#but also fears fandom because i know how fandom spaces are and i hate them

[cosmicredcadet]

If anyone erased my OCs aro and ace identities I think I would become evil and commit heinous crimes actually.

[glitter-stained]

I do think it bears repeating, fanfic writers can write whatever the fuck they want. It's not their responsibility to introduce readers to the canon because they are not writing canon they are writing fanwork!

If someone reads a fic about a coffeeshop and they assume the characters are coffeeshop part-timers, and it causes them issues in fan spaces because the characters in the source material are assassins, that is 100% on the reader for assuming that the hurt/comfort coffee-shop no cape AU was a fair representation of the source material. It's not supposed to be. Fanfic writers have no obligation to be canon-compliant.

If someone reads a fic that is not canon compliant, that is not the writer trying to convince you of their interpretation of canon. You should not assume that every fic is a character study with the same identical relationship dynamics as in canon because most fanworks are not an extension of canon nor are they obligated to be. And yes, even if the trope in question is popular fanon, even if other people will see it as gospel and not engage with source material and yk what, even if the trope itself, in the context of the actual source material, does a disservice to the character's arc. Because fanfics are not just fandom work, though it's very important that they are, they are also stories in and of themselves, works that have value proper to itself and writers do not owe you canon compliancy.

I've written a fic with many fanon elements, including pit rage, and you know what, I like this fic. I wrote it because I wanted to write about a depressive episode with psychotic characteristics and I thought Jason -and elements from fanon Jason- would be interesting to explore that idea with, and I wrote about pit rage because I wanted to write about catharsis, and the pessimism that comes with growing up in fear of the idea of the cycle of violence and how internalized psychophobia (and classism but that wasn't explicit) feeds into that fear, and how the addition of an element like the Pit, which literally makes feeling emotions dangerous, in the context of a severe depressive episode, would fuck into that interplay, and screw Jason's priorities enough to trigger the switch from passive to active suicidality. There are other examples of fanon tropes I found interesting to explore in that fic, but I'm focusing on the pit rage thing in this example because it shows up a lot in this discourse.

I have read the damn comics. I mostly see late-onset Pit Madness as patchwork to salvage late post-crisis Jason, which I'm not often interested in as I don't often acknowledge those stories (especially with all the retcons and maybe retcons established since then), and I think using it in the context of Under the Hood is a disservice to his character. But just because that trope can be a disservice to an analysis of his character in canon, doesn't mean it can't be good for in the story I am telling right now, which holds value in and of itself, because it has helped me process feelings and others have told me it has helped them and I do not owe anybody canon compliancy.

So when some little fucker commented a long ass paragraph on my fic about how it was one of the worst fics he'd ever read because everyone was OOC and condescendingly explained to me that my fic was way too nice to the batfam and none of them would do that- yk, I was angry. Because that fic was 5 chapters long and they commented on chapter 5. They had all the opportunity to stop, or at least not comment on their hate-read (which is a practice I've never understood). And most importantly, they assumed shit about my knowledge of canon based on their inability to view my work as anything but an extension of the canon they consume. They very clearly wanted something out of my jason-centric jason & batfam members fic that the tags should have told them they would not find there and instead of, I don't know, reading fucking Task Force Z, they decided that it was on me. But their inability to view my writing in its context, recognize my work for its own worth and stop assuming things about people they don't know for five fucking minutes was actually the problem. And it's, frankly, insulting as fuck.

I very rarely get hate comments, and that one was a long time ago -actually now that I think about it, it was almost an entire year ago. Readers are usually very nice to me and honestly, after how stressed I was of getting hate for the horse movie fic, I can't emphasize enough how much I love you guys and how lovely you've been.

However, I see takes on this website that shove the responsibility of "fanon" and people not engaging with the source material onto fanfic writers all the time and that annoys me so much. Canon is plural, self-contradictory, often OOC, has a multitude of problematic takes and honestly in the context of the batfam specifically, it's very depressing: I struggle to imagine them ever actually getting to the happy ending as a family together. So if Dick and Jason's relationship wrt Bruce makes me sad and I want to write or read fics in which Dick stands up to Bruce and protects his little brother, or I need the catharsis of a story about pit rage, or I'm mad at dc for glazing tim at the expense of other robins or at tim for being rude to a character i like, and i retaliate by putting tim into jason fanboy jail, that's just fine actually. That's a non-issue.

This essay has become way longer than I thought considering how simple the idea is, so here's the TLDR:

#1: Don't like, don't read.

#2: Fic writers do not owe you canon compliancy.

#3: Fic writers are not responsible for whatever fanon belief you're mad at.

#4: Stop assuming shit about fic writers based on what they write, you do not actually know these people.

#5: Fanfic is not just an extension of canon those are stories of their own merit.

#6: You have to respect fic writers even when you don't like their fic.

Or, to be even more concise:

Just don't be a dick.

[potions-of-dark-devotion]

Gotta Get This off my Chest

Severus Snape & HBO Series

Alright first off, I know you are generally expecting well thought out essays from me but here I’m going to Ramble Freeform. You’ve been warned.

I don’t know how I feel at all about another actor attempting to play Severus Snape. JK Rowling is the main producer and honestly this worries me a lot considering the amount of hatred she has for LGBTQ people and the amount of hatred Severus has gotten in the last years. This space is bad sometimes but generally we have a fantastic community of people in this snapedom who love the character as he is written positives and negatives. I for one liked Snape from the first book I read and the first movie I watched.

I’ll be the first to admit that my image of him is very much wrapped up in Alan Rickman, and tho I greatly respect other peoples images of snape and I love the fan art they make, the thing that made Alan such an amazing character actor for the part was the unabashed love he had for the character. Look at any interview of him about Severus and you will see that he went to bat for him at every turn. What if we we are given someone who sees Snape through the eyes of the marauders fandom? What if they erase all of Snapes goodness or heaven forbid write extra scenes of cruelty to Lily that didn’t exist, or have him creep over her, or physically attack her, or characterize him as the aggressor with James when we all know it was the other way around? These kinds of fears keep me from being excited about the new series and instead leave me anxious.

For one thing, I wish they had focused more on a different period of wizard history, or a different part of the 1st wizarding war or even marauders/young Severus era, because there is so much to explore. I would have liked to explore story lines that really could use more fleshing out, and if JK Rowling is going to be a part of this she could have easily written new passages or short stories to suit this new narrative. I also worry about the fact that yet again because she is a producer there will certainly be no LGBTQ characters in the narrative and that’s a waste to me. We already have a fantastic interpretation of the books, and if they are doing a redo why not cast people of color or trans or any LGBT characters in the mix? It will be the same story just perhaps fleshed out more? I’m not sure what this series will bring to the table that the movies did not unless they radically change some things.

Yet, with this interpretation we may see many thing in the series that we don’t see in the books. Severus has two big scenes at the end of POA and GOF that were totally left out of the movies, and if this was left in and the “prank” was explored more in depth we could get to see an even more complex narrative than Alan was allowed to portray in the movies (largely due to directorial choices).

Severus as we all know is a complex character that can be different or difficult to understand without a trauma informed lense and the last thing I want is for them to shove him into a gross stereotype, or give him attributes that don’t exist in the books in order to cater to certain fandoms. I’m genuinely worried about the prospect of this. I also don’t want our fandom safe spaces that we’ve spent years curating to be over run with Snape hate again just because of the series. I could be being pessimistic. It’s just been on my mind lately.

No hard feelings it’s just…Severus Snape is my comfort character and I don’t want the idea of it ruined by people who don’t really understand him or who wouldn’t bat for him the way Alan did. Please understand me. Does anyone else have mixed feelings this way?

[mintaikkcorpse]

Moments I think Blitzø realized his feelings for Stolas

I really don't think that Blitzø had an "Oh" moment. I think it was over a period of time, where he slowly realizes it, and then it comes unleashing out in either The Full Moon or Apology Tour.

Anyways, here

Seeing Stars (S2, ep2)

This was Blitzø's reaction when he saw Stolas's human form for the first time. God, I love his subtle expressions here sm. Read this post, they explain it well, and it's also the post that made me want to make this post.

In the first pic, Blitzø looks surprised and confused, probably from the shock of seeing Stolas's human form for the first time. Probably didn't even consider he ever had one, lol

The second image, we see a small blush appear, and as @ifwebefriends said, it's the "I'm fucked" face, as he is filled with complicated emotions as he realizes he likes Stolas in every form. He looks really worried by this.

The third image, hid pupils are fully dilated. Instead of confused, he looks genuinely worried and vulnerable. His expression doesn't show lust, but more like a mix of someone who is nervous to be around someone they like and genuine fear. He is realizing that it isn't just lust, but that he genuinely likes Stolas, and that's scary to him.

In the fourth image, he quickly turns around, slightly hunched over and rubbing his hands together; both behaviors indicating nervousness, probably at his own emotions. He also asks Stolas if he can somehow give them human disguises, which yes, is relevant to what's going on, but it can also be him being like, "maybe I'm just interested in the human disguise," so he can believe that instead of dealing with his own emotions.

