#i might reblog with more of an explanation/critique

[queerandcartoons]

WARNING: DON'T go on nostalgia binges and load up 50 fucking lego ninjago posts and watch lore and timeline videos, ending on a 3-hour retrospective about how batshit insane (affectionate, to me) the lore and storyline got. YOU WILL start rewriting the lore to fix various pacing, characterization, and plot/lore issues you found.

(this is lighthearted, I'm having a great time and i love the show)

[velvetvexations]

This Warless Weekend...I accidentally broke the one rule of Warless Weekend sending "Maya Henry is in fact a trans woman lol" to a TERF. Sigh. Forgive me, Velvet Nation.

The post was discovered because I was once again going through radblr looking for screenshots to prove beyond the shadow of the doubt that radfems hate even cis men, let alone trans men. It's going to be a multi-day affair because I want to include so many examples that when you click "read more" it'll be like unraveling an ancient scroll that drops to the floor and rolls down several flights of stairs in a cartoon.

I've also been debating a radfem who's not...the TERFiest? Hard to classify someone who thinks private spaces should be sex-segregated for now but corrects anons who misgender me and believes radfems shouldn't be so hostile to trans women* because they're "allies of the feminist revolution." My only concern is that my (mostly AFAB trans!) followers would see me interacting with someone who has those radfemmy beliefs in a way that isn't pure hostility and be made to feel unsafe as a result. I have no illusions that his radical feminist beliefs are harmful. But am I being too nice, regardless? I've been personally convinced he sincerely holds beliefs that makes other radfems hate him, thus the anon he got misgendering me and saying he should stop talking to me because I'm a homophobe.** Sometimes good people get praxis wrong.

And TRFs will say "ooh, look at Velvet, being courteous to people who self-identify as radfems, she'd never do that for transfems she slanders as TRFs." First of all, I think a lot of non-transfems are TRFs. Secondly, I do do that for TRFs, all the fucking time! As with anyone else when they're not just horribly cruel I do actually go to extreme lengths to be polite, approaching them as a submissive doormat of a person, offering the most politely worded but in-depth critique of their bullshit you could possibly imagine. I've started several posts of such a nature with "please take this in good faith" and at least once I've DM'd someone after reblogging them to go the extra mile assuring them I'm not trying to take a swing at them.

I think talking to people is good and healthy and should be encouraged, idk. That doesn't go for someone who thinks all trans women are monsters who want to abuse Trve Wymbyn, or that all trans men are deluded victims/fetishisers of cis gay men/escaping into privilege.*** Most radfems, like outright conservatives, are 100% bugfuck evil and do not deserve anything other than mockery and scorn. But if there's a chance you might be able to connect with an intellectually and morally honest person who seems to be going for what they truly believe is best for everyone...I think you should go for it.

I desperately want to believe people when it seems like they're really honestly trying out of sincere moral impulses and are truly capable of treating others with respect rather than it being an enemy psyop. I'm trying to not let my fear of being gullible deter me from offering my hand to people when our differences might be bridgeable.

*and other trans people, plus those who are dysphoric but do not consider themselves trans

**I believe they were referring to when I said homosexuality was also an atypical arousal pattern in response to someone pointing at a basic ass furry to say trans people were ridden with paraphilias

***I just realized how diverse the "explanations" for AFAB trans people are. With how much transphobia relies on being offensive to Trve Wymbyn you have to get creative to explain why it's also bad when one of their own contracts the mind virus and it's so obviously completely incoherent

[the-blue-fairie]

hey, no worries at all about venting in the tags of... your reblog of my reblog of your post, lol!! as i mentioned, i was trying to find a completely different old post by someone else, and then ended up seeing your post in my search and i just feel that it's a great explanation of some of the issues that i have with the ending. i can totally understand why people who like the idea behind the ending and what the writers were trying to say with it want to defend it, to an extent, but i agree with you that they just didn't successfully say that. which only makes me more frustrated with the ending than i imagine i would've been otherwise. and i'm sorry people have been trying to group you in with frozen 2 haters when you didn't want to be seen that way! and to me, the posts of yours that i've read about the movie (including the one i reblogged that prompted this ask) never came off that way either. you always seemed like someone who had your issues with it and criticisms of it, but could also still see positives in it and things to celebrate about it.

Thank you for sending me this message. I apologize for not replying for a day; life got a bit busy.

Looking back on my old discussions of F2, I feel I was hamstrung by not wanting to make my friends angry. I have friends who are fans of F2 and, while I wrote those posts, I was cripplingly scared that they would stop being friends with me, or unfollow me, or dismiss my critiques as mere negativity. In fact, my fears were justified. Some of these people DID unfollow me and DID tell me I was being overwhelmingly negative. This broke my heart - especially because I spilled so much ink trying to balance every negative I discussed with a positive and celebrating the good elements, but it felt like it didn't matter. It didn't matter how anxious I was to be understood, it didn't matter that I was writing in good faith. And that hurt.

I also feel that I was intimidated by the extreme sides of the fandom. If, for example, I wrote a post criticizing Elsa's arc, anti-Elsa people could jump on it and say, "See, this is why Elsa is a bad sister."

So that's why, in my vent, I said I was too kind to the film. I was so constricted by being terrified of other people's reactions - terrified of having an unpopular opinion. So I qualified all my statements with, "Of course, I don't mean to be overly negative" instead of just focusing on my points.

I just want to shake people sometimes when they tell me the point of the film and say, "They followed through on their intent with very poor execution. They DIDN'T DO the things you are saying they did. They tried, but there are scores of reasons why they did not succeed - reasons that go beyond my personal preference, that have to do with characterization, pacing, story structure, etc."

It hurts because... I feel like, in the past, I tried to force myself to like the film more than I do. I've wanted to like it for years, but the last time I put it on I broke down crying and not in a good way and I just... I wish it worked. I wish that all the various thematic threads coalesced into an emotionally satisfying whole. And I know that, because of my emotional response, people might just dismiss all my discussion - no matter how nuanced I am, no matter how fair towards the film I am in my analysis, as, "Well, you're biased from the start."

No. I've spent years trying to see all sides, empathizing with a variety of people in the fandom, sometimes even at my own expense. I do value the parts of F2 that work and acknowledge the beauty of various elements including Anna and Elsa bonding with the Northuldra, the anticolonialist themes, The Next Right Thing, and more.

But at the same time, I argue that my case against other aspects of the film is robust, cohesive, and correct.

And to the friends that can see I am writing not to be a hater, but in good faith with actual analysis and discussion in mind - you mean the world to me. Thank you.

Sorry, this became kind of a vent in itself.

[jyndor]

Sorry but maybe it’s time to stop trying to find parallels between literally everything. Bix and Jyn are nothing alike, their relationship with Cassian are nothing alike and their arcs are completely different. How is Bix being tortured by imperials a parallel to Jyn being interrogated by the rebels? How is Jyn being sent to a labour camp a parallel to Bix getting arrested for informations? Yes I agree that people should stop this bullshit of comparing them, mainly because they have >nothing< in common besides having some kind of relationship with Cassian at some point at their lives. But they’re not defined by what they mean to some man, just stop it. Also these ‘parallels’ will just make people compare them even more, so if it wasn’t your intention you should reconsider what do you want with that

eat my asshole since you’re so far up it already anon

the interrogation wasn't the point, it was about how they're both hiding how they are actually resisting the empire behind the smokescreen of petty crime/black market business. don’t act like you care about the details of any of this, if you’re the same anon (and again anons don’t get a shred of benefit of the doubt from me) you’ve proven yourself to be uninterested in the film and its characters.

part of character analysis IS comparing and contrasting, just not the nasty ways that a lot of fans do it - in misogynistic, racist ways. ever heard the term foil? it's a character that contrasts with another character to highlight these characters’ traits. comparing and contrasting characters is not necessarily a bad thing - it’s about how are we handling it? for instance: i’ve seen some racist, xenophobic behavior from jyn fans through the years (and honestly i’ve not even seen the majority of the early fandom shit because i wasn’t on tumblr as often - i saw that later on) that makes me question some jyn fans’ thoughts on bix because i know how this shit goes. and of course shippers are incapable of respecting the fact that people can have multiple important relationships in their lives without devaluing them, and often women characters get backlash for being *barf* in the way~~ of their ship or whatever.

what they mean to some man. are you serious right now. first off i have critiqued andor for bix’s arc in particular being pretty shallow in comparison to other characters’ arcs, and how she suffers an extreme amount in the service of pushing a man’s story forward. but also... the show is about cassian andor. it’s his show. in some way each of these characters will be there in service of CASSIAN’s story.

a big part of andor's thesis is that cassian is a mirror to the lead from rogue one as well as a foil. parallels aren't necessarily intentional by writers or even real parallels, and fans have a tendency to point out like things where a writer is just unoriginal and call it a parallel (see: steven moffat’s doctor who lmfao). my guess is when it comes to bix, they aren't entirely intentional - except of course the shots that are similar to shots of jyn. i understand how some people might find it annoying to see people pointing out random shots and thinking the fuck the context is totally different - but i deliberately made the gifset with some meta in mind. like i’ve got explanations for all of those scenes. maybe i should have just included it in the original post instead of writing it on a reblog like i’m currently doing but whatever.

i’ve been trying to give a lot of space to bix fans on this because i’ve seen jyn fans act up and i don’t want to spark some bullshit or play on racist, xenophobic and misogynistic shit in fandom. and frankly some bix fans, or people who claim to be idk yall don’t get to claim anything if you take the cover of an anonymous identity, have been horrible to cassian fans and jyn fans, and its felt similar to the melshi/cass shippers who have been harassing wlw rebelcaptain shippers and...

idk some of you either need to learn to block people whose content you don’t like and/or blacklist tags you don’t want to see. i tag really carefully so if you never want to see jyn erso content, you don’t have to. you don’t have to see my content because guess what? you can block me. i won’t miss your ass. if you were someone who actually liked my content or my blog or whatever, you’d have dm’d me with your concerns privately. because i’m gonna consider criticism from people who do that a lot more thoughtfully than some anon. i get not everyone feels comfortable contacting people off anon, which is why i always keep it on because really lol most of the time even idiot asshole anons are funny to me. but in all seriousness if you don’t feel comfortable saying this shit off anon, then maybe you should reconsider who you feel comfortable following and engaging with.

[imagineitdearies-old]

Why is it thumbs up to feminize one character that you might prefer and not the other - besides Rules for thee, not for me? I'm genuinely confused by your explanation

I’m genuinely confused too—I said I do like omega/fem!Luke in many fics?? Especially ones where he has a backbone?

Idk why people are constantly trying to polarize me in this fandom. For the last time, I like both. BOTH. I’m the ultimate switch, okay? In any pairing I ship. My true character preference is just switching, but since it’s so rare in this ship I try to diversify my portfolio so to speak instead lol.

And I never gave a thumbs down to anyone!! Y’all read/write whatever filthy shit you want, I’ll probably join you! Does that mean I’m never allowed to take interest (by hitting the like button, how dare) in a reflection about potentially problematic parts of the media we consume or enjoy fandom critique even if I don’t agree with all of it? Should I not give my honest opinion on my own blog when asked? Yeesh, guys.

Here’s my final word for the night: I will consume media how I want to, be as selective as I do or don’t want to be, and you. can. too. And YES I may like another post in the future that talks about something else lucemond/another pairing may or may not reflect about our society (I don’t personally believe it can do much more besides maaaybe perpetuate, it’s just fiction in the end) bc this shit fascinates me, so if you’re going to take everything I like or reblog on here as my personal manifesto and/or as an attack on you personally then PLEASE unfollow me for your own sake.

I never want to hurt anyone but I also need you guys to calm down about this and either believe me when I say I wasn’t out here to shame anyone or just simply unfollow me and move on. Mkay?

[ouijaban]

TKB meta 3.0

UPDATE 2024

I rewrote this again because I didn’t like it!

Reflecting on my previous TKB meta, I feel like I phrased a lot of it poorly (both in terms of syntax and in terms of communicating what I intended to say), but I still think this is an element of TKB's character that often gets overlooked and I'd like to talk about it some more.

