#but what is the point of the internet. of tumblr. if not to post solely for yourself

[cherryzlem]

My talk on the TikTok-ification of ‘I have no mouth and i must scream’

I personally have discovered ihnmaims recently and through TikTok but honestly, from what i've seen so far, the Tumblr community is way more welcoming than the TikTok community. I believe the ones i call ‘hardcore fans’ or 'gatekeepers' will try all they can to belittle the people who discovered the book/game through TikTok, like any hardcore fan does for their community when it gets famous on TikTok.

TikTok is very helpful to share media on and i have discovered many fandoms through it. But some people are so against ‘TikTok-ification’ that they can’t stand when people find medias through this platform.

When i see some people (again, mostly solely on TikTok) tell AM fans ‘ermm but you know he SA’d Helen ☝️🤓’ i cant help but think ‘yes ?? And he also committed genocide on humanity, keeps torturing the same 5 people over and over again and im very, VERY sure he did use a lot of not really nice kinds of tortures on them, but you draw the line at SA ??’

Like, AM is a horrible being of course, all of these are horrible actions but if someone, like me, likes AM its not gonna be because they think they’re a good ‘person’ (for lack of a better word), WE KNOW AM is bad, of course we do, HE’S THE BAD GUY OF THE STORY and he’s the kind of bad guy who cannot be redeemed but COME ON, WE KNOW THAT.

I love AM for his writing, for how well thought he is as a character, i do not love him for his actions. And i know some 'new gen fans' will pretend AM is not 'that bad' but you shouldn't just assume every fan who comes from TikTok is going to think like that.

Another thing i’ve seen people hate on are AM’s humanisations/personnifications fanarts when posted on TikTok. I know for a fact that these existed for a long long time on other platforms such as Tumblr but the arguments the haters pull out is that ‘errr AM hates humanity, i doubt he’d want to be human ☝️🤓’ but do you even know WHY he hates humanity ?? Have you read the book ???

The reason AM hates humanity is because he wasn’t able to express the creativity he was given by humans, he didn’t just wake up one day and decided to hate humans ?? If anything, giving AM a more humanized/personified image would be something he would want more than anything. If AM had been able to BE like a human none of the shit he did would have happened.

The only ‘argument’ im willing to listen to is when some people say that the whole point of AM’s character is that he isn’t human. But then again, are you against fun ?? In literally EVERY fandom with non-human characters artists will give them humanized designs, even if just for AU’s (take ‘The stanley parable’ for exemple), it’s not because the story is old and is an horror story that people cannot have fun with it. It’s not because it’s a deep story with meaning that people can’t do what they want with it. That is what creativity is for.

And my final point is addressing the people who hate on AM's simps. My gosh, these people have not seen the dawn of the internet if they think its weird to simp for AM.

People simp for Glados, The Narrator from tsp, horror movies murderers and more, and you're telling me that AM is the worst simping choice you could make ?? Let people have fun, let people have weird taste in fictional crushes. In other words:

Stop being allergic to fun, ffs

[strelitzia-mystery1097]

What killed Macaque?

Well I was going to link my first post about this but I... can't find it. Like I checked over and over and tumblr keeps telling me I made no post about lmk which... is weird. I don't know if it was deleted or it's buried in the internet but that's... fine. Just kind of annoying that I can't find my own post.

Anyways I guess I should recap.

I have never liked the theories of 'Wukong didn't actually kill Macaque' or 'LBD changed Macaque's memories' or anything like that.

But also don't like when everything is blamed on Wukong and those Wukong haters and/or Macaque 'did nothing wrong' fans paint the whole situation as solely Wukong's fault.

Did Wukong make bad choices and mistakes. Yes.

But so did Macaque.

Their fallout is both their faults.

Macaque from season 4 is able to understand that the Brotherhood were on a path of destruction and were doomed but the Monk was able to lead Wukong down a different path.

But remember we saw in the scroll that the Brotherhood during the jttw believed that Wuking was a traitor and it was only Macaque not fully 100% believing it.

We know in the og jttw Macaque was less of his own character and more of a dark reflection of Wukong. But even then we shouldn't dismiss entirely what jttw Macaque did (except for cooking a Flower Fruit Mountain monkey because I think lmk would not make Macaque be so friendly with the FFM monkeys if that was canon in lmk).

Jttw Macaque impersonated Wukong, beat up the Monk, stole the group's supplies, took over Flower Fruit Mountain, declared that he was going to do the journey with the scriptures himself, and then got into a really long fight with the real Wukong and literally like only 2 people were able to tell who's the real one (Budda and like this lie detecting bull from the underworld?), and when Budda reveals Macaque's true form Wukong kills him.

So clearly some things will be different.

But I do believe that lmk Macaque would pretend to be Wukong and would try to befriend the Monk like in the jttw. Because Macaque at this point would try and figure out what's going on.

The last time he talked to the Monkey King they had a fight. So that's probably why he just doesn't ask Wukong directly.

Also we should probably account for how emotional and potentially unstable Macaque probably is at this point if his best friend is back and working for the enemy for some reason.

So he tries to figure out that reason. But the thing is that when Macaque pretends to Wukong, it's after a major fight between Wukong and the Monk so the kind Tang Sanzang is just not wanting to deal with Wukong even after he's being nice.

So all Macaque sees is this rude and mean Monk that bosses Wukong around. So yeah he beats the $hit out of this ungrateful Monk.

Plus he would extra angry if he knows about how the Monk uses the Circlet on Sukong and hurts his best friend to discipline him.

Then cut to Wukong finally fighting Macaque.

Wukong has learned to be better and is probably seeing how the Brotherhood and his past deeds were not great, and Macaque was a part of that past.

Macaque is probably extremely upset that Wukong is taking the Monk's side and is just abandoning and leaving him again. No it's worst, he's turning on Macaque to stop him.

So this fight is probably extremely emotionally harrowing, with both of them not communicating and just having breakdowns and/or shoving down their true wants.

I mean in season 5 from the glimpse we see of the fight, Wukong is begging Macaque to not do this while Macaque is just laughing. So yeah he's probably have a complete breakdown and is hiding it under his dramatic b%tch persona he perfects after his revival to not be vulnerable.

One way this could end is Wukong accidently killing Macaque in a fit of rage or to protect his new family. Instead of killing his dark reflection he's killing his past.

But I also saw this interesting theory by @Cherllyio where Macaque's weird probably chaos related powers + him losing control of himself and his emotions while having a breakdown = Macaque self destructing literally.

I definitely hope that whatever the answer ends up being, that it's a situation where there's blame on both sides. That it was a messy situation and there's regret and pain (sudden LBD flash) but now if they wanted to, the two can finally... talk.

[txttletale]

Overly long disclaimer incoming: This is not anon hate. This is not an argument. This is not accusation. This is not agreement with anyone directly involved. Any feelings of hostility that may be gleaned from this ask are most likely because I struggle with maintaining a professional tone. Because this is not intended to be read as hostile.

This is solely intended as a statement of facts regarding who said what, mixed with light speculation on their intent. It is being sent because I feel that misinterpretation has occurred, and I firmly believe that one should always be as informed as possible on situations they are directly involved in. I hope this ask can make a positive difference.

Okay. Disclaimer over. Sorry it was so long.

I do not think roadhogsbigbelly accused you of being a pedophile yourself, and I don’t believe it was because of your stardew valley take.

I have seen several of his posts on this matter, and it seems he doesn’t like stardew valley (found it boring), his beef with your take was frankly minor and inconsequential, and it was intended to be separate from the larger critique he had of you. He made a few posts saying rather explicitly that they were separate issues, and I believe his initial post was a vagueblog that, on accident, conflated the two issues.

As for the main issue: if i recall correctly, you had reblogged a kink-positive post that turned out to have been made by an open zoophile (and also pedophile?). The zoophile in question is a clear danger to others, as they have a community of pedophiles and zoophiles that welcomes so-called “pro-contact” people.

This was where his accusations originated from, and this was what he focused on. He is concerned about how dangerous people like that are able to infiltrate into kink-positive spaces (is “infiltrate” the right word? I don’t know). His harshest critique of you seems to have been that you did not interrogate the intent of the person when you reblogged, and even that seems to have been mostly expressed in order to turn this into a learning moment for others. I don’t have precise wording (curse you tumblr mobile, for not letting me factcheck myself), but i believe he shared the sentiment that we all could stand to be a little more discerning?

