#i am speaking for many fandoms

[stealingyourbones]

Out of all of the people The Ghost King Phantom expected to relate to, it definitely wasn’t the scrawny red headed photographer of the Daily Planet. Jimmy Olsen has gotten so many temporary superpowers over his time being Superman’s friend. Hell, he once gained a 4th dimensional being’s reality warping abilities when he was given said dimensional being’s powers during a fight. Sure there’s a dozen or so heroes with the same amount of powers he has, but none as suddenly granted to them as a all powerful god that can relate to a teenager.

[lynxalon]

i've seen a fair bit of... pessimism about dorym lately, esp with the ep107, for example wondering if dorian's opposing views on the gods making orym fall out of love, and i have to say. i very highly doubt it, ur fr talking about the man who has held on to will for so long, holding onto will's family and affectionately calling this *his* family too because that didn't stop when will died. i dont think falling out of love is an option or even a thought to orym.

that said, we know that orym has contingencies for if anyone in bells hells crosses the line into being a version of themselves they would despise, for anyone who jeopardizes their mission. his mission. i think, for the first time since knowing dorian, orym finally has a contingency for him. the longer dorian is back, the more orym sees how scarred he is by what's happened (understandable so) and knows that dorian is with bells hells all the way. but if he isn't...

[genericpuff]

vent post

[philsmeatylegss]

Have said it a million times and will never stop saying it.

Phannies whose first language is not English, please write as many posts and fanfics you want.

This includes phannies who aren’t completely fluent and or have poor grammar/spelling.

Please rant and engage and be as chaotic as the rest of us. Even if you cannot express it in English.

I personally have always found it so impressive and admirable when I learn a phannie mutual of mine has a first language other than English. Your ability to participate as much as you do while having to translate every video, every post, is something I am always so impressed by.

Please participate as much as you want in the phandom. Even if you only feel like posting in your first language, even if you know your grammar/spelling isn’t perfect, please share your thoughts and feelings!!!

[wren-of-the-woods]

I've been seeing a lot of posts lately talking about how no one comments/reblogs/replies/etc anymore, and, as someone who comments regularly on a lot of fanworks, it sometimes makes me wonder if my efforts are worth anything. Then I remember how much happiness I get from comments on my own work/posts and how much the community of fandom can matter, and I remember the power that can be found in spreading joy instead of disappointment.

So -- to everyone who comments on fanfiction: thank you. You make the writing process worthwhile and so very rewarding. You make people happy every day.

To all the people who reblog art and gifsets and meta and anything else with enthusiastic tags: thank you. You make people smile and promote interesting conversations and make being on Tumblr so much more fun.

To anyone who sends people asks about their works, whether it's unprompted or part of an ask game: thank you. You give people reasons to talk about things they love and feel like a part of a community.

To the people who makes reclists: thank you. You give us more to read while showing the author how much their work is loved and appreciated, benefitting so many people.

To everyone who organizes events and groups and blogs and dedicated to fandom: thank you. You build community and love and excitement so effectively and it's wonderful.

To all the authors and artists who respond to comments and build community: thank you. You make people smile with your work and then again with your response.

To everyone who contributes to fandom and community in all the other beautiful, varied ways that I can't even begin to list: thank you. You are why we're here.

And, finally, to every writer, visual artist, gifmaker, cosplayer, maker of edits, writer of meta, or creator of art in any other form: thank you. Your work is wonderful and you make fandom what it is, regardless of who sees your art or how much response you recieve.

Keep going, everyone. You are a part of something beautiful.

[oddly-casual]

Homura Hc’s (or a mini appreciation post tbh)

Homura is one of those characters we see only a handful a times. I think we see her maybe three times in the show, and a couple times in the merch. Mostly Hesokuri wars.

But despite the fact that she has about two speaking roles in between three seasons and a movie, the writers try to keep her personality in tact and I like that they do that.

Most of this comes from Jyushimatsu Dolphin (season 3 Ep. 8). Where Homura sticks her neck out to help Jyushimatsu follow his dream of being a dolphin.

We don’t know exactly how cannon these skits are, but certain characters are chosen for a reason and I think we can take away a lot from some of Homura’s decisions and actions.

