#fandom apophenia

[bagheerita]

[swordandstars]

Dear Fellow Black Tapes Fans,

Some things never really leave you.

I drive 2-3 hours every day, so I go through a lot of audio media. I started listening to a new book one night, and as I'm driving home though the late fall darkness I hear:

Apophenia

My eye twitches.

Apophenic

Twitch.

And then a few minutes later

Apophenia

To which I yell:

Shut up, Richard!

In my empty car.

*sigh*

The old Black Tapes scars are never really gone, I suppose.

But if you want a book that will let you imagine a better ending than the one we got, one where Alex and Strand live a happy life gently debunking the hell out of things while holding up a mirror in which humanity can examine their own bullshit, boy oh boy do I have a recommendation for you!

And he only uses

Apophenia

One more time in the book.

I checked.

The Unidentified by Colin Dickey, available at your favorite big or small retailer:

Love,

SwordAndStars

(formerly BarefootWithNeonHands)

PS: #MeetMeInThePitTerryMiles

[nbjetsam]

Public Announcement: I'm very sorry but none of these actors care about the show and character as much as y'all do.

Yes, it has a special place in their heart and they are terribly kind to the fans, but it's still their job and they have whole lives we're not invited in to.

Apparently ppl over on tiktok think david tennant cancelled his appearance at heroes con utrecht because a fan recorded his answer about the ending of good omens at a previous con and a lot of drama ensued. Sorry but that’s a terminally online way of thinking actually david tennant is a much-demanded actor and a busy father of five he’s not constantly online refreshing the timeline for fandom drama he just got a gig it happens sometimes it’s not that deep

[utilitycaster]

maybe the pinnacle of my belief that it's vitally important to be able to separate out "this thing is problematic" vs "this thing is harmless but it's so fucking stupid" is RPF. I think that unless you are making the people involved see it or harassing them, or engaging in normal toxic fandom behaviors that are equally present in the shipping of fictional characters, it's totally harmless! Also I've yet to see someone super into RPF who didn't make me go "wow there is a threshold of apophenia and cherry-picking that just melts your brain and you have def crossed it."

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

Six Sentence Sunday

Tagged by @autumnalwalker!

Tagging (and don't feel obligated to do this only today/a Sunday btw): @elshells @elizaellwrites @rosellemoon @runner-owen @swordsoulwrites @arigalefantasynovels @duckingwriting

How it works:

Writers: post (approximately) six sentences from something you’re working on. If you aren’t ready to do that, add six sentences to your WIP.

Readers: challenge yourselves to leave a six sentence comment or give a writer a six sentence prompt. (or a total of six sentences for the day)

Fans and creators alike: reblog a fandom post and add some love in the tags. Aim for 6 posts - or 6 tags. Whatever you can manage!

From the newest part of the Apophenia redraft:

Content Notes: Food/hunger description

His stoicism came crashing down as soon as the smell hit him. Thick, rich beef stock. The heat of dried chiles stewed in it for hours, guajillo, ancho, pasilla. A note of sweetness from fresh grilled corn. His stomach grumbled and whined like a begging dog. Not the expected instruments of torture maybe, but they had broken him nevertheless.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Apophenia

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/QwXBA9b by author_sensei After Edward's pathological curiosity had driven him to tug on a stray lie, the tangled knot of corruption finally unraveled itself before his eyes. The truth behind the usage of the Renewal fund was laid bare, exposing with it the true purpose of his empty life; he was the Riddler. But how can Edward focus on his plans to baptize this accursed city anew when a new mystery appears before him on the afternoon train? And once he solves this newest riddle that has consumed his brain, will he be able to cleanse himself of this fixation, or will the answer only sink him deeper into obsession?   ...He lifted his hands and instead ran them through his hair. "She's just your newest obsession, Edward. Once you find out who she is, you'll stop caring." But the pessimistic rationale only caused the doubt to sink its teeth deeper into him, scraping against bone... ...he found himself answering back to his cynicism in a small voice of hope, "But what if I still do?" Words: 5794, Chapters: 2/2, Language: English Fandoms: The Batman (Movie 2022), The Riddler: Year One, Before The Batman Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con Categories: F/M Characters: Edward Nashton, Bruce Wayne, Zach Morely, Jonathan Crane, Mentions of the Joker, Alfred Pennyworth, Rene Rouge Relationships: Edward Nashton/Reader, Paul Dano/Original Female Character(s), Edward Nygma/Original Female Character(s), Edward Nashton/Original Female Character, Riddler/Original Female Character, Riddler/Reader Additional Tags: self indulgent, Porn With Plot, Stalking, Rape/Non-con Elements, Kidnapping, Vaginal Fingering, Sadistic/Dom Riddler, But he is still Paul Dano so he will get hurt, Desperate/Pathetic Riddler, Fluff and Angst, All he really wants is love but habits are hard to break, Masturbation and Fantasies, Riddler is a virgin, But so is Reader read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/QwXBA9b

[tuulikki]

And let’s remember, this isn’t him having a go at fandom or shipping, because he’s written Johnlock, Wincest, and Destiel.