- and I know he knows you have already responded to that criticism. For those unaware: txtlletale’s response was that she cannot be expected to vet the OP of every post on her dash, and that this criticism is thus unreasonable. His response to that response? … I forget, sorry. But I don’t think what you said was unreasonable. Again, my intent is to clear misunderstandings.

The point here is that, I don’t believe “accidentally reblogged a pedophile” and “is a pedophile” are the same statements, and roadhogsbigbelly had made the former statement. In short… I don’t think he was pedojacketing you. Whether he had unfairly judged you, and done so out of a transmisogynistic bias is, of course, a different question entirely. And if anyone else used his words to directly accuse you of pedophilia? Well, fuck em. Assholes.

I hope this makes sense. This ask is anonymous because I do not wish to become the focus of this issue. I am solely presenting information as I understand it. Feel free to fact check for yourself.

I think your anger is valid. These situations are infuriating, as is the culture of distrust that they bring. People on social media are, in general, far too swift to condemnation. You see it all the time, with pedojacketing, with qanon, with countless petty internet arguments. I try my best to reverse this tendency, at least with my own behavior. I don’t think you are a careless person, nor someone with a pattern of spurious accusations against people. I know you’re an intelligent and discerning blogger, which is why I trust you enough to send this ask. I hope I can have a positive impact.

have a good day, and take care of yourself.

(Considering sending an ask about this to him as well, so if you see a weird anon on his blog talking about misinformation hi its me)

i just don't agree with you--like, i don't say this aggressively either but this is just not an honest description of what he said. he called me, verbatim: "a tumblr user who markets incest and loliporn as an inherent part of queer sexuality". nothing in the screenshot mentioned "loliporn" -- nothing i have ever posted about in my fucking live mentions "loliporn" -- and for that matter, obviously, in none of my posts have i ever said that any kink, 'problematic' or not, is 'an inherent part of queer sexuality', and most fucking evilly of all, i don't 'market' these kinks.

like, think for two seconds about the implication of saying i, a trans woman, am "marketing loliporn". i think that goes beyond criticizing that i didn't vet my reblogs (which would obviously be insane in and of itself but i agree would not be pedojacketing). it's literal grooming/social contagion rhetoric. and again i can't emphasize enough he "just assumed" that "loliporn" was involved, despite it having no connection to anything i have ever posted! that + in his absolutely laughable double-down he says "99% of the people who make these sorts of posts are actual fucking pedophiles" as well as "pedophiles are agreeing with you! that’s not great!" which.

like wow that's crazy hey if 99% of people who make "those posts" (about "not being mean to sex freaks", or as i would phrase it, "criticizing the double standard leveraged to initiate mass sexual harassment campaigns against queer people but especially trans people for what they do privately and consensually with other adults" are "actual fucking pedophiles", what is that implying about me? can sherlock holmes get on this case with me?

idk i don't appreciate being told that "he never said 4" when he sure as hell was repeating "2+2" over and over again. & if his critique was 'intended to be separate' then why would he bring it up at all in his original post, multiple times, to clearly imply he doesn't think i should have 'takes' or 'opinions' on anything? regardless of what he did and didn't say about me i think it is pretty fucking clear that this:

is not 'seperate or unrelated'. i think it is really really difficult and requires totally unearned levels of good faith to read this as anything other than explicitly confirming that the point of this post is to use transmisogynistic rhetoric as a cudgel to shut up me up.

you can believe what you like but i know what i read and what was said about me and i will not be lied to.

[asmogorna]

Okay so there’s this ww artist on ig called like tooth lilys or something and he’s always causing drama in the ww fandom and he mouthed off about your art and now heaps of insta ww fans are like talking about you :| free publicity?

ahhhh so thats whats happening .. lmao thats crazy

i checked out their story, and i sure doooo love how they leave some things out when talking about both situations that they mentioned to make me look worse ..

ok so

warning, yap session incoming

the "will wood in a (miku) binder" thing happened back in fall 2023 when i was still semi new to the fandom and didnt know a lot of things. so tho i to this day i dont think it was that big of a deal, i wouldnt do it today

it was an artwork made for shits and giggles, the context of which i have explained here before. i never meant to imply that will wood is trans and i certainly dont "headcanon" him as that. my curse is that even when joking around i tend to try and make my art look good, so i get why people thought it was unironic. and i know that it sounds like a lame ass excuse, but it legit didnt cross my mind that people would think i drew will wood as a trans guy or smth. legit my only thought process was "funny haha internet thing" + "my favorite thing" = "good idea"

now the usage of his real name is something i am genuinely sorry for, but it was an accident and a genuine mistake on my part. i remember seeing someone mention it casually in some comment section, and assuming that it was ok, since i didnt know he was in any way against it. (i also thought that it was the same name that he used in "the real will wood" in that one section cus it sounded a bit similar).

when i was informed about the fact that he doesnt want it spread around i deleted the post right away and apologized, so bringing it up like something i did on purpose and out of malicious intent is a tad bit .. misfitting, if you can use that word

now the hot topic of the day: my waywood art

i have said this before and i will say this again, how i feel about rpf is solely based off how the people involved feel about it

to clarify: i never drew anything inappropriate or even suggestive with them, the "worst" thing is 2 simple sketches of them smoochin. or. this.

idk if this is what they were referring to when talking about me drawing will wood and gerard way "making out" (specifically. because i think "making out" implies to be more sexual stuff than small kisses). and if so, then it once again feels like blowing things out of proportion

and now the point i want you to get: will wood wouldnt give a flying fuck

like i said earlier, i never drew anything inappropriate, because that would actually cross will's existent and real boundaries. you know, the ones that he stated

im not making some conspiracy theories about him being gay, like some people seem to imply in their inbox messages to me

im not sending a whole ass smut fanfiction to litwtc gmail or something, i dont bother him in instagram dms asking if he wants to fuck gerard way, im not shipping him with people who he actually knows personally and has to look in the eyes of from time to time

im not doing anything that he would actually care about

him and chris have joked about him being attracted to gerard before, and though im not saying that you can joke about everything theyve ever joked about, i feel like in our case its clear that will clearly doesnt care about the implications ? (i generally believe that ww fans would get their panties twisted about less things if more of them listened to what these 2 talk about so calmly on litwtc but i digress)

if he saw that some random teenager on tumblr is drawing him and gerard way (gasp of horror) holding hands, he'd laugh at it max and then move on with his day

people are treating the whole situation like i posted pictures of him from when he was a kid or leaked patreon content or drew him fully naked or anything else that, you know, would actually affect him in one way or another

what im doing is innocent fun which isnt even likely to reach either of them. will wood very rarely checks tumblr and, once again, i genuinely dont believe he would care. and gerard way aint got no internet + he doesnt care x 2

it is weird but rn this is what brings me the most joy, even if its silly to say. both will wood and gerard way mean a lot to me and putting them in situations together makes me happy. i am but a child full of fun whimsy

i wont be posting any more explicitly romantic art to avoid more drama, and i also wont be responding to all the anon messages i received because there are like .. too many of them. an overwhelming amount i'd say. sorry about that

i really didnt mean to cause such a fuss, and i understand why some people might be uncomfortable with what i do

i fully understand why you would dislike my waywood hyperfixation shenanigans, and i dont have a problem w you over that, but treating me like pure evil because of a thing so insignificant is just.. overdoing it

once again, i will be toning it down, but it really isnt the end of the world if i dare to draw will wood and gerard way being a tad bit gay (which is, i apparently need to mention, not me actually saying that will wood the alternative musician is a homosexual gay who is in a genuine for real actual real gay homosexual relationship with gerard fucking way the lead singer of my chemical romance. i think speculating on other people's sexuality and gender identity is boooo tomato tomato tomato)

sorry for the rant and sorry to all who were disappointed by my lack of remorse. come back in a couple years when i turn 18 and stop having fun and artistic freedom

thank you for your attention and i hope i at least cleared some things up to those who werent w me throughout every event where i get involved in fandom drama

bye bye

[lpsotd]

important announcement part 2: electric boogaloo

greetings tumblr! i haven't made an original post in (i believe) over a month, and i actually didn't plan on making an announcement about my absence at all, for no real reason honestly, i just didn't want to. however, i think i'm correct to assume there's at least a handful of people who have been my curious about my absence, or perhaps wondering why they've noticed a lack of daily littlest pet shops on their dashboard.

