#i don't even have a xitter

[wowowwild]

Heard you were looking for an excuse to post hot takes...

(rules)

Apollo doesn't like Phoenix and might straight up hate his ass send tweet.

At the start of aa4 Apollo tolerates this man at best. I don't necessarily defer to aa5 and aa6 canon bc the new writers came in and decided to wreck the place (yes there are things I like about them, no I do not think they are so horrible that I will never play them or that no one should ever play them, yes I am very upset they took everything aa4 set up and threw it out the window), however I do believe that Apollo could grow to understand what happened and become work friendly. This is ONLY if Phoenix apologizes well and actually walks him through it, but they both have 'I don't talk about myself or my feelings' disease so... Good luck. Oh, and if Phoenix actually did wait that long to tell him and Trucy they were siblings idk if their relationship could ever be repaired. Also I said work friendly bc let's be honest, the only reason he likes Trucy (and Athena if you're forcing me) is bc they are so outgoing they make up for his chronically introverted persona. (Of course after a certain point he's been through it with both of them and that creates a bond, but they wouldn't have gone through it together if Apollo was the one in charge of that.)

That being said I don't think he wants anything bad to happen to Phoenix. We see pretty quickly that Apollo is actually very sensitive to what is happening to other people. For example: when Trucy fake kidnaps herself he is whole ass bawling even though he pretty much doesn't know her. Not just an, oh man, this is awful, he is feeling and living and expressing those emotions with his whole self. Other example: He feels soooo bad that these people in Klavier's life suck. He devotes himself to 'pulling the darkness' out of a guy that by all accounts he doesn't really know or personally like (I think we have evidence that Apollo respects Klavier's ethics, even if his personality is a little glimmerous.) So I think if anything happened to Phoenix or it seemed like something was going to happen to him, Apollo would do everything he could about it. That doesn't mean he likes the guy.

And like, I work retail. I work with a ton of people that in any other situation I would never speak to, and yet I can still get excited for them and strike up in depth conversations with them while still going home and thinking 'Wow, that lady sucks'. Apollo is not going to be openly hostile or anything, he's just not going to give a whole lot in terms of a personal relationship.

Also I think Phoenix genuinely likes Apollo and I think he knows he likes Apollo a lot more than Apollo likes him. I think this would make him sad but he wouldn't try to force anything. And I think Phoenix genuinely feels bad and if there had been any other way forward he would have taken it but there wasn't and he didn't and he has accepted that this is part of the consequences of that.

[embracing-the-ineffable]

Beware clickbait accusations

Hi fandom, here's what happened yesterday: A reporter named Rachel Johnson, who is the sister to Boris Johnson and a big terfy supporter of JK Rowling, released a 4-part true crime podcast featuring two women accusing Neil Gaiman of SA. Yesterday. The day before the UK elections. This post explores the possible political links in more detail.

CW: this post is free of graphic details, but if you follow these links, there may be explicit descriptions of sex, kink, and bdsm, plus mentions of mental illness and suicidal thoughts.

I want to believe and support survivors, and I also want to base my thoughts and actions on facts. I thought the xitter livestream commentary from Not Becky for all 4 episodes was very insightful. There's also a first episode transcript without extra commentary. (Edit: released after I wrote this post: the full audio plus transcripts for all four episodes of the podcast are now available to download here, or you can read all four transcripts in your browser.) I have since concluded (pending more time to think and read and learn, or any new information, of course):

This seems like the worst kind of clickbait, an unjustified mess that will hurt everyone involved (except possibly a few politicians who might benefit somehow, we'll see). The evidence the "reporters" present directly contradicts their accusations. They're counting on people reading headlines and not digging any deeper.

They tried to make something sinister where there was apparently consent and a caring relationship. Have they exploited one or both of these women? S, in particular, is described as vulnerable and with a history of unspecified mental illness. They have all of the message history between S and Neil, and her messages make the sexy stuff between the two of them sound enthusiastically consensual. There are even messages (multiple!) where she specifically says everything was consensual. Here's one:

They're playing horror music in the background to try to make us feel horrified, even as S reassures us that things were consensual. It's emotional manipulation by the reporters.

The times S sounds upset during the interview are the times she talks about Neil leaving her behind or not paying attention to her. Not the times she talks about consent violations. Her stories during the interview are inconsistent, and they contradict her messages with Neil and with others. Maybe we'll get better information from a more reputable news source, or maybe not, I don't know. I also don't know why anyone who cares about her would have advised her to do this interview.

Then they tracked down lots of other women who know/have dated Neil and they all had glowing things to say, except one other lover from 20 years ago, K. She described some bad sex, and then pointed to a time in their 2-year relationship when she felt something wasn't consensual and he thought it was. And after their breakup, they continued to text and flirt, for decades.

This podcast "exposé" feels like explosive clickbait with political ramifications. The evidence here doesn't support a pattern of poor conduct so much as establish Neil as a fellow well-meaning human with imperfect judgement. That doesn't mean the accusations are all made up; intimate partner violence is complicated, and the responsibility for checking in and getting regular enthusiastic consent from partners is very real, especially when kink or bdsm are involved.

I don't know what the right balance is here between supporting survivors, thinking critically, assuming good intentions, and waiting for better information, but I feel confident that this podcast alone is not enough to condemn anyone aside from the irresponsible journalists who inflicted it on the rest of us.

