazbin hotel, homestuck, danganronpa etc.) telling people to off themselves over shipping? like fandoms like that are for teens and adults, i honestly wanna hope it’s not the adults in the fandom telling people to off themselves because you think an adult would know better right? i mean a teen does too but i think it depends on how old the teen is and how develop your brain is

like those fandoms aren’t for kids, they’re for teens and adults so i don’t know why you want to protect children from fandoms that are for 13-18+, if a child does interact with that kinda fandom tell them to get out of it and that they aren’t allowed in that said fandom into they are at the age range

like i do agree that kids should be protected but it is not the creator’s fault if a child interacts with their fandom, it’s the parents fault for not watching over their kid, like if you’re gonna give a kid as young as 10 a phone you need to moderato everything they are doing if they are that young jnto you can trust they aren't gonna do amything bad ot illegal

Sadly, we live in a generation where babies got iPads so the parents don't have to give too much attention to them. That's why shit like Elsagate and weird YouTube Kids videos continue to pump out to this day. I also say that when kids start growing older, we all had been through the phase of thinking we hot shit and can handle anything mature that we would do anything to prove ourselves. Including lying about our age. Yes, it's not uncommon to lie online. Anonymity and all that. But most teens lie to try and access certain content that's locked behind for 16-18+ users. Maybe some of us are curious what the medium is like. Others who are aware of it, just want to see it cause they like it. Whatever the reason, kids will find a way to check it out, even if they know they are not old enough to view it. We all had done this. I even admit I was young to watch shit like Elfen Lied. But I think the difference is back then, at least said kids and teens tried their best to HIDE the fact they were minors. But now, they don't even try to hide it. The kids demand they be let in and everyone else must accommodate for them if they start to feel uncomfortable. It's like person bitching at God for making it rain so hard even when someone offered them an umbrella to help cover themselves. Doesn't help said parents barely get the blame for neglecting their child in this day of age. We used to say it's up to the parents to make sure the kids don't go on sketchy websites or leak personal information. But now, it's the creator's fault for posting it, not knowing that out of a million people in the world. one kid took it too far. The same shit happened when it came to kids buying and playing violent video games and they blame said video game company for it. Never the adult themselves for not keeping an eye on their child.

[kairos-polaris]

For the Character Ask

Yuji + 4,5,8,21,24,25 <3?

thank you so much, my beloved <3333

character ask

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Any shojo or sports anime in general, but if specifally then Haikyuu for no reason other than it's set not that far away from Sendai, also there was a haikyuu character cut out in the bg of some ep iirc

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

I generally struggle associating characters with songs so probably the one Gege picked for him, 9 mm Parabellum Ballet - "Heart Ni Hi O Tsukete" because how skit coded it is

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

In general, it's underestimate him and completely misunderstand his character his values. Yuuji is someone so so so human and that's what I love about him, his humanity makes his relationships with other characters deeper and more meaningful and it annoys me how people don't see it

Also Higuruma learning rct during the fight with Sukuna isn't an ass pull but Yuuji, who was also established as a quick learner (he got black flash the very same he learned of it!!!), learning rct in the month of training is. Sukuna kinnies they all are

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

My favorite thing to write is his relationship with Sukuna and the possible corruptive influence sharing body comes with. Also, his strong moral senses influencing others, like Sukuna, Gojo and Higuruma

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

I am not really in the hi3d fandom spaces but Kiana Kaslana for sure!!! both are loveable idiots created to house destructive force for their creator's selfish purposes, who would keep going even on broken legs, who would keep fighting to protect others and for all the beautiful there is in the world. Both are bad at math and better at throwing hands, both have a dark haired older friend who loves them so much. The biggest difference is that Kiana got to achieve at least some of her goals and got a pretty happy ending and i don't think Yuuji will be as lucky 😭

