#basically unwritten rules of fandom

[rosewood-multifandom-writer]

Additions to this: you are 110% valid in finding a kink, ship, trope, etc disgusting, creepy, yucky, weird, strange, not-your-cup-of-tea, etc, etc. Nobody is saying “you should enjoy this gross thing you see” or anything like that.

You can stick to more vanilla content and filter out the dark and icky content you do not like. Trust me, I’m in the Devil May Cry fandom. The most popular ship is between twin brothers. Filtering out tags related to that has made my experience on the Tumblr side of Devil May Cry even better.

Do NOT waste your time and energy harassing people or leaving a comment on “I don’t like X or Y,” when you SHOULD be using that time and energy finding content you actually like and are more comfortable with. Again, I’m in the DMC fandom. I’d much rather spend my time and energy finding content that I like and won’t disgust me upon looking through character tags.

You can be critical of certain things, but remember that writing nasty comments ≠ criticism.

Periodic rent-lowering-gunshots:

Fiction is not reality.

You can enjoy things in fiction that would be awful in the real world. Like playing a murderhobo in a game! In the real world, being or supporting a murderer-thief would be pretty damn awful, while in the game it's just good fun. Same with anything else you choose to do with the pixels on the screen, like kinks that don't affect anyone real, so they're okay in fiction, but would be pretty damn bad in real life.

No one else is responsible for your online experience. They are required not to harass you, but they are not and never will be obligated to not post about ships, kinks, or tropes you dislike just to avoid you seeing them. It's up to you to blacklist words or phrases, block tags, or even block users as needed to avoid seeing content that upsets you.

No one can force you to read anything against your consent. Any content you don't like seeing can be instantly avoided by closing out of the offending post/fic.

You are not owed an online experience free of discomfort.

Nothing that happens in your imagination can ever make you a bad person. Words you write or read about fictional characters will never make you a bad person.

The claim that media consumption influences real-life behavior is intellectually dishonest and serves only to excuse the behavior of real offenders.

Fiction is a safe way to explore horrifying or confusing concepts. Therapists agree that fiction, even (or especially) about taboo topics is a good coping mechanism, especially, but not exclusively, for trauma survivors. Fiction is to adults what play therapy is to children. This doesn't stop being true if the work in question is of a sexual nature.

Sex isn't an inherently worse or better motivation than anything else. A work written to create feelings of arousal isn't dirty, shameful, or in any way less pure than works written to entertain, provoke moral questions, or for other reasons. And worth noting is that multiple purposes can exist in the same story, especially fanfiction.

You aren't entitled to an explanation for why someone reads, writes, or otherwise enjoys certain works, kinks, tropes, ships, etc.

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

random ask but should love and deepspace become a cdrama or an animated series, which actors do you think will fit the bill?

