#fandom critical

[sha-brytols]

i'm sorry but the "da fandom is a little racist BUT veilguard holds most of the blame for making davrin so irrelevent in the game" excuse is the weakest shit i've ever heard. no actually i genuinely think this is almost exclusively a fandom issue. like i won't argue that the "davrin vs harding choice is reliant on assan" shit john epler pushed was unbelievably racist and i won't argue that there's merit to the fact that it was tone deaf at Best to have the black man's character arc so reliant on his animal companion but i'm sorry you cannot fucking convince me that the "knight in shining armor with a gentle heart and a cute animal companion that takes you out on picnic dates and carves you little wooden trinkets" character is not almost Perfectly Engineered to be the most popular romance option in any game ever and yes i fully believe the only reason he isn't is entirely hinged on the fact that he's black and no amount of whataboutism towards the devs can convince me otherwise

[alondradina]

@blarfkey

HEARTBREAKING: character actually mildly interesting to think about but I Dont like their fans

[idontevenlikedragonage]

“Veilguard never addressed why the Veil needs to stay up.” Except it does. It addresses this beginning in the prologue. Even with the “precautions” Solas took, demons kill civilians, and there is no effective way of preventing it. Varric points out that with the Veil gone, it would be much worse. It’s mentioned in the prologue that even Solas wants someone to sell him a better option. It’s very much a “I want to save the galaxy because I’m one of the idiots living in it” situation.

I feel like it’s not a “the game never addresses this” topic; it’s more of a “I wanted my protagonist to have a different relationship with Solas” type of issue for many.

[biggesthomuradefender]

every time someone mischaracterizes homura as not caring abt the other girls & only caring abt madoka, an angel dies.

like, how could you completely miss the point of rebellion that fucking bad??? genuine question.

[orionhelluvaranting]

Hello, my fellow HB critics! Guess what? I'm tired! I'm sick and tired of the Stolass' stans and their pathetic excuses they pull out of the ass to justify their owlboy's misdeeds. And the most annoying part? Usually it's all the same excuses that are parroted over, and over, and over again. It ain't funny anymore!

Therefore I've made this bingo!

So next time you'll face a Stolass' stan you'll be able to play this lil' silly game of mine. Hope you'll enjoy it!

Of course I couldn't place all the existing excuses right here (there are too many of those cuz- we're talking about Stolass so iykyk). Thus I've selected the most common of all. But maybe I should do the full list one day. Who knows...

[crimson-and-clover-1717]

I feel some folk hold Stede to an impossible standard.

I’ve seen Stede’s ‘whatever’ in response to Ed’s fish in 207 held up as The Worst Possible Thing™. Yet Izzy’s abuse of Ed in 110 is Izzy just being a bit cross. The only time some people are on Ed’s side is when he’s pitted against Stede.

Stede isn’t perfect and he isn’t meant to be. He’s like the rest of us - impulsive sometimes, shortsighted, a little selfish. But human frailty is not abuse. Stede doesn’t always follow his own advice - he certainly doesn’t talk it through in 109. But that’s because he’s fallible. The thing about Stede is he’s messy but trying to do better. And he sees that everyone around him is messy and believes they can do better also. Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet to coin a phrase. Possibly his high ideals are his undoing with some viewers because he sometimes falls short. But Stede deserves at least the same grace so many extend to Izzy and no doubt a lot more.

Honestly, though; the mental gymnastics to think ambivalence towards a fish is worse than death threats and queer-shaming? The mind boggles.

Stede Bonnet: I see hope. And that’s cute.

[sorceresssundries]

I know exactly which fic and post that reblog is referring to.

And if you genuinely don't believe it's ai then you are an idiot. A dangerous idiot.

All that tells me is that you probably use it too, and are just trying to build up some armour for when it comes out about your writing.

Which it will.

ai users and supporters don't belong in this fandom space, we don't want you.

Ok, here we go.

(answer below the cut, I don't want to flood people's dashes with negativity. I try to keep my blog positive)

I have no evidence that any fic I have read has been generated by ai, and neither do you.

In terms of my own stance:

I do not use ai.

I do not approve of ai.

I also do not approve of poorly constructed witch hunts.

Go through all my work if you wish. Pick apart every story and poem and do a post about which parts you believe have been churned out by a soulless robot. I don't give a shit.

I could tell you to go fuck yourself in ways artificial intelligence could never ever begin to replicate.

You are the problem here. Fandom does not want you.

If you start feeding ChatGPT prompts in an attempt to try and find similarities between ai work and fanfiction - guess what happens?

If you keep accusing writers of using ai with shitty evidence and drive them from the fandom - guess what happens?

