#i dont want people to get discouraged from shipping something they like because they dont feel like being a proshipper

[b0ylik3r]

I dont wanna get myself involved in any more ZADR discourse, but I also don't want misinfo to spread around and people to get discouraged or anything like I had been for a while. So I'm going to say this: Zim in Invader Zim is most likely a child.

There are a plethora of reasons I think this, but if you don't care then scroll. I'm going to provide my reasoning under the cut.

My first reason is that from a writing standpoint, there is absolutely nothing appealing about the dynamic between Dib and Zim if Zim is an adult. What would or do you find enjoyment out of their dynamic if they are not meant to be foils of one another like the show HEAVILY implies them to be NUMEROUS TIMES? If Zim is a child, their dynamic becomes "2 children want parental approval and go against each other for it, when in reality the approval and love they seek is unattainable because the parental figures will never give them it. They would be better off being friends or allies, but instead keep fighting to be loved because they're dumb kids and don't realize that it's fruitless and dumb". If Zim is an adult, their dynamic becomes "Immature man cannot beat child". What is to be enjoyed or explored there?

My second reason is that Zim acts like a child in a multitude of different ways. His interactions with The Tallest, his general immaturity, and even how he surrounds himself. He goes to school. He has made himself robot parents to support that idea. He needs different disguises to act like an adult. Again, from a writing standpoint, if he was an adult infiltrating a school building and pretending to be a kid, that's just fucking weird. I don't think Jhonen is that type of person. I don't think the writers are that type of people.

Also on this subject is the episode Tak: The Hideous New Girl. At the point of the episode, Zim was trying to impress and "crush on" and be the boyfriend of this middle school girl. It doesn't matter if Tak was actually irken. It doesn't matter if she is the same age as him actually. It doesn't change that Zim was trying to get into a human relationship with what he thought was a middle school girl. If he is an adult, that's pretty fucking weird. Again, I don't think Jhonen is that type of person and I don't think the writers are that type of people.

The "flying ships before you were born" only proves that on Irk, he was an adult or at least the age that would permit him to fly ships. Calendars are manmade, why would irkens use the same years? Zim's age could also easily translate into human years into the late tween years. We also have to think logically about things.

Also, I sometimes feel like people are forgetting that Irk is a dystopian society. They are a hyper-militarized alien race that codes people's brains on the daily and does not wait for the children to grow up even a little before they start military training (or, at least training for military training). What morals prevent them from using child labor or child soldiers? We also have to remember that in accordance to The Trial, Zim was a smeet or older allowed into violent chemicals and resources that can kill, like it did Tallest Miyuki and Tallest Spork. That, in a way, proves that Irkens are not above dangerous child labor.

One other argument I have is that in Enter The Florpus, during the species change clip, Zim, Dib and Gaz switch species. The thing is, Dib and Gaz look the same as Zim in this clip. They don't become little smeets, they don't become tiny kids. They become Zim's age. Zim also does not become an old man in this clip. He stays the same as Dib and Gaz. Being that these are their canon human/irken translations, I don't see how someone could still defend this.

You could take all of this and say "Okay, but ZADR is still proship because they are abusive to each other so why are you so pressed". But like I said in a previous post, there is a major difference between "haha 2 people fight each other n get hurt haha" and "this adult man is grooming this child sexually". That's not funny. That isn't cartoony. That is a fully serious topic taken seriously in every single media that it is represented in. Cartoony unserious fighting has been a staple for years in animation and media. Grooming is not cartoony. That is why so many people have a problem with it. Some people don't enjoy shipping things that are seriously fucked up in the real world like that, or shipping proships.

This all started because of one singular tweet Jhonen made that you all believed. I bet if he tweeted "guys invader zim didnt actually happen and dib was hallucinating the whole time, lmao dream theory is canon", some of you would believe it.

I leave you off with this: "If it looks, sounds & acts like a kid, it's a kid, no matter if it's actually 1000 years old or not."

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

I want to quit a03 and just delete all my current fanfictions, i haven’t updated any of them in months. I’m tired lol. The main reason why is I haven’t been getting a lot of interactions on my recent stuff and Ik that’s not the point of writing fanfics but idk it’s a nice from motivation. I’m an attention whore, sue me.

What i’m asking i guess is how do u stay motivated??? I have a lot of ideas for things but no drive to make them a reality.

(You probably can tell who i am from this lol but its kinda embarrassing so i wanted to keep it anon)

Oh dude I absolutely get it, for real. While we ultimately write for ourselves, a lack of engagement is REALLY discouraging! I’ve said before that I went through a REAL mental struggle writing The Webs In The Rafters specifically, and that still stands. I had a lot of super nice commenters, and that helped a lot, but it was so, so, sucky to see no engagement other than the same six people. As grateful as I was for them, I really wanted more interaction. I’d see the comment count go up, but no new kudos, and I’d feel like I was failing.

I almost dropped that fic. The only reason I didn’t was my dearest boxwinebaddie regularly doing cartwheels in the comments and messaging me about the story. Encouragement from an author you admire helps SO MUCH and I want to be that person to someone someday!!! The community of ao3 can be toxic, for sure, but it’s so kickass to see the same handful of people in someone’s comms every time you read something from a certain writer!

And man, I am absolutely an attention whore. I thrive on attention. I may be an agoraphobic asshole with no friends other than my partner irl and I may literally panic so bad that I faint when I get spoken to, but we are HUMAN!!! Validation is fucking NICE!!! Being a person sucks absolute ass and confirmation that we’re doing something right helps a lot!

The only advice I have on staying motivated: I’m just fuckin insane. And I’ve said before that the ONLY reason I started writing was bc I had an extremely specific set of tags I wanted to see. I wanted to see more style injury recovery and at the time, a lot of the style fics out there were literally just boring high school aus or Stan being suicidal and I was like helll no let’s switch it up! So I assumed my mission of renovating that ship tag. I wanted sot style h/c with an ungodly amount of comfort? I was gonna have to write it. And that expanded to all aus. I developed the OrangeJuiceVerse specifically with the message of healing as the central theme. And it means so much to me. What I’m getting at is that your work really does have to have something there that’s important to you. If it’s just all random drama with no reconciliation, it’ll be really draining on you and fall flat in your mentality surrounding it.

Another thing is: if you don’t feel like updating, DONT! It’s fanfiction. It’s something you’re putting on the Internet for free. If you aren’t 100% happy with a chapter, there is no obligation to post it! Also, if you aren’t feeling up to working on a wip, mentally or physically, you don’t have to! Come back to it when you are!

On obligation, something I struggle with is my own self imposed habit of daily updates on multichapters. I usually go really wild when I start a new au, and I’ll write for it every day. But for instance, right now, it’s been a couple since I’ve posted a new chap on In The Truly Gruesome. And I have felt some guilt about that, bc I’ve sort of garnered this reputation as someone who updates frequently on multichaps, but I haven’t been feeling so great, so writing isn’t my top priority. A couple lines here and there are what I can manage, and that’s okay! Again, it’s fanfiction. Ultimately, it matters to us as the author, the story can mean the world to us, but we shouldn’t feel obligated to update, because above all we are PEOPLE with LIVES!!!

It’s also important to remember not to treat ao3 as social media. Yes it’s kickass to form a community of like minded authors who all support each others stuff, but it isn’t something that should be expected. And I CANNOT stress enough how important it is not to feel obligated to work on something just bc someone wants you too. I’m a hypocrite, yeah, considering I had no intention of continuing my TFBW oneshot “We Did It We Are A Good Team” until I had someone commenting on my unrelated works asking for a second chapter. I don’t regret writing ch 2, btw, like im really happy with it, but I did cave under pressure to some degree. And that’s not something we should do when writing. Write for YOURSELF and (unless you’re doing an ask book or something) NO ONE ELSE!!!