Like the fact that she even agrees to help Jyushimatsu at all despite not knowing him (in this skit at least). She tells us directly that it was because she was moved by his passion, but staking your job on something as flaky as passion would be- what some people call- a dumb risk.

Despite being the only one in his corner, Homura gives her all into training him. In her first appearance in season one, Todomatsu call her “Weird” And I think this skit goes into depth about how weird she actually is. Homura hardcore trains him in the ways of being a dolphin that she is familiar with, even if that means nearly drowning him.

This girl that we met in season one, who we knew as soft and sad, is in fact a weirdo.

Like just look at how everyone reacts to her! Go off queen!

I really like how this skit gets rid of any assumptions about Homura’s character. From her first appearance alone you would think maybe she’s weak willed or fragile- but she really puts her all into the things she cares about and doesn’t let anyone slow her down.

Homura doesn’t even call it out or try to explain herself, it’s just how she is and I love that for her.

We also see pretty consistently how she handles conflict, or failing.

In season 1 she calls off ever seeing Jyushimatsu again because she has to go home, and you can tell it hurts her to just outright reject him like the that.

The fact that we possibly know her background also adds context to her decision.

It’s possible she just wants to get away from that industry and the people, maybe too many people know her from the porn dvds and she just needed a fresh start somewhere else. Maybe she felt like she was lying to Jyushimatsu because she couldn’t tell him all she’d done- who knows?

There’s a lot of ways you can look at it but I think most of all, the skit in season 2 could reshape how we looked at her reaction to conflict in season 1.

When faced with failure, Homura gives up.

She gave it her all, and it still didn’t happen. Homura is grounded in reality to an extent. While the Matsuno’s live by their own rules and do whatever they want- it feels like Homura found a way to work within the rules. To try everything she can, but not to exhaust herself with something that’s not baring fruits.

She doesn’t seem disappointed that Jyushimatsu will keep trying, she’s angry. Homura yells at him and calls him a block head because he’s being stubborn- but why try so hard to get him to give up when it’s his dream? Why does she want him to quit? He will continue with it without her so why?

There’s a possibly that she doesn’t want to see him hurt. Like season 1, Homura distances herself from Jyushimatsu specifically after he confesses.

We can assume it’s because she would be in a whole other city, and with the past attached to her, she didn’t want to hold him back. Either that, or she didn’t want to face rejection if things didn’t end up working out.

But I also think it’s important to note that Homura was moments away from ending her own life. In the end, she chooses to take herself to a familiar place rather than to attempt again- showing signs of gaining some perspective or some motivation to keep going.

My main take away from Homura as a character, and outside of her potential relationship with Jyushimatsu, is that Homura is a character ground in reality who is a little silly.

Homura takes things seriously, no matter how goofy they are (like wanting to be a dolphin- like an actual dolphin), but she also likes to laugh and have fun like everyone else.

Homura knows not to spend time on something that possibly won’t work out, and this could be because she’s been beaten down before and knows the prolonged pain of hope. She also has a past we know nothing about that could’ve shaped the person she is today.

Homura is a silly weird girl, but unfortunately life got to her first. That doesn’t stop her from being weird and silly though.

[choices-binglebonkus]

So I’ll be rolling my eyes throughout All of Us and thinking it’s annoying and lazily written and plays up a lot of queer stereotypes but then we’ll get commentary like this:

Like I’m actually in awe that Pixelberry dared to speak about biphobia and bi erasure, with a bisexual male character. One of the reasons I vastly prefer His Story to Her Story.

[qweerhet]

every time there's a rise in fascist action and power in the us, there's an en masse feminist response of like. affirming that gender is an ontological trait, you can tell what gender someone is without them directly stating it to you, appearance is indicative of gender (rather than just being correlative particularly in conservative populations), gender is a useful signifier of ideology separate from factors such as class and race (and may even be more causative regarding fascist ideology than class or race are), there is no form of gendered oppression targeting men, and there is no form of gendered privilege afforded to women.*

it's annoying! i do not like it.