He’s not disparaging fandom even a little. It’s not a fandom-specific problem. But it sure is an omnipresent internet problem that fandom often enables. And when it is coming from fandom, I think it’s Johnlock-conspiracy-style brainrot where people get so addicted to the apophenia high of connecting dots that they start seeing patterns everywhere. It’s a genuine conspiracy theory mentality. And their hyper-emotive alternate reality eclipses actual reality to point that they forget artists and creators are real goddam people and not parts of their red-string mania. Parasocial would be too generous a word for this kind of solipsistic entitlement.

Richard Siken… Richard Fucking Siken. You asked RICHARD SIKEN if his poems were inspired by BUDDIE. Gay men do not exist in people’s heads except as props huh?

[light-lanterne]

Hi hi Angel!! 💗

Incoming with some questions for the fanfic ask game:

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters?

18. What's your favourite line you've written so far?

20. What's a favourite title for a fic you've written?

hi soso ! sorry it took me a couple days to reply,,, you know how it is u.u anyway, let's get to it !!

- - - - - - - - - - - ♡ - - - - - - - - - - - ....................ask game - - - - - - - - - - - ♡ - - - - - - - - - - -

15. how do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters?

ah, titles are the last thing i think about tbh x.x i usually pick song titles / lyrics or random pretty words i find within the last five minutes before posting something :O

18. what's your favourite line you've written so far?

as most of the things i share here, i haven't posted the chapter this belongs to. it's from "the trees are going restless", though (aka, my most dramatic mike): "and perhaps mike was falling prey to apophenia; an incidental pattern, a made-up connection that didn't quite make logical sense, his perception turned askew to fuel his wrongful devotion. but, as it stood, it felt like the most ineffable truth, the simplest way to understand the reality he'd chosen to exist within: everything good in mike's life, every happy memory he ever had, could all be traced back to the presence of a certain will byers in his life. even when will hadn't been there, even when mike was the sole artificer behind his goals or success, he felt like he owed it all to will's unbreaking faith in him."

20. what's a favourite title for a fic you've written?

hmm, it belongs to another fandom (and the story has since been deleted for ~reasons~), but i once posted a story with a title that was all in morse code and i think that's pretty neat :] for byler fics, i think i like "anthropophagy" or "telomeres" the most :O they're just cool words ~

and that's it, thank you so much for the questions !! these were fun :] hope you're having a great day ~ <3

[bagheerita]

I just watched "In the Pale Moonlight" a few days ago so my brain is primed to make this connection but I was watching Operation Petticoat and

Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: The unfortunate thing about command, though, Mr. Holden, is that the responsibilities outweigh the privileges! Now if it were just myself I was concerned with, I'd tell you what to do with that list. But my responsibility is this boat! And to get her out of here, I'd even make a pact with the devil! Lt. Nicholas Holden: That's where I come in. Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman: That's right.

It's the same story, just a comedy.

[woodchipp]

I understand the idea that you can interpret the work's text outside of the author's intentions. That's completely fine by me.

However, Headspace is what this fandom always uses as proof Sunny has a deep, fleshed-out personality. And you can't have it both ways.

If you see symbolism in Headspace, that's good! But then you have to acknowledge it's not part of his intended character. At that point, you can't praise Sunny for being so complex. He's not - you are giving him complexity.

You can't just take apophenia and call it good writing.

"Sunny is a complex and fascinating character since you get to spend most of the game inside his head!"

Headspace's contents can't be analyzed, let alone used as arguments - they're canonically meaningless. As per Omocat's own comments in the Drawfest interview, "[their] goal was to think very little" while they were conceptualizing Headspace; likewise, the rest of the game's dev team "made up silly and fun scenarios with no reasoning or purpose."

The most one can glean from it in terms of Sunny's character - again, as per Omocat themself - is that his ideal relationship with his friends involves them heavily depending on him and constantly praising him, which indicates an inflated sense of self-importance on Sunny's part.

