#fandom reflections

[rainbowsky]

Award nominations - my thoughts

There has been a lot of uproar about the Magnolia Awards nominations. Here are my thoughts.

Disclaimer: I'm going to preface this by talking about a life lesson I refuse to learn (to the dismay of those closest to me). The lesson is, "Don't make yourself a target." That can often mean, "Don't speak your mind if your perspective differs from popular opinion" or in this case, "When people are upset, don't put yourself in the position to become the outlet for all their anger."

But I respect diversity of opinion, and that means I want to hear from a variety of perspectives on an issue and I suspect some of my readers do as well. So I hope everyone can remain open to hearing things they might not agree with, and respect each other's views. I also want to add that everything I say here is about me and my views - not a commentary on anyone else or their views.

I also think it's important that I make clear that I have not yet seen War of Faith. I'm relying on reviews and on reports from other fans, from my friends, and from my sister for my understanding of the drama and the performances actors gave.

A bit of background

For those who aren't aware of this issue, I'll try to outline the broad strokes of it all.

The Magnolias are prestigious drama awards in China, somewhat on par with the Emmies. For months now there has been a lot of buzz building about the possibility of a nomination for GG and The Youth Memories, and/or for DD and War of Faith.

The nominations came through today, and there was just the nomination for War of Faith for Best Drama. DD was not nominated, but Wang Yang was nominated for Best Leading Actor.

A lot of fans and even a few passers-by have been very vocally upset about this, saying it's a snub to DD and his excellent performance. Some have even characterized it as a huge betrayal of DD to nominate Wang Yang, who was really only a supporting actor, over DD, who was the real leading actor.

There have been claims that DD wasn't even put forth for the award by the producers, which has made fans even more angry. Many are attacking the producers, speaking out against DD appearing in a proposed season 2 of the series, and threatening backlash if the producers celebrate the nominations the drama received.

Checking the facts

As far as I can tell, here's what we know for sure:

The drama was co-billed with three leading actors: Wang Yibo, Li Qin and Wang Yang.

While DD's character was the protagonist of the drama, he wasn't billed as the sole male lead for the series.

All three leading actors gave solid performances.

We do not know for sure whether Li Qin's or Yibo's names were put forth for the awards. I personally can't think of any reason the producers would hold back on submitting everyone they can for the awards. The more nominations and wins the drama gets, the better for everyone involved.

Edit: according to a document purported by fans to be the official record of the names put forward for awards, Yibo, Li Qin and Wang Yang were all put forth as leads, which is in line with the billing each had in casting.

Fans are treating this as damning evidence that the producers unjustly put the supporting actor forward as a lead actor, but we have to keep in mind that there are likely contractual and legal considerations here. If somebody is cast in a leading role, then they have rights to be billed and promoted as such. We know that Li Qin and Wang Yang were both billed as co-leads.

Edit 2: The studio and producer have released statements where it was confirmed that all the lead actors were put forth for the awards.

My thoughts

I understand the disappointment fans feel when one of our boys is passed over for accolades and recognition. We're all invested in their well-being and success. However, I don't think it does any of us - and especially not DD - any kind of service to get upset and up in arms over something like this.

There are some really good reasons to believe that DD would not be thanking people for reacting the way they have:

It is an insult to Wang Yang and the performance he gave, which from what I understand, was outstanding. DD would not want his colleague's successes to be in any way diminished by the behavior and attitudes of his fans. It's not the kind of person he is.

It's disrespectful to the project as a whole. As I've said before, "A rising tide lifts all boats." The fact that the drama was nominated at all is to DD's great benefit. Turning something positive into a negative doesn't serve any productive purpose.

This makes DD look really bad, frankly. We shouldn't fail to recognize the irony of burning down the internet with cries of, "DD's being treated like a traffic star rather than the great actor he is!!" "He was snubbed!" "What a betrayal!" Nothing makes DD look more like a traffic star than fans behaving this way. This is classic fan culture behavior. We want DD to be recognized as a serious actor, but we simultaneously rely on traffic idol data and numbers to try to 'push his case', and claim he's 'being used for traffic' rather than ourselves respect his serious role in this drama.