*nb4 someone gets on my case about how gendered targeting of men is "just" racism/ableism/etc and gendered privilege afforded to women isn't "truly" privilege as men who reap the benefits of patriarchy are still higher in the social hierarchy than women who reap the benefits of patriarchy: we have entirely different modalities for viewing interactions of privilege + power + hegemony. your modality is, in fact, part of what i'm critiquing. it refuses to recognize gender itself as the oppressive structure, and patriarchy as a structure enforcing gender. we can chat in good faith if you want to understand this lens better but like i'm not going to be arguing about it or trying to make a Discourse Post(tm) defending my ideology.

[liesmyth]

All your TLT posting is making me questioning if I should try it.. The only thing i'm worried is that I don't want to start a series and then finding out in the third bookthat the author made the antiheroic genderbent mao protagonist throw the metaphorical atomic bomb on the japanese because the author is an american descendent of a Chang Kai Shek general and wanted to absolve the yankees to grant herself a career (it worked greatly). So should i still try TLT as an olde commie? Love your blog btw, please continue reblog all those TLT fan art they look great! Thanks!

whew lowkey glad I couldn't get past the first book in that other series. anyway *clears throat*

If you like LESBIANS, Locked Tomb is the fandom for you. If you like BONES and FAILWOMEN and ARE ANGRY AT GOD, Locked Tomb is the fandom for you. If you like BAD JOKES and SHITTY MEMES, we have those in spades. If you love EXCELLENT FANART and DIVORCES that last TEN THOUSAND YEARS and LOCKED ROOM MURDER MYSTERIES, if you think EVIL COUGARS are SEXY, if you think PLUTO totally COUNTS as a PLANET, Locked Tomb is the fandom for you!!!!

[here's the rest of the tlt manifesto on ao3, podficced by @/wilfriede ]

On a serious note! I think TLT is definitely informed by leftist politics, and it has many themes that lend themselves to juicy interpretations on top of a really meaty worldbuilding and characterisation. Also the fanart SLAPS. And if you read the books you can check out my fics which, not to brag, are some of the weirdest I've ever written! featuring such tropes as: "bodyswapped man sucks his own dick" "vagina dentata" "ritual sex to have a baby during a mass death event" "in-universe academia" and "orphan girl meets her parents for the first time and they suck"

tldr please read the locked tomb <3

[emperorangel]

I feel like Arcane s2 e7 really showed Ekko's selflessness. He wakes up in a timeline where it didn't all go to shit. His childhood friend hasn't gone mad, he's able to change the world for the better and (nearly) everyone he loves is still alive. He has it all, and he could stay there forever if he wanted to. Live out his life like he was meant to but, no. His mind immediately goes to his people back home. People he cares for, provides for, his community.

His people need him and he knows that. So he steps out of the warmth and comfort, back into the cold darkness of his own timeline and he does what he has to do. No doubt it was a difficult choice to make but he made it anyway and I thought it was really beautiful.

[signaturedish]

Hi glad you're feeling much better!! What's you're all time favourite fics from across your fandoms? Any good ones in Lotrs? SVSSS? Untamed? etc etc gimme em you're tastes are sooo goooood

This made me switch to my iPad because all time fave fics is a very serious topic .

Also thank you lol, I hope you’re doing well too!!

LoTR will sadly have to be omitted, I’ve only read a couple in the last seven years. I got really into The Hobbit for a second, but I liked the more light-hearted stuff and ran out pretty quickly T-T

These are all complete except from the TMA ones-

SVSSS: Tarnished Gold, Metagaming, We Should Stick Together, Deluxe System 2.0: Co-op Mode!, High Mountain How I Long, I Wish You Were My Husband, Tongfang

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend I Wish You Were My Husband- it’s an au using another book’s set up, so you get a solid character reintroduction

The Untamed: Rotten Work, Hunters Seeking Solid Ground, By Any Other Name, To You I Am, I Started from the Bottom/And Now I’m Rich, I Will Be Chasing a Starlight, Lynchpin

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend I Will Be Chasing a Starlight- it’s an au with a Star Trek backdrop so you don’t need context

TGCF: Thousand Gold Come-and-Go Stew, No Paths Are Bound, A Mighty Ocean or a Gentle Kiss, No Water is Enough, Nacreous, Even Across a Thousand Miles