You are contributing to the problem, and the ratio will tilt further and further in favour of ai. Because creatives will lose heart, the thing ai can never replicate.

I use 'purple prose', I use repeat imagery, I mix metaphors, I struggle to be concise. I am not breaking new ground with my writing. I am not redefining genres or tearing down tropes.

AND STILL, IT IS NOT AI.

I'm done, truly. I'm too tired.

And before you start with this 'Only the guilty run' mindset. Then I will tell you that the innocent will run when there is no chance of a fair trial.

Godspeed to the other writers out there, I hope you have a better experience than me. I hope you that you are treated kindly. I hope that keep writing and that it brings you the joy you deserve.

[dellamortethelesser]

Lucanis canonically has abs even

Dragon age is back, I love going in the tags it's awful. Emmrich is enslaving Manfred, wanting to fuck spite makes you a pedo, Taash is child coded, Killing Harding is racist and more to come I'm sure

[ilikepjo24]

On Azula and rebellion...

It's so funny to me how in some fics, Azula is written to be the leader of a rebel group against Zuko. And the reason it's so funny is because it's just a lazy and unrealistic way of making Azula the villain.

Zuko ended the war. Realistically, that causes problems for the economy, seeing as the army was likely the to-go for young boys who's family struggled with money and couldn't afford a good education to send their son to some white collar job. War requires a military force and a strong military force requires lots and lots of soldiers. Meaning that by ending the war, the amount of soldiers required would become significantly smaller and the funding for the military would be cut. So you can't go enlist in the army for a stable income anymore.

But you still can't exactly afford a good education because as far as we know, Zuko did nothing for the education system of the Nation. So those who could previously afford it, may still be able to, and those who couldn't, are still uneducated. And this time they're also unemployed. And the people that worked at the factories that creater battle equipment probably shut down too, so more unemployment which means more poverty.

So all in all, Zuko increased the percentage of people with no jobs and no money flying by the seat of their pants. Way to go, Firelord! That's why there's rebel groups against you!

And on top of that, all the war generals and nobles that were funding the war or commanding the troupes and were rich and/or had Ozai's favour were most likely displeased with Zuko, since they lost power and money/status because of him. The peasants hate you, Zuko, you should at least have the upper class in your corner like most leadership personalities in capitalistic societies, but nooooo!

If we take a good look at it, the rebel groups against Zuko would either be:

1) The peasants that took a look around and saw that they're poor and barely getting by because of Zuko, while he still gets to live in a place and be king and decided "yeah, no, fuck that actually" and decided they wanted nothing to do with the upper class and the monarchy, and that they're interests should be a priority.

2) The peasants that took a look around and saw that they're poor and barely getting by because of Zuko, who stopped the war, throwing them under the bus, and decided they wanted nothing to do with Zuko specifically, and they need Ozai back because he'll return the nation to its former glory, when they used to be a force to be reckoned with.

3) The nobles that took a look around and saw that they're losing money and power and status because of Zuko, who stopped the war, throwing them under the bus, and decided they wanted nothing to do with Zuko specifically, and they need Ozai back because he'll return the nation to its former glory, when they used to be a force to be reckoned with.

It's very likely that groups 2 and 3 would be allies, and form a considerably strong opposing party. So assuming that Zuko is center (which is a stretch, since he's a king, but regardless) we have our right and our left wing.

And which one of these groups would Azula lead, exactly? Is the princess going to mead the socialist, anti-monarchy group against her brother to take the throne? Or is she going to lead the conservative group that will most likely be let down when they're Firelord doesn't have fire anymore? And then... What? We're hoping that the elitist party that is too elitist for a non-bending Firelord will put a woman in charge? And an unmarried one, at that? Because we know from the original plans regarding Azula's character that she won't stand for an arranged marriage.

Of course, there's always the option of creating a rebel group that is Mad At Zuko™ for whatever reason and care about their ideology enough to rebel but not enough to let it stand in Azula's way, just for the sake of making Azula the leader of said group because we really want her to be the villain in our fic. In my opinion, that's lazy writing, but pop off, it's your fic. I just don't think that any realistic rebel group would want Azula as their leader.

This proven.

[shyjusticewarrior]

Some dc comics fans be like "I hate Jason Todd/Jason Todd fans. That's enough feminism for today."

[hobbitkiller]

I don’t know if there’s a polite way of saying this…but this was probably not the first time Vi had sex in a jail cell. That’s not to say it couldn’t still be triggering, but I think other aspects of the scene such as the fact that Caitlyn was there to comfort instead of punish, and that she literally and metaphorically left the door open for Vi to choose her next move mattered much more.