This type of awards entitlement is not DD's style. Quite the contrary. He is an extremely humble, hardworking guy who likely cringes at the idea of people being outraged on his behalf in a situation like this.

Everything good that happens for this project, whether it's directly connected to DD or not, benefits DD. Everything bad that happens - every bit of bad publicity - harms DD.

This is a propaganda drama that's of significance to the ruling party. This type of fan behavior in relation to it has the chance of really harming DD and his career. Just like the whole debacle with GG's fans and their reaction over Ace Troops, this is not the kind of thing people should be doing.

From what I've learned about the Magnolias, these awards are given to established career actors. Young actors and newer actors do not tend to get nominated for these awards.

Like it or not, DD is a newcomer with a career that's still in transition. He has a lot of talent and some great successes under his belt, but he is still pretty green as an actor. Wang Yang has a career that goes back 20 years. DD has only been a serious actor for maybe a quarter of that time. It was unrealistic for fans to expect the tiger to change its stripes just for him.

This is not some nasty conspiracy against DD, this is just the reality of the industry he is in. Major awards tend to go to established career actors - both in China and globally. We should know this by now.

As far as I can tell, DD isn't being 'singled out' in any way. He's being treated like any other newcomer; being expected to 'pay his dues' just like everyone else.

DD is young, he has his whole career ahead of him. He is so talented and hardworking - he WILL win major awards. The fact that almost every project he's involved with gets nominations and awards is a very good sign, and ensures he will continue to get solid opportunities to show his skills. He's clearly picking good projects and performing well in them. Directors and producers will take notice of that and want to work with him.

He is on a normal - even exceptionally strong - career trajectory. Given his successes we should be very happy for the trajectory he is on. He will continue to work hard, get good roles, perform well and grow his audiences and his credibility among those audiences.

On a personal level

I love DD so much. He has something truly special about him. I want to see him do well, and for others to see and recognize what's so great about him.

He deals with an outrageous level of hatred and slander from antis, some of it truly makes me sick to my stomach. Nothing would make me happier than to see him be in a position to slap those assholes in the face with prestigious awards and recognition for his talent.

Of course I was dismayed when he wasn't nominated, just as I was dismayed that GG wasn't nominated.

However, I recognize that for what it is - a personal emotional reaction. Ultimately nothing that has happened here appears to be unjust or underhanded. Disappointing, perhaps, but not a conspiracy, not a betrayal.

Quite the contrary. DD's drama was nominated for 5 awards including Best Drama! We should be celebrating. There are probably hundreds of dramas that hope for this type of recognition every year, and DD's was one of those chosen among the very few nominated.

It makes me sad to see something positive being turned into a negative in this way. For all the reasons I outlined, I think it's misguided and could come back to bite DD hard in the ass.

Just my opinion. Hopefully once everyone has simmered down a bit we can all take a second look at this and find another perspective. One that is more worthy of DD as the humble human being he is.

[cobaltsoulsearcher]

Finnish February (following prompts from @thepromptfoundry)

Like a lot of others, my first fandom was Harry Potter. Which really kind of sucks, to be honest. It was my consuming special interest for 6 years and gave me so much; it was my introduction to fanfiction, roleplay, and fan music, as well as fan studies in general. The marauders fandom was instrumental in defining myself as queer and podcasts like Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and Witch Please exposed me to religion and marginalized studies and overall had a huge impact on my life. After everything was revealed with JKR, I felt devastated; and then again when I found out about Ministry of Magic (the band); and then again when stuff got worse with JKR; I tried so hard to replace it, to get equally into HDM, Tolkien, Werewolves, Math, and I couldn’t force my Brian to move on. Eventually, over three years, I weaned myself off anything that gave JKR money, and then everything official, and then fanwork altogether. It was genuinely a mourning process and greatly impacted my wellbeing in terms of having a safe space and my moral OCD. Sorry that this is depressing: fandom is amazing. I just wish my first experience had reflected that, given that that is what I hope it should be like for everyone

[isabellehemlock]

In honor of my three year fandom anniversary (I like to count the annual anniversary of my first posted fic on AO3 but was a lurker since the teen years) I hosted a celebration via prompts and received five lovely ones across fandoms!