Like the post about Maat that I reblogged points out, TKB's central philosophy—which he explains to Atemu and co in Vol 32—can reasonably be described as a sort of meta-ethical moral relativism. Broadly speaking, he admonishes the monarchy for claiming moral superiority over him when its rulers forged the Sennen Items and, of course, engineered the Kul Elna massacre that made that their creation possible.

In this scene, TKB is explaining to the priests—who are all shocked that someone evil could lay claim to “goodness,” and cannot comprehend the Scale's failure to deem Bakura evil—why Diabound, his Ka, is “God-type" rather than a "demon-type.” Prior to this panel, his relay reveal to the reader a few key points: 1) the Sennen Items aren't holy items of good as they've been described by Akhenaden, 2) there's a shadow power lurking within them, and 3) TKB wants to obtain that power and use it for himself to achieve his stated goal of getting revenge.

In the original manga, what TKB says here is 悪って何だ？てめえの正義に忠実ならそいつは善ってことになるんじゃねえのか… In the simplest of possible terms, this essentially means: “If someone is loyal to your justice, then does that make them good?" (The word ‘loyal’ best translates to something like ‘adheres to’ in this context.) The official translation is a little different; TKB’s explanation is more thorough and much more sarcastic.

Obviously, TKB isn't legitimately asking whether being faithful or devoted (two other relevant translations of 忠実 into English) to the moral code laid out by the monarchy’s understanding of goodness makes him good. As it pertains to his having a God-type and not a Demon-type Ka, the "good" Bakura is talking about must be understood in relation to the dichotomy priests previously discuss.

Bakura elaborates on what he means by this at length shortly afterwards.

Like I said in my first analysis, what Bakura is pointing out here is there is no such thing as objective morality. As many others have pointed out, he's arguing specifically that the monarchy has no right to deem him evil when it decided that the people of Kul Elna would be the sacrifice needed to forge the Items. He is absolutely correct on that point; in fact, I agree with him broadly—but for different reasons.

Bakura’s argument here is a little confusingly-put. If there is no such thing as “bad,” then how can the Sennen Items issue any definitive judgement on what is or isn’t? I don’t think this is as inconsistent as it might seem on first glance, because I would argue that Bakura is suggesting that the Items rule on the strength of the holder’s belief in their own convictions rather than the convictions themselves. If the Sennen Items are the product of both immense good and immense evil and this a dichotomy that, on some level, exists, then they must be operating relatively. As such, I posit that they determine "goodness" or "evilness" based on what an individual believes is morally justifiable; what is not; and under what circumstances, or to what ends, so-called evil acts become pardonable. This would mean that the stronger the user's conviction is that something else is wrong, the stronger their Ka will be in order to combat it. In a way, then, the Items are themselves microcosms of the system Bakura is critiquing.

Here lies the issue with “Bakura was right” for me: Bakura wants revenge, not revolution. He's not a liberator—he causes villagers harm solely to lure Atemu out, murders everyone in a small inn restaurant without thinking twice—nor is he seeking to effect any positive change in Egypt; his plan is to become Pharaoh himself after he exacts his revenge on the monarchy and, with the aid of the Items, rule the world. I still hold that even though Bakura thinks the monarchy is wrong, he doesn't think he's right, either, even though he mocks the priests with that claim.

Bakura doesn’t actually suggest that he abides by any kind of coherent moral code. Clearly, he hates the monarchy because of the Kul Elna massacre—that much is obvious—but he doesn’t actually establish what he believes is “good” by comparison. As such, there ostensibly is no alternative; Bakura’s vision of the future is no better, and he doesn’t try to claim that it is. As such, I think it’s fair to say that if the Items can deem those who slaughtered the people of Kul Elna “good” because they were thieves and the monarchy needed the power to achieve a ‘righteous’ goal, they can just as well deem Bakura “good” because he rejects that verdict and condemns the monarchy’s justifying the massacre on the basis that its victims were by nature less valuable than royals and fellow subjects alike. Justice, in that sense, does not require that we have a sense of what is good; to have a God-type Ka, you need only know what is bad. This makes sense when you consider that Ka in this context are avatars of the spirit specifically designed for combat; while they can defend against, their primary function is to serve as the sword of justice—literally.

I think that makes him a fascinating character and speaks to the complicated moral inquests this arc makes, but I don't think that it makes him "right." Justified, yes, but right...not so much.

[foibles-fables]

I hope you don’t mind me communicating with an anon like this via your blog; I thought they might be more likely to see this than if I reblogged it. If you do mind please feel free to ignore or delete this ask 😊

I was wondering why anon felt HZD was about colonialism? I thought it was a fairly standard story about the danger of the corporate capitalist model; the logical endpoint of the phrase “human resource”. What I loved about the storytelling was the way Aloy’s search for her origin and the cause of the Derangement dovetailed so neatly with the players learning the truth about Zero Dawn. And the fascinating explanation for why ‘robot dinosaurs’. I have a lot of the same critiques of HFW by the way, it doesn’t feel nearly so satisfying.

(I’d also love to get your own take on this! I love your meta and your gorgeous fic).

I'm in total agreement with you! I do see the dangers rampant capitalism as being the """main thesis""" of the series, as set up in HZD. Colonialism is part of that, and we see small glimpses of it in HZD...and I think it was meant to be a key theme in HFW (through the Zeniths) until it...didn't hit, at all, lol. The writing was simply not as clever and didn't come with the same elegant subtlety you described in your ask, re: the future-past and present timelines juxtaposed and then coming together. That takes a toll on what the writers were trying to tell us with the Zeniths as the new future-past influence.

I also think HFW lacked a...sense of hope, I guess? In HZD we see this in The Good News, and through GAIA's dying plea, and in the world EXISTING in the first place, and in speaking to all of the before endgame allies, and in the victory scene on the Spire. HFW isn't as satisfying because it--kind of doesn't do any of this? At least, not that I can remember, and scenes like that tend to be pretty memorable. Stanley Chen is the closest, and maybe the Unity speech. Instead, we got introduced to Mad Spaghetti and that quiet, fridge-staring poignancy all but fled. Aloy's closing monologue about how it's important to have friends!!! was very hollow, IMO, and didn't really get to me emotionally. There was no real set-up behind it, because the game just decided to tell us she learned something.

This turned into a rant that only somewhat touches on your question, haha. Hope it answered something, at least! Thanks SO much for the kind words and hope you have a fantastic day <3

[eyrieofsynapses]

I wasn't planning to split my "hey, so you're gonna see some Star Wars stuff around soon, but I'm not properly rejoining the fandom" into two posts, but here we are. Mostly so that I don't subject all of you to a long explanation.

So: like I said over here, a couple good friends of mine convinced me to watch The Mandalorian, and it's all going downhill into the trash heaps of Star Wars from there. Once I've gotten to a couple other things--which might take some time--I may reblog some GIFs and possibly metas.

Here's the thing: Yes, I might put stuff up. No, I am not getting into the fandom proper again. And I do mean again--as in, I was in it around four or five years ago, quite a while before this blog existed. (You can look at my Ao3 for proof, but... uh... maybe don't. You know how it is with old fic.)

For the sake of clarity, and also because I kind of want to talk about it, I'm going to explain why.

For reference: I've seen all of the movies. I've also seen The Clone Wars up until the newest season. I watched all of Star Wars: Rebels, and that remains my favorite. (No, I've not seen The Bad Batch, so I don't know everything about what they did with Caleb.) I'm also fond of Rogue One despite my dislike of tragic endings. Aside from that, my knowledge extends to a scattered few books, comics, and a few other things. I have, only as of the last few days, finished The Mandalorian's second season; the rest of my knowledge is largely older.

As usual, my attention veered away and I hit my overload point. That's normal, by the way. But there's some other reasons.

First: Star Wars deals a lot with tragedy. I've increasingly found I don't much like too many sad endings, especially when they feel unnecessary. I like my characters whole and safe and happy at the end of the day, okay? Beat them up in between all you like, but... look, I like happy endings. That’s a me thing, by the way, not a flaw in Star Wars itself (mostly). If you like tragedy, go for it! I’m just not a fan.

Second: The Rise of Skywalker poisoned a lot for me. Between that and the way Disney's been beating the shit out of the MCU, I figured the newer Star Wars shows were rotten cash grabs and nothing more. It wasn't until my friends lured me into watching The Mandalorian that I realized otherwise. Somehow, despite Disney's hell-bent obsession with killing everything it touches, there's some good stuff coming out of Lucasfilm yet. (For now.) I am duly impressed.

Third, and most importantly: Whatever TRoS and co. didn't poison, the fandom often did. I've met a lot of awesome Star Wars people. I've also seen a lot of toxicity, especially online.

I cannot tell you how much "oh, this sucked because of A, B, C, and D, and this part is irredeemable, and I can't believe anyone could stand this bit--what do you mean you liked that? Fuck you!" stuff I've seen around. Mind you, I like constructive story critique. But much of the time it was just complaining, with zero positivity or genuine love. (It isn't just Star Wars, by the way; I see a massive amount of this in the DC fandom too. There’s others. It’s common in many large fandoms, I think.)

I get it, it's fair to rant about stuff you don't like. I do that too. I’m not going to say I won’t keep doing it here and there, because I’d be lying. Hell, I have a lot of bones to pick with Star Wars. I can and have torn TRoS apart. But it's one thing to do that, and another entirely to claim that you enjoy the thing while only ever hating on it. In particular, I'm sick of seeing people coming into spaces where people are enjoying the content, and then spoiling it rotten by only ever complaining. That was what really got to me: being in places where people were meant to be enjoying it, only to see endless complaints about everything bad.

That was the thing I really disliked about the fandom while I was in it--there was this constant cycle of people saying they enjoyed some piece of Star Wars media, then turning around and smacking it over and over without ever providing any positive feedback. I'm not here for that. I'm here to smack-talk TRoS, sure, but then talk about a) what went right, b) what could be done better, c) the context of the mistakes and the reason for them, and d) where Star Wars has avoided the same mistakes, because it turns out they've done a lot better elsewhere.

Look, I don't want to hear about every single flaw and nothing else. Media is flawed! That's part of it! Plot holes exist! Problems exist! I get pissed off about them too! I rant with my real-life friends about them all the time! But suspension of disbelief is a thing, and historical context is a thing, and recognizing the fact that writers are human and flawed too is a very important thing. If you've got a problem and you want to say it, say it, tag it, then move the hell on and don't press it on the people who want to enjoy that media for what it is. (Unless those people are being blatantly discriminatory and offensive, in which case, sure, call them out. But don't be an ass about it.)

For the record: I am absolutely down for calling Disney out on its racist/sexist/queerphobic/etc. bullshit. We need to do that, and we need to do it loudly. TRoS fucked up a lot with that, and it deserves to be called out.

But if we're going to do that, we also need to talk about where they went right. We need to talk about how supportive many of the actors were. We need to talk about how Rebels and Rogue One brought in characters of color and treated them right. We need to discuss the importance of Finn and Poe, both for being POC and where their implied romance worked despite its ultimate knock-down. We need to talk about why women like Leia, Rose, Ahsoka, Hera, Sabine, and Jyn--among many others--are good representation. We need to talk about how The Mandalorian and Andor are both led by men of color. We need to talk about the many wonderful platonic relationships in Star Wars. We need to celebrate the good, too.

...er, anyway. I'm gonna hop off the soapbox now.

Basically: I got lucky when I landed in the Leverage fandom and found out how positive a fan space can be, and I don't want to go back to only ever seeing people ragging on my favorite media. Past experience has taught me that the Star Wars fandom does a lot of that. I'm once-bit and twice-shy, so I'm not getting deep in on this. I'm not trawling tags, I'm not getting into arguments, I'm not interacting much at all. If somebody wants to have a positive and constructive conversation, I’m here for it. If I post and someone decides to start an argument for the sake of arguing, I'm blocking and moving on, and that is that.

Anyway. Upward and onward, and all of that. May the Force be with you.

[exo-archivist]

Oh. So you’re saying the quiet part out loud now… guess I can too.