PS/edit: I'm tagging my relevant posts (mostly reblogs) with #ineffable grief, and you can see all of them here.

[iregularlyevadetaxes]

btw careful what you comment on reddit rn because they're going a bit overboard with bans for "promoting violence" after the uhc shooting. like you don't even have to say anything explicitly violent for this to happen. they're trying to quiet the topic down in general on the site. really funny era for reddit. I mean i'm at least glad they're fixated on this right now instead of like, new campaigns harassing women and minorities over video games. well xitter has that covered I guess

[the-wip-project]

40k in 42 days. How does it work?

Hello writerly friends!

Let me answer a few FAQs regarding this project:

When does it start?

The first Sunday of August. For 2024 that's:

Start: 4th of August

End: 14th of September

I want to make this a yearly event.

Do I have to write 40k?

No. You don't have to do anything like that. I'm a strong supporter of individual, personal goals, and if your goal is higher or lower than 40k, that's totally fine.

Do I have to work on one thing the whole time?

No. You can switch projects however your inspiration guides you and just add up all the words for your daily wordcount. (Psst, I do this all the time!)

Do you have a website where we get pretty graphs as we count our words?

Well, I don't have one (maybe by next year I can get something to work, but my coding days are quite long ago and websites cost money...) but I suggest we use https://www.mywriteclub.com/ for now. It's been in beta for the last 10 years but it works. Create a project with September the 14th as the deadline and add me (barbex) as your friend, then we can see each other's progress.

Do we get some community?

I hope so. This is difficult but I'm trying my best to draw you all together. Mywriteclub will help with seeing how other people write, we also have a discord server with a check-in channel to post daily wordcounts and do some chatting. I'm also posting on Instagram (very screaming into the void there), Xitter (not sure if anybody sees posts there at all), and bluesky (the voidest of voids), but I feel the most comfortable here on tumblr. So here is where I will post the most with tips, advice, and motivational shenanigans (with the help of some friends, maybe).

A community needs action from everyone, so I would love to see (mention me) posts about your WIP, how you plan to write, what your mywriteclub name is so that other people can friend you there. I will also try to make daily posts from my writing blog, maybe even make some videos (???) and talk about my work(s) in progress.

40k in 42 days

Start: 4th of August

End: 14th of September

Let's write.

[writergeekrhw]

There's a Reddit screenshot going around (including here on Tumblr, Wil Wheaton reblogged a post about it) where a Trump supporter got whiny that at the Vegas convention this year, a couple of the Voyager actors were asked about their political beliefs by a fan, and they answered by praising Kamala Harris and condemning Trump and Trump supporters. This person on Reddit (not the same person who asked the politics question at the con) was upset because they felt they and their friends "learned that 7 of 9 hates them" and they were roundly made fun of for expecting that a Star Trek convention wouldn't contain anything that contradicts their MAGA beliefs given that, you know, it's such a progressive show where the future is LITERALLY luxury space communism, and where it has always spoken in favor of diversity.

This led to a bigger discussion about the place of politics in fandom spaces. I personally would understand not talking about electoral politics if we were in a normal election, like Obama vs. Romney, even though the Republicans even then advocated a lot of things that I think is at odds with what Star Trek says. But I don't think people who voted for them were necessarily hateful. I don't think they are people I can't share fandom with, you know? We can be friends. But I think with Trump people are hateful, or at the very least they're okay with hate, given how often he spews it and encourages it in his supporters. I'm a lesbian and I absolutely do feel less safe around people who wear MAGA hats in a way I just didn't around Romney or McCain or Bush supporters. My opinion personally is that it's probably a mistake and what got us to where we are today (sending this in late September 2024, where Harris is slightly up in the polls but it's still very close and Republicans are trying to ratfuck the vote in a bunch of swing states - maybe by the time you answer, the election will be over and we'll know?) that we didn't do enough to recognize that Trump support is either bigotry, or support for bigotry, in a way that should be socially unacceptable and treated as such. That we should have deployed more social shaming over it, especially in places that should be understood to be safe spaces for diverse groups of people, like the fandom of a series like Star Trek.

I was wondering what you thought about this topic. Personally, while I don't think American electoral politics need to be in every aspect of a convention, finding out that actors who played characters I like, writers who wrote shows I love, etc. are supportive of my basic civil rights, not just in broad platitudes but also in how they vote, is really heartening and makes me feel more "welcomed" in fandom. It makes me feel safer there. And the fact that Trump supporters feel excluded also makes it a safer space IMO, because I don't feel safe around those people. I have Republican friends - but none of them who have voted for Trump.

I commented on that while I was still on Xitter. I honestly worry Trump may pose an existential threat to our democracy. I think others feel similarly. I suspect Jeri Ryan, who's seen the rot inside the GOP firsthand, has particularly strong feelings about that as well. So it's no surprise she chose to speak out before the election. And it's certainly her right.

I think it's a bit silly for fans of a franchise that has a strong progressive POV to feel alienated when the artists involved in said franchise embrace its philosophy and choose to take a stand for it.

I worry for us all over the next four years, but the voters have spoken. We'll see how it goes.

[polygonal-trees]

Welcome new Transformers fans!