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I don't remember 😭I probably thought he was cute, I love characters like him (especially post Kiana) so I thought he was lovely and I admired his dedication to saving others. I will never understand people who called him immature for it, he is 15 ffs. I bet most of those calling him immature didn't have any greater goals and ideals in his age. Those very ideals gets stomped on in Shibuya too so even more of an unreasonable complaint 💀

And now i love him even more, he is my most favorite boy ever and I will fight anyone who insults him

[pulchrasilva]

What's an anti-anti? Or an anti for that matter

Oh my friend I am so sorry to introduce you to the shitpile that is antishipping discourse

Anti is short for "antishipper", which is someone who believes certain types of ships are immoral and nobody should ship them or engage with media about them. Exactly what types of ships that includes varies (because morality will always be vague at best and you can't meaningfully categorise anything into "always good" and "always bad"), but people usually take issue with incest, ships involving one or more minors, age gaps, etc.

I consider myself a proshipper/"anti-anti" purely because I think this kind of discourse is extremely inane and potentially harmful.

Antis tend to say "problematic" ships "normalise" harmful dynamics in real life, ignoring that exploring these ideas in fiction is a safe way of engaging with darker topics and sometimes people do so to process personal trauma. Personally I've found that reading fanfiction about dark topics made me wayy more emotionally prepared to handle discussion of them in real life.

And, as I said, it's nearly impossible to draw a solid line between what should be allowed and what shouldn't be allowed. Age of consent is an arbitrary number that's chosen because legally you need a strict number if you're going to enforce the law, but a person 1 year older and 1 year younger than the age of consent aren't actually that much different. Plus the law varies from country to country, but antis tend to choose the US age of 18 because the US dominates the internet. Age-gaps between two non-minor characters get even more blurry!! And let's not forget that a ship between two men is way more likely to be flagged as pedophilia than a ship between a man and a woman. Imo if you can't make a concrete rule about it there's no point in making a rule at all.

Plus it's fiction, and not even mainstream fiction, so it's hardly gonna cause any significant shift in real life culture. These ships get criticised to hell and back in fan spaces and people get properly harassed over it, but there are plenty of professional writers portraying these things in well known media and don't get much flack for it at all - because it's way easier to tear down a fan, your equal, than a creator. It seems to me that the problem isn't really "normalising" these behaviours, because if that was the case mainstream media would be a much bigger contributor than fandom

For some reason, toxic/abusive ships are less commonly criticised despite being objectively harmful to the characters involved, and incest is the one people hate the most despite it being (imo) the one least likely to cause actual harm to the characters. Also depictions of rape and sexual abuse are usually considered off limits but you rarely get the same criticism of, say, depictions of murder. The sexual aspect of the topic seems more important than the actual harm.

AND THEN there's the fact that antis generally only argue against the ships that make them personally feel uncomfortable. Different people have different boundaries for what they consider too far, and I lose my shit every time I see antis shipping something I know other antis claim is the devil. And often the whole thing gets coopted by someone who doesn't like people shipping characters A and B because they ship B and C. ("You can't ship these unrelated characters because they're sibling-coded which makes the ship basically incest" is something I've seen a truly bonkers amount of times)

So yeah. That's the whole mess. Like I said I dont really care about whether or not antis follow me? I'm proship purely because I don't think this is a conversation that needs to be had at all. Like who cares But, go wild, romanticise the hell out of the most repulsive things!! It's nobody else's business but yours. But if I see a mutual who followed me first reblogging "any proshippers who follow me should explode and die teehee ^-^" ONE MORE TIME I might actually explode

[tossawary]

Hi! This is another Fandom Trumps Hate post for people who are thinking about joining up as a creator but aren't sure. I'm not making this one rebloggable because I'm going to talk a little about my personal experiences with fan events in general and FTH in particular over the years (feel free to link a friend to this post, though, if they're on the fence about participating).

About 10 years ago now, when I was very new to online fandom, I didn't know how to feel about fan charity events. Some of them seemed kind of shady (and some fan-run things are shady, let's be real, but FTH's donations go straight to the charities and the mods never touch it). But some of them seemed legitimate, and as I was spending a lot of my free time making fic and art anyway, I thought: didn't I kind of owe my creative skills to a good cause? When I did decide to refrain from joining these events because I knew that I was too busy, I still felt kind of guilty about it.