That’s what I got my dude. If you feel strongly about what you’re writing, by all means write it. If you don’t, don’t feel obligated. I hope this helped!

[boobsoutforbeeduo]

Intro post, not much to see here, if you want a more in depth intro check out my main blog, @furnzz

RULES FOR REQUESTS:

I have the right to not draw your request for any reason, be it me not knowing the character, not having motivation, or something else. please do not be mad if I dont draw it.

I DO NOT draw requests of ocs, nsfw, fetish, gross shit, and anything I don't want to draw (dont be afraid to send in asks, if I don't want to draw smth I will just ignore the ask, so no reason to feel bad lol)

I DO draw dsmp (including shipping!! even stuff like tomboo, so long as it is strictly NOT the ccs!) I will draw cwilbur, but ONLY if its something showing it is specifically NOT IN ANY WAY relating to the cc!! I see the characters as fully separate things from the creators, so no I don't support wilbur, but I will continue to draw cwilbur.

I will draw the silly mcyt, genloss or cotl characters kissing n being gay idiots, but I will not do nsfw, and will not draw ship art for fandoms other than that, including tadc

PLEASE REQUESt ART EVEN IF U THINK IT WONT BE ACCEPTED I want to see inside ur silly brains

i will draw selfcest art, but NOT incest art, because ew ew no!! (this is things like Phil x tommy, shit like that, but if you want ranboo x ranboo, from any universe, fuck yeah dude, most likely to draw those asks actually selfcest is my jam!

I have anon off because I have gotten a lot of weird messages through anon. If you want to send disgusting shit at least don't be a pussy abt it shaking my fuckin head.

Tags+info about me under the cut

Tags:

#wilbyasks - answering asks

#my art - when I'm posting my art

#request - when I'm drawing a request

#not art - when I make a post that is not art

#doodles - sketches, shitposts, and similar things

#cAt the cat - drawings of cAt the cat (mspaint shitposts of my character cAt)

#sonic speaks - when Sonic is fronting (read below)

#reblogs - when I reblog things (I will only reblog things here if I have made art as a response to what I am reblogging, or if it is fanart, though I doubt I'll get any of that)

Doodles / cAt drawings won't have the #my art tag!!!

NOW MY FUNFACTS!

My name is Wilbur, but unless you know me please call me Fern or Fennel. Dog is good too I like that name.

I make art, mostly furry art, sometimes Genloss or cotl. And lately, A LOT of sonic fanart!

I have been drawing for nearly 5 years now.

I Am plural!! I am a sonic fictive (I believe that is the correct wording?) all versions of him included (him from all games, shows, and movies, not just one), so I may act different than myself sometimes. Please dont be discouraged to interact with me though!!! I love talking to people no matter what!!

Shadow, Jax, and Bill Cipher are all my f/o s!!! I love them very much <3

I am transmasc nonbinary and use he/they/it pronouns with no preference, but its almost 2025 so ill figure that out later

My fursona is NOT A GOAT HE IS A RAM AKA A MALE SHEEP NOT A MALE GOAT HE IS A SHEEP and here is a photo of him he's also a fallen angel so there's smth cool bout him

And he also has an alt design which is actually a different person from him aka himself but he exists in a different universe

and also I DO COMMISSIONS!! You must have Deviantart to buy them (no paypal, so I need USD payments to be sent on deviant art so I can convert them into points) here are my prices!

If you want a comm, please send me an ask or pm and I can discuss it with you!!

[inu-yasha]

Please, dont ever delete this blog. I love how you stay firm and true to your convinctions regarding Inukik, you speak your mind and you're not a coward. Sometimes reading the "opposing team" hateful analysis I get discouraged from staying in this fandom, so I'm glad someone shares my opinion. I also still dont get how Kagome's allowed to be shipped with everyone but liking Inukik is forbidden or something. I mean in stranger things fandom byler isnt canon and its more popular than mileven.

Don't worry, I'm not going to delete it. Thank you, your words put a big smile on my face, I'm very happy about it. I, too, went through many hardships and left and came back. It just comes with time. There is no such thing as "forbidden". You have the right to love whoever you want and what ship you want. They have no right to forbid you anything. We are just bothering them, that's why they continue to gaslight. support InuKik get attacked right away and they make themselves the victim, they often use this moralizing talk to show that they are fair It's partly our fault too because we let ourselves get in over our heads when they attacked Kikyou and InuKik we kept quiet /those who attacked us use the aforementioned manipulation and now I see that a lot of people speak up and defend InuKik/Kikyou. Which is good. If they can express their opinion, so can we. And no one has the right to stop us. Anon, express criticism and hatred even towards her. You do it on your own blog or another platform. Your opinion is your business. I don't like it, simple as that. I don't like seeing anti inukik/Kikyou stuff in pro tags either, but does anyone around think about our feelings? NO. So why should I care about the feelings of people who are usually aggressors, and then make themselves a victim and use manipulation to silence us.

firmness really comes with the experience of certain things, and what I can advise is that have to be 100% sure about your beliefs, feelings about the character and the ship. At some point you'll get used to it.

If someone likes Kagome shipping with everyone their business. I don't care about it. And you shouldn't care either. Just ship InuKik and love them and Kikyou. The opinion of others shouldn't affect you. Your opinion should be the most important thing to you, and what other people think is their business.

for example Kikyou is shipping from Naraku which I hate but I don't care because people have different opinions and tastes. Their opinion, their business, and I'm entitled to say I don't like this ship. the same them they can say they don't like inukik/inukag etc.

I hope that you understand me and it doesn't work one way like inukag want.

[bluefloret]

hey so lets all get on the same page for a second here. i do not ship celes with edgar. i do not want to ship celes with edgar. celes is 18 and could feasibly be a highschool student while edgar is 27 and old enough to be in a phd program or graduated with one if hes spicy

so im gonna be real that ship sucks and i dont welcome people here who project that onto my art. in fact in general i dont really care for people projecting romantic intent onto images i make with platonic pretense because i dont love people assuming any friendly, sweet, or intimate gesture HAS to be romantic in nature rather than just something Friends Can Do

however i will Tolerate (unintended) ship tagging... if its not Fucking Weird ships.... but if it is - leave my art alone frankly

theres lots of other ships i could mention here, but in general if characters have like a big age gap or one is all of like 18 while the others over 20 then assume i didnt mean them to be romantic together. and i would discourage you from assigning that intent to my art. or i will block you

[dominijoyce]

somewhat of a vent/rant but I hate people who say "well if you want to see the content you like and not many people are making it then you just gotta do it yourself!"

like, im sure it is motivating to someone sure but it just feels... in a weird way like a privileged talk. first of all my disabilities and dysfunctions make it near impossible to create and require a lot of taxing energy of me to finish any kind of creation

second of all i almost always see it from either people who already have a lot of content of what they like [whether it be popular ships, active fandoms, friendly community] or people who already have some sort of following so if they make a "rarepair" art or something of a niche interest then their fans will most likely still like it and interact with it

but if you are like me who has literal zero following besides friends and who is into very niche things in fandoms as well as a lot of complete original works as well, then what the hell do i even wanna create for if im sure it will not get any kind of interest. and then people go "oh you should create for yourself! do art not for likes but to be proud of it" which is an argument i hate even more personally because lack of interaction discouraging artists is a very popular topic and somehow people play both sides when it cannot be both sides inherently

so in the end i just dont create. too discouraged. either making something for fandom that already is big but you dont care much for and gather following so people actually give you attention [which they probs are not gonna give you anyway because, again, disabilities and dysfunctions make it impossible to produce art on any actual schedule and social media cathers only to those who can maintain those] or you make something "for yourself" but then realize no one cares and you just feel like you wasted time for no reason.

so yeah in the end it just feels like when someone says "do what makes you happy" and "create art for yourself" they are someone with a "privilege" to be able to believe this mindset can work.