I think this is a really interesting and meaningful question. Thank you for the question. Tbh I don't think any actors will fit. This involves an idea or unwritten rule of chinese fandoms including xianxia fiction and especially otome game (by especially I mean If Paper is going to do this, it's crazy, it's suicidal, it wants to go out of business, and no game company would dare to do this, including genshin impact. Chinese players will kill them no kidding lmao. Because of this, such attempts also face a vacuum market that no consumer or audience will buy into. If they ever do this, it must be all of them possessed by aliens). Chinese fandoms think no real persons can be compared with or can cast zhipianren纸片人(lit. paper people, referring to all fictional characters born in two dimensions such as art, novels, animations and games, etc., with positive overtones). They call the practice of capitalists trying to bring live-action revival on zhipianren/paper people 真人化zhenrenhua(real people casting paper people, slightly pejorative in fandoms and neutral in non-fandoms). They think zhipianren is pure and remains artistry given by their creators. And actors for otome game characters? I asked my chinese friend and she said shockingly 真人请勿碰瓷纸片人 meaning real people stop piggybacking on paper people's popularity and clout. So that is basically the fundamental viewpoint of chinese otome game fandoms. I don't think they are haters of actors because so many players believe that otome characters are real in another dimension, in fact not only otome but also many other fandoms, and artists also believe that their OCs are real in another dimension. It's almost a kind of pure faith. In addition they believe that the appearance and grooming of zhipianren is perfect, and this perfection does not refer to their bodies or faces, but to a kind of demeanor and temperament of theirs, which, because it exists only in a two-dimensional space, can be fully imagined and experienced by people. Zhenrenhua will completely ruin the imagination and the pleasure. Besides the point, chinese fandoms always get the first hand information of chinese entertainment industry so they've seen too many nasty scandals and flops of male actors especially idol actors. Cnetizens are pungently honest, and most of them just despise male chinese actors, especially idol actors (excluding a few with both talents and personal morals and proved himself with years of efforts, e.g. zhang songwen张颂文 in The Knockout/狂飙 but he is not idol actors so). Just because these idol actors have a large following on social media doesn't mean the general public likes them. I asked my friend and she said there's also the fact that people are extremely picky about the appearance of actors playing zhipianren, and it has nothing to do with discrimination, people just don't want their imaginations tarnished. But there are a few zhenrenhua that are big hit, and even though there are still a few hard-core fans of the original work who boycott them, the general public and a lot of fans of the original work love them, e.g. the Untamed陈情令, and Yi Ren Zhi Xia异人之下/The Outcast (the cdrama version, and they think the movie version recently released is a piece of shit). That's why I agree with them that there is no actor who will fit the bill.

[thestalwartheart]

Any suggestion for newbies on how to overcome fear of posting? New fic, new chapters, smut, kinks.. name it.

there is so much out there. Of jaw dropping quality. Why should I?

the fear of judgment is suffocating me sometimes.

I love this question ❤️

Firstly, (and most importantly!!!), your work is unique and worthy because it's yours. No one has your brain or your exact take on those characters. And that's why you should post! If you have a story you loved enough to write, someone will absolutely love reading it.

Secondly, there is no better fandom than the Bond fandom for jumping into the unknown. It's a small fandom at the moment, and the readers are so kind. There will always be a lovely commenter to cheer you on. Basically, if you're looking for a place to start, start here!

Especially in the Bond fandom, people aren't thinking, "Oh no, I read a similar plot last week!" or "Oh no, more smut?" We're just happy there's still new stories and new fans around to chat with, and to enjoy art with! Or, to put all of this in meme form:

Beyond that, here are a couple of practical things that have helped me overcome The Fear:

If you're worried about negative feedback, a) think about turning off anon comments (few people have the gall to post hateful comments with a real username), and b) maybe put a line in your author's note saying you aren't looking for constructive criticism (on AO3 it's pretty much an unwritten rule not to post concrit, but if you're posting elsewhere, you may want to clarify).

If it's spelling/grammar/plotholes/britpicking/any other issue of quality you're worried about, consider finding a trusted beta reader to give you advice on the specific things you want to improve on! I don't do it for all my fics, but for the age of change, I've been asking Mlle_Heloise to give me feedback on the voices of my child characters. Also, beta readers are some of the best hype people ever!! They can gie you a lot of confidence to share your story with more people.

I hope this has helped in some small way ❤️ And please, if anyone else has any notes of encouragement, leave them in the replies and reblogs!

[elinorbard]

2024 Fic Writing Review

Thank you @defira85 for tagging me! I am being brave and answering despite feeling vaguely anxious about sharing AO3 stats! I am tagging, with absolutely no pressure to participate, @verbenaa, @xxnashiraxx, @inkymoonbunny, @aliasknives, and @yourworsttotebag!

If you just can't get enough of me reflecting on my 2024 writing (???), I did another review thing here.

Rules: Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some qualitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please don’t eat glass but don’t feel like you have to do this either. Artists and gif makers, please also join in with any quantitative or qualitative stats or facts you want to share about your year.