this post is going to be long, personal, and serious. i'm going to be talking about myself, my life at the moment, and what i'm going to be doing moving forward.

you can read everything under the cut. i'm providing trigger warnings for suicide and familial death. the first half of this post is where the warnings apply, the other half is about what i'll be doing with this blog and also relates to my internet presence in general.

the latter half of the month of september was extremely taxing on my mental health, the main reason for my mental decline is not something i'm going to touch on here, as it's too personal and there's no reason for me to air out my private business on tumblr.com of all places. all you need to know is that during late september, i was at my worst. i had been trying to push through and continue my life as normal despite the constant turmoil i was in, and i never had the motivation to do anything with myself besides taking a shower, and even then i was rather neglectful of my hygiene. i had plenty of support from those close to me. my mom in particular did her absolute best to make sure i was comfortable and felt loved and cared for, and i did feel that way. however, at this point in my life i was a ticking time bomb and i don't think any one person would've been able to cut any cords to put a stop to the timer.

on september 26th at around 1:45pm, i made an attempt on my life. i'm not sure what it was about that day in particular, but it was then that i decided i didn't want to deal with anything anymore. fortunately for me, i was stupid enough to post what was essentially a suicide note to my main tumblr blog, which friends of mine took notice of. this, of course, worried people and one of my friends called the police to my house. long story short, i spent a day in the hospital and was sent to a psychiatric hospital the following afternoon.

i was in the psychiatric hospital for little less than a week, and if i were to detail my experience here it would make this post at least 3x longer than i intend it to be. (and i do plan on dedicating a large post to it someday) in short, it was an eye-opening experience and i left with a better view on myself as a person. i was discharged on october 3rd and i'm currently in therapy and looking for other methods to help myself.

the doctor at the psychiatric hospital diagnosed me with adjustment disorder with depressed mood, although i'm made to believe i have borderline personality disorder as i get unhealthily attached to people and my entire mood depends on how they interact with me. due to this belief, i'm hesitant to get too close to people because i don't want to risk becoming emotionally attached/dependent on one (1) sole person and my entire mental wellbeing collapsing due to something like us parting ways. so at this moment i'm not sure if i'll ever be able to pursue a romantic relationship.

for the week i've been home, i've been trying to readjust to normal life again after becoming used to the static routine present in the psychiatric hospital. i've found myself becoming easily irritated and overwhelmed by even the slightest bit of noise in my home because the hospital was always so quiet and calm. i'm unsure if this irritability will go away as i become re-accustomed to the semi-chaotic nature of my home.

on top of all of this, my grandfather passed away yesterday and, as of writing this, i'm in a state of emotional numbness and i've somewhat disassociated from the situation. as it stands currently, life doesn't feel too real and i'm uncertain of how i'm going to deal with this when my emotions finally come to the surface.

that's it for the depressing portion of this post. everything from here will be pertaining to the state of this blog, what i'm going to be doing with it, and also my presence on other social medias among other things.

for the past three or so months i haven't felt very compelled to post to this blog. when i went on hiatus a while ago, i thought time away from this blog would reignite my passion for it and i'd be able to come back and do things like i used to. and while that was the case for a while, i quickly lost interest again and sometime in mid-late july i let my queued posts do everything and i barely posted or reblogged anything aside from gofundmes.

while littlest pet shop is still one of my special interests, i'm no longer as fixated on it as i was when i first started this blog. i once debated turning this blog into a catchall for my toy interest and no longer posting daily lps, however that idea no longer appeals to me and i think i'm going to be calling it quits for this blog.

i'm not happy about this decision, but i no longer get joy from logging on and posting to this blog anymore.

i find it foolish to delete this blog and never use it again, though. i still have over eight thousand followers and i believe i should use that to share and bring awareness to donation posts. so this blog will not be going anywhere.

if you want to follow me elsewhere, my main blog is @joplinspiderz and my art blog is @mushyspiderz. i'm trying to put more focus on my presence in art spaces, as i want to get attention for my art and earn money doing things like commissions, as i'm looking for other sources of income so that i can pay for things i need and can stop feeling like a freeloader in my mother's house (that is half of a joke. but i do really want to help my mom with her bills and such as well as my personal things.)

i also have an instagram, threads, and twitter where i will be posting my art as well. the audience i want for my art is people in my age range (18 and older) as i tend to draw things and characters that are suggestive/sexual in nature. all three socials are currently bare (that will change, of course.) the handle for my instagram/threads is joplinspiderz and my twitter is mushyspiderz.

the person i have been portraying on this blog has been a somewhat sanitized version of who i actually am, as i wanted to create a safe and comfortable space for those who age regress because i noticed a good chunk of the people interacting with my posts were age regressers. i'm 18 years old and i enjoy consuming media that is sexual in nature as well as horror movies. i like to include sexual themes in my artwork and my writing as well. you will not find anything outright pornographic on my socials, however sometime in the future when/if i'm able to, i would like to create a patreon where i post nsfw locked behind a paywall (profiting off of horny fools sounds like so much fun /silly)

i sincerely thank everyone who followed this silly little blog of mine and interacted with me. the littlest pet shop community is one of the best fandoms i've been apart of, everyone i've met and spoken to has been so kind. running this blog was also the reason i encountered two people who i consider to be some of my closest and best friends. if i didn't create this blog i'm not sure if i would've met them.

i've always felt joy when opening my inbox here and seeing messages from people who say things like littlest pet shop was a part of their childhood, and that my blog brought them back to their childhood and made them happy. i'm so very glad i was able to give people a sense of joy and nostalgia. running this blog has been a big part of me getting over being seen as "weird" or "cringe" by societal standards. i embrace being seen as "cringe" and i have my rare lps on full display in my bedroom.

again, i thank everyone who followed me here, and if you wish to support me you can follow any of my social medias where i will be posting my artwork. i will be logging on here every so often to boost palestinian gofundmes and donation posts, and i encourage everyone who comes across those to share as well.

that's all for now, farewell. 🩷

[aroaceleovaldez]

i mean it when i say we've gotta bring back askblogs. bring back making character chat posts with poor choice text colors over random backgrounds. bring back blogs dedicated to what outfits you think characters would wear.

fandom is an ecosystem, not a numbers game. these types of blogs/posts/etc still exist in concept, because people still want to make them and they're a great way to get your thoughts of an idea out in a simple format, but most people make them on like tiktok or instagram reels and that's where the problem lies. Those videos don't go anywhere. The format doesn't allow for the discussion to spread through the community and they're less likely to be engaged with in general. And to make them most people have to either show their face or figure out editing software, so the barrier to entry is higher (editing) and/or they have to forfeit an amount of privacy.

those types of posts/blogs are the first rung of the ecosystem. they're the perfect environment for younger members of the fandom to begin safely interacting with the larger community and putting their own thoughts and ideas out there. roleplay is the other major spot for that and those communities are diminishing as well, honestly (if you know of an rp forum board site, cherish it. and if you can make one, make one). they allow younger fans to begin engaging with the source material on a different/deeper level, but still at a very low barrier to entry, and begin conversations with other fans, which also helps them build skills which in turn may encourage them to pursue other avenues within the fandom (fic writing, other formats of askblog - which itself usually leads to art, cosplay, also fic writing, etc). Without those places to build those skills, they might feel discouraged from trying to begin when surrounded by curated people who have built their skills up for years.

And those conversations they foster also in turn help the community, by offering ideas to artists or fic writers to extrapolate on or building community jokes. And that text/blog format specifically is extremely beneficial, because it allows younger members of the fandom to remain anonymous and keep their privacy without concerning themselves with having any platform or having anything attached to them (very important for young fans figuring themselves out and navigating online community spaces for the first time, since they can remove themselves from spaces easily if they decide they don't like it and they're protected, rather than PUTTING THEIR FACE ON THE INTERNET). And those posts they make will spread a lot more into the community since they're in a significantly easier format to be reposted (few people are gonna be reposting tons of random short-form videos versus spamming their instagrams with reposts of 10 random fandom images yoinked from tumblr, or reposting to pinterest or something). Like, don't repost art, at the VERY least don't repost without credit, but also I am not ignorant to the fact that my art is not just the first google image result for "pjo pride" and related searches, but also the 4th, the 6th, the 9th, the 10th, the 11th, etc etc., and pops up in the search results before the official ReadRiordan does simply because people reposted my work more (most with credit, thankfully).