[emypony]

Alright fellas it was time this was said

I didn't think this was necessary considering the amount of TIMES this has been brought attention to. However I'll just refer to the current fandom that I'm in since I am mostly seeing it here - but let's be real, this is a widespread issue and you KNOW it.

COMMENT ON THE FICS YOU READ.

And I'm not gonna go "oh but if you force people then they may not want to-" or "oh but someone shouldn't write to get attention or interaction from others, you should only create for yourself!"

NO, STOP.

I literally (and sorry) do not care. Creators, both of fiction, artwork, etc put their souls and hearts into the pieces they create and for what. A measly kudos on ao3? A like pressed on tumblr while scrolling on your dash? They can only create so much before they think they are worthless and that no one wants to see what they have to bring to a fandom.

If you LIKE something, for the love of god, LET THEM KNOW. I'll mostly refer to writing from this point on, but for artworks, c'mon you know you can reblog and leave some nice tags. Heck even emojis work. Show the creators that you appreciate them wholeheartedly.

Creators thrive on interaction but if you don't give them any, then how DARE you expect to find content of your favorite shows/characters/ships etc.

As for fiction-

No words for it? Say THANK YOU and that you LIKED READING IT. it really doesn't have to be deep!!! It just shows that you read it and their work is more than just one kudos. Leave some emojis if you don't have more than that.

Are you reading it again? LET THEM KNOW. Say "Hi i don't have much but I'm reading this for the second/third/etc time because I just like this so much!" It's okay to not know what to say, sometimes maybe you're not that good with words. A simple thank you will work. But THANK THE CREATORS.

I have a lot of writer friends, and it kills me to see them discouraged by the fact that people barely interact with their works. There's only so much that I can do myself. Yes it's appreciated from a friend, but it matters even more from all the people that read their fic.

I'm literally pointing at y'alls, RIGHT HERE. I know there's people who do this, and I'm calling you out. Stop consuming content like some fucking hungry hogs and have the decency to say something nice about things for once. Comments help fics more than you know. Reblogs and tags help fics more than you know.

If we discourage every writer by being like "eh this isnt that good, it only deserves a kudos and nothing more" then what the FUCK are we doing, seriously?

Any aspiring artist will get absolutely shut down from that. They may stop writing for good, and it will hurt them and also the possible dozens of fics they may have written if we'd only given them the appreciation they deserve for writing something. Heck, with time they may end up writing a FIC that YOU may like. But if we dont show them that their work is worth a few nice comments, then neither you or I deserve that amazing fic they could write.

This ended up longer than I wanted to, and I won't feel bad for the hostility of this post. I'm sick and tired of people coddling others for consuming content while not giving anything whatsoever in return.

And if you're honestly just leaving comments on the popular "good" or "long" fics then you can fuck right off. you don't deserve the content you're consuming if you think that something is more worth commenting or complimenting on just because of that. Small creators deserve just the same amount of recognition.

side note: this isnt for people that already leave comments for creators. you guys are doing your best and that's amazing, and we thank you for it.

COMMENT ON THAT DAMN FIC.

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Let’s talk: Vlive Asks and comment/chat discussions

From @cottoncandykings​: Hello! As u probably know jimin just went live recently and again he mentioned mandaggo and discussing about doing it with tae. I just find it so weird though. I mean jimin keeps constantly mentioning it and its not like vminnies were begging or dying for a vmin live everyday even before jimin mentioned it last year. Even now most including myself dont really care that much ofc i m happy if they do one together. But the way jimin keeps mentioning it is so weird. Like surely if he wanted to do it so badly he could have talked to tae privately and arranged it by now. And if tae is the one that doesnt want to do it then idk why jimin is pushing it. But what was really weird to me this time was that he said there were lots of comments about mandaggo yesterday in zoom call and yet they didnt mention it yesterday but suddenly today without prompting he talks about it. I also hope no one spammed the zoom call chat or the vlive chat with requests for vmin live (i didnt see any) bcoz thats just unnecessary and demanding. I hope vminnies wont demand/ ask for another memeber when one of them is live. Its just disrespectful. This turned into a rant sorry. Do you think it was weird too?

Since Admin 2 can’t type their thoughts themselves, I’ll relay their thoughts to you instead, since they had more thoughts/opinions/ideas in regard to this than I do, to be honest.

Admin 2 is sure that there is a good chance that we will get a vmin vlive sometime soon, which I know contradicts their original opinion and post from a few months ago, but there’s a reason for it. During the zoom meeting between BTS and ARMY they noticed something I don’t think anyone else noticed, or at least neither of us has seen any vminnies mention it anywhere, which in conjunction with Jimin’s vlive today and saying how he’d talk to Tae about doing a mandaggo vlive again, as well as another observation a little while ago, leads them to this conclusion.

So, the observation from the zoom meeting. Basically at one point when the question of Jimin doing a vlive arose Tae looks at Jimin and then he nods while smiling which in turn makes Jimin smile as he turns away from Tae and back to face toward the camera before answering the question and saying how he’ll come visit us the next day. Which he did.

Then the other observation from a while ago, this one being from their OT7 vlive celebrating their BBH100 #1 on June 29th where at one point Jimin says something but slips into satoori after which Tae encourages him to say that again but this time in the Seoul accent, so the way they actually should speak, which Jimin says isn’t difficult but he doesn’t actually end up repeating what he said.

And lastly in today’s vlive Jimin mentioned how he’s using satoori quite often but that he isn’t all that good at doing it on command or at teaching it to others, which is something he’d have to do for mandaggo but I’m sure he’d manage just fine if the time came for it.

Based on that Admin 2′s thoughts are basically that Jimin really meant it when he said, last year, that he’ll bring Tae around for a vlive, that it wasn’t a joke or a way to tease us with something he knew he wouldn’t be able to deliver, but rather that up until this point they weren’t quite sure how to do it. Which sounds a bit odd, I know, but what they mean is that if vmin were to just sit down in front of the camera and were supposed to just talk based on what the chat would give them, it would likely just turn out awkward and weird and no one, including them, would really have fun. Even more so when we take into account how idiotic the chat is during regular vlives so now imagine if those two were to do one together that’s just a casual chat. It would likely end up in disaster and honestly I wouldn’t wish it upon them to read all those awful comments that they would likely get, even worse ones than they already get normally, to be honest.

But now that the whole satoori thing was brought up, and Jimin actually mentioned mandaggo and wanting to bring it back after so many years, Admin 2 thinks that they must’ve finally figured out a solution to their problem, if you can call it that. Doing mandaggo would basically mean they would have an activity, something to do similar to how they did those ASMR videos for the Japanese Fan Club which were fun and cute, and so Admin 2 thinks that perhaps chances are we will finally get the vlive we’ve waited for so long (though like many others I’ve long given up the idea).

Another confirmation is that during his vlive today Jimin basically said that he only came by for a little while since they are quite busy and had to soon get ready for work with the other members but that he’ll return in two or three weeks for a more proper, longer, vlive. So, he could’ve treated today’s vlive as the promised one but instead he saw it more as a bridging one between the zoom meeting and the proper vlive he wants to do, so is it the farfetched to think that he had proper plans for a vlive, like doing mandaggo, but it just wouldn’t have worked out time wise today so he moved the actual vlive he wanted to make to a later date?

