#fandoms are so toxic these days

[da-xiao-jie]

so this is gonna be a little something that’s been stirring around in my mind for a bit, especially since i’ve recently been lurking around a fandom i left a few years ago and it’s gotten me to think some more about things and specifically about stories.

when creating media, the first and foremost priority ought to be creating a cohesive story. with things like the star wars sequel trilogy, the frozen movies, and every other exhausted franchise that gets three too many sequels, i think that the drive to make an enjoyable story for oneself has long ceased to be a factor in a lot of storytelling.

in the book market, publishers look for what’s hot and then proceed to follow the trend instead of publishing genuinely good stories. moviemakers start a trilogy without any idea of where it’s going and switch directors twice in the space of three movies because they don’t have direction and base their creative choices on the response. frozen 2 had so many issues because the d-biz knew it could make money but neglected to actually present the world with a story that made sense given what was set up in the previous movie. and now a third movie is in the works because it’s such a money-maker.

i think we need to do better. the most consistent advice i’ve heard when it comes to writing is to write the stories you yourself want to hear. when there’s a story you want to see made and you proceed to make it to the best of your ability, people will connect to it. Not everyone will like it, but because it’s a story from beginning to end, it’ll be, at the very least, understandable. i think fans want too much say and i think media creators listen too much to the vocal fans.

this isn’t anything new, i know. but i do think that both sides are a little responsible for the regurgitation of poorly told stories and unnecessary retellings. consumers want their expectations met and creators need an audience and so they cater. so many of the books i enjoy these days are independently published because indie authors publish the stories that they want to write and most of those stories are either not trendy or weird in their premise. and you know what? they’re amazing. a lot of these authors write their hearts out, improving their craft while building up loyal fanbases who’ll buy just about anything they write because they’ve learned to trust that the author will write something with all they’ve got. a favorite author of mine recently set up a kickstarter where her goal was like $5k and by the time the kickstarter was finished, there was like 6 times that much.

please. write your story. put it out there. people will find it and love it. stop caring about every little thing. stop pandering to the whims of everyone else. write what you want. make your movie or your tv show the way you want to and trust that there’s someone else out there who likes the type of stories you like. because with nearly 8 billion people on this planet, that’s not a far-fetched assumption.

[unicoo]

I love how GRRM HIMSELF came out & said a lot of the same things many of us have already said & got harassed for ☺️

I also find it HILARIOUS that even after GRRM says things out of his mouth the delulu hotd fans still try to argue the shit because of course they’re completely right & not the guy who idk made the shit 💀

The world we live in…..

[shokveyv]

shut up

[willyhoos]

chara deserves to break out of the game window and stretch their legs a little.

HD still beneath cut!

[lazyturtlehottub]

the more and more time i spend on tumblr and come across insane Buddie takes and behavior, the more and more i am convinced that the small, vocal, toxic subsection of shippers who don't know how to behave are, how shall i say it?

homophobic

they don't seem to actually like gay men. the situation with richard siken is an example of that. what they appear to like is their made-up version of what gay men are like and what they do. there's no concept of nuance or an actual understanding of queerness that informs their ship.

and i don't think you do need to understand it. sometimes you can just enjoy something without looking into it differently. but if you're going to be out on main talking about Buddie this and Buddie that, then you absolutely need to do the bare minimum and inform yourself on gay culture and gay issues so you don't, you know, go after a gay poet because you didn't like his tone.

sorry, there's a reason gay men of his demographic don't take shit. it's because they took so much shit that a large percentage of them died. the ones that survived don't owe you a tone when you act like an idiot.

the internet is free. wikipedia is free.

use a search engine and educate yourself, just a tiny little bit, and stop fetishizing while holding onto homophobic attitudes

[reel-fear]

Genuinely so curious who Mike thinks is gonna be buying The Cage or the new DCTL GN bc with the way he tweets as far as he's concerned, it's not gonna be:

The queer people he has actively admitted he will never show any representation of in the games.

2. The POC he has actively fought against representing in his franchise. [Who he also mocked for thinking they would be represented in his franchise]

3. The Bendy fandom which has always been concerned with topics of diversity esp in the sense of queer people since its creation. Who he has responded to really poorly esp in regards to the GN.