Now, a little older and a little wiser, I feel pretty confident saying that if you're really not sure or enthusiastic about participating: don't do it. I am personally handing you a "Get Out Of Jail FTH Guilt-Free" card and telling you it's cool if you're too busy. It's seriously fine.

Here's why:

Fan events, whether we're talking about charity auctions or big bangs just for fun, are often pretty significant commitments. Being "required" to write fic, especially being required to follow someone else's prompt can be a very different experience to writing whatever you want for fun. (Not not fun, just different.)

Some people write fanfiction instead of attempting to publish original fiction to become "real writers" because, as they'll talk about on their own blogs, they want to write as a for-fun hobby. Like painting for fun or baking for fun. Just because someone likes making a fancy cake every once and a while doesn't mean that they want to open a catering business, you know? Things can change when you've made a commitment and when there's money on the line, even if that money has gone to charity. There's an added layer of stress.

If you've never written prompt fic on request before, then it's hard to know how you'll find the experience, if you'll find the stress of it a light burden you barely feel or a heavy burden weighing you down every day. Sometimes, you'll end up writing something you're not 100% into. I've had artistic projects (talking mostly about school and work here, not any fan projects) where the idea was fun and I was proud of the end result, but the work itself was kind of grueling because it wasn't what I personally would have chosen to do.

My FTH bidders over the years have always been incredibly cool people who have proposed fun ideas, which I have really enjoyed writing, and they'll often work with you to find a prompt that you love. I have found my FTH projects rewarding experiences. But I'd be lying if I said that when working on a FTH fic, I've never once occasionally thought, "Man, I kind of wish I was working on something else."

You have to be able to resist the allure of your latest plot bunny and finish the current project. If you're really bad at finishing your WIPs or if you're really bad at finishing your WIPs within a time limit (FTH deadline is Dec 31st of the same year), then maybe creating for a fan event just isn't for you. And that's fine!

There's a reason that FTH recommends in their Signup Tips for First-Time FTH Creators post that new creators start with only one offer and to start small. Write a 5k fic, not a 50k one. Draw a single, cartoony drawing, not a 5-page comic in a realistic style. It's a very responsible thing to do to test the waters of an experience before jumping in the deep end.

Part of the stress of these experiences comes from the fact that if you don't fulfill your promise to create for your bidder, you can get banned from future FTH auctions. Big Bangs and Secret Santa events will also ban you (not because of FTH, FTH doesn't blacklist you to anyone or anything). And you don't want to disappoint your bidder! They seemed really cool and you can feel like you're letting them down just if you make them wait too long.

(I promise you that most bidders are pretty chill people. I personally am happy just donating to the charities and I really don't care when/if my creator gets back to me. Their wellbeing is more important to me than a fic or a piece of art.)

If you feel like you won't be able to fulfill an offer in time or if you don't really want to take a prompt from someone else instead of doing your own thing, then it's fine not to make an offer. (Likewise, if you ever have missed creating something for a fan event because real life stuff came up, then it's fine. You're not a bad person. Life gets in the way sometimes. You thought you could at the time. There are other things to participate in when you know you're ready.)

The thing is that creative skills are much, MUCH more valuable than people are putting them on auction for here. If I was charging a minimum wage of $15/hr for my writing skills for what I've done for FTH over the years, I would have made them THOUSANDS. (I doubt I've made them $1000 total.) I participate in FTH usually when I'm feeling at creative loose ends and want to work on prompt fic. I want the collaborative experience of writing something specific for someone else. It's a project that scratches a particular writing itch for me (the stress of a commitment is there, yes, but it's so easy to carry that I barely notice it), which isn't for everyone, and the fact that this event raises some money for charity is kind of just an added bonus.