Words and Fics

13 fics published (9 one-shots, 1 fic of 3 chapters, 2 fics of 7+ chapters)

153,687 words

Top 3 Relationships

The Dark Urge/Enver Gortash

The Dark Urge/Astarion*

... That's it, that's all I have.

*This was technically also Astarion/Reader, but it probably should not have been /Reader because Durge had a distinct personality in my mind and was basically Ta'av.

Top 5 by Comments

Deadly Ambition (55 threads, 106 total)

Hunger for Blood (19 threads, 38 total)

A House, A Home (19 threads, 40 total)

I Knew You When (15 threads, 33 total)

Choice (12 threads, 24 total)

Top 5 by Kudos

I Knew You When (133)

Bad Idea (132)

A Little Prayer (114)

A House, A Home (106)

Hunger for Blood (101)

Top 5 by Hits

Hunger for Blood (3,021)

A House, A Home (1,815)

Bad Idea (1,741)

A Little Prayer (1,526)

I Knew You When (1,464)

Fandom Events in 2024

Gortash Week (July 2024): First ever fandom event! I wrote Choice (prompt: Ruler/Redemption) and Congressman Gortash's Office (prompt: AU/Dealer's Choice), both intentionally short pieces.

Gortoween 2024: I finished it like two weeks afterwards, but I wrote what she came for (prompt: A Bloody Mess).

2024 Writing Reflection

I've said this many times now, but 2024 was my first foray into fandom and fanfiction in many, many, many years. I'm so glad I did it, and I had no idea it would become this important to me. I used to write a ton during high school and college, and I have written occasionally since then, but nothing like this. There have been some intimidating and anxiety-inducing parts of it, because there are so many unwritten rules of fandom and few people who take the time to explain them. I want to work on ignoring snide comments and anxiety about whether people will like or care about what I write. Overall, though, my 2024 writing experience was actually life-changing, maybe even lifesaving, and I am proud of myself for writing so much and sharing it with the world. I am amazed and delighted to have found such wonderful friends along the way. ❤️

[lutethebodies]

Coming (Sometime?) in 2025(?): "Our Days Are Numbered"

Following up this post to say that I've chosen fanfic. I once swore up and down I'd probably never write fanfic, because it's never been my thing, so of course I now have to contradict myself, because now I Have Ideas and, as everyone knows, the first step to a brilliant and successful fic involves making at least one slapdash mockup "cover," (this is true for me and recording projects, so *surely* it must be true for everything) which I've also now done.

Seriously though, I kinda do have a plan. See, way back in a previous decade I decided to write a novel. Not a "real" novel, because at the time the phrase "vanity pressed" was much more pejorative than it seems to be now. But I did make a novel that I worked on really hard for about five years, sent through beta-editing, did the cover design, and even composed/recorded a soundtrack to play while writing. It was self published and sold about four copies, but it was still A Whole Thing.

What helped me do that was an idea I stole from Hunter S. Thompson (who probably stole it from someone else). Famously, HST wrote "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" as a cool-down mechanism while simultaneously working on a more difficult and dangerous Real Story ("Strange Rumblings in Aztlan"). In my case, all I did was spit out the occasional cringeworthy faux-Thompson ripoff political blog post, but those were fun, loose exercises to do in between the harder work of my novel's chapters.

Well, this year (as perhaps I've said too much already) I plan to complete and self-publish a second fantasy atlas. The first one (from 2022) was a massive amount of work, and this second one might not be as much, but it won't be easy. So I'm gonna try to do the laborious-big-work vs quickie-cool-down idea again—and this time, my cool-down's gonna be a Minthara fic starring her and my utterly ordinary swords bard. I understand that female characters are poorly represented among BG3 fanfic, so maybe this will help that.