Above is a sneak peek of the art pieces, and there's two ficlets as well (links below). Just wanted to say thank you to everyone along the way, and if you'd love to hear me babbling lol, you can find my annual reflections below the cut 🤗

But first, the links to the finished prompts:

Steddie art • Loustat art • Devil's Minion art

Nicky ficlet • Loustat ficlet

Not too long ago I received a lovely ask from Sarah about what some of my favorite fics have been to write - which you can read here - but also just taking a moment to go over the numbers so far (not the hits/kudos) but just the amount of what I’ve written, and the overarching themes that have emerged. I discovered that out of the 1.3 million some words I’ve shared in three years, some 96% were dedicated to The Old Guard fandom and the ensuing Multiverse - and the most common themes, even when I’ve written gifts/for events, have covered such things as asexuality, xenophobia, grief, trauma/healing, being LGBTQ+ religious, abuses (multitudes), interpersonal relationships/communication, and to balance it out, crack lol.

So much of my fandom world has revolved around community and inclusivity - these things are so paramount to me, that they bleed into my works, into the events I participate in, and sometimes lead. I’m disabled, I’m homebound a chunk of the year, and it would be really easy for me to fall into a swirl of feeling like I have neither community or inclusivity (though I’m grateful for the bits I do have, all things considered, my extrovert brain craves moar lol). But within fandom spaces, in online places, and with pocket friends I have been able to create as a team, with others, but also have community as well (servers, group DM’s, watch parties, mini events).

Which I think leads beautifully into my biggest take away from the last two years: discovering and diving into collaborative events. It’s probably my favorite way to engage in fandom spaces. I love helping bring people’s visions to life, and if it’s for charity, then even better! I do have some small, short, personal one shots planned for a few fandoms over the summer and into the fall, but yeah, it’s the collaborative things that bring the most excitement for me - and maybe it’s also because I feel I wrote most of what I’ve wanted to say when it comes to my fics? Not that I can’t find anything new to say down the road, or that the things I’m working on now don’t bring joy and healing, too - I just mean in the sense that the need to express or process through the works has been met in the most fulfilling ways. I’ve grown and healed (which really is a never ending journey, so not to imply I’m in any way “done” lol) but I think one of the biggest ways I have done it is slowly coming to an end as I dive deeper into other ways I experience joy as well. Like the anniversary celebration above ;)

So, my general reflections could be summed up like this: for a long time, I expressed things that were important to me, through words and creating art. Yet the more I healed, the more I recognized my (universal) need for connection and inclusivity as well, and honoring both the creative process and that sense of community through events and small server spaces I find myself expressing who I am in other ways, too. Who knows what the next year might bring, but right now, in my fandom journey I feel content. And it’s the loveliest feeling.

[alyxinfact]

Featuring: Phoenix/Edgeworth! Nick & Maya friendship! Dogs! Realizing you and your crush have been basically married the whole time!!

Summary:

Phoenix has always been better making logical leaps with niche, circumstantial evidence than at seeing what’s right in front of his face.

Originally published back in July, but hadn't shared here. Some reflection / commentary under the cut.

Feeling a bit sentimental today about this fic! It's not a Christmas fic, but there is a key scene that takes place around this time. And more than that, we are juuust about at 6-months-to-the-day of when I started writing it.

I went into 2022 wanting to consciously make time for art and writing. It's so, so easy working full time to let creative efforts slip away. I didn't notice it happening. One day I just looked down and realized I... wasn't even doodling in my notebook anymore during meetings. I wasn't making anything. I needed that to change.

In late spring, a friend mentioned the AA trilogy was on sale.