For fandom to be a community, it needs to perpetuate itself. There needs to be engagement with one another and conversation. If that bottom rung is cut off, then new fans won't be able to grow into the other niches of the fandom, and the fandom will be solely reliant on the source material and die out extremely quickly, and there won't be a community. There's no conversation! There's no reason to stay beyond the original material! But if you don't have points of entry for new fans, they won't have any way to build the skills needed to move into those niches, or engage with the community in a healthy way.

tl;dr: Bring back askblogs and character-based text post blogs. They are vital to fandom ecosystem.

[tresdem]

So to caveat this, picking out characterization from canon is YMMV, everyone their own interpretation and it's fine. Talking about Izzy on the internet is a dangerous sport. All that being said! I think sometimes there is too much credit given to Izzy as the one controlling Ed and Ed's image and to little credit given to Ed himself. Is it there? Yes. Is it problematic? Yes. Both Izzy and Ed do some things in S2 that cross so many lines with each other and this is not a post to debate who did it worse or who suffered more for it. (because the conversation is more nuanced than I want to get into on tumblr)

What I do want to talk about though is that, for me, Edward enjoys being Blackbeard, or enjoyed once upon a time. He likes the mystique. He likes the drama. The chaos. The life. He likes to enchant people in his own spooky bwahahaha (ala ye olde smoke machines) just as much as Stede likes to swan in to swash some buckles. And his quarters on the Queen Anne's Revenge is a reflection of his personality. He's a packrat as much as Stede is. He likes cool stuff. He likes spikes.

While I do think that Izzy controls the Blackbeard image to an extent, I feel like it's rarely when Ed is around. We never see Izzy tell Ed: this is not something Blackbeard would do, in front of others. Yes we do have the scene at the end of S1 where he essentially threatens Ed to shape up or else, but other than that he doesn't directly confront him (other than being pissed about Ed risking their lives to get trounced by the Spanish and then I think it was mostly because he just hates Stede)

So, for me, again, Blackbeard is Ed, but a facet of him and a facet that he's grown out of, even if there's parts of it he still enjoys. I feel like he likes the fuckery of it, the drama of it, the absolute mad chaos-- but not if he can't participate. Like what's the point of everyone freaking out if he can't even come onto the boat and terrify them face to face? Lame.

And as for Izzy, because I don't want to get too deep into that, but Izzy-- like everyone on this show-- is a healthy mix of badass and idiot. And I think he can be personable if he wants something, he can play well with others if he doesn't feel like they are beneath him or their not an enemy (which Stede is on both counts). And I think that Izzy truly cares for people esp given what we see in s.2, but he has a lot of his own personal bullshit to shovel through and a lot to unpack. And yes, he is manipulative and he did things he really should not have and etc. But for me he's not the sole cause of anything and not the sole blame for anything. (and I have my thoughts on that situation but...again...don't wanna get into those weeds)

Ultimately for me it's super important that Ed is the main driving force behind his own legacy, his own persona, his own look. Yes it got out of hand, but divorcing all the Blackbeard aspects from Ed I feel takes away from Ed's personality. Does he get trapped in it? Yes. But it's still him. He is a man who likes to put on a show.

Anyway! If you disagree that's fine and I don't hold anything against you. :) There's plenty of room for all kinds of interpretation in this fandom.

[hugheses]

these are just some thoughts after seeing ur post on the hockey thigh thing btw, and i hope you hear me out. you being a lesbian (im bi and i have a gf currently), which is something you emphasise a lot, and not being attracted to these dudes doesnt make this whole parasocial archive any less weird or creepy. i'm not here to shit on or invalidate your passion, because obv its something you care about deeply from how much your scour the web for all these old things, even of their mother when she was young. and genuinely, thats pretty cool, i work in archival and i have a lot of respect for that with the effort you've put into it.

but i think you are encouraging others to imitate this blog and culture, when it comes to other players who aren't as in the media as the hughes family. like i agree that its part and parcel of the job as athletes who represent a multitude of things like ur franchise ur family etc, but i feel like we just shouldn't proliferate this. i know people on twitter are unjustly harsh and oftentimes critical to the point of meanness, but i think some points they share are valid. just bc its on the internet, doesnt give us the permission to do stuff ykwim? like imagine just going up to the hughes and giving them a scrapbook of every media moment from their mothers childhood, to her college, their dad, and them as kids and now as adults. thats just straight up weird. and don't even get me on the sexualisation, i get they are adults but isn't that just basic respect?

i know having an internet community is rlly important to some, and im sure ur followers would still give you that support u need even if you dont constantly supply them with these media things, or dangle ur secret archive like a carrot over them.

hoping you have a great day

you clearly put a lot of time and thought into this, so i will give you that same level of consideration back. i think you have some misunderstandings about me, hockey fandom, and fandom culture as a whole.

first, the lesbian thing. admittedly tumblr search is very broken but according to it i’ve mentioned the word lesbian twice on here, as a disclaimer for why i might not be the best person to understand what male attracted people find hot. it's possible it's come up a few other times but it’s definitely not something i "emphasize a lot". it's somewhat ironic that you bring up you being bi and having a gf in what reads to me like a deflection on your critique that i say i'm gay too much, when you seem to think me saying i'm a lesbian is bc i'm trying to deflect on sexualizing these guys. which admittedly is the most confusing part of your entire ask. is this solely about the thigh ask? if you’re worried about "basic respect", hockey fandom is probably not the place for you. i know i don't like seeing 500 reader insert posts every time i open anyone's tag, which is why i have related terms muted and block people who don't use them. however this is very much a part of hockey fandom and i’m aware of that. on the flip side, the unfortunate reality is that hockey players are some of the nastiest misogynistic men on the planet who generally do not see women as actual human beings beyond mommies, maids, and holes. if i WAS sexualizing these men 24/7 i would feel well within my rights to do so, and could make an only slightly ironic argument for it being feminist praxis. if jack hughes can ask girls to flash him, i can have a little sexualization, as a treat. 

calling me weird and creepy isn’t actually negated by following up with saying you're not trying to shit on or invalidate my passion and you respect the effort i put into it. if you think i’m weird and creepy, you’re allowed to feel that way, but actually own it if that’s what your opinion is.

you imagined this scrapbook scenario and then say that it’s weird. i agree, that hypothetical thing would be weird. good thing i’m not doing that, will never do that, and take many efforts to have a strong fourth wall and keep this blog separate from the people it's about. i am a firm believer in keeping fandom private and secluded! that's why im not tweeting all of this and tagging them. 

it’s a big leap for you to assume that i do this because i "need support". not that it matters, but i do all of this because i find it fun and i’m being generous with people who do not have the time/resources/know-how to find this stuff on their own. there's nothing wrong with finding a community online, but i had one before doing all this. in fact, all of this has been really more trouble than it's worth in terms of harassment vs kindness lmao. some people on here have been lovely to me, but i’m beyond the age where i need virtual validation from strangers. you’re right about one thing, i do dangle my secret archive like a carrot, largely for petty reasons because of a few specific assholes. 

you seem to think i’m the only person who does stuff like this. update/archival accounts are very common for musicians, actors, even like... tiktok influencers. were you not online when people hacked an airport security cam feed to watch one direction sit and do nothing? everything ive ever posted on here has been available to the public. i’m just good at finding stuff. even within this smaller sports fandom on tumblr, i have been inspired by OTHER BLOGS who were doing this before me and go way harder than i do. i didn’t invent the concept of collecting information and images about public figures like you seem to think i did, but thanks.

if you want to critique fandom culture as a whole, go right ahead, but i ask that you keep the sanctimonious lectures out of my inbox, especially when they're based in assumptions. any one of these things could have been questions i would be willing to chat about if you were actually curious about me and what i do. i in fact have lots of opinions that might surprise you on many of these things you mentioned. but i will have those conversations with other people, who talk to me with the respect and dignity that i deserve.

[saurongorthaur9]

Actually, it's a bit suspicious that the only real leak and detailed was a kiss and Amazon didn't do anything about it. As if they themselves leaked this information to internet.

I find it suspicious as well, and I also suspect it was purposefully leaked from official sources. For what purpose, I have no idea, but it seems likely.