Or maybe not! It'll probably be very basic-normie, because for better and worse that is me; I don't write salacious stuff well or often, and I'm sure I'll break umpteen Unwritten Rules of Fic. But whatever. I also won't pretend that a fic featuring a male human Tav and Minthara will get much juice in the Minthy fandom, let alone the wider BG3 fandom. And that's fine, because it would be my first one and expectations should be Very Low. It would simply explore some of the ideas from this answered ask about culture clashes, as well as this pricelessly inspiring jumping-off-point of a screencap.

Anyway, it won't be happening soonish, but when it does, it'll be linked here. Thanks in advance for your patience with someone completely ignorant Kool-Aid-Manning himself into something he probably shouldn't. But it's gotta happen at some point, because like I said, I don't make cover art for nonexistent stuff. I am, after all, a professional.

[ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask]

don’t put your fandom ship ramblings on someone else’s personal sexy post. if you really need to share that leave it in the tags or make your own post about it. basic tumblr etiquette.

Huh.

My deepest apologies for failing to follow the personal unwritten rules of a stranger who made a public post on this public site.

I’ll be sure not to interact with anything else you post!

[chaztalk]

Aot not being nominated for the CrunchyRoll anime of the year poll. Deserved honestly 😂😂😂

The finale felt so contrived and the anime did a horrible job explaining what was going on. The action sequences were the only good parts. Some of the character’s facial expressions were terribly animated imo. You might be thinking that the scene where the baby is getting saved and carried further away from the cliff as a way to preserve the future a beautiful yet dark scene. But it all amounts to nothing in the end cuz the anime’s main thing is that history repeats itself no matter how you try to stop it.

Now here are the things that I don’t understand from the anime:

-So Eren’s plan is to kill basically all everyone outside of Paradis, for the sake of saving his friends. How did this plan even come about? With the help of founder Ymir?

-What was that AU scene with Mikasa and Eren at the cabin? Was that dream of Mikasa’s or a what-if Eren never attacked Marley?

-Why did Ymir fall in love with her slave owner? And how is Mikasa related to her ultimate resolution?

-If Eren has the power to control normal titans, why didn’t he have the titan that killed his mom go somewhere else instead. Also, the titan that killed Eren’s mom broke her in half before eating her iirc. Did the Eren in paths tell it to do that? Cuz normal titans just straight up grab people and eat them alive.

-And lastly, who was the boy with the dog in the last scene?

Let’s not forget about the peak conclusion/epilogue we got:

-Mikasa kissing a dead Eren and holding his head in her arms will never not be uncomfortable/cringe. And in the end, she never let Eren go in all her years living. People say she’s such a badass, one of the better written female characters in animanga but she has no spine without Eren. And in the anime it feels like she’s isolated from the group

-Annie completely changes personality from a tough girl from season 1 to a nicer, cute girl.

-Reiner and Jean become the parodies of theirselves from AoT Jr High (Reiner still remains a simp for Historia, even tho she’s married; Jean wants to get attention from women, which has never been a thing from him until now

-Connie gets more hair cuz that’s the only thing that stands out from him being an NPC kind of character

-And finally Armin and Pieck. Probably the most consistent till the end

Season 3 is where it piqued for me but after that, it just became a disaster.

And the fandom is just as bad, from “remember that time Eren Yeager broke one of the unwritten rules in anime” to yassifying murder porn and calling Mikasa a girlboss for slaying 50 new army recruits in Floch’s army. There’s more, like the toxic shippers or people that think it’s the greatest piece of fiction of all time.

(And yes, I had most of this in the drafts since Jan of this year 😭)

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Blue Castle chapter 27

"Already, since the houses along the road were becoming numerous, she was conscious that curious eyes were looking at her from every window."

The theme of social shaming is really core to this story. Deerwood is a community that operates entirely on largely unwritten but universally understood social rules, and it is absolutely social suicide to deviate from them. Valancy hasn't just deviated, she has torn the social contract to pieces and set it on fire.