I've loved AA since the 00s, but it'd been a long time since I played. (That's right, I'm one of those fans that was horribly betrayed by AA4! There's a whole essay of its own to unpack there, but for now let's just say it plays much differently 15 years later. :) ) Going back to these characters I love has been so much fun! It's honestly completely taken over my brain, but I'm here for it. And I'm making so much art!

I've probably done more creative work in the past 6 months than in the past 6+ years combined. (Really -- the last doodles I had saved in Procreate were from 2014. I had to get a new stylus because my last one had sat uncharged for so long the battery was like "guess you won't be needing me ever again vOv" and remade itself into a paperweight.) All because of Ace Attorney!

And this fic kicked it all off! So thank you to everyone who's read my fic or enjoyed my art this year, and thank you to everyone who's written fics or made art for me to enjoy in turn. I like this little decades-old fandom. It's a cool place, with cool people. And there's still so, so much room to explore! So many angles to look at things from! So many situations to throw the characters into!!

I'm looking forward to it :)

[motleystitches]

So there's an entire fake history about Russia on Wikipedia (articles started in Chinese, translated to other languages including English)

It was uncovered by a writer who was doing some casual research on a potential novel about medieval Russia. There are maps, timeline, fake characters, fake bibilography, sockpuppets! In sum, there are about 200 articles of the most detailed world building exercise over the course of ten years because someone's lonely. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhemao_hoaxes). The problem is, of course, it was presented as real history.

Now, that's the PRE-AI world.

[chaosinthemultiuniverses]

Loki show is juat overfilled with romantic tropes, especially S2. Music, camera angles, colours, their actions, situations Loki and Mobius get together, body language, subtle signs, implications of the words they're saying to each other but unable to go more sincere because it's homophobic Disney they are on. It all hugely reminds me of Supernatural and Destiel, "they silenced him (Dean)" fan movement after 15x18 released three years ago.

Even with all those signs I kind of new it was all a bloody queerbating. Like in Supernatural, 12 years in a row. And when Castiel has finally made "a homosexual declaration of love" (as Misha Collins called it in his livestreams and on panels during conventions), he died. "Vlassic Hollywood 'kill all the gays' trope" which are another bitter words Misha used to describe that bittersweet and heartbreaking scene from that episode.

Misha had been desperately fighting for that line for all his years on Supernatural, being almost alone. In "Loki," Tom or Owen don't fight for Lokius the same way Misha did for Destiel, so realistically, rationally speaking, I always knew it won't become canon. Just because studios are still that homophobic, they put toxic, manipulative relationships with the character's other self above a healing, beautiful, soul-saving, inspiring, healthy, character-growing, fresh and the most important, sincere and based on unconditional trust, relalationship where both allow themselves to be vulnerable around each other and trust one another with that. Only because the former is a hetero, and the latter is same-sex. Smh.

Both Lokius and Destiel are example how true love "can pierce throughthe veil of death and save the day," it's another bravest quote from Supernatural. They were insane for putting such lines without intention to make main SPN pairing a canon, if it weren't for Misha's dedication to Destiel.

Maybe if Tom or Owen (or both of them) foufght for Lokius the same way, we would have got a chance. I'm just saying, not judging. I totally understand why they show their support to it subtly, carefully. I like it too.

In conclusion, I want to say I'm just a simple fan. I just want healthy relationships to win over toxic ones. At least in TV shows, since I don't see it in real life. And to finally see a proper representation of queer relationships that lead to character growth and a happy beautiful life of two adults being deeply in love, regardless of their sex and/or gender. I want it to be normalised.

Dear Disney,

about this:

The fit check and hair slick thing are romantic tropes in film:

See?

Now, you are film makers. I take it you have all the experience and the know-how there is when it comes to TV and film. So, when you use these tropes, I have to assume that you want to tell us one of two things: Either you want to show us that there is a romatic story to be expected between two characters or you want us to believe that there is one when in fact there isn't. In this case (this case being Loki), that could be considered queerbaiting.