Listen. I wholeheartedly believe you did have some bad experiences interaction wise within the exol fandom. I knew writing this post would definitely bring up some negativity at some point; there's always a few rotten eggs in any fandom, and we've had in the past a few of ours that even went so far as to bully someone out of the fandom entirely. That alone is reason enough to not interact with posts. You could easily have left your explanations at that.

Instead you chose to rant and I may have been politely calling it rambling, but let's be real, you were ranting. Again understandable given negative experiences. Which is why I chose to ignore the overall harshly critical and judgemental tone of your words and instead focus on the one point that I felt could be a potential source of those experiences in order to offer perhaps a bit of clarity.

And instead of letting the conversation gracefully end, you've doubled down and outright spoken the previously thinly veiled insults. You've taken your inability to find works that suit your tastes and your wish to interact with works in a way that goes against socially acceptable norms and framed them as failings of the fandom as a whole.

Your cognitive dissonance and ability to delude yourself is almost amusing if it weren't so worrisome.

So let's break down your answers shall we?

I don't ship so that leaves a lot of fandom stuff off limits.

So you don't ship do you? Yet. You have 4 works on AO3 that say otherwise. One is a story featuring Kai and Lisa from Blackpink and the other three are Kai and original characters. Shipping is more than just member/member and you are participating in the act just FYI.

I don't like sexualizing people on my blog or in general, whether they are celebs or not. People on here and social media lowkey do too much with that. So I just don't reblog, or support most of it. Over time it's also hard to get people to understand the difference between fandom stories and believing 'ships' are real.

Fair enough, even if you're being more than a bit judgemental. There is a metric load of smut fics and drabbles, and if that's not your jam that's not your jam. Same goes for member/member fics. On the opposite side of the coin there's a metric ton that does not sexualize the memebrs. And yes I wholeheartedly agree that some of the fans have a hard time divesting themselves of their headcanons.

Twitter and other forums, vine back in the day. Youtube was a big one but now there are too many people just saying what they think fans want to hear. Not much authenticity.

Your statement about too many people just saying what they think fans want to hear is valid to a point but still heavily opinion formulated, it is also largely irrelevant to the question of fandom creation. Had you mentioned there weren't fan videos you enjoyed then yes it could have been relevant. What you've written makes it sound more like you're talking about career youtubers and less fandom creators on that platform. In my experience most fandom creators using that platform do not directly interact with viewers.

I may comment if the people don't seem hostile.

Okay. Nothing wrong with that.

K fandoms act like they have no sense.

Rude. Just plain old rude. Yes there's some out there that do. There's also plenty more who have sense than those that don't. Also I need to point out that you're painting yourself with that brush. You may not consider yourself a part of the fandom but the more I see, the more I think you're deluding yourself on that score. You consume fandom creations more than you let on, and you contribute to the fandom. Ergo you are part of the fandom.

If you don't love something or if you God forbid try to critique or discuss something, you may accidentally start a war. So I might like something, but I try not to engage too much.

Now this is highly opinionated but it circles into a later point so we'll shelve this for now.

The last fic I read was a hyperionova one called fatal miscalculations. It's pretty old and one of the rare ones I may reread from time to time.

Oh so an E rated Jongin/Taeyong Jongin/Sehun fic according to the tags? When you don't ship? Nice hypocrisy. Because that is what this is. Maybe think about why you're disparaging the very things you read. It might be because you've internalized some of the stigma surrounding kpop or shipping in general.

I almost never see fanart or fan creations I like, but to be fair I don't look for them. Maybe the cute little cartoons on twitter that spread around.

That's half the problem there. You can't say no one is making the stuff you like if you're not willing to look for it.

No. I do not want much fandom stuff on any of my profiles.

And still you consume it. And create it. But let's come back to this in a moment.

Years ago I wouldn't mind it, but now I like a balance, with kpop being barely on my page. Because then people expect you to have certain opinions or lack therefore of.

I believe in my follow up questions I asked you to clarify this so we'll shelve this one too.

I don't like that. People might see certain fandom material on your blog and talk to you a certain way, kpop fans are extremely disrespectful in general.

Same for this.

And it's a hive mind mentality. I don't want to attract that.

Except…if it truly was a hive mentality…you'd be a part of it. Regardless, your assertion of a hive mentality is wrong. If it was correct we wouldn't have solo stans, shippers vs non shipper vs people who only pretend to not ship. We wouldn't have any of our creative works whatsoever, nor would there be ship wars. There's a whole lot of diversity for us to ever be considered a hive mind.

I don't comment because it's like you can only give a specific rehearsed answer therefore I don't see a point. In the past it was possible to interact online with others and have fun individual conversations. Now people are hostile. If you don't say exactly what they want to hear, they will be mean or insult you, or say why even comment. So I avoid this by not commenting at all.

I'd like to reiterate that it sounds like you've had some bad interactions in the past, and I can understand wanting to avoid it entirely. That however doesn't absolve you of your own rudeness.

I don't reblog, firstly because a lot of the art that I see isn't my style. I appreciate it and I like it, but it's not something I'd commission for. I do reblog things that fit my style, but most fandom stuff does not.

Another piece I asked you to elaborate on so we'll get to that in a moment too.

I mean either political or aligned with a certain way of thinking.

So this is one of the things I asked you to elaborate on and yet you still remained vague. This statement doesn't clarify anything. Moreover your following statements are both disparate from each other and they also don't support this viewpoint in any form. And finally your assertion that kpop works are shallow in nature wouldn't allow for political viewpoints to color the work. So which is it? Are kpop works shallow or nuanced enough to allow for discourse other than “ooh pretty”?

For example an important part of art is critiquing and analyzing. I find in exo, sm, and kpop spaces it isn't acceptable to give honest opinions on art. Therefore it's hard to interact with art positively is you cannot even interact with the work itself in a conductive way.

This is why I brought up common etiquette. This is one of your repeated points of contention; you can't give honest opinions, everyone only wants to hear praise, you feel like only specific answers are acceptable, if you don't say exactly what people want to hear they turn hostile. This is directly contradictory to your previous statement of: I almost never see fanart or fan creations I like, but to be fair I don't look for it. If you never see or read anything you like…what's there to critique? Why would you waste time on something you didn't enjoy? Unless it's to criticize. Everything posted has value to someone. It may not be you. It may not be me. But someone out there is reading or enjoying looking at the works you don't like. More to the point it has value to the author or creator. For that alone common etiquette should be followed.

And yes, I agree an important part of art is analyzing and critiquing; they are tools that further our understanding of media and our own reactions to subjective materials. There is also a time and a place for them. Why would you consider analyzing and discussing directly with the creator, (unless they are okay with such feedback) as an appropriate outlet for what has the potential to hurt? When most fan creators' goal is to share something they thought was neat or to tell a story to people with similar interests.

Another issue you may want to consider, when you've been shut down in the past for things that weren't outright praise, could any of your words been seen as ruining the artist's image? A lot of kpop fans are protective of their groups in that way because we know how the system works, we know that even the slightest hint of a scandal or drop in ratings or stock and our groups are expendable in the eyes of the company. Exo has weathered many such scandals and the only reason we've come out relatively whole is because of exo’s popularity both with fans and the general public of Korea.

For example, there was once a web comic based on Wolf and a few of shinee's contents a long time ago. Fans now tend to ignore the mythos, not discuss it and create fan work completely separate from the reality of the kpop universe. This is a problem for me. If the work reflected more on the reality of exo, even the real life hard hitting issues they face or things that fit the group them I could see myself interacting with it more. Fanwork tends to ignore almost everything but looks and shipping.

This is just hypocrisy again. Not to mention factually wrong. First of all, fandom works are literally saturated with an abundance of mythos related creations. There are mafia and wolf aus aplenty. Power aus. Idol aus. There's posts discussing meta analysis whenever we get a new mv. There's lots of kokobop and obsession fanarts. So much so that I personally wish fanwriters would delve into non relevant aus more often. Where are you looking that you're not seeing these? Because it sounds like you're not finding things you like and want to see/read and therefore you don't count the rest of these works as valid. Which, again just because it's not your jam doesn't mean it's not somebody's jam.

As for the ‘reality’ of exo….everything we see is curated, whether by the company or by domestic fans who upload things like airport previews or the random sightings they have, or fanvids. We can take educated guesses based on the little we see that's truly authentic, but at the end of the day it's all speculation unless the artists themselves have discussed it. And even then….sm likes to script things and while exo does go off script extremely often…we still don't have the whole picture. So what reality are you wanting?

Also, it's fanfiction. Not everything is going to ‘fit the group’. Nor is everything going to fit their personalities individually. All of it however is going to fit the creator and what they want to see.

Besides, what exo mythos or reality are your fics about? Since when is mpreg omegaverse one of those? Like I applaud you for writing what you think the fandom is missing, that's what a lot of fic writers and fan artists do. They want to see something and so they create it, but at the same time you're being hypocritical yet again; by wrongly claiming no one writes about the mythos or reality and being dismissive of what is written only to turn around and do the same thing you're claiming the rest of the fandom does.

Like chibi, or an anime version of the members...like I like art but it feels like dehumanization rather than art in terms of appreciation, you know? Like a lot of people were anime fans and then get into kpop because of the makeup, plastic surgery and their willingness to do fanservice. Like real life anime.

I fail to see how people preferring specific art styles supports the opening statement of being political or aligned with a certain way of thinking…it also doesn't correlate directly to you claiming no one follows the mythos or reality of exo especially since I've seen plenty of kokobop and obsession anime style stuff in the past. Furthermore it's mere speculation and opinion on your part, there's plenty of ways to be appreciative and anime and chibi style aren't inherently dehumanizing. Could it be? Yes. Practically everything we do has that potential. There's an equal chance that the artists are emulating web comics, which are popular in Korea. Or they might just like the style.

Anyway, in essence there is not much to discuss with current works. To make a more specific example, dc comics tends to write stories that are relevant to todays world, and fandom works do the same. You will see fancomics talk about even more relevant topics than the comics and movies and shows.

Okay. And? This is a false equivalency to start with, DC source material is different from exo fandom source material therefore it's going to lend itself to different stories. And like…you say relevant. Relevance is subjective to the individual. So is your assertion there's nothing to discuss with exo current works. Just because there's nothing you want to discuss doesn't mean there's absolutely nothing to discuss.

Even singers back in the day had movies about real life or interesting topics. Micheal Jackson fans to this day create projects based off of him. Even fans who grew up to make cartoons and movies make characters inspired by his projects. To me that is what makes fanworks interesting and worth checking out. Not just it being pretty.

*sigh* Another false equivalency. And another personal preference that doesn't correlate to your original point. Also…once something becomes mainstream media with its own ip….it's no longer strictly a fanwork. For example fifty shades of grey or twilight. Both started life as fanfic and became their own intellectual properties.

I suppose a part of it is on the companies. They don't do enough to inspire the fans either. The concept can be great, but it isn't discussed and often ignored by the artists, they hardly talk about it. So I suppose fans do the same. For me it's a miss. Like Obsession was a great concept with terrible promotion and execution. The fanworks and art to me also had potential to be great but they ignore the themes.

This is true in the sense that no, they don't talk about the concepts often, and from a company standpoint I wouldn't have the artists do so either. A vague explanation allows fans to take their own meaning and understanding from the concepts. It also allows for fans to take a deeper interest in parsing out potential symbolitry or connections to past concepts.

As for fans doing the same….it's not on the company or the artist to inspire us to further action. That has to come from within. Either ourselves individually or as a collective.

As for your opinion on how Obsession was handled; while the promotion period wasn't long for Obsession, and they mishandled pre-orders (deliberately) I disagree that it wasn't executed well. The mv itself was rife with imagery related to the greater exo lore and suited the song itself. The promotions we did get reinforced the concept quite well, and while I can understand being disappointed with not having gotten more…what we did get was at least quality.

Again. Personal preference and doesn't correlate. You may not have liked the fanworks for Obsession but someone did.

To be even more specific, with Rover, great concept, great execution but that is a rare case. I think if the fandom was bigger and more active it could of been even better.