But what has she actually done? She went to live with Cissy -- another woman who broke the rules and was basically killed for it -- and now she's gotten married. She hasn't hurt anyone, she hasn't even been rude to anyone. She has upheld Christian values in providing care to the sick and she has fulfilled the understood role of a woman in getting married. But because she did the "correct" things in the incorrect way, she is now half a curiosity half a pariah in her own right.

(Thesis: Valancy's story serves as a counterbalance to a character like Javert in Les Mis. Javert's whole thing is that he fiercely upholds the rules of a society that deems him disposable and inherently lesser. He spends almost his whole life bowing to and supporting that system, and all he gets out of it is disrespect and, ultimately, destruction. There is no winning in a rigged system. Valancy also spent almost 30 years trying to live up to what her society expected of her, and she too was in the process of being destroyed by it. When the story opens, Valancy has lost the keys to her Blue Castle entirely. The only way to win in a system that has already decided you aren't valuable is to stop playing completely.)

(Consideration for the like three people who overlap in the blue castle and lm fandoms: Valancy and Cosette -- would they be friends? I'm thinking yes, although it might take them a while to understand each other.)

“To marry a man you know nothing about,” thought Cousin Georgiana aloud.

“I know more about him than I know of Edward Beck,” said Valancy.

“Edward Beck goes to church,” said Cousin Georgiana.

You know, I kind of sympathize with Cousin Georgiana here. Because Valancy is quite correct that she knows nothing about Edward Beck, but others in the community do. Georgiana was a friend of Edward Beck's first wife, which implies that she knows at least something of his character, and going to church means that the community sees someone regularly and has at least a vague sense of what they're like. Of course that doesn't mean he can't have secrets, or be disagreeable in private, or any number of other things, but you at least have some basic facts to work with. Whereas no one knows anything at all about Barney. Yes, the rumors about him are wildly overblown, but it is true that he just sort of showed up one day. And honestly? If he was secretly a murderer luring Valancy in to have his wicked ways with her? She's screwed. "Nothing mattered but Barney and the Blue Castle up back in Mistawis." Valancy's very lucky that she's in a fairy tale and not a horror story.

But of course this is a fairy tale, and both the reader and Valancy have quite a bit more information about Barney than Cousin Georgiana. We know that he's not a murderer, just kind of a recluse who just lost his best friend to illness. So there's no teeth in Georgiana's fears.

[kateofthecanals]

I like to check my FYP every couple of days because it can often yield some generally interesting content which I might have otherwise missed on my (very carefully curated) dashboard. But on the other hand, it's a slippery slope to encountering some of the most breathtakingly bizarre and demented takes from certain dank, dark corners of the ASOIAF fandom, istg...

It's not even a matter of "have we even read the same books?" -- These people have basically RE-written the books entirely in their heads in order to conform to their own unhinged biases. And the saddest part is, it's usually in service to their ship of choice (more often than not, a non-canon ship). They are SO determined to justify why their ship is the "correct" one that they have completely warped and twisted the canon characteristics of any character that threatens their ship. And not only that, they have also INVENTED all of these perceived fandom slights against the characters they stan THAT JUST DO NOT EXIST!!! (Ex: Arya stans angrily claiming that D&D so "obviously" preferred Sansa over Arya.... lmao WHAT??)

And the worst part of it is how easy it is to spot which characters an OP stans just by who they're bashing, and how. Like it's become some unwritten rule that if you love X character, then you HAVE to hate Y and Z characters. And fans of Y and Z characters hate X character, and there's no nuance allowed. (i.e.: if you ship J*nerys, Sansa is basically the worst human who ever existed, period... even though Sansa has NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT SHIP, but because she is deemed a threat to that ship by a Certain Other Fandom, congrats, you are now obligated to build endless hate campaigns against her. You are also an Arya stan now too btw.)

And look, I'll be the first to admit that I have SanSan Tunnel Vision™, but it hasn't completely blinded me to the nuances of other characters and story aspects, lol. I cannot say the same for other stans, for whom ASOIAF is only about one or two characters and all others simply do not exist, and they will just casually assign traits to their faves that not only aren't a thing but actually ARE a thing, canonically, of other characters!!! I just sit and stare in disbelief.