[curioscurio]

I'm rewatching Steven Universe and I will never forgive Fandom for what it did to her

[synthsays]

Chamber of Reflection - Mac DeMarco

[aroaceleovaldez]

apparently pjotv twt was being weird about book!Percy's eyes being green because they don't think the ocean can be green (???) so consider this a sequel to my Grace siblings eye colors post and here is some visual references of green water for all your Percy inspo needs:

And for reference, the water around New York-ish where Percy is usually is somewhere around this color:

or some alternatives:

or here is a nice hazel green if you want his eyes more on the brown side, which is very common in freshwater ponds and streams:

or if you want him to have totally brown eyes - water rich in tannins will appear brown, greenish-brown, or very dark brown - this is sometimes called "blackwater" due to often appearing very dark or having low visibility:

[rainbowsky]

Someone sent me the video a couple days ago and I didn't even know what I was looking at until they told me they thought that it was DD. It wasn't DD. 🤦🏻‍♂️

And you don't even need to see the video to know that. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together should know that DD is not going to show up at Hengdian of all places (the single most heavily stalked and leaked location in all of China), to a set that has multiple leaks daily, and saunter around without a mask. Any turtle who thinks that's even remotely possible is seriously beyond help.

Not only do some fans think it was DD, but some think they see the person feed food into GG's mouth with their fingers. FFS, people are reading too much fanfiction if they think that that's even remotely ever going to happen on a set and get leaked to the public.

I swear the same kind of people who buy into this ridiculous nonsense are the same people who thought that the assistant fic was real. People who are so wrapped up in their own fanfiction fantasy about GG and DD that they've lost all sight of reality and don't even see them as human beings anymore.

If you can't respect GG and DD enough to put their humanity front and center as a fan, then you've completely lost the plot.

There's a huge difference between sharing Untamed BTS and giggling about their interactions back then, and spreading around some leaked video from GG's filming set and claiming you see DD in the clip. If you can't see the difference between those two actions then there's something seriously wrong with you.

On the set of the Untamed they were working together, and both consented to being filmed for BTS clips as part of the production process. The footage is 6 years old and ancient history.

GG's current filming set is a private place of work. Sharing any leaked footage, no matter who you think appears in it, is deeply disrespectful of GG and everyone who works with him. Quite apart from any claims about who appears in the video, sharing leaks from their sets is one of the biggest no-nos as a fan.

But sharing footage that you genuinely believe shows the boys together and then giggling about it like it's some kind of candy... you have no business calling yourself a turtle. End of story.

Even rumors like this can endanger them, we should all know this by now.

And like I said before, use your head. There's no way that DD is going to show up at Hengdian and hand feed GG food. It's never going to happen except in somebody's fan fic. Give your head a shake. I would be embarrassed for people who believe this kind of thing if I wasn't too horrified by their behavior to feel anything else.

These are the most depressing and disappointing days of being a turtle. It's garbage like this that makes me seriously consider just packing up and walking away. I don't want to be a part of any group that is this deluded and credulous, and this disrespectful of GG and DD. It's the international fans behind this kind of stupidity who give turtles a bad name.

i was supposedly gonna address this by end of month and with my april candy round up but i think might as well do it now. only because it is being shared primarily on international platforms and i feel the need to put out this reminder. i wouldn’t even dream about controlling how one chooses to participate in this fandom but sometimes people need a wake up call.

so, there has been a video going around of GG filming Legend of Zanghai and there is a staff there that people are saying is WYB. it showed this person talking to GG while he is on standby and shooting etc. first of all, these two are notoriously good at hiding and being professional in their workplace. especially now. i doubt they will flaunt each other on set with one acting like a PA for the other. not only that, they both hate to cause any disturbance on set or have unnecessary eyes on them — much worse, gossip, so this is a no.

and in the very low chance that it is WYB or that whatever rumor we have of XX visiting XXX on set is true, the last person who should be outing their secret meetings shouldn’t be turtles. if there is one thing i really miss from the beginnings of this fandom is how much people protected them. even if at times we became obnoxious, you know that the reason is because we wanted to keep them safe. nowadays, i feel like more turtles don’t even care at all. they will show off anything to prove a point. but at what cost? seriously, how far would you go? how much disregard for their rights as human beings will you allow?