(Also, have this gif of Blitzø checking Stolas out in his human disguise)

Then that scene in Seeing Stars that, when I joined the fandom, was the first thing I saw fans losing their shit over

Nothing much to comment on here. He's actually smiling at Stolas's advances. The other times Stolas flirted with him, it's always been overly aggressive ("jelly sandwiches all night~"), and this time, it's more subtle and intimate, which clearly worked for Blitzø.

Oops (S2, ep6)

In this moment, Fizz hit Blitzø with the allegations, and this was Blitzø's reaction to it. Look at his expressions! The first image looks confused and scared and heart broken, like he knew he fell, but he's either in denial, ignoring it, or doesn't think it's reciprocated; perhaps even all 3.

The second image, he looks sad, angry, and confused, like he doesn't know his emotions and can't name them, but he's hurt. He's frustrated at how complicated things are, and he hates it.

The 3rd image is now just full denial. When lying, people often look to the side or avoid eye contact, which is exactly Blitzø is doing right here. He knows that its more than sex every month, but he's lying to himself, because he can't get hurt if it is just casual.

Alright, imma have to do a part 2 to this cuz I ran out of space. I'll try to go in episode order next time lol, I just go excited with these 2 lol

Part 2

[majkuindelululand]

Let Me Tell You a Story

Chapter 1. When everything go wrong

Once upon a time, back when dinosaurs were still cool and Harry Potter wasn’t considered boomer stuff (because no one even knew what that word meant), in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere — like extra nowhere — somewhere in Eastern Europe (ugh, yes, in POLAND), there lived a girl.

This girl hated her town with every fiber of her being, so she spent hours of her life on Play-By-Forum roleplays or writing cringey fanfics about a super obscure cartoon called Huntik. And when she wasn’t tapping away at her keyboard for that, she was tapping away on chat forums for Asian culture nerds — all while trying to be a proper little metalhead who despised pop music and anything that wasn’t Japanese by name or nature.

The girl was cute. The girl was me. And I had a dark, terrible secret.

See… when my parents weren’t home — when there was no chance anyone would catch me and blackmail me for life — I would listen to… ugh. It’s bad, I know. I listened to… SHINee.

Yeah. It got into my bones. Taemin — whose name I didn’t even want to learn at first — was too sweet, their music was so sugary, and Sherlock? That song did weird things to my stomach. Don’t judge me. I was 14.

And ever since then, once a year, during summer break, I’d go back and binge SHINee’s discography. Just because. It was my weird little safe space. And honestly? Perfect music for dancing around my room like a feral raccoon on Red Bull.

But then something went wrong. Something always goes wrong.

Fast forward — I was living on my own, with my tiny daughter. I had my own apartment, could listen to any kind of embarrassing crap I wanted with zero fear of getting blackmailed by my family. So I let YouTube run wild. “Auto-play, baby. Go nuts.” While I… probably pretended I actually wanted to finish my education degree.

At the time, I was back into writing fanfiction — now for The Mortal Instruments fandom. Full-on queer, chaotic content. But hey, let people enjoy things, right? I was loosely pulling Magnus Bane inspiration from Taemin’s fashion and body language… when something new popped up on screen.

At first, I ignored it. I was busy. But then… Not Today started playing — the choreography version.

Wait. Something was not okay.

That rapper’s voice? Why is there so much rage in it? What’s up with this song? Why is my foot tapping to it? It’s clearly Korean. But it’s not SHINee?! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

So I looked at the screen. And oh, boy.

That was a mistake.

Chapter 2: Discovering “Who the hell is THAT guy?!”

So yeah. As you might guess, I looked at the screen — and who was there? Park Jimin.

I know, I know. It’s common to start a BTS obsession with him. But you know what still cracks me up all these years later? I could barely stand his existence on screen.

Don’t even ask me why — I have no clue. I just… didn’t get him.

See, I like to think I have a decent read on people. I love breaking down their surface-level stereotypes and playing around with building personality profiles in my head. And usually — terrifyingly often — I’m right. Even if it’s shallow.

After watching a single music video, I already had a rough, extremely superficial idea of the group dynamics in BTS… without knowing a single name. And that’s when I made a decision: That bunny-like, adorable boy? He’s probably a spoiled brat. Yeah, he’s cute or whatever, but even if he danced the lambada on my heart, I would PRETEND I DON’T SEE IT. I would stand firm. He’s not getting my attention. Let him suffer for being that attractive.

RM as the leader? I pretty much guessed that right away. Also, I immediately developed an unholy affection for Hoseok — no idea how, but it was instant. But Jimin? Reminder: I still didn’t know any of their names at this point. xD

Jimin… kind of scared me a little. Do you ever get that feeling when you see a group full of insanely talented people, but one of them just makes something feel off? That was Jimin for me.

At first, I thought it was just “not my type,” you know? The one closest to my type was RM — and that’s if I squinted and took off my glasses. Vocally, my taste leans toward Taehyung.

So what was it? What made me break my own golden rule and actually google their names, even though I didn’t like the feeling Jimin gave me?

Chapter 3: How “that pink one” became “Park f*cking Jimin”

So I started digging. Like, seriously digging. As deep and as often as I could — trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with this weird dude.

And that’s exactly how I got doomed.

I very quickly learned that loving Jimin wasn’t really a choice for me. It was… fate.

Now don’t get me wrong — it’s not like he matched my music taste or anything. Because he didn’t. At least not yet. I hadn’t heard his solo work. And once I did, well — I disappeared into the void and there was nothing left to salvage. Let’s be honest.

But Jimin? Jimin was beautifully dual.

The first fun fact I found about him? He’s clumsy. Like, that’s what the internet tells you right away.

Me? I’m me. I wasn’t interested in basic compilation videos. I wanted to dig deeper.

Why is this good dancer supposedly unable to sit still in a chair? So yeah. I started watching unedited content. Raw footage.

My English — which, at the time, was somewhere between “I might tell you where I live if you put a gun to my head” and “what even is a verb tense?” — suddenly improved FAST. I had no choice. Most sources in my language were just fanfics (and ugh, mostly Taekook — badly written ones too, which explains my later internal war of “NO, MAJKU, YOU’RE NOT WRITING JIKOO— oh sh*t.”)

Anyway. I didn’t like Taekook. Not because I couldn’t feel the gay vibe from JK. Oh, I did. That man reeked of it from the start — so much that I wanted to avoid him in case he contaminated the others.

Tae? Loved him (okay, that faded). He gave me “pretentious younger art student brother” energy. (I’m JK’s age, so sorry, Tae.) My original theory — one I still stand by every time I revisit early content — is that if he had any queer-curious phase, it was aimed at Jimin.

And to be honest? For absolutely irrational, delulu reasons, I believe every single BTS member had their queer-curious moment — and it was about Jimin.

Anyway. When I exhausted all the free unedited stuff, I went full goblin mode and dove into the fandom void.

And you know what? Maybe I’m immature. Maybe I’m blind. Maybe I’m just a fool. But even in completely fanservice-free moments… the way Jikook was Jikook gave me goosebumps.

At that point, I didn’t even fully understand shipping culture. I’d spent my whole life judging it and thinking people should mind their business when it comes to real humans, not fictional ones.

But the thing is… You couldn’t ignore it.

And I realized that if I wanted to understand Park Jimin — not just as an idol but as a person — I also had to dive into that. For many reasons.

First of all… WTF. From the very beginning of BTS, that man has been hilariously focused on the maknae. Second? The moments when Jimin seemed the most relaxed? When he was messing around with maknae line. And JK was always there.

So yeah. To understand Jimin, I had to understand the rest of the members. Figure out how they influenced him. And run them through my usual filter of “Majku doesn’t like people in general, so prove yourselves.”

And that? That was the moment I was done for.

Good music and something different in BTS caught my attention — but something extraordinary in Jimin and the way he connected to the others made me fall in love with the whole group.

Honestly, maybe I just got lucky that I didn’t fall straight into Taekook territory. In the early stages of my obsession, I avoided shipping content like the plague. Later on, I found out that some of the channels I’d been watching for “neutral insight” were actually anti-shippers or (gasp) Taekook-biased.

Even then — I STILL didn’t feel Taekook. Not even if you paid me.

So yeah. That’s my story of falling headfirst into the BTS rabbit hole.

Some clarifications:

I like all of them. I really do. Even if Tae sometimes drives me insane and I aggressively pretend not to see how cute JK is — I like all of them.

Yes, I guess you could say I ship Jikook. But not because I want to. It’s just… knowing Jimin, I literally cannot ignore the existence of Jikook. It feels impossible. Illogical. That man spent WAY too much time telling us something was there for me to just look away.

On the other hand… Actually, no. There is no other hand.

[skyfallscotland]

I was originally just going to reply to T on the post they made regarding their experiences in the fandom, but I find (which will come as a surprise to absolutely no one) that I have things to say.

I'm rambling on a new post so I can disable reblogs, because I don't really care for this to break containment right now.