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend Thousand Gold Come-and-Go Stew- it’s a post epilogue au with an amnesia element and limited cast, so you should follow along fine

The Magnus Archives: Forgive Us Our Tresspasses, Look No Further, The Least He Could Do, Nature Has Taught Her Creatures to Hate

For the totally uninitiated, I recommend Nature Has Taught Her Children to Hate- it’s a retelling overhaul so you’re reintroduced to these characters

SVSSS in particular has a lot of funny 1-2 ch scenario fics so I fully recommend checking that archive out for yourself and rifling around- those are just the ones I consider the best of the best. The Untamed has a tonnn of long-form dramas which aren’t my favorites, but clearly well done if you like those more.

And TGCF and TMA are kind of the odd children- high highs, low lows.

If you or anyone also has recs, I demand them in repayment!

[aleximustpl4y]

58 – Diet for a New America: album review

Year: 2000

Label: Americoma Records

Genre: "a mixture of glam, hip hop, rock, pop, funk and a car crash."

Members: Nikki Sixx (bass guitar), Steve Gibb (guitar), Bucket Baker (drums), Dave Darling (guitar, vocals, producer)

Listen to it here: [x]

They say that in order to make good art, you have to go through some shit. But is this Nikki Sixx and Dave Darling's, fathers of this side project, case?

I don't know why, I'm here but I can't stay...

History

58 was a side project of Mötley Crüe's Nikki Sixx and producer Dave Darling, Nikki's ex father-in-law. The name of the band comes from the fact that they were both born in 1958.

"One day we were sitting around; he had this hip-hop loop up, and I was playing this glamrock riff; and he goes, 'Wow, that's really fucked up. You hear how that sounds together?' I said, 'Yeah, it's horrible, huh?' So we started to roll tape." - Nikki Sixx about the origins of the album.

They continued their casual approach: sometimes they'd flip a coin to decide who was going to play what and they wouldn't even write down the lyrics at some point, completely winging the process.

Sixx expected the casual approach might be part of the album's appeal: "If people like it, they can like it for the music, not because it's being shoved down their throats by a record company."

The graphic impact

The album's cover is pretty impactful at first sight, reminding of weird, dug-out-from-the-deep-web independent horror movies of the time. It was a choice for sure, but it fits to the sometimes dark themes that the songs have. The recurrent theme of the stars and stripes in the booklet, just like the name of the album itself, is clearly a parody and desecration of American patriotism.

My copy of DFANA – it looks like it got dug out of the trash.

The tunes

Diet for a New America begins with Don't Laugh (You Might Be Next), a song that starts out calm and pretty normal for the rock songs standards, but it takes a turn pretty quick: at half of the first verse, where you expect there will be the drop-down of raging guitars, you get hit with this weird, dark, insane dub-step-like base. I don't even know if dub-step is the most accurate term for it, you just have to listen to it. And this is the exact point where you ask: what the hell have I just got myself into?

The lyrics are pretty straightforward: these are the protagonist's thoughts about his struggle with keeping away from hard drugs and his regrets in regards of his actions while chasing the dragon. He's telling us to not laugh at, insult or judge him for his weakness, not at least before taking a good look in the mirror or the people around us: you or everyone around you might be going through worse.

This song and album projects you immediately into another dimension, where everything is sordid, distorted, foggy, raw and uncomfortable. But if you listened to Don't Laugh until the end, there's no turning back: you want to know what's next.

El Paso is just Nikki performing slam poetry over a semi-hip-hop base, a stream of consciousness interrupted sometimes by Dave, who sings the chorus, probably the catchiest part of this album. I remember very clearly how, when I listened to this album the very first time, my phone crashed in the middle of this song. Determined, I ignored the very blatant warning and kept going.

The dial-up internet sound signifies that Piece of Candy has begun. A mess that reminds me of country, mixed with the usual hip-hop base, with dark lyrics about a cam girl who starved herself to death because she was afraid of her stalking fans. I'm sure they're trying to say something about today's society, but I can't find a meaning that goes deeper, other than just being a very fucked up story. The upbeat melody goes in complete contrast with the theme of the lyrics, making you feel bad when singing along in the catchy chorus or the ending.