You might have seen this Don't Make Me Tap The Sign meme floating around. Transformers One has been out for a little while now so I want to expand on it as well as some other TF fandom things.

What does "Transformers doesn't have a set canon" actually mean?

Essentially, every new Transformers story is a reboot. They might draw from or expand on concepts from previous iterations but canonically each continuity family is separate. This means all lore is extremely flexible - origin stories, relationships, even personalities can change wildly between iterations and while some may be better or worse than others, they are all equally canon.

For example: Orion Pax was a dock worker in G1, an archivist in Prime, and a miner in TF One. None of these contradict each other.

Continuities also tend to share ideas without being directly connected. For example Transformers One draws from Transformers Prime in multiple ways (e.g. it features Airachnid) but it is not a prequel to Prime and in fact directly contradicts it. Yes I know there's a guy on xitter claiming tfone is a prequel to the Bay movies but he's wrong.

What is a continuity family?

Most storylines include tie-in novels, comics, video games, and other shows that all share the same canon.

The Aligned Continuity is the most well known. It consists of Transformers Prime, Rescue Bots, Rescue Bots Academy, Robots in Disguise 2015, multiple video games, and some tie-in novels and comics. They are all ostensibly set in the same canon... except the Aligned Continuity is inconsistent so even its lore is loose :')

My point is that while every continuity is separate, some shows are connected.

(Sorry if this is confusing. It is confusing. You get used to it)

What about fanon?

The Transformers franchise is old enough that a lot of fanon has become so pervasive it exists in a sort of nebulous space where it feels like it could be canon or at least become canon once enough fans are working for Hasbro but essentially: oh boy is there a lot of fanon

For example: seeker trines, doorwing speak, the Unicron Singularity and all forms of robot sex (sorry) are fanon, but they appear so often in fanworks that it's easy to get confused (I know I do!)

It's safest to assume something isn't canon unless you've seen it in a show (and even then, it may only be canon to that particular show)

Can I mix-and-match in my own fanworks?

Absolutely! It's very common for creators to set a story in one continuity but transplant a character from another, or use a different backstory, or borrow whole plot points from different canons. Chop up that lore and make a delicious continuity soup.

So why is this important?

It is very, very, very, very, very frustrating to be "corrected" about something that isn't relevant, or to see someone critisize a show based on lore that doesn't apply, or to have a character be called OOC when they're not, etc. I think a lot of fandom slapfights could be avoided if more people understood how loose Transformers canon actually is. Do what you want with your own creations but please be mindful when it comes to interacting with other people's.

This is A Lot

You don't have to know everything about Transformers to be in the fandom and have a good time - if you're only interested in TF One that is perfectly alright, you don't need to watch every show and read every comic and play every game to be considered a fan of something.

But if you want to find out more I recommend checking out the TFWiki - it isn't perfect but it gives a good rundown of most general lore as well as details about specific shows.

That's it from me. I hope this is helpful! It's the sort of thing I would have liked to read when I first joined the fandom haha

[txttletale]

Hey Healed this is honest to g-d a good faith question, but I wanted to ask why amongst the numeral tumblr alternatives, why are you moving/having presence (even if temporal) on Xitter?

Like don't get me wrong, fuck Matt and everything he's done to Avewy and any other transfem on tumblr. But like, Muskrat has not only openly showcased his extreme transphobia (he publicly misgenders one of his own children on media) to the point of slowly turning twitter in a perfect safe place and easy platform for ultra vile and potentially violent bigotry profiles like ValidLs or LibsofTiktok. But despite his fortune and Twitter being a sinking ship,, like, twitter *still* has massive cultural effect and he's *still* a well known billionaire and both of those things can do potentially greater harm to trans people than tumblr of matt could ever in a near future.

Swear I don't want to acuse you of hipocrisy nor bring the "99% hitler" shit now onto something like social media sites. But I honestly just would like some clarification because of the cognitive dissonance

i guess the answer to this is that i'm not plugging my other social media accounts out of moral outrage at photograph matthew's treatment of avery. like, obviously that's fucking horrible -- but i think that looking for an Unproblematic social media site is kind of a quixotic endeavour and not something i'm interested in doing. the reason i'm plugging my cohost/bsky/twitter is because i value the people i've met on this site and want to have ways to keep in contact with them in case something happens to my blog, which the recent debacle has made me acutely aware is a possiblity i should be prepared for.

[brothermoth]

Some of y'all are grown ass fucking adults who didn't pay attention in English class and make it OUR problem now. No, somebody is not a bad person for liking a villain character. Human morality is not black and white like that, and all you are doing is stripping writers of our chance to make you think for once in your goddamn life. Antagonists play a role more than antagonizing. They're meant to tell you something about yourself, about the world, about relationships.

Just because I think a character is interesting will never ever mean I condone or agree with the things they do. It's fiction, in real life I would despise them, but because they're not real I can toy with them in Google docs like a little puppet. This is not the 1600s anymore where you're terrified to make one wrong move lest you be sent straight to hell do not pass go do not collect 200 dollars.

If you're going to be an avid consumer of media, at least learn how to analyze it. Don't be reactionary xitter users, please?

--this is about red dead redemption I'm sorry--

BUT Micah is a bad person. We all agree. We shan't defend the things he does or believes because despite being unfortunately average opinions of the time, his actions do little but hurt the people around him.