"The things you write that you love, will rarely be the things other people love," is so true. As a writer, you have absolutely no way of knowing what will resonate with people.

I won't go into the numbers, because as I'm about to explain, they're part of the problem (for me), but I mentioned recently that statistically, What Happens in Vegas is tracking much higher, much earlier than any other fic I've written. Which is great, I love that people love it, but I could never have predicted it.

Perhaps it's just timing—I did start posting it right in time for the Onyx Storm boom—or perhaps it's because it's riorgail, which we all know will perform a lot better as a main pairing (which is fine, by the way, it's just an interesting point). What makes it so interesting to me though, is that I feel it's objectively not my best work. I have vaguely plotted it, but I spend a lot less time working on and refining it than I have some of my other works...and yet double the amount of people have subscribed to updates on it.

And it does fuck with your head. When you know you've put so much more into another work, when another piece has been a labour of love and no one really notices, that's tough. There's a strange kind of mental thing that happens when you start getting engagement. You get used to a certain level of attention for your work and when that doesn't continue it hits you twice as hard.

I have days where I get ten less comments on a chapter and I start wondering where I went wrong, and I have to remind myself some people don't get ten comments at all. It's such a warped perception of things that I think no one talks about for fear of being seen as an asshole or ungrateful (at least that's why I never talk about it), but it happens, and I think if you already struggle with mental health issues, it's ten times worse.

It doesn't mean I'm not grateful, or that I think I deserve more, or that my work is better than other people's—it's just a shitty facet to how mental health can affect your self-worth and how fandom can play into that, and in retrospect, I think mental health issues are always worth talking about. There are lots of fics in this fandom that I think objectively outshine mine by a mile, but get so little attention and it's such a shame, and all I can do (besides comment and share myself) is hope those writers don't pin their self-worth on their engagement the way I do.

I'm very lucky in a lot of ways, both that I do get a lot of engagement (which I generally put down to the above pairing, and right place, right time), and also that I haven't had any major issues with people posting hate comments on my work. I think overall, this community is a good one (looking back on how things have been in other places) and I've found my people as I know others have, but without them I'd probably have left already.

Of course I get the occasional rude comment, but it's much easier to brush off if you're not actively writing that fic. It's why I won't be posting Basgiath (Remi's Version) further until I've finished writing it, because I know some of that won't go over well and I'm cognisant enough to know I'm not in the mental position to deal with disappointed comments, if they were to come, but overall I’m so happy I’ve found my people and the best group of readers 🥹

I think we're doing a better job than we were fifteen years ago of the whole 'don't like, don't read' thing, but maybe a worse job than we were doing five years ago, as fandom on the whole, and you don't need me to elaborate on why I think that is, I'm sure. (MAKE FANDOM NERDY AGAIN).

There seems to be this renewed push in fandom spaces for "no criticism in comments" to be a rule that just...goes away, because by posting you've "opened yourself up to negative comments" and I thoroughly disagree with that. A lot of the original migrators to AO3 specifically disagreed with that, it's why we all left FF.net. We do this for free, around all our other obligations.

To T, I'm sorry the experience killed the joy of writing for you (and it seems for others too, judging by the comments). I think everyone knows that I felt the same way after Onyx Storm came out. I felt like no one saw the text the same way I did, I felt like I wasn't really included in many of the fandom spaces, and mostly like people wanted to devour my content, but didn't want to hear anything else I had to say. It was sort of like we're happy to receive your work, but not your thoughts.

Between this and a few other things, I've mostly pulled back from the community in general. I spend my time writing and direct-messaging my closer friends and rarely ever open my dash. I love writing, and I usually write until I'm falling asleep sitting up, which means I've barely read fic all year. This post made me realise though, that perhaps I'm also part of the problem. I don't want this community to die so I'll try and make a more conscious effort to read some fic going forward and give other writers some love 🥹💖

[cursed-sonic-opinions]

okay, i’m back, and this time i’m calling at all the shippers AND anti shippers. so like, everyone. and i’m not holding hands this time.

common internet etiquette for the youngins: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO JUST NOT LIKE THINGS.

look, it is one thing for something to be POPULAR IN FANON. these are either headcanons that became popular which someone pulled out their ass, or something that could be inspired from the canon sources that don’t confirm or deny this interpretation.

see that? no confirmation OR denial.

okay, let me give you a pretty loud example. “sonic movie 3 wrote maria and shadow like friends/siblings” yeah, and shiro maekawa based both characters off of a shōjo manga with romantic intent, lmao. see how even the canon can’t decide on what to do with the characters? you don’t have to LIKE shadaria, i personally don’t give a shit, but it’s quite contradictory to the earlier canon if you call it incest, because they weren’t always written that way. imagine if a shadaria shipper accused you of having an incest kink BECAUSE you code them as siblings when they’re clearly romantic! would it surprise you that the roles were once reversed in this fandom?

this is why “canon” needs to stop being an argument. sonic media itself is a sandbox, and people can play it it however they want so long as they’re not hurting anyone else even if you don’t like what they’re doing.

again, you don’t need to invent a moral reason to hate something, you can just NOT like it because it goes against YOUR headcanons.

i see ships i hate all the time, but i’m not out here inventing assbackwards arguments to ruin someone’s fun and call them a terrible person. like, shadouge was THE ship of the 2000’s, and now when someone even hints at it, they are mauled by new fans who have only seen them as “siblings” in fan content… and thus conclude this is real, tangible, incest. hello??? you’re all so hung up on what’s “canon” without even knowing the canon you try to cite against others!

just say you don’t like a ship and leave lol. i went through some of the confessions on this blog because i’m nosy, and it’s honestly baffling how many people do not understand fandom etiquette.

times change, and fanon trends come and go. 15 years from now, those of you that are still in this fandom are going to be harassed online for the stuff you post now, and it’ll be the dumbest shit like “you drew sonic with eyelashes, you’re a NONCE” or something. and in that moment, you’re going to think back to where you are now, which is probably a teenager with an undiagnosed condition you’re trying to self regulate, and realize you were once the fandom police for shit that Does Not Matter.

things will get better for you. one of the things that will NOT help your situation right now is fighting people online because you think the cartoon furries they draw are soft smol beans who shouldn’t be kissing because YOU see them otherwise. there’s nothing wrong with being in a vulnerable state, but part of that immaturity is latching onto things that do not need to be taken seriously because you want to seize control which you fear you lack, all while forgetting you are on the queer hellsite full of mentally ill freaks just like you, who also do not need this stress. if you’re not in the mental state to deal with drama/bullshit, don’t fuckin start it!

“oh but this person makes really inappropriate/sexual/dead dove content online!” okay, block them. are they hurting a real person, to the extent that you have tangible, well documented proof, and can report them to authorities that will put them in jail for being a criminal? no? okay, then block them and scroll past it. warn mutuals in private if you want. you have no power here in the digital space besides the ability to trigger yourself, which honestly isn’t good for anyone, because now you feel like shit and no one’s minds were changed.

all of you are grasping onto whatever control you think you have, trying to reclaim autonomy in the world as it caves in. what you fail to realize, though, is that the only way to feel like you have a choice on this planet is to make decisions regarding you and no one else. reassure yourself, and let that be enough.

🦔‧₊˚✩彡

[olderthannetfic]

I'm feeling weird about an interaction I had the other day, and I'm wondering if I could get... I dunno, advice, I guess? From the usual commenters here.

So, context is that three-ish years ago, I got hate-brigaded in the fandom where I did most of my writing, in a way that came out of nowhere, and also in such a way that I felt like I deserved it. I ended up deleting everything I'd made for that fandom off the internet just to make it stop, including nearly six years of an art blog. I got a reality check later from friends whose credibility I trusted a lot more than random strangers on the internet, and eventually reposted most of the fic (backdated to the original dates of posting), and do actually still post fic in that fandom (also backdated to avoid notice). I also post a couple of fics on that account that are not backdated where I write with OCs from the original fandom fic in other fandoms.

The other day, someone who had been working their way through kudosing my stuff in the old fandom posted a complementary comment about it on the most recently updated of the two fanfics that isn't in that fandom, said they liked my OCs in the original fandom fic, and asked if I'd ever be interested in writing about that original fandom again. I explained that I was still writing fic in that fandom, it was just all backdated because most people really did not seem to like what I was writing.

And they responded saying that was too bad, and asking my opinion about a character they love, noting that it's pretty obvious from my fic that I don't like them and wondering why. And, like, this was probably just someone who was looking for fandom connection... but the character they were asking about is one of the most popular characters in the entire fandom. Most of the people still actively writing fic in this fandom are writing about this character, so if they wanted people to engage with about this character, they had basically everyone but me to engage with. And the person who set off the initial hate brigade against me that lead to me deleting basically my entire internet presence for months had this character as their URL.