One last thing (well two actually) that has nothing to do with this question but Admin 2 wanted me to include it anyway is that one, have you noticed how Tae and Jimin were both on weverse around 3 am (until almost 4am (also both of them posting a comment to some post at 03:41 am KST)) one after the other (though with one day of a break in between them) recently and then also two, that Jimin was up until like 6 am (since he posted on weverse around that time) on the 8th and then during the zoom meeting Tae answered a question by saying that he’d been awake until 6 am the previous day (also the 8th) since he wanted to see the sunrise? Which is also something an anon mentioned to us. Curious, isn’t it?

From anon: I request both admins to please post this ask. So jimin wwnt live today and one of the accounts on twt posted a screen cap of them commenting 'touch your hair if vmin is real' in the live chat and jimin's reaction to it. Now idk if it is an edit or real. No matter i just want to say its not ok to bring up ships in front of the members no matter which ship it is. We dont know the reality of their relationship so lets not make them uncomfortable. Its not a joke. Its not funny. Be respectful the members are real people.

(Admin 1 taking over from this point onward) This ask nicely ties into the last one that’ll be further down in this post since they cover a similar issue of sorts. But let’s start with this one asking about, essentially, vlive comments and the things fans ask/comment, which also ties in with the above ask as well.

The thing with the vlive chat, and especially comments/questions that are like anon said, questions or “commands/requests” about touch your hair if XYZ ship is real or cough twice if you love XYZ member or, likewise, comments such as where is XYZ member or what are the other members doing, unfortunately those have been a steady and unchanging part of the vlive chat since basically forever. It’s been an issue on and off with different intensities though I feel like it’s gotten worse again this year. Particularly if we look back at the vlive Tae did with Hobi and Yoongi and how essentially the entire chat was filled with comments related to Xkook and not much else.

If my memory doesn’t fail me we once even had a situation some years ago (2016) where the chat during Hobi’s vlive was so bad, as in so full of questions about that other members instead of him, that you could see he was upset about it and eventually he handed over the vlive to Jimin, whom the chat had requested Hobi to visit, and Hobi just left. And I can’t blame him for it since the chat must’ve made him feel like basically no one cared about him so what was even the point of him being there, right?

Personally I’ve long given up looking at the comments during vlive because they just make me cringe and feel bad for the members, especially when I think back to vlives such as Yoongi’s D2 one last year where he was so excited to talk about the songs and the process of making the mixtape and yet so many of the comments were just unrelated nonsense and annoying request like speak english or can you say my name or say hello in XYZ language. If it makes me question why the people posting those questions are in the chat, why they are fans to begin with, imagine what the members must feel like, how discouraging that must feel like. After all they are musicians and yet so rarely do they get questions about that. Or rather they do get them but they are just drowned out by nonsense. Which is a shame. And also very disrespectful but any attempts that were made to remind people to be respectful, to remember their place as fans, to focus on the member that’s doing the vlive instead of asking about the others, and to keep ships away from the members have failed because some don’t care and will continue to not care.

From anon: what are your opinions on the Qs that were asked during that zoom meeting thing between BTS and ARMY?

Now I’d like to preface my answer to this last question by saying that by no means do my grievances come from a place of jealousy or anything. I’m very happy for all the ARMYs that won their spot, that they got to participate in the event and that BTS got to see ARMYs again even if only on screens and not in person still. No, my issue stems from something completely different, and I don’t want to say that the system chose the wrong people, because that would be mean and also who even knows how the winners were chosen, if it was pure luck or there were some actual criteria that went into the process, but the fact is that only a select 200 ARMYs got that spot out of however many that applied, so basically for some this was a once in a lifetime chance, right, even just getting this close to asking Bangtan a question and have really great chances of having them give you an answer while acknowledging you somewhat instead of just seeing pure words on a screen, you know what I mean?

Now imagine you are one of those 200 ARMYs and you get the chance to fill the chat with questions along with the other 49 participants of your session and you decide that asking questions such as what it’s like for Jimin to work as angel, if Namjoon ever broke a bicycle, or why JK smells the crowns of the other members heads? Or even worse, you decide to ask about JKs shower routine and in which order he washes his body? And sure, the “fault” doesn’t fall completely on the ARMYs alone, after all it’s the members who read out those questions and not some magical off screen entity, and since I wasn’t part of the event I can’t say with a hundred percent certainty that no one asked any “proper” questions, but if those were the questions that ended up being read out loud, is it that hard to guess that likely all the questions looked similarly? 

Which brings me to my main grievance of it all: have you forgotten that you are fans of musicians and not reality TV stars or vloggers/influencers? I know there were likely no rules for what questions you could or couldn’t ask (except for probably ones that were 100% about shipping or far too personal), but really, you get to ask your favorite band a question, something you might never, ever get the chance to do again, and your first thought isn’t to ask about their music but instead about some unimportant nonsense like the angel question or if they differentiate between the clothes they wear at home and those they sleep in? Like sure the angel one was kinda funny, maybe, and Jimin handled it in a cute way, I applaud him for it, but was that really necessary?

I know someone asked JK about Decalcomania, as well as Tae about his mixtape, and Yoongi/Jimin about Tony Montana (season 2), but other than that were there any other questions about their music? Perhaps I’m overthinking things, maybe I’m exaggerating and maybe I’m the only one who sees an issue with this, but if I would’ve won a spot, I’d rather have asked something about their process when writing lyrics or creating beats or how they prepare when learning new choreographies, what it’s like to be on tour (though perhaps that would be a mean question seeing as tours aren’t really something that’ll continue being possible for a while still), you get the point.

It makes me wonder if it was just bad luck or if it had something to do with how old the participants were (I saw some being as young as fifteen), which isn’t to say that teens can’t ask smart questions because they definitely can just like adults can ask stupid ones as well, but somewhere something, in my opinion, just went weirdly. And maybe that was the point of it all, for the event to be casual, funny, lighthearted, but my question then is when is the time for music discussions? For fans to ask those types of questions that actually have something to do with the boys careers? When even journalists aren’t asking them proper questions, ARMYs aren’t either, so what is the point of it all then?

Then again, after the event concluded and Seokjin came onto vlive he seemed so happy and excited, so maybe they had fun (I mean they seemed to have fun) and didn’t mind at all that the questions were lighthearted and silly, maybe I’m the one making mountains out of molehills. I don’t know, but anon wanted to know my thoughts/opinions, and this is them. Once again, I don’t mean to be mean toward the ARMYs that got rightfully in, that won, and I don’t want to insult them for the questions they asked, perhaps I just expected/hoped for something a little different? And perhaps I’m the only one. I don’t know. 

[scottxlogan]

If you need to, don't be afraid to turn anonymous asks off. It sucks to have a child in your dms crying about how much they hate a ship and literally giving a death threat..?? Like damn they need to touch some grass and get off the internet if a ship is their whole existence they feel the need to go off on other ships about it.

Of course thats up to you but I hope you're doing good and things start to look up a bit!

(P.S. I'm only sending this on anon in case the child decides they wanna go after me for calling them out 🙄 I mean I honestly dgaf but I dont got the time of day to deal with that, I actually got ADULT responsibilities lol)

First of all thank you anon for your supportive message! I appreciate it more than you know :)

The thing with turning off anonymous asks is that I'm in various fandoms and my original fandom has a lot of shy fans who will reach out by anon to me to talk about fandom related things. I don't want to discourage or push them away because this one person (and I do believe it is one person) keeps stalking my blog and harassing me. I've blocked them multiple times here, but they keep coming back for whatever reason they feel they need to do.

Part of why I posted a response to them this last time is because I know that I'm not the only one dealing with this harassment. So many others have been tormented by this anon to the point where they have closed off their anon asks, where they've had to moderate comments on their stories and to the point where some of them have felt that they can no longer participate in fandom. That, in my opinion, is wrong and I don't think that a bully should be allowed to win by pushing people back into the shadows under a wall of protections. Granted, I understand why some have to do it for their own mental health and that's alright. Bullies like this one are intense and brutal and hurtful.

