#fandom discussion

[threadfall]

Pern has no desire to bring back chivalry and it shows.

One of the hilarious things about trying to crossover Valdemar & Pern is that while both feature psychic bonding to a nonhuman being, usually as an adolescent, tying you forever to a highly dangerous & heroic job…the rules of who’s qualified to be Chosen/Impressed are just different enough to make crossovers lopsided.

In Valdemar, you’re saving just one kingdom, and are sought out not just for psychic powers but for a personality that’s easy to nudge into dangerous levels of self-sacrifice. You have to be a Herald to be Monarch, it’s fantasy where the Companions started as a gift from the gods to help a struggling kingdom so it’s Divine Right to Rule treated by the narrative as both true and good. The nonhuman being is (usually) only physically nonhuman, has full human-style sentience. Heralds might have interpersonal problems but the reader is expected to see them as In The Right for all the big plot shit.

Whereas on Pern, you’re saving the whole fucking planet, but you’re only chosen for the psychic powers. Weyrs aren’t a kingdom, so while McCaffrey really did love to play with the sci-fi version of DRtR, none of the monarch-equivalents (except Jaxom) are ~Chosen~, and while the main characters are considered to be In The Right for all the big plot shit, they’re often up against other dragonriders for said big plot shit. The nonhuman being has sentience that isn’t supposed to be human (though how well McCaffrey pulled that off is up to each reader to decide).

Dragonriders are expected to nobly sacrifice themselves while fighting Thread, but the story doesn’t expect them to be Pure Of Heart for anything else. A Herald who crosses a line can be Repudiated and lose that bond. A dragon never rejects their rider, no matter what fucked up shit they do.

Which means it’s incredibly easy to take a Valdemar Herald, throw them into Pern, and let them Impress a dragon. It’s difficult to take a Pern dragonrider and throw them into Valdemar and get them Chosen.

Sure, a lot of them you could say “oh, if they bonded with a Companion at a young enough age and got Brought Up by the Collegium of course they’d turn out properly Herald-y”. But a lot of them, if you introduced them as adults the odds are stacked against most of them.

Like, Lessa within…let’s say the first year of Fax’s attack on Ruatha, is a prime candidate for being Chosen. She’s a powerfully psychic eleven year old who just underwent a huge trauma. But within a few years (we don’t know how long, but it’s implied pretty early) she’s now a murderer, with plans to murder again, and a heavily implied disregard for bystanders. Twenty-one year old Lessa who we canonically meet shortly before Impressing Ramoth would be considered an active problem to be dealt with by the Heralds, either by chasing her out of Valdemar or trying her as a murderer, likely with an attempt to strip or perma-block her powers.

Kylara gets derided for selfishness, F’lar is not a Team Player, multiple Old Timers accepted bribes and stabbed other dragonriders, etc.

Elspeth or Talia or Kerowyn, on the other hand, could Impress a baby dragon at any point in their lives. Tai and Moreta could probably get Chosen?

(Menolly does not want to be a Herald, she wants to be a Bard, thanks!)

(Skif & Piemur are just Street Urchin / Ranch Kid AU’s of each other)

[frontmansdefender]

shaming and making fun of people for still engaging in fandom activities once they reach a certain age is so embarrassing because why are you giving yourself an expiration date of time you have fun? why are you not-so-indirectly saying you will stop having fun once you reach a certain age? or do you really believe you have to stop engaging in fandom activities and having fun once you turn (x)? do you not think you will, what, live that long and turn that age too? do you think fun will suddenly stop for you and life will all of a sudden lose its meaning once you reach a certain age? how sad to be giving yourself an hourglass and just waiting for your time of having fun to run out.

adults can and should engage in fandom activities if it's what makes them happy.

adults can and should continue doing whatever they like doing as teenagers if it's what makes them happy.

age is just... part of life. it's a part of me and it's a part of you. shaming people for something you will have to go through (unless you don't think you will live that long) is such a loser behavior. indirectly saying you will stop having fun once you reach a certain age isn't the flex you think it is. it doesn't make you look "cool and edgy", it makes you look miserable.

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

"guys I do not condone any of this in real life" "this is fiction" "consent is key. this is only fiction" "murder is bad irl" — I wish fanfic authors didn't feel like they had to clarify this in author's notes or else they might be accused of being abusers or worse (I admit that such disclaimers are also something I personally use for my own stuff because I feel like I had to make it clear). like... people used to not care if an author wrote dead dove fics because people used to understand that ao3 fics are not a reflection of someone's in real life views or morality in any way. people used to understand that fanfics mean what they mean; fan fiction. none of it is real. maybe it's purity culture that normalizes witch hunt and censorship in the past couple years, and therefore authors feel like they have to clarify that just because they write about violence or noncon stuff doesn't mean they're murderers or sex offenders in real life. and I think it sucks that these things (purity and cancel culture?) have made authors feel like they have to apologize for the art they created instead of being proud of their hard work and all the dedication they put into creating these art. artists should not have to feel like they have to apologize for creating art that isn't all rainbow and sunshine. artists should not have to be made to feel ashamed of their own art if it's not all rainbow and sunshine.