Careful. Your Bias is showing.

I also recognize fans are doing unpaid labor and get little in return for their work. The companies don't reward the fans at all.

You're right we all are, yourself included. You've put time and effort into your fics and none are getting the sort of attention they deserve. I looked at the timeline on one of your fics…over a year of effort on it. That's a long time to be working on a single thing. You should be proud of yourself. I am. That took time and dedication and while the synopsis is not my cup of tea, nor the pairings as I'm not a fan of ocs, I'm proud that you spent that time for yourself and the fandom creating. You've made the fandom better for it.

It's not on the companies to reward fans. Their only job is to make music and money. It's down to fans to reward other fans, or rather support and interact and talk. That's what keeps fandoms going even after the source material is no longer being produced.

For example, I wasn't really active in the fandoms so it's hard to give a clear example. But when call me baby came out in 2015, I thought it was really good, but looking back it did borrow a lot from bands like Nsync and such. That could be talked about more, fans do not want to hear that nor compare kpop to it's influences. I believe one moment in a mv teaser came directly from pinterest... I'm only saying this because I noticed it myself and others noticed it later.

If I were to bring this up, it would be bashed. It's just what I've seen and experienced. Even comparing two good works is seen as an insult. I am not saying every fan does this, it is probably the minority, but the minority talks the loudest in the kpop fandom. It's a bit too much.

If I say that Kai is inspired by another artist, yet he didn't say it out his own mouth, people will say, you are trying to degrade him as an artist. In Rover his Mv was inspired clearly by several other mediums, again people do not want to hear that, they only want direct praise, no other discussion about the work.

I'm addressing all three at once because your examples are all related to each other. There is a valid explanation for this and it is something I mentioned above. It doesn't make outright bashing of your thoughts right….but it does explain this particular hostility. Our groups are expendable. Look at what happened with Wonho from monsta x. With new jeans. With Seughan from riize. With any other group or soloist or member that was cast aside so terribly easily. Look at how they tried to oust Jongdae and Chanyeol. Popularity and ratings and marketability all affect how many comebacks we get or even if we get one at all. It affects job offers for the artists, things like magazine spreads, and invitations to brand launches and clothing brand ambassadorships. It also affects the amount of variety shows they go on or drama roles they land. Given that we have to work within Korean societal norms, international fans or not, it's no surprise that any hint of something that an anti could take and blow out of proportion was met with shutdown by the more zealous fandom members.

Now they shouldn't have been mean about it that's for certain and you're right the over zealous minority is always the loudest, but regardless of your thoughts on honest and open discussion, our words as a fandom do have weight. Tumblr may not be where the companies go immediately for taking the fandom pulse, but Twitter does play a role and something said on here could easily make its way there. And then outward.

It feels like there is no point. I am not a kindergartener. I do not want to act like I am watching a children's cartoon. Like I must clap, smile and say nothing intelligent. It gets tiring after awhile. It was fine as a young teen, but even then it was annoying.

I say this with the utmost sincerity. If you don't have mutuals you can discuss these sorts of things with in private…reach out and make some. It'll help alleviate some of the ennui. If you choose well you'll also kill two birds with one stone and have someone to pick apart and analyze stories and art with, without potentially hurting the creator.

Even a comment about something casual. Like for example, sometimes kpop idols go on vacation and hypothetically they went to a nightclub and have something from the nightclub. And I or someone else says 'oh hey he must have went here'. They would go crazy, if you do that 'you are trying to expose them', or start rumors that they are dating.

This is in the same vein as above, however it has the added issue of the domestic fans' attitudes and stigma towards dating attached. Dating rumors or even confirmation were someone to go digging, can kill a career.

It's mad. I don't really understand why kpop idols can't date. That is another thing that I just cannot get about the fandom. The korean public I somewhat accept because that is their culture. But american fans know good and well they could never stop justin bieber from dating back when he was up and coming, NEVER, it doesn't make sense how if you imply they may date a girl or guy--they get upset. It makes me uncomfortable. I cannot accept behavior like that. It is immoral. Love is a human right. So to be clear that is another large thing. Shipping is fine but even in one direction, people would ship larry on monday but that didn't mean eleanor would disappear on tuesday. Shipping to me in the context of kpop is different, yes other western fandoms ship but the people can date publicly, they can say hey I like this person, or I went on a date last tuesday. Kpop idols cannot. So it's not the same thing. It is a method of control. All of one direction had long term girlfriends and fiancee's from the start of the group. That's another thing I don't get. The scandal of being a grown adult and dating, and the western fans going along with it. I don't like it.

There's a lot to unpack here.

But let's start with your examples. What rock were you under? Larry shippers and Justin Bieber fans had just as many rabid fans as kpop groups do. Like I clearly remember there being at least one girl who publicly threatened suicide because Justin was dating. And then you can consider the amount of damage Larry shippers caused to Louis and Harry's friendship, getting upset over your artist dating is not a new thing. Had their relationships been weaker, Eleanor could very well have left Louis on a Tuesday due to the shippers; you say western fans know good and well they'd never stop a western artist dating…that hasn't stopped people from trying. Western artists have the benefit of companies not caring or listening to the fans. They're also protected by our different societal norms and attitudes.

Now. This is a delicate and nuanced topic and let me preface this with: I agree that love is a human right and the idols should be free to find it where they can. That being said, fandoms are influenced by the society and communities they are formed in. For Kpop that is Korea. The sad fact is, Korean companies tend to listen to the domestic fans a lot more than they do western fans. Their voices have more weight behind them for the simple fact that they're Korean and we're not. Which means, unfortunately, that our artists are frowned upon dating. It does create scandals, but beyond overzealous people trying to shut down rumors before they start, I'm not sure where you've seen masses of people going along with it, because I clearly remember international fans rising up in support of many artists who've been caught dating. Our Jongdae for starters, Edawn and Hyuna, Seughan for all the good our voices did the riize group and that's just the ones off the top of my head. This sounds like a case of a loud minority.

That also makes it hard to enjoy content knowing how toxic the fandom is.

I mean. Rude. Yeah I can see having interactions with the more unsavory members of our fandom would be enough to turn anyone away from more active participation in the fandom, and ultimately how you interact is up to you. Which also means the people you interact with is also up to you. You've painted the whole fandom with a singular brush and while understandable it doesn't make it right.

Yes. Basically. I may also reblog it if I want to commentate something, but with kpop it's usually best if you say nothing to avoid hate. I don't like to argue so I feel like there's no point draining my energy with an irrational person. Style can be interchanged with vibe. Just something lighthearted, or important. I'm not a strict on what I reblog it just has to be noteable. I will reblog a cow or a cat picture with the same vigor as I'll reblog modern art, or a golden girls or parks and recreation meme. As long as it is something that to me is relatively wholesome, nice to look at and not low vibrational. So I guess something that fits my personality but also my individuality.

This ties in to what I mentioned above, your fandom experience is your own curation and you're free to reblog or like or comment at your own pleasure. But don't blame it on the fandom as a whole. Side note, it's a bit contradictory to want 'high vibrational' posts yet complain that no one is writing fics with real life relevance. Real life isn't strictly 'high vibrational'.

No problem, but in my rambling, I was trying to be as polite as possible; I'm implying most kpop fandom works have the depth of a shallow pool. Besides blind praise that I don't feel most of it deserves, I really wouldn't have anything else to say.

Ah yes the quiet part. Or maybe I should say the unsubtle rudeness. You're disparaging the fandom as a whole because you're not happy with the offerings.

I was never rude to anyone, ever--they were simply reactive to me asking basic questions about the stories, which they couldn't answer. There are some fandom works I love, but there is no room to have a genuine conversation anymore. The artists are too sensitive to take basic level questions. I wouldn't waste my time critiquing a fan comic or fic that doesn't possess even simple plot structure.

I can't say either way whether or not you were rude or not, but you keep using the word critique and you keep disparaging fandom works for not hitting real-life topics or sticking to the mythos and you keep complaining that no one wants to discuss anything anymore; that reads to me that you're looking at fandom works with lens of an English class student. As a mutual of mine once put it, fandom works are mostly fluff, like candy, they're not meant to fill you and change your worldview or even make you think. The majority of fandom works are meant to entertain, to engage your immediate surface emotions rather than your thoughts and deeper emotions. You sound like you're searching for a filling meal with every fic or fanart.

The rare times I have simply asked a worldbuilding question, the people get so offended not because I'm rude but they barely know what worldbuilding is. My writing or art isn't perfect, far from it. But the other fandoms I participated in left room for someone to call out stuff, or analyze.

I can't speak to what's happened to you in the past and I can't speak to whether this derogatory tone you're taking is a product of your experiences or your frustration with not being able to interact with works in the exo fandom as you wish. But each fandom is different and each author or artist is going to have different tolerance levels to what they'll willing endure in terms of negative commentary.

In this fandom specifically it's hard to do that because it's not that deep.

Again it sounds like you're looking for a meal amongst the candy, and I'd like to point out that there's a reason candy is more prevalent. To start we have less writers and fan artists than other fandoms do. Whether that's because of military hiatus, fans simply moving on, or the lack of interaction between members of the fandom community is hard to say, but less creators means less to choose from. The second reason is because a lot of the newer creators are part of the younger crowd, they're new to creation and candy sized pieces of work are easier and quicker to produce. And thirdly, even our veteran writers will make candy fluff because that's often what gets interacted with the most. For our fandom specifically, it's often a form of escapism, something to soothe the raw edges of reality and so the heavy meals aren't often interacted with. If you want more than the candy….it's often necessary to either write it yourself or request it. Or put in the work and search for it, because filling fics do exist I assure you, and when you do find the works you enjoy….you encourage the author by reblogging and commenting.

I want to in my spare time, when I'm in the mood for exo content, to give someone who writes a good story a long comment. Maybe even ask a few questions, but it's a catch 22 situation.

Not really. It just seems that way because of your experiences. But an understandable viewpoint given your statements.

I understand exo fandom creators want their fandom back. I get that. I'd love more funny original exo content, but it's a different climate now.

Well that's a defeatist attitude if I've ever heard one. Though original exo content has no bearing on fandom creation beyond more fodder for fans to work with. If we want to continue having a fandom then we need to act like a fandom instead of individual fans. There are fandoms out there whose source material has dried up completely yet they still exist.

Somehow the one direction fandom is still making fanworks that get attention and get made into movies.

Okay. And? If you're implying that exo doesn't have fanworks that could be made into cinema or published officially then I'd suggest you go read @soobadnoonecanstopher 's fics. Lori's fics could guve anything on the shelves a run for the money. If you're attempting to correlate the attention levels of directioners to exol, might I point out that kpop as a whole has a stigma still attached to it. Moreover there's a process for turning fic into movies and usually the first step of that is to turn it into a book first. That usually happens when one the author is aiming to write as a profession, something not all fic writers want to do; for many of us this is a hobby. Then if it's popular enough and gets enough attention in fandom, that's when the author might seek to change the fic enough to publish as their own IP. And if the book does well…that's when a film studio will pick it up. So it's no wonder that exo specific fics don't get made into movies. There's not enough interaction both in and out of fandom for exo fandom works.

But I just don't ever remember Anna Todd freaking out, because somebody asked her, why she put ab or c in her story. It wasn't a great story, but any critique good or bad she accepted rewrote and published it.

That is one person. One person. Regardless of her personal outlook on accepting criticism or not freaking out at being questioned as you've put it, that doesn't negate what is considered common etiquette. Questions are usually a safe option, but anything that smacks of criticism is frowned upon unless the author or artist is open to it. It's a boundary many don't want crossed because it sucks the fun out of creating for them.

And people who could read it for free still bought it, cause it's about respect. Respect is mutual.

Respect is mutual, I agree.

I would never blast someone else's story or anything like that. But many writers or even people making jokes, say things that are pretty far out, yet if you even slightly question it--you should just go somewhere else.