The jail cell argument always feels really infantilizing of Vi, when so much of that scene is her being given agency.

Also weird how no one ever condemns the person who actually locked Vi in the cell for potentially triggering her. You’d think the fandom has some sort of double standard or something where one character can hurt others as much as she wants and those character are expected to still do anything and everything for her.

episode eight ruins the whole fucking show i ain't even gonna finish it. that sex scene is so disgusting because wym they're doing it in jinx's prison cell while she's out to kill herself? and cait didn't even make up for abusing vi in act one? vi spent her teen years in prison and her sex scene was in a prison cell with an enforcer? that's just a writer's weird fetish. i undrestand they needed to have a sex scene for fan service, because of course lesbians have to be fetishized in all media, but it's clear they couldn't fit a scene like this anywhere so they put it in the worst fucking place.

i literally started the show because of the "strong sisterly bond" between vi and jinx. that ending is so bad. what was even the reason to kill off jinx? what is the message here, huh? "it doesn't get better"? fuck off!

[shyjusticewarrior]

At some point "fanfic can be as good as professional writing" became "fanfic should be as good as professional writing" and that's caused major damage to fandom spaces.

[solasyoulittleshit]

[scribeofmorpheus]

I hate how LLMs have made it very untrustworthy to regard what one comes across as genuine craft anymore. i know artists are struggling big time with scrapping. I even wrote a paper on how openai was scrapping ao3 based on their early story prompt structures reading like a lot of popular fanfics i'd read before.

i was actually so paranoid that i locked most of my fics on ao3. sometimes i roll back the lock when i work on a fic again, but i usually lock em back up again after a while. scrapping is abhorent and i hate how much ai has shifted digital art paradigms and is now seeping into fandom culture.

I will say that i do find the "nonsense description" portion of this post a bit hard to align with. I'll get into it below the cut. but this is purely discursive, I'm not condemning or abstaining (I'm on op's side here), I'm just pointing out some factoids of my own for perspective!

here it is:

""her nimble fingers worked with quiet precision" (ct. 1), "his grip firm but tender" (ct. 33), "her gown pooling around her like embers" (ct. 1)."

See, I write like this, becuase i was trained in poetry first and then moved on to prose later. i use imagery, i use atmospherics, i use sensation in place of actual telegraphed motion or action that one expects of an action alone--it flows better, sounds sweeter and sometimes, yes, nimble fingers can move with quiet precision (not quiet as in "sound" but as in "understated", as in "draws little attention to the movement"). Firm but tender is another of my favourites--juxtaposition, contrast between the outward seen and felt execution of the action and the internalised, more personal mode of emotion conveyed so as to angle how we broach the situation. "firm but tender" is assuring, it's safe. "firm and rough" is more edged, and since we're left with little assumption of the setting and intent of such action, we cannot tell if the action and the emotions align--if its sexual, is it also consensual? if it's violent, is it because of haste to act, fear, annoyance, etc, etc. now "pooling like embers" is odd. embers spark and bristle and fly and catch things on fire, they disperse and scatter, never hold a body of matter congealed enough to pool. pooling like unfurled flame from dragon's breath? yeah, now that works! especially if it's a magic setting.

all this to say, ai is making it exceeding harder to prove craft is genuine if you work outside structural modes one can fact check. if you try to be more experimental, there's high chance you'll end up like me, and chip away at rigid writing structure in order to form your own voice. repetition and favoured descriptions is also a known trait of writers. one of my fav fanfic writers back in the day used to love "hard" after a pause. like: "he slammed the door, hard." or "his kiss pressed deep into me, hard." and it was noticeable and i loved seeing they had a tell.

though, i do agree that one of the things that need the least repetition in fiction is hair colour. but even published books like to remind readers of physical traits id it's something the author is so beguiled by. poor writing, but writing none the less.

i did suspect something was off with TSATS because of how fast the updates rolled. because damn! 23k word update after a 13k word update with less than 48 hrs between? crazy if true. but alas, i don't think i have it in me to be disappointed if i go seeking and do indeed find a pattern that proves LLM usage.

but to all my fic writers that take like half a day to write 3 pages and the other half procrastinating, if you (like me) got notified of all the updates and wondered if you weren't "productive" enough, you are not making a product, these are labours of love, keep at it, at your own pace, with your own skill, the process is the process!

we need to talk about The Silence and The Song

as per my last post, i have received a lot of encouragement to go public with this, and the more disappointed people i have in my dms, the angrier i get. so i will.