The reason why there was a public response to their latest hate on my end was because I want the others who have endured this in silent suffering forced to close their world down and make it a little smaller with all the walls that they have to put up to know that they aren't alone. Simply deleting the hate doesn't stop it. I've deleted well over 20 messages and only addressed a couple of them publicly. It bothers me, but I will not allow the anon bully keep me from doing what I love. I just want others to know that they shouldn't have to be stopped from enjoying their fandom either. I realize that the anon will never take the time to think about their actions or respond to why they feel the need to be so horrible, but overall I just wanted everyone who goes through this to know that they are not alone and as hurtful as this person is they don't hold any power over fans.

As many have said in my initial response people should ship and let ship in peace. This person who is hurting others doesn't believe in that. I cannot for the life of me understand why they feel the need to be so vigilant in their cruelty within the MCU fandom considering that all they are doing will not change what is. They should find something that brings them joy and peace beyond hurting others. It's sad that they don't. :( Thanks again for reaching out and being so supportive! That means a lot to me anon! I appreciate your wisdom on the subject matter!!!

[pandemique]

Hi hello I just wanna say I love your art, it’s really cute aaaa

I’ve been really wanting to try to doodle dnf because I care them so much and they make me so so happy but my brain rot is not strong enough and I’m nervous to post it if I do so basically do you have any advice for just doing it anyway? I don’t know if making a whole new blog is something I want to/should do

Also I wanna join the loving Demi anon gang so I’ll try to send more asks when I stop being Shy(TM)

-🍎🦜

nonnie thank u thats so sweet of u :’> i appreciate it a lot :’> yknow, u sent this when i was actually in massive doubt abt my art and my... personality?!? HAHA so yeah i definitely been there sis and i’m still there sometimes

firstly, this is actually a more common occurrence than people think! i’ve told this story a few times now to artists who felt exactly the same: when i first posted, i deleted my doodles within a minute (LOL) and it was actually sky georgeliker who reached out asking if he could reblog !! (sorry i dont shut up abt this sky HAHAHA u meant a lot to me even unknowingly <3) i think from that moment, i thought, if just one other person enjoyed what i post, i want to!! there’s literally no harm if no one does anyway bc this is a brainrot blog not a portfolio LMAO. and i am so so glad i did because i then definitely met more than one person lol i even met u ;)) people are so so kind here, and it really changed my perception on both my own art and art as a whole

nonnie i’ve never seen your art but i know for sure i would love to see it, and everyone would too :) there’s no such thing as bad art, and even then sharing will help u improve so much faster!! u can talk to me any time about it too, we’ll learn to improve and be kinder to our art together :>

@ making a new blog: i heard it’s more strategic that way! but only if u want to !! for me personally i separate my dnf blog and my mcyt & general blogs just bc i just like being organized, and bc for dnf in particular, i know a fair amount of people are uncomfy seeing the ship so i try my damnedest not to let non-dnfers find this blog lol. but u really don’t have to do this :o just think about what personally makes u happiest!

anyway here are the more practical tips below the cut ‼��� (finally BAHAHA sorry non)

u can take smaller steps and send art to friends first or to discord servers :> (404cord vouch if u wanna find the most supportive mf’s in the planet)

or u can send me ;D

recognize when u start thinking the bad thoughts! point it out and say “i’m thinking bad thoughts, i have to stop. why should i make myself feel bad? why should i think at all?? this is a brainrot blog??” (is this good advice i am questioning myself shgswjsh this is what i do lmaooo)

point out the things u LIKE from ur art, even really little things. pretend it’s a friend’s work, u’ll be surprised how much kinder u are to others’ creations! if u enjoy parts of it, someone else would enjoy it too and more

don’t be discouraged if u don’t get a lot of recognition or notes immediately, most of that is irrelevant to how actually good ur art is. a LOT of my fave artists have like <200 notes every post (and thats a lot!! its just that i wanna give 10000 lol). it doesn’t mean that the people who DO see it don’t love it

tbh i avoid looking at numbers at all like the plague bc it gives unnecessary pressure !! i have no idea how many followers i have lol (but i do check the tags bc (1) ppl r so supportive i wanna cry and (2) ppl r v thoughtful and sometimes gives interesting input to ur art :> but if it pressures u then u should avoid this too imo)

talk to other artists!! :>

DISCLAIMER, it’s completely okay to take ur time!! there’s no real need to post at all if ur uncomfy. that said, last tip off the top of my head is to consider just slamming that post button, it’s free and u can always delete or edit LMAOO enjoy doodling and blogging!!

[swanimagines]

I want to be on your tag list but you said that you will remove people who dont interact enough with your content. You do realie that sometimes people just don't like what you wrote? They either don't like that character or that scenario. It's really unfair to demand people interacting with content they don't like. With your self ship event you basically ridicule people who just haven't found anything worth their time from your blog. It's just unfair in my opinion. That's all.

Please don't take this as a troll message. I'm just trying to help you see our side who don't interact that much.

Hi!

I know it might feel a bit bitchy but there are a lot of people who ask to be tagged (for example) for Shadow and Bone and they NEVER put anything else than just likes, and that happens with all characters. And because there's places for just 50 people on each list (because of Tumblr's tagging limits), once the space runs out, I might start taking those off who never interact with my stuff in any other way than liking (or not at all) to make way for potential people who actually will show their support for writers. Likes just tell me that the person who liked it, saw it, not that they necessarily liked-liked it. I've gotten like spams where a person likes all my Kaz pieces within a span of 10 minutes and unless they read at the speed of light, it's impossible of them to actually read them all in that time = those likes just tell me that "I saw this, double tapped because of Kaz but can't bother reading". That's really discouraging.

If you don't like the character, then fine, don't interact. If you don't like the scenario, then fine, don't interact. But why do you still always like them if one of those is correct? I used my time and effort to that piece, sometimes writing that piece you devoured in 15 minutes took me weeks, you always putting just likes tells me that you don't appreciate it. You don't have to reblog/comment on every piece but if you liked (liked-liked, not just dying that heart red) my piece, it would be nice to hear it even sometimes. You can put just an emoji, a keysmash or word it that you liked it, with "ooh I liked this!" or "this was so cute 🥺" or "noooo why would you do that 😭". Or then you can put me a 5k essay where you tell me all your thoughts, give me some improvement tips, tell me your fave parts etc. You can also "just" like pieces if you liked it but don't know what to say but please voice your liking even sometimes, they encourage me to write more. If you don't want to come forward with your name, send me an anon ask telling me your feedback. Every nice ask and reply makes me smile so wide, honestly ❤️

Also if you requested something from me and just put a like or nothing at all, it's an automatic way for you to get kicked out from my taglist among the first people once the space runs out. It's really rude to just discard the work I did for you. If you didn't like what I cooked up, (politely!!) tell me what you would have wanted to be done differently. Or then just put a "thank you for doing my request!" or something. But whatever you say, I'll appreciate the fact that you even bothered to properly inform me that you've received and read your request.