You don't have to be blasting someone's story for you to still be being rude about it. Without further context, your statement that people are saying far out things and if you question it slightly you're told to go somewhere else reads as if someone wrote something you had issue with, something made you uncomfortable, and you called them out on it and were told to shove off. The most common instance I can think of when this sort of thing happens is when someone is being judgemental over someone else's preferences. Another piece of fandom etiquette is if it's not to your liking, ignore it and move on. There are exceptions to this of course, but for the most part it boils down to don't yuck someone else's yum.

No, I don't think asking an author what they want to hear is appropriate, it's not. If they wanted their comments or replies turned off to avoid noise they could easily do that.

Turning off reblogs and comments negates the whole purpose of sharing fanworks. You could just as easily not be negative in your critiquing. Asking, while it's not something most do as most people are okay with keeping their comments to positives only, is just a suggested alternative. Manners are important both online and Irl, so why is asking someone what they're okay with hearing inappropriate? These statements of yours are coming across as entitled btw.

Also by critique, besides me just telling the author my plain opinion, like I like the story structure, the characterization, pacing, descriptions? Or in terms of art, you can't say anything about anybody's art online, so I don't. I just heart what I like and keep moving. Fanart can be good, but a lot of it just isn't.

You can say more than that, but you do have to be polite and nice about it. And being critical over what is essentially a gift is neither of those.

Again that's your prerogative. Your interactions are your own to decide.

That's your opinion. Art is subjective.

Creativity makes more of a mark than perfect digital art. Nothing feels handmade anymore or has passion. People can sense that. Again I'm not judging or saying I can do better, I am just being honest.

Except yes, you are. You are being so judgemental. The entirety of your replies has been laced with nothing but a judgemental attitude. You're allowed to have your opinions on fanworks; they don't even have to be positive. What common etiquette is asking from you is you keep those judgments to yourself. Pick things apart and grind them to dust all you want. Just don't do so where the author can see it.

I will blot out the author name and the character name. Usually I rarely comment. I don't feel like digging through all my old profiles to find more. I can compliment a creator all day, but many don't have much to say. Which is fine, but this author in particular, really really wanted people to comment. I felt bad so I did. It feels like they want comments so their work will seem popular more than they want to create a good story.

So part of your frustration is also that authors aren't keeping up with a discussion? And that makes you think it's more about popularity than the work itself? I mean that's a possibility, but given just the screenshot as a guideline…that convo could have potentially gone further. Maybe you need to polish your communication skills.

This was not a bad interaction it just felt like a pointless one, is this the type of response people want? In the past even teen romance writers had more substance. In the end I just feel like this works when a fandom is full of very young people who are happy with pointless conversations, but mature people want something real to talk about.

Again it sounds like you're frustrated because you're not getting what you want out of the fandom. It does tend to come down to the people that you're following and it sounds like you need to find another circle.

I wish y'all good luck though, hopefully some of what I and others said can help the way creators choose to interact with their audience in the future.

Had you not been condescending and judgemental? It might have. It might still do.

So to summarize how your answers are portraying you:

I think you're a closeted kpop stan who has internalized both the negativity towards kpop and the general populace's negative opinions towards fanworks. You've been deriding the very works you both create and consume, while refusing to adhere to what is considered common courtesy and good manners, potentially out of shame.

You're upset because you can't find what you want and you're upset because your words aren't being received in the way you imagined. Combined with that internalized negative attitude towards the things you enjoy and are ashamed of, it has led to you being very judgemental and pretentious, which in turn has led to at least some of your negative experiences. If only by dint of you seeing replies to your comments as pointless interactions.

You've taken your experiences and decided the whole fandom is toxic and problematic and it has colored your opinions because of it. You make comparisons to other other fandoms such as DC and One Direction and Michael Jackson and praise them for containing works that become mainstream or that focus on real life issues, all while conveniently overlooking the fact that a fic eventually getting made into mainstream media is an extreme rarity when you compare number of fanfictions written to number of fics that became their own IPs. You're also conveniently leaving out the large amount of self indulgent fics those fandoms have as well as their hard hitting fics. You raise these other fandoms up as a standard, ignoring their own flaws. No fandom is without toxic members, you've just had the good luck to not meet them.

I'd recommend taking a good hard look at where your opinions are actually stemming from, are they really your own or just a product of your environment. Use those english critiquing skills for their intended purpose for once and figure out your own head.

I Have a (few) question(s) for Exol.

I'm genuinely curious as to the answers, so if you see this could you please do me the favour of signal boosting this so it reaches more people?

I see posts circulating now and again about lack of interaction on fandom creation posts. No one reblogs. No one comments. But I never see anyone asking why. Is it simply a matter of being in the middle of an etiquette shift? Is it crossplanted members of social media communities having different social norms? Has the way people use Tumblr shifted? Speculation only goes so far so to better understand what I'd like to know is the following:

How long have you been on Tumblr? Any fandom not just Exo.

What is your take on fan created works on Tumblr and interacting with them?

Do you have a process for what goes on your blog? How do you find most of the posts you reblog? Through the dash? Through the tags?

Do you spend time on other platforms? Have you in the past?

How do you interact with fan creations on these other platforms? Do you like comment or share? Do you re-tweet? Etc.

When was the last fic of any length (drabble and blurbs and headcanons/reactions included) you read? Last time you saw fanart (including edits and moodboards and graphics) you enjoyed?

Did you reblog it?

If yes you did reblog did you say anything about it? Simple or otherwise? Leave a gif underneath that expressed how you felt? Put a comment in the tags? Left an emoji? Etc.

If you didn't leave commentary was there a reason? Do you feel like you start to repeat yourself when commenting? Do you think there's nothing to say? Were you following the adage if you cant say something nice dont say anything at all? Other reasons?

If no you did not reblog why? Is there a specific reason? Did you not like it and not want to say? Does it not fit your blog? Was it not a length or level of skill you felt warranted a reblog? Have your friends already seen it? Do you only post your own creations? Other reasons?

For our fan creators I have an extra question. Do you reply to your comments? Even if they're in the tags?

If no is there a reason?

Please take a moment and share your answers cause I'm trying to understand where things shifted from what they were before to now.

[picturejasper20]

Debunking common misconceptions about the Ben 10 Reboot.

A mutual of mine asked me if could write a post debuking common critiques people have of the Ben 10 Reboot. Some of these critiques are based of  misconceptions and misinformation about the show while others are more subjective, meaning there are a matter of personal opinions.

I’m going to divide this post in different sections. In each section i’m going to try debunking a misconception and explain why i think this isn’t correct. If anyone wants to give their opinion on the subject, feel free to reblog the post or leave a comment.

I’m going to add a ¨Read More¨ since it’s going to be a long post.

1) ¨The reboot only has fart jokes as humor¨

I’m not sure from where people got this idea that the only type of humor the Reboot has are toilet and fart jokes. Does it has some jokes that are based on this? Yes! But Reboot’s humor has more variety than that.

Many of the jokes come from the characters´ reactions to certain events, how silly some situations are and from the dialogue. For example: Episodes focused on Xingo as the antagonist have tons of slaptick and old cartoon humor.

Since the series doesn’t take itself too seriously, it uses this to its advantage to make fun of  tropes, franchises and popular culture. It also has many references to current trends such as youtube and social media, things that the new generation is more familiar with.

If these jokes land or not is up to debate but to say the Reboot only has fart jokes is a bit of a stretch.

2) ¨The Reboot has no plot or worldbuliding¨

This is one of the weirdest arguments for me because if you watch the show you’ll know this isn’t the case. The show has a main arc as well as some subplots. 

I think people get this idea due to how the show is mainly episodic in season 1 unlike the rest of the seasons. The thing is that even season 1 has continuity that is quite important if you want to understand the rest of the series. It introduces villains as well as secondary characters that become important in future episodes. It also has tons of character development for the main protagonists, so, skipping this season would mean missing out their character growth.

By the end of season 1, Ben gets a new Alien called Gax which is the same species as the original Vilgax. It turns out this alien was half of Vilgax’s original power and Vilgax was trying to get it back. The finale is has interesting surprises and plot twists that change the status quo of the series in some ways.

In season 2 is mainly about Vilgax teaming up with other villains to steal the Omnitrix from Ben. These episodes are quite entertaining and help to develop the main characters. What’s more is that Ben gets a new alien called Shock rock and isn’t able to transform into Upgrade, which becomes important in the season finale.

I could talk about Kevin’s character arc, Charmcaster, Glitch, the Forever Knight’s arc, Animo subplot and tons of other stuff. My point is that saying that    ¨the Reboot has not plot¨ would be a huge misconception about the show. It would make more sense if someone complained about how its episodic structure hurts and distracts from the main story arc and it would have helped the series to not have so many episodes centered around the characters going on random adventures.

3) ¨Shock Rock is a cheap copy of Ghostfreak¨

When i first heard about this complain it suprised me a bit. Look, i get why a person could think that "Shock Rock is just Reboot's Ghostfreak" since they share similar stories.

However there are a few differences between the two:

Ghostfreak was possesed by an evil entity, Zs'Skayr, who later escaped from the Omnitrix and did terrible things. This was so horryfing for Ben that for a long time he didn't turn into ghostfreak out of fear of their conection with Zs'Skayr.

In the original series it wasn't really explained how Zs'Skayr got inside the Omnitrix and for how long he was concious about being trapped.

Shock Rock was introduced as a result of a terrible glitch caused by the Omnitrix being rebooted. They replaced Upgrade's DNA pod and allowed Ben to give the aliens stronger versions of themselves.

Shock Rock isn't completely evil and never really tries to escape from the Omnitrix. All that they did was to build that tower to send a signal to the Fulmini. Once the protagonists reboot the Omnitrix again, Ben was able to transform into Shock Rock without any problem.

Both aliens are a bit similar but on a deeper analysis they have different execution in their respective series.

4) "Glitch is a copy of Ship".

This is one i get why people complain about it. Glitch and Ship have many parallels in common. (Both being mechamorphs, they are both sidekicks)

The main difference is that Ship acts like a pet and is able to transform into many electronic devices. On the other hand, Glitch lives inside the kart and can't transform in the same way that Ship does. (However he can in the future, years after developing his powers).

Their backstories and origins differ. Ship was born from a mechamorph that needed help after he crashed his own ship. Glitch was the result of Ben using Upgrade to reboot the Omnitrix in the season 1 finale which forced Upgrade to fuse with Ben's DNA to survive.

Another point i want to add (based on speculation) is that Glitch resembling is Ship seems to be very intentional. I think the creators wanted to Ship to appear again in the Reboot. So they decided to create Glitch.

Keep in mind that the Reboot makes tons of references to the original series and its sequels. It wouldn't be suprising if Glitch is a reference to Ship.

5) "Max is not clever/ is dumb"

I don't really got the impression of reboot Max being "dumbed down". He is one of the characters that acts almost exactly as he does in the original series.

I think this complain come from Max being less serious in this series: He isn't so strict with the kids and gives them more freedom to do what they want. He is also more open minded and has less "black and white" mentality that he had in the original series.

He is still almost the same character, just more easy going and down to earth in comparison. He still acts as a guide for Ben and Gwen. He still has a few arguments with Ben for not listening to him in some episodes.

@theangrycomet made a post a few weeks back about Reboot Max. I think people should check their post because they explain many things that i mention here in more detail.

Here is a link to their post: X

6) "They cancelled Omniverse because of the reboot"

This one is a somewhat old argument. Again, i don't know where people got this idea that reboot was the main reason they cancelled Omniverse.

I have been trying to find an article that could explain the reason behind its cancellation. All i was able to find were fans talking about how it ended because of the low number of toys getting sold. Nothing about the reboot.

It could one of the things lead to Omniverse being cancelled but not the only main factor.

If anyone has more information about this feel free to leave a link in the comment section or by reblog.

7) "Ben is out of character in the reboot"

This something i don't really get at all. Reboot Ben behaves pretty much the same way he does in the OS. He is still cocky, stubborn, competitive, impacient and gets into a trouble.

Is it because he appears to be nicer in this series? If it is because of that then i personally like this change. I found Ben to be more likable in this version. As well as capable of regretting his actions and learning his lessons.

Reboot Ben is a complex character. It has so much development that i would find it difficult for me to sum it up in just one post.