And honestly? This won't end when/if TWOW comes out. These people's headcanons and delusions are so calcified by this point that anything George has to say will be met with mariah_carey_i_can't_read_suddenly.gif....

[rikeijo]

Today's translation #257

Febri vol. 40. Kubo Mitsurou's interview

Part 3.

--- Was it a first time for you, in terms of working in the sports genre?

"I wanted to draw something about sports in the past, but I didn't have the courage to actually turn those plans into actions. Of course, it a basic requirement to have technical knowledge, and the most important thing [why I didn't draw any sports manga] was that I didn't have any experience [in sports]. It does happen that authors who have never played baseball, draw manga about baseball, but I was scared and couldn't do that. However, when I talked about this with the author of "Hajime no ippo", Morikawa George-sensei, he comforted me saying: "I've never become a champion, but I wrote a story about becoming a champion". It reminded me that the starting point of all creative works is trying to somehow portray somebody you can never become no matter what, and that this is actually the best part of drawing a manga. I had in me this strong desire to show how interesting figure skating is, and in addition, because there are so many charming real-life figure skaters, I also thought that if we are going to do that, we need to properly show how charming the characters are in the anime, too. I felt that, most likely, I wouldn't be able to do that all on my own, but with Yamamoto Director, it should be possible. That's why I answered: "I'd definitely want to join the project".

--- Is figure skating then a topic that you would decide to do, if you were to have a solo manga series published in a magazine?

"No matter how much I like figure skating, I think I would never do this alone. The unwritten rule when it comes to drawing a series for a manga magazine, is that if it's popular then it continues basically forever, but if it's not popular, then it gets cancelled early, so I think it wouldn't be possible for me to do that [draw a manga about figure skating]. In those circumstances, when you don't even know when your manga is going to end, you continue to write you story in an interesting way, but at the same time, when the time comes, you need to immediately finish your story and give it a proper conclusion - if you think about it with a cool head, it's a terribly difficult game (laugh). A lot of mangakas are able to do that, so if you tell me: "Well, it's a problem of your lack of abilities", the I have no response to that (laugh).

[Notes: The first question of these two is a funny question to ask Mitsurou, because, I don't how well-known this fact is in Eng fandom, but Mitsurou used to be a proper fujoshi - she drew BL doujinshi about real-life soccer players (circa 1997) so... technically, Yuri!!! wasn't her first work about sports, lol 😂✨]

[weirdonumber33]

If your self insert has an appearance shouldn’t they be tagged as an original character instead of YN? They might not have a name but they have a pretty distinct appearance so I’m confused how they can be a reader? Sorry I don’t mean to sound like an ass. I haven’t been in a fandom for a long time and back when I used to draw regularly there was basically an unwritten rule that you weren’t allowed to draw characters and call them reader because everybody couldn’t relate to them if they had a look. Especially people of different ethnicities.

Oh ya she’s not a y/n or reader I just used the hashtag for more traction if u look you’ll see I also use x self insert and self ship hashtags. in other fandoms I’m in (undertale) it’s common to use those hashtags even if it’s not reader (just on here) but also! I have drawn a few y/n and read looking character that I ship with the guy(got to scroll through my Eddie Munson Tag to see it)

If u do a deep dive into my first few posts of Eddie you’ll see me talking about just using those hashtags for traction (I guess I should probably start saying it again since I know it can be annoying😅)

Buts also if it bothers u just block me<3 I take no offense

Edit: I forgot I also uses those hashtags even when it’s just Eddie too just check my page!

[latineslytherin]

BTW! I did make a Discord for Hogwarts Legacy, in case anyone is curious I'll leave the link under the read more.