which leads me to the main problem here: sharing leaks. i personally sometimes can’t avoid it, especially on weibo cause it depends on who you follow, it will come up. or worse, the leaked videos/photos goes on hot search. xz has been very local against proxy shooting for this project so idk why some turtles continue to disrespect his wishes. it’s one thing to see it accidentally, but for international fans to share it and then make it out to be this “scandalous” video proof is so questionable. what makes them different from professional weibo paparazzis who out celebrity couples? who follow them in their homes and even their parents? how are they different from ss who put trackers on their cars and obsess over their personal itinerary? it’s so sus to call yourself a fan who care about them but applaud this kind of behavior. these kind of fans honestly don’t see xz and wyb as people. leave them the fuck alone. i don’t think i can stress that enough. let’s speculate all we want from the materials they willingly give us and try not to make it harder for them to live their personal lives.

i understand how material like that can make someone happy and affirmed but think about them first.

and if you are someone who needs solid video proof to support the boys and be on the bjyxszd train, then please leave this fandom now. i can tolerate alot of behaviors but never ones that endanger them like this. this need for constant validation is dangerous. it’s their relationship, not ours. they are real people and not fictional characters.

[maingh0st]

i know i'm not the first to say this, but the acolyte's cancellation has confirmed how tired i am of disney's decision-making when it comes to their content. i know nostalgia is the easiest way to a big payout, but we can only take so many spinoffs before the universe starts to feel too small. but then fresh content—content that's building on the canon by looking to old star wars lore while asking new questions—fizzles out.

it's the sequel trilogy all over again. we're promised something new, something that actually expands the canon rather than just recycling it, even bringing in concepts from legends, and then the rug is ripped out from underneath us & we're punished for ever caring about any of it. silly babygirl! palpatine was always the big bad (don't worry about the fact that this is thematically nonsense and not foreshadowed in any way), and rey isn't a nobody ("your parents sold you because they loved you"), and this isn't a story about how the force transcends human categories and dynasties (represented by a grey jedi force dyad between a legacy skywalker and a nobody orphan from a backwater planet, fulfilling not only balance between light and dark but also transcending the old to become something new). silly idiot!!! rey's a palpatine by birth and a skywalker by self-adoption and god forbid she create her own identity outside of these names our fans recognize. watch as she stands alone on a sand planet that has no personal significance to her, ending her arc almost exactly as she began. but look!! two suns! neat

i don't even know if fanservice is the right word. at a certain point, it just starts to feel like they're quaking in their boots at the thought of doing anything new. i had my gripes with some of the choices in the acolyte, but at least it was unique. it explored a new era and asked questions that star wars has only ever flirted with. like: what happens to the children who are uprooted from their homes at such a young age, yet can't find their place in the jedi order? how does one survive in a supposedly honorable system that nevertheless relies on the repression of some of humanity's most fundamental emotions? is it possible that an organization dictating exactly how one ought to interact with the very life force of the universe... could perhaps be faulty and shortsighted? what happens when the ways of that order clash with other cultures and worldviews? (spoilers: space colonialism). and that's not even to mention the ideas they play with re: the force itself (vergences! plagueis! force witches!)

i know not everyone loved the show, but a lot of people really did care about it. a lot of people, like me, were excited to see these new questions being raised. but forget it—the disney gods have decreed that it didn't hit some magical threshold of streaming hours or reach a "broad enough" audience in the two months it's been out. but don't worry guys. turn your brains off and tune in for the next spinoff 2 chewy 2 bacca

[rainbowsky]

Regarding CPN discussions, questions and comments

Several times over the past few days I've had to remind people about a boundary I have around discussions of CPN, so I feel it might be a good time to remind everyone of this so that everyone is on the same page.