I think fans get this impression since they are more used to Alien Force Ben than OS Ben. That's why they believe Reboot Ben is acting OOC when in reality is he isn't much different from the OS Ben.

If anyone has a better explanation, please leave it in the comments section/reblog.

-----

Okay, those are the most common misconceptions i found after talking with some mutuals. While a few things are a matter of doing fact checking, others are based on my perspective on the series.

Keep in mind that i don't think the Reboot is perfect by any means. It has its issues like slow pacing in the first season or characters that are annoying.

However, if someone wants to give a serious critique, they should try doing a bit of research and fact-check to see if their points are valid. Otherwise,they might look misinformed at best and making bad faith arguments at worse. That's all.

[rwhague]

3 Tips for Stronger Writing

If I had a dollar for every post I’ve read about writing. . . but with inflation the way it is, I’m not sure it would make much of a difference. If you look around, especially on places like Pinterest, you’re going to find quite a bit of good information as well as conflicting information. Here are the best tips I’ve seen and the concepts behind them. 

Use Active Verbs Rather Than Passive Verbs

For all of those people who did not find English as their favorite subjects, here’s what this means: 

A verb is anything that causes action in the sentence. For example: The cat ran. In this sentence, the verb would be ran. 

There are other little words that can help describe an action that was done to the subject. Am, is, are, was, were, are examples of these helping verbs. Example sentence: Katie was pushed by Eric. Was pushed is the verb phrase. 

However, the example sentence can be reworded and written like this: Eric pushed Katie. The meaning is retained, but the helping verb is removed. Instead of something happening to the subject, the subject is doing something. This is what it means when someone says to use more active verbs rather than passive verbs. Now the sentence is stronger or has more of a punch. 

Show, Don’t Tell

This is one of the harder tips to explain, but it is important. 

Which of the examples below gives you a better picture of the personalities of my characters?

Katie was angry at Jared because he kept interrupting her. 

Or . .

Katie gritted her teeth as the boy cut in for the fifth time in her explanation. 

I didn’t have to tell you Katie was anger, because most readers know that emotion that Katie is experiencing as described by her body language. 

Other examples of showing and not telling:  Katie falls in love: When Jared entered the room, Katie’s breath fled. As he smiled, she kept staring at his soft lips, remembering their first kiss.  Katie is scared: The hairs on the back of Katie’s neck rose as Midas entered the room.  Katie is embarrassed: Warmth flooded her cheeks as the shattered dishes scattered across the floor. 

You get the point. See how much richer the narrative is now that the body language has been described rather than the emotions told? 

Don’t Head Hop

This is another one of those complicated things to explain. At first, I was skeptical about altering my manuscript in this way, but after fixing one chapter, it was clear that this was the way to go. 

Point of view (POV) is a term describing whose perspective the narrative is told from. If you haven’t guessed, Katie is my POV character. There are several types of POV: 

1st person: Think Katniss in the Hunger Games. Everything is told from the perspective of Katniss. “I did this. . .I saw this. . .” 

1st person peripheral: Think Red in the Shawshank Redemption. Andy Dufresne is the main character, but the story is told from the perspective of Red. “When I saw Andy for the first time. . .” 

2nd person: Usual used for instructional writing. “First you pop the hood, then you find the whatever greasy mechanical thing we are talking about. . .” (Not a car person). 

3rd person: This is your narrator. There are 3 types of 3rd person (if this wasn’t confusing enough)

Omniscient: Think Death in the Book Thief. This is an almost god-like narrator who knows what everyone is thinking, and what everyone is doing at the same time. 

Limited: Most stories I’ve read are in either this category or the next. Think Shutter Island. You are in the head of DiCaprio’s character. This can be fun, because you can have a lot of twists added. Your POV character might not be privy to a lot of the things that are taking place around them, or they might not be an accurate narrator. Then at the end, everything is revealed. 

Multiple: Think. . .well. . .a lot of books. I’m going to go with the Count of Monte Cristo. Here, Edmond Dantes is not present for every scene that takes place in the story, so he can’t be the POV for every scene. 

1st person and 3rd person limited are very tight forms of narrative with strict rules. If your character does not know it, your narrator does not know it either. This is where head hopping comes in. 

You’re bee-bopping along in Katie’s head, when suddenly, your author states that Jared looked over at Midas, and anger boiled within him. EEEK! Stop right there. You are in Katie’s head, and unless she can read minds, she doesn’t have insight into Jared’s personal feelings. Now, you can have her notice things about her friend--maybe his hands clutch the rail in front of him until his knuckles turn white. Maybe a sneer crosses his face, but you can’t be privy to his personal thoughts. This is head hopping. 

But I want my reader to know different perspectives. . .

You can have multiple perspectives, but it’s not 3rd person limited. A single POV will make your narrative stronger. If you must have multiple POVs (like in the Count of Monte Cristo), I would recommend that you change your POV in the next chapter or after a clear scene break. 

I would also recommend that when you change your POV , that you give each character their unique voice. One of my critiquers recommended that I have Katie state how many bunk beds were in one room. Here’s the problem though: Katie wouldn’t think to count them. But do you know who would? Jared, my other POV. So, if I’m writing from Jared’s perspective, I will have him notice certain things that Katie wouldn’t and vice versa. 

Those are my three tips for better writing! If you have enjoyed reading, please consider subscribing and reblogging!

[zerohawks]

hey ! i was wondering if i could request some headcannons of kageyama, sugawara, akaashi, oikawa and kenma with a s/o experienced in volleyball ❤️

PRETTY SETTER SQUAD WITH A S/O EXPERIENCED IN VOLLEYBALL.

featuring: kageyama, sugawara, and oikawa

genre: fluff

a/n: when i tell you this request made me so happy i really mean it. i play volleyball in real life so now i can actually? self? project? onto? the? s/o? obsessed omg. thank you so much for requesting. also sorry this is so short. i might do a part two depending on my mood :))) likes and reblogs are very much appreciated!

go back to masterlist

KAGEYAMA:

if kageyama had an s/o they would definitely have to be well acquainted with volleyball because of how it’s pretty much his life

i can see kageyama having a s/o that is a middle blocker and just practicing with them

mini training sessions would usually pretty late because he would get really embarrassed if someone from his team showed up

ironically enough he wouldnt allow them to go past their limits even though it is totally hypocritical

since kageyama is a very technical and polished player he would be able to help their s/o with slip ups they are having

i just know that he would be a little blunt about calling out your mistakes

but give him a break, mans is failing english, he ain’t the brightest

nonetheless his advice is actually really helpful

i can see during the mini training sessions, the s/o playing as if they were hinata especially if they were fighting so he doesn’t have to opt out for a water bottle

this man would talk about volleyball, his s/o, volleyball, oh and more volleyball

most of their dates would be at a park, at ukais shop, or a volleyball game

the volleyball dates would consist of kageyama being in a zone where he can barely focus on anything but the game

during the breaks he would definitely buy you some drinks and shower you with his favorite players merchandise

SUGAWARA:

omg this man

he would probably have a setter s/o

i don’t really have an explanation...he just would

you guys wouldn’t practice much together but you would talk about strategy’s quite often

his life doesn’t just revolve around volleyball and is much more of a passionate side hobby

he would always ask you to come to his games and would get very flustered if you did...even though he should have expected you to come

this man would run to you after the game and thank you endlessly and you would be like...sir...you asked me to come

he is so soft for you so you’d probably go on a date afterwards

he would complement you on doing the easiest thing ever

you set a ball? well suga thinks you deserve a round of applause

he is very big on not pushing limits, so he always make sure that you never do

you bet everything that me will hug you randomly and tell you how perfect you are

OIKAWA:

i just know this man would have a setter s/o

he would definitely want you to come to his games and critique him

he gets really happy when you come to his games

also he would brag about you to the team

forget team, the whole world (read: his fan girls)

you would have to be the one to drag him home because this man doesn’t belive in limits

he will pull an all nighter practicing unless you stop him

you may need to hit him in the head with a volleyball just in case

he doesn’t underestimate your skills, he knows your skills and acknowledges them

of course that doesn’t mean he isn’t silently cheering you on every chance he gets because he does

[allthefilmsiveseenforfree]

What Lies Beneath

So my wife is incredibly supportive of my movie-watching goals. She helped me set up my blog and my Patreon, she was my very first patron, and she watches at least half the movies with me. As my patron, she has the right to request one movie per calendar year for me to review just for her. But sometimes she tries to skirt the rules by insinuating, nay, cajoling nonstop in her goal for me to watch a movie she wants me to see without it counting as her “official” selection. And because I love her, I (sometimes) allow it. Such was the case with What Lies Beneath, a twisty psychological haunted house thriller that stars two middle-aged, serious actors (Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer), and that I shockingly wasn’t lining up at the megaplex for when I was 13. What did my preteen self miss? Well...

A fucking GREAT movie is what I missed. I won’t sugarcoat it - this was a huge surprise in the best way. I won’t spoil the ending at all, because this is one film I think you really need to watch unfold for the first time without knowing exactly what’s going on. Basically, Claire and Norman Spencer are new empty-nesters, and in their gorgeous Vermont home all to themselves, strange things start happening. Is it something to do with the mysterious new neighbors? Or maybe some past traumas that are dug up over the course of the movie? Could their house be actually haunted by some malevolent spirit? All of these are distinct, and delicious, possibilities, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun figuring out what exactly is going on.

Some thoughts:

A VERY GOOD DOG at the very beginning! I was so concerned for the dog at a few points in the film, but the dog (Cooper) is absolutely fine and remains happy and carefree all the way to the end of the film. 

I have always had a thing for Harrison Ford, and that is not diminishing at all as I watch him shirtless in bed while writing a paper about science. Unf.

Very into the way this exposition is handled - Claire (Pfeiffer) missing her daughter and finding the Julliard tank top in her dresser, then looking through photo albums where we see the daughter wearing it, then see Claire studying at Julliard, then see HER wearing the tank top, plus some articles about Norman’s father dying and photos from a car accident in which I think her first husband died. It’s all tiny pieces of exposition, just little bits of information that you, the viewer, have to put together and remember, and I love that. 

Don’t love Norman (Ford) gaslighting her about what to do about the neighbors. If you mind your own business and never reach out when people sound like they need help, that’s how people get hurt. Makes me think he has something to hide or maybe some kind of connection to the neighbors?

Loving the Rear Window vibes of spying on the neighbors, thinking you’ve witnessed a murder, complete with binocular surveillance.

There’s a lot of wind in this movie. Wind is basically like another character.

The layering of dialogue - Norman and his friend are talking about a colleague who got fired for stalking an intern, and Claire and her old friend are catching up. The two conversations are overlapping, and I think they’re both important but we’re so wrapped up in Claire and her friend that that stalking conversation gets buried. This is really well-thought-out character development and building of backstory and motivation. I haven’t watched a movie this skillfully thought out in quite awhile.

I hate the way Norman diminishes her. Like he’s charming and he’s Harrison Ford, but he kind of implies that she’s hysterical or silly for the things she’s been experiencing, and laughs at her expense. 

She didn’t say goodbye after playing with the Ouija board. ROOKIE MISTAKE, everything that happens afterward is clearly a result of poor Ouija etiquette. 

Oh interesting, so she was in a terrible car accident a year ago, which is part of why everyone is worried about her mental state and fragility. We don’t discover this until HALFWAY THROUGH THE FILM. This is storytelling like prestige television does it, and it’s so unusual to see in a film now that it keeps bowling me over. 

Their water bill is gonna be sky high after this. These completely full tubs? The rates are astronomical.

Oh no things have escalated so quickly - I feel like I’m trying to outsmart the twist at every turn and I can’t quite grasp it, which is good because I actually think this is an incredibly plotted movie that’s so purposefully and carefully crafted. I can’t help but feel that we are missing so much now, because we just don’t get mid-level budget domestic dramas with A-list actors like this anymore. I think their era might have completely passed, and that’s a damn shame because the nuance and care here makes this such a delightful and surprising ride to take.