Shopping Cart Jesus goes even deeper into the madness of synths, catchy chorus and dark or sad lyrics, talking about how the second coming will be in the form of a homeless, mentally ill man who collects shoes in his shopping cart. People around Him treat Him with skepticism, making Him frustrated when trying to preach His word, not being able to figure out why nobody listens to Him, why nobody believes that he is the real son of God. In the last verse, he'll “swallow that bullet”.

...And back to a bastardized country tune with Queer, probably inspired by the novel with the same title, written by William S. Burroughs. Not much there's to say about this track, it talks about this man who has a one night stand with another guy, poking fun at him for having a moment of weakness while being married ("I hope your family understands"). Contrary on what we've seen so far, it's not clear how it ends for the main character, but it's implied that he got an STD. The musical part mixes a sleazy guitar with a distorted hip-hop base, but we're used to it by now, aren't we? But I have to say: the gospel choir is a nice touch. Also, the singer goes full on Anthony Kiedis after the second chours, which, y'know, is kinda fun.

If you're familiar with Lita Ford's song, A Song To Slit Your Wrists By, you might not know that it was originally written by Nikki for his now ex-wife, Donna D'Errico. One day, Nikki found this song in his computer, with no memory of recording it so he “gave” it to Lita. This earlier version of Song to Slit Your Wrists By is a rude, raw and passive-aggressive letter that Nikki wrote for you to dedicate to your ex who treated you like shit. You might feel the lyrics of this one too much if you're not careful.

Stormy has the vibes of a song you'd hear in a dingy club at 3 am when everyone is passed out after a party and you're the only one sober; I dare to say it even resembles of grunge rock a bit. The lyrics are a very sweet dedication to Nikki's daughter, Stormy.

Killing Joke has a funk beat with – I'm not going to lie – confusing lyrics. From what I can understand, whoever wrote them wanted to depict the discomfort and degradation that a lot of American people have to live in and the author's hopelessness for the future. It sounds like a jam session more than anything, with random people who'd just join in for the fun of it.

"A bunch of musicians just came by and played. I don't even know who half of them are." - Nikki Sixx

The somber melody and lyrics of All My Heroes Are Dead paint a picture about the horrors of losing someone in the war. Not much to say: it sounds like a last goodbye to someone who fought and lost. I find similarities to Led Zeppelin's No Quarter in the instrumental section, which, intentional or not, is very fitting.

The cover of Alone Again (Naturally) is a re-visitation in r&b key of Gilbert O'Sullivan's classic. It's a mess, but strangely, it works.

Meanwhile, Who We Are ... It's just a mess of jumbled-up tracks. Yeah, that's the whole 1 minute and 52 song.

Conclusion

I don't really have much left to say about DFANA. It sure was a ride both the first time I listened to it and now. I have to be honest, as much as I consider this for what it is, namely “white men who try to make black people music”, I enjoyed it for its quirkiness and it sure was an attempt to try something new, to experiment, which is something I always appreciate. Don't get me wrong, it's trash, but it has that charm y'know? I highly recommend it, but only when you're going through something, just like Nikki was surely going through something while making this insanity happen.

All in all, I still look back at this album with fondness, and I don't regret spending like 4 bucks for the CD.

Final, very personal and unprofessional score: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

…the more things change, the more they stay the strange.

[starryluminary]

I think there should be a Noco zine. I think every Noco fan out there that can create should come together and compile their works in a zine or otherwise collaborate somehow

[scattered-winter]

the way that every single female love interest within kissing distance of buck or eddie always gets so so so SO SO much hate from every direction but tommy has had nothing but endless headcanons and fics and adoration right off the bat genuinely makes me feel insane. like i can't be the only person seeing this play out in real time right. hello can anyone hear me out there

[the-final-sif]

Hi Sif! I saw you addition to my post and I wanted to follow up and say that I did a more complete analysis looking at every character on the Dream SMP. I definitely didn't think my original post was going to spread as far as it did, since it was me just gushing my surface level thoughts. Part of the reason I followed up with a more thorough look was that I didn't want to let misinformation spread without actually looking at the full data.