[kingoftieland]

Some LOST fans had a tendency to look for patterns and connections where none existed however, a phenomenon known as apophenia. After all, any word or phrase can be rearranged into other words. For example, “Vincent the dog” can be anagrammed into over 600 phrases, including “Dig The Convent” and “Iced Vent Thong”. 😆

[katoska]

Extremely interesting article about how things like QAnon function.

[frmulcahy]

*Strand voice*: nEtWOrK iS hAuNTeD tRY aGAiN?

[eisforeidolon]

"If you put hints and subtext in..." [footage not found]. Subtext does not tell an entirely different story than the main story, that's not how subtext works, especially not in television. It's very important to draw a distinction between what is actually there, what could potentially be interpreted to be there while considering how realistic that actually is given the main storyline context, and what fans just wish really really hard was there. I have seen the list of supposed hints and subtext and it's a big fat load of cherry-picking, projection, and apophenia.

"They queerbaited..." [footage not found]. Shippers queerbaited each other relentlessly with bad meta full of cringe-y tired stereotypes about sexuality and toxic masculinity. When certain fans interpret literally every single interaction between two characters as sexual attraction - or in Dean's case, every single interaction with a male character as sexual attraction? Exactly how are the writers supposed to "keep [their] heterosexual characters heterosexual"? I'll give you that Misha queerbaited for years through making various suggestive hints and telling a few outright lies before going all in for a nearly textbook definition kind of way by releasing shippy merch through his company Stands directly after 15x18 knowing he wasn't in the final two episodes.

Then there's the part where you replied to this post about a particular canon scene that you seem weirdly unfamiliar with to be going off about. No, Castiel doesn't have a heaven - he was trying to get back to heaven after Metatron locked the angels out in season nine and Metatron set up a decoy entrance he dressed up as 'Castiel's heaven' for him to find. In the show, it was full of tacky ridiculous things because the writers' point was to show Metatron messing with Castiel in an OTT mocking way. The original script called for a version full of pictures of Dean, but according to Jared it was removed when he pointed out some fans would think it was a meaningful narrative hint.

If it had made it into the show, sure, we could talk about whether or not a bunch of older, out-of-touch tv writers on a dinosaur of a show like SPN still putting in lol gay jokes is queerbaiting. Especially when the showrunners and stars make unequivocal, repeated statements about their intent in regards to the ship which fans pointedly ignore. We could talk about what the realistic expectations should be there and at what point it's on fans to realize a show isn't what they want and walk away or stick to fanfic. We could talk about shifting media landscapes and expectations when queer relationships are getting much more common (yay!) but fans are also feeling much more entitled to think individual specific ships they want to be canon MUST become canon or it's baiting despite the show hinting at a lot of other ships (less yay.) or even having other non-hetero ships that aren't as popular with the fandom.

But the whole point of the post was about things that DIDN'T make it into the show, because they were recognized as being inappropriately misleading before they were filmed and aired. Yet the fandom knows about them and tries to use them as evidence because a certain actor has always been more concerned with keeping the fans coming back to him than not misleading people. Except somehow, it always seems to be the very same people complaining about how they've been mislead by the show praising Misha for frequently implying and hinting towards something he knew was never going to happen.

Robbie Thompson tried to put an OOC I love you in Dean's mouth in Goodbye Stranger, but Jensen shut it down because it wasn't appropriate to the character. Nobody would know that, except Misha told the hellers to wind them up - conveniently leaving out that the replacement line of being family was the same intended sentiment as the original according to Thompson himself.

The set design in Stairway to Heaven for Castiel's fake heaven was going to be full of pictures of Dean in a mocking jab by Metatron, but when Jared pointed out that fans would take it as a serious hint at the ship being a thing, it was promptly taken out. Nobody would know, except Misha told the hellers to wind them up - conveniently leaving out that it was removed for being a potentially misleading joke in bad taste.

So yeah, nobody could make Jensen do the confession scene even when Misha and Bobo the Assclown conspired behind his back to cook up what looks to me like SPN's only legit queerbait and present it to him as a done deal. But when the speech itself was that pointedly ambiguous as to type of love? When it didn't involve Dean as other than a baffled spectator who explicitly couldn't reciprocate whatever feelings according to their own shitty script? When it had no impact whatsoever on Dean's own story - past, present, or future? When J2 had already been talking about having more creative control when they did a revival down the road? Would it really have been a notably better choice for Jensen to refuse to do the scene ... and wait for Misha to inevitably wind up the crazies with suggestively misleading hints of what might have been? He'd have basically been fighting against Misha ruining only his own character, when the little weasel would almost certainly turn around and sic the lunatic fringe on him specifically for saying no. Again.