YET he's just some guy, at the end of the day. He's a reflection of Arthur, of who he could potentially have been if his father hadn't been hanged and had kept him around. Arthur has the same potential to be Micah as Micah has to be Arthur. Hell, his brother left and started a family, he could've done so as well. The game is about choice. It's about actively choosing to do the right thing, even if the right thing is a bit questionable sometimes. You cannot in good faith aim your staunch moral opinions toward this game. You miss so much nuance and important conversation that the writers wanted you to have. Arthur isn't some golden retriever good boy, he's done terrible things and acknowledges that. He beat a man with a terminal illness to death over like thirty bucks, and he thought nothing of it until he got sick himself. Arthur had his chances to leave too, but he dug his heels in the same as Micah did, he refused to take that opportunity and resigned himself to being a violent arm of the gang.

Kill the puritan worms in your brains guys. Please. Use the thinking meat, that's what it's there for.

[damnfandomproblems]

Posting a compilation of replies to Fandom Problem #5796.

Anon:

"Don't you think that minors would be more polite if..." No. No I don't. I was a minor in fandom. I also grew up at the dawn of the internet age and had internet safety pounded into my head from the age of 10 onward. If I interacted online at all outside of viewing and reading, I knew better than to be an asshole, because the internet has always been an adult sphere. I saw other minors get well deserved internet smackdowns for acting stupid online. If the kids are in actual kids spaces, then fine, leave them alone, that's their space. If they're on Xitter or Tumblr.com or A03 and acting the fool? No. You're in an adult space, interacting with adults, and those adults aren't there to cater to or coddle you. Which media the adult in question happens to like is irrelevant. You came into our spaces and started throwing a shit fit because you, a minor, didn't like what you, a minor, saw in our, adults, adult spaces. Most of the time we don't care if you're being cringe and having fun. Go, have fun, be cringe be free all that. Some kids are great and here to learn and have fun and are able to actually read the fandom room and know how to act like a respectable human while also having a good time. But if you're being antagonistic and hateful because you literally just are not mature enough to handle/comprehend what's going on in the space, then you don't need to be in the space at worst. At best, sit down, hush, and learn rather than running at the mouth about how you hate x y z thing because eww icky or you think it's problematic to your current pet social issue that doesn't even have anything to do with it. Kids are some of the biggest natural bullies out there. Kids being assholes to each other isn't just a trope, it's why secondary school/highschool was hell for so many people. Adults aren't all assholes, we're just better at calling kids out on their bullshit and don't have the patience for the "but I'm a minor" nonsense. Being a minor doesn't mean you're free from consequences, but some of y'alls parents clearly never taught you that. They aren't puritans, they're being idiots because they literally have no concept of fandom history and are just parroting nonsense that's been spoon-fed to them by other idiots. And rather than question things like anyone with critical thinking skills should be doing they take it all at face value and believe their own poor understanding or lack thereof is gospel, and everyone suffers for it, including other minors who also don't know better.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anon:

Fandom isn't just for minors though. Adults are allowed to be in fandoms even if it is uncomfy to minors. Adults are allowed to make NSFW of fictional characters in fandom if they want to. If minors don't like it, they can just ignore it. If minors want to be respected, they should also respect adults in fandom spaces. Complaints like "adults shouldn't be here" or "you are an adult, go get a job instead!" does not make you any better.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anon:

I agree with this tbh. Like adults are the ones making things unsafe for minors in fandom spaces. YOU are the ones who approach minors unprompted. Minors are just minding their own business in fandom, then you all come along and bother everyone.

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Anon:

I agree with this post, cause like... the ones doing the most harassing are adults. I am a minor, and it makes me feel unsafe in fandom spaces. Especially when I see adults drawing nsfw of characters who are MINORS! aging them up does not excuse that gross and creepy behavior. Just stop and give us a space where we don't get pushed into a corner and called annoying. Leave our fandom spaces!

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Anon:

When I was 17 so technically a technically still a minor I would have to keep my age off of all my blogs and accounts because so many other minors have ruined being younger in a fandom space. Literally just having my age up affected my numbers and how seriously I was taken. Y’all are not innocent though stop playing victim there are valid reasons why people don’t like you. Tons of younger kids these days are entitled overly sensitive and somehow both pretentiously “woke” and super disrespectful at the same time. So yea saying this as someone with pretty recent memories of being a minor online so many of you are actually insane and people not feeling comfortable around you is completely valid especially when you’re typing stuff like this up as your best defense. Especially with darker or NSFW stuff you don’t have to look we aren’t shoving down your throat you chose to be here just look away.