I agree with some of your points but I would like to push a little and say that I do think that there is still a gender bias. While Hannah's situation might be more related to her later addition to the server and lack of prominent romantic relationships (beyond Tinarose, which still counts as a rarepair by numbers), the numbers for Niki are a significant outlier considering her early presence and involvement in numerous character/story arcs, especially compared to some characters that fared better than her.

I obviously can't control for every variable and every reason the numbers may show what they do. And there are many, many reasons people can and should use tags the way they do. But I think it is not too far-fetched to say that the Dream SMP fandom does have a problem with overusing tags that don't actually portray what happens in their fic AND with under-valuing characters with marginalized identities, which are partially reflected in the way relationship tags and character tags work together as they do today.

Here's the thing, I actually don't think that Niki's story count is weird at all, I think you may just be underestimating how popular certain pairings/platonic relationships are.

Let's take a comparison that I think is more than fair, c!Punz. Punz has a pretty comparable if not larger impact on the story than c!Niki. particularly towards the finales he plays different roles in them. But outside of c!Dream he doesn't have a lot of other major relationships that are popular in fanon, outside of him and c!Purpled. Despite this, c!Punz is often important to the plot, and he joined a full month before Niki did. Hell, he joined before Tubbo and just after Tommy.

But look at his top 10,

He does have 2/10 of his top relationships, but it's platonic/romantic drunz, so just different flavors of the same relationship. Outside of that, you see all the same super popular ships that you saw on ever other characters. It's just what happens in fandom.

As it turns out, some dynamics are just incredibly popular. DNF alone has nearly 25k fics written just for it. So honestly, with that many raw fics, it's hardly surprising that about 5% of them happen to feature Punz. Which ends up being more fics than the rest of his relationship category.

It's not that Punz is being incorrectly tagged in these fics, it's just that DNF is incredibly incredibly popular, and by virtue of that you end up here.

SBI similarly has about 21k fics, and Wilbur & Tommy have about 22k.

Niki's numbers aren't particularly weird, it's just that these particular dynamics are extremely popular. If you filter out just those three insanely popular dynamics, you get this,

Niki ends up in 4/10 (sorta 4/9 since one of these is just "no romantic relationships" which people use as a relationship tag for some reason rather than just putting that in additional tags).

I'm not saying that there aren't gender biases in how certain characters are treated. To some extent people often feel less comfortable shipping female creators because people in the past were being creeps about it and forcing it onto female creators in their chats (lots of creators had to address this with their chats, Techno included). Which will lead to a specific decline in the amount they get tagged in the ship section.

What I am saying is that I don't actually think there's a gender bias in how characters are tagged, and I don't think ship stats are a good way to prove that. Characters can be important to a story and not be tagged in the ship section. Also, frankly, a lot of times authors force in or tag a "popular" ship just to get more attention for their story, even if that ship isn't a huge part of the story.

I'm also not rely sure what exactly you want to see happen with a post like that. Like, should people not tag female characters that are relevant to their story if they're also tagging a really popular ship? I don't think that's a good idea. It is just kinda being the fandom police if that really is your take on it, if you come at it from the perspective that you get to decide how other people should tag. I know you said you weren't trying to be that, but like, that's how it comes off.

Some people will tag based on relevancy, some people tag as warnings. Both are valid methods of tagging, and you don't have a right to control how other people use their tags. That's something I believe very strongly in.

I've also never really been fond of turning enjoyment of characters into a moral thing either. People will enjoy what characters they connect to for any number of reasons, and shaming them for not enjoying particular female characters has never done anyone any good. I've seen it a thousand times before in every fandom I've been in and all it does is make people feel guilty. What actually does a lot more good is instead being excited about the female characters you like, and creating interesting fandom content for them that helps get other people interested.

If you want more people to be passionate about something, start from a point of passion, not a point of shame.

[rainbowsparklecur]

i am going to try to psychoanalyze myself hold on. i think one of the reasons i am always so scared of sharing my art and headcanons (especially headcanons,,) is because i spend a lot of time observing the homestuck fandom. a place that is from what ive seen filled with tons of different headcanons and interpretations of characters and also people yelling at each other and hyperanalyzing and vagueposting about said headcanons and interpretations of characters