So in my brain, I immediately go, "bait, this is bait," and delete this person's comments, delete my one response to them, and lock down comments on all the works on that account. And I know, I know that's paranoid overreaction. Based on their kudos pattern, this person was clearly working their way slowly through all the things on that account, which is not something someone who was only there to bait me would do. The only slightly off thing they did was comment on an unrelated most-recently-updated work instead of one of the works for the actual fandom. Probably they didn't realize that most people have comment emails turned on and didn't know I'd see a comment if they posted it on one of the older works, and they definitely didn't know what asking that particular question would do to me.

But I just... don't know how to exist in a fandom space any more without intense paranoia. I want to keep writing these things that bring me joy, and I do, but I miss being able to have my comments open without fear. I miss being able to post to a blog that wasn't locked down from Tumblr search. I wish I could interact with ANY fandom these days—not just that original one, but any fandom at all—and not feel like someone is going to turn on me out of nowhere. I can't overstate how out-of-nowhere that hate brigade was: my average fic got maybe 2 kudos. My art blog had fewer than 100 followers, and on average I got like 5 notes. I still to this day don't know why the person who set it off had such a hate-on for me, because it was clear from some of the anons I was getting that they'd built up a hell of a litany of ills to pile on my head, while all being vague enough that I never quite got a clear picture of what they were accusing me of.

I know part of the solution is to grow a thicker skin, and to block frequently. And I've been working on that, I guess I just... thought I was doing a bit better at growing a thicker skin and not being reactionary and the other day's incident made it really, really apparent I'm not, and I don't know what to do about it, because apparently the therapy is not doing enough! (Not that my therapist understands fandom...)

Any advice?

--

I mean... it's PTSD or something of the sort. Treat it as such.

[wisdomseulogy]

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Part 2: How puritan culture, misogyny, and homophobia are affecting fandom spaces and fanfiction.

During difficult times, people will desire harsh rules to make them feel safer or to make them feel morally jus and accepted. But what is ‘morally just’ when it comes to fanfiction? Why do people read controversial things? What is puritan culture and how does it relate to misogyny and homophobia? 

This is the second part of my series about fanfiction and fandom culture and how it relates to what is going on in society at the moment. This will be a lot more polarizing than the first part in this series, but I hope it will be a good read even if you don’t agree with everything I say. This is an opinion piece based on my personal lived experience which may not match up with everyone else’s lived experience. 

Originally, I was going to combine my discussion on puritan culture and commercialization, but with the growing amount of hate that authors are getting on AO3 these days, I feel it imperative to speak at length about puritan culture by itself. I will include commercialization in my next part of the series!

This is also the only part of the series that will include 18+ themes.

Lastly, thank you so much to everyone that read and interacted with part 1! It really makes my day to see that people are actually reading this!

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Fandom spaces have changed and evolved so much over a relatively short period of time. With the prevalence of social media today, fandom spaces have also become very toxic microcosm of society. That is not to say that toxicity has never existed in fandom spaces, but I would argue it is worse now more than ever.

There are a lot of different reasons for this. You have the fact that fear and anger drives engagement and thus money for people on apps like TikTok, (which I will be talking about in the next part of this series) and you also have the rise in misogyny and homophobia in America as the country turns more and more conservative with each passing day. 

(I am an American and a lot of my opinions come from being in America. Though, these issues can be present in many different countries and social circles, I am just specifying America since that is what I know personally)

But how did we get here as a community and what can we do to stop the rise of misogyny and homophobia in fandom spaces (specifically relating to fanfiction)? 

The first step is understanding the history and what has brought us here. I started attending cons and reading fanfiction in 2008, so I saw a lot of this firsthand. 

Before AO3 was made, people would post fanfictions on places like fanfiction.net, livejournal, Quizazz (Quotev), Wattpad, etc. But there started to be issues when people began posting sexual related fanfiction content (smut, lemons etc.). Fanfiction.net and livejournal infamously purged anything on their websites that they didn’t agree with that was of a sexual nature.

People's fics were being deleted left and right and there was nowhere for people to post their fics without fear that it might be taken down. And on top of that, the original creators of the works that fics were based off of weren’t happy with people writing fanfiction using their characters and plot.

Anne Rice, who wrote The Vampire Chronicles, infamously was so against people making fanfiction with her characters that she sought out legal action against the fanfiction creators. But, the saving grace of fanfiction is that it cannot be monetized and the authors are not making any money off of the fics they are posting.

(However, this is becoming a hot issue with people printing out and selling copies of fanfiction on places like Etsy. But again, that will be in the next part of the series.)

People who are discovering fanfiction after 2015 are more likely to not know this history, because AO3 was created so that fanfiction writers would not have to deal with any legal action or purging of their fics. It is quite literally a utopia for fanfictions authors and fan creators to be able to post their stuff without fear of any real sort of repercussions. 

However, with how America is moving more towards a conservative political stance as a whole, this liberty is being threatened. Especially with the KOSA bill which would allow complete internet censorship by the US government on anything they deem to possibly be bad. It is framed in a way to try and protect children, but it is, at its core, a complete government ability to censor the internet. This would include fanfiction. 

And you might have already seen that AO3 is preemptively taking precautions in case something like this happens. 

But why is fanfiction important and why do we need to fight to allow it to stay uncensored?

Fanfiction is one of the last non-monetizable forms of art. You cannot make money on it and the people who write and create fanfiction are doing it not for money but out of love and appreciation for the characters or the storyline. 

In a world where everything is commercialized, the last place that capitalism has yet to reach is fanfiction. It is a reprieve from a society and world that demands that things only have worth if they are monetarily valuable. Fanfiction is the last line of defense we have against late stage capitalism and censorship.

The beauty of AO3 is that nothing on there is censored. It is a kaleidoscope of the human condition. The good, the bad, and the ugly all combined into one place. The reality of what people have to deal with on a regular basis written through the lens of pre-established characters and plot. Or sometimes original work.

But with the rise of conservatism and puritan culture, fanfiction readers and writers are being attacked by virtue signalers in support of a ‘morality’ that is targeted against women and LGBTQ+ people. 

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From this point on, I will be discussing things that people may not be comfortable with. This is the only part of the series that will include 18+ language. Read at your own discretion.

I will not be giving any literary example of these: (i.e. writing out scenarios, quoting direct examples, or going into any graphic description), but these words will be mentioned in a general sense:

Kinks/fetishization

Breeding kink

BDSM

Sexual Assault

Rape/Non-Con

Omegaverse

Yaoi/Yuri

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In part 1, I talked lightly about how what we enjoy can be a reflection of ourselves and that we can use fanfiction to better understand ourselves and the world around us. But when we start talking about kinks, people are a lot less perceptive to understanding why someone might be interested in something.

The fact of the matter is that scientifically, we do not know why people enjoy certain kinks. There are most likely multiple factors going on at once which could include societal constructs/expectations, fearful/traumatic experiences (perceived or actualized), brain development, along with other environmental factors. But, there is no concrete answer as to why someone would develop one kink over another. Which means that saying anyone who has (insert kink here) is a terrible person, is not necessarily correct.

Though there are many theories on why someone may develop a kink, there is a general consensus that to an extent (depending on who you ask), any given person has little over their kinks.

But, I will explore the theory that, to some extent, kinks can come from fears or pain. There is a very thin line between what someone fears and what kinks that person may have. People who fear getting pregnant may have a breeding kink, people that fear being sexually assaulted may have a rape/non-con kink, someone who fears being helpless or hurt may have BDSM kink, etc. I could go on forever with how fear can relate to sexual desire, but I am sure you get the idea.

(Though this is just one aspect of how a kink could be formed, this is not true for everyone.)

In the same way nightmares can help our brain to prepare and react to future bad situations, kinks can help people to experience something fearful in a safe and consensual way. And that is important to understand when critiquing people who read fics with certain tags that may be considered bad. 

In an interesting way, the reader is consenting to reading the piece of writing in the same way the writer is consenting by writing it. Since you can always stop reading and you can always stop writing. The power is in your hands.

This is important for understanding why someone may read certain pieces of media. Without any context, someone may think that people who read something like rape/non-con are supporting that act and thus are terrible people. But if you think about the fact that fanfiction is mainly written by women and LGBTQ+ people, groups of people who historically have to deal with the very real threat of sexual assault on a daily basis, it stands to wonder how much of a kink, like this, comes from fear (whether actualized as they have experienced it, or internalized where they know they are at risk). 

Reading and writing is a very healthy way to work through complex thoughts and emotions. And fanfiction in particular is very helpful for this since it is easier to project your feelings on things you did not create. Something that is not the writer's creation, yet able to convey the writer's thoughts and feelings in a way that is harder to achieve in original work. In this way, even though a reader insert is meant to represent the reader, it creates a version of the reader that does not exist in reality and thus not held down by reality and only held down by the fictional world/work they are inserted into. Thus a figurative chimera of humanity and fiction. An existence outside of trauma and expectations.

AO3 has such an extensive tagging and filtering system, it is very easy to not have to read something that may be triggering. When attacking authors for their tag usage, the possible real outcome is that authors of things that can be triggering to many people will not attribute the proper tags to their fics and thus people who would have been able to easily avoid that content may be bombarded by it. 