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Anon:

I see people getting mad about Fandom Problem #5796, but that kind of is just proving the point? You all act like the minors are the biggest problem in fandom, but you are the ones constantly inserting yourselves and making it about you. I see adults say things like: - "Fandom wouldn't exist without adults." - "Who do you think created fandom? Not minors!" - "Minors wouldn't have content if it weren't for adults." All are ignorant of the idea that minors are the foundation to fandom. Fandom would not exist if it wasn't for minors being interested in it and starting groups for people to join. Often times, the best artists and writers in the fandoms are THE MINORS. Adults make the space uncomfortable by inserting themselves and putting NSFW fics and art of minor characters. Then they get pissy when a minor points out it makes them uncomfortable and go "stop invading our space!" You are the ones trying to push minors out when we just want to have fun! Just leave us alone! -A minor

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Anon:

Of course, 5796 has a corollary: "To the minors who constantly complain about adults in fandom being mean to them: don't you think adults would be more polite to minors if said minors didn't make fun of them, didn't treat them like shit everywhere they went, didn't blame them for all the problems on the internet, didn't publicly shame them for minor social faux pas, didn't call them "pedophiles" for anything from liking an icky ship to saying two words to a minor in passing to just existing peacefully in a space where a child might theoretically be present, and didn't try to gatekeep them out of fandom spaces that were literally made by and for them?? And don't give me that "well we just want to be safe! 🥺" Bs. Because if that were in any way true, then y'all would be listening to the safety tips that the adults are giving you, not using them as a scapegoat for anything bad happening in fandom and generalizing them as these eeeevil predators who just hate children." It doesn't matter what your age is; if you refuse to behave in a given space, then you won't be welcome in that space.

[scarefox]

The way I see the most ridiculous poohpavel edits in my feet because Pavel reposts them himself on his accounts. You don't even have to go in the tags on tiktok or xitter, just check this mans account and find gems like this:

[trisscar368]

You absolutely need to realize that real people fiction is absolutely dehumanizing to real life people when you make up headcannons about them and turn them into fictional characters to jerk off to in fanfics. It is absolutely not ok in any way shape or form. and it is, actually, sexual harassment to make someone know "everyone" wants to jerk it to them.

How does RPF differentiate from AI porn art of actors? drawings depicting actors in sexual situations? because its words, its ok? because theyre a celebrity, they're not human and therefore public property to use their humanity however you please?

the complete lack of consideration of the real life person you are turning into a toy is so repulsive. the amount of youtubers alone who have had to come out and say how uncomfortable it makes them should be enough. You should not be acting until told not to; its something you should only do IF they very clearly condone it. but even then, the gall to ask someone "can I write a romance novel about you and who" is absolutely an offputting thing to ask of anyone.

No, not because "sex is taboo" but because forcing unwarranted things like that on absolute strangers, is sexual harassment.

Reading comprehension questions:

Did OP advocate for harassing celebrities in the original post?

No. The entire point of the post was listing out ways that fandom harasses celebrities and telling them to cut that shit out.

Did OP state that people should tell celebrities about their fantasies?

No. That is... quite literally antithetical to the original post. Fascinated how you're agreeing with so much of my post and yet falling so flat at the end.

Did OP say anything about their personal interaction with RPF that might have an impact on how seriously they can take this anonymous message?

Yes. OP mentioned in the post that rpf is a squick that they blacklist. OP is not mushing any celebrities together like toys, either literally or metaphorically. OP is almost wondering if you got them confused with some other cabbage on the internet.

Reading comprehension: 0/10

There is -- and this is the part that truly I cannot let slide without commentary -- an equivalency in your message between people having and talking about fantasies (RPF existing) and the act of harassment. Let's look at the definition of harassment really quick.

Repeated or continuing unconsented contact that would cause a reasonable individual to suffer emotional distress and that actually causes the victim to suffer emotional distress.

Key word there? Contact.

People in a youtube comment section telling the youtuber how sexy they are, or how cute they are with their co-host omg my ship is so squee? Harassment. Contact has been made, the people doing are in that creator's forum space. Do not pass go do not collect $200.

Someone unsolicitedly tagging the cast of a tv show in explicit rpf fic or explicit art on Instagram, xitter, tik-tok, etc? Harassment, that individual is initiating contact with the actor. Same way endless phone calls constitutes harassment.

Sending anything explicit to an actor's family? Waaaay harassment. Possibly stalking as well, depending.

Someone writing a fic on ao3? Not harassment. It's not being sent to the celebrity. There is no contact, the only way they know about it is to go looking themself or have a friend send it to them (and hey, don't be that friend unless you've asked if it's okay).

Explicit fanart posted in fandom spaces? Not harassment.

Fic and art that stays behind the fandom wall? When no contact is made, there is no harassment.

It is not the existence of the fantasy that causes problems, it's the celebrities constantly having to hear about it. That's harassment.

Art existing, fic existing, discussions or fantasies existing do not constitute harassment. Someone writing fanfic and sharing it with their friends is not forcing it onto the celebrity. Someone expressing a sexual desire to a third party is not forcing either the desire or the act on the celebrity.

Thoughts are not actions.

This is a hill I will die on. This is a hill we should all die on, honestly, but as a someone who grew up with OCD, the fact that my intrusive thoughts don't alter reality is really fucking important.

Being out in the sunlight will not kill my friends. Calling the wrong phone number will not result in my family dying over the following few days.

Having a sexual impulse, having desire, does not itself alter reality. Saying those thoughts out loud, admitting that someone is hot, that they have chemistry with a costar? Writing it down to share? Has as little impact on reality as the rituals I had to repeat endlessly as a kid to keep the Bad away.

RPF is not an act of assault. It is not, inherently, harassment.

Is fandom really bad at keeping the fourth wall up? Yeah. There are a lot of people who harass celebrities and think it's fine, because the celebrity is rich and they can just go cry into their money. (To be clear, I think that's bullshit.) But again, constantly, endlessly, it's what people do that matters.