[yostresswritinggirl]

tw: discussion of dark content and shipping discourse

im kinda tired of western genshin fans, they seem to start a lot of the drama. i find some ships uncomfy but i try to understand the full context and ignore the ship. yes we should hold people accountable for problematic stuff such as lolicon and shotacon but wishing death or misfortune on others is too much! like i find kaeluc uncomfy but some people dont see them as brothers due to the potential mistranslation. until we get clarification on the potential mistranslation then ill find kaeluc uncomfy but that isnt an excuse for ppl to start sending death threats :// as for the skin color...skin is something hard to get right imo (even lighter skin colors, i cant color skin right half the time...that might be just me tho) the manga and the game have two different teams i think and they might have been given different directions. eitherway yes whitewashing is bad but violence isnt a good look either. ppl need to learn some people need to practice coloring darker skins and we should give constructive criticisms not death threats. having violent reactions will just discourage people from trying to draw dark skinned characters since they would want to avoid getting backlash

some ppl on tiktok and twt need to learn that yes educating is important but learning when to just agree to disagree is also important. i hope rei gets the proper amount of rest, i had to take a break on tiktok and twt too.

i hope you’re alright too, exile! ur passion is never a waste of time! my older sister faced the same expectations from our (asshole) father too...whatever decision you decide, im sure there will be always ppl who support u!

im not very good with words so uh, sorry if this doesnt make sense?

- jean anon

Yeah I think it’s getting everywhere and overboard now how chaotic and messy that side of the fandom is in social media, and fairly enough, all over the world too. I don’t have much opinion on ships in general but forcing people to delete their entire account and just ruining their whole life in general, was that really the way to go? What kind of person are you to do that to someone?

And regarding the issue about the skin tones, that’s exactly my perspective, Jeany! I even took time to stare at Xinyan because holy shit, if you put her splash art side by side with her in-game character too, it’s very very different and obvious. And that’s probably because of the lighting too. The things I’ve been hearing isn’t even just blatant whitewashing, it’s more like the lighter tone from in-game visuals. If you have a problem, talk it out, check if your opinion actually makes sense or you’re just jumping to conclusions like that boycott bullshit that happened in twitter that we so easily debunked through lore. But don’t start with hating, commenting on the posts because that starts shit, like an avalanche- the moment you do that people would be on board and cause the trainwreck. The whole disaster can start with just one small action from you. And it almost always ruins people’s lives instead of educating them.

Educating is taken so lightly in social media, used so offhanded that you can’t even tell the difference between educating and cancelling. Do you even have the right mindset or knowledge to do that? I always like to follow the principles of understanding both sides first before reaching a conclusion.

Thank you for your kind words tho Jeany, I’m hoping to get a grip myself. I haven’t felt like writing for a while, but I really wanna go back to it, even if it takes me a week in between posting, just to give you guys something. You’re fine tho, really.

[raveneira]

Bruh Im noticing this alot but do people really believe BoruSara is set in stone? like NO other ship has a chance?

Thats honestly really sad, Im really disappointed people have already accepted that ship as the definite endgame this early in the game.

I mean its understandable when the BoruSara fandom does it for obvious reasons, thats what they WANT to believe is gonna happen.

But to see BoruSumi and KawaSara fans claiming defeat this soon is really disheartening. It’s bad enough the BoruSara fandom and antis have claimed victory and deemed us the losers already, we dont need to call ourselves losers too.

Is there a chance we’ll lose? of course there is anything could happen, but should we accept defeat before it even happens? hell no, giving up is exactly what they WANT and have been trying to get us to do since we first started shipping other pairings, telling us that its impossible, that it makes no sense, that its bad and foolish to ship it because it’ll never happen and we should give up.

Dont give them what they want, stay hopeful UNTIL its actually set in stone and not a second sooner, and if anyone tries to tell you it is their LYING to you. All of this is just to discourage you from shipping against it and its really frustrating seeing some of you fall for it.

If you need a morale boost heres something to think about before you fully give up

Boruto is rumored to only be 30 volumes

there are currently 13 volumes out meaning theres 17 volumes left

each volume has 4 chapters each

that means theres still 68 chapters worth of content left to happen

and each volume has 100-200+ pages

do you know how much could happen in that time? ALOT, so its too early to claim defeat yet when theres still so much content yet to come. Plus the anime tends to lengthen and expand things so its possible we’ll get even MORE content than we will in the manga. 

So dont give up, because we still have a long way to go and anything could happen.

[how-to-tucute]

Long time no see. This blog has been dead for a very long time but don't get your hopes up, I have no plans to resurrect it.

I have just returned to tumblr fully for the first time in over a year to find that there's recent asks begging for the blog to come back, asking where we've been, etc. I can't speak for the other mods, I havent spoken to them in a very long time and none of them are even assigned as admins to this blog anymore, but I can speak for myself.

I never posted here much and tried to remain as neutral as possible when I did because even then I didn't agree with many of the things being posted here, the hostile nature of this blog, and the drama that spawned from it. Not that I was any sort of saint, I was still a mod on this blog, reblogged false information (some of which I even knew was false or misleading but knew that it would get people riled up and that people wanted to see it), and fellow supporter the other mods and defended them when they did something shitty.

I eventually ended up leaving the transmed and anti-SJW community because I accidentally deleted my old discourse blog (which had, at the time of deletion, over 4000 followers that I constantly spewed more shitty opinions and drama and bad information to) and when I remade it I barely got more than 200 after months which discouraged me. I jumped ship after the NSFW ban, thank fuck for that because it gave me a taste of the real world away this echo chamber of a community and helped me pull my head out of my ass.

Now I log in and I see tons of notifications showing me that incredibly toxic, ill informed, and all around nasty posts from this blog are still being reblogged daily. Just today there were 12 and one some days there are more than 30.

I don't think it takes a genius at this point to realize that I am appaled and disgusted by the stuff that was on this blog, even the posts typed out by my own two hands.

This blog built up an incredibly toxic community that devolved into redfem/TERF territory (and this is not my just using buzzwords, this was a label literally claimed by some of the mods on this blog and many of the folks that interacted with it). Scrolling through some of the old posts here I saw MANY trans folks, and yes even the dysphoric ones this community claims to care so much about, being harassed, mocked, invalidated, and misgendered simply because their opinion was different. I saw witchhunts and drama and mocking of peoples appearances and content from literal terfs being reblogged. There was even unironic uses of the word "troon", "tranny", etc. by mods and anons used to describe trans folks as a whole and even to mock individuals.

That said, you may notice that these posts and all others are gone. I found a script to delete all blog posts at once and I did just that. I know that these posts still exist as archives on other people's blogs as thats just how the site works, however I feel more comfortable knowing that they won't be left available here under the blog that I now have sole control over.

I don't care at all if people dislike me for this, think I'm an SJW or tucute or whatever else now (which I guess is sort of true tbh though I have left any and all discourse and drama in my past). I dont feel comfortable with those sorts of posts being up and available to continue the spread of misinformation, hate, harassment, and so on.

I have absolutely no ill will towards the other mods btw. If they are anything like me then they were well meaning people that got themselves wrapped up in a community that thrives on propaganda and blame shifting. Maybe they were lured in by the prospect of a community and friends. Maybe they, like me, subconciously felt that as minorities (as all of them were) the best way to gain acceptance from non-minorities was to be more palatable to them and be the "good" type of trans person or gay person or POC person or whatever else. Who even knows? Regardless, I know that at least a few of them have since moved entirely away from this ideology and put it in their past. I hope that them and the others are doing well. This post is getting long so I'll explain my own reasoning in another post.

I shall close this post by asking this: Do you think it would be better to be nonconfrontational, to focus only on yourself and your own identity, accept and support everyone knowing that there may be a chance some bad eggs will slip in and be supported too? Or would it be better to argue for your postion and call out others that don't fit within your margins knowing that some of the people you claim to be fighting for will be hurt?

-Mod :3

[unabashedrebel]

3. What are the top tips that have improved your writing, or that you would give to someone else? (Share as many as you want!)