We'll almost certainly never know one way or the other though, so I don't see a lot of point in speculating about it. While the scene itself had the sole purpose of existing for shock value, it would seem that Amazon had a larger agenda behind including a scene of that nature. Again, we'll probably never know why.

I just hope and pray that it wasn't Amazon's way of testing the waters to see if they can get away with including shock value content (which will get worse and more gratuitous, if it continues). That's part of why I've been so vocal about it. I doubt Amazon is looking at tumblr posts or my posts in particular, but in the chance that my voice has even the barest drop of influence, I would want to do my part in hopefully steering them away from including any more of that type of content in the future.

As I said in another ask answer, my biggest fear is that they might try to pull something of the same nature with Saurondriel in the future. Now, I get the feeling from some other comments I've seen in the fandom that a lot of people wouldn't mind that, that they just want to see two particular characters' lips touching and don't care about anything beyond that or how it is executed. And they're entitled to liking that, if that's what they want.

But for me, I think that would be the worse possible thing they could do with Saurondriel: to reduce everything they've built between those two characters - the pining, the taboo longings, the intensely complex tangle of emotions and connection - and ignore all of that to reduce it to a moment purely designed to make the audience respond with shock and distaste. I would hate to wait and wait and wait and finally get a Saurondriel kiss or an explicit love confession or something like that, but it to be robbed of any greater meaning or purpose, drained of real emotion, and slapped haphazardly into the story just to elicit a shocked reaction from the audience. To me, that would be the greatest betrayal the show could possible do to me.

[tea-with-evan-and-me]

hey tweam, i know it's a bummer but it's time for a pinned announcement post due to the insane amount of hate messages i am receiving daily regarding natalie. if you're a normal, decent person, feel free to scroll past, disregard, and tumblr on…

RE: NATALIE AND EVAN

since some of you non-tweam members like to thrust your ugliest inner musings anonymously into my ask box and seem to think that's okay, let me make one thing clear: i don't tolerate hate. and i won't tolerate unfair criticism and negativity towards natalie, because up to this point, not one of you have brought forth a legitimate critique. no, natalie posting evan on instagram, going with him to events, just publicly existing as a couple.. is NOT ''using him for fame''. that's called being his girlfriend, and those are all normal things for couples to do. you wanting evan to either not date at all, or do so in utter secrecy to protect your jealous heart is NOT a legitimate reason to dislike natalie. if she does something problematic, then yes, you have every right to voice your feelings and i would absolutely allow that (civil) conversation - until then, i suggest that you print your message out on the thickest, roughest card stock you can find at your local office depot, wipe your ass with it, and then throw it in the trash where it belongs as i won't be entertaining you.

i remember all too well the slippery slope with frances, and the way people justified terrible behavior towards that woman by pointing to perceived ''wrongs'' that apparently meant it was okay to bully her, not just on here, but on her own social media. was there some fair, due criticism somewhere underneath all of that? absolutely, but it was never truly about that. some ''fans'' simply want evan to date villainous women so that they can ''legitimately'' hate on them without being called a hater - and if the woman isn't an actual villain, they will create a narrative that paints her as one. that's why they have all this smoke for fran, haley lu, now natalie.. but it's crickets for emma, who is well-known for being awful. even gftwd, who would've told you frances was satan incarnate, defended emvan. why? because deep down, they like evan with emma because she's an overtly bad person and they could hate her freely if emvan got back together. oh, they'd change their tunes quick.. but they aren't together, so they focus elsewhere. yet fran, whose worst offense was being an internet troll and edgelord, had multiple hate blogs, discord servers, instagram accounts, etc. all dedicated to tearing her down and actively encouraging other people to join in. and that's exactly what some of you unstable weirdos are preparing to do to natalie, which i can't stop you from doing - hell, rosa already posted the address to a place natalie was staying and endangered her safety and potentially evan's. once you cross a certain line, good luck going back. some of you never learn.

we're all here because we are fans of evan, not fans of the women he dates. you are not obligated to like natalie and talk about her, not with me or anyone else. in fact, i encourage discussion that deviates from the relationship chat and my hope is that as evan and natalie settle into a long-term relationship, a sense of normalcy can begin to form where people do not feel so tense about something that really should not be our concern. it can be background noise. if he's happy, she's not causing problems, and they appear to have a healthy union.. what's there to hate? we're here to support the man, not tear him down. this is a major reason for the disdain i have for the tarot blog(s) currently running - your sole purpose for being on this app and engaging in fandom should not be to incessantly, repeatedly, multiple times a day be putting out undeserved negative commentary about evan, his relationship, and the woman he is dating. how would YOU feel if, completely unprompted by any controversy, someone decided they were going to make it their job to obsessively post negative things about YOUR relationship? hell, at least be fair! if any of you just need an outlet, idk, maybe start shit talking the woman evan dated for nearly a decade who has shown herself to be a literal demon instead lmfao at least she is deserving of your ire. i understand that this is a gossip and discussion blog, and by default, it can turn intrusive in nature. but it does not have to be negative in nature.

again.. can you imagine if you were just minding your own business, living life, dating someone.. and a stranger who has no reason to speak out against you decides to take offense to another person calling you gorgeous, to the point they have to log onto tumblr and anonymously message a blog to announce that they think it's ridiculous someone has called you attractive.. oh, and by the way, your current boyfriend's ex? now, SHE'S gorgeous! not you though, you're mid. yeah, i'm pretty sure you would realize real quick just how fucking uncouth that message was.

anyway, if this miserable behavior happens to be your jam, your IP address will be blocked from sending me messages and any that i do receive will be promptly deleted unless it's juicy enough that i will derive pleasure from roasting your ignorant ass.

to all the truly funny, kind-hearted, intelligent folks who frequent this blog and brighten my day with your messages and discussions.. love ya.

[kindlingkeen]

hello ~ about your series asymmetrical warfare will there be a bruce-jason reunion? what was their dynamic before jason died? does bruce treat jason as his greatest failure the way he did in comics? (ignore if spoilers ofc) thanks!

Hi anon, thanks for your ask! Great questions (really respect that you went for the meaty one right out of the gate there /pos). Let me start out by not answering your questions at all, and I’ll work my way up to some answers.

I’ve mentioned in other posts that I don’t have a concrete outline in place when I write. There are things that I know will happen in Asymmetrical Warfare, and things that I know absolutely will not. In between all of that, there’s wiggle room, a lot of wiggle room. Something that I love about writing fanfiction is that, to me, it’s this neat form of collaborative story telling. At it’s core, AW is my version of the batfam and the story I want to tell about them, but it’s very much influenced by readers and the fandom at large (mostly via its tumblr presence). Comments on ao3, asks on tumblr, random internet convos, the comics I read, all of it influences how I think about AW. (For example, Harm Reduction basically exists solely in response to ao3 comments.) It brings a complexity and richness to AW that wouldn’t be there if I was alone in a vacuum writing the ‘verse from start to finish.

So, how does that relate to your questions…

will there be a bruce-jason reunion?

I honestly don’t know. Most of AW has the ‘identity porn’ tag attached to it. The ‘identity reveal’ tag doesn’t start coming in to play until the end of what I have sketched out so far. When I think about what comes after that, it’s all fade to black. I can make an educated guess based on core character traits, what’s happened so far, and the fixed events/timepoints I know are coming. But, it’s still open to infinite possibilities. At least until the timeline advances further and more details get locked down. The Storm, the arc that comes after Territorial Disputes (the companion piece to Guerrilla Tactics), is a pretty big inflection point. It’s also, you know, not written yet. 😉

what was their dynamic before jason died?

The granular details here are still evolving in my mind, but it’s built on a backbone of a mixed pre- and post- crisis Bruce and Jason. Jason was adopted at 12. They had a father/son dynamic. Bruce was genuinely trying to be a good dad, and he succeeded a lot of the time. Things got rough later on in Jason’s teenage years.

does bruce treat jason as his greatest failure the way he did in comics?

I’m not sure if you’re referring to how Bruce treated Jason’s memory during the period while Jason was presumed dead in the comics, or how Jason is actually treated post his reappearance in the comics, but here’s what I’ll say with respect to the former and AW. The AW Batcave has a Robin memorial with a ‘good solider’ plaque on it. AW Tim is well versed in the dangers of being reckless via the object lesson that is Jason Todd. Sometimes, late at night, usually after a bottle of whiskey or a dose of the good painkillers, AW Bruce thinks about how his greatest failure in life is actually how he’s chosen to cope with the death of his son.