the silence and the song is an ancient arlathan au DA fic on ao3 by luxannaslut, and it is partly, if not entirely, written by an ai. i have no wish to be involved in any kind of fandom drama or witch hunting or bullying, but as a writer myself there are few things that piss me off more than watching people steal the work of others because they can't be fucked to write. it's disrespectful to your fellow writers, it's disrespectful to your readers, and it's disrespectful to the authors of the works the ai is stealing from.

ai is a plague that has no business being in creative spaces and you must do better.

the writing pattern

there was something very odd and monotone about the sentence structure of tsats that i couldn't quite place, so i fed chatgpt a prompt along the lines of "two people in a fantasy novel hate each other, but they secretly desire one another, and they kiss", and the screenshots above are the results. the third one is an excerpt from chapter 40 of tsats. the writing pattern is identical and it doesn't seem like the "writer" has even bothered to pretend they wrote it. if you're going to use ai, at least be sneaky about it. you know, paraphrase a little.

nonsense descriptions

"her nimble fingers worked with quiet precision" (ct. 1), "his grip firm but tender" (ct. 33), "her gown pooling around her like embers" (ct. 1).

fingers don't make sound, so what does quiet precision mean? as opposed to what? her joints cracking with every movement? how is a grip firm but tender? what does that mean? since when do embers pool?

the entire fic is littered with these adjectives that contradict each other or just straight up do not make sense, because all an ai does is generate descriptive language with no understanding of what the words it's spitting out actually mean. i could spend hours picking out examples from the seven billion pages worth of text, but i quite frankly have better things to do and would simply challenge you to try getting through a chapter or two without noticing the pattern.

repetition at structure-level

all the scenes in this fic are described in pretty much the same way. they open with purple prose vomit of the surroundings; solas is standing somewhere looking "unreadable as ever"; ellana's fiery golden molten fire copper ember ginger red hair is flowing this and that way; there's some dialogue with whoever is present and it leaves ellana feeling different variations of "something she couldn't name". this is, once again, a blatantly obvious sign of ai. below is the result of me feeding chatgpt the line "write me a scene from a fantasy novel where a woman with red hair is sitting on the ground in a magical garden at night", and side by side with that is the opening scene of the fic. make your own judgement.

repetition at word-level

this one speaks for itself. we fucking get it. her dress is orange, her hair is red, mythal's presence is heavy in the room, solas looks unreadable, compassion is sitting on her head like a crown, solas' ears are betraying him and ellana's move with every thought she thinks. we get it. the issue here is that an ai remembers the info you feed it, but not necessarily the info it shits out. if it's being told to write scene after scene of an elven woman with a gown that looks like fire doing xyz, it's going to do so with no regard for how many times the reader has already been informed of these details.

lastly: the breakneck speed

359,6k words in four weeks by a person who allegedly is employed and married and hasn't pre-written anything? no. any writer will tell you that this simply isn't possible. it absolutely infuriates me to see how much praise this "writer" gets for posting up to three full chapters in a day without anyone calling bullshit. i am pulling out my hair, you guys.

why i'm not going to live and let live this one

perhaps i would be less angry if the fic was some silly bullshit court intrigue Y/A stuff, but this is a text that handles very heavy and triggering topics such as SA, coercion, domestic abuse, and other things of the same vein. to sit back and put your feet up while having a robot write these extremely sensitive and very real human experiences with words it has stolen from texts written by actual persons is fucking heinous. the "writer" should be deeply ashamed of themselves and i'm sick and tired of watching people eat up their bs.

and on that note: the amount of people in my dm's telling me that they feel stupid and naive for not clocking this has infuriated me more than anything else. you're not foolish for this. being fed ai-generated bullshit is not what is supposed to happen on any creative platform and much less a fandom-centred one, so of course no one approaches a fic through that lens. fandom and fic writing is supposed to be about passion and the only person in this situation who needs to do better and change their behaviour is luxannaslut. polluting our creative spaces, wasting the time of your readers, and minimising the effort of actual writers who are working hard to provide content for us all to share and enjoy is vile and so, so lazy. i beg of you: do better.

[anneapocalypse]

So, just curious how many writers and creators will have to be forcibly outed by relentless harassment before we acknowledge that "This queer characters was written by a cishet person and that's why they're bad" is not good criticism.

[thinkingofausername]

i really wish simple things weren't so complicated within fandoms. a character can be problematic but interesting. a character can make a mistake but not be evil. a character can hold a position of authority and still be a victim. a character doesn't have to be perfect and pure and innocent to be a victim. a character doesn't have to be perfectly pure for you to like them. liking a character who's fucked up doesn't mean you support their every action. why is this so complicated