-Honestly, the only tip you ever really need for this kind of thing? Practice dude. The more time you spend doing something, the better you get. It's really that simple. There's never any endeavor I've made in the realm of creativity that didn't take time to hone. Not even once have I picked something up and gone 'wow I'm amazing at this'. Rather, I had to enjoy doing bad at it to want to put the time in. If you're worried about your writing chops the best way to actually fix that is to write stuff. Write it once, write it ten times, rewrite it over, collaborate with your community fellows and get tips from them. You ever see an artist to like a redraw of a ten year old project and it looks amazing by comparison? TIME, EFFORT, PRACTICE. Stuff like this doesn't come without failing 100000000000000 times first, and even then you're still mediocre. It's not about natural talent, it's all about getting back up after being discouraged.

-To piggyback; Seriously, write with other people. When you're in a box you're not absorbing as many things. Like, I often times look at my RP partners response and go 'wow that was a great way to word that specific thing, artsy and still flowing with the paragraph. Love it. 10/10 will replicate. See a good word? Googled it? Awesome word for my vocabulary. Wow you started off this amazing journey with such a succulent intro paragraph, I feel like i'm in the scene. Let me just take some notes on this. There are very few things that I'll analyze from my own work (because 10/10 times I dont know if it's proper or if I'm just accidently off kilter trying to do something), just because I don't really know paragraph structure or grammar, that stuff was 100% learned from people going 'kiro it's there, not their'. Collaboration is a beautiful thing, and I promise you'll find a ton to admire about someone elses work rather then your own.

-This is one that I think a lot of people agree with in practice but don't actually put into practice; Don't compromise your character. Your character doesn't like something? Keep it that way. Doesn't really matter if you're RPing with someone you've wanted to RP with forever, or you're just trying not to make waves in your favorite ship. Let your character be who they are, the situation tends to get more interesting, you get a few more wrenches in the works. But something I noticed is that if I like the way a story is going, i'm a lot more likely to concede sometimes so the scene keeps going on coarse. Not the best method and a really great way to let your story dull out. They're unique because of all these little things you assigned to them, don't water it down in fear of ruining a thread.

-Show don't tell; A lot of times when I get walkups the first thing a character wants to say to mine is all this background stuff that really doesn't make sense for the conversation. I'm sure it's a super cool backstory that you're excited to get out into the world and have people engage. But on a first meeting it can come across as an info dump and a bit much to try and react to when the other character doesn't even know your OC's first name. Generally you want to let this stuff trickle out. Obviously there are some character who are just that open about their stuff, but remember sometimes it's very difficult to talk about some of the worst things in our lives full throated to a stranger, let alone for a stranger to care/react to. Just a weird habit I notice a lot, and to go right along with it- Leave a little mystery. Finding out about a character is a lot of the fun for your partner (and yourself), don't try and sell the farm when you can still make a lot of money on the livestock ;) It's basically enrichment for RPers, just don't touch the enclosure.

-Communication is key; Listen, I think we're all shy. Right? We're all a little squeamish when it comes to talking to strangers on the internet. Especially pitching specific scenarios to strangers on the internet. But sometimes that's what you have to do. Unsure about a time? Talk to the person. Unsure about a scene? Talk to the person. Pushing the boundaries a little bit? Talk to the person. Like, I've had really good RP partners where we never spoke a day oocly outside of those parameters. I can safely tell you that every time there's some OOC talking the scenes come out better, there's more cohesion. Sometimes, and this is awesome, I'll drop some random ass scene or something I wanted to happen between two characters, and get this, the other person listens and will incorporate that in a later scene (Maybe not -that- scene, but it usually gets throw in there when you mention it).

-Strike while the irons hot; I would be rich if I had a nickel for every time someone had asked me for RP, we'd get to the plotting, and they'd be like oh hey whatever you want to do. I almost always never hear from them again, sometimes we'll have that same conversation like 5 times. In my opinion, sometimes it's really easy and you go talk to someone and you get a starter right then and there. But I notice when the heat gets backed off a little bit both sides tend to as well. I'm sure there's a bit of hesitance, uncertainty, but let me tell you- if you get me excited about an idea? I will beat your door down to play it out. It's not a 'you need this' but it's always best when you come with an idea in hand, or a couple of scenarios. They don't always have to be winners, but it definitely makes the process easier for both parties when there's a somewhat clear path to interaction and there's been a good amount of hype stoked up.

Here you go @safrona-shadowsun !

[lillupon]

So, I've got a very long rant/opinion here and Idk really know how to say this without coming off kinda bad but I'm gonna say it anyways. I agree with the fact that the seventeen tag has been kinda dry lately on most fanfic places, but it's really only in the smut area. It's the sane way with other groups too I feel like. All of the nice little innocent tags are boomin to this day and thats completely fine. I think the smut tag is dry tho bc lately I feel like a few social issues (like sexualizing people and disrespecting them and their identity) have crossed over into kpop and have been ?blown out of proportion? Lately there's been a rampage of people who like to say that writing smut about someone is disgusting and is dehumanizing because people want to assume that it would make the idols uncomfortable which could equate to some morality issues on how you are reducing someone only to their body without their consent and a bunch of stuff like that. It kind of pisses me off bc this is fiction. About grown adults. Clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life. I think a shit ton is wrong with the world we currently live in, and deciding to come after something that isn't even real bothers me. Like what does that actually accomplish. But yeah, I think thats a reason why smut has been dying down. I mean, on youtube almost every video about unpopular opinions, or things they dont like about kpop will include something about shipping idols in fanfics. And then everyone in the comment section will talk about how its all fine and dandy in moderation, but once people start writing smut it's crossing the idols personal boundaries. It's something I've been seeing a lot more often and I think people who are interested in writing smut are being turned away from it bc we've gotten to a point where people are being called disgusting for having fantasies.

Hi Anon, thank you for sending in this Ask. 

I want to preface this by saying: when I write or talk about Mingyu and Wonwoo fucking on my blog, it is a fantasy. I am not speculating about what the real Mingyu and Wonwoo might be like in bed. I am imagining the versions of Mingyu and Wonwoo that I have created in my head, that exist only in my stories. None of it is real. I understand that this can be a blurry boundary for some people. But for me, the separation between fantasy and reality is well-defined. Now, on to your Ask!

You’ve hit the nail on the head with this one. You’ve also touched on many of the issues I have been struggling with myself as of late. It’s difficult to argue about morals since everyone has a different set of values, as well as different comfort levels. Some people think real person fiction (RPF) is a gross invasion of privacy. Others are fine with it. And others don’t care one way or another. There is no single answer; I can only offer my answer. Which means, of course, people are welcome to disagree with it, or parts of it. 

In this essay (LOL But forreal: this is an essay), I will be sharing my experience in the k-pop fanfic community from 2014 to present, the etiquette I personally abide by as a reader and writer of RPF, as well as my stance on RPF in general.

I started reading and posting fanfics back in 2014/2015 on a website called AsianFanfics (AFF). Obviously, no one on that site had a problem with RPF, since AFF is a platform made specifically for sharing stories about Asian celebrities. For many years, I read and enjoyed RPF with zero guilt. I scribbled away by myself in my own corner of fandom and curated my own content. I didn’t interact much with other fans, readers, or writers. I didn’t have a Twitter, and I only used tumblr to reblog memes. As a result, I’ve been able to avoid a lot of anti-shipping discourse, as well as purity and cancel culture. I had no idea there were so many negative opinions about RPF. It wasn’t until I became active on the subreddit r/Fanfiction last year that I learned about all the discourse surrounding RPF. 

This newfound ‘awareness’ does make me feel guilty at times—but only because after mulling this over, I still don’t think this is something to feel guilty about.

Here’s what I remember, first and foremost, when I create and consume RPF: fanfics and my favourite ships are fictional, and fiction is fantasy. This is basic etiquette when it comes to RPF, and most people in the k-pop fandom understand this. Delusional fans exist, of course, but they are not representative of the entire k-pop community. 