It is important to know that just because a piece of media (like a fanfiction) has something horrific in it, that does not mean the author or the reader is glorifying this thing and thus wanting that thing to happen to them or others. In the same way that just because a character is the main character of a piece of media, does not mean that the character is instantly a good person and what they do is good. There is a lot of nuance to whether a character is good or bad and a character can be a combination of both. 

Of course, I could talk at length about how the rise of puritan culture is relative to the lack of media literacy taught or understood in school and how this all goes back to covid and politics. But since I am focusing directly on the effects of puritan culture in fanfiction/fandom, I will leave that for another time. However, it is important to understand that these concepts  (i.e. just because a horrible thing is written doesn’t mean the author is justifying that thing) should be taught in schools.

We exist inside of the context of all of our lived experiences. Much of which we have no control over. We have no control over where or how we are born, who our parents are, and where we live in early childhood and possibly beyond. We have no control over how our brain perceives the world or even how our brain develops. We use thoughts and decisions to feel like we have control, but those decisions were probably already made for us by either environmental factors/corporations/politics/brain and subconscious development. 

Many people do not realize that they have a lot of internalized misogyny and homophobia. That is because it is so ingrained into society, our brains interpret it as an absolute or a fact of life without questioning how we came to those conclusions or who is pushing those narratives. 

This does not only affect women and LGBTQ+ people. The fandom puritans will go after anyone who they disagree with and bully them into oblivion. But, I will be focusing on my own personal experience as a woman in fandom spaces. However, this is not to discredit what other people might be experiencing or have gone through. This is a much larger issue and is indicative of society itself. Once a person or people are deemed as a ‘witch’ (someone the fandom puritans don’t agree with), the puritans will be sharpening their metaphorical pitchforks and lighting their torches in hopes of seeing demise and hurt.

(This also correlates with the rise of apathy and lack of empathy.)

At the end of the day, each person has had different life experiences and will enjoy different things. And we will probably never know exactly why we enjoy certain things, as scientifically we are not certain, and so there needs to be a lot more grace and decorum when it comes to kink shaming or shaming in general.

Fandom spaces were safe havens for people to be themselves, but when things are uncertain, people will desire harsh codes and morals to feel safe. To feel that they are good or that they are right. And for someone to be good, someone else must be bad. And when justice is not always achievable, people will take it upon themselves to be the bringer of ‘justice’. But justice for who? That is the most important question when it comes to wondering what fandom puritans get from enacting their harsh moral codes on strangers.

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“There is simultaneously an epidemic of hypersexualization and puritan culture and both are targeted against women” (I saw this in the comment section of a TikTok video).

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In the rise of puritan culture, there is also a rise in policing what people can and can’t read based on their biological sex or sexual identity. I have seen lots of videos of people saying afab people cannot and should not read yaoi. I have seen people on tumblr asking creators if they are allowed to read their yaoi fics since they are afab. 

I have also seen people say that the omegaverse is blatant fetishization and anyone who reads it is an evil fetishizer. 

(For those that don’t know, a kink is anything unconventional that is used, performed, or desired in a sexual way. A fetish relies more heavily on a certain object, body part, or situation. Neither of these are inherently bad. But the word fetish has a lot more negative connotation to it than kink. The real issue is objectification and oppression.)

But policing what people can read is not the right route to go about things since it usually ends up hurting women and LGBTQ+ people more disproportionately. You are also making a lot of assumptions of these people's intentions which may be false or blatantly wrong and only work to further an agenda that restricts the sexual autonomy of women and LGBTQ+ people while acting as if you are trying to help them.

When a fandom puritan imagines a sort of proverbial reader for content they deem as bad, they are projecting everything they dislike onto a person that does not exist. These projections are an extension of societal expectations and societal expectations are not inherently correct. They are created and formed as a way to control as many people as possible. Under the guise that the more control we have over others, the less uncertainty there is. But that is not true. And these expectations are harsher to women and the LGBTQ+ community, people who have had a harder timer speaking up for themselves in society and history as a whole.

When we police what someone can and can't like sexually, we are removing or altering their bodily or sexual autonomy. (Their ability to use their body as they like). Cis male characters have always had sexual agency in media. They are allowed to be with who they like and do as they please. And they are even rewarded for doing so. Teaching that the more people a man is able to ‘conquer’ (take the sexual autonomy from), the more worth that man has as a person and in society as a whole. 

(But this also teaches men that without someone else they cannot have self worth. I will be talking about that in a different manifesto later where I break down the male loneliness epidemic and how society is sabotaging men for profit and political gain and that is leading to a rise in conservative values and misogyny.)

Women have internalized this: men are allowed to have sexual autonomy, women are not. Men are allowed to have sex as they please, while women are taught that every time they have sex with a different person, some part of themselves is fundamentally broken. 

Wanting to explore sexual desires and agency with characters that already have a precedent of sexual agency is very common. Though, you may not have heard it described in that way.

I argue that yaoi/omegaverse when it is written by women for women is where the reader and writer are exploring sexual desire and agency in a way where they are ‘allowed to’. Men are allowed to have sexual desire and to act in sexual ways, while women are not allowed those same privileges. A woman is only allowed to fit into one of two archetypes: the whore or the virgin. The over sexualized or the prude. 

But that is not indicative of the real lived experience.

(When it comes to LGBTQ+ people they are rarely given the option of the virgin archetype and instead are only hypersexualized (which is also a form of control and lack of sexual agency))

On one hand, yaoi/yuri is representative of an actual lived experience for a lot of people. And those stories provide voices and outlets for LGBTQ+ people to be seen and understood. To see themselves in the reflection of the characters eyes. To see themselves seeing themselves.

But I argue that yaoi/yuri or the omegaverse can also be feminist literature. (I use the term feminist broadly as encompassing both women and LGBTQ+ people and the struggle against the patriarchy and a society that is actively working against them. And feminist literature, in this sense, is literature that is by the oppressed for the oppressed against an oppressor (i.e. the patriarchy) I know not everyone will agree with this, but this is my personal definition here.)

(If you do not know what the omegaverse is, the most basic way of understanding it is that in the omegaverse, omegas can get pregnant no matter their primary gender (male, female, etc.) and alphas can impregnate no matter their primary gender. In this way, primary gender like male and female do not matter as much as your secondary gender does (alpha, beta, omega). However, betas are regular people so a male beta can only impregnate and a female beta can only get pregnant.)

Because the primary gender in the omegaverse is not important, there is a lot of commentary on what gender is and how society shapes people. 

While writing an omegaverse story, I got to asking myself what an omega is. Since an omega seems to be everything that society deems as feminine or womanly (submission, gentleness, etc.) but in the body of (usually) a man. And an alpha is the embodiment of everything society deems and manly or attributes to men (like aggression, domination, etc.). In this way, alphas and omegas are at the most extreme ends of masculine and feminine standards. Does this come from a desire to see a man go through the most extreme standards of what it means to be a woman in society and still be accepted? Because even if a woman is able to achieve the absolute pinnacle of what it means to be a woman, they will still be hated.

An omega is allowed to be both the virgin and the whore simultaneously. They are allowed to have intense sexual desire (i.e. heats) while also being allowed to not want intimacy. Being allowed to desire an alpha while also being scared of alphas. Oppressed yet holding power. 

One of the things I noticed a lot when reading yaoi/omegaverse is the proclivity of rape. At first I was very turned off by it. Why was sexual assault so normalized in yaoi? Is it a negative side-effect of hypersexualization or is it the literary embodiment of an internalized fear of rape and the desire to see a character come out fine? It is very rare for sexual assault to be treated seriously in yaoi/omegaverse if it is between the main couple. This is a reflection of the very real reality of how sexual assault is treated in the countries where these authors are from (including the US). 

Does it come from a desire to see something realistic in a male dominated world where the aggressor is given less than a slap on the wrist for sexual assault while the victim is blamed and can be herald as a murder if victim desired to abort a child born of rape? Is the writer trying to imagine a world where they are okay and actually benefiting from an experienced trauma? There are many possibilities, and I do not know the answers. I am just theorizing how I imagine some of these tropes come about. But this is important for understanding that just because someone reads or writes something, does not mean they are actively supporting that thing.

But instead of there being a distinctive right or wrong, everything boils down to how something is perceived. What context does the piece of media exist in? In the same way The Handmaid’s Tale is a piece of literature that actively explores the role of women in a patriarchal society and is not supporting the patriarchal society itself that is presented in the story.

When someone exists in a world with a lot of internalized misogyny and homophobia, they may read stuff like yaoi/yuri/omegaverse and not see that these texts are actively working against the narrative of the patriarchy and the societal oppressors. They may not realize that their hate of its mere existence is political. (I say mere existence since not everyone will enjoy reading it, obviously, but to hate it for purely existing is political. And it ties back to misogyny and homophobia as these are literary tropes that are mainly enjoyed by women and LGBTQ+ people)

Yaoi/yuri/omegaverse is feminist literature. It is observing the world through the lens of someone who challenges the very structure of society. Challenges the very politics that conservatism and puritanism is trying to push. It is creating a world where the ‘other’ can flourish. Where the outcast is seen and allowed agency. 