I mean, I do think it was a terrible idea to throw the shippers any kind of a bone both in principle and in a practical sense, but really? We all know they were not going to be happy with anything other than the show ending in a completely OOC schmoopy fanfic-esque glurgefest D/C HEA with Sam conveniently somewhere ... else. Tantrums were inevitable. Hell, SherIock ended with the two shipped characters raising a baby together with the mother conveniently dead - the starting premise of a million shipfics. Yet shippers on the same level of batshit and refusal to accept being told no repeatedly as hellers? Rioted because it wasn't the Mostest Important-est Gay Representation EVAR they'd been promising themselves TPTB were really writing (in secret for reasons, naturally).

The goodbye scene didn't cause the still-ongoing meltdown, nor were the particulars of the finale what was really behind it - it was the decade plus of built up entitlement and delusions which not only caused it, but made it inevitable.

[strixa]

im glad there's someone else who doesn't rly ship str/agan. no offence to the shippers at all, different strokes for different folks, but I do appreciate content that isn't necessarily romantic and when someone else feels the same about 2 characters

Thanks for the message, Anon. I’m glad I was able to show you that you’re not alone. I hope to interact with you more!

And to the Stragan types– who, let’s face it, are basically the entire bloody fandom at this point– please don’t feel like you need to apologize to the non-shippers like me and Anon. There’s plenty to like about TBTP: good psychological horror, subtle characterization, non-repetitive dialogue*, and an innovative approach to the tropes of supernatural horror.

Extremely attractive people with delightful voices are just another thing to like, and since these are two characters who regularly interact meaningfully, I guess it’s understandable that people want to see (hear? both? How does that work, exactly, outside of fanfic?) them make out, even though there’s not much canon to back it up.

*(*sideeyes Terry Miles*)

[itsonlystrange]

I’d like to point out that the “it’s all just a bunch of coincidence” argument is very poor. People say that about anything they don’t like. If we’re using this argument then I could say that everytime Mileven accidentally held hands or touched or any of that lovey dovey stuff that the Mileven fandom goes nuts over is a coincidence, but I have 0 evidence that it’s a coincidence, I’m just saying it is because that’s how I, a biased person on the side of byler, sees it. And I love the Milevens that actually respect us, it’s just the toxic ones that stomp on us or rain on our parade that irritate me.

So I ask skeptical Milevens, why do you think it’s all a coincidence? Because the Duffers have gone on record multiple times saying that nothing in their show is a coincidence, so it’s odd of you to assume that it is, when that goes against everything the duffers have said.

I see a lot of people claim that all of Bylers very romantic coded scenes are just coincidences with out any real evidence solely because they want them to be coincidences.

Reminder that the duffers had to write, revise, have Noah and Finn read at the table read, rehearse, and then film all of Bylers romantic coded scenes. And do you seriously believe that nobody stepped up and said, “Hey, I think some people will start to ship this if you make your two male characters hold hands and look at each others lips.” Like on paper, that sounds romantic. And on screen, it looks romantic too! If the duffers didn’t want byler to be shown as romantic they wouldn’t have put all of that effort into Mike and Will’s romanticly coded scenes in season two. And sure, one could say they were oblivious and didn’t realize that this relationship could be seen as anything more than romantic and that one of their 100 other writers and revisors and producers didn’t step up and say “Is this really what we want to be conveying in this show when they’re just supposed to be friends?” (Which I doubt. The duffers and everyone else on the writing crew knew exactly what they were implying. And if the duffers themselves didn’t, I HIGHLY doubt that someone didn’t step up and point out how romantic some of these scenes are, especially considering multiple of their writers are apart of the lgbtq community which makes it highly more likely that someone would have realized as I’m sure their gay senses are much stronger than those of the cishet writers on the squad. ) However, byler kind of blew up after season two, so if ST didn’t mean for Mike and Will’s relationship to be seen as more than platonic, then why did they continue doing it in season three? And the thing is, we’re not “delusional” for thinking this. Hundreds of thousands of millions of people have pointed this out across all platforms. It stops being a problem with us and “seeing what we want to see” when millions of people see the same, and it becomes the writers problem for even implying that in the first place.