Another point of etiquette is to keep fanfics within fandom spaces. I would never push my fics into celebrities’ faces, or go around claiming that my fanfics are accurate representations of a k-idol’s life or personality, in any way, shape, or form. I would also discourage directing ship-related questions to official accounts, or bringing them up during fansigns or other face-to-face interactions; I believe that in these instances, shipping does have the potential to strain real-life relationships.

So with basic etiquette out of the way, let me share my approach to RPF in general.

As much as we like to think we know our favourite celebrities, we really don’t. All we see is their public persona. And this public persona is intentionally controlled, managed, and curated by a team of people: directors, tabloids, editors, makeup artists, publicists, etc. How “real” are these celebrities? We are so distanced from them that they may as well be fictional.

I draw from the public persona that idols project, and I work them into my own writing. But at the end of the day, these personalities are my own interpretation. My interpretation is probably nothing like an idol’s actual personality. I just use the “public persona/character” that idols portray as inspiration for my own stories, which are set in wildly different universes.

More than anything, I think of k-pop idols as “actors” in my fic. You know how when you write an original novel, you scroll through Google images, looking for the perfect person to portray your original character? RPF is literally that, except you might build upon pre-existing dynamics and personalities.

When it comes to explicit fanfiction, two main concerns are prevalent: one of consent, and one of sexualisation.

If we argue against explicit RPF due to lack of consent, we should be willing to apply the same lens to all explicit works. How do we know that the creator of a movie, book, series, etc., is okay with us using their characters in our stories, explicit or not? We don’t. Perhaps some creators encourage fanfiction, but don’t want their lovingly crafted characters engaging in sexual acts or experiencing trauma. We just don’t know. I feel this line is even more blurred when we talk about characters from movies or TV series.

Let’s take Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, as portrayed by Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan, from the Captain America movies as an example. I am willing to bet that when people consume and create explicit fanfiction about Steve and Bucky, they are imagining Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in their heads. I doubt many people are imagining the 2D cartoon versions of Steve and Bucky, even though they’re technically the exact same characters. Why? Well, it could be because movies are more readily and easily consumed than comics, and so people are unfamiliar with comic book Steve and Bucky. But it might also be because fans find Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan attractive. Is this really any different from RPF, where fic authors make up everything about a celebrity’s life?  

When readers and writers of fanfic talk about how hot Steve Rogers or Bucky Barnes is, those comments are about Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan’s bodies. When reading explicit stories, fans are going to picture Chris and Sebastian’s bodies in their head, doing sexual things. Can we say, “Well, it’s not really you, Chris/Sebastian”, when in a way, it is?

The reality is, people are going to thirst over celebrities, regardless of whether or not explicit fanfiction exists. They’re going to post thirst tweets on Twitter. They’re going to talk to friends and strangers online about how hot [insert celebrity name here] is. They’re going to fantasize about dating and having sex with their favourite celebrity. Or, as it is in my case, they’re going to make up stories in their heads about their favourite idols dating and banging each other. People are going to do all of this without ‘getting consent’ from the celebrity. Cracking down upon and shaming writers of RPF isn’t going to change any of that.

To be honest, I’m not sure why people think it is disgusting to imagine sexual scenarios about real people. It is okay and normal to have these kinds of fantasies. I suppose the alternative is to fantasise about having sex with cartoon characters instead? It’s a very binary way of thinking to say that if you imagine/write real people in explicit scenarios, you are immediately sexualising, dehumanising, or objectifying them. There is more to dehumanisation than writing smut about our favourite celebrities. For one thing, you can love someone and appreciate all parts of them, and still want to fuck their brains out. And generally, fanfics come from a place of love—love that is not only sexual in nature.

Is it the sharing aspect inherent to fanfiction? The possibility that a celebrity might stumble upon explicit works about them? The chances are very low, I think, of the k-pop idols I enjoy writing about coming across my English fics. But I also believe in curating your own content, and that applies to celebrities too. Perhaps a celebrity should not go searching for fanfics about themselves. And of course, people should not show celebrities their fanfics, unless invited.

Another argument I hear against (explicit) RPF is, “How would you feel if someone wrote fanfiction about you?” First off, I don’t like this argument because there’s a difference between someone who decides to be a public figure versus someone who decides to remain a regular private citizen. Celebrities should and do know what they’re getting into when they choose their occupation. (This is not to say, “They are celebrities; sexualise them all you want because that’s what they signed up for.” Here, I am only acknowledging that people might have sexual fantasies about celebrities they are attracted to. Presumably, celebrities are cognizant of this.)  

If someone (whose existence I am not even aware of, mind you) decides they want to write explicit fanfiction of me in some tiny corner of the Internet, I wouldn’t care so long as: (1) they don’t shove it into my face, and (2) they don’t harass me and ask invasive questions about my personal life and relationships. It’s not hurting me or negatively affecting my life, so it wouldn’t even register as a blip on my radar. When fanfiction remains within its appropriate spaces, it is largely harmless. 

Now, if a k-pop idol were to ask their fans to stop writing fanfiction about them, would I? Yes, I would. However, I can’t imagine that happening. Judging by the number of ‘sexy’ concepts, fanservice moments, and variety shows such as ‘We Got Married’, I am certain that k-pop idols realise they are the stars of many fantasies—some of which are explicit in nature. Considering the prevalence of shipping in the k-pop industry, I would argue that shipping is subtly encouraged.

It’s sad that so many talented writers are shamed out of fandom, or feel that k-pop cannot be the medium through which they tell their stories, or explore their sexuality, or cope with trauma, or simply have fun. Professional works and Hollywood love their RPF—readers and writers of fanfics should be able to, as well. 

As you said Anon, “clamping down on horny people who simp over hot asian men isn't going to solve the issues we face in real life” (this is a lovely sentence, by the way). The kind of person who dehumanises another and reduces them to a sexual object will do so some other way, if not via fanfiction. I don’t think the issue of fetishisation can be fixed simply by telling people not to write explicit RPF. In my experience, people who read and write RPF are more respectful and thoughtful about these things than the general public. We’ve all seen the general public say highly sexual things about celebrities in the media and to their faces, or tag celebrities in their thirst tweets. Are these things less invasive than fanfiction? Personally, I don’t think so. And in my opinion, there are more pressing and damaging issues in stan culture than fanfic.

In conclusion, I don’t think there is anything wrong with creating and consuming RPF, both explicit and non-explicit so long as we:

Remember we are writing fiction

Keep RPF within its appropriate space, and

Do not harass celebrities about their personal lives and relationships

RPF is not for everyone. There may be people who enjoy RPF, but draw the line at explicit stories. This is fine. Everyone has their own personal preferences. What is not fine, however, is attacking people for creating things you don’t like. I’m not sure what kind of moral crusade people are on and what they hope to achieve by shaming writers of RPF, explicit or otherwise. Ultimately, fic authors are writing a fantasy. It’s not real; no one is being hurt. I think it’s important for people to curate their own content, and AO3 makes it very easy to filter out explicit works and unwanted tags. 

Maybe this is me trying to justify my own participation in explicit RPF—I don’t know. What I do know is that I love k-pop, and fandom is an important part of my media and entertainment experience. I adore the k-pop idols I write about, and I just want to imagine them being happy and getting lots of love and orgasms. Let a bitch be horny, goddamn… 

Some bonus fun facts!

At the time I am writing this, on AO3:

26.2% of Stray Kids fanfics are rated M or E

26.3% of Seventeen fanfics are rated M or E

29.0% of Merlin fanfics are rated M or E

34.9% of Captain America (Movies) fanfics are rated M or E

40.1% of BTS fanfics are rated M or E ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Coincidentally, I saw this post on Reddit this morning: Can we have a RPF positivity post?