“You’d have done the same,” said Lily. “No,” said Granny. “I’d have thought the same, but I wouldn’t have done it.” “What difference does that make, deep down?” “You mean you don’t know?” said Nanny Ogg.

[literaticat]

Just curious because of the drama currently happening in the Romance community, what happens financially if an author does something that turns public opinion against them and the publisher decides to cancel their next book? Does the author still get paid the full amount? Just what they've already been given, and no more? Do they have to repay everything?

I have not heard of any drama in the romance community, what did I miss? (I don't go on xitter anymore thank goodness, and my life is better because of it, but that means I do miss out on some dramz!)

As for your question, that depends what's in the author's contract.

VERY generally speaking, if the author just kinda got unpopular -- because of some internet beef, because of lies somebody told, just general dogpiling, but they didn't actually do anything WRONG per se, the publisher might not care and just release the book anyway -- like, internet drama usually affects a VERY SMALL part of the potential audience, even if it feels huge from where you are standing, the reality is, people outside the bubble of social media or whatever often have no clue what is happening. (See the fact that I, a pretty well connected person who is IN the book industry and loves gossip, have zero idea what gossip you are talking about! IF I don't know, I promise you, most readers won't know either!)

BUT, if the dogpile really is quite awful and the publisher (or even the author AND the publisher) are just feeling like releasing a book into this climate would make everything worse -- they probably would be able to keep what they had already been paid and the book would be delayed. Maybe it would be released at a later date, or replaced with a different book at a later date if/when the storm blows over, or just delayed indefinitely / cancelled quietly.

If the author actually did something TERRIBLE -- like was credibly accused of something illegal/horrible, or admitted to doing something illegal/horrible, or was convicted of a crime -- basically if the author's deeds have totally changed their reputation and the way they would be perceived by the audience -- (like hey, we signed up a TEACHER, but turns out you are a MOLESTER) -- then yes, they would probably have to repay everything they had been paid for unreleased books (again, depending what it says in the contract).

But important to say, this doesn't count if the publisher knew about bad shit going in. Like, if they signed up a contract with some rock star who is known for being outspoken/offensive and doing drugs -- and then suddenly it comes out that he has... gotten high and done something outspoken/offensive? Too bad, publisher, YOU KNEW what you were signing up, and presumably you signed him up BECAUSE he was "wild"/"outspoken" -- his reputation with the public hasn't changed since you signed him up -- so you can cancel the book if you want, obvs you don't HAVE to publish anything -- but no, he probably will NOT have to repay you.

[raconteur-wanpi]

Holy shit I'm so glad I'm not on Twitter, I just saw someone say that if you think Sanji & Usopp have any parallels or anything interesting about their dynamic to be explored whatsoever you must "really hate Sanji" or "be delusional and not be reading the text" like. Huh??????????? Where is this malice coming from what is going on. Usopp hate is insane. What did he ever do to you he's just a silly guy. Where is this anger coming from. This is so foreign to me I'm genuinely flabbergasted. Didn't know that exploring the potential of a character dynamic somehow means you must hate or must be putting down other dynamics said characters might have. Is this Shipbrain? Is this "it threatens my other hot yaois that I like better"? Are we in 2012? No room for interpretation and character dissection anymore? Even on a platonic level this bothers you????

"Sanji ONLY has parallels or interesting dynamics with THESE specific sets of characters, and bringing up anyone else means you disrespect those" what. That's. Not how that works it's not a Limited Resouce. I've talked about his dynamics with Franky, Luffy, Robin, the rest of the Vinsmokes, with Chopper, etc. Does that mean... I hate Sanji??? Huh? Can anyone hear me. Tumblr is such a joyous heaven, what's going on in other social media sites. Hello????

Let love and whimsy into your heart brother, it's OK. Literary analysis is fun. Some things are not direct text, sometimes you have to dig into it and that's part of the fun. It's really fun actually. And it can still 100% respect the original text and not be baseless. You Don't have to agree with every interpretation. Certainly, you wouldn't assume someone "hates" a character they've shown consistent obsession and love for right? Right?

This is a silly shounen manga. It's a book club we're all a gay ass book club here. A gay ass book club about a Saturday morning action comic book aimed at teens and young adults. I can guarantee you my takes, even if misguided sometimes, come from a place of love and passion of the text and its analysis, and it's OK if it looks a bit absurd to you. Sometimes I exaggerate in my excitement when I'm trying to make a point because I'm just rambling late at night on my personal small blog or whatever, and then I think my meta over and come to slightly different or more nuanced conlcusions etc. It's a progress of constant dissection. But such strong language to what I have to say, to the point of wild assumptions and misinterpretation of my points is.... a strange reaction to have. Especially behind the back of the people you're disagreeing with. This Dissing Session Could Have been A Private Discord Bonding Ritual Instead of A Public Display of Condescension.

Sorry for putting all this negativity and petty pointless 2014 level fandom discourse on your dash but I just need to make sure I'm not insane. I'm never leaving this site, I'm so glad I deleted my xitter account like a few months ago.