But the main pushers of conservatism and puritanism in fandom culture are not who you would expect, which makes it quite a difficult issue to combat. It is women and queer people working against the interests of other women and queer people. The oppressed policing the oppressed for the interests of the oppressor. 

(Though, I would like to point out a tidbit that people rarely acknowledge, which is that we do not gain the ability to think critically about our opinions and the world around us until late adolescence or early adulthood. Though it is different for each person. And thus until a certain age, we are just echoing the thoughts and opinions of others. This can be a reason as to why this is happening.)

In early fanfic culture, it was very common for an author to write “don't like? Don't read” which is something we should continue to live by today. Not everything is created for you. Not everything is meant to cater to you. Not everyone has had the same life experiences as you or the same desires, hopes, or dreams. 

But since fanfiction has entered the mainstream and people are finding it for the first time, they do not know the decorum that comes with reading fanfiction. Fanfiction is not censored or made for profit the same way a published book is. There is no editor or CEO with a prerogative that is reading over the fic and deciding whether it can be published and make money in the current political climate. 

Fanfiction is human made and reflects humanity in a way that anything monetized cannot. It shows the good, the bad, the fears, the desires, the hope, the fluff and the angst. A celebration of life while also being a eulogy to that life. 

The world watching itself be watched. 

When we focus on morality and what being morally good is, we lose sight of what it means to be human. No one is 100% morally just. It is something that no one can reach because it is not something that exists in society. But the easiest way to control a group of people, is to make them start fighting themselves. And it also comes from a desire to be loved. Equating that if you are morally just then others will like you and you will be loved and accepted for who you are.

And as the fandom puritan lights the witch on fire, they turn around and search for acceptance for their actions in the eyes of their peers. The burn of their desire to be loved heating their back as they address the crowd. That same desire to be loved killing the witch.

But humans were not meant to be perfect, and holding ourselves and others up to standards that inherently support patriarchy and societal and government control, will only end badly. Instead of using fanfiction as a way to be upset with the world, use it as a way to understand and love yourself.

Find what you enjoy reading and read it. Find yourself in the reflection of the characters eyes as they smile and cry. 

In a world that profits and is sustained on self-hatred, self-love is a political statement. 

Read what you want to read and move on. And when it comes time, protect fanfiction as one of the last non-monetizable artform.

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I honestly am not even sure if this makes sense. It took me so long to finish because I kept writing and rewriting it. Adding parts and taking other parts out. If you want me to expand on something or think I didn’t explain a concept well enough, please let me know! I am genuinely doing this for fun and enjoy it. :)

Also thank you so much to anyone who made it this far! This one is a lot more polarizing, but I did my best to explain it in a way that was as little polarizing as possible. 

In the next part of the series I will talk about commercialization and capitalism as it relates to the world and specifically to fandom spaces. I will expand on the idea that our opinions and ideals are given to us by corporations or politicians in order to further the narrative. And also that fear and hate drives engagement and people who make money on places like TikTok are more likely to fear-monger (whether intentionally or not) in order to get more money. 

If there is anything else you want me to touch on in this series please let me know! Otherwise, after commercialization it will be fanfiction throughout history and then a call to action and how we can use these concepts to create a better future. 

[slaaverin]

Wow. How is BMP’s reading about taekookers so actually true? When we say they are a cult we are absolutely right. We can see it, how they band together in their delusions but instead of conjuring up what they want or believe to be true, they get the opposite, because it’s not reality. Where she said about begging for scraps. It reminds me of when they were harassing that restaurant owner a month or so ago, who then felt the need to clarify that they did not go together. How embarrassing is that? Then the other way they get crumbs off that disgraceful owner of the place golden party was held, but it’s still crumbs of nothing, he’s just feeding their delusions and they eat it up.

I’d feel sorry for them but I actually don’t. I just cannot fathom how so many people are under this spell, and that so many ot7 are also hidden taekookers. It’s beyond unhinged. How sad to live a life where you feel the need to spread such hateful words.

Jungkook and Tae are friends and that’s it, but what’s sad, if true what BMP says, is the behaviour of taekookers could affect reality, the boys relationship, how disgusting is that! I’d imagine that would come from Jungkook moreso, this pulling back. We kinda saw it at Jin’s discharge with that awkward hug. But hey however sad, maybe that is needed?

I actually would wish for boundaries when they all come back together, maturity, which may sound like an overstep but I think it’s needed objectively speaking, between the members and fans too. A line needs to be drawn because it cannot go on like this. It cannot be that Jimin receives death threats on the daily from these unhinged cultists. It’s only ever Jimin and Jungkook that get this wide ranging over the top, polarisation within the fandom and solo spaces. This sweeping hatred and such strong views one way or another. Solos hate the other, ot7 often ignore the hate, it’s unreal that such beautiful people receive such treatment.

I am so glad they have us, people who support them, who hold space for them to just be, a safe space or them. I know they know this, I’ve no doubt they know we are here for them. I hope that’s enough.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts anon,

As she said the difficulty is that tkkers are trying to escape from reality and cannot accept reality as it is.

Acceptance of reality in a broader sense in life for most people is a very difficult thing to do because when they are confronted with unpleasant truth (could be pain, could be anything they don't like in life) most people will go to extreme length to escape from it because facing reality means facing their inner fears and on this earth the most difficult thing to overcome is fear, not even the events themselves.

To face your fears and sense of lack one must find inner courage and strength. But if those people struggle with self-image they may not have proper foundations to find that strength so the only other options is to go deeper into the delusion.

All of it is really fascinating but at the same time very frightening.

That's truly the byproduct of lack of self-awareness and basically all the problems in our planet comes from this.

That's why BTS's mission of bringing awareness about self-love, jikook with unconditional love, and every one of us individually raising awareness and shining light on others is so damn important because each of us is helping the collective evolve in consciousness.

I think it's inevitable tkkers acts do influence the boys in real life. JK has been pulling back from Tae for a long time (whether it's for this reason or others, who knows, but I can't help but think it's a contributing factor). In Jungkook's position I cannot see him stand by any of this.

Boundaries and maturity is needed at this time; with the band's creative direction but also with their relationship with fans. I can't help but think that if absolutely nothing happens and no boundary is set at all, it will all go in flames.

What is the first thing they are gonna see when they get back? Tkkers comments flooding the lives.

Because let me tell you that their hatred has built on levels never seen before in chapter 2. They have a lot of bottle-up frustration and once they will find the proper outlet for it (the boys) all hell will break loose. But that's only my prediction.

So that is why jikookers need to be READY! on deck. Prepared to support in all the ways so we can to counterbalance the hate the boys will receive. This is honestly so important.

It remains to be seen if a member (I bet on Jungkook) will truly say something. But imo they will have to. Because if they don't hate will only increase until the boys themselves are soooo done that they will snap. They can only take so much? And who knows to which length the haters will go, what kind of psychopatic behaviour they will portray (online or in real life). Depending on events it can go sideways pretty quick and someone will have to say something.

Usually I stay careful over some predictions but I think this one is pretty inevitable.

I'm sure jikook knows we are there for them. They know about the support they are getting and that a lot of people stand by them. Hopefully it brings some peace of mind to both 💜

So let's continue to support them however we can so in the future our words brings them comfort and warmth 💜

Thanks anon and take care 🫂

[tossawary]

Thinking about how hard the "Star Wars" prequel films dropped the ball in terms of female representation. Like, looking back on the original trilogy, it kind of sucks that the only main female character is Leia, and while Leia does kick ass and I love her, it also sucks that the last film 1) put her in that bikini and 2) abruptly made her Luke's twin but didn't let her have a lightsaber or use a lot of the cool space magic powers.

When you only have one female character, she often ends up bearing the unintended burden of a lot of hopes and expectations of fans. She's just one person. She's never going to be compelling to everyone.

And then you have the prequels and you'd hope that they'd do a little better with male-female ratios this time? With experience? But the only main female character is Padmé, who's pretty fun, but also ends up 1) desperately in love with a murderer, 2) spending most of the last movie barefoot and pregnant, staring out a window, because they cut the "founding of the Rebellion" plotline, and 3) dying not because she was Force-choked but because she has "lost the will to live" because "fuck them kids", I guess.

(I know there's theories about Sidious siphoning her life force or what the fuck ever, but I don't caaaaare, because I hate the idea that Sidious has that kind of reach for no fucking reason and also it's not actually IN the movies! It doesn't count!)

The Nubian handmaidens are a cool concept, but they're all background characters, who barely get named. We don't get to actually see them and Padmé do a lot of on-screen work together. She doesn't get to confide in them regarding her love or her fears. She speaks to her guard captain more onscreen than her handmaidens.