Fair warning, I'm very cognizant of how easy it is to get into discords for the purpose of harassment Part of my day job is cyber security and data safety. So I made it so you have to have a phone number on your discord account to join. Not that you have to share with me or the discord - just something on your end to secure your account. If this is an issue, you can just DM me or in the replies with your discord name and I can do something so you can by pass that once you join. But only to get past that security check. You will still need to agree to the rules and do an "Entrance Exam" to introduce yourself to the Admins. This exam is very basic, nickname, where you found the link, age, and fandom account and one more field you'll have to join to find out.

Anyway join me on the Unwritten!

(Yes I linked you to a tumblr blog, that's my side blog for the discord. I plan on using it to post funny highlights and advertising the discord population's fic on it)

[heyitsmetonid]

I feel seen reading this. Someone sees me!

Recently dealt with some things in a fandom discord that I'm basically not a part of anymore because of this. But they don't see it that way. They never do! Being different in a fandom is "threatening" & goes against the grain, which goes against the unwritten & nonexistent rules non-Black fans tend to (knowingly or unknowingly) impose on Black fans.

As much as I hate to say it, I don't think there'll ever be harmony fandoms, groups, or life unless everyone is on the same page. Random people from all walks of life will, in my opinion, never be on the same page, have the similar morals, or see us as comrades. That's why I think it's crucial that we have our own spaces. If we (Black folks) are not there to support & love each other, the others certainly will not.

This is just my opinion, & mine alone. 🫰🏽 ✌🏽

Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.

[0zeeraa0]

Something happened in recent years that made a large majority of (pretty much all) fandoms decide that canon actually matters when it comes to shipping and I fucking hate it

im usually not one to hate on new fans (hell even im bearly an adult), but there are some basic unwritten rules of fandom they need to learn quickly because im starting to loose my patience and so are a lot of people

[togglesbloggle]

Fiction, Curation, and Transformation

A current project of mine is to write some Bog Standard Fantasy (sometimes but not usually in a literal bog). My rule for myself is that I’m not allowed to deconstruct my medium, or break the fourth wall, or anything in that direction. I can iterate. It’s okay to take established concepts and give them more polish, or throw them together in complex ways I haven’t seen before. But I’m not allowed to, like, challenge the reader’s conception of genre, or do a sudden hard left in the cosmology that mashes up fantasy tropes with something else. I can say new and valuable things, but those things have to be spoken in the language of fantasy and not be about the language of fantasy. There will be some wizards and there will be some dragons, and there will be some good kings and some evil kings, and we are definitely 100% gonna fulfill some prophecies.

Genre, right? Partly this is a project designed to build skills that take a little more discipline. It’s easy, when you get a cool new idea, to chase it down and have fun exploring the creative cool things you can do and nobody else can. It’s harder to practice your scales, coloring only within the lines, even though any artist will tell you that mastering the basics is essential. I’m also just doing it as a love letter to the genre stuff I’ve enjoyed so much over the years, especially when I was newer to the fandom and authors like Robert Jordan and David Eddings could just blow my mind. I’d like to learn how to give that feeling to someone else, I think.

One of the first things I noticed about this project is that it’s really hard, by the way. With the more freeform work, you can kind of let your own surprise carry you forward, chasing the second and third-order consequences of your idea and slowly exploring the thing you’ve created. But this one’s about skill instead, taking a defined target and trying to get the arrow as close to the center as you possibly can. Style, pacing, and voice take a front seat in a whole new way. I have the vague sense of being back in those high school math classes where there’s a series of problems in front of you and it’s just crushingly obvious if you got it wrong. But you can get it right, too, and that’s pretty cool when it happens.

Anyway, this has me thinking about the ‘high art’ and ‘low art’ distinction that springs eternal in every little creek and tributary of the art world. That binary definitely has some elitist overtones that obscure more than they illuminate, but it’s undeniable that there’s kind of a ‘there’ there. What I’m doing is terrifically challenging, and I like to hope that the end product will be enjoyable for a few people, but it feels like a very different kind of experience to write and to read. So I’ve been chewing on that some, and taking a little bit of inspiration from fandom itself.