If someone is donating $25 dollars to charity so that you'll write them a thank-you gift of a 5,000 word one shot that took you at least 10 hours to write, that is NOT a balanced exchange. If we take the $15/hr wage, that is $150 of labor for $25. This is NOT an efficient way to donate to charity. This is a fan event.

Now, some people require a higher minimum bid for their work than I generally do. (Which is good. They are right to do this. I should probably also do this more seriously.) Some people require $100 dollars for a 1k fic. Some people say they'll write 1k words per every $10. There are ways to bring things back into balance and make things more efficient.

So, if you think that a disparity between the amount donated and your donated labor will piss you off, then put serious minimum bid requirements. Your creative skills are valuable. It is okay to enforce boundaries on your donated time and energy so that you don't end up writing 50k of an idea you don't really like for $25, because that sounds like a recipe for resentment. (I keep mostly to myself, so I have never heard of a situation like this with FTH and am just exaggerating to make a point.)

And if people don't bid on your offer? It doesn't mean that your creative skills aren't valuable. It just means that your offer wasn't what someone was looking for at this particular time. (Honestly, as a side note, it's incredible how much the success of a pitch for a book or show or movie depends on just happening to be made to the right people at the right time. I'm serious. It's a very real thing in the entertainment and publishing industries. I have attended talks by people who say that they've had to pass on great pitches specifically because they're looking for a property to sell to 5yo boys that year and already have a property being sold to 10yo girls.)

If you need to pass on participating because you're busy: look after yourself first! Don't end up disappointing your bidder and yourself because you don't have the time or energy to spare. If you can do it, but it means really stressing yourself out and sacrificing other things to find the time: don't do it. Look after yourself. Don't hurt yourself and your creative muscles over a fan event. Breathe. Take a nap. Play some video games. Participate as a bidder if you have the spare money or just advertise the auction if you don't (if you want to). Or just cheer on creators in AO3 comments or with kudos. FTH allows you to make a donation and add it to their count, even if you don't bid or if you don't want to make a bid.

Would you be happy to know that someone was grinding themselves down trying to please you? Don't do that to your bidder. They're your fellow fans, often fellow creators, who just want to chill and donate to charity, and they'd be really upset to hear that you were making yourself miserable because of their donation.

I have never failed to fulfill a FTH offer. I have only participated in fan events when I know I can do it. I have always enjoyed myself. But I work in a creative industry and I have seen a lot of creative people hurt their own passion for something they love or burn out by trying to force themselves to work on things. (I know this sounds very dramatic. I'm not saying you will burn out. You may be totally fine or maybe only lightly stressed at the end. You'll probably be great, honestly. I bet you're a kickass creator. But it's fine to be wary of burn out until you're in a more confident place.) So, to any creative person, especially younger ones, I wanted to write all this out to tell you that it's fine not to do these things. It's not that serious.

Keep fandom a positive space by giving yourself room to breathe and coming back even stronger when you're ready, as a creator, bidder, or just a supporter. If you've already signed up but you want to pull out of FTH before bidding starts because something came up, email the mods. If this extended rambling about burn out has only strengthened your resolve to kick this fan event's ass, then that's awesome! Good for you! I think it's good to reassess your creative energies every now and again, and I think it's fine to say, "Okay, I think I need a break, I don't want to let anyone down," as much as it is to say, "Yeah, I'm pumped up! I'm good to go! Let's do it!"

EDIT: This whole post sounds kind of negative, so to add more positivity: if you really, really want to do it, then I think you should go ahead and join FTH! Just know your limits. It's okay to start small and to set firm boundaries. FTH can be a lot of fun! You can meet cool people! You can feel like you're making a difference! You may end up writing great and rewarding fics that you never would have written otherwise! Plenty of people have joined FTH for the first time feeling really uncertain and had a great time, no regrets.

Don't do FTH just because you feel weirdly obligated to participate because it's for a good cause. Do FTH because you want to do it.

There will be other events.