[starwarsfandomh8speopleofcolor]

"Disney, IBM are among Advertisers Returning to X After Ad Freeze" Disney doing business with Elon Musk again even after confirmation that Musk will be officially part of the Trump administration doesn't surprise me. "Comcast, Disney, and Lionsgate did not respond to media requests about this" They ally themselves with the far right but don't want to comment on it? I remember when John Boyega criticized Disney and many adult Disney fans harassed him, he was right to stay away from that trash.

X’s former top advertisers including Comcast, IBM, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Lionsgate Entertainment, have resumed ad spending on the platform this year, albeit at much lower rates than before. From January to September 2024, marketing intelligence platform MediaRadar found that these brands collectively spent less than $3.3 million on X. This is a 98% year-over-year drop from the $170 million spent during the same period in 2023. These brands, along with Apple, paused their campaigns in November 2023 after their ads appeared next to antisemitic content and hate speech, exacerbated by X owner Elon Musk endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory, which spooked many advertisers.

I'm not surprised being in Trumps administration is legitimizing Musk. But honestly yeah I'm glad they're not spending nearly as much money on xitter as they used to.

mod ali

[ultraericthered]

Whitewash Fit For A King

Somewhat related to the post I just made.

It's quite ironic given King Magnifico's cult leader-like status in the film that there exists a small but still sizeable (for this site at least) amount of Wish viewers who make up a cult following of Magnifico stans. And when I say this, I mean they're all that kind of villain stan.

Oh no no no no no...

Yeah, it partially gives me more cause to resent the filmmakers of Wish including both scenes with the burnt tapestry of Magnifico's sad childhood trauma-related past that spurred him towards creating his kingdom in the final cut ("If only I'd known magic back then...", "so THAT doesn't happen again!"), but at the same time, I feel like even without those moments, these people would've found some way of woobifying and saintifying the character and act as apologists for his villainy. After all, this has happened with virtually every fictional villain in existence in the history of ever. These kinds of stupid, immature simps who don't want to look in the eye the reality that their faves are problematic to the point of being literal evil villains have always existed, and a character like Magnifico is hardly the most perplexing case of this. I recall long ago reading the opinion pieces of someone who was an apologist for Scar from The Lion King, trying to paint him as a lifelong victim and Mufasa as the real villain (can't wait for the upcoming Mufasa movie to re-ignite THOSE takes!). On Xitter I once came upon someone who actually simped for and woobified fucking Ghetsis from Pokemon, projecting all sorts of mental illness and disabilities onto him while insisting that the character had some redeemability that has never once been shown to exist in canon. Even on here, there are people who stan Phillip Wittebane/Emperor Belos from The Owl House, to the point where they maliciously trivialize the religious trauma that Dana Terrace had to grow up with so that they can act like she's petty for "vilifying" the literal villain of her own goddamn story. And I don't even need to get started on the "Magneto Is Never Wrong" subgenre of villain apologism that you can find all over social media. These stans are all absolutely koo-koo!

I've seen this whitewashing/apologism garbage for villains spewed out ad nauseum and the Magnifico simps all sound the same as what I've seen out of those other villain simps - "He deserved better, he wasn't at fault for his mental downward spiral that Asha, the citizens of Rosas, and even his wife drove him to, how dare Disney vilify the mentally ill and victims of trauma like this, blah blah blah blah." And yet there was still one in particular with takes that made me go:

To be specific, it was the very same "Rainbow the Clown" take that this post gave a mention to. The person in question felt the need to mention that they're a Christian (and I hate that in the Trump era, that has become almost a red flag for me), and that as such, they believe that all black magic/dark magic has demonic roots and that they can recognize a demonic possession when they see one. Their interpretation of the film's events, which had absolutely zero basis in anything that was made the least bit explicit in the film itself, was that Magnifico reading from the tome of forbidden magic gave some anonymous demonic entity that progenerated that magic access into Magnifico's soul, mind, and body, and it overtook him. Therefore, everything Magnifico went on to do cannot be blamed on Magnifico himself, as he was "possessed" at the time, not in his right state of mind and not truly aware of the reality around him anymore. And this is why it was so cruel that he ended up punished rather than saved.

Yeah, about that. In the actual movie, there's zero mention of demons or otherworldly entities tied to that spellbook. The black magic itself that is conjured out from the book once the pages are read from and is able to make the spells and curses described within the book work is its own natural force. Its capabilities are destructive and once it bonds with its caster, it poisons their mind with an unbreakable addiction to using it, so that's why it was considered "forbidden" to start with. Magnifico unseals the tome and reads from its pages during his grievance-laden villain song, and we see this:

The magic comes out like green arms or ropes that coil around both of Magnifico's hands, and once they do, we see that green magic juice flow right inside of Magnifico, which briefly makes his eyes glow green as well. This is not "possession" - this is amalgamation. This magic binds itself to Magnifico like a symbiote, and in turn Magnifico is one with the magic now, committed to wielding it and making it manifest as awesome power to service his whims and desires. The literal next thing that happens after is the green fading from the king's eyes as he goes "Where was I? Oh yeah." After the process has be done, he shakes it off and resumes his singing, only now with the green dark magic at his disposal to freely use however he pleases. The magic and the destabilizing effect it has on Magnifico's mental state as he uses it to break and ingest magically contained wishes was not the cause of his turn to evil: it was the consequence of it.