There’s a great framework out there where people talk about ‘curatorial’ versus ‘transformative’ fandom. And this is fandom we're talking about, so sometimes that conversation gets rather heated, but overall I think it’s a fairly useful and neutral descriptive framework for how an audience can relate to art. Sometimes people collect figurines and work out engine specs, sometimes people write fanfiction and sing filk. But it occurs to me that you can take the same duality and flip it around- not to describe how the audience relates to art, but how the art relates to the audience.

The big thing about my Bog Standard Fantasy project is that it attempts to feel out where the audience is, and then meet those expectations in a pleasing, fun way. It’s got novelty, but the kind of novelty designed to work within a system of unwritten rules and recognizable tropes, like a new lemma in a formal notation. Compare this to the more challenging work of authors like Le Guin, Gibson, or Wolfe, which aspire to really change their audience, and carve out new patterns of thinking that can go on to make a difference in the world. And isn’t it interesting how similar that is to the fandom’s own binary? Audience expectations and preferences become the ‘canon’ that an author chooses to ‘curate’ or ‘transform’.

So here’s a new mental model I’m gonna play with for a bit: instead of thinking in a spectrum of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art, I’m going to try thinking of ‘transformational’ and ‘curatorial’ art. How radically does a piece of fiction challenge the audience/genre, and give it new forms and new context? Is it designed to celebrate and appeal to the audience/genre, and develop a little corner of the world where new fans can grow up? Of course, both of these things are good and necessary for any sustained and vital community to grow up around an artistic tradition, and of course, we’re dealing with a spectrum rather than a strict binary. And most of the really best work out there will tend to avoid either extreme too much. But either way, I suspect this framing captures most of what I wanted to save from the high/low phrasing in a way that discards the hierarchy nonsense.

[jintheblue]

Listen I get it. Dean/Castiel is very important to fandom on this sight, but that's basically all it is. Suletta and Mirorine is just so much more important over all. It is cannon from episode 1(or 2 if you count the prologue), it is accepted as ok and valid from literally the moment it's brought up, and then uses a different fact about their relationship as allegory, so these two can suffer the strain without ever letting anyone in the audience say "well this is why lesbian relationships don't work." The show mentions homophobia exactly once so that it can slaughter it in the crib, because while the show is interested in the struggles of young lesbians, it knows the struggle is about the world they live in, and not their human nature, and it doesn't want anyone to confuse the two.

The whole show plays on the tropes of Gundam as tragedy and Shakespearian tragedy, so that it can point an accusatory finger at Yuri tragedy and say "Hey stop being cowards and let the gay girls stay together". They get married when one or both of them should be dead and it's not a cop out or a mistake, it's a statement. It's basically an unwritten rule that in shows like this the relationship is doomed, so it can be milked for tragedy, or worse never meant to be so that it can be milked. It even share's it's dueling game with the first big anime of it's type to celebrate it taking that first step, but also to say "We've come a long way since then, we can do better." And finally the reason this ship works so god damn well for me? The two get together in episode one, and their relationship is not actually healthy and stable until basically three episodes to the end. The "will they won't they" of the ship is "Will these two broken people get their shit together before one of them dies over it". And it's not just the girls fixing each other, but their friends helping them come into their own, real honest people giving them perspectives beyond the little bubbles they were raised in, and genuine honest to god self reflection. Both of these girls for separate reasons need to be pulled out of blanket burritos, because life is just a lot, and it's not until after they do that they can have a real adult relationship and get married.

I'll be honest I stopped watching supernatural long before Dean/Castiel became the main ship, Sam/Dean was bigger at the time, but if anything actually came of it in the text it was as consolation, not intent. Sulemio wants you to get invested, so it can tell you a story. Destiel wants to keep you watching. Desperately.

Tumblr Top Ships Bracket - FINALS

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with many of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement, and refrain from harassment.