I don’t agree with the “you can write noncon and dark fics as long as you make sure your readers get the message that these things are bad” or “you can write noncon and dark fics if it’s your way of coping with your trauma” take either. because writers do not owe you anything. the message writers want to send to their readers — whatever that message may be, if there’s any message or moral of the story for readers to take from the stories at all — is none of your business. why writers write what they write is none of your business. remember “don’t like don’t read”. no one forces you to read anything you don’t like. dark and noncon fics are a form of creative writing and creative writing is a form of art. you can’t pressure artists into creating art that “fit your moral compass” nor can you apply your own moral compass to artists to determine if they can create dark art or not, if their reasoning behind creating dark art passes your moral compass. like… what artists create and why artists create are none of your business. and you don’t get to shame artists for creating art that you hate / art that disgusts you. what you can do is ignore the art because it clearly was not made for you and that’s okay. what isn’t okay is you harassing artists because you don’t like the things they created.

writers, embrace and be proud of your works. as long as all the trigger warnings are tagged properly, you have nothing to apologize for.

[bunnis-monsters]

People who hate on reader inserts will not survive the winter.

Fanfiction writers keep your fandoms alive, and that includes reader inserts writers.

[communistkenobi]

in the discourse landscape of gay shipping I think a crucial element is the underdog effect. official approval of your ship from showrunners (ie ship going canon) compromises your marginal status as a fandom shipper on tumblr, and in the long run produces a sore winner subjectivity where you must constantly insist that your ship is still good and subversive. destiel is a good edge case as it went canon in the most homophobic way possible, thus maintaining something of an underdog status despite it being explicitly addressed in the text of supernatural, while still ultimately losing its fandom dominance as evidenced by it constantly losing in shipping polls. ofmd shippers in this respect occupy a conflict of class interests in which their gay canonicity confers a level of comfort and stability that gay shippers who have to work in the posting mines doing web weaves will never experience. therefore, we can consider ofmd shippers to be the petit bourgeoisie of the fandom ecosystem, caught between the big bourgeoisie (tv writers) and the proletariat (stuckys), predictably choosing to engage in downwards class conflict to maintain their narrowly privileged status

[questions-about-blorbos]

people who ship a ship that's unhealthy, toxic and fucked up and do not shy away from the fact their ship is unhealthy, toxic and fucked up by making them act all "lovey dovey" toward each other, or watering down the severity of the things that canonically make their ship a fucked up ship, in fanfics — and so they embrace the fact that their ship is fucked up, but that's the thing that makes their ship so hot, sexy, complex and fascinating — I am declaring my undying love and loyalty to you

[bebx]

“enemies to lovers as a fictional trope is harmful because it normalizes and romanticizes abuse and toxicity” my brother in Christ, touch. grass. they fuck while trying to murder each other and also they use each other’s blood as lube and yeah they look hot as fuck. what are you going to do about it?

[jaguarys]

I find it fascinating (derogatory) how the general fandom conversation has shifted from "this woman is getting in the way of our gay ship and she's USELESS and ANNOYING and WE DON'T LIKE HER!" to this weird "no actually she's just not involved in her own relationships because she's too cool and special and awesome and a girlboss". But the problem is that there's not actually a veritable difference there. People still aren't engaging with her as a fully-fledged character. Like sure man calling her a girlboss is fine it's whatever but let that lead somewhere else. Engage with her. Can you actually name any of her character traits or are you just blindly praising her so that you can focus on shipping the guys in the background without feeling bad about it

[inkwyvern]

I know we've seen the moment Blitzø decided to adopt Loona, but I want to see the moment Loona found out she was getting adopted. The moment she met Blitzø.

The first few agonising months where Blitzø didn't know how to be a dad, and Loona didn't know how to have a dad.

The awkward days of her avoiding him in the apartment, trying to figure out what exactly his goal was. Because why would he possibly want to adopt her?

And Blitzø avoiding her too, wanting to be the dad he never had growing up but having no idea how to start.

I want to see the moment Loona realises that Blitzø has been sleeping on the couch ever since she met him. She'd never noticed, because he's usually passed out on the couch before he can get to a bed most nights, but Blitzø doesn't have a bedroom. And her room's walls suddenly seem so freshly painted.

And then, I want to see the moment Loona fucks up. And when she completely expects him to send her back to the pound, Blitzø comforts her. In his awkward, doesn't-know-how-to-talk-about-emotions way, but still.

And after that, things get better. They find their own, strange rhythm. And slowly, together, they begin to heal.

[xx-slug-xx]

HEY!

If y’all didn’t think censorship would come for shit you like

SESAC just censored over 1 million songs on yourtube and they are no longer able to be listened to :)

This includes songs by Green Day, Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Mumford and Sons, and Kanye West just to name some that I have seen thus far

This means that on YouTube, if a song is detected in a video that is included in this new SESAC agreement on YouTube, the entire video is not viewable if you are in the US

This also means that Warrior Cats maps and other fandom related things up on YouTube that have songs included in this new deal on YouTube are now blocked in the USA. Speedpaints, Maps, and animatics for your favorite fandoms are now blocked if they include these songs.