Here’s an example: take Lucas and Dustin. Sure, there are definitely people out there that think or head canon as either as gay, but not nearly as big of a community as the Byler community. The reason is: Lucas and Dustin don’t have queer coding. They haven’t been painted the same way as Mike and Will’s relationship has. Or Jonathan, yeah, people may head canon as him as gay, or even think he actually is, but he doesn’t have any evidence that really points up to the fact that he is, or that he could be.

The duffers aren’t stupid. They wouldn’t have written byler this way if they didn’t want people shipping it. The official ST writer account has acknowledged byler multiple times, before st3 even started filming. They knew what they were doing. If their goal was to portray Mike and Will as a simple platonic friendship, and that all of their queer coded scenes in st2 were just a coincidence, why would they continue to do it in season 3? Queer baiting is real, yes. However like I said before, the st writing team has a lot of queer and lgbtq+ members themselves, not sure why they would want to queer bait when they’re gay/lesbian/bisexual themselves.

The truth is, byler would have never made it this far if it wasn’t meant to be shipped and portrayed like more of a romantic relationship than a platonic one. They would have shut it down awhile ago. They wouldn’t be so ominous about it. Noah and Finn wouldn’t constantly dodge questions about it unless they legally weren’t allowed to answer them. The duffers wouldn’t have been so vague in the ending of season 3 or in any interviews regarding season 3 about byler. Mike and Will wouldn’t have gotten a whole segment in the official ST book, they wouldn’t have held hands! Seriously! They held hands. Did someone seriously not point out how non platonic that was?———

And use the excuse all you want, “Will was just scared. That’s why Mike held his hand.” Okay, well Max and Lucas held hands when they were both scared in the exact same episode but I guess that doesn’t count because they’re a boy and a girl and Mike and Will are two boys. ———-And it’s funny because you KNOW that if Mike promised to go crazy together with El, that would he in every Milevens Instagram bio, it’d be on merchandise, it’d be everywhere. If Mike said meeting El was the best thing he’s ever done, people would be going bat shit crazy over how romantic that is and how they’re so in love. If Mike and El fought and he ran out in the middle of the rain looking for her when he couldn’t even apologize to his real girlfriend who dumped him just hours prior, people would say that Mike was in love with El and how much he cares about her yadda yadda. But that’s the thing. It’s two boys, so apparently it has to be platonic. Because that’s just how it works in their cishet minds. ——I’d like to see a better argument then “it was all a coincidence.” Because that’s not valid. Why? Why do you think it’s all a coincidence? It’s all just fake? Please. Elaborate. Because if these romantic scenes involved Mike and El instead of Mike and Will, then they’d see. Because they didn’t have Finn and Noah rehearse all these romantic coded scenes multiple times for nothing. They literally wrote, revised, edited, rehearsed, and filmed ALL of these scenes and still went through with it. And even in season three when people really started shipping byler, they STILL directed Finn and Noah to look at eachothers lips. They still filmed the rain fight. KNOWING byler shippers existed and KNOWING this would only heighten the amount of byler shippers there are.

The duffers aren’t stupid. This isn’t a surface level show. Everything they do is intentional, they’ve said it themselves. And yes, I agree that some byler proof COULD just be apophenia, but stuff like this? Crazy together? Looking at eachothers lips? Holding hands? I’m the only one that cares about Will? Mike keeping his eyes open in the final Mileven kiss, those aren’t small little things. You’re telling me that they couldn’t find another take for that final Mileven kiss? No. Finn kept his eyes open because he was directed to do so. The duffers are writers and directors for a reason. They went to school for this. So please, I’d like to see some actual argument against byler other than “they said they loved eachother!” “It’s all a coincidence!” I’d like to see people actually counter my arguments with actual evidence. Not just “Finn says they’re in love” not just “Millie ships it!” Because interviews are not evidence. They’re instructed to create hype for the show. If David can lie about hopper being dead, Finn and Millie can lie about Mileven being in love. I don’t want the argument of “it’s been built up for 3 seasons so they won’t destroy it now.” Stancy was built up for 2 seasons and see how that turned out. And Mileven fell more in season three than it went up.

Anyways,, if you’re a polite Mileven, this isn’t for you. I love you with my whole heart. If you’re just vibing, I love you. Ship what you want to ship! Feel free to counter my argument! However, If you’re someone who calls us “delusional”, leave. The doors right there. The cast has talked about how much they hate the ship wars in our fandom, so if you’re just gonna say how stupid we are, don’t let the door hit you on the way out:)

Sorry for long post lol. Love you all