Thanks again for the ask, anon! Hopefully this was as interesting to read as it was for me to write! My ask box is always open 🩵

[gophergal]

Author Commentary - I Know Where to Look (Chapter 1)

Howdy y'all! I just posted the first chapter of my first tf2 fic, and figured that rambling about my thought processes from writing it would be fun. So, enjoy?

Welcome to my first Author Commentary post!

Regardless of if anyone other than my best bud (and partner in word crimes) @cursed—alien read these going forward, I thought it would be fun to explain references and thoughts from the process of fic writing. These are the sort of thing I love to know about my favorite art. I’m a great lover of artist interviews (specifically the ones where the artist in question explains the development of the concept and reasoning for the techniques they use) and an avid reader of author’s notes, so I hope that if anyone reading my fic is like me that they will enjoy this addition to the story.

Formatting

I feel that the most notable thing about this fic is that, despite being rated as explicit, every explicitly sexual scene is under a cut. Why do this instead of just making the scenes fade to black or formatting it in a standard manner? Because, dear reader, I have had the experience of reading explicitly rated fic solely for the buildup to the smut scenes. I experience fluctuations between sex favorability to neutrality, all the way to aversion. When I’m feeling uncomfortable with explicit sexual content, I often wish there was a way to just skip those scenes entirely. But on the other hand, I also acknowledge that sex scenes CAN have narrative and character importance. For the specific dynamic that Corey and I envisioned for Red Oktoberfest- that being a relationship that starts as professional and sexual before becoming emotionally involved, those scenes would be a shame to ignore entirely on my part.

Behaviors and thoughts during sexual intimacy are rich with characterization, and I wanted to be able to express that. So, the best of both worlds, to me, was to have a second layer of opting in to reading those scenes. I may have to redo them later, however, because the way I had to go about it doesn’t work with pdf downloads and likely isn’t screen reader accessible. My current thoughts in regards to those problems is to encourage folks to download as some other format, and eventually create a podfic of this story.

Headcanons Involved

Something you may notice about this is the amount of headcanon I’m trying to cram into it. To be frank, I use most fic writing as a vehicle with which to go “look at my headcanons, boy”, so this isn’t surprising.

The first of which I would like to note is Heavy’s love of pulp romance. I couldn’t tell you why I first thought of it, but it’s grown on me like moss. Mikhail is a lover and a fighter. To me. In my heart. He views all art for what it is, and values the stories themselves pretty equally. The only important difference between the two books he’s carried with him from Russia and the pulp he’s collected in the US is sentimentality.

Speaking of those books, why the two I picked? Brothers Karamazov is a pretty obvious choice. It’s a classic and widely studied. Tsar Hunger by Leonid Andreyev, however was actually mentioned by name in Poker Night At The Inventory. In one conversation, Tycho asks Heavy what his favorite book is, to which he replies that he “prefers war.” Eventually, though, he does end up saying that he likes Tsar Hunger. I wanted to know if this was just a book picked at random, or if it actually meant something about Telltale’s interpretation of Heavy’s character. After all, the tumblr side of the fandom LOVES Heavy’s PhD in Russian Literature. It was. A BITCH. To find any information about that book. There isn’t a goodreads page for it. Or a wikipedia. Or even an amazon page selling copies. Like, what the fuck? Eventually, I found that the Internet Archive has it available to borrow by the hour. The particular copy that was archived was originally from the University of Texas and has a fabric cover. So no synopsis.

At this point I was thinking “oh my fucking god I’m two hours into this research process,” and decided I wouldn’t be reading King Hunger. I’ve skimmed it a bit and, filling in the blanks with some guesses based on the information Wikipedia provided about the author, it’s a symbolic/expressionist criticism of the monarchy, but one which also criticizes bloody revolution. Please take that with a pound of salt though. Once again, I spent a solid three hours getting to that amount of understanding.

This actually leads me to discussing another element that’s important to my interpretation of Heavy. Namely, who is father was. On r/TF2, I constantly see people arguing back and forth whether its fine to joke about Mikhail being “Heavy Communism Guy” or if that’s a gross misunderstanding since his father was declared a counterrevolutionary. (Meanwhile these same dimwits are happily joking about Medic being a member of a certain fascist regime, but I digress)

Personally, I think Mikhail’s father (who I will be calling Ivan Melnyk going forward, as I headcanon Heavy’s full name to be Mikhail Ivanovich Melnyk) was counterrevolutionary, but not anti-communist. That venn diagram isn’t just a circle my friends. In political matters, it’s very easy to get stuck in black and white thinking- and that’s fair for large matters- but, when it comes down to how people believe they should go about making changes, that’s where you get in-fighting between allied groups.

More clearly, I believe that Ivan was a man who believed in progress and common good, but found disproportionate violence distasteful. And he would have tried to impart those values on his son. However, Ivan’s death and his family’s imprisonment would really sour that for Mikhail. It adds a level of complexity where he is both someone who hates senseless violence (see: the sparrow story in Poker Night), but is extremely wrathful (see: the engineer story in Poker Night).

Switching gears, let’s talk respawn. Personally, I like the idea of it as something that exists in universe, rather than just being a game mechanic in the Documentary Video Game About the Gravel Wars. It adds some more leeway for goofy shit the mercs can get up to while also opening up more avenues for mentally trauma. Angst my beloved.

Respawn

Respawn, in my mind, works by teleporting the remains to a mechanism that then recycles the matter into a pre-programmed form. I imagine that this is updated every day for the TF2 mercs, but only by the week or month for the Classic era systems. Upon exiting respawn, subjects may experience “respawn sickness,” which includes symptoms of nausea, diziness, anxiety, sensitivity to light and sound, disorientation, soreness, ect. One can become accustomed to respawn over time, and this is expedited by the modern systems, but some might remain sensitive to respawn even after years of use.

TFI standard protocol is to switch respawn systems over to the older system in order save money and perform diagnostics/maintenance without risking the permanent death of one of their “specialists.”

Another book note

The passage Heavy reads at the end is from a novella called Special Nurse by Lucy Agnes Hancock. It is Yet Another book I haven’t read, but decided to reference. Originally, I had wanted to reference a Harlequin Romance published in 1960-63, as I really didn’t want to include that flavor of anachronism. Dont fucking ask me why, but it mattered to me. However, the vast majority of what I could find online to read was published between 1975 and 1998. There were three books that technically fit my requirements, but the two from 1961 were either vacation romance or noble romance. Which just didn’t fit the vibe I was looking for. And the one from 1963 was published in November of that year. Which would have been fine, but I envisioned this chapter taking place in late May or early June.

In the late 40’s to mid 60’s Harlequin published SOOOOO many hospital romances. And this amused me, so I desperately wanted Heavy to be reading one. But I searched multiple times and just. Couldn’t find any that I could skim through. Fuck, dude, I couldn’t even find samples or excerpts. I COULD BARELY FIND SYNOPSES. I got desperate and dug through my mom’s old romance novel collection and lo and behold, there it was. Special Nurse. It’s not Harlequin (published by Pocket Books) and it wasn’t technically from 60-63 (originally published in 1948, but received 5 print runs from 1950-19060. Mine is from August 1960), but it WAS A DOCTOR ROMANCE. HUZZAH.

Dear fucking lord why do I do this shit to myself ahhhhhhhh

[physalian]

Usually I’ll say “you can’t please everyone” in reference to people who would read your book but I have officially made it on the internet ‘cause I got my first two trolls. And even though I know “you can’t please everyone” man oh man did these two not hold back with their words.

So! Suggestions for how to keep shit like this from ruining your day:

If it’s an anonymous message, don’t even read it. What they said in there they wouldn’t say to your face, if they can’t even say it on the internet with their username. To them, you are not a person, you exist solely in the context of whatever crumb of you they happened to see, and extrapolated grandly based on that.

Whoever takes the time to be nasty to strangers while also covering their own ass from the consequences of being nasty to strangers is probably having a worse day than you are, and while that doesn’t excuse their behavior, they should not intimidate you, they need help. Fueling that rage is not that help.