I'm always preaching that CPN is for turtle's eyes only. It isn't meant for wider consumption by solos or passersby. This is for the protection of turtles and of GG and DD. When CPN crosses over into other areas, it pretty much always leads to fan wars and anti activity.

One of the measures that I feel passionately about in connection with this is the notion that

CPN should never be discussed in posts that are tagged with GG and DD's individual names.

There are a couple of really good reasons for this:

It's part of staying in our own lane. Solos follow the tags for GG and DD's individual names, and if CPN is discussed in those posts, solos can stumble across it and create problems. I have faced a lot of harassment in the past - including the recent past - from solos because of this very thing, and it's not fun. Fan wars are never good, but especially not when I become a target for hate through no fault of my own. If you talk about CPN in the comments of my posts, I am going to be the one attacked for it, not you.

Posts tagged with their individual names are for celebrating their individual works and achievements. There's plenty of space for clowning elsewhere.

All that I ask is that before you comment to discuss CPN in the notes of one of my posts, please double check that it is not tagged with 'xiao zhan' or 'wang yibo'. If it is, submit your comment or question to me as an ask, contact me privately about it, or find a post on my blog on a related subject that is tagged with 'bjyx' or 'yizhan' and comment there.

You can also feel free to make a post about it in the Yizhan Tumblr community.

Please also feel free to do whatever you want, take whatever risks you want, and embody your own values around this topic on your own blog, including reblogging my individual posts with whatever commentary you want. Feel free to use whatever tags you want and to discuss whatever you want in a reblog. Just please don't comment with CPN in posts on my blog that are tagged with their individual names.

A note on reactions

Some people really take it personally and get bent out of shape when I make this kind of request. This is by no means a rare reaction. The majority of turtles who I mention this to in response to CPN comments in the notes of these posts respond in a negative way. Some even unfollow or block me for it.

I don't understand why anyone would be offended by a boundary I set for my own well-being online, or why anyone would take personally a decision that I have made for my own well-being.

I have had a lot of harassment and hate thrown at me over the years, and due to a lifetime of being singled out, I am especially sensitive to bullying. It's just not something I want in my life, and I will seek to avoid and prevent it at all costs. Please respect my needs in this regard.

As importantly, we really do need to stay in our own lane to try to maintain some measure of harmony between fandoms, and to avoid fan wars.

This is not a new boundary - I've been stating it for years. @accio-victuuri has been saying this for years as well. It is by no means unusual for this request to be made by turtles. It is a best practice for avoiding fan wars.

So please try to be understanding about this. I would never make a request of someone if I didn't have a good reason.

I don't state these things to make you feel bad in any way. Nor do I hold it against you if you make a mistake. I'll just remove that comment and explain to you why I've done so. Don't take it personally. I appreciate people's engagement with my posts, and do not want to make anyone feel alienated. I do my best to express myself in a kind and understanding way.

I hope you will extend me the same courtesy.

[the-gladiolus]

Fun

Here’s me

[theweeklydiscourse]

God forbid you ever criticize the lack of consequences Bakugou experiences in MHA, or suddenly you’ll find dozens of Bakugou stans pouring into your mentions to make a speech about how cruel you are for forcing him to eat cement. They’ll act as though “consequences” inherently involves throwing him into the dungeon or putting him in detention for 100 years and then moan about how him facing consequences would only perpetuate a cycle of abuse/discrimination.

Listen, it’s not really that much of a consequence if the “consequence” in question isn’t directly connected to his current or past bad behaviour. “Oh but his scars!” “When he died that one time!” “His guilt for getting kidnapped” None of those are related to his bullying, and in my opinion, that makes them insufficient as consequences in an arc about changing for the better.

The consequences I would actually like to see could be as simple as: Izuku feels sad/mad because of what he went through, or certain characters reflect on how Bakugou’s past impacts their perception of him. More introspection on the victim’s end is needed, Bakugou doesn’t necessarily need to be pilloried for the arc to be satisfying.

[lotus-pear]

regret

[xx-sketchy-xx]

freak

that’s what you are sonic