Censorship comes for everything, including the things you like. It’s not a pick and choose ordeal, and it’s a bad thing no matter what is being censored and by whom

I implore people to protest against this, because this doesn’t slide. Send emails, complain online, use vpns, anything to fuck with YouTube at this point. This won’t stop with just music. No matter what SESAC tries to say about “protecting artists and their work”, this is censorship. The reason doesn’t matter. Censorship is still censorship at the end of the day. You don’t protect Jack shit by blocking songs from an entire country. Belive it or not, less traction and less people viewing their work actually harms these artists!

[okkos-ferrum]

The fandom's disregard of Till's emotions

SPOILERS FOR ROUND 7 ALNST

As a Till fan since day 1 (round 2) I feel like some of the fanbase is so willing to ignore till's emotions for the sake of ivantill, especially after this round (and I'm saying this as someone who loves the tragedy of Ivantill and would love to see a world where they could get together)

It almost feels like this strange entitlement where because Ivan sacrificed himself for Till that somehow till must be in love with Ivan now, when his entire guiding light was Mizi. Ofc he doesn't change his mind overnight, and no, Ivan's sacrifice wasn't "wasted". Till was deeply affected by Ivan's death (why else was he fighting to stay alive in r7) and it's clear throughout r7 how much Ivan weighs on him. But his actions when seeing Mizi are totally align with his character, like u can't just drop his deep rooted feelings for Mizi SINCE CHILDHOOD just due for the convinence of the ship "becoming canon"

I see some people despairing that somehow mizitill is confirmed now (do u guys not know WHO VIVINOS AND QMENG are????) and it just shows that lack of nuance in Till's emotions. He isn't this rag doll that is only capable of simple mindedly liking ONE person at a time. He's a character with different layers to himself and complicated relationships with the cast

Fandom seems so overinvolved with shipping discourse that to me it feels like they have stopped viewing till as a seperate character but rather an award for Ivan's sacrifice. But I feel like the whole point of Ivan's sacrifice was his momentary selfishness in kissing Till when really all he had to do was fake an attack on Till to sacrifice himself. It is the culmination and a final acceptance in how his love will never be requieted by till, so if he must die, he will be selfish one last time and that's it. At the end of the day, Ivan was a tragedy of his unrequited love. Till was close to death in round 6 and he was running on borrowed time ("tik tok tik tok blink gone") in round 7, as his own distressed emotional state made in inevitable he couldn't hold himself against the emotional manipulator that is luka when he barely coped with mizi's "death" and even less so with Ivan's

Again no hate to Ivantill fans (eyes mizitill a bit suspiciously but I'm not the fandom fun police lol) and I pretty sure this a vocal minority but putting it out there

Also quick PSA for people feeling underwhelmed for this being a "final round", VIVINOS confirmed on patreon a while back there are like 2(?) more episodes left to wrap up the series dwww

[curiositysavesthecat]

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[frontmansdefender]

"On AO3 there are about 6,400,000 fics as of now that are M/M and only about 1,200,000 fics for F/F. Fans should stop excluding female characters for the sake of male characters" Hold the fuck on???? People don't "exclude female characters for the sake of male characters". The ratio between M/M fics and F/F fics is literally because more people like M/M fics more than they do F/F and that's actually fine, it's not that deep. Because people can write whatever they like.

Yes, misogyny is a very real thing. But you're erasing the creditability of that word and are the ones doing harm to women if you scream misogyny every time you see something that slightly upsets you. Writers ONLY writing M/M doesn't automatically mean they're misogynists, without any other factors present that may or may not make them misogynists, the only fact that 'some writers ONLY write M/M' literally just means they like writing romance between two male characters and that's it.

This is fanfiction we're talking about, not a political debate or social justice protest. If the majority of people want to write about two male characters falling in love, then let them.

You don't get to shame a writer for "ONLY writing about M/M" because everybody has the rights to write whatever they like.

If you want more works for F/F, then write F/F yourself. No one's stopping you.

As a feminist myself, shaming writers for only writing M/M doesn't make you a feminist, it makes you an entitled dick.

(from this poll by @curiositysavesthecat nothing against the mods of the poll blog btw, they just run polls that were sent to them.)

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

writers, this is a sign for you to say fuck censorship and write a disgusting fic that will sicken your readers

[bunnis-monsters]

Really tired of coddling rude readers.

If you’re not satisfied with the FREE fanfiction you’ve been able to read with just a click of a button, maybe try writing for yourself.

Because the world doesn’t revolve around you and I’m going to write things for myself first and foremost. If you have any complaints, go take a shit and wipe your ass with them.

And for the readers who are patient and understand that fanfic writers are human beings that give out free content and are respectful of that fact, forehead kisses for you! 💗💗