If it’s not anonymous, and they’re nasty while having some semblance of a point, you can argue back and look really ugly doing so, you can delete it, or you can be the bigger person and respond recognizing their dissenting opinion in its validity (if such validity exists). If they then ignore you taking the high ground or keep being mean, you have won. You extended the olive branch and they bat it aside.

Sometimes these people engage solely for attention, and nothing frustrates them more than being the squeaky wheel that gets ignored. You aren't obligated to entertain this nonsense or subject yourself to being the free online intervention therapist.

I try to avoid making incendiary statements because I just cannot be bothered with the attention it garners, but even when I think I’m saying something pretty generally widely accepted (it was in relation to the triggers post and something fandom related), I can’t control or predict who will react or how they will interpret what I’m saying.

But ask yourself, before you say nasty shit to anyone: Is it worth your time putting egg on your face? Go touch grass. Go drink some water. Go take a break from the internet. Take out your misplaced aggression on something meant to take abuse, not a human who didn’t seek you out to scream their opinions at you like you just did.

There are plenty of opinions on Tumblr that I do not agree with. Most of them I don’t even see because I don’t go out of my way to look up content that would inspire such opinions, but when I do, I see the post…and I keep on scrolling or bock that blog/user if I need to. Doesn’t matter what it is, even if I’m itching to tell them I think they’re wrong. The effort that it would take to bring the holder of that opinion first to a mindset where they’d be open to critique (while also opening myself up to critique), and then to that person seeing my side is just never worth it. We all only have so many hours on this planet, and mine are better spent elsewhere.

You can’t please everyone.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Thoughts and prayers for our Nigerian princess: Catherine (and) the Great Comeback by u/Lostandfound2023

Thoughts and prayers for our Nigerian princess: Catherine (and) the Great Comeback Madame must have been supremely energized during her faux royal trip to Nigeria, she must have been in her usual delusional bubble for seeing so many adoring occupants of planet meghan.Now the reality must be really hard to cope with since not everything went as imagined/fantasized. I refrained from saying “not as planned” because usually planning might lead to a successful outcome - but not with these two. The archewellnot deliquency, the nakedness, the corrupt people they associated themselves in Nigeria, the not spending mother day with her kids, the high-society wedding reminder that they are NFI, the endless self-gloat paid-for-articles, the wedding photographer statements, the videos with h being exasperated with his wife while squeezing/touching other men’s breasts, the little girl being forced onto the camera, the not so flattering pictures of meghan facial expressions etc etc - please add if I missed on something.2024 Trooping the Color takes place on the 15th of June. It is not confirmed that the PoW Catherine will be joining, and that is unlikely which is more than understandable given her health condition. And it is fair to assume that she will resume her public duties at some point, even as late as Christmas 2024. What would madame do on the 14th of June if she were to assume that PoW will participate in the ToC events? I guess we all assumed various scenarios and nothing she will do or say would be important or interesting enough to compete with the great comeback of Catherine. Whenever that will be. Imagine the sleepless nights, the stress that keeps her awake and angry, at the thought that any day, the PoW returns. Is she mentally and physically prepared for how Catherine will break the internet? I guess not. But we are all prepared to show love and support to the PoW while laughing at meghan’s never-ending poor and predictable attempts to get herself removed from the top the “most disliked celebrity” charts every year. post link: https://ift.tt/Ws3JFw9 author: Lostandfound2023 submitted: May 30, 2024 at 12:52PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit disclaimer: all views + opinions expressed by the author of this post, as well as any comments and reblogs, are solely the author's own; they do not necessarily reflect the views of the administrator of this Tumblr blog. For entertainment only.

[dreamescapeswriting]

In general, I understand why you wouldn’t want minors reading smut and I agree with putting warnings out there but you just seem OBSESSED with it. Like more than any other blog I’ve ever seen. To the point it’s really off putting.

They’re going to read it regardless. I completely agree with refusing to write certain triggers or things because I’ve definitely seen some disgusting stuff out there, but I just don’t understand why you’re so worried about the age of your readers or requesters. A 13 year old could create a blog and say they’re 30 so unless you require proof of ID you really didn’t prevent anything.

It seems like just more stress on your part. I used to follow you a long time ago but like every two days you’d post about how you were blocking accounts that didn’t provide their age or have anything posted. It’s just got annoying so I unfollowed and recently came across one of your posts again and nothing has changed.

I think you’re super talented and I’ve always wanted to request something from you but it honestly gives me anxiety so I turn to other blogs that don’t make me feel like I’m doing something wrong even though I’m not a minor. I’m not comfortable doing it off of anon and I don’t want my age and info out there either, even if it’s just for you. It feels like getting a background check just to request something.

It’s your blog and you have the complete right to do whatever you want and I don’t have to follow you either. I know all of that. I also know this is going to come off as rude and I really don’t mean it that way. I guess I’m just trying to understand your thought process around it. Maybe it could open my eyes more and I could see it from your perspective and be more understanding about why you push this so much.

Hiya darling,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and being honest with me, I appreciate you coming to me with this and letting me explain my side on this matter. While I understand that it can be frustrating and off-putting to see reminders about what I have on my��account it's needed.

Firstly, my main concern is protecting both myself and my readers when I put those mature posts out on the internet. The internet is a tricky and very weird place, and as a content creator who deals with adult material, I have a responsibility to ensure I'm not inadvertently providing explicit content to minors. This is not only a personal ethical stance but a legal one in many places of the world. 

I understand that minors might still find ways to access adult content, not just mine but many others, despite my and many other people's efforts, and I know that it's virtually impossible to prevent it but by setting clear boundaries and rules on my account, I am doing my part to discourage that as much as humanly possible. It's true people lie about their age, but having an age in their bio or not accepting anonymous requests creates a deterrence.

My old (since I have not posted about it since) about blocking blank accounts were always about filtering out any accounts that could be seen as bots, that be porn bots or just random bots that flood Tumblr, and stopping people who solely make accounts just to steal work from hard-working authors such as myself and many others who put content out into the world for free and end up having it stolen from people. Putting those posts out was about maintaining a safe and responsible space for me and others who lurk on my account. It also helps me interact with people who respect these boundaries and understand them and why they're in place in the first place. 

In regards to the stress it might seem to cause to many others, I find that being upfront and putting these kinds of things in place reduces my stress when it comes to posting. It allows me to focus more on creating content without constantly worrying about the age of my readers. The transparency on my part (and those who abide by the "rules" - I guess) helps create a more comfortable environment for those who follow and interact with this blog. 

I understand that not everyone is comfortable sharing their account when requesting smut, which is why I offer to hide your @ whenever people send me requests. Which this has worked for people in the past and still to this day. I would never judge someone for sending me something, as I've always prided myself on keeping a safe space on my account so if for some reason you don't feel comfortable or it gives you anxiety I deeply apologise.

While not everyone feels okay with adding their age on a bio, it's important to me and many other authors on Tumblr so that I and readers all feel safe sharing content intended for those over age. It's crucial that I feel I'm not contributing to the exposure of explicit content to people underage. 

Finding a balance between the concerns I have are a challenge, I and many other authors struggle with it all the time. I realise it's not the perfect solution for everyone but this is the only way I feel comfortable. 

Some people may read adult content regardless of barriers that are set in place, and I respect that people make their own choices, my policies are a way to set a standard and communicate that I'm taking my responsibility seriously, making an effort to guide my content to the age-appropriate audience, therefore I'm morally and legally covered. 

I'm sorry if this causes you anxiety as that is never my aim in life, but please understand that it also causes me anxiety when I don't know the age of people requesting adult content. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be for a 20+-year-old to find out that her explicit writings were asked for by a minor. This is a situation I - and other authors - want to avoid at all costs, both for ethical and peace of mind reasons. Without these policies in place, I would have to consider stopping writing adult content altogether to ensure I'm not inadvertently harming anyone or breaking any laws. Without these things in place, I would have to consider stopping writing smut altogether to ensure I'm not inadvertently harming anyone. 

Thank you for taking the time to reach out. I hope I got my points across without coming across as bitchy as I don't want that to be the case. 

Kind regards,

~M

[fluffybananacake]

are we fighting about fic comments yet again?

It looks like the "comments on fanfic" argument/discussion/whatever is going around for the umpteenth time since fanfic was on the internet. Usually I stay out of this stuff, but this time I made a tumblr just to get my thoughts out about it. Because I have them, and they come from a place of a primarily fic reader who is honestly feeling a little beaten up about this. It's long but so be it. One post of mine in counter to what feels like a landslide of posts of everyone else yelling about comments feels ok to me. (After reading enough posts, even the ones that are super bland and "yeah comments are good I guess" feel like nagging.)