[sapphire-weapon]

4make player -> In relation to your ask about the whole "criticism isn't allowed in fanfic", I agree. It also holds true for realistic fanfic (cough I write older Leon and his body). Full disclosure, I began writing again late 2023, and I sometimes write smut when bored, but I'm very open about accepting feedback, positive or negative in my notes on Ao3 and... nada. Nothing. Regardless of the hits.

It would be so, so cool to establish and normalise a middle ground in modern fandom. Give feedback! If it's negative, make it constructive and extend niceties.

Regardless, it isn't really about fanfic or fandom at all. It's about the normalisation of people pleasing and it's... disheartening to see. I'm a recovering people pleaser and seeing younger demographics hailing that coping mechanism as standard absolutely sucks! Honesty and politeness need to make a forefront in 2024, it will do a world of good.

The hits to feedback ratio in RE fandom is scuffed. The Difference just reached 5,000 views. Five thousand. That's unheard of for almost all of my other fics. But it has overall less engagement than my others from other fandoms. L&L is similar in its number ratios. Almost at 5k hits but very little engagement.

And I don't really care; I'm not complaining. Like I said earlier, I write for myself, not for attention or clout. It's just an interesting phenomenon I've noticed in RE fandom in general. And I think a lot of it has to do with how fractured and tribal the fandom is; people are probably too afraid to leave evidence that they like a certain ship or creator. It's very stupid.

Everything is about appearances. No one wants to be associated with the "wrong" ship and no one wants to be That Guy who leaves a critical comment on someone's hobby.

It's whatever.

[throwra3882]

Okay, so, this thought won't leave me alone, so I have decided to finally post it. Fair warning, the post is super long.

It's about Micah Bell from Red Dead Redemption 2.

I'm not new to the Red Dead Fandom. I've been playing the game solidly for nigh on 3 years now, and I adore it. I've played so much red dead that I can turn my map off and find my way around the world. I memorized where most of the hidden loot stashes, dinosaur bones, and rock carvings are. I hardly have to look at the treasure maps to know where my next destination is going to be.

My first playthrough, Micah was my least favorite character. I hated his guts. I had an excellent time during the epilogue and took too many screenshots of me posing next to his dead body.

My second playthrough, because I knew what was going to happen, I harassed him, watched him, and tried to see if there's any way you can change the outcome. On story missions together, I'd chuck dynamite at him.

And suddenly overnight he became my favorite character. I think it's because I love to root for a charismatic villain. I think it's because I was finally noticing little details about him and thinking, oh, that's neat. The creators put a lot of thought into this game. It kind of clicked in Guarma when Micah actually protected the camp instead of laying about doing nothing like he usually does.

So I went looking for content to see if there were other Micah enjoyers out there. I was not surprised to find there were! What I was surprised about was how controversial liking his character made someone.

I've been on tumblr for over a decade (not with an account, I lurked that whole time) and everyone who's been here that long knows two things.

You police yourself. You look at tags that interest you, you block tags you dislike (I'm a little sex repulsed, so I don't like looking at explicit art. Not that the artists aren't talented or that people can't enjoy it! But it's not my cup of tea so I tend to avoid that), and you generally stay in your area of interest.

Fandom and reality stay separate to an extent. Can you have merch of your favorite fandom? Pins and socks and jacket patches? For sure! Can you go to conventions and cosplay as your favorite character? Absolutely, you look fantastic! Can you go harass an actor because you don't like their character? No way! Doing that makes you a shitty person. (Jack Gleeson/Joffrey Baratheon comes to mind)

So I was surprised that so many people decided that liking Micah meant the person was racist or idolized his behavior, which is not what normal, healthy people think.

I am aware that Micah is the villain. I am aware that he is a problematic fave and is a racist, sexist, homophobic piece of shit. That's not why I like him. Racism, sexism, and homophobia in real life are bad. I would never like a person in real life who was like Micah. But I am fully aware that Red Dead Redemption 2 is a fictional world and Micah Bell III is a fictional character, and I am not going to now idolize racist, sexist, homophobic assholes because I saw it in a video game. That's like saying that playing video games makes you violent in real life, which is an issue that a lot of boomers had when video games became popular, saying it was going to make kids violent.