A huge part of that is Ford and Pfeiffer just absolutely nailing how they play every single scene. Their chemistry is great, and watching them play off each other, you can sense all the layers of their relationship, all the past traumas and the lies and the reconciliations. 

He says “I know you’re going through something I don’t understand and I’ve tried to be there for you” but like...have you, Norman? You’re always working, you shut her down every time she wants to talk. 

The brilliance here is that you don’t know if something supernatural is actually going on or if there’s a rational explanation, and I’m so here for the ambiguity. We simply don’t get enough ambiguity (that’s purposeful) in mainstream Hollywood films anymore. It’s all in the indies, which are great, don’t get me wrong! But I want more audiences to see how it could be done.  

I know I just keep going on about it but every new scene reveals a detail that feeds into the overarching mystery in such a natural way. For example, this NICE callback to the key, which I had totally forgotten about. This honestly is a fantastic slow burn of a film, really well done. 

I’m so enjoying Harrison Ford using his charm and his looks and his general Harrison Ford-ness to play a not very nice guy. He’s not a lovable rogue like Han Solo or a stubborn adventurer with a heart of gold like Indiana Jones, he’s just a guy who thinks he deserves to have what he wants at any cost. He’s worked hard, he’s a “good guy” and he thinks that he’s entitled to have things go his way just because. 

Holy shit the symmetry with the first scene of the film to the big climax - that’s just some damn good writing, that is. 

I’m so pleased that there’s no music at all during this final sequence - the score had been a bit overbearing at times, but this eerie silence with just the water running is, frankly, terrifying.

One slight critique - the movie has almost as many endings as Lord of the Rings. You think it’s done, and then there’s another whole section that you think is gonna be the last, and then everything’s underwater again and it’s STILL NOT DONE. But in a good way, I didn’t get nearly as pissed as I do at the end of LOTR. 

Holy fucking shit, Clark Gregg wrote this?????? Agent Coulson Clark Gregg?? This is my absolute favorite bit of movie trivia I’ve learned all year. 

Did I Cry? No. 

I am never going to stop talking about this movie. Wife was right, and I will say it loudly and publicly - I am so glad she cajoled me into watching this film. If you haven’t seen it, watch it immediately. It’s smart, it’s well-paced, it keeps you guessing, and it boils over into an absolutely bonkers climax in the best way. I will be thinking about this for aaaages and missing the way movies outside of the “Disney/Pixar/Marvel vs. teeny independent Spirit Award winner” machine used to get made. 

If you liked this review, please consider reblogging or subscribing to my Patreon! For as low as $1, you can access bonus content and movie reviews, or even request that I review any movie of your choice.

[sapphetti]

Announcement

Hello!

My blog is going to change slightly and I want to be transparent and explain why.

My mistake:

So recently I have been looking into copyright laws and realized that oh shit some of my posts might be copyright infringement. I know I probably should have looked more into copyright laws before I started this blog but let me explain why I didn’t. Mainly, I saw a lot of people doing the same thing so I thought it must be okay. Secondly, my reasoning was “this blog is for a good cause, it’s not like I’m trying to gain financially from this so it must be okay”.

Well after reading up on it I have changed my mind. I was entitled to think that it was up to me to decide how another person wanted to distribute their artwork, and for this I am very sorry. But I don’t want to just say sorry and do nothing, I want to actually make up for it So what I have done these last few days is I have removed all the posts I suspect might be copyright infringement. This includes a lot of poetry, photography, screenshots from movies & music videos and modern paintings.

I will of course continue to post though. The change is that for my new posts I will take advantage of two cases where it is actually allowed to post artworks that aren’t yours. Those two cases are:

1. When the artwork falls under public domain. To my understanding, unless the artwork is protected under some special license (which seems to be rare), the copyright for an artwork dissipates when the artist of the artwork has been dead for 70+ years (in some countries the time is a bit shorter or longer than 70 years, generally it’s always 50-100 years). Today the year is 2020 so if the artwork was made by an artist that died before 1950 it is in the public domain and I can post it.

2. When I have gotten permission from the artist. Before I sometimes posted the artworks even if I couldn’t get ahold of the artist (like for example photographs by famous photographers or poetry by writers I didn’t know how to contact). But from now on I will only post artworks if I have gotten permission from the artist, even if it’s a famous artist that is difficult to contact.

Also, I have always done my best to reblog instead of posting artworks. Sometimes you might have seen me post artworks from smaller artist. The reason for that is that the smaller artist haven’t had a tumblr account, so I have asked them on instagram if they were okay with me reposting their art on tumblr and they have said yes. The artists I haven’t gotten permission from have been more famous, often older artists without social media or a website with contact info. But from now on I will try better to contact those artists, or if I can’t get ahold of them simply not post their artworks.

How this will change my content:

Paintings: There will mainly be older paintings, since they more often belong to the public domain. These might not be very diverse and are often made by men but of course I will do my best to make it as diverse as I can.

Photography: There will be less photography from famous photographers (such as Catherine Opie, Donna Gottschalk etc) and probably less photography overall since I will need to ask for permission every time (most photography was made in the last 50 years or so and therefore does not fall under public domain).

Music: There will be no screenshots from music videos as those fall under copyright laws. I will still post a link to the song and the music video (if there is one). By the way, I will not ask permission from musicians when posting their music as tumblr has a feature that I will use where you can post links to audio clips without it being copyright infringement.

Movies: I will not have any screenshots from the movies. Instead I will only have a link to the trailer of the movie, and I will try to always link the trailer from the official account that belongs to the movie’s creators so they will get the revenue.

Books: I won’t include a picture of the cover of the book. Instead I will link to the GoodReads page of the book where you can see the book cover.

Poetry: I will either post older poetry that falls under public domain, poetry that I have got permission to post or videos made by the poet where the poem is read out aloud.

Sculpture: Pictures of sculptures can fall under public domain, therefore I will only post links to websites where you can read about and see photos of the sculpture or in some cases links to videos where someone has filmed the sculpture.

What I need from you:

Please reblog instead of repost my posts. If you do not know the difference, please read this post.

If you see me making a post that you think is copyright infringement, please tell me about it and I will look into it.

If you own the copyright of an artwork I have posted and want it to be removed, tell me right away preferably through sending a message.

Respect the copyright laws. Do it for your own sake, do you really want to risk getting sued for a simple post? But more importantly, do it for the artist’s sake. Making a living through being an artist today is really difficult and people stealing art without giving proper credit is a big reason as to why. This causes a lot of people who might have created masterpieces to stray away from the art world. I don’t know about you but I love art and it would be absolutely amazing to see a world with more thriving artists in it.

If you really, really, really want to repost instead of reblog one of my posts please follow these guideline:

Look up who the artist is and if they are dead or alive. I always write the name of the artist in the post. From now on I will also include the year they died (if they are deceased) in the post. If you still find it unclear, message me and I will provide further explanation.

Is the artist deceased? Look up the laws about the length of copyright in your country (here’s a list). If the copyright for the artwork has dissipated, also look up if any special license applies to the artwork (my best source for this is Wikimedia Commons, let me know if you know of any other reliable sources for this). If the copyright for the artwork has dissipated and there is no special license applied, the artwork falls under public domain and you are free to use it however you like.

Is the artist alive? Contact the artist and ask them for permission to repost. Here is a guide of what to include when asking for permission. 

Apply fair use. This is an exception to the copyright laws that applies when you are using someone else’s artwork for either commentary/critique or parody. I am not very knowledgeable in what exactly does and does not constitute fair use so I would advice you to look into this further through other sources if you’re interested.

I want to add that I have neither studied law or art so my knowledge on this topic is of course limited. If you have more knowledge of these topics and have something to add, please do so! I really value all your opinions and feedback.

Lastly I want to say that it’s okay to make mistakes. I mean I even just admitted to doing the exact same thing. But I also think it’s important we really start paying attention to this issue as every day I see tons of reposts of artworks that doesn’t even give credit to the artist and honestly it upsets me.

That is it for now! Sorry for a long post, but I have really been wanting to speak about this. Stay safe out there <3

ps. I have recently become more active on my instagram, so go give me a follow if you’d like!

TL;DR: I have made the mistake of not asking some artists for permission when posting their art, so from now on I’m gonna do that. I ask you to follow the copyright laws and reblog my posts, not repost.

[juliabohemian]

backhanded compliments & the art of commenting on other people’s creative content without being a complete twat waffle

WARNING: This is a long post.

I'm a word person. That's probably why, when I do find myself becoming irritated by someone else's unsolicited critique, it is almost always due to their choice of words. Words are important and very powerful. Words have different meaning to different people. Which is why we need to take care when choosing them.

Now, whenever possible, I will click on the profile of the person who left the unsolicited critique and try to get a feel for what type of person they are. Just so I can better understand why they might have left the comment in question. If it is clear they are not a native English speaker, I stop right there. Learning a foreign language is hard. English is one of the most ridiculous languages on the planet. So, mastering its nuances is a challenge for someone who may not have grown up using it. I’m sure I have offended at least one person with my Spanish, at some point. I’m working on it.

BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS

When I say choice of words, I am implying almost exclusively to something known as a backhanded compliment. A backhanded compliment is a statement that seems, on the surface, to be positive, but is actually an insult. If you are not familiar with the backhanded compliment, I direct you to the mom from American Beauty who says to her teenage daughter "Honey, I'm so proud of you. I watched you very closely, and you didn't screw up once!"

There are a lot of reasons why people make such comments. It would be reductive to suggest they are all suffering from some form of insecurity, although many of them probably are. Some may genuinely believe that they are being helpful. Others may be jealous of the attention another person is receiving and want to either sabotage them or find a way to get in on the action. 

However, it is most likely that the type of person to give a backhanded compliment is either very young, very sheltered or very privileged. And thus, they may not realize that their opinion about something may not carry the same weight on the internet as it does in other venues. Or they may not realize that the world is filled with people who are more informed and more experienced than they are. They mistake their opinion for objective analysis and therefore, offer it freely and without hesitation.

Now, I would like to state that if you see something and you REALLY think it is problematic, you should absolutely offer your critique. Note: if you dislike or disagree with something, that does not make it problematic. Anything that promotes the maltreatment or marginalization of any living thing is problematic. Even so, you should stop and ask yourself whether your critique will accomplish anything or if it would be more worthwhile to simply report the post in question and move on.

That being said, here is MY analysis of some of the backhanded compliments I have received over the years (amalgamated for brevity), and a guide to leaving more constructive/supportive comments for the content creators in your life.

ARTWORK (including photography)

“Definitely not my style, but beautiful.” Do we need to know that it's not your style? If you think it's beautiful, just say that.

“This is so great, but it would have been better if you had used yellow instead of red!” Color choice is a creative choice and its value cannot be objectively measured. Just say it’s great and move on.

“Wow, this is way better than your old stuff.” Do I need to explain why this is bad? I hope not.

“Wow, you're really improving.” Slightly better than the previous one, but still bad. This is a really good example of something that might even feel like a compliment, but actually isn't. Saying that someone is improving is basically saying that it needed to improve. 

Unless you are speaking to your own student or a child, or a really close friend or family member who has openly shared with you their desire to improve as an artist, this is completely unnecessary.

It's important to remember that not everyone is doing things with the same objectives as you. Not every artist or photographer is aiming for technical mastery. If an artist creates something that is very personal and feels pleased with it, the last thing they want is for someone else to come along and tell them what’s “wrong” with it.

Really ANY comment that suggests that the piece of artwork in question would be improved if it were altered in some way is a no no. Unless you are an art teacher or someone has specifically asked for you to give them this information, or you are paying someone to make something especially for you.

FANFICTION (or really writing in general)

“Oh man...I was so excited when I saw your story summary, until I saw the pairing.” Do not comment on a story just to tell the author that you don't like their pairing. Ever. If you accidentally click on a story without seeing the pairing and you are disappointed, your feelings are valid. But there’s no need to let the author know.

"This was good but I don't think (character) would say (quoted dialogue)." Then, you should go and write a story with that character, but where they say different things.

"I noticed you used a semi-colon in the third paragraph. Semicolons are actually supposed to...." Critique grammar, punctuation, spelling and writing mechanics ONLY if you are the author's editor, the author's teacher, or if the author requested it. Period.