PLEASE NOTE: Comments are good, I am certainly not saying and will never say that no one should ever leave them, or that authors who want comments are acting entitled or spoiled or whatever else I've seen on the other side.

a. Who is the intended audience for these discussions? I honestly can't figure this out. Is it just "other fans" or "fandom"? That's super broad, and would include fic writers as well, who presumably do comment sufficiently on other writers' fic, based on the generally accepted belief that comments are good and writers love getting them, and readers should be leaving more. It would certainly be something if that wasn't the case. So All Of Fandom can't be the intended audience. Is the intended audience the population of fic readers who don't write and never ever leave comments? Well, I'm going to posit that Solely Readers Not Commenters is a population that probably has a high proportion of people who aren't on tumblr, who don't follow fic writers on social media, and whose main--if not only--engagement in fandom is just reading fic, and who therefore neither know nor care that this conversation even exists.

I'm also going to suggest that this is not a massively large group, because at some point, they're likely going to move on to another hobby or comment on a fic or take some other action that would move them out of this group. I don't think Solely Readers Not Commenters is the intended audience, because frankly, they're just not involved in fandom at that level.

Is the intended audience readers who don't write, and who leave comments but not on every fic they read? If so, then I don't understand this either because this Readers Only group IS leaving comments. They comment! They may even comment a lot! So, it can't be to them either, because they are already meeting the presumed goals of the discussion, getting comments on fic.

b. So is the issue then that people aren't leaving ENOUGH comments?

Well, define "enough". I think what people are looking for here is just a nebulous ephemeral "more". Understandable! Who doesn't want more comments on their fic? But "more" is not quantifiable, and it is a lot to put on your Readers Only (who I do think is the group all this is directed to, and who I will refer to as Readers going forward). A generalized yearning for "more" will never be satisfied. Some Readers may increase their comment practices as a result of this discussion, and that is great--and will likely be insignificant for any given writer because there are 14 million fics on AO3, and even a 10% increase in comments is going to miss entire fandoms and/or writers.

Also, the kudos button exists for a reason. That reason is to provide feedback when the reader doesn't have anything to say other than "read it, liked it!". I've seen arguments that some people use the kudos button for other reasons, but as there is literally no way to know why someone clicked the kudos button without asking them, why not assume that they are using it for the intended purpose? Kudos are positive feedback, they are a "thanks for writing", they indicate a baseline level of appreciation and enjoyment of the fic, and they are absolutely just as valid a form of feedback as the most detailed comment. Not as gratifying to receive for sure, but that doesn't make them less worthy or nothing. We've all seen fic that received thousands of kudos--isn't that preferable to thousands of comments that just say a variation of "read it, liked it"? The more in-depth comments, the comments that are valued and that Writers hold deep in their hearts, would get lost in the flood. And if there was no kudos button, my fandom experience leads me to believe that there wouldn't be a comparable uptick in comments. Instead, people who would have clicked a kudos button will now just click the back button, the overall comment levels would remain relatively constant, but now Writer is actually getting less feedback than before. Long live the kudos button.

c. Is it then the quality of the comments? This is definitely part of the conversation. For every post that says "any and all comments are amazing and loved!" there is another post, or four, giving guidelines on how to format your comment, literal outlines and templates to use, and other helpful suggestions on how to leave thoughtful detailed comments.

These are probably really helpful for many people. They're probably especially helpful for those times when a fic hit the reader HARD and they're having a difficult time articulating what they want to say about it, or for people who struggle with commenting in general, or who like guidelines, or have anxiety about commenting but still really want to, or for any number of reasons.

They can also feel a lot like work, and aren't going to appeal to everyone--and they're not required..

"No one is saying they ARE required!" Agreed! No one is saying that at all, and please keep writing those and putting them out there because as I said two paragraphs ago, they are probably really helpful for a lot of people! When they are part of an overall conversation/discussion about how Readers are failing in the comments department however (and yes that is the overall tone), it can come across as "your comment that you liked the fic and thanks wasn't actually sufficient and you need to give that writer more detailed positive feedback". Cool, that's just super cool.

The danger here, which this debate runs up against every single time it bubbles up, is that this is one small step away from telling people How To Do Fandom. And that's a bad thing, right? Isn't fandom supposed to be the place where you can be yourself and engage at the level you want? That seems to be the general sense around the related perennial debate about constructive criticism in comments--people are here to have fun, however they have that fun is fine, only positive comments because this is all for fun. Why can't that grace be given to Readers as well?

d. Comments encourage writers to write, and some people may stop writing without them, and also Readers are getting fic for FREE so this is the least they can do.

These are two sides of the same coin to me, and that coin is called something like Readers Who Don't Comment Are Freeloaders and Driving Writers Out of Fandom. I've seen the "fic is free" argument a million times, and it holds zero water for me. "For FREE!" Like fic is a commodity that would otherwise be sold, but here, by the grace and benevolence of Writer, behold this fic for you, Reader, given for FREE. You know what else is given for FREE? Reader attention, so maybe go post the last chapter of that 4/5 complete WIP that's been gathering dust for years, if the commodification of fanfiction is going to be the argument. But we're not about telling people they have to do anything in the fanfiction world here in this one-post tumblr, so do or don't, Writer, whatever works.

Fandom is predominantly a hobby, no one is forcing anyone to publicly post anything on AO3 or Wattpad or whatever, and it is not the job of Readers to keep other people engaged. Furthermore, Readers are not second-class fandom citizens. This argument ignores the fact that Readers get to choose how they engage with fandom, and it elevates Writer concerns over Reader concerns. In a word, it's gross.

(A related argument is "well, what if everyone just stopped writing fic at all, what THEN?" and the only response to that is "what if the moon fell out of the sky" because both are equally likely to happen. Fanfiction predates the internet and was around in the 1800s. It isn't going anywhere.)

e. OK fine, anonymous one-post tumblr account, what is your freaking point.

I love comment rodeos. I love comment drives. I love leaving comments, and I loved getting them on the handful of fics I did write decades ago. I don't think Writers are obligated to reply to their comments any more than I think Readers are obligated to leave comments, but I think it is lovely when it happens. The kudos button is one of AO3's best features, and is exactly as valid as a comment because it is positive feedback. A fic has 7000 kudos? Congratulations, 7000 discrete people liked that story! CELEBRATION TIME! I also will hold the following opinion until the sun dies: that it is 100% acceptable, valid, and appropriate to read a fic and do literally nothing after. No comment, no kudos, just clicking that back button and going to the next thing--for any reason whatsoever.

I think that what we're really seeing in this big fandom discussion is the very human and understandable need for acknowledgement, validation and positive reinforcement. Writers are getting comments on their fic, but they don't feel like it's enough, or the comments are not the kind they like. Writers often spend a lot of time and effort on their fic, and it is understandable that they may subconsciously want a commensurate level of effort from Readers as a whole.

But comments aren't fanfiction. A comment is never going to match the energy put into the fic itself, no matter how detailed and effusive, because Writer's relationship with with that story began before putting fingers on the keyboard.

My super unpopular opinion (I know, I have yet another one) is that the average fic gets the comment engagement it's meant to get. A fic that rocked that fandom to its core, that shooketh it and brought it to its knees, will obviously get a ton of comments. A fic that is a perfectly fine middle of the road fic, pleasant to read, a good time, and also forgettable once it's over will get fewer. Yes, some fics get lost in the rush, some fics never get the audience that they could have for whatever reason. As in life, so in fandom--the sun does not shine equally bright on everyone.

Do I think people should comment more? No, because fanfiction--reading or writing--is not a job or an obligation. I point again to the millions of unfinished and abandoned WIPs, to refute any pushback that Readers owe anything to Writers. If there is an obligation, it would have to go both ways. Yet WIPs, including those by Writers who are still active in the same fandom, are often abandoned entirely *despite* comments begging for updates. Writers do not owe fic to Readers, and Readers do not owe comments to Writers, full-stop.

We're all in this corner of fandom because we love fic. We love writing it, or we love reading it, or we love doing both. And we, as individuals with agency, get to choose the level of engagement with fanfic that we feel comfortable in, at any given time.