4. The fans who critique him. [He blocked me for doing so lol]

5. His fans in general who he tweets about like this currently. [He's being vague about why people were mad at him or sent him 'nasty messages' because if you actually looked into why you'd see he was in the wrong. Either way, a very hateful way to speak abt ur own fanbase.]

Reminder while Mike is trash talking his fans he has always treated them rather poorly. The fans who won the fanart contest for Chapter 5 never got their posters actually in game due to it being rushed. Not only was chapter 5 a big slap to the face story wise, but it was literally so rushed he couldn't be bothered to add in the art his fans gave him for his game FOR FREE. [Meatly blames this on a crazy timeline, reminder him and Mike are the literal ceos of this company. The proposal of future updates here is also pretty cruel considering Mike nowadays happily admits he corrupted Chapter 5's source code and therefore literally can't update it At All currently. Because he is a moron]

At least they got to be in Boris and the dark survival, and by that I mean that was the Only game they got to be in so far, isn't that just treating your fans like you love them? Shoving their hard work into a spin off game almost nobody has played or addresses much. [Hell, who knows if with the Lone Wolf rebrand they'll even stay there. In which case they'll be in None of the games, only in the credits of BATIM]

6. The Bendy fans who just generally disagree with him on stuff. Like the new ink demon design where there is literally a public poll showing people generally prefer the old one.

7. The Bendy fans who can see he is actively lying to them. To their fucking faces.

He says this has always been the case, but screenshots and links to tweets regarding the books being canon prove it was not. Does he really think bendy fans are stupid or something? [Unless he's admitting here he lied to Kress when he told her the books were canon which sounds worse!]

8. Anyone who doesn't like the idea of giving money to a guy who laid off tons of employees then afterwards thought it was a great idea to express his anti-union views! Also brag about how good of an employer he was, according to his employees, he was not!

So in summary; Mike is an awful person who has not learned anything from the awful things he did. I will not be purchasing The Cage because, combined with this and his absolute refusal to take any kind of critique or see any differing interpretation of his franchise, I have no reason to think my problems with the franchise will ever be addressed or fixed. I probably will pirate The Cage along with any future Bendy Products [Including the movie] and will do my best to avoid giving it any kind of monetary support. Unless this changes any time soon, I can't see myself making anymore positive Bendy posts soon.

Mike has just managed to make it so hard to speak positively or optimistically of this franchise when he's so willing to broadcast how little he cares about it or its fans. I'm at the point where I refuse to pull any of my punches with my problems with it. What's the point of trying to play nice with my critique when either way the people creating it don't care?

So with this post, I want to invite anyone who feels similarly about the franchise to tell me, make a post or send an ask talking about how all of this makes you feel. It may not change how things are, but genuinely seeing other people share my feelings of anger makes me feel better. It feels nice to see when other people share our same concerns and worries. I'd also love to know if anyone else thinks they'll be avoiding purchasing Bendy products over this.

I'm not forcing anyone to participate in it nor trying to say anyone who doesn't supports mike but genuinely maybe if we can collectively decide to boycott things like the movie, graphic novel and The Cage... It might at least make the bendy devs acknowledge how much they have destroyed their own fandom's faith and trust in them.

The way Mike tweets about his actions like he had no control over why people were mad at him at least proves to me he takes NONE of it back nor regrets it. If you didn't know about his actions and only went off his tweets, you would be led to believe Mike has been needlessly picked apart by fans over things he couldn't control [or in his own words, had his words twisted and taken out of context]. That is not how you speak about your actions if you have actually learned better from them.

anyway, that has been my bendy dev callout post. This is an open invitation to anyone feeling similarly upset about the way the franchise is going to talk about it. It's genuinely nice to see how people feel about this and the more we talk about the more it's likely the bendy devs are forced to address our concerns. I don't think they will but hey, that's why I'm not gonna support them with my money anymore nor am I gonna be nice to them in any content I make critiquing Bendy. I mean I'm also basically making this post just in case anyone asks me Why I feel this way towards to bendy devs/as a way to respond to anyone who thinks I am too harsh in my critique in the future.

As always, it seems the best part of Bendy isn't actually anything about canon but about what the fan's are creating with the ideas Bendy failed to do anything interesting with.