And while we do see female members of the Jedi Order in the films, they're ALSO all background characters, like Jocasta Nu and Aayla Secura and Yaddle. As opposed to more active Jedi characters like Qui-Gon Jinn or Mace Windu. Like, damn, the prequels are the perfect opportunity to introduce and show off even a female Jedi supporting character, and they just did not do that. That sucks. The careless absence of women in this universe sucks. The careless absence of women as significant characters in these films sucks.

Every other piece of additional material for "Star Wars" has to move to patch this. The "Jedi Apprentice" and "Jedi Quest" novels strive to add and name female agemates and mentors. "The Clone Wars" television shows add Ahsoka as a protagonist and Ventress as a villain and a whole bunch of new female characters.

Yes, given that these are prequels, there are some characters who are not really realistically changeable. (Yes, trans people exist, obviously, that would be very cool; not sure that "Star Wars" was going to go for that back in 1999.) Obi-Wan. Anakin. Yoda. The Emperor. Unnamed Sad Mother of Luke and Leia. You need those ones. EVERYTHING ELSE was up for whatever they wanted to do.

So, anyway, I'm currently thinking about characters you could potentially genderbend without affecting the story pretty much at all. Qui-Gon, obviously. Mace Windu, as well. I think fandom would then hate both of these characters even more then, unfortunately, because fandom is what it is. Whatever legitimate criticisms levied at both of these imperfect characters would have increased tenfold, I am certain of it. But we're talking about the prequels's badly executed stories, not fandom's misogyny. (And misogynoir. A black woman as the leader of the Jedi Order when it was destroyed by the Sith? Fandom would have been even more of a fucking nightmare.) It would suck that they both die, but the prequels are a tragedy anyway, so, eh.

Bail's role in the prequels could have potentially been played by Breha Organa instead. Although, I don't know how well the Extended Universe novels had extended Leia's backstory by that point in time, maybe Bail had already been established as the Senator and Breha as Queen, so maybe not. At the very least, you could have had Mon Mothma in there doing his superspy stuff with him or something. Padmé's guard captain could have been a woman.

Both Darth Maul and Count Dooku could have been women. Yes, they're both evil, and yes, they both die, so it's not perfect on the representation front. But it's something, especially if you balance that out with some good characters, and look, I can't coherently complete this thought, I keep getting distracted by the mental image of hot evil Sith ladies. I think a female Count Dooku would have kicked ass, honestly, as much as I enjoy Christopher Lee in the role.

My main goal with this thought exercise is purely upping the number of plot-relevant female characters, pointing out that it wouldn't have been hard to add more women without changing all that much if anyone involved had actually bothered to think about that.

The original trilogy only mentioned "The Clone Wars", so the clone army didn't all need to be copies of Jango Fett. There could have potentially been a half-dozen genetic donors, with the Kaminoans creating different clone soldiers for different purposes. Some of them could have been clones of women. (I hold the unpleasant headcanon that the clone soldiers are all sterile (or functionally sterile, incompatible with unmodified humans) anyway, because the Kaminoans don't want clients to be able to "steal" their work.) And the clones are actually a fairly minor role in the films themselves, admittedly, not given any more development than any of the droids (it's the show that does the work), but again, it's still something more.

[codekira]

Rant about Robocar Poli ( Unpopular opinions and I probably might get cancelled for this)

With the help of my boyfriend, I found out about this show called “Robocar Poli”. Eventually, I found myself getting hooked into the show, not for its artistic value or its target audience, but simply because of how fun and childlike it is. I mean, it’s just another generic cute little show for babies that doesn’t warrant an extended fanbase!

And then I found out about its fan domain.

Needless to say, I was surprised to see the number of fans this silly little children’s play had. It’s not uncommon for the rarest of media material to garner attention by the common folk. But as I scroll through the pages of fanmade art, roleplays, writing, or simply awkward rambling, I began to notice a few gripes that I had. Something that made me say “What? They can’t be serious!”. Something that made me flip the table in confusion.

Friends, let’s journey through the trudge of unpopular, popular, or controversial opinions that I have to get out of my chest. I know many are going to disagree, and that is fine. I am simple here to piss you off about my opinions or make you jump in joy for having the same opinions as me. It goes both ways. And remember, hate all you want, I don’t care. I have a life to live, and making this long-winded rant is simply a sidequest from living. And for those who say “Oh! It’s just a kidshow! Stop overthinking and overanalyzing it!” This is the internet. Not everything had to go through your 14 paragraphs of made up rules.

A special thanks to my boyfriend for encouraging me to voice out my thoughts and opinions about this particular matter and for helping me format this post.

THE RESCUE TEAM IS OVERRATED

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. the titular characters of Robocar Poli, the Broomstown Rescue Team. They are fawned upon by the citizens of their little town. And it seemed to have translated to the fanbase as well. Which is understandable, they are the protagonists and the main focus of the show. My only gripe is… how can people find them interesting?

To me, they seem like every generic main characters who are nice and kind and friendly to everyone. Except for Helly, who sticks out like a sore thumb for being slightly different with his playful personality. Still, they are boring to me. Nothing about them screams “Oh, this sounds like a character I am bound to be interested in!” Nothing. There is nothing to work with here.

I would even argue thst the side characters have more personality to them than the so called “main characters”. Atleast they don’t bore me every time they are on screen.

Sure, you can just make up your own bullshit for them in the long run. Headcanons in the fandom run around like rats, to the point some of them are considered canon by the community. An example of this is Poli being associated with space.

I stand with my point.

THE MISCHARACTERIZATIONS

First, Poli having a fear of caterpillars/bugs. If you’re going to add personality to the void of a character that is Poli, don’t just give him one trait and work off of it!

Around the fandom, I keep seeing Roy getting treated like a manchild. It just irks me. Not that it matters though, every fanbase has that. And I keep seeing him depicted as this “soft uwu boy” and holy shit can that archetype die already? He’s a grown man for God’s sake!

THE SIDE CHARACTERS ARE BETTER

Now this… this is the one i’m going to get hated on. Bear with me here. Where do I even begin with this?

I keep seeing people shit on the side characters for being “annoying” and “idiotic” but they couldn’t be more enjoyable. They are so full of life compared to the excuses for main characters. Watching them thrash around the screen has sent more reactions out of me than any focus they have attempted to place onto the rescue team. At least they have more traits that can be considered unique!

Also, they deserve far more recognition than what the fandom gives them. They get glossed over really quickly and it pisses me the fuck off. The rescue team live off of fanmade headcanons and backstories and they live off of their appearance on the show. See the difference?

I HATE CLEANY

This will ruin my already ruined image so bad… This character pushes me over the edge for how frugal and whiny he can get. I hate his overbearing voice. I hate his incredibly timid personality. I hate how everyone is so kind towards him and how I just want to shout at his face.

—

Remember, this is my opinion.

I might post more of these in the future, if I have the ciursge to get myself trashed again. Feel free to voice your own thoughts as well. I will be reading with glee. Codekira out.

[dearweirdme]

this is a very unserious rant incoming lol but I've seen people say how jikookers will steal things from taekookers, like different theories and what not. and i feel like that always gets proven right. because why am i seeing so many jikookers on twitter pretending that they're oppressed for being jikookers? claiming they can't mention jikook in the fandom. and i'm like uhhhh ring a bell? 😭 taekookers have been talking about how weird armys are with taekook for yearrrsssss and now jikookers want in on that too? i follow plenty of non shipper armys and they have no problem making jikook jokes but god forbid they ever make a joke about taekook. it also makes me think about how taekook's its conversation was treated and still IS treated by the fandom vs jikook talking about not really seeing each other during solo era on ays. i nevverrrr see the jikook conversation brought up by armys, i don't even know if they even remember it happening. but the taekook its convo is still coming up to this day, saying that their friendship was ruined and they're no longer close. is that not weird?

and i know it doesn't matter who's hated by the fandom the most lol but i just think it's ironic that now apparently jikookers..want..to be hated by the fandom? suddenly they want armys to "fear" jikook when that's never been the case for most fans lol

Hi anon!

You sent me this yesterday already, sorry for being a bit late to post (busy day.. tiredness and all that). I found your ask quite funny in the context of the other asks I had gotten… because it made me think ���yeah, no wonder non-shippers think we’re all the same with Jkkrs copying us 😂’.

Jkkrs absolutely do this. In tiny things also. Something I felt was funny very early on was how they call Jk and Jm magnets and no-space… but when you go and actually compare the moments they use to the moments we use… It’s truly Taekook from Temu.

It’s why they enlarge the shippy moments they get and why it’s always the physical stuff. They long for justification. They say a bite is a hickey because it’s sexual and to them that equals a relationship. It’s why they make up stories about Jm hiding in a bathroom during a live. It’s why they say a travel show is a honeymoon. A lot of this is the result of wanting to one up Tkkrs.

[ohhicas]

i noticed a decrease of LexZex art on twitter in the last couple months (there’s only a handful of artists and i take every crumb i can get haha) so i wandered into the tag and saw so many people dragging the ship, it was disheartening 😔😔 i saw your name mentioned or at least vague tweeted a couple times and i just wanna say even if the antis make online spaces uncomfortable for “bad ship” artists, there are always people supporting your art from the sidelines! don’t let the haters stop you from doing what you love, you’re doing god’s work with this ship! ˚‧º·(′̥̥̥ o ‵̥̥̥)‧º·˚

Hi anon! First up, I know how you feel-- to my knowledge I only know of like two other artists for this ship (both JP; people I'm friendly with) so when one goes missing, it certainly feels like a Void.