And let's say that the book did contain a demonic entity that made the magic happen and it went into Magnifico to influence him from within a la Myotismon with Yukio Oikawa. It was still Magnifico's own damn fault because he chose to go back on his word to his wife and open up the forbidden book. He's no more absolved of calling out the demon than Mok Swagger is for deliberately summoning a demon to devour his own concertgoers. And no, "but he's just so traumatized!", "he's mentally ill with anxiety issues and was having a breakdown!", or "Asha and those selfish, ungrateful citizens drove him to it!" don't erase Magnifico's agency and capacity for making choices that he did, even in a limited time, think through and decided to go for it anyway. I'm not into the discourse over whether or not Magnifico could be redeemed or if he "deserved redemption" or not, but if you'd like to see a character's redemption, they need to have done some unjustifiable wrongs or else there's nothing to "redeem" them for!

(There was another Magnifico cultist who was a little more on point and likened the book and its magic to a substance abuse metaphor, drawing parallels between Magnifico and the character of Jack Torrance from Stephen King's The Shining. But they specifically paralleled his situation with King's Jack Torrance, when in the actual canonical narrative of the actual movie, Magnifico is Kubrick's Jack Torrance - the alcohol addiction isn't there to draw his inner demons back out so that a demonic entity can better use him and ultimately possess him, it's there to reveal who he always truly was deep down, which is what he becomes when he discards anything and everything in him that beforehand was reigning him in and holding him back.)

Another argument for the demonic possession theory? This part here in the climax, cited as the moment the entity was exorcised from Magnifico, leaving him confused and afraid of what he awoke to find himself currently facing before getting oh so wrongfully imprisoned.

....Folks, that's literally Sakina's wish, the first wish he broke and absorbed into himself through use of his newly acquired dark magic, coming back out from him. The green glow is there because, as just stated, it was that green dark magic that was used to eat the wishes in the first place. The green eyes and green glow fade from Magnifico to signify his power weakening. All the wishes that he absorbed after Sakina's come out from him following this. And if he'd really snapped out of a possession and was back to being his true "good" self at that point, why would the first thing out of his mouth be "NO! THOSE ARE MY WISHES!"? And if the demonic dark magic entity was gone, then where do the green magic hands that drag Magnifico into the tip of his scepter come from? The magic did not leave him because it cannot leave him; it's a part of him, he's a part of it. Reading from the pages of that book even once made him committed to the magic. It's a symbiotic bond and there's no breaking it. That was the point!

Last argument for this crackpot idea I saw from this person was that "high on green-colored dark magic" Magnifico cannot possibly be a valid representation of the king's true character because....his face when we first met him looked so handsome and kind! Look at him!

It's the same ol' "Hans' Twist Villain reveal was bullshit because he was not set up like a villain at any point beforehand, meaning he was not a villain until that very moment, and we can tell this because he never LOOKED evil!" argument, the one that usually relied on a single moment of Hans giving a sweet looking yet condescendingly fond and amused grin to himself after having met Anna that ignores all context, and is based on the idea that only cartoon caricatures of delightfully foul and obvious evilness have to exist to play the villain in place of realistic people in a Disney animated movie, as in real life, evil people aren't easy to identify just by looking at them. The thing is that some Disney villains, arguably all the way back to the likes of Stromboli and the Coachman in Pinocchio, serve as reflections of the dangers of people that have existed and still do exist in the world. King Magnifico is that for the covert narcissist in a position of authority that they're prone to abuse. Yeah, he won't always have EVIL BASTARD written all over his face, but there's context for why that is. In that first image, he's just talking to another person when that person is applying for a job working for him, and as such he plays the part of the kind, charming, generous and benevolent king. In the second image, he's looking at the wishes. The beauty within those magic wish orbs and the splendor their magic gives off make him very happy; that's part of why he hoards as many as possible.

That is King Magnifico.

^ And THAT is ALSO King Magnifico.

He's a villain. He visibly enjoys being a villain. He is valid as a villain. Let villains be villains and love them for that, dammit!

[interstellarbozo]

You're fucked.

Also a few notes:

The image of Boyfriend here depicts Bayse from Silicoviel (Xitter)'s FNF au.

Boombox.exe is Sonic.exe here. He's a meme who I'm pretty sure was started by _noobyday (again, Xitter) even though he became public domain now so that's cool. I guess he can also be called Aristides if you want him to be Xenophanes and not just Sonic.exe.

Kyle and Tom are actually OCs, named Carson and Samuel respectively. As for the images, they're both posterized versions of that one liquid nitrogen scene from Jason X as well as that moment in Face Off (Breaking Bad) where Gus is just missing half of his face.

That weird purple Boombox.exe is actually supposed to represent that fusion thingy Coil has. Technically he shouldn't be able to use it, but I don't care. Get bent. Noob.

For Hyper Xenophanes, Boombox.exe just straight up gearmelts with the fabric of reality itself. Yikes.

That weird green capped guy in Mario.HTML/Heraclitus' place is Flanker from Typical Colors 2 (cuz well, tf2 vs overwatch).

Finally, rest assured that besides all the guys I've mentioned, everyone in this image actually appears officially in the Phighting game/universe one way or another.

This doesn't have anything to do the image, but I DO NOT SUPPORT SMASH BANDICOOT. You aren't paying him out of your own wallet just by listening to his stuff, ESPECIALLY now that he's gotten wiped off of the YouTube platform.