Also the books, the books slap.

[thearoaceshark]

[katyspersonal]

Regarding previous post about disco horse: I really appreciate that everyone is actually talking for once, but a kind of jab happened on my mental health so I have to step away. It isn't from this post, but the reason is sort of connected

Again, I personally find no problems with the DLC except for how Radahn ship came from nowhere and can justify how that comes. But regardless of how many things anyone else dislikes about the DLC: you are valid to hate it as much as you want, but when you start insulting people who loved/accepted/justified the DLC as "media illiterate fromsoft dickriders who keeps coping even after the honeymoon phase passed" and variation I draw the line. There are many ways where other fans can find reason where you didn't and there is potential in new lore that you won't use. Absurd how some people are still willing to support illusory narrative that Radahn Redditor simps are the "worst" part of the fandom when not even at their most arrogant and annoying they can dream to reach HALF of the toxicity cultish Miquella/Malenia fans have, over the awful crime of having different readings, opinions and priorities.

And yes, I know it is inevitable that Tumblr and Twitter fans WOULD make a moral/intellectual/maturity contest out of how people feel about the DLC (🤡🤡🤡), but it hurts when people I actually don't want to butt heads with who start to approve of this mentality. Like, okay cool. Wallow in your elitist toxic pool of Ledas while we, "pathetic dickriders" go and "cope" somewhere else, hope everyone is more comfortable this way 🤦‍♂️ I am tired of getting hurt through endless passive aggression and I have my limits. It is just always hurtful to finally rip the bandage, even IF it is to the better. I need a hiatus for a longer time, albeit for a different reason now

[sleepanonymous]

Information below the cut and nightmare scenario in the tags.

Interesting facts: This cover was the last video he posted to YouTube under this channel before ST formed. This was also almost a year exactly before the ST YouTube channel was created.

[astrobei]

the challengers brainrot is consuming me i fear.

[jackfrostimposter]

genuinely why is there so much misinformation about the guardians of childhood book series?

[repressedqueen]

stay away from the Buddie fandom! You and ex buddies are so annoying trying to act like you didn’t switch up just exclusively ship bucktommy and stay out of the Buddie fandom we don’t want you here anyway

Good morning to you too! 💓 Since you are so kind to me, let me do you a favor and introduce you to a friend of mine:

This may come as a surprise to you but shipping is not a religion or a group activity you need other members' approval to be a part of. It's a personal experience, a choice that anyone can make for himself for his personal reasons. Because it literally effects no one else. It's about FICTIONAL CHARACTERS. Not to mention multishipping is a thing. SHOCKING, I know. If my blog and my views upset you, the very healthy thing to do would be to push that block button instead of sending anon hate.

As long as you are respectful and not spread toxicity you can do anything in this site, in this life. I know I am. Are you?

[ladyluscinia]

Very few people bothered to find out what S1 Izzy / complex Edward enjoyers were interpreting differently than the "Izzy is Kylo Ren / Ed's his victim" crowd that made us like him in the first place, so it figures that now very few people are bothering to understand what a lot of us are criticizing in S2 while the - shockingly - exact same crowd leads the discussion on how it was a beautiful season and Izzy enjoyers are just incapable of decentering their problematic fave.

And it's once again leading to a barrage of posts lecturing us about why the takes they imagine we hold are wrong and supporting the same toxic fandom atmosphere that aimed to harass us all out for a year and a half. Cool. Glad to see no lessons were learned whatsoever.

Only difference is now we actually might leave, on account of you don't generally put up with extended harassment to support a show you don't even think is being written well. 🤷‍♀️

[redstrewn]

I think its funny that touchstarved fans are nice and super warm and welcoming and friendly and then some acnh fans have seething fucking rage rants tangents online over an animal they think is ugly or mildly annoying and like scam each other out of raymond or something

Also dont come for me im an acnh enjoyer

[c1trvswurld]

This ship is morally grey and irredeemable why do you like it.

That's literally the appeal, to see two characters who should not be with each other. So destructive and cruel but codependent like an oroboros... what do you not understand from that.

[merpmaster]

it takes two to TOXIC

~they're meant to be together~