As far as people in the tags go; there's a very good reason why I never venture Into the tags, even at the start of my venture into KH. I don't even check my own Username tag because I saw something, once, and went "yknow what, nah". Some people are rancid for just the reason of having a squick towards a pairing with age gap-- despite most of their claims (Zexion being a minor; he's not, by an interview that lists all the Org minus Rox as 20+) (Aeleus being his 'father figure'; he's not. Ienzo has never listed Aeleus as a Father figure, when he lists his parental/mentors [They are listed as AtW, with a mocking commentary about Even's behavior towards him.]) just being headcanon. They spread this like it's canon, and use it as ammo to hurt strangers because they saw something they don't like and threw a fit, like a child being introduced to bitter vegetables. I never understood why they didn't just block, mute, move on. Rather, they'll openly vaguetweet, spread hate, and even screencap and go after users who don't use English as a first language leading to fear and hiding, with "is it safer if I just delete?" worries for their bullying behavior. [<- real situation! I had to speak a friend down from a metaphorical cliff over this!]

This kind of atmosphere does tend to kill a creative drive when someone is just enjoying a Kingdom Hearts fan-ship. I've never personally let these people get to me, but I'll admit I 'fell victim' to drawing for other fandoms and getting kinder commentary and reactions. (That's where I've been! Other fandoms crawled in and took over my mental space since it was kinder to engage in them.) (this also killed my urge to draw for KH at all. Not just the pairing I still love a lot and think of often, but in closed spaces with friends.)

So thank you for this message! It was nice to hear. I don't have any advice for anyone who wants to see more art from artists they love beyond "Support them", even if it's scary. If you support something and want to see more of it, openly support it.

Anyway that's my soapbox adulting for the evening. Thank you for giving me a reason to dust off my shaky skillset for them and draw them again.

[utilitycaster]

#reblogging for the “see: girlfailure” tag#caus I have opinions on the insular fandom memeification of characters but I don't - as this post highlights - have the words for it#but I keep those to dms caus anytime I or a friend has challenged it in a public space it gets shot down#it reeks of my troubles with the general fear of using the word woman these days and how it's girldinner this girlmath that#also what do you call as intentional character traits vs a flopped dice roll

(via @distant--shadow)

so I agree and this is interesting to me because what always frustrated me about "girlfailure" outside the more general issue of "um, coquette/bimbo/girl dinner/uwu soft divine feminine cottagecore domesticity don't you mean u want to braid her hair is actually TRUER feminism than being the surly woman who loves math and sword fights and hates sewing" and the fact that, as you said, it mostly came from bungled dice rolls and no real intent, is that the same people who call her a girlfailure insist that Imogen is the main character. And like, she kind of is! And yet - and I've said this about Imogen and Laudna in the context of their relationship but I'm going to not include that because I actually don't think that's even relevant, it's about them as individual characters as well - people want them to simultaneously be The Main Character or at least heavily in focus and also never, ever have any agency. Like, they want "capable" to mean that everyone likes you, and not that you are a person who makes hard choices for the better.

Maybe it's because I'm playing Baby's First RPG right now, but the deal with RPGs and I think(?) especially this one, is you must make every choice and it is laden with consequences (not that I as a D&D player, or, you know, a human woman, am unfamiliar with that already) but what drives me nuts about the just a silly guy! girlfailure! she chooses to be good and therefore is good narrative for Imogen, and the "stripped of choice" (another highly repeated turn of phrase) for both her and Laudna is that it's untrue and it means nothing. For all my criticism of What Doesn't Break, Laudna makes choices. I frequently dislike them and wish they had more gravity, but she does make them. She doesn't make every choice - notably, her death and Delilah's presence are huge things that happen to her without her input - but even while barely herself she frequently brushes off Delilah. You can imagine the dialogue trees and the paths she takes, to intervene or not. She decides to renew her pact; she decides to run into the desert. Imogen decides to attack the villagers with lightning to defend Laudna. She decides to leave, she decides to keep burning their rivals in the Twilight Mirror Museum, she decides to tell her mother that she won't join her, she decides not to help assassinate her mother.

Fearne has a wonderful line when she's talking with Chetney after shardgate, in which she explains that she's terrified of making bad choices. Not of being a bad person, but of making the bad choices. And that's the thing. You cannot choose to be good. You cannot choose to be bad. At least not in any general sense. You can, however, make choices that harm people or help them. You constantly must do this. You can stray, or change the type of choices you've made, but they do accumulate to a point, eventually, where it becomes harder and harder to stray. However, the premise of D&D is very much that your character hasn't become locked in, yet. Is Imogen making choices that will be better for other people? If the world rests on her shoulders, is she making better choices for the world?

This is perhaps the core theme of this campaign, dating as far back as Downfall. Aeor made their choice - many, many choices. The gods made theirs. Ludinus kept making his, over, and over. It's particularly resonant among the women of the campaign. Obviously there's Fearne, and I've covered Imogen and Laudna, but going over to the Crown Keepers, Morrigan becomes a paladin in a few short weeks - an immense choice. Fy'ra advises others on what they are going to do. And Opal is where she is now because in one moment she put the crown on her head - and in doing so, ceded further choice in the long run. The deities of both fate and free will in this world are given considerable presence in this story, and both use female pronouns.

Maybe I'm making a mountain of a molehill, but I don't think I am. I really do think people cling to "girlfailure" and act like we're just being meanie haters who don't believe Imogen is good because she can be the central character who has power to change the world and the narrative; or she can be pure and innocent of all wrongdoing. she cannot be both. No one can. And deep down I think the "girlfailure" proponents prefer a useless innocent girl to a powerful woman who sometimes makes choices or does things that hurt other people. So I don't think that one's just harmless meme-ing, and if you want to see Imogen as an exceptionally important part of this narrative I think you have to reject the girlfailure, and anyone saying "oh it's just a joke" is either unthinkingly repeating or is pushing a story where Imogen is just a MacGuffin without agency, and neither is worth, in my opinion, listening to. Someone "stripped of choice" in real life is worth our pity and deserves our assistance but they make for a pretty terrible fantasy protagonist, and it's maddening to see a woman in the center of the story and then to be attacked if you want her to be treated like a person who, as a result of being a key protagonist, holds particular power and isn't just a girlfailure.

[frikatilhi]

About that new interview. I now feel conflicted about my bojere shipping. Like, I'd NEVER send Bojan fucking letters about it (WTF is wrong with people??? I'm actually shocked), but does even the concept of it bother him for real, or is he okay with it as long as it's just fun and games (and not shoved in his face)? The Cyprus vacation took place after the interview and he didn't post anything about it himself. But he let Jere post at least a little bit and it was all extremely bojere heavy (i'm assuming they talked about it and bojan agreed that jere could post the things he did). So am I "allowed" to enjoy my little fanarts and fanfics about them (emphasis on fan FICTION) or should i feel bad and fear that i'm ruining a really special friendship, because some people take it way too far? 😅 From everything we've seen so far, I'm assuming that Jere does not mind the shipping (at least as long as it stays somewhat playful and not too serious). I really hope that it won't get to the point where we get no bojere content at all (even in just a friendship sense) bc some people ruined it for all of us. 🙁

RPF is fine taking the F to the RP's is not

my tl;dr under here

It's okay to feel conflicted about this stuff; we don't want to cause any harm! It's not a nice feeling to think our silliness here might make some wacko think they're on to something and inspire them to spew hate at anyone. But Bojan gets all kinds of shit thrown at him a lot, so if it wasn't this it would probably be something else, and everyone really is only responsible for their own actions. Keep it in fandom spaces and don't start believing your delulus are real, that's rpf 101.

I feel like regarding shipping the crux of it is here. After mentioning Käärijä he sort of backtracks a little: ”I’m not even talking about this situation [bojere] at all but in general, about all the lies that are being spread.” 

I personally get the feeling that his beef is not about the Käärijä stuff as such, but with how lies and rumours take off online and how it results in harassment. Like how he gets letters from some wacko saying how he’s a horrible person for ignoring Jere, while in reality he’s on the phone with Jere at that same moment.

Is he against shipping in general, does it bother him? I don't think we can tell either way based on this interview. In the past both of them have seemed pretty chill about it, but who knows. If people harrass him about it, I can imagine it could get tiresome.

But he keeps speaking so fondly of his fans, and international fans, and Finland, and Jere, that I get a strong feeling that he doesn't lump us all together but is only speaking of those who "can't separate reality from entertainment". Also, based on how they talk of each other, their friendship is not affected by this but they're able to support each other when things get tough.

So I'd say, anon, that you're still "allowed" to enjoy your entertainment, as much as I'm allowed to grant you that permission 😆