If you are commenting to point out what you believe to be a factual error, stop and ask yourself...is this really an error? Is the error intentional? Does the error represent the views of the author or the views of a specific character in a fictional work? Does this story have a reliable narrator? If not, might that narrator be misinformed or biased? And the most important question to ask yourself before correcting an author...do I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about?

Once, in a story, I referenced Copernicus and mentioned that he was imprisoned by the Catholic church. Which we know that he was. Someone commented to leave a long, bullet pointed explanation for how this is a common misconception and that the Catholic Church never mistreated Copernicus, along with many links to articles and videos as evidence. Guess who made all the articles and videos? The Catholic Church. SKIP!

When commenting on a fictional work, consider letting the author know how the story is making you feel. Speculate about what you think might happen next. Express excitement and anticipation. Ask a question for clarification about what you just read. And you can never go wrong by simply thanking the author for taking the time to provide you with free entertainment.

MEMES & JOKES

I love to make people laugh. I have been making people laugh since I learned to talk. This was actually bourne out of an inability to interpret facial expressions. I couldn't tell when people were angry or annoyed. But when they were laughing, I knew exactly how they felt.

That being said, people on the internet LOVE to tell me when something isn't funny. The only problem with this is that humor is very subjective and often very esoteric. I have made memes that I knew were esoteric and knew that not everyone would understand them. I have memes just for birdwatchers. Hell, I have made memes just for a dozen people who participated in a specific academic discussion. But it amazes me how people who don't get a joke are often most compelled to comment and let me know that it isn't funny. How can you know if you don't understand it? Is it so hard to imagine that things exist for which you are not the intended audience?

It's perfectly okay to comment and say you don't understand, and ask for an explanation. But if you look at something and think "I don't understand this, therefore it lacks value" you may have some growing up to do.

Before reblogging someone else's joke to add to the joke, stop and ask yourself whether your intention is to correct or improve upon the joke, or if you are attempting to laugh along WITH the OP.

We've all done this, I'm sure. I know I have. But it really inconsiderate to hijack someone's meme, meta or artwork with a completely unrelated discussion. I can't tell you how annoying it is to post something and check my inbox days later, only to find pages of notifications of people reblogging my shit over and over as part of some completely unrelated discussion.

Once again, if you're commenting to point out a factual error, ask yourself whether the error was intentional. I recently made a meme about the Star Trek films in which Data uses contractions. All of his dialogue is ridiculously out of character, in fact. Which is kind of part of the joke. But someone felt the need to reblog AND comment to let me know that Data wouldn't say that because he doesn't use contractions. Which I already know. Because, well, I’ve been a ST:TNG fan since the day it first aired on TV. I don't even know what to do with a comment that, to be honest. I kind of feel sorry for the other person for not grasping the joke.

So, how DO you compliment someone whose work you enjoy? Imagine yourself speaking to them in person. Imagine that they are emotionally invested in whatever they have created. Consider your objective. Are you expressing appreciation? Or is there something else going on.

And avoid qualifiers. 

When a compliment includes words like "if" or "but" then it's probably not a compliment. You would be so pretty IF you lost some weight is not a compliment.

Choose words that are unlikely to be misinterpreted. 

If someone's art or writing IS improving and you really want them to know, a good way to do that is to use the word evolving. Wow, I really like the way your art is evolving. This works because it implies that the art is changing over time, as the individual grows as a person.

I know what some of you might be thinking...ugh...it's like you can't say ANYTHING anymore! Aww...boo hoo, fam. As a person on the spectrum, I’ve spent my entire life dancing around other people’s feelings, navigating neurotypical subtext and struggling to say things without offending anyone. This is a cake walk compared to that. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if actually thinking about how other people feel BEFORE you share your opinion would require a great deal of effort on your part, it's possible that you're just an asshole.

TL;DR

Creators of original content are actual human beings with feelings. Don’t offer them unsolicited advice or criticism. Think before you comment.

[playchoices]

Inside Choices: Growing from “Rant Ahead, Be Aware”

While looking through Tumblr posts this week, one of the longer response posts caught my eye. The post was well written and though titled “Rant ahead”, was a well reasoned commentary on things that bother the post’s author. Since the post brought up many points that other players have also expressed, I thought replying as a blog post so everyone has a chance to see the response would be appropriate.

Thank you to lauraotaku2234 both for your thoughts and for permission to share it in our blog. The post is bolded below.

From the Tumblr post “Rant ahead, be aware”:

I just love how Pixelberry reblogs fanart and nice messages about the game. But when fans are actually pointing out errors and mistake the game has done… they just ignore it. They have decided to close a bubble to them.

This is a very fair point. Our team really does read a lot of the feedback generated by our players. But even though we may be working on fixes or things that address the critiques, most of the time people on our  team don’t give a firm answer for fear of making a situation worse or suggesting something that might end up not happening in the future. Because I lead the team, I have a lot more latitude in responding to critiques, but I’ve been focused on a lot of different projects which means that I haven’t responded as often as I should.

I hope this post helps to provide some more light on many of the below issues.

Now, there is a difference between the: “We want more diamond options” and the “James situation”. Here’s why:

On the diamond thing, I doubt PB will change that, mainly because they get their money from us buying diamonds, the more options we get, the least money they make. So its understandable. Yet, the money they make is supposedly to get better staff and equipment so the game can improve and be better. A year has already passed and I still can’t find what the improvement is or was.

You’re correct, it is harder for us to change the diamond economy. We have been experimenting with different options that try to balance our ability with making money and giving players a better experience. As a player, myself, I totally get the complaints. I don’t have anything new to announce right now, but we are working on different features and will see if things like rewarding diamonds for watching ads will help in providing that balance.

It also makes sense that you and other players can’t find what improvements have been made. But I’m hoping that is partially because we’ve been slowly building and rolling out improvements over time and that you’ve gotten used to some of those changes.

One of our most popular requests is launching more weekly content. And in the past year, the biggest change we’ve made by far is expanding from 3 books at launch to a much more robust library. When we first launched Choices, we had about 10 people writing with two new chapters per week. We now have over 30 writers and sometimes release as many as 6 new chapters a week with other new series in production, too. Along with all these writers, we’ve added more artists, producers, testers, and other roles to increasing our capacity for weekly storytelling.

It’s something you can’t see, but when I walk through the doors into our offices, I love hearing the buzz in our office and seeing all the people working together on Choices. And when all the writers assemble for their weekly “Writer’s Meeting,” I still get the chills seeing so many writers gathered around a long table talking about how they can improve their craft together.

So, I hope you really do believe we’ve been investing a lot in growing our team because we treat the future of Choices very seriously.

(As an aside, some people on the team have suggested maybe doing a Fan meet-up in the office - in the Bay Area in California - or maybe sending writers to different book conferences next year, so that maybe some of you can see that growth in person, too.)

Now… The James thing. PB common, you can do better than that. I wouldn’t be upset if you they gave us an actual reason as of why. Also, we need an explanation about what “other characters” means. Will the rest of the character change too? Will it only be a few one’s? I’m replaying every single finished book to find what other faces may have been changed. It has to be done, I don’t want to play The Royal Romance to find you changed Hana’s character appearance just… because.

You are right. We should have told you about the change ahead of time. Also, I wish I could go into more details about the change, but in my previous post, I tried to say as much about why we made the change as I already could. We know this really upset many of you. We understand. It’s our bad for disappointing you.

In regards to “other characters”, we have not rolled out the changes yet, but our Tumblr fandom is pretty clued into what other characters will likely be changed. We will make specific references to those characters when it happens. We will not be changing any other Love Interests (LIs), so Hana and others are safe.

The only book I’m not replaying is ROE, why? Because is a waste to my keys and time. The storyline got old really fast. It was actually a really good story, and I remember the First Book Finale actually left people with their mouths open, but they ruined it when they brought a third book, and now a fourth. I mean, it’s a plot that can be solved with a Snap. Adding more tasks as a way of length[en]ing the story was a stupid move and only brought fans rage. Most fans agree with me when I say: Endless Summer should have as many books as The Freshman, The Crown and The Flame shouldn’t have ended in the third book, The Haunting of Braidwood Manor should’ve been longer, Most Wanted deserves a second book, and even tho The Freshman is my favorite series, The Sophomore plot isn’t going anywhere, it’s like Love Hacks at its beginnings and it’s tiring.

As I mentioned before, Most Wanted 2 must happen. It’s the book every fan is waiting for, including me. It has an amazing storyline with amazing characters, yet, they decided to shut it out, and even erase it from their AppStore/PlayStore menu.

It’s pretty clear that much of the Tumblr fandom has the least love for Rules of Engagement (ROE.) But we have other fan groups and other people who really like this series. Just as we actively try to promote diversity in our characters, we do try to balance the resources we put into genres for various fandoms and individuals playing through our stories. We aim to have something for everyone, and all of our writers pour their hearts into everything they work on.

As the RoE series wrapped up, the writers of ROE moved on to a “mini-book” that would tie the series up in the right way. The book will probably finish too quickly for fans of ROE and not fast enough for fans of other series, but this book length fit the purposes of the story arc. Also because we have such a wide variety of writers, each with their unique storytelling talents and skills, continuing a romance series such as RoE doesn’t actually affect some Tumblr fandom favorites, like Endless Summer or Most Wanted.

Part of what we’re trying to do with Choices is to try new series and genres which is why we sometimes will end, or pause a series faster than fans want so that we can try new things. Most Wanted didn’t do as well financially as our other two launch series, so we moved that team onto Endless Summer and LoveHacks, where they could excel at leading new projects. One of those writers, Andrew, has moved onto managing another project. But Luke continues to be a part of Book 2 and 3 of Endless Summer (which we are aiming to start releasing in December.) And Owen is working on a secret new project, now that LoveHacks has completed!

I really do hope and think that when it makes sense, we will start work on Most Wanted 2. But it will be a matter of the right timing in terms of having one or more of the original team ready and balancing the start of Most Wanted 2 versus other new series we want to start. Dave and Sam will eventually return.

I respect Pixelberry as a company a lot. But with these changes and empty storylines, I just wonder where the old Pixelberry went. It seems like they just ran out of imagination to make stories, so they just continue old ones and create new ones with similar plots but shorter books that in the end everyone likes.

Thank you for respecting us. It’s clear in the thoughtfulness of your “rant” and in the praises and critiques of our fandom. Even when you think we’re ignoring you, we hear many, many of the messages. And I admit that some of the critiques really hurt and sometimes the ones that hurt the most are the ones that ring the most true. But we also recognize the strength of the critiques often is also a measure of how much our fandom cares.

I really, truly hope that as we release new chapters, books, and series that you’ll see that the creative wells of our teams has not run dry. And when a writer is being blocked, a designer is confused by the path forward, or a tester doesn’t know how to reproduce a problem, the creativity of the fandom often breaks that block, clears the path, and helps us keep moving forward. Whether it’s beautiful art, all the “Jomes” jokes, Brian’s Ask Blogs, the many forms of Cetus, faceclaims (yes, it’s okay to keep doing them), and other posts, your creativity motivates us.

As you continue to share on Tumblr or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, we’ll continue reading, digesting, and modifying our plans. But if you have specific problems or want to ensure we hear what you have to say, I encourage you to contact us directly via our in-game Help. Or if the game is down, reach out via Contact us via our website. We have experienced Player Specialists who listen, solve, tally, describe, and share your thoughts with the right people on our team. They are the first to alert the rest of the team to major problems and Trina, the leader of that team, also shares motivating, poignant, or key messages to the whole studio. Also you can tweet story related questions to @PlayChoices. Jessica will often check with individual writing teams to see if it’s something they can answer.

To all of our fandom everywhere, thank you for your love. We understood that love isn’t just fun and compliments, but it also comes with teasing and obstacles. And the best love comes with hard talks, accountability, and growth. When we stumble, we promise to honor our side of the relationship by continuing to learn and grow. And we hope that you will continue to rant, tease, and grow with us.

On behalf of our whole team,

Oliver