The reason I like Micah is because the game is about redemption, and I like to explore how Micah could possibly be redeemed. Honestly, he reminds me of a kid fresh out of high school who's still saying the same stuff his parents taught him, and who hasn't yet been to University to see that the world is not black and white and that people of color actually exist and are people, instead of racist caricatures explained by his parents because he grew up in a town without any diversity.

I wonder what could have happened if Micah had grown up in the Van Der Linde gang (he's only 3 years older than Arthur. Hosea and Dutch could have adopted him). Or if the gang didn't fall apart and they actually got to start a new life somewhere with the Blackwater money.

I think it's okay to explore that. What if he realized his racism and sexism and homophobia were bad? What if he wasn't so socially awkward and abrasive and actually got to know and like people? What if he took steps to try and make amends for his past behavior and became a better person? In a game about redemption, I don't think it's so far-fetched to want to imagine that.

In conclusion, block the things you don't want to see, and as long as you're able to separate fiction from reality, like whichever characters tickle your fancy.

[tgm-all4one]

FAQ

Main Challenge Post

Challenge Overview

If you have any questions about any part of the challenge, please feel free to send in an ask or DM. But here are some common questions below the break. It will be updated as more questions come in:

What is the prompt?

"Last summer was one no one could ever forget. Now, a year later, character(s) still feel(s) the effects of that time."

Does it have to be set one year after Top Gun: Maverick?

No. While you can set it then if you would like, your creation can be set literally whenever you want. Anywhere from the Big Bang to the collapse of the universe (or beyond!).

Can I use characters from Top Gun (1986) without mentioning Top Gun: Maverick?

Absolutely! While this challenge is timed around the anniversary of Top Gun: Maverick, the release of that film also reignited a love for the original and helped that part of the fandom grow as well. So if you prefer the OG characters, go right ahead and use them!

What sort of medium is allowed for the challenge?

Literally, anything you can think of! Writing, artworks, GIF sets, edits, moodboards, playlists, Pinterest boards, etc. If you want to decorate a cake with a scene or make a piece of needlepoint, those are allowed too! However you express yourself is a valid way to enter the challenge.

The only exception is that AI resources are NOT allowed. While I know people may have differing opinions when it comes to the use of AI in art or fanart. the point of this challenge is for creators to show their individuality through their art. Not a computer programs ability to compile information. So, any submissions involving AI will not be reblogged.

Are there any minimum or maximum guidelines to follow?

There are NO minimum or maximum limits for words, time, number of GIFs, etc. WIPs are also permitted if you want to submit it now and finish it later.

Can I do more than one submission?

Sure! If you want to write three fics, draw two pieces of art, and make a moodboard, go for it!

What if I am about to post and see someone else has a similar idea already posted?

Then please still post yours! The spirit of the event is to demonstrate how diverse and unique we all are even when we have similar elements. So just because someone else's submission might have the same pairing and trope, I guarantee their creation is not the same as yours. Because no one else will ever be able to recreate the exact story you want to share. Because only you can tell that story your way.

If I'm under 18 can I participate?

Unfortunately, no. Since this challenge allows NSFW content, it is only open to those 18 and older. So in order for your work to be eligible to be reblogged, your blog must have your age indicated on it (18+, 20s, over 21, 35, etc.). Sorry to any minors who were looking to participate. But hopefully, this is successful and we might do it again when you would be old enough to join in!

Is AI generated art of any kind allowed?

No. Since this challenge is focused on our differences as creators that make our art unique, AI generated submissions are not allowed.

If I post on AO3 and share the link on tumblr, can that count as a submission?

Absolutely! Some people prefer to post only on AO3 and that is a totally valid way to participate. Here is the collection you can share your creation with:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tgm_all4one